World
EU agrees new sanctions on Russia, with an import ban on diamonds
![EU agrees new sanctions on Russia, with an import ban on diamonds EU agrees new sanctions on Russia, with an import ban on diamonds](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/11/69/92/1200x675_cmsv2_e5873963-8be4-5a23-a9e3-3c4f37e8b24f-8116992.jpg)
The European Union agreed on Monday to slap Russia with a fresh round of sanctions that includes the long-awaited ban on diamonds, a valuable revenue stream for the Kremlin that has until now remained untouched.
Starting on 1 January, the bloc’s 27 member states will no longer be allowed to buy natural and synthetic diamonds, as well as diamond jewellery, that come directly from Russia, unless these are meant for industrial purposes.
As of 1 March, the import ban will begin to cover Russian-origin diamonds and jewellery that have been cut and polished in other countries. And by 1 September, it will expand to lab-grown diamonds and watches containing diamonds.
Belgium, the main entry point for Russian diamonds, will use a blockchain-based traceability system to identify and verify the origin of imported diamonds.
The raft of sanctions – the 12th since February 2022 – also aims to close the loopholes that have pierced through the price cap on Russian oil, which the G7 had set at $60 per barrel. Moscow has in recent months sold its product well above the cap thanks to a fleet of “shadow tankers” and the services of little-known trading firms, easily bypassing the commercial constraints the West thought to have under control.
The penalties do not alter the $60-per-barrell limit but introduce new measures to ensure the global sales of Urals oil stay within the price cap, like a notification requirement for the sale of EU-made tankers destined for Russia. The requirement will apply retroactively to track down where the tankers sold over the past year have ended up.
Moreover, the package adds 29 companies to the list of entities linked to Russia’s military complex, including firms registered in Uzbekistan and Singapore that are suspected of helping the Kremlin get a hold of blacklisted high tech.
No Chinese company was targeted this time, despite previous media reports.
In a new attempt to crack down on the persistent problem of circumvention, European producers of sensitive goods, such as aviation, jet fuels and firearms, will have to comply with a contractual clause that prohibits their merchandise from being re-exported to Russia – and therefore from reaching the battlefield.
“We continue to stand with Ukraine, through thick and thin,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, celebrating the deal.
The announcement made on Monday was only possible after Austria lifted its reservations. Initially, Vienna had blocked the deal over the addition of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) to Ukraine’s list of “international sponsors of war.” The list has no legal repercussions but entails considerable reputational damage.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency had targeted RBI, the largest Western bank in Russia, for allegedly providing services to “oligarchs close to the Kremlin.” Vienna took exception to this reasoning and pushed for the firm’s name to be removed.
The designation was suspended last week, paving the way for a resolution.
The news comes at a critical moment for Kyiv, which is pleading with Western allies to urgently step up their military and financial assistance to help the war-battered nation resist the advancing Russian troops.
During last week’s dramatic summit in Brussels, EU leaders agreed to start accession negotiations with Ukraine, a sought-after goal by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But hours later, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wielded his veto power to prevent the approval of a €50-billion special fund in long-term support for Ukraine.
Notably, Hungary did not veto the latest round of sanctions.
A phased-in ban
The ban on diamonds has been at the very top of Kyiv’s demands for more than a year.
Russia is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by volume, with more than 90% of its business dominated by a single company, Alrosa. In 2021, the year before the war was launched, Russia exported around $4 billion (€3.77 billion) worth of diamonds, an amount that fell only slightly in 2022 as the international community refrained from imposing any sort of penalty.
The secretive nature of the diamond industry has been credited as the main reason for the delayed action. Diamonds pass through multiple hands until they reach the final customer. For example: Russian rough diamonds are usually cut and polished in India and then traded in Antwerp, Belgium, from where they are shipped to other markets around the world like the United States, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.
This means that a retailer will most likely be unable to pinpoint the exact origin of a particular diamond, making it hard to separate Russian from non-Russian gems.
Fearing that a poorly designed ban would quickly fall victim to the underground market, the EU and the G7 have been developing an international traceability system to track down diamonds across the entire supply chain, from the mines to the shops.
Earlier this month, the G7 announced a roadmap in three gradual steps:
• By 1 January, impose restrictions on the imports of diamonds that are mined, processed or produced in Russia, excluding industrial purposes.
• By 1 March, impose restrictions on the imports of Russian diamonds that are processed in other countries.
• By 1 September, establish a “robust traceability-based verification and certification mechanism” for rough diamonds. The system should be in place in Western countries that are “major importers” of diamonds, namely Belgium.
The G7 opened the door for cooperation with nations that fall outside the group but have a major stake in the diamond industry, such as India and the United Arab Emirates.
“We will continue consultations among G7 members and with other partners including producing countries as well as manufacturing countries for comprehensive controls for diamonds produced and processed in third countries,” the joint statement said.
The EU sanctions approved on Monday build upon this scheme and provide the legal basis for making the import ban a reality.
The bloc’s plan will replicate the timetable set by the G7.
