For anyone contemplating a top administrative position in the Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, Kyiv authorities have a message: Be afraid. Very afraid.
Since Russian forces invaded in late February and began seizing Ukrainian cities and towns, close to 20 Kremlin-backed officials or their local Ukrainian collaborators have been killed or injured in a wave of assassinations and attempted killings.
They have been gunned down, blown up, hanged and poisoned — an array of methods that reflects the determination of the Ukrainian hit squads and saboteurs often operating deep inside enemy-controlled territory. The unpredictability of the attacks is meant to terrify anyone who might agree to serve in the puppet governments Russia has been creating with an eye toward staging sham referendums and ultimately annexing the occupied lands.
SINGAPORE — Frasers Property Singapore said its Sky Eden@Bedok condominium project has sold about 75 per cent of all units on the first day of launch on Wednesday (7 September).
The developer has sold 118 of 158 residential units at an average selling price of S$2,100 per sq ft (psf), according to a statement on Thursday.
Sky Eden@Bedok, the first residential launch in Bedok Town Centre in 10 years, was originally slated to start sales on 10 September after the preview, which started from 27 August.
All two-bedroom units ranging from 657 sq ft to 743 sq ft, and priced from S$1.31 million have been sold. The remaining are three-bedroom and four-bedroom units ranging between 1,087 sq ft and 1,302 sq ft.
Sky Eden@Bedok is scheduled for completion in the first-half of 2027. The 99-year leasehold mixed-used development will also have a retail podium on the ground floor comprising 12 shops.
Centrepoint Trust, for S$108 million in September 2020.
Sky Eden@Bedok's accessible location in a mature estate proved to be a huge draw for buyers, Lorraine Shiow, acting chief operating officer of Singapore residential at Frasers Property, said.
"Moreover, home buyers appreciate the property's proximity to thriving economic hubs in Changi and Paya Lebar, which are set to undergo further rejuvenation and add more vibrancy to Singapore's East," Shiow added.
Located in the outside central region, the development is within walking distance of Bedok MRT station and bus interchange. Schools such as Red Swastika School, Yu Neng Primary School and Temasek Junior College are located within 1km of the condominium.
Artem Bardin, the military commandant in Berdyansk, a port city on the Sea of Azov that Russia seized early in the war, was critically injured when a car exploded near the city administration building, according to Russia’s Tass news agency, which described the incident as a “terrorist act.”
Bardin’s legs were blown off and he suffered extensive blood loss, but he was alive, Vladimir Rogov, a Ukrainian who works as a pro-Russian official, told Tass. “Doctors continue to fight for his life,” Rogov said.
Earlier reports that Bardin had died could not be independently confirmed, but there was no doubt that he would not be returning to his official duties in the occupied city any time soon.
As Ukrainian soldiers press forward in the country’s south and east to try to reclaim occupied territories, Ukrainian authorities say the shadowy behind-the-lines operations are undermining, if not outright thwarting, Moscow’s plans to take political control, and especially to stage the sham referendums the Kremlin hoped to use to justify annexation.
In addition to the targeted killings, the Ukrainians have carried out attacks on Russian ammunition depots and other crucial military installations and assets in occupied Crimea.
Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.
Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September but the details of their sentences only emerged this week.
According to Hangaw, a Kurdish human rights group, Seddiqi Hamedani and Choubdar were found guilty of “corruption on Earth” for “promoting homosexuality”, “promoting Christianity” and “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”. They were also found guilty of sex trafficking, a charge that human right activists say is fabricated.
Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and punishable by death under the sharia penal code.
Seddiqi Hamedani was arrested in Iran in October 2021 as she was trying to cross the border to Turkey, where she was hoping to claim asylum. In May that year she appeared in a documentary for the BBC Persian service, speaking about the abuse faced by the LGBTQ+ community in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, where she was living at the time.
After the documentary was aired in May, Seddiqi Hamedani was detained for 21 days by Asayish, the intelligence and security agency of the Kurdistan regional government. She was subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks and prolonged solitary confinement, Amnesty International reported.
Before she attempted to cross the border between Iran and Turkey, Seddiqi Hamedani sent a video message to 6Rang, an Iranian lesbian network based in Germany, to be published in case of her arrest.
“I may be arrested at any moment because they have all the information about me … my life is in real danger,” said a visibly distressed Seddiqi Hamedani. “If I don’t arrive [in Turkey], it is clear what happened.
“I want to inform you how much we are suffering as the LGBTQ community and we resist … whether in death or freedom, we remain true to ourselves.”
Shadi Amin, from 6Rang, said: “They [Seddiqi Hamedan and Choubdar] heard the sentence last week. Since then Zahra has not slept. She is angry.”
“Without international support, we have no hope,” Amin added.
Soma Rostami, from Hengaw, said that Seddiqi Hamedani and Choubdar had been denied access to a lawyer. Rostami added that Seddiqi Hamedani’s Kurdish ethnicity might have contributed to the harsh sentence she received.
In July, a state news agency published a video of two people who alleged that Seddiqi Hamedani trafficked Iranian women abroad. 6Rang say that the individuals in the video were detainees who gave testimony under duress.
A Ukrainian official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said one of Ukraine’s special services was involved in the attempt on Bardin’s life, though he couldn’t specify which agency.
