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EU to loan Ukraine $39bn to rebuild power grid destroyed in Russian attacks

European Commission chief pledges support during visit to Kyiv, with funds to be used to bolster Ukraine’s economy

Kyiv, Ukraine (DT/AP) — The European Union pledged on Friday to lend Ukraine up to 35 billion euros ($39 billion) as part of a loan package organized by the Group of Seven major industrial nations, as it seeks to help the country rebuild its economy and its war-shattered power grid.

G7 leaders agreed in June to engineer a $50 billion loan to help Ukraine in its fight for survival. Interest earned on profits from Russia’s frozen central bank assets would be used as collateral, but progress in distributing the loans has been slow.

“We should make Russia pay for the destruction it caused,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv with President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

RELATED NEWS : US and UK pledge almost $1.5 billion to help Ukraine during diplomats’ visit to Kyiv

Von der Leyen said that the EU has already provided Ukraine with more than 118 billion euros ($132 billion) in military and economic assistance since the war began in February 2022, “but Russia’s relentless attacks mean further support is necessary.”

In June, the G7 leaders—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States—agreed to provide a $50 billion loan to Ukraine, backed by future profits from frozen Russian assets. The EU also participates in all G7 discussions.

“Relentless Russian attacks mean Ukraine needs continued EU support,” von der Leyen posted on X, announcing the loan and calling it “another major EU contribution to Ukraine’s recovery.”

During her eighth visit to Kyiv, she also stated that Europe would support Ukraine on various fronts, including winter preparedness and defense.

Ukraine’s winter runs from late October through March, with January and February the toughest months. The Europeans hope to help supply around 25% of the 17 gigawatts of power that the country is likely to need this winter.

One aim of the EU assistance is to provide an incentive for people to stay in Ukraine. About 4 million people have fled since the war began on Feb. 24, 2022, often to Poland and other neighboring countries.

The EU is providing assistance, such as short-term help to find a place to stay, jobs or education. But recently the number of people leaving has climbed. The European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive branch, estimates that 10,000 more people are applying for help each week.

Should the influx continue it could undermine European support for Ukraine.

On Thursday, the commission announced that it would provide an extra 160 million euros ($180 million) to help fortify Ukraine’s energy network. Of that, 100 million euros ($112 million) come from the windfall profits earned from the frozen Russian assets.

Denmark is also leading the charge on using this money to place orders for weapons and military equipment directly with Ukraine’s defense industry.


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Embassy of India in Bangkok Issues Alert on Human Trafficking Involving Indian Nationals

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Bangkok, Thailand (DT) — The Embassy of India in Bangkok has issued an urgent advisory regarding the trafficking of Indian nationals to scam centers located in countries bordering Thailand. These centers are engaged in cybercrime and other fraudulent activities, where victims are forced to work under harsh and inhumane conditions.

Reports indicate that Indian nationals are being lured with fake job offers from non-existent companies in Thailand. Once in Thailand, they are illegally trafficked across land borders to neighboring countries where they are exploited. Both online and offline recruitment through social media platforms and agents have been reported, targeting individuals from various Indian states and overseas.

The Indian Embassy in Bangkok has issued an advisory on human trafficking involving Indian nationals, shared via a post on X.

The Embassy reminds Indian nationals that the current visa-free entry to Thailand is strictly for tourism purposes and does not permit employment. Individuals considering job offers in Thailand are urged to thoroughly verify the legitimacy of recruiters and companies, and ensure they have the appropriate visa for employment.

The Embassy assures it will continue to provide necessary support in repatriating rescued victims. However, victims and their families are cautioned against engaging with unauthorized agents or making any payments during the repatriation process.


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Japan and China reach deal over Fukushima water release and move closer to resolving seafood ban

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Tokyo, Japan (AP) — Japan and China announced Friday that they have reached a deal resolving their disputes over the discharge of treated radioactive wastewater from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean and Beijing’s subsequent ban on Japanese seafood.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the two sides have reached “a certain level of mutual understanding” that China will start working toward easing the import ban and will join the expanded monitoring of wastewater discharges from Fukushima Daiichi under the framework of the United Nations’ atomic agency.

