Sevastopol Suspends Ferries after Drone Attack, Says Russian-backed Governor

The Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol said it had suspended ferry routes around the port city, shortly after the city's governor said a Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled by air defenses. (Reuters file photo)
The Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol said it had suspended ferry routes around the port city, shortly after the city's governor said a Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled by air defenses. (Reuters file photo)
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Sevastopol Suspends Ferries after Drone Attack, Says Russian-backed Governor

The Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol said it had suspended ferry routes around the port city, shortly after the city's governor said a Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled by air defenses. (Reuters file photo)
The Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol said it had suspended ferry routes around the port city, shortly after the city's governor said a Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled by air defenses. (Reuters file photo)

The Russian-backed administration in Sevastopol said on Wednesday that it had suspended ferry routes around the port city, shortly after the city's governor said a Ukrainian drone attack had been repelled by air defenses.

Writing on Telegram, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said that three "objects" had been destroyed, and that there had been no casualties or damage to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Sevastopol.

Reuters could not independently verify Razvozhaev's claims immediately.

On Tuesday, an explosion in Dzhankoi, in the north of Crimea, was blamed on a Ukrainian drone strike by local officials.

Sevastopol, along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula, was annexed by Russia in 2014, but is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Russian and Ukrainian officials gave conflicting accounts of what appeared to be a brazen attack on Russian cruise missiles transported by train in the occupied Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.

A Ukrainian military spokesperson indicated that Kyiv was behind the explosion late Monday that reportedly destroyed multiple Kalibr cruise missiles near the town of Dzhankoi in northern Crimea, while stopping short of directly claiming responsibility.

Natalia Humeniuk, the spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern operational command, described the strike as a signal to Russia that it should leave the Black Sea peninsula it illegally took from Ukraine in 2014.

Speaking on Ukrainian TV, Humeniuk pointed out Dzhankoi’s importance as a railway junction and said that "right now, the way ahead (for Russian forces in Crimea) is clear — they need to make their way out by rail."

A vague statement by Ukraine’s military intelligence agency on Monday said multiple missiles carried by rail and destined for submarine launch had been destroyed, without saying outright that Ukraine was responsible or what weapon had been used.

However, the agency implied that Kyiv was behind the blast, saying it furthers "the process of Russia’s demilitarization, and prepares the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for de-occupation."

Moscow-installed authorities in Crimea on Tuesday provided a different version, saying that Ukrainian drones attacked civilian facilities in Dzhankoi.

Sergei Aksenov, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crimea, said the attack left one civilian wounded, but caused "no serious damage."

Aksenov’s adviser, Oleg Kryuchkov, rejected Ukraine’s claims and said Ukrainian drones had targeted residential areas rather than the railway. Igor Ivin, head of the local administration in Dzhankoi, said the attack damaged power lines, a private house, a store and a college building.

Unconfirmed social media reports late Monday claimed that Russia’s anti-aircraft defenses shot down multiple drones over Crimea. None of the statements could be independently verified.

Throughout the war, reports have surfaced of attacks on Russian military bases and other infrastructure in Crimea, with Ukraine rarely explicitly claiming responsibility but greeting the incidents with jubilation.

In August, powerful explosions rocked a Russian air base in western Crimea, with Ukraine later saying nine warplanes were destroyed. Satellite photos showed at least seven fighter planes had been blown up and others probably damaged.

Ukrainian officials initially steered clear of taking credit, while mocking Russia’s explanation that a careless smoker might have caused ammunition at the Saki base to catch fire and blow up. Unusually, Ukraine’s top military officer weeks later claimed that he had ordered the strikes.

Russian-appointed authorities have also previously reported repeated Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea, most of which targeted the port of Sevastopol that hosts a major Russian naval base.

These incidents in Crimea, as well as reported drone attacks on Russian territory far from the war’s front lines, have exposed major weaknesses in Moscow’s defenses and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reportedly believed the invasion of Ukraine would be quick and easy.



