Putin’s message focused on strengthening regional and global security. (File/AFP)
Moscow is ready to strengthen ties with the Arab League and all its members, President Vladimir Putin said in a message to the heads of state and heads of government of Arab League countries participating in the 31st summit.
Putin’s message focused on strengthening regional and global security, state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday.
“We believe that the military and political issues that the Middle East and North Africa are facing, including the Syrian and Libyan crises and the Yemeni and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, should be resolved based on universally recognized international laws,” the message from the Russian president said.
The statement called for respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.
Middle Eastern and North African countries are playing an increasing role in the process, Putin said.
“Undoubtedly, the tasks of improving the international situation and opposing the threats and challenges of our time increase the demand for coordinated collective efforts and significantly raise the importance of representative organizations such as the Arab League,” Putin said.
The partnership between Russia and Arab countries, Putin accreted, will ensure global peace and stability.
The 31st summit of the Arab League is set to kick off in the Algerian capital of Algiers on Tuesday.
The summit’s agenda includes regional issues, such as the situation in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the Palestine issue, as well as ways to ensure food security and strengthen relations between Arab nations
CC BY 2.0 / Marco Verch / Twitter logo on smartphone screen
Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, confirmed widespread rumors on Tuesday, announcing that Verified accounts will be charged $8 a month to retain their blue checkmark badges indicating their authenticity.
"Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bulls***," Musk tweeted. "Power to the people! Blue for $8/month," adding that the price would be adjusted by country according to their nation's purchasing power parity (PPP).
Musk also listed several other features that subscribers to the Blue service would get, including "priority in replies, mentions and search[es]," which he said is "essential to defeat spam/scam."
Subscribers will also get the ability to post "long video and audio", they would see only half as many ads as before, and would gain the ability to bypass paywalls with "publishers willing to work with us."
He added that this would "give Twitter a revenue stream to reward content creators."
Rumors have swirled that Musk was planning to charge Twitter users for their Verified status since he finalized the deal to buy the social media giant last week, although most claims estimated a far higher monthly fee.
Verification is used to identify the accounts of public figures such as politicians, celebrities, and journalists, as well as institutions and corporations, as being the authentic accounts of those entities.
The feature was first implemented in 2009 in response to a lawsuit over a fake account that Tony la Russa, then the manager of the Arizona Cardinals professional baseball team, said was being allowed to impersonate him.
Twitter paused the feature in 2017 after protests over it giving a blue check to Jason Kessler, a self-described leader of the “alt-right” who planned the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which drew thousands of neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and fascists of other stripes. That rally resulted in widespread violence, including a car ramming attack into a crowd by an attendee that killed a counter-demonstrator. Verification was later revived in late 2021.
Musk bought Twitter last week for $44 billion. He has pledged to combat spam bots and make the app financially solvent again, as well as to protect free speech on the platform. While he has said that former US President Donald Trump should not remain banned from Twitter forever, he has not announced plans to restore the former leader's account, either. Twitter deleted it in January 2021, claiming he was using it to promote violence after tweeting in support of the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
Pemandangan umum Shanghai Disney Resort di tengah wabah penyakit coronavirus (COVID-19), di Shanghai, Cina 31 Oktober 2022 dalam gambar ini diperoleh REUTERS
Beberapa penduduk Shanghai menerima perintah tinggal di rumah baru dan pemberitahuan pengujian wajib pada hari Selasa ketika pihak berwenang berlomba untuk melacak kontak yang terkait dengan seorang wanita positif COVID yang kunjungannya ke Disney Resort kota itu mendorong penguncian sementara.
Sementara itu, di kota Zhengzhou, China tengah, pabrikan iPhone Apple (AAPL.O) Foxconn (2317.TW) mengumumkan peningkatan besar dalam bonus untuk membendung eksodus pekerja yang terganggu oleh pembatasan virus corona di fasilitasnya yang luas di sana, sebagai angka nol pengetatan di China. Kebijakan COVID menuntut peningkatan jumlah korban di ekonomi No.2 dunia.
