Russia sentences US-Russian citizen Karelina to 12 years in jail for treason
Russia sentences US-Russian citizen Karelina to 12 years in jail for treason/node/2567496/world
Russia sentences US-Russian citizen Karelina to 12 years in jail for treason
US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina appeared in court on Thursday in a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass courtroom cage. (File/AFP)
Russia sentences US-Russian citizen Karelina to 12 years in jail for treason
The Los Angeles resident pleaded guilty at her closed trial in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg
Updated 15 August 2024
Reuters
YEKATERINBURG, Russia: Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American spa worker, was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Thursday by a Russian court after she was found guilty of treason for donating money to a charity supporting Ukraine.
The Los Angeles resident pleaded guilty at her closed trial in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, where her case was heard by the same court that convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage in July.
The court said investigators found that Karelina had, on February 24, 2022 — the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — “transferred funds in the interests of a Ukrainian organization, which were subsequently used for the purchase of tactical medicine items, equipment, means of defeat and ammunition by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
Her supporters say she had donated $51.80 to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based charity that provides humanitarian aid to children and elderly people in Ukraine. The charity has denied it provides any military support to Kyiv.
Karelina appeared in court on Thursday in a white sweatshirt and blue jeans, sitting calmly in a glass courtroom cage.
The 33-year-old was not included in a major prisoner swap between Russia and the West last week that freed Gershkovich, but her lawyer Mikhail Mushailov has said she hoped to be included in a future exchange.
Karelina was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 2012, receiving American citizenship in 2021. She was arrested by the FSB security service after flying to Russia to visit her family in Yekaterinburg at the start of the year.
Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial opens at a different #MeToo moment
Updated 7 sec ago
It’s the first time Manhattan prosecutors have detailed Sokola’s allegations Emphasizing Weinstein’s onetime influence in the movie industry, Lucey said the ex-studio boss used “dream opportunities as weapons” to prey on women
NEW YORK: Opening statements in Harvey Weinstein’s #MeToo rape retrial began Wednesday with a prosecutor telling jurors about the three allegations at issue in the case, including one involving a woman who wasn’t part of the original trial in 2020. Weinstein’s lawyer countered that the women and the one-time Hollywood powerbroker had consensual relationships. Kaja Sokola, a former model from Poland, alleges that Weinstein pinned her to a bed and forcibly abused her in 2006 after luring her to his Manhattan hotel room with the promise of movie scripts. Four years earlier, Sokola alleges, he molested her at his apartment when she was just 16, Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey told jurors. Weinstein, 73, is charged in connection with the 2006 allegation, but not the earlier one. Sokola previously sued and received $3.5 million in compensation, Lucey said. It’s the first time Manhattan prosecutors have detailed Sokola’s allegations, which were added to the case after New York’s highest court overturned Weinstein’s conviction last year. The rest of the retrial involves allegations from two women who were part of the original trial — Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley, Mann and Sokola have done. Emphasizing Weinstein’s onetime influence in the movie industry, Lucey said the ex-studio boss used “dream opportunities as weapons” to prey on women. He is charged with raping Mann and forcing himself on Haley and Sokola. “The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” Lucey said. Weinstein, she said, “held the golden ticket: a chance to make it, or not.” The Oscar-winning producer, seated in the wheelchair he now uses because of health problems, whispered with one of his lawyers and appeared to take notes as Lucey described his alleged crimes, but he didn’t look at the jury. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone. His lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told jurors in his opening statement that Weinstein engaged in “mutually beneficial relationships” with women who wanted his help in the industry but that nothing he did was illegal. “In this case, the casting couch is not a crime scene,” Aidala argued. He implored jurors to view the case with an open mind and to wait until they’ve heard all of the evidence before reaching a conclusion. Acknowledging Weinstein’s former career, Aidala compared the opening stage of the trial to a movie trailer. “How often is a preview great, but the movie falls flat on its face?” the defense lawyer said. “After you hear all of the evidence, their case is going to fall flat on its face.” The audience in the packed courtroom included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. He inherited the landmark #MeToo case, brought by his predecessor, when the Court of Appeals last year threw out the 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence because the judge allowed testimony about allegations Weinstein was not charged with. The reversal led to the retrial. Weinstein’s retrial is playing out at a different cultural moment than the first. #MeToo, which exploded in 2017 with allegations against Weinstein, has evolved and ebbed. The jury counts seven women and five men — unlike the seven-man, five-woman panel that convicted him in 2020 — and there’s a different judge. At the start of Weinstein’s first trial, chants of “rapist” could be heard from protesters outside. This time, there was none of that. Weinstein is being retried on a criminal sex act charge for allegedly forcibly abusing Haley, a movie and TV production assistant at the time, in 2006, and a third-degree rape charge for allegedly assaulting Mann, a then-aspiring actor, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013. Weinstein also faces a criminal sex act charge for allegedly abusing Sokola, also in 2006. Prosecutors said she came forward days before his first trial but wasn’t part of that case. They said they revisited her allegations when his conviction was thrown out. Weinstein’s acquittals on the two most serious charges at his 2020 trial — predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape — still stand. Sokola’s lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said Weinstein’s retrial marks a “pivotal moment in the fight for accountability in sex abuse cases” and a “signal to other survivors that the system is catching up — and that it’s worth speaking out even when the odds seem insurmountable.” During jury selection, a prosecutor asked prospective jurors whether they’d heard of the #MeToo movement. Most said they had, but that it wouldn’t affect them either way. Those who indicated it might were excused.
