World

‘Russia will capitalise on any doubt shown’ – Zelenskyy

Published

2 years ago

June 2, 2023

‘Russia will capitalise on any doubt shown’ – Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian president attempted to rally continued support for his country in its war with the Kremlin.

Moscow will take advantage of any doubts or divisions shown by the collective West when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, according to the country’s president.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was speaking at the second meeting of the pan-continental European Political Community (EPC) in Moldova, which aims to boost the continent’s response to Kremlin aggression.

Although nothing concrete came out of the meeting, it is a great opportunity for rare encounters between European leaders, as well as a chance for the Ukrainian president to garner support.

“Every doubt we show here in Europe is a trench that Russia will definitely try to occupy,” Zelenskyy said on Thursday.

“Whether these doubts are about vital security steps or doubts about our unity, or maybe about our ability to meet the challenges of our time, every doubt brings more insecurity.”

The main topic of the discussion was how to give security guarantees to Ukraine, with Zelenskyy openly pushing for NATO membership.

But the path to joining will not be easy, particularly since some alliance members do not support the idea.

It is also a major red line for the Kremlin and could be a valuable card to play during any eventual peace negotiations.

During the summit, Kaja Kallas, the Prime Minister of Estonia, made it clear that support for Ukraine is, for now, unwaivering.

“I think this is important to give Ukrainians hope and also show Russia that we are behind Ukraine and and Ukraine’s place is in NATO,” she said.

“Of course, everybody understands that this can’t happen while the war is going on, but to have a very clear signal that Ukraine belongs to NATO and we are behind Ukraine is important”.

The choice of holding the summit in Moldova was also seen as a message to the Kremlin.

It was held just 20 kilometres away from the border and also follows the country receiving EU candidate status in June last year at the same time as Ukraine.

The next step now, is to try to shape a consensus around what exactly to offer to Ukraine within the next six weeks when NATO leaders will meet in Vilnius, Lithuania.

While France has made some steps in terms of wording calling for Ukraine to be granted a clear path to membership, this is not the case for countries like Germany, which is still cautious to provide any concrete timetable.

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World

Zelenskyy says Trump could be ‘decisive’ in bringing an end to the war

Published

19 minutes ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Zelenskyy says Trump could be ‘decisive’ in bringing an end to the war

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck a hopeful tone on Thursday during a televised interview and said he believes President-elect Donald Trump could be “decisive” in ending the war as Kyiv stares down the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

“Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” Zelenskyy said according to a Reuters report. “His qualities are indeed there.

“He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin,” he added. “He is able to do this.”

Then-former President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower on Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 in New York City. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

UKRAINE: HOW THE WAR SHIFTED IN 2024

Zelenskyy said Trump assured him that Kyiv would be among his first presidential visits following his inauguration later this month as Ukraine looks to stabilize the front lines.

Stopping Russian advances early in the new year is a top priority for Zelenskyy, who also reportedly claimed that Putin feared negotiations as it would be seen by the Kremlin chief as tantamount to a Russian defeat.

Despite nearly three full years of war, Russia has been unable to achieve not only its initial war aims, but even Putin’s amended plans, which he announced last year when he said his main goal is now to take all the Donbas – a region in eastern Ukraine encompassing much of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

However, it is not only Putin who views potential peace negotiations with apparent trepidation.

Zelenskyy has said he welcomes peace talks, but he has also made it clear that any negotiations on ending the war will only be accepted if Ukraine is granted certain security guarantees – like the possibility of joining NATO.

Fellow soldiers carry the coffin of leading actor of the music and drama theatre Petro Velykiy, 48, who was killed in a battle with the Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, during a farewell ceremony in Chernyhiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER BLASTS UKRAINE PEACE DEAL REPORTEDLY FLOATED BY TRUMP’S TEAM: ‘NOT HAPPY’

“Naturally, any security guarantees without the United States are weak security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said, though he added that Washington must take into account Kyiv’s future security.

“It cannot be otherwise,” he added. “We are Ukraine, and it’s our independence, our land and our future.”

Putin, on the other hand, has said he will not accept any cease-fire negotiations that do not include guarantees that bar Kyiv from joining the 32-member body, which under Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty says an attack on one member will trigger an attack from all NATO nations and would effectively ensure a united strike on Moscow should it once again target Ukraine.

A serviceman of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, named after King Danylo of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, fires a 2s5 “Hyacinth-s” self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops at a front line, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Nov. 18, 2024. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Press Service of the 24th King Danylo Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via REUTERS )

Zelenskyy, who has led the country since 2019, was also asked if he would consider re-running for the presidency.

The Ukrainian president reiterated that the nation cannot hold elections while in a state of war under the nation’s existing constitution but said he may consider it once the conflict has ended.

“I don’t know how this war will end,” he said. “If I can do more than I am able, then I will probably view such a decision [seeking re-election] more positively. For now, this is not an objective for me.”

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Trump transition team for comment.

