US Business

Russian forces edged closer Wednesday to taking the key eastern Ukraine city of Severodonetsk but Kyiv’s hopes of holding off their invaders were boosted by a US pledge of more advanced rocket systems to help their defence.

“The Russians control 70 percent of Severodonetsk,” Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday announced on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing to prepared positions.

“If in two or three days, the Russians take control of Severodonetsk, they will install artillery and mortars and will bombard more intensely Lysychansk,” the Ukrainian-held city across the river, he said.

A key industrial hub and with Lysychansk the last pocket of resistence in the eastern Lugansk region, Severodonetsk has become a target of massive Russian firepower since the failed attempt to capture Kyiv.

Oleksander Motuzianyk, spokesman for Ukraine’s defence ministry, said there was “fighting in the streets” in Severodonetsk, and the Russians had reached the city centre.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are actively resisting them,” he said.

In a boost for the outgunned Ukrainian military, President Joe Biden confirmed that more US weaponry was on the way to allow them to “more precisely strike key targets” in Ukraine.

The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles.

They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package being unveiled Wednesday that also includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts, a US official said.

With a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometres), they will allow Ukrainian forces to strike further behind Russian lines.

– ‘Fuel to the fire’ –

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire”, saying “such supplies” did not encourage Kyiv to resume peace talks.

Biden said that the United States would not support attacks inside Russia, writing in the New York Times: “We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia.”

Later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine had promised not to use the new missiles inside Russia — and warned of a long conflict ahead.

“As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict,” he told a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

While some analysts have suggested the Himars could be a “game-changer”, others caution they should not be expected to suddenly turn the tables, not least because Ukrainian troops need time to learn how to use them effectively.

But they may improve morale after 98 days of war.

“If you know you have a heavy weapon behind you, everyone’s spirits rise,” one Ukrainian fighter on the frontline told AFP before the announcement.

– ‘Negative consequences’ –

In an intelligence briefing, Western officials said Russia is making “incremental but pretty steady gains” but even after taking Severodonetsk, there would be “a lot more challenges to come”.

“There are some river crossings that need to be completed after the closure of the (Ukraine-controlled) pocket and we’ve seen previously how difficult those river crossings are.”

West of Severodonetsk, in the city of Sloviansk, AFP journalists saw buildings destroyed by a rocket attack in which three people died and six others were hurt.

And on Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw.

The European Union has also sent weapons and cash for Ukraine, while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow.

Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline.

EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent.

Moscow said a “reorientation” was under way to find alternative destinations for its oil, as it moved to “minimise the negative consequences”.

The sanctions are biting — a panel of investors said Wednesday Russia has failed to pay $1.9 million of accrued interest on a sovereign bond.

And Russian energy giant Gazprom said its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year between January and May after losing several European clients.

Russia has sought to get around sanctions by demanding payment for gas in rubles, cutting off countries that refuse. 

Denmark was set to become the latest target Wednesday, after the Netherlands, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria.

Danes meanwhile voted on whether to overturn the country’s opt-out on the EU’s common defence policy, just weeks after neighbouring Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO as a defence against Russian aggression.

– Grain as weapon –

Russia’s invasion on February 24 has killed thousands of people and sent millions of Ukrainians fleeing, but also risks triggering a global food crisis. 

Ukraine — one of the world’s main producers — will likely export only half the amount of grain that it did in the previous season, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) said.  

At the Vatican, Pope Francis pleaded against the use of grain as a “weapon of war”.

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy have all urged Putin in recent days to end Russia’s blockade of the port of Odessa.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was up to the West and Kyiv to resolve the crisis, starting with the lifting of sanctions.

In Kyiv, meanwhile, Ukrainian football fans were set to watch their national side play its first official match since Russia’s invasion, facing Scotland in a World Cup qualifier later Wednesday in Glasgow.

“I am hoping for victory,” 44-year-old army serviceman, Andriy Veres, told AFP. 

“These days it is very important for the country, for all people, for all those who are fans and even for those who are not.”  

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The Texas town of Uvalde on Wednesday laid to rest one of the two teachers gunned down in last week’s elementary school massacre, along with her husband who died days later — leaving their four children orphaned.

