Biden cites a number of recent natural disasters, such as heatwaves in the US and China, wildfires in the US and Europe, drought in Africa, and flooding in Libya, and asserts that these disasters collectively demonstrate what the world would experience if dependence on fossil fuels is not reduced.
Since the first day of Biden’s presidency, he asserts, the United States has been treating this problem as the existential threat that it is—not just to us, but to all of humanity.
On Saturday, hundreds of South Koreans protested in Seoul against Japan’s controversial plan to discharge purified nuclear wastes into the Pacific Ocean.
Later this month, Tokyo plans to release the water from the Fukushima nuclear facility, which was damaged by the tsunami.
It has received UN nuclear watchdog approval, and a South Korean evaluation determined that it complies with global norms.
But opponents worry that fish would get tainted and marine life will be killed.
They marched through Seoul’s centre while carrying placards that said “Protect the Pacific Ocean” and “Nuclear Power? “No, thanks.”
Radiation in the ocean, according to activist Choi Kyoungsook of Korea Radiation Watch, “will eventually destroy the marine ecosystem.”
She declared, “The sea is for all of us and for mankind, not just the Japanese government.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which supports Japan’s plan, released a report last month.
A few days later, South Korea published its own analysis that concluded that water discharge should “not have any meaningful impact on our ocean areas,” according to government minister Bang Moon-kyu.
Japan has nevertheless come under fire both at home and abroad.
Groups in the fishing and seafood industries in Japan and the rest of the region have expressed worries about their livelihoods because they think people won’t buy seafood.
Additionally, a number of overseas specialists have voiced their reservations about the plans, including one in China who reportedly referred to the IAEA assessment as “hasty” in the state-run Global Times newspaper in China.
There is believed to be more than a million tonnes of treated radioactive water stored at the shut-down plant in northern Tokyo. The water was used to cool the reactors that were wrecked by the terrible earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
When Japan first announced its plan to release the water into the ocean, it stated that the procedure would be properly controlled and that the water would be further diluted by seawater before being released.
Next week, US President Joe Biden will hold a trilateral summit with Prime Ministers of Japan, Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea, and Fumio Kishida of Japan to address the contentious idea.
“The governments of South Korea, the US, and Japan should view it as an environmental disaster, rather than a political issue, and agree to block it for future generations,” said Ms. Choi.
On Wednesday, Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, announced that he and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau were divorcing.
We have decided to separate, Trudeau added, following “many meaningful and difficult conversations” with Sophie.
As always, he added, “we continue to be a close family with a deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build.”
For the sake of their children’s safety, he requested that their privacy be maintained.
The couple “have signed a legal separation agreement,” the prime minister‘s office stated in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, “They have worked to ensure that all necessary legal and ethical steps with regard to their decision to separate have been taken, and will continue to do so going forward.”
According to the official biography of the Canadian Prime Minister, Trudeau returned to Montreal in 2002 after spending several years as a teacher in Vancouver. It was there that he met Grégoire.
“Justin moved back to Montréal in 2002, when he met Sophie Grégoire. They were united in marriage in 2005, and today they are the proud parents of Hadrien, Ella-Grace, and Xavier.
According to the Liberal Party website for Grégoire Trudeau, he graduated from the University of Montréal with a degree in communications and afterwards worked in sales and advertising before becoming a reporter for television and radio.
Last year, Grégoire Trudeau said on Instagram that he and his wife had “navigated through sunny days, heavy storms, and everything in between and it ain’t over.”
Long-term partnerships are difficult in a variety of ways, she continued. They require ongoing effort, adaptability, sacrifice, devotion, patience, and a whole lot more. There is no perfect relationship since none of us are, but love is only real when it protects, liberates, and develops its recipient.
The two met US President Joe Biden in March and went to King Charles’ coronation in London earlier in May.
The President is scheduled to travel to the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and Finland from July 9-13.
He will first travel to London, for engagements with the King and Rishi ‘to further strengthen the close relationship between our nations,’ White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that the King will meet Mr Biden at Windsor Castle on July 10.Mr Biden made a brief trip to Northern Ireland earlier this year to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, meeting the Prime Minister for brief talks in Belfast.
The White House said that after visiting the UK Mr Biden would ‘then travel to Vilnius, Lithuania from July 11- 12 to attend the 74th Nato Summit’.
‘On July 13, President Biden will visit Helsinki, Finland for a US-Nordic Leaders Summit.’
The apparently short trip by Mr Biden comes after the US and the UK announced a new partnership, the ‘Atlantic Declaration’, to bolster economic security.
Announced during Mr Sunak’s visit to the White House, it included commitments on easing trade barriers, closer defence industry ties and a data protection deal.
While both sides used that Washington visit to hail the strength of US-UK ties, Mr Biden has not been afraid of occasionally criticising London.
Mr Biden in May claimed that he visited the island of Ireland earlier this year to ensure the ‘Brits didn’t screw around’, amid ongoing US concern about the impact of Brexit on the peace process.
During that visit, the President told the Irish parliament that he believed the UK should be working more closely with the administration in Dublin to support Northern Ireland.
Mr Biden and First Lady Jill Biden travelled to London for the funeral of the late Queen last September.
