While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Oct 10
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Russian forces now hold just under 20 per cent of Ukraine, in its east and south.
PHOTO: AFP
Zelensky sees ‘opportunity’ to end war in Ukraine by 2025
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct 9 that the current state of play on the battlefield had created an opportunity for steps to end Russia’s more than 2-1/2-year-old invasion no later than next year.
Addressing the third Ukraine-South East Europe summit in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv was counting on the support of its important allies including the United States.
“In October, November and December, we have a real chance to move the situation towards peace and long-term stability,” he said. “The situation on the battlefield creates an opportunity to make this choice - a choice in favour of decisive action to end the war no later than 2025.”
Biden, Netanyahu speak with focus on Israeli plans for retaliation against Iran
US President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Oct 9, Israeli officials said, for talks expected to include a discussion of Israeli plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran.
The call, under way late on Oct 9 morning US time, was the leaders’ first known chat since August and coincided with a sharp escalation of Israel’s conflict with both Iran and Iran-backed Hezbollah with no sign of an imminent ceasefire deal to end the conflict with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.
The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack last week that Teheran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon. The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.
Trump lauds India’s Modi as ‘total killer’
Republican White House candidate Donald Trump praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “total killer” Oct 9 as he discussed foreign leaders during a media blitz for the final stretch of the election campaign.
“He’s great. He’s a friend of mine,” Trump told a podcast with millions of subscribers hosted by stand-up comedian Andrew Schultz. “On the outside he looks like he’s your father. He’s the nicest. Total killer.”
Trump and Hindu-nationalist Modi enjoy warm relations and the former US president has a sizable following among right-wing groups in India, who see him as a kindred spirit aligned with their hostility towards Muslims.
FBI returns Nazi-looted Monet pastel to Jewish owners’ heirs 84 years later
In 1940, the Nazis seized a Claude Monet pastel and seven other works of art from Adalbert “Bela” and Hilda Parlagi, a Jewish couple forced to flee their Vienna home after Austria was annexed into Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
After the war, Bela Parlagi searched for his art to no avail until his death in 1981. His son continued the search without success until he died in 2012.
But on Oct 9, more than 80 years later, Parlagi’s granddaughters Helen Lowe and Francoise Parlagi were reunited with the missing Monet after the FBI and a Britain-based nonprofit located it in the United States.
Macron: Emily in Paris must return to... Paris
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would fight to ensure Emily - the heroine of Netflix’s hit series ‘Emily in Paris’ - returns to the French capital from her sojourn in Rome.
“We will fight hard. And we will ask them to remain in Paris! ‘Emily in Paris’ in Rome doesn’t make sense,” Macron told Variety magazine, in an interview published on Wednesday.
The fourth season of the series saw American expatriate Emily - played by actress Lily Collins - move from Paris to Rome for work.
