УКРОПИ

4 nations launch venture to install power line under Black Sea

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania, Hungary, Georgia and Azerbaijan launched a joint venture Tuesday to install a power line under the Black Sea aimed at bringing more renewable energy into the European Union from the eastern Caucasus.

The project, approved by leaders of the four countries in 2022, gained momentum after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and spotlighted the EU’s reliance on Russian energy as prices sharply rose. The 27-nation bloc has since pushed to wean itself off Russian energy.

The cable would link Azerbaijan, which is seen as having substantial potential to generate power at Caspian Sea wind farms, to EU members Romania and Hungary via Georgia.

Government ministers from the four countries launched the joint venture at a meeting Tuesday in Romania’s capital, saying the project would help strengthen energy security and drive down electricity prices for consumers.

Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said the project was of strategic importance for his country and the EU.

“If you look at the energy map of Europe over the past few months … you see that on the eastern flank essentially we are paying a very high price recently — and that’s because there is not enough diversification,” Burduja said.

Azerbaijanian Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said the harnessing of renewable energy would help tackle climate change issues. The undersea line is important for energy security, he said, “but at the same time it is going to provide the green energy … which is very high on the agenda of the international community.”

Bulgaria’s deputy energy minister also joined Tuesday’s meeting, and there were discussions about the EU member joining the infrastructure project. Burduja and Shahbazov said the next meeting on the project would be at a U.N. climate change meeting later this year in Azerbaijan.
…

Report: EU chief to hand economy job to Italy’s far-right 

Berlin, Germany — EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has made her first picks for her top team, with the key economy vice-president job going to Italy’s far-right nominee, German newspaper Die Welt reported Tuesday.

Von der Leyen, who secured a second term as commission chief in July, is expected to unveil her proposed lineup following a Friday deadline for states to name their nominees.

Die Welt, citing senior EU diplomats and European Commission insiders, said she is set to give Raffaele Fitto from the far-right Brothers of Italy party the executive vice-president portfolio in charge of the economy and post-pandemic recovery.

The job would oversee how the bloc’s pandemic recovery fund worth hundreds of billions of euros is deployed.

Fitto is Rome’s minister for European affairs.

Others to be named EU vice presidents include Valdis Dombrovskis, from Latvia and currently EU’s trade chief. His role will be EU expansion and Ukraine reconstruction, according to the report.

France’s Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market commissioner, will take on industry and strategic autonomy according to Die Welt.

Spain’s Environment Minister Teresa Ribera has been chosen for a “transition” portfolio which will include ecology and digital affairs. 

The nominee for the EU’s foreign policy chief, Estonia’s outgoing leader Kaja Kallas, will also be named an executive vice president.  

Each European member state put forward nominees for von der Leyen’s 26-person team.

Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic, currently an executive vice president, is set to remain as a commissioner in charge of inter-institutional affairs.

Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela will be in charge of energy, while Poland’s ambassador to the EU, Piotr Serafin, will handle budgetary issues.

After the Commission president names her line-up, the candidates undergo confirmation hearings in the European Parliament in September and October. 
…

Clearview AI fined by Dutch agency for facial recognition database

…

Russian leader Putin visits Mongolia, defies international warrant for his arrest

…

Ukraine intercepts 27 of 35 Russian drones in latest aerial attack  

…

‘Queen of Trash’ in dock in Sweden’s biggest toxic waste scandal

…

Turkey arrests 15 accused of assaulting US servicemen

Ankara, Turkey/Washington — A nationalist Turkish youth group physically assaulted two U.S. soldiers Monday in western Turkey, the U.S. Embassy in Turkey and the local governor’s office said, adding that 15 assailants had been detained over the incident.

In a statement, the Izmir governor’s office said members of the Turkey Youth Union (TGB), a youth branch of the nationalist opposition Vatan Party, “physically attacked” two U.S. soldiers dressed in civilian clothes in the Konak district.

It added that five U.S. soldiers joined in after seeing the incident, and that police intervened. All 15 attackers had been detained and an investigation was launched into the matter, it said.

A White House spokesperson said Monday, Washington was “troubled” by the assault but added it was “appreciative that Turkish police are taking this matter seriously and holding those responsible accountable.”

The U.S. Embassy to Turkey also confirmed the attack and said the U.S. soldiers were now safe.

“We can confirm reports that U.S. service members embarked aboard the USS Wasp were the victims of an assault in Izmir today, and are now safe,” it said on social media platform X.

Earlier, the TGB posted a video on X showing a group holding down a man on the street and putting a white hood over his head, while shouting slogans.

