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Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term
Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister on Sunday in a Cabinet shakeup as he begins his fifth term.
In accordance with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s spectacular inauguration in the Kremlin. Most members were widely anticipated to preserve their posts, although Shoigu’s status remained uncertain.
The Kremlin reported that Putin signed a decree on Sunday naming Shoigu as secretary of Russia’s Security Council. The appointment was revealed shortly after Putin requested that Andrei Belousov replace Shoigu as the country’s defense minister.
Shoigu’s new job was announced after 13 people were killed and 20 more injured in Russia’s border city of Belgorod when a 10-story apartment building partially collapsed due to what Russian officials claimed was Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine has not commented on the incident.
AP – VOR News Image
Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term
Russia’s upper chamber of parliament must accept Belousov’s candidacy, the Federation Council. On Sunday, it was claimed that Putin had also submitted ideas for additional Cabinet seats, but Shoigu is the only minister on the list who is being changed. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, whom Putin reappointed on Friday, offered several new federal ministry candidates on Saturday.
Shoigu’s deputy, Timur Ivanov, was detained last month on suspicions of bribery and ordered to be held in custody pending an official inquiry. Despite Shoigu’s close personal ties with Putin, the arrest of Ivanov was widely regarded as an attack on him and a likely precursor to his dismissal.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin chose a civilian as defense minister because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” He also stated that the increased defense budget “must fit into the country’s larger economy” and that Belousov, who previously served as first deputy prime minister, is the best candidate for the position.
Belousov, 65, held senior roles in the prime minister’s office’s finance and economic departments and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed Putin’s adviser, and seven years later, in January 2020, he was named first deputy prime minister.
Peskov promised that the change would not affect “the military aspect,” which “has always been the prerogative of the Chief of General Staff,” and that Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who now holds this position, will continue to operate.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, wrote in an online commentary that Shoigu’s new appointment to Russia’s Security Council demonstrated that the Russian leader saw the institution as “a reservoir” for his “‘former’ key figures — people he can’t let go of, but doesn’t have a place for.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also been named to the Security Council. Medvedev has served as the body’s deputy chairman since 2020.
AP – VOR News Image
Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term
Shoigu was chosen to the Security Council instead of Putin’s longtime supporter, Nikolai Patrushev. Peskov announced on Sunday that Patrushev is taking on a new job and promised to divulge more details in the coming days.
Shoigu is largely seen as a crucial role in Putin’s decision to deploy Russian soldiers into Ukraine. Russia expected the operation to easily crush Ukraine’s much smaller and less-equipped army and for Ukrainians to warmly welcome Russian troops.
Instead, the conflict inspired Ukraine to launch a fierce resistance, giving humiliating blows to the Russian army, including a retreat from an effort to seize the capital, Kyiv, and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv area.
Shoigu spent over 20 years conducting varied tasks before being named defense minister in 2012. In 1991, he was appointed head of the Russian Rescue Corps disaster response organization, which later became the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He got visible in the post. As the rescue corps absorbed the armed Civil Defense Troops, he was promoted to general despite having no military background.
Shoigu does not have the same power level as Patrushev, who has long been the country’s top security official. However, the post he will occupy — the same job that Patrushev fought to elevate from a low bureaucratic role to one of significant influence — will still have some weight, according to Mark Galeotti, the president of the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.
Despite the changes at the top, high-level security materials destined for the president’s eyes will continue to transit through the Security Council Secretariat. “You can’t just institutionally turn around a bureaucracy and how it works overnight,” he stated.
Thousands of civilians have fled Russia’s resumed ground offensive in Ukraine’s northeast, which has targeted towns and villages with artillery and mortar fire, officials said Sunday.
The fierce fighting has caused at least one Ukrainian battalion to evacuate from the Kharkiv region, ceding more territory to Russian forces across less-defended villages in the so-called contested gray zone near the Russian border.
By Sunday afternoon, Vovchansk, one of the major towns in the northeast with a prewar population of 17,000, had emerged as a battleground.