The US President did not attend the King’s coronation, with his wife attending instead.
Mr Sunak will also be attending the Nato summit in Vilnius, which is seen as a crunch summit at which a compromise on Ukraine’s demand for membership of the alliance is expected to be hammered out.
Ukraine’s quest for US-made F-16 fighter jets received a big boost over the weekend when US President Joe Biden gave his backing for Kyiv’s pilots to be trained to fly them.
Biden’s comments at a summit with G7 leaders in Japan came days after Britain and the Netherlands said they were building an “international coalition” to help Ukraine procure F-16s as it seeks to improve its defenses against Russian air attacks.
The F-16s would be an upgrade to the largely Soviet-era aircraft currently in Ukraine’s fleet. President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Biden’s decision, saying in a tweet, “this will greatly enhance our army in the sky.”
But analysts cautioned that the jets aren’t a cure-all and have vulnerabilities that Moscow would be well aware of and could exploit.
In fact, one active duty F-16 pilot told CNN that expectations may be way too high.
“To your question about the F-16 being a difference maker. It’s not,” said the pilot, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject.
Here’s what you need to know about the F-16.
F-16s are single-engine, multirole jet aircraft, meaning they can be used in air-to-air or ground-attack missions.
The US Air Force calls the F-16, which first flew in the 1970s, a “relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system.”
Thousands of the jets have been built over the decades, and hundreds have been exported around the world.
According to Flight Global’s World Air Forces directory, almost 2,200 F-16s are active worldwide this year, making it the single most popular combat aircraft across the planet with 15% of the world’s fleet.
F-16s for Ukraine are expected to be older versions that have been in the fleets of US allies, especially those in Western Europe.
Analysts say the F-16s Ukraine would receive are not the oldest ones out there, but aircraft that have undergone what are called “mid-life upgrades,” meaning they’ve gotten improvements to avionics and software.
Ukraine has said it needs about 200 F-16s, so the numbers would work out.
“There is a surplus of F-16s in Western nations, offering immediate availability and a well-established logistics trail,” said Robert Hopkins, a military aviation author and former US Air Force pilot.
“There are other aircraft more capable than the F-16, but they are fewer in number and are not available to transfer,” Hopkins added.
Those more-capable aircraft are probably ones that you commonly hear about, US-made F-35s and F/A-18s or French Rafales, for instance.
And there are others that are lesser known.
“The best aircraft technically would arguably be the Swedish Grippen because of its combat capabilities, ability to operate from austere bases and easier maintenance,” said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer. “However, their annual production rate is low and there are none available off the shelf.”
Layton gives the Netherlands as a prime example of how the F-16 might be the easiest answer for Ukraine.
“The Dutch (have) about 40 F-16s on hand. These Dutch aircraft have been progressively upgraded, have relatively modern radars and avionics, and are able to use advanced weapons,” Layton said.
The analysts say the sheer numbers of F-16s active around the world means they have an established logistics trail and a good number of spare parts available – important components to keep the jets combat capable.
But they also note that for a modern fighter jet like the F-16, training maintenance personnel can take longer than training pilots.
“I think it’s possible to teach a Ukrainian pilot to fly an F-16 in three months,” Layton said.
But “training maintenance personnel can take months or years, depending on the desired level of proficiency,” according to a March report on the possible F-16 transfers from the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Even after undergoing up to 133 days of schooling, a US Air Force maintainer gains a year of on-the-job experience to become fully qualified, the CRS report says.
And the report notes that there can be a numbers problem. F-16s need a lot of maintenance; 16 hours per hour of flying time, it says.
As for pilot training, Layton and the active F-16 pilot who spoke to CNN both say three months of training is for the basics – getting the plane up in the air, keeping it there and landing it safely. Combat roles become much more complex, however.
F-16s are easy to learn how to fly, but employing them effectively in “a dynamic threat environment” could take years, according to the pilot.
“Learning to fly an F-16 is only one part of the battle. American pilots first learn to fly, then they learn how to lead two F-16s, then four F-16s. This is a multi-year process, and that’s just for the basic tactical unit of employment,” the F-16 pilot said.
Layton said Ukraine’s current jet fighter pilots have proven adept, and could “learn on the job” in the F-16s if confining themselves to air defense, shooting down intruding Russian aircraft or missiles, in the short term.
“My logic falls away if trying to teach them low altitude night/all-weather ground attack using infrared systems and laser guided bombs; this would take longer,” Layton said.
Then there is the question of where Ukrainian F-16s would be based.
“F-16s do best on long, pristine runways. They could face difficulties on the rougher, former Soviet ones dispersed across Ukraine,” RAND Corp. analysts John Hoehn and William Courtney wrote in a blog post earlier this month.
“To bring in Western aircraft, Ukraine might need to repave and potentially extend a number of runways, a process which Russia would likely detect. If only a few airfields were suitable and in known locations, focused Russian attacks could impede Ukrainian F-16s from flying,” they wrote.
Assuming Ukraine can overcome logistics and maintenance hurdles, and find secure runways from which to fly F-16s, they still need the right armaments to be effective against the key fighter jets Russia is using, like the Su-25 and MiG-31, analysts say.
