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Tag: europe

  • Germany will borrow nearly $200 billion to cap consumers’ energy bills | CNN Business

    Germany will borrow nearly $200 billion to cap consumers’ energy bills | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    The German government announced plans to borrow €200 billion ($195 billion) to cap natural gas prices for households and businesses. That’s a bigger price tag than the £150 billion ($165 billion) the UK government is expected to borrow to finance its own price cap.

    Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, is trying to cope with surging gas and electricity costs caused largely by a collapse in Russian gas supplies to Europe. Moscow has blamed these supply issues on the Western sanctions that followed its invasion of Ukraine in February.

    “Prices have to come down, so the government will do everything it can. To this end, we are setting up a large defensive shield,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday.

    Under the plans, which are set to run until spring 2024, the government will introduce an emergency price brake on gas, the details of which will be announced next month. It is also scrapping a planned gas levy meant to help firms struggling with high spot market prices.

    A temporary electricity price brake will subsidize basic consumption for consumers and small and medium-sized companies.

    Sales tax on gas will fall sharply to 7% from 19%.

    The package will be financed with new borrowing this year, as Berlin makes use of the suspension of a constitutionally enshrined limit on new debt of 0.35% of gross domestic product.

    Finance Minister Christian Lindner has said he wants to comply with the limit again next year.

    Lindner, of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) who share power with Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens, said on Thursday the country’s public finances were stable.

    “We can put it no other way: We find ourselves in an energy war,” said Lindner. “We want to clearly separate crisis expenditure from our regular budget management. We want to send a very clear signal to the capital markets.”

    Lindner also said the steps would act as a brake on inflation, which has hit its highest level in more than a quarter century.

    Consumer prices rose 10.9% in the year through September, provisional data from the country’s statistics office showed on Thursday.

    Germany has historically relied on Russian natural gas exports to fuel its homes and heavy industry. But a sharp drop in Moscow’s gas shipments since the start of the war has pushed some of Germany’s manufacturers to the brink.

    “The Russian attack on Ukraine and the resulting crisis on the energy markets are leading to a noticeable slump in the German economy,” Torsten Schmidt, head of economic research at RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, said in a Thursday report coauthored with three other top German economic institutes.

    While German GDP is expected to rise by 1.4% this year, it is likely to fall by 0.4% in 2023, the report predicts.

    The report said that, while tight gas supplies should ease over the medium-term, prices are likely to remain “well above pre-crisis levels.”

    “This will mean a permanent loss of prosperity for Germany,” it said.

    Industry groups welcomed the government’s plans.

    “This is important relief,” said Wolfgang Grosse Entrup, head of the chemicals industry trade group VCI. “Now we need details quickly, as firms increasingly have their backs to the wall.”

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  • US and Europe condemn ‘sabotage’ as suspicion mounts that Russia was behind pipeline leaks | CNN Politics

    US and Europe condemn ‘sabotage’ as suspicion mounts that Russia was behind pipeline leaks | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The US and Europe are closing ranks, signaling to Moscow their unity over the war in Ukraine won’t be shattered by what they say is the “sabotage” of dual undersea gas pipelines that could represent a possible new front in energy warfare.

    The transatlantic allies have yet to directly blame Russia for what they say are leaks in the pipelines from Russia to Germany that followed underwater explosions. European security officials on Monday and Tuesday observed Russian Navy support ships in the vicinity of the leaks, CNN reported Wednesday, citing two Western intelligence officials and one other source familiar with the matter. But it remains unclear, according to these sources, whether the ships were connected to the explosions, and three US officials said that the US has no thorough explanation yet for what happened, CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood reported. On Thursday, Germany’s ambassador to the United Kingdom said a fourth leak was discovered and that there was a “very strong indication” these were acts of sabotage.

    The leaks have raised suspicions that Russian President Vladimir Putin is moving up to the next notch on his escalatory scale to hike pain on his foes for their support of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. If confirmed, Russian attacks on external pipelines would deepen fears that Putin is ready to widen operations outside Ukraine at a time when he is also seeking to scare Western publics with his nuclear rhetoric.

    And while Russia has denied involvement in the pipeline leaks, the leaks could emphasize Moscow’s leverage over natural gas markets and raise new fears of shortages and fast rising prices in Europe over the winter as it seeks to fracture Western resolve and support for Ukraine.

    The leaks did not immediately cause a crisis since neither pipeline was actually in use. One pipeline, Nord Stream 2, never went online because of sanctions over the war in Ukraine and Nord Stream 1 had been shut down for weeks. Given the conditions at sea, it may take time to assess the damage as gas bubbles to the surface and it could be complicated to ascribe blame.

    But if nothing else, the pipeline leaks are a metaphorical severing of an era of post-Cold War US and European energy relations, which left the continent overly reliant on Russian gas exports and prone to geopolitical blackmail. A long estrangement now appears certain at least as long as Putin is in power, which will bring reminders of the Warsaw Pact’s decades-long standoff with the West.

    But perhaps to Putin’s disappointment, there was no immediate sign of weakening European resolve. In a fresh sign of solidarity that has surprised some observers, the US and Europe quickly issued similar statements over the pipeline breaches, vowing to investigate and to lessen reliance on Russian energy.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the leaks appeared to be a “deliberate act,” comments that were echoed by the Danish and Swedish prime ministers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to “sabotage action” in a tweet. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan called the leaks “apparent sabotage” in a tweet on Tuesday night, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was no sign the leaks would weaken Europe’s energy resistance and that sabotage would be “clearly in no one’s interest.”

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the idea that the Russia might have deliberately sabotaged the pipelines as “predictably stupid,” and Moscow promised its own investigation.

    European officials earlier said the leaks were discovered on Monday and that initial investigations showed that powerful underwater explosions occurred before the pipelines burst. CNN reported on Wednesday that the US warned several allies over the summer, including Germany, that the pipelines could be attacked.

    The warnings were based on US intelligence assessments, but were vague and did not say who might carry out such action.

    The drama over the pipelines came as the war of words between the West and Moscow took another hostile lurch, with Western leaders slamming what they regard as sham referendums in captured Ukrainian territory that Moscow reported resulted in majorities voting to join Russia. It also follows strong warnings from Washington over the weekend that any use by Putin of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be “catastrophic” for Russia.

    Peskov upped the rhetoric from the Russian side, warning that the US was getting “closer to becoming a party” to the conflict in Ukraine. The US has sent billions of dollars in support to Kyiv’s forces with weapons that have caused carnage among Russia’s poorly performing military. But the White House hit back by saying it would not be deterred from supporting Ukraine, announcing a new $1.1 billion package of weapons – including 18 new High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and hundreds of armored vehicles, radars and counter-drone systems.

    In another sign of deepening crisis, the United States warned Americans that Russia might try to conscript dual US-Russian citizens for service in Putin’s partial mobilization, which has caused tens of thousands of young men to try to flee the country to avoid being used as cannon fodder in his disastrous war.

    Political reverberations are growing from Putin’s warnings last week that he was not bluffing over the possible use of nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory – a threat that caused anxiety given the referendums that could soon lead to the annexation of Ukrainian territory, which could then could come under attack from Kyiv’s forces and potentially trigger the Kremlin.

    Some analysts see the warnings as an example of Putin trying to scramble support for Ukraine among the West and to warn the US and its NATO allies off of more strident support for the country. Using a tactical battlefield nuclear weapon would cross a dangerous threshold and mark the first use of an atomic device in warfare since the US dropped two on Japan at the end of World War II. A tactical nuclear weapon has a far smaller footprint than the strategic warheads that Russia and the United States have previously lined up against each other and that could cause a nuclear Armageddon if World War III erupted. But a tactical weapon could still cause major destruction on a scale not seen since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wiping out large parts of the Ukrainian armed forces and causing nuclear contamination.

    The US has no seen indication so far that Russia is moving nuclear weapons around, CNN’s Bertrand and Lillis reported Wednesday. But one theory among some observers is that Putin might use a nuclear blast as a last resort in order to stave off a defeat that could result in his toppling from power in Moscow. Such a battlefield loss has appeared more likely after stunning Ukrainian offensives in recent weeks.

    There are many reasons why the use of such weapons might give Putin pause, including the possibility that it could further cement Russia’s isolation from nations like China and India, which have been prepared to defy US attempts to box Putin in economically. The idea that what Putin initially sold to the Russian people as a limited “special operation” in Ukraine could culminate in a nuclear detonation would also raise new questions about his capacity to stave off backlashes inside and outside the Kremlin.

    Still, officials are sufficiently worried that Putin has invested so much personal capital in the war that he could not survive a humiliating defeat and might turn to weapons of mass destruction in an attempt to save himself.

    And there has been speculation over whether his strategic sense is decaying. French President Emmanuel Macron, for instance, told CNN’s Jake Tapper last week that long periods of isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic might have changed the Russian leader. CIA Director Bill Burns said in an interview with CBS News on Tuesday that Washington was not taking the issue lightly. “We have to take very seriously his kind of threats given everything that is at stake,” Burns said.

    Sullivan indicated over the weekend that Washington had sent stern messages through private channels to Moscow warning against the use of nuclear weapons. The administration has not said how it would respond. But it appears to be trying to develop some level of deterrence, and there is speculation that Russia crossing such a threshold would raise pressure for a direct NATO military response and risk the kind of clash and wider escalation of the war that President Joe Biden has painstakingly tried to avoid.

