Russia urges US to stop ‘hostile’ flights after drone crash

The United States uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has long operated over the Black Sea keeping an eye on Russian naval forces. (AFP file photo)
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Updated 15 March 2023
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Russia urges US to stop ‘hostile’ flights after drone crash

  • Kyiv says incident over international waters a Kremlin attempt to widen the Ukraine conflict
  • Russia’s envoy to Washington: We consider any action with the use of US weaponry as openly hostile

MOSCOW: Moscow warned against “hostile” US flights on Wednesday, as tensions simmered after a Russian fighter jet was accused of colliding with an American drone over the Black Sea.

Though Russia has denied its Su-27 plane clipped the propeller of an unmanned Reaper drone, Kyiv said the incident over international waters was a Kremlin attempt to widen the Ukraine conflict.

The crash on Tuesday, which Washington called the fault of reckless and unprofessional conduct, added fresh tensions between Moscow and Western allies.

“We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders,” Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday.

“We consider any action with the use of US weaponry as openly hostile,” he wrote on social media channel Telegram.

Russia’s defense ministry said Tuesday it scrambled fighter jets following the detection of a US drone over the Black Sea and denied causing the crash.

The Pentagon said its drone was on a routine mission when it was intercepted “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” while Russia countered the aircraft was out of control and said its jets had no contact with it.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby followed up saying, “obviously, we refute the Russians’ denial.”

He added the United States was trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands.

“We’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone — that particular aircraft,” Kirby told CNN.

Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby said in Washington, but this one “is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed reckless that it was.”

For the Ukraine, however, the incident was evidence that Russian President wanted to raise the stakes of the conflict in Ukraine and draw in Washington.

“The incident with the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV — provoked by Russia over the Black Sea — is Putin’s way of signaling his readiness to expand the conflict to involve other parties,” Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on social media.

“The purpose of this all-in tactic is to always be raising the stakes,” he added.

NATO diplomats in Brussels confirmed the incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.

A Western military source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said diplomatic channels between Russia and the United States could help limit any fall-out.

“To my mind, diplomatic channels will mitigate this,” the source said.

Russia’s campaign in Ukraine has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATO alliance, which has been arming Kyiv to help it defend itself.

Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded it was a Ukrainian air defense missile, not a Russian one.

The United States uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has long operated over the Black Sea keeping an eye on Russian naval forces.

“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” said US Air Force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.

“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.

“US and allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely,” he added.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the drone was “unflyable and uncontrollable so we brought it down,” adding that the collision also likely damaged the Russian aircraft, which he said was able to land following the incident.

Several US Reapers have been lost in recent years, including to hostile fire.

One was shot down in 2019 over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile fired by Houthi rebels, the US Central Command said at the time.

Reapers can be armed with Hellfire missiles as well as laser-guided bombs and can fly for more than 1,770 kilometers at altitudes of up to 15,000 meters, according to the US Air Force.


Strike at Argentina’s flagship airline hits 30,000 passengers

Updated 55 min 55 sec ago
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Strike at Argentina’s flagship airline hits 30,000 passengers

  • The 24-hour strike led to the cancelation of 319 flights, mainly impacting domestic and regional travelers, but also hundreds of passengers heading to the United States and Europe
  • Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending

BUENOS AIRES: A strike by pilots and crew demanding salary increases in inflation-hit Argentina affected more than 30,000 passengers on Friday, according to the Aerolineas Argentinas airline and unions.
As workers walked off the job for the second time this month, President Javier Milei was preparing to sign a decree declaring the aviation sector an “essential service” to guarantee a minimum level of service during such strikes, his spokesman said.
The 24-hour strike led to the cancelation of 319 flights, mainly impacting domestic and regional travelers, but also hundreds of passengers heading to the United States and Europe.
Costa Rican engineer Alex Rodriguez, 53, was stranded while on his way to visit one of South America’s top tourist attractions, the breathtaking Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil.
“We had planned the holiday a long time ago, about three months ago. We came from very far away, it was expensive and then everything fell through,” he told AFP.
The general secretary of the Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), Juan Pablo Brey, said the purchasing power of aviation staff had fallen 40 percent since Milei took office in December.
Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending.
However, annual inflation still stands at 236.7 percent and the economic slowdown sparked by the budget cuts has hit Argentines’ pockets hard.
Brey told a local radio station that cabin crew earned 729,000 pesos ($730 at the official exchange rate) and ground crew members 500,000 pesos — half what they could make at some low-cost companies.
Aerolineas Argentinas said the strike was “untimely, abusive and out of context, promoted by union leaders in an irresponsible manner.”
Milei’s spokesman Manuel Adorni said that those striking would be “fined and sanctioned.”
Milei had tried to privatize Aerolineas Argentinas as part of his sweeping economic reforms, but was forced to remove the company from the list of those to be privatized to get his measures through parliament earlier this year.


