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A German army commander warned that another war in Europe was possible. "We are preparing to face hybrid threats to our infrastructure," General Castrin Borer said in an interview with the German newspaper "Bild” today. NATO has also stressed the need to protect critical infrastructure after what it called acts of gas pipeline sabotage during the Russia-Ukraine war.
The head of the German Parliament's European Affairs Committee noted in an interview with the Funke media group that "perhaps in both cases it is a warning because we support Ukraine." He called for 20 billion euros to better protect critical infrastructure, strengthen police capabilities.
These statements came after a "sabotage" operation yesterday affecting wireless connection cables in two locations in Germany. The apparent cyberattack brought train travel to a standstill throughout northern Germany and the capital Berlin, before it was fixed a few hours later.
Since the launch of the Russian military operation on the territory of its western neighbor on February 24, tension has risen between Moscow and the West, especially the European countries that have delivered Ukraine billions worth of weaponry and ammunition.
Western intelligence warned of a "subversive" war of another kind, whether through electronic attacks or hacking and attacks on critical European facilities.
Swedish News' weekly satirist show, similar to American talk shows, makes fun of politicians and figures worldwide. In its recent episode, named "veto Turk," hosted Swedish-Kurdish Kadir Meral, a satirist who gave a two-minute performance in Kurdish.
Meral calls Erdogan "a fool" and "grumpy," Erdogan is depicted bending over in his underwear for his demands from Sweden in the face of the country's bid to join NATO.
Meral ends his talks by saying long live democracy with a flag of Kurdistan displayed on his left, and the show finishes with Kurdish traditional music of trumpet and drum.
Turkey formally complained to Sweden over an "ugly" satire TV show that aired "insulting content" about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Middle East Eye reported.
On Wednesday, the Turkish foreign minister handed the Swedish Ambassador a strongly worded complaint, KurdSat English has learned.
It was claimed that the statements could not fall under freedom of expression, Reuters reported. The move sparked fierce criticism in Turkey. The pro-Erdogan newspaper Sabah called the show a "shame for Swedish television."
"The Turkish foreign ministry summoned today the Swedish ambassador to Ankara, Staffan Herrstrom, because of a broadcast on Swedish television (SVT) that contained insulting statements and images against Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan," Anadolu news agency wrote.
In the dressing down, Herrstrom was told that the "impertinent and ugly expression and images" about Erdogan and Turkey were unacceptable, according to the agency.
"We had seen it before in German cases where comedians played with Erdogan when he gave it a lot of space and was upset about it and affected the diplomatic relations with the countries, citing SVT's Turkey correspondent Tomas Thorén Tellerport reported.
Svenska Nyheter publisher Ebba Adielsson does not want to comment on the Turkish criticism specifically but says that it will not affect the program's content going forward, the Swedish paper Expressen reported.
Sweden is home to a substantial Kurdish diaspora that have many members in the Swedish national assembly and hold several senior positions in the government, denying Swedish-Kurdish citizens the same rights are other Swedish citizens is not fair, a Kurdish activist told KurdSat English.
This show comes before a Swedish delegation travels to Turkey next week to talk Erdogan into their membership in NATO, as the war in Ukraine takes unexpected and rapid turns.
On 28 June 2022, in the sidelines of NATO summit in Madrid; Turkey, Sweden, and Finland signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) to address security concerns raised by Turkey and lift Turkey's veto on Finland's and Sweden's membership of NATO.
The TMOU seems to have stalled, and it seems that freedom of expression in Sweden might be one of the main obstacles in front of the country joining NATO, as Turkey's suppression of dissidents has been one of its main obstacles to joining the EU in the past two decades.
Putin also said that he would expect the situation in the newly annexed territories to stabilize as its forces falter in controlling the territory of these regions. Putin now has annexed 15 per cent of Ukraine and added an additional thousand kilometers to its long borders.
Putin said Ukraine and "its real masters in the West" must know "the citizens of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhia, and Kherson have become our citizens forever," Axios reported.
Russia's mobilization border became a great concern for Russia's youth. Many could be seen breaking their arms and legs on videos that circulate in the wilder corners of Russian language social media. Many major Russian cities witnessed protests against the mobilization, which at first was thought to be an all-inclusive mass mobilization.
Russia's annexation of these territories signifies its losses in the war as it has repeatedly threatened a nuclear strike if Russia's territory is attacked and wants to extend this threat to territory its controls and finds it challenging to control amid low morale, ammunition and a high number of casualties.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said during statements to reporters by phone today, Wednesday, that an official indication of the US Department of Defense that Kyiv may use American equipment and weapons to strike targets in Crimea is very dangerous and evidence of Washington's direct involvement in the conflict, according to Reuters.
