US Business

Russia’s defence minister held rare telephone talks with his US counterpart Friday, after pro-Kremlin officials said they were turning Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson into a “fortress” as Kyiv’s forces advance.

Few details emerged of the conversation between Russia’s Sergei Shoigu and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, but both sides confirmed they had discussed Ukraine.

“Topical issues of international security — including the situation in Ukraine — were discussed,” said Russia’s defence ministry.

“Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine,” a US military spokesman said.

It was only the second call between the ministers since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24. Back in May, Austin had urged Moscow to implement an “immediate ceasefire”.

At the time, Russia’s invading force had been beaten back from the capital Kyiv but were making steady gains in the eastern Donbas and Kharkiv regions and had consolidated their position in the south.

Six months on, however, Ukraine’s forces have pushed back.

Kyiv’s forces in recent weeks — aided by Western weapons — have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnieper river towards the region’s main city Kherson.

The first major city to fall to Moscow’s troops, retaking it would be a significant prize in Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

Kyiv said Friday it had retaken a total of 88 towns and villages in the region since launching its offensive to retake Kherson in the late summer while President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the capture of Russian arms by his forces in the region.

– Kherson ‘fortress’ –

Moscow-installed authorities in the region on Friday accused Kyiv’s forces of attacking a bridge being used by civilians.

“Four people were killed,” pro-Moscow official Kirill Stremousov said on Telegram. “The city of Kherson, like a fortress, is preparing for its defence.”

Russian investigators said later two of the dead were journalists and that 13 people had been wounded.

A Ukrainian military spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk denied Kyiv’s forces were responsible, saying they did not target local populations.

Kyiv has denounced the organised movement of Kherson residents to Russia and other Moscow-controlled regions as “deportations” of Ukrainian citizens.

Zelensky told European leaders Thursday that Russian forces had mined the nearby Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with the intent of blowing it up.

Its destruction could cause flash-flooding for hundreds of thousands of people, he warned.

On Friday, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmygal called for an international monitoring mission to deploy at the dam.

Cutting water supplies to the south could also hit the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, he added.

Both sides have accused the other of repeatedly shelling the nuclear facility, endangering operations.

– Grain shipments ‘delayed’ –

Ukraine’s push in the south comes after a sweeping counter-offensive in the northeast Kharkiv region that has badly impaired Russia’s supply routes and logistics corridors in the eastern Donbas region.

But Russian forces have continued shelling the region’s largest city, Kharkiv, and the presidency said six people were wounded Friday when “industrial infrastructure” was hit in the city.

Also Friday, the Ukraine presidency said Russian forces were shelling sections along the entire front line of Donbas and that two had been killed in the Donetsk region.

And later Friday, Zelensky accused Russia of “deliberately delaying the passage of ships” exporting grain from Ukrainian ports bound for countries in Africa and Asia.

“Russia is doing everything to ensure that at least hundreds of thousands of these people become forced migrants, who will seek asylum… or die of hunger,” he said in his nightly video address.

More than 150 ships had been affected, he said, listing Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia as among the countries hit by the delays.

In late July, Turkey and the United Nations brokered a landmark deal with Moscow and Kyiv that designated three Black Sea ports for Ukraine to send much-needed grain supplies through a Russian blockade.

Russia has complained its own exports have suffered and contended that most deliveries were arriving to Europe, rather than poor countries where grain is most needed. 

Moscow’s forces have carried out a series of strikes targeting Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure in recent days with drones the West says were supplied by Iran — an issue France, Britain and Germany said Friday should be investigated by the United Nations.

The UN ambassadors of the three countries wrote in a letter that they were “deeply concerned by the transfer of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Iran to Russia in violation” of a Security Council resolution.

“These UAVs are being used by Russia in its war of aggression against Ukraine in attacks against civilian infrastructure and cities across Ukraine, leading to the death of innocent civilians,” they wrote.

Steve Bannon — the anti-establishment outsider who helped bring Donald Trump to the White House — found Friday that his years-long loyalty to the former president may well land him in jail.

Bannon was sentenced by the federal court in Washington to four months in prison for refusing to testify to the Congressional committee probing the January 6, 2021 attack by Trump supporters on the US Capitol.

That probe has Trump and his advisors, including Bannon himself, in its sights, for allegedly planning or taking part in an illegal effort to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president following his election victory in November, 2020.

