World

Annexation polls were due to close Tuesday in Kremlin-controlled regions of Ukraine, as officials in Moscow repeated warnings that Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend the territories from Ukrainian counter-attacks.

Kyiv and its allies have denounced the votes as a sham and said the West would never recognise the results of the ballots that have dramatically ratcheted up the stakes of Russia’s seven-month invasion.

Kremlin-installed officials in the four regions have said the outcome could be announced as early as Tuesday evening or Wednesday.

“Saving people in the territories where this referendum is taking place… is the focus of the attention of our entire society and of the entire country,” Vladimir Putin said during a televised meeting with officials.

His spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the votes would have “radical” legal implications and that the so-called referendums “will also have consequences for security”, referring again to Moscow’s threats to use nuclear weapons to defend its territory.

Russian forces in Ukraine this month have suffered serious setbacks, both in the east and south of the country, which observers say pushed Putin to rush ahead with the vote to cement Moscow’s authority there.

Putin said Russia would use any and all available means to defend its territory, implying that after the four regions were annexed Moscow could deploy strategic nuclear weapons to repulse Ukrainian attempts to take back the territory.

– Nuclear ‘right’ –

“I want to remind you — the deaf who hear only themselves: Russia has the right to use nuclear weapons if necessary,” former leader Dmitry Medvedev warned Tuesday on social media.

The four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine — Donetsk and Lugansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — announced that they would hold the elections just days before voting began last Friday. 

Together, they form a crucial land connection for the Kremlin between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is otherwise only connected to the mainland by bridge.

The EU spokesman Peter Stano announced the bloc will slap sanctions on organisers of the “illegal” vote, following a similar move the UK earlier in the week.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna meanwhile was in Kyiv for a surprise visit to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and underscore her country’s support for Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Even Moscow’s closest ally since the start of the invasion, Beijing, said after the votes were announced last week that Russia should respect territorial integrity in the war.

– Counter-offensive –

The so-called referendums follow a pattern that Moscow utilised in Crimea after nationwide street demonstrations saw Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president ousted.

Like then, the outcome of the ballot is being viewed by observers as a foregone conclusion. Election officials brought ballot boxes door-to-door in many cases accompanied by armed Russian forces.

Lawmakers are expected to vote hastily to annex the territories after the results are announced and Russian news agencies have said Putin could sign legislation formalising the land grab this week.

Ukrainian forces meanwhile have pursued their counter-offensive in the east and the governor of the eastern Kharkiv region announced Tuesday its forces had recaptured Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi “one of the largest logistical and railway junctions” in the region, not privy to this week’s vote. 

With fighting continuing along the sprawling frontline, AFP journalists were led to the country’s latest suspected mass burial site in a shell-damaged and abandoned industrial chicken farm.

“I was told by the soldiers who came to our village that they saw a burial place of soldiers, but they didn’t specify the number,” said Lyudmyla Vakulenko, head of the Kozacha Lopan local administration.

The village is in the eastern Kharkiv region where a counter-offensive by Ukrainian troops saw dozens of towns and villages recaptured.

Along with threats to use nuclear weapons, Putin announced a mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of Russian men to bolster Moscow’s army in Ukraine, sparking demonstrations and an exodus of men abroad.

The UN voiced alarm on Tuesday at credible reports of nearly 2,400 arrests in less than a week during nationwide protests in dozens of cities against the draft order.

Ex-Soviet Georgia, which was invaded by Russia in 2008, said the numbers of Russians crossing its borders had increased to around 10,000 people daily since Putin’s announcement.

Kazakhstan, the Central Asian country on Russia’s southern border meanwhile said nearly 100,000 people had entered the country since September 21 and its leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said authorities would “ensure their safety”.

Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni and her allies began Tuesday what is likely to be a weeks-long process of forming a new government, with crises looming on several fronts.

Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, which triumphed in Sunday’s elections, has no experience of power but must assemble a cross-party team to tackle sky-high inflation and energy prices, and relations with a wary Europe.

The 45-year-old is hoping to be the first woman to lead Italy as prime minister, but needs her allies, Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and former Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, for a majority in parliament.

The division of the top jobs — notably economy, foreign affairs, the defence and interior ministries — will always be political but now, more than ever, “will have to reflect areas of expertise”, the Stampa daily noted.

In the past, it has taken anything between four and 12 weeks for a new administration to take office.

But the first deadline for action is coming up fast, with debt-laden Italy due to submit its draft plan for next year’s budget to Brussels by October 15.

