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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 21 July 2023

Russia’s Wagner mercenaries launch joint training with Belarusian military

MOSCOW (AP) — Merce- and a command post air-
naries from Russian mili- craft, killing at least 10 air-
tary company Wagner men.
launched joint drills with the Prigozhin ordered his troops
Belarusian military on Thurs- back to their camps after
day, almost a month after Belarusian President Al-
their short-lived rebellion exander Lukashenko bro-
against Moscow. Poland kered a deal to end the
built up troops on its border rebellion in exchange for
with Belarus in response to amnesty and permission to
the war games. relocate to Belarus for Pr-
The maneuvers followed a igozhin and his fighters.
pledge by Wagner chief Belaruski Hajun, a Belaru-
Yevgeny Prigozhin to help sian activist group that
protect Belarus from a po- monitors troops move-
tential incursion and to bol- ments in Belarus, said that
ster its military. The Belaru- nine convoys with more
sian Defense Ministry said than 2,000 Wagner merce-
the weeklong drills would naries already have rolled
take place at a firing range into the country.
near Brest, a city on the Pol- A Wagner commander
ish border. In this photo released by Belarus’ Defense Ministry on Thursday, July 20, 2023, Belarusian soldiers said in a statement posted
A video released Wednes- of the Special Operations Forces (SOF) and mercenary fighters from Wagner private military on a messaging app chan-
day appeared to show Pr- company pose for a photo while the weeklong maneuvers that will be conducted at a firing range nel linked to the company
igozhin for the first time since near the border city of Brest, Belarus. that about 10,000 Wagner
he led last month’s mutiny. Associated Press troops are set to deploy to
The recording shows him Belarus.
telling his troops that before eastern Ukraine. They also rights abuses in Africa. Brit- southern Russian city of Ros- Opposition leader Sviat-
deploying to Africa, they were sent to Syria and sev- ain previously sanctioned tov-on-Don and then drove lana Tsikhanouskaya, who
would spend some time in eral African countries since Prigozhin and several other as close as 200 kilometers was forced to leave Be-
Belarus providing training Prigozhin created the pri- Wagner commanders over (125 miles) to Moscow. larus after challenging Lu-
to help “make the Belaru- vate army in 2014. the group’s role in Russia’s The Wagner chief called kashenko in a 2020 election
sian army the second stron- The U.K. government on invasion of Ukraine. the mutiny a “march of that the opposition and
gest army in the world.” Thursday imposed asset During the revolt that be- justice” to oust Russia’s top the West denounced as
Before the abortive rebel- freezes and travel bans on gan on June 23 and ended military leaders. The mer- fraudulent, said that Wag-
lion led by Prigozhin, Wag- 13 Wagner mercenaries the next day, Prigozhin’s cenaries faced little resis- ner’s deployment would
ner mercenaries fought over alleged attacks on mercenaries captured the tance, and downed at destabilize the country and
alongside Russian troops in civilians and other human military headquarters in the least six military helicopters threaten its neighbors. q

Ex-Israeli security chief backs

reservists’ protest

officials deemed beyond ted to preserving his ruling Smotrich, a key Netanyahu
the pale. coalition of ultranationalist ally and ultranationalist set-
The bill, which will come and ultra-Orthodox parties, tler, tweeted that Argaman
up for a final vote in par- not the state itself, and said had “given himself over to
liament next week, is one he was “very worried that idiotic brainwashing.”
of several keystone pieces we’re on the verge of a The judicial overhaul plan,
of the Netanyahu govern- civil war.” which was announced
ment’s judicial overhaul “We need to stop this leg- shortly after Netanyahu
Israeli military reservists protest in front of the Defense Ministry plan, which seeks to curb islation by any means,” he took office as prime minister
against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s what he and his allies con- said, voicing support for re- following November’s par-
government to overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, sider excessive powers of servists who “are very con- liamentary elections Isra-
Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
Associated Press unelected judges. cerned and fearful for the el’s fifth in under four years
Critics of the plan say the security of the state of Is- has divided an already
By ILAN BEN ZION ultranationalist allies days legislation will concentrate rael.” For reservists, he said, highly polarized country
Associated Press before parliament was set power in the hands of Ne- “until now defending Israel and sparked months of sus-
JERUSALEM (AP) — The for- to vote on a key piece of tanyahu and his allies and was done on the battle- tained mass protests.
mer head of Israel’s inter- legislation. undermine the country’s field. From their perspec- Netanyahu froze the leg-
nal security agency voiced A parliamentary commit- system of checks and bal- tive, as of today, defend- islation in March following
support on Thursday for tee approved late Wednes- ance. Speaking to Army ing Israel means preserving weeks of demonstrations
military reservists refusing to day a bill that would curtail Radio on Thursday, Nadav Israeli democracy.” and mounting labor strikes,
serve in protest of the gov- the high court’s remit in us- Argaman, a former head of Argaman was appointed but rebooted the judicial
ernment’s planned judicial ing the “reasonability stan- the Shin Bet internal secu- head of the Shin Bet by overhaul in recent weeks
overhaul, drawing fierce dard,” a legal yardstick al- rity agency, leveled wither- Netanyahu in 2016 and after talks seeking compro-
criticism from Prime Minis- lowing judges to overturn ing criticism at Netanyahu, stepped down in 2021. mise with opposition law-
ter Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions made by elected saying he appears commit- Finance Minister Bezalel makers failed.q