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When a New York judge issued a summary judgment this week finding Donald Trump liable for financial fraud, it was a good reminder that Trump is powerless to stop or even delay what the legal system is doing to him. Now Trump has managed to lose in New York court again today.
Even in the wake of the summary judgment, there is still an accompanying trial set to start next week, in order to determine the size of the financial penalties. Weeks ago Trump got an appeals court to place a temporary “hold” on the start of the trial, pending a hearing over one of his nonsense filings. At the time, Palmer Report predicted that this “hold” would be resolved before the trial start date, and wouldn’t end up delaying things at all.
Sure enough, the appeals court announced today that Trump’s request for an indefinite hold is denied, and that the existing temporary hold is lifted. In other words the trial will start next week, on time, as expected. Trump’s antics didn’t delay the start of the trial by even a single day or a single hour.
This is just how things go in the legal system. Once the trial judge has a firm trial date in place, the defendant’s last minute attempts to delay the trial typically fall on deaf ears. We saw it in the E. Jean Carroll civil rape trial. We’re now seeing it in the New York civil fraud trial. And we’ll see it in Trump’s criminal trials as well. Trump doesn’t have a magic “delay” wand. He never did.
Palmer Report has significant operating expenses, including website hosting, tech support, mailing list services, and much more. If you value Palmer Report’s content, donate here.
Palmer Report has significant operating expenses, including website hosting, tech support, mailing list services, and much more. If you value Palmer Report’s content, donate here.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Embattled U.S. Senator Bob Menendez left a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats on Thursday insisting that he will remain on the job despite calls for his resignation over federal charges he accepted bribes.
U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) delivers remarks, after he and his wife Nadine Menendez were indicted on bribery offenses in connection with their corrupt relationship with three New Jersey businessmen, in Union City, New Jersey, U.S., September 25, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/ File Photo
“I will continue to cast votes on behalf of the people in New Jersey as I have for 18 years and I am sure when they need those votes, there’ll be looking forward for me to cast those votes,” Menendez told CNN following the gathering, which lasted for about an hour.
Democratic Senator Joe Manchin repeatedly told reporters that Menendez conveyed during that meeting that he would not resign, and Manchin said no senators posed any questions to the 69-year-old lawmaker.
Menendez has temporarily stepped down from his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was replaced by Democratic Senator Ben Cardin.
Many of the Democratic senators leaving Thursday’s meeting refused to comment to reporters.
One of the most outspoken Democrats demanding a resignation, Senator John Fetterman, told reporters that he did not attend the lunchtime meeting. He added, however, that Menendez was “continuing a level of arrogance that is astonishing.” He told reporters: “I would like to pursue whatever avenues are available” to get Menendez to leave, including a move in the full Senate to expel him.
It would take a two-thirds vote of the 100 senators to remove a senator. That has occurred only 15 times in U.S. history, 14 of which were during the U.S. Civil War for supporting the Confederacy.
At least 27 senators in the 51-member caucus – Democrats and three independents who typically vote with them – have called for Menendez’ resignation including No. 2 Senate Democrat Dick Durbin. Gary Peters, the head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, and Menendez’ fellow senator from New Jersey, Cory Booker, joined the call.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, said on Wednesday Menendez’ behavior fell below the standard appropriate for a senator, but stopped short of calling for him to resign.
Prosecutors have said Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for using their influence to interfere with law enforcement probes of three New Jersey businessmen and aid the Egyptian government.
They pleaded not guilty in court on Wednesday.
Menendez’ Senate seat is in play in the 2024 elections. Though New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972, his legal troubles could pose problems for his party, which is trying to maintain its narrow control of the chamber. Menendez has drawn one challenger to the seat so far.
Private Travis King, the U.S. soldier who ran into North Korea in July, landed at a U.S air base in Texas early Thursday (September 28) after being expelled by North Korea into China. Rachel Judah has more.
U.S. Private Travis T. King (wearing a black shirt and black cap) is seen in this picture taken during a tour of the tightly controlled Joint Security Area (JSA) on the border between the two Koreas, at the truce village of Panmunjom, South Korea, July 18, 2023. Sarah Leslie/Handout via REUTERS/ File Photo
U.S. Army Private Travis King arrived at a U.S. military hospital in Texas on Thursday where he will undergo medical evaluations, including for his mental health, following his expulsion from North Korea a day earlier, the Pentagon said.
King, 23, was held in North Korea for over two months after his surprise dash across the heavily militarized border dividing the Korean peninsula.
