French daredevil falls to his death from Hong Kong skyscraper - Fox News

A French daredevil who gained social media fame by taking photos of himself on tall structures throughout the world fell to his death from a skyscraper in Hong Kong.

Remi Lucidi, known on social media as "Remi Enigma," was found dead in Hong Kong after authorities believe he fell from one of the city's skyscrapers Thursday, according to a report from the Guardian.

Lucidi, who was 30, was found by police on the patio of an apartment and later identified by local media reports. He was found with his French ID and a camera used to film his participation in extreme sports.

NORTH DAKOTA'S 'FLYING FARMER' WRECKS CAR DURING DAREDEVIL JUMP

Remi Lucidi, known on social media as "Remi Enigma," posted photos of himself on top of tall structures around the world. (remnigma/ Instagram)

Investigators believe Lucidi fell to his death from a ledge of penthouse apartment building he entered earlier in the day, telling security he was there to visit a friend on the building's 40th floor. CCTV footage from the building showed he instead exited the elevator on the 49th floor and used stairs to access the top floor of the skyscraper. Police say a worker at a penthouse apartment on the building's 68th floor reported that Lucidi had knocked on the window of the apartment around 7:30 p.m. Thursday and requested to be let inside, but the worker was suspicious and instead called authorities. 

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, police believe Lucidi may have been trapped on the building and was looking for help before the incident.

Remi Lucidi, known on social media as "Remi Enigma," posted photos of himself on top of tall structures around the world. (remnigma/ Instagram)

"It is possible that he got trapped outside the penthouse while practicing an extreme sport in the building, and he knocked on the window for help, but accidentally fell to his death," a police source told the outlet.

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Remi Lucidi, known on social media as "Remi Enigma," reportedly died after a fall in Hong Kong. (remnigma/ Instagram)

Police then later received a call about a gas leak, which prompted officers to discover Lucidi's body. Authorities believe Lucidi broke a gas pipe for the building during his fall.

Michael Lee is a writer at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee

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Russian ballistic missile strikes kill at least 6 people in Zelenskyy's hometown in central Ukraine - The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian ballistic missiles slammed into an apartment complex and a university building in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown Monday, killing six people and wounding 75 others as the blasts trapped residents beneath rubble, Ukrainian officials said.

One of the two missiles that hit the central city of Kryvyi Rihon destroyed part of an apartment building between the fourth and ninth floors, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. Video showed black smoke billowing from corner units and burned out or damaged cars on a tree-lined street.

The dead included a 10-year-old girl and her mother, according to Zelenskyy. More than 350 people were involved in the rescue operation, he said in a Telegram post.

The morning attack also destroyed part of a four-story university building.

The strike on Zelenskyy’s hometown, which has been hit in the past, happened a day after the Ukrainian president warned that the fighting was drawing closer to Russian land.

“Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia — to its symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process,” Zelenskyy said Sunday in his nightly video address.

It was not clear whether the missile strikes were in retaliation for his comments.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian artillery strike on the partially occupied Donetsk province killed two people and wounded six others in the regional capital, according to Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the illegally annexed province.

A bus was also hit as Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Donetsk multiple times Monday, Pushilin said.

Neither side’s claims could be independently verified.

A recent Ukrainian counteroffensive, deploying weaponry supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies and aimed at driving Russian forces out of occupied areas, intensified last week. At the same time, Ukraine has sought to take the war deep into Russia, reportedly using drones to hit targets as far away as Moscow.

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia and Moscow-annexed territory, especially Crimea, have become more frequent. The latest strike, on Sunday, damaged two office buildings a few miles (kilometers) from the Kremlin. Ukrainian officials did not acknowledge the attack.

Russia tightened security in the aftermath of that attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday, describing the assault as an “act of desperation.”

“The Kyiv regime is in a very, very difficult situation,” Peskov said, “as the counteroffensive is not working out as planned.”

“It’s obvious that the multibillion-dollar resources that have been transferred by NATO countries to the Kyiv regime are actually being spent inefficiently,” Peskov said.

“This raises big questions in Western capitals and great discomfort among taxpayers in Western countries.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin, analysts say, is wagering that Western support for Kyiv will wane as the war drags on and costs mount.

Another Ukrainian drone targeted a district police department early Monday in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, but there were no casualties, the local governor said.

Bombarding populated areas with missiles, artillery and drones has been a hallmark of Moscow’s military strategy throughout the war, and that approach has continued during the Ukrainian counteroffensive that started in June.

Russian officials insist they take aim only at legitimate military targets, but Ukraine and its supporters say mass civilian deaths during previous attacks are evidence of war crimes.

