Latest News

Of . – 10.19.2022 09:00 (act 10.19.2022 09:01)

Ukrainian information: Russia uses Iranian drones in attacks. ©Portal/Valentyn Ogirenko (icon image)

“Allegations that the Islamic Republic is sending weapons, including military drones, to the war in Ukraine” are not true, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Tehran says it is ready to talk to Kyiv about “baseless” allegations about the delivery of drones to Moscow. “Iran stands ready for negotiations and talks with Ukraine to resolve these allegations,” an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday. “Allegations that the Islamic Republic is sending weapons, including military drones, to war in Ukraine” are not true.

Russian army will use Iranian drones

According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian army is also using Iranian kamikaze drones in its attacks on the neighboring country. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced on Tuesday that he had proposed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran.

When asked, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had “no information” about the Russian army’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. The US State Department had previously threatened sanctions against companies and countries involved in Iran’s drone program.

Ukraine: NATO handover announcement

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would deliver anti-drone systems to Kyiv “in the coming days”. This is intended to support the country in defending against Iranian-made drones, which Russia is using to attack critical infrastructure in Ukraine, according to Stoltenberg. Because Russia continued its drone and rocket attacks on Tuesday as well, and there were repeated aerial alerts across the country.

According to the authorities, air defense was active in the regions of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv, among others. Rockets and drones crashed in many places, including the capital Kyiv. Moscow has recently stepped up its combat drone strikes. “Ukraine is under attack by the occupiers. They continue to do what they do best: terrorize and kill civilians,” Zelensky said.

Zelenskyy does not want to negotiate with Putin

According to Zelenskyy, the Russian attacks in recent days have caused serious damage to energy infrastructure. 30% of Ukraine’s power plants have been destroyed since October 10, the president tweeted. British military experts also suspected that Russia’s latest wave of attacks mainly targeted Ukraine’s power grid. Zelenskyy continues to reject negotiations with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin: “there is no more room” for that.

She is a heartbroken mother who watched as her son Anthony was handcuffed after being convicted of driving with a driver that caused the death of her other son, Mickael Vachon.

• Also read: Charged with unfit driving which caused his half-brother’s death

• Also read: Fatal accident in Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon: He died in his half-brother’s car

If Judge Réna Émond had to rule on a criminal offense in Anthony Lafontaine’s case, it was indeed “family drama” that was at stake when the 30-year-old admitted causing the death of his half-brother on July 22 2017

The two brothers, from the same mother, were inseparable from birth and worked for the same employer in the construction industry.

On the day of the tragedy, they celebrated construction holidays and went to Shaker in Lévis with their colleagues, then to Délice.

By the end of the evening, the two brothers had swapped steering wheels to return to their respective homes.

At around 4am, Anthony Lafontaine was driving when the vehicle literally wrapped itself around a Hydro Quebec pole after losing control on a corner in Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon.

Photo archive, Agency QMI

The fatal accident of two half-brothers occurred on the night of July 21-22, 2017 in Saint-Lambert-de-Lauzon.

The passenger, Mickael Vachon, 21, remained confined in the vehicle while the suspect was half expelled from the vehicle.

It was the spouse of one of the brothers who saw the accident after being concerned the two men had not arrived.

Archive photo

Mickael Vachon, 21, died in the accident.

Driving under the influence of alcohol

Anthony Lafontaine underwent a lengthy rehabilitation after being seriously injured in the accident and has since been unable to return to work.

A year and a half after the accident, he was eventually charged with impaired driving, with blood tests showing 130 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milliliters of blood.

heartbroken mother

The mother of the two men cried bitterly during the trial, at the end of which Anthony Lafontaine was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The woman, who described herself as “a heartbroken mother” in a letter read to the judge, said she “feels like she’s losing her second son”.

“I ask the court to address my pain as a mother,” wrote Guylaine Vachon, who struggled to see her son Anthony being handcuffed to go to jail.

The then 25-year-old accused said briefly and in tears that he had “great regrets”.

In addition to his sentence, he will be given a three-year driving ban after his release from prison.

Do you have any information about this story that you would like to share with us?

Do you have a scoop that might be of interest to our readers?

Trainers from Iran would help the Russian army deal with drones

US officials told the New York Times, on condition of anonymity, that Iran had sent instructors to Russia-annexed Crimea to train Russian troops to fly drones that Moscow bought from Tehran.

The trainers are said to be from the Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization. And according to the American daily, those trainers wouldn’t be anywhere near the front lines.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov announced on Tuesday that Iran had supplied Russia with an initial shipment of 1,750 Shahed drones and Moscow had placed additional orders. Over the past 10 days, more than 100 Iran-made drones have hit power plants, sewage treatment plants, residential buildings, bridges and other targets in urban areas, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.

“We have no such information,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked by a journalist about Moscow’s use of Iranian drones in Ukraine. “It uses Russian technology with Russian names.”

Tehran reiterated that it “has not exported arms to any of the warring factions,” while Washington threatened to sanction companies or states collaborating with Iran’s drone program.

