Category: US News

On Wednesday, the European Commission filed a lawsuit against Poland over the country’s contentious establishment of an investigative agency into “Russian influence” that has been widely seen as an attempt to silence the political opposition.

Even though Polish President Andrzej Duda said last week that he would propose modifying the legislation on the panel in response to criticism from the EU’s executive and the United States, an infringement proceeding was announced.

The commission “agreed to start an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice to Warsaw,” according to the EU’s vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis.

Poland, a close neighbor and steadfast supporter of Russia’s invaded Ukraine, formed the committee to look into any Russian influence on its citizenry.

The measure was passed by Duda last week and includes a 10-year prohibition on holding any post with access to government funds or sensitive information for anyone found guilty.

However, opponents of the bill say it will be used to punish Donald Tusk, the head of the opposition, because it was sponsored by the ruling conservatives just months before parliamentary elections.

Due to its apparent intent, his party has even dubbed it the “Lex Tusk,” or Tusk Law.

On Tuesday, the EU voiced “special concern” about the committee, while the US stated that the legislation “could be used to block the candidacy of opposition politicians without due process.”

On Friday, Duda said that he has proposed an amendment to remove the fines.

The committee would instead make a statement saying the official had caved to Russian pressure and could no longer be trusted to act in the public good.

Duda, who is on good terms with the ruling conservatives, has also advocated replacing legislators and senators on the committee with subject matter experts.

He requested that his amendment be passed as quickly as possible by parliament.

Since taking office in 2015, Poland’s conservative government has been at odds with Brussels over allegations that it does not effectively enforce EU legislation, notably those pertaining to the judiciary.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and president of the European Council, is challenging the incumbent Law and Justice Party (PiS) in upcoming elections.

As leader of the moderate opposition party Civic Platform (PO), he organized the largest anti-government rally in Warsaw in 30 years, with half a million people taking to the streets last week.

Kosovo, according to the U.S. ambassador to the Western Balkans, must grant greater autonomy to towns in the north of the nation with a Serb majority if it wants to come closer to joining NATO and the European Union.

After being elected in April with a turnout of only 3.5%, ethnic Albanian mayors were placed in municipal offices in Kosovo, angering Serbs who form a majority in northern districts and who had boycotted the event.

To reduce tensions and pave the way for future municipal elections in which Serbs may take part, envoy Gabriel Escobar recommended that Kosovo pull police and mayors from their posts in Serb-majority districts.

Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that if 20% of voters in Serb-majority towns sign a petition calling for new elections, Kosovo will hold such elections.

“If Kosovo wants to move towards Euro-Atlantic integration, it will have to establish (an association of Serb municipalities),” Escobar told reporters at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.

So, it’s inevitable. The issue is whether this or a future government in Kosovo will bring about this change.

Escobar said that Serbia, which provides financial and political support to some 50,000 Serbs in northern Kosovo, would be responsible for ensuring that Serbs in the region participated in the upcoming election.

The mayors of four northern Kosovo towns dominated by Serbs have defied the administration in Pristina by declaring Belgrade to be the true capital of Kosovo.

In December of last year, the Serbs in northern Kosovo withdrew from government. A 2013 accord, backed by the European Union, called for the establishment of an Association of Serb Municipalities and gives them the freedom to do so.

Since the Serbs could conduct a referendum to leave Kosovo and join Serbia if given additional autonomy, Prime Minister Albin Kurti is hesitant to follow the pact.

This week, in response to the recent upheaval in Kosovo, reinforcements for the NATO peacekeeping mission began arriving.

Almost a decade after NATO bombardment removed Serbian troops and police from the area, Kosovo achieved internationally recognized independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo is still considered by Serbia to be a southern province.

For starters, who was responsible for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam?

To be honest, we have no idea.

Both Ukraine and Russia have previously blamed the other for attempts to destroy the dam. It was projected that Russia will demolish it in order to produce a flood by President Volodymyr Zelensky in October.

The Russian-appointed governor of Ukraine’s Kherson area said that Ukrainian missile attacks on the dam were an attempt to divert attention from the alleged shortcomings of the country’s counteroffensive in the east. The dam had already been damaged, so it broke on its own, according to other Russian-appointed administrators of occupied territories.

This, however, conflicts with the unconfirmed images that have been surfacing on Twitter showing mines that appear to have been installed near the dam and are subsequently detonating.

The odds favor Russia being at fault. If the Kremlin is successful in its quest to demolish Ukraine and save face for Vladimir Putin, it will have gained the most.

The Ukrainian military intelligence service claims that Russian soldiers blew up the dam “in a panic” in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.

