Nepali Congress leader Pradeep Giri passes away
Nepali Congress leader Pradeep Giri, a noted socialist thinker, passed away on Saturday. He was 75. Also a member of the Constituent Assembly, he had been suffering from throat cancer for the past five years. Giri had returned to Nepal a few months ago after treatment for throat cancer at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, India. He was admitted to the Mediciti Hospital a month ago after suffering from Pneumonia. Dr Sandarbha Giri, who had been attending to Giri, said that he breathed his last during the course of treatment at 9: 30 pm. His body will be kept at the party office in Sanepa, Lalitpur from 11: 30 to 2 pm for final tributes. Last rites of Giri will be performed at Pashupati Aryaghat in Kathmandu on Sunday.
Finland, Sweden offer NATO an edge as rivalry warms up north
The first surprise, for the Finnish conscripts and officers taking part in a NATO-hosted military exercise in the Arctic this spring: the sudden roar of a US Marine helicopter assault force, touching down in a field right next to the Finns’ well-hidden command post, Associated Press reported.
The second surprise: Spilling out of their field headquarters, the Finnish Signal Corps communications workers and others inside routed the US Marines — the Finns’ designated adversary in the NATO exercise and members of America’s professional and premier expeditionary force — in the mock firefight that followed.
Finnish camouflage for the Arctic snow, scrub and scree likely had kept the Americans from even realizing the command post was there when they landed, Finnish commander Lt. Col. Mikko Kuoka suspected. “For those who years from now will doubt it,” Kuoka, modestly stunned by the outcome of the random skirmish, wrote in an infantry-focused blog recording the outcome, of an episode he later confirmed for The Associated Press. “That actually happened.” As the exercise made clear, NATO’s addition of Finland and Sweden — what President Joe Biden calls “our allies of the high north” — would bring military and territorial advantages to the Western defense alliance. That’s especially so as the rapid melting of the Arctic from climate change awakens strategic rivalries at the top of the world.
In contrast to the NATO expansion of former Soviet states that needed big boosts in the decades after the Cold War, the alliance would be bringing in two sophisticated militaries and, in Finland’s case, a country with a remarkable tradition of national defense. Both Finland and Sweden are in a region on one of Europe’s front lines and meeting places with Russia.
Finland, defending against Soviet Russia’s invasion on the eve of World War II, relied on fighters on snowshoes and skis, expert snow and forest camouflage, and reindeers transporting weapons.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, along with his pointed reminder about the Kremlin’s nuclear arsenal and his repeated invocation of broad territorial claims stemming from the days of the Russian Empire, have galvanized current NATO nations into strengthening their collective defenses and bringing on board new members, according to Associated Press.
Finland — until 1917 a grand duchy in that empire — and Sweden abandoned longtime national policies of military nonalignment. They applied to come under NATO’s nuclear and conventional umbrella and join what is now 30 other member states in a powerful mutual defense pact, stipulating that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
Putin justified his invasion of West-looking Ukraine as pushing back against NATO and the West as, he said, they encroached ever closer on Russia. A NATO that includes Finland and Sweden would come as an ultimate rebuke for Putin’s war, empowering the defensive alliance in a strategically important region, surrounding Russia in the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean, and crowding NATO up against Russia’s western border for more than 800 additional miles (1,300 kilometers).
“I spent four years, my term, trying to persuade Sweden and Finland to join NATO,” former NATO secretary-general Lord George Robertson said this summer. “Vladimir Putin managed it in four weeks.”
Biden has been part of bipartisan U.S. and international cheerleading for the two countries’ candidacies. Reservations expressed by Turkey and Hungary keep NATO approval from being a lock.
Russia in recent years has been “rearming up in the north, with advanced nuclear weapons, hypersonic missiles and multiple bases,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this month. “Russia’s threats, and Russia’s military build-up, mean that NATO is strengthening its presence in the north.′
Finland and Sweden would bring a lot to that mix. But they’re not without flaws, Associated Press reported.