Details are still scarce about King’s treatment while in North Korean custody and questions remain about why he fled to one of the world’s most reclusive nations.
“He’ll be going through medical screenings, medical evaluations, and then he’ll be meeting with professionals to assess his emotional and mental health,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Singh said she could not put a timetable on the evaluation process, but added that he will be going through the reintegration program for the “immediate future.”
A U.S. military flight carrying King landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston at about 0530 GMT, officials said. Television footage showed a group of people leaving a plane at the base at that time.
Army spokesperson Bryce Dubee said King was at the base’s Brooke Army Medical Center.
“The Army’s focus right now is on ensuring the soldier’s well-being and privacy,” Dubee added.
RIGOROUS EXAMINATION
King was expected to undergo a rigorous examination process at the center, where basketball star Brittney Griner was treated in December after a prisoner swap with Russia ended her 10 months in Russian detention. Given patient privacy concerns, the U.S. military may not make the results of those examinations public.
King ran into North Korea from the South on July 18 while on a civilian tour of the border and was immediately taken into North Korean custody.
It was unclear if King will face disciplinary action by the U.S. Army. It has so far not called him a deserter, even though he crossed the border without authorization while on active duty, and it has deferred questions about any punishments King might face.
For its part, North Korea appears to have treated his case as one of illegal immigration.
Its KCNA state news agency said King told Pyongyang he entered North Korea illegally because he was “disillusioned about unequal U.S. society.”
The Swedish government, which represents U.S. interests in North Korea because Washington has no diplomatic presence in the country, retrieved King in North Korea and brought him to China.
The State Department said the U.S. ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, met King in Dandong, China, a city bordering North Korea. King then flew from there to Shenyang, China, then on to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea, before continuing his voyage back to the United States.
King, who joined the Army in January 2021, faced two allegations of assault in South Korea. He pleaded guilty to assault and destroying public property for damaging a police car during a profanity-laced tirade against Koreans, according to court documents. He had been due to face more disciplinary measures in the United States.
Pyongyang appears to have concluded King’s criminal background made him “unfit” for propaganda purposes, said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
Keeping him longer, Yang said, could have risked another incident like that of Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student who died shortly after he was returned to the United States from imprisonment in North Korea.
“So they might have just opted to use it as a chance to highlight themselves as a ‘normal state,’ showing that they are no longer using these detainees for political, diplomatic purposes,” Yang said.
Jenny Town, director of the Washington-based North Korea project 38 North, did not see the incident reopening the door to stalled U.S.-North Korea diplomacy aimed at curbing Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs, although she said it might reflect slightly improving U.S.-China relations, given China’s cooperation in the return.
Even as King was en route home, North Korea said it had adopted a constitutional amendment to enshrine its policy on nuclear force, and its leader Kim Jong Un pledged to accelerate production of nuclear weapons to deter what he called U.S. provocations.
China’s foreign ministry said North Korea and the United States had requested that China provide assistance for King’s return in a humanitarian spirit.
In July, King had finished serving military detention in Korea and was at the airport awaiting U.S. military transport to his home unit in the U.S. Instead, he left the airport and joined a tour of the border area, where he ran into North Korea despite attempts by South Korean and U.S. guards to stop him.
Vinhomes Central Park and Landmark 81, Vietnam’s tallest building are seen from the Saigon river in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam June 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yen Duong
A Vietnamese court has sentenced an environmental activist to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud, just days after the government discussed protecting human rights with U.S. President Joe Biden during a state visit.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, director of an environmental advocacy group that she started in 2013 and ran until 2022, was convicted of tax evasion after trial in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday that lasted half a day, according to her lawyer Nguyen Van Tu.
“Hong pleaded guilty, and therefore the trial ended quickly,” Tu told Reuters by telephone.
The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply concerned” by the sentencing and reiterated calls on Vietnam to “release all those unjustly detained and to respect the right to freedoms of expression and association.”
The State Department praised the track record of Hong and said leaders like her played “a vital role in tackling global challenges.”
Hong was accused of dodging tax payments worth 6.7 billion dong ($274,488) during the 2012-2022 period, Thanh Nien newspaper cited the indictment as saying.
She was also made to pay a cash fine of 100 million dong, her lawyer said, adding that she has 15 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict.
“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton, co-director of The 88 Project charity.
“This is yet another example of the law being weaponised to persecute climate activists who are fighting to save the planet,” he said.
Biden left Vietnam on Sept. 11 after having upgraded diplomatic relations and sealed multiple deals with Hanoi’s leaders, drawing criticism from human rights organisations that accused him of sidelining issues of human rights.
