Poland said on Wednesday there is “absolutely no indication” that a missile which came down in Polish farmland, killing two people, was an intentional attack on the NATO country, and that neighbour Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile as it fended off a Russian air assault that savaged its power grid.
“Ukraine’s defence was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the military alliance in Brussels, agreed with the assessment. “An investigation into this incident is ongoing and we need to await its outcome. But we have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
The preliminary findings came after U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western backers of Ukraine had thrown their weight behind the investigation and amid repeated assertions from Russia that it didn’t fire the missile.
Biden said it was “unlikely” that Russia fired the missile but added, “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.” The missile came down on Tuesday near Poland’s border with Ukraine. Three US officials said preliminary assessments suggested it was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to discuss the matter publicly. That assessment and Biden’s comments at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia contradicted information earlier on Tuesday from a senior U.S. intelligence official who told The Associated Press that Russian missiles crossed into Poland.
Former Soviet-bloc country Ukraine maintains stocks of Soviet- and Russian-made weaponry, including air-defense missiles, and has also seized many more Russian weapons while beating back the Kremlin’s invasion forces.
Ukrainian air defences worked furiously against the Russian assault on Tuesday on power generation and transmission facilities, including in Ukraine’s western region that borders Poland. Ukraine’s military said 77 of the more than 90 missiles fired were brought down, along with 11 drones.
The Kremlin on Wednesday denounced Poland’s and other countries’ initial reaction to the missile incident and, in rare praise for a US leader, hailed the response of the US.
“We have witnessed another hysterical, frenzied, Russophobic reaction that was not based on any real data,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
He added that “immediately, all experts realised that it could not have been a missile linked to the Russian armed forces”, and pointed to a “restrained, much more professional reaction” of the US and its president, Joe Biden.
In Brussels, NATO countries were coming together on Wednesday for emergency talks. There was no immediate proof that Tuesday’s blast was a deliberate, hostile attack on NATO member Poland that could trigger the alliance’s provisions for a collective military response.
Russia denied any involvement. But Ukraine was under countrywide Russian bombardment on Tuesday by barrages of cruise missiles and exploding drones, which clouded the picture of what exactly happened in Poland and why.
In Europe, NATO members Germany and the UK were among those stressing the need for a full investigation. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against jumping to conclusions “in such a serious matter”. Still, Scholz and others also laid overall but not specific blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the Russian war against Ukraine, without the missiles that are now being fired at Ukrainian infrastructure intensively and on a large scale,” Scholz said.
Government says masks no more compulsory during air travel
The civil aviation ministry on Wednesday said the use of masks is not compulsory during air travel but passengers should preferably use them amid the declining number of coronavirus cases.
Till now, the use of masks or face covers while travelling on flights was mandatory.
In a communication to the scheduled airlines, the ministry said the latest decision has been taken in line with the government’s policy of a graded approach to COVID-19 management response.
“... the in-flight announcements henceforth may only mention that in view of the threat posed by COVID-19, all passengers should preferably use mask/face covers,” the communication said.
It also said that any specific reference to fine/penal action need not be announced as part of the in-flight announcements. The total number of active coronavirus cases in the country accounted for only 0.02 % of the total infections and the recovery rate increased to 98.79 %, according to the latest official data.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,41,28,580 and the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.19 %.
Trump launches 2024 White House bid
Donald Trump pulled the trigger on a third White House run on Tuesday, setting the stage for a bruising Republican nomination battle after a poor midterm election showing by his hand-picked candidates weakened his grip on the party.
“America’s comeback starts right now,” the 76-year-old former President told hundreds of supporters gathered in an ornate American flag-draped ballroom at his palatial Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.
Trump filed his official candidacy papers with the U.S. election authority moments before he was due to publicly announce his candidacy. Trump’s unusually early entry into the White House race is being seen in Washington as an attempt to get the jump on other Republicans seeking to be the party flag-bearer in 2024 and to stave off potential criminal charges.
Republicans are licking their wounds after disappointing midterms, widely blamed on the underperformance of Trump-anointed candidates, and some are openly asking whether Trump— with his divisive brand of politics and mess of legal woes is the right person to carry the party colors next time around.
Several possible 2024 primary rivals are circling, chief among them the governor of Florida Ron DeSantis, who bucked the tide and won a resounding reelection victory on November 8.
Trump, who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden after being impeached twice by the House of Representatives, launches his latest White House bid with several potential handicaps. He is the target of multiple investigations into his conduct before, during, and after his first term as President— which could ultimately result in his disqualification.
These include allegations of fraud by his family business, his role in last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and his stashing of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
With Trump now a declared candidate, Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, may be forced to name a special counsel to pursue the various investigations into the former president launched by the Department of Justice.
