MOSCOW: Russians started voting on Friday in a three-day presidential election set to hand hardline leader Vladimir Putin another six-year term as fresh attacks bring the raging conflict in Ukraine further into Russian territory.
In power as president or prime minister since the final day of 1999, the former KGB agent is casting the election as a show of Russians’ loyalty and support for his military assault on Ukraine, now in its third year.
Polling stations in a country spread over 11 time zones opened at 8:00 a.m. on Friday (2000 GMT Thursday) on the Far Eastern Kamchatka peninsula and will close Sunday at 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) in Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, wedged between EU members Poland and Lithuania.
Victory will allow Putin to stay in power until 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the eighteenth century.
As voting started, both Moscow and Kyiv said civilians had been killed in the latest wave of overnight aerial strikes.
Putin had urged Russians to back him in the face of a “difficult period.”
“We have already shown that we can be together, defending the freedom, sovereignty and security of Russia ... Today it is critically important not to stray from this path,” he said in a pre-election message broadcast on state TV.
The Kremlin leader’s confidence is riding high with his troops recently having secured their first territorial gains in Ukraine in nearly a year.
At home, his most strident and charismatic critic of the last decade, Alexei Navalny, died in an Arctic prison colony last month. He had been serving 19 years on “extremism” charges widely seen as retribution for his campaigning against the Kremlin.
Western governments and Kyiv have condemned the vote as a “sham” and “farce.”
In Moscow, a few dozen residents queued in the morning sun to be among the first in the capital to cast their ballots.
“It’s important to vote, for Russia’s future,” said 70-year-old Lyudmila.
She said she backed Putin and was hoping for “above all, victory” in Ukraine.
Another Putin voter, Natan, 72, said he wanted the government to “increase employment, work to ensure that there is no war, stability in the country.”
With all of Putin’s major opponents dead, in prison or in exile, the outcome of the vote is not in any doubt.
Election authorities barred the few genuine opposition candidates who tried to run against Putin and a state-run pollster predicted earlier this week that Putin would secure more than 80 percent.
Voting was also being staged in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine that Russia claims to have annexed.
Armed soldiers in full combat gear accompanied election officials in the eastern Donetsk region as they set up mobile voting stations on small tables in the street and on the hoods of Soviet-era cars.
Kyiv has branded the vote as a “farce” and said staging the election in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, was “illegal.”
On Friday, EU chief Charles Michel sarcastically congratulated Putin on his “landslide victory.”
Those who oppose Putin still hope to spoil the procession. Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, is among those calling for voters to show up outside polling stations at midday on Sunday, the final day of voting, as a form of protest.
Moscow prosecutors warned it would punish those involved in “the organization of and participation in these mass events.”
Kyiv has launched some of its largest air attacks on Russia this week ahead of the election — some reaching hundreds of kilometers into Russian territory — and pro-Kyiv guerilla fighters have launched a series of attempted cross-border raids.
Russian-installed officials in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk said Friday that overnight shelling killed three children, while Kyiv said a Russian drone strike on the central Vinnytsia region killed two.
Voters in Belgorod were forced to leave a polling station to head to a bomb shelter as authorities issued an air alert and ordered people to take cover, the RIA Novosti state-run news agency reported. Russia’s defense ministry said Ukraine had fired seven rockets at the region.
Moscow on Friday also appeared to acknowledge that pro-Ukrainian militias had taken temporary control of territory inside Russia in three days of cross-border raids this week.
The defense ministry said it had “fully restored control” over one settlement in the Belgorod region, after Thursday hitting the fighters — made up of Russians who oppose the Kremlin — with artillery, air strikes and guided bombs.
Polls open in Russian vote to extend Vladimir Putin’s reign
https://arab.news/2wzrm
Polls open in Russian vote to extend Vladimir Putin’s reign
- Victory will allow Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2030, longer than any Russian leader since Catherine the Great in the 18th century
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
- The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs
- The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work
BEIJING: Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world’s major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, passed the new policy Friday after a sudden announcement earlier in the week that it was reviewing the measure, state broadcaster CCTV announced.
The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work.
“We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is (facing) high pressure. That’s why I think it’s now time to act seriously,” said Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University in Australia who studies China’s population and its ties to the economy.