– Wily survivor –

Bannon, a wily survivor of political and court battles, isn’t down yet: his sentence was put on hold while he appeals the verdict of contempt of Congress. 

The 68-year-old former investment banker rose to prominence as the head of far-right news outlet Breitbart, before latching onto the Trump phenomenon and guiding the billionaire to the presidency.

After serving in the US Navy and making his name at Goldman Sachs during the 1980s boom years, Bannon founded his own investment bank before selling it to Societe Generale in 1998 and going on to be a Hollywood producer.

Some of his film projects were standard entertainment fare, but documentaries on late president Ronald Reagan, populist darling Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement brought him into right-wing circles.    

He became an investor in Andrew Breitbart’s eponymous media venture, which aimed to buck what its founder saw as the progressive left’s grip on the news agenda.

Breitbart became a megaphone for the politics of race, supporting the line that white Americans were under attack and endangered by powerful minorities.

Democrats and liberals were in the site’s crosshairs, but moderate Republican lawmakers also felt its lash, accused of failing to stand up to president Barack Obama.

And Bannon became a force on the national stage, known for his long hair, scruffy whiskers and his habit of wearing multiple layers of collared shirts.

– Top White House job –

Bannon took over the publication when Andrew Breitbart died in 2012, and became an early backer of billionaire Trump’s campaign to win the presidency as a political outsider.

Trump rewarded Bannon by naming him chief executive of his 2016 campaign and then, after his victory, White House chief political strategist.

There he helped power through some of Trump’s most controversial early policies, including a crackdown on immigration and a ban on people coming from a number of Muslim countries.

But with seven months, he was out, his bomb-thrower approach to politics blocked by other advisors and even souring Trump somewhat.

Bannon rebounded, under the wing of fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, and running his own fiery politics podcast, “Bannon’s War Room.”

But he fell into legal troubles when he took part in a private operation to build sections of wall along the Mexican border using donated money.

In August 2020 he was arrested on Guo’s 150 foot  (46 meter) yacht in New York harbor, charged in federal court with three others of siphoning off millions in donations to the wall for themselves.

Bannon pleaded not guilty, but before the case went to trial, Trump gave him a blanket pardon for that and any other pending case.

The case came back to life however when New York state charged Bannon in September with fraud in the same scheme — since Trump’s pardon didn’t apply to state cases.

– ‘All hell to break loose’ –

Nor would the pardon apply to any role he might have had in the January 6 attacks.

It is not known if the Justice Department is targeting him in its probe.

But the January 6 committee made clear in hearings it believes he had a role, and the committee has the power to recommend he be indicted.

It depicted Bannon as knowing in advance of the plan by hardline Trump supporters to attack the Capitol to block Biden’s presidency.

He allegedly helped spread Trump’s conspiracy theories about the “stolen” election, and urged his “War Room” listeners to descend on Washington on January 6.

At the same time, according to a book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, he personally convinced Trump to leave Florida and return to Washington days before the attacks to whip up supporters.

According to the House committee, Bannon spoke with Trump on January 5, and then told “War Room” listeners that “all hell is going to break loose tomorrow.”

The US and Russian defense chiefs spoke Friday for the first time in months but Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he saw no interest from Moscow for broader talks to end the Ukraine war.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine” during the call with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, said a US spokesman, Brigadier General Pat Ryder.

Russia’s defense ministry confirmed the call and said the two discussed Ukraine without further details.

The defense chiefs last spoke on May 13 when Austin urged Moscow to implement an “immediate ceasefire” in Ukraine.

Russia did not do so, and Kyiv’s forces have since regained swathes of territory from Moscow’s troops in the east and south of the country with the United States and other Western powers sending in billions of dollars in weapons.

Austin separately spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov “to reiterate the unwavering US commitment to supporting Ukraine’s ability to counter Russia’s aggression,” Ryder said.

Blinken said the United States would keep contacts with Russia but said that any broader diplomacy depended on President Vladimir Putin showing an interest “in stopping the aggression.”

“We have seen no evidence of that in this moment. On the contrary, we see Russia doubling and tripling down on its aggression,” Blinken told a joint news conference with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

Blinken pointed to Russia’s recent attacks on power stations and other civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and the mobilization of troops who Blinken called “horrifically, cannon fodder that Putin is trying to throw into the war.”

