A file photo taken on August 11, 2024, shows Ukrainian military drone operators preparing a Poseidon reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle on their position, in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
Russian air defense units downed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russia
Four firefighters received minor shrapnel wounds in a drone attack on an industrial zone
Updated 7 min 59 sec ago
Reuters
KYIV: Ukraine targeted Moscow and a manufacturer of military explosives deep inside Russian territory with drones overnight, officials and Russian Telegram channels reported on Sunday.
Russian air defense units downed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russia, the defense ministry said, including one over the Moscow region, 43 over the border region of Kursk, and 27 over southwestern Lipetsk region.
The Russian SHOT Telegram channel reported that drones attempted to strike the Ya. M. Sverdlov State Owned Enterprise in Dzerzhinsk city, Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400 km (250 miles) east of Moscow.
The plant, one of the largest manufacturers of explosives used by Russian forces in the war that Moscow launched against Ukraine in February 2022, is subject to sanctions by the United States and the European Union.
Four firefighters received minor shrapnel wounds in a drone attack on an industrial zone in Dzerzhinsk city, the region’s governor said, without specifying the target of the attack.
The Russian defense ministry said on Telegram that eight Ukrainian drones were destroyed over Nizhny Novgorod. Residents reported powerful explosions and white smoke in the area of the plant, SHOT reported.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram that debris fell in the Ramensky district of Moscow region but there was no damage or casualties.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about the drone attacks.
Kyiv has often said its air attacks target infrastructure key to Russia’s war efforts and are a response to Moscow’s continued air attacks on Ukraine.
Russian officials often do not disclose full extent of damage inflicted by the drone attacks, especially on military, transport or energy infrastructure.
Britain’s King Charles meets cheering Australian crowds, says ‘great joy’ to return
Updated 42 sec ago
SYDNEY: Hundreds of well-wishers greeted Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla in Sydney on Sunday as the royal couple attended church, with the king saying it was a “great joy” to return to Australia in his first visit to an overseas realm as sovereign. Charles’ 16th official visit to Australia, where he attended school for six months as a teenager in 1966, is also his first major foreign trip since being diagnosed with cancer. “What a great joy it is to come to Australia for the first time as sovereign and to renew a love of this country and its people which I have cherished for so long,” he said in a speech at the New South Wales parliament. New South Wales state lawmaker Kellie Sloane, whose electorate covers some of Sydney’s most famous beaches, wrote on social media platform X after chatting with the king that he “sends his best to the ‘amazing’ surf clubs at Bondi Beach.” The royal couple were earlier greeted at St. Thomas’ Anglican Church by the archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, and children from the church’s Sunday school who waved Australian flags. Camilla was given a flower bouquet by the minister’s wife, Ellie Mantle, who asked if they had recovered from jet lag after the long flight to Australia on Friday. “Sort of,” Camilla replied. Inside the church, Charles and Camilla signed two bibles, including one that belonged to Australia’s first minister and chaplain of the First Fleet of ships that took convicts from Britain to the penal colony of Australia in 1788. Outside, the royal couple shook hands and chatted with a large crowd of cheering fans, some singing “God Save the King.” It was the public’s first opportunity to meet Charles and Camilla since they arrived in Australia’s biggest city on Friday night, and several hundred well wishers outnumbered a dozen protesters. Traveling across Sydney Harbor, Charles visited the New South Wales parliament, marking the 200th anniversary of Australia’s oldest legislature. The king presented the lawmakers with an hour glass to time their speeches, and highlighted the fundamental role of strong parliaments to democracies that serve today’s diverse societies. “Democracy has, I believe, an extraordinary capacity for innovation, compromise and adaptability as well as stability,” he said. The royal couple will travel to Canberra on Monday to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the national parliament and visit the Australian War Memorial. Albanese met the couple on Friday at Admiralty House, the historic government harborside residence where they are staying, for what he said was an informal drink and chat. The king will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa after the six-day Australia tour. Charles had made a significant personal donation to create a skills program to tackle climate change and boost higher education in small island states, including the Pacific Islands, the Association of Commonwealth Universities said on Sunday. Mid-career professionals and civil servants will benefit from the fellowships, in a program that aims to retain talent in small island states and bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels.