In addition, the powerful media empire of Rupert Murdoch has appeared to turn its back on Trump, labelling him after the midterms as a “loser” who shows “increasingly poor judgement”.
Trump also remains banned by Facebook and Twitter, which was instrumental in his stunning political rise. Despite the dismal election showing by Trump loyalists, the real estate tycoon retains an undeniable popularity with the millions of grassroots supporters who have flocked to his ‘Make America Great Again’ banner.
And despite being abandoned by several top Republican donors, he has amassed a campaign war chest of well over $100 million. Leading up to the midterm vote, Trump made denial of the 2020 election results a key litmus test for candidates seeking his endorsement.
But a string of defeats by Trump’s most loyal allies sapped his momentum heading into Tuesday’s launch. “This is certainly not the rollout I’m sure Donald Trump wanted for his announcement tonight,” said outgoing congresswoman Liz Cheney, a fierce Republican critic of Trump.
Having failed to wrest control of the Senate, Republicans are inching towards a likely takeover of the House, but with a razor-thin majority that will be difficult to keep in line.
The 79-year-old Biden, whose victory Trump still refuses to acknowledge, has said his intention is to seek a second term but he will make a final decision early next year.
Trump’s once-loyal vice president, Mike Pence, who released a new book, “So Help Me God”, on Tuesday and is seen as a potential 2024 challenger told ABC News this week that Trump’s behavior on January 6, 2021, had been “reckless”.
But Pence declined to say directly whether Trump should be president again. “That’s up to the American people, but I think we’ll have better choices in the future,” he said. For the moment, the hard-right DeSantis looks like the leading challenger to Trump in a Republican field that may include Pence, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and ex-South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.
The 44-year-old DeSantis, dubbed “Ron DeSanctimonious” by Trump, had a ready reply Tuesday when asked about the former President’s attacks on him, urging “people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night”.
Without naming Trump, he also suggested a Republican ticket headed by the former president would have trouble attracting independent voters “even with Biden in the White House and the failures that we’re seeing”.
By throwing his hat in the ring, Trump is seeking to become just the second American President to serve non-consecutive terms— Grover Cleveland was elected in 1884, lost in 1888, and won again in 1892.
Tradition of PMs not carrying domestic politics to Indians abroad broken after 2014: Jairam Ramesh
The Congress attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 16, saying it has long been a tradition that Prime Ministers do not carry their domestic politics and prejudices to Indian audiences abroad but this convention was broken after May 2014 with the latest example being in Indonesia.
The Opposition party’s attack came a day after Modi, while addressing the Indian diaspora in Indonesia, asserted that there is a “huge difference” between pre- and post-2014 India. The Prime Minister said the country is now moving ahead at an “unprecedented speed and scale” as he showcased the achievements of his term in power to the diaspora in Indonesia.
Attacking Modi, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, “It’s long been a tradition that our PMs do not carry their domestic politics, prejudices & partisanship to Indian audiences abroad. This healthy convention was broken after May 2014, the latest example being in Indonesia where FekuMaster once again showed his self-obsession.”
In his remarks at the diaspora event in Bali, where he attended the G20 Summit, Modi had said, “The huge difference between pre- and post- 2014 India is that of speed and scale. Today, India is moving ahead at an unprecedented speed and scale,” he had said, adding that India now builds the biggest statues and the biggest stadiums.
The Modi-led BJP government was voted to power in 2014. The ruling BJP again swept back to power in the 2019 general elections. Though Modi was indirectly referring to the term of his government at the Centre, he stopped short of naming previous governments, or any particular political party. “We don’t dream small anymore. Since 2014, we have opened more than 320 million bank accounts. More than the population of USA,” he had said. “Today, India is the fastest growing large economy in the world,” Modi said.
In Brief:
Former Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Virmani has been appointed as a full-time member of NITI Aayog, according to an official notification. Arvind Virmani served as the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry (2007-2009). Virmani served as a member of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monetary Policy from February 2013 to August 2016. He was till end-2012, Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington DC, representing India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
“More than 15 lakh foreigners, including 4.29 lakh U.S. nationals and 2.4 lakh Bangladeshis, had visited India last year when the country was on an extended period of coronavirus restrictions and visa regulations,” officials said. “Ten countries accounted for 74.39% of the total arrival of foreigners during 2021, while 25.61% of the incoming foreigners were from the rest of the nations,” a Home Ministry official said. A total of 15,24,469 foreigners visited India between January 1 and December 31, 2021. The maximum number of foreigners who visited India during this period were from the United States (4,29,860), followed by those from Bangladesh (2,40,554), United Kingdom (1,64,143), Canada (80,437) and Nepal (52,544).
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
Published - November 16, 2022 08:52 pm IST