Blinken Says China Wants to Be ‘Dominant Power’ in World

 Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks while meeting with Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Jack Ading, Palau's President Surangel Whipps, Jr., and Micronesia's President Wesley Simina, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks while meeting with Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Jack Ading, Palau's President Surangel Whipps, Jr., and Micronesia's President Wesley Simina, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)
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Blinken Says China Wants to Be ‘Dominant Power’ in World

 Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks while meeting with Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Jack Ading, Palau's President Surangel Whipps, Jr., and Micronesia's President Wesley Simina, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaks while meeting with Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Jack Ading, Palau's President Surangel Whipps, Jr., and Micronesia's President Wesley Simina, Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, at the State Department in Washington. (AP)

China is seeking to surpass the United States as the top power in the world, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday, as he again warned on Taiwan.

Successive US presidents have called China the top long-term challenge to the United States, but some US analysts have seen Beijing's ambitions as more focused on reducing Washington's influence in Asia than about a global role.

Asked at a forum about China's intentions, Blinken said, "I think that what it seeks is to be the dominant power in the world -- militarily, economically, diplomatically."

"That's what Xi Jinping is seeking," Blinken said of China's president.

"And in a sense, that's not a surprise. There's an extraordinary history in China," he said at the event organized by The Atlantic magazine.

"I think if you look and listen to Chinese leaders, they are seeking to recover what they believe is their rightful place in the world."

Blinken has previously spoken in more indirect terms about China aspiring to "reshape the international order."

President Joe Biden's administration, while saying it is clear-eyed on China and stepping up pressure, has also been increasing dialogue in hopes of managing tensions, with Blinken paying a rare visit to Beijing in June.

But tensions remain particularly high over Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing which has staged a series of major military drills.

Blinken said the stakes were "extraordinarily high" on Taiwan due to its role in the global economy, including as a hub for advanced semiconductors.

"Were there to be a crisis over Taiwan precipitated by Chinese actions, you would have a global economic crisis," Blinken said.

"I think the message that China is hearing increasingly from countries around the world is, don't stir the pot.

"We want -- everyone wants -- peace and stability and everyone wants the status quo to be preserved."


Turkish Opposition Hopeful Touts Plan to Finally Defeat Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
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Turkish Opposition Hopeful Touts Plan to Finally Defeat Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)

Ozgur Ozel aims to become leader of Türkiye’s main opposition party this year and break through its historic ceiling of 25% support nationwide to finally defeat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has enjoyed two decades of election victories.

But Ozel, 49, said in an interview that his Republican People's Party (CHP) must first rebuild the trust of its own voters, disillusioned after its latest painful defeat to Erdogan in May presidential and parliamentary elections.

Setting out his plans to challenge veteran CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Ozel said he would also reach out and address the problems of voters who have hitherto rejected the center-left, secularist party.

"We aim to rebuild the shattered hopes, faith and sense of trust among the 25 million people who voted for us," Ozel told Reuters, two weeks after announcing his bid to challenge Kilicdaroglu for the CHP leadership.

The CHP, established by modern Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has always struggled to reach beyond its secularist grassroots towards conservatives.

"We aim to shatter this 25% invisible glass ceiling. We want to do this by being ourselves and determining our own position," he said, saying he aimed to restore the party's left-wing, social democratic identity.

Berk Esen, associate professor at Sabanci University, said there could be some change in the CHP if Ozel were elected leader, repairing recent damage done to the party, but he was skeptical about the prospects for fundamental transformation.

"The main opposition party is heading towards a very serious breaking point," Esen said. "It is rotting from the inside, and I don't think the staff that has watched that rot for a long time can change it."

The CHP has long been hit by internal disagreements over its leadership and policy direction and the latest election showings have deepened the disputes.

The CHP won 25% of the vote in May's parliamentary election while Erdogan, who has maintained power through his broad appeal to conservative and nationalist voters, comfortably beat Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential vote.

Ozel said the CHP failed to analyze those defeats or set out a road map for March local elections, where it is hoping to retain control of the key Istanbul and Ankara municipalities that it won in 2019 after nearly two decades of AKP control.