“The fundamental difference is that Ukrainians are fighting for their country, their land, their future. Russia is not and the sooner President Putin understands that and comes to that conclusion, the sooner we will be able to end this war,” Blinken said.

– No discreet channel? –

Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in January to warn of consequences for an invasion, which Moscow went ahead with a month later. Blinken has since refused to see Lavrov but spoke to him by telephone in July in a bid to free Americans jailed in Russia.

Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, recently complained that the two nuclear powers lacked a back channel of the type used 60 years ago this month during the Cuban missile crisis.

The Soviet ambassador at the time met secretly with Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s brother and attorney general, to exchange top-level messages.

“The attempts of Russian diplomats in Washington to re-establish such contacts have been futile,” Antonov told Newsweek.

President Joe Biden’s administration “is unwilling to talk with us as equals,” he said.

Biden and Putin have both downplayed the chance they would talk next month on the sidelines of a Group of 20 summit in Bali.

One Western leader who has engaged Putin is French President Emmanuel Macron, who also tried unsuccessfully to prevent the outbreak of war.

Macron’s engagement has brought unease from some Eastern European nations wary of Russia although France insists that it has coordinated its diplomacy with allies.

Colonna, speaking at a think tank before her talks with Blinken, acknowledged the limited success with Putin but said it was important to try.

“We absolutely think it is crucial to keep a channel of communication with those making the decisions in Russia, including President Putin,” Colonna said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Putin is probably isolated in his very strange vision of the world and the way it could be run. Reinforcing this isolation of his would not be a good option,” she said.

Macron’s talks with Putin helped secure a mission by the UN nuclear watchdog to travel to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

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Taylor Swift’s 10th album “Midnights,” marking a gradual return to pop for the US singer-songwriter, sparked an online fan frenzy following its witching hour release on Friday — and crashed Spotify in the process.

Swifties from the United States to France and Britain were forced to wait patiently for hours to get their first earful of Swift’s latest sound on the streaming platform — released at the stroke of midnight.

The album’s 13 songs tell “the story of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life,” Swift explained on Twitter.

Together, they form “a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour.”

Once all Spotify issues were resolved — mostly within the hour — enthusiasts discovered melodies set to an electro-pop beat, complete with synths, dubstep-inspired rhythms and a more androgynous side to Swift’s vocals.

The 32-year-old, who began her career in country before shifting to pop and becoming a megastar, abandons her more recent indie-folk vein in the new album.

The pop sound marks a departure from “Evermore” and “Folklore,” her two previous albums which were written during the pandemic, the latter of which won Album of the Year at the 2021 Grammys.

In “Midnights,” which includes the smooth vocals of Lana Del Rey in the duet “Snow on the Beach,” Swift evokes a certain dreamy mystique, complete with nighttime ruminations — her reflections on growing older and the complications of love.

For the most part the midnight album has bewitched critics.

It was warmly received by The Guardian which called it a “cool, collected and mature” compendium, “packed with fantastic songs.”

One caveat, however, has been its lack of a catchy title song: “It’s hard to spot anything that sounds like a smash hit on Swift’s third muted collection in a row,” The Independent newspaper lamented.

True to Swift form, the songstress had a surprise up her sleeves for her loyal fans.

She released an extended 20-song version at 3:00 am on the East Coast titled “Midnights (3am Edition).”

The seven extra ballads, she said, were “songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13.”

Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon was sentenced Friday to four months in prison for refusing to testify in the congressional probe of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

One of the masterminds behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and victory, Bannon was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to testify over the riot by the former president’s supporters.

Bannon, who was also fined $6,500, was permitted by the judge to remain free while he fights what his lawyer vowed would be a “bulletproof” appeal.

The longtime Trump strategist struck a defiant tone upon leaving the federal court in Washington — lashing out at President Joe Biden and the Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives.

“Today was my judgment day by the judge,” Bannon told reporters outside. “On November 8th there’s going to have judgment on the illegitimate Biden regime,” he vowed — in reference to the upcoming midterm elections. 

“And we know which way that is going,” he said. “The Biden administration ends on the evening of the 8th of November.”

Asked by reporters at the White House for a reaction to the Bannon sentencing, Biden answered dismissively: “I never have a reaction to Steve Bannon.”

