List of All Articles with Tag 'rl'

In downtown Munich, police cars blocked roads to a modern office building where security guards patrolled the halls

Slovaks are voting in a parliamentary election on Saturday, a knife-edge vote that could radically reshape Slovakia's approach to Ukraine and create deep rifts within NATO and the European Union.

Chocolate risks becoming even more expensive if West Africa’s new cocoa harvest ends in disappointment. Cocoa prices have

Poland will find ways to address disagreements with Ukraine without the recent differences impacting its military support, said Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. The two neighbouring nations have encountered friction in their ties after Poland – that has been one of Ukraine’s fiercest allies through the course of Russian invasion – decided to extend a ban on Ukrainian grain imports. Last week, Poland said it would only carry out previously agreed arms deliveries to Ukraine and choose to focus on rebuilding its own weapons arsenal. “I’m expecting and I’m confident that Ukraine and Poland will find a way to address those issues without that impacting in a negative way the military support to Ukraine,” Mr Stoltenberg said in an interview in Copenhagen on Friday. The announcement coincided with tensions peaking between the two neighbours after Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said some countries were “feigning solidarity by indirectly supporting Russia” with a ban on grain imports. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, a majority of Ukrainian grain ended up in Europe as the main Black Sea shipping lanes all but closed. Imports were then blocked by five countries to try and protect EU farmers amid fears the amount of grain would drive down local prices. Poland extended the ban after the European Union-brokered deal expired last week. On Tuesday, Mr Zelensky repeated his accusation on Eastern European nations backing Russia during his speech at the UN General Assembly. Poland then summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to its foreign ministry to protest Mr Zelensky’s comments. Hours later, Warsaw announced it would no longer be supplying weapons to Ukraine. “We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,” the prime minister said. Poland has previously sent 320 Soviet-era tanks and 14 MiG-29 fighter jets to the war-torn country. Mr Morawiecki also issued a warning to Kyiv, saying if they “escalate the conflict”, additional products will be added to the list of banned imports. “I am warning Ukraine’s authorities. Because if they are to escalate the conflict like that, we will add additional products to the ban on imports into Poland,” he said. “Ukrainian authorities do not understand the degree to which Poland’s farming industry has been destabilised. We are protecting Polish farmers.” Ukraine’s other ally Slovakia is also seeing discussions of halting support to Ukraine. The Nato nation has been a staunch ally of Kyiv and sent military equipment including MiG-29 fighter jets and an S-300 air defence system to its neighbour. But opposition leader and former prime minister Robert Fico has pledged to end that military support. Mr Fico is leading polls ahead of Saturday’s election. “Whatever new government they will have in Slovakia, we will continue to sit down at Nato meetings,” Mr Stoltenberg said, “and I’m confident that we’ll find ways to continue to provide support – as we have been after every election in this alliance since the war started”. Read More Plans for Poland's first nuclear power plant move ahead as US and Polish officials sign an agreement Why has Poland stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine? Zelensky accuses ‘some friends in Europe’ of playing into Russia’s hands Poland done sending arms to Ukraine, leader says, as trade dispute escalates

Vladimir Putin’s forces launched overnight drone and missile attacks that targeted Ukraine’s eastern and southern parts as the war-hit country’s officials ordered the evacuation of an infrastructure site that was targeted. Ukraine’s air force said Russia’s forces launched a swarm of Shahed drones from Crimea and the Black Sea in an overnight offensive on Saturday. One of the strikes targeted an infrastructure site in the Vinnytsia region as the air force warned of the threat of ballistic missiles. Authorities asked people to stay in shelters and said a general evacuation was not yet necessary apart from the immediate area where the strike occurred. “At this time there is no need for a general evacuation, apart from the immediate area around the site of the hit,” said Vasyl Polishchuk, head of administration for the town of Kalynivka, according to the town’s website. “Attack UAVs are moving in the north-west direction. A threat to the Vinnytsia region. Stay in shelters!” it said on its official Telegram channel. The officials did not mention what target was struck and what weapon had been used. However, regional governor Serhiy Borzov said the hit was made on an unspecified infrastructure site, a term used by Ukrainian officials to refer to facilities involved in power generation and other industries. The governor announced an air raid alert at 1.10am local time and within an hour, he reported a strike. An initial air raid warning for an anticipated strike was announced at 11.17pm in western Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad oblasts. Ukrainian air forces issued more than 40 air raid alerts on its Telegram channels for Donetsk, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions among several other cities as Russian forced launched a massive wave of attacks overnight. Air-raid alerts and warnings were issued throughout the night. It warned of “the threat of using ballistic weapons in areas where the alarm has been declared”. “Don’t Ignore Airborne Alarms! Head for cover,” read another alert around 6.30am. On Friday evening, the air force of Ukraine’s armed forces said several groups of drones were fired from the Crimean peninsula. Read More Ukraine-Russia war – live: Putin orders former Wagner boss to control ‘volunteer units’ and rejoin frontline Ukraine urges other nations to boycott playing Russia after Uefa decision Russia is set to avoid a full ban from the 2024 Paralympics in Paris Putin recruits former Wagner commander ‘Grey Hair’ Troshev to oversee Ukraine mercenaries Ukraine ‘hits power substation’ in drone attacks on Russian border regions

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has been fined by a US regulator over alleged swaps reporting failures and other

With the Minnesota Twins looking ahead to the postseason, manager Rocco Baldelli is not giving too much away when it comes to injury updates for Carlos Correa and others.