A leadership vote will be held at the CHP congress on Nov. 4-5, with Kilicdaroglu and Ozel among five candidates. Kilicdaroglu, 74, has led the party since 2010.

Ozel said electing a new leader was the only way forward.

"If the emotional rupture experienced by the voter is not repaired, the voter may move to the point of staying away from the ballot box or even breaking away from politics."


House Republicans Start Making Their Case for Biden Impeachment Inquiry at First Hearing

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks next to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) as they attend a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into US President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks next to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) as they attend a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into US President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
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House Republicans Start Making Their Case for Biden Impeachment Inquiry at First Hearing

House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks next to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) as they attend a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into US President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks next to Chairman James Comer (R-KY) as they attend a House Oversight and Accountability Committee impeachment inquiry hearing into US President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, September 28, 2023. (Reuters)

After insisting for months that they have the grounds to launch impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden, House Republicans on Thursday opened their first formal hearing to make the case to the public, their colleagues and skeptics in the Senate.

The chairmen of the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees are using the first hearing of their impeachment inquiry to review the constitutional and legal questions surrounding their investigation of Biden. They are trying to show what they say are links to his son Hunter’s overseas businesses, though they have yet to produce hard evidence of any serious wrongdoing.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky, the Oversight chairman, said in opening remarks the lawmakers have “a mountain of evidence” that will show that the elder Biden "abused his public office for his family's financial gain.

It’s a high-stakes opening act for Republicans as they begin a process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president, punishment for what the Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The hearing comes days before a potential government shutdown and while House Republicans face deep resistance in the Senate from Republicans who worry about political ramifications of another impeachment — and who say Biden’s conviction and removal from office is a near impossibility.

But House Republicans say they are only investigating and have made no final decision on impeaching the president.

The hearing Thursday is not featuring witnesses with information about the Bidens or Hunter Biden's business work. Instead, it is a soft launch of sorts with testimony from outside experts in tax law, criminal investigations and constitutional legal theory.

Democrats, who decry the investigation as a political ploy aimed at hurting Biden and helping Donald Trump as he runs again for president, planned to bring Michael Gerhardt, a law professor who has appeared as an expert in two previous impeachment efforts.

In the run-up to the hearing, Republicans were touting a tranche of new documents and bank records that detail wire transfers from a Chinese businessman to Hunter Biden in 2019. Hunter Biden had listed his father’s address on the wire transfer form, which Republicans say provided a clear link to the president.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said the address on the wire transfer, which he says was a loan, was listed to the president's Delaware home only because it was the address on Hunter Biden's driver's license and "his only permanent address at the time.”

“Once again Rep. Comer peddles lies to support a premise — some wrongdoing by Hunter Biden or his family — that evaporates in thin air the moment facts come out,” Lowell said in a statement.

Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was vice president. And while there have been questions raised about the ethics around the family's international business, none of the evidence so far has proven that the president, in his current or previous office, abused his role, accepted bribes or both.

House Republicans are also looking into the Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes and gun use that began in 2018. Two IRS whistleblowers came forward to Congress in the spring with claims that department officials thwarted their efforts to fully investigate Hunter Biden and his business dealings and that the agents faced retaliation when they pushed back.

The claims have since been disputed by IRS and FBI agents who worked on the case.

The central focus of the testimonies have been surrounding an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting that agents from both the IRS and FBI had with David Weiss, US attorney for Delaware, who has been charged with investigating Hunter Biden.

Gary Shapley, a veteran IRS agent who had been assigned to case, testified to the Ways and Means Committee in May that Weiss said during that meeting that he was not the “deciding person whether charges are filed” against Hunter Biden.

Two FBI agents who were in attendance told lawmakers this month that they have no recollection of Weiss saying that.

But Republicans have pointed to a failed plea deal over the summer as proof that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment because of who his father was.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo, the chair of the Ways & Means panel, said that their investigation has shown the “Biden family were afforded special treatment that no other American would receive were they not the son of the President of the United States.”