On Aug. 24, 2023 Japan began discharging treated radioactive wastewater from the plant, which suffered a nuclear meltdown in 2011. In response, China blocked imports of Japanese seafood, saying the release would endanger the fishing industry and coastal communities in eastern China. The ban has hit Japanese seafood exporters to China.

“Naturally, our understanding is that China will steadily resume the imports of Japanese marine products” that meet Chinese standards in the same way as other products from other countries, Kishida said.

Japanese officials described the deal as a breakthrough, but there was no immediate word on when a next monitoring visit will take place or the ban would be lifted.

Kishida stressed that the safety of the Japanese water discharges has been proven and that it will continue to demand China’s immediate lifting of the ban.

“How to properly handle the nuclear-contaminated water of Fukushima is both a political issue and scientific issue,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing on Friday.

“The bilateral consensus of China and Japan lays a foundation for the international community to handle the nuclear-contaminated water scientifically, effectively and safely, and is an initial joint achievement of the international community, especially the stakeholder countries,” Mao said.

China’s statements on the safety of seafood haven’t been backed up by scientific data and are tinged by long-running political disputes dating from Japan’s partial occupation of China in the first half of the 20th century.

Japan hopes the latest development with China will prompt Hong Kong, Macau and Russia to lift their bans too.

Hong Kong’s government said it would seek more information from Japan together with mainland Chinese authorities and assess whether the city could ease its restrictions targeting Japanese products based on scientific evidence. Hong Kong, a major market for Japanese fishery exports, has banned the import of aquatic products from 10 Japanese prefectures since Aug. 24, 2023.

Japan says the discharge has met international safety standards and is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, adding that all past water monitoring data has been publicly available. Japan has criticized China over its seafood ban as unscientific and demanded an immediate end to the measure.

Just before the announcement, Kishida held telephone talks with IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi and confirmed a plan to expand the current multinational monitoring system to accommodate Chinese scientists in joining its monitoring and sampling of the treated water before and after release within the IAEA framework.

Grossi told Kishida that the ongoing discharge has met safety standards set by the IAEA and ensured his agency’s continuing cooperation with the Japanese government in achieving the additional monitoring at an early date, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Fukushima’s cooling system was damaged during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, triggering meltdowns in its three reactors and large amounts of radioactive water to accumulate. Its operator, Tokyo Electric Power Holdings Co., has been trying to decommission the plant.

Japan’s government and TEPCO say the discharge of the water stored in hundreds of tanks is necessary for safety reasons and to make space for other operations.


Bodeen reported from Taipei, Taiwan. Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed

Israel’s military says its strike on Beirut killed senior Hezbollah official Ibrahim Akil

Beirut, Lebanon (AP) — The Israeli military announced that its airstrike Friday on a neighborhood of Beirut killed Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official. There was no immediate confirmation of his death from Hezbollah.

The Israeli strike in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital killed at least nine people and wounded nearly 60 others, according to Lebanese health officials, and flattened two apartment buildings. The Israeli military also claimed that its strike killed other “top operatives” of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, without elaborating.

RELATED NEWS : Israeli shell company behind explosive pagers used by Hezbollah – NYT

A Hezbollah official has confirmed that Akil was supposed to be in the building in the Dahiya district that was hit.

Akil has served on Hezbollah’s highest military body, the Jihad Council, and has been sanctioned by the United States for being involved in two terrorist attacks in 1983 that killed more than 300 people at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks.

Since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel prompted the Israeli military’s devastating offensive in Gaza, tensions have surged into regular cross-border attacks between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah. The exchanges of fire over the past year have largely struck evacuated communities in northern Israel and less-populated parts of southern Lebanon. The last time Israel hit Beirut was in a July airstrike that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr.


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A Tunisian presidential candidate sentenced to 20 months vows to campaign from prison

Tunis, Tunisia (AP) — One of the candidates challenging Tunisian President Kais Saied in the country’s presidential election next month has been sentenced to prison on fraud charges that his attorney decried as politically motivated.

Two weeks after his arrest, a court in the city of Jendouba handed down a 20-month sentence for Ayachi Zammel on Wednesday evening, after convicting him of falsifying the signatures he gathered to file the candidacy papers needed to run for president. Zammel faces more than 20 charges in jurisdictions throughout Tunisia, including four that will be heard on Thursday.