    Western officials have spent the 22 years that Putin has been in power seeking to understand his motives and decision making. But no one can read his mind, or know fully how a leader who has built his ruthless rule on an image of strength would react to the possibility of looking weak and having to admit defeat.

    That is why Putin is likely to use all of his remaining leverage – from nuclear rhetoric to the possibility of attacks on critical energy infrastructure – and it underscores that the worse the war inside Ukraine goes for him, the more the possibility of escalation grows.

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  • Mark Hamill made ambassador in support of Ukraine Army of Drones project | CNN

    Mark Hamill made ambassador in support of Ukraine Army of Drones project | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    May the force be with him.

    “Star Wars” star Mark Hamill has been made an ambassador for the UNITED24 fundraising platform, where he will work in support of the Army of Drones project to benefit Ukraine.

    His introduction as an ambassador took place during an online call on Thursday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who expressed his gratitude for Hamill’s support since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    “Mark, you have become the first ambassador to help Ukraine raise funds to support its defenders,” Zelenskyy said. “For Ukrainians, this means a lot. As in ‘Star Wars,’ good will triumph over evil and light will overcome darkness. With you in the team, there’s no other way around it.”

    “In this long and unequal fight, Ukraine needs continuous additional support. That’s why I was honored President Zelenskyy asked me to become an ambassador for the Army of Drones,” Hamill said in a statement.

    “I know for certain that Ukrainians need drones to protect their land, their freedom and the values of the entire democratic world,” he added. “Right now is the best time for everyone to come together and help Ukraine stand up in this war with the evil empire.”

    Hamill also tweeted about it on Thursday.

    “Honored to be an Ambassador for the Army of Drones and to help President Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine in any way possible,” he wrote.

    The Army of Drones project is a program of the fundraising platform UNITED24, Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the State Special Communications Service, which provides for the regular procurement of drones, their repair and prompt replacement, and pilot training.

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  • Kremlin will annex 4 regions of Ukraine on Friday

    Kremlin will annex 4 regions of Ukraine on Friday

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia confirmed on Thursday it will formally annex parts of Ukraine where occupied areas held Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” on living under Moscow’s rule that the Ukrainian government and the West denounced as illegal and rigged.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a ceremony on Friday in the Kremlin when four regions of Ukraine will be officially folded into Russia, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

    Peskov said the pro-Moscow administrators of the regions will sign treaties to join Russia during the ceremony at the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall.

    The official annexation was widely expected following the votes that wrapped up on Tuesday in the areas under Russian occupation in Ukraine and after Moscow claimed residents overwhelmingly supported for their areas to formally become part of Russia.

    The United States and its Western allies have sharply condemned the votes as “sham” and vowed never to recognize their results. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday joined other Western officials in denouncing the referendums.

    “Under threats and sometimes even (at) gunpoint people are being taken out of their homes or workplaces to vote in glass ballot boxes,” she said at a conference in Berlin.

    “This is the opposite of free and fair elections,” Baerbock said. “And this is the opposite of peace. It’s dictated peace. As long as this Russian diktat prevails in the occupied territories of Ukraine, no citizen is safe. No citizen is free.”

    Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The suspiciously high margins in favor were characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership after embarrassing military losses in Ukraine.

    Moscow-installed administrations in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine claimed Tuesday night that 93% of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87% in the Kherson region, 98% in the Luhansk region and 99% in Donetsk.

    Ukraine too has dismissed the referendums as illegitimate, saying it has every right to retake the territories, a position that has won support from Washington.

    The Kremlin has been unmoved by the criticism. After a counteroffensive by Ukraine this month dealt Moscow’s forces heavy battlefield setbacks, Russia said it would call up 300,000 reservists to join the fight. It also warned it could resort to nuclear weapons.

    Also on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said Russian shelling has killed at least eight civilians, including a child, and wounded scores of others. A 12-year-old girl has been pulled out of rubble after an attack on Dnipro, officials said.

    “The rescuers have taken her from under the rubble, she was asleep when the Russian missile hit,” said local administrator Valentyn Reznichenko.

    Reports of new shelling came as Russia appeared to continue to lose ground around a key northeastern city of Lyman while it struggles to press on with chaotic mobilization of troops and prevent the fighting-age men from leaving the country, according to a Washington-based think-tank and the British intelligence reports.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The report said Ukrainian forces may soon encircle Lyman entirely, in what would be a major blow to Moscow’s war effort.

    “The collapse of the Lyman pocket will likely be highly consequential to the Russian grouping in northern Donetsk and western Luhansk oblasts and may allow Ukrainian troops to threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region, the institute said.

    The British military intelligence report claimed the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    “The better off and well educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia,” the British said. “When combined with those reservists who are being mobilized, the domestic economic impact of reduced availability of labor and the acceleration of ‘brain drain’ is likely to become increasingly significant.”

    That partial mobilization is deeply unpopular in some areas, however, triggering protests, scattered violence, and Russians fleeing the country by the tens of thousands. Miles-long lines formed at some borders and Moscow also reportedly set up draft offices at borders to intercept some of those trying to leave.

    ———

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Hundreds line up to pay respects to late queen in Windsor

    Hundreds line up to pay respects to late queen in Windsor

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    LONDON — Hundreds of royal fans lined up outside Windsor Castle on Thursday for the chance to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II as the chapel where the late monarch is buried opened to the public for the first time since her death.

    Many want to visit the queen’s tomb, which is marked by a slab of hand-carved Belgian black marble inside the King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The queen’s name is inscribed on the ledger stone in brass letter inlays, alongside the names of her husband, mother and father.

    Among the early arrivals was Anne Daley, 65, from Cardiff, who got to the castle at 7:30 a.m., well ahead of the 10 a.m. opening time. She was also one of the first in line as tens of thousands of people shuffled through Westminster Hall over four days to see the queen’s lying in state before her funeral.

    Daley said she felt emotional thinking about the monarch’s death on Sept. 8, as well as that of her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.

    “The castle feels like empty, gloomy. Nobody’s living in it. You know, you’ve lost the queen, you’ve lost the duke, you lost the corgis,” Daly said, referring to Elizabeth’s beloved dogs. “It’s like when you’ve sold your house and all the history is gone.”

    To visit the chapel, royal fans have to buy a ticket to Windsor Castle. The price for adults is 26.50 pounds ($28.75) Sunday through Friday, and 28.50 on Saturdays.

    The memorial chapel sits within the walls of St. George’s Chapel, where many members of the royal family are buried. It has also been the venue for several royal weddings, including the marriage of Prince Harry to the former Meghan Markle in 2018.

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  • US officials troubled by controversial UK tax cut plan | CNN Business

    US officials troubled by controversial UK tax cut plan | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    US officials are increasingly troubled by the United Kingdom’s proposal to slash taxes at a time of crushing inflation, a plan that has ignited turbulence in financial markets.

    UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tax-cut plan has drawn criticism from economists and investors and prompted the Bank of England to calm panicked markets with an emergency intervention on Wednesday.

    The Biden administration, including the Treasury Department, is concerned by the UK’s tax-cut plan, an administration official familiar with the matter told CNN Thursday.

    The risk for the United States is that any trouble on the other side of the Atlantic could spill over to the global financial system and world economy.

    US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo criticized Truss’s plan Wednesday, pointing out that the British pound has “plummeted” since the proposal was unveiled.

    “The policy of cutting taxes, and simultaneously increasing spending, isn’t one that is going to fight inflation in the short term or put you in good stead for long-term economic growth,” Raimondo said in response to a question at an event held by The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution.

    Raimondo sought to contrast the UK’s approach with that of the Biden administration.

    “We’re pursuing a different strategy … We’re taking inflation seriously, letting the Federal Reserve do its job, watching deficit spending,” she said. “Investors, businesspeople want to see world leaders taking inflation very seriously. And it’s hard to see that out of this new government.”

    Biden officials have conveyed their worries about the UK plan through the International Monetary Fund, according to Bloomberg News, which previously reported on the concerns of US officials.

    The United States is the largest shareholder in the IMF, which issued a rare criticism of the UK plan this week and urged the country’s officials to “reevaluate” the tax cuts.

    “Given elevated inflation pressures in many countries, including the UK, we do not recommend large and untargeted fiscal packages at this juncture, as it is important that fiscal policy does not work at cross purposes to monetary policy,” an IMF spokesperson said earlier this week.

    Truss defended her tax plan, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper last week that her government is incentivizing businesses to invest and helping ordinary people with their taxes.

    Some US officials have been careful not to directly criticize their UK counterparts.

    US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday declined to comment directly on the UK economic plan, though she noted the UK is dealing with “significant inflation problems” — just like the United States.

    Asked if she is concerned about disorderly markets, Yellen said “markets are functioning well” and she hasn’t seen liquidity problems emerge.

    Yet the large swings in bond and currency markets raise questions about just how well markets are functioning.

    A day after Yellen’s comments, the Bank of England announced an emergency intervention. The central bank promised to buy UK government debt “on whatever scale is necessary” to prevent a bond market crash and ease “dysfunction” in financial markets.

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  • 3 Russian cosmonauts return safely from Intl Space Station

    3 Russian cosmonauts return safely from Intl Space Station

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    MOSCOW — Three Russian cosmonauts returned safely on Thursday from a mission to the International Space Station.

    The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov touched down softly at 4:57 p.m. (1057 GMT) at a designated site in the steppes of Kazakhstan about 150 kilometers (about 90 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.