The impeachment inquiry hearing is taking place as the federal government is days away from what is likely to be a damaging government shutdown that would halt paychecks for millions of federal workers and the military.

Democrats say they plan to use the impending fiscal disaster to question Republicans' priorities.

“Three days before they’re set to shut down the United States government, Republicans launch a baseless impeachment drive against President Biden,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on Oversight, said Wednesday. “No one can figure out the logic of either course of action.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry this month after he yielded to mounting pressure from his right flank to take action against Biden or risk being ousted from his leadership job.

On Tuesday, McCarthy said the latest bank records showing payments from Chinese individuals to Hunter Biden showed that the president lied during his presidential campaign that no one in his family took money from China.

The hearing Thursday is expected to be the first of many as House Republicans explore how this inquiry will end and whether or not they have the full support of the GOP conference to bring and pass charges against Biden on the House floor. Any articles of impeachment would then be sent to the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority.

“It really comes to how do you prioritize your time?" Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican member of leadership, told The Hill recently. “I don’t know of anybody who believes (Senate Majority Leader) Chuck Schumer will take it up and actually have a trial and convict a sitting president.”


Fire Breaks Out for Second Time at Car Battery Factory Run by Iran’s Defense Ministry

The Iranian flag is seen flying over Evin prison in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
The Iranian flag is seen flying over Evin prison in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
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Fire Breaks Out for Second Time at Car Battery Factory Run by Iran’s Defense Ministry

The Iranian flag is seen flying over Evin prison in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters
The Iranian flag is seen flying over Evin prison in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters

A fire broke out Thursday at a car battery factory owned by Iran's Defense Ministry for the second time in less than a week, state media reported.

No one was injured in the blaze, which erupted in an area where plastic waste is stored, state TV said. Iranian news outlets circulated photos and video footage of a column of black smoke rising into the sky north of the capital, Tehran.

Iran's regular military and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard operate several factories across the country, many of which produce civilian goods.

Iran has seen a series of fires and other mishaps in its military facilities over the years, and often accuses its archenemy Israel of sabotage. Last month, Iran said Israel tried to sabotage its ballistic missile program through faulty foreign parts that could explode.

Iran has been under heavy Western sanctions for several years that prevent it from importing a range of machinery and replacement parts, forcing it to build its own or source them on the black market. That has likely made industrial mishaps more common.


Ukrainian Forces Are ‘Gradually Gaining Ground’, NATO Chief Says 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
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Ukrainian Forces Are ‘Gradually Gaining Ground’, NATO Chief Says 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 28, 2023. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine September 28, 2023. (Reuters)

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, on an unannounced visit to Kyiv, said on Thursday that Ukrainian forces were "gradually gaining ground" in their counteroffensive against Russian forces.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Stoltenberg also said Russian troops were fighting for Moscow's "imperial delusions".

Stoltenberg announced that NATO now had over-arching framework contracts in place with arms companies worth 2.4 billion euros ($2.53 billion) for key ammunition, including 1 billion euros in firm orders.

He said such contracts would allow NATO members to replenish their depleted stockpiles while also continuing to provide Ukraine with ammunition, a key factor in the war.

Stoltenberg also condemned Russian strikes near Ukraine's border with NATO member Romania. He said there was no evidence such strikes were a deliberate attack on Romania but branded them "reckless" and "destabilizing".


Israel’s High Court Hears Challenge to Law That Makes it Harder to Remove Netanyahu from Office 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Israeli government's weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, 27 September 2023. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Israeli government's weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, 27 September 2023. (EPA)
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Israel’s High Court Hears Challenge to Law That Makes it Harder to Remove Netanyahu from Office 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Israeli government's weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, 27 September 2023. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Israeli government's weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem, 27 September 2023. (EPA)

Israel’s Supreme Court on Thursday was hearing a challenge to a law that makes it harder to remove a sitting prime minister, which critics say is designed to protect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been working to reshape the justice system while he is on trial for alleged corruption.