“In recent days, the enemy has been stubbornly attacking cities, city centers, shelling civilian objects and housing,” Zelenskyy said. “But this terror will not frighten us or break us.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday that his forces have increased the intensity of attacks on Ukrainian military facilities.

It was not immediately clear which military facilities he was referring to, as Russia’s recent missile strikes have hit civilian infrastructure.

In the southern city of Odesa, Russian strikes in recent weeks targeted port infrastructure and grain silos, after Moscow broke off an export agreement for Ukrainian grain. The Ukrainian foreign ministry estimated Monday that about 180,000 metric tons of grain have been destroyed by Russia in the past nine days.

Russian shelling Monday also killed four civilians and wounded 17 in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. A 70-year-old woman was killed by shelling in her home in a Kharkiv province village near Izyum, authorities said.

In eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province, one person was reported killed and seven people were injured after Russia shelled 12 cities and villages, according to Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.

In other developments Monday, China introduced restrictions on the export of long-range civilian drones. Authorities cited the war in Ukraine and concern that drones could be converted for military purposes.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s government is friendly with Moscow, but says it’s neutral in the war. It has been stung by reports that both sides might be using Chinese-made drones for reconnaissance and possibly attacks.

Meanwhile, Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said Monday that his Wagner Group is not currently recruiting fighters.

In an audio message published on a Telegram channel associated with the Wagner chief, Prigozhin said the company had suspended recruitment as there is currently “no shortage of personnel.”

Prigozhin previously agreed with Western estimates that he lost more than 20,000 men in the long battle for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

Prigozhin last month led a short-lived mutiny against Moscow, demanding a leadership change in the Russian military. In an attempt to control him, Russian authorities insisted that Wagner fighters can only return to Ukraine if they join Russia’s regular army.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Italy minister says decision to join flagship Chinese scheme ‘wicked’ - CNN

CNN  — 

Italy’s defense minister called his country’s decision to join a flagship Chinese infrastructure scheme “wicked,” as the government weighs up whether continue as part of the scheme.

In an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper published Sunday, Guido Crosetto said that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – which Italy signed up to under its previous government – had done little to help the country’s exports.

The BRI – a name coined by China’s Xi Jinping in 2013 – is Beijing’s global infrastructure investment program. It was established to rebuild China’s Silk Road, connecting Asia with Africa and Europe with the aim of increasing trade and economic growth.

The initiative has seen billions of dollars poured into infrastructure projects each year – paving highways from Papua New Guinea to Kenya, constructing ports from Sri Lanka to West Africa, and providing power and telecoms infrastructure for people from Latin America to Southeast Asia.

Critics see the BRI as a way for China to spread its influence across the globe.

Italy in 2019 became the only major Western country and the only country from the G7 group of advanced economies to join the BRI,

Crosetto told the Corriere della Sera “the choice to join the Silk Road was an improvised and wicked act, made by the government of Giuseppe Conte, which led to a double negative result.

“We have exported a load of oranges to China, they have tripled their exports to Italy in three years. The most ridiculous thing then was that Paris, without signing any treaties, in those days sold planes to Beijing for tens of billions

The question now, he said, is how Italy can withdraw from the BRI without damaging relations with Beijing. He described Beijing as “a competitor, but also a partner.”

Italy’s membership of the BRI expires in 2024. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that it was possible to have “good relations” with China outside the scheme.

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Colombia President Petro's son arrested in money laundering probe - Reuters Canada

BOGOTA, July 29 (Reuters) - Nicolas Petro, son of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, has been arrested as part of an investigation into money laundering and illicit enrichment, the attorney general's office said early on Saturday.

The younger Petro, a politician in Atlantico province, had welcomed the investigation when it began in March and has previously called accusations that he took money from drug traffickers in exchange for including them in his father's peace efforts unfounded.

Also arrested on money laundering and personal data violation accusations was Nicolas' ex-wife Daysuris del Carmen Vasquez, who earlier this year told local media two people accused of involvement with drug trafficking had given Nicolas money for his father's campaign.

Petro said on X, the platform previously known as Twitter, that it was painful for one of his children to be jailed, but that the attorney general's office had all guarantees to proceed according to the law.

"To my son I wish luck and strength. May these occurrences forge his character and may he reflect about his own errors," the president said. "As I affirmed to the attorney general I will not intervene nor pressure his decisions, may the law freely guide the process."

The president has pledged to make peace or surrender deals with rebels and crime gangs to end Colombia's 60-year internal conflict, which has killed 450,000 people.