    The trio arrived at the station in March. For Artemyev, the mission marked a third space flight that has brought his total time spent in orbit to 561 days. Matveyev and Korsakov each logged 195 days on their first missions.

    As the Soyuz capsule was descending on a big striped red-and-white parachute under clear skies, Artemyev reported to the Mission Control that all members of the crew were feeling fine.

    Helicopters support teams landed minutes after to recover the crew. After a quick post-flight medical exam, the cosmonauts will be flown to the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow later in the day.

    The station is currently operated by Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and the Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

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  • 4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

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    This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a large disturbance in the sea can be observed off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Monday Sept. 26, 2022 following a series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany have triggered concerns about possible sabotage. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she “cannot rule out” sabotage after three leaks were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

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  • The UK is gripped by an economic crisis of its own making | CNN Business

    The UK is gripped by an economic crisis of its own making | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN Business
     — 

    A week ago, the Bank of England took a stab in the dark. It raised interest rates by a relatively modest half a percentage point to tackle inflation. It couldn’t know the scale of the storm that was about to break.

    Less than 24 hours later, the government of new UK Prime Minister Liz Truss unveiled its plan for the biggest tax cuts in 50 years, going all out for economic growth but blowing a huge hole in the nation’s finances and its credibility with investors.

    The pound crashed to a record low against the US dollar on Monday after UK finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng doubled-down on his bet by hinting at more tax cuts to come without explaining how to pay for them. Bond prices collapsed, sending borrowing costs soaring, sparking mayhem in the mortgage market and pushing pension funds to the brink of insolvency.

    Financial markets were already in a febrile state because of the rising risk of a global recession and the gyrations caused by three outsized rate increases from a US central bank on the warpath against inflation. Into that “pressure cooker” stumbled the new UK government.

    “You need to have strong, credible policies, and any policy missteps are punished,” said Chris Turner, global head of markets at ING.

    After verbal assurances by the UK Treasury and Bank of England failed to calm the panic — and the International Monetary Fund delivered a rare rebuke — the UK central bank pulled out its bazooka, saying Wednesday it would print £65 billion ($70 billion) to buy government bonds between now and October 14 — essentially protecting the economy from the fallout of the Truss’ growth plan.

    “While this is welcome, the fact that it needed to be done in the first place shows that the UK markets are in a perilous position,” said Paul Dales, chief UK economist at Capital Economics, commenting on the bank’s intervention.

    The emergency first aid stopped the bleeding. Bond prices recovered sharply and the pound steadied Wednesday against the dollar. But the wound hasn’t healed.

    The pound tumbled 1%, falling back below $1.08 early Thursday. UK government bonds were under pressure again, with the yield on 10-year debt climbing to 4.16%. UK stocks fell 2%.

    “It wouldn’t be a huge surprise if another problem in the financial markets popped up before long,” Dales added.

    The next few weeks will be critical. Mohamed El-Erian, who once helped run the world’s biggest bond fund and now advises Allianz

    (ALIZF)    , said that the central bank had bought some time but would need to act again quickly to restore stability.

    “The Band-Aid may stop the bleeding, but the infection and the bleeding will get worse if they do not do more,” he told CNN’s Julia Chatterley.

    The Bank of England should announce an emergency rate hike of a full percentage point before its next scheduled meeting on November 3. The UK government should also postpone its tax cuts, El-Erian said.

    “It is doable, the window is there, but if they wait too long, that window is going to close,” he added.

    The UK government has previewed rolling announcements in the coming weeks about how it plans to change immigration policy and make it easier to build big infrastructure and energy projects to boost growth, culminating in a budget on November 23 at which it has promised to publish a detailed plan for reducing debt over the medium term.

    But it shows no sign of backing away from the fundamental policy choice of borrowing heavily to fund tax cuts that will mainly benefit the rich at a time of high inflation. And the UK Treasury says it won’t bring forward the November announcement.

    Truss, speaking publicly for the first time since the crisis erupted, blamed global market turmoil and the energy price shock from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for this week’s chaos.

    “This is the right plan that we’ve set out,” she told local radio on Thursday.

    One big problem identified by investors, former central bankers and many leading economists is that her government only set out half a plan at best. It went ahead without an independent assessment from the country’s budget watchdog of the assumptions underlying the £45 billion ($48 billion) annual tax cuts, and their longer term impact on the economy. It fired the top Treasury civil servant earlier this month.

    Charlie Bean, former deputy governor at the Bank of England, told CNN Business that the government was guilty of “really stupid” decisions. His former boss at the bank, Mark Carney, accused the government of “undercutting” UK economic institutions, saying that had contributed to the “big knock” suffered by the country’s financial system this week.

    “This is an economic crisis. It is a crisis… that can be addressed by policymakers if they choose to address it,” he told the BBC.

    British newspapers have started to speculate that Truss will have to fire Kwarteng, her close friend and political soulmate, if she wants to regain the political initiative and prevent her government’s dire poll ratings from plunging even further.

    “Every single problem we have now is self-inflicted. We look like reckless gamblers who only care about the people who can afford to lose the gamble,” one former Conservative minister told CNN.

    But for now she’s trying to tough it out, and cling onto the Reaganite experiment.

    “Raising, postponing, or abandoning tax cuts will be avoided by Truss at all costs as such a reversal would be humiliating and could leave her looking like a lame duck prime minister,” wrote Mujtaba Rahman and Jens Larson at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

    The only alternative left to balance the books would be to slash government spending, and that would prove equally politically difficult as the country enters a recession with its public services under enormous strain and a restive workforce that has shown it’s ready to strike in large numbers over pay.

    “Truss and Kwarteng are now facing a severe economic crisis as the world’s financial markets wait for them to make policy changes that they and the Conservative party will find unpalatable,” the Eurasia analysts wrote.

    The foreign investors who keep the British economy solvent are left scratching their heads for another eight weeks, leaving plenty of time for doubts to surface again about the UK government’s commitment to responsible fiscal policymaking.

    “The message of financial markets is that there is a limit to unfunded spending and unfunded tax cuts in this environment and the price of those is much higher borrowing costs,” Carney said.

    That leaves the Bank of England in a tight spot. A week ago it was pressing the brakes on the economy to take the heat out of price increases, even as the government tried to juice growth. The task got even harder this week when it was forced to dust off its crisis playbook and bail out the government.

    It may not be long before it has to intervene again, this time with an emergency rate hike.

    “[Wednesday’s] intervention is designed to stabilize UK government bond prices, keep the bond market liquid and prevent financial instability but that won’t necessarily stop sterling falling further, with its attendant inflationary consequences,” Bean, the former central banker, told CNN Business.

    “I think there is still a good chance they will need to act ahead of the November meeting,” he added.

    — Julia Horowitz, Luke McGee, Anna Cooban, Rob North, Livvy Doherty and Morgan Povey contributed to this article.

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  • First on CNN: European security officials observed Russian Navy ships in vicinity of Nord Stream pipeline leaks | CNN Politics

    First on CNN: European security officials observed Russian Navy ships in vicinity of Nord Stream pipeline leaks | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    European security officials on Monday and Tuesday observed Russian Navy support ships in the vicinity of leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines likely caused by underwater explosions, according two Western intelligence officials and one other source familiar with the matter.

    It’s unclear whether the ships had anything to do with those explosions, these sources and others said – but it’s one of the many factors that investigators will be looking into.

    Russian submarines were also observed not far from those areas last week, one of the intelligence officials said.

    Three US officials said that the US has no thorough explanation yet for what happened, days after the explosions appeared to cause three separate and simultaneous leaks in the two pipelines on Monday.

    Russian ships routinely operate in the area, according to one Danish military official, who emphasized that the presence of the ships doesn’t necessarily indicate that Russia caused the damage.

    “We see them every week,” this person said. “Russian activities in the Baltic Sea have increased in recent years. They’re quite often testing our awareness – both at sea and in the air.”

    But the sightings still cast further suspicion on Russia, which has drawn the most attention from both European and US officials as the only actor in the region believed to have both the capability and motivation to deliberately damage the pipelines.

    US officials declined to comment on the intelligence about the ships on Wednesday.

    Both Denmark and Sweden are investigating, but a site inspection has yet to be done and details on exactly what caused the explosions remains sketchy. One European official said that there is a Danish government assessment underway and it could take up to two weeks for an investigation to properly begin because the pressure in the pipes makes it difficult to approach the site of the leaks — although another source familiar with the matter said the probe could begin as soon as Sunday.

    The prime ministers for both Denmark and Sweden said publicly on Tuesday that the leaks were likely the result of deliberate actions, not accidents, and Sweden’s security service said in a statement Wednesday that it cannot be ruled out “that a foreign power is behind it.” US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday evening also called the leaks “apparent sabotage” in a tweet.

    But senior Western officials have so far stopped short of attributing the attack to Russia or any other nation.

    The Kremlin has publicly denied striking the pipelines. A spokesman called the allegation “predictably stupid and absurd.”

    CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on the presence of the ships.

    The Danish government is taking the lead on the investigation and has put in place an exclusion area of five nautical miles and a 1 kilometer no-fly-zone, according to European sources familiar with the matter.

    Other than Sullivan, US officials have been far more circumspect than their European counterparts in drawing conclusions about the leaks.

    “I think many of our partners have determined or believe it is sabotage. I’m not at the point where I can tell you one way or the other,” a senior military official said Wednesday. “The only thing I know there is that we think the water is between 80 and 100 meters [deep] at that location where the pipeline is. Other than that, I don’t know anything more.”