Hong in 1997 became the first Vietnamese to visit Antarctica, was hailed by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2018 for mobilising “a youth-led movement to create a greener world”, and was awarded a grant from the first Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University that year.
The Thanh Nien report said Hong expressed her remorse and asked for leniency at the trial so that she could “return and continue to contribute to the society and the country.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the Vietnam government to drop all charges against Hong and unconditionally release her.
“The Vietnamese authorities are using the vaguely worded tax code as a weapon to punish environmental leaders whom the ruling Communist Party deems a threat to their power,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW.
As of early this month, Vietnam was holding at least 159 political prisoners and was detaining 22 others pending trial, HRW said.
On Sept. 15, Hanoi police detained Ngo Thi To Nhien, executive director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition, an independent think tank focused on green energy policy. The U.N. human rights office this week raised concerns about the arrest.
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The dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh as a breakaway state is a seminal point — a rare supernova among the constellation of ethnic conflicts left by the implosion of the USSR.
Refugees sit in the back of a truck near Kornidzor, Armenia, on Thursday. Alain Jocard / AFP – Getty Images
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Sept. 28, 2023, 6:06 PM UTC
By Matt Bradley and Natasha Lebedeva
After more than half the population of an ethnic Armenian enclave fled their homes in a mountainous pocket of land south of Russia, the breakaway republic’s leaders said it would soon “cease to exist.”
In what amounted to a formal capitulation to Azerbaijan, which surrounds it, the Armenian leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh said the self-declared Republic of Artsakh would be dismantled by the end of the year.
This would end three decades of intermittent conflict in and around the enclave, break a 10-month blockade of the region in the South Caucasus that residents said had starved them into submission, and dash hopes of an independent state in territory claimed by Azerbaijan.
The dissolution of Nagorno-Karabakh as a breakaway state is a seminal point — a rare supernova among the constellation of ethnic conflicts left by the implosion of the then-Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The conflict’s abrupt halt reflects how the geopolitical reach of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced realignments far beyond that war.
In an official decree, the region’s separatist President Samvel Shakhramanyan said that residents of Nagorno-Karabakh must now “familiarize themselves with the conditions of reintegration” into Azerbaijan and make “an independent and individual decision about the possibility of staying (or returning) in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
An Armenian family fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh arrives at Yerevan airport in 1991 after being evacuated by a Soviet army helicopter.Wojtek Druszcz / AFP via Getty Images
The announcement came as around 70,000 of the enclave’s population of about 120,000 fled from the region, which sits within Azerbaijan’s borders, to neighboring Armenia, according to Armenia’s government, with more still arriving.
Many residents hauled what few personal belongings they could gather into packed cars, trucks, buses and tractors, some pockmarked with shrapnel after days of Azerbaijani attacks.
Armenia’s leadership has accused Azerbaijan of instigating a refugee crisis by launching a swift invasion this week. Azerbaijan has denied allegations of “ethnic cleansing,” saying it is not forcing people to leave, and would peacefully reintegrate the region and guarantee rights of ethnic Armenians.
Holding a wealth of monasteries, mosques and other religious sites, Nagorno-Karabakh is culturally significant for both Muslim Azeris and what was an overwhelming Christian Armenian population. Armenians in Azerbaijan have been victims of pogroms, while Azerbaijanis claim discrimination and violence at the hands of Armenians.
“Azerbaijan has won a comprehensive military victory and what we’re looking at now is the prospect of Nagorno-Karabakh without Armenians or with very few Armenians remaining,” said Thomas de Waal, a senior fellow with the London-based Carnegie Europe think tank. “So in that sense, Azerbaijan has won.”
The Karabakh Mountains, seen from the Armenian side of the border with Azerbaijan on Wednesday.Alain Jocard / AFP – Getty Images
For those fleeing, the despair of losing their homes was made worse by losing their homeland.
“Many of them are from villages which were taken by the Azerbaijani army, so they really lost their homes already,” said Astrig Agopian, a French Armenian journalist who has been reporting this week on the refugee crisis from Armenia’s border. “There is really this feeling that this time is different. It’s another war, but it’s a war that is definitely lost this time.”
Were that the case, it would bring to an end decades of violence in the region, which has been at the center of geopolitical interests between Eastern and Western nations for centuries.
