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Протягом дня на фронті зафіксували 50 бойових зіткнень
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«Внаслідок ударів, постраждало близько 300 квартир. Декілька будівель зруйновано. Значні ушкодження також отримав Палац спорту» – Кіпер
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LONDON — A British court ruled Tuesday that Julian Assange can’t be extradited to the United States on espionage charges unless U.S. authorities guarantee he won’t get the death penalty, giving the WikiLeaks founder a partial victory in his long legal battle over the site’s publication of classified American documents. 

Two High Court judges said they would grant Assange a new appeal unless U.S. authorities give further assurances within three weeks about what will happen to him. The ruling means the legal saga, which has dragged on for more than a decade, will continue — and Assange will remain inside London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison, where he has spent the last five years. 

Judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson said the U.S. must guarantee that Assange, who is Australian, “is afforded the same First Amendment protections as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty is not imposed.” 

The judges said that if the U.S. files new assurances, “we will give the parties an opportunity to make further submissions before we make a final decision on the application for leave to appeal.” The judges said a hearing will be held May 20 if the U.S. makes those submissions. 

Assange’s supporters say he is a journalist protected by the First Amendment who exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan that was in the public interest. They have argued that his prosecution is politically motivated and that he can’t get a fair trial in the U.S. 

Assange’s wife, Stella Assange, said the WikiLeaks founder “is being persecuted because he exposed the true cost of war in human lives.” 

“The Biden administration should not issue assurances. They should drop this shameful case, which should never have been brought,” she said outside the High Court in London. 

The ruling follows a two-day hearing in the High Court in February, where Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said American authorities were seeking to punish him for WikiLeaks’ “exposure of criminality on the part of the U.S. government on an unprecedented scale,” including torture and killings. 

The U.S. government said Assange’s actions went beyond journalism by soliciting, stealing and indiscriminately publishing classified government documents that endangered innocent lives. 

The judges rejected six of Assange’s nine grounds of appeal, including the allegation that his prosecution is political. They said that while Assange “acted out of political conviction … it does not follow however that the request for his extradition is made on account of his political views.” 

They accepted three grounds of appeal: the threat to Assange’s freedom of speech, Assange’s claim that he faces disadvantage because he is not a U.S. citizen, and the risk he could receive the death penalty. 

U.S. authorities have promised Assange would not receive capital punishment, but the judges said that “nothing in the existing assurance explicitly prevents the imposition of the death penalty.” 

Assange, 52, an Australian computer expert, has been indicted in the U.S. on charges over Wikileaks’ publication in 2010 of hundreds of thousands of classified documents. 

U.S. prosecutors say he conspired with U.S. army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer and release secret diplomatic cables and military files on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Assange faces 17 espionage counts and one charge of computer misuse. If convicted, his lawyers say, he could receive a prison term of up to 175 years, although American authorities have said any sentence is likely to be much lower. 

Assange’s wife and supporters say his physical and mental health have suffered during more than a decade of legal battles, including seven years in self-exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the last five years in prison. 

Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy. 

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested and imprisoned him for breaching bail in 2012. Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed. 

A U.K. district court judge rejected the U.S. extradition request in 2021 on the grounds that Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. Higher courts overturned that decision after getting assurances from the U.S. about his treatment. The British government signed an extradition order in June 2022. 
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BALTIMORE — A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after a large boat collided with it early Tuesday morning, and multiple vehicles fell into the water. Authorities were trying to rescue at least seven people.

A large vessel crashed into the bridge, catching on fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the Patapsco River, according to a video posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.

Mayor Brandon M. Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. posted that emergency personnel were responding and rescue efforts were underway.

Emergency responders were searching for at least seven people believed to be in the water, Kevin Cartwright, director of communications for the Baltimore Fire Department, told The Associated Press around 3 a.m.

He said agencies received 911 calls around 1:30 a.m. reporting a vessel traveling outbound from Baltimore that had struck a column on the bridge, causing it to collapse. Multiple vehicles were on the bridge at the time, including one the size of a tractor-trailer.

“Our focus right now is trying to rescue and recover these people,” Cartwright said. He said it’s too early to know how many people were affected but called the collapse a “developing mass casualty event.”

Cartwright said it appears there are “some cargo or retainers hanging from the bridge,” creating unsafe and unstable conditions, and that emergency responders are operating cautiously as a result.

