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Rishi Sunak makes surprise visit to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv; Kyiv in a ‘critical situation’ with power shortages, say officials

Rishi Sunak made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday to meet Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy – Sunak’s first visit to the country since taking office.

Sunak announced that Britain will provide a £50m air defence package for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian-supplied drones.

Zelenskiy thanked Sunak, for his support and tweeted: “With friends like you by our side, we are confident in our victory. Both of our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said at least 437 Ukrainian children have been killed and more than 837 injured as a result of Russia’s invasion.

Five people were injured in a Russian strike on a humanitarian station in southern Ukraine, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior aide to Zelenskiy.

Nine people, including four children, died after a suspected gas explosion in a residential building in Russia’s Sakhalin island, the local governor said.

About 60 Russian soldiers were killed in a long-range Ukrainian artillery attack this week, Kyiv said on Saturday. In a Facebook post, the armed forces general staff said Russia suffered the losses on Thursday when Ukrainian forces shelled the town of Mykhailkva, 40km to the south of Kherson. Russian forces abandoned the city earlier this month.

Kyiv is in a “critical situation” with power shortages and faces hours-long blackouts, officials say, amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. But the energy ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian electricity supplies were under control and there was no need to panic.

Zelenskiy said on Saturday that the supply problems were worst in and around Kyiv as well as in six other regions. “We are working throughout the country to stabilise the situation,” he said in a video address.

Ukrainian forces could be in Crimea by the end of December, the country’s deputy defence minister, Volodymyr Havrylov, has said.

The UK Ministry of Defence has released its latest intelligence update on the war Ukraine. Russia made its largest single-day issuance of debt in history on Wednesday, it said.

Moscow had not officially contacted Kyiv about peace negotiations, but Russia would have to completely withdraw its forces for talks to take place, said Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian presidential chief of staff.

The first passenger train to the recently liberated Kherson city arrived from Kyiv for the first time since Russian troops occupied the southern Ukrainian city.

The funeral took place on Saturday of a Polish man who was one of two victims killed when a missile crashed into a grain storage facility in the Polish village of Przewodow.

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austinm said China and Russia were seeking a world where force is used to resolve disputes and he vowed the United States would continue to defend humanitarian principles and international law.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to the Ukrainian president, has dismissed “conspiracy theories” about his country surrendering. “Ukraine will not kneel to Russians.”

Asia-Pacific leaders added their voices on Saturday to international pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, issuing a summit statement saying “most” of them condemned the war.

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Australia is talking up its green credentials at the annual U.N. climate summit, but its policies do not match the portrayal as it continues to support new mining and energy projects, and fuels the crisis through its enormous fossil fuel exports.

A year after his predecessor was slammed as a climate laggard, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government is touting tougher goals for cutting carbon emissions and a pledge to reduce methane emissions, as nations at the COP27 conference in Egypt seek a global climate deal.

Albanese’s climate change minister, Chris Bowen, telling the conference Australia was a “willing climate collaborator“, made a pitch to host COP31 in 2026 along with the Pacific island nations.

But Australia, one of the top global exporter of coal and gas, has not committed to ending new projects or halting the expansion of existing ones, and it continues to subsidise fossil fuel development.

At COP27, Canberra did not sign a clean energy transition agreement that calls for an end to all new direct public support for the international fossil-fuel energy sector by year’s end, which was supported by peers like Canada, Britain and the United States.

“Australia has shown up with the face that says we are the renewable energy superpower, we’re getting into clean energy and clean manufacturing,” said Nicki Hutley, economics spokesperson for the Climate Council, an independent Australian nonprofit.

“But if you turn to see the other side of the face it’s all about the fossil fuel development and the government’s addiction to fossil fuel royalties and revenues,” Hutley told Reuters in a phone interview from COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Australia, whose fossil fuel exports have nearly doubled since 2005, does not count in its reduction targets the emissions from the coal and gas its overseas customers burn, known as “Scope 3” emissions.