President Sergio Mattarella will begin consultations on who should lead the new government only once the Senate and Chamber presidents have been elected by parliament, which meets on October 13.

With families and businesses struggling with huge bills aggravated by the Ukraine war, sorting out the budget will be “like scaling Everest without oxygen tanks for the new cabinet”, the Corriere della Sera daily said.

Meloni sought to reassure investors during the election campaign that, despite her radical past, she will be a safe pair of hands.

But the Italian ten-year bond rate increased to its highest level since October 2013 on Tuesday morning.

And the gap between German and Italian interest rates, the closely watched spread, rose above 250 points for the first time since the depths of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020.

– Non-controversial, credible –

The European Commission was set to approve Tuesday the second instalment of post-pandemic recovery funds to Italy, worth 21 billion euros, a government source said.

But Meloni has said she wants to renegotiate the deal with Brussels, potentially putting the rest of the fund — worth a total of almost 200 billion euros — at risk.

Agnese Ortolani, senior Europe analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said she expected Meloni “to continue to reassure the markets by picking a non-controversial figure for the role of finance minister”.

“She will also want to avoid reputational damage by nominating someone who is not perceived as credible by the markets,” she said in a note.

Meloni’s allies have been pitching for heavy-weight positions, Salvini wanting his old job as interior minister back, and Berlusconi eyeing president of the Senate.

Their disappointing performance in the polls, however, with neither reaching 10 percent while Brothers of Italy’s secured 26 percent, means Meloni may already be planning to sideline them.

– Friction –

Salvini and Berlusconi do not see eye-to-eye with Meloni on several fronts, including on sending weapons to Ukraine.

With all the potential friction ahead, winning the elections “was almost the easy part”, commented Luciano Fontana, chief editor of the Corriere della Sera daily.

Berlusconi downplayed concerns he would rock the boat Tuesday, saying his party was ready to make compromises “in the country’s interests”.

His ally Antonio Tajani, a former European parliament president, is tipped as possible foreign minister, an appointment which could both appease Berlusconi and assuage international fears that Meloni’s Eurosceptic populist party plans to pick fights with Brussels.

Salvini, 49, may prove more difficult. He is currently on trial for allegedly abusing his powers as interior minister in 2019 to block migrants at sea, which could rule him out returning to the job.

“Defusing Salvini” without sparking a backlash that could seriously weaken the nascent executive is “Meloni’s first test”, the Repubblica daily said.

Labour leader Keir Starmer will argue Tuesday he is ready to lead Britain out of economic crisis, as a new poll gave his once-fractured party its biggest lead in two decades over the ruling Conservatives.

The head of the main opposition will tell its annual conference that new Prime Minister Liz Truss and the Tories have “lost control of the British economy”, as the UK reels from soaring inflation, imminent recession and a weakening currency.

His keynote speech at 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) comes the day after the pound crashed to an unprecedented low against the dollar.

That dramatic plunge has been blamed on a mini-budget unveiled Friday by Britain’s new finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, which cut taxes — including for the highest earners — and raised government borrowing.

The currency rebounded somewhat early Tuesday, but remains vulnerable amid market concerns that the tax-slashing plan could drive up interest rates and derail public finances.

“What we’ve seen from the government in the past few days has no precedent,” Starmer will say, according to his office, adding the Conservatives had squandered the economy for “tax cuts for the richest one percent”.

– ‘Cavalry is coming’ –

Despite the gloomy economic outlook, Labour’s rank-and-file are gathering in an upbeat mood in England’s northwest city of Liverpool. 

The party — out of power for 12 years and dogged in recent times by ideological infighting — appears more unified than at any point in recent years and has extended its lead in the polls.

The latest survey by YouGov showed it 17 points ahead of the Tories, its biggest lead since 2001 and the era of Tony Blair, who won an unprecedented three general elections for Labour from 1997.

A separate YouGov poll gave support to Labour’s narrative about the Truss-Kwarteng budget plan, finding 57 percent of Britons think the measures collectively were unfair.

That was the worst score for any financial statement since the Conservatives took power from Labour in 2010.

Starmer’s health spokesman Wes Streeting echoed the confident tone seen from delegates in Liverpool, telling Sky News that “the cavalry is coming with Labour”.

Starmer, 60, took over the Labour leadership in April 2020 from the radical Jeremy Corbyn but initially struggled to break through with the public during the pandemic. 

