Former President Donald Trump has swung back at New York state Attorney General Letitia James, claiming that instead of targeting him in a massive fraud suit to the tune of $250 million, she should put more effort into reducing crime in New York City. Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show for part two of his interview with the conservative commentator, Trump was touting his efforts in his dealings with the Taliban when he swiftly switched to crime in America. “In New York, where Letitia James rules, we have the worst crime that we’ve ever had,” Trump said. The Washington Post reported that while “overall, violent crime is up 34%… there have been 13% fewer shooting incidents this year than last” and that “the number of homicides in New York is down 13 percent, not up.” Trump made brief mention of James’ suit, in which she is suing Trump, three of his adult children, and their family real estate company, alleging they overinflated the value of Trump property. “That’s where Letitia James, she should focus on murder and crime in New York where they walk into stores with axes and they start swinging the axes at people,” Trump said. “That’s where she ought to be focused, not on how much is Mar-a-Lago worth.”
DUBAI, Sept 23 (Reuters) – State-organised demonstrations took place in several Iranian cities on Friday to counter anti-government protests triggered by the death of a woman in police custody, with some marchers calling for the execution of rioters.
The protests followed the strongest warning from the authorities yet when the army told Iranians it would confront “the enemies” behind the unrest – a move that could signal the kind of crackdown that has crushed protests in the past.
Demonstrators condemned the anti-government protesters as “Israel’s soldiers”, live state television coverage showed. They also shouted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, common slogans the country’s clerical rulers use to try and stir up support for authorities.
“Offenders of the Koran must be executed,” the crowds chanted.
Iranians have staged mass demonstrations over the case of Mahsa Amini, 22, who died last week after being arrested by the morality police for wearing “unsuitable attire”.
Amini’s death has reignited anger over issues including restrictions on personal freedoms in Iran, strict dress codes for women and an economy reeling from sanctions.
Iran’s army on Friday sent the toughest warning yet from the authorities to protesters enraged by the death.
“These desperate actions are part of the evil strategy of the enemy to weaken the Islamic regime,” it said.
The military said it would “confront the enemies’ various plots in order to ensure security and peace for the people who are being unjustly assaulted.”
Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi also on Friday warned “seditionists” that their “dream of defeating religious values and the great achievements of the revolution will never be realized,” according to the AsrIran website.
The protests were especially strong in Amini’s home province of Kurdistan and nearby areas. State television said two caches of weapons, explosives and communications gear were seized and two people were arrested in northwestern Iran which includes the border with Iraq where armed Kurdish dissident groups are based.
Iran’s clerical rulers fear a revival of the protests that erupted in 2019 over gasoline price rises, the bloodiest in the Islamic Republic’s history. Reuters reported 1,500 people were killed.
In the latest unrest, protesters in Tehran and other cities torched police stations and vehicles as outrage over Amini’s death showed no signs of abating, with reports of security forces coming under attack.
Iranian media reported the arrest of 288 rioters on Thursday.
In Madrid, four topless activists from the Femen women’s movement protested on Friday in front of the Iranian embassy over Amini’s death, carrying signs reading “Women, Life, Liberty” and “Mahsa Amini was assassinated”.
The protest took place peacefully and there were no arrests.
In Athens, angry protesters demonstrating over Amini’s death tried to approach the Iranian embassy on Thursday before being forced back by police wielding shields. Demonstrators chanted slogans and held placards reading “Homophobia and sexism kill.”
Protests over Amini’s death were also held in Canada and the Netherlands on Thursday.
Driving the news: “Was I happy about it? Not for an instant. Did I do everything I could to persuade people? Of course, of course,” Breyer told CNN’s Chris Wallace of the court’s Dobbs decision.
“But there we are and now we go on. We try to work together,” he said.
Breyer, who recalled his position in the court’s minority liberal bloc as a “very frustrating” spot to be in, also condemned the leak of the draft opinion as “very damaging.”
“It was very damaging because that kind of thing just doesn’t happen. It just doesn’t happen. And there we are,” he said.
The big picture: Breyer also warned justices against “writing [opinions] too rigidly.”
“You start writing too rigidly and you will see, the world will come around and bite you in the back,” Breyer said.
“Because you will find something you see just doesn’t work at all. And the Supreme Court, somewhat to the difference of others, has that kind of problem in spades.”
What to watch: His remarks come days before the Supreme Court is set to begin its next term.
“Is this a struggle session? Are we in China?” Jones asked, referring to Maoist rallies where people were publicly humiliated, after an attorney for the plaintiffs, Chris Mattei, pointed out the victims’ family members in the courtroom. “I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
The death in custody of an Iranian woman that has sparked widespread protests must be “steadfastly” investigated, Iran’s president has said, even as he lamented what he claimed were western “double standards” on human rights.
Ebrahim Raisi told a news conference on the sidelines of the UN general assembly that the death of Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police “must certainly be investigated”.
“I contacted her family at the very first opportunity and I assured them we would continue steadfastly to investigate that incident … Our utmost preoccupation is the safeguarding of the rights of every citizen.”
Of Amini’s death, he said authorities were doing what they needed to do and that responsibility now lay in the hands of the judiciary.
