
Putin sends emergency aircraft to Iran to help with port explosion aftermath
NNA - Russia's Emergencies Ministry said on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the dispatch of several emergency aircraft to Iran to help deal with the aftermath of the explosion at the port of Bandar Abbas, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin said Putin offered his condolences for the victims of the explosion and offered assistance to Iran in dealing with its aftermath.
It added that Putin sent "words of sympathy and sincere support to the families of the victims, as well as his wishes for a speedy recovery to all the injured."
The Ministry of Emergency Situations added that a Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft, specialized in firefighting, and an Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft will be sent to Iran to assist.
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MTV Lebanon
7 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
Russia launches one of war's largest air attacks on Kyiv
Russia launched one of its largest air strikes on Kyiv in over three years of war and struck a maternity ward in the southern city of Odesa in attacks that killed at least three people, officials said on Tuesday. The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault of the war on Ukraine on Monday and were part of intensified bombardments in what Moscow says is retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia. The Russian attack also damaged Saint Sophia Cathedral, a UNESCO world heritage site located in the historic centre of Kyiv, Ukrainian Culture Minister Mykola Tochytskyi said. "The enemy struck at the very heart of our identity again," Tochytskyi wrote on Facebook about the site he called "the soul of all Ukraine". Loud explosions shook Kyiv and blasts and fires lit up the sky in the early hours of Tuesday morning, leaving palls of heavy smoke over the city, Reuters witnesses said. Authorities deployed two firefighting helicopters to douse flames. One person died in the attack on Kyiv, city authorities said. At least four people were treated in hospital after seven of the capital's 10 districts were hit, city officials said. "Today was one of the largest attacks on Kyiv," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. "Russian missile and Shahed (drone) strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace." In Kyiv, Kateryna Zaitseva, 38, and her 14-year-old son looked at the rubble in their apartment, which received a direct hit by a drone. The explosion destroyed one room, damaged another and blew in the door of the bathroom in which they were hiding. "We started moving blindly to the entrance door. I heard the voice of the emergency worker ... I shouted that there were two of us, that we were unhurt and he helped us," said Zaitseva, a laboratory technician. In the southern port of Odesa, an overnight drone attack hit an emergency medical building, a maternity ward and residential buildings, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram. Two men were killed in that attack but patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, he said. Iryna Britkaru, 23, who gave birth to a girl on June 6, said projectiles had started hitting the building in Odesa as soon as she and other patients had been whisked to the basement by hospital staff. "The third (impact) was already very loud, and shrapnel flew... (it) rained down in the corridor," she told Reuters. Natalia Kovalenko, 34, who five days ago also gave birth to a girl, said she was hoping for an end to the war. "If we don't have hope, then no one will be giving birth," she said. A State Department spokesperson said Washington was monitoring the situation closely, adding that it was time for an end to the war. "Russia's strikes against Ukraine's cities need to stop immediately," the spokesperson said. "We condemn these strikes and extend our deepest condolences to the victims and to the families of all those affected." Both sides deny targeting civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Europe's worst conflict since World War Two, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. Russia's defence ministry confirmed that its forces had attacked military targets in Kyiv with high-precision weapons and drones overnight, Russia's TASS state news agency reported. A DIFFICULT NIGHT Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to information released by the military. "A difficult night for all of us," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's city military administration, said on Telegram. Ukraine's air force said Russia had fired 315 drones across the country, of which 277 were downed. All seven missiles launched by Russia were also brought down, it said. Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv's strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores. Over the past week, Russia has launched 1,451 drones and 78 missiles to attack Ukraine, according to Ukrainian air force data. Russia temporarily halted flights, opens new tab overnight at four airports serving Moscow, at St Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport and at airports in nine other cities after the defence ministry said Ukraine had launched more drones at Russia, officials said. Most flights were restored later on Tuesday. No damage was reported. Zelenskiy urged Ukraine's allies to take steps to force Russia into peace, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for immediate new sanctions and air defence systems. Although Moscow and Kyiv have held two rounds of direct peace talks in recent weeks, the only tangible progress has been an agreement on exchanges of prisoners of war, and Russia has continued to advance along the front line in eastern Ukraine. Moscow and Kyiv blame each other for the lack of progress towards ending the war, which has raged since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with both sides.