It came in response to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper, who pointed out that Washington considers delivering Ukraine the HIMARS launchers capable of reaching the "vast majority" of Russian targets, including Crimea.
She also made clear in statements yesterday that the Pentagon does not see any need to provide Ukrainian forces with ATACMS tactical missiles with a range of up to 300 km, in addition to the GMLRS guided missiles with a range of 80 km that they already have. "According to our estimates, with the help of GMLRS missiles they have for HIMARS launchers, they can eliminate the vast majority of targets on the battlefield," she added.
It is noteworthy that the United States pledged again yesterday to provide an additional $625 million in military aid to Kyiv as part of a package that includes advanced missile systems from HIMARS that is credited with helping the Ukrainian army gain momentum in its fight against Russian forces, during the attack. The counterattack launched a few weeks ago in the south and northeast of the country, regaining control of dozens of towns that had been in the hands of the Russians for months.
Following Ukraine's initiative in regaining lost territory, Russia annexed four Ukrainian regions to deny Ukraine any more advancements and challenge them with the possibility of a nuclear strike, as the Kremlin has repeatedly threatened to do so.
Since last July, the HIMARS system has become a significant tool in Ukraine's ability to strike the bridges that Moscow used to provide its forces with equipment, ammunition, supplies, and others. It has contributed significantly, in addition to other missile systems, to support the Ukrainian army.
On the other hand, the call touched on cooperation between Moscow and Ankara in the energy field within the framework of implementing contracts for supplying Russian natural gas to Turkey and the joint construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant.
These developments came after significant international tensions during the past few days, such as a large gas leak in the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
The European Union has announced that it suspects that there is an act of sabotage behind the leakage of gas from Russian pipelines under the sea to Europe and promised a strong response to any deliberate disruption of energy infrastructure.
Moscow believes that the United States is the beneficiary of the accident, noting that the leak in the "Northern Stream" lines occurred in an area controlled by American intelligence, Al-Arabiya reported.
Adrian Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House, responded to the Russian accusation and said it was absurd for Russia to imply that the United States could be responsible for the leak.
What made matters worse is that these two pipelines have been, in recent months, at the center of geopolitical tensions between the West and Moscow, significantly after it cut gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions against it due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Although the pipelines, operated by a consortium of firms, most of which are owned by Russia's Gazprom, are currently out of service, both pipelines still contain gas, which has alarmed many officials and environmental and climate experts worldwide.
The spill occurred in international waters off the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, between southern Sweden and Poland, an area long considered one of the world's most closely monitored expanses of water.
On Tuesday, the Ukrainian news agency quoted Vitaly Kim, head of the Regional Military Administration in Mykolaiv, saying that none of the Iranian-made drones fired at the region in southern Ukraine reached their target because of its forces' response.
"We already have a certain number of Iranian Kamikaze Drones that were shot down. None of them reached its target in the city of Mykolaiv. In addition, during the past day, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down an Orlan-10 drone," Kim added.
He added that the Russian forces bombed last night the center of the city of Mykolaiv with various weapons.
On Sunday, Kyiv accused Russia of bombing Odesa with Iranian-made drones, pointing out that the administrative building in the city center was targeted three times.
These Iranian drones are seen flying above Odesa in videos widely shared on the internet. The Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed they had destroyed four Iranian Shahid-136 drones in the Mykolaiv region with mid-range anti-air missiles on September 22.
A spokeswoman for the military command in the south, Natalia Gumniuk, confirmed that Iranian drones carried out the attack.
It is noteworthy that Ukraine had decided a few days ago to reduce the level of diplomatic relations with Iran because of providing Russian forces with unmanned aircraft, in a move that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described as "collaboration with evil."
On the other hand, Tehran denied these "accusations", considering that they are merely Western campaigns aimed at causing discord between it and Kyiv.
The US intelligence had warned last July (2022) of Iranian plans to send hundreds of drones loaded with bombs to Moscow to help it with its war on Ukrainian soil.
The move comes after Russia's frustration with its losses in Ukraine and its only resort to reducing or entirely cutting off European customers from its energy. Also, winter is approaching, and experts warn of a disaster if Europe continues to subsist on the current energy level.
"We will have to be able to produce up to 60% more electricity than we do today," he stressed, noting that decarbonizing this electricity will be the major challenge, Euractiv reported.