“Effectively, we are still pouring fossil fuels out to the atmosphere and Australia conveniently doesn’t count our scope 3 emissions,” Hutley said.

Leaders of Pacific nations, among the countries most endangered by rising sea levels, said Australia should end its fossil fuel subsidies if it wants their support to host the next summit, according to media reports.

Asked for comment, Bowen’s office referred Reuters to previous statements he has made. The minister told ABC Radio that Australia has received strong support from Pacific nations and other countries for its bid to host COP.

“There’s a moral imperative for Australia to act on climate change. And we’ll be engaging very strongly and continue to engage in all those reforms,” he told ABC Radio.

Albanese ended nine years of conservative rule in May on a campaign of addressing climate change. Devastating bush fires, floods and other extreme weather events had alarmed Australians, leading to calls for tougher climate policies, largely rebuffed by then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The new centre-left Labor government strengthened Australia’s 2030 emissions-reduction target to 43% from Morrison’s 26%, aiming for zero net emissions by 2050. By comparison, though, neighbour New Zealand’s 2030 target is a 50% cut, the United States 50%-52%, the European Union 55% and Britain 63%.

Albanese joined the pledge to cut global methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade but says this is a nonbinding “aspirational” goal.

He launched plans to rapidly shift to renewable power and rewire the nation by plugging more renewable power generation into the national grid.

Australia’s biggest contribution to the climate crisis is its export of fossil fuels. It is the world’s third-largest fossil fuel exporter, trailing only Russia and Saudi Arabia – the top exporter of coking coal, used to make steel; second-largest exporter of thermal coal, used in coal-fired power stations; and the largest exporter of liquefied gas.

More than 100 fossil fuel developments continued in various stages as of December 2021, the council said in a report this month, based on government data. Albanese’s government has not pledged to halt any such projects, saying a ban would cause economic risks.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors, representing the A$3.3 trillion ($2.2 trillion) pension funds industry, estimates that only about 20 of the approximately 190 top listed companies it reviewed had targets for all emissions types aligned with the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“There is clearly a policy gap in Australia that is allowing fossil fuel companies to continue expanding and developing new fossil fuel projects,” said Will van de Pol, asset management campaigner at activist investor group Market Forces.

Australia has seen unprecedented climate events in the last few years, including the worst floods and bushfires ever, while Pacific nations are at the frontline of climate emergency amid rising sea levels.

“Australia is particularly exposed to the physical impacts of climate change and we know that with every fraction of a degree of further warming the risks of those physical climate impacts are increased,” van de Pol said.

Noting that neighbouring Pacific islands are even more on the climate front lines, he said, “Australia has a responsibility to lead the way in decarbonisation.”

($1 = 1.4905 Australian dollars)

Donald Trump on Saturday said he had no interest in returning to Twitter even as a slim majority voted in favor of reinstating the former U.S. President, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by new owner Elon Musk.

Slightly over 15 million Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstatement.

“The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted.

Trump had appeared less than keen earlier in the day.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.

He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were “incredible”.

Musk first said in May he planned to reverse the ban on Trump, and the timing of any return by Trump was closely watched — and feared — by many of Twitter’s advertisers.

The billionaire has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a decision would be made with consideration by a content moderation council composed of people with “widely diverse viewpoints” and no account reinstatements would happen before the council convened.

He also said Twitter would not reinstate any banned users until there was a “clear process for doing so.” read more

But this week, Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” which violated his new rule against impersonation without indicating it was a parody account. There has been no new information about process or the moderation council.

A no-show by Trump could reduce concerns among major advertisers, who are already rattled by Musk’s drastic reshaping of Twitter.

He has halved the workforce and severely cut the company’s trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.

These actions and Musk’s tweeting have pushed major companies to halt advertising on the site as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.

On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Twitter could fire more employees in its sales and partnership divisions, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass resignation of engineers.

If Trump returned to Twitter, the move would raise questions about his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February and Google’s Play Store in October. Trump has some 4.57 million followers on Truth Social.

Truth Social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.