In his final start of his first season with the New York Yankees, Carlos Rodon allowed eight earned runs before recording an out against the Kansas City Royals.

The Chicago Cubs' slim postseason chances have gone to hell in a hand basket of late, alright. Have the Cubs essentially punted on making the playoffs now?

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has called for "justice" after rivals FC Barcelona were charged with bribery by the Investigative Court No. 1 of Barcelona as part of the Negreira case.

Leo Varadkar says there is "no place for racism in sport" after viral gymnast video controversy.

Terrified families fleeing in fear of ethnic cleansing after the collapse of Nagorno-Karabakh are running out of water and fuel during the desperate two-day odyssey to neighbouring Armenia. More than 90,000 Karabakh Armenians – around three-quarters of the total population – have now left their homes in the breakaway enclave, which is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan. The United Nations fears the stunning fall of the enclave could mean there will eventually be no Armenians left in Nagorno-Karabakh, prompting concerns of ethnic cleansing. It is the largest exodus of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The breakaway region - also known by Armenians as Artsakh - had enjoyed de facto independence for three decades before Azerbaijan launched a lightning military operation earlier this month. It forced separatist forces to lay down their weapons and fto agree to formally dissolve the breakaway government. Fearing reprisals, as Baku’s forces moved into the main cities and arrested Armenian officials, hungry and scared families packed what few belongings they could into cars and trucks and left their homes for good. Valeri, 17, fled the village of Kichan, 70 km north of the Armenian border with his family and neighbours. In total, they squeezed 35 people into a Ford Transit and made the four-day journey to safety, sitting on top of each other and sleeping in shifts. “We couldn’t take anything with us because the shelling was too intense as we escaped,” he told The Independent. They had to hide in a large waste water pipe to escape artillery fire, he said. In the chaos, families were separated and the mobile coverage in the mountainous regions means they are still trying to reconnect. His family has been forced to move six times since the early 1990s and, like so many Armenians, find themselves homeless again. “I don’t think it’s possible to go back to Kichan, even if we could go back everything will be wrecked or stolen,” he said. Others described a 40km hairpin road to Armenia at a near standstill, with some vehicles breaking down for a lack of fuel. In the lead-up to Azerbaijan’s operation, Baku had imposed a 10-month blockade on the enclave leading to chronic shortages of food and petrol supplies. “All you can see is a sea of cars stretching to the horizon, people are cooking by the side of the road,” said Gev Iskajyan, 31, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Artsakh, as he arrived exhausted in the Armenian capital Yerevan. He fled the region’s main city Stepanakert, or Khankendi as it is known in Azerbaijan, fearing he could be arrested if he stayed. “Resources are so scarce there, people are running out of water and fuel on the road along the way out. If anything happens to children and the elderly, no one can get to them. Ambulances can’t move,” he told The Independent. He said most families believed they would not ever be able to return home and that this was the end of Armenian presence. “It weighs heavy. Nagorno-Karabakh isn’t just a place, it is a culture, it has its own dialect,” he said. “You look at the people in the back of trucks, they have to fit their entire life in a single box, they can’t bring everything, they can’t go back, it breaks your heart. “It is centuries of history lost.” Nagorno-Karabakh isn’t just a place, it is a culture, it has its own dialect Gev Iskajyan, an Armenian advocate who fled to Yerevan The centuries-old conflict that has raged through the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh remains the longest-running in post-Soviet Eurasia. The 4,400 square kilometre territory is officially part of Azerbaijan but after a bloody war following the dissolution of the USSR in the 1990s, the region’s Armenian-majority population enjoyed state-like autonomy and status. That changed in 2020 when Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military offensive and took back swathes of territory in a six-week conflict that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia, which supports Armenia, brokered a tense cessation of hostilities. But that was broken earlier this month when Baku launched a 24-hour blitz which proved too much for Armenian separatist forces, who are outgunned and outnumbered. They agreed to lay down their weapons and dissolve the entire enclave. Residents still left in Nagorno-Karabakh told The Independent that Azerbaijani forces and police entered the main city. “People are intensively fleeing after the forces entered, and took over the governmental buildings,” said one man who asked not to be named over concerns for his safety. Baku has also detained prominent Armenians as they attempted to flee, prompting fears more arrests may follow. Among them was Ruben Vardanyan, a billionaire investment banker, who served as the head of Karabakh’s separatist government between November 2022 and February this year. On Friday, Russian state media reported that the Azerbaijani military had also detained former separatist commander Levon Mnatsakanyan as he also tried to escape. He led the army of the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh from 2015 to 2018. The UN, meanwhile, said they were readying themselves for as many as 120,000 refugees to flood into Armenia, a third of them children. “The major concern for us is that many of them have been separated from their family,” said Regina De Dominicis, regional director of the UN’s child agency. “This is a situation where they’ve lived under nine months of blockade,” added Kavita Belani, UNHCR representative in Armenia. “When they come in, they’re full of anxiety, they’re scared, they’re frightened and they want answers.” Read More More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population flees as separatist government says it will dissolve The fall of an enclave in Azerbaijan stuns the Armenian diaspora, extinguishing a dream AP PHOTOS: Tens of thousands of Armenians flee in mass exodus from breakaway region of Azerbaijan More than 70% of Nagorno-Karabakh's population flees as separatist government says it will dissolve The fall of an enclave in Azerbaijan stuns the Armenian diaspora, extinguishing a dream Why this week's mass exodus from embattled Nagorno-Karabakh reflects decades of animosity