Michael Novakhov retweeted:
ВС РФ поразили в ДНР американскую реактивную систему залпового огня HIMARS с боекомплектом и экипажем, заявил официальный представитель Минобороны России генерал-лейтенант Игорь Конашенков:
go.tass.ru/jxZBO
Day: December 1, 2022
2022-12-01T12:08:49Z
Ukraine’s military said on Thursday Russia had pulled some troops from towns on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River from Kherson city, the first official Ukrainian report of a Russian withdrawal on what is now the main front line in the south.
The statement gave only limited details and made no mention of any Ukrainian forces having crossed the Dnipro. Ukrainian officials also stressed that Russia had intensified shelling across the river, knocking out power again in Kherson where electricity had only begun to be restored nearly three weeks after Russian troops vacated the city and fled across the river.
Since Russia abandoned Kherson last month, nine months into its invasion of Ukraine, the river now forms the entire southern stretch of the front.
Russia has already told civilians to leave towns within 15 km of the river and withdrew its civilian administration from the city of Nova Kakhovska on the river bank. Ukrainian officials have previously said Russia pulled back some artillery near the river to safer positions further away, but until now had stopped short of saying Russian forces were quitting towns.
“A decrease in the number of Russian soldiers and military equipment is observed in the settlement of Oleshky,” the military said, referring to the town opposite Kherson city, on the far side of a destroyed bridge over the Dnipro.
“Enemy troops were withdrawn from certain settlements of the Kherson oblast and dispersed in forest strips along the section of the Oleshky – Hola Prystan highway,” it said, referring to a 25-km (15-mile) stretch of road through riverside towns scattered in woods on the bank opposite Kherson city.
It said most of the Russian troops in the area are recently mobilised reservists, suggesting that Moscow’s best-trained professional troops had already left the area.
Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Separately, Ukraine tightened security at its diplomatic missions around the world on Thursday after a mail bomb exploded at its embassy in Madrid, one of several devices sent to targets in Spain, including to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Ambassador Serhii Pohoreltsev told the Ukrainian news site European Pravda that the suspicious package addressed to him had been opened outside the building by the embassy’s Ukrainian commandant, who was injured in the blast.
“After opening the box and hearing a click that followed, he tossed it and then heard the explosion,” he said. “Despite not holding the box at the time of the explosion, the commandant hurt his hands and received a concussion.”
The Ukraine war is entering a relentless new phase with the onset of the first winter since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.
After withdrawing in the south in November, Moscow has focused its firepower on a section of the front line in the east near the city of Bakhmut, where hundreds of soldiers are thought to be dying a day in some of the conflict’s bloodiest fighting, yielding little reported gains of territory on either side.
Ukraine’s armed forces reported heavy shelling of a number of frontline cities in the area.
“We are analysing the intentions of the occupiers and preparing counter-measures – tougher counter-measures than is now the case,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an overnight televised address.
Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-installed administration in occupied parts of Donetsk province, said a prisoner exchange was expected to take place later on Thursday, with the sides each releasing 50 prisoners.
There are no political talks under way to end the war, which Russia launched as a “special military operation” claiming its aim was to disarm its neighbour and root out leaders it characterises as dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call it an imperialist land grab that has killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides.
Since early October, Russia has also launched near weekly massive missile and drone attacks across Ukraine to knock out its power supply, water and heat, which Kyiv and the West say is intended to harm civilians, a war crime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov defended those strikes on Thursday, saying Moscow was targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure to prevent Kyiv from importing Western weapons. He did not explain how such attacks could achieve that aim.
“We disable energy facilities (in Ukraine) that allow you (the West) to pump lethal weapons into Ukraine to kill Russians,” Lavrov said.
The European Union called this week for a special tribunal to prosecute Russian officials accused of aggression, the war crime of attacking another state without justification. The Kremlin rejected this on Thursday.
“As for attempts to establish some kind of tribunal: they will have no legitimacy, will not be accepted by us and we will condemn them,” Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a briefing call with reporters.