At least 31 people are feared by rights groups to have died in six days of protests, sparked by the death on 16 September of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman.
On Thursday, protesters torched police stations and vehicles in several cities, and Iran shut off the internet in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan, and blocked access to platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp, in an attempt to curb a growing protest movement.
Iranian women have taken to the streets and the internet to burn their headscarves and cut their hair.
Amini was detained for allegedly wearing a hijab headscarf in an “improper” way. Activists said the woman, whose Kurdish first name is Jhina, had suffered a fatal blow to the head, a claim denied by officials, who have announced an investigation. Police continue to maintain that she died of natural causes, but her family suspect that she was subjected to beating and torture.
Iran president Ebrahim Raisi speaks at a press conference in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP
On Thursday, Raisi sought to turn the tables on the country he was visiting by asking about police shootings in the US. “Did all these deaths get investigated?” he said.
The scope of Iran’s ongoing unrest, the worst in several years, still remains unclear as protesters in more than a dozen cities – venting anger over social repression and the country’s mounting crises – continue to encounter security and paramilitary forces.
Raisi, who addressed the general assembly formally on Wednesday, said bad things happened to people at the hands of authorities everywhere, making vague references to the US and UK. He called for the “same standard” around the world in dealing with such deaths at the hands of authorities.
Raisi’s comparison reflects a common approach by Iranian leaders, who when confronted with accusations of rights violations often point to western society and its “hegemony” and demand that those nations similarly be held accountable.
Raisi, who led the country’s judiciary before becoming president, said the inquiry into Amini’s death ultimately rested there.
The protests have grown into an open challenge to the government, with some Iranians calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic itself. They are the most serious demonstrations since 2019, when protests erupted over a government hike in the price of gasoline.
While not outright condemning the protests, Raisi said: “What is occurring, having demonstrations … of course these are normal and fully accepted … We must differentiate between demonstrators and vandalism. Demonstrations are good for expressing specific issues.”
The US imposed sanctions on the morality police and leaders of other Iranian security agencies on Thursday, saying they “routinely employ violence to suppress peaceful protesters”.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Voting began Friday in Moscow-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia, Russian-backed officials there said.
The Kremlin-orchestrated referendums, which have been widely denounced by Ukraine and the West as shams without any legal force, are seen as a step toward annexing the territories by Russia.
The votes are being held in the Luhansk, Kherson and partly Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.
The vote, which asks residents if they want their regions to be part of Russia, is certain to go Moscow’s way. That would give Russia the pretext to claim that attempts by Ukrainian forces to regain control are attacks on Russia itself, dramatically escalating the seven-month war.
As the votes was getting underway in the occupied regions, Russian social media sites were full of dramatic scenes of tearful families bidding farewell to men departing from military mobilization centers. In cities across the vast country, men hugged their weeping family members before departing as part of the draft. Russian anti-war activists, in the meantime, planned more protests against the mobilization.
Election officials will be bringing ballots to people’s homes and setting up makeshift polling stations near residential buildings during the first four days of the referendums, according to Russian-installed officials in the occupied regions, who cited safety reasons. Tuesday will be the only day when the voters will be invited to come to regular polls.
Polls also opened in Russia, where refugees from the occupied regions can cast their votes.
Denis Pushilin, separatist leader of Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region, called the referendum on Friday “a historical milestone.”
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, addressed the occupied regions Friday in an online statement, saying: “If you decide to become part of the Russian Federation — we will support you.”
Valentina Matviyenko, chair of Russia’s upper parliament house, said that residents of the occupied regions were voting for “life or death” at the referendums.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only briefly mentioned the “sham referenda” in his nightly address in which he switched from speaking in Ukrainian to Russian to directly tell Russian citizens they are being “thrown to their deaths.”
“You are already accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians,” he said. “Because you were silent. Because you are silent. And now it’s time for you to choose. For men in Russia, this is a choice to die or live, to become a cripple or to preserve health. For women in Russia, the choice is to lose their husbands, sons, grandchildren forever, or still try to protect them from death, from war, from one person.”
The voting takes place against the backdrop of incessant fighting in Ukraine, with Russian and Ukrainian forces exchanging fire as both sides refuse to concede ground.
On Friday morning, pro-Russia officials in the Zaporizhzhia region reported a loud blast in the center of Melitopol, a city that Moscow captured early on in the war. Official Vladimir Rogov didn’t offer any details as to what caused the explosion and whether there was damage and casualties.
Moscow-backed authorities in the Donetsk region also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the city of Donetsk, the region’s capital, and the nearby city of Yasynuvata.
Ukrainian officials, in turn, reported new rounds of Russian shelling in various parts of the country. Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine that borders the Kherson region, said explosions rang out in the city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Friday.
Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said the Russians unleashed a barrage of shelling on Nikopol, a city across from the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, on Friday morning.
BUSAN, South Korea, Sept 23 (Reuters) – A U.S. aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Friday for the first time in about four years, set to join other military vessels in a show of force intended to send a message to North Korea.
USS Ronald Reagan and ships from its accompanying strike group docked at a naval base in the southern port city of Busan ahead of joint drills with South Korean forces.