French President Emmanuel Macron was set to unveil a plan on Thursday to boost renewable energy in France, including offshore wind farms and solar power, as the country is lagging behind most of its European neighbors.
France set the goal to build about 50 offshore wind farm facilities in 2050 in France, according to ABC News.
Macron wants the country to gain more independence in terms of electricity production. The president went on a boat Thursday to visit France's first offshore wind farm off the port of Saint-Nazaire in western France, Associated Press reported.
In a speech later that day, the French presidency said he was to detail a range of measures meant to facilitate and accelerate renewable energy projects.
Hopes to end the war in Ukraine are not insight, and countries across Europe have resorted to unilateral and Union-wide efforts to gain access to energy to survive the coming winter.
The pod, which is stranded on Ocean Beach, appears to be pilot whales, and at least half are presumed to be still alive, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania said Wednesday.
The department said a team from the Marine Conservation Program was assembling whale rescue gear and heading to the area.
A resident told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the whales were visible near the entrance to Macquarie Harbour and described the stranding as a "massive event."
A local official urged people to stay clear.
Fourteen sperm whales were discovered Monday afternoon on King Island, part of the state of Tasmania in the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania's northern coast.
The department said it is not unusual for sperm whales to be sighted in Tasmania.
The pilot whale is notorious for stranding in mass numbers for reasons that are not entirely understood.
Two years ago, about 470 long-finned pilot whales were found beached on sandbars off Tasmania's west coast in Australia's largest mass-stranding on record.
After a weeklong effort, 111 of those whales were rescued, but the rest died.
Tomorrow, Monday will constitute a unique security challenge for the British capital, represented by the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. For that occasion, British authorities have mounted the largest security operation in the history of the Kingdom since World War II.
A police official declined to detail how the leaders would travel to Westminster Abbey on Monday, citing security reasons. In a Friday media briefing, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy added that London's Metropolitan Police is engaged in its largest policing operation, NBC News reported.
The United Kingdom will witness a state funeral, the first since World War II, specifically since the funeral of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1965.
According to the "Washington Post" newspaper, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was consulted about all arrangements, except for the security aspect, before her death.
British security expects the country to witness the largest operation to control security and protection in the history of the Kingdom in six decades, with official expectations for the attendance of hundreds of guests from more than two hundred countries, not to mention millions of people waiting to be crowded in the streets of London.
In the face of these expectations and their sensitivity, the police are trying to balance safety, security and ceremonies for the success of the funeral activities.
Tomorrow, Monday, snipers will be stationed on rooftops in London, while drones will hover over the area, and ten thousand police officers in uniform, as well as thousands of officers in civilian clothes, will participate among the crowds, according to Fortune.
A few days ago, the police searched the main areas through their patrols and trained dogs after calling in all its members for help.
It is also noted that police personnel came from every corner of the country to help. From the Welsh Cavalry to the Royal Air Force, more than 2,500 regular military personnel will be on standby at any moment.
Officials from Britain's domestic and foreign intelligence agencies, MI5 and MI6, also review terrorist threats as part of the massive security team working at the funeral.
The participation of presidents, prime ministers, kings and queens in the funeral increases the risks, which calls for significantly tightening security.
About two dozen kings, queens, princes and princesses have been confirmed, from places including Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. King Tubu of Tonga, King Jigme of Bhutan, Yang di-Pertuan, King of Malaysia, Sultan of Brunei and Sultan of Oman will also attend.
French President Emmanuel Macron, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also attend. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will also participate in the service.
Former British Prime Minister and current Prime Minister Liz Truss will also attend the funeral.
Queen Elizabeth II's burial will take place in London's Westminster Abbey on September 19, with leaders from many countries attending.
The Queen passed away on September 8, 2022. Kurds and the Kurdistan region have a historical relationship with the United Kingdom and the British people dating back to the early 19th century.
Later, Xi and Putin in Samarkand, the main stop on the ancient Silk Road, will be joined by leaders of India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and other countries to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which officially begins on Friday and would last for two days.
The bilateral meeting between the Chinese and Russian presidents is gaining great international attention, amid the aggravating tension between the West on one side and Moscow and Beijing on the other.
While this meeting constitutes something of a challenge to the West, for Putin, who is trying to accelerate the process of refocusing his attention towards Asia in the face of Western sanctions imposed on his country, it is also an opportunity to show that Moscow is not isolated on the world stage.
