International
You are playing with fire, Russia warns US against World War III over Ukraine strike
You are playing with fire, Russia warns US against World War III over Ukraine strike
Russia has warned the West saying it was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles and cautioned the United States on Tuesday that World War Three would not be confined to Europe.
Ukraine attacked Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6 and has carved out a slice of territory in the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two. President Vladimir Putin said there would be a worthy response from Russia to the attack.
Sergei Lavrov, who has served as Putin’s foreign minister for more than 20 years, said that the West was seeking to escalate the Ukraine war and was “asking for trouble” by considering Ukrainian requests to halt a ban on using foreign-supplied weapons in deep parts of Russia.
Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Putin has repeatedly warned of the risk of a much larger war involving the world’s biggest nuclear powers, though he has said Russia does not want a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
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“We are now confirming once again that playing with fire – and they are like small children playing with matches – is a very dangerous thing for grown-up uncles and aunts who are entrusted with nuclear weapons in one or another Western country,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow.
“Americans unequivocally associate conversations about the Third World War as something that, God forbid, if it happens, will affect Europe exclusively,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov added that Russia was “clarifying” its nuclear doctrine.
Russia’s 2020 nuclear doctrine says the president can use a nuclear weapon “when the very existence of the state is put under threat”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this month that the assault on Russia’s Kursk region showed that Kremlin threats of retaliation or nuclear war were a bluff.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine, because of the restrictions imposed by allies, could not use the weapons at its disposal to hit some Russian military targets. He urged allies to be bolder in their decisions about how to help Kyiv in the war.
You are playing with fire, Russia warns US against World War III over Ukraine strike
International
Trump mulls closure of US embassies in Africa
Trump mulls closure of US embassies in Africa
The Trump administration is reportedly considering shutting down nearly 30 embassies and consulates worldwide—including several in Africa—as part of a broader plan to streamline America’s diplomatic presence abroad.
This is according to an internal document from the US State Department, obtained by CNN.
Among the proposed closures are American embassies in Lesotho, the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
A consulate in South Africa is also listed for potential shutdown.
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These developments come amid a sweeping attempt by the administration to shrink the size of the US federal government, with influence from the Elon Musk-backed Department of Government Efficiency.
In total, the document recommends closing 10 embassies and 17 consulates around the globe, including missions in Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Africa, however, features prominently on the list—raising concerns about the potential diplomatic and developmental fallout for the continent.
While it’s unclear whether US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has approved the recommendations, the document indicates that American diplomatic operations in affected countries would be consolidated into neighboring nations’ missions.
Trump mulls closure of US embassies in Africa
International
Titanic: Found ladies watch for auction at £50,000
Titanic: Found ladies watch for auction at £50,000
A lady’s pocket watch discovered among the belongings of one of the passengers who drowned on the Titanic’s doomed maiden voyage could fetch up to 50,000 euros (66,000 dollars) at auction.
Hans Christensen Givard, a 27-year-old Danish second-class passenger, was one of 1,500 people killed when the ship collided with an iceberg in 1912.
Givard was heading to the United States with two other companions who died in the catastrophe.
The watch was discovered when Givard’s body was recovered from the North Atlantic, and he was buried in Halifax, Canada.
The pockets contained a savings book, keys, some cash in a wallet, a silver watch, a compass, and a passport.
The gold ladies’ pocket watch, which showed signs of saltwater corrosion, was also retrieved.
All of his goods were restored to his brother in Denmark, and his relatives are now selling the watch.
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The tragic incident of Givard led curator Jesper Hjermind and his niece, journalist and U.S. resident Mette Hjermind McCall, to publish the book Titanic, De Danske Fortaellinger (Titanic, The Danish Stories), which mentions the pocket watch.
Claes Goran Wetterholm, the world’s greatest specialist on the Scandinavian aspect of the Titanic tale, also showed it in Copenhagen in 2012.
The watch will be auctioned on April 26 by Henry Aldridge and Son in Devizes, Wiltshire.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said, “This piece is documented in the official list of Hans’s effects compiled by the authorities in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the weeks after the Titanic disaster and has remained in his family ever since.
“It was one of the centrepieces of the display of Titanic memorabilia in the Tivoli in Copenhagen in 2012, which illustrates its importance.
“The watch’s movement is frozen in time at the moment the cold North Atlantic waters consumed not only its owner but the most famous ocean liner of all time, Titanic, on April 15, 1912,” he added.
Titanic: Found ladies watch for auction at £50,000
International
US judge stops Trump move to revoke 500,000 immigrants’ legal status
US judge stops Trump move to revoke 500,000 immigrants’ legal status
A federal judge on Monday blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from quickly revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
The ruling by District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston is the latest order against Trump’s rapid push to carry out mass deportations, particularly targeting Latin Americans.
In March, the administration said it was moving to revoke the legal status of some 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the United States under a “parole” program initially launched by former president Joe Biden in October 2022.
“The court grants emergency relief staying the Termination of Parole Processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans,” Talwani wrote in her order.
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The parole program allowed entry to the United States for two years for up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries, which have grim human rights records.
In her order, Talwani said the Trump administration had acted on a flawed interpretation of immigration law, with expedited removal applicable to non-citizens entering the United States illegally, but not those authorized to be in the country, such as through the parole program.
Under Trump’s revocation, the immigrants would have lost their legal protection effective April 24, just 30 days after the Department of Homeland Security published its order in the Federal Register.
Trump has vowed to deport “millions” of undocumented migrants in his second term, after running an election campaign that focused on illegal immigration.
Among other measures, he has invoked rare wartime legislation to fly hundreds of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador, which is imprisoning the migrants.
US judge stops Trump move to revoke 500,000 immigrants’ legal status
AFP
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