The political dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh began as the then-Soviet Union weakened in the late 1980s, and Armenians demanded that the majority-Armenian region be incorporated into the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh comfort a young woman upon arriving in Kornidzor, Armenia, on Tuesday. Vasily Krestyaninov / AP
After the USSR collapsed in 1991, the conflict erupted into a full-scale war that persisted until a Russian-brokered peace deal in 1994. About 30,000 people were killed and more than a million people displaced.
“My husband died in the first war. He was 30, I was 26. Our children were 3 and 4 years old. It is the fourth war that I went through,” Narine Shakaryan, a grandmother of four, told the Reuters news agency after she arrived in Armenia. “My husband died back then, he was 30 in 1994. That’s the cursed life that we live.”
The fighting continued intermittently for several more decades, leaving an indelible mark on generations of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian residents. A recent war in 2020 saw the more powerful Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, reclaim much of the land surrounding the area, as well as part of the region itself.
Russia negotiated an end to that flare-up and even deployed peacekeepers to ensure security along the Lachin Corridor, the single mountain road that connected Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh.
But the events of the past year show how Moscow, which has historically played the role of both peacekeeper and ally to Armenia — which shares its Christian roots and hosts a Russian military base — has adjusted its allegiances following its invasion of Ukraine and its conflicts with the West.
Refugees crossing the border near Kornidzor, Armenia, on Wednesday.Alain Jocard / AFP – Getty Images
“The pivotal factor was that Azerbaijan was talking separately to the Russians, and had a joint agenda with the Russians, to pressure Armenia and also to keep the West out of the Caucasus,” de Waal said. “This is why when the Azerbaijani assault happened, Russian peacekeepers who could have actually stopped it stood down. And then Russia failed to condemn the attack.”
After its invasion of Ukraine left Russia isolated, Moscow may feel it has more to gain from cozying up to Azerbaijan than Armenia, particularly after the latter made a public display of cozying up to the West and provided humanitarian aid to Kyiv.
Earlier this month, the country conducted joint exercises with the U.S. military and the Armenian Parliament is set to vote next week on whether to accede to the International Criminal Court, which classifies Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal — a move the Kremlin characterized Thursday as “extremely hostile.”
Inside Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s government has assured the region’s Armenian population that they will be treated humanely and afforded equal rights.
But after months of blockades and blistering fighting, few ethnic Armenians believe it and many feel they have no choice but to flee.
Military equipment, weapons and ammunition seized in the Karabakh region – LIST
Information on military equipment, weapons and ammunition seized after the completion of local anti-terror measures conducted in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region as of 18:00 on September 28.
U.S. Agency for International Development has deployed a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in the South Caucasus region to coordinate the U.S. humanitarian response in Nagorno Karabakh, the USAID reports.
The DART will assess the situation, identify priority needs to scale up assistance, and work with partners to provide urgently needed aid.
This week, USAID Administrator traveled to Armenia to hear directly from the people fleeing their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh in the wake of Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 attacks.
“The United States is deeply concerned about the safety of vulnerable populations in Nagorno-Karabakh and the more than 50,000 people who have fled to Armenia. We are grateful to the Government of Armenia for welcoming new arrivals and helping them find shelter and to humanitarian organizations working to address acute needs,” Power said in a statement.
“Last week’s unacceptable military operation has made an already dire humanitarian situation even worse. For nine months, Azerbaijan blocked the Lachin Corridor – shutting down a vital lifeline that connects the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh with food, medicine, fuel, and commercial supplies which is creating dire shortages,” she said.
“The Lachin Corridor must remain fully and permanently open so that civilians can leave and return freely, communities can access food, medicine, and other essential supplies, and humanitarian organizations can see and meet needs on the ground. Azerbaijan must protect civilians, uphold its obligations to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all individuals in its country, and ensure its forces comply with international humanitarian law,” Samantha Power stated.
Given the scale of the needs, the United States announced $11.5 million in humanitarian assistance earlier this week to support communities across the South Caucasus who are affected by the ongoing crisis. This is in addition to the more than $23 million the United States has provided in humanitarian assistance since 2020 in response to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh. These funds will be used to provide everything from food to psychosocial support to help address trauma caused by the violence and mass displacement.
The moment we expected has come! Azerbaijan’s efforts were very successful and led to the abolition of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh” name on earth. September 28 is considered a historical achievement of Azerbaijan. In the end, all the projects of 200-year-old Armenian separatists were destroyed along with miatsum.
The new reality in Karabakh is a consequence of the military and political victories of Azerbaijan, the Director General of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia) Igor Korotchenko said, Report informs.
