Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on India to reconsider its traditionally close relationship with Russia during a visit to New Delhi.
“The co-operation between India and Russia is largely based on the Soviet legacy,” Kuleba told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in comments from the Indian capital on Friday. “But this is not the legacy that will be kept for centuries; it is a legacy that is evaporating.”
New Delhi has taken a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, does not support Western sanctions against Moscow and repeatedly promotes conflict resolution through dialogue. The world’s most populous country with 1.4 billion inhabitants maintains good relations with Western nations and Russia.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, India has increased its imports of cheap oil from Russia – and is one of its largest customers. The country has also been purchasing a large proportion of its military equipment from Russia for a long time. However, India is increasingly trying to reduce its dependency in this respect, importing more from other countries or producing domestically.
Kuleba also told the Financial Times that India should be concerned about the closer relations between Russia and China. India has had extremely strained relations with neighbouring China since a deadly clash on their shared and heavily militarized border in the Himalayan mountains in 2020.
Kuleba also expressed interest in more trade between Ukraine and India. His country was looking to import heavy machinery from India, for example, he said.
Baltimore bridge collapse victim, father of three, was ‘fighting for us always,’ wife tells WJZ
Baltimore bridge collapse victim, father of three, was ‘fighting for us always,’ wife tells WJZ
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BALTIMORE – Four construction workers are still missing after a cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge Tuesday morning.
But crews paused the recovery mission because of the wreckage posing challenges.
WJZ’s Alexus Davila spoke exclusively with the wife of Jose Lopez, of one of the construction workers who remains missing.
Anxiety and pain haunt Isabel Franco every second that her husband is not in her arms.
Lopez was in a concrete mixer truck early Tuesday morning when a 985-foot cargo ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Four and a half hours later, she got a devastating call from the construction company.
“I feel bad,” Franco said in Spanish. “Only God knows how hard my heart aches. Maybe he was desperate, trying to escape.”
Franco said a coworker told her that the crew was told to pack up for the day and move out early because of weather conditions.
Later that night, police gave her sheets of PowerPoint slides mapping an overview of the search strategy with aerial maps and images of helicopters deployed. However, the update was not in Spanish, so she didn’t understand.
She said no local, state or national political leaders have reached out to her.
Her friend, Lilly Ordoñez, helped translate to us how the language barrier makes her feel.
“She’s desperate. She feels bad. She doesn’t see anything. She doesn’t know anything and, yeah, she’s desperate,” Ordoñez said.
Franco said Lopez moved to the United States 19 years ago from Guatemala.
They have one child together but he was a loving father to all three of her children.
“They are sad,” Franco said. “They loved Jose.”
“He had a good heart,” she added. “He was a hard worker. He was always worried about his family too. He died but he was fighting for us always.”
She said Lopez was good friends with the other Guatemalan coworker Dorlian Cabrera, whose body was recovered Wednesday morning.
“I feel bad,” she said. “They were always together.”
But now with the recovery mission on hold to finish the salvage operation, Franco only wants one thing.
“I feel bad a little bit still because I want the body,” she said. “His family is desperate to see him too.”
Zelenskyy tells CBS News that Ukraine will lose without U.S. aid – CBS News
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SAO PAULO (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron told Brazilian executives on Wednesday that a proposed deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is bad for both parties.
Speaking at a forum in Sao Paulo, Macron said the Mercosur-EU deal is outdated and needs reworking to take climate change into account. His comments reinforced his opposition, which has been the most outspoken among European leaders.
“The trade deal with Mercosur as it is being negotiated now is a terrible deal. For you and for us,” Macron said, according to the translation into Portuguese by Sao Paulo’s Industry Federation, whose headquarters held the event. “It was negotiated 20 years ago. We need to rebuild it.”
Macron opposes any agreement so long as South American producers fail to adhere to the same environmental and health standards as Europeans. Farmers raised concerns about pesticides during protests across Europe earlier this year.
Mercosur is formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Macron hadn’t mentioned the topic at the start of his three-day visit to Brazil, during a busy schedule in the Amazon city of Belem with his counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prior to the trip, his office said a potential deal would not be on the agenda.