His agreement with the company, however, opens the door for Trump to engage extensively on other platforms. Trump is obligated to give Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post – but is free to post “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts” on any site, at any time, according to a May SEC filing.

Have you ever given a public speech? If you have, you certainly are aware that it’s fairly easy to tell which way the wind is blowing. If people like what you have to say, they will listen. Conversations will cease as all attention and eyes are focused on you and the words you are speaking. It can be a nice feeling.

Or it can go the other way — as it did for Donald Trump. Trump, of course, made his presidential announcement which bored the shit out of the few people who were there to see it. And we know they were bored. Boredom is not a nice feeling. I don’t know about you, but I personally hate being bored.

And the spectators there to witness a fake American announcing a fake candidacy were bored out of their ever-loving minds. How do we know this? Because there was a bit of a mass exodus as some of Trump’s audience — well -ran for the hills. Or tried to.

According to ABC News, Chief Washington correspondent Johnathan Karl, who was there, many people began heading for the exit — while Trump was still speaking. And who could blame them? Trump’s voice,flat and dead, filled the air, refusing to stop, unyielding in its inability to read the room.

Audience members seemed to want desperately to take flight and migrate away as the air became flatter, Trump’s voice became more agonizing to hear , and the atmosphere became scarier than than all of Hitchcock’s birds descending from the sky.

There was something brewing and that was an aching massive desire to escape. A crowd began to form. As Trump’s flat voice filled the air, a crowd was forming near the doors of the lavish ballroom. Only reportedly people were prevented from leaving. Apparently, the image of fleeing audience members was a bridge too far for the orange monster.

So they were forced to stay as Trump rambled on and on. “I actually saw people trying to leave and people leaving early…but they actually started preventing people from leaving,” Karl explained.

And no wonder! They needed SOMEONE as a witness that this announcement actually happened—After all, it’s not like the media was COVERING it. And that is the tale of a loser — the biggest loser — announcing a campaign that will never be, to a disinterested audience who couldn’t care less. A fitting reaction to the dullest public speech ever made.

The post Donal Trump’s faceplant appeared first on Palmer Report.

Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving said on Saturday that he was “deeply” apologetic after his team suspended him earlier this month for sharing anti-Semitic content on social media and not disavowing anti-Semitism.

Irving was listed as “questionable” for Sunday’s game at home against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Nets have kept him off the court for the last eight games after he “refused to unequivocally say he has no anti-Semitic beliefs.”

He told local sports network SNY on Saturday that he was not anti-Semitic and wanted to “set a greater example.”

“I don’t have hate in my heart for the Jewish people or anyone that identifies as a Jew,” he said.

“The difficult aspect is just processing all this, understanding the power of my voice, the influence I have. I am no one’s idol, but I am a human being that wants to make (an) impact and change.”

Irving faced heavy criticism after posting a link on Twitter last month to an anti-Semitic 2018 documentary and defending it. He later said it contained “false anti-Semitic statements” and apologized “for posting the documentary without context.”

Nike Inc (NKE.N) suspended its relationship with Irving in the aftermath and canceled the release of its next Irving-branded shoe.

The interview on Saturday marked the most direct apology the seven-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star has offered since he was handed his suspension on Nov. 3.

“I really want to focus on the hurt that I caused,” said Irving. “I just want to apologize deeply for all my actions throughout the time that it’s been since the post was first put up. I’ve had a lot of time to think.”

Donald Trump on Saturday said he had no interest in returning to Twitter even as a slim majority voted in favor of reinstating the former U.S. President, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by new owner Elon Musk.

Slightly over 15 million Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8% voting in favor of reinstatement.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.

He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were “incredible”.

Musk first said in May he planned to reverse the ban on Trump, and the timing of any return by Trump was closely watched — and feared — by many of Twitter’s advertisers.

The billionaire has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a decision would be made with consideration by a content moderation council composed of people with “widely diverse viewpoints” and no account reinstatements would happen before the council convened.

