US Business

Russian forces have stepped up their shelling in Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, Kyiv said Monday, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned to expect greater hostilities ahead of a historic EU decision on Ukraine’s bid for candidate status.

Nearly four months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his country, Zelensky said in his evening address on Sunday there had been “few such fateful decisions for Ukraine” as the one it expects from the European Union this week.

“Obviously, we expect Russia to intensify hostile activity this week … We are preparing. We are ready,” he said. 

Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states will discuss at a summit on Thursday and Friday whether to add Ukraine to the list of countries vying for membership.

EU foreign ministers gathering in Luxembourg kicked off the week urging Moscow to stop blocking the export of vitally needed grain from Ukraine, a top global supplier.

“One cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger. This is a real war crime,” the bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the food crisis, and blames Western sanctions for the disrupted deliveries that have pushed up cereal prices and fanned fears of famines in vulnerable regions. 

– Heavy bombardment –

On the ground, Russia appeared to be making some battlefield advances in the east.

In its daily update on Monday, Ukraine’s presidency reported heavier Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

In the Donetsk region, the intensity of the attacks “is growing along the entire frontline” it said, leaving at least one person dead and injuring seven people, including a child.

Fighting also continued in the key industrial city of Severodonetsk in the east, with Ukraine saying it had lost control of the adjacent village of Metyolkine.

“Unfortunately, we do not control Metyolkine anymore. And the enemy continues to build up its reserves,” the Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media.

Moscow’s forces have for weeks been battling to seize the eastern Donbas region, after being repelled from other parts of the country following their February invasion.

A chemical plant in Severodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are said to be sheltering was being shelled “constantly”, Gaiday said.

NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg meanwhile warned on Sunday that the war could grind on “for years” and urged Western countries to be ready to offer long-term military, political and economic aid.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western countries to step up their deliveries of arms, despite warnings from nuclear-armed Russia that it could trigger wider conflict.

– Energy crisis –

Russia’s defence ministry said Sunday it launched missile strikes during the past 24 hours, with one attack on a top-level Ukrainian military meeting near the city of Dnipro killing “more than 50 generals and officers”.

It said it also targeted a building housing Western-provided weapons in Mykolaiv, destroying Ukrainian artillery and armoured vehicles.

There was no independent verification of the claims.

Mykolaiv is a key target for Russia as it lies on the route to the strategic port of Odessa.

With Russia maintaining a blockade of Odessa that has trapped grain supplies, residents have turned their attention to rallying the home front effort.

“Every day, including the weekend, I come to make camouflage netting for the army,” said Natalia Pinchenkova, 49, standing by a large Union flag, a show of thanks to Britain for its support for Ukraine.

The Ukraine war is fuelling not only a global food crisis but an energy crisis too. 

Hit by punishing sanctions, Moscow has turned up the pressure on European economies by sharply reducing gas supplies, which has in turn sent energy prices soaring. 

Germany on Sunday announced emergency measures including increased use of coal to ensure it meets its energy needs after a drop in the supply of Russian gas in recent days.

Austria announced it will reopen a mothballed coal power station to combat shortages, and Italian company Eni joined a huge Qatari project to expand production from the world’s biggest natural gas field.

China’s imports of oil from Russia meanwhile jumped by 55 percent year on year in May, customs data showed Monday, as Beijing continued to refuse to condemn Moscow’s war.

Natalia Khalaimova, 54, a resident in Lysychansk, across the river from Severodonetsk, said she wanted Russia and Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war. 

“Every war in any country ends — but the sooner, the better,” she told AFP. “So many civilians are killed. Most of them were not involved in the war at all.”

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Australia’s prime minister said Monday he will engage “diplomatically” over the US prosecution of Julian Assange, but he is standing by earlier remarks questioning the purpose of further legal action.

As domestic pressure mounted on him to intervene in the WikiLeaks founder’s case, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he is sticking to comments he made while in opposition last year that “enough is enough”.

“I do not see what purpose is served by the ongoing pursuit of Mr Assange,” Albanese said at the time.

But the Australian leader took a swipe at “people who think that if you put things in capital letters on Twitter and put an exclamation mark, then that somehow makes it more important”.

Instead, he said: “I intend to lead a government that engages diplomatically and appropriately with our partners.”

Assange’s wife Stella Assange told ABC radio Monday that she understood the Albanese government was raising her husband’s case with US President Joe Biden’s administration.

“That is extremely welcome news,” she said, adding that she had not been able to see Assange since a British court last week cleared the path for his extradition to the United States.

