Articles by Achilleas Kouremenos

World

NATO Member Romania Finds Drone Fragments After Russian Strikes on Ukrainian Ports

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — NATO member Romania found drone fragments on its territory in an inhabited area near its southeastern border region following Russian strikes on Ukrainian Danube River ports overnight, authorities said Tuesday. Romanian radars detected groups of drones near the NATO country’s airspace just after midnight Tuesday, prompting the emergency authorities to issue an alert to residents of the northern areas of Tulcea County, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. Weather conditions did not allow for fighter jets to be deployed, the ministry said, but military teams were able to recover possible drone fragments some 5 kilometers (3 miles) inside Romania’s border with Ukraine. After the defense ministry’s statement, Romanian Foreign Minister Oana Toiu confirmed in a post on X that the drone fragments landed in an inhabited area on Romanian territory. “These actions are part of a series of similar incidents and represent a characteristic of the war of aggression waged by Russia,” she said. “This is also reflected in Russia’s systematic provocations against the EU and NATO.” “We will not hesitate to increase the price that Russia pays for such reckless and illegal actions,” she added, noting that new sanctions are being prepared to “impose a substantial cost” on Russia. Breaches of Romania’s airspace by drones have become increasingly frequent in recent months as Russia targets Danube River ports just across the border in Ukraine. Officials have stated that samples collected from sites where drone fragments were found are similar to those used by the Russian army. Romania and Poland are now deploying a new weapons system to defend against Russian drones following a spate of incursions into NATO airspace in recent months that exposed the alliance’s vulnerabilities and put Europe on edge.

10 hours ago

Politics

Trump Threatens to Sue BBC Over Edited Speech That Sparked Resignations by News Bosses

LONDON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened legal action against the BBC over the way a speech he made was edited in a documentary aired by Britain’s national broadcaster. BBC chairman Samir Shah on Monday apologized for the “error of judgment,” which triggered the resignations of the BBC’s top executive and its head of news. Director-General Tim Davie and news chief Deborah Turness quit Sunday over accusations of bias and misleading editing of a speech Trump delivered on Jan. 6, 2021, before a crowd of his supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington. The hourlong documentary — titled “Trump: A Second Chance?” — was broadcast as part of the BBC’s “Panorama” series days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. It spliced together three quotes from two sections of the 2021 speech, delivered almost an hour apart, into what appeared to be one quote in which Trump urged supporters to march with him and “fight like hell.” Among the parts cut out was a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully. Shah said the broadcaster accepted “that the way the speech was edited did give the impression of a direct call for violent action.” A letter from Trump attorney Alejandro Brito demands the BBC “retract the false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements,” apologize and “appropriately compensate President Trump for the harm caused,” or face legal action for $1 billion in damages. The BBC said it would review the letter “and respond directly in due course.” Top executives quit Trump had earlier welcomed the resignations of the two BBC executives. He posted a link to a Daily Telegraph story about the speech-editing on his Truth Social network, thanking the newspaper “for exposing these Corrupt ‘Journalists.’ These are very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a Presidential Election.” He called that “a terrible thing for Democracy!” In a resignation letter to staff, Davie said: “There have been some mistakes made and as director-general I have to take ultimate responsibility.” Turness said the controversy was damaging the BBC, and she quit “because the buck stops with me.” She defended the organization’s journalists against allegations of bias. “Our journalists are hardworking people who strive for impartiality, and I will stand by their journalism,” she said Monday. “There is no institutional bias. Mistakes are made, but there’s no institutional bias.” Trump speech edited Pressure on the broadcaster’s top executives has been growing since the right-leaning Daily Telegraph published parts of a dossier compiled by Michael Prescott, who had been hired to advise the BBC on standards and guidelines. As well as the Trump edit, it criticized the BBC’s coverage of transgender issues and raised concerns of anti-Israel bias in the BBC’s Arabic service. The “Panorama” episode showed an edited clip from the January 2021 speech in which Trump claimed the 2020 presidential election had been rigged. Trump is shown saying: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” According to video and a transcript from Trump’s comments that day, he said: “I’ll be there with you, we’re going to walk down, we’re going to walk down. Anyone you want, but I think right here, we’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Trump used the “fight like hell” phrase toward the end of the speech, but without referencing the Capitol. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” Trump said. In a letter to Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Shah said the purpose of editing Trump’s words had been “to convey the message of the speech” so that viewers could understand how it had been received by Trump’s supporters and what was happening on the ground. He said the program had not attracted “significant audience feedback” when it first aired but had drawn more than 500 complaints since Prescott’s dossier was made public. Shah acknowledged in a BBC interview that “it would have been better to have acted earlier. But we didn’t.” A national institution The 103-year-old BBC faces greater scrutiny than other broadcasters — and criticism from its commercial rivals — because of its status as a national institution funded through an annual license fee of 174.50 pounds ($230) paid by all households who watch live TV or any BBC content. The broadcaster is bound by the terms of its charter to be impartial, and critics are quick to point out when they think it has failed. It’s frequently a political football, with conservatives seeing a leftist slant in its news output and some liberals accusing it of having a conservative bias. It has also been criticized from all angles over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In February, the BBC removed a documentary about Gaza from its streaming service after it emerged that the child narrator was the son of an official in the Hamas-led government. Governments of both left and right have long been accused of meddling with the broadcaster, which is overseen by a board that includes both BBC nominees and government appointees. Some defenders of the BBC allege that members of the board appointed under previous Conservative governments have been undermining the corporation from within. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, said the center-left Labour Party government supports “a strong, independent BBC” and doesn’t think the broadcaster is biased. “But it is important that the BBC acts to maintain trust and corrects mistakes quickly when they occur,” he said. By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed from Washington.

