DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Netanyahu Asserts Israel’s Right to Fight Its Enemies in Defiant Speech
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Vivek Shankar | More About Vivek Shankar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday rejected international pressure to rein in its military campaign in Gaza and, speaking at a Holocaust memorial, asserted Israel’s right to fight its “genocidal enemies.”Nearly seven months into the war, Mr. Netanyahu has been steadfast in his goal of destroying Hamas. But Mr. Netanyahu has remained defiant. On Sunday, he spoke at Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, to mark the national Holocaust remembrance day. Hamas’s intention, Mr. Netanyahu said, was the same as that of the Nazis. In his speech, which lasted for about 15 minutes and was largely in Hebrew, Mr. Netanyahu rejected accusations that Israel was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu, ”, Netanyahu, Netanyahu’s, —, Israel Organizations: Israel, Sunday, Yad Vashem Locations: Gaza, Rafah, Jerusalem, Israel

The first cargo vessels to arrive at a Ukrainian port since Russia terminated a deal under which Kyiv was able to export food crops across the Black Sea were moored on Sunday in Chornomorsk, offering early signs of hope that Ukraine could open an alternative route for grain shipments. Ukraine’s grain exports provide a vital source of foreign exchange and are also important for global food markets, particularly for countries in Africa and the Middle East that are facing hunger. Russia has imposed a de facto blockade on Ukrainian cargo ships since July, when the Kremlin terminated an agreement that had allowed Kyiv to export grain by sea, a deal that was seen as essential to keeping the world’s food prices stable. But establishing a corridor secure enough for a regular flow of cargo vessels to sail from Ukraine’s seaports is risky, not least because the Black Sea has become an increasingly critical theater in the war as Ukraine contests Russia’s naval dominance. Data from the Marine Traffic website showed the vessels moored in Chornomorsk on Sunday morning.

Persons: Oleksandr Kubrakov Organizations: Kyiv, Kremlin, Marine Locations: Russia, Chornomorsk, Ukraine, Africa, Asia

Ukraine’s military said Sunday it had retaken the small village of Klishchiivka, the second settlement to come back under Kyiv’s control in three days and the most significant recent advance in its hard-fought counteroffensive to drive Russian forces from the country’s east. Klishchiivka had been occupied by Russian forces since January, when Wagner mercenaries captured it after weeks of combat as part of the nearly yearlong battle for the nearby city of Bakhmut. After Bakhmut fell to Russian troops in May, Ukrainian forces almost immediately began a push to drive Moscow’s troops from areas to the north and south of the city. With Klishchiivka sitting on high ground overlooking roadways in and out of a ruined Bakhmut, the village was very much in their sights. In recent weeks, Kyiv’s troops had been slowly advancing on Klishchiivka, taking heavy casualties in pitched battles.

Persons: Klishchiivka, Wagner, Bakhmut Locations: Klishchiivka, Bakhmut, Russian

Ukraine’s South Military Command said that at least two civilians were injured and that port infrastructure on the Danube River had been hit in the attack, which lasted more than three hours and involved more than two dozen drones. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 22 out of 25 attack drones and the State Emergency Service posted photos of firefighters in the Odesa region trying to extinguish a blaze. The officials did not specify where exactly the strikes landed but local Ukrainian media reported explosions in the port city of Reni on the Danube, just across the water from Romania. Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, condemned the overnight attack. In a statement on the Telegram messaging app, he accused Russian forces of targeting port infrastructure “in the hope of provoking a food crisis and famine in the world.”

Persons: Andriy Yermak, ” Organizations: Military Command, Ukraine’s Air Force, State Emergency Service Locations: Odesa, Ukraine, Moscow, Reni, Romania, Russian

Russia said Ukraine fired a string of drones over the weekend in an attempt to attack border regions and the capital, Moscow, in the latest strikes deep inside Russian borders. Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces had intercepted Ukrainian drones overnight in the regions of Bryansk and Kursk, both of which border Ukraine. A drone crashed into an apartment building in Kursk but did not cause any injuries, the regional governor said on the Telegram messaging app. The border region of Belgorod also was attacked by drones over the weekend, according to the Russian authorities. The Russian claims had not been independently verified and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment, as is their general custom on attacks inside Russia.

