Tag: Military and defense

Kurdish exile group says Iran hits its bases in north Iraq

ERBIL, Iraq — Iranian missiles and drones struck an Iranian Kurdish opposition group’s bases in northern Iraq late Sunday night.

The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, a Kurdish Iranian group exiled in Iraq, said in a statement that Iranian surface-to-surface missiles and drones hit its bases and adjacent refugee camps in Koya and Jejnikan. The group also asserted that the strikes had hit a hospital in Koya.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The website of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Monday confirmed a “new round” of missile and drone attacks on “separatist and terrorist” groups in north of Iraq.

Some Kurdish groups have been engaged in a low-intensity conflict with Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Islamic Revolution, with many members seeking political exile in neighboring Iraq where they have established bases.

Iran alleges that these groups are inciting anti-government protests in Iran and smuggling weapons into the country, which Kurdish groups have denied.

Tehran has periodically launched airstrikes against the Kurdish groups’ bases in Iraq. During a visit to Baghdad last week, Iran’s Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani threatened Iraq with a ground military operation in the country’s north if the Iraqi army does not fortify the countries’ shared border against Kurdish opposition groups, Iraqi and Kurdish officials said.

The U.S. condemned the latest Iranian strikes. Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who heads U.S. Central Command, said in a statement: “Such indiscriminate and illegal attacks place civilians at risk, violate Iraqi sovereignty, and jeopardize the hard-fought security and stability of Iraq and the Middle East.”

Sunday’s Iranian strikes in northern Iraq come a day after Turkey launched deadly airstrikes over northern regions of Syria and Iraq, targeting Kurdish groups that Ankara holds responsible for last week’s bomb attack in Istanbul.

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Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Al Khor, Qatar and Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report

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November 20, 2022
US seeks expansion of military presence in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — The United States is seeking an expansion of its military presence in the Philippines under a 2014 defense pact, U.S. and Philippine officials said, one of the initiatives that will be discussed during Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit that focuses on the defense of its treaty ally in the face of China‘s sweeping territorial claims.

Harris will hold talks with President Ferdinand Jr. and other officials on Monday during a two-day visit that will include a trip to western Palawan province facing the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety.

She was expected to reaffirm U.S. commitment to defend the Philippines under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty in case Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.

“The United States and the Philippines stand together as friends, partners, and allies,” a statement issued by Harris’s aides said. “Now and always, the U.S. commitment to the defense of the Philippines is ironclad.”

A range of U.S. assistance and projects would also be launched by Harris to help the Philippines deal with climate change and looming energy and food shortages.

The Philippines, a former American colony, used to host one of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s, after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.

In 2014, the longtime allies signed the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement, which allows larger numbers of American forces to stay in rotating batches within Philippine military camp, where they could build warehouses, living quarters, joint training facilities and store combat equipment, except nuclear arms. The Philippines could take over those buildings and facilities when the Americans leave.

After the agreement was signed, the Americans launched construction projects in five Philippine camps and areas, including in the country’s south, where U.S counterterrorism forces have helped train and provide intelligence to their Filipino counterparts for years. Many of the projects were delayed by legal issues and other problems, Philippine defense officials said.

Large numbers of American forces stayed in local camps in southern Zamboanga city and outlying provinces at the height of threats posed by Muslim militants, which have eased in recent years. More than 100 U.S. military personnel currently remain in Zamboanga and three southern provinces, a Philippine military official told The Associated Press.

A U.S. official told reporters new areas have been identified and would be developed to expand joint security cooperation and training. He did not provide details, including the type of military facilities, locations and the number of American military personnel to be deployed in those sites, saying the projects would have to be finalized with the Philippines.

Philippine military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro told reporters last week that the U.S. wanted to construct military facilities in five more areas in the northern Philippines.

Two of the new areas proposed by the Americans were in northern Cagayan province, Bacarro said. Cagayan is across a strait from Taiwan and could serve as a crucial outpost in case tensions worsen between China and the self-governed island that Beijing claims as its own.

The other proposed sites included the provinces of Palawan and Zambales, he said. They both face the South China Sea and would allow an American military presence nearer the disputed waters to support Filipino forces.

The Philippine Constitution prohibits the presence of foreign troops in the country except when they are covered by treaties or agreements. Foreign forces are also banned from engaging in local combat.

On Tuesday, Harris is scheduled to fly to Palawan to meet fishermen, villagers, officials and the coast guard. Once there, she’ll be the highest-ranking U.S. leader to visit the frontier island at the forefront of the long-seething territorial disputes involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The Philippine coast guard said it would welcome Harris on board one of its biggest patrol ships, the BRP Teresa Magbanua, in Palawan, where she is scheduled to deliver a speech, according to coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo.

Harris will underscore the importance of international law, unimpeded commerce and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, according to the U.S. official, who said that she would affirm a 2016 ruling by an international tribunal that invalidated China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea on historical grounds.

China has rejected the decision by an arbitration tribunal set up in The Hague under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea after the Philippine government complained in 2013 about China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters. Beijing did not participate in the arbitration.

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November 20, 2022
Today in History: November 21, deadly Las Vegas hotel fire

Today in History

Today is Monday, Nov. 21, the 325th day of 2022. There are 40 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 21, 1980, 87 people died in a fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On this date:

In 1789, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1920, the Irish Republican Army killed 12 British intelligence officers and two auxiliary policemen in the Dublin area; British forces responded by raiding a soccer match, killing 14 civilians.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Air Quality Act.

In 1969, the Senate voted down the Supreme Court nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth, 55-45, the first such rejection since 1930.

In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18-1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

In 1979, a mob attacked the U-S Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, killing two Americans.

In 1980, an estimated 83 million TV viewers tuned in to the CBS prime-time soap opera “Dallas” to find out “who shot J.R.” (The shooter turned out to be J.R. Ewing’s sister-in-law, Kristin Shepard.)

In 1985, U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested and accused of spying for Israel. (Pollard later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to life in prison; he was released on parole on Nov. 20, 2015, and moved to Israel five years later.)

In 1990, junk-bond financier Michael R. Milken, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts, was sentenced by a federal judge in New York to 10 years in prison. (Milken served two.)

In 1995, Balkan leaders meeting in Dayton, Ohio, initialed a peace plan to end 3 1/2 years of ethnic fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BAHZ’-nee-ah HEHR’-tsuh-goh-vee-nah).

In 2001, Ottilie (AH’-tih-lee) Lundgren, a 94-year-old resident of Oxford, Connecticut, died of inhalation anthrax; she was the apparent last victim of a series of anthrax attacks carried out through the mail system.

In 2020, a federal judge in Pennsylvania tossed out a Trump campaign lawsuit seeking to prevent certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the state; in a scathing order, the judge said Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani presented only “speculative accusations.” The Trump campaign requested a recount of votes in the Georgia presidential race, a day after state officials certified results showing that Democrat Joe Biden won the state. (After the recount, the state’s top elections official recertified Biden’s victory.)

