MOSCOW: An appellate court in Russia’s far east on Monday reduced the prison sentence for an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, according to US officials and Russian authorities. A month later, a court in Vladivostok convicted him and sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison. Black was also ordered to pay 10,000 rubles ($115 at the time) in damages.
Black lost one appeal in a regional court that upheld his sentence, but the judge in the 9th Court of Cassation on Monday agreed to reduce his sentence to three years and two months in prison. Black’s defense had asked the court to acquit him of making threats of murder and reduce the punishment for theft, a request the judge partially sustained, according to the RIA report.
Russia has jailed a number of Americans in recent years as tensions between Moscow and the West grew. Some, like corporate security executive Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and teacher Marc Fogel, were designated by the US government as wrongfully detained and released in prisoner swaps.
A few others remain jailed in Russia on drug or assault convictions. They include Robert Gilman, 72, who was handed a 3 1/2-year sentence after being found guilty of assaulting a police officer following a drunken disturbance on a train, and Travis Leake, a musician who was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to 13 years in prison in July 2024.
Black was on leave and in the process of returning to his home base at Fort Cavazos, Texas, from South Korea, where he had been stationed at Camp Humphreys with the Eighth Army.
The US Army said Black signed out for his move back home and, “instead of returning to the continental United States, Black flew from Incheon, Republic of Korea, through China to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons.”
Under Pentagon policy, service members must get clearance for any international travel from a security manager or commander.
The US Army said last month that Black hadn’t sought such travel clearance and it wasn’t authorized by the Defense Department. Given the hostilities in Ukraine and threats to the US and its military, it is extremely unlikely he would have been granted approval.
Black’s girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, told reporters last year that “it was a simple domestic dispute,” during which Black “became aggressive and attacked” her, stealing money from her wallet. She described Black as “violent and unable to control himself.”
US officials have said that Black, who is married, met Vashchuk in South Korea.
According to US officials, she had lived in South Korea, and last fall she and Black got into some type of domestic dispute or altercation. After that, she left South Korea. It isn’t clear if she was forced to leave or what, if any, role South Korean authorities had in the matter.
Russia reduces prison sentence for US soldier convicted of theft
https://arab.news/jtgkh
Russia reduces prison sentence for US soldier convicted of theft
- Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to the Pacific port city of Vladivostok to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her
- Russia has jailed a number of Americans in recent years as tensions between Moscow and the West grew
World Food Program and other UN aid agencies slash jobs amid US funding cuts, officials say
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply troubled by the drastic funding reduction”
UNITED NATIONS: The World Food Program and the United Nations refugee agency will slash jobs because of funding cuts, mainly from the United States, officials told AP on Tuesday, warning the reductions will severely affect aid programs worldwide.
The WFP, also a United Nations organization, is expected to cut up to 30 percent of its staff. The head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said it would downsize its headquarters and regional offices to reduce costs by 30 percent and cut senior-level positions by 50 percent.
That’s according to internal memos obtained by The AP and verified by two UN officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal personnel decisions. Other agencies like UNICEF — the UN children’s agency, and OCHA — the organization’s humanitarian agency — have also announced or plan to announce cuts that would impact around 20 percent of staff and overall budgets.
One WFP official called the cuts “the most massive” seen by the agency in the past 25 years, and that as a result, operations will disappear or be downsized.
The cuts to the UN agencies underscore the impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull back the US from its position as the world’s single largest aid donor. Trump has given billionaire ally Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency power to redo the scale of the federal government, with a focus on slashing foreign assistance. Even before the administration’s move, many donor nations had reduced humanitarian spending, and UN agencies struggled to reach funding goals.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply troubled by the drastic funding reduction.”
“The heads of our humanitarian agencies are being forced to take impossibly painful decisions as budget cuts have an immediate and often deadly impact on the world’s most vulnerable,” Dujarric said in a statement to The AP. “We understand the pressures on national budgets faced by governments, but these cuts come at a time when military spending again hits record levels.”
World Food Program
The WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organization, received 46 percent of its funding from the United States in 2024.
