Day: September 13, 2023

Information about the presence of 3,000 “Wagners” in Armenia for the purpose of a coup d’état is a myth, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia Maria Zakharova said while answering the question of News.ru at the briefing, Report inf

Azerbaijan is fully dedicated to upholding the fundamental principles of human rights

The state’s so gerrymandered that Republicans can lose the popular vote and win supermajorities. Now they want to impeach a liberal justice before she’s ruled on a single case

If you need a reminder that the Republican party’s problem with democracy extends beyond the antics of Donald Trump, look no further than Wisconsin. A battle is under way there which began before the January 6 insurrection was even a twinkle in Trump’s eye, and which will do much to determine the future of democracy in America whether Trump ultimately answers for his crimes or not. It’s no exaggeration to say that Wisconsin and its state capitol, Madison, are now the front line of the battle to save American democracy.

In 2011, Republicans gerrymandered Wisconsin’s state legislature so badly that the party can win supermajorities despite losing the popular vote, as it did in 2018. Voters have fought back, and earlier this year they elected Janet Protasiewicz to the state supreme court, ushering in a new liberal majority which looked poised to finally overturn the gerrymander and bring democratic regime change to Madison.

Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University. He hosts a podcast called America Explained and writes a newsletter of the same name

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U.S. stock index futures inched lower on Wednesday as higher oil prices fuel worries about sticky inflation and stoke interest-rate concerns ahead of CPI data.

The Labor Department’s consumer price index reading (CPI), due at 8:30 a.m. ET, is expected to show core CPI eased to 4.3% year-on-year in August from 4.7%, though headline inflation is estimated to have risen to 3.6% from 3.2% after a recent rally in energy prices.

Oil prices held near 10-month highs on Wednesday, driven by expectations that crude supply would remain tight for the rest of the year.

“All indications are that higher oil costs are going to influence the headline inflation print. Any rise in the core data could really put markets on edge given possible interest rate implications,” said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

“If inflation takes a step higher, this will highlight the challenge faced not only by the Federal Reserve, but by central banks around the globe, that inflation can rear its ugly head again at inopportune times.”

Traders see a 93% chance of the Fed holding rates in September and a 55% likelihood of a pause in November and December, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

The Fed is likely to cut rates only from April-June next year, a Reuters poll showed.

Yield on the two-year Treasury note , which best reflects short-term interest rate expectations, stood at 5.0327%.

Investors will also closely monitor August producer prices and retail sales data on Thursday ahead of the Fed’s Sept. 20 policy decision.

At 7:05 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were down 43 points, or 0.12%, S&P 500 e-minis were down 5.25 points, or 0.12%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 23 points, or 0.15%.

Apple (AAPL.O) fell 0.5% in premarket trading, a day after it ended down 1.7% after the company unveiled new iPhone models.

Ford (F.N) gained 1.8% on plans to double production of its hybrid F-150 pickup trucks in 2024.

U.S.-listed shares of Chinese electric-vehicle makers Li Auto , Nio and Xpeng fell between 2.6% and 3.5% after the European Commission started an investigation on whether to impose tariffs on their vehicles.

Sprit Airlines (SAVE.N) lost 3.4% as the low-cost carrier cut its third-quarter revenue outlook to reflect rising fuel prices.

Moderna (MRNA.O) gained 2.4% after the drugmaker said its flu vaccine mRNA-1010 met its primary goal in a late-stage trial. The firm also announced it was scaling down manufacturing of its COVID-19 vaccine.

Across the occupied West Bank, concrete checkpoints, separation walls and soldiers are reminders of the failure to build peace between Israelis and Palestinians since the historic Oslo Accords were signed 30 years ago this week.

The accord, intended as a temporary measure to build confidence and create space for a permanent peace agreement, has long since frozen into a system for managing a conflict with no apparent end in sight.

With the West Bank in turmoil, a nationalist government in Israel that dismisses any prospect of Palestinian statehood, and the Islamist movement Hamas flexing its muscles outside its home in Gaza, prospects for peace appear as distant as they ever have been.

Once the 87-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas departs, a void will be left that may bring the crisis to a head.

“We are at the end of an era both in Palestine and Israel and probably in the region as a whole,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a civil activist and former spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation to the peace process in the 1990s.

“That whole generation – that era of talking about mutual recognition, two states, negotiated settlement, peaceful resolution – that’s coming to an end in Palestine,” she said.

Few on either side believe there is any realistic prospect of a two-state solution, with an independent Palestine existing side by side with Israel. The idea is now just a “convenient fiction” Ashrawi said.