World

‘I refuse a cheap death’: Israel kills Palestinian journalist in Gaza

Published

1 hour ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

‘I refuse a cheap death’: Israel kills Palestinian journalist in Gaza

A Palestinian writer, poet and journalist has been killed in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, according to his family, taking the total number of journalists killed in the Israel-Palestine conflict since October 7, 2023 to 220.

Mohammad Hijazi was among nearly 90 Palestinians slain in Israeli bombardment across the besieged territory in the last 24 hours, according to a Gaza Health Ministry statement on Sunday.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the Jabalia camp since Israel imposed a military siege of northern Gaza on October 5 and intensified bombardment, forcing thousands to flee. Israel has prevented even aid groups from supplying basic food items to the area.

“I don’t know if I will write to you again. I keep what I have written and am writing. Maybe it will come to light one day. I refuse a cheap death. I curse the murderer,” Hijazi wrote on Facebook in August of last year.

“Let us in this bottom that we have finally reached, arm ourselves with patience and prayer, and count the days we have lived as a historic achievement, while awaiting what is coming with a broken heart, an extinguished eye, a head held high, and a spirit that fights until the end of the road.”

It was not immediately clear whether Hijazi was working for a specific media organisation when he died.

Since the beginning of its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 220 journalists and media workers, including Hijazi.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday that at least 88 Palestinians had been killed and 208 others injured in the past 24 hours.

The latest fatalities bring the death toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza to at least 45,805 since October 2023, while an estimated 109,064 have been injured.

Among those killed in the latest Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday were three Palestinians who were living in a tent in Deir el-Balah, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from central Gaza.

A family of 15 people were also buried under the rubble in the northwest of Gaza City, following a separate strike, Mahmoud reported.

“The Palestinian Civil Defence is doing its best to remove bodies from under the rubble, but has only removed four of the family members,” he said.

“It’s estimated there are at least 15 family members under the three-storey building that was flattened to the ground.

“These repeated attacks – deliberate against families – continue to unfold, causing more tragedies among Palestinians.”

“I refuse to die cheaply… I curse the killer.”
This morning, writer and journalist Mohamed Hijazi, the author of these words, was killed by the Israeli army in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. #GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/LWsCak8IPr
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— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) January 5, 2025

In the last three days, Israeli forces have killed more than 200 people in Gaza, Mahmoud noted.

The last few remaining hospitals across Gaza are now overwhelmed, he added.

At the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, many people were left on the floor and others were waiting to be admitted into the operating theatre, Mahmoud said.

“By the time it’s their turn, it’s too late – they have already bled to death. [Many] burns are quite severe, and no pain medication is available at the hospital,” he said.

“There’s a silent death going on. In the past weeks, due to the ongoing attacks, people are dying quietly because of the lack of medical supplies.”

On Sunday, the Israeli military claimed that it had struck more than 100 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip over the past two days. Several of the strikes targeted sites from which Palestinian fighters had been firing projectiles into Israel in recent days, the military said.

The latest violence in Gaza comes as indirect negotiations for a captive release deal resumed in Qatar.

Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged for months in efforts to strike a deal to end the war and secure the release of dozens of captives still held in Gaza.

Israel has detained more than 10,000 Palestinians since launching its devastating war, which has brought it global condemnation. Rights groups have termed Israel’s military offensive as a genocide, while the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top United Nations court, said in March 2024 that the Israeli operation “plausibly” amounted to genocide.

Seperately, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

World

Hong Kong’s Cabbies, Long Scorned and Frustrated, Face the End of an Era

Published

7 hours ago

January 5, 2025

Press Room

Hong Kong’s Cabbies, Long Scorned and Frustrated, Face the End of an Era

The air is laced with cigarette smoke and Cantonese profanities as half a dozen taxi drivers hang out by their fire-engine-red cabs on a quiet corner of the gritty Prince Edward neighborhood of Hong Kong.

It is the afternoon handover, when day shift drivers pass their taxis to those working the night shift. They are surrendering wads of cash to a taxi agent, a matriarchal figure who collects rent for the vehicles, manages their schedules and dispenses unsolicited advice about exercising more and quitting smoking. The drivers wave her off.

There may be no harder task in this city of more than seven million than trying to change a taxi driver’s habits. Often grumpy and rushing to the next fare, cabbies in Hong Kong have been doing things their way for decades, reflecting the fast-paced, frenetic culture that has long energized the city.

But taxi drivers are under pressure to get with the times. Their passengers are fed up with being driven recklessly, treated curtly and, in many cases, having to settle fares with cash — one of the strangest idiosyncrasies about life in Hong Kong. The practice is so ingrained that airport staff often have to alert tourists at taxi ranks that they need to carry bills.

The government, both because of the complaints and to revitalize tourism, has tried to rein in taxi drivers. Officials ran a campaign over the summer urging drivers to be more polite. They imposed a point system in which bad behavior by drivers — such as overcharging or refusing passengers — would be tracked and could result in the loss of licenses.

In early December, the government proposed requiring all taxis to install systems to allow them to accept credit cards and digital payments by the end of 2025, and to add surveillance cameras by the end of 2026.

