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The post Int’l team of legal experts gathering evidence of Russian war crimes in Kherson appeared first on Ukraine Intelligence.

The United States is prioritising efforts to boost Ukraine’s air defences, President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart on Sunday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stepped up efforts to secure international assistance over the Russian invasion that is dragging into a 10th month.

Heavy fighting in the country’s east and south continued unabated, while drone and missile strikes on key power infrastructure, notably in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, kept many Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

There are no peace talks and no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation” and Ukraine and its allies call an unprovoked act of aggression.

“We are constantly working with partners,” Zelenskiy said after talking to Biden and the leaders of France and Turkey, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from a series of international events that will tackle the situation in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will hold on Monday an online meeting with G7 leaders and the European Union foreign ministers will to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and on additional aid or arms deliveries to Ukraine.

While Zelenskiy has held numerous talks with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan since Russian forces invaded in late February, the accumulation of discussions in just one day is not a regular event.

Zelenskiy said he had thanked Biden for “unprecedented defence and financial” help the United States has provided and talked with the U.S. president about Ukraine’s need for effective anti-aircraft defence systems to protect the population.

Biden “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to continue providing Ukraine with security, economic, and humanitarian assistance, holding Russia accountable for its war crimes and atrocities, and imposing costs on Russia for its aggression”, the White House said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CBS’s “60 Minutes” Washington’s support for Ukraine’s military and economy – more than $50 billion and counting – would continue “for as long as it takes” and reiterated that ending the war was the single best thing the United States could do for the global economy.

Earlier, Zelenskiy said he held “a very meaningful” conversation with Macron on “defence, energy, economy, diplomacy” that lasted more than an hour and “very specific” talks with Erdogan on assuring Ukraine’s grain exports.

Turkey, which acted as a mediator in peace talks in the early months of the war, also worked alongside the United Nations in a grain deal, which opened up Ukrainian ports for exports in July after a six-month de facto Russian blockade.

Erdogan’s office said the Turkish leader had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, in which he had called for a quick end to the conflict.

Putin said last week that Moscow’s near-total loss of trust in the West would make an eventual settlement over Ukraine much harder to reach and warned of a protracted war.

Moscow shows no signs of being ready to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and pre-war borders, saying the four regions it claims to have annexed from Ukraine in September are part of Russia “forever.” The government in Kyiv has ruled out conceding any land to Russia in return for peace.

On the ground in Ukraine, the entire eastern front line has been continuously shelled with heavy fighting taking place.

Russian forces continued with attempts to break through Ukrainian defences, training tank and artillery fire on 26 settlements near Avdiivka and Bakhmut, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a Sunday evening update.

Serhiy Gaidai, the exiled governor of the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, told Ukrainian television local forces had attacked a hotel in the town of Kadiivka where members of Russia’s private Wagner military group were based, killing many of them.

Photos posted on Telegram channels showed a building largely reduced to rubble.

“They had a little pop there, just where Wagner headquarters was located,” he said. “A huge number of those who were there died.”

The claims could not be verified by Reuters and Russia’s defense ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Moscow is also targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with waves of missile and drone strikes, at times cutting off electricity for millions of civilians in winter, when temperatures often fall below zero Celsius.

Russian forces used Iranian-made drones to hit two energy plants in the Black Sea port of Odesa on Saturday, knocking out power to about 1.5 million people – virtually all non-critical infrastructure in and around the port.

Zelenskiy said other areas experiencing “very difficult” conditions with power supplies included the capital Kyiv and Kyiv region and four regions in western Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk region in the centre of the country.

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Ukraine’s military said 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..

* Spain has stepped up security at public and diplomatic buildings after a spate of letter bombs, including one sent to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and another to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid, where an official suffered minor injuries.

* Air raid alerts were issued across all of Ukraine following warnings by Ukrainian officials that Russia was preparing a new wave of missile and drone strikes. “An overall air raid alert is in place in Ukraine. Go to shelters,” country’s border service wrote on Telegram messaging app.

* Ukraine’s military said it had found fragments of Russian-fired nuclear-capable missiles with dud warheads in west Ukraine, and that their apparent purpose was to distract air defences.

* The recently liberated Ukrainian city of Kherson has lost its power supply after heavy shelling by Russian forces, the regional governor said.

* European Union governments tentatively agreed on a $60 a barrel price cap on Russian seaborne oil, with an adjustment mechanism to keep the cap at 5% below the market price, an EU diplomat said.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on that big problems had accumulated in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), accusing the West of spurning the chance to make it a real bridge with Russia after the Cold War.

* Lavrov said that discussions with Washington about potential prisoner exchanges were being conducted by the two countries’ intelligence services, and that he hoped they would be successful.

* The European Union needs patience as it sanctions Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, as most measures will only have an impact in the medium and long term, Lithuania’s prime minister said in an interview at  the  Reuters NEXT conference.