Harris, Trump duel over endurance as celebrities join campaign trail
At rallies in Detroit and Atlanta Harris brought out pop stars Lizzo and Usher respectively to warm up her crowds
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway
Updated 20 October 2024
AP
Latrobe: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump invited star power to the campaign trail Saturday, as they took shots at each other’s endurance and urged early voting in battleground states key to the ever-tightening US presidential race.
At rallies in Detroit and Atlanta Harris brought out pop stars Lizzo and Usher respectively to warm up her crowds, while painting her rival Trump as exhausted and unhinged.
The Republican running for a second go in the White House countered those accusations with a marathon speech in Pennsylvania, as billionaire Elon Musk campaigned for him elsewhere in the state.
Both candidates are fighting on every front to seal up voters’ support in a race that polls suggest is effectively tied with fewer than three weeks to Election Day.
Harris told voters in Detroit that her opponent’s platform is “self-consuming” while repeating vows to invest in the working and middle classes.
“We stand for the idea that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it’s on who you lift up,” said Harris.
Later in Atlanta Harris, who turned 60 on Saturday, accused the 78-year-old Trump of “ducking debates and canceling interviews because of exhaustion.”
“When he does answer a question or speak at a rally — have you noticed he tends to go off script and ramble, and generally, for the life of him, cannot finish a thought?” she said.
“He’s called it the weave. But we here we will call it nonsense.”
Trump began his more than 90-minute rally with a lengthy monologue on the late golfer Arnold Palmer, for whom the regional airport in Latrobe, where the Republican appeared, is named.
He went so far as to praise Palmer’s genitalia.
“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said with a laugh. “I had to say it.”
He then launched into his routine, meandering speech that includes attacking migrants, personally denigrating Harris and repeating false claims about the 2020 election.
But his was a show of onstage endurance, which also included a number of guests and screenings of his filmed campaign ads.
Shortly after recalling his own expensive education at the private Ivy League University of Pennsylvania, Trump vied to appeal to working class voters by bringing a parade of steel workers in hard hats onstage.
He also underscored the importance of the eastern US state’s electoral college delegates to the overall election: “If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole damn thing.”
At rally in Las Vegas, former US President Barack Obama took aim at Trump, comparing him to a grandfather whose bizarre behavior would spark worry after his rambling speeches and a strange dance party.
“So you would be worried if your grandpa started acting like this. You would,... right? You’d like, call up your brother,... be like, have you seen grandpa lately? What we gonna do?
“But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power, wants the most powerful office on Earth, with the nuclear codes and all that,” said Obama.
Earlier in the day the pop star Lizzo noted that “whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or neither, you deserve a president who listens when you speak.”
“You deserve a president who respects when you protest. You deserve a president who understands that their job is to be a public servant,” she said before emphasizing that Harris offers just that.
Lizzo — who sported a suffragette-white pantsuit as she addressed the crowd in Motor City — also drew cheers when urging listeners that America was more than ready for its first woman president, dropping a reference to her own hit song: “It’s about damn time!“
One of Atlanta’s major stars, Usher, told voters there that “I’m counting on you” to get Harris’s “campaign across the finish line” in Georgia.
Both candidates are spending their final campaign days in pivotal battleground states where early voting is already underway.
Musk, who endorsed Trump in July, is one of the Biden administration’s fiercest critics and has emerged as a loud voice in US politics since taking over Twitter, now known as X.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has taken an increasingly visible role in Trump’s campaign and has donated almost $75 million to his political organization America PAC.
Speaking in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he announced he would start randomly distributing cash awards — $1 million each day until the November 5 vote — to a registered voter in the state who signed his organization’s petition.
Elon Musk promises to award $1 million each day to a signer of his petition on US constitution
Petition pledges support for the US Constitution's provisions guaranteeing "freedom of speech and the right to bear arms"
Musk started America PAC, a pro-Trump political action organization, to help mobilize and register voters in battleground states
He said on Saturday that if Harris wins, it will be “the last election,” suggesting the US will no longer exist
Updated 20 October 2024
Reuters
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: Billionaire Elon Musk promised on Saturday to give away $1 million each day until November’s election to someone who signs his online petition supporting the US Constitution.
And he wasted no time, awarding a $1 million check to an attendee of his event in Pennsylvania aimed at rallying supporters behind Republican Donald Trump. The winner was a man named John Dreher, according to event staff.