    But one senior US official and a US military official both said Russia is still the leading suspect – assuming that the European assessment of deliberate sabotage is borne out – because there are no other plausible suspects with the ability and will to carry out the operation.

    “It’s hard to imagine any other actor in the region with the capabilities and interest to carry out such an operation,” the Danish military official said.

    Russia has requested a UN Security Council meeting on the damaged pipeline this week – something the senior US official said is also suspicious. Typically, the official said, Russia isn’t organized enough to move so quickly, suggesting that the maneuver was pre-planned.

    If Russia did deliberately cause the explosions, it would be effectively sabotaging its own pipelines: Russian state company Gazprom is the majority shareholder in Nord Stream 1 and the sole owner of Nord Stream 2.

    But officials familiar with the latest intelligence say that Moscow would likely view such a step as worth the price if it helped raise the costs of supporting Ukraine for Europe. US and western intelligence officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is gambling that as electricity costs rise and winter approaches, European publics could turn against the Western strategy of isolating Russia economically. Sabotaging the pipelines could “show what Russia is capable of,” one US official said.

    Russia has already taken steps to manipulate energy flows in ways that caused itself economic pain, but also hurt Europe. Russia slashed gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream 1 before suspending flows altogether in August, blaming Western sanctions for causing technical difficulties. European politicians say that was a pretext to stop supplying gas.

    “They’ve already shown they’re perfectly happy to do that,” one of the sources said. “They weight their economic pain against Europe’s.”

    The new Nord Stream 2 pipeline had yet to enter commercial operations. The plan to use it to supply gas was scrapped by Germany days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

    US, European and Ukrainian officials have been warning for months, however, that critical infrastructure – not only in Ukraine but also in the US and Europe – could be targeted by Russia as part of its war on Ukraine.

    The US warned several European allies over the summer, including Germany, that the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines could face threats and even be attacked, according to two people familiar with the intelligence and the warnings.

    The warnings were based on US intelligence assessments, but they were vague, the people said – it was not clear from the warnings who might be responsible for any attacks on the pipelines or when they might occur.

    The CIA declined to comment.

    Der Spiegel was the first to report on the intelligence warnings.

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  • ‘No matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.’ This European network helps people access abortions | CNN

    ‘No matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.’ This European network helps people access abortions | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This story is part of As Equals, CNN’s ongoing series on gender inequality. For information about how the series is funded and more, check out our FAQs.


    Amsterdam, the Netherlands
    CNN
     — 

    It’s early evening in an affluent neighborhood in the Dutch city of Haarlem and bed and breakfast owners Arnoud and Marika are waiting for their next guest to arrive. They’ve prepared their single room for her, a brightly colored space with massive windows overlooking a leafy drive.

    The traveller is a woman from France. She’s only staying one night, but her hosts want her to feel at home because she’s not here on vacation. She’s come to have a second-trimester abortion.

    The Netherlands is one of just a few countries in Europe where access to abortion is possible past 12 weeks of pregnancy, and Arnoud and Marika’s guest is one of around 3,000 people from abroad who have accessed one annually in recent years.

    Here, abortions for non-Dutch residents can be carried out until 22 weeks, according to Dutch abortion providers, and nationals can access terminations up to 24 weeks.

    In the United Kingdom (with the exception of Northern Ireland), it’s possible for anyone to get an abortion until 24 weeks, and for a very limited set of circumstances afterwards, however Brexit has made it increasingly more difficult for people to travel there. And in Spain, abortions past 14 weeks of pregnancy are only legal under extremely limited circumstances, although abortion rights groups say the law is often interpreted loosely.

    The restrictions mean that, for many in their second trimester, the Netherlands is their last chance to access a safe abortion. By opening up their home, Arnoud and Marika have become part of a grassroots network of people helping to facilitate that access.

    “This is a house without taboos,” Arnoud told CNN. Arnoud and Marika are pseudonyms that CNN agreed to use over concerns that the couple’s B&B – which is also where they live – will be targeted by anti-abortion protesters.

    Now in their 70s, the retired pair have made it their mission to be a welcoming point of entry for the people they host, many of whom they receive bleary eyed from a long day or more of travel, punctuated by weeks of anxiety and stress leading up to the journey.

    “They are so relieved, they have made this terrible journey, and they come in and they’re crying,” Marika said. “I love to be a light for them.”

    Arnoud and Marika look through messages written by their guests in their B&B in Haarlem. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Arnoud and Marika’s guest book. “Thanks for the kind words that cheered me up,” a message from a Polish guest in September reads. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Since they opened their B&B seven years ago, Arnoud and Marika say they have hosted around 350 people seeking abortion care from across Europe. They explain that some came alone, others were joined by partners or friends, while some brought their family.

    At first, the majority of their guests came from France and Germany, where abortion is available until 14 and 12 weeks of pregnancy, respectively. (France extended that time limit from 12 to 14 weeks earlier this year.) They say they have also hosted a number of women from other European countries including Belgium and Luxembourg, and Romania. One woman traveled from as far as the Caribbean island of Martinique, they said.

    But in recent years data shows the demographics have changed, with an influx of people now traveling to the Netherlands from Poland, after the country’s highest court further tightened its abortion laws – which were already among the strictest in Europe.

    The numbers coming to the Netherlands from Poland have swelled further as Ukrainians displaced there due to the war find they need to seek safe abortion access beyond Polish borders.

    In October 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal banned virtually all abortions, allowing them only in circumstances where the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest, or if the pregnant person’s life was at risk. The law came into effect the following January. Prior to this, abortions were also allowed in the case of fetal abnormalities – which accounted for approximately 97% of all known legal terminations carried out in Poland in 2019, according to data from the Polish Ministry of Health.

    The change in the law has left many people in Poland without legal access to safe terminations in their own country, and has created an even more hostile environment for abortion rights activists and those seeking abortions.

    When asked about the worsening climate for those seeking or providing abortions in Poland, a statement provided to CNN by the Polish government simply reiterated the law, saying: “In the event of a situation that threatens the life or health of a pregnant woman (e.g. suspected infection of the uterine cavity, hemorrhage, etc.) …it is lawful to terminate a pregnancy immediately.”

    “The decision whether there are circumstances in which the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant woman is and can only be made by a doctor in a specific case,” the statement added.

    But abortion rights activists say the law has created a chilling effect on healthcare providers, with some doctors appearing more fearful of potential repercussions that include prosecution than doing everything they can to save a pregnant person’s life. Three pregnant women have died in Polish hospitals after being denied an abortion since the court decision, according to Abortion Support Network, a UK-based organization that helps people in Poland obtain abortion care as part of the Abortion Without Borders (AWB) network.

    AWB was formed in response to the Polish government’s long standing proposals to ban abortion in 2019.

    The grassroots feminist network is made up of six organizations from Poland, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. They say the Polish state is failing women and have made it their mission to ensure safe access to abortion for any reason a person chooses to have one – including whether the pregnancy is wanted or not.

    “We don’t want to make you feel like you have to explain yourself, and that you have to earn your abortion with a sob story,” said Polish abortion rights activist Kasia Roszak.

    Kasia Roszak of Abortion Network Amsterdam says the work that she does is

    Roszak, who now lives in Amsterdam where she works with Abortion Network Amsterdam (part of AWB), says she knows exactly how it feels to not have agency over her reproductive rights, which is one of the reasons she works to ensure access for anyone globally who needs it.

    “We believe that abortions are part of life. It can be an empowering, positive experience. And if it’s not, if it’s something hard for you, then we’re going to give you space and validation of your feelings,” Roszak said. “I feel like it’s my responsibility to be able to share with people that there are options.”

    From December 2020 to December 2021, AWB says they helped 32,000 people from Poland access abortions across Europe – an almost six-fold increase from the previous year.

    In 2021, the network says they facilitated travel for 1,186 people in Poland – more than quadruple the number of people they supported with travel in 2020. More than half of those people travelled to the Netherlands, making up 52% of the total they helped to visit the country for abortions that year, according to AWB.

    Official 2021 data from the Dutch government shows 651 people from Poland had abortions in the Netherlands, more than double the number of people in 2020.

    “Effectively, we took over all [of Poland’s] fetal anomaly cases,” said Roszak. Numbers previously hovered around 1,000 cases a year in Poland, according to government data.

    The network gets connected with people who need their help through a process like this: A person with an unwanted pregnancy will first call a hotline in Poland, where they have two options, depending on how far along they are: take pills or travel for a procedure.

    If they are less than 12 weeks pregnant, they are sent the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol – approved by the World Health Organization – to take in the privacy of their own home. This is the case for the majority of the people who reach out to them, according to AWB data.

    Mariprist, a safe and effective abortion medication that contains mifepristone and misoprostol, seen at the Women Help Women offices in Amsterdam.

    However, for people whose pregnancies have already passed the 12-week mark, they will likely need to travel to a clinic abroad. This is also the case for those living in other European countries where laws prohibit abortions after the first trimester. For these people, the network taps into its web of volunteers and activists who will work around the clock to arrange appointments at clinics, translate documentation and provide financial assistance to help meet the cost of the procedure and related travel.

    Second trimester abortions may be available in the Netherlands but they are expensive for non-Dutch residents, costing up to 1,100 euros (roughly $1,100) for the surgical procedure which typically takes no longer than 20 minutes. Counselling, preparation for the procedure and recovery however require the better part of a day.