Irma Linda Garcia, 48, was killed when a teenaged gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary, in an attack that left 19 young children dead and convulsed the nation with shock and grief.

Compounding the tragedy, Garcia’s 50-year-old husband Joe died two days later. They had been married for more than 24 years.

“They began their relationship in high school and it flourished into a love that was beautiful and kind,” obituaries for the pair said. They are survived by two sons and two daughters, the youngest just 12 years old.

Pallbearers carried the Garcias’ flower-topped caskets into Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde for Wednesday’s funeral mass. They were to be buried later in the day.

A GoFundMe set up for the Garcias said Joe died of a “medical emergency” on May 26, two days after the shooting. It sought to raise $10,000, but more than $2.78 million has been donated so far.

“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life,” the page said. 

John Martinez, who identified himself as Joe’s nephew, tweeted that the father of four had “passed away due to grief.”

With the community plunged into mourning — the first funerals for the children killed were held Tuesday — anger has also seethed over the police response as the tragedy unfolded.

Officers have come under intense criticism over why they waited well over an hour to neutralize the gunman, which Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) director Steven McCraw has admitted was the “wrong decision.”

– ‘Not coming back’ –

ABC News on Tuesday cited multiple law enforcement sources saying that the Uvalde police department and school district had stopped cooperating with the DPS’s investigation into the handling of the attack.

Beside a memorial of white crosses surrounded by wreaths and bouquets of flowers, the great-grandfather of one of the young victims berated police.

“They could tell me ‘Oh, we made a mistake. We made the wrong decision’. But my great-granddaughter is not coming back to me,” said 78-year-old Ruben Mata Montemayor.

The Uvalde massacre, the latest in an epidemic of gun violence in the United States, has rekindled desperate calls for gun reform. It came less than two weeks after 10 people died in an attack at a Buffalo, New York grocery store by a young gunman targeting African Americans.

Gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats.

But President Joe Biden — who visited Uvalde over the weekend — vowed Monday to “continue to push” for reform, saying: “I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it.”

Some key federal lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of senators worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise. 

They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others — but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like the weapons used in both Uvalde and Buffalo.

NATO said Wednesday it will hold talks involving Turkey, Finland and Sweden in hopes of ending Ankara’s opposition to the Nordic nations joining the alliance ahead of a summit this month.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he would convene senior officials from the three nations in Brussels in the coming days “to ensure that we make progress on the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO.”

“My intention is to have this in place before the NATO summit” in Madrid starting on June 28, Stoltenberg said on a visit to Washington.

“Finland and Sweden have made it clear that they are ready to sit down and to address the concerns expressed by Turkey,” Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Sweden and Finland have historically tried to steer clear of angering nearby Russia but shed their reluctance to join NATO after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine — which had unsuccessfully sought to join the alliance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “wanted less NATO. He is getting more NATO,” Stoltenberg said.

But all 30 NATO members need to agree to admit a new member and Turkey has voiced objections, citing the presence in the two Nordic nations of militants from the PKK, the Kurdish separatist group considered terrorists by Ankara.

Stoltenberg said that the two nations and NATO took the PKK issue “very seriously.”

“We know that no other NATO ally has had suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkey,” Stoltenberg said.

Blinken reiterated that he remained “very confident” that NATO will “move forward” with the membership of the two nations.

He appeared to play down linking the membership to Turkey’s desire to buy F-16 fighter jets, as some pundits believe Ankara is holding out for concessions.

“These are separate questions. We have a longstanding and ongoing defense relationship with Turkey as a NATO ally,” Blinken said.

“We’ll continue to work through cases as they as they arise with regard to systems that Turkey seeks to acquire,” Blinken said.

The United State expelled Turkey in 2019 from development of the state-of-the-art F-35 in retaliation for Ankara’s purchase of an advanced air defense system from Russia.

But Turkey’s image has risen in the United States through its drones that it has sold to Ukraine, even as Ankara avoids sanctions on Russia.

One of the victims of a New York subway shooting is suing Glock, the manufacturer of the firearm used in the attack, saying its marketing efforts appeal to criminals.

