KYIV, Sept 25 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian Defence Ministry on Sunday ridiculed Moscow’s partial mobilization to bolster its forces in Ukraine, posting on Twitter a mash-up of social media videos of Russian police beating and arresting men protesting the call-up.
The mockery came as Russia’s two top lawmakers expressed concern about the drive, ordering regional officials to resolve “excesses” that have ignited public anger, triggered demonstrations and prompted military-age men to make for border crossings. read more
“Russia still has remnants of a professional army” that the Ukrainian army “hasn’t yet destroyed,” the Ukrainian defence ministry said in an English-language tweet, referring to this month’s rout of Russian forces from much of the northeastern Kharkiv region. “Looks like we’ll be ‘de-mobilizing’ these Russians ahead of schedule.”
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The mobilization has prompted both sides to trade a fresh round of insults. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday that fake statements on social media were in part to blame for the reaction to the announcement.
“There is now no shortage of explanations and there are opportunities to ask questions,” Peskov said. “We have to look calmly, thoughtfully and objectively at the provocative, huge number of fake statements on social media and not give in to these provocative actions.”
Multiple reports have documented how people with no military service have been issued draft papers – contrary to Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s guarantee that only those with special military skills or combat experience would be called up – prompting even ultra-loyal pro-Kremlin figures to publicly express concern.
Officials say 300,000 more Russians will called up to serve in the mobilisation campaign.
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Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Susan Fenton and Daniel Wallis
Rightist bloc set for majority in both houses-exit polls
Meloni would be country’s first woman prime minister
Early vote follows collapse of Draghi government
Record low turnout casts shadow over result
ROME, Sept 25 (Reuters) – A right-wing alliance led by Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party was on course for a clear majority in the next parliament, giving the country its most right-wing government since World War Two.
Meloni, as leader of the largest coalition party, was also likely to become Italy’s first woman prime minister.
Meloni, 45, plays down her party’s post-fascist roots and portrays it as a mainstream conservative group. She has pledged to support Western policy on Ukraine and not take undue risks with the third largest economy in the euro zone.
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However, the outcome is likely to ring alarm bells in European capitals and on financial markets, given the desire to preserve unity in confronting Russia and concerns over Italy’s daunting debt mountain.
An exit poll for state broadcaster RAI said the bloc of conservative parties, that also includes Matteo Salvini’s League and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party, won between 41% and 45%, enough to guarantee control of both houses of parliament.
“Centre-right clearly ahead both in the lower house and the Senate! It’ll be a long night but even now I want to say thanks,” Salvini said on Twitter.
Italy’s electoral law favours groups that manage to create pre-ballot pacts, giving them an outsized number of seats by comparison with their vote tally.
RAI said the right-wing alliance would win between 227 and 257 of the 400 seats in the lower house of parliament, and 111-131 of the 200 Senate seats.
Full results are expected by early Monday.
Leader of Brothers of Italy Giorgia Meloni poses with her ballot at a polling station during the snap election in Rome, Italy September 25, 2022. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
RECORD LOW TURNOUT
The result caps a remarkable rise for Meloni, whose party won only 4% of the vote in the last national election in 2018, but this time around was forecast to emerge as Italy’s largest group on around 22-26%.
But it was not a ringing endorsement, with provisional data pointing to turnout of just 64.1% against 74% four years ago — a record low number in a country that has historically enjoyed a high level of voter participation.
Although heavy storms in the south appeared to have deterred many from voting there, participation fell across a swathe of northern and central cities, where the weather was calmer.
Italy has a history of political instability and the next prime minister will lead the country’s 68th government since 1946 and face a host of problems, notably soaring energy costs and growing economic headwinds.
Initial market reaction is likely to be muted given that opinion polls had forecast the result accurately.
“I don’t expect a big impact although it’s not necessarily the case that Italian assets will do particularly well tomorrow (Monday) given how the market is starting to treat Europe and countries with worrisome public finances and exposure to the crisis and Ukraine,” said Giuseppe Sersale, fund manager and strategist at Anthilia in Milan.