Asked about the planned cuts, the organization said in a statement that “in this challenging donor environment, WFP will prioritize its limited resources on vital programs that bring urgently needed food assistance to the 343 million people struggling with hunger and increasingly facing starvation.”
The internal memo said personnel cuts will “impact all geographies, divisions and levels” in the agency. It suggested further downsizing may be needed and said the agency will review its “portfolio of programs.”
In early April, The AP reported that the Trump administration had sent notices terminating funding for WFP programs in more than a dozen countries. The terminations were reversed days later in several countries but maintained the cuts in Afghanistan and Yemen, two of the world’s poorest and most war-ravaged countries.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
The UN’s top refugee agency provides help to some 43.7 million refugees worldwide, along with others among the 122 million people driven from their homes by conflicts and natural disasters.
It said a statement that the agency will “have to significantly reduce our workforce,” including downsizing the headquarters and regional offices. UNHCR said some country offices will be closed, but it did not give an immediate figure of how many staff will be cut.
“The impact of this funding crunch on refugees’ lives is already devastating and will get far worse,” the agency said. Programs providing food, clean water, medicines, emergency shelter and other services “will reduce or stop.”
For example, it said, reduced funding will cut access to clean water for at least half a million displaced people in Sudan, increasing the risk of cholera and other disease outbreaks.
It will also hurt efforts to house and provide schooling for refugees from Sudan in South Sudan, Chad and Uganda. It warned that the lack of facilities in host countries will push more refugees to attempt dangerous crossings to Europe.
In the April 23 email to staff, the UNHCR chief said the headquarters and regional offices will be downsized to cut costs by 30 percent. It said senior-level positions will be capped to bring a 50 percent reduction.
The cuts “will affect our operations, the size of our organization, and, most worryingly, the very people we are called to protect,” it said. “It is critical that we prioritize, as we always have, the well-being and safety of refugees and of displaced and stateless people.”
UNHCR’s office in Lebanon — which is home to some 1 million refugees from Syria, is only 15 percent funded, its spokesperson Lisa Abou Khaled said.
This month, it had to stop cash assistance to 347,000 refugees — two-thirds of the number it previously helped — and funding for the remaining 200,000 will last only through June, she said. It also halted primary health services for some 40,000 refugees.
UNICEF
The UN children’s agency told AP in a statement Tuesday that it projects that its funding will be at least 20 percent less in 2025 compared to 2024.
“Hard-earned gains and future progress for children are at risk because of a global funding crisis in which some donors are sharply decreasing their financial support to UNICEF and our partners, as well as their contributions to international aid more broadly,” a UNICEF spokesperson said.
The organization said that while it has already implemented efficiency measures, “more cost-cutting steps will be required.” Officials are looking at “every aspect” of their sprawling operations in over 190 countries and territories, which focus on delivering life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian aid and advocating for policies that promote children’s rights.
International Organization for Migration
The UN agency said last month that it had been hit by a 30 percent decrease in funding for the year, mainly because of US cuts. It said it was ending programs that affect 6,000 personnel and reducing its staff at headquarters by 20 percent.
Swedish police say several people found with injuries indicating gunfire
- The police added that they have cordoned off a large area
COPENHAGEN: Swedish police said on Tuesday that several people in Uppsala in eastern Sweden were found with injuries that indicated gunfire after loud bangs were heard in the city.
The police said in a statement that they had received calls from members of the public who said they had heard loud bangs that sounded like gunfire in the center of the city.
The police added that they have cordoned off a large area and that several investigative measures were underway at the scene.
Zelensky calls for fair peace with no ‘rewards’ for Putin
- “We all want this war to end in a fair way — with no rewards for Putin, especially no land,” Zelensky said
- Moscow holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Tuesday for a “fair” end to the war with Russia without “rewards” for Vladimir Putin, pushing back against demands for Kyiv to make territorial concessions.
“We all want this war to end in a fair way — with no rewards for Putin, especially no land,” Zelensky said via videoconference at a summit organized by Poland.
The comment came amid reports the United States suggested to freeze the front line and accept the Russian control of the Crimean peninsula, which it seized in 2014, something Zelensky balks at.
