World

FRANKFURT — German police were on Sunday probing an act of “sabotage” on the country’s rail infrastructure, with some officials pointing the finger at Russia in the wake of the Nord Stream pipeline explosions.

Important communications cables were cut at two sites on Saturday, forcing rail services in the north to be halted for three hours and causing travel chaos for thousands of passengers.

Rail operator Deutsche Bahn blamed the travel disruptions on “sabotage”, while Transport Minister Volker Wissing spoke of “a targeted and deliberate action”.

Germany’s top-selling daily Bild cited an internal document from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) as saying, in an early analysis of the incident, that an act of “state-ordered sabotage would be conceivable”.

The document pointed to the “widely separated crime scenes” where the cables were severed, in Herne in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin in the east, some 540 kilometres away.

The BKA also noted that the incident comes not long after last month’s undersea blasts on Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines between Germany and Russia.

The pipeline sabotage further raised tensions between Russia and the West, already sky-high over the Ukraine war, but Moscow denies any involvement in the blasts.

Anton Hofreiter, a Green Party lawmaker and chairman of the German parliament’s European affairs committee, said Russia could have been behind the train disruptions.

“To pull this off, you have to have very precise knowledge of the railway’s radio system. The question is whether we are dealing with sabotage by foreign powers,” Hofreiter told the Funke newspaper group.

Given that the Nord Stream leaks “pointed to the Kremlin”, “We can’t rule out that Russia could also be behind the attack on the rail services,” he said.

“Maybe both are warning shots because we support Ukraine.”

Police have said the investigation into Saturday’s incident is still wide open and they have not publicly mentioned any suspects. According to local media, authorities are also looking into whether far-left extremists could be to blame.

‘Hybrid threats’ 

With concern growing about the vulnerability of Germany’s critical infrastructure, Hofreiter called for 20 billion euros ($19 billion) to be invested in the coming years to boost security, including cyber security.

A senior German military official warned that further attacks were possible.

“Every power station, every energy transport pipe is a potential target,” Major General Carsten Breuer told Bild, speaking of growing “hybrid threats”.

Germany’s conservative opposition CDU Party also called for closer monitoring of key infrastructure.

“We must rethink the security architecture of Germany and the EU,” senior CDU lawmaker Thorsten Frei told the RND media group. “The modern age of hybrid warfare requires us to adapt,” he said.

BARCELONA — Catalonia found itself plunged into political uncertainty on Friday after the hardline JxCat Party decided to pull out of the separatist coalition running the wealthy northeastern region of Spain.

The decision to abandon the regional government came after a vote by party activists in which some 55 per cent said they wanted to leave, compared with 42 per cent who wanted to stay.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking on the sidelines of an EU summit in Prague, called for "stability" at such a "complex time" for Catalonia.

But the decision will not bring down the Catalan administration, at least not in the short term, with regional leader Pere Aragones saying he won't call early elections.

Instead, his left-wing ERC will govern with a minority.

"We will not abandon the citizens in complicated moments like this, that is why we must continue to govern," Aragones assured late Friday.

Aragones could seek the support from Sanchez's socialists in the Catalan parliament in order to pass key measures such as the regional budget.

The ERC “will absolutely need to seal an agreement with the socialists”, said Gabriel Colome, political science lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Sanchez on Friday said his party “will always reach out for dialogue... for the general interest of Catalonia”.

‘Failed government’ 

Since 2016, JxCat has served in various ruling coalitions with ERC, with this latest lineup taking shape in May 2021.

Although both parties are in favour of Catalonia gaining independence from Spain, they have been sharply at odds over how to achieve it.

JxCat is headed by former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont who played a key role in staging the October 2017 referendum banned by Madrid and the failed independence bid that followed, sparking Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

Puigdemont fled abroad to escape prosecution while others who stayed in Spain were arrested and tried. Nine were handed heavy jail terms by the Spanish courts but later pardoned.

The failed independence bid triggered a bitter rift between the two separatist parties that has never healed.

ERC backs a negotiated strategy via dialogue with Madrid, while JxCat prefers a confrontational approach on grounds that Spain has ruled out any new independence referendum.

Tensions between the two parties came to a head last week when JxCat threatened to call a vote of no confidence, prompting Aragones to sack his deputy Jordi Puignero, the hardline party’s top official in the Catalan government.

