Month: May 2022

For full coverage of the crisis in Ukraine, visit Flashpoint Ukraine. The latest developments in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All times EDT: 4:02 a.m.: The BBC, citing an update from the Ukrainian military, reports that Russia is firing missiles in the Donetsk region. It’s also hitting the eastern city of Lyman with artillery. 3:04 a.m.: Al Jazeera reports that the Russian-occupied region of Zaporizhzhia has switched from Kyiv time to Moscow time. The move comes from the Russian military administration in the region, and it means an end to daylight saving changes in summer and winter. 2:02 a.m.: The …

READ MORE

A former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris has been charged with conspiring to hide the origin of archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the Arab Spring, a French judicial source said Thursday. Jean-Luc Martinez was charged Wednesday after being taken in for questioning along with two French specialists in Egyptian art, who were not charged, another source close to the inquiry told AFP. The Louvre, which is owned by the French state, is the world’s most visited museum with around 10 million visitors a year before the COVID-19 pandemic and …

READ MORE

The reign of new Islamic State terror group leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi may be over, less than three months after it began.  The Turkish website OdaTV first reported the arrest of Abu al-Hassan Thursday, saying Turkish police captured him without firing a single bullet during a raid on a house in Istanbul last week.   The website further reported the IS leader was being questioned and that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to formally announce the arrest and share additional details in the coming days.  Separately, two senior Turkish officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the …

READ MORE

Moscow pressed the West on Thursday to lift sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, seeking to shift the blame for a growing food crisis that has been worsened by Kyiv’s inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products due to the conflict. Britain immediately accused Russia of “trying to hold the world to ransom,” insisting there would be no sanctions relief, and a top U.S. diplomat blasted the “sheer barbarity, sadistic cruelty and lawlessness” of the invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Moscow “is ready to make a …

READ MORE

Russian forces in northeastern Ukraine, already pushed back to near the Russian border, appeared Thursday to be launching a new counteroffensive as the three-month-old war morphed into what some Western officials described as a “scrap” with no end in sight. Authorities in Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, said Russian shelling had killed at least seven civilians and wounded 17 others, while heavy fighting raged north and east of the city. Witnesses in Kharkiv also reported hearing repeated explosions as Russian forces appeared to try to fortify positions north of the city. Russian forces near Kharkiv had been steadily pushed from the …

READ MORE

China and Russia vetoed on Thursday a U.S.-led push to impose more U.N. sanctions on North Korea over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006. The remaining 13 council members all voted in favor of the U.S.-drafted resolution that proposed banning tobacco and oil exports to North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong Un is a chain smoker. It would also blacklist the Lazarus hacking group, which the United States says is tied to North Korea. The vote came a day after North Korea fired three missiles, …

READ MORE