U.S. Announces More Than $266 Million In New Afghanistan Aid

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June 4, 2021

Russian charter flights to Egyptian resorts are expected to resume in the coming days after a years-long hiatus, the Interfax news agency cited the boss of Aeroflot as saying on Friday.

Flights to resort destinations Sharm al-Sheikh and Hurghada were suspended after a Russian passenger plane crashed in Sinai in October 2015, killing 224 people.

The plane had been taking Russian holiday makers home from Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg in 2015, when it broke up over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all on board. A group affiliated with Islamic State militants claimed responsibility.

Sweden’s Left Party Threatens To Topple Govt Over Rent Reform

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June 4, 2021

Sweden’s centrist government came under threat on Friday after the Left Party vowed to bring it down over the prospective abolition of rent controls on new residential housing.

The Left Party threat came after the government received a report into the reform of Sweden’s highly regulated and much debated rent market, proposing that tenants and landlords negotiate rent between them and that rents subsequently follow the consumer prices index.

“This is a disaster for Sweden’s tenants,” Left Party leader Nooshi Dagostar told news agency TT. “This means sharply higher rents and a paradigm change for the housing market.”

Dagostar reiterated a threat to join forces with the right-wing opposition to bring down Prime Minister Stefan Lofven’s government if the proposal was brought to parliament.

Sweden’s parliament is fragmented and the Social Democrats and the Greens Sweden form a fragile government dependent on the support of two small centre-right parties. General elections are scheduled for next year.

However, Minister for Justice Morgan Johansson dismissed the prospect of raised rents for large numbers of people.

“All the tenants who have become anxious after the recent agitation can breathe a sigh of relief. This does not affect them,” Johansson told a news conference, adding he wanted minor changes to the proposals before putting them to parliament.

Rents in Sweden are set in a form of collective bargaining and people opposed to the system claim it makes it unprofitable to build new for-rent apartments. Johansson said the reform would only relate to apartments built after 2022.

EU Bans Belarus Airlines As Opposition Urges G7 Sanctions

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June 4, 2021

Belarus carriers will be banned from flying over European Union territory or having access to its airports from Friday, the bloc said, as the country’s exiled opposition leader called for more joint Western sanctions.

The EU decision is part of planned punitive measures against Belarus in response to Minsk scrambling a warplane to force the landing on May 23 of a Ryanair flight carrying an opposition journalist, who was then arrested. read more

The move is due to take effect at midnight Central European Time (2200 GMT), and requires EU member states “to deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories to any aircraft operated by Belarusian air carriers,” EU governments said in a statement.

The ban also includes marketing carriers, which sell seats on planes operated by another airline as part of a code-share agreement.

On Wednesday, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued a safety directive saying all EU aircraft should also avoid Belarus air space unless in an emergency.

Global airline industry body IATA criticised the decision, which will make flights to Asia longer and more costly. read more

However, the EU and NATO believe the forced landing of the flight from Athens to Vilnius to arrest journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend amounted to state piracy and must not be tolerated.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said Protasevich was plotting a rebellion, and accused the West of waging a hybrid war against him.

MH17 Plane Crash Families Prepare For Critical Trial Phase

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June 4, 2021

Families of people who died in the 2014 downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 will hear painful details when a critical stage of a trial over the crash starts on Monday.

Dutch judges overseeing the murder trial of three Russians and a Ukrainian man accused of having responsibility for the downing will summarise evidence at the hearing in a high-security courtroom next to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

According international investigators say MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile fired from territory held by pro-Russian rebels during fighting with Ukrainian government troops.

All 298 people on board were killed, two-thirds of them Dutch nationals.

After years of collecting evidence, a team of international investigators concluded in May 2018 that the missile launcher used to shoot down the aircraft belonged to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.

The Dutch government holds Moscow responsible but Russia denies any involvement.

Prosecutors, who say the four defendants all held leading positions in pro-Russian militias operating in Ukraine, will present evidence and may call witnesses, court officials said.

None of the defendants are in custody. One, Russian Oleg Pulatov, is represented in the proceedings and has said he had no involvement in the crash. The other three are being tried in absentia and have not appointed lawyers to represent them during the proceedings.

Prosecutors say the investigation into MH17 is still ongoing and they are looking at other possible suspects, including the people who manned the missile system and ordered its firing.

World Bank Pauses Payments Of Operations In Mali

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June 4, 2021

The World Bank said on Friday it had temporarily paused payments to operations in Mali following a military coup, while the man expected to become the new prime minister warned sanctions would only complicate the country’s crisis.

The Bank’s actions add to pressure on Mali’s military leadership after chief security ally France announced on Thursday it was suspending joint operations with Malian troops in order to press for a return to civilian rule.

The military’s overthrow of Mali’s transitional president last week, its second coup in nine months, has drawn international condemnation and raised fears the political crisis will weaken regional efforts to fight Islamist militants.

The World Bank, whose International Development Association (IDA) is currently financing projects to the tune of $1.5 billion in Mali, confirmed the suspension of payments in a statement to Reuters.