The little-known businessman and head of Tunisia’s Azimoun party is one of two candidates challenging Saied in the North African nation’s Oct. 6 election.

His attorney Abdessattar Messaoudi said Zammel planned to conduct his campaign from behind bars.

“This is no surprise. We expected such a ruling given the harassment he has been subjected to since announcing his candidacy,” Messaoudi told The Associated Press.

Tunisia’s election authority, ISIE, said Thursday that Zammel’s imprisonment wouldn’t affect his eligibility to run. Zammel will appear on the ballot alongside Saied and the only other approved candidate, Zouheir Maghzaoui, a former Saied supporter whose pan-Arabist party Echaab party was previously close to the president.

Zammel is among a long list of Saied’s opponents who have faced criminal charges and prosecution in the volatile period leading up to October’s election. In July, a court sentenced presidential candidate Lotfi Mraihi to eight months in prison on vote buying charges and banned him from politics. Last month, courts sentenced two candidates — Nizar Chaari and Karim Gharbi — on similar signature fraud charges.

After a court required Tunisia’s election authority to reinstate three candidates who had been ruled ineligible to run, one of them — Abdellatif El Mekki — was arrested on charges that stemmed from a 2014 murder investigation that critics have called politically motivated.

Saied’s two most prominent critics, the right-wing Free Destourian Party’s Abir Moussi and the Islamist party Ennahda’s Rached Ghannouchi, have also been in prison since last year.

Civil liberty advocates have decried the crackdown as a symptom of Tunisia’s democratic backslide. Amnesty International this week called it “a clear pre-election assault on the pillars of human rights and the rule of law.”

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Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco.


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Modi visits Indian-administered Kashmir on local election campaign amid massive security

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Srinagar, India (AP) — In a significant move ahead of local elections, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Indian-administered Kashmir today, reinforcing his party’s presence in the region. The visit comes amid heightened security measures, with authorities deploying thousands of personnel to ensure safety during the campaign activities.

Modi’s visit to Srinagar city in the Kashmir Valley — the heartland of decades of anti-India rebellion — comes amid strong public opposition there to New Delhi’s changes five years back. That move revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status, annulled its separate constitution, downgraded and split the former state into two centrally governed union territories— Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.

RELATED NEWS : PM Modi visits Kashmir for the first time since revoking region’s semi-autonomy

The region has since remained on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms gagged.

Authorities laid razor wires and erected road checkpoints to close the roads leading to the venue of Modi’s election rally in Srinagar’s main commercial center. Armed paramilitary troops and police in flak jackets patrolled the area, snipers and sharpshooters were positioned atop buildings near the venue.

The multistage election will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a local legislature, called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule.

Supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attend an election rally in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Kashmir has been at the heart of a conflict between India and Pakistan after British rule of the subcontinent ended in 1947 with the creation of the two rival countries. Both administer part of it but claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the insurgency is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, which many Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate freedom struggle.

India’s ruling BJP has a strong political base in the region’s Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu that largely favor the 2019 changes and has won multiple seats from there in the past elections. But it is weak in the Kashmir Valley where the BJP has never won a seat.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses an election rally in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

The party has fielded only 19 candidates for the 47 seats in the valley while it is contesting all 43 seats in Jammu.

Modi’s party is not officially aligned with any local group, but many politicians believe it is tacitly supporting some parties and independent candidates in the Kashmir Valley who privately agree with it.

The region’s main pro-India political parties accused the BJP of trying to manipulate the election and fragment the valley’s vote through independents. About 43% of 503 candidates contesting in the Kashmir Valley are independents, in contrast to 35% in Jammu.


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Floods in Central Europe threaten new areas. Heavy rains also inundate parts of Italy

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Warsaw, Poland (DT/AP) — A massive flood wave moving across Central Europe threatened new areas after claiming 24 lives, raising concerns among residents and officials and prompting European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen to plan a visit to the region Thursday.

Heavy rains also caused flooding and evacuation of some 1,000 people in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. In Central Europe, the receding waters revealed the scale of the destruction caused by exceptionally heavy rains that began a week ago.

