Day: August 10, 2022

A day after raiding the Florida home of former US President Donald Trump, the FBI on Tuesday confiscated the cell phone of Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, an ally of Trump, Perry said in a statement to CBS News.

“This morning, while traveling with my family, three FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone,” Perry said.

Perry claimed they “made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish.”

“I’m outraged — though not surprised — that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland’s DOJ (Department of Justice) would seize the phone of a sitting Member of Congress,” he said in his statement.

He went on to say that “these kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every Citizen.”

Trump said Monday that his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was being raided by the FBI, decrying the unprecedented “assault.”

“My beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” he said in a statement on his Save America platform.

Trump slammed the unannounced visit, saying “such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World countries.”

He said the US has now become one of those countries, “corrupt at a level not seen before.”

“They even broke into my safe!” the former president claimed, lamenting that “nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”

Trump accused his opponents of prosecutorial misconduct and weaponizing the justice system.

Later, media reports alleged that the search appeared to be focused on material that Trump “had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago,” citing people familiar with the investigation.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Venezuela announced Tuesday that it plans to reestablish military ties with Colombia after years of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said President Nicolas Maduro had ordered him to immediately establish contact with Colombian Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez for this purpose.

“I have received instructions from the commander in chief of the FANB (Bolivarian National Armed Forces), Nicolas Maduro, to establish immediate contact with the Colombian Minister of Defense to restore our military relations,“ said Lopez, who was quoted on Twitter by the press department of the Armed Forces.

Leftist leader Gustavo Petro was sworn in on Sunday as Colombia’s new president and pledged to rebuild diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

Days before Petro’s inauguration, the new Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alvaro Leyva, met with his Venezuelan counterpart Carlos Faria, who announced that the two nations had agreed to reestablish diplomatic ties.

The two countries “ratified their willingness to consolidate the bonds of friendship and cooperation reviewing all issues of binational interest for the benefit of the happiness of our people,” said Leyva, reading from a joint statement signed by the two officials.

The governments also agreed to “boost security and peace” on their shared border.

Petro announced during his presidential campaign that his government would seek to reestablish channels of communication with Maduro, a move that represented a turning point in the countries’ bilateral relations.

Since President Ivan Duque took office in 2018, Colombia had supported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and his efforts to oust Maduro, who broke diplomatic relations with the neighboring country and ordered the departure of diplomats from its territory.

Maduro was not able to attend Petro’s inauguration Sunday because Duque had banned him from entering the country.

“Ivan Duque, president of Colombia, does not recognize Nicolas Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela. This means that as long as I am president, Nicolas Maduro will not enter Colombian territory,” said Duque.

The 2,219-kilometer (1,379-mile) border between Colombia and Venezuela is used by drug trafficking groups to engage in criminal activity.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A beluga whale that was lifted out of France’s Seine River was put to death after an extraordinary rescue effort failed to improve its precarious health, authorities said on Wednesday.

“Despite an unprecedented rescue operation for the beluga, we are sad to announce the death of the cetacean,” the prefect of the Calvados department said on Twitter.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce that the beluga did not survive the translocation which was risky, but essential to give an otherwise doomed animal a chance. Following the deterioration of his condition, the veterinarians took the decision to euthanize him,” tweeted NGO Sea Shepherd, which was involved in the rescue operation.

Earlier on Wednesday, the whale was removed from the water following an ambitious rescue operation at the Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne basin in Eure, Normandy.

It was later transferred to a refrigerated truck to be carried 160 km away to the port of Ouistreham in Calvados. There it was due to spend three days in the seawater basin under observation, in preparation for its release. But during the journey it developed breathing difficulties.

The beluga, which is found in the freezing waters of Arctic and sub-Arctic seas, had strayed in the English Channel and was stuck in the Seine river for a week. Its health had deteriorated after it refused food.

In May, an ailing 4-metre (13-foot) orca, spotted in the same river, died after an attempt to guide it back to the Channel failed.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia’s increasing cooperation with Iran should be viewed as a major danger to the international community, the State Department said Tuesday as Moscow sent an Iranian satellite into orbit.

A State Department spokesman told Anadolu Agency the US is aware of Russia’s launch of “a satellite with significant spying capabilities on Iran’s behalf.”

“Russia deepening an alliance with Iran is something that the whole world should look at and see as a profound threat,” the spokesman said in an email exchange.

The launch came just three weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged to work together against the West.

The remote sensing satellite Khayyam, named after the 11th century Persian poet and philosopher Omar Khayyam, was launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan, according to Russia’s space agency.

Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov hailed the launch as a “landmark event in the Russia-Iran bilateral cooperation that paves the way for implementing new” joint projects.

Meanwhile, Iran has obtained the first data from its Khayyam satellite, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA. The data included telemetry measurements received by ground stations of the Iranian Space Agency, IRNA said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

China on Wednesday refused to rule out using force to unify Taiwan with the mainland, accusing “external forces” of encouraging and instigating provocative actions by separatist forces.

But Beijing noted that peaceful reunification and “one country, two systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question and the best approach to realizing national reunification.”

“We will work with the greatest sincerity and exert our utmost efforts to achieve peaceful reunification. But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures,” it said in its latest white paper released by the State Council Information Office.

“This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. In no way does it target our fellow Chinese in Taiwan. Use of force would be the last resort taken under compelling circumstances,” it said.

Beijing also viewed peaceful reunification under one country, two systems that will “lay new foundations for China to make further progress and achieve national rejuvenation.”

“At the same time, it will create huge opportunities for social and economic development in Taiwan and bring tangible benefits to the people of Taiwan,” the paper said.

The paper said Beijing is “ready to create vast space for peaceful reunification; but we will leave no room for separatist activities in any form.”

China’s latest emphasis on its one-China policy comes after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-ruled island for less than 24 hours last week.

Pelosi visited Taiwan despite Beijing’s warnings that island is a “breakaway province” and that her visit would be in violation of the country’s “one-China policy.”

Soon after she left Taipei on Aug. 3, Beijing launched massive military exercises last Thursday which were scheduled to end on Sunday, but the drills still continue.

The Chinese military did not say when the latest drills would end but stated they would “focus on anti-submarine and air-to-ship strikes” and a “blockade” in waters near Taiwan.

It also launched ballistic missiles around Taiwan, some of which fell in waters claimed by Japan to be its exclusive economic zone.

The white paper reiterated that Taiwan has “belonged to China since ancient times. This statement has a sound basis in history and jurisprudence.”

Referring to UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, the paper said, “it is a political document encapsulating the one-China principle, whose legal authority leaves no room for doubt and has been acknowledged worldwide.”

“We are one China, and Taiwan is part of China. This is an indisputable fact supported by history and the law. Taiwan has never been a state; its status as part of China is unalterable.”

It added that “peaceful” cross-Taiwan Strait “reunification is of benefit not only to the Chinese nation but to all peoples and the international community as a whole.”

“Using Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail. The wheel of history rolls on towards national reunification, and it will not be stopped by any individual or any force,” Beijing asserted.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday for a bilateral working session, said the Congolese presidency.

Following a meeting with President Felix Tshisekedi and a working session between their countries’ delegations, Blinken called for an end to support for the M23 rebel group.

He was speaking at a press briefing, where he expressed concern over the rebels, who have been wreaking havoc in the Central African country for several years. They have seized an important locality on the border with Uganda and are supported by Rwanda, according to the Congolese authorities and a recent UN report.

“We are concerned by this UN report, which indicates that Rwanda was supporting M23. We call on every party in this region to stop all support for M23, all support for all other non-state armed groups,” said Blinken.

Alongside Congo Vice Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula, he called for the laying down of arms and commitment to a peace process.

He said that all countries must respect the territorial integrity of others and it is a global principal for both Ukraine and the DRC.

For Blinken, “the DRC is a key partner in promoting security, stability, democracy and respect for human rights, the rule of law, and for the climate.”

During the visit, the Americans and the Congolese also discussed rapid and effective reforms in terms of economic growth and also biodiversity, according to the Congolese presidency.

“We had productive conversations on regional security, climate action, free and fair elections, strengthening democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law,” Blinken said.

According to Patrick Muyaya, the spokesman for the Congolese government, the working group focused on “the issue of climate and the exploitation of resources, democracy, and support for economic reforms.”

Blinken is currently on a tour of Africa, where he visited South Africa before the DRC. He will travel to the Rwandan capital Kigali on Wednesday, where he will meet with President Paul Kagame to discuss security issues involving rebel groups in the DRC and other topics.

“The seemingly rapid deterioration of security in eastern DRC and the resurgence of the M23 are the result of longstanding regional rivalries between Rwanda and Uganda,” according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

It warned that the precipitous escalation of the security crisis in eastern DRC risks reigniting an interstate conflict in the Great Lakes region.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Americans are struggling to make ends meet, with prices at the gas pump nearly double what they were a year ago while the cost of groceries and household items has skyrocketed.