The previous retirement ages were set in the 1950’s, when life expectancy was only around 40 years, Peng said.
The policy will be implemented starting in January, according to the announcement from China’s legislature. The change will take effect progressively based on people’s birthdates.
For example, a man born in January 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 7 months in August 2032, according to a chart released along with the policy. A man born in May 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 8 months in January 2033.
Demographic pressures made the move long overdue, experts say. By the end of 2023, China counted nearly 300 million people over the age of 60. By 2035, that figure is projected to be 400 million, larger than the population of the US The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had previously projected that the public pension fund will run out of money by that year.
Pressure on social benefits such as pensions and social security is hardly a China-specific problem. The US also faces the issue as analysis shows that currently, the Social Security fund won’t be able to pay out full benefits to people by 2033.
“This is happening everywhere,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger.”
That is on top of fewer births, as younger people opt out of having children, citing high costs. In 2022, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that for the first time the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of the year than the previous year , a turning point from population growth to decline. In 2023, the population shrank further, by 2 million people.
What that means is that the burden of funding elderly people’s pensions will be divided among a smaller group of younger workers, as pension payments are largely funded by deductions from people who are currently working.
Researchers measure that pressure by looking at a number called the dependency ratio, which counts the number of people over the age of 65 compared to the number of workers under 65. That number was 21.8 percent in 2022, according to government statistics, meaning that roughly five workers would support one retiree. The percentage is expected to rise, meaning fewer workers will be shouldering the burden of one retiree.
The necessary course correction will cause short-term pain, experts say, coming at a time of already high youth unemployment and a soft economy.
A 52-year-old Beijing resident, who gave his family name as Lu and will now retire at age 61 instead of 60, was positive about the change. “I view this as a good thing, because our society’s getting older, and in developed countries, the retirement age is higher,” he said.
Li Bin, 35, who works in the event planning industry, said she was a bit sad.
“It’s three years less of play time. I had originally planned to travel around after retirement,” she said. But she said it was better than expected because the retirement age was only raised three years for women in white-collar jobs.
Some of the comments on social media when the policy review was announced earlier in the week reflected anxiety.
But of the 13,000 comments on the Xinhua news post announcing the news, only a few dozen were visible, suggesting that many others had been censored.
NATO military committee chair, others back Ukraine’s use of long range weapons to strike back at Russia
- “Every nation that is attacked has the right to defend itself," Admiral Rob Bauer said during a meeting of the committee
- The comment came as some of Ukraine’s major donors continue to put waver on the issue
PRAGUE: The head of NATO’s military committee said Saturday that Ukraine has the solid legal and military right to strike deep inside Russia to gain combat advantage — reflecting the beliefs of a number of US allies — even as the Biden administration balks at allowing Kyiv to do so using American-made weapons.
“Every nation that is attacked has the right to defend itself. And that right doesn’t stop at the border of your own nation,” said Admiral Rob Bauer, speaking at the close of the committee’s annual meeting, also attended by US Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Bauer, of Netherlands, also added that nations have the sovereign right to put limits on the weapons they send to Ukraine. But, standing next to him at a press briefing, Lt. Gen. Karel Řehka, chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, made it clear his nation places no such weapons restrictions on Kyiv.
“We believe that the Ukrainians should decide themselves how to use it,” Řehka said.
Their comments came as US President Joe Biden is weighing whether to allow Ukraine to use American-provided long-range weapons to hit deep into Russia. And they hint at the divisions over the issue.
Biden met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, after this week’s visit to Kyiv by their top diplomats, who came under fresh pressure to loosen weapons restrictions. US officials familiar with discussions said they believed Starmer was seeking Biden’s approval to allow Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes in Russia.
Biden’s approval may be needed because Storm Shadow components are made in the US The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share the status of private conversations, said they believed Biden would be amenable, but there has been no decision announced yet.
Providing additional support and training for Ukraine was a key topic at the NATO chiefs’ meeting, but it wasn’t clear Saturday if the debate over the US restrictions was discussed.
Many of the European nations have been vigorously supportive of Ukraine in part because they worry about being the next victim of an empowered Russia.