Ten years ago: Two weeks after he was re-elected to a ninth full term in Congress, Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois quietly resigned in a letter in which he acknowledged an ongoing federal investigation. (Jackson would eventually be sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for illegally spending campaign money.) Israel and the Hamas militant group in Gaza agreed to a cease-fire to end eight days of the fiercest fighting in nearly four years.

Five years ago: Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old president Robert Mugabe resigned; he was facing impeachment proceedings and had been placed under house arrest by the military. Former teen pop idol David Cassidy, star of the 1970s sitcom “The Partridge Family,” died at the age of 67; he’d announced earlier in the year that he had been diagnosed with dementia.

One year ago: A man drove an SUV into a suburban Milwaukee Christmas parade, leaving six people dead and more than 60 injured. (Darrell Brooks Jr. was convicted of 76 counts, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide; he would be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of release.) Sudan’s deposed prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, signed a deal with the military to reinstate him, almost a month after a military coup put him under house arrest. (Hamdok would resign in January 2022 after failing to bridge a gap between the military and pro-democracy protesters.) South Korean superstars BTS were crowned artist of the year at the American Music Awards, brushing aside challenges from Taylor Swift, Drake and The Weeknd.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Laurence Luckinbill is 88. Actor Marlo Thomas is 85. Actor Rick Lenz is 83. Actor Juliet Mills is 81. Basketball Hall of Famer Earl Monroe is 78. Television producer Marcy Carsey is 78. Actor Goldie Hawn is 77. Movie director Andrew Davis is 76. Rock musician Lonnie Jordan (War) is 74. Singer Livingston Taylor is 72. Actor-singer Lorna Luft is 70. Actor Cherry Jones is 66. Rock musician Brian Ritchie (The Violent Femmes) is 62. Gospel singer Steven Curtis Chapman is 60. Actor Nicollette Sheridan is 59. Singer-actor Bjork (byork) is 57. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman is 56. R&B singer Chauncey Hannibal (BLACKstreet) is 54. Rock musician Alex James (Blur) is 54. Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. is 53. TV personality Rib Hillis is 52. Football player-turned-TV personality Michael Strahan (STRAY’-han) is 51. Actor Rain Phoenix is 50. Actor Marina de Tavira is 49. Country singer Kelsi Osborn (SHeDAISY) is 48. Actor Jimmi Simpson is 47. Singer-actor Lindsey Haun is 38. Actor Jena Malone is 38. Pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen is 37. Actor-singer Sam Palladio is 36.

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November 20, 2022
Chinese coast guard seizes rocket debris from Filipino navy

MANILA, Philippines — The Chinese coast guard forcibly seized floating debris the Philippine navy was towing to its island in another confrontation in the disputed South China Sea, a Philippine military commander said Monday. The debris appeared to be from a Chinese rocket launch.

The Chinese vessel twice blocked the Philippine naval boat before seizing the debris it was towing Sunday off Philippine-occupied Thitu Island, Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos said Monday. He said no one was injured in the incident.

It’s the latest flare-up in long-seething territorial disputes in the strategic waterway, involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Chinese coast guard ships have blocked Philippine supply boats delivering supplies to Filipino forces in the disputed waters in the past, but seizing objects in the possession of another nation’s military constituted a more brazen act.

Carlos said the Filipino sailors, using a long-range camera on Thitu island, spotted the debris drifting in strong waves near a sandbar about 800 yards (540 meters) away. They set out on a boat and retrieved the floating object and started to tow it back to their island using a rope tied to their boat.

As the Filipino sailors were moving back to their island, “they noticed that China coast guard vessel with bow number 5203 was approaching their location and subsequently blocked their pre-plotted course twice,” Carlos said in a statement.

The Chinese coast guard vessel then deployed an inflatable boat with personnel who “forcefully retrieved said floating object by cutting the towing line attached to the” Filipino sailors’ rubber boat. The Filipino sailors decided to return to their island, Carlos said, without detailing what happened.

Maj. Cherryl Tindog, spokesperson of the military’s Western Command, said the floating metal object appeared similar to a number of other pieces of Chinese rocket debris recently found in Philippine waters. She added the Filipino sailors did not fight the seizure.

“We practice maximum tolerance in such a situation,” Tindog told reporters. “Since it involved an unidentified object and not a matter of life and death, our team just decided to return.”

Metal debris from Chinese rocket launches, some showing a part of what appears to be Chinese flag, have been found in Philippine waters in at least three other instances. Such discovery of Chinese rocket debris has opened China to criticism.

Rockets launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on China’s Hainan island in recent months have carried construction materials and supplies for China’s crewed space station.

The Philippine government has filed a large number of diplomatic protests in recent years against China over such aggressive actions in the South China Sea but it did not immediately say what action it would take following Sunday’s incident. The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila would usually wait for an official investigation report before lodging a protest.

Thitu island, which Filipinos call Pag-asa, hosts a fishing community and Filipino forces and lies near Subi, one of seven disputed reefs in the offshore region that China has turned into missile-protected islands, including three with runways, which U.S. security officials say now resemble military forward bases.

The Philippines and other smaller claimant nations in the disputed region, backed by the United States and other Western countries, have strongly protested and raised alarm over China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the busy waterway.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is visiting Manila, is scheduled to fly to the western province of Palawan, which faces the South China Sea, on Tuesday to underscore American support to the Philippines and renew U.S. commitment to defend its longtime treaty ally if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under attack in the disputed waters.

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November 20, 2022
US defense chief: ‘Tyranny and turmoil’ in Russian invasion

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned Saturday Russia’s invasion of Ukraine offers a preview of a world where nuclear-armed countries could threaten other nations and said Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right.

Austin made the remarks at the annual Halifax International Security Forum, which attracts defense and security officials from Western democracies.

“Russia’s invasion offers a preview of a possible world of tyranny and turmoil that none of us would want to live in. And it’s an invitation to an increasingly insecure world haunted by the shadow of nuclear proliferation,” Austin said in a speech.

“Because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s fellow autocrats are watching. And they could well conclude that getting nuclear weapons would give them a hunting license of their own. And that could drive a dangerous spiral of nuclear proliferation.”

Austin dismissed Putin’s claims that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia,” calling it a vision of “a world in which autocrats decide which countries are real and which countries can be snuffed out.”

He added that the war “shows the whole world the dangers of disorder. That’s the security challenge that we face. It’s urgent, and it’s historic.

But we’re going to meet it. … The basic principles of democracy are under siege around the world,” he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden last month declared that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at the highest level since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis; Russian officials have raised using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering massive setbacks in the nearly nine-month invasion of Ukraine.

While U.S. officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine in the face of battlefield setbacks, Biden administration officials have repeatedly said nothing has changed in U.S. intelligence assessments to suggest that Putin has imminent plans to deploy nuclear weapons.

CIA Director Bill Burns recently met with his Russian intelligence counterpart to warn of consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

Austin said nuclear weapons need to be responsibly controlled, and not used to threaten the world.