Armenians ‘lose motherland’ in blow to Russia’s influence abroadposted at 15:37:55 UTC via ft.com Last week, Vardan Tadevosyan was still the health minister of a small if unrecognised republic in the south Caucasus mountains, managing dozens of government employees and running one of the busiest medical facilities in the region.But in a span of 24 hours,…
“Russia could lay down arms and end its war today. Ukraine does not have that option,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is on a visit to Kyiv, told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Report informs.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed the construction progress of the Jabrayil Residential Complex – the first residential quarter being built in the city by the State Housing Construction Agency, Report informs via AZERTAC.
On September 28, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Zangilan region and took part in the groundbreaking ceremonies of the third and fourth residential complexes and a kindergarten for 160 places in the city of Zangilan, as well as the villages of Zangilan and Alibeyli.In addition, Aliyev participated in the opening of the Jahangirbeyli hydroelectric…
The moment we expected has come! Azerbaijan’s efforts were very successful and led to the abolition of the so-called “Nagorno-Karabakh” name on earth. September 28 is considered a historical achievement of Azerbaijan. In the end, all the projects of 200-year-old Armenian separatists were destroyed along with miatsum.
The new reality in Karabakh is a consequence of the military and political victories of Azerbaijan, the Director General of the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies (Russia) Igor Korotchenko said, Report informs.
Armenians ‘lose motherland’ in blow to Russia’s influence abroadposted at 15:37:55 UTC via ft.com Last week, Vardan Tadevosyan was still the health minister of a small if unrecognised republic in the south Caucasus mountains, managing dozens of government employees and running one of the busiest medical facilities in the region.But in a span of 24 hours,…
“Russia could lay down arms and end its war today. Ukraine does not have that option,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who is on a visit to Kyiv, told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Report informs.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has viewed the construction progress of the Jabrayil Residential Complex – the first residential quarter being built in the city by the State Housing Construction Agency, Report informs via AZERTAC.
On September 28, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Zangilan region and took part in the groundbreaking ceremonies of the third and fourth residential complexes and a kindergarten for 160 places in the city of Zangilan, as well as the villages of Zangilan and Alibeyli.In addition, Aliyev participated in the opening of the Jahangirbeyli hydroelectric…
Last week, Vardan Tadevosyan was still the health minister of a small if unrecognised republic in the south Caucasus mountains, managing dozens of government employees and running one of the busiest medical facilities in the region.
But in a span of 24 hours, the government of Nagorno-Karabakh ceased to exist. Soon, Tadevosyan’s staff began to leave their offices; patients vacated their hospital beds; doctors and nurses disappeared. There were so few police officers left that the streets started to feel unsafe.
Only the roads out of the region’s capital, Stepanakert, were busy — jammed with the tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fleeing the city after Azerbaijan retook the breakaway enclave by force in a brief but bloody war last week. About 200 people were killed, according to local officials; the injured were soon ferried to Yerevan, the Armenian capital.
“We don’t have any more army, we have no police, no state . . . in two days, only ghosts will be around. The city will be totally empty,” Tadevosyan said, speaking by phone from the medical centre he founded 25 years ago.
He had come to the centre to pack up its equipment. “Almost all of my staff are already on their way,” he said. “Just a couple of people are still here, but all of them want to leave.”
Stepanakert’s empty streets mark a tragedy for Armenia, a country that sees the mountainous region as its ancestral heartland — a point strongly disputed by its oil-rich neighbour Azerbaijan, which also has historical ties to the area.
It also marks an abrupt and brutal end to one of the most bitter land disputes born of the Soviet Union’s collapse, one that had defined the region for decades. The territory, which was internationally recognised as Azerbaijan’s, became known as a textbook “frozen” conflict, one that allowed Russia to continue playing power broker in what it terms its “near abroad”.
But as Armenia reels from the events of the past week, Russia’s hold over the country appears to have been damaged beyond repair. Moscow was long seen as Armenia’s key ally and security guarantor; Armenians expected it to protect the status quo and prevent the absorption of Karabakh into Azerbaijan.
“Our hopes rested on the Russians, they are our brothers. Why did they allow the Azerbaijanis to treat us this way?” said a former village shopkeeper, who had brought her thin, wizened, 85-year-old mother to a hospital after making the journey out of Karabakh. Both women had lost a son to one of the many wars for Karabakh.
In the hospital, located in Goris in southern Armenia, wards are filled with families who fled and are now recovering from their gruelling journey. So far, more than 70,000 people — or more than half of Karabakh’s total population — have left.