Macron visits Madagascar in the first trip by a French leader to the former colony in 20 years
France and Madagascar signed several agreements and memoranda of understanding, including in energy, agriculture and education
Macron announced funding from the French Development Agency and a loan from the French treasury for the construction of a hydroelectric dam
Updated 4 min 15 sec ago
AP
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar: French President Emmanuel Macron began a two-day visit to the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar on Wednesday and spoke of the need for his country to find new markets and boost economic cooperation in the region.
Macron’s visit marked the first by a French leader to the former colony off the east coast of Africa since Jacques Chirac’s in 2005.
The trip also delved into disputes between the nations stemming from the colonial era, including Madagascar’s claims over a group of small islands that are French territory, and its demands that France return the remains of a local king who was killed by French colonial forces in the late 1800s.
Macron met with Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina in the capital, Antananarivo, and they signed several agreements and memoranda of understanding, including in energy, agriculture and education.
Macron also announced funding from the French Development Agency and a loan from the French treasury for the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Volobe in eastern Madagascar, which has been planned for nearly a decade.
Macron is due to attend Thursday a summit of the Indian Ocean Commission in Madagascar, a bloc made up of Madagascar, Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles and Reunion — which is a territory of France. China, India and the European Union are among a group of countries and international bodies that have observer status at the commission.
“We need to conquer, at least, the market of the (Indian Ocean Commission),” Macron said Wednesday. “And then, more widely, East Africa and the Indian Ocean.”
On some of their disagreements, Rajoelina said there would be a new round of meetings on June 30 over the fate of the Scattered Islands, five small islands around Madagascar that fall under France’s overseas territories but are claimed by Madagascar.
France favors a system where the islands would be jointly managed by the two countries, but the UK’s decision last year to hand over control of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius has spurred some in Madagascar to push for full control of the Scattered Islands — which are known as the Eparses Islands in France.
Madagascar and France “are determined to find a solution together,” Rajoelina said.
Macron said he would work with Madagascar over the agreed return of three skulls that were taken from Madagascar more than 125 years ago and displayed in a Paris museum. One of them is believed to be the skull of King Toera of the Sakalava people, who was beheaded by French troops in 1897.
Trump slams Zelensky over ‘inflammatory’ Crimea stance
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelensky was quoted as saying
Updated 33 min 22 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a deal on halting the Ukraine war was “very close,” but slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over his refusal to formally cede Crimea to Russia.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The outburst came after US media reports said Trump was ready to accept recognition of annexed Crimea as Russian territory, and after Vice President JD Vance said land swaps would be fundamental to any deal.
In his post, Trump was referring to Zelensky’s comments, published in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, in which he said that ceding Crimea is against Ukraine’s constitution.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelensky was quoted as saying. “There is nothing to talk about here.”
Trump lambasted Zelensky over the remarks.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia,” Trump said, adding that if Ukraine “wants Crimea, why didn’t they fight for it eleven years ago when it was handed over to Russia without a shot being fired?“
He added: “The statement made by Zelensky today will do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that!“
“We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE.”
Court overturns French decision to cut funding to biggest Muslim school
Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said
Updated 53 min 45 sec ago
Reuters
PARIS: An administrative court on Wednesday overturned France’s decision to cut government funding to the country’s biggest Muslim high school in 2023, in what rights groups say is part of a wider crackdown on Muslim schools.
Private school Averroes, the first Muslim high school to open in mainland France in 2003 in the northern city of Lille, had 800 pupils in 2023 and had been under contract with the state since 2008. Pupils follow the regular French curriculum, and are also offered religion classes.
At the end of 2023, the government’s local representative known as the ‘prefecture’ said the school had administrative and financial problems and some teaching did not align with French republican values, therefore public funding was to be cut.
In its Wednesday ruling, the Lille administrative court said the prefecture didn’t provide sufficient evidence that the school was failing to comply with French republican values. Other failings for which the prefecture did have evidence, such as refusing a surprise inspection, did not give sufficient grounds to justify ending its contract with the school.
“It’s a victory for the rule of law,” the high school said in a statement on Wednesday. “Averroes is a high school aiming for excellence and will now be able to continue its work with its pupils serenely.”
As a result of the ruling, the high school’s contract with the state will be automatically reinstated, Paul Jablonski, a lawyer for Averroes, told Reuters. He added he hoped the prefecture would not appeal the ruling.
The Lille prefecture didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Greek PM ‘not trying to pick a fight’ with Turkiye, to pursue visit
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Updated 23 April 2025
AFP
ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday vowed to carry out a planned visit to Turkiye despite regional tension and the recent arrest of Istanbul’s mayor.
The Greek leader was to visit Ankara this month under a schedule agreed in 2023 to smooth over differences between the rival neighbors, who are NATO members.
The trip appeared to have been shelved after the Athens government last month said it was “difficult” to organize after the “worrying” arrest of Istanbul’s opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Mitsotakis said Wednesday however that he would go ahead with a planned meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He did not say when it would happen.
“There is no issue or particular reason why this meeting should be postponed,” he told Proto Thema daily.
Mitsotakis added that he was “not trying to pick a fight with Turkiye” to burnish his domestic standing.
The Aegean boundary between the two, which Greece says is based on 20th century treaties, is a key obstacle in relations.
There are frequent disputes over migration, energy exploration in the Aegean and territorial sovereignty.
Greece last week released a marine spatial planning map which Turkiye said violates its maritime jurisdiction in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkiye has also sought to impede an electricity cable project between Greece, Cyprus and Israel called the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI).
Mitsotakis on Wednesday called the cable “a European project which will proceed in due course.”