“Everyday goods and services are priced out of most people’s reach,” said Davis Brookman, a resident of Dayton, Ohio, who told Anadolu Agency she’s trying to get by with the limited income she makes.

“Rapidly rising prices are harming American families, eroding the value of paychecks and increasing the financial strain of buying everyday goods like groceries and gasoline,” she added.

The current rate of inflation in the US is 9.1%, the highest in 40 years, and when inflation goes up, so do prices, making it hard for people to afford everyday goods and services and giving them sticker shock when they go to the store.

“What makes it harder for Americans is the amount of money they need to afford something when the prices are going up,” said Jorge Barro, a fellow in public finance at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

“The difficulty is that if your income is fixed, if your salary is fixed, if your wage is fixed and not rising at the same rate as inflation, then your real income — or inflation-adjusted income — can go down,” Barro told Anadolu Agency. “When your real income goes down, it erodes your purchasing power and you can’t afford to consume as much, given your income and savings you had before inflation.”

Barro said people with low and fixed incomes are probably struggling during this spike in inflation but emphasized that it is a little bit unique as we push into two and a half years of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The income of low-income households had increased significantly during the start of the pandemic between stimulus checks and increased wages,” said Barro. “The wages of low-skilled jobs such as delivery drivers went up because we had a large restructuring of the economy in which people switched significantly away from services and towards goods, and that disrupted a very long-term trend in the US.”

In addition, Barro said more people spent time at home during the beginning of the pandemic and that “you painted your house instead of hiring a painter because people had extra time on their hands.”

“At the start of the pandemic, there was a sharp increase in the wages of low-skilled workers, many of whom were lower income, and the increase in their wages had outpaced inflation,” he said. “Now that we’re having post-pandemic inflation, there are a lot of low-income earners that came out with a net improvement despite the current inflation spike.”

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the “old and poor” in many communities.

“For true low-income retirees, when you’re retired, there’s very little you can do to adjust your earning potential because you’re getting just social security or retirement income, so they’re going to be more reliant on social security,” said Barro.

“There was roughly a 6% increase in the social security payments for this year, but the increase was not sufficient enough to offset the current inflation rate,” he added. “So if you have 9% inflation and a 6% adjustment, then you’re at a 3% loss, which means inflation is outpacing the increase in social security payments.”

“Personally, I have a lower income to catch up on my bills and I spend a higher portion than I earn,” said Brookman. “Inflation is also eroding the value of savings, making it harder for Americans to build wealth.”

Barro said the high inflation rate is a combination of several factors. On the demand side, many Americans received pandemic-related stimulus checks and the Federal Reserve kept interest rates low for a long time by pumping money into the system.

On the supply side, he said there were supply chain issues and worker shortages, in addition to a greater number of people retiring early or some of them never returning to work at all.

If it hadn’t been for the Russia-Ukraine war, which began nearly six months ago, Barro believes inflation may have already peaked in the US.

“The consequences of the Ukraine war did contribute to a spike in oil and gas prices,” he said.

In July 2021, the average price for gas at the pump in the US was $3.16 per gallon.

In July 2022, the cost of a gallon of gas was $4.56.

Overall, the increase in gas is up 40%-60% over the past year.

“It pretty significantly affects you at the pump,” said Barro. “You can cut back on driving and reduce your gasoline demand, but it’s very difficult to make significant adjustments to transportation over shorter periods. The things you can’t cut out — trips to the grocery store and trips to work — those are fixed trips in the short run.”

Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, Barro believes there is still a strong sense we may be close to the peak of inflation.

“Because the increase in prices is starting to decline,” he said. “Prices may not go back down, but the rate of the increase might go down, which determines inflation.”

While many Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation in their wallets and tightening their belts to make it through this spike in prices, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel.

“Some prices have stabilized,” said Barro. “We see gasoline starting to tick down, some food prices have stabilized, and the Federal Reserve is aggressively increasing rates to slow the economy down with the goal of reducing the inflation rate.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

Russia launched an Iranian satellite into orbit from southern Kazakhstan, according to the Russian State Space Corporation (Roscosmos).

Russia’s natural gas exports by pipeline to the European Union and the UK declined by almost 40% during the first seven months of 2022 compared with the same period in 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

Former Chancellor and leadership candidate Rishi Sunak warned the Conservative Party of an electoral defeat if the incoming government failed to offer support to the public over soaring energy bills.

Venezuela announced that it plans to reestablish military ties with Colombia after years of deteriorating relations between the two countries.