Ya Libnan
16 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Trump's Guard deployment to LA protests puts Newsom in political predicament
California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks on transnational commerce and border security while visiting the U.S.- Mexico border in San Diego, California, U.S. December 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo By Joseph Ax and Trevor Hunnicutt LOS ANGELES: Soon after scattered protests broke out in Los Angeles on Friday in the wake of federal immigration raids, President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom spoke by phone. Trump never mentioned any federal response, according to Newsom, who described the conversation as 'very cordial' on MSNBC on Sunday. Twenty-four hours later, Trump ordered thousands of National Guard troops to the state, bypassing Newsom and igniting another firestorm over his aggressive efforts to deport migrants living in the U.S. illegally. For Newsom, governor of the nation's most populous state and a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, Trump's gambit has created substantial political risks. Throughout Trump's first and second terms, Democratic governors have struggled to find the most effective approach to dealing with the mercurial Republican president; confronting Trump can result in backlash, but conceding ground sometimes encourages him to push harder. Newsom and Trump have often clashed in the past, with Trump calling the governor 'Newscum' and Newsom declaring after Trump's election victory that he would 'Trump-proof' California. During Trump's first months in office, however, Newsom has often opted for appeasement rather than antagonism – meeting the president on the tarmac when Trump visited during January's devastating wildfires and interviewing leading Trump acolytes such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his new podcast. But Trump's decision to send troops into California – the first time in decades that a president had done so absent a request from a governor – and his claim that Los Angeles was being 'invaded' by violent mobs appear to have convinced Newsom to abandon his conciliatory approach. 'I've always wanted to approach engagement with the president of the United States in a respectful and responsible way,' Newsom told MSNBC on Sunday. 'But there's no working with the president, there's only working for him – and I will never work for Donald Trump.'Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said Newsom was incompetent and that he should be arrested. 'I think his primary crime is running for governor because he's done such a bad job,' Trump said when asked what crime Newsom had committed. 'A DELICATE ACT' The state sued Trump on Monday , seeking to force him to rescind the Guard deployment. Meanwhile, about 700 Marines will be sent to Los Angeles until more Guard personnel can arrive, a U.S. official said. Newsom is trying to navigate choppy political waters, according to strategists from both parties. As the governor of California, a deep-blue Democratic state that Trump has gleefully caricatured at every opportunity, Newsom could struggle to appeal to swing voters as a national candidate without moderating his image. There is also the risk that angering Trump could harm Newsom's 39 million constituents; the governor is still waiting for federal funding to help rebuild after the wildfires, while the president recently threatened to cut the state's education funding after a transgender girl competed in a girls' track and field championship event. At the same time, Democratic voters want to see their leaders fight tooth-and-nail against what they see as Trump's lawlessness and corruption. 'He's serving his own ambitions as well as the state of California, and those two things don't often coincide,' said Steven Maviglio, a longtime Democratic consultant in the state. 'It's a dilemma for Newsom.' The protests allowed Trump to tout his hardline immigration policies while claiming California was helpless to stop the violence without his intervention. 'On this one, I think the president has really check-mated the governor,' Maviglio added. 'This fed right into his scenario of what California is all about…a wildly liberal state with lawlessness and immigrants and no rules.' Jon Fleischman, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the state Republican Party, said images of burning cars and protesters waving Mexican flags only served to bolster Trump's position. Newsom, he argued, had taken Trump's bait by blaming him for the escalation of violence. 'Donald Trump can't force somebody to throw a rock at a police car,' he said. Other Democratic governors have grappled with similar predicaments under Trump's administration. In April, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, also seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, visited the White House to discuss the future of a military base in her state, but was caught by surprise in the Oval Office when Trump signed executive orders targeting his political enemies. A photograph of the governor covering her face from cameras went viral. 'Balancing your state's needs and working with President Trump, if you're a Democratic governor, is always going to be a delicate act,' said Chris Meagher, a Democratic communications consultant. 'I think the more that Governor Newsom can keep his head down and do the work and show that he has the situation under control, the better off that he's going to be.' REUTERS


MTV Lebanon
a day ago
- MTV Lebanon
Watch: Attempts to smuggle helicopter aviation equipment
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirmed that attempts to obtain weapons and military equipment from Russia in favor of Kyiv are being managed by foreign intelligence agencies and are being planned on a large scale. This statement came after the FSB successfully foiled a plot by an international network specializing in smuggling helicopter aviation equipment out of the country, including to Ukraine. The statement explained that "the number of attempts by unfriendly countries to acquire weapons and military equipment in Russia for Kyiv has reached an unprecedented level." It added: "Losses worth over one billion rubles were prevented as a result of thwarting the illegal export of aircraft spare parts from Russia to Kyiv. We have information indicating that the Ukrainian Air Force is suffering from a severe shortage of Russian components." The FSB emphasized that "Kyiv tried to establish a sustainable smuggling channel for Russian aviation products to fulfill its government defense orders." The statement continued: "Kyiv is in urgent need of spare parts to repair its aerial equipment, which was damaged during Russian military operations as part of the special military operation." It also added: "Since October 1, 2023, 236 illegal export attempts from Russia have been foiled, involving drones, optical equipment, and other gear." This comes after the FSB thwarted a smuggling network working on behalf of foreign entities to purchase new spare parts for Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters. A statement from the FSB clarified that the criminal group consisted of six individuals of various nationalities, including Russians, Ukrainians, and citizens from Middle Eastern countries. The statement added: "The activities of the international group were uncovered and their illegal operations halted. They had been planning to smuggle military technical equipment abroad, including to Ukraine." It also noted that the network's operations were coordinated by a foreign woman residing outside Russia.