“This deal, as it is, I don’t defend it,” the French president said, with Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin sitting in the audience.
Alckmin, who is also Brazil’s industry minister, didn’t mention the negotiations in his own speech, but alluded to them.
“President Lula always says there needs to be reciprocity. It is win-win. We gain markets, we open our market,” he said. Some Brazilian economists have insisted the EU is not opening enough for Mercosur goods.
On Tuesday, Lula and Macron announced a plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the Amazon, including parts of the rainforest in neighboring French Guiana.
The two countries’ governments said in a joint statement the money will be spread over the next four years to protect the rainforest. It will be a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and France’s investment agency.
On Thursday, the French president will head to Brasilia to again meet with Lula.
SAO PAULO (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron told Brazilian executives on Wednesday that a proposed deal between the European Union and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is bad for both parties.
Speaking at a forum in Sao Paulo, Macron said the Mercosur-EU deal is outdated and needs reworking to take climate change into account. His comments reinforced his opposition, which has been the most outspoken among European leaders.
“The trade deal with Mercosur as it is being negotiated now is a terrible deal. For you and for us,” Macron said, according to the translation into Portuguese by Sao Paulo’s Industry Federation, whose headquarters held the event. “It was negotiated 20 years ago. We need to rebuild it.”
Macron opposes any agreement so long as South American producers fail to adhere to the same environmental and health standards as Europeans. Farmers raised concerns about pesticides during protests across Europe earlier this year.
Mercosur is formed by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Macron hadn’t mentioned the topic at the start of his three-day visit to Brazil, during a busy schedule in the Amazon city of Belem with his counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Prior to the trip, his office said a potential deal would not be on the agenda.
“This deal, as it is, I don’t defend it,” the French president said, with Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin sitting in the audience.
Alckmin, who is also Brazil’s industry minister, didn’t mention the negotiations in his own speech, but alluded to them.
“President Lula always says there needs to be reciprocity. It is win-win. We gain markets, we open our market,” he said. Some Brazilian economists have insisted the EU is not opening enough for Mercosur goods.
On Tuesday, Lula and Macron announced a plan to invest 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in the Amazon, including parts of the rainforest in neighboring French Guiana.
The two countries’ governments said in a joint statement the money will be spread over the next four years to protect the rainforest. It will be a collaboration of state-run Brazilian banks and France’s investment agency.
On Thursday, the French president will head to Brasilia to again meet with Lula.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of violating the law and tearing apart independent institutions to cling to power.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Nelson Chamisa also warned that any evidence of tampering by Mnangagwa’s ruling party in upcoming elections could lead to “total disaster” for a beleaguered nation that is in economic ruin and already under United States and European Union sanctions for its human rights record.
Chamisa, who will challenge Mnangagwa and the ruling ZANU-PF party’s 43-year hold on power in the Aug. 23 presidential, parliamentary and local government elections, claimed widespread intimidation against his opposition party ahead of the vote.
Chamisa said Mnangagwa has utilized institutions like the police and the courts to crack down on critical figures, ban opposition rallies and prevent candidates from running. In the AP interview, he laid out a series of concerns that indicate the country, with its history of violent and disputed elections, could be heading for another one.
In rural areas far from the international spotlight, many of Zimbabwe’s 15 million people are making their political choices under the threat of violence, Chamisa alleged. People are getting driven to ruling party rallies and threatened to support Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front if they want to stay safe — or even alive.
Chamisa, who leads the Citizens Coalition for Change party, called it a choice of “death or ZANU-PF” for some.
“Mnangagwa is clearly triggering a national crisis,” he said during the interview in his 11th-floor office in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. “He is driving the country into chaos. He is actually instigating instability. He is violating the law. He is tearing apart institutions of the country.”
On Thursday, a man wearing the yellow colors of Chamisa’s CCC party was beaten and stoned to death on the way to a political rally, police said. The CCC accused ZANU-PF followers of killing him and attacking other opposition supporters.
Mnangagwa has repeatedly denied allegations of intimidation and violence by authorities or his party and has publicly called on his supporters to act peacefully during the campaign.
