Lavrov says Russia is ready to discuss prisoner swap with US after Griner conviction
Updated 1251 GMT (2051 HKT) August 5, 2022
The US and Russia have indicated they are ready to hold talks over a prisoner swap, a day after basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of cannabis oil through a Moscow airport.
Israel strikes Gaza amid tensions following arrest of Palestinian militant
Palestinian officials say seven dead after Israel said it was preparing to ‘remove the threat from this region’
Associated Press in Gaza City
Israel has unleashed a wave of airstrikes in Gaza, killing at least seven people, including a senior militant, according to Palestinian officials.
A blast could be heard in Gaza City, where smoke poured out of the seventh floor of a tall building. Israel said it was targeting the Islamic Jihad militant group after days of tensions.
Israel closed roads around Gaza earlier this week and sent reinforcements to the border as it braced for a revenge attack after the arrest of a senior member of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the occupied West Bank on Monday.
‘I hate Russians’: Moscow anger after Norwegian diplomat ‘filmed in Russophobic rant’
Norway apologises for comments reportedly made by its consul in Murmansk
The Kremlin has summoned Norway’s ambassador in Moscow after a Norwegian diplomat was reportedly filmed saying she hated Russians.
The move comes days after Russia’s foreign ministry said it was considering how to respond to what it called an “outrageous act of hatred, nationalism and xenophobia”.
On Thursday, the ministry said it had taken action because of the “offensive Russophobic comments” allegedly made by Elisabeth Ellingsen, Norway’s consul in Murmansk, a city in northwest Russia.
Russian contract soldiers increasingly jailed in occupied Donbas
Ever more Russian soldiers are refusing to fight Putin's war. Human rights activists report many "refuseniks" are being jailed in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine where they are subjected to violence and abuse.
Russian military personnel are increasingly refusing to take part in its invasion of Ukraine, human rights activists say. Contract soldiers who no longer want to fight in Ukraine or want leave for family reasons are being denied their wish to leave the country. The so-called "refuseniks," as relatives and activists tell DW, are being held in camps and prisons in several locations in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic; that is, in areas that are in Ukraine but not controlled by Kyiv.
From the age of 18, Russian men may sign a temporary contract with the Ministry of Defense to earn a living in the army for a limited time. These contract soldiers are currently fighting alongside professional forces in Ukraine. Many of them had signed their contracts before Russia invaded Ukraine and did not know where they would be sent until the last moment, human rights activists explain.
Xi tested as Chinese nationalists bristle at Pelosi Taiwan visit
China’s Xi Jinping needs to show tough response to Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit without damaging the Chinese economy.
The political fallout from the recent visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, continues to reverberate in China.
Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing democracy, which China claims as its own territory, is testing Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s resolve at a politically sensitive time.
Xi is edging closer to securing an unprecedented third term as head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party at its upcoming 20th National Congress in November.
Yet as China reacts to the Pelosi visit with a show of military force, Xi is likely weighing the economic costs and diplomatic fallout with the US and its allies against his need to act tough on Taiwan as soaring nationalist sentiment within China pushes for him to do more.
Pro-nuclear office holders plan their push for new reactors
By SHIKI IWASAWA/ Staff Writer
August 5, 2022 at 16:26 JST
Pro-nuclear forces within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the government are starting to prepare for building next-generation nuclear reactors--something that for the past decade has been viewed as a political third rail.
Because of the harsh public criticism directed at nuclear energy in the wake of the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, government officials have mostly focused on restarting existing reactors.
And there has been little open debate about constructing new ones.
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