    Depending on each individual circumstance, assistance arrives in many ways and AWB may cover all or part of the costs, which can include flights, accommodation, and handling appointments with the treatment center directly.

    Money is raised mostly from private donations, according to activists within the AWB network, but some of the organizations within it are supported by big donors. Without financial assistance, abortion travel is especially prohibitive for working-class people, migrants and others living in poverty.

    Kinga Jelińska, Executive Director of the Amsterdam-based group Women Help Women – which is also part of AWB – told CNN: “We return abortion back to common people, no matter the law, no matter the stigma, no matter the cost.”

    Kinga Jelińska, Executive Director of Women Help Women, says the network is essentially running a

    Second-trimester abortions constitute a relatively small proportion of the total number of officially recorded abortions in high-income countries. The vast majority are carried out in the first trimester.

    Those seeking second-trimester abortions do so for a number of reasons, including not having previously realized they were pregnant; a change in personal circumstances such as financial difficulties or the breakdown of a relationship; unexpected medical problems in themselves or the fetus, and trauma surrounding rape and sexual abuse cases, which can also be a reason that one might not recognize the pregnancy until it is too late to access an abortion in their country.

    “People sometimes think that it’s a matter of fundamental principles and beliefs. [But]we see day after day, people coming to us and saying… ‘I used to be against abortion, but my situation is different,’ Jelińska explained.”The decision whether to continue the pregnancy or not, is highly contextual.”

    At the Bloemenhove clinic in Haarlem, one of two clinics in the country that offer abortions past 18 weeks, the parking lot looks “like the United Nations,” Roszak quipped, referencing the fact that car registration plates can be seen from all over Europe.

    The clinic, a bright and modern space with a peaceful garden area, treats approximately 15 people a day, 4 days a week, according to its director, Femke van Straaten. But the influx of Polish patients has, van Straaten said, led to a shift in the way that her team works.

    Prior to the Polish court ruling, more than half of the patients at Bloemenhove were Dutch and most came to terminate unwanted pregnancies, van Straaten explained. As such, staff were able to recommend in-country aftercare, including counseling resources.

    Now, with more patients coming to the clinic from Poland with wanted pregnancies (many of whom came for terminations due to fetal abnormalities), they have “different needs for care,” said van Straaten.

    One of the ways the clinic responded was to establish a memorial at a local cemetery for women to find some closure for their unviable pregnancies.

    “They couldn’t take their child back home, and they had no place for their grievance,” said van Straaten, who helped organize the memorial last year at the suggestion of the Polish abortion rights network. She added that memorial services are also available for people carrying viable fetuses who chose to terminate their pregnancies.

    As part of this aftercare, patients can opt for a cremation and are permitted to take the ashes home. For those who can’t wait for cremation, the cemetery offers to scatter the ashes on the site, where a steel tree has been erected and babies’ names are engraved onto a rainbow of leaves that hang on its branches.

    The “Little Stars Meadow,” a memorial space for people to grieve and find closure at the Haarlem cemetery. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Engraved “leaves” on the memorial tree. Van Straaten says her team decided to use the word “stillborns” for the terminated pregnancies – the closest word in English that they could find – to help people who wanted their babies acknowledge their loss and move forward.. Photo: Kara Fox/CNN

    Dr. Elles Garcia, an abortion care provider at Bloemenhove since 2016, works to assuage concerns that some people – particularly those from Poland – have about returning home after their termination.

    “They often ask me the question: ‘What do I tell my gynaecologist? Can I tell them that I had a miscarriage?’ They’re so afraid of getting back to their doctor in their own country and to tell them the truth – they can’t,” she said from one of the clinic’s consultation rooms.

    Garcia said that while she assures patients that medically, their doctors back at home won’t be able to know whether they had a miscarriage or an abortion, she still encourages them to be honest about what they went through, not only for themselves, but in hopes it might start to break down societal taboos.

    “I tell them to say that you were here for an abortion, because here it’s legal – you can tell them the truth,” she said, before acknowledging, “but then they get afraid and anxious.”

    To help people prepare to return to a society where abortion is both restricted and taboo, the AWB Polish helpline has also expanded its remit to provide aftercare, including psychological counseling for those in need.

    Dr. Elles Garcia of the Bloemenhove clinic says she always advises patients from countries where abortion is taboo to talk with each other to reduce the stigma around the subject.

    Back at their B&B, Arnoud and Marika are reflecting on the past several years of providing hospitality to people at a difficult time in their lives.

    Only around a third of their guests stay for two nights, they say, the majority return to their countries of origin straight from the clinic. And so the relationships are fleeting, but the septuagenarians know their impact can be profound. They see their job as being to listen and reassure.

    “People come from the room and ask: ‘Can we talk to each other?’ said Arnoud, explaining that guests often gather around their dining room table or sit in their garden for a chat if they stay the second night.

    The couple say that while they were never planning on becoming a hub for abortion travel when they first decided to open their business, they can’t imagine their B&B in any other way.

    But unlike most business owners, they say they relish the day when their business might go bust.

    “When the law changes in France, like we have in Holland, when the law changes in Poland, like we have here, it will be better – I will sing a song,” Arnoud said.

    He looks to Marika and adds: “Our business is not important. It’s more important that women can decide for themselves … that’s the most important.”

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  • Biden keeps US target for refugee admissions at 125,000

    Biden keeps US target for refugee admissions at 125,000

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    SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday kept the nation’s cap on refugee admissions at 125,000 for the 2023 budget year, despite pressure from advocates to raise it even higher to meet the need after falling far short of that target this year.

    Refugees advocates have been pushing the Biden administration to do more to restore the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. The more than four-decade-old program suffered deep cuts under the Trump administration, which slashed admissions to a record low of 15,000.

    After taking office, Biden quadrupled the number of refugee admissions permitted for the remaining months of the 2021 budget year. He then set the target at 125,000 for the 2022 budget year, which ends Sept. 30. But so far fewer than 20,000 refugees have been admitted.

    That number excludes the roughly 180,000 Ukrainians and Afghans who came to the United States via a legal process called humanitarian parole that got them into the country more quickly than the traditional refugee program but only allows for stays of up to two years.

    Refugees are provided a path to permanent residency. Their admissions are determined by the president each year, and federal funding for resettlement agencies is based on the number of people they resettle in a given year.

    The 125,000 target “is justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest,” Biden stated in his presidential determination. Historically, the average has been 95,000 under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

    Biden earmarked 5,000 more slots for people from Europe and Central Asia for the 2023 budget year, making room to accommodate those fleeing the war in Ukraine.

    The largest number of slots — 40,000 — was set aside for refugees from Africa, followed by 35,000 from South Asia and 15,000 each from East Asia, Europe and Latin America.

    Biden has struggled to restore the U.S. Refugee Program despite raising the numbers and removing bureaucratic barriers put in place by his predecessor, which slowed the process and led to a massive backlog.

    Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said the Biden administration must act now to improve the refugee program with the United Nations reporting a record 100 million people being displaced from their homes.

    “It must ramp up and streamline overseas processing of refugee applications if this lifesaving program is to remain relevant amid an unprecedented global displacement crisis,” she said in a statement.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that “this ambitious target demonstrates that the United States is committed to rebuilding and strengthening the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program” through various means. He pointed to plans for a pilot program that is expected to get underway by the end of the year that will allow regular Americans to sign up to resettle refugees in their communities, much like U.S. citizens did in stepping up to help Afghans and Ukrainians over the past year.

    Traditionally refugees are placed in communities by nine refugee resettlement agencies.

    “Our refugee admissions program embodies the best of American values and the will to help those in need, and it will continue to provide access to resettlement as a lifesaving, durable solution,” Blinken said.

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  • Advanced anti-aircraft weapons head to Ukraine in 2 months

    Advanced anti-aircraft weapons head to Ukraine in 2 months

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will deliver the first two advanced NASAMS anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine in the next two months, providing Kyiv with a weapon that it has pressed for since earlier this year.

    Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told Pentagon reporters on Tuesday that six more of the Norwegian-developed weapons will be delivered in the future, as much as a year or two from now. Recent reports that some of the U.S.-provided NASAMS were already in Ukraine were not correct.

    The NASAMS will provide medium- to long-range defense against Russian missile attacks. Their impending delivery comes as Russia tries to rebound from recent combat losses and politically solidify gains by holding referendums in four occupied regions in the south and east.

    The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been dismissed as illegitimate by the U.S. and its Western allies, are expected to be used as a pretext for Moscow to annex those regions.

    Ryder said the U.S. has seen no major shifts in Russian forces aimed at bolstering or protecting the four areas, even as Moscow mobilizes more than a quarter million reservists to fight in Ukraine. He said the U.S. continues to see Russian troops trying to conduct offensive operations, but that Ukrainian forces are “successfully holding on.”

    Ryder also said that despite the ongoing threats from Russian leaders to use nuclear weapons to defend Russian territory — including the newly claimed areas — the U.S. has seen nothing that “would cause us to adjust our own nuclear posture at this time.”

    On funding, Ryder said that nearly $2.3 billion allocated to provide weapons and equipment to Ukraine will expire at the end of the fiscal year on Friday. That money is authorized by Congress to pay for equipment taken off Pentagon shelves and sent quickly to Ukraine.

    “I would highlight that it’s not the end of the fiscal year yet,” Ryder said. “So there’s still time potentially to employ that authorization.” He also noted that Congress is moving to approve additional funding for the next fiscal year, which also could be used.