– ‘Undeniably serious’ –

The 68-year-old Bannon was greeted on arrival at the courthouse early Friday by protesters yelling “Traitor” Fascist!”

His prison sentence was less than the six months requested by the Justice Department, but more than the probation Bannon’s attorneys had sought.

Bannon had argued that he declined to appear before the Capitol riot probe panel upon advice from his lawyer that doing so would violate Trump’s executive privilege.

But he also said he felt that the investigation was politically driven.

Federal Judge Carl Nichols rejected those arguments, saying Trump had never asserted executive privilege in Bannon’s case and that the events at the Capitol needed investigating.

“The events of January 6th were undeniably serious,” Nichols said before pronouncing the sentence. “The January 6 committee thus has every reason to investigate what happened that day.”

He added that Bannon had failed to cooperate with the committee on issues not touched by possible claims of executive privilege.

Bannon has “not produced a single document… and has not provided any testimony on any topic,” he said.

– ‘Assaulted the rule of law’ –

Despite the prison sentence, Bannon, who currently runs a streaming political commentary website, could remain out of jail well into next year while fighting his appeal.

The investigation by a special House committee has depicted Bannon as knowing in advance of the plan by hardline Trump supporters to attack the Capitol to prevent Biden from being confirmed as the next president.

It also showed him advocating for Congress to block Biden — who defeated Trump in the November 2020 election — from becoming head of state.

“The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6 did not just attack a building — they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures,” the Justice Department told the court in its sentencing memo.

“By flouting the Select Committee’s subpoena and its authority, the defendant exacerbated that assault.”

Bannon served in the White House as chief strategist for the first seven months of Trump’s term, leaving reportedly due to conflicts with other top staffers.

In 2020, Bannon was charged with wire fraud and money laundering for taking for personal use millions of dollars contributed by donors towards the construction of a border wall with Mexico.

While others were found guilty in the scheme, Trump issued a blanket pardon for Bannon before leaving office in January 2021, leading to the dismissal of the charges against him.

Lawmakers probing the 2021 attack on the US Capitol subpoenaed former president Donald Trump Friday to testify on his involvement in the violence, in a major escalation of its sprawling inquiry.

The summons came after the House panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans voted unanimously last week to compel Trump’s appearance before investigators.

It requires Trump to produce documents to the committee by November 4 and to appear for a deposition beginning on or around November 14 — the Monday after the crucial November 8 midterm elections.

“As demonstrated in our hearings, we have assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power,” the committee told the 76-year-old Republican in a letter.

Trump, who urged his supporters in a fiery speech near the White House to “fight like hell,” was impeached for inciting the mob to storm Congress to halt the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden on January 6, 2021.

The letter accused Trump of bidding to overturn the election despite knowing claims of fraud had been overwhelmingly rejected by more than 60 courts and refuted by his campaign staff and senior advisors.

“In short, you were at the center of the first and only effort by any US president to overturn an election and obstruct the peaceful transition of power, ultimately culminating in a bloody attack on our own Capitol and on the Congress itself,” it added.

– Aggressive escalation –

Subpoenas from the panel have proved difficult to enforce, with former White House aide Steve Bannon the only target convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison on Friday, although he remains out on bail pending an appeal.

Trump is notorious for his ability to run down the clock on congressional investigations and legal action, and it remains highly unlikely that he would agree to give evidence.

The subpoena expires in any case with the new congressional term in January. The House of Representatives is expected to be flipped in November’s elections to the Republicans, who plan immediately to end the investigation.

But the move marks an aggressive escalation of the probe, which has issued more than 100 subpoenas and interviewed more than 1,000 people since its launch in 2021.

While no sitting president has ever been forced to testify before Congress, lawmakers have summoned former presidents to discuss their conduct in office.

There was no immediate response from Trump, who would have to testify under oath and could be charged with perjury were he to lie.

Trump lashed out at last week’s vote, dismissing the summons as a political stunt. He also released a 14-page complaint that didn’t get into whether he would testify.

If he refuses to comply, the full House can hold him in criminal contempt in a vote recommending him for prosecution, as it did with Bannon. 

– ‘Clear and present’ danger –

The panel unveiled reams of evidence across eight hearings in the summer on the former president’s involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the 2020 election.

Witness testimony provided stunning examples of Trump and his allies pressuring election officials and trying to get lawfully-cast votes nullified in swing states, and of Trump’s inertia amid the mob uprising.