Its arrival marks the most significant deployment yet under a new push to have more U.S. “strategic assets” operate in the area to deter North Korea.
Strike group commander Rear Admiral Michael Donnelly told reporters aboard the ship that the visit was designed to build allied relations and boost interoperability between the navies.
“We are leaving messaging to diplomats,” he said, when asked about any signal to North Korea, but added that joint drills would ensure the allies were able to respond to all threats.
“It’s an opportunity for us to practice tactics and operations,” Donnelly said.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has pushed for more joint exercises and other displays of military power as a warning to North Korea, which this year conducted a record number of missile tests and appears to be preparing to resume nuclear testing for the first time since 2017.
North Korea has denounced previous U.S. military deployments and joint drills as rehearsals for war and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul. The drills have also sparked protests by peace activists who say they raise regional tensions.
Last week the United States said the carrier’s visit was a “clear demonstration” of its commitment to deploy and exercise strategic assets to deter Pyongyang and enhance regional security.
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U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is anchored at a port in Busan, South Korea, September 23, 2022. REUTERS/Daewoung Kim
In announcing the visit, however, the U.S. Navy made no mention of North Korea, referring only to a “regularly scheduled port visit” and emphasising crew members visiting Busan to volunteer at orphanages and explore the K-pop music scene.
Officials declined to provide details of the upcoming joint drills, but said the carrier would be in port for “several days.” Just hours after the ship docked, long lines of crewmembers formed as they took COVID-19 tests before being bussed into the city.
One crew member, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said that they were looking forward to a break but that the geopolitical tensions were a constant presence.
“You can’t ever really forget what we’re all here for,” the crew member told Reuters.
The visit is the first to South Korea by an American aircraft carrier since 2018. Many drills were since scaled back or cancelled due to diplomatic efforts with North Korea or because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The carrier visit is useful for political signalling, reassuring Seoul, and training with South Korean forces, but likely does little to further deter North Korea, said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
“A carrier group visit certainly doesn’t do much – in fact, it likely does the opposite – to discourage Pyongyang from developing more nuclear weapons and delivery systems, as well as conventional capabilities,” he said.
It nevertheless underscores that under Yoon the allies see tighter military coordination and interoperability as the best way to deal with North Korea, Richey added.
Questions have risen over the role the roughly 28,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea might play if conflict erupts over Taiwan.
Donnelly said such questions are for policymakers above him, but said that operating with like-minded allies such as South Korea is a key part of the U.S. Navy’s efforts to maintain the regional security and stability that has existed for more than seven decades.
The investigations cover payments made from March 2020 to April 2022, when the federal government sent out a flood of relief money to businesses and individuals, intending to bolster the economy as coronavirus cases ran rampant. The aid included $3.1 trillion that President Donald J. Trump approved in 2020, followed by a $1.9 trillion package that President Biden signed into law in 2021.
There was so much unemployment fraud that even after two years of work, federal investigators are just getting started in dealing with it. Hundreds of people are working on fraud cases across the offices of 21 inspectors general. The F.B.I., the Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service and the Internal Revenue Service are also looking into the issue.
Officials have said the fraud is so far-reaching that some small-dollar thefts may never be prosecuted. Last month, Mr. Biden signed bills doubling the statute of limitations for some pandemic-related fraud to 10 years.
“My message to those cheats out there is this: You can’t hide. We’re going to find you,” Mr. Biden said during the signing at the White House.
Miller testified that he had turned in paperwork four years ago selecting nitrogen hypoxia as his execution method, putting it in a slot in his cell door at the Holman Correctional Facility for a prison worker to collect.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. issued a preliminary injunction blocking the state from killing Miller by any means other than nitrogen hypoxia, after finding it was “substantially likely” that Miller “submitted a timely election form even though the State says that it does not have any physical record of a form.”
Thursday night’s Supreme Court ruling vacated that injunction at the request of the state.
Although Alabama has authorized nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method, it has never done so and the prison system has not finalized procedures for using it to carry out a death sentence.
Miller had visits from family members and an attorney on Thursday as he waited to see if his execution would go forward. He was given a food tray that included meatloaf, chuckwagon steak, macaroni and french fries, the prison system said.
Nitrogen hypoxia is a proposed execution method in which death would be caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, thereby depriving him or her of the oxygen needed to maintain bodily functions. It is authorized as an execution method in three states but no state has attempted to put an inmate to death by the untested method. Alabama officials told the judge they are working to finalize the protocol.
When Alabama approved nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method in 2018, state law gave inmates a brief window to designate it as their execution method.
“That the state is not yet prepared to execute anyone by nitrogen hypoxia does not mean it will harm the state or the public to honor Miller’s timely election of nitrogen hypoxia. By contrast, if an injunction does not issue, Miller will be irrevocably deprived of his choice in how he will die — a choice the Alabama Legislature bestowed upon him,” Huffaker wrote.
Prosecutors said Miller, a delivery truck driver, killed co-workers Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy at a business in suburban Birmingham and then drove off to shoot former supervisor Terry Jarvis at a business where Miller had previously worked. Each man was shot multiple times and Miller was captured after a highway chase.
