OSLO: Ukraine has achieved “a lot” in its Kursk offensive into Russia but it’s hard to say how the situation will develop next, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo on Thursday.
“Only the Ukrainians can make the difficult choices that are needed, such as where to deploy their forces and what type of warfare is appropriate in this situation,” Stoltenberg said.
Russian forces are advancing in the east of Ukraine while Ukrainian troops have made a bold incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, where it on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two.
Stoltenberg said Ukraine has the right to self-defense, including with long-range missiles that can reach military targets on Russian territory.
“I am glad that many NATO countries have given that opportunity, and those that still have restrictions have softened the restrictions so that Ukraine can defend itself,” Stoltenberg said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will on Friday attend a meeting of the Ramstein group, a coalition of nations supplying arms to Ukraine, where he is expected to ask for increased weapons deliveries, specifically long-range missiles, according to German magazine Spiegel.
Zelensky has called on allies to assist with air defenses and remove restrictions preventing Kyiv from using donated weapons for long-range strikes into Russia.
Stoltenberg earlier told a conference he does not see any immediate military threat against NATO countries but said there was a constant danger of terrorism, cyberattacks and sabotage.
Ukraine has achieved ‘a lot’ in Kursk offensive, NATO’s Stoltenberg says
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Ukraine has achieved ‘a lot’ in Kursk offensive, NATO’s Stoltenberg says
- Stoltenberg said Ukraine has the right to self-defense, including with long-range missiles that can reach military targets on Russian territory
- “I am glad that many NATO countries have given that opportunity, and those that still have restrictions have softened the restrictions so that Ukraine can defend itself“
Belgium carries out raids in EU parliament corruption probe
The probe was linked to Chinese tech giant Huawei and its activities in Brussels since 2021
BRUSSELS: Belgian police on Thursday raided several addresses in the country as part of a probe into alleged corruption “under the guise of commercial lobbying,” prosecutors said.
Several people were held for questioning over their “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries,” the federal prosecutor’s office said.
About 100 police officers took part in the operation that saw a total of 21 searches conducted across Belgium and in Portugal, it added.
Belgian newspaper Le Soir and investigative website Follow the Money (FTM) said the probe was linked to Chinese tech giant Huawei and its activities in Brussels since 2021.
Huawei did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.
The raids come more than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries have strenuously denied.
The prosecutor’s office gave no details about the individuals or companies involved.
But it said the alleged corruption by a “criminal organization” was “practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day” and took “various forms.”
These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.
The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.
At the heart of the alleged corruption is an ex-parliamentary assistant who was employed at the time as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.
Le Soir said police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody and they were due to appear in front of a judge for questioning.
None of those held for questioning on Thursday morning were EU lawmakers, a police source told AFP.
A spokesperson for the European Parliament told AFP that it “takes note of the information. When requested it always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities.”
Five Russia neighbors mull withdrawal from land mines treaty
- Polish defense minister called the decision 'necessary'
- Red Cross voiced alarm at the growing acceptance in Europe of returning to using long-outlawed weapons
WARSAW: Poland, the three Baltic states and Finland, all of which border Russia, are “close” to an agreement on withdrawing from the treaty banning anti-personnel mines, Lithuania’s defense minister said Thursday.
All five countries have been concerned about their security since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and have previously said they were reviewing their backing for the Ottawa treaty.
But the Red Cross voiced alarm at the apparent growing acceptance in Europe of returning to using long-outlawed weapons.
Last week, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk told parliament he was going to recommend the country’s withdrawal from the treaty, drawing criticism from humanitarian groups.
Now the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — plus Finland may be set to join Poland, worried by signs of increasing aggression from Russia.
“We believe we are very close to this solution,” Dovile Sakaliene told reporters in Warsaw when asked about the possible pull-out from the convention.
At a joint press briefing with her Polish counterpart Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Sakaliene said all five countries were in “very intensive discussions” for a joint decision to “send a common strategic message.”
The Polish defense minister called the decision “necessary” and said it was important to “present a common position” on the issue.
More than 160 countries and territories are signatories to the Ottawa Convention, including Ukraine, but not the United States or Russia.
The treaty bans signatories from acquiring, producing, stockpiling or using anti-personnel mines.
The authorities in Kyiv have accused Moscow of “genocidal activities” for using anti-personnel mines during the conflict.
Lithuania, a country of 2.8 million people which was previously under Soviet rule, last week quit the international convention banning cluster bombs, in an unprecedented decision.
It has stressed the need to strengthen its defenses, fearing it could be next in line if Moscow succeeds in Ukraine.
Red Cross is 'very worried'
In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was “very worried” by recent developments and urged states to remind themselves what the conventions were for.
“It is precisely now that these treaties are relevant... and not in times of peace or stability,” ICRC chief spokesman Christian Cardon told reporters at the organization’s headquarters.