Ilene Steur, 49, was one of 10 people shot on April 12 as a crowded subway train pulled into a Brooklyn station. The shooter used a Glock 17 9mm pistol that was purchased in the state of Ohio in 2011.

Steur’s civil suit — which was filed in federal court on Tuesday — accuses Austria-based Glock of employing “marketing that emphasizes firearm characteristics such as their high capacity and ease of concealment, that appeal to prospective purchasers with criminal intent.”

It also says the company intentionally supplied “more firearms than the legitimate market could bear in order to induce sales in the secondary market,” and failed to train dealers on how to avoid illegal firearms purchases.

Mark Shirian, one of Steur’s attorneys, said: “Gun manufacturers do not live in a bubble.

“They are aware that their marketing strategies are empowering purchasers with ill intent and endangering the lives of innocent people. This lawsuit seeks to hold the gun industry accountable,” Shirian said in a statement.

Glock’s US subsidiary did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

The suit was filed as America reels from two high-profile mass shootings this month: one at a Buffalo, New York supermarket that killed 10 people, and another at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 21 dead.

Steur’s lawsuit echoes the legal battle that followed the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, which killed 26 students and teachers.

US gun manufacturer Remington — a subsidiary of which made the rifle used in that attack — agreed to a $73 million settlement with the families of nine of the victims earlier this year.

The lawsuit had alleged that Remington and the other two defendants were culpable because they knowingly marketed a military grade weapon that is “grossly unsuited” for civilian use, yet had become the gun most used in mass shootings.

The jury in the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard resumed deliberations Wednesday, working painstakingly through a special verdict form that contains dozens of questions.

The seven-person jury met for a full day on Tuesday and returned Wednesday morning to Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, near the US capital, to continue their discussions.

Closing arguments in the high-profile case were held on Friday at the end of a six-week trial riding on claims and counterclaims of domestic abuse between the Hollywood celebrities.

The 58-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” star filed suit against Heard over statements in an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Texas-born Heard, who had a starring role in “Aquaman,” did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The 36-year-old Heard countersued for $100 million, saying she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail her abuse claims were a “hoax.”

The jury is working through an eight-page verdict form that contains 24 questions relating to Depp’s suit against Heard and 18 questions relating to her countersuit against him.

Both need to prove the statements were defamatory, and to win compensatory or punitive damages, the jury needs to find they were made with actual malice — with knowledge that they were false or with “reckless disregard” for whether they were false or not.

Depp flew to England over the Memorial Day weekend and made surprise appearances at concerts by Jeff Beck in Sheffield on Sunday and at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday and Tuesday.

Depp, a guitarist, has his own band, the Hollywood Vampires, with Alice Cooper and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

Dozens of witnesses testified during the trial, including bodyguards, Hollywood executives, agents, entertainment industry experts, doctors, friends and relatives.

Depp and Heard each spent days on the witness stand during the televised trial, which was attended by hundreds of fans of the “Pirates” star and accompanied by a #JusticeForJohnnyDepp campaign on social media.

– ‘Monster’ –

Video and audio recordings of heated, profanity-laced arguments between the couple were played for the jury, which was also shown photographs of injuries allegedly suffered by Heard during their volatile relationship.

Hours of testimony were devoted to a grisly finger injury that Depp suffered while filming an installment of “Pirates” in Australia in March 2015.

Depp claimed the tip of a finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him. Heard said she did not know how the injury occurred.

Both agreed that Depp went on to scrawl messages on walls, lampshades and mirrors using the bloody digit.

Heard said Depp would become a physically and sexually abusive “monster” during alcohol- and drug-fueled binges and resisted her repeated efforts to curb his drinking and drug use.

Depp testified that it was Heard who was frequently violent and said it has been “brutal” to listen to “outlandish” accusations of domestic abuse made against him.

“No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse,” he said.

Heard, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017, obtained a restraining order against him in May 2016, citing domestic violence.

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, filed a libel suit in London against the British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” He lost that case in November 2020.

Both sides have claimed damage to their Hollywood careers.

