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Ukraine's Yermak meets senior Trump advisers, source says

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Ukraine's Yermak meets senior Trump advisers, source says

Ukrainian delegation met on Wednesday with senior representatives of President-elect Donald Trump, a source familiar with the meeting said, as Ukraine seeks support from the incoming team in its war to repel Russian invaders.

The Ukrainian delegation was led by Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The group met in Washington with Trump’s choice for White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, the source said, without providing details.

The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting.

Trump has vowed to bring about a negotiated end to the nearly three-year-old conflict between Ukraine and Russia, but has thus far not provided details.

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Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens five years after devastating blaze

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Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens five years after devastating blaze

Notre-Dame Cathedral, situated on an island in the River Seine in Paris, France, is reopening this weekend after more than five years of intense reconstruction work to restore the medieval building to its former glory.

After a fire gutted the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, the 12th-century Gothic masterpiece has now been masterfully restored and will reopen to the public on Sunday following a ceremony on Saturday, which will be attended by a lineup of heads of state and top-level delegates from around the world.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised to restore the cathedral within five years after the catastrophe, made a preopening visit to the site on November 29 with his wife, first lady Brigitte Macron. The president thanked the thousands of workers who had reconstructed the building.

“The inferno of Notre-Dame was a wound for the nation, … and you were its remedy,” the president said.

Here is what we know about this weekend’s reopening and what happened to the nearly 900-year-old cultural icon five years ago:

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The top image shows a hole in the dome of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 16, 2019, a day after the fire, and the bottom image is of the restored interiors of the cathedral on November 29, 2024 [Christophe Petit Tesson/Pool via AP]

What caused the fire at Notre-Dame?

The blaze broke out on the evening of April 15, 2019, on the roof of the cathedral. The fire sent tongues of orange flames into the sky as smoke billowed from the building. The fire burned for 15 hours while more than 400 firefighters battled to extinguish it.

It is still unclear what caused the blaze, but authorities suspect an electrical fault or a burning cigarette was the likely culprit. No members of the public were hurt because security officials had sounded the alarm and evacuated the cathedral. However, three security officials were injured.

By the time the fire was extinguished the following day, the inside and roof of the cathedral had been largely destroyed. Its wooden and metal spire, which had been undergoing reconstruction work, collapsed.

Its lead roof melted, and the intricate wooden beams that supported it burned away, leaving a gaping hole over the building.

Some religious relics inside the building as well as exposed artwork on the exterior of the building were badly damaged. However, the vaulted stone ceiling acted as a barrier to the fire and prevented serious damage to the cathedral’s interior stone walls.

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The cathedral’s wooden frame was centuries-old, and authorities had long marked it as a possible fire hazard. Still, it was a painful period for the French nation. Toxic lead dust spread and cast a gloom over a solemn Paris. Macron, in an emotional speech on April 17, 2019, promised to restore the monument within five years and make it more beautiful than ever. Notre-Dame did not hold a Christmas Mass that year – for the first time since 1803.

How was the cathedral rebuilt?

Hundreds of donors, including some of France’s richest businesspeople, contributed more than 840 million euros ($889m) to the medieval building’s restoration campaign, which was launched by Macron. About 150 countries, among them the United States and Saudi Arabia, also contributed.

The restoration involved the work of about 2,000 people, including craftspeople, architects and other professionals.

Construction workers used powerful vacuum cleaners and cleaning gels to remove the thickened soot, dust and years of accumulated grime from the lower stone walls of the cathedral. Carpenters then hewed giant oak beams by hand to rebuild the intricate roof frame and the spire. About 2,000 oak trees were felled to provide the wood to rebuild the roof.

Work has not entirely finished, and scaffolding will cover parts of the exterior for a few more years so decorative features on the facade can be fully restored.

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Notre dame
Notre-Dame cathedral pictured while under reconstruction on the second anniversary of the fire on April 15, 2021 [Francois Mori/AP]

When is the reopening ceremony?