Meningkatnya kegelisahan di pusat komersial China di Shanghai datang ketika jumlah kasus lokal harian negara itu mencapai 2.719, angka kecil menurut standar global tetapi level tertinggi sejak 17 Agustus, mendorong kota-kota lain seperti Guangzhou dan Dandong untuk memperketat tindakan, meskipun Zhengzhou secara tak terduga menguranginya. semi-lockdown.
Shanghai Disney Resort pada hari Senin tiba-tiba menutup gerbangnya, mengunci semua pengunjung pada saat itu dan hanya mengizinkan mereka pergi, beberapa jam kemudian, setelah mereka dinyatakan negatif virus.
Beberapa penduduk kota mengatakan kepada Reuters bahwa mereka diberitahu pada hari Selasa bahwa mereka atau anak-anak mereka tidak dapat pergi bekerja atau sekolah jika mereka mengunjungi Disney sejak Kamis dan diperintahkan untuk mengikuti tes harian selama tiga hari ke depan.
Seseorang mengatakan dia diberitahu bahwa keluarganya mungkin harus menjalani karantina pusat.
Marvis He termasuk di antara pengunjung Disney yang terjebak dalam penguncian resor, setelah terbang dari Shenzhen dengan harapan dapat menikmati kembang api bertema Halloween di taman itu.
"Saya merasa kecewa, kami menunggu begitu lama di taman ... tetapi kami tidak melihat apa-apa dan baru keluar pada pukul 10 malam," katanya kepada Reuters saat meninggalkan resor.
"Kami juga kedinginan dan lapar," tambah temannya.
Pihak berwenang kota mengatakan resor ditutup setelah seorang wanita berusia 31 tahun, yang telah mengunjungi taman di antara tempat-tempat lain dalam beberapa hari terakhir, dinyatakan positif terkena virus.
MENJALANKANNYA SENDIRI
Sementara sebagian besar dunia sudah mulai terbuka, China telah bersumpah untuk tetap berpegang pada pendekatan tanpa toleransi terhadap COVID-19 dengan penguncian dan pengujian massal yang diberlakukan ketika bahkan satu kasus ditemukan.
Kebijakan tersebut telah menemui ketidakpuasan yang meningkat dari publik dan bisnis, dan disalahkan karena berkontribusi terhadap pertumbuhan yang lemah.
"Covid-zero mengubah kalkulus melakukan bisnis di China," kata Michael Hart, presiden Kamar Dagang Amerika di China di Beijing.
"Gangguan dari COVID-nol tampaknya menjadi perhatian nomor satu bagi anggota kami, dan nomor dua mungkin adalah ekonomi yang melambat, sebagian besar disebabkan oleh gangguan dari COVID-nol."
Nomura memperkirakan penguncian dan pembatasan di 28 kota pekan lalu, memengaruhi hampir 208 juta orang, atau 8,5% dari PDB China.
Foxconn telah menjadi salah satu nama perusahaan terbesar yang terkena dampak penguncian semu di Zhengzhou, pusat logistik utama di Cina tengah.
The company put its 200,000 workers at its plant in the city under closed-loop management on Oct. 13, triggering complaints from employees about food and their treatment and prompting many to leave.
In recent days, videos appearing to show departing Foxconn workers laden with luggage and walking along village roads towards their home towns have gone viral on Chinese social media.
Reuters tidak dapat memverifikasi rekaman tersebut secara independen tetapi para pekerja telah berbagi akun serupa dengan Reuters.
Sebuah sumber mengatakan kepada Reuters pada hari Senin bahwa produksi iPhone di pabrik tersebut dapat merosot sebanyak 30% bulan depan karena situasi tersebut. Foxconn pada hari Selasa mengumumkan akan melipatgandakan bonus harian untuk beberapa pekerja pabrik menjadi 400 yuan ($55) jika mereka terus bekerja di sana hingga November.
Zhengzhou secara tak terduga mencabut penguncian semu pada hampir 13 juta orangnya, bahkan ketika kasus baru yang ditularkan secara lokal meningkat lebih dari dua kali lipat pada hari Senin dari hari sebelumnya.