One woman spent two nights with her daughter, who has cerebral palsy, in the huge queue of cars that had formed along the single, serpentine road out from Karabakh, laying the 12-year-old on the ground when she had epileptic fits.
Another had brought her husband to the hospital; he had suffered a mini-stroke after crossing a checkpoint set up by Azerbaijan.
Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan last week publicly criticised Russia and questioned the work of the 2,000 Russian soldiers that had been deployed since 2020 to keep the peace in Karabakh.
Pashinyan told Armenians that “the security systems and the allies we have relied on for many years” were “ineffective”, and that the “instruments of the Armenian-Russian strategic partnership” were “not enough to ensure Armenia’s external security”.
It marks a historic shift in the country’s foreign policy and, for Moscow, a loss of one of its oldest allies. “We are convinced that the Armenian leadership is making a huge mistake,” the Kremlin said, decrying Pashinyan’s “pivot away from Russia” and “a frenzied anti-Russian campaign” in local media.
As protests broke out in Yerevan over the loss of Karabakh, some Armenians spoke of their fear that Russia could fuel the demonstrations in order to put pressure on Pashinyan, or even overthrow him, a claim the Kremlin swiftly denied.
Distracted by its draining war in Ukraine, Russia however is unlikely to muscle in, as it has been known to do when countries drift from its orbit, said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center, a think-tank in Yerevan.
“Yes, Moscow is angry with Yerevan. But Moscow is more angry and much more challenged by Baku,” Giragosian said. The seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh revealed “Russian weakness in the face of the Azerbaijani use of force”, furthering the “steady erosion of Russia’s standing and the slow death of the ‘myth of Russian military might’”, he said.
With Armenian public anger over the loss of Karabakh directed more at Russia, as well as the breakaway region’s elite, and at the west for its inaction, Pashinyan’s position seems secure, Giragosian said.
Fears remain, however, that Azerbaijan’s ambitions could extend beyond Karabakh, which it first lost to Armenia in a war in the 1990s, and into southern Armenia.
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev recently described the region as “western Azerbaijan”, though the two countries are also holding peace talks where they are expected to mutually recognise each other’s territorial integrity. “We have no claim on their territory,” Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to the UK, told the Financial Times.
As the exodus from Karabakh continues, Azerbaijani security services have not yet entered Stepanakert, locals said. But border guards have made the first arrest of a member of the Karabakh elite. Another on Thursday decided to give himself up, travelling to Azerbaijan.
A process of disarmament is ongoing, with Karabakh soldiers handing over weapons to Azerbaijan at Russian peacekeeping bases.
That process is going peacefully, Suleymanov said. He rejected the notion of ethnic cleansing, saying people were leaving of their own accord, and though he acknowledged that they might be driven out by fear, he said they were victims of manufactured hysteria.
He described the region as being restored to “normalcy” after the fighting, with aid being delivered, field kitchens going up and Azerbaijani doctors soon to be sent to work in local hospitals.
Armenians fleeing Karabakh see things differently.
“It was chaos, an anthill. Everyone was rushing around in a panic,” said a 50-year-old teacher, holding her two-month-old granddaughter in the hospital in Goris. The family had struggled to find medical aid for an infection the baby had caught while they were sheltering underground from Azerbaijan’s offensive.
The child was saved by a doctor who had planned to evacuate but chose to stay on for longer when the baby’s condition worsened. On Monday, when nurses began handing out the hospital’s medical supplies for free, the family decided to risk it and leave.
Tadevosyan, who queried whether he should be referred to as the health minister of Nagorno-Karabakh since the republic no longer existed, said he was dismayed by the “very chaotic” evacuation.
“People just started to leave. No one is giving them instruction,” he said. He plans to leave as well, but not for some time yet. “I have to be one of the last to go.”
Late on Monday, as people struggled to buy petrol for the journey out of Stepanakert, which is called Khankendi in Azeri, a massive explosion rocked a fuel depot, killing more than 100 people and covering the sky in thick, black smoke.
It was a devastating final blow, Tadevosyan said. “The explosion just killed everyone morally. We were already very sad. It is dramatic, tragedy feeling, when your country is leaving, and you lose your motherland.”
Armenia will process the historic loss for years to come. “I lost my identity,” Tadevosyan said.
posted at 15:20:36 UTC by Peter Suciuvia19FortyFive
Both Kyiv’s and Moscow’s forces have faced a shortage of ammunition in the now more than 19-month-long war, which at times has been little more than an artillery duel between the two sides.
posted at 15:17:33 UTC by Forbes Breaking NewsviaForbes Under 30
At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) spoke about the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, blaming former President Trump for the hearing.