Persons: Vyacheslav Gladkov Organizations: Russia’s Ministry of Defense Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia’s, Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Shchetinovka

The Netherlands and Denmark said Sunday that they would donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine — the first countries to do so — in what President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said was a breakthrough in his nation’s quest to acquire the aircraft considered imperative in the war against Russia. Ukrainian officials acknowledged last week, however, that NATO countries would not donate the planes before next year, which is too late for use in a counteroffensive the government in Kyiv launched this summer. President Biden, setting aside months of resistance, said in May that NATO countries could train Ukrainian pilots on F-16’s, and on Thursday a U.S. official said that the United States would allow allies to send the jets. Speaking during a visit to the Netherlands, Mr. Zelensky said that the Netherlands would donate 42 jets once Ukrainian pilots and engineers had been trained. He also visited Denmark on Sunday and was in Sweden on Saturday, where aircraft were also on the agenda.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden, Zelensky Organizations: Sunday, Ukraine —, Russia, NATO, U.S Locations: Netherlands, Denmark, Ukraine, Kyiv, United States, Sweden

☆ Zelensky Pushes Sweden to Give Ukraine Its Gripen Fighter Jets
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Vivek Shankar | More About Vivek Shankar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With deliveries of the F-16 fighter jet not expected until next year, Ukraine has resumed a push to obtain Swedish Gripen warplanes as it tries to modernize its air force and secure an advantage against Russia in the skies. “We are getting closer to the fact that Gripen fighters will appear in our sky,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who traveled to Sweden over the weekend and reached a more tangible agreement on Saturday involving the supply of armored vehicles, said in his overnight address. Ukraine has received Soviet-era jets from Poland and Slovakia, but air superiority in the war remains up for grabs, with neither Kyiv nor Moscow decisively dominating air space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. And though Ukraine is on track to receive American-made F-16 jets, this won’t happen in time to play a role in its current counteroffensive. Mr. Zelensky cast his talks on the Gripens as a breakthrough and said he would soon share more details.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Ulf Kristersson Organizations: Gripen, Russia, Mr Locations: Ukraine, Sweden, Soviet, Poland, Slovakia, Moscow, Russia

☆ China Stocks Slump as Economic Gloom Spreads
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Vivek Shankar | More About Vivek Shankar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The economic troubles, they said, arose from flagging domestic demand and a “grim and complex” global economy, among other factors. Chinese stocks jumped at the time, even though officials laid out only vague plans, like using “countercyclical” regulations, adjusting policies for the troubled real estate sector, and prodding people to buy cars, electronics and household goods. Since then, China has released a string of worrying economic data. Prices consumers and business pay are falling, raising the threat of deflation. Retail sales and industrial production in July missed economists’ expectations, and investment in real estate is plunging.

Persons: Xi Jinping Organizations: Xinhua Locations: China

☆ As War Grinds On, It Expands Beyond Old Battlefields
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Vivek Shankar | More About Vivek Shankar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ukrainian strikes on Russian ships in the Black Sea. A Russian attack on a Ukrainian port on the Danube river near the Romanian border. With these strikes, both sides have opened a new dimension to the 17-month-old war, which until now had largely been fought in grinding battles in Ukraine. And they are taking the war to people and areas that may have been spared the brunt of the fighting. For Ukraine, the increasingly bolder attacks are part of a stated objective to try to force ordinary Russians to reckon with the toll of the war.

Locations: Moscow, Romanian, Ukraine, Russia, Odesa

☆ 1 Dead in Odesa as Russia Strikes Cathedral and Apartment Buildings
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Vivek Shankar | More About Vivek Shankar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The civilian toll is rising in Odesa, the Ukrainian port city that has been under relentless attack by Russian forces in the past week after the Kremlin pulled out of an agreement that allowed for the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. One person died and 19 others, including 4 children, were injured in Russian missile strikes on Odesa overnight Sunday, according to Ukrainian officials. At least six residential buildings and an Orthodox cathedral were damaged in the attack. “There can be no excuse for Russian evil,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said about the attacks in a Telegram posting on Sunday. He added: “There will definitely be a retaliation.”With its busy port, Odesa has long been a crucial economic link for Ukraine to the rest of the global economy.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky Organizations: Kremlin Locations: Odesa, Ukrainian, Russian, Ukraine, Russia

Talks over the renewal of a deal that allows Ukraine to export its grain across the Black Sea in wartime were set to go down to the wire again, as the United Nations waited on Sunday for a response from Russia on a proposal that could revive the agreement and help keep global grain prices stable. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, is one of the very few areas of wartime cooperation between Ukraine and Russia. It was first agreed in summer last year, allowing Ukraine to restart the export of millions of tons of grain from its ports on the Black Sea despite Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February. But Russia has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the agreement, which has only been renewed for short periods. The latest deadline for expiry is midnight Monday.

Persons: António Guterres, Vladimir V, Putin Organizations: United Nations, Initiative, United Locations: Ukraine, Russia, United Nations, Turkey

Search resuls for: "More About Vivek Shankar"

11 mentions found