    In other comments, Ryder said the U.S. now does confirm that Russia is using Iranian drones both for combat attacks and intelligence-gathering, and that reports that some have been shot down by Ukraine are “credible.” He declined to provide numbers.

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  • Manchin ends pipeline push, easing path for spending bill

    Manchin ends pipeline push, easing path for spending bill

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has abandoned, for now, his push to speed up the permitting process for energy projects, easing the Senate’s path toward passing a stopgap spending bill that would keep the federal government running when the fiscal year ends at midnight Friday.

    A procedural vote Tuesday advancing the funding bill succeeded easily, 72-23, after Democrats announced that the West Virginia senator’s proposal would be stripped from the final legislation. It was clear that, with Manchin’s plan included, Democrats were falling far short of the 60 votes needed to proceed, as most Republicans objected to it.

    While lawmakers are again waiting to the final moments of the fiscal year to pass legislation keeping the government running, they are confident they will do so. Neither party is interested in a shutdown heading into the critical midterm elections Nov. 8 that will determine which party is in charge of the House and Senate.

    In addition to government funding, the spending measure provides about $12.3 billion in assistance related to Ukraine, including training, equipment, weapons and direct financial support for the Ukraine government. The assistance would be on top of some $53 billion Congress has already approved through two previous bills.

    The measure excludes the White House call for spending $22 billion to respond to COVID-19, and $3.9 billion to fight against an outbreak of the monkeypox virus. Republican lawmakers were overwhelmingly opposed to the health funding. At least 10 Republican senators would have to support the measure to overcome procedural hurdles and advance in that chamber.

    The most contentious piece of the legislation was Manchin’s plan to streamline the permitting process for energy projects and make it easier for a pipeline project in his home state and Virginia to proceed.

    Manchin in a statement confirmed he had asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to remove the permitting language and said he was holding to his belief that “we should never come to the brink of a government shutdown over politics.”

    Manchin said he was ready to work with colleagues to move forward with permitting legislation at another time.

    “Senator Manchin, myself and others will continue to have conversations about the best way to ensure responsible permitting reform is passed before the end of the year,” Schumer said.

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We support Senator Manchin’s decision not to press for a floor vote” and promised the administration “will continue to work with him to find a vehicle to bring this bill to the floor and get it passed and to the President’s desk.”

    Both chambers of Congress must approve legislation by Friday, which is the end of the fiscal year, to prevent a partial government shutdown. It represents the last bit of unfinished business for lawmakers before the midterm elections in November. Lawmakers from both parties are eager to wrap up and spend time on the campaign trail, lowering the risk of a federal stoppage.

    Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, had secured a commitment from President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders to have a vote on the permitting package in return for his support of a landmark law to curb climate change.

    While Republicans have voiced support for streamlining the permitting process for energy projects, some, including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, panned the effort.

    “What our Democratic colleagues have produced is a phony fig leaf that would actually set back the cause of real permitting reform,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

    McConnell said he would vote against proceeding to the short-term spending bill if it included Manchin’s legislation and encouraged others to vote no, too, a powerful signal to GOP lawmakers.

    Other Republicans made clear they agreed with McConnell’s position.

    Top Democratic appropriators also said they were unhappy with the inclusion of Manchin’s proposal, but said keeping the government running took priority.

    “I am disappointed that unrelated permitting reform was attached to this bill. This is a controversial matter that should be debated on its own merits,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “However, with four days left in the fiscal year, we cannot risk a government shutdown; we must work to advance this bill.”

    Language in Manchin’s proposal was tied to the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would run through West Virginia and Virginia for more than 300 miles. The bill would have effectively approved the pipeline and steered legal challenges to a different federal court.

    Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was poised to vote against taking up the funding package if it included the pipeline language, another sign that lawmakers didn’t have the 60 votes needed to proceed.

    “We should pass a continuing resolution that is free of the unprecedented and dangerous” pipeline deal, Kaine said.

    Environmental groups celebrated the hard-earned victory.

    “Good riddance to Manchin’s dirty backroom deal and the bottom-of-the-barrel politics that it represented,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

    The funding bill also contains disaster assistance, including $2.5 billion to help New Mexico communities recover from the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the largest wildfire in the state’s history; $2 billion for a block grant program that aids the economic recovery of communities impacted by recent disasters and $20 million for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements previously authorized for Jackson, Mississippi.

    The bill would also provide an additional $1 billion for a program that helps low income households afford to heat their homes.

    There has been wide, bipartisan support for boosting support for Ukraine. The bill includes $4.5 billion to help Ukraine’s government provide basic citizen services and authorizes the president to drawdown $3.7 billion worth of equipment from U.S. stocks to support Ukraine’s armed forces. There’s also money to replenish U.S. stocks of equipment and munitions sent to Ukraine and to provide Ukraine with intelligence support and training.

    The White House issued a statement in support of the stopgap spending bill as the voting took place, applauding the help for Ukraine.

    “The people of Ukraine have inspired the world, and the Administration remains committed to supporting the Ukrainian people as they continue to stand resolute and display extraordinary courage in the face of Russia’s full-scale invasion,” the White House said.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

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  • Spain stuns Portugal with late goal to reach Nations League finals | CNN

    Spain stuns Portugal with late goal to reach Nations League finals | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Spain secured a dramatic, late victory against Portugal to qualify for next year’s Nations League finals.

    Portugal had looked more likely to take the lead throughout Tuesday’s match in Braga, but Álvaro Morata’s goal with two minutes remaining handed Spain an unlikely victory – the country’s first win in Portugal since 2003.

    The 1-0 scoreline means La Roja narrowly topped Group A2 on 11 points – one ahead of Portugal and two ahead of Switzerland – and joins Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands in the finals.

    Portugal, needing only a draw to the top the group, came close in the first half when Diogo Jota was denied by a strong save from Unai Simón.

    The goalkeeper then denied Cristiano Ronaldo, who was put through on goal by Jota’s pass, from close range at the start of the second half before Rúben Dias saw his shot cleared over the bar by Dani Carvajal.

    As the match entered its closing stages and a draw seemed the likeliest result, substitute Nico Williams headed across goal and into the path of Morata, who hooked a shot into the open net to spark jubilant celebrations among the Spanish players and coaching staff.

    Portugal had one more chance to level and return to the top of the group, but Ronaldo once again had a shot blocked by the legs of Simón.

    “If we were knocked out, it had to be by leaving everything on the field and that’s how it was one more time for us,” Atlético Madrid’s Morata told reporters after the game, according to Reuters.

    “Every time that Spain have to show up in big games, we do it. That’s how we do it and tonight we did it again.”

    A surprise 2-1 defeat at home against Switzerland on Saturday seemed to have put qualifying for the Nations League finals out of reach for Spain before Morata’s late goal.

    The finals take place in June next year with the host country chosen in January.

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  • Putin’s draft could upend the deal that kept him in power | CNN

    Putin’s draft could upend the deal that kept him in power | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed the unexpected in just under a week: upending the social contract that has kept him in power for over two decades.

    Putin’s deal with the Russian electorate has long been that they would stay out of politics and he would guarantee a modicum of stability – which seemed to be the bargain on offer when Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

    At the time, Putin was careful to emphasize that the military assault – euphemistically referred to as a “special military operation” – would only be fought by military professionals. That was a fiction, and one that allowed many Russians to be lulled into a sense of normalcy, going about their lives in Moscow or St. Petersburg indifferent to the horrific carnage in Ukraine.

    The “partial mobilization” declared last week by the Kremlin leader has abruptly ended that and fear is now convulsing Russia’s body politic. The long lineups of cars queuing at Russia’s borders with Finland, Georgia and Mongolia show that thousands of Russian men eligible for military service are voting with their feet. Protests are erupting in ethnic minority regions. And military enlistment offices are being set on fire – and a recruitment officer has been shot.

    Rumors are now swirling that the Russian government may be preparing to close its borders, prevent military-age men from leaving the country altogether, or announce some form of martial law.

    The Kremlin’s denials have not been reassuring.

    “I don’t know anything about it,” Kremlin press spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked about possible border closures. “There are no decisions regarding this yet.”

    Putin built his power in Russia by positioning himself as the opposite of former leader Boris Yeltsin, who presided over Russia’s chaotic post-Soviet transition in the 1990s. But today, scenes of angry crowds confronting officials and brawling with local police over the conscription of husbands and sons look very much like a flashback to that decade.

    The same goes for the scenes emerging on Russian Telegram channels and other social media. Some appear to show Russian draftees receiving news that they will be sent to the front with scant training. One widely shared video shows a woman in military uniform telling new inductees that they need to provide their own essential kit, from sleeping bags to tourniquets.

    “Ask girlfriends, wives, mothers for sanitary pads, the cheapest sanitary pads plus the cheapest tampons,” she says in the unverified video. “Do you know what the tampons are for? Gunshot wound, you plug it in, it starts to swell and it supports the walls. Men, I know this from Chechnya.”

    The first war in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 ended with a humiliating defeat for the Russian Federation. It laid bare both corruption in the ranks and the collapse of Russia’s military might.

    Putin rode to power on the second Chechen war that began in 1999. In that war, the Kremlin was much more careful about controlling the media, helping Putin create an aura of competence and toughness.

    But the images of dead and captured Russian soldiers and destroyed hardware in Ukraine today offer strong visual parallels with the disastrous first Chechen War, when photographers captured images of frightened and poorly-equipped conscripts in Chechen captivity.