“The advantages of transferring advanced western fighter jets in seeking air superiority are likely to be realized only if paired with large quantities of western-manufactured munitions,” the CRS report says.
Advanced western armaments for the F-16s would be expensive.
For instance, a single Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) costs about $1.2 million, CRS says, adding that it takes about two years to make one.
The US could provide AMRAAMs and other arms from its stockpile, but with the long manufacturing times, it runs the risk of its own inventories being depleted if needed in a conflict directly involving US forces, the CRS says.
Despite all the possible drawbacks to F-16s, Hopkins said a political war is being fought, and victories are needed in that battlespace.
Getting F-16s to Ukraine would demonstrate “a powerful political and diplomatic collaboration across multiple Western (and especially NATO) countries,” he said.
Layton said Ukraine needs to take a long view, too.
Hear Biden official’s response to admin’s pivot on F-16s
Kyiv is not going to be able to get replacements for its current Soviet-era aircraft as they wear out or are lost in combat, he said
“Over time, there will be no combat-effective Ukrainian air force. They need new aircraft for future air defense tasks,” he said.
Transitioning to a Western-made fleet now makes sense, he said.
But the war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending soon, and the current F-16 pilot doesn’t see the planes hastening the end of it.
“Getting the Ukranians F-16s will be a morale boost and add some limited combat capability, that’s all,” the pilot said.
“It might do a couple of strikes over the next year and have some wins, but no one airplane will change the course of the war.”
Vladimir Putin has praised Russian troops and the paramilitary Wagner Group for capturing the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
The longest and bloodiest fight of the 15-month conflict would culminate with the capture of the largely flattened city, and Russia has often declared victory there in error in recent months.
Insisting that battle is still going on for control of the Donetsk Oblast’s transport and logistical hub, Ukrainian officials quickly refuted these assertions.
Reports that Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed earlier today that his army has lost control were also misinterpreted.
A Ukrainian soldier in the frontline city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on April 23, 2023 (Picture: AFP)Residential buildings damaged by shelling (Picture: AFP)
Speaking alongside US president Joe Biden at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, the Ukrainian president was asked if Bakhmut is still in Ukraine’s hands.
He then replied ‘I think no’ in answer to a journalist, who stated ‘the Russians say they have taken Bakhmut’.
‘You have to understand that there is nothing,’ the leader added. ‘They [Russians] destroyed everything.
‘For today, Bakhmut is only in our hearts. There is nothing in this place.’
In a Facebook post, his spokesperson Sergii Nykyforov clarified the response: ‘As for the answers of the president of Ukraine to the questions about Bakhmut.
‘Reporter’s question: “Russians said they have taken Bakhmut.” President’s reply: “I think no.” Thus the president denied taking Bakhmut.”
Russia’s defence ministry had said early on Sunday that Wagner forces, with the support of Russian troops, had captured the city.
It came about eight hours after a similar claim by leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who shared a video on his Telegram channel in which his fighters waved Russian flags against a backdrop of ruins.
‘Today on May 20, around midday, Bakhmut was taken in its entirety,’ he said in the video, adding that Wagner fighters would search the city before handing it over to the Russian army.
‘By May 25 we will completely examine [Bakhmut], create the necessary lines of defence and hand it to the military.’
The claims come after a week in which Ukrainian forces have made their most rapid gains for six months on the northern and southern flanks ahead of a long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Whether they have left the city or not, troops have been slowly pulling back inside it, to clusters of buildings on the western edge.
Meanwhile, to the north and south, they have seized large areas from the Russian army.
As a result of US President Joe Biden cancelling his trip, a summit of the leaders of the United States, India, Australia, and Japan that was to be held in Sydney the following week has been postponed, according to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He added that discussions may still take place while leaders are in Japan.
On May 24, Biden was scheduled to attend a meeting of the informal security conversation with Albanese, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio. This meeting was considered as a response to China’s strong stance in the region.
The late hour cancellation – which also saw Biden pull out of a visit to Papua New Guinea – comes as the US seeks to energize its security ties in the Pacific amid rising competition with Beijing.
But Washington’s fractious domestic politics has curtailed what would have been a significant visit to Asia by a US president.
Biden had been planning to travel to Sydney for the summit as part of a weeklong Asia tour that was set to begin in Hiroshima, Japan, for a Group of Seven (G7) leader summit, and include a stopover in Papua New Guinea for a meeting with Pacific Island leaders.
Biden will still travel to Japan starting Wednesday, but he canceled the additional legs of the trip, due to the ongoing debt ceiling negotiations in Washington, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
The Quad leaders would instead have discussions in Japan, where all four leaders would be over the weekend, Albanese said Wednesday, adding that no time had been confirmed.
“The Quad is an important body and we want to make sure that it occurs at leadership level and we’ll be having that discussion over the weekend,” the Australian leader said.
The meeting would be the third in-person leaders gathering for the Quad, known formally as the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which was founded over 15 years ago but has seen increased prominence in recent years.
The leaders were expected to discuss deepening their cooperation on a range of issues from critical and emerging technologies, to climate change and maritime domain awareness, according to a statement released by the White House last month.