Notre-Dame is set to host a high-profile ceremony on Saturday with more than 50 heads of state and government, dignitaries and VIPs attending under tight security.

Notable among them will be US President-elect Donald Trump, who has travelled to Paris on his first foreign trip since winning the November presidential election. Also attending are Prince William of the UK and Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

“President Emmanuel Macron has done a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so,” the president-elect said in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday. “It will be a very special day for all!”

About 170 bishops from France are expected to attend the ceremony although Pope Francis will be notably absent.

Paris Archbishop Laurent Ulrich will strike the cathedral’s closed doors with a staff, formally opening them to commence the ceremony.

First, the great organ, which is France’s largest, will be “awakened”. The organ is made of 8,000 pipes and 115 stops.

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Some events which had been planned to take place outdoors will now take place inside the cathedral because of the cold weather: A movie will be screened recalling the fire and the reconstruction and paying tribute to those who have participated in restoring the cathedral.

The Pope’s message to the French people will be read out, followed by poetry readings and Ulrich will give a final blessing. The choir will sing Te Deum, a Latin hymn, to round off the service.

Macron will make a short speech outside the cathedral to guests and heads of state at 6.30pm. At 8pm, a concert will begin.

When does the cathedral open to the public?

An inaugural Mass for dignitaries will begin at 10:30am (09:30 GMT) on Sunday. Macron is expected to be in the congregation.

The public can then attend a second evening Mass on the same day with tickets which were available on a first-come first-served basis. Guests were able to book tickets, which are free of charge, online.

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Special Masses, twice daily, will be held for the next eight days, and many will be open to the public.

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The War in Syria Has a New Map. Again.

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The War in Syria Has a New Map. Again.

Sources: Institute for the Study of War and AEI’s Critical Threats Project (areas of control as of Dec. 5); Janes (rebel control as of November)

In just over a week, Syrian rebel forces have seized much of Syria’s northwest from the government in a fast-moving attack, upending the once-stagnant civil war. After capturing most of the major city of Aleppo, its airport, military bases and many towns and villages, on Thursday they drove government troops from the western city of Hama, which had never before fallen into rebel hands.

The offensive comes after a period of relative, if brittle, calm. Since 2020, the territorial map had stayed largely frozen: President Bashar al-Assad’s government dominated much of the country, while an array of other factions held different fragments of the rest.

Here’s who is fighting whom in Syria’s nearly 14-year-old civil war:

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Opposition forces

Their territory had shrunk until advances this week.

Source: The Carter Center. Note: Opposition forces include both extremist Islamic and moderate factions.

The war erupted in 2011 after Mr. al-Assad brutally crushed antigovernment protests. In the early stages, rebels — who included both extremist Islamist and moderate factions — managed to take most of the country’s northwest and expanded into other territory. By 2014, they controlled not only their stronghold in the northwest, but also areas north of Hama, east of Damascus and in the southeast, near the Israeli border, as well as villages along the Euphrates and in al-Hasakah province, in Syria’s far northeast.

Then came the rise of the Islamic State in 2014 and Russia’s decision the following year to give Mr. al-Assad military support. The Islamic State expanded its so-called caliphate into northeastern Syria, while overpowering Russian airstrikes forced the rebel groups that had been battling Mr. al-Assad since 2011 to retreat. By this year, those opposition forces held nothing but a patch of the northwest until their latest offensive began last week.

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Government forces and allies

The conflict had shifted in their favor years ago — but now they are retreating.

Source: The Carter Center

Despite initial rebel successes, pro-Assad forces — including not only Syria’s military but also fighters sent by Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah — were able to retake more territory over the last decade after a series of events shifted the conflict in their favor. Pro-government troops recaptured Aleppo with the help of Russian airstrikes after a four-year battle ending in 2016. The next year, a government offensive against the Islamic State put Mr. al-Assad back in control of many towns along the Euphrates River. And his forces’ advance on northwestern Syria in 2019 and 2020 cornered opposition forces in Idlib Province, bringing the conflict to an impasse that lasted until a week ago.

