Author: Daily Sabah With DPA

A photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posing in front of a painting depicting a burning Kremlin published by Time magazine provoked anger in Moscow on Tuesday. “This probably best shows the level of intellectual development and the internal state of those who pose for photos like this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the photo published by the US magazine on Monday, according to the TASS state news agency. Time described its report as an exclusive on the endgame in Ukraine. The 2022 painting entitled “Dream” by Georgian artist Sandro Antadze is said to be Zelensky’s favourite symbol of…

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave US President Donald Trump an “absolutely personal gift,” presenting it to Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff last week, the Kremlin said on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not reveal the nature of the gift, but US media reported that Witkoff said it was a portrait of Trump painted by a prominent Russian artist. Peskov said there would be no further official information on the gift, as it was personal in nature, unless Putin provided it himself. Putin has in the past expressed admiration for Trump, in particular following an assassination attempt last July, when…

The Israeli government on Sunday backed the dismissal of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara in a vote of no confidence, media reported. The ministers unanimously approved the controversial move in her absence. However, the decision is only the start of a longer process and a special committee must now handle the issue. During the government session, thousands of people demonstrated in Jerusalem against Baharav-Miara’s sacking. Earlier, the attorney general released a public letter stating: “The government wants to be above the law, we will not be deterred.” The government is seeking to oust the attorney general because of her repeated opposition…

Authorities in the German capital on Saturday deployed hundreds of police officers to accompany a large right-wing extremist demonstration and counter-protests. First arrests were made at the start of the neo-Nazi march in Berlin’s eastern Friedrichshain district because some participants ignored the ban on wearing masks, a police spokesman said. Several hundred people protested loudly against the neo-Nazi demonstration, with around 1,500 officers positioned to keep the camps apart without intervening unless it became essential. “We never protect the content of the assembly, but only the reason for the assembly itself, the freedom of assembly,” police spokesman Florian Nath emphasized…

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is pressuring Ukrainians in Russia and in occupied territories in their home country to take Russian citizenship or live elsewhere, according to British intelligence on Saturday. Putin signed a decree on Thursday that obliges Ukrainian citizens residing in affected territories to “settle their legal status” by September 10, or leave the area, the Ministry of Defence in London wrote in its latest intelligence update on the Ukraine war. “Putin’s decree is almost certainly intended to force the departure from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Ukrainian citizens who refuse to accept Russian passports and citizenship,” the report shared…

Top KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky has died at the age of 86. Code-named Hetman, Gordievsky was one of the most important spies of the Cold War. Police in the south-eastern English county of Surrey said officers were called to an address in Godalming on March 4, where “an 86-year-old man was found dead at the property”. It said counter-terrorism officers are leading the investigation, but “the death is not currently being treated as suspicious” and “there is nothing to suggest any increased risk to members of the public”. For more than a decade Gordievsky reports gave Britain invaluable insights into…

US President Donald Trump said the wave of vandalism targeting his adviser Elon Musk’s Tesla cars and showrooms is worse than the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters four years ago. “When I saw those showrooms burning, and those cars — not one or two, but seven, eight, 10 burning, exploding all over the place — these are terrorists,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday. “You didn’t have that on January 6, I can tell you. You didn’t have anything like that January 6,” he added, referring to the 2021 Capitol riot, when his supporters…

British Airways has warned its services will be severely impacted over the coming days after the closure of London’s Heathrow Airport. Chief executive Sean Doyle described the situation as “unprecedented,” with more than 100,000 of its customers on board some 670 flights being affected on Friday. Europe’s busiest airport suffered a power outage after a fire broke out at a nearby electrical substation in Hayes, west London. National Grid said an “interim solution” has been found to allow power to be restored and Heathrow said it is “safely able to begin some flights” later on Friday, but the airport expected…

The Russian leadership criticized the European Union plans to significantly boost the bloc’s defences, made as the Kremlin continues to wage war on Ukraine. “The militarization of Europe is an extremely dangerous trend,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow, saying it would neither lead to détente nor restore trust. “Nor does it make Europe safer,” he said. Many Europeans do not like it, but almost all politicians are following the mainstream, the spokesman said. Peskov was responding a day after the decision by EU leaders to significantly strengthen Europe’s defence readiness in the coming years. The European Union plans…

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has compared Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz to former Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that Merz was “already lying like Goebbels” in a post on Telegram on Thursday. “You’re off to a bad start, Fritz!” wrote Medvedev, using a pejorative Russian term for Germans. He also said he hoped Merz would be defeated like Nazi Germany was in 1945. The comments followed Merz’s assertion on Tuesday in the German parliament that Russian President Vladimir Putin is waging a “war of…