Ukraine’s nuclear power company said on Thursday it had sacked a senior engineer at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for collaborating with Russia, a day after Moscow said the engineer, Yuriy Chernichuk, was promoted to become the plant’s new boss.
In October, Russia said it was taking control of the plant, which is located in Russian-held territory along the Dnipro but still operated by Ukrainian engineers. Kyiv says the plant still belongs to Ukraine and Russia’s seizure of it is illegal.
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Ukrainian servicemen fire with a Bureviy multiple launch rocket system at a position in Donetsk region, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine November 29, 2022. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS
Ukrainian servicemen prepare fire with a Bureviy multiple launch rocket system at a position in Donetsk region, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine November 29, 2022. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS
First Woman of Türkiye Emine Erdoğan, frequented the orphanage, where by the college students of the Sonechko orphanage, evacuated from Odesa, had been put.
This was described by an Ukrinform correspondent.
“No 1 wishes war. We are in opposition to anyone shedding their dad and mom or staying forced to leave their country. I wish that this war would finish as shortly as feasible, that the wounds would mend, and that everyone could safely return to their residences,” reported the to start with woman of Türkiye.
She recalled that the evacuation of young children from the Odesa orphanage to Turkey had been agreed upon at a conference with To start with Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.
Read also: Very first Lady Zelenska speaks of Ukraine’s wrestle at assembly with British students
Emine Erdoğan was accompanied by Minister of Loved ones and Social Services Derya Yanik, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar and his partner, as well as Consul of Ukraine to Turkey Andriy Bilyk.
“We are grateful to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and To start with Girl Emine Erdoğan for this opportunity to provide a regular childhood for young children left without having parental treatment, for caring about and supporting them. A minimal over a 7 days back, these young children have been frightened by the sounds of sirens, and experienced to go down into bomb shelters. In this way, Russia tried out to steal their childhood. These days, they hear cheerful children’s songs, receive items, participate in, and are open up to learning new things with childlike carelessness,” Vasyl Bodnar said in a remark to Ukrinform.
According to the diplomat, the kids will stay in Turkey until the situations for their return to Ukraine develop into safe and sound.
The ambassador also pointed out that Emine Erdoğan was interested in the kid’s wellness and very well-becoming right after the evacuation. Consent had been obtained in advance to supply the vital guidance to a person of the students of the orphanage, who has a unique professional medical situation and who could not have the scheduled procedure executed on him due to the war.
As claimed by Ukrinform, 34 learners of the Odesa kid’s property Sonechko ended up evacuated to the money of Turkey, alongside with workers and medics.
The post First Lady of Türkiye visits Ukrainian orphans evacuated from Odesa appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Ghana and Uruguay meet at the World Cup on Friday in a repeat of one of the tournament’s most contentious games.
“It was a really, really long time ago,” Ghana coach Otto Addo said.
Maybe so, but to many Ghanaians the quarterfinal defeat to Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup is still a raw and painful memory.
Uruguay striker Luis Suarez’s deliberate handball on the goal-line at the end of extra time denied Ghana a certain goal and a place in history as the first African team to reach the semis. Suarez was sent off for the handball but celebrated wildly on the sidelines when Asamoah Gyan hit the resulting penalty off the crossbar. Uruguay won the ensuing penalty shootout.
To make it worse, Suarez boasted after the 2010 game: “Truth is, it was worth it.”
Twelve years later, Ghana now has a chance to settle the score. By beating Uruguay in their final Group H match, Ghana would advance to the round of 16, while knocking Uruguay out of the tournament.
Though the match in Al Wakrah has been circled as one to watch ever since the World Cup draw was made in April, Addo tried his best to cast is as a “normal game.”
“I’m not really thinking about revenge,” he said, adding he remembered watching Ghana’s agonizing loss on TV in 2010. “But it’s 12 years ago and now it’s a different match with a different approach. So I don’t see it as a revenge.”
Ghana, which squeezed out a thrilling 3-2 win over South Korea in its last game, must win again in Al Wakrah to be certain of going past the group stage for the first time since 2010. A draw could also be enough depending on the result of South Korea vs. Portugal.