“By the way, John had no idea. So anyway, you’re welcome,” the Tesla founder said as he handed Dreher the check.
The money is the latest example of Musk using his extraordinary wealth to influence the tightly-contested presidential race between Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.
Musk started America PAC, a political action organization he founded in support of Trump’s presidential campaign. The group is helping mobilize and register voters in battleground states, but there are signs it is having trouble meeting its goals.
The Harrisburg event is the third in as many days in Pennsylvania, where Musk is painting November’s election in stark terms and encouraging supporters to vote early and get others to do the same.
He said on Saturday that if Harris wins, it will be “the last election,” suggesting the US will no longer exist.
He also said the two assassination attempts against Trump prove he is ruffling feathers and upending the status quo in ways Harris won’t. He said that’s why no one is trying to kill Harris.
“Assassinating a puppet is worthless,” Musk said, reiterating an argument he has made in a social media post.
The petition Musk is asking people to sign reads: “The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.”
Attendees of Saturday’s event had to sign the petition, which allows America PAC to garner contact details for more potential voters that it can work to get to the polls for Trump.
Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person, so far has supplied at least $75 million to America PAC, according to federal disclosures, making the group a crucial part of Trump’s bid to regain the White House.
The entrepreneur behind carmaker Tesla TSLA.O and rocket and satellite venture SpaceX has increasingly supported Republican causes and this year became an outspoken Trump supporter.
Trump in turn has said if elected he would appoint Musk to head a government efficiency commission.
Moldova holds key polls on EU future amid fears of Russian meddling
The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu
ncumbent President Maia Sandu cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
Updated 20 October 2024
AFP
CHISINAU: Moldovans vote on Sunday in a presidential election and a referendum on joining the European Union, with fears of Russian meddling in the two key electoral tests amid the war in neighboring Ukraine.
The elections are a litmus test of the former Soviet republic’s pro-European turn under incumbent President Maia Sandu, who is seeking a second term in the country of 2.6 million.
Police have made hundreds of arrests after discovering a massive vote-buying scheme, warning this week that up to a quarter of the ballots cast could be tainted by Russian cash.
“Our country is at a crossroads... A group of thieves are trying to deceive people, promise them money, give them false information,” Prime Minister Dorin Recean said, urging Moldovans “to be vigilant.”
Sandu, who beat a Moscow-backed incumbent in 2020, cut ties with Moscow and applied for Moldova to join the EU following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
She has repeatedly sounded the alarm on Russian efforts to interfere in the vote — a claim Moscow has rejected.
Washington also issued a fresh warning this week, while the EU passed new sanctions on several Moldovans.
Sandu, 52, a former World Bank economist, is the clear favorite in the race.
But with only 35.8 percent of voter support, she is predicted to fall short of the majority needed to avoid a second round on November 3, according to the latest polls by the WatchDog think tank.
Her 10 competitors include Alexandr Stoianoglo, a 57-year-old former prosecutor supported by the pro-Russian Socialists, who is polling at nine percent.
Renato Usatii, a 45-year-old former mayor of Moldova’s second largest city of Balti, is predicted to win 6.4 percent.
Polls open at 7:00 am (0400 GMT) and close at 9:00 pm, with partial results expected from around 10:00 pm.
For the referendum, 55.1 percent of those surveyed have said they would vote “yes,” while 34.5 percent said they were set on “no.”
The referendum asks if the constitution should be modified to include joining the EU as an objective. The 27-member bloc began membership talks with Chisinau this June.
For any result to be valid, participation must reach at least 33 percent. Some pro-Russian parties have campaigned for a boycott.
“The future of Moldova will depend on what the people will choose... I hope we will take firm steps toward the European Union,” accountant Lidia Ceban said.
Sandu has been touring the country to say that joining the EU will help improve life in one of Europe’s poorest nations.
“The fate of our country, for many decades to come, rests on this (Sunday’s) decision,” Sandu said at a campaign event.
Sandu’s critics say she has not done enough to fight inflation and reform the judiciary.
In his campaign, Stoianoglo — who was fired as prosecutor by Sandu — has called for the “restoration of justice,” while Usatii has said he is the best choice as he is “the only one who is not controlled either by the East or the West.”
Fears of Russian interference are looming large.
Millions of dollars from Russia to corrupt voters were funnelled into the country by people affiliated to Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman and former politician, police said earlier this month.