“Ukraine faces a harsh winter. And as Russia’s position on the battlefield erodes, Putin may resort again to profoundly irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling,” he said

Austin also compared Russia to China, saying Beijing is trying to refashion both the region and the international system to suit its authoritarian preferences. He noted China’s increasing military activities in the Taiwan Strait.

“Beijing, like Moscow, seeks a world where might makes right, where disputes are resolved by force, and where autocrats can stamp out the flame of freedom,” he said.

Austin called Putin’s invasion the worst crisis in security since the end of the Second World War and said the outcome “will help determine the course of global security in this young century,” Austin said..

Austin said the deadly missile explosion in Poland this week is a consequence of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “war of choice” against Ukraine. “The tragic and troubling explosion in Poland this week reminded the whole world of the recklessness of Putin’s war of choice,” Austin said.

On Tuesday, two workers were killed when a projectile hit a grain-drying facility close to Poland’s border with Ukraine. While the source of the missile is under investigation, NATO officials have said they suspect it was fired from a Ukrainian missile battery.

Officials from Poland, NATO and the United States have blamed Russia for the deaths in any case, saying a Ukrainian missile would not have misfired had the country not been forced to defend itself against heavy Russian attacks that day.

Russian officials have cast the conflict as a struggle against NATO — though Ukraine is not a NATO member even if it has been receiving aid from NATO member states.

Austin said NATO is a defensive alliance and poses no threat to Russia.

“Make no mistake: we will not be dragged into Putin’s war of choice. But we will stand by Ukraine as it fights to defend itself. And we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Austin said.

A Polish investigation to determine the source of the missile and the circumstances of the explosion was launched with support from the U.S. and Ukrainian investigators joined the probe on Friday.

Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said in an interview broadcast live at the forum that “It’s not right to say it’s a Ukrainian rocket, or a Russian rocket, before the investigation is over.”

In its 14th year, about 300 people gather each year at Halifax International Security Forum held at Halifax’s Westin hotel, where about 13 Ukrainian refugees now work.

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November 19, 2022
China, US officials to attend Southeast Asia defense meeting

BEIJING — The defense chiefs of rival powers China and the U.S. will both attend next week’s expanded meeting of Southeast Asian security ministers in Cambodia, though it’s unclear whether they would meet face to face.

China’s Defense Ministry said Gen. Wei Fenghe will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus from Sunday to Thursday.

The Department of Defense said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III will also attend following stops in Canada and Indonesia.

Both officials plan to meet with participants on the margins of the main gathering of ministers from the 10-nation organization known as ASEAN.

Their two countries are chief rivals for influence in the region, where China is seeking to smooth over disputes surrounding its determination to assert its claim to the South China Sea, including through the construction of artifical islands equipped with airstrips and other infrastructure.

The two countries are also at odds over Russia, which China has refused to condemn or sanction over its invasion of Ukraine, and the status of Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory and threatens to attack.

China’s Defense Ministry said Wei would address the assembly and meet with heads of other delegations to discuss “bilateral cooperation and issues of regional and international concern.”

It said he would also hold talks with civilian and military leaders of close Chinese ally Cambodia, with whom it is working on expanding a port facility that could give it a presence on the Gulf of Thailand.

China and four ASEAN members share overlapping claims to territory in the South China Sea, home to vital shipping lanes, along with plentiful fish stocks and undersea mineral resources. China and ASEAN have made little headway on finalizing a code of conduct to avoid conflicts in the area.

While China’s capacities are growing rapidly, the U.S. remains the region’s dominant military power and, while it doesn’t officially take a stand on sovereignty issues, it has refused to acknowledge China’s blanket claims. The U.S. Navy regularly sails past Chinese-held islands in what it calls freedom of navigation operations, prompting a furious response from Beijing.

The U.S. also has a security alliance with the Philippines and strong relations with other ASEAN members, with the exception of Myanmar, where the military has launched a brutal crackdown since taking power last year.

The U.S. Defense Department said that Austin would hold an “informal multilateral engagement” with his ASEAN counterparts and meet with officials from Cambodia and partner nations “to bring greater stability, transparency, and openness to the Indo-Pacific region.”

At a previous defense forum attended by both U.S. and Chinese ministers in June in Singapore, Austin delivered a speech saying China’s “steady increase in provocative and destabilizing military activity near Taiwan” threatens to undermine the region’s security and prosperity.

Wei said at the same conference that the U.S. is trying to turn Southeast Asian countries against Beijing and is seeking to advance its own interests “under the guise of multilateralism.”

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November 19, 2022
Finland to start building fence on Russian border next year

HELSINKI — Construction of a planned barbed-wired fence along Finland’s long border with Russia will start early next year, Finnish border guard officials said Friday, amid concerns in the Nordic country over the changing security environment in Europe.

The initial three kilometer (1.8 mile) stretch of the fence will be erected at a crossing point in the eastern town of Imatra by the summer of 2023. It will eventually extend to a a maximum of 200 kilometers (124 miles).

Finland’s 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.

In October, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said there was consensus among lawmakers to build a fence to cover parts of border with Russia in a project that is estimated to cost a total of 380 million euros ($393 million) and scheduled to be completed by 2026.

According to Marin, the fence’s main purpose would be to help border guards monitor and prevent possible large-scale illegal migration seen as a hybrid threat” from Moscow.

Her government hasn’t publicly cited Russia’s war in Ukraine or Finland’s decision to join NATO as a reason to build a fence. But Helsinki is concerned over developments both in Russia and Ukraine, as well Moscow’s threats of retaliation should Finland join the military alliance.

Politicians and experts have said it is not sensible – or even possible – to erect a fence along the entire length of Finland’s long eastern frontier that runs mainly through thick forests. In some places the Finnish-Russian border is marked only by wooden posts with low fences meant to stop stray cattle.

The fence, initially proposed by the Finnish Border Guard, is set to be built in stages ranging from five kilometers (3 miles) of up to 52 kilometers (32 miles).

It would be erected mainly in southeastern Finland, where most border traffic to and from Russia takes place, but short sections would also be built in the northern Karelia region and the Lapland region in the Arctic.

Col. Vesa Blomqvist, border guard commander in southeastern Finland, said that once completed, the fence will significantly bolster border control.

“The fence gives border guard patrols more reaction time by revealing movement of people and preventing, slowing down and directing movement,” Blomqvist said in a statement.

The fence will be three meters (10 feet) high with a barbed-wire extension on top. Apart from extensive patrolling, the Finnish border guard currently uses electronic and other devices to monitor border activity.

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

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November 18, 2022
Imprisoned Russian activist honored with human rights award

GENEVA — An imprisoned Russian opposition activist who was honored by a human rights advocacy group dedicated his award to the thousands of people who have been arrested or detained in Russia for protesting President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based organization that promotes human rights and tries to ensure that the United Nations does, too, gave Vladimir Kara-Murza its highest human rights award. The Morris Abram award commemorates the group’s founder — a civil rights advocate, diplomat and delegate to the United Nations.