The hearing is part of several pivotal court challenges against a proposed package of legislation and government steps meant to alter the country's justice system. It comes as Israel has been plunged into months of turmoil over the plan and deepens a rift between Netanyahu's government and the judiciary, which it wants to weaken despite unprecedented opposition.

The hearing is the second by the High Court on the law but was being heard Thursday by an expanded 11-judge panel, underscoring the importance of the deliberations.

Netanyahu’s governing coalition — Israel’s most religious and nationalist ever — passed an amendment known as the “incapacitation law” in March which allows a prime minister to be deemed unfit to rule only for medical or mental reasons. It also gives only the prime minister or his government the power to determine a leader's unfitness.

The previous version of the law was vague about both the circumstances surrounding a prime minister being deemed unfit as well as who had the authority to declare it, leaving open the possibility that the attorney general could take the step against Netanyahu over claims that he violated a conflict of interest agreement.

Critics say the law protects Netanyahu from being deemed unfit for office because of his ongoing corruption trial and claims of a conflict of interest over his involvement in the legal overhaul. They also say the law is tailor-made for Netanyahu and encourages corruption.

Based on those criticisms, Thursday’s hearing is focusing on whether the law should come into effect after the next national elections and not immediately so that it isn't interpreted as a personalized law. A ruling is expected by January.

Dozens of protesters opposed to the overhaul gathered outside Netanyahu's private residence in Jerusalem ahead of the hearing, chanting “democracy," while Netanyahu's allies defended the law. Simcha Rothman, a main driver of the overhaul, told Israeli Army Radio that the court's decision to hear the case over the fate of a sitting prime minister was harmful to Israeli democracy and challenging the law was akin to throwing out the results of a legitimate election.

“The moment the court determines the laws then it is also the legislative branch, the judiciary and the executive branch,” he said. “This is an undemocratic reality.”

The government wants to weaken the Supreme Court and limit judicial oversight on its decisions, saying it wants to return power to elected lawmakers and away from what it sees as a liberal-leaning, interventionist justice system. The first major piece of the overhaul was passed in July and an unprecedented 15-judge panel began hearing arguments against it earlier this month.

The drive to reshape Israel’s justice system comes as Netanyahu’s trial for alleged corruption is ongoing. Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases involving influential media moguls and wealthy associates. Netanyahu denies wrongdoing, seeing the charges as part of a “witch-hunt” against him orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased justice system.

Experts and legal officials say a conflict of interest arrangement struck after Netanyahu was indicted is meant to limit his involvement in judicial changes. After the incapacitation law was passed, Netanyahu said his hands were no longer tied and that he was taking a more active role in the legal changes underway. That sparked a rebuke from Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who said Netanyahu's remarks and any further actions were “completely illegal and in conflict of interest.”

Critics say Netanyahu and his government are working to upend the country’s delicate system of checks and balances and setting Israel on a path toward autocracy. The overhaul has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises, deepening longstanding societal divisions between those who want Israel to be a Western-facing liberal democracy and those who want to emphasize the country’s more conservative Jewish character.

Netanyahu has moved forward with the overhaul despite a wave of opposition from a broad swath of Israeli society. Top legal officials, leading economists and the country’s booming tech sector have all spoken out against the judicial changes, which have sparked opposition from hundreds of military reservists, who have said they will not serve so long as the overhaul remains on the table. Tens of thousands of people have protested every Saturday for the last nine months.


Separatist Govt of Nagorno-Karabakh Says it Will Dismantle Itself by January 2024 

Refugees stand near the road with the Karabakh mountains in the background after crossing the border near Kornidzor on September 28, 2023. (AFP)
Refugees stand near the road with the Karabakh mountains in the background after crossing the border near Kornidzor on September 28, 2023. (AFP)
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Separatist Govt of Nagorno-Karabakh Says it Will Dismantle Itself by January 2024 

Refugees stand near the road with the Karabakh mountains in the background after crossing the border near Kornidzor on September 28, 2023. (AFP)
Refugees stand near the road with the Karabakh mountains in the background after crossing the border near Kornidzor on September 28, 2023. (AFP)

The separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh announced Thursday that it will dissolve itself and the unrecognized republic will cease to exist by Jan. 1, 2024. 

