USA AND Japan's ex-leader Shinzo live updates: at least 76 Covid deaths

 Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech — an attack that stunned a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

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In the once-prosperous cotton town of Heywood in the north west of England, Boris Johnson’s misdemeanours were wearily taken as read on the day of his resignation. The more pressing concern was about what happens next. “That, I think, is actually the problem,” said consultancy services manager Samantha Bamforth, checking her phone outside the Heywood Fish Bar moments before Johnson announced that he was quitting as leader of the Conservative party. “Nobody is good. If he goes, who is going to backfill him? What are their values? What is the public opinion of them? There’s a lot going on right now, not just in this country, but the world. Who’s equipped to deal with it?”

The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, officials said.

Among them was the ratification of the Japan Australia Economic Partnership Agreement, which created new opportunities for Australian businesses in Japan.

He was a tireless champion for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has brought huge benefits to Australia.

He elevated our bilateral relationship to a special strategic partnership. Under his longstanding advocacy, the closer links between the two nations we have, increased defence cooperation including through the recently signed reciprocal access agreement.

 

© Provided by The Guardian Shinzo Abe and former Australian PM Tony Abbott at a press conference in Parliament House, Canberra in 2014. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Mr Abe understood instinctively the values that Australia and Japan share of democracy and human rights and the shared interest we have in bolstering the global rules-based order.

His vision transcended political cycles. It was eight years ago yesterday – the 8 July 2014 that he addressed both houses of the Australian parliament. An historic address.

Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal.

In response, the chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon” with Musk and “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”

The trial court in Delaware frequently handles business disputes among the many corporations, including Twitter, that are incorporated there.

Former President Donald Trump weighed in on his own social platform, Truth Social: “THE TWITTER DEAL IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE ‘TRUTH’”. Musk said in May that he would allow Trump, who was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, back onto the platform.

Much of the drama surrounding the deal has played out on Twitter, with Musk — who has more than 100 million followers — lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech.

On Friday, shares of Twitter fell 5% to $36.81, well below the $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5% to $752.29. After the market closed and Musk’s letter was published, Twitter’s stock continued to decline while Tesla climbed higher.

“This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its board,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors. He predicted a long court fight by Twitter to either restore the deal or get the $1 billion breakup fee.

On Thursday, Twitter sought to shed more light on how it counts spam accounts in a briefing with journalists and company executives. Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts each day. The accounts represent well below 5% of its active user base each quarter.

The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead.

Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the company’s board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate.

In a letter to Twitter’s board, Musk lawyer Mike Ringler complained that his client had for nearly two months sought data to judge the prevalence of “fake or spam” accounts on the social media platform.

 

He spoke frankly about the horrors of the second world war and conveyed with the greatest sincerity condolences towards the many who lost their lives. Four years later, in 2018, he was the first Japanese leader to visit Darwin and to lay a memorial wreath while he was there.

Mr Abe was a great statesman who made a difference. His vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific has a profound effect on regional and global security and informing the Quad.

Anthony Albanese pays tribute to Shinzo Abe as 'a true patriot and a true leader'

03:30

Prime minister Anthony Albanese is speaking to reporters about the shock of the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe:

 

It is hard to believe we are speaking about Shinzo Abe in the past tense. I have had a little while to process the information but, like I think many people around the world, I am still in shock at this news.

Japan has lost a true patriot and a true leader. And Australia has lost a true friend. Friendship that Mr Abe offered Australia was warm in sentiment and profound in consequence.

During his time as prime minister no one was more committed to furthering relations between our two nations. He visited Australia no less than five times as the prime minister of Japan.

 

© Provided by The Guardian Anthony Albanese pays tribute to Shinzo Abe during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

 

03:05

Albanese: Abe death ‘mightn’t be the last’ political assassination

Anthony Albanese has described the cruelty of the loss of the former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and expressed fears that such a sudden loss of a world leader “mightn’t be the last”:

 

Mr Abe was not destined to be prime minister in easy times but even as the world shifted beneath our feet, Mr Abe faced all of the challenges with a strength of character and an unbending resolve.

He did not flinch, he did not weaken. And that is the cruel paradox of the tragedy that unfolded yesterday. That someone of such courage, with such strength of character, could be taken away with an act of extreme cowardice.

It is not the first time we have seen this grim occasion play out, and I fear that it mightn’t be the last.

 

Albanese said the shooting of Abe was an “attack on our democracy” but it wouldn’t undermine the “precious democracy” he had helped to protect and build.

 

The precious democracy that you have built is stronger than this. The values that we share and that hold our societies together are stronger than this.

A hand that is raised in violence can never overpower what so many hands have built in peace. Likewise, this low act of cruelty will not overshadow a life that was lived with such high purpose.

For Mr Abe’s family and to his loving wife, I extend the sincerest condolences of the Australian people along with the warmth and their enduring gratitude.

While the people of Japan deal with this profound loss, they know this. Mr Abe’s life was one of consequence.

A hearse carrying Abe's body left the hospital early Saturday to head back to his home in Tokyo. Abe's wife Akie lowered her head as the vehicle passed before a crowd of journalists.

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

Police at the shooting scene arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan's navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used a gun that was obviously homemade — about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long — and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment.

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Police said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumors about the former leader's connection to a certain organization that police did not identify.

Dramatic video from broadcaster NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out, and he collapsed holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as security guards ran toward him. Guards then leapt onto the gunman, who was face down on the pavement, and a double-barreled weapon was seen nearby.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events elsewhere after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric." He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan's less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government would review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.

Mohon Pur Bazar Covid Update Japanese PM Shinzo Abe shot at Monday 2022

  Former Japanese leader Shinzo Abe was fighting for his life on Friday after being shot at a campaign event.