With barriers keeping the two sides apart in the West Bank, largely under Israeli military control, young Israelis and Palestinians have grown up knowing little of each other since the first agreement was signed on Sept. 13, 1993.

“Oslo and I were born the same year,” said Mohannad Qafesha, a legal activist in the southern city of Hebron. “To me, I was born and there were checkpoints around me, around our house, if I leave home and go to the city to visit my friends, I would have to cross a checkpoint.”

According to United Nations figures some 700,000 Jewish settlers are now established across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the core of any future Palestinian state, and settlement building is moving ahead rapidly. An estimated 3.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and 2.2 million in Gaza.

Violence over the past 18 months has seen dozens of Israelis, including civilians and soldiers, killed in attacks by Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel, and brazen attacks by Jewish settlers on Palestinian towns and villages.

Near daily raids by Israeli forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian fighters and numerous civilians, while an array of new militant groups has emerged in towns like Jenin and Nablus with little connection to the older generation of Palestinian leaders.

“I have never seen the West Bank as it is at the moment ever, I have been in and out of here for almost 30 years and I haven’t seen it worse,” U.N. Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland said at a conference this week.

The structures created by the Oslo Accords nonetheless remain in place as the main framework for relations between Israelis and Palestinians in the absence of anything better.

The Palestinian Authority remains Israel’s favoured, if often mistrusted, partner, though it lost control of Gaza when Hamas broke away in 2007. But dependent on foreign funds, with no electoral mandate and unpopular among its own people, it is caught between its roles as representative of the Palestinians and interlocutor with Israel.

“It’s very weak, it’s very poor but this agreement still exists,” said Michael Milshtein, a former official for COGAT, the Israeli military body set up after Oslo to coordinate between Israel and the newly created PA.

The accords’ signing brought in a brief period of optimism, symbolised by the image of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, watched over by U.S. President Bill Clinton, shaking hands on the White House lawn. Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli in 1995, while Arafat died in 2004.

For Yossi Beilin, a former justice minister and Israeli negotiator, the accords’ failure to bring peace came about because successive Israeli governments preferred to turn what was originally a temporary truce into a permanent status quo.

With Israeli society riven by the dispute over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to curb the power of the Supreme Court, prospects of any concerted peace effort appear remote.

“The current government in Israel doesn’t show any signs of willingness to go for a permanent agreement. So, those who speak about a permanent agreement will have to speak about future governments,” said Beilin, a former Labour Party politician.

Israeli officials fear that once Abbas goes, the door will be open either to a push by Hamas into the West Bank, where it is increasingly active, or to anarchy as rivals for the leadership fight it out.

But while several on the Israeli government side have spoken openly about annexing the West Bank entirely, the practical difficulties of such a move have proved prohibitive.

Already Palestinians, and a number of international human rights organizations, accuse Israel of operating an apartheid system in the West Bank.

Israel and its allies including the United States reject that charge but annexation would force it to find a way between giving Palestinians a status equivalent to Israelis that would alter Israel’s character as a Jewish state or assigning them a separate status incompatible with a democracy.

“We’re both here and we are both here to stay,” said 29 year-old Rotem Oreg, of the liberal think tank the Israeli Democratic Alliance.

“So we need to figure out a way, one, to stay in the same land, two, without killing each other, and three, while maintaining a Jewish democratic state.”

Serbia has sent special forces to the border with Hungary as hundreds of migrants a day try to reach the European Union.

With Serbia on the main route for refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, mainly coming through Turkey, the police have long been at the border.

But they have now sent in more heavily armed personnel after what an NGO said were turf wars among criminal gangs and a police chief said were conflicts among migrants.

On Tuesday, police said they detained 371 migrants along the border. Two men were detained in a tent, and dozens including a family with two children were gathered in a field, Reuters footage showed.

They also detained several people found up trees who they suspected of acting as scouts keeping a look-out for other migrants, Dragan Vasiljevic, deputy director of the Serbian police, told Reuters.

Migrants in the area typically try to use ladders to clear the border or cut the fence.

“Bearing in mind developments in recent days when there was a conflict and some people sustained injuries, a big police action was conducted,” Vasiljevic said.

“We have found some weapons, notably four automatic rifles. For the first time we have found a number of migrants hiding in the trees.”

According to numbers from Serbian NGO the Centre for Asylum Seekers, some 1,500 migrants attempt to cross into Hungary every day – many handing over cash to people smugglers.