Efforts have been met with mixed success during his first year in office. Revived negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group have led to a ceasefire set to begin in August, while efforts to hold conversations with major crime gang the Clan del Golfo have faltered due to continued violence.

A proposed law to regulate crime group surrenders, giving participants lower sentences in exchange for information and restorative work, has drawn harsh critique including from the attorney general.

The attorney general's office will request to a judge that the younger Petro and Vasquez be held on the charges, it said.

"Charges will be formulated for the aforementioned crimes and liberty restriction measures will be requested," the attorney general's office said in a statement, adding the arrests took place at 6 a.m. local time (1100 GMT).

Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; editing by Diane Craft

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Notre Dame cathedral reconstruction project takes a big leap forward - CBS News

Briey, eastern France - Four years ago, the world looked on in horror as Paris' Notre Dame cathedral was engulfed in flames. As the fire took hold, the church's iconic spire, made of oak and metal, was swallowed by the blaze.

Firefighters battled the flames through the night. Astonishingly, most of the church structure survived, but the massive timber roof was lost and the 19th century spire was destroyed.

 Soon though, it will be restored to its former glory.
 
Deep in the French countryside, teams of architects, engineers and artisans have been hard at work. Carpenters measure, cut and chisel centuries-old oak to rebuild the 300-foot spire to its original design, combining methods of the past with tools of today.
 
Outside the workshops in Briey, in eastern France, they held a dress rehearsal on July 20 to ensure all the carefully-carved components of the spire shaft fit together.

This photograph taken on July 20, 2023, shows the blank assembly of the new spire of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Briey, eastern France. This spire is being reconstructed to be identical to the original one, as after the fire of April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame is set to be reopened at the end of 2024 according to the French Minsitry of Culture. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP via Getty Images

 
As a crane lowered the final piece of the puzzle onto the 60-foot shaft, there was a sigh of relief from the man in charge of the project, French Army Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin.
 
"It's a very emotional time, because the reconstruction of the spire is the key time phase of the reconstruction of the cathedral," he told CBS News.
 
The teams working on the reconstruction of the spire used the original 19th century plans by architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. But they relied on modern computers to run 1,600 hours of calculations to figure out just how it was built, and the potential effects
of weather and time on the new structure. After drawing up 320 different versions for the new spire, they were finally ready to
build one.
 
"It will be exactly the same as it was by Viollet-le-Duc," said Georgelin. "But we do that with the means of our time: We use computers... We have probably less genius, but more calculation, more certainty by using computers."  

The timber for the spire came from public and private woodlands across France, including some that once belonged to the king and the Catholic church. Only the tallest, straightest oak trees - all of them at least 100 years old - were chosen.

To form the shaft, 285 pieces of that wood were assembled in complex patterns. The architects call the shaft "the heart of the spire."

Flames and smoke are seen billowing from the roof at Notre Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019 in Paris, France. Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images

Architect Axelle Ponsonnet has been working on the reconstruction for two years and admits it has been "very exciting" to work on such a prestigious project. 

"It's not only the famous part of it," she told CBS News. "Of course, I'm extremely proud to be part of this team and to rebuild Notre Dame. But it's also a very interesting project, because it's a very complex structure and today we are never building such structures, and what's amazing is that we are really trying to be very specific in the way we rebuild it."
 
Her colleague and fellow architect Aurélie Ouzineb agreed, calling the project "very complex" and the spire's original designers and builders "really geniuses."

She, too, feels privileged to be working on the reconstruction: "It's very exciting because for us, it's our job, our everyday job, but we all know that this is a very historical moment."
 
Also thrilled to be part of the project is carpenter Benoit Angheben. He came from Belgium to Paris looking for work - and found himself part of the most prestigious reconstruction project of the century.

"It was like a dream," he said. "I couldn't believe it - because when it burned, we were all very sad."

The shaft of the spire is now complete, and it will be taken to Paris in August to be placed on the roof of the cathedral. Work on the rest of the spire continues and it will follow, piece by piece, until the end of this year, when it's expected to soar once again up into the Paris skyline.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised that Notre Dame would reopen to the public in 2024, and Gen. Georgelin is confident they'll make the deadline.

"I do my best," he said. "Every minute in my life is dedicated to that."

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Ukraine using North Korean rockets against Russian forces: FT - Business Insider

Ukrainian soldiers repair a Leopard 2 tank in Zaporizhzhya region, Ukraine, on June 21, 2023.

Andriy Andriyenko, File/Associated Press

• Ukrainian forces are using North Korean-made rockets against Russian forces, FT reported.
• It's unclear how Ukrainian soldiers got the weapons, but one said they were "very unreliable."
• North Korea is an ally of Russia and has sold them weapons, according to US officials.