Cordula Droege, who heads the ICRC’s legal department, added: “As states seem to be preparing for war... we also have a questioning of the humanitarian treaties.
“There is a bit of panic in Europe at the moment, and I think states are taking very rash decisions.”
The flurry of announcements on land mines and cluster bombs “came as a bit of a shock,” Droege said.
“There’s a huge concern here that you will see an acceptance of weapons that are stigmatized and should continue to be stigmatized,” she said, recalling that most victims of cluster munitions and land mines are civilians.
“This idea that you can use these mines in a way that’s compatible with international humanitarian law, that you will only use them in areas or on front lines where they will be perfectly distinguishing between civilians and combatants, is just an illusion.”
Droege said it was worth asking “how far does it go?“
“Because will the next thing be that you say, well, actually, we need chemical weapons. They have a great military utility. Is that then acceptable?“
Inspired by diabetic father, Bangladeshi man’s juice recipes go viral in Ramadan
- Imran Ahmed Saudagar started making healthy fresh juices for his father during COVID-19 pandemic
- His first viral juice video, a Goa Lemon recipe based on a Nando’s drink, got 2 million views
DHAKA: In a two-minute video, Imran Ahmed Saudagar playfully juggles wood apples before cracking them open, scooping out the flesh, and blending it with jaggery, salt, and water into a creamy juice — one of his signature recipes, which for the past few years have accompanied Bangladeshi netizens during Ramadan.
The wood apple juice video was Saudagar’s first this fasting month and it immediately drew the attention of the tens of thousands of his followers, who welcomed back the “much awaited series” and the “Shorbot Saudagar Season.”
The word “shorbot” means “juice” in Bengali, and Shorbot With Saudagar is what the Dhaka-based advertising professional and accidental healthy juice influencer called his short recipe videos, which he started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inspiration to create the recipes came from his late father.
“He was around 75 years old at the time. And he started refusing all kinds of fruits. So, I started creating different combinations of fruits and blended them together to make a new juice every day,” Saudagar told Arab News.
As he mixed new ingredients, his father enjoyed guessing them by taste and looked forward to the juice game the next day.
To make sure his father consumed what was beneficial, Saudagar consulted his doctors and sought help from nutritionists while preparing new blends.
Initially a family affair, the juices started to reach a wider audience a few months later, when Saudagar got married and his wife suggested that they should record the recipes.
“We started researching what kind of crockery I should use to cut the fruits, what fruit should we buy, what are the best fruit combinations. We discussed it every night and we started making different juices every day,” he said.
Their first viral blend was inspired by a Goa Lemon juice they tried at the fast chain Nando’s. Saudagar recalled it was with yoghurt, mint and lime, to which he added some vanilla ice cream.
“It was a blast. People started loving it. They tried it at home, and they were saying: ‘Oh man, this is like the original Goa Lemon,’” he said.
“I didn’t have the recipe. I just tried making it and it happened. The Goa Lemon video was (viewed by) around 2 million people.”
While pursuing a corporate career, Saudagar did the videos only in his free time but tried to make more, especially during the month of fasting, as his fans inspired him to do so.
“People started knocking to me just before the day Ramadan started: ‘Brother, when is Shorbot With Saudagar coming? When are you making new juice? When are you making new recipes?’” he said.
“Every day, people were commenting and replying on my posts: ‘I’m waiting for the new recipe, new video. But the best comment was: ‘Brother, I think, Ramadan is incomplete without your videos.’”
Since he started the project, Saudagar has recorded over 70 videos. While he may be short of new local fruits to explore, as he has already tried most of them, this fasting month he will try to develop some fruit-based electrolyte drinks.
“I’m still researching how to make it,” he said. “That should be one new thing. And also, I want to add more smoothies to help you with stomach health and digestion. You need to be healthy during Ramadan.”
US envoy visits Moscow for ceasefire talks that a Russian official says would help Ukraine
- The diplomatic development coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region
- Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia for talks with officials on the US ceasefire proposal
MOSCOW: An envoy of US President Donald Trump arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks on an American-proposed 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has accepted but which a senior Russian official said would help Kyiv by giving its weary and shorthanded military a break, three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The diplomatic development coincided with a Russian claim that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of a key town in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Moscow has been trying for seven months to dislodge Ukrainian troops from their foothold.
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia for talks with officials on the US ceasefire proposal, according to a US official who wasn’t authorized to comment on the matter.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, a Ukrainian operational hub in Kursk, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, couldn’t be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The US president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
But Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser, complained in televised remarks Thursday that a ceasefire would grant a “temporary break for the Ukrainian military.”
Speaking later to reporters in the Kremlin, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, reaffirmed that the US-proposed ceasefire would “give us nothing,” adding that it would “only give the Ukrainians a chance to regroup, consolidate their forces and keep doing the same in the future.”