The group said the man was a soldier on board the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara had said earlier Monday that the ship was carrying out a port visit to the Aegean coastal town of Izmir this week.

“U.S. soldiers who carry the blood of our soldiers and thousands of Palestinians on their hands cannot dirty our country. Every time you step foot in these lands, we will meet you the way you deserve,” TGB said.

U.S.-Turkey ties have been strained in recent years by the U.S. alliance with Syrian Kurds that Turkey deems extremists, and over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 defenses that prompted U.S. sanctions and removal from a F-35 jet program.

There has also been divergence over Israel’s war in Gaza, where over 40,000 people have been killed according to Gaza authorities, and over which Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticized Washington’s ally.

Earlier this month, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey said U.S.-Turkey relations are now “in a better place than we’ve been in a while” and noted the “useful role” Turkey played in a recent prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia.
…

Russia’s Putin says his young family members speak fluent Mandarin Chinese

Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that young members of his family speak fluent Mandarin, though he told school children they should not forget the importance of English too despite the growing popularity of Chinese. 

Putin has two daughters with his ex-wife Lyudmila and they speak Russian, English, German and French. Putin, who divorced his wife in 2014, rarely speaks about his family but has at least three grandchildren, according to Russian media. 

“Some of my family members, the little ones, speak Chinese too – they speak it fluently,” Putin told pupils of Secondary School No. 20 in Kyzyl, Tuva, about 4,500 km (2,800 miles) east of Moscow. 

Amid a growing partnership between China and Russia, Mandarin has been growing in popularity across Russia as a foreign language of choice, a trend Putin said was due to developing contacts across economics, politics and society. 

Putin, who speaks fluent German but has also taken lessons to improve his English, said that pupils should not forget the importance of English. 

“English is a great language, it has given humanity a great deal in terms of combining knowledge and uniting people in the field of culture, and so on,” Putin said. 

Russian, English, Tatar, German and Chechen are the most widely spoken languages in Russia, according to the 2022 census. While Mandarin is spoken far less, it has been growing swiftly in popularity in recent years as a foreign language. 

Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping in May pledged a “new era” of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world. 

China and Russia declared a “no limits” partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War II. 

English is the world’s most spoken language with about 1.5 billion speakers, followed by Mandarin Chinese with about 1.1 billion speakers, and then Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, French, Bengali, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu, according to Ethnologue, a language research center.
…

New Polish law makes school attendance mandatory for Ukrainian refugees

warsaw — Sava Trypolsky couldn’t wait for school to start. Days before the Ukrainian boy entered first grade Monday, his backpack was packed. Sitting on his bed in his home near Warsaw last week, he pulled out coloring pens, glue sticks and all manner of supplies emblazoned with Spider-Man, Minions and his favorite soccer player, Lionel Messi.

Sava was almost 5 when he fled his home in Cherkasy, Ukraine, with his mother and older sister soon after Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. But the war has dragged on for more than 2½ years, and he is now a 7-year-old starting his educational journey.

For Ukrainian children, the last several years have been a time of severe disruption. First the COVID-19 pandemic brought online learning, and then war uprooted millions.

That disruption was still evident in Ukraine, where it was also the first day of school Monday. An overnight Russian drone and missile attack in Kyiv forced the cancellation of classes for some because of damage from the attack.

Many Ukrainians who fled to neighboring Poland never returned to a classroom at all, continuing their Ukrainian classwork remotely.

But as this new school year began Monday, a new Polish law makes school attendance mandatory for Ukrainian refugees. In cases where the kids don’t attend school, the government will enforce the law by withholding a monthly 800 zloty ($200) bonus that all citizens and refugees receive for each child under 18.

Only those entering the last year of high school are exempt from this new requirement. Poland’s Education Ministry said it was unrealistic for them to master the Polish curriculum in language and culture in time to pass final graduation exams by spring.

Sava can expect an easier time than many. Educators say kids his age learn Polish quickly. He has a best friend, Bart, going to his school, and a soccer group. Medals he earned while playing the sport decorate his room in Jablonna, a small community north of Warsaw.

“I’ll have fun,” he said beaming.

But his 16-year-old sister Marichka hopes to return to Ukraine for university and knows school can be hard for adolescents even without the pressure of being a refugee. She has one year left and opted to continue her home schooling.

“Some people are just mean, you know, and I’ve heard many stories about just being excluded or bullied,” Marichka said. “That happens in every country, it’s not just Poland, it’s just kids who try to grow up in this world.”

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that it was important to bring Ukrainian youth into the system to avoid the formation of social “pathologies.”