“What our field workers see is that they all cross the border eventually and move on (to the EU). The question is only how much they will have to pay for that,” Rados Djurovic, from the Centre for Asylum Seekers, told Reuters.

“We have seen a rising number of armed incidents involving migrants,” Djurovic said adding that the incidents involved various criminal groups “fighting for territory”.

According to official figures, there are some 3,326 migrants in government reception centres, but may are not accommodated in the centres and can be seen on the streets of the capital Belgrade and also along the 175 km border with Hungary.

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China flagged security problems with iPhones while saying it isn’t barring purchases, the government’s first comments on the topic after news reports that authorities are moving to restrict the use of Apple Inc. products in sensitive departments and state-owned companies.

“We noticed that there have been many media reports about security incidents concerning Apple phones,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press briefing in Beijing on Wednesday, without elaborating. 

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

China plans to expand a ban on the use of iPhones to a plethora of state-backed companies and agencies, Bloomberg News has reported, a sign of growing challenges for Apple in its biggest foreign market and global production base. Several agencies have begun instructing staff not to bring their iPhones to work.

“China has not issued laws and regulations to ban the purchase of Apple or foreign brands’ phones,” Mao said, adding that the government attaches “great importance” to security and that all companies operating in China need to abide by its laws and regulations.

Mao’s comments about security incidents were slightly different in the official English translation of the news briefing. That translation, delivered simultaneously onsite by the ministry, omitted the reference to media “reports.” Foreign affairs ministry briefings are typically rigorously controlled and spokespeople’s responses are usually scripted ahead of time with consistent translations.

The press conference came just hours after Apple unveiled its latest model of the marquee device, the iPhone 15. The company unveiled four new models, keeping pace with the past few generations: the iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max. Apple’s shares fell less than 1% in pre-market US trading.

If Beijing goes ahead with an iPhone ban, the unprecedented blockade will be the culmination of a yearslong effort to root out foreign technology use in sensitive environments, coinciding with Beijing’s effort to reduce its reliance on American software and circuitry. Just over a week ago, Huawei Technologies Co. quietly unveiled a smartphone with a chip a few years behind the cutting edge, which Chinese state media hailed as a triumph over US sanctions intended to curb the country’s rise.

Beijing has established laws to severely restrict the flow of information beyond China’s borders, and tighten its grip on the enormous amounts of data that will be key to controlling the world’s No. 2 economy. While Apple has for years kept data on Chinese users completely in-country through a partnership with a state-backed datacenter operator, other foreign firms have struggled with new regulations that they fear could hamper their ability to operate.

Those rules give President Xi Jinping’s administration the power to shut down or fine companies that leak or mishandle sensitive information. This year, Beijing also enforced an anti-spying law that foreign multinationals fear could grant authorities unprecedented powers to crack down on their operations.

In Apple’s case, a ban threatens to erode Apple’s position in a market that yields about a fifth of its revenue, and from where it makes the majority of the world’s iPhones through sprawling factories that employ millions of Chinese. Several analysts have argued Huawei’s new phone will take market share from Apple, along with domestic competitors.

For now, it’s unclear how many companies or agencies could eventually adopt restrictions on personal devices, and there’s been no formal or written injunction as yet, Bloomberg News reported. State firms or organizations will likely vary in how strictly they enforce such bans, with some forbidding Apple devices from the workplace while others could bar employees from using them entirely.

—With assistance from Lulu Shen and Sarah Zheng.

Armenian Anarchist Group Rises in Besieged Artsakh

posted at 10:02:50 UTC via theatlasnews.co

What You Need To Know: 

The ongoing Azerbaijani blockade of food, fuel, and medical supplies from reaching the Armenian statelet of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, and home to around 120,000 people has today triggered the creation of a new anarchist group – Anarchist Artsakh. 

The blockade dates back to Soviet-era territorial claims both Azerbaijan and Armenia have to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is situated inside Azerbaijan, but in which, ethnic Armenians make up 95 per cent of the population. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, both nations took up arms against one another over the area.

The first Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, (1991-94) left Armenia with the majority of the autonomous zone. Following a 2010 strategic partnership agreement with Azerbaijan Turkey has become a key player in the conflict, supplying Azerbaijan with military aid when fighting broke out again in July 2020. This material support, alongside the aid of Syrian mercenaries, enabled Azerbaijan to recapture swaths of the Nagorno-Karabakh before a ceasefire was brokered by Russia in November 2020. The gains made by Azerbaijan in 2020 left Nagorno-Karabakh surrounded. 