As for Xi, who is in Central Asia on his first visit outside China since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, he may be able to consolidate his position before the Congress of the Chinese Communist Party scheduled for October, during which he will seek a third new term, according to AFP.
Through his meeting, he will also send a warning message to Washington, which has recently been provoking Beijing through its visits and support for the semi-autonomous island of Taiwan, despite the fact that China, which supports Moscow, has not yet positioned itself seriously in the Russian camp, and has maintained a fine thread in its relationship with Washington.
For example, so far Beijing has not sent weapons to Moscow, and has even repeatedly denied accusations of this kind.
"The Shanghai Cooperation Organization offers a real alternative to Western-oriented structures," Yury Ushakov, the Kremlin's diplomatic advisor, told reporters last Tuesday frankly.
He also stressed that it is the largest organization in the world, as it includes half of the planet's population and works for a just international order.
In addition to Putin's meeting with Xi, he will also meet separately today with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, whose country wants to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
On Friday, he will also hold two separate meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It is noteworthy that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes China, Russia, India, Pakistan and the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, was established in 2001 as a tool for political, economic and security cooperation to compete with Western organizations.
But it is neither a military alliance like NATO nor a political integration organization like the European Union, though, its members work together to meet common security challenges and boost trade.
In a statement, the Greek Coast Guard said it "categorically denies" the Turkish claims of its "alleged involvement in an alleged pushback incident that resulted in the death of six immigrants in the sea area of Marmaris, within Turkish territorial waters."
The Turkish coast guard said it is still searching for two more missing children and three men in the sea between Turkey's Marmaris and the Greek island of Rhodes, Turkey's Coast Guard said.
According to the Turkish coast guard statement, the 15-foot boat left Tripoli in Lebanon on September 10, destined for Italy.
The survivors said their fuel ran out near Rhodes, and they called for assistance from the Greek authorities.
They reportedly claimed they were taken aboard a Greek Coast Guard boat, where their valuables were taken. They were placed on four lift rafts close to Turkish territorial waters and set adrift.
Turkey and migrant rights bodies frequently accuse Greece of conducting pushbacks – summary and illegal deportations of new arrivals back to Turkey without allowing them to apply for asylum.
Athens denies the claims and says it robustly protects its borders.
Turkish authorities said they were alerted to the group shortly after midnight on Tuesday and discovered 66 people drifting on three rafts.
Told of another raft by the rescued people, the coast guard dispatched a plane, a helicopter, and another boat.
They found seven survivors and six bodies on the fourth raft and were informed of the missing people.
More than 33,400 "irregular migrants" have been captured so far this year, according to the Turkish Coast Guard. The figure for the whole of last year was 12,600.
The Justice Department on Wednesday announced charges against three Iranian individuals alleged to have launched cyberattacks against the US and critical global infrastructure, Politico reported.
After the U.S. Department of Justice charged three Iranian hackers yesterday with trying to blackmail organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran, and Israel, including a shelter for victims of domestic violence and a children's hospital, by hacking into their computer systems to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars, Washington announced a 10 million reward.
The State Department offered a reward of ten million dollars to anyone who helped it arrest the three defendants, who are Mansour Ahmadi (34 years), Ahmed Khatibi Agdah (45 years), and Amir Hossein Neqain (30 years).
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken stressed that this award "demonstrates America's determination to prevent any ransomware cyberattack targeting its infrastructure."
On condition of anonymity, a senior official in the U.S. Department of Justice said that the three accused are likely in Iran, AFP reported.
As of October 2020, the three defendants launched a series of cyber-attacks targeting entities in the US, Britain, Israel, and Russia, as well as inside Iran, according to the indictment of the U.S. Department of Justice published yesterday, Wednesday.
Their targets included small businesses, a power company, a children's hospital in Boston, municipalities, and the American Bar Association (ABA).
Some of their victims agreed to pay the ransom, including a battered women's shelter in Pennsylvania, which paid $13,000 to restore and prevent its disclosure.
As for how they could penetrate this, the investigations revealed that each time, they deliberately exploited flaws in the system to encrypt the data of their victims and demanded that they pay thousands of dollars in exchange for providing them with a decryption key.
In a tweet on the FBI's Twitter account, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Christopher Ray said in a video message that "the Director announces the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their roles in a multi-year scheme to compromise the networks of hundreds of companies, organizations, and institutions."