* Switzerland has frozen financial assets worth 7.5 billion Swiss francs ($7.94 billion) as of Nov. 25 under sanctions against Russians to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

* Russia said the German parliament’s move to recognise the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine as a Soviet-imposed genocide was an anti-Russian provocation and an attempt by Germany to whitewash its Nazi past.

* Ukraine sacked a top engineer at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, accusing him of collaborating with Russian forces, and urged other Ukrainian staff at the plant to remain loyal to Kyiv.

* Russia must withdraw its heavy weapons and military personnel from the Zaporizhzhia plant if the U.N. atomic watchdog’s efforts to create a protection zone are to succeed, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.

* In a grim sign of the energy crisis caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid, nine people have been killed in fires over the past 24 hours as Ukrainians resorted to emergency generators, candles and gas cylinders in violation of safety rules to try to heat their homes after power outages.

* “Remember one thing – the Russians are afraid. And they are very cold and no one will help them, because they do not have popular support,” – Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukrainian presidential staff.

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(NewsNation) — Richard Marquise wants answers. The retired FBI agent worked on the deadliest terror attack on British soil that has finally yielded a criminal capture more than three decades in the making.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 fell from the sky. A bomb exploded midair, shortly after takeoff, killing all 259 passengers from 21 different countries on board, including 190 Americans. 11 more died on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland.

“Clearly, it was a very significant attack against the world, against the United States. I recall there was something like 16 children under the age of 10 on that aircraft. It was an attack on all of us done by a state sponsor of terrorism,” Marquise said. “This was a very significant attack that took place long before we ever even though about a group like Al-Qaeda.”

More than 33 years later, the Justice Department announced Sunday that the Libyan intelligence official, who authorities say made the bomb that exploded on the flight, has been taken into American custody. Abu Agila Mohammad Mas’ud Kheir Al-Marimi will face federal charges in Washington, the Justice Department said.

Marquise says Mas’ud was on their radar during the investigation.

“We knew about an individual that had built the bomb, but he was never fully identified. It was not until Ken Dornstein, who lost a brother on the flight, put a lot of information together. With that, he went to Libya and conducted a great deal of investigation that led him to create a three-part series that played on PBS. During that investigation, he more fully identified Mas’ud. That information was passed to the FBI and to Scottish police,” Marquise said. “What happened today was a culmination of their added investigation.”

Marquise is hopeful that Mas’ud being in custody will be able to place a lot more pieces of the puzzle together.

“There’s no closure. There’s no high fives. It’s a very sad day for everyone, but I’m hopeful that he (Mas’ud) can at least tell us the rest of the story before we’re all too old to appreciate it or are no longer here, which unfortunately, is happening to many of the victims’ families as we all get older,” Marquise said.

Of the Americans on the Pan Am flight, 35 Syracuse University students were killed. They were returning home for Christmas after spending a semester abroad.

The university released a statement, saying in part: “Today’s news is a significant milestone in a decades long process to bring those responsible for the despicable act to justice.”

It’s justice that Bert Ammerman has been fighting for in remembrance of his 36-year-old brother, who was killed on the flight.

“My initial reaction was satisfaction. Then I shrugged a little bit and said, ‘again?’ Then most importantly, what’s next,” Ammerman said.

He added: “I personally believe strongly if we had handled the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 appropriately in 1988 and 1989, we might not have had 9/11.”

Ammerman says while there’s no such thing as closure for him, Sunday’s announcement brings him one step further in his healing journey after losing his brother.

“He was just a good person. You hear that all the time when you talk about it. There were great people on that plane that didn’t live their full life. He was one of those,” Ammerman said. “He was one of the nicest human beings you could ever meet. He always wanted to make sure people were comfortable, people were happy. He’s the type of person that you wanted to see live a full life.”

Mas’ud is the third Libyan official charged in the U.S. linked to the Pan Am attack, but he would be the first to make an appearance in an American courtroom for prosecution in the case.

The Libyan government previously surrendered Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah to a panel of Scottish judges sitting in the Netherlands. Al-Megrahi was convicted, but died after being released on humanitarian grounds in 2009 following a prostate cancer diagnosis. Fhimah was acquitted of all charges.

Mas’ud reportedly faces two criminal counts linked to the explosion. The initial announcement of charges against Mas’ud came in 2020, on the 32^nd anniversary of the bombing.

“I’d like him (Mas’ud) to confirm what we suspect that number one, he built a device. He’s told this to a Libyan police officer already in an interview about 10 years ago. But I would like to have him confirm that and confirm who else was involved. And then certainly if, in fact, he was involved in the actual planning, who were the other individuals who ordered this so that additional action could be taken against the other people who may still be alive,” Marquise said.