Predictably, many taxi drivers have opposed the idea of closer supervision.

“Would you want to be monitored all the time?” said Lau Bing-kwan, a 75-year-old cabby with thinning strands of white hair who accepts only cash. “The government is barking too many orders.”

Hold On to Your Seats

The new controls, if put in place, would signal the end of an era for an industry that has long been an anomaly in Hong Kong’s world-class transportation system. Every day, millions of people commute safely on sleek subways and air-conditioned double-decker buses that run reliably.

Riding in a taxi, by comparison, can be an adventure. Step into one of Hong Kong’s signature four-door Toyota Crown Comfort cabs and you will most likely be (what is the opposite of greeted?) by a man in his 60s or older with a phalanx of cellphones mounted along his dashboard — used sometimes for GPS navigation and other times to track horse racing results. Pleasantries will not be exchanged. Expect the gas pedal to be floored.

You will then reflexively grab a handle and try not to slide off the midnight-blue vinyl seats as you zip and turn through the city’s notoriously narrow streets. Lastly, before you arrive at your destination, you will ready your small bills and coins to avoid aggravating the driver with a time-consuming exit.

“When they drop you off, you have to kind of rush,” said Sylvia He, a professor of urban studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who, like many residents of this city, feels conditioned to walk on eggshells around a cabby. “I don’t want to delay their next order.”

To many cabbies, the impatience and brusqueness is a reflection of their harsh reality: when scraping by in a business with shrinking financial rewards, no time can be wasted on social niceties. Lau Man-hung, a 63-year-old driver, for instance, skips meals and bathroom breaks just to stay behind the wheel long enough to take home about $2,500 a month, barely enough to get by in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

“Some customers are too mafan,” said Mr. Lau using a Cantonese word that means causing trouble and annoyance. “They like to complain about which route to take. They tell you to go faster.”

An Industry’s Fragile Economics

Driving a cab used to be a decent way to make a living. But business has gotten tougher, made worse by the fallout of mainland China’s economic slowdown. The city has had trouble reviving its allure with tourists, while its bars and nightclubs, once teeming with crowds squeezed into narrow alleyways, now draw fewer revelers.

Even before the downturn, some owners of taxi licenses were struggling. Taxi licenses are limited by the government and traded on a loosely regulated market. Some owners suffered huge losses after a speculative bubble drove prices up to nearly $1 million for one license a decade ago, then burst.

Today, licenses are worth about two-thirds of their decade-ago high. Many businesses and drivers who own licenses are focused more on recouping losses than on improving service.

Tin Shing Motors, a family-owned company, manages drivers and sells taxi license mortgages and taxicab insurance. Chris Chan, a 47-year-old third-generation member of the company, says Tin Shing is saddled with mortgages bought when licenses were worth much more.

To chip away at that debt, Mr. Chan needs to rent out his taxis as much as possible. But he struggles to find drivers. Many cabbies have aged out, and young people have largely stayed away from the grueling work. Profit margins have dwindled, he added, especially with the cost of insurance almost doubling in recent years. Uber, despite operating in a gray area in Hong Kong, has also taken a chunk of customers away.

“It’s harder and harder to make money,” Mr. Chan said.

At the bottom are the drivers, about half of whom are 60 and older. Many cannot afford to retire. They have to make about $14 an hour to break even after paying for gas and the rent of their vehicles. To them, cash in hand is better than waiting days for electronic payments to clear.

A Blue-Collar Job Professionalizes

Tension between the public and taxi drivers plays out with mutual finger pointing. When the government introduced the courtesy campaign last year, a driver told a television reporter that it was the passengers who were rude.

In many ways, Hong Kong’s taxi drivers embody the high-stress, no-frills culture of the city’s working class. Their gruffness is no different from the service one gets at a cha chaan teng, the ubiquitous local cafes that fuel the masses with egg sandwiches, instant noodles and saccharine-sweet milk tea. Servers are curt, but fast.

“People tend to have one bad experience and remember it for the rest of their life,” said Hung Wing-tat, a retired professor who has studied the taxi industry. “Consequently, there is an impression among the public that all taxi drivers are bad when most of them just want to earn a living. They don’t want any trouble.”

Indeed, there are cabbies like Joe Fong, 45, who sees no value in antagonizing his customers and has tried to adapt to his passengers’ needs.

“Why fight?” Mr. Fong said. “We need each other. You need a ride and I need your money.”

Mr. Fong maximizes his income by splitting his time between driving a private car for Uber and a cab for a taxi fleet called Alliance. Mr. Fong has five cellphones affixed to his dashboard. He welcomes electronic payments, and he did not raise an eyebrow when Alliance installed cameras in all their taxis last year.

“I’m not like those old guys,” said Mr. Fong, who drives one of Hong Kong’s newer hybrid taxis made by Toyota, which look like a cross between a London cab and a PT Cruiser. “The world has changed. You have to accept it.”

Olivia Wang contributed reporting.