Laura Borras, speaker of the Catalan parliament and a JxCat MP, called Aragones’ administration “a failed government” more concerned with making agreements with the Spanish socialists than with reaching consensus within the regional coalition.

WASHINGTON — The US midterm elections were once seen as a likely landslide victory for Republicans, as President Joe Biden's approval ratings slumped amid spiraling inflation, record migrant arrivals and rising violent crime.

With a month to go, Democrats are banking on a much closer contest amid a series of legislative wins, improving gas prices and the nomination of a slate of Trumpist candidates who have been struggling in winnable seats.

The biennial midterms don't get the attention that presidential elections command, but they are crucial in determining which party has control of Congress — and the power to advance or frustrate the president's agenda.

Every seat in the House of Representatives — the lower chamber — is up for grabs, while a third of the Senate vies for reelection.

The evenly-divided 100-member upper chamber — controlled by Democrats thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote — is considered the more powerful and prestigious, with its statewide constituencies and six-year terms.

Senators have the unique authority to approve treaties, try officials impeached by the House and confirm Cabinet secretaries, ambassadors and federal judges.

At least eight of the 35 Senate races are considered competitive, but the battle for control of the chamber is likely to come down to four key states.

Recent polling suggests Democrat John Fetterman's commanding lead over Republican celebrity medic Mehmet Oz has all but evaporated, turning the race into a margin-of-error tussle.

The pair are duking it out for the seat held by a retiring Republican, in what remains Democrats' top target for flipping a seat.

Most September polls showed Fetterman with a narrow lead of between two and five points, down from an average of nine points in August.

Democrats have characterised Oz as an opportunistic New Jersey carpet-bagger with tenuous local ties and a penchant for gaffes that demonstrate he is out of touch.

Fetterman, meanwhile, faces scrutiny over his health following a stroke, and he has come under fire about his law enforcement record as lieutenant governor, when there was a significant increase in the number of people serving life sentences who were recommended for early release.

“John gave a second chance to those who deserve it: Nonviolent offenders, marijuana users... John Fetterman has the courage to do what’s right,” a police officer says in a recent ad from the Fetterman camp.

Wisconsin 

In Wisconsin, Republican Senator Ron Johnson struggled in summer but pulled ahead of Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in mid-September and is up by three points in an average of the last dozen polls.

The latest Fox News poll found that 44 per cent of Wisconsin voters think Barnes’s political positions are “too extreme” — against 43 per cent for Johnson.

Notably, Barnes’s figure was 14 points higher than a month earlier.

Like Fetterman, Barnes is a lieutenant governor who has been accused of being soft on crime, primarily because of his advocacy for making bail conditions less onerous.

“Under Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin has released 784 violent criminals back into our communities,” Johnson tweeted on Monday.

“Including 270 murders and attempted murderers. Mandela Barnes’ policies make our communities more dangerous. He is too extreme for Wisconsin.”

Nevada 

In Nevada, Republican challenger Adam Laxalt leads Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto by a narrow two points in the polling average compiled by RealClearPolitics.

Democratic strategists have sounded the alarm over turnout, with many Latinos threatening to sit out the election despite Cortez Masto being the first-ever Latina elected to the US Senate.

It’s what’s keeping me up at night,” Melissa Morales, president of the pro-Cortez Masto Somos PAC, told NBC.

“What I’m looking at is: Do Latinos actually turn out to vote this year? If we see high turnout, we win in Nevada.”

Laxalt, who lost a gubernatorial race in 2018, has argued that a floundering economy, rampant crime and sky-high inflation were dampening Latino enthusiasm for the Democrats.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee launched its latest Spanish language ad last week, again focusing on the Democratic candidate’s criminal justice record when she was the state’s attorney general.

“Catherine Cortez Masto’s track record of releasing convicted criminals, blocking funding to stop drug trafficking, and sending millions of dollars to criminals behind bars shows that her focus is not on the well-being of Nevada,” said NRSC Hispanic Press Secretary Juan Arias.

Georgia 

In Georgia, Republican challenger Herschel Walker was looking like the Republicans’ best bet for a pick-up against incumbent freshman Democrat and pastor Raphael Warnock.