Albanese said the other Quad leaders could still visit Sydney next week and that discussions are underway.
The Australian leader also hinted at Biden’s frustration that events on Capitol Hill had forced his hand.
Biden and Albanese spoke over the phone early Wednesday, when Biden expressed his disappointment “at some of the actions of some members of Congress and the US Senate,” Albanese said.
“It is behavior that clearly is not in the interests of the people of the United States, but it’s also because the US has a critical role as the world’s largest economy. It has implications for the global economy as well, this hold up of the debt ceiling that they’re engaged with,” Albanese said.
Biden has been meeting with lawmakers in Washington as the White House scrambles to avert a potential government default. Congress has failed to come to an agreement on raising the country’s debt ceiling, though negotiations are ongoing.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday said a default could trigger a global economic downturn, “risk undermining US global economic leadership,” and raise questions about America’s ability to defend its national security interests.
Both the Quad meeting in Sydney and Biden’s planned Monday stopover in Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby had been seen by observers as opportunities to strengthen US partnerships in the Indo-Pacific.
The region has taken on a greater importance for Washington as China becomes increasingly assertive over its territorial claims in regional seas, expands its naval capabilities and militarizes islands in the South China Sea.
Beijing has also ramped up its military intimidation of Taiwan, a self-governing democratic island China’s ruling Communist Party claims as its territory. Last month, Beijing launched military drills around the island in retaliation for a visit between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
In Port Moresby, Biden had been slated to meet Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and other leaders from the region’s Pacific Island Forum.
The visit, highly anticipated by the Marape government as a potential economic boon, was the latest step by the US to re-engage in the South Pacific – a strategically significant region widely seen as having been largely overlooked by Washington since the close of the Cold War.
China has in recent years elevated its own diplomatic outreach in the region and made significant inroads with some Pacific Islands governments, including the signing of a bilateral security deal with the Solomon Islands last year.
Biden’s visit to Port Moresby would have been the first by a sitting US President and would have coincided with negotiations between the two countries on a defense cooperation agreement.
Derek Grossman, senior defense analyst at RAND Corporation think tank in the US, said the impact of the cancellation of the Quad meeting in Sydney might be “negligible,” as the grouping already had “good momentum” from previous meetings.
The cancellation of Monday’s visit to Papua New Guinea, however, could have more far-reaching consequences for US policy toward the Pacific Islands, he said.
The US “has done a good job in elevating its game in the region, but this missed (Papua New Guinea) visit will serve as evidence to the contrary – essentially that Washington is an unreliable partner over the long-term,” he said.
“This feeds directly into Beijing’s narrative and could strengthen its hand,” he said.
Last night, President Putin allegedly launched a “new intercontinental ballistic missile” at Kazakhstan, striking a target at a firing range.
The enigmatic rocket’s full specifications were initially withheld, but experts concur that it is a potent Topol-ME system.
It was launched from the Astrakhan-area Kapustrin Yar test site and struck the Sary-Shagan range in neighboring Kazakhstan.
A spectacular video shows the late night launch as Russians today mark the 62nd anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s blastoff in Vostok 1 to be the first man in space.
The rocket was launched overnight (Picture: MoD Russia/e2w)
In an official statement, the Russian defence ministry said: ‘The combat crew of the Strategic Missile Troops successfully launched a intercontinental ballistic missile of the land-based mobile missile system from the Kapustin Yar State Central Training Ground in the Astrakhan Region.’
The launch was aimed at ‘testing the advanced military supply of intercontinental ballistic missiles’, reported TASS citing the ministry.
‘The launch permitted proving that design and engineering solutions used in the development of new strategic missile complexes are correct,’ said the ministry.
The exercise head hit a ‘hypothetical target’ at Sary-Shagan which Russia uses under agreement with Kazakhstan.
‘The launch fully dispatched its mission,’ said the ministry.
Outlet Military Russia and others indicated the launch was a test ‘apparently for the first time’…of advanced combat equipment 15Zh55ME Topol-ME also known as Yars-E.
The rocket can be unleashed from a mobile launcher, it stated.
A Topol-ME launch from Kapustrin Yar had been predicted for this year.
It is believed to be a development of the old Topol system.
The new development ‘will solve the issue of the expiration of Topol missiles, which were previously used for such test launches, and will also allow the payload to be launched on a platform unified with many modern missiles.’
Russia is also due to carry out more tests with its hypersonic Sarmat rocket, known in the West as Satan-2, which appears subject to mysterious delays in an humiliation for after a failure to meet a deployment deadline at the end of 2022.
Some reports have suggested a failed test launch of Sarmat in February.
The Satan-2 rocket is the size of a 14 storey tower block weighing 208 tons which is capable of delivering multiple nuclear warheads.
Five test launches of Satan-2 have been predicted for this year.
In May, former head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, seen as a close Putin ally, said almost 50 Satan-2 missiles, which were in mass production, would soon be on combat duty.
In early June, a major ICBM test was scheduled and locals near the Kura test range were warned to stay clear of the target site in remote Kamchatka. But the test never happened.
In June last year Rogozin boasted: ‘We are absolutely on schedule, we are now preparing for the second flight test of the Sarmat.’
