Day: November 21, 2022

“The occupiers are uneasy about our anti-aircraft defense, its quality and settings. They still try, in particular, to calculate these defense positions,” Nataliya Gumenyuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Southern Defense Forces, told local media.

Gumenyuk later urged people not to mention when some of these systems are working.

“Even if you don’t name specific coordinates, you’re emphasizing where and in which directions these systems are concentrated,” she added.

Gumenyuk’s comments come as air raid alerts continue to be sounded across Ukraine on a daily basis, most recently this morning, over possible Russian strikes.

Local authorities often share information on such threats on social media, even reporting cases, in some instances, where anti-air systems are actively working and urging people to stay in shelters.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top officials have regularly voiced the country’s need for more anti-aircraft defenses.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The mechanism obtained photos of Tsipras’ vacation in a yacht during the wildfires of 2018 and passed them on to Nea Dimokratia (ND), which was the opposition party and is the current ruling party.

The images were published by pro-ND media on the eve of the 2019 elections to undermine Tsipras’ chances of being reelected, it added.

The leadership race for ND in 2016 was also meddled in to elect Kyriakos Mitsotakis as the party’s head, according to Efsyn.

The election results were altered in favor of Mitsotakis, it added.

The To Vima newspaper maintained that Israeli-made Predator spyware was used not only by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) but also by elements of the Greek police in illegal surveillance of an ever-growing list of people including prominent pro-government journalists, opposition figures, businessmen, acting and former senior ministers and retired admirals.

Meanwhile, Kostas Vaxevanis, an investigative journalist and chief editor of the Documento newspaper, which in early November published a list of 33 people who were spied on, including Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, said on Twitter that “foreign agents” were involved in the surveillance of Tsipras for the sake of Mitsotakis.

Ever-expanding surveillance scandal

On Aug. 8, Mitsotakis acknowledged that opposition politician Nikos Androulakis was wiretapped by Greece’s intelligence agency but denied knowledge of the operation.

The scandal first emerged on Aug. 4 when Panagiotis Kontoleon, then-head of the EYP, told a parliamentary committee that the intelligence agency had been spying on financial journalist Thanasis Koukakis.

On Aug. 5, Kontoleon, along with the general secretary of the prime minister’s office, Grigoris Dimitriadis, resigned.

A parliamentary probe was launched after Androulakis complained to top prosecutors about an attempt to hack his cellphone with Predator spyware.

More recently, Documento published a list of 33 people allegedly spied on by the EYP on direct orders by Dimitriadis, including Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, Deputy Defense Minister Nikos Hardalias, Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Labor Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis and former National Security Advisor Alexandros Diakopoulos.

Opposition parties have been blaming Mitsotakis for the scandal and have called for his government to hold snap elections, something he rejects.

The European Commission and European Parliament are closely monitoring developments related to the scandal.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Addressing a news conference, the premier said: “Whether it passes (parliament vote) is a matter for the whole parliament.”

Her statement came after New Zealand Supreme Court early on Monday declared the “voting age of 18 inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act” of the country.

Later, the Ardern-led Cabinet discussed the top court’s observation and decided to draft legislation.

Any change in lowering the voting age in New Zealand would require the backing of at least three-quarters of current lawmakers, or a majority vote in a referendum.

New Zealand has 120 members in the parliament where Ardern’s ruling center-left Labor Party has 64 seats.

“If supported, it would not take effect for the next general election, with the Electoral Commission crucial to the process,” Ardern said.

“I cannot tell you currently how any member of this House will vote on this proposed law including Labor, as we’ve not met or discussed it as a caucus,” Ardern said, adding she was personally supporting the new lawmaking on lowering the voting age.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“I was glad to welcome my New Zealand colleague Peeni Henare in Kyiv. We discussed our joint projects, ways to strengthen Ukrainian defense capabilities and coordinated efforts to rebuild Ukraine after the war. Thank you for your willingness to promote Ukraine’s interests in Southeast Asia,” Reznikov said in a message on Twitter.

Earlier, Henare met with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak to discuss the war in Ukraine and its consequences for the region’s security, in addition to aiding Ukraine, according to a statement by the Polish Defense Ministry.

“It was a pleasure to meet with my counterpart from Poland. We expressed our condolences for the recent loss experienced in the missile incident. We thank them for their leadership on the conflict in Ukraine,” Henare said on Twitter.

New Zealand announced on Nov. 8 that it had deployed people and assets to facilitate the flow of supplies to Ukraine against Russia.

“In the UK, we are training Ukrainian troops and supporting intelligence efforts (and) we have provided humanitarian assistance to refugees and those still inside Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement.

New Zealand sanctioned 14 more individuals and seven entities, including military personnel, defense entities and executives, Russian-directed disinformation outlets and a paramilitary organization and its senior commanders earlier this month.

Source: Anadolu Agency

“Today we celebrate the Day of Dignity and Freedom. A holiday that shows that for us dignity and freedom is a holiday. The answer to the question of who Ukrainians are and what is most important to them,” he said in a statement published by the Ukrainian presidency.

“Everyone saw what kind of people we have! Willing to give the last. Willing to stand to the last. They did not lose dignity. Bravery. Faith in themselves. And they united. In order not to lose freedom. Not to lose independence. Not to lose Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.

Stating that Ukraine has paid and continues to pay “a very high price for freedom,” Zelenskyy said his country will not forget those who gave their lives for Ukraine and “those who took away their lives and wanted to take away our freedom.”

“The main thing is that no one succeeded and no one will ever succeed,” he added.

Ukraine’s Dignity and Freedom Day commemorates the Orange Revolution, a series of nationwide protests against allegations of electoral fraud during the 2004 presidential elections, and the Maidan Revolution, mass protests which led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was widely perceived as a pro-Russian ruler.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Kazakh news agency Kazinform, citing the country’s Central Election Commission, said Tokayev won over 6.45 million votes, securing an easy victory against five little-known candidates. The second-most popular option picked by voters was “against everyone,” with 5.8% of ballots.

Voter turnout was 69.4% as nearly 8.3 million of around 12 million eligible voters cast ballots.

The call for early elections was made by Tokayev in late September with a decree saying the polls would launch “an electoral cycle that will lead to a radical reset of the entire political system.”

The announcement came after Tokayev approved a constitutional amendment to increase the presidential term from five years to seven while barring future presidents from serving a second term.

Another move was changing the capital’s name back to Astana after it was changed to Nur-Sultan in 2019 in a tribute to outgoing President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Tokayev took over as president in March 2019, succeeding Nazarbayev, who ruled the oil-rich Central Asian nation for three decades.

Congratulatory messages

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Tokayev on winning a second term, opening up “new opportunities for the implementation of the course of state development.”

“The relations of strategic partnership and alliance between our countries, which are based on the good traditions of friendship, neighborliness and mutual respect, are developing very successfully. We will continue to work together to expand them further,” read a Kremlin statement.

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping also congratulated Tokayev. “Your election victory fully reflects the trust and support of the Kazakh people. I am convinced that under your excellent leadership, your country will achieve new successes in all undertakings of reform and move forward along the path of building a new Kazakhstan,” Xi said.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed their good wishes for Tokayev.

Source: Anadolu Agency