KYIV: Ukraine began curbing electricity consumption on Thursday as it raced to carry out repairs on infrastructure destroyed by Russian bombing as winter approaches.
Energy-saving measures were put in place across the country after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed at least 30 percent of the country’s power stations in a week.
Following blackouts in parts of the capital Kyiv overnight, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko urged businesses to limit screens and signage lights “as much as possible.”
“Even small savings and a reduction in electricity consumption in every home will help stabilize the operation of the national energy system,” he said on social media.
Ukrainians have responded defiantly to the attacks.
“It’s not going to change our attitude, maybe we will only hate them more,” said Olga, 22, a resident of Dnipro in central Ukraine.
“I would rather sit in the cold, with no water and electricity than be in Russia,” she said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February and quickly seized more than 20 percent of the country but has lost ground after a series of battlefield defeats in recent weeks.
Moscow has retaliated by annexing the areas it holds and launching a wave of strikes on energy facilities, including with what Kyiv and Western powers said are Iranian drones.
Russia and Iran have denied the use of such drones in Ukraine but the EU on Thursday imposed sanctions on three Iranian generals and an arms firm accused of supplying them.
“This is our clear response to the Iranian regime providing Russia with drones, which it uses to murder innocent Ukrainian citizens,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala tweeted.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the West was seeking to put “pressure” on Tehran, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the “prompt action” from Brussels.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russia’s “scorched earth” attacks only strengthened the Western alliance against Moscow.
But Russian lawmaker Andrey Gurulev told state television the attacks were “extremely effective” and would “collapse” Ukraine.
In his nightly address Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of energy “terror.”
After a meeting with energy companies, he said preparations were under way “for all possible scenarios with a view to winter.”
The government was “working on the creation of mobile power supply points for critical infrastructure,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also on Wednesday declared martial law in four annexed areas and heightened security in Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
The move came after Kremlin proxies in the Russian-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine said they were leaving the area in the face of a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Moscow-installed officials also said they would be organizing an “evacuation” of tens of thousands of civilians from the area.
The region’s main city, also called Kherson, has been in Moscow’s hands since the earliest days of the invasion.
Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, denounced Moscow’s move as criminal.
“Putin’s martial law in the annexed regions of Ukraine is preparation for the mass deportation of the Ukrainian population to depressed areas of Russia in order to change the ethnic composition of the occupied territory,” Danilov said.
Pro-Russian officials in the town of Oleshky across the Dnieper said residents from Kherson city were already arriving.
Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV showed images of people waiting to board ferries, unable to use bridges damaged by Ukraine.
Ukraine’s resilience has won plaudits internationally and the European Parliament on Wednesday awarded the annual Sakharov Prize for human rights to “brave” Ukrainians.
The award was welcomed by Natalya Boykiv, an engineer, walking in Kyiv city center.
“We deserve it,” said.
“The world should see who Ukrainians are. Thanks to this we attract the world’s attention,” the 24-year-old added.
Meanwhile, in parts of Ukraine recently recaptured from Russian forces, repairs were under way before the onset of winter. Many residents there are still depending on humanitarian aid.
“Apart from this, nothing is working,” said Ivan Zakharchenko, a 70-year-old resident of Izyum queueing for aid in the square where Zelensky celebrated the town’s liberation just over a month ago.
Ukraine curbs electricity use after Russian strikes
https://arab.news/zw4p6
Ukraine curbs electricity use after Russian strikes
- Energy-saving measures were put in place across the country after Russian missile and drone strikes
- Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko urged businesses to limit screens and signage lights "as much as possible"
Indian students protest US envoy’s campus talk over Gaza war
- Student-led protest led to university canceling an event involving US ambassador
- Indian students say they stand in solidarity with students protest across US
NEW DELHI: Students at one of India’s most prominent universities gathered in protest over an event involving the US ambassador to New Delhi on Monday, as they stood up against American support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti was invited for a talk on US-India ties at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on Monday afternoon, which would take place amid protests on American campuses demanding their universities cut financial ties with Israel over its military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
At the university’s convention center, over 100 students organized by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union protested the invitation of Garcetti, calling out his complicity “in the genocide Israel is currently doing in Palestine.”
JNUSU President Dhananjay told Arab News: “By calling such a person in the university … who is supporting the genocide, we want to tell them that JNU is not silent on this issue and we want to speak up.
“We are protesting against the US support for the genocide in Gaza committed by Israel.”
Hundreds of US college students have been arrested and suspended as peaceful demonstrations calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment from companies linked to Israel spread across American campuses.
The student-led movement comes after nearly six months since Israel began its onslaught on the Gaza Strip, which Tel Aviv said was launched to stamp out the militant group Hamas.
Hundreds of thousands of housing units in the besieged territory have either been completely or partially destroyed, while the majority of public facilities, schools and hundreds of cultural landmarks have been demolished and continue to be targeted in intense bombing operations.
JNU student leaders said they stood in solidarity with the protesting students in the US.
“We are students, and we need to ask questions. If some atrocities are taking place and there are mindless killings going on, speaking out against this should be the responsibility of all sections of society,” Dhananjay said.
“The visuals that we see make us shiver and shake our conscience. If we don’t speak up, then I don’t think we have a right to be a social being.”
At the JNU campus on Monday, the student protest led to a cancellation of the event involving the US envoy.
“We feel happy that we forced the administration to cancel the talks by the ambassador,” JNUSU Vice President Avijit Ghosh told Arab News.
Despite India’s historic support for Palestine, the government has been mostly quiet in the wake of Israel’s deadly siege of Gaza.
When Indians went to the streets in the past months to protest and raise awareness on the atrocities unfolding in Gaza, their demonstrations were dispersed by police and campaigns stifled.
