Також прем’єр-міністр України назвав закон про ленд-ліз одним із головних факторів перемоги над нацизмом і додав, що «історія повторюється»
…
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern about the potential for Russia’s war in Ukraine to spread, during a visit to Moldova’s capital Monday.
“The impact of the war in Ukraine across the region and the world is profound and far-reaching; the consequences of escalation are too frightening to contemplate,” Guterres said during a joint news conference with Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita in Chisinau.
“I am deeply concerned about the continuation and possible spread of the war Russia is waging in Ukraine, and by the impact it is having not only in the region but around the world,” the U.N. chief said.
Russia’s invasion has disrupted wheat, maize, sunflower oil and fertilizer exports from the Black Sea region, as well as spiked fuel prices globally.
Guterres is in Moldova on a two-day visit to express international support for Ukraine’s western neighbor, which has seen about a half million refugees enter the country, and 90,000 remain, many in Moldovan homes.
“Moldova is a small country with a big heart,” he said, noting its resources are limited.
There is also international concern that Moldova could be a possible second front in Russia’s war on Ukraine, via its Kremlin-backed breakaway region of Transnistria.
“Moldova is in the front line of preservation [of] peace and stability in the world,” Guterres said.
When asked about Transnistria, he said he hopes actors on both sides would have a clear sense of responsibility and prevent any threat to the nation.
“Your sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and the solid progress you have made over the past three decades must not be threatened or undermined,” Guterres said.
The U.N. secretary-general added that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “must stop, the guns must be silenced, and I urge Russia and Ukraine to step up diplomatic efforts to dialogue to urgently achieve the negotiated settlement in line with international law and the U.N. Charter.”
Prime Minister Gavrilita said in response to reporters’ questions about a possible military mobilization, that the government believes there is a “low risk of escalation of military actions” in Moldova and dismissed rumors of a mobilization.
“So far, we have no reason to be worried and to resort to such actions,” Gavrilita said, adding that if their assessment changes, they will communicate it through official channels.
Gavrilita stepped in Monday for the meetings with Guterres, confirming that President Maia Sandu had to cancel due to “health reasons.”
On Tuesday, Guterres will meet with the speaker of Moldova’s parliament, Igor Grosu, and then visit a center for refugees.
…
«Впевнений, що шістьма санкційними пакетами Євросоюз і світ не обмежаться. Але важлива не кількість цих пакетів, а їх результативність»
…
В антиукраїнській маніфестації в центрі сербської столиці взяли участь член Кабінету міністрів Ненад Попович, російський посол Олександр Боцан-Харченко і представники шовінстичних партій і рухів
…
Зеленський 9 травня також повідомив, що під час розмови з президенткою Єврокомісії продемонстрував другу частину заповненого опитувальника
…
The Biden administration announced on Monday that 20 internet companies have agreed to provide discounted service to people with low incomes, a program that could effectively make tens of millions of households across the U.S. eligible for free service through an already existing federal subsidy.
The $1 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress last year included $14.2 billion funding for the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides $30 monthly subsidies ($75 in tribal areas) on internet service for millions of lower-income households.
With the new commitment from the internet providers, some 48 million households will be eligible for $30 monthly plans for 100 megabits per second, or higher speed, service — making internet service fully paid for with the government subsidy if they sign up with one of the providers participating in the program.
Biden, during his White House run and the push for the infrastructure bill, made expanding high-speed internet access in rural and low-income areas a priority. He has repeatedly spoken out about low-income families that struggled finding reliable Wi-Fi, so their children could take part in remote schooling and complete homework assignments early in the coronavirus pandemic.
“If we didn’t know it before, we know now: High-speed internet is essential,” the Democratic president said during a White House event last month honoring the National Teacher of the Year.
The 20 internet companies that have agreed to lower their rates for eligible consumers provide service in areas where 80% of the U.S. population, including 50% of the rural population, live, according to the White House. Participating companies that offer service on tribal lands are providing $75 rates in those areas, the equivalent of the federal government subsidy in those areas.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday were set to meet with telecom executives, members of Congress and others to spotlight the effort to improve access to high-speed internet for low-income households.
