Putin apologises over plane crash, without saying Russia at fault
Frances Mao
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has apologised to the president of neighbouring Azerbaijan over the downing of a commercial airliner in Russian airspace, in which 38 people were killed - but stopped short of saying Russia was responsible.
In his first comments on the Christmas Day crash, Putin said the "tragic incident" had occurred when Russian air defence systems were repelling Ukrainian drones.
Ukraine's President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia must "stop spreading disinformation" about the strike.
The plane is believed to have come under fire from Russian air defence as it tried to land in the Russian region of Chechnya - forcing it to divert across the Caspian Sea.
Elon Musk pens German newspaper opinion piece supporting far-right AfD party
Billionaire Trump adviser said his ‘significant investments’ in the country justified his wading into German politic
Sat 28 Dec 2024 15.19 GMT
The tech entrepreneur and close adviser to Donald Trump Elon Musk has taken a stunning new public step in his support for the far-right German political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), publishing a supportive guest opinion piece for the country’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper that has prompted the commentary editor to resign in protest.
The commentary piece in German was launched online on Saturday ahead of being published on Sunday in the flagship paper of the Axel Springer media group, which also owns the US politics news site Politico.
Musk uses populist and personal language to try to deny AfD’s extremist bent and the piece expands on his post on the social media platform X that he owns, on which he last week claimed that “only the AfD can save Germany”.
Afghan Taliban strike targets inside Pakistan
Afghanistan's Taliban government said on Saturday that it struck "several points” inside neighboring Pakistan.
The attacks comes days after Pakistani aircraft launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
One Pakistani paramilitary soldier was killed in exchanges of fire across the Afghan-Pakistani border, according to a Pakistani security source cited by the AFP news agency.
"One frontier corps (FC) soldier has been reported dead, and seven others have been injured," AFP cited the official as saying.
S. Korean prosecutors say Yoon authorised soldiers to shoot during botched martial law bid
South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol authorised the military to fire their weapons if needed to enter parliament during his failed bid to impose martial law, according to a prosecutors' report seen by AFP on Saturday.
The 10-page summary from former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun's prosecution indictment report, which was provided to the media, also says Yoon vowed on December 3 to declare martial law three times if necessary.
Yoon, who was stripped of his duties by the National Assembly this month, is under investigation for his short-lived attempt to scrap civilian rule, which plunged the country into political turmoil and led to his impeachment.
When Russia fights the wrong enemy
Like Czar Nicholas II, Russian President Vladmir Putin has misidentified his primary foe. Fighting a war of choice, he allows the real menace to his country to gather strength. China, not Ukraine, constitutes Russia’s existential threat. In the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Nicholas II fought Japan over Manchuria for concessions that Russia could not monetize, instead of investing in the railways and munitions needed to fight the country’s actual enemy, Germany, a decade later.
Defeat in World War I cost Nicholas II and his family their lives after the Bolsheviks seized power. Nobles who did not suffer the same violent fate as the czar fled abroad, often dying in penury.
The West and Ukraine never intended to invade Russia, let alone take its territory. Who in the West would want it? China, on the other hand, very well might. Its long list of grievances dates back centuries, to the czars who removed large swaths of territory — an area larger than the United States east of the Mississippi River - from China's sphere of influence.
How concerned are Israelis by what their government is doing in their name?
Israeli soldiers have stormed, raided and burned down Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcing everyone inside to evacuate and detaining dozens of the medical staff, including the director, Dr Hussam Abu Safia.
The sick and injured people there have no other medical facility to go to, because Israel has destroyed all the other hospitals in the north, and they cannot leave the north.
Northern Gaza is under a “siege within a siege” imposed by Israel since October this year, trapping tens of thousands of people there with no food, services, or adequate shelter and, now, no hospitals.
No comments:
Post a Comment