Trial testimony indicated Miller believed the men were spreading rumors about him, including that he was gay. A psychiatrist hired by the defense found that Miller suffered from severe mental illness but also said Miller’s condition wasn’t bad enough to use as a basis for an insanity defense under state law.
In a court filing on Thursday, the federal judge tasked with reviewing the FBI-seized materials from Mar-a-Lago directed federal prosecutors to begin producing the approximately 11,000 documents that were recovered last month from former President Donald Trump’s Florida home.
The plan and timeline laid out by U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie states that by Monday, the Department of Justice must provide electronic copies of the materials not labeled classified to both Dearie and Trump’s team.
For each document, Trump’s attorneys must then say whether he is asserting attorney-client privilege or executive privilege or whether the document is a personal or presidential record, according to Dearie’s latest directions.
For any document that Trump and his team mark as privileged and/or personal, they need to include a statement explaining the reasoning for the particular declaration.
The government has provided Trump and his lawyers with the documents that DOJ’s “filter team” had found could potentially be privileged and Dearie said in Thursday’s filing that Trump must then provide a log of his designations for the materials — as to whether he is asserting privilege over something and whether it is personal or presidential — to the government by Monday.
Trump’s team has to submit a final and complete review of all the documents to the government by Oct. 14, according to the special master.
Both parties must submit a log of any disputed designations to the Dearie by Oct. 21. (Dearie said he needs the help of a retired federal magistrate, James Orenstein, to help with his review.)
Where there’s a dispute with the government, the special master will resolve it.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday simplified Dearie’s work by removing classified documents from his review and restoring the government’s access to them as part of its investigation into how Trump, who denies wrongdoing, handled records after leaving office. Among the materials the FBI says it retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, court documents have shown, were 11 sets of documents of various classifications ranging from confidential to top secret and sensitive compartmented information.
The 11th Circuit’s ruling Wednesday was a partial stay of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s order naming a special master and essentially freezing the government’s work pending Dearie’s review.
Cannon on Thursday modified her order in light of the appellate decision, striking the parts of her ruling that the special master needs to prioritize the documents marked as classified and submit interim reports and recommendations as appropriate.
Cannon also removed a measure that the classified documents and attached papers must be available for inspection by Trump’s attorneys.
Russia’s partial military mobilization aimed at slowing Ukraine’s high-octane counteroffensive was in full swing Thursday: Conscripts answered summonses, schools were commandeered for recruit intake – and there was plenty of controversy.
In the mountainous Siberian republic of Buryatia, 11 schools began doubling as administration buildings for draftees, the local arigus-tv reported. Medical exams were waived unless the recruit raised an issue.
“Buryatia survived one of the scariest nights in its history today,” resident and activist Alexandra Garmazhapova said in a Facebook post. “People are fleeing to Mongolia.”
President Vladimir Putin, in a speech to his people Wednesday, said the mobilization was necessary because his country is fighting not just Ukraine but the entire Western world. The announcement set off protests resulting in hundreds of arrests around the country – and a run on plane tickets out of it.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military is adding 300,000 soldiers from the ranks of 25 million reservists – primarily gunners, artillerymen, tank drivers and signal corps veterans. But some draftees said they had no military experience. The British Defense Ministry said the new troops “are unlikely to be combat-effective for months.”
A spinoff from the shuttered independent Russian website Novaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta Europe, said the prices for tickets to countries not requiring visas jumped significantly and were “completely gone” by Wednesday night. And it noted that statements by authorities on how partial mobilization will take place in practice were “very contradictory and sometimes did not coincide with reality.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the outlet’s report that a hidden article of Russia’s mobilization order allows for drafting up to 1 million reservists into the army.
Other major developments:
►Russia has given its formal diplomatic approval to Lynne Tracy’s appointment as the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday. President Joe Biden announced her nomination Tuesday; she will need Senate approval.
►Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they won’t offer asylum to Russians fleeing mobilization into the military, hoping discontent with the Russian authorities grows at home. The three Baltic countries closed their borders to most Russians earlier in the week.
►Voting begins Friday on referendums in four Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine — Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — a precursor to Russian annexation. Foreign leaders have called the votes a nonbinding sham.
►In the Donetsk province, one of the areas where referendums are scheduled, city Mayor Alexei Kulemzin said at least five people were killed Thursday when Ukrainian shelling hit a covered market and a passenger minibus.
‘Send a clear message’ for Russia to stop nuclear threats, Blinken says at UN
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to condemn the nuclear saber-rattling of council member Russia, repeating President Joe Biden’s description of those threats as “reckless.”
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will “certainly use all means available to us” to defend the country and its people, his latest veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear arsenal since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in February.
“Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately,” Blinken said.
On Wednesday night, new British Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Putin of “desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures” with “more bogus claims and saber-rattling threats.”
Thursday’s Security Council meeting focused on demanding accountability for the abuses and atrocities the West accuses Russia of committing in Ukraine, but no concrete action is expected because Russia has veto power.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Ukraine’s allies “have been covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime.”
‘They take me’: Russian lives suddenly overturned by mobilization
For many Russians the war in Ukraine had seemed like a distant endeavor, a conflict that didn’t affect their daily lives as state propaganda made it seem like the pursuit was going according to plan.
