Russian officials on Monday reported that a gunman killed nine people, including five children at a school in Russia before committing suicide.

The motive for the shooting in Izhevsk, capital of the Udmurtia region about 970 km (600 miles) east of Moscow, was unclear.

The Udmurtia branch of the interior ministry said the body of the gunman was discovered by police at the scene.

Read Also: U.S. in private talks with Russia over nuclear weapons threats

Russia’s Investigative Committee said the attacker had killed nine people before committing suicide.

The victims included five children, two teachers and two security guards, it said.

Russia has seen several school shootings in recent years.

In May 2021, a teenage gunman killed seven children and two adults in the city of Kazan.

In April 2022, an armed man killed two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the central Ulyanovsk region before committing suicide.

(Reuters/NAN)

Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss is braced for her first Cabinet row as she looks to unfold measures on Britain’s post-Brexit immigration system.

Just weeks after entering No 10 Downing Street, the new Conservative leader is tipped to expand the government’s shortage occupation list to help businesses attract overseas workers to fill vacancies.

EU immigration plummeted after Britain voted to leave the bloc in 2016. The open borders policy that comes with membership was cited as a concern among many voters who backed Brexit.

Ms Truss campaigned for the Remain side in the historic vote but has since had a change of view and said she would vote Leave if she had her time back. She is under pressure from industry bosses to help plug gaps in the labour market as businesses try to recover from staff leaving after Brexit and during the Covid-19 pandemic. Top figures in different sectors want more migrant workers to be granted visas to come to the UK as concerns increase about a lack of manpower.

Companies are frustrated that the visa system for skilled work has not been responsive enough to shortages they are experiencing.

Ms Truss is on a mission to boost economic growth and last week her government announced the biggest tax-cutting package since 1972 in an attempt to get things moving after two years of on-and-off Covid restrictions.

She is now planning to lift the current 40,000 cap on seasonal workers and extend it beyond the six-month limit, according to a report by The Sun. The seasonal workers programme, launched in 2019, temporarily allows tens of thousands of overseas workers into the UK for seasonal roles in the horticulture and poultry sectors.

Ms Truss is unapologetic about “focusing relentlessly on economic growth”, even if that means implementing unpopular policies.

But the prime minister is likely to come up against stiff resistance from Cabinet Brexiteers, including Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has been tasked with tackling the surging numbers of illegal migrants arriving in the UK.

Last week, the number of people who crossed the Channel from France on small boats since the start of the year reached 30,000, government figures showed, and the steady stream of vessels continued this weekend. In less than nine months the total exceeded the overall figures for 2021.

But, the leader of the UK’s main opposition party yesterday vowed to reverse a tax cut for top earners announced by the Conservative government as the nation heads for recession.

Read Also: UK-Africa ties: future looks gloomy under Liz Truss as political myopia reigns

Truss supports tax cuts as a way to stimulate economic growth and her government removed a top rate of 45 percent for the highest earners in a “mini-budget” announced Friday.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, speaking before the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, told the BBC that if his party won power, he would cancel the tax cut for those who earn over £150,000 (168,000 euros) per year.

Doubts over the tax-cutting budget prompted sterling to collapse to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985.

“I do not think the choice to have tax cuts for those that are earning hundreds of thousands of pounds is the right choice when the economy is struggling the way it is, working people are struggling the way they are,” Starmer said.

“It is hugely risky, it is hugely divisive, and I would reverse it,” he said, while backing the Tories’ slight cut in income tax for all earners.

Another prominent Labour politician, Andy Burnham, also harshly criticized the Conservative move as people struggle with soaring energy bills and inflation.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said the U.S. has had private, high-level talks with leaders in Moscow about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine

Sullivan explained that the Biden administration is trying to prevent a “rhetorical tit for tat” between the two countries.

“If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia. The United States will respond decisively,” Sullivan said in an interview with moderator Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Now, in private channels we have spelled out in greater detail exactly what that would mean, but we want to be able to have the credibility of speaking directly to senior leadership in Russia and laying out for them what the consequences would be without getting into a rhetorical tit for tat publicly,” Sullivan said. Putin last week threatened the use of nuclear weapons, further heightening growing concerns about their potential use in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Sullivan stated that the U.S. has been in contact with senior Russian officials “frequently” over the last few months, and as recently as in the last few days – despite worries since the start of the war that the U.S. was struggling to get in touch with Moscow.

Also yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin might not be bluffing in his latest threats of using nuclear weapons.

“Look, maybe yesterday it was bluff,” Zelensky said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” during an interview with moderator Margaret Brennan.

“Now, it could be a reality,” Zelensky continued.

“Let’s look, what is a contemporary use of nuclear weapons or nuclear blackmail? He targeted and occupied our nuclear power plant and the city of Enerhodar.”

After facing steep territorial losses from a Ukrainian counter-offensive, Putin in a nationwide address last Wednesday called up to 300,000 reservists to aid Russia, also threatening to use the country’s nuclear weapons.

