ֱ

Trump says it was ‘stupid’ for Biden to let Ukraine use US weapons to strike deeper into Russia

This combination of pictures created on February 16, 2022 shows Former US President Donald Trump during a visit to the border wall near Pharr, Texas on June 30, 2021 and US President Joe Biden during a visit to Germanna Community College in Culpeper, Virginia, on February 10, 2022. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on February 16, 2022 shows Former US President Donald Trump during a visit to the border wall near Pharr, Texas on June 30, 2021 and US President Joe Biden during a visit to Germanna Community College in Culpeper, Virginia, on February 10, 2022. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 17 December 2024

Trump says it was ‘stupid’ for Biden to let Ukraine use US weapons to strike deeper into Russia

Trump says it was ‘stupid’ for Biden to let Ukraine use US weapons to strike deeper into Russia
  • “I think the Middle East will be in a good place,” Trump said, referring to the conflict in Gaza and an unsettled Syria following the ouster of Bashar Assad. “I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation”
  • Trump’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been scrutinized since his 2016 campaign for president, when he called on Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent

PALM BEACH, Florida: President-elect Donald Trump on Monday suggested that he may reverse President Joe Biden’s recent decision to allow Ukrainian forces to use American long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory.
Trump called the decision made by Biden last month “stupid.” He also expressed anger that his incoming administration was not consulted before Biden made the move. With the loosening of the restrictions, Biden gave Ukraine long-sought permission to use the Army Tactical Missile System provided by the US to strike Russian positions hundreds miles from its border.
“I don’t think that should have been allowed, not when there’s a possibility — certainly not just weeks before I take over,” Trump said during at a wide-ranging news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort. “Why would they do that without asking me what I thought? I wouldn’t have had him do that. I think it was a big mistake.”
Trump’s withering criticism of the Biden administration’s move comes as the Democratic administration aims to push every last dollar already designated for Ukraine out the door to help repel Russia’s invasion before Trump takes office on Jan. 20, with future aid uncertain.
But even as Biden tries to surge weaponry and other aid to Ukraine in his final five weeks in office, the moment underscored that it’s Trump who holds the most significant influence over how Ukraine can use its US-provided arsenal in the long run. It’s a critical piece of leverage he could use to try to follow through on his campaign pledge to bring about a swift end to the conflict.
Asked if he would consider reversing the Biden administration decision, Trump responded: “I might. I think it was a very stupid thing to do.”
The White House pushed back on Trump’s criticism, noting that the decision was made after months of deliberations that started before last month’s election.
“All I can assure you is that in the conversations we’ve had with them since the election, and we’ve had at various levels, we have articulated to them the logic behind it, the thinking behind it, why we were doing it,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said of the current administration’s coordination with the outgoing administration.
Trump’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been scrutinized since his 2016 campaign for president, when he called on Russia to find and make public missing emails deleted by Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent. Trump publicly sided with Putin over US intelligence officials on whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help him, and Trump has praised the Russian leader and even called him “pretty smart” for invading Ukraine.
Vice President-elect JD Vance has said that while the US has differences with Russia, it was counterproductive to approach Moscow as an enemy.
Trump on Monday reiterated his call on both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war, calling the death and despair caused by the conflict “carnage.”
But Trump also appeared to acknowledge that finding an immediate endgame to the war — something he has previously said he could get done within 24 hours of taking office — could be difficult.
“I think the Middle East will be in a good place,” Trump said, referring to the conflict in Gaza and an unsettled Syria following the ouster of Bashar Assad. “I think actually more difficult is going to be the Russia-Ukraine situation.”
Trump declined to say whether he has spoken with Putin since the election.
Zelensky met with Trump in Paris earlier this month, while the president-elect was visiting France for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials have been making a forceful effort to get Trump to maintain support for Ukraine.
But the situation on the ground in Ukraine continues to remain complicated as both sides wrestle for a battlefield advantage that will give them leverage in any negotiations to end the nearly three-year war.
The Pentagon last week unveiled US intelligence that predicts Russia could again launch its lethal new intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine soon.
Putin deployed the missile for the first time last month days after Biden loosened the restrictions on Ukraine. Putin warned the West that Russia’s next use could be against Ukraine’s NATO allies who allowed Kyiv to use their longer-range missiles to strike inside Russia.
Biden agreed to loosen the restrictions after Zelensky and many of his Western supporters had pressed Biden for months. They argued that the US ban had made it impossible for Ukraine to try to stop Russian attacks on its cities and electrical grids.
The outgoing president ultimately made the decision last month amid concerns about Russia deploying thousands of North Korean troops to help it claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized this year.