"Selama lebih dari 10 hari, kami telah bertahan dan berjuang bersama, memerangi penyakit, maju dan mundur bersama, dan bekerja keras bersama, dan akhirnya kami mengantarkan pemulihan skala besar kehidupan normal dan produksi di Zhengzhou," counter kota -tulisan Satgas Epidemi dalam surat online kepada warga.
Wabah saat ini di Zhengzhou, ibu kota provinsi Henan, berkobar setelah libur Hari Nasional 1-7 Oktober, mendorong pemerintah setempat untuk mulai memberlakukan penguncian di berbagai distrik.
Dalam survei Oktober baru-baru ini, 51 persen orang Swedia mengatakan bahwa mereka melihat masa depan yang gelap atau sangat gelap, sedangkan tinjauan baru oleh Institut Nasional Riset Ekonomi menunjukkan ekspektasi pesimistis rekor rumah tangga Swedia untuk dua belas bulan ke depan.
Keadaan ekonomi Swedia saat ini suram dan negara Nordik akan memasuki resesi tahun depan, menurut perkiraan pemerintah sendiri.
“Ekonomi Swedia sedang menuju musim dingin yang agak suram. Kami belum tahu seberapa dingin dan suramnya nanti”, Menteri Keuangan yang baru diangkat Elisabeth Svantesson dari Partai Moderat mengatakan, mempresentasikan ramalan tersebut.
Pemerintah memperkirakan Swedia memasuki resesi dengan PDB turun 0,4 persen tahun depan, ditambah dengan ekonomi yang lesu. Dalam prakiraannya, inflasi tahun depan tercatat mencapai 5,9 persen. Pengangguran juga diperkirakan akan meningkat dari level saat ini di 6,5 persen.
Mengingat hal ini, Svantesson mendesak kebijakan fiskal yang seimbang untuk dapat menurunkan inflasi yang tinggi dan menangani penurunan ekonomi secara keseluruhan.
“Menyingkirkan inflasi bukanlah tugas utama kebijakan fiskal, tetapi penting bagi kita untuk tidak memperburuk inflasi yang ada sekarang”, tegas Svantesson.
Svantesson memperingatkan bahwa banyak rekan senegaranya akan terus mengalami masa ekonomi yang sulit tahun depan. Pada saat yang sama, dia memperingatkan bahwa merangsang permintaan bukanlah pilihan dalam situasi saat ini, karena hal itu pasti akan memberi makan inflasi lebih lanjut.
Hanya dalam seminggu, pemerintah baru yang dipimpin Moderat akan menyajikan anggaran pertamanya, dinegosiasikan dengan Partai Demokrat Swedia yang konservatif, yang meskipun dinyatakan sebagai “pemenang” pemilihan tidak menerima jabatan menteri dan memilih keluar dari koalisi pemerintah, sebagai gantinya memberikan dukungan lahiriah. Svantesson mencirikan negosiasi sebagai nada "konstruktif".
Sementara itu dalam survei Oktober oleh lembaga survei Sifo, lebih dari separuh orang Swedia, 51 persen, menjawab bahwa mereka melihat masa depan yang gelap atau sangat gelap. Tujuh dari sepuluh orang Swedia khawatir bahwa banyak perusahaan Swedia akan memiliki masalah serius, sedangkan enam dari sepuluh khawatir pengangguran di masyarakat akan meningkat, dan dua dari tiga merasa khawatir bahwa pengeluaran rumah tangga mereka sendiri akan meningkat.
“Kami percaya bahwa itu karena sejumlah alasan yang berbeda, baik ekonomi, keamanan dan politik”, Toivo Sjörén dari Sifo mengatakan kepada media Swedia.
Depresi ekonomi yang menjulang memanifestasikan dirinya dalam sebuah laporan baru-baru ini oleh National Institute of Economic Research, yang menunjukkan ekspektasi pesimistis rekor oleh rumah tangga Swedia untuk dua belas bulan ke depan.