Italy’s first autumn national election in over a century was triggered by party infighting that brought down Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s broad national unity government in July.
The new, slimmed-down parliament will not meet until Oct. 13, at which point the head of state will summon party leaders and decide on the shape of the new government.
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Additional reporting by Gavin Jones, Rodolfo Fabbri and Giselda Vagnoni in Rome, and Danilo Masoni in Milan
Editing by Keith Weir
WARSAW, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Concerts by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters were cancelled by a venue in the Polish city of Krakow, organisers said on Sunday, after the artist’s comments on the war in Ukraine caused a storm of criticism.
Waters had been due to appear in Krakow next April, but Polish media reports about an open letter he wrote to Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska urging her to ask her husband to choose “a different route” and criticising the West for supplying Ukraine with arms provoked a fierce backlash.
“Live Nation Polska and Tauron Arena Krakow have cancelled Roger Waters’ concert,” organisers said in a statement on the venue’s website. They did not elaborate on the reason for the cancellation.
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On Saturday, state-run news agency PAP reported that a spokesperson for the Tauron Arena had said that Walters’ management had cancelled the concert without giving a reason.
Poland counts itself among Kyiv’s staunchest allies, and public support for the Ukrainian cause is very high.
Local councillors in Krakow had been due to vote on a resolution declaring Waters ‘Persona non grata’ on Wednesday.
In a social media post, Waters said that it was not true that he or his management had cancelled the concerts and criticised local councillor Lukasz Wantuch over the vote to declare him unwelcome in the city.
“Lukasz Wantuch has threatened to hold a meeting asking the council to declare me ‘Persona non grata’ because of my public efforts to encourage all involved in the disastrous war in Ukraine, especially the governments of the USA and Russia, to work towards a negotiated peace,” Waters wrote in a post on Facebook.
“If Mr Lukasz Wantuch achieves his aim, and my forthcoming concerts in Krakow are cancelled, it will be a sad loss for me, because I have been looking forward to sharing my message of love with the people of Poland.”
Wantuch said in a Facebook post on Sunday morning that he was in Ukraine and would comment on Waters’ statement in the evening.
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Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Susan Fenton
Sept 25 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Ukraine had received sophisticated air defence systems from the United States.
It was the first acknowledgment that Ukraine had received the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), long sought by Kyiv and whose shipment was approved by Washington late last month.
“We absolutely need the United States to show leadership and give Ukraine the air defence systems. I want to thank President (Joe) Biden for a positive decision that has been already made,” Zelenskiy said, according to an English-language transcript of the interview.
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“But believe me, it’s not even nearly enough to cover the civilian infrastructure, schools, hospitals, universities, homes of Ukrainians.”
Zelenskiy also thanked the United States for HIMARS and other multiple rocket-launching systems enabling Ukraine to advance against Russian occupying forces.
Ukraine has staged counter-offensives this month to free from occupation large swathes of territory in northeastern Kharkiv region. It has also made advances in the south.
Russia describes its seven-month-old incursion into Ukraine as a “special military operation” and denies it targets civilian sites.
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Reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
Evergrande averts default with surprise interest payment
U.S. 10-year yields lower
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) – The Dow Jones industrial average registered a record closing high on Friday and major equity indexes posted a third straight week of gains while the U.S. dollar slipped.
On the day, MSCI’s broadest gauge of global shares (.MIWD00000PUS) was flat, and the S&P 500 (.SPX) and Nasdaq (.IXIC) ended lower.
Stocks came under pressure after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank was “on track” to begin reducing its purchases of assets. read more
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Intel’s stock (INTC.O)fell 11.7% and was among the biggest drags on the S&P 500. Late Thursday, Intel reported sales that missed expectations and pointed to shortages of chips holding back sales of its flagship processors. read more
American Express Co’s stock (AXP.N) gained, boosting the Dow after the company beat profit estimates for the fourth straight quarter.