The realization of the war’s impact finally struck home for thousands of families Thursday when legions were called for duty a day after President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 reservists.
That resulted in numerous dramatic scenes playing out on social media of tearful families saying goodbye to loved ones who might wind up in combat.
A 25-year-old man in Moscow who gave only his first name, Dmitry, told Russian media company Ostorozhno Novosti he did not expect to be called up and shipped out so quickly, especially since he’s still a student.
“They gave me the draft notice that I should come here at 3 p.m. We waited one-and-a- half hours, then the enlistment officer came and said that we are leaving now,” Dmitry said. “I went outside and started calling my parents, brother, all friends of mine to tell that they take me.”
Ukraine economy teeters under strain of war
A top Ukrainian government economist says the war has created a severe financial burden requiring help from other countries. Prewar forecasts of 3% to 4% economic growth in 2022 have been dashed, and gross domestic product is expected to shrink by 30% to 40% this year. Ukraine was the poorest country in Europe by most measures even before the war.
Oleg Ustenko, chief economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also said the speed of victory in the war will depend on the pressure Ukraine’s allies place on Russia. Ustenko told The Associated Press that it was “ridiculous” for European countries to keep paying for Russian fossil fuels. He called for an EU oil embargo to be brought forward and a price cap imposed on Russian gas.
G7 nations blast Putin for ‘escalatory steps’
The Group of Seven (G7) nations will not recognize the referendums Russia is preparing in the occupied territories of Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday. The G7 members will also “pursue further targeted sanctions” on Russia if the referendums take place, she said.
G7 ministers – representing the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – said in a statement that the voting can’t be “free and fair” with Russian soldiers present. The ministers deplored “deliberate Russian escalatory steps, including the partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.”
Zelenskyy demands punishment for Russia, draws ovation at UN
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that Russia be punished for attacking his country and assured the world that his military could drive out the invaders in a passionate address that drew a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly.
Zelenskyy, speaking remotely and in English on Wednesday, said Russia committed crimes against the “values that make you and me a community” in the U.N. He described grisly scenes at hundreds of gravesites of men, women and children, some bound and tortured.
He dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of a willingness to negotiate an end to the 7-month-old war, saying the military mobilization and “pseudo referendums” make clear he won’t compromise.
“Russia will never be able to stop the course of history,” he said. “Mankind and international law are stronger than one terrorist state. Russia will be forced to end this war.”
Two Americans fighting for Ukraine have been freed in a prisoner exchange after being captured in June in the Kharkiv region, but high-profile Americans Brittney Griner and businessman Paul Whelan remain in Russian custody.
Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and fellow Alabaman Alexander Drueke, 39, were released to Saudi Arabia, which brokered a swap with Russian-backed separatists that included the release of eight other prisoners from four countries. The deal was part of a larger swap included in the release of 200 Ukrainian fighters. Russia gained the freedom of 55 prisoners, among them prominent Putin ally and opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
Huynh’s fiancé, Joy Black, told USA TODAY she got a surprise call from the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia while at work Wednesday alerting her that Huynh was there. She got to speak with Huynh, who told her he’ll go through medical checks before flying home.
“He said that he’s OK and he’s safe and healthy,” said Black, adding she was “very thankful” and “happy for the first time in, like, four months.”
Video from the ocean drone, driven by scientists from the company Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, captured about 360 miles southeast of Bermuda, depicts haunting blue water and monstrous waves, serenaded by howling winds. Torrential rain and ominous sea spray are seen swirling as the vehicle sways and lunges atop the ocean’s turbulent surface.
Boeing will pay $200 million and then-CEO Dennis Muilenburg will pay $1 million to settle charges over misleading investors in the wake of two deadly crashes of 737 Max jetliners, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday.
“In times of crisis and tragedy, it is especially important that public companies and executives provide full, fair, and truthful disclosures to the markets. The Boeing Company and its former CEO, Dennis Muilenburg, failed in this most basic obligation,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler in a statement.
The two crashes — one in October 2018 and another in March 2019 — killed all 346 people aboard the two flights and led to a worldwide grounding of the jetliners. The grounding was first lifted in late 2020.
Boeing fired Muilenberg in December 2019 in the midst of the planes’ extended grounding and comments about when he expected regulators to clear the planes to fly again. The comments also strained the manufacturer’s relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration, prompting public admonishment by the regulator.
“Today’s settlement is part of the company’s broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders,” Boeing said in a statement.
Neither Boeing nor Muilenburg admitted nor denied the SEC’s findings, the agency said.
Two damning congressional investigations after the crashes found management, design and regulatory lapses in the 737 Max’s development and certification. That led to new legislation to reform aircraft certification, giving more control over the process to the FAA.
Russia’s partial military mobilization aimed at slowing Ukraine’s high-octane counteroffensive was in full swing Thursday: Conscripts answered summonses, schools were commandeered for recruit intake – and there was plenty of controversy.
In the mountainous Siberian republic of Buryatia, 11 schools began doubling as administration buildings for draftees, the local arigus-tv reported. Medical exams were waived unless the recruit raised an issue.