Saat ini, ekonomi Swedia sudah di bawah cuaca sebagai akibat dari sanksi Uni Eropa terhadap Rusia, yang meskipun dimaksudkan untuk "menghukum" Moskow untuk operasi khusus di Ukraina, hanya menambah krisis energi dan biaya hidup Eropa. Tingkat inflasi keseluruhan di Swedia mencapai rekor 9,7 persen pada bulan September, tingkat yang tidak terlihat dalam beberapa dekade, dengan beberapa bahan pokok bahkan mencapai kecepatan dua digit.
Swedbank, salah satu yang terbesar di negara itu, menggambarkan perkembangan ekonomi untuk rumah tangga sebagai "yang terburuk sejak tahun 90-an", dan kepala ekonomnya Mattias Persson bahkan membayangkan risiko "penghentian total dalam konsumsi" di tengah musim dingin yang "keras dan dingin".
Lebih dari separuh warga Jerman percaya bahwa Kanselir Olaf Scholz tidak memenuhi syarat, sebuah jajak pendapat yang dilakukan oleh Institut Jerman untuk Jawaban Sosial Baru (INSA) untuk surat kabar Bild menunjukkan pada hari Senin.
Menurut survei, yang dilakukan di antara 1.000 warga Jerman, 55% orang Jerman berpikir bahwa Scholz tidak melakukan pekerjaan dengan baik sebagai kanselir.
Dari jumlah tersebut, 24% berpikir bahwa Scholz gagal total, sementara 31 persen percaya bahwa rektor gagal dalam tugasnya saat ini, jajak pendapat menunjukkan, menambahkan bahwa 37% responden tidak setuju dengan klaim yang dirumuskan dalam jajak pendapat.
Jajak pendapat juga menemukan bahwa, jika mungkin untuk memilih langsung kepala pemerintahan sekarang, 27% akan memilih Scholz, 15% akan memilih pemimpin Uni Demokratik Kristen konservatif Jerman, Friedrich Merz, sementara 49% tidak akan memilih keduanya. dari dua calon.
Iran’s hard-line judiciary will hold public trials of about 1,000 people indicted over unrest in Tehran, a semi-official news agency said on Monday, intensifying efforts to crush weeks of protests ignited by Mahsa Amini’s death in police custody.
One of the boldest challenges to Iran’s clerical leaders since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the almost seven-week-old protests have continued despite a deadly crackdown and increasingly severe warnings, with the Revolutionary Guards bluntly telling demonstrators to stay off the streets.
In a video shared on social media, a woman said her 22-year-old son had been handed a death sentence two days ago in an initial court hearing and appealed for help. The widely followed Twitter account that shared the video, 1500tasvir, said he had been tried by the “rioters’ tribunal.”
Iranian leaders have called the protests a plot by enemies including the United States, vowing tough action against protesters they have described as “rioters.”
Protesters from all walks of life have taken part, with students and women playing a prominent role, waving and burning headscarves since the 22-year-old Amini died in the custody of morality police who arrested her for “inappropriate attire.”
The semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing Tehran’s chief justice, said the trials of about 1,000 people “who have carried out acts of sabotage in recent events, including assaulting or martyring security guards, (and) setting fire to public property,” would take place in a Revolutionary Court.
The trials had been scheduled for this week and would be held in public, it said.
It was not immediately clear if the 1,000 indictments announced on Monday included 315 protesters whom the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday had been charged in Tehran, at least five of whom are accused of capital offenses.
In the video shared on social media, the mother of 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou said he had been interrogated without the presence of a lawyer.
“My son is ill, court doesn’t even allow his lawyer to enter the courtroom...They have interrogated him without an attorney present and, in the very first session, sentenced him to death and wanting to execute this ASAP,” said the woman, who did not give her name.
Reuters could not independently verify her account.
There was no official comment on the case.
Stepping up warnings against the protesters, Revolutionary Guards commander Hossein Salami warned them on Saturday not to come to the streets, declaring it the “last day of the riots.”