Kara-Murza’s wife, Yevgeniya, accepted the award on his behalf during a ceremony late Thursday and read a letter from her husband that hailed the journalists, lawyers, artists, priests, politicians, military officers and others “who have refused to say silent in front of this atrocity, even at the cost of personal freedom.”

“Since February, over 19,000 people were detained by police across Russia for anti-war protests,” the letter said. “I want to dedicate this award to all of them.”

Kara-Murza, 41, cited recent figures from Memorial, a Russian human rights group that shared this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, that there are now some 500 political prisoners in Russia.

“In the time of my own imprisonment, I’ve had the opportunity to witness firsthand, just how incomplete this figure really is,” he wrote. “And the fastest-growing segment on Russia’s political prisoner list are opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine.”

Kara-Murza was an associate of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was slain near the Kremlin in 2015. He himself survived poisonings in 2015 and 2017 that he blamed on the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied responsibility for the poisonings.

He was jailed in April on a charge of spreading “false information” about the Russian military. Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading “false information” about its military shortly after Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Authorities have used the law against dozens of people to stifle opposition.

Russian authorities recently added treason charges to other charges against Murza. The charges stem from speeches he gave in several Western countries that criticized the Kremlin’s rule, according to his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov.

Kara-Murza denies committing treason, his lawyer says. If convicted, he faces a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.

Last month, Kara-Murza was awarded the Council of Europe’s Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize as a Moscow court extended his detention until Dec. 12.

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November 18, 2022
Japanese defense minister says North Korean missile launched Friday could potentially reach the entire continental U.S.

Japanese defense minister says North Korean missile launched Friday could potentially reach the entire continental U.S.

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November 17, 2022
NKorea fires suspected long-range missile designed to hit US

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired a suspected long-range missile designed to strike the mainland U.S. on Friday, its neighbors said, a day after the North resumed its testing activities in an apparent protest over U.S. moves to solidify its alliances with South Korea and Japan.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that it detected a ballistic missile launch off the North’s eastern coast on Friday morning. It later said the missile launched is likely an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The Japanese Defense Ministry also said in a statement that North Korea fired an ICBM-class ballistic missile from its western coastal area that flew toward its eastern waters across the country. It said the missile, launched at around 10:14 a.m. (0114GMT) was still in flight and may land inside of the Japanese Exclusive Economic Zone.

If confirmed, it would be North Korea’s first ICBM launch in about two weeks. Outside experts said that an ICBM launched by North Korea on Nov. 3 failed to fly its intended flight.

The Nov. 3 test was believed to have involved a new type of developmental ICBM. North Korea has two other types of ICBM — Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 and their test-launches in 2017 proved they could potentially reach parts of the U.S. homeland.

South Korea’s presidential office said it convened an emergency security meeting to discuss the North Korean launch.

“North Korea has been repeatedly firing missiles this year at an unprecedented frequency and is significantly escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula,” Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamad told reporters.

The launch is the latest in a slew of missile tests by North Korea in recent weeks. But the country had halted weapons launches for about a week before it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Thursday.

Before Thursday’s launch, the North’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

Choe was referring to U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence. Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

The North has argued a U.S. military presence in the region as proof of its hostility toward the country. It has said its recent series of weapons launches were response to what it called provocative military drills between the United States and South Korea.

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November 17, 2022
MH17 judgment day: Verdicts due against 4 suspects at trial

SCHIPHOL, Netherlands — A Dutch court is passing judgment Thursday on three Russians and a Ukrainian charged in the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine and the deaths of all 298 passengers and crew on board.

The verdict comes more than eight years after the Boeing 777 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was blown out of the sky on July 17, 2014, amid a conflict between pro-Russia rebels and Ukrainian forces, scattering wreckage and bodies over farmland and fields of sunflowers.

None of the suspects appeared for the trial that began in March 2020 and if they are convicted, it’s unlikely they will serve any sentence anytime soon. Prosecutors have sought life sentences for all four. Prosecutors and the suspects have two weeks to file an appeal.

The Hague District Court, sitting at a high-security courtroom at Schiphol Airport, is passing judgment against a backdrop of global geopolitical upheaval caused by Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February and the nearly nine-month war it triggered.

Hundreds of family members of people killed traveled to the court to hear the verdict, bringing them back to the airport their loved ones left on the fateful day MH17 was shot down.

Dutch prosecutors say the missile launcher came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces based in the Russian city of Kursk and was driven back there after MH17 was shot down.

The suspects aren’t accused of firing the missile but of working together to get it to the field where it was fired. They are accused of bringing down the plane and the murder of all those on board.

The most senior defendant is Igor Girkin, a 51-year-old former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB. At the time of the downing, he was defense minister and commander of the armed forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic — the region where the plane was shot down. Girkin reportedly is currently involved in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Also on trial are Girkin’s subordinates, Sergey Dubinskiy, Oleg Pulatov, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian who prosecutors say was commander of a pro-Russia rebel combat unit and took orders directly from Dubinskiy.

Pulatov is the only one of the suspects who was represented by defense lawyers at the trial. They accused prosecutors of “tunnel vision” in basing their case on the findings of an international investigation into the downing while ignoring other possible causes.

Pulatov’s defense team also sought to discredit evidence and argued he didn’t get a fair trial.

In a video recording played in court, Pulatov insisted he was innocent and told judges: “What matters to me is that the truth is revealed. It’s important for me that my country is not blamed for this tragedy.”

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November 17, 2022
Russia launches new Ukraine barrage as grain deal extended

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian airstrikes inflicted more damage on Ukraine on Thursday, with the latest barrage smashing into energy infrastructure, apartment buildings and an industrial site.

At least four people were killed and 11 others wounded in drone and missile strikes around the country, authorities said.

Separately, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced an extension of a four-month-old deal to ensure the safe delivery of export of grain, foodstuffs and fertilizers from Ukraine through the Black Sea just days before it was set to expire.

Guterres said in a statement the United Nations is also “fully committed” to removing obstacles that have impeded the export of food and fertilizer from Russia, which is one of two agreements struck between the two countries and Turkey in July. The deals signed in Istanbul are aimed to help bring down prices of food and fertilizer and avoid a global food crisis.

There was no immediate confirmation of the agreement from Russia.

Air raid sirens sounded all across Ukraine early Thursday amid fears that Moscow was unleashing its latest large-scale missile attack as the war approaches its nine-month milestone.

In Kyiv, the city’s military administration said air defenses shot down at least two cruise missiles and five Iranian-made exploding drones.

With the Kremlin’s forces on the ground being pushed back, Russia has increasingly resorted in recent weeks to aerial onslaughts aimed at energy infrastructure and other civilian targets in parts of Ukraine it doesn’t hold.

Ukrainian air defenses this week appear to have had far higher rates of successful shoot-downs than during previous barrages last month, analysts say. The improvement results in part from Western-supplied air defense systems.

But some missiles and drones still get through.

Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, said a large fire erupted in Dnipro after the strikes on the city hit an industrial target. Eight people were wounded, the official said, including a 15-year-old girl.