While North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has supported Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort, weapons produced in his country have apparently been turned against Russian forces.

The Financial Times reported Friday that Ukraine has been launching unpredictable, North Korean-made rockets at Russian troops. Ukrainian soldiers manning multiple-launch rocket systems near Bakhmut showed the weapons to the outlet.

A Ukrainian artillery commander told FT his troops don't like using the weapons, which were made in the 1980s and '90s, because they can often misfire or fail to explode. One soldier said, "They are very unreliable and do crazy things sometimes."

The use of North Korean weapons was striking given that the country is an ally of Russia. Putin on Thursday thanked North Korea for its "firm support" for the war in Ukraine. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu also visited Pyongyang this week to meet with Kim while the country celebrated the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

Last year, US intelligence officials said Pyongyang was selling millions of artillery shells and rockets to Russia after sanctions cut the Kremlin off from its typical military supply lines. And in March, the White House said it had evidence that North Korea was again providing Russia with weapons, this time in exchange for food.

"As part of this proposed deal, Russia would receive over two dozen kinds of weapons and munitions from Pyongyang," John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said at the time.

Ukrainian soldiers told FT a "friendly" country "seized" the North Korean rockets from a ship, but did not give further details. A Ukrainian defense official said the weapons may have been taken directly from Russian troops.

"We capture their tanks, we capture their equipment and it is very possible that this is also the result of the Ukrainian army successfully conducting a military operation," Yuriy Sak, adviser to Ukraine's defense minister, told FT, adding: "Russia has been shopping around for different types of munitions in all kinds of tyrannies, including North Korea and Iran."

In addition to North Korea, Western officials have said Russia has received weapons from Iran. Politico reported this week that China has also been sending military gear to Russia, including drones and protective gear, relying on a loophole to get around Western sanctions.

Ukraine has also been relying on weapons from several different countries in the war, including Soviet-era weapons and arms provided by the West, including the US, United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain.

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Typhoon Doksuri roars into China, destroys power lines, uproots trees - Reuters

BEIJING/TAIPEI, July 28 (Reuters) - Typhoon Doksuri swept into southern China on Friday, unleashing heavy rain and violent gusts of wind that whipped power lines and sparked fires, uprooted trees, and ripped off part of a stadium roof.

The typhoon is the most powerful to make landfall in China this year and second-strongest to hit southeastern Fujian province since Typhoon Meranti in 2016, forcing the closure of schools, businesses and the evacuation of workers from offshore oil and gas fields, state media said.

Doksuri has affected more than 724,600 people, with 124,400 people evacuated and resettled, and caused direct economic losses of 52.27 million yuan ($7.30 million), media reported.

In the Fujian port city of Quanzhou, 39 people were reported to have suffered minor injuries, and more than 500,000 homes lost power.

The retractable roof of a stadium in downtown Quanzhou was ripped apart as wind lashed its huge dome, sending glass and metal flying.

Doksuri's wind speed was downgraded to severe tropical storm but torrential rain was still expected to hit inland provinces such as Anhui, which grows corn, rice, soybean and cotton.

Its massive rain bands are expected to arc as far north as Beijing on Sunday or Monday.

'HORRIBLE'

There were no immediate reports of fatalities. In 2016, at least 11 people were killed when Meranti made landfall near the port city of Xiamen, south of Quanzhou.

"The whole of Xiamen didn't go to work this morning," said a resident surnamed Zhuang.

"There are no cars on the roads, and factories and shopping malls are closed. Guess people are scared after Meranti."

Social media video showed power lines sparking and bursting into flames as winds thrashed Jinjiang, a city of 2 million, while in Quanzhou trees were uprooted and left in the middle of roads.

On one video, a woman can be heard shouting: "So many fallen tress. Some are broken down. It is a mess. This is too much. It is horrible."

Social media videos showed the wind blowing a large incense burner across the ground at a temple in Jinjiang while residents tried to stop the rain from flooding into their apartments.

Residents told Reuters power and water were cut in some areas of Jinjiang and Quanzhou.

FERRY OVERTURNS

Typhoon Doksuri has already left a wake of death and destruction as it moved from the Philippines across southern Taiwan.

In the Philippines, a ferry sank near Manila, killing at least 26 after frightened passengers rushed to one side of the boat and caused it to overturn. As many as 36 people were killed in the Philippines.

In southern Taiwan, the storm toppled trees and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes. Authorities shut businesses for a second day on Friday and warned of extreme winds, landslides and floods.

The storm had cut power to more than 278,000 homes across Taiwan and downed hundreds of trees in Kaohsiung. Rainfall of more than 1 metre was recorded in the mountainous eastern and southern parts of the island.