The attack in the western city of Nara left Abe in critical condition, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, and shocked a country where gun violence is virtually nonexistent and laws on ownership are strict.

Labour could table a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s Government in the House of Commons “as early as next week” if the Tories do not oust the Prime Minister from No 10 now, Angela Rayner has said. 

The deputy Labour leader said Mr Johnson “can’t stay another minute in Downing Street” and the Conservative Party should choose a successor “pretty quickly oar get some interim leader in”.

“If they don’t do that we are very clear that we will put a motion of no confidence forward before the summer recess [July 21] to ensure that that exchange happens,” she said.

Pushed on when a vote of no confidence could be held, Ms Rayner told Sky News: “It could be as early as next week, yeah, because we haven’t got long left before the summer recess.”

Parliamentary convention dictates that a government that cannot command the confidence of a majority of MPs in the Commons should either resign or go to the country in a general election. 

Mr Johnson yesterday announced he is resigning as Tory leader but will remain in No 10 until his successor is in place. The Tory leadership contest could take months, raising the prospect of the PM staying in power until September or October.  

​​Follow the latest updates below.

Bout provided tons of guns and ammunition to some of the most vicious warlords in the world and empowered them to carry out unspeakable atrocities. He is responsible for enabling murderous groups to kidnap and train thousands of child soldiers; use rape as a systematic method of terror and control; torture through the mass amputations of arms, legs, ears and lips; slaughter civilians, and help the Taliban take power in Afghanistan. Griner may have been carrying vape cartridges that were banned in Russia but not in much of the world.

There is no parity in the negotiations or symmetry in the lives or actions of the two potential protagonists. But President Joe Biden should take the deal.

I covered the wars and victims of Bout’s weapons trade in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Democratic Republic of Congo as a correspondent for the Washington Post. The Nicolas Cage movie “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, and I co-wrote with Stephen Braun a non-fiction account of the savagery he enabled. There are no words to describe the human toll of Bout’s activities on thousands of people, from the armless child amputees in refugee camps to the scorched rural hamlets burned to the ground by marauding children traumatized into killing their own families.

 

Bout ran an aviation and weapons empire from the fall of the Soviet Union until his arrest in Thailand in 2008. He built his business by ferrying lethal weapons by the ton to buyers in exchange for cash, diamonds and timber. He was acting, his brother said, as merely a taxi service — a chauffeur with no responsibility to know the contents of the passenger’s baggage he was carrying. But he knew exactly what he was doing.

 

Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, had just begun a speech near a train station when gunfire was heard around 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 p.m. Thursday ET). Public broadcaster NHK, citing the local fire department, reported that Abe was in a state of cardio and pulmonary arrest, suggesting that his heart had stopped.

It said he had been admitted to Nara Medical University Hospital. Officials said that one person had been apprehended in relation to the shooting.

Nobuo Kishi, the Japanese defense minister and Abe’s younger brother, said doctors were “making every effort to provide life-saving treatment, including blood transfusions.”

He called the shooting an “attack on democracy.”

Speaking from his office in Tokyo, a visibly shaken Kishida said that while the attack was still being investigated, “it was a despicable and barbaric act that took place in the midst of an election, which is the foundation of democracy.”

“I condemn it in the harshest possible terms,” he told a hastily arranged news conference after returning from campaigning in the country’s north.

Photos from the scene showed Abe collapsed on the street with blood visible on his shirt, surrounded by security.Kyodo News via AP

Kishida said no decisions had been made as to how the shooting would affect elections for the upper house of the Japanese Parliament, which are scheduled for Sunday. Abe, 67, who stepped down in 2020, was campaigning for other members of the governing conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) but is not a candidate himself.

Abe dominated Japanese politics for the best part of a decade and has remained politically active since his resignation, leading the biggest faction in his party.

The incident sent shockwaves through Japan, where gun violence is extremely rare. Handguns are banned in the country and people must undergo extensive tests, training and background checks to obtain and keep shotguns and air rifles.

Iwao Horii, an LDP member of the upper house representing Nara, was standing next to Abe when the former prime minister was shot. “We heard two loud sounds while he was talking and he fell immediately after that,” Horii said at a news conference. He added that Abe was unresponsive when emergency medics tried to resuscitate him.

“This is something that shakes the very foundations of democracy and cannot be forgiven,” he said. “At this point we are all praying for the quick recovery of former Prime Minister Abe.”

The shooting was also condemned by the country’s ma

Cavell added: "A similar situation is occurring towards Bakhmut with Russia making slow gains against heavy resistance, but slowly securing more of the highway to Lysychansk and closing in on Bakhmut defences."

The Institute for the Study of War said: "Russian forces still conducted limited ground offensives and air, artillery, and missile strikes across all axes on July 7, and will likely continue to confine themselves to small-scale offensive actions as they rebuild forces and set conditions for a more significant offensive."

Besides trying to push west from the Luhansk border, the Russians have sustained artillery fire on settlements north of Sloviansk, with the Ukrainian General Staff that saying "our defenders inflicted losses on the enemy during its next offensive attempt and pushed the invaders back near Bohorodychne," some 20 kilometers north of the city.

Serhiy Hayday, head of Luhansk region military administration, said "in order to reach the administrative border of Luhansk region, the Russians are destroying the surrounding villages with artillery....they do not stop firing from all types of heavy weapons " on the few villages not already under their control.

"But our armed forces hold the fort," Hayday said, indicating that resistance continues along the regional border.

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian General Staff reported further artillery attacks against settlements north of Kharkiv, and local authorities said there had been civilian casualties in a rocket attack on the eastern outskirts of the city.

Regional military administrations reported incoming fire in both Sumy, in the north, and against Kryvyi Rih, in the south, without causing casualties.

