MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that Russia’s defense ministry was working on different ways to respond if the United States and its NATO allies help Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles.
The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War, and Russian officials say the war is now entering its most dangerous phase.
Russia has been signalling to the United States and its allies for weeks that if they give permission to Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory with Western-supplied missiles, then Moscow will consider it a major escalation.
Putin said on Sept. 12 that Western approval for such a step would mean “the direct involvement of NATO countries, the United States and European countries in the war in Ukraine” because NATO military infrastructure and personnel would have to be involved in the targeting and firing of the missiles.
Putin said that it was too early to say exactly how Russia would react to such a move but that Moscow would have to respond accordingly and different options were being examined.
“(The Russian defense ministry) is thinking about how to respond to the possible long-range strikes on Russian territory, it will offer a range of responses,” Putin told Russian state TV’s top Kremlin reporter, Pavel Zarubin.
With Russia advancing at the fastest rate in eastern Ukraine since the first months of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading with the West to allow Kyiv to fire deep into Russia with Western missiles.
Hitting Russia
The United States has not said publicly if it will allow Ukraine to strike Russia, but some US officials are deeply skeptical that doing so would make a significant difference in the war.
Ukrainian forces already strike deep into Russia on a regular basis with long-range drones.
Putin, who ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, casts the war as a battle between Russia and the declining West, which he says ignored Russia’s interests after the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Ukraine and its Western allies say Putin unleashed an imperial-style war against its smaller neighbor and have repeatedly said that if Russia wins the war then autocratic countries across the world will be emboldened.
Just weeks before the US presidential election, Putin changed Russia’s
nuclear doctrine
in what the Kremlin said was an attempt to signal Russia’s concern over Western discussions about missile strikes from Ukraine.
Asked if the West had heard Russia’s warnings, Putin told Zarubin: “I hope they have heard. Because, of course, we will have to make some decisions for ourselves, too.”
Putin said that only NATO officers would be able to fire such weapons into Russia and that they would need to use Western satellite data for targeting the weapons so the question is really “whether they will allow themselves to strike deep into Russian territory or not. That is the question.”
US officials say the United States is not seeking to escalate the conflict.
How a new US president will approach the war is unclear: former US president Donald Trump has said he will end the Ukraine war while Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris says she will continue to support Ukraine.
Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia
https://arab.news/b522a
Putin says Moscow will respond if West helps Ukraine to strike deep into Russia
- Putin says defense ministry exploring responses
- Russia has changed nuclear doctrine
- Putin says NATO would have to help strikes by Ukraine
Mark Carney wins vote to replace Trudeau as Canada PM
- The former banker soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy PM Chrystia Freeland
- Carney calls for unity, warning that the US under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada
OTTAWA : Canada’s Liberal Party overwhelmingly elected Mark Carney as the country’s next prime minister Sunday, as the former central banker warned of “dark days” brought on by the United States under President Donald Trump.
Carney lost no time taking a defiant stance against a US president he accused of “attacking Canadian workers, families, and businesses.”
“We cannot let him succeed,” added the 59-year-old, who will take over from outgoing Liberal leader, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in the coming days.
Carney may not have the job for long.
Canada must hold elections by October but could well see a snap poll within weeks. Current polls put the opposition Conservatives as slight favorites.
In his victory speech to a boisterous crowd of party supporters in Ottawa, Carney warned the United States under Trump was seeking to seize control of Canada.
“The Americans want our resources, our water, our land, our country,” he said.
“These are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.”
Carney, who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, soundly defeated his main challenger, Trudeau’s former deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, who held several senior cabinet positions in the Liberal government that was first elected in 2015.
Carney won 85.9 percent of the nearly 152,000 votes cast. Freeland took just eight percent of the vote.
Carney campaigned on a promise to stand up to Trump.
The US president has repeatedly spoken about annexing Canada and thrown bilateral trade, the lifeblood of the Canadian economy, into chaos with dizzying tariff actions that have veered in various directions since he took office.
Delivering a farewell address before the results were announced, Trudeau said “Canadians face from our neighbor an existential challenge.”
‘Seasoned economic crisis manager’
Celebrating the outcome in Ottawa, party loyalist Cory Stevenson said “the Liberal party has the wind in its sails.”
“We chose the person who could best face off against (Tory leader) Pierre Poilievre in the next election and deal with Donald Trump,” he told AFP.
Carney has argued that his experience makes him the ideal counter to the US president, portraying himself as a seasoned economic crisis manager who led the Bank of Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the Bank of England through the turbulence that followed the 2016 Brexit vote.
Data released from the Angus Reid polling firm on Wednesday shows Canadians see Carney as the favorite choice to face off against Trump, potentially offering the Liberals a boost over the opposition Conservatives.
Forty-three percent of respondents said they trusted Carney the most to deal with Trump, with 34 percent backing Poilievre.
Before Trudeau announced his plans to resign in January, the Liberals were headed for an electoral wipeout, but the leadership change and Trump’s influence have dramatically tightened the race.
“I think we were written off about four months ago, and now we’re right back where we should be,” former MP Frank Baylis, who also ran for the leadership, told AFP in Ottawa.
Carney made a fortune as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs before entering the Canadian civil service.