More than 200 domestic and international flights were suspended or delayed on Friday and railway services between southern and eastern Taiwan were halted.

($1 = 7.16 yuan)

Reporting by Bernard Orr and Ryan Woo in Beijing, Yimou Lee in Taipei, additional reporting by Dominique Patton, Yuhan Lin, Kevin Huang, Ethan Wang and the Beijing and Shanghai newsrooms; Editing by Michael Perry and Neil Fullick.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Singapore hangs first woman in 19 years after she was convicted of trafficking 31 grams of heroin - Yahoo News

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Singapore conducted its first execution of a woman in 19 years on Friday and its second hanging this week for drug trafficking despite calls for the city-state to cease capital punishment for drug-related crimes.

Activists said another execution is planned next week.

Saridewi Djamani, 45, was sentenced to death in 2018 for trafficking about 31 grams (1 ounce) of diamorphine, or pure heroin, the Central Narcotics Bureau said. It said the amount was “sufficient to feed the addiction of about 370 abusers for a week.”

Singapore’s laws mandate the death penalty for anyone convicted of trafficking more than 500 grams (17.6 ounces) of cannabis and 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of heroin.

Djamani’s execution came two days after that of a Singaporean man, Mohammed Aziz Hussain, 56, for trafficking around 50 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin.

The narcotics bureau said both prisoners were accorded due process, including appeals of their convictions and sentences and petitions for presidential clemency.

Human rights groups, international activists and the United Nations have urged Singapore to halt executions for drug offenses and say there is increasing evidence it is ineffective as a deterrent. Singapore authorities insist capital punishment is important to halting drug demand and supply.

Human rights groups say it has executed 15 people for drug offenses since it resumed hangings in March 2022, an average of one a month.

Anti-death penalty activists said the last woman known to have been hanged in Singapore was 36-year-old hairdresser Yen May Woen, also for drug trafficking, in 2004.

Transformative Justice Collective, a Singapore group which advocates for the abolishment of capital punishment, said a new execution notice has been issued to another prisoner for Aug, 3, the fifth this year alone.

It said the prisoner is an ethnic Malay citizen who worked as a delivery driver before his arrest in 2016. He was convicted in 2019 of trafficking around 50 grams (1.7 ounces) of heroin and his appeal was dismissed last year, it said.

The group said the man had maintained in his trial that he believed he was delivering contraband cigarettes for a friend to whom he owed money, and he didn't verify the contents of the bag as he trusted his friend.

The High Court judge ruled that their ties weren't close enough to warrant the kind of trust he claimed to have had for his friend. Although the court found he was merely a courier, the man still had to be given the mandatory death penalty because prosecutors didn't issue him a certificate of having cooperated with them, it said.

“But how could he have cooperated if, as he told the police and the court, he had not even been aware that he was being used to deliver heroin?” the group said on Facebook.

The group said it “condemns, in the strongest terms, the state's bloodthirsty streak” and reiterated calls for an immediate moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Critics say Singapore's harsh policy punishes low-level traffickers and couriers, who are typically recruited from marginalized groups with vulnerabilities. They say Singapore is also out of step with the trend of more countries moving away from capital punishment. Neighboring Thailand has legalized cannabis while Malaysia ended the mandatory death penalty for serious crimes this year.

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Netanyahu warns against overturning controversial new law in CNN interview - CNN

Editor’s Note: Wolf Blitzer’s full interview with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu airs at 5pm ET on The Situation Room.

CNN  — 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to say if he would abide by any potential Supreme Court ruling striking down his controversial judicial reform law, as Israelis agonize over a looming showdown between their government and the court.

“What you’re talking about is a situation, or potential situation, where in American terms, the United States’ Supreme Court would take a constitutional amendment and say that it’s unconstitutional. That’s the kind of the kind of spiral that you’re talking about, and I hope we don’t get to that,” Netanyahu told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, warning that the country could enter “uncharted territory.

The law, which would limit the power of Israel’s Supreme Court, is an amendment to one of Israel’s Basic Laws, which exist in place of a formal constitution. It passed the Knesset on Monday despite six months of protests and rare public criticism from the White House.

The Supreme Court has said that it will hear appeals against the law in September.

Israelis protest against plans to overhaul the judicial system in Tel Aviv, on July 27, 2023.

Ariel Schalit/AP

US President Joe Biden has been unusually outspoken about the judicial overhaul proposal, suggesting it amounts to an erosion of democratic institutions and could undermine US-Israel relations.

