World
EU agrees new sanctions on Russia to crack down on circumvention
The European Union agreed on Wednesday to slap Russia with a new raft of sanctions in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
The main objective of the 11th package is to crack down on the circumvention of the multiple penalties that have been imposed since February 2022.
Brussels has grown increasingly concerned about a steep rise in EU exports to countries in Russia’s periphery, such as Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, a possible red flag that prohibited items are making their way into the Kremlin’s hands.
The new sanctions reinforce export bans and target non-Russian companies that are suspected to be taking part in the evasion.
Specific details were not immediately available.
It is unclear if any Chinese company was added to the final list, which has been intensively rewritten during several rounds of negotiations between ambassadors.
The sanctions agreed on Wednesday afternoon also introduce a novel mechanism to restrict the sale and transfer of sensitive technology and dual-use products to other countries that are considered to be enabling circumvention.
The mechanism, focused on entire nations rather than particular companies, marks an important evolution in the EU’s foreign policy but officials say it will be triggered only as a last resort and in exceptional cases.
Additionally, the sanctions blacklist 71 people and 33 entities accused of being involved in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
”I welcome the political agreement on our 11th sanctions package,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
”It will deal a further blow to Putin’s war machine with tightened export restrictions, targeting entities supporting the Kremlin. Our anti-circumvention tool will prevent Russia from getting its hands on sanctioned goods.”
The breakthrough comes mere hours after the Ukrainian authorities decided to temporarily suspend the listing of five Greek shipping companies included in the list of ”international sponsors of war.”
Greece and Hungary had for weeks blocked the agreement on the new sanctions, which were proposed more than a month ago, in protest of the designation of their domestic companies.
Nevertheless, Kyiv kept intact the listing of OTP Bank, Hungary’s largest commercial bank. The firm, which serves over 2.4 million clients in Russia, has previously described its addition to the list as ”unjustified.”
The new sanctions will enter into force after their publication in the EU’s official journal.
World
North Korea expands list of crimes punishable by death: report
North Korea is expanding its list of crimes punishable by death, according to reports.
Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime expanded the list of offenses warranting the death penalty from 11 to 16 via revisions of criminal law, according to Yonhap News Agency.
New offenses warranting execution as a punishment include: anti-state propaganda and agitation acts, illegal manufacturing, and the illicit use of weapons are included in the new codes.
KIM JONG UN PROMISES TO ‘STEADILY STRENGTHEN’ NORTH KOREA’S ‘NUCLEAR FORCE’
The legal modifications were codified via multiple amendments between May 2022 and December 2023, according to a report from the Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).
The tightening of the criminal code is intended to strengthen the Kim regime’s grip on the population through its continued monopolization of the marketplace and military.
Earlier this month, North Korea promised to refine its weapons development and strengthen its nuclear capabilities.
NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG UN REPORTEDLY ORDERED DOZENS OF OFFICIALS EXECUTED AFTER DEADLY FLOODS
Kim Jong Un made the comments Monday at a state event celebrating the country’s 76th anniversary.
“The obvious conclusion is that the nuclear force of the DPRK and the posture capable of properly using it for ensuring the state’s right to security in any time should be more thoroughly perfected,” the dictator said.
“DPRK” is an abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim Jong Un warned that the United States’ increased involvement in the region has forced the regime to pursue more powerful weapons as a deterrence mechanism.
“The DPRK will steadily strengthen its nuclear force capable of fully coping with any threatening acts imposed by its nuclear-armed rival states and redouble its measures and efforts to make all the armed forces of the state, including the nuclear force, fully ready for combat,” the supreme leader said.
The 14th Supreme People’s Assembly, the unicameral legislative body of the country, amended the national constitution last year to enshrine nuclear weaponization as a core principle.
World
Eight killed in Russian drone attacks on medical centre in Sumy, Ukraine
The second attack hit the hospital in northeastern Ukraine as patients evacuated, authorities and witnesses say.
At least eight people have died in two consecutive Russian drone attacks on a medical centre in the northeast Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials have said.
The first attack on Saturday morning killed one person, and it was followed by another attack while patients and staff were evacuating, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that Russia had hit the hospital using Shahed drones, stating that eleven people were injured.
Sumy lies just across the border from Russia’s Kursk region where Kyiv launched a shock offensive on August 6, which it says is aimed partly at creating a “buffer zone” inside Russia.
Regional prosecutors said the first attack in Sumy on Saturday took place at about 7:35am (04:35 GMT), hitting the hospital where there were 86 patients and 38 staff.
The second attack took place at about 8:25am (05:25 GMT) as rescuers and police were providing assistance and evacuating patients at the scene, prosecutors said.
Dobrobat, a volunteer group that helps repair damaged homes, wrote on Facebook that its volunteers were working at the scene when the second attack came.
It posted a video showing thick smoke, explosions and people rushing to shelter as sirens wailed.
“People are just lying on the street dead,” a volunteer said, filming himself at the scene on his phone.
‘Victory plan’
In Russia, the Defence Ministry said Saturday that air defences overnight had shot down four Ukrainian drones over the Belgorod region and one over the Kursk region, both areas bordering Ukraine.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy visited the United States to lobby support for Ukraine, meeting with US President Joe Biden and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris to detail what he has described in recent weeks as his “victory plan”.
He had previously described the five-point plan as a “bridge” towards a strong enough negotiating position for Ukraine to force Russia to end the war on Kyiv’s terms.
Before the meeting, Biden announced an additional $8bn in military aid for Ukraine, a package including the provision of Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW) munitions to “enhance Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities”.
World
Israel Strikes Hezbollah Stronghold in Attempt to Kill Leader
Israeli officials say the country’s warplanes destroyed an underground bunker in a residential area after receiving information that the group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was convening a meeting there. Several apartment buildings were flattened.
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