The providers are Allo Communications, AltaFiber (and Hawaiian Telecom), Altice USA (Optimum and Suddenlink), Astound, AT&T, Breezeline, Comcast, Comporium, Frontier, IdeaTek, Cox Communications, Jackson Energy Authority, MediaCom, MLGC, Spectrum (Charter Communications), Starry, Verizon (Fios only), Vermont Telephone Co., Vexus Fiber and Wow! Internet, Cable, and TV.
American households are eligible for subsidies through the Affordable Connectivity Program if their income is at or below 200% of the federal poverty level, or if a member of their family participates in one of several programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Federal Public Housing Assistance (FPHA) and Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit.
…
Protesters in Poland doused Russian Ambassador Sergei Andreyev with red paint as he attempted to lay flowers at a Soviet military memorial cemetery in Warsaw for Red Army soldiers who died during World War II.
Video of the attack Monday showed red paint being thrown from behind Andreyev before another activist standing beside him throws some on his face as they protested Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Andreyev was surrounded by the protesters, who were holding Ukrainian national flags and chanting, “Fascist! Fascist!”
He and his delegation were prevented from placing flowers at the cemetery to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Poland has been one of the harshest critics of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
More than 3.2 million refugees have flooded into Poland from Ukraine as a result of the fighting, which began on February 24.
…
«Канада є однією із головних країн щодо фінансової підтримки», –вважає віцепрем’єрка
…
«Здійснивши вторгнення в Україну, Путін, його оточення та генерали копіюють фашизм, тиранію більш ніж 70-річної давності, повторюючи помилки тоталітарних режимів минулого століття»
…
Як пише The Insider, тексти опублікували двоє співробітників видання
…
Активісти наголошують, що затримання Данілович має ознаки насильницького зникнення – відповідно до Міжнародної конвенції про захист усіх осіб від насильницьких зникнень
…
За словами Віктора Андрусіва, українська армія має необхідну для цього зброю
…
Former French prime minister Francois Fillon will learn Monday whether an appeals court has upheld his conviction for setting his wife up with lucrative fake jobs.
Revelations about the probe torpedoed conservative Fillon’s 2017 presidential campaign, leaving the way clear for centrist Emmanuel Macron — re-elected to a second term last month.
The 68-year-old was convicted by a lower court in 2020 and sentenced to five years in jail, three of them suspended.
At the November appeals hearing, prosecutors said there was clear evidence that Fillon and his stand-in as MP for the Sarthe department, Marc Joulaud, employed Fillon’s wife Penelope in an “intangible” or “tenuous” role as a parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013.
On top of jail time and fines, the Fillons and Joulaud were ordered in 2020 to repay more than $1,055,000 to France’s National Assembly lower house.
The court also barred Fillon from holding public office for 10 years, while Penelope — a serving local councilor — received a two-year ban.
Penelope also had a job as “literary consultant” at the Revue des Deux Mondes magazine owned by Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, described by the prosecution as an “indulgence” for his friend Fillon.
Ladreit de Lacharriere himself pleaded guilty in a 2018 trial in which he acknowledged the job was partially fake.
Prosecutors have called for Fillon to face still harsher punishment in the appeals hearing, including five years’ jail and a fine of $395,000 for the charges of abuse of public funds, collusion and concealing abuse of company assets.
They also want a two-year suspended sentence for Penelope Fillon and a fine of $105,000.
Before the appeals court, the Fillons stuck to their defense that Penelope’s “on-the-ground” work in Sarthe was “immaterial” but very “real.”
Their lawyers attacked the “media frenzy” around “Penelopegate,” as the scandal was dubbed when it emerged.
Neither is expected to attend the court on Monday.
Since withdrawing from politics, Fillon had held jobs on the boards of Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur and hydrocarbons firm Zarubezhneft.
His has quit both posts since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
…
The United States Department of the Treasury has announced new sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has named entities and people that it says are critical to Russia’s ability to wage war, including the board members of two of Russia’s most important banks, a Russian state-owned bank and 10 of its subsidiaries, a state-supported weapons manufacturer, and three of Russia’s state-controlled television stations that generate revenue for the state, according to a department statement.
OFAC is also taking action to cut off access to services that are used by the Russian Federation and Russian elites to evade sanctions.
“Today we are further constricting Russia’s economy and access to services and technology it needs to conduct this unprovoked invasion,” said Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said in the statement.
“Preventing Russia from accessing the United States’ valuable professional services increases the pressure on the Kremlin and cuts off its ability to evade sanctions imposed by the United States and our partners. We are also targeting Putin’s ability to generate revenue that enables his aggression, as well as entities and their leaders who support his destructive actions.”
