A sanctions task force of leading Ukraine allies has frozen more than $330 billion in financial resources owned by Russia’s elite and the central bank since Moscow’s troops invaded, the group announced Wednesday.

The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force (REPO) said in a joint statement that they had blocked $30 billion in assets of Russian oligarchs and officials, and immobilized $300 billion owned by the Russian central bank.

They have also detained at least five luxury yachts and frozen opulent real estate owned by the country’s billionaires.

“Together, we will ensure that our sanctions continue to impose costs on Russia for its unprovoked and continuing aggression in Ukraine,” the group said in a statement released by the US Treasury.

REPO was formed on March 17, three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, to increase pressure on Moscow economically in hopes of getting Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

Its members include top finance and justice officials of the United States, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain and the European Commission.

They have moved steadily to take hold of luxury estates and mega-yachts of Russian billionaires known to have ties to Putin.

But they have also worked to isolate Moscow in the global financial system, making it harder for the Kremlin to use its money on the global markets.

They have constrained Moscow’s ability to acquire advanced technologies.

On Sunday Britain, Canada, Japan and the United States jointly announced they would ban the purchase of gold from Russia in order to prevent the country and its tycoons from using the metal to avoid sanctions.

REPO warned it would continue to pursue the assets of wealthy and powerful Russians.

“REPO’s work is not yet complete,” they said. “We continue to increase Russia’s cost of its war.”

Source: AFP

A passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck and derailed Monday in a remote, rural area of Missouri, killing three people and injuring dozens more, officials said.

Two of the people who died were on the train and one was in the truck, Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman Cpl. Justin Dunn said. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were hurt, the patrol said, but hospitals reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash and were expecting more.

The Southwest Chief was carrying about 243 passengers and 12 crew members when the collision happened near Mendon at a rural intersection on a gravel road with no crossing arms, officials said. Seven cars derailed, the Highway Patrol said.

Helicopter video of the site from KMBC-TV in Kansas City showed rail cars on their side as emergency responders used ladders to climb into one of them. Six medical helicopters parked nearby were waiting to transport patients.

Close to 20 local and state law enforcement agencies, ambulance services, fire department and medical helicopter services responded, Dunn said. The first emergency responders arrived within 20 minutes of receiving a 911 call, he said.

Passenger Robert Nightingale said he was dozing off in his sleeper room when the crash happened.

“Everything started to go in slow motion,” he told CNN, describing how the train rocked before tumbling onto its side.

Nightingale was able to climb out of the side of the car.

“We all just sat there shocked,” he said.

Other passengers on the train included 16 youths and eight adults from two Boy Scout troops who were traveling home to Appleton, Wisconsin, after a backcountry excursion at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, but no one in the group was seriously injured, said Scott Armstrong, director of national media relations for the Boy Scouts of America. The Scouts administered first aid to several injured passengers, including the driver of the dump truck, Armstrong said.

High school students from Pleasant Ridge High School in Easton, Kansas, who were headed to a Future Business Leaders of America conference in Chicago, were also aboard, Superintendent Tim Beying told The Star.

The Southwest Chief takes about two days to travel from Los Angeles to Chicago. Mendon, with a population of about 160, is about 84 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of Kansas City.

Source: AP

British Interior Minister Priti Patel on Friday approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face criminal charges, bringing his long-running legal saga closer to a conclusion.

Assange is wanted by US authorities on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they said had put lives in danger.

His supporters say he is an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised because he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

“On 17 June, following consideration by both the Magistrates Court and High Court, the extradition of Mr Julian Assange to the US was ordered. Mr Assange retains the normal 14-day right to appeal,” the UK home office said in a statement.

Patel’s decision does not mean the end of Australian-born Assange’s legal battle which has been going on for more than a decade.

He can launch an appeal at London’s High Court which must give its approval for a challenge to proceed. He can ultimately seek to take his case to the United Kingdom Supreme Court. But if an appeal is refused, Assange must be extradited within 28 days.

Source: REUTERS

Britain celebrates the second day of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday, with the highlight a service of thanksgiving attended by senior royals and politicians that the 96-year-old monarch herself will miss due to ongoing mobility issues.