Volodymyr Tymoshko, the chief of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Russian forces were approaching the town from three angles.
An Associated Press team stationed in a nearby village witnessed plumes of smoke billowing from the town as Russian forces fired shells. Evacuation teams worked tirelessly throughout the day to transport inhabitants, most of whom were elderly, out of harm’s way.
At least 4,000 citizens have fled the Kharkiv region since Moscow’s forces initiated the operation on Friday, according to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov’s social media statement. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeast front line, with Russian soldiers attacking 27 towns in the last 24 hours, he added.
AP – VOR News Image
Putin Replaces Shoigu As Russia’s Defense Minister As He Starts His 5th Term
The Ukrainian military said the Kremlin is employing the standard Russian technique of launching disproportionate amounts of fire and infantry assaults to deplete Ukrainian troops and weapons. By increasing fighting in what was previously a static sector of the front line, Russian forces threatened to shut down Ukrainian soldiers in the northeast while also gaining ground further south.
It follows Russia’s increased attacks on energy infrastructure and settlements in March, which many anticipated were part of a coordinated effort to prepare the stage for an onslaught.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that its forces had conquered four villages near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv area, in addition to the five villages reported to have been taken on Saturday. Because of the dynamic combat and continual intense shelling, these regions were most likely under-fortified, allowing Russia to move more easily.
Ukraine’s leadership has not acknowledged Moscow’s advantages. However, Tymoshko, the commander of the Kharkiv regional police, stated that Strilecha, Pylna, and Borsivika were under Russian possession and that infantry was being brought in from their direction to organize attacks in other beleaguered villages, such as Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.
SOURCE – (AP)
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Canadian Man Arrested for TikTok Video That Threatened Trudeau
A TikTok video that went live earlier this week has led to a Toronto man facing charges of threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Andrew Marshall, 61, is facing two counts of uttering threats.
On Friday afternoon, the Ontario Court of Justice granted him bail with a surety and restrictions after the RCMP charged him on Wednesday.
Following Monday’s upload to TikTok, CBC Toronto conducted its own independent investigation of the video. Marshall vehemently opposes what he perceives as restrictions on free expression in Canada in it.
“I get them taken down all the time— I make videos — or all my comments, that are just simple comments,” Marsh says in the TikTok. “It’s just getting ridiculous, Marshall said.”
According to the CBC more and more people are threatening politicians. The commissioner of the RCMP has hinted that further measures may be necessary to ensure their safety.
In the TikTok video, Marshall explains in great detail how he would brutally assassinate Trudeau and Freeland “if it was up to him.”
Marshall attacks multiple groups throughout the roughly 11-minute TikTok video, including the media, Muslims, migrants, and the police who defend the government.
Among Marshall’s bail terms are the following: he must not communicate with Trudeau or Freeland; he must not use the internet to make social media posts or comments; he must not own any weapons; and he must not apply for a firearms permit.
During the bail hearing, the prosecution provided all of the evidence that is often not published.
Nate Jackson, Marshall’s attorney, stressed his client’s liberties and privileges as a Canadian in an email message.
“He has the right to freedom of speech, the right to reasonable bail and the right to a fair trial,” he said. “Having secured his release from custody, we will continue to defend Mr. Marshall’s Charter rights as his case proceeds.”
Neither Freeland’s nor the prime minister’s office would comment on the allegations, according to the CBC.
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Canada’s Unemployment Rate Hits its Highest Point Since 2017
As the job market remains dismal, the national unemployment rate in Canada has risen to its highest point since 2017. This has led some analysts to question whether the Bank of Canada should be reducing interest rates more quickly.
In spite of a net gain of 22,000 jobs, Statistics Canada reported on Friday that the unemployment rate increased to 6.6% from 6.4% the previous month. The rise was due to an uptick in part-time employment and a fall in full-time employment.
Outside of the pandemic years, the national unemployment rate has reached its highest position since May 2017, according to StatCan.
