KYIV: Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Moscow’s troops seized the facility — Europe’s largest nuclear power station — in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine, and both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site.
Staff from the UN nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety.
Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on Wednesday — the second such delay in a week — both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident.
Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy said in a statement: “Russia has once again deliberately disrupted the rotation of IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhia plant.”
Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.
Tykhy accused Russia’s army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow’s goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones — at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station.
“On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts... came under attack by drone and mortar strikes,” Zakharova said in a statement.
The IAEA staff members were supposed to leave the station on February 5 in a rotation that was also delayed.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries.
In a statement, Grossi expressed his “deep regret” over the cancelation of the “carefully prepared and agreed rotation” due to excessive danger, calling the situation “completely unacceptable.”
“As a result of these extremely concerning events, I am in active consultation with both sides to guarantee the safety of our teams,” he said.
Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
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Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant
China poses biggest military, cyber threat to US, intel chiefs say
“China’s military is fielding advanced capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, advanced submarines,” Gabbard told the committee
WASHINGTON: China remains the United States’ top military and cyber threat, according to a report by US intelligence agencies published on Tuesday that said Beijing was making “steady but uneven” progress on capabilities it could use to capture Taiwan.
China has the ability to hit the United States with conventional weapons, compromise US infrastructure through cyberattacks, and target its assets in space, and also seeks to displace the US as the top AI power by 2030, the Annual Threat Assessment by the intelligence community said.
Russia, along with Iran, North Korea and China, seeks to challenge the US through deliberate campaigns to gain an advantage, with Moscow’s war in Ukraine having afforded it a “wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war,” the report said.
Released ahead of testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by President Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs, the report said China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) likely planned to use large language models to create fake news, imitate personas, and enable attack networks.
“China’s military is fielding advanced capabilities, including hypersonic weapons, stealth aircraft, advanced submarines, stronger space and cyber warfare assets and a larger arsenal of nuclear weapons,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told the committee. She labeled Beijing as Washington’s “most capable strategic competitor.”
“China almost certainly has a multifaceted, national-level strategy designed to displace the United States as the world’s most influential AI power by 2030,” the report said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the committee that China had made only “intermittent” efforts to curtail the flow of precursor chemicals fueling the US fentanyl crisis due to its reluctance to crack down on lucrative Chinese businesses.
Trump has increased tariffs on all Chinese imports by 20 percent to punish Beijing for what he says is its failure to halt shipments of fentanyl chemicals. China denies playing a role in the crisis, which is the leading cause of US drug overdose deaths, but the issue has become a major point of friction between the Trump administration and Chinese officials.
INTELLIGENCE LEAK FUROR OVERSHADOWS HEARING
“There is nothing to prevent China ... from cracking down on fentanyl precursors,” Ratcliffe said.
China’s embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The committee hearing was overshadowed by Democratic senators grilling Ratcliffe and Gabbard over revelations that they and other top Trump officials discussed highly sensitive military plans in a Signal messaging app group that accidentally included a US journalist.
Numerous Republican senators focused their questioning on undocumented immigrants in the United States.
The intelligence report said large-scale illegal immigration had strained US infrastructure and “enabled known or suspected terrorists to cross into the United States.”
The intelligence agencies said Iran was committed to developing surrogate networks inside the US and to targeting former and current US officials.
While Iran continued to improve its domestically produced missile and UAV systems and arm a consortium of “like-minded terrorist and militant actors,” they said, the US continues to assess that Tehran “is not building a nuclear weapon.”
But US concerns about China dominated about a third of the 33-page report, which said Beijing was set to increase military and economic coercion toward Taiwan, the democratically governed island China claims as its territory.
“The PLA probably is making steady but uneven progress on capabilities it would use in an attempt to seize Taiwan and deter — and if necessary, defeat — US military intervention,” it said.
Still, it said, China faces “daunting” domestic challenges, including corruption, demographic imbalances, and fiscal and economic headwinds that could impair the ruling Communist Party’s legitimacy at home.
China’s economic growth probably will continue to slow because of low consumer and investor confidence, and Chinese officials appear to be bracing for more economic friction with the US, the report said.