But Chamisa’s portrayal of a highly repressive political landscape in the southern African nation — where the removal of autocrat Robert Mugabe in 2017 appears to have been a false dawn — is backed by reports released by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch ahead of the elections taking place in less than three weeks.
They will take place amid “five years of brutal crackdowns on human rights,” Amnesty said, since Mnangagwa gained power from Mugabe in a coup and then won a disputed presidential election by a razor-thin margin against Chamisa in 2018. In its assessment, Human Rights Watch said Zimbabwean authorities have “weaponized the criminal justice system against the ruling party’s opponents” and the buildup to the vote has not met free and fair international standards.
Zimbabwe has significant mineral resources — including Africa’s largest deposits of highly sought-after lithium — and rich agricultural potential, and could be of huge benefit to the continent if it gained the political and economic stability that has eluded it for years. Zimbabwe was shunned by the West for two decades because of abuses during the regime of Mugabe, who died in 2019.
Mugabe’s removal sent Zimbabweans into the streets to celebrate, and Mnangagwa promised democracy and freedom would be born from the coup. He maintained recently that “Zimbabwe is now a mature democracy” under him.
Rights groups say it’s a mirage and the 80-year-old Mnangagwa, a former Mugabe ally once known as his enforcer, has been as repressive as the man he removed.
Under Mnangagwa, critics and opposition figures have been jailed, including CCC lawmaker Job Sikhala, who has been in detention for over a year after accusing ruling party supporters of hacking to death an opposition activist. Some have faced legal backlash for seemingly minor criticisms, like world-renowned author Tsitsi Dangarembga, who was arrested for participating in a protest that called for better services for citizens.
A court decision disqualified all 12 CCC candidates in Bulawayo, the second-largest city, from standing in the election, even after the electoral agency said they had registered properly. They successfully appealed to the Supreme Court to be allowed to stand.
“I am nowhere near the court,” Mnangagwa said, denying any influence on the initial decision to bar the opposition candidates.
Chamisa, a 45-year-old lawyer and pastor, said Mnangagwa was now overseeing a second coup in Zimbabwe.
“You can’t have a contest without contestation. You can’t have an election without candidates,” Chamisa said. “Once you eliminate candidates, you are actually eliminating an election. And that’s the point we are making. … It’s a coup on choices.”
The elections will be monitored by observers from the European Union and African Union, who were invited by Mnangagwa. He says he has nothing to hide. Human Rights Watch has questioned if the observers will be allowed to access all parts of the country, while their small numbers make it likely they won’t be able to monitor the entire vote. There are 150 observers from the EU and more than 12,500 polling stations across the country.
Chamisa told the AP that his party has put in place systems to be able to independently check vote counts, but there are also doubts that the CCC can deploy enough members to watch over those stations, many deep in rural areas regarded as ZANU-PF strongholds.
Should their calculations show fraud this time, as was alleged in 2018 and other elections before that, Chamisa warned it will “plunge the country into total disaster and chaos.”
He urged Mnangagwa to step back from his repressive policies in a country denied democracy under white minority rule before 1980 and again — according to international rights groups — under the only two leaders it has seen since: Mugabe and Mnangagwa.
“He must be stopped because he can’t drive the whole nation and plunge it into darkness and an abyss on account of just wanting to retain power,” Chamisa said of Mnangagwa. “Zimbabweans deserve peace, they deserve rest. They have suffered for a long time.”
The mother of an American soldier being detained in North Korea after crossing into the country during a tour of the DMZ reportedly has a message for his captors: “I just want to hear his voice.”
Claudine Gates made the remark to ABC News as U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King has now been inside the reclusive country for more than two weeks following the July 18 incident.
“I was a very, very happy person. And now, I just worry,” she said. “Please, please send my valentine back home to me. I miss him so much. I just want to hear his voice.”
Gates and her brother Myron say the 23-year-old King, leading up to his disappearance, left them cryptic messages by phone and text and sent YouTube links to songs they believe contained coded messages, according to ABC News.