At the opening of the meeting, Czech Republic President Petr Pavel broadly urged the military chiefs gathered in the room to be ”bold and open in articulating your assessments and recommendations. The rounder and the softer they are, the less they will be understood by the political level.”
The allies, he said, must “take the right steps and the right decisions to protect our countries and our way of life.”
The military leaders routinely develop plans and recommendations that are then sent to the civilian NATO defense secretaries for discussion and then on to the nations’ leaders in the alliance.
The US allows Ukraine to use American-provided weapons in cross-border strikes to counter attacks by Russian forces. But it doesn’t allow Kyiv to fire long-range missiles, such as the ATACMS, deep into Russia. The US has argued that Ukraine has drones that can strike far and should use ATACMS judiciously because they only have a limited number.
Ukraine has increased its pleas with Washington to lift the restrictions, particularly as winter looms and Kyiv worries about Russian gains during the colder months.
“You want to weaken the enemy that attacks you in order to not only fight the arrows that come your way, but also attack the archer that is, as we see, very often operating from Russia proper into Ukraine,” said Bauer. “So militarily, there’s a good reason to do that, to weaken the enemy, to weaken its logistic lines, fuel, ammunition that comes to the front. That is what you want to stop, if at all possible.”
Brown, for his part, told reporters traveling with him to the meeting that the US policy on long-range weapons remains in place.
But, he added, “by the same token, what we want to do is — regardless of that policy — we want to continue to make Ukraine successful with the capabilities that have been provided” by the US and other nations in the coalition, as well as the weapons Kyiv has been able to build itself.
“They’ve proven themselves fairly effective in building out uncrewed aerial vehicles, in building out drones,” Brown told reporters traveling with him to meetings in Europe.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made similar points, arguing that one weapons system won’t determine success in the war.
“There are a number of things that go into the overall equation as to whether or not you know you want to provide one capability or another,” Austin said Friday. “There is no silver bullet when it comes to things like this.”
He also noted that Ukraine has already been able to strike inside Russia with its own internally produced systems, including drones.
Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Maduro
- The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the nation’s powerful interior minister
BOGOTA, Colombia: Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen were arrested Saturday after Venezuelan officials accused them of coming to the South American country to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the nation’s powerful interior minister. Cabello said the foreign citizens were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership. In the television program, Cabello showed images of rifles that he said were confiscated from some of the plotters of the alleged plan.
The arrest of the American citizens included a member of the Navy, who Cabello identified as Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez. Cabello said that Gomez was a navy seal who had served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia. Spain’s embassy in Venezuela did not reply to a request for comment on the arrests of its citizens.
The US State Department late Saturday confirmed the detention of a US military member and said it was aware of “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela.”
“Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the statement said.
The announcement of the arrests comes just two days after the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 16 allies of Maduro who were accused by the US government of obstructing voting during the disputed July 28 Venezuelan presidential election, and carrying out human rights abuses.
Earlier this week, Spain’s parliament recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the election, angering Maduro allies who called on the Venezuelan government to suspend commercial and diplomatic relations with Spain.
Tensions between Venezuela’s government and the US have increased as well following the election, whose result sparked protests within Venezuela in which hundreds of opposition activists were arrested.
Venezuela’s Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro administration, said Maduro won the election with 52 percent of the vote, but did not provide a detailed breakdown of the results.
Opposition activists, however, surprised the government by collecting tally sheets from 80 percent of the nation’s voting machines. The tally sheets collected by the opposition were published online, and they indicate that Gonzalez won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
Despite international condemnation over the election’s lack of transparency, Venezuela’s supreme court, which has long backed Maduro, confirmed his victory in August. Venezuela’s attorney general then filed conspiracy charges against Gonzalez, who fled to Spain last week after it became clear he would be arrested.
Maduro has dismissed requests from several countries, including the leftist governments of Colombia and Brazil, to provide tally sheets that prove he won the election. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has long claimed the US is trying to overthrow him through sanctions and covert operations.
The Maduro administration has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to gain concessions from the US government. In a deal conducted last year with the Biden administration, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the US government to secure a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who was held in Florida on money laundering charges. According to US prosecutors, Saab had also helped Maduro to avoid US Treasury sanctions through a complex network of shell companies.