RELATED NEWS : Central Europe faces more deadly flooding, Poland declares disaster, death toll may rise

Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said one more person was reported killed on Thursday in the country’s hard-hit northeast, bringing the death toll there to five. There were also seven deaths each in Poland and Romania, and five in Austria — with the overall death toll in the affected countries now at 24.

Authorities deployed troops to help. In the northeastern Czech Republic, soldiers joined firefighters and other emergency crews to help with the recovery efforts. Army helicopters distributed humanitarian aid while soldiers were building temporary bridges in place of those swept away.

Some 400 people remained in evacuation centers in the regional capital of Ostrava, unable to return home. In the southwest, near the border with Austria, the water level of the Luznice River reached an extreme level but the evacuation of 1,000 people in the town of Veseli nad Luznici was not necessary for the moment, officials said.

People watch the Danube river as it floods it’s banks in central Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Cleanup efforts were also underway in Austria, where flooding washed away roads and led to landslides and bridge damage. Firefighters and soldiers pumped water and mud out of houses and disposed of damaged furniture, broadcaster ORF quoted fire department spokesperson Klaus Stebal as saying.

The governor of Lower Austria province, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said reconstruction was expected to take years, according to the Austria Press Agency.

The Vienna public transport company has had to pump almost a million liters (260,000 gallons) of water since last weekend.

Ten towns and areas were still inaccessible on Thursday, APA reported.

A view of a damaged house after recent floods near Pisecna, Czech Republic, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

In Hungary, flood waters continued to rise Thursday as authorities closed roads and rail stations. Ferries along the Danube River halted. In the capital, Budapest, water spilled over the city’s lower quays and threatened to reach tram and metro lines. Some transport services were suspended.

Further upriver, in a region known as the Danube Bend, homes and restaurants near the riverbanks were inundated as officials and volunteers continued to place sandbags to reinforce levees.

Nearly 6,000 professionals, including members of Hungary’s water authority and military, were mobilized, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at a news conference Thursday. Inmates from prisons were also mobilized to help fill sandbags, Orbán said.

The Danube rose and by Thursday morning stood at 771 centimeters, approaching the 891-centimeter record set during major flooding in 2013.

Rivers flooded in three of the region’s provinces — Ravenna, Bologna and Forlì-Cesena — as local mayors asked people to stay on the upper floors or leave their houses. Those areas had been already hit by devastating floods in May 2023, when more than 20 rivers overflowed, killing 17 people and causing billions of euros in damages.

Italy’s vice minister for transport and infrastructure, Galeazzo Bignami, said at a news conference Thursday that two people were reported missing in Bagnocavallo, in the Ravenna province.

At least 800 residents in Ravenna and almost 200 in Bologna province spent the night in shelters, schools and sports centers as local rivers overflowed.

Trains were suspended and schools closed while residents have been advised to avoid travel and work from home where possible.


Associated Press writers Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, Karel Janicek in Prague and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed to this report.

Top Russian lawmaker warns West of nuclear war over Ukraine

Moscow, Russia (Reuters) – A senior Russian lawmaker on Thursday said that Ukrainian strikes on Russia with Western missiles would lead to global war with the use of nuclear weapons and that Moscow’s response would be tough with more powerful weapons.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s Duma, the lower house of parliament, said that if the West gave permission for such strikes deep into Russian territory then it would lead to a “global war with the use of nuclear weapons.”

RELATED NEWS : Ukrainian drones strike a major military depot in a Russian town northwest of Moscow

“Russia will give a tough response using more powerful weapons,” said Volodin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin who often gives insights into thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin.

He was responding to a European Parliament vote in favour of letting Kyiv hit Russian targets with Western weapons.
Volodin said it appeared to Moscow that the West had forgotten the vast sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in World War Two.

He said Europeans should understand that it would take Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known as Satan II by some, just 3 minutes and 20 seconds to strike Strasbourg.

The Ukraine war has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis – which is considered to be the time when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.


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Israeli shell company behind explosive pagers used by Hezbollah – NYT

Beirut, Lebanon (DT) – According to a report by the New York Times on Thursday, BAC Consulting, a Hungary-based pager manufacturer responsible for the devices that exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday, is believed to be an Israeli shell company, as indicated by three intelligence officers.