For its part, NATO is preparing to ship hundreds of signal jammers to Ukraine to counter the threat posed by these drones. Speaking remotely at a conference in Berlin, Allianz Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the systems “will help them deal with this specific drone threat, including of course Iranian-made drones that are now causing a lot of devastation and suffering.”

Russian nuclear threat. Fears are growing in the West that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering blowing one up nuclear warhead Low Yield on the Black Sea Yesterday the British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace made a surprise visit to the United States to discuss the situation in Ukraine and in particular the threat of a nuclear attack by Russia.

MORE INFORMATION

Russian commander Surovikin: “Difficult decisions cannot be ruled out.” Kyiv: New attacks on energy infrastructure

The British Secretary of Defense in the US

The trip was unscheduled and, in fact, Wallace canceled at the last minute his scheduled appearance before the House of Commons Defense Committee yesterday. The minister has a series of talks at the Pentagon and the White House. “We are at a time when these kinds of talks are necessary,” said Deputy Secretary of Defense and military chief James Heappey.

THE MEETING

Wallace’s “emergency” talks came ahead of the delivery of new NATO systems that will bolster Ukraine’s air defenses against attacks on civilians by drones and kamikaze missiles. In fact, Wallace met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The theme of the meeting is the joint engagement of the United States and Britain alongside Ukraine by continuing to provide security assistance to the Kiev Armed Forces.

Almost 60 people have been killed in fighting between the main jihadist organization in northern Syria and pro-Turkish groups over the past ten days, an NGO and an AFP correspondent reported on Tuesday.

These clashes, the deadliest in years, have allowed the Hayat Tahrir al-Cham (HTS) group, the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, to gain ground in Ankara’s areas of influence near the border with Turkey, according to these sources.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO with an extensive source network in Syria, 28 HTS militants and 20 other pro-Turkish factions were killed, as well as 10 civilians.

Fighting broke out on October 8 and the Turkish army stationed in the area did not intervene, according to sources who agree.

Within days, HTS was able to take full control of the Afrin region near the Turkish border, said the AFP correspondent and spokesman for a local pro-Turkish armed group.

According to the OSDH, an agreement has been reached between the belligerents under which HTS will manage Afrine, be responsible for security there and be stationed at checkpoints separating that area from areas occupied by the Syrian regime and the Kurds.

The agreement was supposed to extend to other areas near the Turkish border, but fighting resumed Monday night after a brief lull near the nearby town of Azaz, stronghold of a pro-Turkish group, Al Jabha al Chamia.

According to the head of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahmane, “HTS could not have entered this region without Turkey’s consent”.

Turkey, which opposed Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the start of the war, began sending troops to northern Syria in 2020, where it controls areas with its Syrian proxies.

Since the HTS offensive, hundreds of people have demonstrated against this jihadist group in several cities in the region.

This organization controls half of Idleb province, the last major rebel and jihadist stronghold in Syria, where the war has claimed nearly half a million lives since 2011.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Iranian competitive climber Elnaz Rekabi was received like a hero upon her return to Tehran early Wednesday after competing in South Korea without wearing the headscarf required for female athletes from the Islamic Republic.

Rekabi’s decision not to wear the hijab on Sunday came as protests sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in custody on September 16 entered their fifth week. Mahsa Amini was arrested by the country’s vice squad over her dress – and her death has prompted women to remove their mandatory hijab in public.

The demonstrations, which have seen schoolchildren, oil workers and others take to the streets in over 100 cities, pose the most serious challenge to Iran’s theocracy since mass protests surrounding the disputed 2009 presidential election.

Supporters and Persian-language media outside Iran are worried about Rekabi’s safety after she decided to compete without a headscarf.

Rekabi on Wednesday reiterated a statement previously posted on her behalf on an Instagram account, describing her not wearing a hijab, as “unintentional”. The Iranian government routinely pressures activists at home and abroad, often broadcasting on state television what rights groups describe as forced confessions – the same cameras that addressed them upon arrival home.

Video shared online showed large crowds gathering at Imam Khomeini International Airport outside Tehran, the sanctioned nation’s main gateway abroad, early Wednesday. The videos, which matched well-known characteristics of the airport, showed crowds chanting 33-year-old Rekabi’s name and calling her a heroine.

She entered one of the airport’s terminals, filmed by state media, wearing a black baseball cap and a black hoodie that covered her hair. She received flowers from a bystander and then reiterated what had been posted on Instagram that wearing the hijab was “unintentional” and her trip went as previously planned.

Rekabi described being in a women-only waiting area prior to her ascension.

“Because I was busy putting on my shoes and gear, I forgot to put on my hijab and then I went to the competition,” she said.

She added: “I returned to Iran with peace of mind, even though I had a lot of tension and stress. But thank God nothing has happened so far.”

Outside, she apparently got into a van and was driven slowly through the assembled crowd cheering her on. Where she went after that was not clear.

Rekabi left Seoul on a Tuesday morning flight. The BBC’s Persian service, which maintains extensive contacts inside Iran despite an operating ban, quoted an unnamed “informed source” as saying that Iranian officials confiscated both Rekabi’s mobile phone and passport.