Anarchist Artsakh:

The group, in their first post on Telegram stated, “Comrades! A new front of anarchist resistance is maturing. This time Artsakh. For almost a year now, the fascist government of Azerbaijan has kept the local Armenian population under complete blockade, seeking forced submission from the Armenians. 

The dictatorial power of Ilham Aliyev is actually starving our people in order to subjugate them, assimilate them and deprive them of the freedom for which we have fought for a very long time. In the territories occupied in 2020, the occupiers are destroying our cultural objects in order to erase our traces from our own lands. 

We already had the sad experience of living under the rule of the Azerbaijani leadership in the 1980s – 1990s. We will no longer allow the fascists to enslave our people. We – Armenian anarchists – will fight for the freedom of our (and not only our) people. Most likely, the Azerbaijani tyrants will soon begin a ground operation on the territory of Artsakh. We are trying to organise ourselves to resist the onslaught of the imperialists.

Comrades! We ask you to support us in our fight. After all, solidarity is our main weapon. Help spread the word about the chaos going on. Glory and freedom to all oppressed peoples!” 

The current siege is the result of the December 2022 blocking of the Lachin Corridor, a lifeline between Armenia and Artsakh by Azerbaijan, which claims that Armenia has been using the corridor to smuggle arms. 

Russian Mediation?: 

However, on early Tuesday, a truck carrying Russian humanitarian aid was given access through Azerbaijani territory to the besieged region’s capital, Stepanakert. According to DW, the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed the aid package represents “a first step” to resolving the crisis. It is unclear if this move by Russia will satisfy the clearly frustrated members of Anarchist Artsakh. 

What is Pashinyan’s EU mission group looking for in region?

posted at 06:25:53 UTC via azernews.az

What and whom Armenia serves is still opaque. The pseudo-independent state, which once had ninety percent of its border territory under the control of Russia, today is gradually breaking away from the influence of Russia and trying to hand over its territories to the West.

We would not be wrong if we say that 2020 is the year when Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and simultaneously a period that political players swapped over Armenia. The 30-year occupation seemed to have led Armenia into a deep sleep under the shadow of Russia, and its inability to wake up from that sleep has kept it far off the political ground in the region. In addition, Armenia’s lack of appreciation for the opportunities it had and its short-sighted behavior left it in a desperate situation. The question is, why has Armenia never been able to benefit from the fact that it is surrounded by countries with strong economies in the South Caucasus, such as Azerbaijan in particular?

Although the answer to this question needs an in-depth interpretation, it can be enough to consider the events happening today. If we look at recent events, we can witness that Armenia has plunged into an extremely complex political game. Especially by partially skipping the Russian factor, Pashinyan seems to have given a bit more privilege to the Western forces. As they look more active in the South Caucasus today creates the impression that Yerevan is being played on a gambling table. Being in a confused state in political games, Armenia backs the wrong horse; completely ignores the priorities for the future of its country, and is currently trying to turn the region into a battleground between the West and Russia.

After the full operation of Azerbaijan’s Lachin State Border Checkpoint, Armenia began to seek refuge in the West. So, starting from January 2023, the European Union Mission group, whose real mission is unknown, suddenly appeared in the region. First, under the guise of humanitarian aid to Armenian minority in Garabagh, and then by misinterpreting Armenian armed provocations, the mission group began to expand its activities.

Yesterday, the mission group celebrated the opening of its base with a new name – European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA) in the town of Ijavan, Tavush province of Armenia. It is noted in the information that this is already the 5th base of EUMA opened in the territory of Armenia so far. I wonder what the head of the mission Mr. HoM Markus Ritter intends to do in Armenia by opening so many bases.

If the mission group or EUMA has any interest in the conventional borders between Azerbaijan and Armenia, then it would be a more objective step for some of their representatives to come to Azerbaijan as well, to observe the situation from the flipside of the event. If we are talking about eliminating tension and ensuring security in the region, there is an answer here – Armenia and Azerbaijan, as two independent states, are capable of ensuring peace between themselves. However, there is an exception, which is Armenia’s taking an adequate step… But what does EUMA do for this? Is the mission group really taking purposeful steps for peace talks to take place?

Two days ago, after a long wait, a truck with food belonging to the Russian Red Cross Committee on the Aghdam-Khankendi route was able to enter Khankendi. This plan was actually an unambiguous solution to some groundless disputes surrounding Lachin BCP. Unfortunately, the European Union mission group and many representatives of the West expressed their “true intentions” by showing a stronger and pro-Armenian position regarding the border with Lachin. In particular, the ICRC’s involvement in political rather than humanitarian issues has made it somewhat of a spy for the West. If the separatists in Garabagh did not accept the food sent from Azerbaijan, it was an internal matter, but the fact that the Western forces did not let in the food sent from Russia this time began to look like the West was deviating from its mission.