Asked if he was expecting consequences from the United States for the bill’s passing, Netanyahu stressed that relations remained strong between the Biden White House and his government – the most far right and religious in Israel’s history.

“Look, we’re both interested in blocking Iran. We’re both interested in advancing peace. This is the reason I came back to serving for the sixth time as Israel’s Prime Minister. I think those goals are achievable, and they’re going to be achieved together between Israel and the United States. I think that will strengthen our alliances. not weaken,” he said.

Protesters shout slogans following a parliament vote on a contested bill that limits Supreme Court powers, near the Knesset, in Jerusalem July 24, 2023.

Amir Cohen/Reuters

Israel's judicial overhaul sparks military crisis as number of refusing reservists grows

Netanyahu also pointed to debate in the US over its own Supreme Court. “You have an internal debate in the United States right now, about the powers of the Supreme Court about whether it’s abusing its power, whether you should curtail it,” he said.

“Does that make the American democracy not a democracy? Does that make that debate unworthy? Does that make that that issue, a symbol of the fact that you’re moving to some dictatorship personally?” he said.

Israel’s new law strips the Supreme Court of the ability to reject some government decisions on the basis of the “reasonableness” standard. It was the first of the government’s major judicial reforms to be passed by the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

A protester holds a flare during a demonstration in Tel Aviv on July 27, 2023.

Amir Cohen/Reuters

The country has no upper chamber of the parliament, but it has a relatively strong Supreme Court. Netanyahu and his supporters argue the court has become too powerful, and that their overhaul would rebalance powers between the judiciary, lawmakers and the government.

“We don’t want a subservient court. We want an independent court, not an all powerful court and that’s the correction that we’re doing,” Netanyahu told Blitzer.

Netanyahu acknowledged however that the bill had sparked “a big debate.”

“I don’t want to minimize it. I also don’t want to minimize the concerns that people have, because many of them have been caught in this spiral of fear,” he said, adding “Israel is going to remain a democracy.”

Opponents say the Supreme Court is the only check on the power of the government and the Knesset, and warn that the reforms would erode Israeli democracy by granting Netanyahu and his government almost unfettered powers.

Israelis protest in Tel Aviv on July 27, 2023.

Ariel Schalit/AP

Critics have also accused Netanyahu of pushing the overhaul forward to protect himself from his own corruption trial, where he faces charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust – which he has denied.

Would the new law be used to fire the attorney general, currently overseeing the trial? “I can tell you that this is not going to happen because it needs the heads of all the coalition to agree to it and they’re not going to agree to it. It’s not happening,” he predicted.

Thousands of Israeli army reservists – the backbone of the Israeli military – are threatening not to show up for work over the new legislation, but Netanyahu appeared unfazed by the threat. “Yes, there is a big debate, but, and some of the former generals are leading an effort against this reform – That’s okay. It’s a legitimate thing,” he said.

“But in a democracy, the day that… former generals can force … democratically elected officials to stop legislation on this or that matter, I would say that’s the that’s the day that Israel really stopped being a democracy,” he said.

That said, he does not want to “minimize the concerns that people have because many of them have been caught in this spiral of fear,” he added. “Israel is going to remain a democracy. There are checks and balances.”

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Putin promises African leaders free grain despite 'hypocritical' Western sanctions - Reuters

• Summary

• Putin gives speech at two-day Russia-Africa summit
• Says free Russian grain will reach Africa within months
• Touts Moscow as reliable food supplier and partner
• Accuses West of hypocrisy over food security
• U.N. chief talks of 'a handful of donations'

MOSCOW, July 27 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told African leaders he would gift them tens of thousands of tons of grain despite Western sanctions, which he said made it harder for Moscow to export its grain and fertilisers.

Speaking at a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said Russia was ready to replace Ukrainian grain exports to Africa on both a commercial and aid basis to fulfil what he said was Moscow's critical role in global food security.

"We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tonnes of free grain each in the next three to four months," Putin told the summit, whose participants applauded.

Last year, Russia exported 60 million tonnes of grain, of which 48 million was wheat, Putin said. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres called the promised grain "a handful of donations".

Many of the African countries Putin listed already enjoy close ties with Moscow; he omitted others in need such as Sudan and Chad.

Zimbabwe's president said he was grateful, even though his country already had enough to ensure its own food security.

Russia held its first Africa summit in 2019 and is pushing even harder, since sending troops into Ukraine, for influence and business on a continent where its Wagner mercenary group remains active despite an abortive mutiny at home last month.

Photographs purporting to show Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin meeting African officials on the sidelines of the summit surfaced on the Telegram app on Thursday. Reuters was unable to immediately verify when and where they had been taken.