“In my understanding, everything that is done to destroy the leaders of the invaders and traitors is done by our special services,” the official said. “You can say that three organizations are involved in this kind of business: special operations forces, the main intelligence department [of the military] and a special unit of the SBU,” Ukraine’s main internal security service.
Russian officials have also blamed Ukrainian special services for the car bombing that killed Daria Dugina, a right-wing, nationalist Russian TV commentator and the daughter of far-right Orthodox Christian ideologue Alexander Dugin, a strong supporter of the war. Ukraine has flatly denied involvement in her killing near Moscow.
The assassination campaign, while cheered by many Ukrainians, nonetheless raises legal and ethical questions about extrajudicial killings and potential war crimes, particularly when the targets are political actors or civilians and not combatants on the battlefield or other military personnel. And those questions cannot simply be waved away by pointing to the illegality of Russia’s invasion.
The Geneva Conventions, referring to “persons taking no active part in the hostilities,” specifically prohibit “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds,” as well as “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Washington Post that the attacks in the occupied territories were evidence of a “powerful partisan and active protest movement” that shows “Moscow is absolutely incapable of controlling” the areas and that “no one here was waiting … with flowers in their hands” to greet the Russian forces.
As a result, Podolyak said, “all scenarios concocted in the Kremlin, including fictitious referendums, remain only on paper.” He said that Moscow was finding it difficult to recruit from the local population for the pro-Russian administrations, and that Russian officials were refusing to travel to Ukraine because of the risk they would end up on a target list.
“The risks and consequences are extreme — and they understand this very well,” Podolyak said.
But despite Trump’s many declarations of support for combat veterans, he remains someone who ducked the draft during the Vietnam War by claiming he suffered from bone spurs. And to him, Kolfage was just some sucker who volunteered to place himself in harm’s way.
Without a pardon, Kolfage continued to face wire fraud and tax evasion charges for his part in a crowd-funded effort with the purported aim of building a wall on our border with Mexico. He was facing a maximum of 20 years in prison when he decided to cut a deal.
In a virtual appearance in Manhattan Federal Court on April 21, Kolfage entered a guilty plea with the assurance he would receive no more than 63 months in prison. Judge Analisa Torres followed the standard protocol of inquiring if the defendant was of a sound mind and not under the influence of any drugs. Kolfage said he had been taking prescribed medications.
“It’s a narcotic for nerve pain related to my amputations of my legs,” he said. “It’s related to my combat disability.”
But Kolfage assured the court that his thoughts were clear. He proceeded with a prepared statement which described using a GoFundMe campaign called “We Build the Wall” to raise $25 million and then loot it using a shell company and fake invoices.
Energy markets remain elevated as most of Europe strives to break away from Russia’s crude oil and natural gas supplies. Putin recently replaced his long-time ally, defense minister Sergei Shoigu, over frustration with the progress in his war with Ukraine. Furthermore, six of Putin’s allies have been shot or blown up, so Putin’s inner circle is becoming increasingly isolated, since Moscow is no longer safe.
Whether or not these assassinations originate from within Russia or from Ukrainian special forces, as the Russia media has claimed, is uncertain. As a result, there is a growing possibility that there could be a regime change in Russia that could disrupt the crude oil and natural gas markets.
In the event that there is a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, post-Putin, the stock market could explode 40% to the upside. However, as long as Putin remains in power, the Ukrainian war is expected to persist in a long, drawn-out conflict and Putin will continue to use energy as a weapon to punish the West.
Russia shut down its Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline last Wednesday for “maintenance” and will thereby provide Europe with a preview of how it must learn to cope without any new Russian natural gas coming in. Then, on Friday, Russia decided to indefinitely suspend natural gas to Europe after the G7 foolishly decided to push for price caps on Russian crude oil. Some European officials are saying that they have secured enough natural gas to avoid rationing this winter, but that depends on how cold this winter will be, and they are still struggling to replace Russian natural gas supplies for 2023 and beyond, despite LNG imports from Canada, Qatar and the U.S. Europe’s other alternatives include a new natural gas terminal in Estonia from Norway and the extension of a natural gas pipeline from Spain.
Regardless of where Europe gets its natural gas in the future, the net result will be much higher utility bills. Since Europe has an elderly population, these high utility bills are causing massive social problems as a growing number of retired folks and poor families cannot pay their utility bills. The European Union (EU) on Monday said that it is preparing to intervene to help families dampen soaring electricity costs, as the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, is expected to provide details on how the EU will intervene to help consumers with high natural gas and electricity costs. Specifically, the EU is expected to impose price caps, like Spain is utilizing. The only problem with price caps is that they could cause shortages in the future, so Europe’s power crisis is expected to persist for the foreseeable future.
The Labor Day Employment Report Offered a “Mixed Review” of the U.S. Jobs Market
Going into the Labor Day weekend, the Labor Department on Friday announced that 315,000 payroll jobs were created in August, but the big surprise was that June and July payrolls were revised down by a cumulative 107,000 jobs, so the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, up from 3.5% in July. The other reason the unemployment rate rose was that the number of workers looking for a job rose by 786,000 in August. That pushed the Labor Force Participation Rate up to 62.4% in August from 62.1% in July. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3% ($0.10) to $32.36 per hour in August. Wages have risen 5.2% in the past year.