The four days of events kicked off on Thursday, when a happy-looking Elizabeth waved to crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after a military parade and Royal Air Force flypast, and later led the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.

The celebrations continue with a National Service of Thanksgiving at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral to pay tribute to the sovereign’s 70 years on the throne.

But the queen, who has been forced to cancel a series of engagements recently because of “episodic mobility problems”, will be absent, pulling out late on Thursday and slightly taking the sheen off the day’s party atmosphere.

“The queen greatly enjoyed today’s Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Source: Reuters

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was re-elected Tuesday for a second five-year term as head of the World Health Organization, following a secret ballot.

The vote by secret ballot, announced by Ahmed Robleh Abdilleh from Djibouti at a major annual meeting, was seen as a formality since Tedros was the only candidate running.

Ministers and delegates took turns to shake hands and hug Tedros, a former health minister from Ethiopia, who has steered the UN agency through a turbulent period dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The president had to use a gavel several times to interrupt the applause.

German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach tweeted on Tuesday: “Just re-elected as ⁦Director General of #WHO: @DrTedros⁩. 155/160 votes, spectacular result. Congratulations, fully deserved.”

Germany recently overtook the United States as the UN health agency’s top donor.

Source: REUTERS

Conflicts and natural disasters forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, pushing the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said Thursday.

Some 59.1 million people were registered as internally displaced worldwide in 2021 — an all-time record expected to be broken again this year amid mass displacement inside war-torn Ukraine.

Around 38 million new internal displacements were reported in 2021, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

That marks the second-highest annual number of new internal displacements in a decade after 2020, which saw record-breaking movement due to a string of natural disasters.

Last year, new internal displacements from conflict surged to 14.4 million — marking a 50-percent jump from 2020 and more than doubling since 2012, the report showed.

‘World is falling apart’

And global internal displacement figures are only expected to grow this year, driven in particular by the war in Ukraine.

More than eight million people have already been displaced within the war-ravaged country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, in addition to the more than six million who have fled Ukraine as refugees.

“2022 is looking bleak,” IDMC director Alexandra Bilak told reporters.

The record numbers seen in 2021, she said, marked “a tragic indictment really on the state of the world and on peace-building efforts in particular”.

NRC chief Jan Egeland agreed, warning: “It has never been as bad as this.”

“The world is falling apart,” he told reporters.

“The situation today is phenomenally worse than even our record figure suggests.”

In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa counted the most internal movements, with more than five million displacements reported in Ethiopia alone, as the country grappled with the raging and expanding Tigray conflict and a devastating drought.

That marks the highest figure ever registered for a single country.  

‘Titanic shift’ needed

Unprecedented displacement numbers were also recorded last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s return to power, along with drought, saw many flee their homes.

In Myanmar, where the military junta seized power in a February coup last year, displacement numbers also reached a record high, the report found.

The Middle East and North Africa region recorded its lowest number of new displacements in a decade, as the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq de-escalated somewhat, but the overall number of displaced people in the region remained high.

Syria, where civil war has been raging for more than 11 years, still accounted for the world’s highest number of people living in internal displacement due to conflict — 6.7 million — at the end of 2021.

That was followed by the DR Congo at 5.3 million, Colombia at 5.2 million, and Afghanistan and Yemen at 4.3 million.

Despite the hike in conflict-related displacement, natural disasters continued to account for most new internal displacement, spurring 23.7 million such movements in 2021.

A full 94 percent of those were attributed to weather and climate-related disasters, like cyclones, monsoon rains, floods and droughts.

Experts say that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

China, the Philippines and India were hardest hit, together accounting for around 70 percent of all disaster-related displacements last year.

Increasingly, conflict and disasters collide, creating a “complex quagmire of problems”, Egeland said, worsening risks and often forcing people to flee several times.

In places like Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia and South Sudan, overlapping crises impact food security and heighten the vulnerabilities of millions.

“We need a titanic shift in thinking from world leaders on how to prevent and resolve conflicts to end this soaring human suffering,” Egeland said.