Responding to Western criticism of Moscow's decision to quit the Black Sea grain deal, in which it allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its seaports despite the war, Putin restated his argument that a parallel memorandum promising to facilitate Russian grain and fertiliser exports had been ignored.

Comoros President Azali Assoumani, chair of the African Union, said Russia's complaints should be listened to, the Russian state news agency RIA reported:

"I shouldn't say that Russia is right or wrong. It acted for its own reasons; now we need to hear them in order to try to move forward."

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of Russia-Africa summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, July 26, 2023. Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

GLOBAL WHEAT PRICES SOARING

However, the collapse of the deal, and Russia's bombing of the Danube river ports that Ukraine has used as a roundabout export route, have driven up global wheat prices by about 10% in the past 10 days.

"When taking out of the market millions and millions of tonnes of grains, it is clear that ... will lead to higher prices," U.N. Secretary-General Guterres told reporters.

"So it's not with a handful of donations to some countries that we correct this dramatic impact that affects everybody, everywhere."

Putin told the summit that over 70% of Ukrainian grain exported under the deal had gone to countries with above-average income.

the poorest countries, like Sudan, had been "screwed over" and received less than 3% of the shipments, he said, ignoring the fact that Ukrainian supply has helped keep global prices down.

Putin said Western sanctions imposed in response to Russia's war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation", had even prevented Russia supplying free fertiliser to poor nations.

Russia's grain and fertiliser exports are not subject to Western sanctions, but Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a barrier to shipments.

"On the one hand, Western countries are obstructing supplies of our grain and fertilisers, while on the other they hypocritically blame us for the current crisis situation on the world food market," said Putin.

Assoumani, who shared the stage with Putin, appealed in his speech for "peaceful co-existence" between Russia and Ukraine, saying this would save the lives of those who needed their food.

Russia says 49 of Africa's 54 states have sent representatives to St Petersburg, including 17 heads of state and four heads of government.

Yet that is fewer than half the number of leaders who attended the 2019 summit - something the Kremlin has blamed in part on Western countries' efforts to dissuade them from going.

Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Kevin Liffey

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Andrew Osborn

Thomson Reuters

As Russia Chief Political Correspondent, and former Moscow bureau chief, Andrew helps lead coverage of the world's largest country, whose political, economic and social transformation under President Vladimir Putin he has reported on for much of the last two decades, along with its growing confrontation with the West and wars in Georgia and Ukraine. Andrew was part of a Wall Street Journal reporting team short-listed for a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. He has also reported from Moscow for two British newspapers, The Telegraph and The Independent.

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Photos: The Korean War, 70 Years After the Armistice - The New York Times

The Korean War broke out when a Soviet-backed, Communist North invaded the pro-American southern territory of the Korean Peninsula in 1950, leading to one of the most harrowing conflicts of the 20th century and setting the tone of the Cold War in Asia.

Despite American officials who initially described the Communist invaders as little more than “bandits,” the war dragged on for three disastrous years. Troops from both sides massacred civilians. Rival villagers slaughtered each other. The American-led United Nations forces suffered a crushing defeat when the North Koreans swept down the peninsula in 1950, occupying Seoul, the South Korean capital, before they were pushed back to the north.

Between 2 million and 3 million people — including 36,500 American troops — were estimated to have been killed. China’s intervention on the North’s behalf led to a stalemate between the two sides, and the fighting was halted roughly along the 38th Parallel after a truce was signed on July 27, 1953. But with no formal peace treaty ever established, the two Koreas technically remain at war.

Hostilities between the North and South have escalated in recent years. Kim Jong-un, the North’s dynastic ruler, has threatened to use nuclear weapons should fighting begin again.

On the 70th anniversary of the armistice, The New York Times revisited the early days of the conflict by going through archival photos taken by American and South Korean war photographers. Here is a selection, beginning with an image of American Marines running past the body of an enemy soldier in September 1950. That month, General Douglas MacArthur’s U.N. forces surprised the North Koreans with a daring amphibious landing at Incheon, west of Seoul, turning the tide of the war.

David Douglas Duncan

This undated photo from North Korea’s official news service purportedly shows North Korean soldiers in action during the war. The North Koreans claimed they started the war in the name of reunifying the Korean nation: the pro-Soviet North and the pro-American South.

Korean Central News Agency

American B-29 Superfortress bombers dropping their payloads during the conflict. The United States still occasionally sends strategic bombers flying over the peninsula when it wants to warn North Korea against military provocations.

Keystone, via Getty Images

Villagers waving a South Korean flag at troops heading to the front in January 1951. After the Incheon landing, American troops pushed their Communist enemies to the north. By January 1951, they were retreating south again after China entered the war.