It means that the West intends to put pressure on Russia through Armenia, and this means that external forces want create a battle ground for themselves in the region. As I mentioned earlier, Armenia completely confuses internal politics and tries to create tension instead of peace in the region. As a tool in the hands of certain forces, it deliberately exaggerates the issue of the Armenian minority living in Azerbaijan’s Garabagh economic region and deliberately focuses the attention of the outside audience on the region.

In fact, this is the helplessness and incompetence of Pashinyan, who cannot find a common language with the other side, i.e. Azerbaijan. All these are factors that lead to his repeated lies and denial of what he says. Pashinyan chooses not just what is in front of him and what is available to him, but on the contrary, he chooses the means that is wide of the mark and can put his country and the region in danger. The reason is simple – Armenia’s lack of perspective and political agenda and inability to see the error of its ways and most importantly, yet finding hard to recover from the trauma of 2020. These factors still seriously prevent Armenia from choosing the right path

—

Elnur Enveroglu is AzerNews’ deputy editor-in-chief, follow him on @ElnurMammadli1

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Kidnapped Nagorno-Karabakh students reportedly released after 10-day detention in Azerbaijan

posted at 06:23:25 UTC via armenpress.am

 15:44, 7 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani media have reported the release of the three Nagorno-Karabakh students who were kidnapped by Azeri border guards while traveling to Armenia through Lachin Corridor in late August. 

The three men were kidnapped and subsequently jailed on August 28. Azeri authorities had announced that the men would be jailed for 10 days for allegedly “dishonoring” the Azeri flag.

The kidnapping was condemned by the Armenian Foreign Ministry as a gross violation by Azerbaijan of the “Trilateral Statement of November 9, 2020, legally binding Orders of the UN International Court of Justice and open contempt for the unequivocal and targeted calls of the international community, including voiced by members of the UN Security Council.”

Azerbaijan eager to explore more opportunities

posted at 06:22:08 UTC via tribune.com.pk

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing collaboration in multiple areas, including trade, energy, and the economy. Caretaker Minister for Planning, Muhammad Sami Saeed, met with Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Khazar Farhadov, to discuss the positive trajectory of their bilateral relations.

Both sides expressed their determination to bolster ties, focusing on trade, connectivity, energy, tourism, and Information Technology. Ambassador Farhadov highlighted the positive impact of direct flights between Azerbaijan and Pakistan since 2022, with approximately 50,000 Pakistani tourists visiting Azerbaijan that year. He also noted the convenience of Azerbaijan’s online visa system, which processes visas for Pakistani tourists in just three hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2023.

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EU High Representative: bloc wants to see Georgia succeeding on European path

posted at 06:20:28 UTC via agenda.ge

Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, on Monday reviewed his visit to Georgia last week by saying the bloc wanted to “see Georgia succeeding on its European path”.

In an article over the visit, the bloc’s top diplomat noted “there is no doubt for the European Union that Georgia belongs to the European family”, and further highlighted the “overwhelming” European aspiration of Georgian citizens.

During my stay, all my interlocutors made a plea for Georgia to receive candidate status to the EU shortly. It is a call that we have heard over the past months consistently from the authorities, from the opposition and from the civil society representatives”, Borrell said.

The EU official stressed one of the “main” challenges on the European path for Georgia was the “strong” political polarisation, and for the country to become an EU candidate, “all political forces need to work together constructively”.

The EU accession process is a national endeavour that needs to stand over party politics. All institutions have to work together, i.e. cooperate. Georgian leaders should not miss this historic opportunity”, he noted.

Borrell added there were no “shortcuts” to EU accession neither for Georgia, nor anyone else as the enlargement process always followed “clear” criteria. 

It requires, for sure, hard work, political will and clear commitment to the European Union’s values. […] This hard work is worth it, not only to become a member of the European Union, but, more importantly, for improving the everyday life of citizens. Georgia has a robust administration and a vibrant civil society. It has all the potential to achieve this historic task”, he said.

The European official also welcomed the clear position of Georgia in international fora in support of Ukraine and noted “it is crucial to coordinate our efforts with our closest partners to isolate Russia internationally”.

In the piece, Borrell also reiterated the EU’s “unwavering” support to Georgia’s security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and further pointed out that “our longstanding commitment to stand by Georgia is today as strong as ever in light of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”.