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posted at 15:17:33 UTC by Forbes Breaking NewsviaForbes Under 30
At a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) demanded a subpoena of Rudy Giuliani.
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The U.S. Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.1% for the second quarter of 2023, according to a revised report released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Julia Pollak, chief economist for ZipRecruiter, joined CBS News to discuss the numbers.
Программа поддержки Грузии Международного валютного фонда (МВФ) приостановлена по причине процессов, развивающихся вокруг Нацбанка Грузии. Действие программы МВФ является своеобразным руководством для финансовых институтов и инвесторов для формирования представления о макроэкономической стабильности и инвестиционном климате конкретной страны. Что означает прекращение программы для Грузии? Программа МВФ Международный валютный фонд помогает странам-реципиентам, таким как Грузия, достигать и поддерживать […]
Refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh region ride in a truck upon their arrival at the border village of Kornidzor, Armenia, September 27, 2023. REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze Acquire Licensing Rights
LONDON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan does not want a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh and is not encouraging anyone to leave the “liberated” region, Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Britain, said on Thursday.
In an interview with Reuters, Suleymanov said Azerbaijan, which took back control of Karabakh last week in a military operation, had not yet had a chance to prove what he said was its genuine commitment to provide secure and better living conditions for those ethnic Armenians who choose to stay.
Some 70,500 people had crossed from Karabakh into Armenia by early Thursday afternoon, Russia’s RIA news agency reported, out of an estimated population of 120,000. Earlier, Ethnic Armenian authorities in Karabakh said they were dissolving the breakaway statelet they had defended against Azerbaijan for three decades.
Many of those leaving have said they fear persecution and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Azerbaijan. Some critics have said the exodus, which has shown how little trust many Armenians have in Azerbaijani promises, is what Baku wants as it will make it easier to resettle the area with Azerbaijanis.
Suleymanov, who issued a call on social media appealing to ethnic Armenians to stay and be part of a multi-ethnic Azerbaijan, said he understood why many civilians were frightened, but that those who chose to stay would benefit from planned rebuilding and infrastructure projects.
“What should Azerbaijan do? We cannot keep them by force, we don’t want to keep anyone by force, (but) we don’t encourage anyone to leave,” he said, adding that Azerbaijani authorities had delivered requested medical, fuel and other supplies.
“We would prefer for people at least to be in a position to make a more informed decision on whether they want to stay. So far, Azerbaijan has not had any chance to prove anything because the time was very short.”
HISTORIC MONUMENTS
Karabakh Armenians will enjoy the same rights and protections as other citizens of Azerbaijan, he said. Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
He rejected Armenian fears that Azerbaijan would now proceed to destroy Armenian churches and monasteries in Karabakh, saying Baku had “no reason” to destroy historic monuments.
Baku’s use of force to retake Karabakh has fuelled fears among some Armenians that it may also use force to carve out a land corridor via Armenia to link up western Azerbaijan with its autonomous exclave of Nakhchivan, a strip of territory nestled between Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
Suleymanov said the idea was to re-open transport corridors and make the wider region more prosperous and that he hoped a road and rail corridor could be agreed on via negotiation.
“Nobody is going to open anything by force,” he said. “That defeats the purpose. Nobody is going to put troops there, we’re not going to invade them (Armenia).”
Reporting by Andrew Osborn Editing by Gareth Jones
As Russia Chief Political Correspondent, and former Moscow bureau chief, Andrew helps lead coverage of the world’s largest country, whose political, economic and social transformation under President Vladimir Putin he has reported on for much of the last two decades, along with its growing confrontation with the West and wars in Georgia and Ukraine. Andrew was part of a Wall Street Journal reporting team short-listed for a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. He has also reported from Moscow for two British newspapers, The Telegraph and The Independent.
Few people take the time to give thanks to American astrologer Richard Noelle. Astrology as a whole may not have contributed much to the advancement of science, but that doesn’t mean that an astrologer’s ideas can’t have a very big impact. In 1979, Noelle had a good idea indeed, when he coined the now-ubiquitous term “supermoon.”
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Prior to Noelle’s brainstorm, the common descriptor for a full moon that occurs at the low point, or perigee, in its orbit around the Earth was a “perigean full moon,” a turgid bit of phrasing not remotely in keeping with the loveliness of the phenomenon. This year has been a good one for supermoons, with three occurring already—on July 3, Aug. 1, Aug. 30—and a fourth one teed up to appear in the eastern sky just after sunset on Sept. 28. September’s supermoon will reach its brightest illumination at 5:58 a.m. ET on Sept. 29, and set shortly after.