Also in the south, Russian forces continue to shell areas of Kherson and Mykolaiv in an effort to retrieve recently lost territory, according to regional administrations, and several villages were on "the verge of destruction."

The Cavell Group assessed that "north of Kherson there were phases of intensive artillery shelling yesterday [Thursday], but no significant changes on the ground. Around Kherson City Ukrainian [forces] fired coordinated artillery onto some Russian fortified defensive positions."

Dr Covid Update Online seizes advanced Iranian missiles Camilla 2022 Hot News

 A British Royal Navy vessel seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials said Thursday, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country.

The British government statement was striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf.

Russia has not made any territorial gains in Ukraine for the first time in 133 days, according to its own assessments, hinting at an “operational pause” for its battle-stricken forces to recuperate.

Before this, Moscow’s defence ministry had claimed territorial gains in its daily update every day since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said this indicated an “operational pause” in order to prepare for a large-scale offensive after capturing much of the eastern Luhansk region.

“Russian forces will likely confine themselves to relatively small-scale offensive actions as they attempt to set conditions for more significant offensive operations and rebuild the combat power needed to attempt those more ambitious undertakings,” ISW added.

Analysts have suggested this is part of Russia's attempts to steel itself for a protracted war in Ukraine. The Kremlin is also passing a law to give it more control over business and workers to put the Russian economy on a stronger war footing.

The European Union’s plan to tackle market disruption in the fish supply chain caused by the military aggression in Ukraine was addressed on Wednesday 6 July at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

In 2019, the EU fishing fleet directly employed around 130,000 fishermen and totaled some 74,000 vessels. Aquaculture employed about 75,000 people and the processing industry included about 3,500 companies, providing around 6.4 million tonnes of fish products. But the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine on fishing activities disrupted the supply chain of fishery and aquaculture products due to the rise in the price of energy, raw materials and fish feed. For example, 19% of European herring are exported yearly to the Ukrainian market, while fish feed is widely arriving from this country.

The U.K. Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure of surface-to-air-missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran.”

“The U.K. will continue to work in support of an enduring peace in Yemen and is committed to international maritime security so that commercial shipping can transit safely without threat of disruption,” said James Heappey, Minister for the Armed Forces.

The announcement signals an escalation as Western officials have in the past shied away from public statements that definitively blame Iran for arming Yemen’s Houthis with military contraband. The route of the smuggled shipments through the Arabian Sea or Gulf of Aden, however, has strongly suggested their destination.

Despite a United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Yemen, Iran has long been suspected of transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis since the disastrous war began in 2015. Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced components back to Iran.

Citing a forensic analysis last month, the British navy linked the batch of rocket engines seized earlier this year to an Iranian-made cruise missile with a 1,000-kilometer range that it said the rebels have used against Saudi Arabia.

The Houthis also used the cruise missile to attack an oil facility in Abu Dhabi in January of this year, the British navy said, an assault that killed three people and threatened the key U.S. ally’s reputation as a haven of stability. The U.S. military launched interceptor missiles during the attack, signaling a widening of Yemen's war.

The HMS Montrose’s helicopter had been scanning for illicit goods in the Gulf of Oman on January 28 and February 25 when it spotted small vessels speeding away from the Iranian coast with “suspicious cargo on deck.” A team of Royal Marines then halted and searched the boats, confiscating the weapons in international waters south of Iran.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a tweet on Wednesday that he had a "very productive" phone call with the Russian president in which he asked for credit support. Sri Lanka has already made purchases of Russian oil.

Protesters gathered near the parliament building in the capital, Colombo, on Wednesday calling on Rajapaksa to resign. Inflation hit a record 54.6% in June while food prices have nearly doubled.

The president's request comes after prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka was "bankrupt" on Tuesday, two days after the energy minister, Kanchana Wijesekera, said it had less than a day's worth of fuel left.

Authorities on Wednesday started hauling away 177 lions, tigers, jaguars and other exotic big cats that were found at an animal rescue center in the mountains on Mexico City's south side.

The federal Attorney General's Office for Environmental Protection said 202 animals in all, including monkeys, dogs, donkeys and coyotes, were being taken to other locations.

Dozens of heavily armed city police raided the "Black Jaguar White Tiger" animal sanctuary Tuesday after images of rail-thin, distressed and injured lions circulated on social media.

Russian officials lined up to celebrate the downfall of Boris Johnson on Thursday, with a leading tycoon casting the British leader as a "stupid clown" who had finally got his just reward for arming Ukraine against Russia.

Johnson was expected to announce his resignation after he was abandoned by ministers and his Conservative Party's lawmakers who said he was no longer fit to govern. The Kremlin said it too was no fan of the British leader, whose parents named him Boris after a White Russian emigre.

 

"He doesn't like us, we don't like him either," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said reports that Johnson would shortly resign as prime minister were of little concern for the Kremlin.

Other Russians were more brutal.

Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska said on Telegram that it was an "inglorious end" for a "stupid clown" whose conscience would be blighted by "tens of thousands of lives in this senseless conflict in Ukraine".

Maria Zakharova, the top spokeswoman in Russia's foreign ministry, said Johnson's fall was a symptom of the decline of the West, which she said was riven by political, ideological and economic crisis.

"The moral of the story is: do not seek to destroy Russia," Zakharova said. "Russia cannot be destroyed. You can break your teeth on it - and then choke on them."

Even before President Vladimir Putin ordered the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Johnson had repeatedly criticised Putin - casting him as a ruthless and possibly irrational Kremlin chief who was imperiling the world with his crazy ambitions.