But US President Donald Trump said Sunday he believed the Ukrainian leader might concede the Black Sea peninsula as part of a settlement.
Russia has also repeatedly demanded to keep the territory in southern and eastern Ukraine that it occupies and for Kyiv to cede even more land.
Moscow holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory after launching its 2022 invasion that has killed thousands of people and devastated swathes of land.
Washington has said that this week will be “critical” for peace efforts.
Over 72,000 migrants dead, disappeared globally since 2014: UN
- One in four were “from countries affected by humanitarian crises ,” said the IOM’s Missing Migrants Report
- More than 52,000 people died while trying to escape from one of the 40 countries in the world where the UN has a crisis response plan
GENEVA: More than 72,000 deaths and disappearances have been documented along migration routes around the world in the past decade, most of them in crisis-affected countries, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
Last year saw the highest migrant death toll on record, with at least 8,938 people dying on migration routes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“These numbers are a tragic reminder that people risk their lives when insecurity, lack of opportunity, and other pressures leave them with no safe or viable options at home,” IOM chief Amy Pope said in a statement.
The report by her UN agency found that nearly three-quarters of all migrant deaths and disappearances recorded globally since 2014 occurred as people fled insecurity, conflict, disaster and other humanitarian crises.
One in four were “from countries affected by humanitarian crises, with the deaths of thousands of Afghans, Rohingya, and Syrians documented on migration routes worldwide,” said the IOM’s Missing Migrants Report.
The report said that more than 52,000 people died while trying to escape from one of the 40 countries in the world where the UN has a crisis response plan or humanitarian response plan in place.
Pope urged international investment “to create stability and opportunity within communities, so that migration is a choice, not a necessity.”
“And when staying is no longer possible, we must work together to enable safe, legal, and orderly pathways that protect lives.”
The Central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration route in the world, with nearly 25,000 people lost at sea in the past decade, IOM said.
More than 12,000 of those had been lost at sea after departing from war-torn Libya, with countless others disappearing while transiting the Sahara Desert, the report said.
More than 5,000 people died while trying to leave crisis-ravaged Afghanistan in the past decade, many of them since the Taliban retook power in 2021.
And more than 3,100 members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority had died during the period, many in shipwrecks or while crossing into Bangladesh.
“Too often, migrants fall through the cracks,” warned Julia Black, coordinator of IOM’s Missing Migrants Project and author of the report.
“And due to data gaps — especially in war zones and disaster areas — the true death toll is likely far higher than what we’ve recorded,” she said in the statement.
German police arrest suspected leader of Syrian smuggling gang
- The 32-year-old suspect was detained at his home in the northeastern town of Aerzen
- Police said the man made a living from his activities in the gang
BERLIN: German police said Tuesday that they had arrested the suspected head of a Syrian smuggling gang that allegedly helped more than 1,000 people illegally enter Germany via Poland.
The 32-year-old suspect was detained at his home in the northeastern town of Aerzen, federal police said in a statement.
Police said the man made a living from his activities in the gang, which he is alleged to have led since 2021.
Depending on the route, the organization is said to have charged between 2,500 to 13,000 euros ($2,850 to $14,800) per person to smuggle them into Germany.
The gang transported over 1,000 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, into Germany and other European countries in around 100 different operations, police said.
The smuggled people were thought to have entered the European Union “on foot across the Belarusian border” before crossing from Poland into Germany, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
Police searched three properties in connection with the arrest, one belonging to the suspect in Aerzen and two apartments in nearby Rinteln and Hameln linked to two Syrian men in their twenties believed to have “acted as accomplices.”
Officers seized passports, residence permits and other documents during the raids.
Germany has sought to crack down on illegal entries into the country in the wake of a series of attacks by asylum seekers that sparked a bitter public debate over immigration.
The government took the decision to impose controls at all its borders last September, and has signalled it will keep them in place until the EU’s immigration system is overhauled again.
Immigration was a dominant theme during Germany’s recent national elections and is seen as a key factor behind the far-right Alternative for Germany’s historic score of over 20 percent.
Incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is set to take office next week, has vowed a tough line on immigration to respond to voter concerns.