Saeid Golkar of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga said the warning was a clear message the Islamic Republic saw the protests “as a very regime-threatening event.” Continued protests are a “sign that people are more determined to challenge the regime compared to the past,” he said.
“Unfortunately..., history has shown us they are willing to use any level of violence to stay in power.”
Meir Javedanfar, Iran Lecturer at Reichman University in Israel, said the official warnings pointed to growing state concern about the resilience of the unrest, “the fact that despite early predictions by some regime officials, these protests are not dying down.”
MORE PROTESTS
The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s elite military and security force, have yet to be used to quell the unrest. So far, the authorities have mostly drawn on riot police and volunteer Basij militia to crush the protests
The activist HRANA news agency said on Saturday 283 protesters had been killed in the unrest, including 44 minors. Some 34 members of the security forces were also killed.
Footage shared by 1500tasvir showed people running away from a commemoration in the city of Shahriar near Tehran for a man killed in protests 40 days ago, with a voice saying they were fleeing an attack by security forces. Earlier videos showed dozens of mourners at the gathering, shouting slogans calling for the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Reuters could not verify the footage.
The protests have been fueled by the deaths of several teenage girls reportedly killed while demonstrating.
On Monday, people chanted against the government during a gathering at the grave of a 16-year-old Kurdish girl killed by security forces in the city of Sanandaj, capital of Kurdistan province, according rights organization Hengaw.
Elon Musk speaks at the Satellite 2020 Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 2020.Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file
A violent attack on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband has sparked global headlines, drawing correlations with the January 6 riots and raising concerns about right-wing domestic extremism in the United States.
Police in San Francisco allege a 42-year-old man broke into the Pelosi family home and confronted Paul Pelosi, saying "where is Nancy?" before a struggle ensued over a hammer.
Mr Pelosi was hospitalised and underwent surgery for a fractured skull after the attack, which also left him with injuries to his arms.
High-profile Americans have condemned the attack, but Tesla founder Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, took a different approach in a now-deleted tweet.
What did the deleted tweet say?
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton had shared a tweet blaming the attack on hateful Republican rhetoric and linked to an LA Times story about how the suspect promoted far-right conspiracy theories online.
Musk responded to that tweet by saying "there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye", and linked to a Santa Monica Observer article making unfounded allegations about Mr Pelosi.
Fact-checkers have described the Santa Monica Observer as a purveyor of hoaxes, including a theory that Clinton herself had died and been replaced by a body double.
Elon Musk has deleted his tweet spreading an unfounded conspiracy about Pelosi’s husband. And his fans are now upset that he has “caved to the leftist mob” pic.twitter.com/jwq7mhZ1Z3
Musk's tweet prompted fresh concerns about how he will handle hate speech and misinformation on the social media platform, particularly ahead of next week's midterm elections in the US.
What was the reaction?
Some people have demanded Musk apologise for the tweet, but others have accused him of "caving to the leftist mob", among other things, by removing it.
Screenshots taken before the tweet was deleted showed that Musk's reply to Clinton had been liked and retweeted tens of thousands of times.
At time of publication of this article, the only acknowledgement Musk had made about the tweet — or the decision to delete it — was to post this dig at the New York Times:
Associate Professor Diana Bossio — from Swinburne University of Technology's department of media and communications — says the real reactions to this incident and to Musk's takeover of Twitter more broadly will be revealed in who decides to leave the platform and what they use instead.
"(It's) just classic trolling by someone who has something to gain by influencing US politics," Dr Bossio says.
"The question is: Who do we want controlling our public squares — and if these are spaces dictated by investors and owners, are they really for the public?
"I think a lot of Silicon Valley-style innovation culture has suggested that these platforms are 'for the people' and that platform creators can be trusted to work in the service of democratic ideals of free speech — but deals like Musk’s Twitter takeover show that this is not always the case."
Is this a sign of what's to come for moderation on Twitter?
Musk earlier announced a content moderation council with "widely diverse viewpoints" will be appointed, but that "no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes".
That update comes amid discussion about the possible reinstatement of former US president Donald Trump's Twitter account, which was permanently disabled after the Capitol riots.