The first bull run in three years took place Thursday at the San Fermín festival in the Spanish city of Pamplona. No one was gored, but several runners took knocks and hard falls as tens of thousands people reveled in the return of one of Europe’s most famous traditional events.

Six bulls guided by six tame oxen charged through Pamplona’s streets for around two minutes and 35 seconds without provoking too much carnage among the thousands of observers and participants cramming the course.

Several runners were stomped, trampled or shoved to the cobblestone pavement. An animal’s horn smacked at least two men in the head, but neither suffered a skewering.

The Pamplona hospital said six people were brought in for treatment. They included a 30-year-old American man who fractured his left arm and a 16-year-old Spanish girl who lost part of a finger in the bullring, where a pile-up of runners occurred at the entrance. Four Spanish men between the ages of 19 and 45 also were injured.

Ryan Ward, an American tourist from San Diego, said the risk of running with the bulls was well worth the rush.

After the invasion, Johnson made Britain one of the biggest Western supporters of Ukraine, sending weapons, slapping some of the most severe sanctions in modern history on Russia and urging Ukraine to defeat Russia's vast armed forces.

CANADA Covid Update Ukraine town warned to evacuate 2022 Dhaka Barisal Online

 kraine (AP) — A day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in seizing an eastern Ukraine province essential to his wartime aims, the mayor of a city in the path of Moscow’s offensive warned residents Tuesday to evacuate ahead of an expected assault.

Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City don fault Police rescue report of one kidnapped Italian priest for Edo State southern Nigeria.

Edo State Police Command issue statement say na dem help rescue di Reverend Father from di kidnappers.

But Archdiocese of Benin City explanation of how Fr. Luigi Brenna regain freedom from im kidnappers contradict wetin police tok.

Following a legal battle, Mrs Paul is now in line for a half share of the house when it is sold in three years' time, with her four children and step-children sharing the rest.

Only one of Mr Paul's children, James Paul, from his first marriage, had objected to Mrs Paul's claim, complaining that he had been left strapped for cash following the Covid pandemic and had been living in his car - arguing he could not wait three years for the property to be sold.  

But his argument was rejected by the court, which said it was 'surprising' that Mr Paul's will cut out his wife, since they had enjoyed a 'happy marriage' until he died.

Tori be say Kidnappers bin gbab di priest on Sunday 3 July 2022 howeva im escape hand.

Police for Edo State claim say na dem rescue di Italian priest but di Catholic Archdiocese say no be so e happun.

How di kidnap take happen?

According to Chancellor, Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City, Very Rev. Fr. Michael Oyanoafoh e happun wen Fr. Luigi Brenna bin dey watch football game.

Boys for di village bin dey play around 5pm for Usen, in front of di Somascan community playing ground.

Michael Oyanoafoh come explain say di kidnap happun on Sunday 3 July, 2022

Suddenly, e say some men storm di venue begin shoot, wey make di boys wey bin dey play di football run away,

"But dem capture Fr. Luigi Brenna, beat am, use machete hit im head and bodi, den drag am away.

After about half kilometres of intense trekking and di dragging, dem give am more beating, di clergyman add.

E say dem beat am because di priest bin dey resist to follow di abductors, so e come fait at dat point.

Di Chancellor say dem carry am go anoda hospital to continue treatment and im dey respond well to di treatment.

WIA DIS FOTO COME FROM,CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BENIN CITY

 

Wetin we call dis foto,Catholic Archdiocese of Benin City debunk Police rescue report say no be so

 

How Police say di rescue happen?

Edo State Police Command say wen operatives attached to Iguobazuwa Division receive hint say suspected kidnappers kidnap di 64 year-old priest dem immediately swing into action.

One tok-tok pesin ASP Jennifer U. Iwegbu say e happun for Ogunwenyu through Usen community for Ovia South West local goment area of Edo State.

Iwegbu say di operatives follow di suspected kidnappers to dia camp.

"Di suspects as dem sight di operatives open fire on dem but di superior fire power of di police operatives neutralise three of di kidnappers."

"Di rest escape into di forest with various degrees of gun shot injuries and abandon dia victim."

Police say dem immediately rush di victim to Igbinedion Teaching Hospital, Okada for medical attention.

"Meanwhile intensive bush combing dey go on with dj aim of arresting di suspected kidnappers weh dey on di run." She tok.

An official from Russia's powerful FSB security services took over the government of the Moscow-occupied Kherson region in southern Ukraine, Kremlin-installed authorities have said.

"Ukraine is forever in the past for the Kherson region. Russia is here forever," the Moscow-installed authorities said on Telegram.

Sergei Yeliseyev, until now the deputy head of government in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, "became head of the government in the Kherson region", said Vladimir Saldo, who heads the Russian occupational administration. His government takes office today, he added.

A graduate of the FSB Academy, 51-year-old Mr Yeliseyev served in the security services in unspecified functions, according to the Kaliningrad region website.

Kherson city, which lies close to Moscow-annexed Crimea, was the first major city to fall to Russian forces since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in February.

The warning from the mayor of Sloviansk underscored fears that Russian forces were positioned to advance farther into Ukraine’s Donbas region, a mostly Russian-speaking industrial area where the country’s most experienced soldiers are concentrated.

Sloviansk, which had a population of about 107,000 before Russian invaded Ukraine more than four months ago, appeared to be the next target. The city has taken rocket and artillery fire during the war, and the bombardment has picked up since Moscow took the last major city in neighboring Luhansk province, Mayor Vadim Lyakh said.

“It’s important to evacuate as many people as possible,” he said, adding that shelling damaged 40 houses on Monday.

The Ukrainian military withdrew its troops Sunday from the city of Lysychansk to keep them from being surrounded. Russia’s defense minister and Putin said the city’s subsequent capture put Moscow in control of all of Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas.