Next week brings reports from several key mega-cap names including Amazon (AMZN.O). read more
The dollar pared losses after Powell’s comments, but the dollar index was last down 0.10% at 93.64, and is off from a one-year high of 94.56 last week. read more
“There’s a bit of a positioning unwind taking place. We’ve obviously seen a firmer dollar since the September” Fed meeting, said Mazen Issa, senior FX strategist at TD Securities in New York. “That also dovetails with the seasonal tendency for the dollar to soften into the end of the month.”
Investors also digested news that China Evergrande Group (3333.HK) appeared to avert default with a source saying it made a last-minute bond coupon payment. read more
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 73.94 points, or 0.21%, to 35,677.02, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 4.88 points, or 0.11%, to 4,544.9 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 125.50 points, or 0.82%, to 15,090.20.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) rose 0.46% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.03%.
The MSCI index posted gains for a third straight week along with the three major U.S. stock indexes.
In the U.S. bond market, yields on longer-dated U.S. Treasuries slid.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes was down 1.6 basis points to 1.659% after rising to a five-month high of 1.7064% late Thursday.
Oil rose and ended up for the week, near multi-year highs. Brent crude futures rose 92 cents to settle at $85.53 a barrel, and registered its seventh weekly gain. U.S. crude futures gained $1.26, to settle at $83.76, and rose for a ninth straight week. read more
Spot gold was up 0.6% at $1,793.82 per ounce.
Among cryptocurrencies, bitcoin last fell 2.21% to $60,841.96.
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Additional reporting by Simon Jessop in London, and Karen Brettell, Sinead Carew and Herbert Lash in New York and Kevin Buckland in Tokyo
Editing by Hugh Lawson Mark Potter and David Gregorio
WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – The White House on Friday reiterated that Joe Biden was not signaling a change in U.S. policy toward Taiwan when he said the United States would come to the island’s aid if it was attacked by China, and analysts dismissed the president’s remark as a gaffe.
While Washington is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, it has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
Biden called that into question when he was asked at a CNN town hall in Baltimore on Thursday night whether the United States would come to Taiwan’s defense if it was attacked by China and he replied: “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”
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Shortly after he spoke, a White House spokesperson said there was no change in policy and analysts said it appeared the president misspoke.
Asked at a Friday news briefing whether it was Biden’s intention to move away from strategic ambiguity to make an unambiguous statement about how the United States would respond to a Chinese attack on Taiwan, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “Our policy has not changed. He was not intending to convey a change in policy, nor has he made a decision to change our policy.”
Psaki added that, as stated in Brussels earlier on Friday by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “nobody wants to see cross-strait issues come to blows, certainly not President Biden, and there’s no reason that it should.”
Psaki said the U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan was guided by the long-established Taiwan Relations Act, under which Washington would “continue assisting Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability.”
Another principle of the act was that Washington “would regard any efforts to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific and of grave concern to the United States,” she added.
Bonnie Glaser, a Taiwan expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, called Biden’s remark a “gaffe” and said it was “patently not true” that Washington has a commitment to defend Taiwan.
“Some are suggesting a deliberate effort to send unclear signals, but in my view, that makes no sense. A confused U.S. policy weakens deterrence,” she said, noting that Biden’s Asia policy czar, Kurt Campbell, had rejected “strategic clarity” over Taiwan.
Another Taiwan expert, Douglas Paal, a former U.S. representative in Taipei, said Biden was focused at the town hall on selling his domestic economic agenda.
“Despite his reputation on foreign affairs, he can be occasionally sloppy when distracted,” Paal said. “The White House was right to issue a speedy ‘no-change-in-policy’ correction, because that is where policy is.”