To be super clear, we have not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies https://t.co/k4guTsXOIu
Dr Bossio — who is Swinburne's Social Media Research Group lead — says Musk's announcements get people talking, but there's still a lot of missing information about how things will look when his changes are made.
"I think Twitter actually does need to take more action, not less, on content moderation that fights hate speech and disinformation," she says.
"We've seen, just in the last 24 hours, troll accounts trying to test the limits of a Musk-run Twitter by flooding the platform with racial slurs.
"Twitter hasn’t changed its policies on hate speech and probably won’t, so I don’t think it’s going to immediately descend into the bin fire that some people are predicting.
"I think Musk might find it a little harder to balance his ideas of free speech with the increasingly regulatory environments being legislated by governments, and the rapid migration of younger users away from platforms like Facebook and Twitter."
What else has happened since Musk took over?
Musk immediately fired multiple top Twitter executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, as soon as his multi-billion-dollar acquisition of the social media company was complete.
That was four days ago.
On Sunday, local time, the "Chief Twit" said that the social media platform's "whole verification process is being revamped right now", but there has been limited detail about what could end up changing.
Technology newsletter Platformer has reported that Twitter is considering charging for verification (or blue ticks), meaning users would have to subscribe to Twitter Blue at $US4.99 a month or lose their "verified" badges if the project moves forward.
European Union and NATO countries have taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the Russian military operation there in February. But recent reports suggest the guests have outstayed their welcome in countries unready to host so many.
Europeans are increasingly tiring of their Ukrainian refugee guests — many in their own homes, as the conflict enters its ninth month.
Now Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's government has told them not to come back soon, for fear of overloading the electrical network crippled by Russian missile and drone strikes.
Nearly eight million Ukrainians have fled the country since February 24, most of them to European Union (EU) and NATO member states that support the Kiev regime's attacks on the people of the eastern Donbass region, which recently voted to join the Russian Federation.
But why is "the Europe of solidarity" turning its back on the nation that leaders wanted to welcome into its economic and military blocs?
Germany
German media reported over the weekend that some local authorities were being left to cope with the influx unaided.
The small eastern town of Cottbus, near the Polish border, has taken in around 1,500 of the roughly one million Ukrainian refugees in Germany. Some 500 of those are children for whom places must be found in local schools.
"The feds reimburse us for the upfront asylum costs, but not the running costs," said Stefanie Kaygusuz-Schurmann, the town's education and integration chief.
Germany allocates incoming refugees to its 16 federal states based on their populations and tax revenues as an indicator of wealth. Wealthy North Rhine-Westphalia in the west of Germany has a quota of 21 percent, compared to three percent for Brandenburg, where Cottbus is found.
But the town council has complained that the federal government 90 miles away in Berlin had failed to keep its promises of financial aid.
"Rich Germany can do everything," mayoral spokesman Jan Glossmann said. "But that money is not spread around evenly."
Earlier in October, Cottbus said it would accept no more arrivals until a more "equitable" settlement policy was put in place. Glossman said the town hall had heard "no official response" from either state or federal officials.
Meanwhile, one online initiative to promote solidarity with the refugees has drawn criticism for portraying them collectively as a wild pig dubbed My Friend Mykola — playing to ethnic Ukrainian stereotypes.
The British government has been one of the most enthusiastic for sanctions on Russia and arms to Ukraine, which have backfired on Western nations' economies.
It also encouraged citizens to take Ukrainian refugees into their home, offering them £350 a month to care for an individual or family — far less than they could get by renting a spare room to a lodger, and increasingly worthless thanks to 10 percent inflation and multiplying energy prises caused by the sanctions.
At the same time, the state is accommodating people trafficked by sea who then claim political asylum in hotels around the country.
Unsurprisingly, less than a quarter of Brits and just two out of the 650 MPs in Parliament were willing to take in a Ukrainian. British media reported that around 100,000 refugees welcomed into private homes are coming to the end of their six-month tenures with nowhere else to go
While repeating Kiev's claims against Russia uncritically, the British mainstream media could not resist reporting on the antics of some ungrateful guests from the east.