Besides diamonds, the latest penalties restrict imports of Russian-origin pig iron, copper wires, aluminium wires, foil, tubes and pipes, which altogether represent a value of €2,2 billion per year. Purchases of Russian-made liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which are worth over €1 billion annually, will be banned over a transition period of 12 months.
Meanwhile, export bans are expanded to encompass products such as thermostats, machine tools, lasers, batteries and copper and aluminium goods made in the EU market. Additionally, European companies will be prohibited from providing Russian firms with software for enterprise management and industrial design.
This article has been updated with more information about the sanctions.
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World
Europe reacts to German regional election results. What is the impact?
![Europe reacts to German regional election results. What is the impact? Europe reacts to German regional election results. What is the impact?](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/69/66/98/1200x675_cmsv2_90e3e99a-2795-5444-90a5-054341c69304-8696698.jpg)
Regional parlaments in Germany have no foreign policy competence and limited influence on national energy policy. But will the results from Saxony and Thuringia influence Germany’s energy transition and its support for Ukraine?
The results of the two regional elections in Germany’s East have sent shock waves through Europe.
That a far-right party known for its relativism and ambiguity about Germany’s Nazi past was able to win was met with horror and disbelief.
The leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament, Valérie Hayer, called it “unprecedented” and “a dark day” for Germany and for Europe.
The European Commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, posted a bitter comment on the strong results of the far right and the populist far left: “Friends of Russia in a former USSR satellite state. Enemies of migrants in the German area with little immigration. Rancour against everything and everyone”.
It seems unlikely that the AfD and far-left Sarah Wagenknecht party will turn this majority of opinion into a governing coalition, but could this strong anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russion sentiment influence the German or even the European position on supporting Ukraine?
Peter Hefele is Policy Director at the centre-right think tank Wilfried Martens Centre in Brussels. He told Euronews:
“Luckily, the Länder do not decide on foreign policy. So the support [for Ukraine] in Germany, according to all the polls, we know is quite high and the same goes for Europe. [But] If you look into the numbers of young people who voted – up to 40% – for the extremist parties then this is really about the future and the vision we can give them, and about their hopes.”
Energy transition remains on track but Easterners’ efforts need to be recognised
One of the biggest losers of both regional elections has been the Green party, part of the governing coalition in Berlin. In Thuringia, they failed to get a single legislator elected.
Does that spell trouble for Germany’s ambitious energy transition goals? German Green MEP Michael Bloss believes that the narrative surrounding the transition should focus more on what has already been achieved, especially in Germany’s East, as he explained to Euronews:
“The transition is working. We are almost world leaders in renewables’ acceleration, energy prices are coming down from where they were when Putin blackmailed us with his gas.
There are different things that we need to address in the Eastern parts. We in Germany overall need to appreciate more of what they have already done in terms of transformation and how they have already achieved a lot.”
But with the political landscape changed beyond recognition and former governing coalitions reduced to irrelevance, the newly elected legislators in Saxony and Thuringia will first of all have to somehow find a way of forming a government.
World
Asif Kapadia on Taking Aim at the Rich and Powerful in Dystopian Docudrama ‘2073’: ‘If I Don’t Work Again, at Least I Made This Movie’
![Asif Kapadia on Taking Aim at the Rich and Powerful in Dystopian Docudrama ‘2073’: ‘If I Don’t Work Again, at Least I Made This Movie’ Asif Kapadia on Taking Aim at the Rich and Powerful in Dystopian Docudrama ‘2073’: ‘If I Don’t Work Again, at Least I Made This Movie’](https://variety.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2073_Reel_01_V_009741_STATIC_WIDE_GOLDEN_GATE_BRIDGE_WILDFIRES_RED_SK_4828.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1)
Asif Kapadia sees a future vision of the world where “chairwoman” Ivanka Trump is celebrating her 30th year as leader of a nightmarish fascist police state that was once America, a land mostly reduced to rubble following an unknown “catastrophe” that occurred in 2036.
“It’s kind of a joke, but it’s also not a joke,” says the British filmmaker of mentioning Donald Trump’s daughter in “2073,” his chilling docudrama about the dystopia humanity is potentially hurtling towards and the very real and very contemporary factors concerning politics, the environment, corruption, race and technology that he says are propelling us in that direction.
“Because if you look at American politics, you have certain families that just keep being in power — the number of people that have come from a tiny gene pool is insane,” he says.
While the inclusion of Ivanka may be a little splash of humor, the rest of “2073” — which comes backed by Neon, Double Agent and Film4 and is world premiering in Venice on Tuesday — offers little else to be tickled by. The film is what Kapadia says is his response to the world — and the entertainment industry — having got to a “place where people cannot say anything” that criticizes the status quo or those in power without risking losing their jobs or worse.
And so “2073” says a lot, a whole lot. The film essentially lays the blame for the impending disaster — be it nuclear war, climate change or whatever it might be — at the foot of leaders, demagogues, tech billionaires and the 1% and what they’re doing to the planet and society. Alongside the Trumps, there’s the Murdochs, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Mohammed Bin Salman, Narendra Modi, the Koch brothers, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and many more, spliced alongside news clips and amateur footage from the last couple of decades showing examples of police brutality, rising fascism, the refugee crisis, mass detentions, bombings and wild fires.