The office of Ukraine’s president said the Ukrainian military was still defending a small part of Luhansk and trying to buy time to establish fortified positions in nearby areas.

The question now is whether Russia can muster enough strength to complete its seizure of the Donbas by taking Donetsk province, too. Putin acknowledged Monday that Russian troops who fought in Luhansk need to “take some rest and beef up their combat capability.”

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the war in Ukraine would continue until all of the goals set Putin are achieved. However, Shoigu said “the main priorities” for Moscow at the moment were “preserving the lives and health” of the troops, as well as “excluding the threat to the security of civilians.”

When Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, his stated goals were defending the people of the Donbas against Kyiv’s alleged aggression, and the “demilitarization” and “denazifaction” of Ukraine.

Pro-Russia separatists have fought Ukrainian forces and controlled much of the Donbas for eight years. Before the invasion, Putin recognized the independence of a pair of self-proclaimed separatist republics in the region. He also sought to portray the tactics of Ukrainian forces and the government as akin to Nazi Germany’s, claims for which no evidence has emerged.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Russian forces also shelled several Donetsk towns and villages around Sloviansk in the past day but were repelled as they tried to advance toward a town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the city’s north. South of the city, Russian forces were trying to push toward two more towns and shelling areas near Kramatorsk.

Meanwhile, Moscow-installed officials in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Tuesday announced the formation of a new regional government there, with a former Russian official at the helm.

Sergei Yeliseyev, the head of the new Moscow-backed government in Kherson, is a former deputy prime minister of Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad and also used to work at Russia’s Federal Security Service, or the FSB, according to media reports.

It wasn’t immediately clear what would become of the “military-civic administration” the Kremlin installed earlier. The administration’s head, Vladimir Saldo said in a Telegram statement that the new government was “not a temporary, not a military, not some kind of interim administration, but a proper governing body.”

“The fact that not just Kherson residents, but Russian officials, too, are part of this government speaks clearly about the direction the Kherson region is headed in the future,” he said. “This direction is to Russia.”

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

In other developments:

— The 30 NATO allies signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, sending the membership bids of the two nations to the alliance capitals for legislative approvals. The move further increases Russia’s strategic isolation in the wake of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February and military struggles there since. Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hailed the signing as a “truly a historic moment for Finland, for Sweden and for NATO.”

 

Ditab Sarkar Ar Biye AJ Germany and Ireland attack Boris Five Covid Update Today

 Outside a park where kids ate waffle cones and hundreds of people listened to a concert in the band shell, volunteers collected signatures in support of placing a measure on the November ballot that would amend the state's constitution to safeguard abortion rights.

Amid all the volatility, every investor has the same question: When will things start to get better?

While none of us have a crystal ball that can accurately predict the future, the answer to that question will be directly connected to the issues that have caused the market's decline so far this year. Let's lay those out, and consider the potential catalysts that could cause it to rebound -- or move even lower -- in the second half.

Why has the stock market fallen so steeply this year?

In a nutshell, we've had a perfect storm of negative catalysts. Let's run through some of the biggest.

Inflation: After many central bankers and economists repeatedly assured us that any surges in inflation caused by the pandemic's secondary effects would be "transitory," we've all come to realize that's not the case. U.S. inflation is at its highest level since the early 1980s, and the Federal Reserve is aggressively trying to get it back under control. This has led to fears that its fiscal tightening will trigger a recession.

Their task took on new urgency after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide and left the issue to individual states to regulate.

In Michigan, where opinion polls show the majority of people support abortion rights, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit to invalidate a 1931 state law that makes abortions a felony and establish a state constitutional right to abortion. A court has temporarily blocked that law from being enforced, but the Republicans who control the state legislature want to keep the ban on the books or enact a new one.

Political tensions in Michigan over the future of abortion could be a harbinger of what may play out in a handful of other U.S. states with a similar dynamic - an electorate that favors abortion rights governed by a legislature determined to restrict them.

On Capitol Hill, House Democratic leaders are discussing ways to force Republicans into uncomfortable positions on abortion, plotting potential votes designed to expose GOP opposition to some popular protections and underscore their own commitment to them, according to aides with knowledge of the plans.

 

At the White House, President Biden first encouraged outraged Americans to express themselves at the ballot box and then, days later, shifted to a more aggressive posture, urging a change to the Senate filibuster to enable Democrats to codify abortion rights. Administration officials are also studying what more can be accomplished via executive action.

And across the country, liberal governors on the West Coast banded together to create a multistate haven aimed at protecting out-of-state abortion seekers from legal consequences, while TV ads about abortion aimed at helping Democratic candidates are hitting the airwaves in battleground states from New Hampshire to Florida.

Whitmer has made protecting abortion rights a centerpiece of her re-election campaign this year, saying she can veto any attempt by the legislature to pass a new ban.

"This could very quickly go from a state where abortion is safe and legal to one that makes it illegal with no exceptions," Whitmer said in an interview on Friday. "That's a very real threat."

Whitmer said she would promote the ballot measure if her own efforts to legalize abortion fail in the courts.

The coalition of abortion-rights and progressive groups behind the petition drive face a July 11 deadline to amass about 425,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot. As she gathered signatures outside the park in St. Clair Shores last week, volunteer Deborah Karcher, 46, said direct action is the best way to save reproductive rights.

"This is the will of the people," Karcher said. "Even if you don't agree with this, let's get it on the ballot. Let the people decide."

It remains to be seen if participants at Sunday’s summit in Accra, the Ghanaian capital. will accept the proposal.

ECOWAS sanctioned Mali in January by shutting down most commerce with the country, along with its land and air borders with other countries in the bloc. The measures have crippled Mali’s economy.

The juntas in Guinea and Burkina Faso have proposed three-year transition periods, which ECOWAS rejected as too long a wait for elections.

