News of the World

[kyonides]

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

---

Damage to Undersea Telecoms Cable Was ‘Purposeful’, Claims Sweden

The damage to a telecommunications cable running under the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Estonia was “purposeful,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Tuesday but declined to be drawn on the details.

“We will not be more precise than that as of today,” Kristersson said at a press conference, after Swedish divers had investigated the seabed.

A spokesman for the Swedish Navy, Jimmie Adamsson, told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that “we see seabed tracks nearby, but we don’t know if it’s deliberate or an accident.”

On Oct. 17, Sweden reported damage to an undersea telecommunications cable that authorities believe occurred at the same time as damage to an undersea gas pipeline and telecom cable between Finland and Estonia. Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin said at the time that the cause of the damage was unclear, adding that it was “not a total cable break” but “a partial damage.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the press conference Tuesday with Kristersson that member countries have “tens of thousands of kilometers of internet cables, of gas pipelines over power cables, all the oil pipelines crossing the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and of course, these types of undersea critical infrastructure is vulnerable.”

The military alliance was working “closely with the private sector,” Stoltenberg said, because “most of this critical infrastructure is owned by private companies, operated by private companies.”

Erdogan Submits Swedish NATO Membership Bid to Turkish Parliament

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has submitted a protocol for Sweden’s admission into NATO to Turkey’s parliament for ratification, his office said Monday.

Erdogan had been delaying ratification of Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups he considers to be security threats. Turkey also was angered by a series of Quran-burning protests in Sweden.

All 31 NATO allies must endorse Sweden’s membership. Turkey and Hungary are the only two allies that have yet to ratify it.

A brief statement from the presidential communications directorate said Erdogan had signed the protocol on Sweden’s NATO accession, which was then submitted to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

It was not immediately known when Sweden’s membership would come to the floor.

Sweden welcomed the move.

French President Macron Calls for International ‘Coalition’ to Combat Hamas

French President Emmanuel Macron travelled to Jerusalem on Tuesday to reaffirm his country’s support for Israel and called for an international “coalition” of nations to combat the scourge of Islamist terrorist groups such as Hamas.

Appearing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Macron said in a speech that the world must remember that Israel has a “legitimate right to defend itself,” adding: “This cause is just, period.”

The French leader, who expressed solidarity with Israel as the leader of a country that has also faced deadly Islamist attacks, said that the priority of Western democracies should be to defeat terrorism, saying per Le Figaro: “I propose to our international partners that we can build a regional and international coalition to fight against these terrorist groups which threaten us all.”

It is not precisely clear what form of a “coalition” Macron envisages for the future, however, with the French military largely retreating from its presence in Africa, the French leader could be eying the Middle East as another venue to exert military power.

While there are growing calls from within the European Union to pressure Jerusalem into a ceasefire — before the expected ground invasion of Gaza has even begun — Macron seemed to reject such notions, saying that Israel’s fight against Hamas should be “merciless”.

He did caveat, however, that the war should still be fought along the rules of combat and that humanitarian aid should be allowed to reach civilians in Gaza.

Kosovo PM Claims ‘Paramilitary Terrorist’ Group Tied to Serbian Gov’t Behind Border Shootout

Kosovo’s prime minister on Monday claimed that a criminal gang from northern Serbia was behind a September attack in Kosovo that killed a police officer and involved a daylong gunbattle with Kosovo police that left three gunmen dead.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti also alleged that Serbia’s Defense Minister Milos Vucevic heads the gang known as the “Novi Sad Clan,” named after the Serbian city of Novi Sad, and further claimed that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had links to the gang.

Kurti offered no evidence to back his claims and did not elaborate. He described the gang as a “paramilitary terrorist group.”

Belgrade swiftly dismissed the claims. Serbia’s Defense Ministry said it “absolutely rejects the heinous and blatant lies told today by Kurti” and appealed to the international community to act to stop the “incendiary and dirty” campaign by Kosovo’s leadership.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew on Sept. 24 when some 30 heavily armed Serbs barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in northern Kosovo, setting off the fighting.

1,600 Illegal Boat Migrants Land on Spanish Canary Islands Over Weekend

The service said one boat carrying 229 migrants was escorted to El Hierro island while another with 85 was taken to Tenerife .

Of the boats that arrived over the weekend, one on Saturday was carrying 320 migrants. The state news agency EFE said it was the largest number in a single boat since human traffickers began to regularly use the Canary Island route in 1994. The previous record of 280 was recorded earlier this month.

Most of the boats arrived at El Hierro, which has received several thousand migrants in recent weeks. The Canary Islands are located off the northwest coast of Africa.

Most of the migrants come from sub-Saharan African countries and most of the boats depart from Senegal.

Migrants arriving by boat in Spain spend up to 72 hours in police custody, for identification, then are moved into various reception or detention centers depending on their cases. Although some are deported, most apply for asylum and are taken to mainland Spain for their petitions to be studied.

In the end, many are freed and ordered to leave Spain if they don´t get asylum.

Several Missing After Britain-Bound Cargo Ship Sinks After Collision in North Sea

The British general cargo ship Verity is reported to have been lost off the coast of Helgoland, an island off Germany and Denmark in the North Sea, following a collision with the Bahamas-flagged Polesie. According to the German newspaper Bild, citing sources in the national accident command reports six people are presently thought missing.

One person has been pulled from the water, but rescue efforts are being hampered by the weather conditions locally, which is experiencing high wind and waves.

Publicly available data from the Verity’s Automatic Information System, a legally mandated safety and navigation device fitted to all large seagoing ships, the vessel last was able to report its position around 0300 local time. According to its filed plan, it was eight hours out of the port of Bremen in Germany and headed to the British port of Immingham.

It is said to have collided with the bulk carrier Polesie, a considerably larger ship, overnight. The Polesie is still afloat and, again according to AIS data, has remained in the area and may be assisting with the search.

Other ships that have come to the aid of the lost Verity include two coastguard vessels and an ocean liner, which are being assisted by a helicopter.

Spain Follows Biden, Urges E.U. to Lift Sanctions on Hamas Ally Venezuela

The government of Spain announced on Monday that it is planning to urge the European Union to lift sanctions on socialist Venezuela during the next EU ministerial meeting, a response to leftist American President Joe Biden doing the same.

The Biden administration announced last week it would lift all oil and gas sanctions on the repressive dictatorship of socialist Nicolás Maduro, allowing Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, to openly trade on the global market. The move will give Maduro the opportunity to pour Venezuelan oil into American markets, competing with domestic producers, and create a potential revenue stream for Maduro’s Islamist allies, including the Iranian terrorist regime and proxies such as the genocidal group Hamas.

Iran recently signed an agreement with Maduro’s regime and mutual ally Bashar Assad, the dictator of Syria, to build a new oil refinery in the Syrian city of Homs; Iran has also signed agreements to help PDVSA rehabilitate its derelict oil refineries, likely profiting both Iran and Venezuela.

Iran is the world’s premier state sponsor of terrorism, funding groups such as Hamas, the Shiite groups Hezbollah and the Yemeni Houthi movement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and similar outfits for decades. The U.S. State Department estimated in 2020 that Iran provides Hamas, which controls the Gaza territory, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad $100 million a year.
...
“I have addressed my colleagues to raise the necessity of studying the revision of EU sanctions on Venezuela,” the Spanish news agency EFE quoted [Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel] Albares as saying, “in line with the recent decisions by the United States and the positive evolution in the dialogue among Venezuelans.”