Captain Andre Ayew is the only Ghana player in Qatar who was on the 2010 squad.
Uruguay has a handful, including the 35-year-old Suarez, who is playing what’s likely his farewell World Cup before winding down a career that saw him celebrated as one of the best forwards in the world at one point. He won the Copa America with Uruguay and Spanish league titles and a Champions League trophy with Barcelona.
Suarez also carved out a reputation as one of the game’s most controversial characters and has also been punished three times for biting opponents, including a four-month ban for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini on the shoulder at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Suarez started Uruguay’s 0-0 draw with South Korea in Qatar but was left on the bench for the 2-0 loss to Portugal, which left Uruguay bottom of the group.
Uruguay must now beat Ghana and hope South Korea doesn’t beat Portugal to extend its stay at the World Cup and Suarez’s international career for at least one more game. Goal difference will decide it if Uruguay and South Korea both win.
Stoking it up just a little, Suarez said the 2010 game against Ghana does still mean something.
“We are going to put our lives and soul into this match,” Suarez said. “Ghana is a good team but we know them, we have beaten them before and we know how to beat them again.”
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
LONDON (AP) — Google is challenging a record European Union antitrust fine that took aim at the Android operating system’s role in restricting mobile competition and consumer choice.
The company said Thursday that it filed the appeal against the 4.125 billion euro ($4.3 billion) penalty “because there are areas that require legal clarification from the European Court of Justice,” the EU’s top court.
Google previously appealed to a lower tribunal, which had slightly lowered the original 4.34 billion-euro penalty in a decision largely siding with the European Commission. It’s the largest-ever antitrust fine issued by the commission, the 27-nation bloc’s top competition watchdog.
In its 2018 decision, the commission found that the dominance of Google’s Android resulted in less competition and consumer choice. The U.S. tech giant had argued that free and open-source Android resulted in cheaper phones and spurred competition with its chief rival, Apple. Android is the most popular mobile operating system, beating Apple’s iOS.
“Android has created more choice for everyone, not less, and supports thousands of successful businesses in Europe and around the world,” Google said Thursday.
The fine was one of three blockbuster antitrust penalties that the commission hit Google with between 2017 and 2019, highlighting the bloc’s early role in cracking down on tech giants.
Google also is appealing its first EU antitrust penalty, a 2.4 billion-euro fine for unfairly favoring its Google Shopping comparison service, to the Court of Justice, which can only rule on points of law.
It’s appealing the third penalty, a 1.49 billion-euro fine for abusing its dominance in online search ads, to the EU court’s lower tribunal.
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
A Jordanian film that shows Israeli soldiers murdering a Palestinian family during the War of Independence will be available on Netflix as of Thursday.
“Farha,” directed by Darin J. Sallam, takes place in 1948. The plot is about a Palestinian girl whose father locks her in a dark storage room to protect her during the Israel Defense Forces’ assault on her village. It includes a scene in which the Israeli soldiers execute her entire family, including a baby. The film’s trailer and advertisements say it was inspired by real events.
Netflix Israel said it was looking into the matter.
The film has been shown at several international festivals, including the high-profile Toronto Film Festival, where it had its first screening in 2021.
Speaking at a different festival, the director said that when she was a child, she heard this story about a Palestinian girl being locked in a room by her father to protect both her life and “family honor.”
The girl survived and moved to Syria, said Sallam, where she shared her story with a Syrian girl. The Syrian girl then grew up, married and shared the story with her daughter – Sallam herself.
Since then, Sallam continued, she has never stopped thinking about that girl and what happened to her.
Jordan nominated the film as its candidate for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Sallam said she also made the film because while many movies are made about the Palestinians, she felt there was nothing about the root cause of what is happening today, that being the events of 1948.
The catastrophe of the Nakba, as Palestinians call the flight and expulsion of hundreds of thousands during the war, is an important event that’s widely ignored, she continued, and there is a dearth of Arab feature films about it.