    Watch: They decided to get married the day he was sent to war

    Putin presided over a professionalization of the Russian military that was supposed to reduce the use of conscripts in favor of contract service. There’s a reason for this: Treatment of draftees in the Russian military is traditionally brutal, and activist groups such as the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers mobilized during the Chechen wars to help provide legal advice to conscripts. Russian mothers famously organized to retrieve their sons who had been taken prisoner by the Chechens and often challenged the authorities over their treatment of soldiers.

    Recent protests against Putin’s partial mobilization are a reminder that the draft remains a third rail in Russian political life. In heated protests against the mobilization Sunday in Makhachkala, the regional capital of the north Caucasus region of Dagestan, women were captured in social media videos confronting police, saying, “Why are you taking our children? Who attacked who? It’s Russia that attacked Ukraine!”

    That explains why Putin’s most ardent propagandists are also channeling some of the public rage over what appears to be a dragnet by local officials, with officials issuing call-up papers to medically disqualified men and banging on doors to meet apparent quotas.

    Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state TV channel RT (formerly Russia Today) posted a series of complaints about heavy-handedness by officials on social media, including one case involving an employee going on vacation with return ticket in hand who was turned back at the border.

    Still, such criticism of officials overzealously or incompetently carrying out orders is not directed at Putin. It’s reminiscent of an old trope from Russian history of the “good tsar” and “bad boyars.” The tsar – in this case, Putin – is seen popularly as a wise, munificent (albeit distant) ruler, while his conniving local subordinates and lower-level functionaries are to blame for undermining his good intentions. They, not the ruler, are the targets of popular anger.

    There’s also an implied threat here. It’s not just the bad local officials who can be punished for failing to meet their quotas properly. The call-up is also a tool meant to instil fear and passivity. In another social-media post, Simonyan with satisfaction noted that draft summons had been issued to men who took part in an anti-mobilization protest on the Arbat, a central thoroughfare in Moscow.

    “All the men who were attended the rally against mobilization on the Arbat were issued over 200 draft notices. Another shipment prepared,” she wrote. “Better them than the Teacher of the Year from Pskov, in my view.”

    Competently carried out or not, the partial mobilization may be on of Putin’s riskiest moves to date. And while his grip on power remains strong, he is pulling on a foundation block of Russia’s Jenga puzzle.



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  • The British pound has taken a tumble. What’s the impact?

    The British pound has taken a tumble. What’s the impact?

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    LONDON (AP) — The pound is taking a pounding.

    The British currency has taken a plunge, sliding against the U.S. dollar to touch an all-time low. It’s a sign of the alarm in financial markets over new Prime Minister Liz Truss’ emergency budget measures unveiled last week aimed at jump-starting the ailing economy.

    Investors are spooked by a sweeping package of tax cuts likely to cost tens of billions of pounds in extra government borrowing and amounts to a risky gamble to stave off a looming recession.

    But that’s not all. The currency chaos is playing out against the wider backdrop of the dollar’s rally to a two-decade high.

    Here’s a look at what it all means:

    EVERYDAY IMPACT

    Many Britons are struggling amid soaring inflation driven by rising prices for food and energy, in a cost-of-living crisis that’s been dubbed the worst in a generation.

    The pound’s slump threatens to make it even worse. One of the most visible ways is by feeding into the energy crisis because oil and natural gas is priced in dollars. The impact is being felt at the pump.

    British drivers are paying 5 pounds ($5.45) more on average to fill up their cars since the beginning of the year as the pound has fallen, according to an analysis by motoring association AA. U.K. gas prices would be at least 9 pence per liter cheaper if the pound was still at its mid-February level of $1.35, compared with the now-outdated $1.14 level that the group used last week for its calculation.

    “There’s every chance that a falling pound will make life more expensive,” said Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown. Anything bought from overseas — components, raw materials, supermarket staples and household basics — will be pricier.

    “These rising costs will feed into higher prices, and push inflation even higher,” Coles said. “For anyone whose budget was already stretched to breaking point, this will mean even more pain at the tills.”

    Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng hopes that big tax cuts will spur economic growth and generate wealth, but the sliding pound raises the possibility that will be offset if the central bank steps in with bigger-than-expected interest rate increases.

    Some analysts are speculating rates could rise as high as 6% by next spring, a sharp contrast to the near zero level they were at just a few years ago. Rising rates mean many homeowners face bigger monthly mortgage bills, leaving them less to spend on other goods and services.

    HOW LOW CAN IT GO?

    Fifteen years ago, 1 British pound was able to buy $2. Now, the pound is getting closer to parity with the greenback, a once-unthinkable event and a psychologically important milestone. The pound has tumbled more than 5% since the government outlined its economic plans Friday, dropping as low as $1.0373 early Monday, before bouncing back to above $1.06.

    The markets are raising the prospect that the two currencies might soon reach equal footing. A lot of the decline has been driven by the strength of the dollar, which has climbed against a wide range of other currencies as the U.S. Federal Reserve aggressively raises rates, drawing interest from investors fleeing riskier assets.

    The euro, for example, has been on a similar trajectory to the pound, having fallen below parity with the dollar recently and then hitting a fresh 20-year low Monday.

    The pound has dropped more than most, though, because of local factors. Investors are alarmed at Kwarteng’s “lack of focus on fiscal prudence,” which outweighs any optimism about his pro-growth, anti-red tape agenda, said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor.

    “On top of being bullish towards the dollar, the international investor community is now also very bearish towards the pound amid fears about the UK’s economic outlook and investment case,” Scholar said.

    TUG OF WAR

    The plummeting pound highlights what analysts are calling a “tug of war” between Britain’s Treasury and the central bank, which has independence from the government to operate free of political influence.

    The Truss government is gambling that slashing taxes and borrowing more to pay for it will kick-start economic growth as a recession looms.

    That puts government officials at odds with the Bank of England, where policymakers are trying to rein in inflation that threatens financial stability by raising interest rates, with seven hikes so far this year and more in the pipeline.

    The central bank said Monday that it wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates by as much as needed at its next meeting in November, which did little to soothe markets. An interim meeting to decide on an emergency rate hike could be needed, “though that would risk escalating tensions with the new government,” said Jeremy Lawson, chief economist at asset manager abrdn.

    “There are no good options from here, just less bad ones, with the U.K.’s already struggling household and businesses left to pick up the pieces,” Lawson said.

    IS THERE ANY UPSIDE?

    British exports will be cheaper for buyers paying in dollars. But the economic impact is likely to be limited, given that the United Kingdom runs a trade deficit with the rest of the world by importing more than it exports.

    It’ll be a lot cheaper for foreign visitors, especially Americans. Pub beers, theater tickets for shows in London’s West End, and hotel bills will be more affordable for tourists.

    And for investors and wealthy people, the slumping pound makes it cheaper to buy real estate in Britain, especially in exclusive London neighborhoods that have long been favored by the global superrich.

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  • Cyberattack steals passenger data from Portuguese airline

    Cyberattack steals passenger data from Portuguese airline

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    LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portugal’s national airline TAP Air Portugal says hackers obtained the personal data of some of its customers and have published the information on the dark web.

    No payment data was taken in the cyberattack, the flag carrier said in a statement late Wednesday.

    The attack began almost a month ago and is being investigated by Portuguese authorities, with the help of specialists from Microsoft, the airline said.

    The hackers obtained the name, nationality, sex, date of birth and address, email and telephone contact details, the airline said, without elaborating.

    Portuguese newspaper Expresso said a hacker group called Ragnar Locker was offering the information of 1.5 million TAP Air Portugal customers on the dark web.

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  • France’s Macron seeks ‘massive’ boost for renewable energy

    France’s Macron seeks ‘massive’ boost for renewable energy

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    SAINT-NAZAIRE, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a “massive acceleration” of renewable energy development in his country, including offshore wind farms and solar power, via a new plan that seeks to bring lagging France closer to the energy policies of its European neighbors.

    The move comes amid a major energy crisis in Europe aggravated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Macron wants France to gain more independence in terms of electricity production.

    “The war changed everything… it disrupted the European model, because many countries were depending on Russian gas for (energy) production. And clearly, for the first time, energy has become a weapon of war, ” Macron stressed in his speech in Saint-Nazaire, a port in western France.

    Macron went on a boat Thursday morning to visit France’s first offshore wind farm off its Atlantic coast.

    He then detailed a range of measures to accelerate renewable energy projects. A bill will be presented next week at a Cabinet meeting.

    “We need a massive acceleration,” Macron said. “I want us to go at least twice as fast for renewable energy projects. … “our neighbors often managed to do more, better and, above all, faster.”

    Macron’s new strategy comes as a long-term response to the energy crisis, but it won’t help in dealing with shorter-term challenges. France and other European countries fear electricity shortages this winter as Russia has choked off the supplies of cheap natural gas that the continent depended on for years to run factories, generate electricity and heat homes.

    France’s energy strategy has long relied on developing nuclear power — based on imported uranium— which provides about 67% of French electricity, more than any other country.

    Macron announced at the beginning of the year plans to build six new nuclear reactors and to extend the life of its existing nuclear plants as part of the country’s strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

    But relieving France’s dependence on global gas and oil also involves boosting renewable energy, he said.

    France had previously set a goal to increase its renewable energy sources to 23% by 2020 — but only managed to reach 19%. That leaves the country in 17th position in the European Union, below the average of 22% in the bloc of 27 countries, according to latest statistics.

    Despite France’s thousands of kilometers (miles) of coastline, only the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, with its 80 turbines, has emerged so far. Macron set the goal to build about 50 similar wind farms by 2050 in France.

