Russian sabotage attacks surged across Europe in 2024
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Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
UK plans to recognise Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes action
LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday Britain was prepared to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians. Britain, if it acts, would become the second Western power on the U.N. Security Council to do so after France last week, reflecting Israel's deepening isolation over its conduct in its war against Hamas in Gaza, where a humanitarian disaster has set in and the Palestinian death toll has risen above 60,000. Starmer said Britain would make the move unless Israel took substantive steps to allow more aid to enter Gaza, made clear there will be no annexation of the West Bank and commits to a long-term peace process that delivers a "two-state solution" - a Palestinian state co-existing in peace alongside Israel. "The Palestinian people have endured terrible suffering," Starmer told reporters. "Now, in Gaza, because of a catastrophic failure of aid, we see starving babies, children too weak to stand, images that will stay with us for a lifetime. The suffering must end." Starmer said his government would make an assessment in September on "how far the parties have met these steps", but that no one would have a veto over the decision. He took the decision after recalling his cabinet during the summer holidays on Tuesday to discuss a new proposed peace plan being worked on with other European leaders and how to deliver more humanitarian aid for Gaza's 2.2 million people. Successive British governments have said they will formally recognise a Palestinian state when the time is right, without ever setting a timetable or specifying the necessary conditions. With warnings from international aid agencies that people in Gaza are facing starvation, a growing number of lawmakers in Starmer's Labour Party have been asking him to recognise a Palestinian state to raise pressure on Israel. The issue came to the fore after President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday France would recognise Palestine as a state in territories Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel and staunch supporter the United States blasted France's move, branding it a reward for Palestinian Hamas militants who ran Gaza and whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 triggered the current war. At the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, when Starmer was the opposition leader, he fully backed Israel's right to defend itself. But his stance has shifted over the years to a tougher approach to Israel, especially since his election as prime minister just over a year ago. His government dropped the previous government's challenge over arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and has suspended some weapon sales to Israel. Last month, Britain sanctioned two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing them of repeatedly inciting violence against Palestinians.
Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia says Aeroflot has recovered from cyberattack, but dozens more flights cancelled
July 29 (Reuters) - Russian airline Aeroflot ( opens new tab cancelled dozens more flights on Tuesday but said it had now stabilised its schedule after a major cyberattack a day earlier, and the transport ministry said the issue had been resolved. Two pro-Ukraine hacking groups claimed on Monday to have carried out a year-long operation to penetrate Aeroflot's network. They said they had crippled 7,000 servers, extracted data on passengers and employees and gained control over the personal computers of staff, including senior managers. Aeroflot's online timetable showed about 25 flights out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport had been cancelled on Tuesday, mostly overnight and through the morning. Nearly all afternoon and evening flights were due to take off, though dozens were delayed. Interfax news agency said 31 inbound flights to the capital had been cancelled. Aeroflot said it had "stabilised" its flight programme. The transport ministry said in a statement: "Thanks to the efforts of Aeroflot employees, with the active support of Sheremetyevo services, the problem that arose was resolved in the shortest possible time." The ministry described the issue as "a failure in the IT infrastructure". It did not refer to it as a cyberattack, although prosecutors have said they are investigating it as such. Responsibility was claimed by the Belarusian Cyber Partisans, a long-established group that opposes President Alexander Lukashenko, and by a more shadowy and recent hacking outfit that calls itself Silent Crow. Yuliana Shemetovets, a spokesperson for the Cyber Partisans, said Aeroflot was likely working with costly manual systems in order to maintain the appearance of business as usual. The ministry statement said there had been a "transition to domestic systems". "Without IT systems the company can work manually like in the old days when flight tickets cost more than $1K," Shemetovets told Reuters. "It would just be unprofitable, meaning the company would keep sustaining losses just to save face." She said that Aeroflot's CEO had not changed his password since 2022 and that the company was using an outdated version of Windows software. Some workers had passwords saved in a Word document on their computers, she added. Reuters could not independently confirm those details and has approached Aeroflot for comment. Aeroflot's shares were up 1.36% on Tuesday, recovering some ground after slumping to their lowest mark since late 2024 on Monday. Russian lawmakers said the cyberattack was a wake-up call and that investigators should focus not only on the perpetrators but on those who had allowed it to happen. Mikhail Klimarev, director of the Internet Protection Society, a Russian digital rights group, said it was a serious episode that showed cybercriminals were learning "best practice" from around the world while Russian companies were hampered in their response because of sanctions. "It's like with viruses: If you don't communicate with people who have the flu, you have no immunity," he told Reuters. Klimarev said Russian security services had dropped the ball, and the incident highlighted a failure of the technical systems that are meant to allow them to counter such threats. He said there was a grave safety risk as the hackers could hypothetically have exploited their access to Aeroflot systems in order to change data and cause planes to crash.
Reuters
19 minutes ago
- Reuters
Oil prices rise 1% on trade war relief, US pressure on Russia
NEW YORK, July 29 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Tuesday, extending the previous day's rally, on optimism that a trade war between the United States and its major trading partners was abating and as President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine. Brent crude futures were up 95 cents, or 1.36%, at $70.99 a barrel at 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT), having touched their highest since June 23, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $67.70, up 99 cents, or 1.48%. Both contracts settled more than 2% higher in the previous session. The trade agreement between the United States and the European Union, while imposing a 15% import tariff on most EU goods, sidestepped a full-blown trade war between the two major allies that would have rippled across nearly a third of global trade and dimmed the outlook for fuel demand. "There is definitely some optimism around the trade deals," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho. "It's not perfect, especially for the Europeans, but it is better than it could have been by a long shot." The agreement also calls for $750 billion of EU purchases of U.S. energy over the next three years, which analysts say the bloc has virtually no chance of meeting, while European companies are to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over Trump's second term. Top economic officials from the U.S. and China finished meetings in Stockholm that were aimed at resolving longstanding economic disputes and stepping back from an escalating trade war between the world's two biggest economies. Trump set a new deadline on Monday of "10 or 12 days" for Russia to make progress toward ending the war in Ukraine. Trump has threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. "Oil prices rallied after President Trump said he would shorten the deadline for Russia to come to a deal with Ukraine to end the war, raising supply concerns," ING analysts said in a note. Market participants are also waiting to hear the outcome of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Fed is widely expected to hold rates but could signal a dovish tilt amid signs of cooling inflation, said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior market analyst at brokerage Phillip Nova.