Biden’s remark comes at an awkward time, while White House officials are gearing up for a virtual meeting between him and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which, sources say, they hope will show the world Washington can responsibly manage tense relations between the rival superpowers.
China, which claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own, expressed its displeasure, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying Beijing has no room for concessions on its core interests.
China urges the United States “not to send the wrong signals to the forces of Taiwan independence, to avoid seriously harming Sino-U.S. ties and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
Taiwan’s presidential office said its position remained the same, which is that it will neither give in to pressure nor “rashly advance” when it gets support.
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Reporting by Jeff Mason, Tim Ahmann and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Lev Parnas, a onetime associate of Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, was found guilty on Friday of violating U.S. campaign finance laws during the 2018 elections.
Parnas, a Ukraine-born American businessman, and his former associate Igor Fruman had been accused of soliciting funds from Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev to donate to candidates in states where the group was seeking licenses to operate cannabis businesses in 2018.
Parnas also concealed that he and Fruman, who pleaded guilty in September, were the true source of a donation to a group supporting Republican then-President Trump, prosecutors said. Giuliani’s attorney has said the Parnas case is separate from a probe into whether violated lobbying laws while representing Trump.
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Giuliani, a U.S. prosecutor in the 1980s before he was elected New York’s mayor in 1994, has not been charged with any crimes and denies wrongdoing.
Parnas was found guilty on all six counts of federal election law violations that he faced, which included illegally helping a foreigner contribute to a U.S. election campaign, making contributions in the names of others, and lying to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
Andrey Kukushkin, a Muraviev associate and California resident who was tried alongside Parnas, was found guilty on Friday of two counts of campaign finance violations. Kukushkin is also a Ukraine native.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan has drawn attention because of the role Parnas and Belarus-born U.S. citizen Fruman played in helping Giuliani, who was Trump’s personal attorney while he held office, to investigate Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. Biden won the election, denying Trump a second term.
Parnas, dressed in a blue suit, stared straight at the jury as the verdict was read. Kukushkin, wearing a grey sweater, shook his head after he was pronounced guilty on the second count.
“I’ve never hid from nobody,” Parnas said as he left court wearing a black “Combat COVID” mask. “I’ve always stood and tried to tell the truth.”
His attorney Joseph Bondy said they would be filing a motion to vacate the verdict “in the interest of justice.”
Lev Parnas, Ukrainian-American businessman and former Giuliani associate, walks to the United States Court in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., October 18, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar
“It’s obviously a very difficult time for Mr. Parnas and his wife and his children,” Bondy said.
U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken denied a request from prosecutors to detain Parnas and Kukushkin. “The defendants have sufficiently established that they’re not a risk of flight,” Oetken said after the jury left.
Oetken set a sentencing date of Feb. 16 for Kukushkin. He did not set a sentencing date for Parnas, who faces another possible trial on separate fraud charges.
‘IN WELL OVER HIS HEAD’
The case provided a glimpse into the inner workings of political fundraising in the United States.
“You saw the wires from Muraviev,” Assistant U.S Attorney Hagan Scotten told the jury during closing arguments on Thursday. “You saw how that money came out on the other side, finding its way into American elections, where the defendants thought they had bought influence to further their business.”
Parnas’ defense lawyers countered that Muraviev’s funds went toward business investments, not campaign contributions, and that the donation to the pro-Trump group was from a company founded by Parnas and broke no laws.
In his closing statement Parnas attorney Bondy characterized his client as a passionate proponent of marijuana legalization who was “in well over his head.” He argued that Muraviev’s money funded business operations, not campaign contributions.
Deliberations in the trial began on Friday morning and lasted about five hours.
Fruman, who lives in Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of soliciting campaign contributions from a foreign national. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 21.
Parnas and Kukushkin had faced two counts of conspiring to make donations from a foreign national, and making the donations. Parnas had also been charged with four other counts, including making false statements to the Federal Elections Commission.
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Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Franklin Paul, Grant McCool and Jonathan Oatis
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