The following month Rogozin was fired for unknown reasons with his promised new job yet to arrive.
His successor, ex-deputy premier Yury Borisov, in July repeated the claim that the missile is in mass production without evidently reiterating Putin’s goal of Satan-2 being on combat duty by December.
Defence analysts suspecting hypersonic hyperbole have pointed out that Russia’s R-36M2 Voevoda missile was tested no less than 17 times before it was put on combat duty.
According to Friday’s report by Russian state news outlet Tass, journalist Evan Gershkovich officially denied the allegations after being prosecuted by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Tass quoted an unnamed source as saying, “He categorically refuted all the allegations and indicated that he was involved in journalistic activities in Russia.”
It was not immediately clear if Gershkovich, 31, was charged in a court hearing.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in Russia on March 30 (Picture: Getty Images)
Gershkovich is the first US journalist to be detained in Russia, on March 30, on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War. US President Joe Biden the next day called on Russia to ‘let him go’.
The Kremlin said that Gershkovich was engaging in espionage ‘under the cover’ of being a journalist. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims Gershkovich was caught trying to get away with secrets.
Meanwhile, the Journal has called the arrest of its ‘trusted and dedicated reporter’ a ‘vicious affront to a free press’ that ‘should spur outrage in all free people and governments throughout the world’.
If convicted, Gershkovich could face 20 years behind bars.
On Friday, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a rare joint statement called on Russia to immediately release Gershkovich.
‘We strongly condemn the wrongful detention of US citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and demand the immediate release of this internationally known and respected independent journalist,’ wrote Schumer and McConnell.
They noted that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accredited Gershkovich to work as a journalist in the country.
‘Let there be no mistake: journalism is not a crime,’ stated Schumer and McConnell stated.
‘We demand the baseless, fabricated charges against Mr Gershkovich be dropped and he be immediately released and reiterate our condemnation of the Russian government’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress, and punish independent journalists and civil society voices.’
Earlier this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Gershkovich was ‘wrongfully detained’ and that the US agency was evaluating if that determination could be made formally.
In Moldova, a small republic bordering Ukraine to the southwest, tensions are rising amid accusations that Moscow is preparing the ground for a coup that may draw the country into its war.
Maia Sandu, the president of Moldova, has accused Russia of using “saboteurs” dressed as people to incite trouble during a time of political turbulence, echoing similar cautions from Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile baselessly accused Kyiv of planning its own assault on a pro-Russian territory in Moldova where Moscow has a military foothold, heightening fears that he is creating a pretext for a Crimea-style annexation.
US President Joe Biden met President Sandu on the sidelines of his trip to Warsaw last week, marking the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Although there is no sign he has accepted her invite to visit, the White House did say he reaffirmed support for Moldova’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Here’s what you need to know.
Earlier this month, Zelensky warned that Ukrainian intelligence intercepted a Russian plan to destabilize an already volatile political situation in Moldova.
The recent resignation of the country’s prime minister followed an ongoing period of crises, headlined by soaring gas prices and sky-high inflation. Moldova’s new prime minister has continued the government’s pro-EU drive, but pro-Russian protests have since taken place in the capital, Chisinau, backed by a fringe, pro-Moscow political party.
Amid the tensions, Moldova’s President Sandu issued a direct accusation that Russia was seeking to take advantage of the situation.
Sandu said the government last fall had planned for “a series of actions involving saboteurs who have undergone military training and are disguised as civilians to carry out violent actions, attacks on government buildings and hostage-taking.”
Sandu also claimed individuals disguised as “the so-called opposition” were going to try forcing a change of power in Chisinau through “violent actions.” CNN is unable to independently verify those claims.
“It’s clear that these threats from Russia and the appetite to escalate the war towards us is very high,” Iulian Groza, Moldova’s former deputy foreign minister and now the director of the Chisinau-based Institute for European Policies and Reforms, told CNN.
“Moldova is the most affected country after Ukraine (by) the war,” he said. “We are still a small country, which has still an under-developed economy, and that creates a lot of pressure.”
Despite Moscow’s pleas of innocence, its actions regarding Moldova bear a striking resemblance to moves it made ahead of its annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.
On Tuesday, Putin revoked a 2012 foreign policy decree that in part recognized Moldova’s independence, according to Reuters.
Then on Thursday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of “preparing an armed provocation” against Moldova’s pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria “in the near future,” state-media TASS reported.
No evidence or further details were offered to support the ministry’s accusation, and it has been rubbished by Moldova.
But the claim has put Western leaders on alert, coming almost exactly a year after Putin made similar, unsubstantiated claims that Russians were being targeted in the Donbas – the eastern flank of Ukraine where Moscow had supported militant separatists since 2014 – allowing him to cast his invasion of the country as an issue of self-defense.
“It was the case before – we have seen constant activities of Russia trying to explore and exploit the information space in Moldova using propaganda,” Groza said.
“With the war, all these instruments that Russia was using before have been multiplied and intensified,” he said. “What we see is a reactivation of Russian political proxies in Moldova.”