Source: France 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, saying it was necessary as the West was preparing to invade Russia.

Putin made the remarks at the annual Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Monday, marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The Russian president said the West was “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea,” and the military operation was a preemptive move to ward off aggression.

“NATO is actively pursuing our territory. That is absolutely unacceptable to us. We are talking about neo-Nazis in Ukraine that the US and its partners are working with,” he asserted.

Putin further said the decision for this “special military operation” was forced on Moscow, calling it the “only correct decision” as Ukraine was receiving the most modern weaponry from the NATO military bloc.

“We heard how Kiev was talking about requiring nuclear weapons,” he said. “We had to do this and it was the only right thing to do,” Putin said of what he has repeatedly dubbed “special military operation”.

He asserted that Russia was fighting for “its people in Donbas”, saying Moscow “urged Europe to find a fair compromise, but they didn’t want to hear us.”

“You are fighting for your motherland, for its future, so no one will forget the lessons of the Second World War,” Putin told his troops at the impressive parade, before observing a minute of silence.

“The death of every soldier and the officer is painful for us,” the Russian president stated. “The state will do everything to take care of these families.”

Around 11,000 soldiers participated in the parade on Moscow’s Red Square. Military parades also took place in Vladivostok and Novosibirsk.

“Glory to our armed forces, hooray to Russia,” troops yelled as they cheered Putin during the parade, as the country’s national anthem played in the background and cannons were fired in celebration.

Since 2008, Victory Day events in Russia have been used to honor the sacrifices of a previous generation, and to portray an image of post-Communist Russia restored to its former glory.

In 2008, under Putin, mechanized units took part in the Victory Day parade for the first time since 1991, and the ceremony also saw a fly-past of fighting planes for the first time in any parade on Red Square since 1957, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

The parade was broadcast live to a worldwide audience, through Russia’s RT channel.

Asked on Friday whether the parade would be overshadowed by the conflict, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called it a “sacred day” for all Russians.

“Victory Day for all Russian citizens, for all Russians, for almost all residents of the former territory of the Soviet Union, is a sacred day … filled with a sense of pain for the sacrifices that we have suffered, and a sense of pride for our country and for our victory. And nothing will overshadow it,” he said.

“From the point of view of national pride, the significance of this holiday cannot be overestimated.”

The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people in World War II, more than any other country.

Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in late February, following Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements and Moscow’s recognition of the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Putin said one of the goals of the military operation was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.

Source: Presstv

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has repeated his warning that Pyongyang could “preemptively” use its nuclear weaponry to counter hostile forces, state media reported Saturday.

Kim told top military officers that to “maintain the absolute superiority” of North Korea’s armed forces, the country should be able to “preemptively and thoroughly contain and frustrate all dangerous attempts and threatening moves… if necessary,” the official KCNA news agency reported.

Pyongyang should continue to build up its arsenal so that it can have the “overwhelming military muscle that no force in the world can provoke,” Kim said, calling it the “lifeline guaranteeing the security of our country”.

The leader’s comments followed similar remarks at a military parade on Monday, when he said he could use his atomic arsenal if North Korea’s “fundamental interests” were threatened.

Kim made his latest comments at a meeting with top brass to praise their work on Monday’s parade, which commemorated the 90th anniversary of the country’s armed forces and showcased its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Despite biting sanctions, North Korea has doubled down on Kim’s military modernisation drive, test-firing a slew of banned weapons this year while ignoring US offers of talks.

Last month Pyongyang test-fired an ICBM at full range for the first time since 2017, and satellite imagery has shown signs of activity at a nuclear testing site.

The string of weapons tests comes as South Korea prepares for an incoming president, Yoon Suk-yeol, who takes a more hawkish approach to Pyongyang and has not ruled out a preemptive strike if necessary.

Analysts say Kim’s warning shows he is not open to dialogue with Seoul’s new government.

“Kim’s remarks demonstrate no interest in engaging with the incoming Yoon administration in South Korea or restarting denuclearisation talks with the United States,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.

Source: AFP