The committee also pressed its position that Trump — who continues to be a wellspring of disinformation about the 2020 presidential election — remains a “clear and present” threat to democracy.

Lawmakers plan to release a final report by the end of the year.

The committee has not announced whether it will make direct criminal referrals over the Capitol attack, although the move would amount to little more than a gesture as the Justice Department is already investigating.

Trump has already retained the services of the Dhillon Law Group, which is representing several witnesses who have spoken to investigators, including former national security advisor Michael Flynn. 

Britain’s divisive former leader Boris Johnson on Friday received heavyweight Conservative backing to stage a sensational comeback following the resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Cabinet member Penny Mordaunt became the first to formally declare her candidacy, after the UK’s ruling party was forced into its second leadership contest in weeks.

Mordaunt, who just missed out on making the final runoff after Johnson quit, said she was running for “a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest”.

Truss announced on Thursday she was quitting after just 44 tempestuous days in office.

Polling company YouGov found that three in five voters now want an early general election, in line with demands from opposition parties, as Britons struggle with a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Labour and other parties argue only an election can end the months of political chaos, sparked when Johnson was himself forced out in July after non-stop personal and political scandal.

In the resultant contest, Truss won the support of just over 80,000 Tory party members, defeating Rishi Sunak, who correctly warned that her right-wing programme of debt-fuelled tax cuts would crash the economy.

– ‘I’m up for it’ –

Now with a new vacancy suddenly opening up in 10 Downing Street, former finance minister Sunak has emerged as favourite in media straw polls of Conservative MPs. 

But Johnson was said to be cutting short a Caribbean holiday to take part in the accelerated contest, which will see Tory MPs hold a vote on Monday before a possible online ballot for the members next week.

James Duddridge, one of Johnson’s closest allies in parliament, said he had been in contact with his old boss via WhatsApp.

“He’s going to fly back. He said… ‘We are going to do this. I’m up for it’,” the MP said.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, an arch Johnson loyalist, became the first minister to publicly back him, tweeting: “Only Boris can win the next election.”

Cabinet colleague Simon Clarke also endorsed Johnson, who led the Tories to election triumph over Labour in 2019.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, a favourite of the Tory grassroots, told reporters he was not standing himself and said: “At the moment, I’m leaning towards Boris Johnson.”

But Wallace added that Johnson still had “some questions to answer” over the multiple scandals, which resulted in a yet-to-launch investigation in the House of Commons.

If found guilty of lying to the Commons over the “Partygate” scandal — lockdown-breaching revels held in Downing Street — Johnson could be suspended or even expelled from parliament.

As a result of such controversies, Johnson left Number 10 with dismal poll ratings, and other Tories were aghast at the prospect of his coming back.

Veteran backbencher Roger Gale warned that Johnson could face a wave of resignations from MPs refusing to serve under him as leader.

Jesse Norman, a minister in the Foreign Office, said choosing Johnson again would be “an absolutely catastrophic decision”.

Sunak obtained his own endorsements from, among others, Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab, both senior former cabinet members.

And Johnson’s ambiguous appeal was underlined by another YouGov poll that found 52 percent of voters opposed to his return.

– ‘Backstabber’ –

While Sunak and Johnson are yet to formally declare, the contest is widely expected to be a three-way race between them and Mordaunt, who is the cabinet minister in charge of the House of Commons. 

Contenders have until 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Monday to produce a minimum 100 nominations each from the 357 Conservatives in the Commons.

If necessary, MPs will then vote to leave two candidates standing, and hold another “indicative” vote to tell the party membership their preferred option.

If no single candidate emerges, the rank-and-file will then have their say in an online ballot and the result will be announced next Friday.

Political website Guido Fawkes, which is running a rolling spreadsheet of Tory MPs’ declared support, had Sunak on 88, Johnson on 65 and Mordaunt on 24 by Friday evening.

In Sunak’s constituency in Yorkshire, northern England, 58-year-old farmer Elaine Stones said the party made a mistake in electing Truss instead of him. 

“He’s honest, reliable and he should have been voted in last time,” she told AFP. 

But retiree Maureen Ward called Sunak a “backstabber” who helped to topple Johnson. 

“He wielded the knife and once you do that, you can’t be trusted,” she said.