World

US Senate Democrats unveil Russia sanctions bill to help Ukraine

US Senate Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a bill to impose sweeping sanctions on top Russian government and military officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and key banking institutions if Moscow engages in hostilities against Ukraine.

The proposed legislation, backed by the White House, includes provisions to help bolster Ukraine’s security and encourages the US to “consider all available and appropriate measures” to ensure the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline – a “tool of malign influence of the Russian Federation” – does not become operational.

“This legislation makes it absolutely clear that the US Senate will not stand idly by as the Kremlin threatens a re-invasion of Ukraine,” Senator Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who unveiled the bill, said in a statement.

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Russia has amassed about 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border and Washington is trying to dissuade Moscow from re-invading the country.

The bill, first reported by the Washington Post, would also target companies in Russia that offer secure messaging systems, such as SWIFT, which banks use to exchange key information with other financial institutions.

More than two dozen Democrats, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, have endorsed the bill, a Menendez spokesperson said.

The bill would “trigger severe costs to Russia's economy” if Russia goes ahead with an invasion, a spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council said.

Other legislation, such as a bill sponsored by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, will “not counter further Russian aggression or protect Ukraine,” the NSC spokesperson said.

Cruz struck a deal with Schumer last month, in which the Texas senator released his hold on dozens of President Joe Biden's ambassadorial nominees. Cruz's bill will be put to a vote this week, but it requires 60 votes to pass, a high hurdle in the evenly divided Senate.

The Menendez-backed bill provides an alternative for Democrats who support sanctions on the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which is completed but waiting approvals from Germany, and makes it harder for Cruz's bill to pass.

Many Democrats have supported sanctions on the pipeline as it would bypass Ukraine, depriving the country of transit fees and potentially undermining its struggles against Russia.

Cruz's bill would slap sanctions on the pipeline within 15 days of passage, regardless of whether Russia reinvades Ukraine, and would allow Congress to vote to reinstate sanctions should the president waive them. Cruz has said sanctions are needed immediately to stop the project.

Biden has described the pipeline as a bad deal for Europe and said it would increase Russia's influence there. But his administration last year waived sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company controlling the project, as the White House sought to repair relations with Germany.

A senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday that the threat of stopping the project is leverage that Germany holds over Russia.

“If sanctions are imposed right now, and Russia views these sanctions as a sunk cost, then this would be one less consideration in its calculus,” the official said. “The deterrent potential of sanctions or shutting down the pipeline would be lost.”

The pipeline, backed by Russia's state gas company Gazprom , would provide fuel to Germany, Europe's largest economy, which is shutting coal and nuclear plants, and other European countries.

Several Democratic senators said late on Monday, after meeting with Biden administration officials, that they believe the Cruz sanctions on Nord Stream 2 could harm relations with Germany, an important US ally, especially on policy toward Russia, Iran and climate change.

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World

Israeli army kills suspected assailant after West Bank car ramming

A suspected assailant was shot dead by Israeli soldiers after injuring three young men with his car in the southern West Bank on Saturday, the army and medics said.

The army said a “terrorist” had conducted a “ramming attack adjacent to the town of Beit Ummar” before being neutralized, with a spokesperson confirming to AFP the presumed assailant’s death.

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Magen David Adom medics said the three men were taken to hospitals in Jerusalem with serious, moderate and light wounds.

There were no immediate details on the suspected assailant.

The latest violence comes less than 24 hours after an Arab Israeli allegedly snatched a gun from a police officer and fired it in a scuffle at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, before being shot dead.

The Saturday deaths bring an end to the relative lull in violence since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan some 10 days ago.

Since the start of the year, the conflict has claimed the lives of 88 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, and one Arab Israeli.

Fourteen other Israelis, including members of the security forces and civilians, and one Ukrainian have been killed over the same period, according to an AFP tally based on official sources from both sides.

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World

High activity spotted at N. Korea nuclear complex after Kim’s bomb-fuel order: Report

Satellite images show a high level of activity at North Korea’s main nuclear site, a US think tank reported on Saturday after the North Korean leader ordered an increase in production of bomb fuel to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal.

The Washington-based 38 North Korea monitoring project said the activity it had spotted, based on images from March 3 and 17, could indicate that an Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR) at the Yongbyon site was nearing completion and transition to operational status.

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The report said the images showed that a 5 megawatt reactor at Yongbyon continued to operate and that construction had started on a support building around the ELWR. Further, water discharges had been detected from that reactor’s cooling system. New construction had also started around Yongbyon’s uranium enrichment plant, likely to expand its capabilities.

“These developments seem to reflect Kim Jong Un’s recent directive to increase the country’s fissile material production to expand its nuclear weapons arsenal,” the report added, referring to the North Korean leader.

On Tuesday, North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads and vowed to produce more weapons-grade nuclear material to expand its arsenal, while denouncing stepped up military exercises by South Korea and the United States.

Its state media said Kim had ordered the production of weapons-grade materials in a “far-sighted way” to boost the country’s nuclear arsenal “exponentially.”

It is unclear whether North Korea has fully developed miniaturized nuclear warheads needed to fit on smaller weapons it has displayed and analysts say perfecting such warheads would most likely be a key goal if it resumes nuclear testing for the first time since 2017.

South Korea and the United States have warned since early 2022 that North Korea may resume nuclear testing at any time.

In a report last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) estimated North Korea had assembled up to 20 nuclear warheads, and probably possessed sufficient fissile material for approximately 45–55 nuclear devices.

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World

UK water companies to face unlimited fines for sewage pollution

Water companies will incur unlimited fines for polluting rivers and the sea under new UK legislation to protect the environment, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Therese Coffrey, the environment secretary, will announce plans next week to remove the £250,000 maximum fine on civil penalties for companies that break the rules. The environment agency is also seeking to strengthen its ability to impose sanctions on water companies without going through the courts.

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Fines will be reinvested into a new Water Restoration Fund which will work with local communities and groups to improve water quality and support projects to improve management of waters and restore protected sites. Penalties and fines will be taken from water company profits, not customers.

Last year, 10 water and sewage companies within England released sewage into rivers and the sea on 301,091 occasions, with United Utilities and Yorkshire Water responsible for 40 percent of the spills.

“I want to make sure that regulators have the powers and tools to take tough action against companies that are breaking the rules and to do so more quickly, Therese Coffrey said in a statement.

The government’s ‘Plan for Water’ will also include measures against other forms of pollution, such as storm overflows, agriculture, plastics, road run-off and chemicals and pesticides.

The proposals will be published within a consultation on Tuesday.

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