He also said Twitter would not reinstate any banned users until there was a “clear process for doing so.” read more

But this week, Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” which violated his new rule against impersonation without indicating it was a parody account. There has been no new information about process or the moderation council.

A no-show by Trump could reduce concerns among major advertisers, who are already rattled by Musk’s drastic reshaping of Twitter.

He has halved the workforce and severely cut the company’s trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.

These actions and Musk’s tweeting have pushed major companies to halt advertising on the site as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.

On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Twitter could fire more employees in its sales and partnership divisions, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass resignation of engineers.

If Trump returned to Twitter, the move would raise questions about his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February and Google’s Play Store in October. Trump has some 4.57 million followers on Truth Social.

Truth Social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.

His agreement with the company, however, opens the door for Trump to engage extensively on other platforms. Trump is obligated to give Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post – but is free to post “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts” on any site, at any time, according to a May SEC filing.

Donald Trump on Saturday said he had no interest in returning to Twitter even as a slim majority voted in favor of reinstating the former U.S. President, who was banned from the social media service for inciting violence, in a poll organized by new owner Elon Musk.

With less than 40 minutes before the poll closed, some 14.8 million Twitter users voted in the poll with 51.8% voting in favor of the reinstatement.

“I don’t see any reason for it,” the former president said via video when asked whether he planned to return to Twitter by a panel at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting.

He said he would stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) startup, which he said had better user engagement than Twitter and was doing “phenomenally well”.

Twitter did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who on Tuesday launched a bid to regain the White House in 2024, praised Musk and said he had always liked him. But Trump also said Twitter suffered from bots, fake accounts and that the problems it faced were “incredible”.

Musk first said in May he planned to reverse the ban on Trump, and the timing of any return by Trump was closely watched — and feared — by many of Twitter’s advertisers.

The billionaire has since sought to reassure users and advertisers that such a decision would be made with consideration by a content moderation council composed of people with “widely diverse viewpoints” and no account reinstatements would happen before the council convened.

He also said Twitter would not reinstate any banned users until there was a “clear process for doing so.” read more

But this week, Musk reinstated comedian Kathy Griffin, who had been banned for changing her profile name to “Elon Musk” which violated his new rule against impersonation without indicating it was a parody account. There has been no new information about process or the moderation council.

A no-show by Trump could reduce concerns among major advertisers, who are already rattled by Musk’s drastic reshaping of Twitter.

He has halved the workforce and severely cut the company’s trust and safety team, which is responsible for preventing the spread of misinformation and harmful content.

These actions and Musk’s tweeting have pushed major companies to halt advertising on the site as they monitor how the platform handles hate speech.

On Saturday, Bloomberg reported Twitter could fire more employees in its sales and partnership divisions, citing unnamed sources, just days after a mass resignation of engineers.

If Trump returned to Twitter, the move would raise questions about his commitment to Truth Social, which launched on Apple’s App Store in February and Google’s Play Store in October. Trump has some 4.57 million followers on Truth Social.

Truth Social has been Trump’s main source of direct communication with his followers since he began posting on the app regularly in May. He has used Truth Social to promote his allies, criticize opponents and defend his reputation amid legal scrutiny from state, congressional and federal investigators.

His agreement with the company, however, opens the door for Trump to engage extensively on other platforms. Trump is obligated to give Truth Social a six-hour exclusive on any post – but is free to post “political messaging, political fundraising or get-out-the vote efforts” on any site, at any time, according to a May SEC filing.

Two men were arrested at New York’s Penn Station in connection with threats to the Jewish community, police said on Saturday.

New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officers identified the two men late on Friday night after being alerted to warrants for their arrests by the FBI/NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, the MTA said in a statement.

Police seized a hunting knife, an illegal Glock 17 firearm and a 30-round magazine after investigating the individuals.

The FBI/NYPD task force became aware of threats to the Jewish community on Friday night and “moved swiftly to gather information, identify those behind it and operationally neutralize their ability to do harm,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement, thanking “sharp-eyed” MTA officers for spotting the pair.