NORTH KOREA ‘ACKNOWLEDGED’ TRAVIS KING SITUATION IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH UN
One night, Gates said she received a phone call from King in which he screamed, “I’m not the Army soldier you want me to be,” and then hung up, ABC News also reported.
READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP
“When he first went to Korea, he was sending pictures home and he was just so happy. And then, as time went on, he just started fading away. I didn’t hear from him anymore,” she said.
The Pentagon said earlier this week that the United Nations has been in contact with North Korea about the detainment of King.
In a Tuesday press conference, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he can “confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command (UNC).”
TRAVIS KING’S FAMILY SAYS AMERICA SHOULD ‘FIGHT FOR HIM’ TO COME HOME: REPORT
“What I will tell you is, as you heard us say previously, United Nations Command did communicate or provide some communication via well established communication channels,” Ryder said.
“But I don’t have any substantial progress to read out,” he added.
A U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson said King was on a joint security area orientation tour last month when he “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”
King was to be separated from the military and was supposed to go back to the U.S., according to an official who spoke to Fox News, but he skipped his flight and left the airport to go to the DMZ.
Fox News’ Timothy H. J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
The mother of an American soldier being detained in North Korea after crossing into the country during a tour of the DMZ reportedly has a message for his captors: “I just want to hear his voice.”
Claudine Gates made the remark to ABC News as U.S. Army Pvt. Travis King has now been inside the reclusive country for more than two weeks following the July 18 incident.
“I was a very, very happy person. And now, I just worry,” she said. “Please, please send my valentine back home to me. I miss him so much. I just want to hear his voice.”
Gates and her brother Myron say the 23-year-old King, leading up to his disappearance, left them cryptic messages by phone and text and sent YouTube links to songs they believe contained coded messages, according to ABC News.
NORTH KOREA ‘ACKNOWLEDGED’ TRAVIS KING SITUATION IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH UN
One night, Gates said she received a phone call from King in which he screamed, “I’m not the Army soldier you want me to be,” and then hung up, ABC News also reported.
READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP
“When he first went to Korea, he was sending pictures home and he was just so happy. And then, as time went on, he just started fading away. I didn’t hear from him anymore,” she said.
The Pentagon said earlier this week that the United Nations has been in contact with North Korea about the detainment of King.
In a Tuesday press conference, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said he can “confirm that the DPRK has responded to United Nations Command (UNC).”
TRAVIS KING’S FAMILY SAYS AMERICA SHOULD ‘FIGHT FOR HIM’ TO COME HOME: REPORT
“What I will tell you is, as you heard us say previously, United Nations Command did communicate or provide some communication via well established communication channels,” Ryder said.
“But I don’t have any substantial progress to read out,” he added.
A U.S. Forces Korea spokesperson said King was on a joint security area orientation tour last month when he “willfully and without authorization crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”
King was to be separated from the military and was supposed to go back to the U.S., according to an official who spoke to Fox News, but he skipped his flight and left the airport to go to the DMZ.
Fox News’ Timothy H. J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump had one job: “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.”
With those words — along with the conditional promise to protect the Constitution “to the best of my ability” — a president’s oath creates a pretty low bar for putting a good-faith effort into leading the country in accordance with its laws.
But once he became a lame duck — a defeated president serving out his remaining days before handing over the keys to the White House — Trump did the exact opposite, prosecutors wrote in a four-count indictment Tuesday.
Now, Trump’s Republican rivals are using the moment to divulge more than ever about their views on the powers of the presidency and the courts. And they are demonstrating in vivid fashion that there is an inverse relationship between their willingness to consider the possibility that the prosecution is legitimate and their viability in the GOP primary.
To a Republican base that insists the last election was rigged — and increasingly that such is the case with any Democratic win at any level of politics — the leaders in the field are sending a pretty clear message: Trump’s actions were more just than those of the justice system.
The sentiment will only embolden the segment of the party that believes Republicans should fight until long after the last vote is counted.
That makes it more likely Jan. 6 was an early chapter in a bigger story, not a conclusion.
“Each of these conspiracies—which built on the widespread mistrust the Defendant was creating through pervasive and destabilizing lies about election fraud—targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment released Tuesday.