    He also hopes to multiply by 10 the amount of solar energy that is produced, and to double the power from land-based wind farms in the same period.

    New measures will aim at reducing the delays in building and launching offshore wind farms from 10-12 years now to about six years, and big solar farms from 6 years to 3 years, Macron said.

    The new bill will also aim at providing connections to the grid as soon as a new facility is ready — instead of a delay of up to three years now.

    Other planned measures include building solar farms on vacant land along highways, railways and in car parks.

    Solar parks will also be encouraged on agricultural lands under certain conditions — including keeping them small to preserve fields for the food industry.

    The bill will need to guarantee money for local communities to see local benefits from the energy shift, Macron said.

    Macron added he hopes to take the “same approach” for nuclear energy, accelerating and simplifying procedures to build new reactors more quickly.

    At the moment, about half of France’s 56 nuclear reactors, all operated by EDF, are shut down for usual maintenance and, in some cases, to repair corrosion problems. The government said this month that EDF committed to restart all of them by this winter.

    The French government has warned that a worst-case scenario could lead to rolling power cuts in French homes, and officials have presented an “energy sobriety” plan targeting a 10% reduction in energy use by 2024.

    ___

    Sylvie Corbet reported from Paris.

    ___

    Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • Kim Kardashian culls Dolce&Gabbana archives for Milan show

    Kim Kardashian culls Dolce&Gabbana archives for Milan show

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    MILAN (AP) — Kim Kardashian took Milan by storm on Saturday, curating a new collection for Dolce&Gabbana that took inspiration from 20 years of archival looks.

    It was a day of debuts in Milan, including Maximilian Davis, a 27-yeaer-old British designer with Afro-Caribbean roots, at the creative helm of Salvatore Ferragamo and Filipino American designer Rhuigi Villasenor at Bally, as the brand returns to the runway for the first time in 20 years.

    Some highlights from the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week previews of mostly womenswear for next spring and summer:

    KIM KARDASHIAN AND DOLCE & GABBANA: THE BACKSTORY

    Kim Kardashian’s love of Dolce & Gabbana goes way back, and the affection showed in her curation of their latest collection, drawing on archival looks from 1987-2007.

    She remembers growing up watching her mother dress in Dolce & Gabbana for date nights with her stepfather, recalling “she always looked so smart and so strong.” One year, Kardashian’s borrowed one of her mom’s black Dolce & Gabbana dresses with a built-in bra and choker to wear for a family Christmas card, a look, she said, “I will never forget.”

    When Kardashian and her sisters owned a store, she borrowed her father’s credit card to buy a bunch of D&G dresses, jeans and belts before her paycheck came in.

    Even the family dogs were named Dolce and Gabbana. Gabbana was a black labrador, Dolce a tiny chihuahua.

    “It is very close to reality,” Stefano Gabbana quipped in a presentation for the new collection.

    But no matter how hard she tried, even deploying her mother, Kris Jenner, to help make her case, the designers refused to open their archives. “The past is the past,” Domenico Dolce explained. “We try to go ahead with the new generation.”

    That is, until Kardashian proved she had the right stuff.

    When Kourtney Kardashian married Travis Barker in Italy, social media swarmed with the vintage Dolce & Gabbana dresses she and her sisters wore. They were all from Kim Kardashian’s private collection, which she accrued with the help of a book of more than 100 desired Dolce & Gabbana looks she and her stylist compiled years before.

    “Everything looked insane. It was so fun,” Kardashian said of the wedding looks. “I think (the designers) were surprised I came with all my own stuff and I had been collecting it for years.”

    Dolce said the wedding photos persuaded them to dig into the archives, and he approached Kardashian about the project.

    “We were afraid that the vintages dresses would look old. Instead, they were still contemporary,” Dolce said.

    And so the new Spring-Summer 2023 collection was born, with the designers selecting looks from the past that they loved, many with memories attached working with models like Linda Evangelista and Monica Bellucci. Kardashian curated from there.

    “After all these years, this is all of the stuff we would wear today,” Kardashian said. “As a designer, I would just think that is so cool, to see everyone trying to emulate the looks. And why not do a full collection, obviously with some new pieces in there, but just reimagined in a way that we would wear it today, which is so similar to how it was shot and worn back then.”

    _____

    HASHTAG CIAO,KIM AT DOLCE & GABBANA

    Designers Dolce and Gabbana presented their Spring-Summer 2023 collection curated by Kim Kardashian against the backdrop of a film showing Kardashian, styled as a starlet, sensually eating a plate of pasta.

    And indeed, Kardashian’s curation showed her full embrace of Dolce & Gabbana’s Italian roots.

    “You just don’t take shit from anyone when you are here and wearing Dolce & Gabbana,” Kardashian told reporters. “You feel powerful, and strong and sexy at the same time.”

    Lingerie strongly inspired the collection. There were corsets, incorporated bras and bodysuits, employing all of the designer’s best tricks, from rigid bones for structural elements, to pretty lace and eye-catching crystals. They were worn with gartered stockings and long gloves, or under beautiful wraps.

    Kardashian adhered to a mostly neutral palette: black, gray and beige, with some burgundy. And she the drew the line at prints, completely rejecting the brand’s fruits and florals, causing Gabbana to lament: “She killed me. I said ‘Noooo!’”

    But she went all in on the leopard.

    “I would say the boys brought out the leopard in me,” Kardashian said. “I think you will see that for me, color is the crystals.’’

    The collection was designed with women of all ages and shapes in mind, Kardashian said, with the goal of simplifying designs to help some of the more ornate pieces feel less intimidating.

    “If you simplify it, more people can feel confident wearing it. And I think we really achieved that in the show,” she said.

    Kardashian’s mom, three of her children and sister Khloe sat in the front row. Proud mamma Kris Jenner filming the entire show on her phone.

    JIL SANDER’S TRANQUILITY

    Jil Sander created a tranquil island in Milan’s chaotic fashion week, filling a temporary show space in a distant field with a thicket of wildflowers and grasses, along with soothing pastels and forgiving silhouettes.

    The collection lends itself to easy layering and defies all gender stereotypes. Creative directors Lucie and Luke Maier continued to dabble in embellishments, adding sequins, feathers and metallic accents to the brand’s minimalist silhouette.

    Sleeveless suiting worked across genders, and men wore long pastel kilts with button-down shirts. Knitwear was distressed, with rough edges and slits, in both tops and dresses. The designers chose a single print, featuring blurry points of light.

    Models carried umbrellas to protect the looks from the seasonal rainfall — inconvenient for an outdoor show but welcome in Italy after months of drought.

    FERRAGAMO’S NEW DAWN

    Maximilian Davis created a vermillion red background for his Salvatore Ferragamo debut in the courtyard of a 17th century baroque and neoclassical palace — all the better to highlight the fashion house’s new direction.

    The 27-year-old British designer worked strong silhouettes and simple elements, like tank tops and leggings, or full-on bodysuits, all the better to highlight the bag of the season, oversized cutout bags in highly polished leather with a canvas interior. Dresses were slinky in solid colors or flowing chiffon in degradé prints; a red trouser and skin-tight top combo popped with crystals. Strappy sandals featured a distinctive circular heel.

    The male silhouette was challenged with an off-shoulder, sheer ombre dyed top, the colors an homage to the California sunset. Davis tapped Ferragamo’s leather heritage with boyishly short leather shorts paired with a leather blazer. Any male divo can make a red-carpet entrance with a silver sheer off-shoulder top that flows dramatically into a trailing scarf.

    Models trod across red sand that covered the entire courtyard, a reference to Ferragamo’s Hollywood origins near the California beaches, and Davis’ own Caribbean heritage.

    The sea and the sand mean for him “a place where you can go to reflect, and feel at one,” he said. “I wanted to show that perspective, but now through the Ferragamo lens.”

    Super model Naomi Campbell turned out for the debut.

    BALLY REBOOTED

    Filippino American designer Rhuigi Villasenor, best known for his U.S. streetwear brand, is seeking to drive a transition at the storied Swiss brand Bally, founded in 1851.

    His debut collection paid tribute to the brand’s heritage of quiet elegance, while introducing an edge. A plunging V-neck swimsuit was worn with snakeskin boots, while a long beaded skirt featured a waist-high slit and was paired casually with a denim top. For him, a flashy reptile leather jacket was worn with a mesh top and jeans, but there was also a dark blue double-breasted suit for more formal business occasions.

    Villasenor said he was inspired by “the brand’s codes around art, graphic design, architecture and nature.”

    BOTTEGA VENETA’S TROMP L’OEUIEL

    To the uninitiated, Kate Moss looked downright dressed down on the Bottega Veneta runway, in a pair of loose jeans and a plaid shirt. But that is the genius of designer Matthieu Blazy, who replayed a trick from his first season, showing leather pants that replicate the look of jeans.

    Every piece in Blazy’s sophomore collection was strong: from the intarsia knitwear that have ice blue and red vying for the starring role, to the leather shift dresses and jackets with unexpected folds, to the shredded leather skirts and dresses, and sheer dresses embellished with velvety floral appliques.

    At Bottega Veneta, leather is king. Bags include beautifully crafted fishing bags that fit neatly on the body, either in flat leather or a basket weave, to bucket-bags worn flung over the shoulder.

    Blazy collaborated with Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce on the sculptural resin runway and 400 unique chairs, some with hand drawings, used for guests at the show and destined for Design Miami.

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