“I do see lots of fingerprints of Russian forces, Russian services in Moldova,” Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told CBS last Sunday. “This is a very weak country, and we all need to help them.”
Central to Russia’s interests in Moldova is Transnistria, a breakaway territory that slithers along the eastern flank of the country and has housed Russian troops for decades.
The territory – a 1,300 square mile enclave on the eastern bank of the Dniester River – was the site of a Russian military outpost during the last years of the Cold War. It declared itself a Soviet republic in 1990, opposing any attempt by Moldova to become an independent state or to merge with Romania after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
When Moldova became independent the following year, Russia quickly inserted itself as a so-called “peacekeeping force” in Transnistria, sending troops in to back pro-Moscow separatists there.
War with Moldovan forces ensued, and the conflict ended in deadlock in 1992. Transnistria was not recognized internationally, even by Russia, but Moldovan forces left it a de facto breakaway state. That deadlock has left the territory and its estimated 500,000 inhabitants trapped in limbo, with Chisinau holding virtually no control over it to this day.
Moldova is a country at a crossroads between east and west. Its government and most of its citizens want closer ties to the EU, and the country achieved candidacy status last year. But it’s also home to a breakaway faction whose sentiment Moscow has eagerly sought to rile up.
It has been a flashpoint on the periphery of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the past year, with Russian missiles crossing into Moldovan airspace on several occasions, including earlier this month.
A series of explosions in Transnistria last April spiked concerns that Putin was looking to drag the territory into his invasion.
Russia’s stuttering military progress since then had temporarily allayed those fears. But officials in Moldova have been warning the West that their country could be next on Putin’s list.
Last month, the head of Moldova’s Security Service warned there is a “very high” risk that Russia will launch a new offensive in Moldova’s east in 2023. Moldova is not a NATO member, making it more vulnerable to Putin’s agenda.
Should Russia launch a Spring offensive that centers on Ukraine’s south, it may seek again to creep towards Odesa and then link up with Transnistria, essentially creating a land bridge that sweeps through southern Ukraine and inches even closer to NATO territory.
In remarks delivered from Warsaw, Poland, three days before the anniversary of Russia’s complete invasion of Ukraine, Biden specifically criticised Putin.
“President Putin believed we would submit when he ordered his tanks to advance into Ukraine.” He was mistaken,’ Biden said on Tuesday in front of the Polish Presidential Palace.
‘The Ukrainian people are too brave. America, Europe, a coalition of nations for the Atlantic to the Pacific, we were too unified. Democracy was too strong.’
Biden: ‘Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia’
Biden said Putin ‘no longer doubts the strength of our coalition’ but that he ‘doubts our continued support for Ukraine’ and the unification of NATO. The US president assured that ‘NATO will not be divided, and we will not tire’.
‘President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail. And the Ukrainian people’s love for their country will prevail,’ Biden said.
‘Democracies in the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever. For that’s what it’s – that’s what’s at stake here: Freedom.’
Biden delivered his remarks a day after making a surprise visit to Kyiv, during which he stood alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and announced $460million more in military aid.
President Joe Biden delivered a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Royal Castle Gardens in Warsaw (Picture: AP)
The US notified the Kremlin of Biden’s surprise visit ‘some hours before his departure for deconfliction purposes’, according to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
On Tuesday, Biden said the world a year ago ‘was bracing for the fall of Kyiv’. But, ‘I can report that Kyiv stands strong’, he said.
Biden concluded that the world is at ‘an inflection point’ and that decisions in the next five years will shape the decades to come.
‘While decisions are ours to make now, the principles and the stakes are eternal,’ Biden said. ‘The choice between chaos and stability, between building and destroying between hope and fear, between democracy lifting up the human spirit – and the brutal hand of the dictator who crushes it.’
President Joe Biden condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin by name in remarks from Warsaw, Poland (Picture: Reuters)
Biden ripped Putin, but did not call for him to be ousted.
Hours earlier, Putin told Russia’s parliament that the country would no longer participate in the New START nuclear arms treaty with the US. It was the last major arms control agreement between the two superpowers. Russia will suspend, but not withdraw from the treaty.
Putin did not mention Biden by name in his announcement.
Biden’s speech was not intended as a response to Putin, but rather coincided with the one-year anniversary of the war on Friday, according to Sullivan.
‘We did not set the speech up as some kind of head to head, this is not a rhetorical contest with anyone else,’ Sullivan said. ‘This is an affirmative statement of values, a vision for what the world we’re both trying to build and defend should look like.’
This week, Wang Yi, who was appointed last month as Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s top foreign policy adviser, is scheduled to arrive in Moscow for the last leg of his eight-day European tour. Wang Yi’s visit highlights China’s attempts at diplomatic balancing since Russia’s tanks entered Ukraine a year ago.
The Kremlin has said it does not “rule out” a meeting between Wang and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. If they do meet, the images of Wang and Putin shaking hands inside the fortified Kremlin will be a stark juxtaposition to Biden’s open-air stroll with Zelensky through Kyiv amid air raid sirens.
The optics of the two trips – taking place just days before the one-year anniversary of the brutal war on Friday – underscores the sharpening of geopolitical fault lines between the world’s two superpowers.