10 hours ago

Health

Greek-American Elias Manolis, 13, Battling Chronic Kidney Disease, Needs a Living Donor

FRANKLIN SQUARE, NY – Kidney disease was in the news recently following the tragic passing of retired New York Jets center Nick Mangold at the age of 41 due to complications of the disease. Greek-American Margaret Manolis reached out to The National Herald on November 10 to share her son Elias’ story. “He is a 13 year-old boy from Franklin Square, NY,” she noted. “He has been battling Chronic Kidney Disease since he was born. We recently found out he will be needing a kidney transplant. We are searching for a living donor (family cannot donate). We are hoping The National Herald can do a story and share awareness for us. Your help would have a huge impact on finding a donor.” “Elias is registered through Northwell,” Mrs. Manolis said. “Anyone interested in becoming Elias’ hero, please click on the link to input their information. A kidney transplant coordinator will then contact you for further information.” More information is available online: https://shorturl.at/9dnL0. “My name is Elias Manolis and I was born with enlarged kidneys that don’t function well,” the boy said in a statement. “I’ve had multiple surgeries to keep my kidneys from getting worse, but now I need a kidney transplant. I’m in my early teens, so a living kidney donor will change my entire life and help me be healthier.” “I enjoy helping others and joined ‘Be a Buddy Club’ at school, helping kids who are autistic,” Elias said. “I enjoy riding my bike, swimming and playing video games with my younger brother.” “Thanks for reading my story,” he said. “Testing to become a living donor is easy, free, and you have the chance to change your mind at any time. If you’re not able to be a donor, you can still be a huge help by sharing my information and need with friends and on social media.” If you would like to learn more about becoming a donor for Elias, please contact Kidney Solutions at info@kidneysolutions.org. “Any help spreading the word would be greatly appreciated,” the boy’s mother said and urged anyone interested to follow on Facebook: https://shorturl.at/wU8sa.

10 hours ago

World

The Specter of New Conflict Haunts Memorials Around World War I’s End

YPRES, Belgium (AP) — Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed in World War I and left without graves. On Tuesday, authorities are unveiling a renovated memorial for them in Ypres, the Belgian town that earned the grim honor of being synonymous with the brutality of conflict. Tuesday is known as Armistice Day — or Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in Britain — marking the end of World War I. From 1914-1918, the armies of France, the British empire, Russia and the U.S. fought against a German-led coalition that included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The war killed almost 10 million soldiers, sometimes tens of thousands on a single day. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died during those four years in Ypres alone. The blood-soaked fields of the Flanders region saw the development of more modern ways to kill. Horses galloped next to tanks. Poison gas was introduced. Aerial surveillance provided precision to artillery. In the wake of “the war to end all wars” and then World War II, the modern geopolitical system was forged with an aim to avert future conflicts. The United Nations and the Europe Union were created. But now, war feels close again. Across once-devastated Europe, nations are again rearming, plowing investments into the defense industry in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The 27-nation EU has been worried by a series of airspace violations, some of them close to its borders with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of incidents of sabotage. Aside from Europe, wars in places as distant as Gaza and Sudan have had impact well beyond their borders. And tensions in Asia have led Japan and others to increase military spending. And around the world, ascendant political movements challenge the democratic order, with authoritarianism on the rise. By SAM McNEIL Associated Press

12 hours ago