Walker’s name recognition as a former football star has kept him in the race despite a series of missteps overshadowing his campaign, and he trails Warnock by four points in the latest Fox News poll.

Georgia’s electorate is more trenchantly partisan than in other battleground states, and the race has been about juicing turnout rather than winning swing voters.

Warnock has focused on cutting prescription drug charges, addressing climate change and helping restore abortion rights.

“Senate Republicans’ plan to ban abortion nationwide is on the ballot this November — and we are ensuring that it remains front and center for voters,” the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said.

Walker has focused on the economy and anti-abortion activism.

But the anti-abortion hardliner has been accused of paying for a girlfriend to terminate her pregnancy in 2009, and lying about the number of children he has and about having worked in law enforcement.

He has also faced allegations of domestic violence and criticism over policy gaffes.

SEOUL — North Korea on Saturday defended its recent flurry of missile tests as a legitimate counter to US military threats.

The reclusive communist country has conducted six sanctions-busting launches in less than two weeks, the latest coming on Thursday with the firing of a pair of ballistic missiles.

On Tuesday, it fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan, prompting an alert for people in affected areas underneath to take cover.

"The missile test launch by the DPRK is a regular and planned self-defensive step for defending the country's security and the regional peace from the US direct military threats that have lasted for more than half a century," North Korea's civil aviation agency said, without specifying which launch, according to state-run news agency KCNA.

The government agency issued the statement after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), holding its annual assembly in Montreal, on Friday condemned North Korea's missile tests of recent months and called them a danger to civil aviation.

The Korean agency said the ICAO’s resolution was “a political provocation of the US and its vassal forces aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK” — the initials of North Korea’s official name.

Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have ramped up joint military drills in recent weeks, and carried out more exercises Thursday involving a US Navy destroyer from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier’s strike group.

The launches are part of a record year of weapons tests by isolated North Korea, which leader Kim Jong-un has declared an “irreversible” nuclear power, effectively ending the possibility of de-nuclearisation talks.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on firms and individuals in Asia accused of helping Pyongyang procure fuel in violation of UN sanctions.

Washington also held a trilateral call with Tokyo and Seoul and the three agreed they would “continue to closely coordinate their near- and longer-term responses, including with allies and UN partners”, the US State Department said in a statement.

Pyongyang’s latest missile launches “pose a grave threat to regional peace and security”, it said.

North Korea on Saturday released a separate statement, saying it was “seriously approaching the extremely worrisome development of the present situation”, referring to the nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan being part of the US-South Korea military drills this week.

The joint exercises by Seoul and Washington have always infuriated the North as Pyongyang considers them rehearsals for invasion.

The drills are “extremely provocative and threatening”, KCNA said Saturday, and the recent involvement of the USS Ronald Reagan is “a sort of military bluffing” against Pyongyang’s “righteous reaction” to protect itself from US threats, it added.

Analysts say Pyongyang has seized the opportunity of stalemate at the United Nations to conduct ever more provocative weapons tests.

Officials in Seoul and Washington have been warning for months that Pyongyang will also conduct another nuclear test, likely after China’s Communist Party Congress later this month.

BERLIN — “Sabotage” targeting communications infrastructure was to blame for major disruption to the German railway network on Saturday, operator Deutsche Bahn said while the government said no motive had yet been identified.

“Cable sabotage” was the cause of the breakdown, which led to a three-hour suspension of train services throughout northern Germany, a spokesman for the company told AFP.

German Transport Minister Volker Wissing said essential cables “were deliberately and intentionally severed” in two places.

“It is clear that this was a targeted and deliberate action,” he added, saying the motive was not “yet known”.

He described the incident as “clearly premeditated”.

Specifically, there was damage to the GSM-R, a radio network used for communication on the railway, Der Spiegel reported, quoting security sources.

Any damage to the cable would require “certain knowledge” of the rail system, the Bild daily said, adding that federal police were investigating.

Traffic was completely interrupted for about three hours because of “a breakdown in the digital radio system for the trains”, before being restored, according to Deutsche Bahn.

Services were affected between Berlin and regions in the west and north of the country including Schleswig-Holstein, the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, as well as Lower Saxony and parts of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Protection of critical infrastructure 

The Berlin-Amsterdam route was also suspended, and thousands of travellers were stranded at stations across the affected regions.