“This is not a bluff,” Putin said. “And those who try to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the weathervane can turn and point towards them.”

When asked by Brennan if Europe can be stable if Putin remains in power, Zelensky said “no.”

Read Also: Israeli PM: we’re not obligated by Iran nuclear deal

“They started threatening us with nuclear weapons,” Zelensky said.

“Will the world depend on one country or one person? The world has to make a decision. We have made our decision. We will not depend on one person, who is not a citizen of our country.”

The Kremlin is also orchestrating referendums in four occupied regions to create a pretext for their annexation.

“Those people who don’t come to referendum, you know, Russians can turn off their electricity and won’t give them an opportunity to live a normal human life,” Zelensky said on CBS.

“They force people, they throw them in prisons. They force them to come to these pseudo-referenda.”

Zelensky also called Putin’s government “terrorists,” noting Russian shelling near Ukrainian nuclear plants as well as mass graves uncovered in recent days.

Afternoon Observer Everything you need to know about the day’s news in Charlotte, direct to your inbox Monday-Friday.

“He knows that he’s losing the war,” Zelensky said. “In the battlefield, Ukraine has seized the initiative. He cannot explain to his society why, and he is looking for answers to these questions.”

Although he couldn’t confirm exact numbers, Zelensky said “thousands” of children have been forced to go into Russia.

Zelensky characterised recent Russian aggression as amounting to genocide, referencing evidence of torture.

“These are horrible elements of genocide of the Ukrainian population, the tortures that I’ve mentioned,” Zelensky told Brennan. “Unfortunately, we have not de-occupied the full territory of Ukraine that has been occupied by Russia since Feb. 24. So, a lot of these tortures and other events are still ahead of us.”

U.S President, Joe Biden is due to address the 77th General Debate of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.

In a break with tradition, Biden’s appearance came on the second day of the high-level annual diplomatic event instead of the first, the delay was due to Biden’s attendance of Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral in London on Monday.

Other high-profile world leaders due to address the 193-member assembly on Wednesday include Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and British Prime Minister Liz Truss.

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky is also due to give a speech on Wednesday, though he would be speaking by video, after a motion allowing him to address the body remotely due to the war in Ukraine was approved by UN member states.

Read Also: Osinbajo, Biden, world leaders to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had overshadowed this year’s speeches so far as well as topping the agenda of many meetings on the event’s sidelines.

UN Secretary General, António Guterres and Brazilian, President Jair Bolsonaro were among those who gave speeches to the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Over 140 heads of state and government were expected to have attended the week-long event by the time it ended on Monday.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin is not attending, however but had sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to represent Moscow instead.

(dpa/NAN)

United States President Joe Biden has once again affirmed that the United States would militarily defend Taiwan from an invasion by China’s ruling communist party.

When asked during a 60 Minutes interview on CBS whether American forces would defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, Biden answered unambiguously.

“Yes, if, in fact, there was an unprecedented attack,” he said on the show, which aired on Sept. 18.

Asked to clarify whether he would commit U.S. troops to the defence of Taiwan, as opposed to the economic measures he has committed to Ukraine, Biden replied “yes.”

The interview was the fourth time Biden said the United States would defend Taiwan. However, it was the most explicit and may have caused frustration with the White House, which has continuously struggled to roll back the president’s comments on each such occasion.

Immediately after Biden’s comment, the program ran a voiceover saying that a White House official said after the interview that “U.S. policy has not changed,” and officially the United States will not say whether American forces would defend Taiwan.

The United States has historically maintained a policy of so-called strategic ambiguity on the issue of defending Taiwan. Under the policy, U.S. leadership typically will neither confirm nor deny whether the nation would protect Taiwan militarily.

On this occasion, a White House spokesperson also said U.S. policy toward Taiwan had not changed.

“The president has said this before, including in Tokyo earlier this year,” the spokesperson said. “He also made clear then that our Taiwan policy hasn’t changed. That remains true.”

Read Also: Why China can’t bully us, by Taiwanese trade envoy

The issue of whether the United States would defend Taiwan from invasion is a contentious one and is likely the most fraught in all of the issues facing Sino-American relations.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, claims that Taiwan is a rogue province that must be united with the mainland and has vowed to use military force to achieve that goal if necessary.

Taiwan has never been controlled by the CCP, however, and has been self-governing since 1949. Moreover, it maintains extensive trade ties with other countries, including the United States.

The United States maintains a “One China” policy, which formally recognises—but does not endorse—the CCP’s position on the matter.

The United States and China also maintain agreements that neither side will attempt to change the status quo by unilaterally pursuing Taiwanese unification or independence.

Biden’s recent remarks on the Taiwan issue drew a stark rebuke from China’s foreign ministry, which lambasted the comments as “seriously wrong.”

“We are willing to do our best to strive for peaceful reunification,” said the CCP’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. “At the same time, we will not tolerate any activities aimed at secession.”

Conversely, Taiwan’s foreign ministry expressed gratitude to Biden for reaffirming the “U.S. government’s rock-solid security commitment to Taiwan.”