Germany to back Ukraine with ‘deep-strike’ drones

Updated 3 sec ago

Germany to back Ukraine with ‘deep-strike’ drones

Germany to back Ukraine with ‘deep-strike’ drones
At a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in London, Pistorius said Germany was “expanding Ukraine’s capabilities to weaken Russia’s war machinery”
Healey said the UK would also continue sending one-way attack drones “vital for Ukraine’s defense“

LONDON: Germany will launch a new “deep-strike initiative” to provide Ukraine with “several thousand long-range drones” to help it repel Russia’s invasion, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Tuesday.
At a meeting of Ukraine’s allies in London, Pistorius said Germany was “expanding Ukraine’s capabilities to weaken Russia’s war machinery in the hinterland, providing an effective defense.”
That includes boosting “support for the procurement of long-range drones with Ukraine’s defense industry,” he noted.
“As part of this initiative we are concluding a number of contracts with Ukrainian enterprises amounting to a total of 300 million euros” ($350 million), Pistorius said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in May, during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that Berlin would help Kyiv develop new long-range weapons that can hit targets in Russian territory.
Merz said at the time that both countries’ defense ministers would sign a memorandum of understanding for the production of the long-range weapons systems, noting there would be no range restrictions on their use.
At Tuesday’s meeting of the 50-strong Ukraine Defense Contact Group, British Defense Minister John Healey said the UK would also continue sending one-way attack drones “vital for Ukraine’s defense.”
“Over the next 12 months, the UK will fund the delivery of thousands of long-range one-way attack drones, built in the UK, and supporting our 100-year partnership with Ukraine,” Healey told the meeting, which was partly virtual and partly in-person.
It follows UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Zelensky cementing a deal to jointly produce military drones during a UK visit by the Ukrainian leader in June.
A British announcement at the time said the pact aimed to deliver Ukraine “large numbers of battle-proven drones.”
London also announced in January that it would lead, alongside Latvia, an international coalition aiming to send 30,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Ukraine, through the UK-led International Fund for Ukraine (IFU).
The fund, which receives donations from Ukraine’s allies and partners, procures priority military equipment, including air defense and artillery systems.
Updating allies on its progress, Healey said the fund had now raised more than £2 billion ($2.7 billion).
He added the “funding milestone... is symbolic of unity, with 11 countries working together with the UK to ensure Ukraine receives the urgent support it needs.”

Spain bars two far-right Israeli ministers

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Updated 16 min 29 sec ago

Spain bars two far-right Israeli ministers

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
  • Ben Gvir and Smotrich are already the target of sanctions by Western countries including Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia

MADRID: Spain and Israel’s relations plunged to new depths on Tuesday as Madrid barred two far-right Israeli government ministers, a day after announcing measures aimed at stopping what it called “the genocide in Gaza.”
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich would be sanctioned and “not be able to enter Spanish territory,” Madrid’s top diplomat Jose Manuel Albares told a press conference.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday had unveiled nine measures in response to the devastating war in Gaza, launched after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel in 2023.
The measures included an entry ban on “all those people participating directly in the genocide, the violation of human rights and war crimes in the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Gvir and Smotrich are already the target of sanctions by Western countries including Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway and Slovenia.
Spain had already placed 13 Israeli settlers on its sanctions list.
Monday’s announcement triggered a furious reaction from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who accused the Spanish government of antisemitism and barred two of its far-left members.
Spain in turn rejected what it called the “slanderous” accusations and recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Albares said on Tuesday there was “no scheduled return date” for her.
Relations were already poor, with Spain maintaining outspoken criticism of the Israeli offensive in Gaza and recognizing a Palestinian state last year.
The October 7, 2023 Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants also seized 251 hostages, with 47 still held in Gaza, including 25 believed to be dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,605 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.


Poland detains ‘Belarusian agent’, expels diplomat

Poland detains ‘Belarusian agent’, expels diplomat
Updated 29 min 23 sec ago

Poland detains ‘Belarusian agent’, expels diplomat

Poland detains ‘Belarusian agent’, expels diplomat
  • Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, relations between Poland, and neighboring Belarus have sunk to a low
  • Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak identified the Belarusian agent as Uladzislau N

WARSAW: Poland’s prime minister said on Tuesday that its security agency had detained a “Belarusian agent,” adding that the EU member would also expel a Belarusian diplomat for “supporting aggressive activity” against Poland.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, relations between Poland, one of Kyiv’s main supporters in the European Union, and neighboring Belarus, a Moscow ally, have sunk to a low.
Besides their tense relations over the Ukraine conflict, Poland also accuses Belarus of arranging for a wave of asylum seekers from third countries to cross the border into Poland, in what Warsaw says is a bid to destabilize the EU.
Poland’s ABW internal security agency “detained a Belarusian agent yesterday. The detention was the result of cooperation between the (intelligence) services of Romania and the Czech Republic among others,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X.
Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak identified the Belarusian agent as Uladzislau N.
He said the intelligence services of Hungary and Moldova had also been involved in the operation that resulted in the detention.
“The suspect conducted intelligence activity on Polish and Hungarian territory,” Siemoniak said on X, adding that prosecutors had charged him with espionage.
Tusk said that “a Belarusian diplomat supporting aggressive activity by Belarusian services against our country will also be expelled from Poland.”
Siemoniak said the foreign ministry had summoned the Belarusian charge d’affaires to inform him that the diplomat’s accreditation had been revoked and the envoy designated as personan non grata in Poland.
Siemoniak said the diplomat had been “directly involved in intelligence activity.”