Cancellations and delays were still expected on Saturday despite the restoration of rail services, Deutsche Bahn warned.

The attack comes just over two weeks after sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany.

The German government has also stepped up protection of its critical infrastructure.

Deutsche Bahn is regularly criticised for delays on its services.

At the beginning of September, the company said it would carry out massive improvement works, including replacing 137,000 concrete sleepers.

An independent report pointed the finger at “production faults” in the sleepers.

The derailment of a train in the Bavarian Alps in early June, which killed five people and injured more than 40, highlighted the poor state of German rail infrastructure, linked to years of under-investment.

The government has in recent months been encouraging car-loving Germans to take the train by offering cheap tickets.

KYIV — Ukraine said on Thursday it had recaptured swathes of fresh territory from Russian troops as Kyiv urged Europe to help its forces expel Moscow's army once and for all.

The proclaimed wins in the southern region of Kherson are the latest in a series of Russian defeats undermining the Kremlin's claim to have annexed around 20 per cent of Ukraine.

Russian missiles early on Thursday struck the central city of Zaporizhzhia, killing several civilians, as rescue workers clawed through rubble with their bare hands searching for survivors, AFP journalists saw.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine have liberated more than 400 square kilometres of the Kherson region since the beginning of October," southern army command spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said in a briefing online.

She said that the recaptured territory was home to nearly 30 towns and villages that had been occupied by Russian forces for months.

Kherson, a region with an estimated pre-war population of around one million people, was captured early and easily by Moscow's troops after their invasion launched February 24.

Russian-installed officials have renewed a call for residents to remain calm, with deputy pro-Moscow leader Kirill Stremousov saying Kremlin forces were holding back the advance.

Addressing a meeting in Prague of European heads of state, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western capitals to supply his army with more weapons “to punish the aggressor”.

He said Ukraine must fend off Moscow’s invasion “so that Russian tanks do not advance on Warsaw or again on Prague”.

‘Pure hatred’ 

The EU imposed its latest round of sanctions on Russia, expanding bans on trade and individuals over Moscow’s formal annexation last Friday of four Ukrainian regions.

On Thursday, seven Russian missiles struck downtown Zaporizhzhia just 40 kilometres from the artillery battles of the southern front.

A woman, whose body was carefully removed from the rubble by rescuers, looked as though she had been asleep in bed when the building around her was destroyed.

“For the first time in my life, I feel pure hatred,” said Igor Osolodko, a 25-year-old musician, one of dozens of volunteer rescuers.

“It’s absurd, it’s unreal. We need to rely on our army and cope with this terror until it’s all over, until we win,” he said.

Ukraine’s military has also said it is reclaiming territory in the eastern Lugansk and Donetsk regions, that have been partially controlled by Kremlin proxies since 2014.

Ukrainian forces have made gains on the west bank of the river Dnieper that cuts through Kherson, but the Russian military in a briefing said Thursday that its forces rebuffed “repeated attempts to break through our defences” in the area.

Further west, on Ukraine’s contact line with Russian forces from the Mykolaiv region — where Kyiv’s forces had been hunched in fox holes for months and pounded by Russian artillery — the mood was shifting along with frontlines.

‘End of the tunnel’ 

Bogdan, 29, from northwest Ukraine who re-enlisted in the military this year, has spent most of the summer holding the line in Mykolaiv some four kilometres from the Russians.

“We see their successes and it inspires us,” he said of Ukrainian wins elsewhere in the country.

“If some thought before that we weren’t moving fast enough, well now that’s not the case!”

“There is light at the end of the tunnel,” agreed commander Yaroslav, a sturdy 39-year-old man wearing a black cap.

The Ukrainian push deeper into Kherson is putting further strain on the Kremlin’s announcement last week that it had annexed the territory — alongside three others — and that its residents were would Russian “forever”.

The four territories — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — create a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

Together, the five regions make up around 20 per cent of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accused Russian forces of “deliberately striking civilians to sow fear”.

“Russian terror must be stopped — by force of weapons, sanctions and full isolation,” he said.

In Russia, opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza — jailed in April for denouncing the war — has been charged with high treason, his lawyer told the TASS news agency.

The UN nuclear agency chief was due in Kyiv to discuss creating a security zone around Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia atomic plant — the largest in Europe — after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government to impound it.