Ryan Routh Accusato; Putin rende l’esercito russo il secondo al mondo 🗞️ Rassegna del 17/09/2024

Israele

(REUTERS) Israeli minister says time running out for diplomatic solution with Hezbollah in Lebanon

• Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon.
• Gallant's remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months. "The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out," Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office.
• As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, "the trajectory is clear," he said.
• The visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes.
• On Monday, Israeli media reported that the head of the army's northern command had recommended a rapid border operation to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
• Hezbollah has said it does not seek a wider war at present but would fight if Israel launched one.Israeli officials have said for months that Israel cannot accept the clearance of its northern border areas indefinitely but while troops remain committed to Gaza, there have also been questions about the military's readiness for an invasion of southern Lebanon.
• However, some of the hardline members of the Israeli government have been pressing for action and on Monday, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a longtime foe of Gallant, called for him to be sacked.

Ucraina

(REUTERS) Ukraine invites UN and ICRC to Russia's Kursk region

• Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Russia's Kursk region following a cross-border incursion by Ukrainian forces.
• Ukraine's army remains in the Kursk region more than a month after launching the assault, in which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Kyiv has taken control of about 100 settlements. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday its forces had regained control of two more villages.
• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had instructed his ministry to invite the UN and ICRC to work in the Kursk region on Sunday. The ministry confirmed that it had issued the requests. He said the Ukrainian army was ensuring humanitarian assistance and safe passage to civilians in the Kursk region.
• The Foreign Ministry said the invitations had been sent to the ICRC and UN, "taking into account the humanitarian situation and the need to properly ensure basic human rights in the territory of the Kursk region."
• It said it had asked the ICRC to monitor Ukraine's compliance with the principles of international humanitarian law. It was not immediately clear how or whether the UN or ICRC had responded.
• Russia's state-run TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying such statements were "provocative". He made clear Moscow, which began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, expected the UN and ICRC not to accept the invitations.

Russia

(REUTERS) Putin orders Russian army to become second largest after China's at 1.5 million-strong

• President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the regular size of the Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make it the second largest in the world after China's.
• In a decree published on the Kremlin's website, Putin ordered the overall size of the armed forces to be increased to 2.38 million people, of which he said 1.5 million should be active servicemen.
• According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading military think tank, such an increase would see Russia leapfrog the United States and India in terms of the number of active combat soldiers it has at its disposal and be second only to China in size. The IISS said Beijing has just over 2 million active duty service personnel.
• The move, the third time Putin has expanded the army's ranks since sending his military into Ukraine in February 2022, comes as Russian forces push forward in eastern Ukraine on parts of a vast 1,000 km (627-mile) frontline and try to eject Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk region.
• Although Russia has a population more than three times larger than Ukraine's and has been successfully recruiting volunteers on lucrative contracts to fight in Ukraine, it has - like Kyiv's forces - been sustaining heavy battlefield losses, and there is no sign of the war ending anytime soon. Both sides say the exact size of their losses is a military secret.
• Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of Russia's lower house of parliament's defence committee, said the increase in active troop numbers was part of a plan to overhaul the armed forces and gradually increase their size to match what he described as the current international situation and the behaviour of "our former foreign partners."

Europa

UE:

(Euronews) France nominates Stéphane Séjourné as European Commissioner after Breton steps down

• French President Emmanuel Macron has nominated outgoing foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné to become the country's next European Commissioner, after Thierry Breton abruptly resigned from his post and withdrew his bid for a second term earlier on Monday.
• In a statement, the Élysée Palace said that the decision was made "in accordance" with newly-appointed Prime Minister Michel Barnier, and confirmed France was angling for a "key" portfolio related to "industrial and technological sovereignty" and "European competitiveness."
• It adds that Séjourné's prior experience, as chair of Macron's centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament and as France's Minister of Europe and foreign affairs, equips him to take the reins of such a prestigious portfolio.
• Reacting to his nomination, Séjourné said that together with von der Leyen he was now eager to convince the European Parliament of their "ambitious agenda," and would attend the plenary session in Strasbourg this Wednesday.
• Earlier on Monday, Thierry Breton, Macron's man in Brussels who has served as European Commissioner for the internal market since 2019, withdrew his re-election bid after what he described as efforts by Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to pressure France to replace him "for personal reasons."
• Breton claims von der Leyen offered a more influential portfolio for Breton’s potential replacement “as a political trade-off," firing accusations of "questionable governance" towards the Commission President.