A Russian strike that hit a residential building killed at least four people overnight in Vilnia in the Zaporizhzhia region. Rescuers were combing the rubble for any other victims, according to Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior official in the Ukrainian presidential office.

The Russian strikes also hit Ukraine’s southern Odesa region and the city of Dnipro for the first time in weeks, and

An infrastructure target was hit on the Odesa region, Gov. Maksym Marchenko said on Telegram, warning about the threat of a “massive missile barrage on the entire territory of Ukraine.”

Multiple explosions were also reported in Dnipro, where two infrastructure objects were damaged and at least one person was wounded, according to the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

Officials in the Poltava, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne regions urged residents to stay in bomb shelters.

Thursday’s blasts followed the huge barrage of Russian strikes on Tuesday. That was the biggest attack to date on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure that also resulted in a missile hitting Poland.

Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches. The most recent barrage followed days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by one of its biggest military successes — the retaking last week of the southern city of Kherson.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, called the strikes on energy targets “naive tactics of cowardly losers” in a Telegram post on Thursday.

“Ukraine has already withstood extremely difficult strikes by the enemy, which did not lead to results the Russian cowards hoped for,” Yermak wrote, urging Ukrainians not to ignore air raid sirens.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the extension of the grain deal a “key decision in the global fight against the food crisis.”

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Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

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

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November 17, 2022
Seoul: North Korea fires ballistic missile toward sea

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea launched a short-range ballistic missile Thursday toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, hours after the North threatened to launch “fiercer” military responses to the U.S. bolstering its security commitment to its allies South Korea and Japan.

South Korea’s military detected the launch from the North’s eastern coastal Wonsan area at 10:48 a.m., the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. It said South Korea has boosted its surveillance of North Korea while maintaining a military readiness and a close coordination with the United States.

It was North Korea’s first ballistic missile firing in eight days and the latest in its barrage of tests in recent months. North Korea previously said some of the tests were simulations of nuclear attacks on South Korean and U.S. targets. Many experts say North Korea would eventually want to enhance its nuclear capability to wrest bigger concessions from its rivals.

Earlier Thursday, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui warned that a recent U.S.-South Korea-Japan summit accord on the North would leave tensions on the Korean Peninsula “more unpredictable.”

Choe’s statement was North Korea’s first official response to U.S. President Joe Biden’s trilateral summit with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a regional gathering Sunday in Cambodia. In their joint statement, the three leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile tests and agreed to work together to strengthen deterrence, while Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea and Japan with a full range of capabilities, including its nuclear arms.

“The keener the U.S. is on the ‘bolstered offer of extended deterrence’ to its allies and the more they intensify provocative and bluffing military activities on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, the fiercer (North Korea’s) military counteraction will be, in direct proportion to it,” Choe said. “It will pose a more serious, realistic and inevitable threat to the U.S. and its vassal forces.”

Choe didn’t say what steps North Korea could take but said that “the U.S. will be well aware that it is gambling, for which it will certainly regret.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry responded later Thursday that the purpose of the trilateral summit was to coordinate a joint response to curb and deter advancing nuclear and missile threats by North Korea. Spokesperson Moon Hong Sik told reporters that security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo was contributing to solidifying a U.S. extended deterrence to its allies.

North Korea has steadfastly maintained its recent weapons testing activities are legitimate military counteractions to U.S.-South Korean military drills, which it views as a practice to launch attacks on the North. Washington and Seoul have said their exercises are defensive in nature.

In recent months, South Korean and U.S. troops have expanded their regular exercises and resumed trilateral training with Japan in response to North Korea’s push to enlarge its nuclear and missile arsenals. Those drills involved a U.S. aircraft carrier and U.S. B-1B supersonic bombers for the first time since 2017. In the past several years, annual military training between Seoul and Washington had been scaled back or canceled to support now-dormant diplomacy with North Korea and guard against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her Thursday statement, Choe said “the U.S. and its followers staged large-scale war drills for aggression one after another, but they failed to contain North Korea’s overwhelming counteraction.”

There have been concerns that North Korea might conduct its first nuclear test in five years as its next major step toward bolstering its military capability against the United States and its allies.

U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea has finished preparations to conduct a nuclear test explosion in its remote testing facility in the northeast. Some experts say the test, if made, would be meant to develop nuclear warheads to be placed on short-range missiles capable of hitting key targets in South Korea, such as U.S. military bases. They say North Korea would ultimately aim to use its boosted arsenal as a leverage to pressure the United States into making concessions in future negotiations and recognize it as a nuclear state.

Thursday’s launch came a day after members the Group of 20 leading economies ended their summit in Indonesia. The summit was largely overshadowed with other issues like Russia’s war on Ukraine. But Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol used their bilateral meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping to raise the issue of North Korea. The two had a trilateral summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed North Korea before coming to Indonesia for the G-20 summit.

In their respective bilateral talks with Xi, Biden noted all members of the international community have an interest in encouraging North Korea to act responsibly, while Yoon called for China to play a more active, constructive role in addressing the North Korean nuclear threats.

China, the North’s last major ally and biggest source of aid, is suspected of avoiding fully enforcing United Nations sanctions on North Korea and shipping clandestine assistance to the North to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat and continue to serve as a bulwark against U.S. influences on the Korean Peninsula.

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November 16, 2022
Review: ‘The Last Campaign’ straightforward but dramatic

“The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America,” by H.W. Brands (Doubleday)

Though they’re mentioned in the subtitle, William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo often feel more like supporting players in H.W. Brands’ latest book “The Last Campaign.”

That’s more a compliment than a complaint, because it illustrates just how much history is packed into Brands’ latest book. The Army general and Apache leader are the pillars for Brands’ straightforward yet dramatic retelling of the nation’s westward expansion and battles with American Indians in the years following the Civil War.

Brands, a prolific historian who has tackled many figures and eras of American history, provides an account that’s accessible to any casual reader of history and not just academics.

The book does serve as a dual biography of Sherman and Geronimo, showing how these two figures shaped a tumultuous era. But its most gripping parts rely on firsthand accounts of American Indians’ loss of their land and way of life, and the violence that ensued during these years.

The book introduces readers to the wide cast of players during this period, and not just the familiar names like Sitting Bull or George Custer. Brands also doesn’t lose sight of the larger picture of the nation’s politics, avoiding a book that could have easily turned into a simple recitation of every battle and conflict without context.

Brands’ writing style and his mastery of history make the book an excellent introduction to the time period for newcomers, and a fresh perspective for those already familiar with this chapter in the nation’s history.

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November 16, 2022
Official says oil tanker hit by bomb-carrying drone off Oman

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire has been struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman amid heightened tensions with Iran, an official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The attack happened Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, the Mideast-based defense official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they did not have authorization to discuss the attack publicly.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military organization in the region monitoring shipping, told the AP: “We are aware of an incident and it’s being investigated at this time.”

The official identified the vessel attacked as the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon. That tanker is operated by Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping, which is a company ultimately owned by Israeli billionaire Idan Ofer.

