US Business

Russia launched a swarm of attack drones at critical infrastructure in Kyiv on Monday in strikes that Ukraine said provoked emergency blackouts in a dozen regions.

The attacks came as Russia said it had shot down several US-made missiles over its airspace near Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin was due to visit neighbouring Belarus, used as a staging ground the invasion of Ukraine.

“I first heard the air raid siren howling from the street… I thought there is going to be a drone attack. For the first time, it scared me,” Natalia Dobrovolska, a 68-year-old resident of Kyiv told AFP.

She described hearing multiple explosions before power shut off in her building in western Kyiv. Officials said Russia had dispatched 35 attack drones nationwide, including 23 over Kyiv.

Ukraine said it had downed 30 of the aerial weapons, including Iranian-made “Shaheds”, which have pummelled the capital in recent weeks.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said critical infrastructure facilities were “damaged” but there were no known casualties.

Energy operator Ukrenergo said emergency electricity outages were scheduled in the capital and nearly a dozen regions.

Moscow said its air defence systems had shot down four US-made missiles over Belgorod, a Russian region bordering Ukraine, in one of its first such claims in nearly 10 months of fighting.

– Border situation a ‘priority’ –

“Four American ‘HARM’ anti-radar missiles were shot down in the airspace over the Belgorod region,” the defence ministry said on social media.

Ukraine has experienced frequent and deadly aerial attacks in the 10 months since Russia invaded in late February.

After a series of battlefield setbacks and lost territory this summer and autumn, Moscow stepped up its aerial campaign to target the country’s energy grid.

With winter setting in, missile and drone attacks have plunged cities around the country into darkness, and severed water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

After a major Russian assault aiming more than 70 missiles on cities last Friday, the national electricity operator was forced to impose emergency rolling blackouts as it raced to repair the battered energy grid.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said as of Sunday evening, nine million people have had their energy restored. Ukraine has an estimated population of 40 million.

Zelensky also described the situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus as a “constant priority”. 

“We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios,” Zelensky said, adding that he had recently discussed border regions with military commanders.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory as a launchpad for Moscow’s invasion.

– Putin visit Belarus –

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was already in Minsk on Monday alongside Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

With Putin also expected to arrive, Russia announced its forces were running military drills with Belarusian forces.

The defence ministry released footage of drills in Belarus, showing soldiers conducting tank manoeuvres, and practising artillery and sniper fire at a snow-dusted training ground.

“From the morning until the evening twilight — there is not a single second of silence at the training grounds of Belarus,” the ministry said.

In October, Belarus announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country.

It did not say where the drills were taking place or how long they will last.

The deployment of Russian troops in Belarus had raised fears that Belarusian troops could join them in their offensive in Ukraine.

In fighting that has spilled over into Russian regions bordering Ukraine, one person was killed, and others were wounded Sunday in Belgorod following attacks that the local authorities blamed on Kyiv.

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said Ukrainian strikes left around 14,000 people without power in a district of the Belgorod region.

Twitter users voted on Monday to oust controversial owner Elon Musk as CEO in a poll he organized and promised to honor, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant.

A total of 57.5 percent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down. Musk, who is also the boss of car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, has not yet responded.

He took over Twitter on October 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, banning journalists and trying to charge for previously free services.

Analysts have also pointed out that the stock price of Tesla has slumped by one-third since the Twitter takeover.

“It’s hard to ignore the numbers since [Twitter] deal closed,” tweeted investment expert Gary Black, saying he reckoned Tesla’s board was putting pressure on Musk to quit his Twitter role.

In discussions with users after posting his latest poll, Musk claimed he had no successor in mind and renewed his warnings that the platform could be heading for bankruptcy.

– Dorsey bemused –

The unpredictable billionaire posted the poll shortly after trying to extricate himself from yet another controversy.

On Sunday, Twitter users were told they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites.

But Musk seemed to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors”.

“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” he tweeted.

The attempted ban had prompted howls of disapproval and even bemused Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had backed Musk’s takeover.

He questioned the new policy with a one-word tweet: “Why?”

– ‘Perfect storm’ –

Musk has generated a series of controversies in his short reign.

Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush called his tenure a “perfect storm”. 