Originally the project — which came about during lockdown (Kapadia put out a tweet asking for help and soon gathered a team of researchers from around the world) — was to be a “doc set in the future where everything from the future will be factual and created out of bits of the present.” But he soon decided to use his drama background to mix the two, creating a version of life in 2073 in which Samantha Morton plays a mute survivor besieged by nightmare visions of the past and living underground as surveillance drones patrol the surface.
This past is pieced together using “footage from around 60 different countries, which I made to look like one place,” says Kapadia. Some of footage is extremely recent. In the opening scenes revealing this earth-shattering catastrophe, we see clips of recent devastation in Gaza.
“Having been doing this for a while, if you feel like you’re onto something in a horrible way, the world comes into synch with the film,” he says. The war in Gaza, plus the rise of AI and the growing feeling that the next presidential election could be “the end of democracy in the U.S.” all began after he started making the film. “And then a few weeks ago in England we had all these riots.”
“2073” may seem like an unexpected feature from the Oscar-winning documentarian best-known for “Amy,” “Senna” and “Diego Maradona,” but he claims this trilogy of profiles all came about “by accident,” and were each infused with his previous experience in drama and fiction and were each made that way. “’Senna’ is an action movie, ‘Amy’ is a musical, a Bollywood film, and ‘Diego Maradona’ is a gangster film set in Naples,” he says.
But “2073” — an experimental dystopian thriller — still feels like a major key change for the director, a highly provocative and uncomfortable to watch feature with global themes that he hopes will make people realize that “what’s happening over there will get closer and closer and eventually come to you.”
As he notes: “And if you don’t think that’s a problem, then it’s just a movie. But if it is a problem, then you, me, us … we’ve got to do something.”
Kapadia is already among the most outspoken filmmakers on social media when it comes to discussing politics and especially in condemning Israel for the bloodshed in Gaza. While this hasn’t appeared to have hindered his career in the way it has others, he says “2073” — given the topics and the very powerful, very wealthy people it discusses — might.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have made films and in what I do I’ve been successful,” he explains. “So honestly, I went into this going, ‘I’m going to chuck it all in, I’m not going to be afraid to say what I see and if I don’t work again, fine, at least I made this movie.’ ”
World
Two U.S. soldiers ambushed, assaulted by mob of Turkish nationalists: 'Yankee, go home!'
![Two U.S. soldiers ambushed, assaulted by mob of Turkish nationalists: 'Yankee, go home!' Two U.S. soldiers ambushed, assaulted by mob of Turkish nationalists: 'Yankee, go home!'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/Copy-of-Right-inset-22.png)
A mob of Turkish nationalists attacked U.S. soldiers in western Turkey on Monday, resulting in the arrests of 15 people.
The incident took place in Izmir, which is located on Turkey’s Aegean coast. In a statement, the Izmir governor’s office said the assailants belonged to the Youth Union of Turkey, which is connected to the nationalist Vatan Party.
The governor said that the victims, who were assigned to the USS Wasp, were “physically attacked.” Video posted to social media showed soldiers in civilian clothing yelling for help as they were restrained by a group of anti-American men.
The footage also shows an attacker throwing a plastic bag onto the soldier’s head as the crowd chanted, “Yankee Go Home!”
ISRAEL SHARES DOSSIER SPELLING OUT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST 12 UN EMPLOYEES ALLEGEDLY INVOLVED IN HAMAS ATTACK
Soldiers assigned to the USS Wasp were attacked by Turkish nationalists, according to officials. (Getty Images/iStock)
Five U.S. soldiers intervened during the incident, and authorities eventually arrested all 15 of the men who attacked the soldiers.
The U.S. Embassy in Turkey confirmed the incident in a statement published to social media on Monday, and said that the soldiers are safe.
“We can confirm reports that U.S. service members embarked aboard the USS Wasp were the victims of an assault in İzmir today, and are now safe,” the embassy said.
UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN ‘SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION’: EXPERT
![USS Wasp](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/GettyImages-2165869998.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Crew members stand aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) docked at Limassol Port, amid rising tensions in the Middle East, in Limassol, Cyprus, Sunday, August 11, 2024. (Danil Shamkin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We thank Turkish authorities for their rapid response and ongoing investigation.”
In a statement obtained by Reuters, the Youth Union of Turkey said the attack was “deserved” and criticized U.S. support of Israel.
![Turkish protesters](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/1200/675/GettyImages-1236122537.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Members of the Youth Union of Turkey (TGB) gather outside the U.S. Embassy to protest envoys of 10 countries over remarks on the Osman Kavala case in Ankara, Turkey on October 25, 2021. (Evrim Aydin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“U.S. soldiers who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands cannot dirty our country,” the nationalists said. “Every time you step foot in these lands, we will meet you the way you deserve.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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