 

The wave of military coups began in August 2020, when Col. Assimi Goita and other soldiers overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president. Nine months later, he carried out a second coup, dismissing the country’s civilian transitional leader and assuming the presidency himself.

Mutinous soldiers deposed Guinea’s president in September 2021, and Burkina Faso’s leader was ousted in a January coup.

The political upheaval came as many observers started to think that military power grabs were a thing of the past in West Africa.

Opponents of the ballot measure, including religious and anti-abortion groups, also have mobilized, saying the language of the amendment would open the door to late-term abortions and block parental notification when minors seek the procedure.

STATE FIGHTS

Outside Michigan, a voter backlash over abortion restrictions could figure in elections in other states including Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which all have either a competitive governor's or U.S. Senate race this year.

Louis Jacobson, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said these states are "where the rubber will really hit the road on this issue."

With President Joe Biden and his Democratic Party under fire from critics on matters such as inflation and crime, abortion "is the first potential issue that could boost the Democrats rather than hurt them," Jacobson said.

Whitmer is counting on that. The governor's first term was rocked by criticism from the right over the state's COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and schools. But recent polls have shown that more voters approve of her performance in office than Biden's.

Whitmer said she was raised by a Republican father who supported abortion rights, and she hopes to reach out to Republicans and independents who share those views.

"We know 70% of the people in our state support a woman being able to make her own healthcare decisions and abortion being an option," Whitmer said. "That means it crosses party lines."

Whitmer's Republican challengers, who will square off in an Aug. 2 primary, all support a ban on abortion and oppose the ballot measure.

National Democrats have placed Michigan on the short list of states where they believe they can shift the balance of power in the state legislature as part of what the party calls its "States to Save Roe" campaign.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the party that supports candidates for state legislatures, has said it is raising money to provide strategic planning and voter data analysis to support races in states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Authorities said that Warragamba Dam in western Sydney began overflowing overnight and the peak spill would be comparable to devastating flooding in March last year.

Residents in a number of suburbs have been ordered to evacuate, but Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke said people don’t need to wait to be told to leave.

“If you are feeling uncomfortable or unsure about your circumstances, and there is an opportunity for you to leave earlier, don’t necessarily wait for an evacuation order,” she said. “If you were safe in 2021 do not assume you will be safe tonight. This is a rapidly evolving situation and we could see areas impacted that we haven’t seen before.”

Emergency services said they conducted over 100 flood rescues and responded to over 3,000 requests for assistance in the past 24 hours. Evacuation centers have opened in several areas in western Sydney.

About 100 Australian Defense Force personnel were helping by putting up sandbags and knocking on doors to warn of flood threats.

The weather bureau’s hazards preparation and response manager Jane Golding said a coastal trough lingering since Friday deepened while an east coast low-pressure system formed off the Mid North Coast.

“That’s produced some extraordinary rainfall rates over the last 24 hours ... many locations have seen up to 200 mm and some close to 300 mm,” she said. The volume of rainfall is almost half of Sydney’s annual average.

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Boris Johnson has been urged to abandon his attempt to override the Northern Ireland element of the Brexit deal in a forceful intervention by the German and Irish governments. The UK prime minister is pushing ahead with new legislation that cancels parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, in an attempt to persuade the Democratic Unionist party to rejoin the power-sharing agreement at Stormont, which has been in limbo since the May local elections. The changes address customs, regulation, subsidy control and governance, issues which have enraged some unionists in Northern Ireland. In a joint statement on Sunday, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, warned there was “no legal or political justification” for the move. UK foreign secretary Liz Truss wrote in the Financial Times last week that the protocol was undermining the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence. Truss argued that it was essential to use legislation to “fix the specific problems” in the protocol — while maintaining other elements — in a way that was “necessary and legal”. But the EU has signalled that Britain could end up locked in a trade war with the bloc if it does not deviate from the plan to rip up the agreement. In their riposte, Baerbock and Coveney said the British government had agreed to the protocol two years ago after “long and hard negotiations”. Under its terms, Northern Ireland remains in the EU single market for goods but checks are conducted on shipments entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain. Since then the EU had already given ground by bringing forward proposals to simplify the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and changed its own laws to address concerns around the supply of medicines. Baerbock and Coveney argued in an Observer newspaper opinion piece that the British government had chosen not to engage in good faith with the proposals. “Instead of the path of partnership and dialogue, it has chosen unilateralism,” they wrote. “There is no legal or political justification for unilaterally breaking an international agreement entered into only two years ago.” The tabling of the new legislation would not fix the challenges and instead would only create a new set of uncertainties, they warned.

A readout of the EU General Affairs Council from June 23, seen by the Financial Times, suggests that Germany was among several countries arguing that the UK’s actions were “clear and undisputable breaches of its international obligations”. Although Germany called for the European Commission to “remain calm and adopt a gradual approach”, it also underlined the need to prepare for “all potential scenarios” and keep all options on the table.

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 Pressed by Supreme Court decisions diminishing rights that liberals hold dear and expanding those cherished by conservatives, the United States appears to be drifting apart into separate nations, with diametrically opposed social, environmental and health policies.

Call these the Disunited States.

It comes after a month's worth of rain hit the city in less than a day on Saturday - smashing a 120-year record - with NSW residents warned the bout of wet weather hitting the east coast is only going to get even worse.

Torrential rain, flash flooding, landslides, damaging winds and power outages are all threatening to devastate Sydney.

In the 24 hours to 9am Saturday, the Illawarra district of NSW was hit by its heaviest bout of July rainfall since 1904. Foxground recorded 215mm of rain, Albion Park 171mm and Kiama 163mm.