The officers also revealed that two additional shell companies were established to obscure the identities of those involved in producing the pagers.

RELATED NEWS : Exploding pagers in attack on Hezbollah were made by a Hungarian company, another firm says

The report detailed that while BAC Consulting did manufacture standard pagers for various clients, the devices made for Hezbollah were produced separately and included batteries infused with explosives.

The report indicates that the pagers were initially delivered to Lebanon in a small batch in 2022.

After a speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, in which he condemned cellphones as “agents” of Israel and encouraged the increased use of pagers, operatives from the Lebanese terrorist organization reportedly placed additional orders for the BAC-manufactured devices.

Nasrallah Bans Cell Phone Use

Additionally, three defense officials revealed that Nasrallah has mandated that Hezbollah officers carry pagers at all times, prohibiting cell phones during organization meetings. He reportedly instructed officers not to share any details regarding Hezbollah’s movements and plans through cell phones.

Since his address, there has been a marked increase in pager shipments to Lebanon, with thousands reportedly arriving and being distributed to Hezbollah officers and their associates, according to two American intelligence officials cited by the New York Times.

While Hezbollah views these devices as a defensive tool, the NYT noted, Israeli intelligence has characterized them as “buttons” that could be activated at strategic moments, which appears to have been on Tuesday. According to multiple reports, the pagers were set to beep, prompting their owners to see what message Hezbollah’s command sent, only to explode a few seconds later, sowing chaos across Lebanon.

Hezbollah reported that at least eight of its fighters were killed, with more noncombatants also being killed and wounded.


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North Korea tests new ballistic missiles with super-large warhead, KCNA says

Seoul, South Korea (DT/KT) – North Korea claimed Thursday it has successfully test-fired a new tactical ballistic missile capable of carrying a super-large warhead, a day after South Korea said Pyongyang fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles.

The new missile, named the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5, was tipped with a 4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead in the test-firing conducted Wednesday by the North’s Missile Administration, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

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“Its test-fire was aimed at verifying the accuracy of hit at medium range of 320 kilometers and explosive power of the super-large warhead with a missile loaded with such a warhead,” the KCNA said.

The KCNA said the missile administration also conducted a test-fire of a strategic cruise missile whose performance has been highly upgraded for its combat use.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday it detected multiple short-range ballistic missile launches at about 6:50 a.m. from the North’s Kaechon area in South Phyongan Province, north of Pyongyang, and the missiles flew about 400 kilometers.

The launches came after the North claimed to have test-fired the Hwasongpho-11-Da-4.5 with a simulated warhead on July 1 to verify its performance at its maximum and minimum ranges.

This picture shows a test-firing of a tactical ballistic missile in North Korea, in this photo provided by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, Sept. 19. Photo : KCNP via Yonhap

It said it would conduct another test at its medium range the same month, but it apparently did not take place at the time.

The JCS said Thursday it had detected both the ballistic and cruise missile launches the previous day, and the missiles disclosed by the North’s state media landed in a mountainous area in North Korea’s northeastern province of North Hamgyong.

Photos released by the KCNA showed a missile hitting an apparent inland target, marking the first public disclosure of its kind by the North, which has usually fired missiles into waters off its eastern and western coasts.

South Korea’s military has immediately notified the media of North Korean ballistic missile launches, which are in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but has disclosed cruise missile launches depending on the threat they pose to the South.

When asked about the North’s report of the missile’s range of 320 km compared with its assessment of about 400 km, the JCS stood by its analysis, clarifying it is based on the trajectory of the missile that covered the longer distance.

“North Korea revealed that it flew some 320 km, but we believe there is a possibility of deception,” Col. Lee Sung-jun, spokesperson of the JCS, told a regular briefing.

A super-large warhead is among a list of high-tech weapons that Kim had vowed to develop at a party congress in 2021, including a spy military satellite and solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles.

In June, the North claimed it had successfully conducted a multiple warhead missile test, but South Korea’s military at the time dismissed it as “deception,” saying the launch ended in failure as the missile exploded in midair.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un guided the test-fires and expressed great satisfaction, it said.

“The military and political situation in the region threatening the present state security environment indicates that the work for bolstering up the military capability for self-defence should be the most important affair of the country,” he said.


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