“In accordance with the World Bank policy applicable to similar situations, it has temporarily paused disbursements on its operations in Mali, as it closely monitors and assesses the situation,” it said.

Assimi Goita, the colonel who led both coups, was declared president last Friday after having served as vice president under Bah Ndaw, who had been leading the transition since September. Ndaw and his prime minister resigned while in military custody last week.

Goita is widely expected in the coming days to name as prime minister Choguel Maiga, the leader of the M5-RFP opposition coalition that spearheaded protests against former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita before his overthrow last August.

At a rally in the capital Bamako on Friday to mark the one-year anniversary of the start of the protests against Keita, Maiga was alternately firm and conciliatory toward foreign partners.

“We will respect international engagements that aren’t contrary to the fundamental interests of the Malian people,” he said before thousands of supporters in the city’s Independence Square.

“Sanctions and threats will only complicate the situation,” he said.

France, the former colonial power, has more than 5,000 troops waging counter-insurgency operations against Islamist militants in Mali and the wider Sahel, an arid region of West Africa just below the Sahara desert.

It hopes to use its leverage to press Goita to respect the 18-month timetable agreed to at the start of the transition by organising a presidential election next February.

The African Union and a West African regional bloc responded to the coup by suspending Mali’s membership but did not impose further sanctions.

Hong Kong Locks Down Tiananmen Vigil Park

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June 4, 2021

Police blocked off a Hong Kong park to prevent people gathering to commemorate the anniversary of China’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on Friday and arrested the planned vigil’s organiser.

The ban on the vigil comes amid growing concern in the pro-democracy movement and internationally about the suppression of the semi-autonomous city’s traditional freedoms.

The annual June 4 vigil is usually held in the former British colony’s Victoria Park, with people gathering to light candles for the pro-democracy demonstrators killed by Chinese troops in Beijing 32 years ago.

This year, with thousands of police deployed across the city, some marked the anniversary in churches or at home amid fears of being arrested.

Reports said in the working class district of Mong Kok, minor scuffles broke out and police arrested one person but as night fell, police cleared people from around Victoria Park as they walked with their phone lights on.

Police said at least six people were arrested on Friday aged between 20 and 75.

Early on Friday, police arrested Chow Hang Tung, vice-chairwoman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, for promoting an unauthorised assembly.

Some believe her arrest was meant to strike fear into those planning to attend.

Authorities warned of more arrests and said that anyone who took part in an unauthorised assembly could face up to five years in jail.

Putin Calls U.S. Ransomware Allegations Absurd

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June 4, 2021

President Vladimir Putin has described suggestions the Russian state was linked to high profile ransomware attacks in the United States as absurd and an attempt to stir trouble ahead of his summit this month with U.S. President Joe Biden.

A hack of Brazilian meatpacker JBS’s facilities in the United States, reported this week, is the third such ransomware hack in the country since Biden took office in January.

JBS told the White House it originated from a criminal organisation likely based in Russia.

Putin, speaking on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum, told Russia’s state TV Channel One that the idea of Russian state involvement was absurd.

He said he was encouraged however, by what he said were efforts by some people in the United States to question the substance of such allegations and try to work out what is really going on.

Biden, who is due to hold talks with Putin in Geneva on June 16, is expected to discuss the hacking attacks with the Russian leader to see what Moscow could do to prevent such cyber assaults.

U.S. officials have spoken of criminal gangs based in Eastern Europe or Russia as the probable culprits. But Kremlin critics have pointed the finger at the Russian state itself, saying it must have had knowledge of the attacks and possibly even be directing them.

Earlier on Friday, Putin told the same economic forum that the United States was openly trying to hold back Russia’s development and accused Washington of wielding the dollar as a tool of economic and political competition.

Biden’s Electric Vehicle Plan Includes Battery Recycling Push

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June 4, 2021

President Joe Biden’s strategy to make the United States a powerhouse in electric vehicles will include boosting domestic recycling of batteries to reuse lithium and other metals, according to government officials.

As Biden makes fighting climate change and competing with China centerpieces of his agenda, the administration is set to wrap up a 100-day review on Friday of gaps in supply chains in key areas, including electric vehicles (EV).

These gaps include the minerals used in EV batteries and consumer electronics. The administration is also looking for ways to reduce metal usage in new battery chemistries.

Reports from various government agencies will be submitted to the White House, a process Biden ordered in an executive order earlier this year. Parts of the reports could be released publicly as soon as next week.

Democrats are pushing aggressive climate goals to have a majority of U.S.-manufactured cars be electric by 2030 and every car on the road to be electric by 2040.

Securing enough cobalt, lithium and other raw materials to make EV batteries is a major obstacle, with domestic mines facing extensive regulatory hurdles and environmental opposition.

The administration’s options to spur domestic recycling include direct investment in projects and scientific research, as well as spending funds approved by Congress.

Myanmar Junta Opponents Say No Faith In ASEAN

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June 4, 2021