Residents in the Sydney and Illawarra regions were previously warned flash flooding is 'essentially guaranteed' with three months' worth of rain to fall in the next five days.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather alert for metropolitan Sydney, Illawarra and parts of the South Coast, Central Tablelands and Southern Tablelands on Saturday morning.

Three flood rescues have already been performed in NSW since Friday, with people along parts of the Hawkesbury River being warned they face a major flood risk. 

The most immediate breaking point is on abortion, as about half the country will soon limit or ban the procedure while the other half expands or reinforces access to reproductive rights. But the ideological fault lines extend far beyond that one topic, to climate change, gun control and L.G.B.T.Q. and voting rights.

On each of those issues, the country’s Northeast and West Coast are moving in the opposite direction from its midsection and Southeast — with a few exceptions, like the islands of liberalism in Illinois and Colorado, and New Hampshire’s streak of conservatism.

Even where public opinion is more mixed, like in Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, the Republican grip on state legislatures has ensured that policies in those states conform with those of the reddest states in the union, rather than strike a middle ground.

 

The tearing at the seams has been accelerated by the six-vote conservative majority in the Supreme Court, which has embraced a muscular states-rights federalism. In the past 10 days the court has

“They’ve produced this Balkanized house divided, and we’re only beginning to see how bad that will be,” said David Blight, a Yale historian who specializes in the era of American history that led to the Civil War.

Historians have struggled to find a parallel moment, raising the 19th-century fracturing over slavery; the clashes between the executive branch and the Supreme Court in the New Deal era of the 1930s; the fierce battles over civil rights during Reconstruction and in the 1950s and early 1960s; and the rise of armed, violent groups like the Weather Underground in the late ’60s.

For some people, the divides have grown so deep and so personal that they have felt compelled to pick up and move from one America to the other.

Many conservatives have taken to social media to express thanks over leaving high-tax, highly regulated blue states for red states with smaller government and, now, laws prohibiting abortion.

Others have transited the American rift in the opposite direction.

“I did everything I could to put my mouth where my money was, to bridge the divide with my own actions,” said Howard Garrett, a Black, gay 29-year-old from Franklin, Tenn., who ran for alderman in recent years, organized the town’s first Juneteenth celebration and worked on L.G.B.T.Q. outreach to local schools, only to be greeted with harassment and death threats.

Mr. Garrett moved to Washington, D.C., last year. “People were just sick in their heart,” he said, “and that was something you can’t change.”

On abortion, history seems to be riffing on itself.

Both supporters and opponents of abortion rights see a parallel to the abolition of slavery.

As states like Illinois and Colorado vow to become “safe harbors” for women in surrounding states seeking to end their pregnancies, abortion rights advocates see an echo of past efforts by antislavery states in the North. But abortion opponents see themselves as emancipating the unborn, and often compare the Roe decision’s treatment of the fetus to the Dred Scott ruling in 1857 that denied Black people the rights of American citizenship.

Conservatives are not resting on their victories: The anti-abortion movement, long predicated on returning the issue of reproductive rights to elected representatives in the states, talks now about putting a national abortion ban before Congress.

Roger Severino, a leading social conservative and senior official in the Trump administration, invoked the struggle of Black Americans for equality, saying the 10 years that passed between the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision ending “separate but equal” segregation and Congress’s passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 mirrored the struggle ahead on abortion.

“I cannot see us living in two Americas where we have two classes of human beings in this country: some protected fully in law, some who are not protected at all,” said Mr. Severino, now the vice president for domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

On climate change, the court’s decision to limit federal regulatory powers has underscored the impasse in Congress over legislation expressly limiting emissions of climate-warming pollutants like carbon dioxide and methane.

“I’m strongly supportive of the E.P.A. having the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from fossil fuel,” said Katie Dykes, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the chairwoman of the East Coast initiative’s board of directors. “But R.G.G.I. has been in place since 2009 and has provided clear, predictable signals to the power sector and to the states in the alliance. It becomes only more relevant if we see federal authority curtailed.”

On guns, the District of Columbia and 11 states, including Delaware and Rhode Island just this week, have banned some weapons and accessories like high-capacity magazines in response to mass shootings across the country. Republican states, in contrast, have passed and continue to pass laws that allow for the carrying of concealed or unconcealed firearms with no permits necessary.

As conservative states move to bar gender transition therapies for people under 18, California’s Legislature is considering a bill that would void any subpoena seeking information about people traveling to the state for such care. But Alabama’s attorney general, invoking the Supreme Court’s reasoning in its abortion decision, said this week that federal courts must allow the state’s ban on gender-transition care to take effect.

Anne Caprara, the chief of staff to the Democratic governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, said abortion providers in the state used to serve a few hundred out-of-state women per week. Since the overturning of Roe a week ago, she said, it’s been “several thousand.”

“The governor is committed to Illinois being an oasis,” she said. “He isn’t shifting on that, but there’s no question that’s a burden.”

Gun rights laws like the protections for silencers in Texas “are edging back toward the idea of nullification, that states should be able to ignore federal law, an idea that grew directly out of slavery,” said Bethany Lacina, a University of Rochester political scientist who studies federalism in different countries. “But you can imagine a day where there’s a federal ban on abortion, and the governor of California says, ‘Eh, we’re just not going to do that.’ It’s all very double-edged weapons.”

Conservatives might see the coming years as the moment to pivot toward amassing more national power, if they can seize Congress in November and the White House in 2024. Anti-abortion activists have always had two arguments in favor of ending Roe v. Wade: a legal case that the Constitution does not include a right to end a pregnancy, and a moral case that abortion is murder.

Mr. Severino, again invoking segregation, said that until the legislative and executive branches of government stepped in with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts in the 1960s, recalcitrant states failed to integrate their schools after the Supreme Court ordered them to in 1954.