“This is a dire emergency,” he said.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge opened in 1977.
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BOSTON — Families staying in overflow shelter sites in Massachusetts will soon have to document each month their efforts to find a path out of the overflow system, including looking for housing or a job, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced Monday. 

Beginning May 1, families will have to be recertified monthly to remain eligible to stay in the state-run overflow sites. 

They will need to show what steps they’ve taken to work toward independence, including applying for work authorization permits, participating in a workforce training program, submitting job applications, taking English classes or searching for housing, according to the administration. 

Healey said the requirement is critical as a means of accountability. 

“It’s important as we look to manage this responsibly,” she told reporters Monday. 

Healey acknowledged there could be good reasons why certain individuals are not able to fulfill the requirements, but warned those who aren’t putting in the effort could lose their place in line for the state’s shelter system. 

“If they don’t have a good reason for not fulfilling requirements then they will lose their spot,” she said. “The whole idea of this is to divert people from our emergency shelter system, to get them on a different path.” 

The policy does not apply to sites operated by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, a charitable organization. 

Immigrant advocates say they’re worried the new regulations will complicate the lives of homeless migrants who are already focused on leaving the shelter system. 

“We are deeply concerned that forcing families to reapply for emergency shelter each month will create unnecessary red tape, sow confusion, and ultimately, place more families on the street,” said Elizabeth Sweet of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. 

State and federal officials should instead focus on providing community service organizations the resources they need to support arrivals in pursuing work authorization, long-term housing and case management services, she said. 

Massachusetts has been grappling with the growing influx of homeless migrant families seeking shelter. 

The state’s Emergency Assistance family shelter system serves homeless families with children or pregnant women. Less than half of families in EA are new arrivals to Massachusetts, officials said. 

Last fall, the administration announced that the system could no longer safely or responsibly expand and set up a waiting list. Families who qualify for emergency shelter and are on the waiting list are eligible to stay at the state’s overflow or safety-net sites, currently providing shelter for about 200 families. 

The administration also announced Monday that it will be opening a new overflow shelter site next month in Chelsea at the former Chelsea Soldiers’ Home. The site is vacant and is eventually slated to be demolished. 

At full capacity, the Chelsea site will be able to accommodate approximately 100 families. 

The announcement comes after the Massachusetts Senate last week approved limits on how long homeless families can stay in emergency state shelters as part of an $850 million plan to fund the system at the center of the migrant crisis. 

Under the bill approved late Thursday by a vote of 32-8, the state would limit maximum stays to nine months with the possibility of 90 more days for veterans, pregnant women and people who are employed or enrolled in a job training program. 

Currently, there are no limits on the time a family can spend in emergency housing. 

A bill already passed by the House would provide funding covering the rest of the 2024 fiscal year that ends June 30 and part of 2025. The two bills are expected to go to a conference committee to hammer out a single compromise bill before it’s shipped to Democratic Governor Maura Healey’s desk for her signature.
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washington — U.S. lawmakers included in the $1.2 trillion package of spending bills an additional 12,000 Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghans who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and extended the program through the end of 2025. While advocates welcomed the news, they said it is still 20,000 short of what they requested.

President Joe Biden signed the much-awaited spending bills into law Saturday, hours after Congress approved them, avoiding the possibility of a partial government shutdown.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement agency, wrote in a statement that it is “encouraging” to see congressional bipartisanship.

“But it’s still deeply concerning that it took the Biden administration and Congress being on the brink of a government shutdown to take action.”

The SIV program is a congressionally authorized program with a limit of 38,500 SIVs available. It offers a path to permanent residence that can eventually lead to U.S. citizenship. The application process for SIVs, including decision-making and approval, takes an average of three years, while resettlement through the refugee program can take up to five years. Applications to either program begin outside the United States.

Representative Michael McCaul, a Republican and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the 12,000 extra SIVs is a “great response” to the promise of evacuating Afghans who worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan.

“Well, we promised them, we will get them out. The Afghan partners, the interpreters, we left them behind,” McCaul told the CBS news show “Face the Nation” in an interview broadcast Sunday. “And that’s the biggest sin of the Afghan evacuation. I think the 12,000 SIVs is a great response and a great start to that.”

The Biden administration and Senate Republican lawmakers had asked for 20,000 SIVs.

“These visas are essential to enable our wartime allies to receive the opportunity they earned to resettle in the United States, and will ensure the SIV program remains viable,” Shawn VanDiver, president of the U.S.-based NGO #AfghanEvac, wrote in a statement.