Members of Indian civil society have since come together to challenge their government’s links with Tel Aviv and break Delhi’s silence on Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, reflecting similar concerns that some university students also felt.
“The US is supporting Israel in the killing of Palestinian people in Gaza. It’s also suppressing students in its country who are raising voice against the genocide in Gaza,” Ghosh said.
“We are agitated that India is being a mute spectator and not taking a clear stand against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Ukraine’s Zelensky urges US to speed up weapons deliveries
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that vital US weapons were starting to arrive in Ukraine in small amounts and that the process needed to move faster as advancing Russian forces were trying to take advantage.
Zelensky told a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that the situation on the battlefield directly depended on the speed of ammunition supplies to Ukraine.
“Timely support for our army. Today I don’t see anything positive on this point yet. There are supplies, they have slightly begun, this process needs to be sped up,” he said.
Scotland’s Humza Yousaf quits in boost to Labour before UK vote
- Yousaf quit after a week of chaos triggered by his scrapping of a coalition agreement with Scotland’s Greens
- He then failed to secure enough support to survive a vote of no confidence against him expected later this week
LONDON: Scotland’s leader Humza Yousaf resigned on Monday, further opening the door to the UK opposition Labour Party regaining ground in its former Scottish heartlands during a national election expected to be held later this year.
Yousaf said he was quitting as head of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) and first minister of Scotland’s devolved government after a week of chaos triggered by his scrapping of a coalition agreement with Scotland’s Greens.
He then failed to secure enough support to survive a vote of no confidence against him expected later this week.
Resigning little over a year after he replaced Nicola Sturgeon as first minister and SNP leader, Yousaf said it was time for someone else to lead Scotland.
“I’ve concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,” Yousaf said, adding he would continue until a successor was chosen in an SNP leadership contest.
Yousaf abruptly ended a power-sharing agreement between his pro-independence SNP and the Green Party after a row over climate change targets. The SNP’s fortunes have faltered over a funding scandal and the resignation of Sturgeon as party leader last year. There has also been infighting over how progressive its pitch should be as it seeks to woo back voters.
Caught between defending the record of the coalition government and some nationalists’ demands to jettison gender recognition reforms and refocus on the economy, Yousaf was unable to strike a balance that would ensure his survival.
The SNP is losing popular support after 17 years of heading the Scottish government. Earlier this month, polling firm YouGov said the Labour Party had overtaken the SNP in voting intentions for a Westminster election for the first time in a decade.
Labour’s resurgence in Scotland adds to the challenge facing British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party which is lagging far behind Labour in UK-wide opinion polls.
The Scottish parliament now has 28 days to choose a new first minister before an election is forced, with former SNP leader John Swinney and Yousaf’s former leadership rival Kate Forbes seen as possible successors.
If the SNP is unable to find a new leader to command support in parliament, a Scottish election will be held. Yousaf, the first Muslim head of government in modern Western Europe, succeeded Sturgeon as first minister in March 2023. Once hugely popular, Sturgeon has been embroiled in a party funding scandal with her husband, who was charged this month with embezzling funds. Both deny wrongdoing.
Iran slams crackdown on US student protesters
- The demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York and have since spread across the country
Tehran: Iran on Monday criticized a police crackdown in the United States against university students protesting against the rising death toll from the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
“The American government has practically ignored its human rights obligations and respect for the principles of democracy that they profess,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
Tehran “does not at all accept the violent police and military behavior aimed at the academic atmosphere and student demands,” he said.
American universities have been rocked by pro-Palestinian demonstrations, triggering campus clashes with police and the arrest of some 275 people over the weekend.
The demonstrations began at Columbia University in New York and have since spread across the country.
In Iran, hundreds of people demonstrated in Tehran and other cities on Sunday in solidarity with the US demonstrations.
Some carried banners proclaiming “Death to Israel” and “Gazans are truly oppressed,” state media reported.
The Gaza war broke out after the October 7 attack by Palestinian militants on Israel which killed 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Tehran backs Hamas, but has denied any direct involvement in the attack.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has since killed at least 34,488 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
“What we have seen in American universities in recent days is an awakening of the world community and world public opinion toward the Palestinian issue,” Kanani said.
“It is not possible to silence the loud voices of protesters against this crime and genocide through police action and violent policies.”
Pedro Sanchez stays on as Spain’s prime minister after weighing exit
- Sanchez had surprised foes and allies when earlier said he considers quitting
- He described the court investigation of his wife Begona Gomez for influence peddling and business corruption as orchestrated by his opponents
MADRID: Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Monday he had decided to continue in office, days after abruptly announcing he was considering his future following the launch of a corruption investigation against his wife.
The center-left prime minister, 52, had surprised foes and allies alike when he said on Wednesday he was taking time from public duty to consider quitting. He described the court investigation of his wife Begona Gomez for influence peddling and business corruption as orchestrated by his opponents.
Sanchez met King Felipe VI on Monday — a step that would have been necessary should he have decided to resign — but announced in a televised address that he had informed the monarch of his decision to stay on. He had been encouraged to stay by widespread expressions of support over the weekend, Sanchez said.
“I have decided to go on, if possible even stronger as prime minister. This is not business as usual, things are going to be different,” he said in a national broadcast.
His announcement that he might quit had caused further turmoil in Spanish politics, where a fractious parliament has struggled to form coalition governments after close elections. Should a new election have been required, it would have been the fourth in five years.
The opposition will try to exploit the sign of indecision from Sanchez, but the impact may be limited because Spain’s political landscape is already so polarized, said Ignacio Jurado, political science professor at Madrid’s Carlos III University.
“His credibility is already hotly contested and voters have already given it to him or taken it away,” he said. “As a leader he has shown a weakness and it’s something that the opposition will exploit a lot.”