Officials have not shared how Mas’ud was taken into custody, but local Libyan media reported last month that he had been kidnapped from his residence in Tripoli. Following the incident, the foreign minister for the country’s Tripoli-based government told the BBC that they were “very open in terms of collaboration in this matter” when it came to extradition.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The man in solitary confinement was angry. He was cut off from the world, power a distant memory, and grievance surrounding him as usual. So he took to where his friend — his ONLY friend –was waiting for him: Truth Social.

He simply cannot stop. I refer to Donald Trump, whose life these days seems to consist of no more than angry and rambling Truth Social posts. In the last week or so, several reports of Trump’s aloneness have been reported. There have been reports on how he’s been increasingly cut off from other people, friends, staff, family, and reality. Sounds like solitary confinement to me.

And when someone is in solitary, their mind can play tricks. Trump was never sane anyway, but now he appears to really have gone around the bend. On Friday, Trump attacked Jewish leaders, saying they didn’t love him enough. (My words.)

His words were that they had shown a “lack of loyalty” to him. Trump railed against Jewish leaders, saying he was the best President for Israel ever and remarking on how soon those leaders forget.

But it isn’t just Jewish leaders Trump is attacking. He seems to be going, no holds barred, after everybody lately. And he’s on truth social a lot more than usual. It is said that those in solitary confinement stand a higher choice of developing some type of psychosis.

It all has to do with sensory deprivation. When one is cut off from the world — from human contact — of course, there are going to be changes, and they’re usually not for the better. At this point, it seems that almost everybody is taking Trump’s rantings with a grain of salt. He’s lost the ability for anyone to take him at all seriously anymore. All he has left is his anger, reflecting the solitary confinement he finds himself in.

The post Donald Trump’s solitary confinement appeared first on Palmer Report.

Asian shares fell on Monday while the dollar drifted higher at the start of a hectic week, as markets awaited a flurry of rate decisions from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and others.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) slid 1%, after rising 1.3% the previous week, buoyed by optimism that China is finally opening up its economy with the dismantling of its zero-COVID policy.

Japan’s Nikkei (.N225) eased 0.3%. The S&P 500 futures dipped 0.2% and Nasdaq futures dropped 0.3%.

In China, blue-chip shares (.CSI300) were 0.5% lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index (.HSI) was down 1%, as investors focused on a rapid wave of COVID-19 infection disrupting the economy.

On Friday, Wall Street dropped, Treasury yields advanced and the dollar pared earlier losses.

A U.S. consumer price index (CPI) report on Tuesday will set the tone for markets for the week. Economists expect core annual inflation to ease to 6.1% in November, compared with a rise of 6.3% seen in the previous month.

Risk could be on the upside, after data on Friday showed producer prices had increased faster than expected, fuelling concerns the CPI report may indicate inflation is sticky and interest rates may have to stay higher for longer.

“This week, markets could go anywhere …. A hotter CPI – say 6.4% (and above) and a hawkish set of dots from the Fed and statement from Powell could see funds call it a day for 2022 – risk bleeds into 2023 and funds buy back USD shorts,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

“It would be a big surprise if we didn’t see the Fed step down to a 50bp hike …. We also want to understand if Jay Powell opens the door to a slowdown to a 25bp hiking pace from February – again, while in line with market pricing, this could be taken that we’re closer to the end of the hiking cycle and is a modest USD negative.”

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise rates by 50 basis points on Wednesday at its last meeting of 2022, though focus will also be on the central bank’s updated economic projections and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference.

Kevin Cummins, chief U.S. economist at NatWest, said any surprise in the CPI report was unlikely to shift the Fed from a 50-basis-point rate hike, although it would play a bigger role in the policy statement and the tone of Powell’s press conference.

“As is often the case, the updated dot plot and terminal (peak) rate estimates will be even more critical to the policy outlook than the near-term action this week – a theme Chair Powell will focus on in his prepared remarks and press conference.”

In addition to the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are also set to announce interest rate hikes, as policymakers continue to put the brakes on growth to curb inflation.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar drifted 0.1% higher against a basket of currencies to 105.17, although it was not too far away from the five-month trough of 104.1 a week ago.

Sterling fell 0.35% to $1.222, while the Australian dollar slipped 0.5% to $0.6759.

Treasury yields held largely steady on Monday. The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes held at 3.5820%, compared with its U.S. close of 3.5670%. The two-year yield touched 4.3527%, up slightly from its U.S. close of 4.330%.

In the oil market, prices rose after falling on Friday to the lowest level this year on global recession fears.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures increased 0.9% to $71.71 per barrel, while Brent crude settled at $76.64 a barrel, 0.7% higher.

Spot gold was 0.3% lower at $1,790.38 per ounce.