While relations between the US and China continue to plummet – most recently due to the fallout from a suspected Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace, China and Russia are as close as ever since their leaders declared a “no-limits” friendship a year ago – partly driven by their shared animosity toward the United States.
And as the US and its allies reaffirm their support for Ukraine and step up military aid, Beijing’s deepening partnership with Moscow has raised alarms in Western capitals – despite China’s public charm offensive in Europe to present itself as a negotiator of peace.
At the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Wang addressed a room of European officials as “dear friends” and touted China’s commitment to peace, while apparently attempting to drive a wedge between Europe and the US.
“We do not add fuel to the fire, and we’re against reaping benefits from this crisis,” Wang said in a thinly veiled dig at the US, echoing the propaganda messaging that regularly made China’s nightly prime-time news program – that the US is intentionally prolonging the war to advance its own geopolitical interests and increase the profits of its arms manufacturers.
“Some forces might not want to see peace talks to materialize. They don’t care about the life and death of Ukrainians, nor the harm on Europe. They might have strategic goals larger than Ukraine itself. This warfare must not continue,” Wang said.
He urged European officials to think about “what framework should there be to bring lasting peace to Europe, what role should Europe play to manifest its strategic autonomy.”
Wang also announced Beijing’s plan to release its proposition on a “political settlement of the Ukraine crisis” around the first anniversary.
But the vague mention of the proposal was met with suspicion from some Western leaders who are closely watching for any support China lends to its northern neighbor – especially assistance that could help Russia on the battlefield.
“We need more proof that China isn’t working with Russia, and we aren’t seeing that now,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen told CNN Saturday.
Such suspicions are compounded by claims by US officials that Beijing is considering stepping up its partnership with Moscow by supplying Russia’s military with “lethal support.”
“We’ve been watching this very closely,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told “Face the Nation” on CBS in Munich on Sunday.
“The concern that we have now is based on information we have that they’re considering providing lethal support, and we’ve made very clear to them that that would cause a serious problem for us and in our relationship,” Blinken said.
Responding to the accusations Monday, China’s Foreign Ministry blasted the US for “shoving responsibility, shifting blame and spreading false information.”
“It is the US side, not the Chinese side, that supplies a steady stream of weapons to the battlefield. The US side is not qualified to lecture China, and we would never accept the US dictating or even coercing pressure on Sino-Russian relations,” a ministry spokesperson said at a regular news conference.
“Who is calling for dialogue and peace? And who is handing out knives and encouraging confrontation? The international community can see clearly,” the spokesperson said.
US officials have been concerned enough with the intelligence that they shared it with allies and partners in Munich, according to CNN reporting. In a meeting with Wang on the sidelines of the conference Saturday, Blinken also raised the issue and warned Wang about its “implications and consequences,” according to a US readout.
The US accusations, if true, would mark a major escalation in China’s support for Russia – and usher in a dangerous and unpredictable new phase in the war itself.
Previously, Beijing had carefully avoided actions that could trigger secondary sanctions, which would deal a devastating blow to an economy hampered by three years of costly zero-Covid policy.
Though China claimed impartiality in the conflict and no advance knowledge of Russia’s intent, it has refused to condemn Moscow and parroted Kremlin lines blaming NATO for provoking the conflict.
And while Beijing’s pro-Russian rhetoric appears to have softened in recent months, its support for Moscow – when measured by its annual trade, diplomatic engagements and schedule of joint military exercises – has bolstered over the past year.
Chinese officials have often calibrated their narrative to different audiences. Wang may have made many appealing pledges during his Europe tour, but whether they will be translated into a consistent message to be delivered to Putin when the two meet is another question.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s administration unveiled a divisive measure to revamp the judiciary, demonstrators shut down streets in cities all over Israel on Monday.
Israeli flags that were being distributed by the event’s organisers before it started became a sea as protesters in Jerusalem filled the streets around the Supreme Court and Knesset with Israeli flags.
Several drummers, trumpet blowers, and at least one juggler balancing an Israeli flagpole on his nose were among the protestors, as well as a few dozen ladies wearing long red robes and white head coverings to resemble the handmaids from Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The Jerusalem demonstration was visibly smaller than one in the same location a week earlier, but still appeared to number in the tens of thousands.
The judicial overhaul bill is due for the first of three readings in parliament, the Knesset, on Monday, despite weeks of protests and calls from Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and the United States to delay the legislation and negotiate.
Netanyahu’s coalition is seeking the most sweeping overhaul of the Israeli legal system since the country’s founding. The most significant changes would allow a simple majority in the Knesset to overturn Supreme Court rulings.
The reforms also seek to change the way judges are selected, and remove government ministries’ independent legal advisers, whose opinions are binding.
US President Joe Biden has expressed concerns over the reforms, saying: “The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary. Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained.”
On Sunday, Netanyahu defended the judicial reform.
“Israel is a democracy and will remain a democracy, with majority rule and proper safeguards of civil liberties,” he said during an address to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“All democracies should respect the will of other free peoples, just as we respect their democratic decisions.
“There’s been a lot of rhetoric that is frankly reckless and dangerous, including calls for bloodshed in the streets and calls for a civil war. It isn’t going to happen. There’s not going to be a civil war,” the Prime Minister added.