He flagged that “advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly $4 billion per year we estimate”.

Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced the site would charge $8 a month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to suspend the “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.

On November 4, with Musk saying the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500-strong staff.

Musk also reinstated the account of Donald Trump — though the former US president indicated he had no interest in the platform — and said Twitter would no longer work to combat Covid-19 disinformation.

In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he claimed could endanger his family.

Employees of CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post were among those affected in a move that drew sharp criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.

The Washington Post’s executive editor Sally Buzbee said the suspension of journalist Taylor Lorenz’s account “further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech”.

Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated.

Elon Musk appeared to put his future in charge of Twitter on the line, posting a poll asking whether he should step down and vowing to abide by the results.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter?” he tweeted, asking the site’s users to click yes or no.

“I will abide by the results of this poll.”

With four hours until the end of the poll on Monday, 56.7 percent of nearly 14 million respondents had voted yes.

In Twitter exchanges with followers, Musk said he did not have a replacement lined up.

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” he said.

Making a “fun suggestion” to Musk, MIT research scientist Lex Fridman offered to run the platform for a bit for no salary.

In a downbeat response, Musk said Twitter was “in the fast lane to bankruptcy.”

“You must like pain a lot. One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?” Musk asked.

The unpredictable billionaire posted the poll shortly after apparently acknowledging he had made a mistake banning Twitter users from promoting their accounts on rival social media platforms.

“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” he tweeted.

The sudden shift in the rules was the latest in a series of controversial changes made by Musk since he took over the company in October — upheaval that has led a growing number of users to encourage followers to view their posts on other sites.

Twitter had announced that the company would “no longer allow free promotion of specific social media platforms.”

Users would thus be barred, for example, from posting “Follow me @username on Instagram,” Twitter said.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey questioned the new policy with a one-word tweet: “Why?”

After some notable accounts were suspended under the new policy, including tech investor Paul Graham, Musk tweeted that instead of considering individual tweets, the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors.”

– Series of controversies –

Musk has generated a series of controversies in his short tenure at the helm of Twitter, including layoffs, reinstatement of some far-right accounts and the suspension of several journalists.

Shortly after taking over the platform, he announced the site would charge $8 per month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to suspend the “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.

On November 4, with Musk saying the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half its 7,500-strong staff.

Musk also reinstated the account of former president Donald Trump and said Twitter would no longer work to combat Covid-19 disinformation.

In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists — most recently, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz — after complaining some had divulged details about the movements of his private jet that could endanger his family.

The suspension of the journalists — employees of CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post were among those affected — has drawn sharp criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.

The US Federal Trade Commission said it was tracking developments at Twitter “with deep concern.”

The Washington Post’s executive editor Sally Buzbee said the suspension of Lorenz’s account “further undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”

Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated.

Drones attacked Kyiv early Monday, days after the Ukrainian capital withstood one of the biggest missile attacks since the start of Russia’s February invasion. 

The latest strikes came as Russian President Vladimir Putin travels to Belarus, Ukraine’s neighbour in the north, where Moscow’s troops stationed as part of a regional force are due to hold military exercises.

“During the air alert, 23 enemy UAVs were recorded in the sky above the capital. Air defence destroyed 18 drones,” the Kyiv city military administration said on social media. 

It added that the Russian forces were using barrage ammunition from “Shaheds”, Iranian-made weapons that have pummelled the capital in recent weeks.

Kyiv’s civil administration announced an initial air alert at 1:56 am (2356 GMT) which lasted for just over three hours. A second siren at 5:24 am (0324 GMT) was called off within a half hour.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that “explosions” had occurred in the capital’s central Shevchenkivskyi and the Solomianskyi district in the west.

He said a critical infrastructure facilities were “damaged” but there were no known casualties. 

Ukrainian energy operator DTEK said emergency power cuts will be carried out in the capital following the attack.

Ukraine has been subjected to frequent and deadly aerial attacks in the 10 months since Russia’s invasion in late February.

After a series of key battlefield setbacks and lost territory this summer and autumn, Moscow pivoted strategies and stepped up its aerial campaign.

But with temperatures dropping, the missile and drone attacks have plunged cities around the country into darkness, and severed water and heat supplies to millions of Ukrainians.