 


Appeals court hears from US military contractor ordered to pay $42M to former Abu Ghraib detainees

Appeals court hears from US military contractor ordered to pay $42M to former Abu Ghraib detainees
Updated 09 September 2025

Appeals court hears from US military contractor ordered to pay $42M to former Abu Ghraib detainees

Appeals court hears from US military contractor ordered to pay $42M to former Abu Ghraib detainees
  • Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’ad Al-Zubae testified at last year’s trial that that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment
  • Military police seen in the photos smiling and laughing as they directed the abuse were convicted in military courts-martial

VIRGINIA, USA: A federal appeals court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday about an appeal from a US military contractor ordered to pay $42 million for contributing to the torture and mistreatment of three former detainees at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago.
Reston, Virginia-based CACI appealed last year’s civil lawsuit verdict to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Suhail Al Shimari, Salah Al-Ejaili and Asa’ad Al-Zubae testified at last year’s trial that that they were subjected to beatings, sexual abuse, forced nudity and other cruel treatment at the prison during the US occupation of Iraq. A jury awarded them $3 million each in compensatory damages and $11 million each in punitive damages.
The three did not allege that CACI’s interrogators explicitly inflicted the abuse themselves, but argued CACI was complicit because its interrogators conspired with military police to “soften up” detainees for questioning with harsh treatment.
CACI supplied the interrogators who worked at the prison. It has denied any wrongdoing and has emphasized throughout 17 years of litigation that its employees are not alleged to have inflicted any abuse on the plaintiffs in the case.
Photos of the abuse released in 2004 showed naked prisoners stacked into pyramids or dragged by leashes. Photos included a soldier smiling and giving a thumbs-up while posing next to a corpse, detainees being threatened with dogs, and a detainee hooded and attached to electrical wires.
Military police seen in the photos smiling and laughing as they directed the abuse were convicted in military courts-martial. But none of the civilian interrogators from CACI ever faced criminal charges, even though military investigations concluded that several CACI interrogators had engaged in wrongdoing.
Last year’s civil trial and subsequent retrial were the first time a US jury heard claims brought by Abu Ghraib detainees in the 20 years since the photos shocked the world.
None of the three plaintiffs were in any of photos but they described treatment very similar to what was depicted.
The $42 million they were awarded fully matches the amount sought by the plaintiffs. It’s also more than the $31 million that the plaintiffs said CACI was paid to supply interrogators to Abu Ghraib.


Ethiopia mega-dam overcame war, funding obstacles

Ethiopia mega-dam overcame war, funding obstacles
Updated 09 September 2025

Ethiopia mega-dam overcame war, funding obstacles

Ethiopia mega-dam overcame war, funding obstacles
  • CEO of Webuild Pietro Salini: ‘This country that was dark in the evening when I first arrived here... is now selling energy to neighboring countries’
  • A brutal civil war between the government and rebels from the Tigray region between 2020 and 2022, which claimed roughly 600,000 lives, also slowed the GERD’S completion

NAIROBI: Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, inaugurated in Ethiopia Tuesday, had to overcome financial, logistical and war-related challenges, the Italian construction magnate behind the scheme told AFP.
African leaders joined Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in officially unveiling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) that has promised to revolutionize the country’s energy sector but also caused tensions with neighboring Egypt.
The dam is the largest by power capacity on the continent and could transform a country where almost half the 130-million population still lacks electricity, according to World Bank data.
“This country that was dark in the evening when I first arrived here... is now selling energy to neighboring countries,” Pietro Salini, CEO of Webuild, the main contractor for the project, told AFP.
Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan have already agreed deals to buy the electricity.
The dam towers 170 meters (550 feet) high and stretches nearly two kilometers (1.2 miles) across the Blue Nile near the Sudanese border.
The $4-billion megastructure is designed to hold 74 billion cubic meters of water and generate 5,150 megawatts of electricity — more than double Ethiopia’s current capacity.
More than 25,000 people, mostly from Europe and Ethiopia, labored on the giant site from 2011 to its official opening.
Salini said his firm spent some 250,000 hours training workers in health and safety and technical engineering, noting: “The human factor is always the hardest to tackle.”
Neighbouring countries Egypt and Sudan are wrong to worry about the impact of the dam on their water supply, he said.
“The hydroelectric project releases water to produce energy. They are not irrigation schemes that consume water,” said Salini.
“There’s no change in the flow. It’s just regulated,” he added.
Salini also said the project was entirely financed by Ethiopia.
“Not one international lender was willing to put money in this project,” he told AFP.
A brutal civil war between the government and rebels from the Tigray region between 2020 and 2022, which claimed roughly 600,000 lives, also slowed the GERD’S completion.
But all those challenges are now in the past, Salini said.
“At an opening ceremony, you don’t think about past difficulties,” he added.