The United States and its allies left Afghanistan in August 2021 after nearly 20 years of war, evacuating nearly 130,000 people in the chaotic last weeks in Kabul. Through Operation Allies Welcome, about 88,500 Afghan nationals arrived in the U.S. and resettled in communities across the country.

VanDiver said there is still work to be done, including passing the remaining provisions in the Afghan Allies Protection Act (AAPA) of 2023 and the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow a pathway to permanent residency for tens of thousands of Afghans admitted to the U.S. in 2021 and 2022 for humanitarian reasons.

“While this won’t be enough visas to help all our Afghan allies, this gives us some breathing room and will show our partners in America’s longest war that we won’t leave them behind,” VanDiver wrote.

Vignarajah said if the remaining provisions of the AAPA and the Afghan Adjustment Act were in place, it would reduce the demand for Special Immigrant Visas from Afghan evacuees seeking long-term stability in this country.

“The additional Afghan visas are a welcome stopgap measure, but since the budget negotiations are already underway for fiscal year 2025, we call on Congress to continue working to secure protections for vulnerable Afghans who need to seek refuge in the U.S. so that they aren’t living in legal limbo,” she added.
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На Куп’янському та Херсонському напрямках російська армія, за зведенням, не вела наступальних дій
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london — The U.S. and British governments on Monday announced sanctions against a company and two people linked to the Chinese government over a string of malicious cyberactivity targeting the U.K.’s election watchdog and lawmakers in both countries.

Officials said those sanctioned are responsible for a hack that may have gained access to information on tens of millions of U.K. voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyberespionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about threats from China.

The Foreign Office said the hack of the election registers “has not had an impact on electoral processes, has not affected the rights or access to the democratic process of any individual, nor has it affected electoral registration.”

The Electoral Commission said in August that it identified a breach of its system in October 2022, though it added that “hostile actors” had first been able to access its servers in 2021.

At the time, the watchdog said the data included the names and addresses of registered voters. But it said that much of the information was already in the public domain.

In Washington, the Treasury Department said it sanctioned Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd., which it calls a Chinese Ministry of State Security front company that has “served as cover for multiple malicious cyberoperations.”

It named two Chinese nationals, Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, affiliated with the Wuhan company, for cyberoperations that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure sectors including defense, aerospace and energy.

The U.S. Justice Department charged Zhao, Ni, and five other hackers with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud. It said they were part of a 14-year long cyber operation “targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses and political officials.”

“Today’s announcements underscore the need to remain vigilant to cybersecurity threats and the potential for cyber-enabled foreign malign influence efforts, especially as we approach the 2024 election cycle,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said.

British authorities did not name the company or the two individuals. But they said the two sanctioned individuals were involved in the operations of the Chinese cyber group APT31 — an abbreviation for “advanced persistent threat.” The group is also known as Zirconium or Hurricane Panda.

APT31 has previously been accused of targeting U.S. presidential campaigns and the information systems of Finland’s parliament, among others.

British cybersecurity officials said that Chinese government-affiliated hackers “conducted reconnaissance activity” against British parliamentarians who were critical of Beijing in 2021. They said no parliamentary accounts were successfully compromised.

Three lawmakers, including former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, told reporters Monday they have been “subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time.” Duncan Smith said in one example, hackers impersonating him used fake email addresses to write to his contacts.

The politicians are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international pressure group focused on countering Beijing’s growing influence and calling out alleged rights abuses by the Chinese government.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said his government will summon China’s ambassador to account for its actions.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ahead of the announcement that countries should base their claims on evidence rather than “smear” others without factual basis.

“Cybersecurity issues should not be politicized,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. “We hope all parties will stop spreading false information, take a responsible attitude and work together to maintain peace and security in cyberspace.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated that China is “behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad” and is “the greatest state-based threat to our economic security.”

“It’s right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing,” he said, without providing details.

China critics including Duncan Smith have long called for Sunak to take a tougher stance on China and label the country a threat — rather than a “challenge” — to the U.K., but the government has refrained from using such critical language.
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«Оборона Часового Яру надзвичайно важлива, тому що ця ділянка фронту тримає увагу ворога саме там», каже солдат служби звʼязків з громадськістю
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«Сучасні системи ППО, надані нашими партнерами, врятували тисячі життів»
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За даними Служби, двоє жителів Херсона – чоловік і жінка – підтримали окупантів на початку повномасштабного вторгнення
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