– Putin to visit Belarus –

France and the European Union have said Russia’s assault on civilian infrastructure constitutes war crimes, with the bloc’s foreign policy chief calling the bombings “barbaric”.

After a major assault on multiple cities involving more than 70 missiles on Friday, the national electricity operator was forced to impose emergency rolling blackouts as it raced to repair the battered energy grid. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said as of Sunday evening, nine million people have had their energy restored. 

In his nightly address, Zelensky also said the situation on Ukraine’s border with Russia and Belarus was a “constant priority”. 

“We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios,” Zelensky said, adding that the border situation was discussed at a meeting with his military commanders. 

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, is a long-time Kremlin ally and allowed Russian troops to use Belarusian territory as a launchpad for Moscow’s invasion. 

Lukashenko is hosting Putin in the capital Minsk on Monday, in what will be the Russian leader’s first visit to Belarus in over three years. 

Earlier on Monday, the Interfax news agency cited the defence ministry in Moscow as saying that Russian troops will conduct military exercises in Belarus.

In October, Belarus announced the formation of a joint regional force with Moscow with several thousand Russian servicemen arriving in the ex-Soviet country.  

It did not say when and where the drills will take place and how long they will last.

The deployment of Russian troops in Belarus had raised fears that Belarusian troops could join them in their offensive in Ukraine.

Wrapping up an 18-month probe into last year’s deadly attack on the US Capitol, lawmakers will convene Monday to vote on whether to recommend criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and some of his closest aides.

The select House of Representatives committee has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and held explosive public hearings into what happened on January 6, 2021 — and who was responsible for it.

The panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, will meet at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) to unveil the findings on their investigation into the deadly riot, in which Trump supporters — who falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Joe Biden — ransacked the Capitol.

At least five people died in connection with the melee and 140 police officers were injured. About 900 people have been arrested in connection with the violent rampage, which sent shockwaves across the country and around the world.

The panel will decide whether or not to recommend that the Justice Department seek charges against Trump — who is running to retake the Oval Office in the 2024 election — on at least three counts, according to reports.

Those charges would be inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the US government, NBC News reported Sunday. 

Lawmakers cannot authorize charges themselves but can make recommendations to the Justice Department, which has already appointed a special counsel to look into Trump’s role in the Capitol riot and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Their vote is nonbinding and largely symbolic — the decision on charges for Trump will ultimately rest with Attorney General Merrick Garland.

But the three charges reportedly being considered could result in prison time and a ban from public office for the former president, who still wields considerable power in the Republican Party. 

“I think that the evidence is there that Donald Trump committed criminal offenses in connection with his efforts to overturn the election,” Democratic committee member Adam Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN on Sunday.

The committee may also make legislative recommendations to protect the process of certifying election results.

Its final report is due for release on Wednesday. 

– ‘Democrats, misfits and thugs’ –

Schiff did not offer details on possible criminal referrals against Trump, or even say how he himself would vote. 

But on CNN’s “State of the Union” news program, he did say: “I think the president has violated multiple criminal laws. And I think you have to be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is, you have to be prosecuted.”

Trump has repeatedly disparaged the House panel on his own Truth Social platform, calling the members “Democrats, misfits and thugs.”

He has defended the speech he gave before the January 6 riot and his other actions that day as “mild & loving.”

On that day, he called on his supporters to “fight like hell.”

– ‘Attempted coup’ –

Since July 2021, the House select committee has sought to shed light on the former president’s actions before and during January 6, 2021.

Across eight hearings this past summer, the panel unveiled reams of evidence on Trump’s involvement in a labyrinthine series of connected schemes to overturn the election — and the impossibility of the Republican not knowing he had lost to Biden.

Trump was “at the center” of “an attempted coup,” the head of the committee, Representative Bennie Thompson, has said.

The panel interviewed several Trump aides including his then Attorney General Bill Barr and even his daughter Ivanka. In snippets of interviews shown to the public, many of them said they never believed there had been election fraud.

The committee also revealed the pressure Trump had placed on his own vice president Mike Pence and other officials, notably in the key states of Georgia and Arizona, in a campaign of intimidation aimed at invalidating the November 2020 election.