He also confirmed that the FBI had published an alert about "the broader threat posed by cyber-activists linked to Iran," noting Canada, Australia, and Britain also adopted the warning.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Departments of State and the Treasury confirmed that the accused are part of a group of hackers "associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard." The department added that they had imposed sanctions on them, in addition to seven other Iranians and two Iranian companies.
Iran is accused of being responsible for launching cyber-attacks abroad. A few days ago, the last attack of this kind was when the Albanian government announced that it had cut ties with Tehran, accusing it of being behind a large-scale electronic hacking campaign that targeted its digital infrastructure and security services.
Last July, US intelligence warned of Tehran's plans to send hundreds of bomb-laden drones to Russia to assist in its military operation in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army announced for the first time today, Tuesday, that it encountered an Iranian drone used by Russia on the battlefield, indicating the depth of relations between Moscow and Tehran at a time when the nuclear agreement concluded by Iran with world powers is at stake.
Last July, US intelligence warned of Tehran's plans to send hundreds of drones loaded with bombs to Russia to help it in its military operation in Ukraine. Although Iran initially denied this, the commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards recently boasted of arming the global superpower.
The military official and the website said Ukrainian forces faced the drone near Kobyansk amid the Kyiv offensive that broke through Russian lines around Kharkiv on the Eastern Front.
The image indicates that Ukrainian forces brought down the drone without exploding when it fell, as it was designed, although Kyiv immediately withheld releasing any other information. The inscription on the drone indicated that it was an "M214 Jeeran-2" model, whose image does not correspond to any known Russian weapons.
The "Shahid" drone was designed as a triangle with a range of about 2,000 km, although Iran has announced few details about it.
Experts point out that these drones carry bombs described as "loitering munitions." The drone flies to a potentially programmed destination ahead of its flight and either explodes in the air.
The rapprochement of Iran and Russia comes at a time when Tehran faces crushing sanctions due to the collapse of the nuclear agreement in 2018 after the US withdrawal from it. Negotiations on reviving the deal, which saw restrictions on Iran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for lifting sanctions, have again reached a dead end.
Relations between Ukraine and Iran are also strained due to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards shooting down a Ukrainian passenger plane in 2020, killing all 176 people on board.
Western powers are lobbying other states on the UN nuclear watchdog's board to jointly pressure Iran to give the agency the answers it has long sought on uranium traces found at three undeclared sites, diplomats said on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
At its last quarterly meeting in June, the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution expressing "profound concern" that the traces remain unexplained due to insufficient cooperation by Iran and calling on Tehran to engage with the watchdog "without delay".
The US atomic watchdog had repeatedly called on Iran to cooperate when earlier the Islamic Republic removed CCTV cameras on its nuclear sites operated by the IAEA.
The Vienna-based IAEA says there has been no progress and no engagement by Iran since then, Reuters said.
Rather than pass a new resolution at this week's board meeting, the four countries behind June's resolution - the US, Britain, France and Germany - have prepared a joint statement reaffirming support for that text, hoping that many other countries will also sign onto it.
"We call upon Iran to act immediately to fulfil its legal obligations and, without delay, take up the (IAEA) Director General's offer of further engagement to clarify and resolve all outstanding safeguards issues," the text seen by Reuters says, referring to the years-long IAEA investigation.
A resolution passed by the Board of Governors carries the weight of a formal decision by the IAEA's top policy-making body that meets more than once a year. Countries banding together to state without submitting and passing a resolution are merely expressing an opinion.
The unexplained uranium traces found at three sites in Iran has become an obstacle in wider talks in Vienna to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear deal since Tehran is now seeking closure of the IAEA's investigation as part of those negotiations, parties to talks say.
"A French diplomatic source said Paris and its partners were consulting to see how to respond to the current deadlock and prepare the next IAEA board meeting in November," Reuters reported.
The Trump administration left the 2015 Iran deal while Iran gradually lessened its commitments in hopes of the US returning to the deal.
People parked their cars along the usually busy road, got out and waved as the hearse, with lights inside illuminating the flag-draped coffin, made its way into London, Associated Press reported.
Thousands of people outside the palace cheered as the hearse moved in front of the palace. King Charles III and other royals waited to greet the casket.
The King will gather with royals, including his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, Princes William and Harry and their wives, Catherine and Meghan.
It will mark one of the final stages of a solemn journey which began on Sunday at the Queen's Balmoral estate, BBC reported.
The Queen's state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey on Monday, September 19, Buckingham Palace has announced.
Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday at the Queen's Balmoral estate, aged 96. Leaders across the world expressed their gratitude to the Queen.