Both countries downsized their militaries, cut defense funding and closed bases after the collapse of the Soviet Union lulled Cold War-era fears. As of just five years ago, Sweden’s entire tiny national defense force could fit into one of of Stockholm’s soccer stadiums, a critic noted.
Ukraine war: Drone attack targets Russian Black Sea fleet in Crimea
Russian forces in Crimea have been targeted by a fresh drone strike, BBC reported.
The Russian-appointed regional leader said a Ukrainian drone targeting Russia's Black Sea fleet in the city of Sevastopol was shot down on Saturday.
It follows a string of attacks on Russian forces and installations in the annexed peninsula this month.
Meanwhile Ukraine's president has welcomed a deal allowing UN inspectors to visit the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, further north.
Early on Saturday a video showed smoke rising from the area in Sevastopol where Russia's Black Sea fleet is based. The BBC News has not been able to independently verify the footage. The Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, played down the seriousness of the incident.
He said the fleet's air defences had been activated and the Ukrainian drone destroyed. "It fell on the roof of the headquarters," he said. "There was no significant damage and no-one was hurt."
Later on Saturday, Mr Razvozhayev said anti-aircraft systems had again been in operation in Sevastopol, but gave no details.
Earlier in the month nine Russian jets were destroyed in an attack on the Russian military base at Saky, on Crimea's western coast, according to BBC.
Footage on social media at the time showed crowds of Russian tourists fleeing a nearby resort.
Crimea was invaded and annexed by Russia in 2014, and Ukraine has vowed to retake it.
Moscow has blamed sabotage for some of them, indicating some kind of special military operation perhaps by Ukrainian forces - or those loyal to Kyiv.
Western officials say these incidents are having a major operational and psychological impact on Russian forces.
In another other development, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the safety of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant could start to be restored with a visit of international inspectors.
He was speaking after Russia's Vladimir Putin said Moscow would grant UN inspectors access to the facility, north of Crimea.
The Kremlin and Kyiv have blamed each other for shelling the plant over the past week, raising fears of a nuclear catastrophe.
And the Russian-installed mayor of Mariupol reportedly survived an assassination attempt.
A Russian state TV reporter said the mayor, Kostyantyn Ivashchenko, was in a car when an explosive device went off at the entrance to the city's zoo.
Also on Saturday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a press conference in Turkey after another two grain ships left Ukraine, BBC reported.
He said he had been "deeply moved" watching a ship carrying grain heading to the Horn of Africa and that such deliveries provided "urgently needed relief for those suffering from acute hunger".
The safe passage of the vessels has been enabled through UN-brokered deals with Turkey, Russia and Ukraine last month.
Mr Guterres added that enabling the transport of food and fertiliser from Russia is also critical as the cost of living crisis deepens.
Darya Dugin: Daughter of Putin ally killed in Moscow bomb - report
The daughter of a close ally to Russia's President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been killed near Moscow, BBC reported.
According to local media, Darya Dugin died after her car exploded in flames while she was travelling home.
It is not clear if her father, the Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin who is known as "Putin's brain," was the intended target of an attack.
Mr Dugin is a prominent ultra-nationalist ideologue who is believed to be close to the Russian president.
According to Russian media outlet 112, the pair were due to travel back from an event on Saturday evening in the same car before Mr Dugin made a decision to travel separately from his daughter at the last minute.
Unverified footage posted on Telegram appears to show Mr Dugin watching in shock as emergency services arrive at the scene of the burning wreck of a vehicle.
An unnamed law enforcement official confirmed to RIA news agency that a car had caught fire on a highway in the Moscow region's Odintsovo district, but provided no further details.
Despite not holding an official position in government, Ms Dugin's father is a close ally of the Russian president and has even been branded "Putin's Rasputin".
The philosopher's daughter, Darya Dugin, was herself a prominent journalist and commentator who supported the Russian invasion, according to BBC.
Earlier this year, she was sanctioned by UK authorities who accused the 29-year-old of contributing to online "disinformation" in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The ideologue has previously expressed his support for Russian aggression towards Ukraine and was placed under US sanctions in 2015 for his alleged involvement in Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, BBC reported.