Boeing strike could drag on as workers push for higher wages, union leader says
- More than 30,000 workers who produce Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX and other jets began a strike on Friday
- Negotiators from both sides are due to return to the bargaining table next week, in talks overseen by US federal mediators
SEATTLE: A strike at Boeing “could go on for a while” as workers are confident they can get bigger wage increases and an improved pension, union leader Jon Holden said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on Saturday.
More than 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), who produce Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland, began a strike on Friday after overwhelmingly voting down a new contract.
Boeing and union negotiators are due to return to the bargaining table next week, in talks overseen by US federal mediators, after more than 94 percent of workers voted to reject an initial contract offer that Holden had endorsed.
Holden said the priorities for his members were a bigger wage increase and the restoration of a defined-benefit pension scheme that the IAM lost during a previous round of negotiations with Boeing a decade ago.
“We have the most leverage and the most power at the most opportune time that we’ve ever had in our history, and our members are expecting us to use it,” Holden told NPR.
“I know that our members are confident. They’re standing shoulder to shoulder and they’re ready. So it (the strike) could go on for a while.”
The initial deal included a 25 percent pay rise spread over four years and a commitment by Boeing to build its next commercial jet in the Seattle region, if the plane program was launched within the four-year period of the contract.
Union members, venting frustration at years of stagnant wages and rising living costs, said removal of a performance bonus in the Boeing offer would erode half of the headline salary increase.
Boeing’s stock fell 3.7 percent on Friday. It has tumbled almost 40 percent so far this year, slashing the company’s market value by roughly $58 billion
A long strike could further damage Boeing’s finances, already groaning due to a $60 billion debt pile. A lengthy pause on plane production would also weigh on airlines that fly Boeing jets and suppliers that manufacture parts.
British PM urged to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles as Russia continues to hit civilian targets
- Former PM Boris Johnson and former Conservative defense chiefs warned Starmer that “any further delay will embolden President Putin”
- While Russia had been striking Ukrainian civilian targets at will, Ukraine's forces have been handicapped by Western restrictions
LONDON: British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been urged by former defense secretaries and an ex-premier to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russian territory even without US backing, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday.
According to the Sunday Times, the call came from five former Conservative defense secretaries — Grant Shapps, Ben Wallace, Gavin Williamson, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox — as well as from ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
They warned Starmer that “any further delay will embolden President Putin,” the Sunday Times said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Starmer and US President Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia. No decision was announced.
Some US officials are deeply skeptical that allowing the use of such missiles would make a significant difference in Kyiv’s battle against Russian invaders.
President Vladimir Putin has said the West would be directly fighting Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike with Western-made long-range missiles.
While Russia had been striking Ukrainian civilian targets at will, Ukraine's forces have been handicapped by restrictions on use of Western-supplied weapons.
As of July 31, 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had recorded 11,520 civilians killed and 23,640 injured in Ukraine since February 24, 2022, but said they believe the real number is higher.
On Saturday, Russian shelling killed at least seven people in four attacks on the south, southeast and east of Ukraine, regional Ukrainian governors said.
In the Zaporizhzhia region in southeast Ukraine, governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian shells struck an agricultural enterprise in the town of Huliaipole, killing three people.
“All the dead are employees of the enterprise,” Fedorov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters could not verify details of these latest attacks in the war in Ukraine.
A missile attack in the suburbs of the Black Sea port city of Odesa killed a man and a woman born in 1958 and 1962 and injured a 65-year-old woman, Oleh Kiper, the Odesa regional governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“A married couple died,” he said, adding that they were found during checks of residential and commercial buildings damaged earlier in the day and that Russian forces had used a prohibited cluster warhead.
Shelling killed a sixth person in the southern region of Kherson, governor Oleksandr Prokudin, said. “A 60-year-old man who suffered serious injuries this afternoon died in hospital,” Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
In Kharkiv region, Russia struck the village of Pisky-Radkivski with the high-speed Tornado-S multiple rocket launch system, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
The body of a 72-year-old woman was retrieved from the rubble, and two civilians, a man and a woman, were taken to hospital, he added.