BBC Persian also said it was originally scheduled for Wednesday but its flight appears to have been unexpectedly brought forward.

IranWire, another website focused on the country founded by Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was once arrested by Iran, claimed that upon arrival in the country, Rekabi would be immediately transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison . Evin prison was the scene of a major fire last weekend that killed at least eight prisoners.

In a tweet, the Iranian embassy in Seoul denied “all fake, false news and disinformation” regarding Rekabi’s departure. But instead of posting a photo of her from the Seoul competition, a picture of her wearing a headscarf was posted at a previous competition in Moscow, where she won a bronze medal.

Rekabi did not wear a hijab during Sunday’s final at the International Federation of Sport Climbing Asian Championships.

Rekabi wore a hijab in her first appearances at the week-long climbing event. She wore just a black headband on Sunday, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail; she wore a white jersey with the Iranian flag as a logo on it.

Footage from the competition showed Rekabi relaxed as she approached climbing and after competing.

Iranian women who compete abroad under the Iranian flag always wear the hijab.

“We expect her to return to Iran and we will continue to monitor the evolution of the situation upon her arrival,” the International Federation of Sport Climbing, which oversaw the event, said in a statement. “It is important to emphasize that athlete safety is of the utmost importance to us and we support all efforts to protect a valued member of our community in this situation.”

The association said it had been in contact with both Rekabi and Iranian officials, but declined to elaborate on the content of those calls when reached by The Associated Press. The association also declined to discuss the Instagram post attributed to Rekabi and the claims it contained.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry confirmed the departure of the Iranian athlete and her team from the country, without elaborating. On Wednesday, a small group of protesters demonstrated outside the Iranian embassy in Seoul, with some women cutting off strands of their hair as others have done in demonstrations around the world since Amini’s death.

So far, human rights groups estimate that more than 200 people have been killed in the protests and the subsequent crackdown by the security forces. Iran has not offered a death toll in weeks. According to the Human Rights Activists group in Iran, demonstrations were observed in over 100 cities. Thousands are said to have been arrested.

However, gathering information about the demonstrations remains difficult. Internet access has been interrupted by the Iranian government for weeks. According to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, the authorities have now arrested at least 40 journalists.

Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have repeatedly claimed that the country’s foreign enemies are behind the ongoing demonstrations, rather than Iranians angry at Amini’s death and the country’s other woes.

Iranians have seen their life savings evaporate; the country’s currency, the rial, plummeted and Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers was left in tatters.

___

Associated Press writer Ahn Young-joon in Seoul, South Korea contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

Professor Emeritus of History Mohammed Kenbib is the reference in Morocco when it comes to relations between Jews and Muslims. He is the author of the book “Jews and Muslims in Morocco, from the beginnings to the present” and Director of the Royal Institute for Research into the History of Morocco – Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco – Credit: DR

From the speech from the throne in July to the opening of the parliamentary session in the autumn, several issues and issues were discussed by King Mohammed VI. put forward: family code for better equality between men and women; economic measures to curb inflation, a consequence of the Russo-Ukrainian war; continuation of the social protection project; relaxation with neighboring Algeria; the importance of clarifying the positions of different countries on the issue of the Sahara, which has been described as “the prism through which Morocco views its international environment”; finally priority for water and investment. There is one, however, that stood out in the Cherif sovereign’s August 20 speech: that on Moroccan Jews. As part of Mohammed VI’s desire to see, in his own words, “closer institutional ties between the Moroccans of the world and their homeland, including with the hundreds of thousands of Moroccan Jews abroad,” this theme awakens in the history of the Cherifian kingdom, particularly this one , essential to know the question of how the life of the Jews of Morocco was under the Alaouite dynasty. Emeritus Professor of History, author of the reference work “Jews and Muslims in Morocco, from the origins to the present day”, in the joint collection “Histoire” at Tallandier, director of the Royal Institute for Rec […] Continue reading

US-Russian tensions not far from American territory The Air Force sent two F-16 fighters to intercept two Russian bombers flying near Alaska. The episode took place Monday as announced by the North American Aerospace Defense Command and reported by NBC.

Putin nuclear bomb, secret service fears tests in the Black Sea: British Defense Secretary flies to crisis summit in the USA

MORE INFORMATION

RUSSIAN BOMBERS IN ALASKA

Although the two Russian Tu-95 Bear-H bombers did not enter American or Canadian airspace, Norad stressed that it “detected, tracked, identified and intercepted” the planes as they “entered the air defense identification zone and there operated from Alaska”.

Air Defense Identification Zones are areas of airspace that require all aircraft to be identified and located and their flight plans verified “in the interest of national security,” reports the Federal Aviation Administration.

THE TENSIONS

Norad, a joint US-Canadian air defense organization, points out that the Russian overflight “was not considered a threat or provocative”. However, the appearance of Russian bombers and their interception by US fighters comes at a difficult time in relations between the two countries.