Trump’s biggest rival for the GOP nomination focused more Tuesday on the setting of the case than on the conduct the special counsel’s office described.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former military prosecutor who acknowledged he hadn’t read the indictment, wrote on social media that it is “unfair” for Trump to “have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality.”
The Sixth Amendment to the Constitution requires juries to be selected in the federal jurisdiction where a crime was allegedly committed. Article III of the Constitution governs the venues of actual trials.
As a candidate commenting on a criminal indictment, the Harvard-law educated DeSantis further wrote that the nation is “in decline” in part because of “the politicization of the rule of law.” He promised to end “the weaponization of government.”
In an interview with NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez last week, DeSantis was asked whether Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 disqualify him for another term as president. DeSantis dodged.
“So here’s what I think we need to do,” DeSantis said. “We need to focus the election on [President] Joe Biden’s failures and our positive vision for the future. If we’re litigating things from four or five years ago, Republicans are going to lose.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, a Yale Law School graduate who is polling third in some national surveys, called the indictment “persecution by prosecution” and concluded, without having seen evidence, that Trump “did not” commit any crime.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is getting a closer look from some in the GOP’s donor class, avoided the construction that Trump is innocent. Rather, he accused the Justice Department of ignoring allegations against the president’s son, Hunter Biden, while focusing on Trump.
“We’re watching Biden’s DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats,” Scott said.
There were, of course, a handful of GOP candidates who chose not to attack prosecutors or defend Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“Today’s indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States,” said former Vice President Mike Pence, who fled for his life during the Capitol riot. “I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment. The former president is entitled to the presumption of innocence but with this indictment, his candidacy means more talk about Jan. 6 and more distractions.”
Yet Pence is in danger of failing to meet the threshold of 40,000 donors to qualify for the first Republican presidential debate later this month — an outcome that would be a stunning rebuke for someone elected on Trump’s ticket and a cautionary tale for any GOP candidate who might consider criticizing the former president.
Former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, reiterated his view that Trump’s entire candidacy is “an attempt to stay out of prison” and get his followers to pay his legal bills.
“The 2020 election wasn’t stolen, rigged, or fraudulent,” Hurd said. “It was lost by Donald Trump because he was incapable of uniting the country. Now, we’ve got to ask ourselves if we really want a president who’s willing to violate his oath to the Constitution just to cling to power?”
So far, the answer for a majority of Republican voters is yes.
Jonathan Allen
Jonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News, based in Washington.
British nationals in Niger are being urged to register their whereabouts with the UK government amid unrest sweeping the West African country,
Violent protests have broken out in Niger after a military junta seized control of the government last week.
France, Italy and Spain are all preparing rescue flights, but the Foreign Office have not announced any plans to evacuate people.
It has urged British nationals in the country to stay indoors.
The UK Foreign Office is understood to be closely monitoring the fast-moving situation and is keeping its plans under review.
Its travel advice has been updated to advise against all travel to Niger.
It is unclear how many British nationals are in the country. BBC News has asked the Foreign Office for a figure but has not received a response.
Officials are thought to be liaising with other countries on the ground, including France, the former colonial power in Niger.
The government in Paris announced evacuation plans for the roughly 600 French nationals in the country after hostile crowds surrounded its embassy on Sunday.
It said a limited number of flights would take place “very soon” because of the “deteriorating security situation” in the capital city Niamey.
A statement from the French foreign ministry said it would also help other European nationals leave the country if necessary.
The Italian government said it was putting on a “special flight for those (Italians) who want to leave the country”, AFP reported. It said there are around 500 Italian nationals in Niger.
German citizens in Niger – who are thought to number fewer than 100 – have been urged to leave the country aboard planes organised by France.
The Spanish government said it is preparing to evacuate around 70 of its citizens.
On Sunday the UK government announced it was suspending long-term development assistance to Niger in response to the coup, but will continue spending on humanitarian aid.
Andrew Mitchell, the minister for development and Africa, called for the deposed President Mohamed Bazoum to be “immediately reinstated to restore constitutional order”.