During the time the supermoon is riding across the sky there will be plenty to see. For one, the moon will not make its appearance alone. About an hour before it becomes visible, Saturn will rise and precede the moon across the sky throughout the night. Jupiter will then appear, about 90 minutes after the moon does, and similarly fly in tandem with it.
Then there’s the spectacular sight of the moon itself. The average distance between the Earth and the moon is 384,400 km (238,855 mi.). But that figure has a lot of wiggle room. The moon’s path around the Earth is elliptical; at its most distant point, or apogee, it is 405,500 km (253,000 mi.) away; at its perigee, it is just 363,300 km (226,000 mi.) from us.
A full moon during such close approaches appears to be as much as 14% larger than an ordinary full moon. Not everyone is impressed by this. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), in 2017, astrophysicist, author, and television personality Neil deGrasse Tyson wrote: “If last month’s Full Moon were a 16.0 inch pizza, then this month’s ‘Super’ moon would be 16.1 inches. Just saying.” In a follow-up post, he added: “If a 16.1 inch pizza is ‘super’ to you, compared with a 16.0 inch pizza, then we have an issue of vocabulary.”
But the visual impact a supermoon can make is powerful—especially when it has just risen or is about to set, thanks to the straightforwardly named “moon illusion.” When the moon is in the sky but hugging the horizon, there are lots of relatively small surface features like trees and houses in the foreground. The farther away from us those objects are, the smaller they seem to be. The occipital lobe and other sight-processing centers of the brain act in error on this information, comparing the apparent size of the moon to the apparent size of the little objects and concluding that the moon must be huge to dwarf them so easily. It then serves up a perception in keeping with that conclusion. That makes the 14% edge a supermoon has over a standard issue full moon seem even larger. As Tyson points out, the illusion is especially pronounced in cities, because skyscrapers provide the same point of reference as houses and trees, and they do so even when the moon is well above the horizon.
(In case you want to shatter the moon illusion, NASA has a way. When the full moon is near the horizon, extend your arm and raise your index finger. The moon will appear to be about the same size as your fingernail. Now repeat the comparison when the moon is high in the sky; the fingernail and the moon will still be of equivalent sizes.)
If you feel like you’ve been hearing more about supermoons lately, you’re not wrong. Supermoons have become more common than they used to be—but not because the moon has gotten any closer to the Earth. Rather, it’s that astronomers, as well as NASA, have, since at least 2001, changed the standards of what constitutes a supermoon, defining it as a full moon that comes within 90% of perigee, rather than requiring it to reach that closest 226,000 mi. approach. That new standard has slowly caught on over the years with more and more moons earning the “super” label.
September’s supermoon, like all supermoons, will go by a nickname. A full moon in early July was dubbed a Buck Moon by Native Americans because it appears at the same time male, adult deer begin to grow new antlers. Early August brought us the Sturgeon Moon, another legacy from Native Americans, who chose the name because August is the peak fishing month for sturgeon in the Great Lakes. The supermoon that appeared in late August was known as the Blue Supermoon. The “blue” part was a gift not from Native Americans, but from amateur astronomer Hugh Pruett, who in 1946 wrote an article for Sky & Telescope magazine, and, for reasons never quite clear, chose the color blue to describe the second full moon in a month. Supermoons occur every three or four months, but a Super Blue Moon is much less common—happening, on average, just once a decade. The upcoming super moon on Sept. 29 is known as the Harvest Moon, a name conferred by both Native American and Colonial planters because that was the month in which they reaped their crops. The first use of “Harvest Moon” has been traced to 1706, when the Oxford English Dictionary published the name.
After this Harvest Moon passes below the horizon, the curtain will come down on all supermoons in 2023. The sky shows will resume next year, with three supermoons in succession: on Feb. 9, March 10, and April 8. They’re worth waiting for. Supermoons are stunning, fun, and entirely free—a little cosmic dance the Earth and moon have been performing for more than four billion years now.
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Medics at a burn centre in Yerevan, Armenia, attend to a patient after an explosion at a fuel depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region © Hayk Baghdasaryan/Photolure/Reuters
Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan has publicly criticised Russia © Armenian Government/AFP/Getty Images
A protest last week in Yerevan against Azerbaijan’s military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region © Narek Aleksanyan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Smoke rises from a fuel depot after an explosion near Stepanakert on Monday © Siranush Sargsyan’s Twitter account/AP