No details were released on the two men, although the New York Times reported authorities released an alert late on Friday for a man who had recently made threats against synagogues in the New York area.

A joint investigation for a “strong prosecution” is now taking place, and NYPD officers are deploying to “strategic locations” around the city, Sewell said.

I stopped listening to the BBC in my car one Summer day in 2016. Some commentator (I forget who) made the observation, “Say what you like about Donald Trump, he’s a brilliant businessman.” I shouted at the radio in angry derision, punched the OFF button and never turned it on again. I decided then and there that my car, on the rare occasion I drive it, is to be a sanctuary of silence against an infuriatingly misinformed world. Nearly seven years later it has remained thus.

Obviously that doesn’t mean I haven’t continued to follow the news. I know as well as anybody that the myth that Donald Trump is a “brilliant businessman,” though somewhat tattered, still prevails, proving the old adage, “Cultivate a reputation as an early riser and you can sleep until noon.”

The old crop of defenders of businessman Trump remind me of the new crop of defenders of businessman Elon Musk. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in many cases, they are the same people. But the idea that Musk is simply playing a “chess game” with Twitter and the rest of us are too dull to comprehend it just took another hit on Thursday. This time he did something so breathtakingly stupid that I can scarcely believe it. At first I thought it was a joke.

No, it’s not a joke. It’s true. The New York Times reported that “Twitter’s already depleted workforce shrank further on Thursday, after an estimated 1,200 employees accepted CEO Elon Musk’s offer of three months’ severance rather than commit to his vision of a new ‘extremely hardcore’ work culture.” And what was that “extremely hardcore” work culture? Among other things Musk wanted his people to start working 80 hours a week. And no, I am not making this up.

I guess a lot of those people thought that doing a second job, which amounted to charity work for the world’s richest man (or as Jeff Tiedrich puts it, “tHe WoRlD’s RiChEsT mAn”) was, as it were, a bridge too far. Three months’ severance pay was more than adequate compensation for not having to work for a madman.

Me, I would have stayed on, defied the idiot’s edict and waited for them to fire me. After which they still would have to pay me (by contract) severance pay and a stock settlement that could be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Then I would sue his ass.

But that’s just me. I don’t blame the rest for doing exactly what they did. They took the money and ran. And they left the USS Twitter without a crew sufficient to run it and a very, very, very stupid, stupid, stupid captain.

But don’t worry, the myth that Elon Musk is a “brilliant businessman” will continue, and perhaps even prevail. You see, once the masses get something into their collective heads it’s very difficult to get it out again. So Musk, like Trump, has been conferred a permanent aura as an invincible genius of the business world, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will ever suffice to alter it.

Does that mean that you can become “tHe WoRlD’s RiChEsT mAn” on luck alone? To a certain degree, yes, I think that’s true. I don’t deny that Musk has a lot of what it takes. He’s a driven workaholic with a talent for engineering. But luck plays a huge role in the success of many people. Every historian will tell you that, unquestionable genius though he was, Napoleon would have never risen to the heights he did without a phenomenal dollop of good luck.

Like Trump, Musk was born with a proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Much of his success was handed to him, and much of the success that followed him was also handed to him. Like Trump, people automatically opened doors when they saw Musk coming because they assumed the myth he was creating around himself was true. And it became, quite naturally, a self-fulfilling truth.

It is true that Musk’s IQ is undoubtedly higher than Trump’s. But that’s just a matter of degree. People, particularly driven people, frequently get rich beyond their talents, and Musk is an extreme example of that. In a world of 8 billion people, it’s no accident that we see the spectrum of all the possibilities that that many people will generate by chance over time.

Musk is just MAGA Trump 2.0. A sleeker, younger mode to be sure,, but every inch as misguided, with the same phenomenally low Emotional Quotient of the original model. The sad part is that when people like Musk and Trump involve their egos on the world stage, sanity and good people suffer. It is the way of the world that enough of us elevate fools to the point they become superstars. I, for one, call bullshit. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post This is just getting embarrassing appeared first on Palmer Report.