A phone number for Eastern Pacific rang unanswered Wednesday.

While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on Iran. Tehran and Israel have been engaged in a yearslong shadow war in the wider Middle East, with some drone attacks targeting Israeli-associated vessels traveling around the region.

The U.S. also blamed Iran for a series of attacks occurring off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in 2019. Tehran then had begun escalating its nuclear program following the U.S.’ unilateral withdraw from its atomic deal with world powers.

Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge the attack on the Pacific Zircon.

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November 16, 2022
Israel Defense Minister: US probes Shireen Abu Akleh killing

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Monday the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to investigate the fatal shooting of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, condemning the probe as a “grave mistake” and vowing not to cooperate.

A Justice Department spokesman had no comment and there were no details about when an investigation might begin and what it would entail, nor what the ramifications of it might be. But an FBI probe into Israeli actions would be a rare, if not unprecedented, step.

An American investigation would follow months of pressure from Abu Akleh’s family and U.S. lawmakers disappointed with the inconclusive findings of a previous State Department assessment and Israeli military investigation into the death of the prominent correspondent last May. Abu Akleh’s supporters accuse Israel of intentionally killing the 51-year-old, and have urged Washington to open a full investigation.

But a probe risks straining the strong partnership between the U.S. and Israel at a time when Israel is bracing for the formation of its most right-wing government in history and as progressive Democrats in the U.S. have called for a more skeptical stance toward one of Washington’s closest allies. It would directly challenge Israel’s claims that it properly holds its soldiers to account for their actions in the Palestinian territories.

Gantz lambasted what he described as a decision to open a U.S. Justice Department probe into Abu Akleh’s killing, saying on Twitter that Israel has made it clear to the U.S. that it “won’t cooperate with any external investigation.”

“We will not allow interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” he added. Gantz, who is set to leave his post following elections earlier this month that vaulted Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power, served as defense minister when Abu Akleh was killed.

A Palestinian from Jerusalem who covered Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank for a quarter century, Abu Akleh was a household name among many Arabs in the Middle East. Her death sparked outrage across the world, throwing a spotlight on Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.

Palestinian officials, Abu Akleh’s family and Al Jazeera accuse Israel of intentionally targeting the veteran reporter. She was wearing a helmet and a protective vest marked with the word “press” when she was shot while covering an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp.

In September, Israel acknowledged for the first time that Israeli fire probably killed Abu Akleh. But the military stopped short of accepting responsibility for her death, vigorously denying allegations that a soldier targeted her and refusing to criminally investigate those involved.

An earlier assessment from the State Department also determined that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was likely fired from an Israeli military position but was too damaged to say with certainty.

A series of independent investigations by the United Nations and international media outlets, including by The Associated Press, found that Israeli troops most likely fired the fatal bullet.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday about the U.S probe. A spokeswoman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid declined to comment, and former Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is expected to return to lead the country in the coming weeks, also had no immediate comment.

Abu Akleh’s brother, Tony Abu Akleh, told Al Jazeera the family was optimistic about reports of a U.S. investigation, saying it’s “very important to hold those responsible accountable and prevent similar crimes.”

“We hope this will be a turning point in the investigation into Shireen’s death,” he said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed the reported probe, expressing hope “our nation will finally hold Israel accountable for its violence targeting American citizens, journalists and other civilians.”

It is not unusual for the FBI or other U.S. investigators to mount probes into non-natural deaths or injuries of American citizens abroad, particularly if they are government employees. However, such separate investigations are not the rule and it is exceedingly rare for them to occur in a U.S.-allied country like Israel that is recognized in Washington as having a credible and independent judicial system.

Human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military of failing to properly investigate wrongdoing by its own troops and seldom holding forces accountable. Israel contends its investigations are independent and professional.

Abu Akleh was shot while reporting on an Israeli military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, long a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel’s escalating nightly arrest operations, launched following a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people, have been concentrated in Jenin and nearby areas.

More than 130 Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank have been killed this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but local youth protesting the raids as well as people not involved in the fighting have also been killed. Increasing Israeli incursions have prompted a series of Palestinian shooting attacks that have killed at least four Israelis in recent weeks.

Reports of a U.S. probe come after long-serving Netanyahu secured a return to power in Israel’s national elections. He is in the midst of talks with his ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies to form a coalition and is expected to cobble together Israel’s most right-wing government in history.

The government, which is expected to see extremist lawmakers appointed to key ministries, has prompted concern among Israel’s allies, including the U.S.

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Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed.

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November 14, 2022
French border checks in force over Italy’s migrant policy

ROME — Lines formed Sunday at Italy’s northern border crossings with France following Paris’ decision to reinforce border controls over a diplomatic row with Italy about migration policy and humanitarian rescue ships that shows no end in sight.

The Ventimiglia-Menton crossing along the picturesque Mediterranean coast has often been a flashpoint of the migrant debate, with makeshift camps giving shelter to migrants who try to cross into France after arriving in Italy. On Sunday morning, several dozen migrants were sleeping on mattresses under a highway overpass — numbers that could swell as France cracks down on crossings.

France announced this week it was sending 500 extra officers to beef up its frontiers with Italy in retaliation for Italy’s delays in helping humanitarian ships that rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.

Police patrolled trains and roads across the border Sunday, stopping migrants. Along the winding coastal road that connects the two neighbors, traffic flowed freely from France to Italy but barely crawled in the other direction. An Associated Press reporter saw French border police stopping nearly every car, making drivers open their trunks and boarding large vehicles like camper vans.

Behind them stood a border sign with the word “ITALY” on a blue background and surrounded by the gold stars of the EU flag, symbol of a bloc whose principles of cross-border cooperation are being put to the test by the current France-Italy tensions.

After a weekslong-standoff, Italy allowed three aid groups to disembark their passengers in Italian ports because doctors determined they were all vulnerable, but refused entry to a fourth. The Ocean Viking charity rescue ship, which had been at sea for nearly three weeks, eventually docked in Toulon, France after Paris reluctantly took it in.

Italy’s new far-right-led government headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni has vowed that Italy will no longer be the primary port of entry for migrants leaving on smugglers’ boats from Libya and is demanding Europe do more to shoulder the burden and regulate the aid groups that operate rescue ships in the Mediterranean.

France strongly criticized Italy’s handling of the Ocean Viking, which was accompanied by triumphant social media posts by right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini that “the air has changed” before France had publicly agreed to take it in.

In retaliation, France announced it was withdrawing from a European Union “solidarity” mechanism approved in June to relocate 3,000 migrants from Italy.

Italy called France’s response “disproportionate” and “aggressive” and won the support of other front-line Mediterranean countries, including Greece, Malta and Cyprus. The four countries penned a joint statement Saturday calling for a new, obligatory solidarity mechanism to take in migrants.

In addition, the four countries called on the European Commission to initiate talks on better regulating private rescue ships.

“Fines, seizures and more controls in sight,” Salvini tweeted Sunday about threatened new measures against charity rescue ships. “The government is ready to get tough.”