Germania:

(Associated Press) Germany begins conducting checks at all its land borders

• Germany on Monday began random checks at its borders with five Western European nations as it seeks to crack down on irregular migration, expanding a system of mobile border controls that are already in place at four other borders.
• The checks began at the borders with France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark before dawn Monday, and are initially scheduled for six months. Germany has already been carrying out the checks at its borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland since last year.
• Germany, a member of the 27-member European Union, announced last week that it was expanding border checks to all nine of its land borders this week as part of an effort to crack down on irregular migration and crime following recent extremist attacks. Those include a knife attack blamed on a Syrian asylum-seeker in Solingen last month that killed three people. The suspect claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group. In June, a knife attack attributed to an Afghan immigrant left a police officer dead and four other people wounded.
• The border controls are testing European unity because the border checks are seen by some as a step away from the spirit of the EU’s free travel and trade arrangement known as Schengen. The freedom Europeans have to travel freely across borders for work and pleasure is one of the most beloved benefits of the EU.

UK:

(REUTERS) UK should outlaw imports of goods made by Xinjiang forced labour, says senior lawmaker

• Britain should outlaw imports of products made by forced labour in China's Xinjiang region, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Labour party said, while reiterating his call for more scrutiny of fashion retailer Shein's possible London listing.
• Liam Byrne, a former Labour minister who heads parliament's influential cross-party Business and Trade Committee, said he wanted to see a British version of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act that the United States introduced in 2021.
• "I'd like to see the new (Labour) government follow through on the promise made - but never delivered - by the Conservatives in the 2022 Queens Speech - to strengthen the modern slavery act and toughen up requirements on supply chain reporting," Byrne said in emailed comments to Reuters.
• In doing so, the new government would re-establish Britain's leadership of trusted trade that's free and fair, he said.
• Byrne was among several senior UK lawmakers who called for greater scrutiny of China-founded fast fashion retailer Shein and its labour practices after Reuters reported in June that it had started preparations for a potential London listing.
• His personal priority is to summon Shein executives to appear before the committee he heads, though the full committee is yet to be elected.

(Associated Press) UK leader Starmer seeks to learn from Meloni’s tough migration policies at meeting in Rome

• U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Monday, as the center-left British leader aimed to learn how her right-wing government has achieved “dramatic declines” in the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores by boat.
• The visit comes after at least eight seaborne migrants died off the French coast over the weekend, trying to cross the English Channel.
• The Labour Party prime minister isn’t a natural ally of Meloni, who heads the far-right Brothers of Italy party. But migration has climbed the U.K. political agenda, and Starmer hopes Italy’s tough approach can help him stop people fleeing war and poverty trying to cross the channel in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
• More than 22,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France so far this year, a slight increase from the same period in 2023.
• At a joint news conference, Starmer said Italy had made “remarkable progress” by cracking down on smuggling gangs and “working with countries along migration routes as equals.”
• Earlier he told reporters that Italy’s “dramatic reductions” were “down to the upstream work that’s been done in some of the countries where people are coming from.” He said, “prevention and stopping people traveling in the first place is one of the best ways to deal with this particular issue.”

Politica internazionale

Nord America

USA:

(REUTERS) Ryan Routh charged with gun crimes in Trump assassination attempt

• A man suspected of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump was charged with two gun-related crimes in federal court on Monday, a day after being spotted with a rifle hiding in the bushes at the former U.S. president's golf course in Florida.
• More charges appear likely, but the initial counts - possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number - will allow authorities to keep him in custody as the investigation continues.
• The Republican presidential candidate in the Nov. 5 election was unharmed. But the incident raised fresh questions about how an armed suspect was able to get so close to him, just two months after another gunman fired at Trump during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing his ear with a bullet.
• Phone records suggest the suspect may have been lying in wait for nearly 12 hours on Sunday, according to a criminal complaint.
• Routh has two prior convictions, both in North Carolina, according to the criminal complaint: a 2002 conviction for possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction and a 2010 conviction for possession of stolen goods. Further details about those cases were not immediately available.

Asia e Pacifico

Hong Kong:

(REUTERS) First conviction under Hong Kong's new national security law for wearing "seditious" T-shirt

• A Hong Kong man on Monday pleaded guilty to sedition for wearing a T-shirt with a protest slogan, becoming the first person convicted under the city's new national security law passed in March. Chu Kai-pong, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of "doing with a seditious intention an act".
• Under the new security law, the maximum sentence for the offence has been expanded from two years to seven years in prison and could even go up to 10 years if "collusion with foreign forces" was found involved.
• Chu was arrested on June 12 at a MTR station wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times” and a yellow mask printed with “FDNOL”- the shorthand of another slogan "five demands, not one less”.
• Both slogans were frequently chanted in the huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 and June 12 was a key kick-off day of the months-long unrests.
• Chu told police that he wore the T-shirt to remind people of the protests, the court heard.
• In March 2024, Hong Kong passed a second new security law -- a home-grown ordinance also known as "Article 23" according to its parent provision in the city's mini constitution, the Basic Law.