“Buryatia survived one of the scariest nights in its history today,” resident and activist Alexandra Garmazhapova said in a Facebook post. “People are fleeing to Mongolia.”
President Vladimir Putin, in a speech to his people Wednesday, said the mobilization was necessary because his country is fighting not just Ukraine but the entire Western world. The announcement set off protests resulting in hundreds of arrests around the country – and a run on plane tickets out of it.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military is adding 300,000 soldiers from the ranks of 25 million reservists – primarily gunners, artillerymen, tank drivers and signal corps veterans. But some draftees said they had no military experience . The British Defense Ministry said the new troops “are unlikely to be combat-effective for months.”
A spinoff from the shuttered independent Russian website Novaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta Europe, said the prices for tickets to countries not requiring visas jumped significantly and were “completely gone” by Wednesday night. And it noted that statements by authorities on how partial mobilization will take place in practice were “very contradictory and sometimes did not coincide with reality.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the outlet’s report that a hidden article of Russia’s mobilization order allows for drafting up to 1 million reservists into the army.
Other major developments:
►Russia has given its formal diplomatic approval to Lynne Tracy’s appointment as the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday. President Joe Biden announced her nomination Tuesday; she will need Senate approval.
►Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they won’t offer asylum to Russians fleeing mobilization into the military, hoping discontent with the Russian authorities grows at home. The three Baltic countries closed their borders to most Russians earlier in the week.
►Voting begins Friday on referendums in Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine, a precursor to Russian annexation.
►In the Donetsk province, one of the areas where referendums are scheduled, city Mayor Alexei Kulemzin said at least five people were killed Thursday when Ukrainian shelling hit a covered market and a passenger minibus.
‘Send a clear message’ for Russia to stop nuclear threats, Blinken says at UN
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to condemn the nuclear saber-rattling of council member Russia, repeating President Joe Biden’s description of those threats as “reckless.”
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will “certainly use all means available to us” to defend the country and its people, his latest veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear arsenal since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in February.
“Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately,” Blinken said.
On Wednesday night, new British Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Putin of “desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures” with “more bogus claims and saber-rattling threats.”
Thursday’s Security Council meeting focused on demanding accountability for the abuses and atrocities the West accuses Russia of committing in Ukraine, but no concrete action is expected because Russia has veto power.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Ukraine’s allies “have been covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime.”
A top Ukrainian government economist says the war has created a severe financial burden requiring help from other countries. Prewar forecasts of 3% to 4% economic growth in 2022 have been dashed, and gross domestic product is expected to shrink by 30% to 40% this year. Ukraine was the poorest country in Europe by most measures even before the war.
Oleg Ustenko, chief economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also said the speed of victory in the war will depend on the pressure Ukraine’s allies place on Russia. Ustenko told The Associated Press that it was “ridiculous” for European countries to keep paying for Russian fossil fuels. He called for an EU oil embargo to be brought forward and a price cap imposed on Russian gas.
G7 nations blast Putin for ‘escalatory steps’
The Group of Seven (G7) nations will not recognize the referendums Russia is preparing in the occupied territories of Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday. The G7 members will also “pursue further targeted sanctions” on Russia if the referendums take place, she said.
G7 ministers – representing the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – said in a statement that the voting can’t be “free and fair” with Russian soldiers present. The ministers deplored “deliberate Russian escalatory steps, including the partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.”
Zelenskyy demands punishment for Russia, draws ovation at UN
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that Russia be punished for attacking his country and assured the world that his military could drive out the invaders in a passionate address that drew a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly.
Zelenskyy, speaking remotely and in English on Wednesday, said Russia committed crimes against the “values that make you and me a community” in the U.N. He described grisly scenes at hundreds of gravesites of men, women and children, some bound and tortured.
He dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of a willingness to negotiate an end to the 7-month-old war, saying the military mobilization and “pseudo referendums” make clear he won’t compromise.
“Russia will never be able to stop the course of history,” he said. “Mankind and international law are stronger than one terrorist state. Russia will be forced to end this war.”
Two Americans fighting for Ukraine have been freed in a prisoner exchange after being captured in June in the Kharkiv region, but high-profile Americans Brittney Griner and businessman Paul Whelan remain in Russian custody.
Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and fellow Alabaman Alexander Drueke, 39, were released to Saudi Arabia, which brokered a swap with Russian-backed separatists that included the release of eight other prisoners from four countries. The deal was part of a larger swap included in the release of 200 Ukrainian fighters. Russia gained the freedom of 55 prisoners, among them prominent Putin ally and opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
Huynh’s fiancé, Joy Black, told USA TODAY she got a surprise call from the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia while at work Wednesday alerting her that Huynh was there. She got to speak with Huynh, who told her he’ll go through medical checks before flying home.
“He said that he’s OK and he’s safe and healthy,” said Black, adding she was “very thankful” and “happy for the first time in, like, four months.”
Christiane Amanpour, shown in 2018, said her interview with Iran’s president was canceled when she refused to wear a headscarf.
Charly Triballeau /AFP via Getty Images
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Christiane Amanpour, shown in 2018, said her interview with Iran’s president was canceled when she refused to wear a headscarf.