The most infamous was 22-year-old Sofiia Karkadym, who began a relationship with 30-year-old Yorkshireman Tony Garnett just days after she moved into his family home.
Garnett left his wife and two young daughters to move into a flat in Bradford with Karkadym, but their relationship soon turned toxic. Tony called the police on his birthday in September after Sofiia drank heavily and began rowing with him, stabbing the wall threateningly with a kitchen knife.
The blonde homewrecker complained to reporters she was left homeless and friendless in "disgusting" temporary accommodation police found for her in the West Yorkshire city.
That soap opera was not an isolated incident, however. In the leafy south-eastern county of Surrey, 52-year-old dotcom millionaire Haakon Overli, founder of payday loan website Wonga.com, left his wife and kids for 39-year-old Mariia Polonchuk.
The furtive lovers were photographed with Overli's family and local MP Jeremy Hunt — now imposing Ukraine conflict-driven austerity measures as chancellor of the exchequer, at a local village fete.
But perhaps most outrageous was the Ukrainian woman who reported her British host family to the police for modern-day slavery after they asked her to help with the washing-up.
Mental health specialist Hannah Debenham from Uckfield in East Sussex had to endure an hours-long interrogation at the local police station after the unnamed refugee woman in her 30s made the complaint, while her husband was grilled at their home.
Czech Republic
The Czech capital Prague has seen huge demonstrations against the sanctions on Russia that have sent household bills soaring. But as early as May this year there were signs — literally — of hostility towards Ukraine.
Shops began displaying notices reading: "No entry to Ukrainians" in the spring, following a string of alleged thefts and anti-social behaviour in the city.
Landlords also reportedly refused to rent to Ukrainians after incidents where they graffitied swastikas in apartments and trashed the rooms.
Refugees of the Roma ethnic minority — now openly persecuted with impunity by neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine — also found cold comfort in the Czech Republic and neighbouring Germany.
More than 500 were forced to live for weeks in a shelter at Prague's central railway station meant to house just 250 overnight. Others who tried to move on to Germany were prevented from getting off their train by police at Dresden station and sent back.
Other East European countries are also unhappy with the influx. Poland, which has accepted well over a million refugees from its eastern neighbour, has received just €144 million in aid from the European Union in return. Warsaw has demanded billions in compensation from Brussels.
Bulgaria to the south had taken in nearly 300,000 Ukrainians by the early summer, putting them up in resorts along its popular Black Sea coast. But in May, the government said they would have to move on to make way for paying tourists.
Belgium
Andre Maton, a social worker in the Belgian city of Charleroi, told Sputnik that families there were "exhausted" from the strain of looking after refugee families.
The government pays benefits of €1,300 a month to each adult Ukrainian refugee, plus €300 for each of their children. They are offered a standard agreement to sign saying they will pay 20 percent of that to their host family — but that has stirred resentment.
"It is often more than what the host family has to live on. And tensions arise when the refugees refuse to give up some of the money they receive for the costs they incur," Maton said. "Some hosting families consider it abnormal that refugees 'make savings on their backs.'"
Some families who agreed to host a mother and two children found themselves looking after three adults, the social worker said. Meanwhile inflation was outstripping the meagre compensation they received, while the language barrier prevented refugees from finding work to support themselves
Ireland
An internal government memo leaked in May expressed fears that the influx of refugees would threaten "social cohesion" in the republic of five million inhabitants, which was already suffering from an acute housing shortage before the conflict.
It reportedly raised concerns about the impact on public services, transport, travel, and the Irish tourism industry.
Officials said supporting refugees would impact the “wider population,” highlighting “the unsustainability of that very model of humanitarian response, additional budgetary pressures, and increased demand for public services” — of which some already have “unmet demand.”
Government projections were based on an assumption of 250 arrivals per day, while the true figure was an average 335 per day by late May.
Irish media called the document the “first evidence of concerns at the highest levels of government about the impact of this crisis on communities across the country.”