The unmanned object, according to spokesman John Kirby, was “the size of a small car” and presented a “reasonable threat” to civil aviation.
Mr. Kirby stated that the object’s origin and purpose were unknown.
It occurs one week after American forces blew up a Chinese balloon over US airspace.
Speaking on Friday at the White House, Mr. Kirby noted that the object that was shot down on that day had a “much, much smaller debris field” than the balloon that was shot down last Saturday off the coast of South Carolina.
He said that the object was flying at 40,000ft (12,000m) over the northern coast of Alaska.
It had already flown across Alaska at a speed of 20 to 40mph (64km/h) and was out over the sea travelling towards the North Pole, when it was shot down.
Commercial airlines can fly as high as 45,000ft.
Helicopters and transport aircraft have been deployed to collect debris from the frozen waters of the Beaufort Sea.
“We do not know who owns it, whether it’s state owned or corporate owned or privately owned,” Mr Kirby said.
The object was first spotted on Thursday night, though officials did not specify a time.
He said two fighter jets had approached the object and assessed there was nobody on board, and this information was available to Mr Biden when he made his decision.
“We’re going to remain vigilant about our airspace,” Mr Kirby asserted. “The president takes his obligations to protect our national security interests as paramount.”
According to ABC News, the object seemed to have no propulsion.
It seemed to be floating, “cylindrical and silver-ish grey,” reports the network’s chief global affairs correspondent, Martha Raddatz, citing an unnamed US official.
Pentagon press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the object was “not similar in size or shape” to last week’s Chinese balloon.
Image caption,The Pentagon said an F-22, seen here in an archive photograph, shot down the object on Friday afternoon local time
The warplane was scrambled from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
Gen Ryder said a significant amount of debris had been recovered so far. It was being loaded on to vessels and taken to “labs for subsequent analysis”, he added.
Officials said they had not yet determined whether the object was involved in surveillance, and Mr Kirby corrected a reporter who referred to it as a balloon.
He did not specify where exactly the object was shot down, but the Federal Aviation Administration said it had closed about 10 sq miles of US airspace airspace above Deadhorse, northern Alaska, before the F-22 fired.
The site is about 130 miles from the border of Canada, whose Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter he had been briefed on the “object that violated American airspace” and “supported the decision to take action”.
No other objects of a threatening nature have been identified above the US at this time, according to the White House.
Mr Kirby said the object did not appear to have the manoeuvrable capability of the Chinese balloon and seemed to be “virtually at the whim of the wind”.
Hours after the US shot down the balloon last Saturday, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Chinese counterpart via their special crisis line.
But Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe declined to pick up, according to the Pentagon.
Chinese officials on Friday accused the US of “political manipulation and hype”.
In an interview on Thursday, President Biden defended his handling of the Chinese balloon, maintaining that it was not “a major breach.”
Late on Friday, five Chinese companies and one research institute were added to the US government’s trade blacklist. Organisations were placed on the list for their alleged support of Chinese military aerospace programmes, including airships and balloons, the US Commerce Department announced.
Denial follows US accusations that North Korea had provided rockets and missiles to the Wagner Group, a Russian military contractor.
After the United States accused North Koreaof supplying rockets and missiles to the Russian Wagner Group and supporting Moscow’s forces in Ukraine, Pyongyang denied arming Russia.
In a statement released on Sunday, a senior North Korean official denounced the US accusations as “baseless rumour” intended to support Washington’s own military assistance to Ukraine.
As a result of the private military organization’s alleged weapons transactions with North Korea, which are forbidden by United Nations Security Council resolutions, the US designated Wagner as a “transnational criminal organisation” earlier this month.
The White House also showed what it said were US intelligence photographs of Russian rail cars entering North Korea, picking up a load of infantry rockets and missiles, and returning to Russia.
But the director general of the North Korean Department of US Affairs, Kwon Jong Gun, rejected the accusations on Sunday, warning that the US will face a “really undesirable result” if it persists in spreading the “self-made rumour”.
“Trying to tarnish the image of [North Korea] by fabricating a non-existent thing is a grave provocation that can never be allowed and that cannot but trigger its reaction,” Kwon Jong Gun said.
He added that the US move was “a foolish attempt to justify its offer of weapons to Ukraine”.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden promised 31 Abrams tanks, one of the US army’s most powerful and sophisticated weapons, to help Kyiv fight off Moscow’s invasion.
The move drew a rebuke Friday from Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who accused Washington of “further crossing the red line” by sending the tanks into Ukraine.
Kwon Jong Gun reiterated Pyongyang’s concerns over the tank transfer on Sunday, calling it an “unethical crime” aimed at perpetuating an unstable international situation.
Along with China, Russia is one of North Korea’s few international friends.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, has long held the line against increasing pressure on nuclear-armed North Korea, even asking for relief from international sanctions for humanitarian reasons.
Meanwhile, other than Syria and Russia, North Korea is the only country to recognise the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, two Russian-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
In November, after the White House said Pyongyang was covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells, North Korea said it had never had arms dealings with Russia and had no plans to do so.