Islamic State

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It once held a third of Syria.

Source: The Carter Center

Syria’s civil war, along with growing instability in Iraq, allowed an ambitious Al Qaeda offshoot called the Islamic State to mushroom rapidly across both countries in 2013 and 2014. Fueled by a bloody, ultra-extremist interpretation of Islam, it conquered an expanse of territory in Syria and Iraq that it ruled as a so-called caliphate. At its height in 2015, the group held a third of Syria and about 40 percent of Iraq, with the northern Syrian city of Raqqa as its capital.

But a Western coalition led by the United States targeted the group with thousands of airstrikes, and U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces eventually routed the Islamic State in much of northeastern Syria. Pro-Assad forces also pushed the group back in other areas, while the Iraqi army battled it in Iraq. By 2018, it had lost all but tiny shreds of its territory.

Kurdish-led forces

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They took territory from the Islamic State, but lost other ground to Turkish-backed forces.

Source: The Carter Center

Forces from Syria’s Kurdish ethnic minority became the United States’ main local partner in the fight against the Islamic State. After the extremist group was defeated in large parts of the country, the Kurdish-led forces consolidated control over towns in the northeast, expanding an autonomous region they had built there, and along the Euphrates. But despite routing the Islamic State, Kurdish fighters still had to contend with their longtime enemy across the border, Turkey, which regards them as linked to a Kurdish separatist insurgency.

In 2019, President Donald J. Trump pulled American troops away from northern Syria, abandoning the Kurdish-led forces and opening the door for Turkish forces to oust them from areas along the northern border. Looking for protection against Turkey, the Kurdish-led forces turned to Damascus, allowing Mr. al-Assad’s forces to return to parts of northern Syria, where they have co-existed since. The Kurds still control much of northeastern Syria.

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Turkish military operations

Captured parts of the northern border area from Kurdish-led forces.

Source: The Carter Center

Since the beginning of the civil war, the Turkish military has launched several military interventions across the border into Syria, mostly against Syrian Kurdish-led forces, whom Turkey views as linked to what it calls a terrorist separatist movement in Turkey, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K. Three Turkish operations – in 2016-2017, 2018 and 2019 – were aimed at taking control of towns and villages the Kurdish-led fighters had previously held along the northern border. Turkey now effectively controls that zone, where it provides public services and where its currency is routinely used.

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Italian nun among 25 arrested in raid against 'Ndrangheta mafia

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Italian nun among 25 arrested in raid against 'Ndrangheta mafia

Italian police arrested a nun known for her prison work and 24 other people on Thursday as part of an investigation into the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in the northern city of Brescia, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

They said Sister Anna Donelli, a volunteer in Milan’s San Vittore prison, is suspected of mafia collusion and of acting as a go-between between the criminal group and its jailed gang members.

MISSOURI DIOCESE PROVIDES UPDATE ON EXHUMED NUN WHOSE BODY DID NOT DECOMPOSE: ‘HIGHLY ATYPICAL’

The nun, 57, is also well-known for her service in Milan’s run-down districts. In February she was one of the recipients of the “Golden Panettone”, an annual Milanese civic award.

Flag of Italy is seen ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Hungary at Hungaroring on July 22, 2023 in Budapest, Hungary.  (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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It was not immediately possible to reach the nun’s lawyer for comment.

A police press release said two local politicians were also arrested, and that 1.8 million euros ($1.89 million) had been seized in the operation. The statement did not name any of the people targeted by the raid.

Suspects are accused of various crimes including mafia association, vote buying, illegal possession of weapons, money laundering, loan-sharking, drug dealing and false invoicing, the police statement added.

The alleged gang was connected to the issuance of 12 million euros worth of invoices for non-existent transactions that enabled complicit entrepreneurs to lower their income and evade taxes in return for a commission paid to mobsters.

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Originally from the poor southern region of Calabria, the ‘Ndrangheta has evolved into Italy’s most powerful mafia organisation, and has spread across Europe and the rest of the world, penetrating into so-called white-collar crime.

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