The move comes after Azerbaijan carried out a lightning offensive to reclaim full control over its breakaway region and demanded that Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh lay down their weapons and the separatist government dissolve itself. 

A decree to that effect was signed by the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan. The document cited an agreement reached last week to end the fighting under which Azerbaijan will allow the “free, voluntary and unhindered movement” of Nagorno-Karbakh residents and disarm troops in Armenia in exchange. 

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan that came under the control of ethnic Armenian forces, backed by the Armenian military, in separatist fighting that ended in 1994. During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan took back parts of Nagorno-Karabakh along with surrounding territory that Armenian forces had claimed during the earlier conflict. 

In December, Azerbaijan imposed a blockade of the only road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, alleging that the Armenian government was using the road for mineral extraction and illicit weapons shipments to the region’s separatist forces. 

Armenia charged that the closure denied basic food and fuel supplies to Nagorno-Karabakh’s approximately 120,000 people. Azerbaijan rejected the accusation, arguing the region could receive supplies through the Azerbaijani city of Aghdam — a solution long resisted by Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, who called it a strategy for Azerbaijan to gain control of the region. 

After the blockade was lifted following the offensive and a ceasefire agreement brokered by Russian peacekeepers, more than half of Nagorno-Karabakh's population — 65,000 — have fled to Armenia. 


Ukraine Says it Destroyed 34 of 44 Drones Launched by Russia 

A view of a damaged private factory after overnight shelling in Odesa, southern Ukraine, 25 September 2023, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
A view of a damaged private factory after overnight shelling in Odesa, southern Ukraine, 25 September 2023, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukraine Says it Destroyed 34 of 44 Drones Launched by Russia 

A view of a damaged private factory after overnight shelling in Odesa, southern Ukraine, 25 September 2023, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
A view of a damaged private factory after overnight shelling in Odesa, southern Ukraine, 25 September 2023, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukraine's Air Force said on Thursday its air defense systems shot down 34 of 44 Shahed drones that Russia launched overnight, military and regional officials said the attack caused no casualties.

"Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units and mobile fire groups were engaged to repel the attack," the military said on the Telegram messaging app.

The military said Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv, Odesa and central Kirovohrad regions had been targeted. It said Russian also launched missiles at Mykolaiv.

"Our air defense forces did an excellent job," Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram.

"No hits or destruction. There were no casualties. There were only a few small fires on dry grass as a result of the falling wreckage of the downed Shahed."

Ukraine's southern seaport region of Odesa has been hit by Russian drone and missile attacks since July, when Russia left a UN-brokered grain export deal that allowed Kyiv to ship its grain abroad.


North Korean Leader Urges Greater Nuclear Weapons Production in Response to ‘New Cold War’ 

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
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North Korean Leader Urges Greater Nuclear Weapons Production in Response to ‘New Cold War’ 

In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an exponential increase in production of nuclear weapons and for his country to play a larger role in a coalition of nations confronting the United States in a "new Cold War," state media said Thursday.

The Korean Central News Agency said Kim made the comments during a two-day session of the country's rubber-stamp parliament which amended the constitution to include his policy of expanding the country's nuclear weapons program.

The Supreme People’s Assembly's session on Tuesday and Wednesday came after Kim traveled to Russia's Far East this month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and visit military and technology sites.

The trip sparked Western concerns about a possible arms alliance in which North Korea would supply Putin with badly needed munitions to fuel his war on Ukraine in exchange for economic aid and advanced Russian technologies to enhance North Korea's nuclear and missile systems.

As North Korea slowly ends its pandemic lockdown, Kim has been actively boosting his partnerships with Moscow and Beijing as he attempts to break out of diplomatic isolation and join a united front against Washington. He has described the world as entering a "new Cold War" and that North Korea should advance its nuclear capabilities in response.