“When I heard the news I just wanted to give him a hug,” she said.

Assange’s long-running legal saga began in 2010 after WikiLeaks published more than 500,000 classified US documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He has been held on remand at a top-security jail in southeast London since 2019 for jumping bail in a previous case accusing him of sexual assault in Sweden.

That case was dropped but he was not released on grounds he was a flight risk in the US extradition case.

As Assange’s potential US extradition looms, several high profile Australians, including former foreign minister Bob Carr, have called on Albanese to demand the US drop the prosecution.

“If Albanese asks, my guess is America will agree,” Carr wrote Monday in an op-ed in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Carr argued Assange’s prosecution stood in sharp contrast to the US pardoning former military intelligence officer Chelsea Manning, who had leaked the secret files to WikiLeaks. 

“Our new prime minister can say: ‘We’re not fans of the guy either, Mr President, but it’s gone on long enough. We’re good allies. Let this one drop’.”

While campaigning for May elections that swept his Labor Party to power, Albanese said that Assange had “paid a big price for the publication of that information already”.

Carr was serving as foreign minister in 2012 when Assange, who was facing sexual assault allegations, sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

For much of the past decade, Australia’s previous conservative government did not publicly advocate for Assange’s release.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was likely to intensify its “hostile activity” this week, as Kyiv awaits a historic decision from the European Union on its bid for candidate status.

Nearly three months after Russia launched a bloody invasion of his country, Zelensky said there had been “few such fateful decisions for Ukraine” as the one it expects from the EU this week.

“Only a positive decision is in the interests of the whole of Europe,” he said in his evening address Sunday.

“Obviously, we expect Russia to intensify hostile activity this week … We are preparing. We are ready,” he continued. 

Moscow’s forces have been pummelling eastern Ukraine for weeks as they try to seize the Donbas region, after being repelled from other parts of the country following their February invasion.

On Friday, Brussels backed Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status after the heads of the bloc’s biggest members — France, Germany and Italy — paid a visit to the Ukrainian capital.

Ukraine could join the list of countries vying for membership as early as this week, when member state leaders meet at a Brussels summit. 

But officials and leaders in the bloc caution that, even with candidacy status, membership could take years.

NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg meanwhile warned that the war could grind on “for years” and urged Western countries to be ready to offer long-term military, political and economic aid.

“We must not weaken in our support of Ukraine, even if the costs are high — not only in terms of military support but also because of rising energy and food prices,” Stoltenberg told German daily newspaper Bild.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged Western countries to step up their deliveries of arms, despite warnings from nuclear-armed Russia that it could trigger wider conflict.

– Energy crisis –

Zelensky made a rare trip outside Kyiv Saturday to the hold-out Black Sea city of Mykolaiv, where he visited troops nearby and in the neighbouring Odessa region for the first time since the invasion.

“We will not give away the south to anyone, we will return everything that’s ours and the sea will be Ukrainian and safe,” he said in a video posted on Telegram as he made his way back to Kyiv.

Russia’s defence ministry said Sunday it launched missile strikes during the past 24 hours, with one attack on a top-level Ukrainian military meeting near the city of Dnipro killing “more than 50 generals and officers”.

It said it also targeted a building housing Western-provided weapons in Mykolaiv, destroying Ukrainian artillery and armoured vehicles.

There was no independent verification of the claims.

Mykolaiv is a key target for Russia as it lies on the route to the strategic port of Odessa.

With Russia maintaining a blockade of Odessa that has trapped grain supplies and threatens a global food crisis, residents have turned their attention to rallying the home front effort.

“Every day, including the weekend, I come to make camouflage netting for the army,” said Natalia Pinchenkova, 49, standing by a large Union flag, a show of thanks to Britain for its support for Ukraine.

The Ukraine war is fuelling not only a global food crisis but an energy crisis too. 

Hit by punishing sanctions, Moscow has turned up the pressure on European economies by sharply reducing gas supplies, which has in turn sent energy prices soaring. 

Germany on Sunday announced emergency measures including increased use of coal to ensure it meets its energy needs after a drop in the supply of Russian gas.

Austria announced it will reopen a mothballed coal power station to combat shortages, and Italian company Eni joined a huge Qatari project to expand production from the world’s biggest natural gas field.

– Attack repelled –

The worst of the fighting is in the industrial Donbas region, with battles raging in villages outside the city of Severodonetsk, under unrelenting Russian fire for weeks.

Regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said the Russians had targeted the settlement of Toshkivka, south of Severodonetsk.