UN decries hike in satellite navigation system interference
- There have been warnings of increased GNSS signal disruptions since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine
- The UN agencies voiced alarm at the impact of disruptions to such systems
GENEVA: The United Nations on Tuesday urged countries to boost protections amid a marked increase in efforts to interfere with satellite navigation systems like GPS that are critical for aviation and maritime safety.
The UN’s International Telecommunication Union, its International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization jointly voiced “grave concern” at growing disruptions of so-called Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
Amid growing geopolitical tensions, GPS and other such systems, which are used for weapons systems but also for a vast array of vital civilian applications, have increasingly been targeted.
There have been warnings of increased GNSS signal disruptions since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as amid the Middle East conflict.
The UN agencies voiced alarm at the impact of disruptions to such systems, which they pointed out are used for everything from the navigation of civil aircraft, maritime vessels and humanitarian assistance vehicles to synchronizing telecommunications networks.
They demanded countries do more to protect the systems against so-called jamming attacks, which prevent access to satellite signals, as well as spoofing, through the broadcasting of false signals that can cause GNSS receivers in vessels or aircraft to calculate erroneous positions.
“Global Navigation Satellite Systems are critical to our safety on land, at sea and in the air,” said ITU chief Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
“Member States should ensure the uninterrupted operation of these systems for everyone’s safety and the resilience of essential services that our lives depend on.”
The joint statement called on countries to enhance the protection of the critical RNSS radio-frequency band, where GNSS systems operate.
The band should be protected against “transmissions that can adversely cause harmful interference degrading, interrupting or misleading signals used for civilian and humanitarian purposes,” the statement added.
It also urged states to “reinforce resilience of the systems that rely on RNSS for navigation, positioning and timing” and to report all cases of “harmful interference.”
And it demanded they “retain sufficient conventional navigation infrastructure for contingency support in case of RNSS outages and misleading signals,” as well as to “develop mitigation techniques for loss of services.”
King Charles cancels state visit to Holy See over Pope’s health
- The British royals’ trip to the Holy See was scheduled to start on April 7, with a meeting with Pope Francis the following day
LONDON: King Charles and his wife Queen Camilla’s state visit to the Holy See has been postponed because of medical advise that suggested Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest, Buckingham Palace said on Tuesday.
The British royals’ trip to the Holy See was scheduled to start on April 7, with a meeting with Pope Francis the following day. Their subsequent trip to Italy is set to continue.
“Their majesties send the pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in the Holy See, once he has recovered,” the palace statement said.
Europe’s largest Eid festival returns to London’s Westfield for its 6th year
- Festivities will take place at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City in April
- Westfield London is Europe’s largest retail destination, with over 460 stores
LONDON: The London Eid Festival will return in April to one of the UK’s most upmarket shopping destinations, marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and celebrating the Muslim holiday.
The London Eid Festival is Europe’s most significant celebration of Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day holiday marked at the end of Ramadan in Muslim countries, which concludes in late March.
This year marks the sixth consecutive celebration of Eid at Westfield London, Europe’s largest retail destination with over 460 stores. The event takes place from April 4 to 6 and features fashion, fragrance, food, and live entertainment.
The organizers said festivities would then take place at Westfield Stratford City from April 11 to 13, promoting unity among London communities as Ramadan concludes.
Katie Wyle, the head of Shopping Centre Management at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said the London Eid Festival remains a yearly highlight.
“Following its successful debut at Westfield Stratford City in 2024, we’re thrilled to bring it back for a second year, allowing the event to flourish across both sides of London,” she said.
Organizers expect over 300,000 visitors across both weekends of the Eid celebrations and say the event will “rival the bustling crowds typically seen at Westfield on Boxing Day.” There will be a vibrant mix of entertainment, activities, and food stalls to entice the crowds.
Waleed Jahangir, the managing director at Algebra Consulting, said: “As organizers, we’re not just hosting a festival; we’re shaping and celebrating the evolving Muslim community consumer landscape, and we can’t wait to bring an even bigger, more vibrant Eid celebration to life for everyone to enjoy.”