KCNA’s reports on Kim’s comments came a day after North Korea confirmed the release of US Army Pvt. Travis King, who is now being flown back to America, two months after he sprinted across the heavily fortified border into the North.

King’s relatively swift expulsion defied speculation that North Korea might drag out his detention to squeeze concessions from the United States, and possibly reflected the North's disinterest in diplomacy with Washington.

KCNA said members of the assembly gave unanimous approval to a new clause in the constitution to "ensure the country’s right to existence and development, deter war and protect regional and global peace by rapidly developing nuclear weapons to a higher level."

North Korea's "nuclear force-building policy has been made permanent as the basic law of the state, which no one is allowed to flout with anything," Kim said in a speech at the assembly. He stressed the need to "push ahead with the work for exponentially boosting the production of nuclear weapons and diversifying the nuclear strike means," KCNA said.

Kim pointed to what he described as a growing threat posed by a hostile United States and its expanding military cooperation with South Korea and Japan, accusing them of creating the "Asian version of NATO, the root cause of war and aggression."

"This is just the worst actual threat, not threatening rhetoric or an imaginary entity," he said.

Kim urged his diplomats to "further promote solidarity with the nations standing against the US and the West’s strategy for hegemony."

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest level in years as North Korea has test-fired more than 100 missiles since the start of 2022 and the US has expanded its military exercises with its Asian allies, in tit-for-tat responses.

Last year, the assembly passed a new nuclear doctrine into law which authorizes pre-emptive nuclear strikes if North Korea's leadership is perceived as under threat.


Trump Goes to Michigan to Rail Against Biden’s Electric Vehicle Push While GOP Rivals Debate 

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, US, September 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, US, September 27, 2023. (Reuters)
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Trump Goes to Michigan to Rail Against Biden’s Electric Vehicle Push While GOP Rivals Debate 

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, US, September 27, 2023. (Reuters)
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looks on while his supporters cheer on the day he addresses auto workers as he skips the second GOP debate, in Clinton Township, Michigan, US, September 27, 2023. (Reuters)

As his Republican rivals sparred onstage in California at their second primary debate, Donald Trump was in battleground Michigan Wednesday night working to win over blue-collar voters by lambasting President Joe Biden and his push for electric cars in the midst of an autoworkers’ strike.

“I will not allow under any circumstances the American automobile industry to die,” Trump said at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit.

The Republican front-runner's trip came a day after Biden became the first sitting president in US history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The dueling appearances had the feel of the opening salvo of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden, even though primary voting won’t begin until next year.

Trump’s decision to skip another debate comes as he maintains a commanding lead in the GOP primary, even as he faces four separate criminal indictments in four different states.

Trump, in his speech, tried to cast Biden as hostile to the auto industry and workers, using extreme rhetoric to claim the industry was “being assassinated.” He insisted Biden’s embrace of electric vehicles — a key component of his clean-energy agenda — would ultimately lead to lost jobs, amplifying the concerns of some autoworkers who worry that electric cars require fewer people to manufacture and that there is no guarantee factories that produce them will be unionized.

“He’s selling you out to China, he’s selling you out to the environmental extremists and the radical left,” Trump told his crowd, flanked by American flags and pallets of auto parts.

He also downplayed the strike as the UAW pushes for higher wages, shorter work weeks and assurances from the country’s top automakers that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized. While Trump said he supported the workers and hoped they would get a good deal, he also said no deal would matter if proposed pollution limits take effect.

“You’re all on the picket lines and everything, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what you get, because in two years you’re all going to be out of business,” he said.

While Trump has cast himself as pro-worker, he has clashed repeatedly with union leadership and tried to turn union members against their leaders. In a recent campaign video, Trump urged autoworkers not to pay union dues and claimed their leaders have “got some deals going for themselves.”

Just hours before Trump’s visit, the UAW posted a video on its Facebook page protesting factory closures by Detroit’s automakers that included 2017 footage of Trump telling a northern Ohio crowd that auto jobs would be coming back. Two years later, General Motors closed a huge assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, costing thousands of jobs.