In an opinion piece published in the Chicago Tribune on June 19, 2014, Donald Trump vehemently defended the use of a huge sign bearing his name on the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. He argued against critics who believed such a sign was architecturally and aesthetically offensive, claiming “my name is known and respected worldwide” and “brings a prominence to Chicago by mere fact of recognition.”

There is no question that Trump’s name is known worldwide, but Trump excels in offering new reasons for his name to become even less respected with each passing day. It has reached a point where now, eight years later, the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board is demanding that it’s time “to take a jackhammer” to the vain eyesore that persists as a monument to hate, fascism, and corruption.

The Tribune’s new editorial on Thursday offers a quick history lesson of how Trump’s sign came to be, which is a tale replete with strategic political contributions and shady dealings. The Tribune then acknowledges its own recent support for Trump’s sign. Just last year, the newspaper came out against a proposed ordinance that would ban anyone “convicted of treason, sedition or subversive actions from doing business with the city, including having a sign permit.”

In doing so, the Tribune declared in 2021: “It’s Trump’s building, and he should have the prerogative of stamping his name on it.” Concerned about “anti-Trump fever” that could lead the city to attract a lawsuit alleging violations of private property rights, the Tribune insisted at the time that city officials “would be wise to swallow their distaste and leave the sign alone.”

However, two very recent developments have changed the equation, prompting the Tribune to pen a new editorial proposing that the toxic sign be demolished. The first is Trump calling for the “termination” of the Constitution on account of a “massive fraud” that stole the 2020 election from him, as the man-child claimed. The second is a jury finding that the Trump Organization “was corrupt at the core” and an obvious “criminal enterprise.”

The Tribune now calls for Chicago to figure out a way to jackhammer that sign to the ground–whether it’s new negotiations, another ordinance, or a public relations campaign. Not only does the Tribune support such an effort this time, but it suspects “most everyone who lives there” would as well. Indeed, it’s high time for this oversized sign promoting an equally overinflated ego to go.

The post Another Trump hotel falls under a cloud of controversy appeared first on Palmer Report.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Biden administration officials will meet early Monday to discuss next steps in securing the release of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was jailed in Russia in 2020 on spying charges, President Joe Biden’s top hostage negotiator said on Sunday.

Hostage affairs envoy Roger Carstens told MSBNC that the president and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were personally focused on the effort to free Whelan. He told CNN the administration could soon roll out fresh sanctions under a presidential executive order signed last summer.

Biden on Thursday announced a prisoner swap involving American basketball star Brittney Griner, but was unable to secure the release of Whelan. Biden said Russia was treating Whelan’s case differently, but vowed never to give up.

“We’re working hard. We’re coming up with different ways to do this. We will not fail this mission,” Carstens told MSNBC.

In a separate interview on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’, Carsten said the administration could soon use new powers included in a executive order signed by Biden this summer that authorized sanctions and visa bans against people responsible for wrongfully detaining American citizens.

“We’re working on target packages right now. It’s something that we discuss all the time. And it’s not going to be too long before you see something rolled out,” he told CNN.

Whelan’s brother David said he was aware of the meeting but not its agenda or scope.

“It’s great that the White House is not letting any grass grow under their feet,” he told Reuters. “Given that it is coming just days after an exchange with Russia, it would seem unfair to set any expectations or pressure on first steps to recalibrate on bringing Paul home.”

The White House had no comment on Monday’s meeting or the possible rollout of new sanctions.

Asked what realistic options the U.S. government had to bring Whelan home, Carstens told CNN: “I would love to tell you about it, because, to me, they’re very exciting and interesting. But … in these negotiations, because they’re ongoing, we usually have to keep our cards close to our chest.”

Carstens told CNN he spoke with Whelan on Friday, the day after the Griner swap, and told him: “Paul, you have the commitment of this president … Keep the faith. We’re coming to get you.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday forecast a substantial reduction in U.S. inflation in 2023, barring an unexpected shock.

“I believe by the end of next year you will see much lower inflation if there’s not … an unanticipated shock,” she told CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ in an interview released Sunday.

Asked about the likelihood of recession, the former Federal Reserve chair said, “There’s a risk of a recession. But … it certainly isn’t, in my view, something that is necessary to bring inflation down.”

Yellen’s comment came days before the Fed is expected to slow the aggressive pace of interest rate increases it has pursued this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has telegraphed a smaller, half-of-a-percentage point increase in the policy rate, to a range of 4.25%-4.5%, after four 75-basis point hikes this year.

Yellen told CBS that economic growth was slowing substantially, inflation was easing and she remained hopeful that the labor market would remain healthy.

She said she hoped the spike in inflation seen this year would be short-lived, and said the U.S. government had learned “a lotta lessons” about the need to curtail inflation after high prices seen in the 1970s.

Shipping costs had come down and long delivery lags had eased, while gasoline prices at the pump were “way down.”

“I think we’ll see a substantial reduction in inflation in the year ahead,” she said.