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 speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, Chinese President Xi Jinping strongly reaffirmed the territory’s autonomy under the promise of “One Country, Two Systems” but with one very strong caveat: Beijing has full jurisdiction and Hong Kong must respect that.

he two argued that a local licence issued by Turkey's RTUK media regulator would infringe on their independence and allow Ankara to censor their content.

Rights advocates said Turkey's decision underscores erosion to freedom of expression in the run up to next year's general election, the toughest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's two-decade rule.

It also threatens to spark new tensions in Turkey's relations with two of its most important Western allies and trading partners.

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Citigroup is in talks with several local buyers over a potential sale of its operations in Russia, making it the latest major foreign bank to exit the country following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The US group is in negotiations with privately owned Russian companies including Expobank and insurance company Reso-Garantia over the fate of its consumer and commercial businesses, according to people familiar with the matter. Rosbank, Société Générale’s former Russian subsidiary, has also expressed interest in buying Citi’s operations, but its ability to complete any deal has been thrown into doubt after the UK sanctioned its new owner, oligarch Vladimir Potanin, this week. He remains unsanctioned by the US and EU, however. Potanin’s interest in Citi’s assets is a new development after he said previously that he was not interested in buying any more banks after acquiring a stake in fintech TCS from fellow Russian billionaire Oleg Tinkov, who said he was forced into the sale by the Kremlin after criticising the war. Citi is also winding down its corporate banking balances and operations as quickly as it can, but is continuing to work with its multinational clients that are also exiting the country after western sanctions made it all but impossible to remain in Russia.

The broadcasters went dark hours after a NATO summit at which Erdogan won praise from US President Joe Biden for lifting his objections to Sweden and Finland joining the Western defence alliance.

The US State Department criticised the new rules when they first went into force in February, stressing that a "free media is essential to a robust democracy".

The new media regulation applies to foreign providers of Turkish audio and video content.

On Friday, both news portals were inaccessible in Turkey without the use of VPN technology that hides users' location.

“One Country, Two Systems is an unprecedented great initiative of historical significance,” Xi declared in a victory lap of a speech now that the opposition in the city has either been silenced or behind bars. “There is no reason to change such a good system, and it must be maintained for a long time.”

Xi’s words run counter to the view of many in the city who supported the now-silenced pro-democracy activists and Western politicians around the world who view Beijing’s increasing direct influence in the city as reneging on the agreement made between the United Kingdom and China that led to the handover on July 1, 1997.

Also marking the occasion, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a video statement on Twitter saying, "We made a promise to the territory and its people and we intend to keep it, doing all we can to hold China to its commitment”

 

"We simply cannot avoid the fact that for some time now, Beijing has been failing to comply with its obligations. It's a state of affairs that threatens both the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers and the continued progress and prosperity of their home.”

 

PHOTO: People hold the Hong Kong and Chinese flags while singing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China, in Hong Kong on July 1, 2022. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken added, “it is now evident that Hong Kong and Beijing authorities no longer view democratic participation, fundamental freedoms, and an independent media” as a part of its promise.

In Xi’s view, the Chinese government is fulfilling its obligations in allowing the former British colony to choose its path and thrive economically, if not politically, over the past quarter century.

“Hong Kong will maintain the original capitalist system unchanged for a long time and enjoy a high degree of autonomy” Xi, who is on a two-day visit to the city, told a 1,300-strong gathering of Hong Kong’s political and business elite at t

American basketball star Brittney Griner appeared in a Moscow-area court for trial Friday, about 4 1/2 months after she was arrested on cannabis possession charges at an airport while traveling to play for a Russian team.

Griner was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Police said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. The Phoenix Mercury center and two-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.

Fewer than 1% of defendants in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike in the U.S., acquittals can be overturned.

At a closed-door preliminary hearing Monday in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, Griner’s detention was extended for another six months, to Dec. 20.

Photos obtained by The Associated Press, including one of the few close-ups of Griner since her arrest on Feb. 17, showed the 31-year-old in handcuffs and looking straight ahead, unlike a previous court appearance where she kept her head down and covered with a hood.

She declined to answer questions from reporters in English as she was led through the courthouse, according to video shown in Russian media. Russian media later reported that Griner’s lawyers would not comment on how their client planned to plead.

The athlete’s detention and trial come at an extraordinarily low point in Moscow-Washington relations. Griner was arrested less than a week before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, which aggravated already high tensions between the two countries. The invasion led to sweeping sanctions imposed by the United States, and Russia denounced the U.S. for sending weapons to Ukraine.

Amid the tensions, Griner’s supporters have kept a low profile in hopes of a quiet resolution, until May, when the State Department reclassified her as wrongfully detained and shifted oversight of her case to its special presidential envoy for hostage affairs — effectively the U.S. government’s chief negotiator.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, has urged President Joe Biden to secure her release, calling her “a political pawn.”

“It was good to see her in some of those images, but it’s tough. Every time’s a reminder that their teammate, their friend, is wrongfully imprisoned in another country,” Phoenix Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said Monday.

The coach hoped that Biden would “take the steps to ensure she comes home.”

Griner’s supporters have encouraged a prisoner swap like the one in April that brought home Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking conspiracy.

Russian news media have repeatedly raised speculation that she could be swapped for Russian arms trader Viktor Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence on conviction of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.

Russia has agitated for Bout’s release for years. But the wide discrepancy between Griner’s case — which involves alleged possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil — and Bout’s global dealings in deadly weapons could make such a swap unpalatable to the U.S.

Others have suggested that she could be traded in tandem with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and security director serving a 16-year sentence on an espionage conviction that the United States has repeatedly described as a setup.