The “unprecedented” scheme could taint up to 300,000 ballots, according to police.
Convicted in absentia last year for fraud, Shor regularly accuses Moldova of being a “police state” and the West’s “obedient puppet.”
“Russia is hard at work. They have never (before) put in so much money,” Romanian historian Armand Gosu, who specializes in Russia and the former Soviet space, told AFP.
In addition to the vote buying, hundreds of young people were found to have been trained in Russia and the Balkans to create “mass disorder” in Moldova, including in tactics to provoke law enforcement, according to police.
G7 defense ministers concerned by attacks on peacekeepers, vow Kyiv support
“We are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” ministers’ said in a statement
They also underscored the group’s “intent to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, including military assistance in the short and long term”
Updated 20 October 2024
AFP
NAPLES, Italy: G7 defense ministers on Saturday met against the backdrop of multiple ongoing military conflicts, expressing concern over the escalation in Lebanon while pledging “unwavering support” for Ukraine.
Italy, holding the rotating presidency of the Group of Seven countries, organized the body’s first ministerial meeting dedicated to defense, staged in the southern city of Naples that is home to a NATO base.
At the top of the agenda was Russia’s war against Ukraine, now in its third year.
“We underscore our intent to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine, including military assistance in the short and long term,” read the G7 defense ministers’ final statement that pledged “unwavering support.”
But the G7 defense ministers — from Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Japan, Canada and the United States — also warned of the dangers of further intensification in the Middle East, including in Lebanon, where the United Nations has blamed Israel for strikes on UN peacekeepers.
“We are concerned by the latest events in Lebanon and the risk of further escalation. We express concern over all threats to UNIFIL’s security,” read a final statement from the ministers.
They also called on Iran to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met a Hamas representative in Istanbul on Saturday, according to the IRNA official news agency.
Demonstrators hold a banner which read as "Against the G7, wars and all the states, always and everywhere freedom," as the Group of Seven (G7) Defense Ministers summit is being held, in Naples on October 19, 2024. (ANSA/AFP)
The many, concurrent conflicts “highlight a deteriorated security framework with forecasts for the near future that cannot be positive,” said Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto at the start of the one-day meeting.
Those conflicts include instability in sub-Saharan Africa and growing tensions in the Asia-Pacific region.
The summit came two days after Israel announced it had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel that triggered the devastating retaliatory war in Gaza.
Also in attendance were NATO chief Mark Rutte and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. Both echoed the words of US President Joe Biden that the death of Sinwar could mark an opportunity to bring about the end of hostilities.
“Certainly after the killing of Yahya Sinwar, a new perspective is open and we have to use it in order to reach a ceasefire, to release the remaining hostages and to look for a political perspective,” Borrell told journalists.
The morning session included discussions over recent strikes on UN peacekeepers UNIFIL in Lebanon, where Israel is also at war with Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Borrell suggested that the peacekeepers’ mandate should be beefed up by the UN Security Council to give them more scope to act amid repeated attacks on their positions, which they blame on Israeli forces.
“They cannot act by themselves, it is certainly a limited role,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Borrell wrote on social media that “a more robust mandate for UNIFIL” was needed.
In Lebanon on Friday, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni slammed as “unacceptable” the recent strikes on UNIFIL.
Italy has around 1,000 troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has soldiers from more than 50 countries.
The G7’s pledge of continued support for Ukraine comes as the country enters its third winter at war.
It is suffering battlefield losses in the east and faces the prospect of reduced US military support should Donald Trump be elected to the White House next month.
Biden urged NATO allies during a visit to Berlin on Friday not to step down in backing Ukraine. Supporters of Kyiv “cannot let up,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, under mounting pressure from Western allies to forge a winning strategy against Russia, on Thursday presented what he called a “victory plan” to the European Union and NATO.
Its main thrust is a call for immediate NATO membership, deemed unfeasible by alliance members.
It also seeks the clearance to strike military targets inside Russia with long-range weapons, and an undefined “non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” on Ukrainian territory.
Another worry for Ukraine are reports, based on South Korean intelligence, that North Korea is deploying large numbers of troops to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
NATO was not as yet able to confirm that intelligence, Rutte said on Friday.
Outside the meeting, in the streets of Naples, demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and the keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Some protesters clashed with police.