Ukraine looked close to losing the key eastern city of Severodonetsk to Russian forces but was boosted Wednesday by the US decision to send more advanced rocket systems to help with its defence.

“The Russians control 70 percent of Severodonetsk,” Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday announced on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing to prepared positions.

“If in two or three days, the Russians take control of Severodonetsk, they will install artillery and mortars and will bombard more intensely Lysychansk,” the city across the river, which Gaiday said remained under Kyiv’s control.

One of the industrial hubs on Russia’s path to taking the eastern Lugansk region, Severodonetsk has become a target of massive Russian firepower since the failed attempt to capture Kyiv.

But in a boost for the outgunned Ukrainian military, President Joe Biden confirmed that more US weaponry was on the way to allow them to “more precisely strike key targets” in Ukraine.

The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS: a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles.

They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package being unveiled Wednesday that also includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts, a US official said.

With a range of about 50 miles (80 kilometres), they will allow Ukrainian forces to strike further behind Russian lines.

– ‘Fuel to the fire’ –

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire”, saying “such supplies” did not encourage Kyiv to resume peace talks.

In an article in the New York Times, Biden insisted: “We are not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders.”

He wrote: “We do not seek a war between NATO and Russia. 

“As much as I disagree with Mr. (President Vladimir) Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.”

While some analysts have suggested the Himars could be a “game-changer”, others caution they should not be expected to suddenly turn the tables, not least because Ukrainian troops need time to learn how to use them effectively.

What they may do is improve morale.

“If you know you have a heavy weapon behind you, everyone’s spirits rise,” one Ukrainian fighter on the frontline told AFP before the announcement.

– ‘Negative consequences’ –

On the eastern frontline in Donbas, Ukrainian towns are being subjected to near-constant shelling from Russian forces.

Moscow said Wednesday it had no information on the death of a French journalist killed this week while covering the evacuation of civilians in the east of the country.

West of Severodonetsk, in the city of Sloviansk, AFP journalists saw buildings destroyed by a rocket attack in which three people died and six others were hurt.

And on Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw.

The European Union has also sent weapons and cash for Ukraine, while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow.

Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline.

EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent.

Moscow said a “reorientation” was under way to find alternative destinations for the oil, to “minimise the negative consequences” of the move.

Separately, Russian energy giant Gazprom said its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year between January and May after losing several European clients.

Russia has sought to get around sanctions by demanding payment for gas in rubles, cutting off countries that refuse. 

Denmark was set to become the latest target Wednesday, after the Netherlands, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria.

Danes meanwhile were voting on whether to overturn the country’s opt-out on the EU’s common defence policy.

The referendum came just weeks after neighbouring Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of military non-alignment by applying to join NATO as a defence against Russian aggression.

– Grain as weapon –

Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said authorities had identified a “few thousand” cases of war crimes in the Donbas, including murder, torture and the forced displacement of children.

The key aide of ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who met international counterparts in The Hague on Tuesday, said Kyiv was already set to prosecute 80 suspects for alleged war crimes on Ukrainian soil.

A Ukrainian court on Tuesday jailed two Russian soldiers for 11 and a half years for shelling two villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Earlier this month, another was jailed for life for murdering a civilian, although he has appealed.

Russia’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbour is also threatening a global food crisis, with Ukraine’s huge grain harvest effectively taken off the world market. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned Wednesday the most vulnerable would suffer as the war “inflames a three-dimensional global crisis in food, energy and finance”.

Earlier Pope Francis pleaded against the use of grain as a “weapon of war”, and appealed for “every effort to be made” to “guarantee the universal right to food”.

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy have all urged Putin in recent days to end Russia’s blockade of the port of Odessa.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was up to the West and Kyiv to resolve the crisis, starting with the lifting of sanctions.

In Kyiv, meanwhile, Ukrainian football fans were set to watch their national side play its first official match since Russia’s invasion, facing Scotland in a World Cup qualifier later Wednesday in Glasgow.

“I am hoping for victory,” 44-year-old army serviceman, Andriy Veres, told AFP. 

“These days it is very important for the country, for all people, for all those who are fans and even for those who are not.”  

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