Spain hosts meeting on Israel-Palestinian two-state solution

Updated 33 min 47 sec ago
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Spain hosts meeting on Israel-Palestinian two-state solution

  • Spanish PM Sanchez one of the staunchest critics in Europe of Israel’s Gaza offensive since start of conflict
  • Palestinian PM and foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye in attendance

MADRID: Ministers from Muslim and European countries along with the European Union’s foreign affairs chief gathered Friday in Madrid to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Together, we want to identify the concrete actions that will enable us to make progress toward this objective,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote on social network X.
“The international community must take a decisive step toward a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” the Socialist premier added.
Sanchez welcomed participants at his official residence before the start of the meeting at the foreign ministry in central Madrid, hosted by his top diplomat Jose Manuel Albares.
In attendance were Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye — all members of the Arab-Islamic Contact Group for Gaza — as well as the heads of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The European Union was represented by its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell as well as the foreign ministers of Ireland, Norway and Slovenia in addition to Spain.
“The implementation of the two-state solution is the only way to ensure a just and lasting peace in the region through the peaceful and secure coexistence of the state of Palestine and the state of Israel,” Albares told a news conference.
Asked about Israel’s absence from the meeting, he said the country had not been invited because it belonged “neither to the group of Europeans nor to the Arab-Islamic contact group” but stressed he would be “delighted” if Israel took part in discussions on the two-state solution.
Calls for the solution have grown since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel has responded with an offensive that has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.
Sanchez has been one of the staunchest critics in Europe of Israel’s Gaza offensive since the start of the conflict.
Under his watch, Spain on May 28 along with Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Earlier this month he announced that the first “bilateral summit between Spain and Palestine” would be held before the end of the year. He said he expected “several collaboration agreements between the two states” to be signed.


Seven sentenced in UK’s biggest child abuse probe

Updated 13 September 2024
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Seven sentenced in UK’s biggest child abuse probe

  • The men were imprisoned for between seven and 25 years after being convicted in June
  • The cases stem from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, a decade-long investigation into child sexual abuse that is the largest of its kind in UK history

LONDON: Seven men who sexually abused two girls two decades ago received hefty jail sentences in the UK on Friday as a result of Britain’s biggest ever investigation into child abuse.
The men were imprisoned for between seven and 25 years after being convicted in June of offenses committed in Rotherham, in northern England, in the early 2000s.
The cases stem from the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) Operation Stovewood, a decade-long investigation into child sexual abuse that is the largest of its kind in UK history.
It began in 2014 following the publication of the Jay Report, which sent shockwaves around the country.
It found that at least 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by gangs of men of mainly Pakistani heritage in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
The report found that police and social services failed to put a stop to the abuse.
Some 36 people have been convicted so far as a result of the operation, according to the NCA, which investigates serious, organized and international crime.
The latest convictions came at the end of a nine-week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
The trial heard how the victims, who were aged between 11 and 16 at the time of the offenses and were both in the care of social services, were groomed and often plied with alcohol or cannabis before being raped or assaulted.
They would often be collected by their abusers from the children’s homes where they lived at the time, the NCA said.
“These men were cruel and manipulative, grooming their victims and then exploiting them by subjecting them to the most harrowing abuse possible,” said NCA senior investigating officer Stuart Cobb.
Rotherham, a once prosperous industrial town that has suffered years of economic decline, experienced some of the worst anti-migrant violence during this summer’s riots in England when hundreds of people attacked a hotel housing asylum-seekers.


Dutch aim for migration clampdown as government sees “asylum crisis”

Updated 13 September 2024
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Dutch aim for migration clampdown as government sees “asylum crisis”

  • The new government said it would declare a national asylum crisis, enabling it to take measures to curb migration without parliamentary consent
  • Opposition parties have questioned whether this move is necessary or even legal

AMSTERDAM: The Dutch government said on Friday it aimed to implement a raft of measures to limit migration in the coming months, including a moratorium on all new applications, days after Germany announced new border controls to keep out unwanted migrants.
The new government, led by nationalist Geert Wilders’ anti-Islam PVV party, said it would declare a national asylum crisis, enabling it to take measures to curb migration without parliamentary consent.
Opposition parties have questioned whether this move is necessary or even legal, but the PVV’s migration minister Marjolein Faber said she was acting on opportunities granted by the country’s own migration laws.
“We are taking measures to make the Netherlands as unattractive as possible for asylum seekers,” Faber said in a statement on Friday.
The government reconfirmed its aim to seek an exemption of EU asylum rules, even though Brussels is likely to resist, as EU countries have already agreed on their migration pact and opt-outs are usually discussed in the negotiating phase.
“We have adopted legislation, you don’t opt out of adopted legislation in the EU, that is a general principle,” EU spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters when asked about a possible Dutch opt-out on Friday.
Among its first moves, the government said it would end the granting of open-ended asylum permits, while significantly limiting options for those who have been granted asylum to reunite with their families.
It would also start working on a crisis law that would suspend all decisions on new applications for up to two years, and that would limit facilities offered to asylum seekers.
Wilders won an election last year with the promise of imposing the strictest migration rules in the EU. He managed to form a cabinet with three right-wing partners in May, but only after he gave up his own ambition to become Prime Minister.
The cabinet instead is led by Dick Schoof, an unelected bureaucrat who has no party affiliation.
Like its neighbor Germany, the Netherlands said it will also impose stricter border controls to combat human trafficking and curb irregular migration.


NATO condemns Russia’s missile strike on civilian grain vessel

Updated 13 September 2024
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NATO condemns Russia’s missile strike on civilian grain vessel

  • “There is no justification for such attacks,” NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said

BRUSSELS: NATO said on Friday it strongly condemned a Russian missile strike on a civilian grain ship in the Black Sea on Thursday.
“There is no justification for such attacks. Yesterday’s strike shows once again the reckless nature of Russia’s war,” NATO spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah said.