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MOSCOW: Russia’s Justice Ministry on Friday placed Zemfira, one of post-Soviet Russia’s most popular singers, on a list of foreign agents on grounds that she supported Ukraine and criticized Russia’s “special military operation” in that country.
Tass news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying that Zemfira, whose full name is Zemfira Ramazanova, “openly supported Ukraine, held concerts in unfriendly countries while speaking against the special military operation and received support from foreign sources.”
Zemfira, an ethnic Volga Tatar born in the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, began performing in 1998 and gained popularity in Russia and other ex-Soviet states. She was known to oppose the conflict with Ukraine and for a time, her website featured the slogan “No to war.”
She is reported by numerous websites to have left Russia to settle in France after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russians labelled foreign agents have often been subjected to police searches and other punitive measures. Many have left the country in the past year.
The ministry noted other Russian nationals had also been labelled a foreign agent on Friday, including opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov.
WASHINGTON/MANILA: US President Joe Biden will meet his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the White House on May 1 to discuss economic cooperation and the Indo-Pacific region, Manila and Washington said on Friday.
The treaty allies have enjoyed warmer ties since Marcos took office last June, reversing his predecessor’s anti-US stance.
Next month’s bilateral talks will be the latest in a series of high-level meetings the Philippines has conducted with leaders of the United States and China, both of which are jostling for strategic advantage in the region.
Biden and Marcos will discuss economic and defense cooperation, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
“During the visit, President Biden will reaffirm the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines, and the leaders will discuss efforts to strengthen the longstanding US-Philippines alliance,” the statement said.
In what will be his second trip to the United States in less than a year, the presidential palace said on Friday that Marcos will travel to Washington from April 30 to May 4 to meet Biden and key cabinet officials.
“It will substantively progress efforts to further deepen…political ties, to bring about lasting socio-economic partnerships, as well as to enhance defense and security cooperation,” the palace said.
Marcos will seek closer partnership in agriculture, energy, climate change, digital transformation, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, supply chains, and infrastructure, it added.
More than 17,000 Philippine and US soldiers are currently conducting their largest ever joint military drills in the Southeast Asian country, drawing criticism from China.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang will meet his local counterpart and Marcos on Saturday, just weeks after the Philippines gave the United States
access
to four additional military bases.
In March, the Philippines hosted a meeting between Manila and Beijing’s diplomats to discuss the South China Sea, a key trade corridor that’s also a source of tensions between the two countries.
KYIV, Ukraine: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defiantly declared Thursday that Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in the military alliance and pledged more support for the country on his first visit to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion just over a year ago.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Stoltenberg, who has been instrumental in marshaling support from NATO members, to push for even more from them, including warplanes, artillery and armored equipment.
The Kremlin has given various justifications for going to war, but repeated Thursday that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO is still a key goal of its invasion, arguing that Kyiv’s membership in the alliance would pose an existential threat to Russia.
NATO leaders said in 2008 that Ukraine would join the alliance one day, and Stoltenberg has repeated that promise throughout the war, though the organization has established no pathway or timetable for membership.
“Let me be clear, Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family,” Stoltenberg told a news conference. “Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO.”
Zelensky said he was grateful for an invitation to a NATO summit in July in Vilnius, Lithuania, but said his country needs a roadmap for becoming a member.
“The time has come for the (alliance’s) leaders to define the prospects of Ukraine’s acquisition of NATO membership, to define the algorithm of Ukraine’s movement toward this goal, and to define security guarantees for our state for the period of such movement — that is, for the period before NATO membership,” he said.
Stoltenberg said he and Zelensky discussed a NATO support program for Ukraine.
“This will help you transition from Soviet-era equipment and doctrines to NATO standards and ensure full interoperability with the alliance,” Stoltenberg said. “NATO stands with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.”
He noted an announcement Thursday by Denmark and the Netherlands that they plan to provide Ukraine with at least another 14 refurbished Leopard 2 battle tanks by early 2024.