Albuquerque police said 51-year-old Muhammad Syed has been charged with the murders of two Muslim men while authorities are continuing to pursue charges for two other killings.

US President Joe Biden signed documents lending the US’ formal endorsement to Finland and Sweden becoming NATO’s newest members, saying their entry will make the alliance “stronger than ever.”

Biden also signed legislation into law that aims to bolster US chip manufacturing in a bid to counter China.

US companies announced $50 billion in additional investments this week in semiconductor manufacturing with the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act, the White House said.

Mexico said it plans to send a team to fight a fire at an oil refinery in the industrial city of Matanzas, Cuba.

Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the 5th Islamic Solidarity Games in the country’s central province of Konya.

Türkiye’s seventh-generation drill ship, the Abdulhamid Han, will set off for its first two-month-long mission in the Mediterranean, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said.

Türkiye is now in the business of natural gas exploration with its four drill ships and two seismic research vessels, said President Erdogan.

Serena Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam singles champion, hinted at retirement from the sport after this year’s US Open tennis tournament.

The Daesh/ISIS terrorist group has significantly increased its use of unmanned aerial systems or drones in the past year, the UN warned.

Russia’s war on Ukraine “has fundamentally undermined the already fragile trust between the West and Russia,” Slovenia’s president said in Türkiye.

Australia’s New South Wales state took a major stride in criminalizing the display of Nazi symbols.

China continued its exceptional military exercises around self-ruled Taiwan as part of its “countermeasures” against the island nation of 24 million people, which hosted US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for less than 24 hours last week. Taiwan conducted live-fire defense drills.

The Greek prime minister bears the political responsibility for the surveillance of politicians and journalists by the country’s intelligence service, according to the main opposition party Syriza.

Long queues of voters were seen at polling stations in Nairobi as voting to elect Kenya’s president for the next five years began Tuesday morning.

The European Union announced €261 million ($267 million) of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Blasts rocked an airbase in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, local sources said.

A Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid in Nablus, the Health Ministry said.

The European Union has called for a probe following the recent upsurge of violence in Gaza because innocent civilians were killed, including a child, said an EU official.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced that it has started a rolling review for a new version of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine which has been adapted to the latest omicron subvariant.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the Jewish Agency crisis that emerged with Moscow’s move to ban the Russian branch of the immigration agency, according to a statement by the Israeli presidency.

Ukraine’s main oil pipeline system operator, Ukrtransnafta, suspended oil transportation through the Ukrainian pipeline network on Aug. 4, a Russian state-owned media company reported.

Türkiye’s National Defense Ministry said that two more ships carrying over 70,000 tons of grain have left Ukraine’s port as part of a grain export deal signed in Istanbul.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday revamped his Cabinet as surveys showed the government’s ratings down.

Kishida, leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), also changed faces in the party setup.

The move is seen as Kishida’s attempt to delink his government from a religious group after former Premier Shinzo Abe was shot dead by a disgruntled Japanese citizen last month.

To ease public concern, all members of the new Cabinet and the LDP office bearers “will check and review any links to the Unification Church,” reported Kyodo News, quoting Kishida.

Now known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, Abe was said to have links with the Unification Church whose followers have been convicted in Japan for illegally obtaining money from people “through the use of threats, including the citing of ancestral karma.”

Seeking to serve a stable administration amid the “biggest challenges of the postwar era,” including COVID-19, inflation, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait, Kishida retained Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki.

There are two women ministers in the Cabinet.

Yasukazu Hamada was assigned the defense portfolio for the second time as Tokyo is cementing its alliances with the US and other regional countries amid China’s expanding economic and military influence.

He earlier served as defense chief between 2008 and 2009.

Hamada succeeded Nobuo Kishi, the younger brother of slain Abe.

Sanae Takaichi, the LDP policy chief and a former ally of Abe and known for her hawkish security views, has been given economic security portfolio.

Kishida had defeated Takaichi in the last elections.

The distribution of portfolios also shows Kishida’s attempt to balance the internal bloc politics of the conservative LDP so as to retain influence and support for his leadership.

Koichi Hagiuda was picked as the new LDP policy chief.

The biggest challenge is to bolster diplomacy and security policy as the security environment around Japan is getting increasingly severe, Hagiuda told a news conference.

Commenting on Kishida’s Cabinet shakeup, Japan-based journalist Michael Penn wrote on Twitter: “There isn’t much freshness to speak of in the new Kishida Cabinet, but the significant point is that he reshuffled the most potentially problematic people into posts where they are less likely to be able to cause problems for him.”

Source: Anadolu Agency