While there are documentaries about the Nakba, there are no narrative films, she said, adding that stories are what generate and convey emotion.
In another interview, at a film festival in Saudi Arabia, Sallam discussed the seeming similarity between the protagonist of her film and Anne Frank. She said several people had drawn that analogy, and while she hadn’t thought of it when she made the film, she could understand why others did, because her protagonist goes through a similar trial.
The post Netflix to air Jordanian film in which Israeli soldiers murder Palestinian family appeared first on The Forward.
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2022-12-01T11:28:59Z
Tesla’s new electric semi truck is unveiled during a presentation in Hawthorne, California, U.S., November 16, 2017. REUTERS/Alexandria Sage/File Photo
Tesla (TSLA.O) is set to unveil on Thursday its long-delayed Semi, a 18-wheeler heavy duty vehicle that has faced skepticism from industry experts who doubt battery electric trucks can take the strain of hauling hefty loads for hundreds of miles.
The launch marks the electric carmaker’s first foray into the trucking business as U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration is set to offer a generous $40,000 tax credit for clean commercial vehicles.
At the unveiling event in Tesla’s battery factory in Nevada, analysts will look for details such as pricing, how much freight the Semi can carry, and its charging speed.
Chief Executive Elon Musk initially said the trucks would be in production by 2019, but that was delayed due to battery constraints. In 2017, Tesla said the 500 mile (805 kilometre) range Semi to be priced at $180,000.
The billionaire, who now runs five companies after buying Twitter, has a record of overpromising on Tesla’s products.
Musk had promised, for instance, that Tesla’s mass-market electric sedan Model 3 would be priced at $35,000, a claim that bombed. The base model now sells at $47,000.
He also previously said it was highly likely that the Semi would be the first Tesla vehicle to have self-driving capability. But in October Musk said Tesla vehicles were not ready to take humans out of the loop.
Robyn Denholm, chair of Tesla, recently said the automaker might make 100 Semis this year. Musk announced the start of production of the truck in early October, and said food and drink giant PepsiCo (PEP.O) would get the first deliveries on Dec. 1.
Some analysts believe it will be harder for the automaker to penetrate the commercial truck market than the mass car trade.
“Tesla is very much the new kid on the block here. It has everything to prove, and it will be proving it against very, very strong legacy competitors,” said Oliver Dixon, senior analyst at Guidehouse.
Musk has touted the Semi’s 500 mile range, far higher than that of electric trucks offered by rivals Daimler (MBGn.DE), Volvo (VOLVb.ST), startup Nikola (NKLA.O) and Renault Trucks (RENA.PA).
“Tesla team just completed a 500 mile drive with a Tesla Semi weighing in at 81,000 lbs!” Musk tweeted last week. For Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has expressed skepticism about all-electric trucks, Musk said: “(Gates) can drive it himself if he wants!”.
Nikola said last month it was slowing deliveries of its electric Tre BEV trucks to slash battery costs that have soared by $110,000 per truck.
“I’m worried not about other competitors,” Nikola boss Michael Loscheller told Reuters on Wednesday. “I want to take diesel trucks off the road,” he said, adding that federal incentives for trucks that run on hydrogen could be more substantial than those battery electric trucks.
Musk has said Tesla needs to mass-produce its cheaper 4680 batteries in-house to build the Semi, which uses five times the number of cells a car needs. But he recently said the Semi will use the traditional 2170 batteries that Tesla gets from suppliers.
“A lot of us are kind of skeptical, because no one else has been able to prove that they can do it,” said Mike Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency who attended Tesla’s first prototype Semi presentation in 2017.
At the 2017 event, Musk said the truck could get to 400 miles on a 30-minute charge at solar-powered “mega chargers” without providing details. Finding the power to charge electric vehicles remains a major challenge.
“The whole reason for a truck is to haul around 40,000 to 45,000 pounds of freight,” said Roeth, a former executive at U.S. truck maker Navistar. “And if your batteries weigh too much, or they cost too much … that doesn’t work.”