He added that he expected countries to “make new announcements of concrete military support to Ukraine” at a meeting Friday in Germany.
In other developments, a large explosion hit the Russian city of Belgorod late Thursday, and the Defense Ministry said one of its Su-34 warplanes accidentally discharged ammunition over the city about 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the Ukrainian border. The government gave no further details.
Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the blast injured at least two people, damaged homes and left a crater about 20 meters (65 feet) across.
The fighting in recent months has become a war of attrition, with neither side able to gain momentum. But Ukraine has recently received sophisticated weapons from its Western allies and is expected to launch a counteroffensive in coming weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could use “all means available” — a phrase some see as a threat to use nuclear weapons — in response to an attack on its territory if Ukraine attempts to recapture Moscow-occupied areas.
NATO has no official presence in Ukraine and provides only nonlethal support to Kyiv, but Stoltenberg has been the strong voice of the alliance throughout the war.
A procession of international leaders has made the journey to Kyiv over the last year, and the former Norwegian prime minister is one of the last major Western figures to do so.
NATO, formed to counter the Soviet Union, has long feared being dragged into a wide war with nuclear-armed Russia. But as the West has moved from hesitantly providing helmets and uniforms to tanks, warplanes and advanced missile systems, high-level visits have become routine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that preventing Ukraine from joining NATO remains one of the goals of what Moscow calls its “special military operation.” Speaking in a conference call with reporters, Peskov said that Ukraine’s accession would pose a “serious, significant threat to our country, to our country’s security.”
Earlier this month, Finland joined the alliance, setting aside decades of neutrality in a historic realignment of Europe’s post-Cold War security landscape. While NATO says it poses no threat to Russia, the Nordic country’s accession dealt a major political blow to Putin.
Finland’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Neighboring Sweden is expected to join too, possibly by the time US President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts meet in Vilnius in July.
The alliance has focused on bolstering defenses on its own territory to dissuade Putin from attacking any member country. Under NATO’s collective security guarantee, an attack on one member country is considered an attack on all of them.
On Friday, Stoltenberg will attend a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The group is the main international forum for drumming up military support for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the Ukraine Space Agency said Thursday that a bright flash of light in the night sky over the country the previous day was probably a meteor entering the atmosphere. Residents of the capital and several cities in Belarus saw the flash of light, which lingered for a couple of seconds, and an explosion was heard in the Kyiv region. It triggered an air raid alarm in Kyiv.
SHANGHAI: China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang said on Friday that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to China, and that it is right and proper for China to uphold its sovereignty.
Qin made the remarks at the Lanting Forum in Shanghai, where he discussed a wide range of topics from debt, the global economy, and Taiwan.
“Recently there has been absurd rhetoric accusing China of upending the status quo, disrupting peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” Qin said. “The logic is absurd and the conclusion dangerous.”
He added that “fair-minded people can see who is engaged in hegemonic bullying and high-minded practices.”
“It is not the Chinese mainland, but the Taiwan independence separatist forces and a handful of countries attempting to disrupt the status quo,” Qin said. “Those who play with fire on Taiwan will eventually get themselves burned.”
China recently held military exercises around the self-ruled island after Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim the government in Taipei strongly rejects, and routinely denounces high-level meetings between Taiwanese and foreign leaders and officials.
TORONTO: A cargo container with gold and other items worth over $20 million Canadian ($14.8 million) was stolen from Toronto’s Pearson International airport, authorities said Thursday.
Peel Regional Police Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn said a “high value” container was taken from a holding area facility after being unloaded from a plane Monday evening.
“As per normal procedure, the aircraft was unloaded and cargo was transported from the aircraft to a holding cargo facility,” he said. “The container contained a high value shipment. It did contain gold but it was not exclusive to gold. It contained other items of monetary value.
The missing goods were reported to police a short time after.
Police declined to provide more details.
“We’re three days in, so our investigators have their eyes open to all avenues,” Duivesteyn said.
No arrests have been made.