Still, Trump repeatedly urged the union to endorse him, at one point directly appealing to UAW President Shawn Fain.

While the union has withheld its support for Biden after endorsing him in 2020, Fain appeared at Biden’s side during his visit Tuesday and has repeatedly criticized Trump.

“I don’t think he cares about working-class people. I think he cares about the billionaire class, he cares about the corporate interests. I think he’s just trying to pander to people and say what they want to hear, and it’s a shame,” Fain said this week.

Biden's re-election campaign, in a statement, called Trump's speech “a pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans.”

Drake Enterprises, where Trump spoke, makes automotive and heavy-duty truck components, including gear shift levers for semi-trucks, said its president Nathan Stemple. He said a shift to electric cars would cripple his business.

While Trump aides had said the audience would include several hundred current and former UAW members, as well as members of plumbers and pipefitters unions, it also included many non-union workers who support the former president. Some said they had been invited by people who did business with Drake; others said they had simply arrived at the factory Wednesday afternoon and been allowed to attend.

Tony Duronio, 64, a longtime Trump supporter and real estate broker who lives in Clinton Township, said he received an invitation from a group called Autoworkers for Trump. Duronio praised the economy during Trump's time in office and echoed the former president's criticism of electric vehicles: “Nobody wants ‘em,” he said — and applauded Trump’s decision to skip the debate.

“He’s the frontrunner. He doesn’t have any competition," he said. “Look, if it ain’t him, I may stay home ’cause the rest are no different than Biden.”

Trump briefly mentioned the debate happening 2,000 miles away at the Ronald Reagan presidential library, calling his GOP rivals “job candidates.”

“They’ll do anything,” he said. “Secretary of something. They even say VP, does anybody see any VP in the group? I don’t think so.”

The former president has tried to use the strike to drive a wedge between Biden and union workers, a constituency that helped pave the way for his surprise 2016 victory. Trump in that election won over voters in Democratic strongholds like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, fundamentally reshaping voting alliances as he railed against global trade deals and vowed to resurrect dying manufacturing towns.

But Biden won those states back in 2020 as he emphasized his working-class roots and commitment to organized labor. He often calls himself the “ most pro-union president” in US history and argues the investments his administration is making in green energy and electric vehicle manufacturing will ensure the future of the industry unfolds in the US.

There’s disagreement in the auto industry over whether the shift to EVs will cost union jobs. Some executives say that because electric vehicles require fewer moving parts, companies will need 30% to 40% fewer workers to assemble them. But others say EVs will require comparable labor.

The Trump campaign has vigorously defended his record as pro-worker, but union leaders say his first term was far from worker-friendly — citing unfavorable rulings from the nation’s top labor board and the US Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs and the closure of the Ohio GM plant.

Along the picket line, workers have been split. Adrian Mitchell, who works at the GM parts warehouse that Biden visited, said he believes Biden would be better for the middle class than a second Trump term. Still, Mitchell said workers are worried the transition to electric cars may cost them jobs.

It was a different scene at Trump's event, filled with MAGA hats and pro-Trump signs.

“Let’s put it this way: There’s nothing I don’t like about Trump,” said Johnny Pentowski, who was a member of the Teamsters Union before he retired as a truck driver earlier this year.

Pentowski, 72, who lives in Eastpointe Michigan, accused union leaders of failing to listen to their members and shared Trump’s skepticism of EVs.

“You take away fossil fuels from a country, you’re taking away its lifeblood,” he said. “Windmills and solars don’t do it.”

The UAW’s targeted strikes against the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — began at midnight Sept. 14 and have since expanded to 38 parts distribution centers in 20 states.

The union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years and has also demanded a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits. It also wants to be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers.

While Biden has not implemented an electric vehicle mandate, he has set a goal that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. His administration has also proposed stiff new automobile pollution limits that would require up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2032, a nearly tenfold increase over current electric vehicle sales. That proposal is not final.