Ushakov wouldn’t comment on Witkoff’s talks in Moscow on Thursday, saying that the parties agreed to keep them confidential.
Ushakov said that Moscow wants a “long-term peaceful settlement that takes into account Moscow’s interests and concerns.” His comments came a day after his phone call with Waltz.
Ushakov’s comments echoed statements from Putin, who has repeatedly said a temporary ceasefire would benefit Ukraine and its Western allies.
Ukraine has leveled similar accusations to Ushakov’s, claiming Russia would use a truce to regroup and rearm.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chided Russia on his Telegram messaging app Thursday for what he said was its slow response to the ceasefire proposal, accusing Moscow of trying to delay any peace deal. He said that Ukraine is “determined to move quickly toward peace” and hoped US pressure would compel Russia to stop fighting.
The US still has about $3.85 billion in congressionally authorized funding for future arms shipments to Ukraine, but the Trump administration has shown no interest so far in using that authority to send additional weapons as it awaits the outcome of peace overtures.
By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.
The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said that he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
Putin added that “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of Sudzha, a town close to the border that previously was home to about 5,000 people.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been almost completely destroyed. He didn’t comment on whether Ukraine still controlled the settlement, but said it was “maneuvering (troops) to more advantageous lines.”
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday. He told the outlet that he wasn’t given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
UK seeks tougher term for father jailed over daughter’s murder
- Urfan Sharif was jailed in December for murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif following years of torture
- Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif
LONDON: The father of a British-Pakistani girl jailed for 40 years for her murder should have been given a whole life sentence from which he would never be released, a top government lawyer argued in a court appeal hearing Thursday.
Urfan Sharif was jailed in December for murdering 10-year-old Sara Sharif following years of torture.
Sharif, Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool and the child’s uncle, Faisal Malik, are all appealing their sentences at the Court of Appeal in London.
Lawyers for the Solicitor General’s office are at the same time seeking a stiffer, indefinite, sentence for Sharif.
The murder trial last year caused waves of revulsion in the UK as the horrific abuse suffered by Sara was revealed.
There was anger too at how the bright, bubbly youngster had been failed by the authorities supposed to be in charge of her care.
Her body was found in bed at the family home in August 2023 covered in bites and bruises with broken bones and burns inflicted by an electric iron and boiling water.
Lawyer Naeem Majid Mian, representing Urfan Sharif, who was 43 when he was sentenced, argued in court on Thursday that although Sara’s treatment had been “horrendous” it did not merit his 40-year sentence.
“There was no intention to kill... and (the death) was not premeditated,” he added.
But documents submitted to the court on behalf of the solicitor general, one of the government’s top legal officers, called for Sharif to have an indefinite sentence imposed.
“It is submitted that the judge was wrong not to impose a whole life order on the offender,” said lawyer Tom Little in a text submission.
“This case does cross that... threshold” of rare cases that can justify a whole life term.
A lawyer for Sara’s stepmother, Carline Carberry, also told the court that her sentence of 33 years was too long and did not “justly reflect her role.”
Passing sentence in December after the trial, judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to “acts of extreme cruelty” but that Sharif and Batool had not shown “a shred of remorse.”
They had treated Sara as “worthless” and as “a skivvy,” because she was a girl. And because she was not Batool’s natural child, the stepmother had failed to protect her, he said.
“This poor child was battered with great force again and again.”
Malik, 29, who lived with the family was sentenced to 16 years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her death. He is also seeking to appeal his term.
A post-mortem examination of Sara’s body revealed she had 71 fresh injuries and at least 25 broken bones.
She had been beaten with a metal pole and cricket bat and “trussed up” with a “grotesque combination of parcel tape, a rope and a plastic bag” over her head.
A hole was cut in the bag so she could breathe and she was left to soil herself in nappies as she was prevented from using the bathroom.
Police called the case “one of the most difficult and distressing” that they had ever had to deal with.
The day after Sara died, the three adults fled their home in Woking, southwest of London, and flew to Pakistan with five other children.
Her father, a taxi-driver, left behind a handwritten note saying he had not meant to kill his daughter.
After a month on the run, the three returned to the UK and were arrested after landing. The five other children remain in Pakistan.
There has been anger in the UK that Sara’s brutal treatment was missed by social services after her father withdrew her from school four months before she died.
Sharif and his first wife, Olga, were well-known to social services.
In 2019, a judge decided to award the care of Sara and an older brother to Sharif, despite his history of abuse.
The school had three times raised the alarm about Sara’s case, notably after she arrived in class wearing a hijab, which she used to try to cover marks on her body which she refused to explain.
Since December, the government has moved to tighten up the rules on home-schooling.
Sara’s body was repatriated to Poland, where her mother is from, and where a funeral was organized.
