Ukraine cuts gas hub
KUWAIT CITY:
His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent on Wednesday a cable of condolences to Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel on the victims of the blast that took place in a hotel in the Cuban capital, Havana and resulted in tens of causalities.
In the cable, His Highness the Amir expresses condolences to the victims’ families and wished the injured a fast recovery.
His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent two similar cables. (KUNA)
KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Wednesday received a written letter from Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud about good fraternal bonds between both countries and brotherly people and ways of promoting and developing them in all fields.
In the letter, the Saudi King wished His Highness the Amir perpetual wellness and happiness and further progress and prosperity for both brotherly countries under the wise leadership of His Highness the Amir.
Saudi Ambassador to Kuwait Prince Sultan bin Saad bin Khaled Al Saud delivered the letter to Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah AlMubarak Al-Sabah. (KUNA)
KUWAIT CITY: The Criminal Court ruled that it cannot look into the money laundering case of Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah and Nawaf Al-Shalahi, because a final judgment has already been issued in this matter, reports AlQabas daily.
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine, May 11, (AP): Ukraine shut down a pipeline Wednesday that carries Russian natural gas to homes and industries in Western Europe, while a Kremlin-installed official in a southern region seized by Russian troops said the area will ask Moscow to annex it.
The talk of annexation in Kherson - and Russia’s apparent willingness to consider such a request - raised the possibility that the Kremlin will seek to break off another piece of Ukraine as it tries to salvage an invasion gone awry. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.
“The city of Kherson is Russia,” Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kherson regional administration installed by Moscow, told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. He said regional officials want Russian President Vladimir Putin to make Kherson a “proper region” of Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it would be “up to the residents of the Kherson region” to make such a request, and that any move to annex territory would would have to be closely evaluated by experts to make sure its legal basis is “absolutely clear.”
Russia has repeatedly used annexation or recognition of breakaway republics as tactics in recent years to gain pieces of fellow former Soviet republics Ukraine and Georgia. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after holding a referendum on the peninsula over whether it wanted to become part of Russia.
Kherson, a Black Sea port of roughly 300,000, provides access to fresh water for neighboring Crimea and is seen a gateway to wider Russian control over southern Ukraine. It was captured early in the war, becoming Ukraine’s first major city to fall.
The House emphatically approved a fresh $40 billion Ukraine aid package Tuesday as lawmakers beefed up President Joe Biden’s initial request, signaling a magnified, bipartisan commitment to thwart Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloody threemonth-old invasion.
The measure sailed to passage by a lopsided 368-57 margin, providing $7 billion more than Biden’s request from April and dividing the increase evenly between defense and humanitarian programs. The bill would give Ukraine military and economic assistance, help regional allies, replenish weapons the Pentagon has shipped overseas and provide $5 billion to address global food shortages caused by the war’s crippling of Ukraine’s normally robust production of many crops.
The measure was backed by every voting Democrat and by nearly 3 out of 4 Republicans. House debate reflected a perspective, shared broadly by both parties, that the U.S. has even more at stake than standing by Ukraine.
“The Ukrainian people, they need us, they are in desperate need of our support,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chair of the House Appropriations Committee. “Vladimir Putin and his cronies must be held responsible. This bill does that by protecting democracy, limiting Russian aggression and strengthening our own national security.”