Rapid population expansion in Canada has increased the overall labour pool, but the country’s unemployment rate has persisted in rising.
The summer job market was especially tough for students, according to StatCan. Not including the pandemic, the unemployment rate among students going back to school in the autumn was 16.7 percent, which is the highest level since 2012.
Two days after the Bank of Canada dropped interest rates for the third time in a row, reducing borrowing costs to alleviate economic pressure, the most recent reading of the Canadian job market follows suit.
According to TD Bank economist Leslie Preston, who wrote a note on Friday, the central bank is “giving the OK” to keep dropping rates due to the bad August jobs report. Preston predicts two more quarter-point decreases at the remaining decisions this year.
According to CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham, there are indications that the labour market is quickly contracting more than initially thought, since the unemployment rate is nearly two percentage points greater than the record low of 4.9% in June 2022.
“Due to this, we believe the Bank should be contemplating a quicker rate of reductions in order to bring interest rates to less restrictive levels,” he informed clients in a letter on Friday morning.
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US Job Growth Falls Short of Expectations: Economy Struggles Under High Interest Rates
Last month, job growth in the United States was weaker than predicted, prompting concerns that the world’s largest economy is beginning to struggle under the weight of increased interest rates.
The Labour Department said that employers added 142,000 jobs in August, which was less than the nearly 160,000 economists predicted. It also stated that job gains over the preceding two months were weaker than expected.
However, the jobless rate went down to 4.2%, down from 4.3% in July.
The report is one of the most important indicators of the US economy and arrives at a vital time, as voters consider presidential candidates for the November election and the US central bank contemplates its first interest rate decrease in four years.
Analysts said the latest statistics kept the Federal Reserve on pace for a rate drop at its meeting this month, but did little to answer worries about the trajectory of the US economy or how much of a cut it should make.
“There has rarely been such a make-or-break number; unfortunately, today’s jobs report does not completely resolve the recession debate,” said Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management.
Soaring prices in 2022 caused the Federal Reserve to hike its key lending rate to 5.3%, a nearly 20-year high.
Faced with increased borrowing costs for homes, vehicles, and other debt, the economy has slowed, helping to alleviate pressures that were boosting inflation but exacerbating market concerns.
As inflation has fallen to 2.9% in July, the Fed is under pressure to decrease interest rates to prevent additional economic deceleration.
Although job increases in August fell short of expectations, they were greater than in July, when a slowdown aroused anxieties and triggered several days of stock market volatility.
Last month, construction and health-care firms hired the most, while manufacturing and retailers laid off employees.
Ms Shah stated that the data in Friday’s report was mixed, but provided enough concerning indicators that the Fed should make a larger cut.
“On balance, with inflation pressures subdued, there is no reason for the Fed not to err on the side of caution and frontload rate cuts,” she told reporters.
Others, however, felt the advances were just steady enough to warrant a 0.25 percentage point decrease, as markets had long projected – though this could signal more cuts than expected in the coming months.
Paul Ashworth, Capital Economics’ senior North America economist, predicted that the Fed’s decision will be “close run.”
“The labour market is clearly experiencing a marked slowdown,” he said, adding that the new statistics were “overall still consistent with an economy experiencing a soft landing rather than plummeting into recession”.
Concerns about the economy are a major issue in the US election.
According to polls, a majority of Americans feel the US is in a recession, despite healthy 2.5% growth last year.
Donald Trump has declared that the economy is headed for a “crash,” and his team instantly latched on the latest data to criticise Vice President Kamala Harris, publishing a press release titled “warning lights flash as Kamala’s economy continues to weaken.”
Democrats have defended their performance, claiming that the United States survived the pandemic and inflation better than many other countries.
They believe the slowdown is a sign that the economy is returning to a more sustainable rate of growth following the post-pandemic boom.
“Although hiring has slowed, the US job market continues to generate solid job gains and wage growth that is consistently beating inflation,” the White House Council of Economic Advisors stated in a blog.
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