“Since we do not know how many Ukrainian families will want to stay with us for longer, and perhaps forever, we are very keen for these children to be educated like their Polish peers,” Tusk said Friday.

Some Ukrainians have already returned home, and many others plan to. That has led many of them to live in Poland, but to keep kids out of Polish schools and do remote learning with schools back in Ukraine.

Jędrzej Witkowski, CEO of the Polish nonprofit Center for Citizenship Education, said that allowing online learning made sense during the initial crisis, but now Polish authorities can’t even track whether Ukrainian children are continuing with their education or dropping out. There isn’t reliable data or research that can measure the educational loss, he said.

“This would have been the fifth consecutive year of online learning,” Witkowski said. “We’re very happy with the move that the government has made.”

Poland has the second-largest population of Ukrainian war refugees in the West after Germany, and most are women and children. UNHCR estimated the number of Ukrainian refugees in Poland, a nation of 38 million, at slightly over 957,000 in June, the latest figures published on its website.

UNICEF and UNHCR — the United Nations’ children’s and refugee agencies — had expressed concern about the large numbers of children living in Poland but not attending schools in person, estimating the number at around 150,000 — a calculation based on administrative data and the number of Ukrainian kids with Polish identity numbers.

Other countries with large Ukrainian populations, like Germany and Italy, required school attendance from the start, said Francesco Calcagno, chief of education for the UNICEF refugee response office in Warsaw, which is working with the national government, local authorities and nongovernmental organizations to help get kids back into schools.

“Education is not just about academic achievement but also about fostering resilience, stability and hope,” Calcagno said. “Schools provide a crucial sense of structure and safety, which helps children from Ukraine to catch up on learning and supports their psychosocial wellbeing.”
…

Britain suspends some arms exports to Israel over risk of breaking law

London — The British government said Monday it is suspending exports of some weapons to Israel because they could be used to break international law.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said there is a “clear risk” some items could be used to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

He told lawmakers the decision related to about 30 of 350 export licenses for equipment “that we assess is for use in the current conflict in Gaza,” including parts for military aircraft and drones and items used for ground targeting.

Lammy said it was “not a determination of innocence or guilt” about whether Israel had broken international law, and was not an arms embargo.

Britain is among several of Israel’s longstanding allies whose governments are under growing pressure to halt weapons exports because of the toll of the 11-month-old war in Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

British firms sell a relatively small number of weapons and components to Israel. Earlier this year the government said military exports to Israel amounted to 42 million pounds ($53 million) in 2022.

The U.K.’s center-left Labour government, elected in July, has faced pressure from some of its own members and lawmakers to apply more pressure on Israel to stop the violence. In the election the party lost several seats it had had been expected to win to pro-Palestinian independents after leader Keir Starmer initially refused to call for a cease-fire shortly after Israel retaliated for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants that killed about 1,200 people.

In a departure from the stance of its Conservative predecessor, Starmer’s government said in July that the U.K. will not intervene in the International Criminal Court’s request for an arrest warrant against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Starmer also restored funding for the United Nations’ Palestine relief agency UNRWA, which had been suspended by his Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak’s government in January.

Lammy, who has visited Israel twice in the past two months as part of Western efforts to push for a cease-fire, said he was a “friend of Israel,” but called the violence in Gaza “horrifying.”

“Israel’s actions in Gaza continue to lead to immense loss of civilian life, widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure, and immense suffering,” he said.
…

Norway’s electric car sales set new world record 

Oslo — Electric car sales in Norway took a 94% share of the market in August — a new world record — statistics showed Monday, as sales in the rest of Europe stagnate.  

Boosted by the Tesla Model Y, which accounted for 18.8% of sales, and to a lesser extent Hyundai’s Kona and Nissan’s Leaf, electric vehicles made up 94.3% of new car registrations, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said.  

Norwegians bought 10,480 new EVs in August, bringing the total to 68,435 since the start of the year.  

Elsewhere in Europe high prices and insufficient infrastructure have hampered sales of EVs, whereas sales of hybrid models, which combine fossil fuel engines with electric batteries, have increased.  

The Scandinavian country, a major oil and gas producer, has set a target to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2025, 10 years ahead of the EU goal.  

The country offers generous tax benefits which make electric models competitively priced.  

“No country in the world comes close to Norway in the electric car race,” OFV director Oyvind Solberg Thorsen said in a statement.  

“If this trend continues, we will soon be on our way to achieving our goal of 100% zero-emission cars by 2025,” he said.  

By comparison, electric cars represented 12.1% of new car sales in the EU in July, behind petrol cars at 33.4%, full hybrids at 32% and diesel cars at 12.6%, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. 
…