According to a message posted on Telegram, “the occupiers blew up the dam of the Kakhovka Reservoir in a panic — this is an obvious act of terrorism and a war crime, which will be evidence in an international tribunal.”

The “Russian terrorists,” Zelensky said without delay, were to blame. He wrote on Twitter, “The destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant dam only confirms for the whole world that they must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”

Ukrainian troops’ push to the south and east will be slowed, and many of the country’s rescue services will be diverted as they try to save thousands of civilians from the horrific deluge unleashed by the dam break.

Experts have warned The Moscow Times that Russia’s plans to knock down important Ukrainian energy infrastructure include destroying the dam and its hydroelectric station, which delivers electricity to tens of thousands of Ukrainians.

Some pro-Ukrainian observers noted that water levels in the Kakhovka reservoir had risen to their highest point in 30 years, suggesting that Moscow had prepared to maximize the damage from a dam breach.

However, it’s not just the Ukrainian people who will be affected. Russian-held territories and the canal systems that irrigate Crimea, which has been controlled by Russia since 2014, might be devastated by the flood, which is now pushing 18 cubic kilometers of water downstream. The flooding is expected to be severe on the side of the Dnieper controlled by Russia, according to some analysts.

The kid of a prominent Republican in Oregon was seen performing a Nazi salute in front of a World War II German fighter jet while on a school field trip, prompting calls for his mother’s resignation.

The Bend Bulletin reported last week that an unnamed kid from Crook County High School in Prineville was seen doing the “Hitler salute” while standing next to a plane with the swastika symbol at the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras, Oregon.

The Central Oregon Diversity Project that the minority leader of the Oregon House of Representatives, Republican state Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson, resign after the obscene photo of her son surfaced online.

The local activist group, which works to improve the lives of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other people of color, has claimed that the school district has discriminated against them.

The Diversity Project claimed that there is “reason to believe that the student wasn’t disciplined because of his mother and ‘who’ she is.”

It also demanded that the Oregon Legislature and Democratic Governor Tina Kotek take action to discipline the caucus leader.

There is an issue with the way Vikki Breese Iverson has been and is behaving. Central Oregon Diversity Project board member Josie Stanfield stated, “If she can’t handle the scope of parenting her child who is nearing adulthood and was caught perpetuating Nazi symbolism, then she is not fit to fill her elected position.”

As Minority Leader of the Oregon House of Representatives, that individual should not make anyone feel at ease. “We will be working to hold Vikki Breese Iverson [sic] accountable to her role in office, and her only way out of that accountability is to make the choice to resign,” Stanfield stated, per the news site.

In a step that is sure to enhance New Delhi’s defense manufacturing aspirations, India and the United States have established a plan for collaboration in the defense sector for the next several years, the Indian government said today.

Strengthening military-to-military and technological relations with the South Asian country is seen by Washington as a critical counterweight to China’s supremacy in the area.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh, to finalize the road map during Austin’s stop in India.

This deal comes only a few weeks before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States on June 22, during which he will meet with President Joe Biden.

According to the Indian Defense Ministry release, Singh and Austin’s discussions centered on “identifying ways to strengthen industrial cooperation.”

“Both sides will identify opportunities for co-development of new technologies and co-production of existing and new systems and facilitate increased collaboration between defense start-up ecosystems of the two countries,” it said.

They agreed on a plan for future defense industry collaboration between the United States and India to help achieve these goals.

India is the largest importer of armaments in the world. While Russia remains a major supplier, the country has broadened its sourcing to include the United States, France, and Israel.

In addition, New Delhi seeks collaboration from foreign defense firms interested in manufacturing weaponry and military equipment in India for domestic use and export. “— Reuters

Several fleets, including those of the United States, Britain, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea, began a multilateral naval drill with Indonesia on Monday as tensions rose in the Asia-Pacific.

To “strengthen relationships between the navies” of 36 countries, Indonesia’s military stated in a statement that the routine Komodo drills were a “non-war” exercise.

As part of their increased military diplomacy in the area, China and the United States have been holding more regular war simulations with friends and partners around Taiwan, as well as in the South China Sea and the western Pacific’s major waterways.

The maneuvers come after a “unsafe interaction” between Chinese and U.S. naval vessels over the weekend in the Taiwan Strait.

The Indonesian military said on Monday that fifteen ships, including those from China and Russia, had anchored off Sulawesi island in preparation for the start of the Komodo maneuvers.

The destroyer Zhanjiang and the frigate Xuchang, both of which are armed with guided missiles, were dispatched by the Chinese navy to participate in the practice, according to Chinese official media CCTV on Monday.

Since the initial Komodo drills in 2014, Indonesia has hosted a total of four such cooperative naval exercises.