Lee Kyung Mo

North Korean civilians in Pyongyang surveying the aftermath of a bombing by American planes. More than a million North Koreans, or more than 10 percent of the North’s prewar population, were believed to have been killed in the war. The U.S. military carpet-bombed dams, factories and other key North Korean infrastructure. Because of that memory, North Korea keeps most of its essential military facilities underground, even today.

Keystone, via Getty Images

American soldiers fighting on the streets of Seoul. The timing of the Incheon landing placed American Marines behind enemy lines. They soon recaptured the South Korean capital.

LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images

Villagers arrested in Damyang, South Jeolla Province, in South Korea, in December 1951. They were accused of collaborating with Communist invaders.

Lee Kyung Mo/Museum Hanmi Collection

A destroyed North Korean T-33 tank in 1950. The Soviet Union supplied weaponry for North Korea.

Lim In Sik

American soldiers fighting to take the crest of a hill in September 1950. Korea is so mountainous that when American soldiers arrived, they found a terrain that looked like the sea in a gale. Many key battles were fought to determine which side owned a strategically positioned hill.

David Douglas Duncan

A portrait of Capt. Francis “Ike” Fenton of the U.S. Marines upon hearing reports that his unit was almost out of ammunition during a battle in 1950. “We were pinned down by day and counterattacked by night,” he said​. His Marines were fighting to recapture Seoul.

David Douglas Duncan

Parachuting allied soldiers and equipment in 1951. Throughout the war, the U.S. military dominated aerial warfare.

Interim Archives, via Getty Images

American Marines advancing after landing at Incheon in 1950. They moved on to retake Seoul.

Bert Hardy/Getty Images

South Korean students moving to the front in 1950. They were called “soldiers without dog tags” because they joined the fighting with little preparation.

Lim In Sik

U.S. Marines retreating from the Chosin Reservoir, also known as Lake Jangjin, in North Korea in late 1950. They suffered a heavy loss from the Chinese and had to pull back through the bitter cold and deep snow.

David Douglas Duncan

An American soldier comforting a fellow infantryman whose close friend had been killed in action in South Korea in August 1950. Many of the American troops in the early months of the war were inexperienced and had been rushed from police duty in Japan to a desperate fight in an unexpected war and in a land they knew very little about.

United States Army, via Getty Images

A helmet with a bullet hole was abandoned on a battle site in 1953. The last two years of the war saw fierce attrition along what would eventually become the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which continues to separate the two Koreas today. The South Korean army is still recovering the remains of fallen soldiers there.

Myeongdong Lee

American soldiers captured by Communist forces in North Korea in 1951. After the armistice was signed, 3,597 American POWs returned home.

PhotoQuest/Getty Images

South Korean troops entering Seoul after Allied forces retook the South Korean capital in 1950. They vowed to advance north to liberate North Korea from Communists. But they didn’t expect the Chinese to join the war on the North’s behalf.

Limb Eung Sik

Myeongdong in central Seoul in 1950. The district is now an international shopping hub. South Korea has built one of the richest economies in the world from the ruins of the war. North Korea has become a totalitarian dictatorship, ravaged by poverty but armed with nuclear weapons.

Limb Eung Sik

A war orphan in 1950. The war separated numerous family members from each other. With the peninsula still divided, most have died without ever being reunited with their relatives.

Limb Eung Sik

Allied troops guarding the South Korean government headquarters in Seoul in 1950. They retook the city three months after the war began.

Limb Eung Sik

A shell exploding near a U.S. Marine position in April 1952. By this time, the fighting was concentrated along the current inter-Korean border.

Keystone, via Getty Images

A helicopter taking off to carry a U.N. delegation to armistice negotiations with the Communists in July 1951. Two years later — at 10 a.m. on July 27, 1953 — the armistice was signed at Panmunjom. The fighting stopped, but the war was never officially declared over.

Lee Kyung Mo

Refugees in Busan waiting for trains to return home in 1953. Throngs of refugees fleeing the fighting had crowded into Busan, a port city on the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula.

Limb Eung Sik

The Dapdong Catholic Church in Incheon in September 1950, after American troops landed at the port city. From there, they fought their way into Seoul and to the north.

Limb Eung Sik

A North Korean boy amid the ruins of his home, all that remained after American troops bulldozed a path through a civilian neighborhood in Hungnam, a port city, in December 1950. After losing heavily to Chinese forces, American troops retreated south through Hungnam’s harbor, taking tens of thousands of desperate refugees with them.

David Douglas Duncan

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Photos: The Korean War, 70 Years After the Armistice - The New York Times
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