Charly Triballeau /AFP via Getty Images
An interview between CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was abruptly canceled because Amanpour declined to wear a hijab, she recounted on Twitter.
Iran’s state news agency did not elaborate on the reason for the sudden cancelation, but blamed Amanpour “because of refusing protocol.” The protocol, it said, “is being determined by the guest.”
Amanpour said she was planning to discuss the major demonstrations surging in Iran, including numerous incidents where women are burning their hijabs to protest the death in police custody of a young woman named Mahsa Amini, among other topics.
But after her team waited 40 minutes for Raisi to arrive, an aide of his approached her. “The president, he said, was suggesting I wear a headscarf, because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar,” Amanpour said.
“I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves,” Amanpour added. “I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran.”
For example, she conducted severalinterviews with former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the U.S., and did not wear a headscarf.
This time, the aide made it clear the hijab was a condition for the interview, describing it as a “matter of respect,” according to the veteran journalist. It’s a condition that Amanpour called “unprecedented and unexpected.”
Amanpour’s father is Iranian and she spent part of her childhood in Tehran.
Russia’s partial military mobilization aimed at slowing Ukraine’s high-octane counteroffensive was in full swing Thursday: Conscripts answered summonses, schools were commandeered for recruit intake – and there was plenty of controversy.
In the mountainous Siberian republic of Buryatia, 11 schools began doubling as administration buildings for draftees, the local arigus-tv reported. Medical exams were waived unless the recruit raised an issue.
“Buryatia survived one of the scariest nights in its history today,” resident and activist Alexandra Garmazhapova said in a Facebook post. “People are fleeing to Mongolia.”
President Vladimir Putin, in a speech to his people Wednesday, said the mobilization was necessary because his country is fighting not just Ukraine but the entire Western world. The announcement set off protests resulting in hundreds of arrests around the country – and a run on plane tickets out of it.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military is adding 300,000 soldiers from the ranks of 25 million reservists – primarily gunners, artillerymen, tank drivers and signal corps veterans. But some draftees said they had no military experience . The British Defense Ministry said the new troops “are unlikely to be combat-effective for months.”
A spinoff from the shuttered independent Russian website Novaya Gazeta, Novaya Gazeta Europe, said the prices for tickets to countries not requiring visas jumped significantly and were “completely gone” by Wednesday night. And it noted that statements by authorities on how partial mobilization will take place in practice were “very contradictory and sometimes did not coincide with reality.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the outlet’s report that a hidden article of Russia’s mobilization order allows for drafting up to 1 million reservists into the army.
Other major developments:
►Russia has given its formal diplomatic approval to Lynne Tracy’s appointment as the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Thursday. President Joe Biden announced her nomination Tuesday; she will need Senate approval.
►Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said they won’t offer asylum to Russians fleeing mobilization into the military, hoping discontent with the Russian authorities grows at home. The three Baltic countries closed their borders to most Russians earlier in the week.
►Voting begins Friday on referendums in Russian-controlled regions of eastern and southern Ukraine, a precursor to Russian annexation.
►In the Donetsk province, one of the areas where referendums are scheduled, city Mayor Alexei Kulemzin said at least five people were killed Thursday when Ukrainian shelling hit a covered market and a passenger minibus.
‘Send a clear message’ for Russia to stop nuclear threats, Blinken says at UN
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to condemn the nuclear saber-rattling of council member Russia, repeating President Joe Biden’s description of those threats as “reckless.”
The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country will “certainly use all means available to us” to defend the country and its people, his latest veiled reference to Russia’s nuclear arsenal since ordering the invasion of Ukraine in February.
“Every council member should send a clear message that these reckless nuclear threats must stop immediately,” Blinken said.
On Wednesday night, new British Prime Minister Liz Truss accused Putin of “desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures” with “more bogus claims and saber-rattling threats.”
Thursday’s Security Council meeting focused on demanding accountability for the abuses and atrocities the West accuses Russia of committing in Ukraine, but no concrete action is expected because Russia has veto power.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Ukraine’s allies “have been covering up the crimes of the Kyiv regime.”
A top Ukrainian government economist says the war has created a severe financial burden requiring help from other countries. Prewar forecasts of 3% to 4% economic growth in 2022 have been dashed, and gross domestic product is expected to shrink by 30% to 40% this year. Ukraine was the poorest country in Europe by most measures even before the war.
Oleg Ustenko, chief economic adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also said the speed of victory in the war will depend on the pressure Ukraine’s allies place on Russia. Ustenko told The Associated Press that it was “ridiculous” for European countries to keep paying for Russian fossil fuels. He called for an EU oil embargo to be brought forward and a price cap imposed on Russian gas.
G7 nations blast Putin for ‘escalatory steps’
The Group of Seven (G7) nations will not recognize the referendums Russia is preparing in the occupied territories of Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday. The G7 members will also “pursue further targeted sanctions” on Russia if the referendums take place, she said.
G7 ministers – representing the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – said in a statement that the voting can’t be “free and fair” with Russian soldiers present. The ministers deplored “deliberate Russian escalatory steps, including the partial mobilization of reservists and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric.”