The festival will showcase a diverse lineup of performers and brands from Turkiye, Malaysia, the UAE, and other countries, featuring modest fashion, boutique gifts, children’s books, and homeware.
Student anti-corruption rallies spread across Balkans
- Young people have used the rallies to vent their anger in a region of Europe that rights groups say suffers from endemic corruption
- After the Serbian example, young people have organized similar anti-graft rallies in North Macedonia and Montenegro
BELGRADE: Massive student-led anti-graft protests have spread from Serbia to neighboring Balkan countries, with thousands rallying under the slogan “Corruption kills” following a series of deadly tragedies that have claimed dozens of lives.
Young people have used the rallies to vent their anger in a region of Europe that rights groups say suffers from endemic corruption, prompting hundreds of thousands of mostly young people to go onto the streets in Serbia alone to demand change.
The wave of demonstrations on a scale unseen in Serbia since the 1990s kicked off after a recently renovated train station canopy collapsed on November 1 in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people.
With many blaming the deaths on corruption and inadequate oversight, the tragedy fueled outrage across Serbia and prompted the prime minister to resign in the protests’ wake.
After the Serbian example, young people have organized similar anti-graft rallies in North Macedonia and Montenegro, while protesters in European Union member state Bulgaria have offered solidarity with their Balkan neighbors.
Now the symbol of those protests — a bloodied red hand print — has turned up at rallies in neighboring North Macedonia after a fire at a nightclub operating under a questionable license killed 59 mostly young concert-goers on March 16.
“Girls from my generation died,” Ema Peseva, a 20-year-old student from Skopje, told AFP during Monday’s protest in the capital which drew thousands.
As in Serbia, demonstrators at the Skopje rally chanted “Corruption kills” while accusing officials of being “murderers.”
“Everyone is bribed so they can line their pockets for travels, yachts, private schools. Meanwhile, children are dying from fire and pyrotechnics at concerts,” Peseva said, referring to the stage effects blamed for the blaze.
Milena Janevska, one of the organizers, said that students wished to “demand accountability for the tragedy in Kocani,” where the fire took place.
“We demand transparency from all institutions, simply to be accountable to the citizens who have a duty to show this revolt,” the 26-year-old told AFP.
In a show of solidarity Bulgarian anti-graft protesters last week held a few minutes’ silence remembering the Kocani fire dead along with their own, with some drawing comparisons to the country’s 2001 Indigo Disco stampede that killed seven queueing teenagers.
“We said a long time ago that corruption kills — literally. We saw in Bulgaria how corruption killed children in front of the Indigo nightclub. We saw it when people died in bus crashes, on unsafe roads, in incidents caused by poor construction,” said lawyer Velislav Velichkov, one of the organizers.
Montenegro meanwhile was likewise shaken in early 2025 by protests after a man shot dead 13 people in the street on the evening of January 1 — the second mass killing in the small town of Cetinje in less than two and a half years.
Directly inspired by the Serbian protest movement, demonstrators demanded the dismissal of senior security officials, police reform, the confiscation of illegal weapons and better mental health care.
“Students in Serbia are truly an inspiration to all those frustrated by the high levels of corruption — which, as we have seen from concrete examples, can be deadly,” Aleksandar Popov, president of the Center for Regionalism, a Novi Sad-based think tank, told AFP.
And compared with the rest of Europe many Balkan countries struggle with graft, according to watchdog Transparency International.
Serbia ranks 105th out of 180 countries on the latest global corruption perceptions index — its worst position in more than a decade.
North Macedonia fares only slightly better at 88th place, while Bulgaria ranks 76th and Montenegro 65th.
Sofija Todorovic, director of the Serbian branch of the regional Youth Initiative for Human Rights NGO, said she found it encouraging that young people are leading the anti-graft protests and driving change in the Balkans.
She said that they have defied the stereotypes of their generation as being “passive and too absorbed by the Internet and their phones.”
“I believe young people have shown far more sharpness, capability, and wisdom than previous generations,” Todorovic told AFP, adding that the key difference lies in how they access and process information.
“They genuinely feel they have a role to play in society, that their voices matter, and I believe this is crucial for the future of the region.”