The penalties include cutting off Western advertising from Russia’s three biggest and most popular television stations — Channel One Russia, Russia-1 and NTV — which the U.S. says have been in the forefront of spreading misinformation about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The penalties also include banning U.S. accounting and consulting firms from providing services to any Russian and more restrictions on Russia’s industrial sector.
Wealthy Russians have relied on U.S. expertise to set up shell companies, move wealth and resources to alternate jurisdictions, and conceal assets from authorities around the world, the Treasury statement said.
In addition, Russian companies, particularly state-owned and state-supported enterprises, rely on these services to run and grow their businesses, generating revenue for the Russian economy that helps fund Putin’s war machine.
The U.S. also sanctioned eight current and recent members of the executive board of Sberbank, 27 executives from Gazprombank, a bank that facilitates sales by Russia’s energy giant Gazprom, and the Moscow Industrial Bank, a Russian state-owned bank, along with 10 of its subsidiaries. MIB has facilitated transactions for the Russian intelligence services, the Treasury statement said.
The U.S. has also imposed some 2,600 visa restrictions on Russian and Belarusian officials and issued a new visa restriction policy that applies to Russian military officials and authorities suspected of human rights abuses or corruption.
…
Germany’s conservative CDU won an election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein on Sunday, a boost to the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, which was ousted from the national government in federal elections last year.
An exit poll by the political research group, Infratest dimap, put the Christian Democrats (CDU) at 43.5% of votes, up 11.5% from when Schleswig-Holstein last held a state election in 2017.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, the main party in Germany’s “traffic light” coalition with the environmentalist Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP), meanwhile slumped to 15.9%, as it had presented a largely unknown candidate.
The exit poll put the Greens and FDP, which in Schleswig-Holstein have been in coalition with the CDU since 2017, at 18.1% and 6.4% respectively, meaning the conservatives may be able to form a government there with only one of the two parties.
CDU Secretary-General, Mario Czaja, said the party will not make a recommendation from Berlin about which way State Premier Daniel Guenther should proceed in deciding on a partner.
The CDU’s stronger standing in the state than at the national level – where it is polling at 26% following its worst ever federal election result in September – is partly down to the popularity of Guenther, analysts say.
Another term for 48-year-old Guenther, who polls show is the most popular state premier in Germany, could strengthen the role of moderates within the CDU, in a counterpoint to their more right-wing leader Friedrich Merz, CDU sources told Reuters.
The South Schleswig Party (SSW), which represents the ethnic Danish minority in the state, won 5.8% of the votes while both the far-right AfD and far-left Linke parties did not reach the 5% of votes necessary to secure seats in the state’s parliament.
More significant will be elections next week in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), where the SPD and CDU are running neck and neck.
A loss by the conservatives in NRW, after losing in March in the tiny western state of Saarland, would be a significant blow to the party.
It would also make it easier for Scholz’s SPD-Greens-FDP coalition to pass laws in the upper house of the national parliament, where regional elections help to determine the distribution of votes.
Energy transition
Regional issues such as the cost of child care or property purchase taxes typically dominate such state elections.
But national issues are also in particular focus this year given the tectonic shift in German foreign, energy and security policy since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
For one, Germany aims to accelerate the expansion of renewable energy to reduce its dependence on Russia as a supplier of oil and gas.
Located between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, Schleswig-Holstein is one of Germany’s leading states in wind power generation, with over 3,000 onshore and offshore wind turbines.
The Greens aim to increase the number of turbines and cut the minimum distance required between wind farms and residential buildings, while the CDU wants to raise the production capacity of existing wind farms without further increasing their number.
Schleswig-Holstein is also set to become home to one of Germany’s two planned liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals, whose construction has been brought forward due to the Ukraine war. The Greens and the SSW — had previously opposed the project.
But they are not expected to strongly object anymore if they become part of the government given concerns over energy supply, according to Christian Meyer-Heidemann, the state’s Commissioner of Civic Education, a non-partisan office.
Battery maker Northvolt plans to open a third battery cell giga factory in the town of Heide in 2025, citing the state’s high green power share.
…
До санкційного переліку потрапили вісім керівників російського «Сбербанка», а також Московський промисловий банк та 10 його дочірніх компаній
…