The Tories’ problems under their previous scandal-plagued prime minister Boris Johnson, and now the spiralling financial crisis, have revived his fortunes. 

The next election, however, is not due until January 2025 at the latest, when the party will try to overturn the majority of 80 that Johnson won against Corbyn in 2019.

– ‘Green prosperity’ –

Starmer has shifted Labour decisively away from the left following Corbyn’s divisive five-year tenure.

In an unusual move, attendees at this year’s conference on Sunday sang the national anthem “God Save the King”, beneath images of the late queen Elizabeth II.

Fears the rendition would be marred by boos or heckles from the Corbyn-leaning left proved unfounded.

In his speech, Starmer will hail Labour as once again “the political wing of the British people”, echoing Blair who previously deployed the same phrase. 

He will also claim it is now “the party of the centre ground” and of “sound money”.

“We know we can do it,” Mary Stiles, 75, a former councillor from central England, told AFP of retaking power. 

“We’ve got to do what Tony Blair did in 1997: we’ve got to get back in and change things.”

Starmer has vowed not to reverse the Conservatives’ “hard Brexit” deal, which took Britain out of the European Union’s single market and customs union.

He has also tried to steer clear of culture war issues, revolving around gender and racial politics, instead sticking to core themes around the economy, health care and crime.

The opposition leader will promise in his address a new “green prosperity plan” that prioritises economic growth alongside tackling climate change.

But there is disquiet from the party’s traditional union backers about support for workers on strike over pay as inflation surges.

Starmer has barred his top team from appearing on picket lines and been less supportive of the walkouts than some on the party’s left.

Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Cuba early Tuesday, with the storm prompting mass evacuations and fears it will bring widespread destruction as it heads for the US state of Florida.

“Ian is already over Cuban territory,” said a forecaster from the country’s Institute of Meteorology in a special broadcast on state television. “The outer wall of the storm is on the coast of the province of Pinar del Rio.”

About 38,000 people had been evacuated from their homes in the province, which was bearing the brunt of the storm, local authorities said.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Ian made landfall just southwest of the town of La Coloma at about 4:30 am local time (0830 GMT).

The hurricane was packing maximum sustained winds of 125 miles (205 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said, making it a Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

“Devastating wind damage is expected where the core of Ian moves across western Cuba this morning,” it added.

– ‘Storm surge’ –

With the hurricane moving north, Florida’s western coast from Fort Myers to Tampa Bay were at greatest risk of “life-threatening” storm surges, the NHC said.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in all 67 counties as officials scrambled to prepare for the storm’s forecast landing on Wednesday or Thursday.

Ian “will bring heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge, along with isolated tornado activity along Florida’s Gulf Coast,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tallahassee on Monday.

He warned people to prepare for power cuts.

“Even if the eye of the storm doesn’t hit your region, you’re going to have really significant winds, it’s going to knock over trees, it’s going to cause interruptions,” DeSantis said, warning of likely flooding.

The governor urged residents to stock up on food, water, medicine and fuel, and he called up 7,000 National Guard members to help with the effort.

Authorities in several Florida municipalities, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, started distributing free sandbags to residents to help protect their homes from the risk of flooding.

Tampa International Airport said it would suspend operations on Tuesday at 5:00 pm local time (2100 GMT).

US President Joe Biden approved emergency aid to 24 counties in Florida through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

NASA said it was rolling back its massive Moon rocket into its storage hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida due to the hurricane.

– Fiona’s wake –

The Caribbean and parts of eastern Canada are still counting the cost of powerful storm Fiona, which tore through last week, claiming several lives.

When it arrived in Canada, the storm packed intense winds of 80 miles per hour, bringing torrential rain and waves of up to 40 feet (12 meters).

Three people are believed to have died when Fiona barreled into Canada’s Atlantic provinces as a post-tropical cyclone early Saturday.

Prince Edward Island authorities confirmed the death of one person, while officials in Newfoundland said they found the body of a 73-year-old woman believed to have been swept from her home. She was apparently sheltering in her basement when waves broke through.

A third person has been reported missing in Nova Scotia — one of the hardest-hit provinces — and is presumed dead.

“The devastation is immense,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston told reporters. “The magnitude of the storm is incredible.”

Storm surges swept at least 20 homes into the sea in the town of Channel-Port aux Basques, on the southwestern tip of Newfoundland.

Around 200 residents had been evacuated before the storm hit.

“Some people have lost everything, and I mean everything,” Mayor Brian Button told CBC News.