“But our artillery worked, and we can say the attempt to break through was not successful, even though they tried very powerfully to break our defence,” he wrote on Telegram.

Lysychansk, across a river from Severodonetsk, is also under heavy bombardment, with some residents sheltering in basements in dire conditions, with limited supplies of food and water. 

Natalia Khalaimova, 54, urged Russia and Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war. 

“Every war in any country ends — but the sooner, the better,” she told AFP. “So many civilians are killed. Most of them were not involved in the war at all.”

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It’s a dispute that plays out in towns the world over: a new property owner wants to alter a much-loved landmark against the wishes of locals. It’s his money. It’s their community.

So far, so familiar.

But this is Beverly Hills, where the perfectly manicured mansions of celebrities and socialites populate one of the world’s most desirable zip codes. Oh, and the property in question is worth $40 million.

“It is extremely beautiful,” said preservationist Alison Martino, who grew up four blocks away from the North Roxbury Drive house bought in 2020 by Eric Baker, the co-founder of internet-based ticket empire StubHub.

“It’s on a double lot, which makes it very stately and it’s pushed back from the street. It almost looks like a park. It’s the most beloved house in Beverly Hills.”

To the visitor, the whole city looks a little like a park; lavish homes nestle on tree-lined streets that are peopled chiefly by Lululemon joggers and the occasional member of household staff.

– Elvis, Sinatra, Madonna – 

The enclave of Beverly Hills began life a little over a century ago, and soon established itself as byword for luxury; an oasis for the well-heeled who made their money in the newly burgeoning film industry, but found nearby Hollywood a bit tawdry.

Over the years, it has been home to a Who’s Who of entertainment, counting Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Madonna and Jennifer Aniston as residents.

Today, minibuses ferrying star-spotting tourists whizz through the neighborhood, with guides pointing out the present and former homes of the famous.

Roxbury Drive is a particularly rich vein, with lots once owned by Lucille Ball, Peter Faulk, Jack Benny, Jimmy Stewart, and Rosemary Clooney.

“When Lucille Ball moved to Beverly Hills, she wanted that house, but it wasn’t for sale, so she bought the house across the street so she could look at it,” said Martino.

– $39.1 million –

The object of Ball’s desire is a Regency Revival home constructed 80 years ago by Beverly Hills master builder Carleton Burgess.

The 9,000-square-foot spread sits among fabulous lawns and boasts its own full-size tennis court, a pavillion and a swimming pool.

Previous owners annually festooned the house with Christmas decorations, Martino says, welcoming the neighbors over to see.

But in 2020, Baker slapped down $39.1 million for it — almost double its previous sale price — adding a glistening centerpiece to a property portfolio that reportedly already included two swanky Beverly Hills spots.

Now, he appears set on making changes to his North Roxbury Drive pad — despite what the neighbors think.

Last year he applied for a “certificate of ineligibility,” a pass that would allow major work on the house without the need to get a green light from the city’s cultural heritage commission.

His exact plans for the property are not known, and his Los Angeles-based lawyer did not respond to AFP requests for comment, but locals fear he wants to take a wrecking ball to the place.

“They want to tear it down so they can build a bigger, more modern house with the latest architecture,” wrote one commentor on Martino’s Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page.

“The thought of this impeccably well-maintained historical building and grounds being demolished sickens me.”

Others mutter darkly about not wanting something that “looks like an embassy compound” with a building that goes right up to the street.

“Even with all the money in the world, you don’t get to do whatever you want,” said life-long Beverly Hills resident Rebecca Pynoos. “Our cultural heritage shouldn’t be sold to the highest bidder.”

– 2am meeting –

Feelings are running so high that a recent planning meeting went on until 2am.

After seven hours of back-and-forth, much of which hinged on whether or not the house was sufficiently well-known to merit preservation, councillors voted to bring the matter back for further consideration on June 21.

The discussion on Tuesday night looks set to be lengthy — councillors have been presented with a 727-page document that includes a missive from actor Diane Keaton.

“I am pleading with you… This charming and historic home needs to be preserved for us and future generations,” she writes.

For campaigner Jill Tavelman Collins, the argument over the North Roxbury Drive house is emblematic of a larger issue in Beverly Hills.

“We’ve lost Lucille Ball’s house, we’ve lost Jimmy Stewart’s house… there’s so little left on Roxbury that is from that time and I think it’s pulling at everyone’s heartstrings,” she said.

“I think it’s like the straw that broke the camel’s back.”