On Sunday, Germany’s ambassador to Italy, Viktor Elbling, defended the aid groups, saying they help save lives and that “their humanitarian commitment warrants our recognition and our support.”

“In 2022, 1,300 people have already died or gone missing in the Mediterranean. NGOs have saved 12% of the survivors,” he tweeted.

The German groups Mission Lifeline and SOS Humanity were able to disembark all their passengers in Italy last week, and the budget committee of the Bundestag decided to provide another group, United4Rescue, with 2 million euros for civil sea rescue in 2023, with similar funding through 2026.

Italy has justified its hard line by noting that it has already welcomed nearly 90,000 migrants this year, far more than any other European country. However, only a fraction of them stay in Italy and apply for asylum, with most continuing their journeys north in hopes of reaching relatives and better established migrant communities in France, Germany, Sweden and elsewhere.

France far outranks Italy in terms of processing asylum applications. Data from January to August shows that Germany received the most applications this year, topping 100,000, followed by France with 82,535. Italy trailed Spain and Austria in fifth place with 43,750 applications.

French government spokesman Olivier Veran reaffirmed Sunday that France would no longer welcome the “just over 3,000 people from Italy, including 500 by the end of the year” as part of the European solidarity mechanism. He called Italy the “loser” in the scenario.

“We will not maintain the proposal that was planned,” Veran said on BFM TV.

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Daniel Cole contributed from Menton and Thomas Adamson contributed from Paris.

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Follow all AP stories on global migration at https://apnews.com/hub/migration.

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November 13, 2022
US Merchant Marine Academy gets 1st female superintendent

KINGS POINT, N.Y. — The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s next superintendent will be the first woman appointed to the position in the institution’s nearly 80-year history, the U.S. Transportation Department announced Saturday.

Retired U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Joanna Nunan will take the helm at the 1,000-person academy on New York’s Long Island in a few weeks, the department said. She succeeds Jack Buono, who resigned in June.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Nunan is “the right leader at the right time” for the Merchant Marine Academy, which has been racked by sexual misconduct allegations in recent years.

“Her years of experience as a senior military leader — including command at sea — have prepared Rear Admiral Nunan to shape the future of the (academy) and help ensure the safety and success of its extraordinary midshipmen,” Buttigieg said.

Last year, the academy suspended its Sea Year program — which sends cadets to work on container ships, oil tankers, passenger liners and other vessels — for the second time since 2016 after a cadet said a cargo ship supervisor got her drunk and raped her.

In December 2020, the Transportation Department agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a cadet who alleged he was hazed and sexually assaulted by his academy soccer teammates.

Nunan, a Bridgeport, Connecticut native, retired this year as the Coast Guard’s Deputy for Personnel Readiness. She graduated from the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, in 1987. She has an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and three Coast Guard merchant mariner licenses.

Nunan spent nine years at sea, commanded two buoy tenders and was the commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District on the Great Lakes and Coast Guard Sector Honolulu.

She served as military advisor to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and military assistant to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and was later the Coast Guard’s Assistant Commandant for Human Resources.

As the Coast Guard’s Deputy for Personnel Readiness, Nunan supervised the Coast Guard Academy and served on its board of trustees. She has also been a member of the Coast Guard’s Sexual Assault Prevention, Response, and Recovery Committee.

The Merchant Marine Academy trains graduates to work in the commercial shipping industry. It is one of five military service academies, and the only one under the direction of the Department of Transportation.

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November 13, 2022
Ukraine works to stabilize Kherson after Russian pullout

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military carried out “stabilization measures” near the southern city of Kherson on Saturday following the end of an eight-month occupation by Russian forces, a retreat that cast a further pall on President Vladimir Putin’s designs to take over large parts of Ukraine.

People across Ukraine awoke from a night of jubilant celebrating after the Kremlin announced its troops had withdrawn to the other side of the Dnieper River from Kherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia’s military during the ongoing invasion.

In a regular social media update Saturday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Russian forces were fortifying their battle lines on the river’s eastern bank after abandoning the capital. About 70% of the Kherson region remains under Russian control.

Ukrainian officials from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on down cautioned that while special military units had reached Kherson city, a full deployment to reinforce the advance troops still was underway. On Friday, Ukraine’s intelligence agency said it thought some Russian soldiers stayed behind, ditching their uniforms for civilian clothes to avoid detection.

“Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemy’s presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers’ stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday.

Photos circulating Saturday on social media showed Ukrainian activists removing memorial plaques put up by the occupation authorities the Kremlin installed to run the Kherson region. A Telegram post on the channel of Yellow Ribbon, a self-described Ukrainian “public resistance” movement, showed two people in a park taking down plaques picturing what appeared to be Soviet-era military figures.

Moscow’s announcement that Russian forces planned to withdraw across the Dnieper River, which divides both the Kherson region and Ukraine, followed a stepped-up Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s south.

In the last two months, Ukraine’s military claimed to have reclaimed dozens of towns and villages north of Kherson city, and the Ukrainian General Staff said that’s where the stabilization activities were taking place.

The Russian retreat represented a significant setback for the Kremlin some six weeks after Putin annexed the Kherson region and three others provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine in breach of international law and in the face of widespread condemnation. The Russian leader unequivocally asserted the illegally claimed areas as Russian territory.

Russian state news agency TASS quoted an official in Kherson’s Kremlin-appointed administration on Saturday as saying that Henichesk, a city on the Azov Sea some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Kherson city, would serve as the region’s “temporary capital” after the withdrawal across the Dnieper.

Ukrainian media derided the announcement, with daily newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda saying Russia “had made up a new capital” for the region.

Like Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sought to temper the excitement over the invaded nation’s latest morale boost. “We are winning battles on the ground, but the war continues,” he said from Cambodia, where he was attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Kuleba also brought up the prospect of the Ukrainian army finding evidence of possible Russian war crimes in Kherson, just as it did after the Russian Defense Ministry pulled back its forces in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions earlier in the way.

“Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from Russian army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by Russian army in the course of the occupation of these territories,” Ukraine’s top diplomat said. “It’s not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.”

U.S. assessments this week showed Russia’s war in Ukraine may already have killed or wounded tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Despite the advances in Kherson, other parts of Ukraine continued to face civilian casualties, energy shortages and other fallout from Russian military attacks and Putin’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Kherson, Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The state-owned electricity grid operator, Ukrenergo, announced emergency blackouts — which could go on indefinitely — in eight regions that included Kyiv, where a Russian military strike hit an energy facility critical to supplies to the capital.

Ukrenergo said scheduled one-hour blackouts, which are temporary and limited in time, also would continue daily in central and northern Ukraine.

Moscow has admitted targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with drone and rocket strikes since early October. Ukrainian officials reported said last month that 40% of the country’s electric power system had been severely damaged.

While much of the focus was on southern Ukraine, Russia continued its grinding offensive in Ukraine’s industrial east, targeting in particular the Donetsk region city of Bakhmut, the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said.

Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko reported Saturday that two civilians were killed and four wounded over the last day as battles heated up around Bakhmut and Avdiivka, a small city that has remained in Ukrainian hands throughout the war.

Russia’s continued push for Bakhmut demonstrates the Kremlin’s desire for visible gains following weeks of clear setbacks. Taking the city would open the way for a possible push onto other Ukrainian strongholds in the heavily contested Donetsk region. A reinvigorated eastern offensive could also potentially stall or derail Kyiv’s ongoing advances in the south.

Kyrylenko, in a Facebook post Saturday, also pointed to “intense shelling” by Russia overnight of two other Ukrainian-held cities: Lyman, near the border with the neighboring Luhansk region, and Vuhledar, southwest of Donetsk’s separatist-controlled capital of the same name.

Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai said Ukrainian forces had recaptured 11 unnamed settlements in his province but their advance was “not as rapid as in other regions.”

“We congratulate Kherson on its homecoming!” Haidai posted on Telegram. In Luhansk, the “occupiers continue to dig in and gather reinforcements, mine everything around them.”

In the Dnipropetrovsk region west of Donetsk, Russia kept up its shelling of communities near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the Ukrainian regional governor said. Russia and Ukraine have long traded blame for shelling in and around the plant, Europe’s largest.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, reemphasized that the United States would defer to Ukrainian authorities on whether or when to negotiate with Russia about a possible end to the conflict.

“Russia invaded Ukraine,” Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One en route to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as part of a trip by President Joe Biden to international summits in southeast Asia.

“If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war,” Sullivan said. “If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine.”

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

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November 12, 2022
Many vets are landing jobs, but the transition can be tough

NORFOLK, Va. — Phillip Slaughter left the Army after 18 years and found a job similar to one he had in uniform: behind the wheel of a truck. Instead of towing food and bullets through war zones, he hauled packages for FedEx.

It wasn’t what he wanted to do. The work aggravated his post-traumatic stress disorder. It would be three years and several jobs before he landed his ideal position as a sourcing recruiter for a tech company.

“I think it’s the first job that I’ve worked 10 consecutive months without quitting,” said Slaughter, 41, who lives in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Slaughter is a U.S. military veteran who found a job he loves at a time when the nation is experiencing some of its lowest monthly veteran unemployment on record. But the rate — 2.7% in October — can mask the difficulty of a transition that sometimes takes years of working unfulfilling jobs, while forging a new identity and a new purpose beyond serving one’s country.

“Even though (veteran unemployment) is low, I’m interested to see a survey on how many people are happy in the position they’re in,” said Slaughter, who also runs his own consulting firm for fellow vets.

Veterans account for about 7% of the civilian population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their jobless rate can help gauge the nation’s efforts to assist former service members, experts say. It can also reflect on the military and how it prepares departing personnel. High veteran unemployment is not good for recruiting.

For this Veterans Day, a handful of former service members talked about their experiences looking for work at a time when the veteran jobless rate is so low. For some, it was easy — but others have struggled.

Pierson Gest, a former Army infantryman, landed his first post-military job in August as a hydropower system designer in California.

Gest joined up during the Great Recession, knowing he’d eventually go to school on the GI Bill. Starting college in 2017 was tough at first as he developed study habits. But he got the hang of it, earning his engineering degree in June.

“I was lucky enough to negotiate a six-figure salary,” said Gest, 37, who lives outside San Francisco. “And I definitely used and leveraged my experience in the Army to negotiate that wage on top of my college degree.”

Across the country in Florida, Thomas Holmes is still searching for his ideal job.

Holmes, 46, left the Air Force in 2012 after 17 years, during which he maintained parachute systems for various types of aircraft, from F-15 fighter jets to U-2 spy planes.

He said the one full-time job he’s worked, in the billing and claims department of a warehouse office, was toxic. He quit after about 18 months.

Holmes used the GI Bill to earn three degrees, including a master’s in sports management. He found part-time work in the industry, but rising gas prices and the lure of more consistent hours prompted him to work at a nearby UPS store.

“I’ve applied for many jobs — county jobs, state jobs, all sorts of things,” said Holmes, who lives outside Tampa. “And then all I get is: ‘Well, thanks for your service.’”

Jayla Hair’s transition from Navy to civilian paralegal wasn’t easy, despite a bachelor’s degree in the field and skills that would seem transferable.

Hair, 30, said she applied to about 300 jobs over eight months. After seeking help from a Navy program and friends, Hair overhauled her resume and job interviews eventually came her way. But potential employers cited her lack of experience with state laws and civilian courts.

Hair took temporary jobs in the legal field and recently landed a full-time position as a paralegal for a Fortune 500 company in the Chicago area.

“Just having my military experience was not enough,” said Hair, who plans to pursue a law degree in the future. “If it wasn’t for me having these temporary jobs to build my civilian resume, I don’t know where I’d be right now.”

Hair landed her job at a time when veteran unemployment has been mostly dropping. The annual veteran jobless rate fell steadily from 8.7% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2019, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year, after a spike fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the annual rate was 4.4%. But the seasonally adjusted monthly percentage in March was 2.4, hailed by President Joe Biden as tied for the lowest rate on record. August also hit that mark.

The tight labor market and demand for workers after the coronavirus pandemic is likely one factor for the low veteran jobless rates, said Jeffrey B. Wenger, a senior policy researcher at the Rand Corp. But so are significant efforts in recent years by the U.S. military, Department of Veterans Affairs and veteran service organizations to provide assistance to outgoing service members.

Training such as resume-writing is now mandatory and American companies have launched initiatives to hire hundreds of thousands of vets.

Many of those undertakings grew from the Great Recession and the abundance of stressed-out service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, which “brought the veteran employment crisis to a head,” Wenger said.

“And over the last 10 to 15 years, people have been putting in more and more resources and have become more and more dedicated to fixing that problem,” Wenger said.

Among them is Transition Overwatch, a firm that runs career apprenticeship programs across the country. CEO Sean Ofeldt said the company zeroes in on what active service members want to do as civilians, not what they’re doing or the skills they’ve learned in the military.

“A lot of military members don’t want to keep doing what they did,” said Ofeldt, a former Navy SEAL. “We train them up while they’re still on active duty and then launch them into an actual career with all the support they need for that first 12 months.”

But the formula for supporting veterans has to encompass more than just employment. It needs to focus on social challenges as well, said Karl Hamner, a University of Alabama education professor.

Veterans can feel isolated after losing their tribe of fellow service members. Hamner said new data indicates that loss can be especially acute for women because they formed strong bonds with one another as they navigated a male-dominated military.

In a soon-to-be released national survey of 4,700 female veterans conducted by Hamner and his colleagues, 70% said adjusting to civilian life was difficult; 71% said they needed more time to figure out what they wanted to do.

“They had to prove themselves in a valued, highly regarded profession,” Hamner said. “And now they’re back to trying to figure out what it means to be a civilian woman and deal with all the standard discriminatory stuff.”

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November 11, 2022