Since leaving the Bank of England in 2020, he has served as a United Nations envoy working to get the private sector to invest in climate-friendly technology and has held private sector roles.
He has never served in parliament nor held an elected public office.
Analysts say his untested campaign skills could prove a liability against a Conservative Party already running attack ads accusing Carney of shifting positions and misrepresenting his experience.
“It is absolutely a risk. He is unproven in the crucible of an election,” said Cameron Anderson, a political scientist at Ontario’s Western University.
He said Carney’s victory speech, and its tough anti-Trump rhetoric, “is what Canadians want to hear from their leaders.”
“The average Canadian in the country is viewing these things in an existential way,” Anderson said.
Migrant rescue NGO saves 25 people off Libyan coast
- Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
MARSEILLE: French migrant rescue group SOS Mediterranee brought 25 people stranded off the Libyan coast aboard its Ocean Viking vessel on Sunday, the NGO said.
Those rescued, including three women and seven minors, are “currently being cared for by the Red Cross and SOS Mediterranee teams” aboard the Ocean Viking, the Marseille-based group said in a statement.
Five of the minors are unaccompanied while two of the children are aged under four, the statement added.
The boat in distress was spotted thanks to an alert issued by Alarm Phone, a number used by migrants who run into trouble while attempting the perilous Mediterranean crossing in hope of a better life in Europe.
Since the beginning of 2025, 247 people have disappeared or died in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to reach Europe, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
That toll follows the 2,360 people who died across the whole of 2024. The vast majority of the victims died in the central Mediterranean, one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.
UK seeks to scale back reviews that delay new housing projects
- Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth
LONDON: Britain set out plans late on Sunday to scale back lengthy public reviews that can delay housing developments, as part of its goal to get 1.5 million homes built in the next five years.
The housing ministry said it would hold a consultation over reducing the number of public agencies and civic groups whose views must be sought over new housing, including groups which represent sporting organizations, theaters and historic gardens.
Planning delays are widely blamed by housebuilders and government for the inability of new construction to keep up with population growth and for contributing to broader economic weakness.
In 2023, 193,000 homes were built across the United Kingdom and the construction industry has not exceeded the 300,000-a-year pace needed to meet the new government’s target since 1977.
“We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays,” Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said.
Further legislation on planning reforms is due later in the week.
Britain’s housing and local government ministry, which Rayner heads, said more than 25 agencies now had a legal right to be consulted on housing developments, some of which often objected by default or insisted on expensive modifications.
The ministry cited the example of how the conversion of an office block into 140 apartments was delayed after a sports body judged insufficient expert advice had been sought over whether a 3-meter-high (10 ft) fence was enough to protect residents from cricket balls struck from an adjacent sports ground.
Around 100 such disputes a year had to be resolved by ministers, the government said.
Under the new proposals, local planning authorities would also be instructed to narrow the basis on which other bodies could object and stick more closely to standard rules and deadlines.
Japan’s worst wildfire in 50 years brought under control
- The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years
TOKYO: Japan’s worst wildfire in more than half a century, which killed at least one person, has been brought under control, the mayor of the northern city of Ofunato said on Sunday.
The fire had raged in the mountains around the rural region since February 26, killing at least one person, damaging at least 210 buildings and forcing more than 4,200 residents to flee their homes, local officials said.
“Following an aerial survey, we assessed that the fire no longer posed the risk of further spread. I declare that the fire is now under control,” Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told a news conference.
The fire engulfed about 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — around half the size of Manhattan — making it Japan’s largest in more than 50 years.
It surpassed the 2,700 hectares burnt by a 1975 fire on Hokkaido island.
Wet weather that began on Wednesday following a record dry period helped firefighting efforts.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inch) of rainfall in February, breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and far below the average of 41 millimeters.
The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since a peak in the 1970s.
Wildfires in Japan tend to occur between February and May, when the air dries out and winds pick up. There have been around 1,300 a year in recent years.
UN humanitarian agency reports rise in attacks in Congo
- Security in Goma is threatened by “a resurgence of criminal acts including burgling of homes, thefts and attacks,” it said, adding that hospitals and schools had also been forced to close in other areas
KINSHASA: Escalating attacks have struck hospitals and other civilian infrastructure in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo during the ongoing anti-government assault by the armed group M23, the UN’s humanitarian agency said.
M23 fighters backed by Rwandan troops have made major advances in the region since January, seizing the key cities of Goma and Bukavu and displacing hundreds of thousands of people, according to the UN.
“Between March 1 and 3, several hospitals were targeted by armed actors in an escalation of violence against medical centers and health personnel, the UN Office for the Coordination of Human Affairs, or OCHA, said in a report.
Security in Goma is threatened by “a resurgence of criminal acts including burgling of homes, thefts and attacks,” it said, adding that hospitals and schools had also been forced to close in other areas.
It said at least four civilians were killed in fighting between M23 and rival groups in the Masisi district between Feb. 18 and 25, and more than 100,000 people were newly displaced in Lubero to the north.
DR Congo’s government accuses Rwanda of backing M23 to seize mineral-rich territory.
Rwanda has denied involvement in the conflict and says it faces a threat from ethnic Hutu fighters in DR Congo.