Zelenskyy demands punishment for Russia, draws ovation at UN
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded that Russia be punished for attacking his country and assured the world that his military could drive out the invaders in a passionate address that drew a standing ovation from the U.N. General Assembly.
Zelenskyy, speaking remotely and in English on Wednesday, said Russia committed crimes against the “values that make you and me a community” in the U.N. He described grisly scenes at hundreds of gravesites of men, women and children, some bound and tortured.
He dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claim of a willingness to negotiate an end to the 7-month-old war, saying the military mobilization and “pseudo referendums” make clear he won’t compromise.
“Russia will never be able to stop the course of history,” he said. “Mankind and international law are stronger than one terrorist state. Russia will be forced to end this war.”
Two Americans fighting for Ukraine have been freed in a prisoner exchange after being captured in June in the Kharkiv region, but high-profile Americans Brittney Griner and businessman Paul Whelan remain in Russian custody.
Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, and fellow Alabaman Alexander Drueke, 39, were released to Saudi Arabia, which brokered a swap with Russian-backed separatists that included the release of eight other prisoners from four countries. The deal was part of a larger swap included in the release of 200 Ukrainian fighters. Russia gained the freedom of 55 prisoners, among them prominent Putin ally and opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk.
Huynh’s fiancé, Joy Black, told USA TODAY she got a surprise call from the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia while at work Wednesday alerting her that Huynh was there. She got to speak with Huynh, who told her he’ll go through medical checks before flying home.
“He said that he’s OK and he’s safe and healthy,” said Black, adding she was “very thankful” and “happy for the first time in, like, four months.”
At present, it’s poorly organized. The reason it isn’t doing much yet is because of disruptive shear, or a change of wind speed and/or direction with height, that it’s combating. Too much shear can knock a fledgling storm off-kilter, as if subjected to a game of atmospheric tug-of-war. That shear is stemming from the high-altitude outflow, or exhaust, of Fiona far to the northeast.
Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has cancelled an interview in New York with the veteran CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour after she refused to wear a headscarf at his request.
In a series of tweets, the chief international anchor of CNN said that she had been scheduled to meet Raisi on the sidelines of the United Nations general assembly, and had planned to ask him about various topics, including the outbreak of protests in Iran following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested and beaten by “morality police” for violating headscarf laws.
“This was going to be President Raisi’s first ever interview on US soil, during his visit to NY for UNGA. After weeks of planning and eight hours of setting up translation equipment, lights and cameras, we were ready. But no sign of President Raisi,” Amanpour tweeted on Thursday.
Forty minutes after the interview was scheduled to begin, an aide approached Amanpour and told her that Raisi was “suggesting [she] wear a headscarf, because it’s the holy months of Muharram and Safar”, she wrote.
Amanpour said she declined the request, explaining that “we are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves”. She added that no other Iranian president has required that she wear a headscarf when she interviewed them outside Iran.
Christiane Amanpour: ‘We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
“The aide made it clear that the interview would not happen if I did not wear a headscarf. He said it was ‘a matter of respect’, and referred to ‘the situation in Iran’ – alluding to the protests sweeping the country,” Amanpour said.
“Again, I said that I couldn’t agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition.”
As a result, Amanpour and her team walked away and the interview did not take place. A picture Amanpour posted at the end of her tweets showed her wearing a white suit while sitting across from an empty chair as she awaited the Iranian president, her hair uncovered.
The British-Iranian journalist’s refusal to wear a headscarf was met with widespread praise online.
“Good for @amanpour. The days in which Iranian officials require female reporters and officials to wear the hejab in order to get interviews and meetings should be over. Forced hejab reflects an antiquated and intolerant ideology not a culture,” tweeted Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian-American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, a DC-based thinktank.
The NPR radio host Esther Ciammachilli retweeted Amanpour’s photo, writing, “What they mean when they say, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words.’ Christiane Amanpour’s integrity is fully intact.”
Bahman Kalbasi, the New York and UN correspondent for BBC’s Persian Service, echoed similar sentiments, tweeting: “Raisi doesn’t show up to interview with CNN after Christiane Amanpour refuses to put on regime’s Hijab. Iran regime’s President seems to think he can impose the Hijab in NYC too. #MahsaAmini.”
Raisi was repeatedly asked about Amini’s death during a briefing with reporters on Thursday morning which Iranian officials initially tried to confine to the subject of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear deal with the west.
Raisi repeated official claims that Amini had died from a heart attack or stroke while in custody and said similar deaths in custody had occurred in the US and UK.
At least three women who attended the briefing were not wearing headscarves.
At least 31 people have died in six days of protests since Amini’s death. Iranian women have been taking to the streets and the internet to burn their headscarves and cut their hair.
“A law that tramples on human dignity isn’t a normal law,” said one female protester.
At present, it’s poorly organized. The reason it isn’t doing much yet is because of disruptive shear, or a change of wind speed and/or direction with height, that it’s combating. Too much shear can knock a fledgling storm off-kilter, as if subjected to a game of atmospheric tug-of-war. That shear is stemming from the high-altitude outflow, or exhaust, of Fiona far to the northeast.
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