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The Guardian;Barnier fights to form French government amid no-confidence threats;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/barnier-fights-to-form-french-government-amid-no-confidence-threats;2024-09-16T15:37:11Z

The new French prime minister, Michel Barnier, has continued negotiations with potential ministers as he struggles to form a government to end the country’s political deadlock. The veteran politician and former EU Brexit negotiator, appointed by the president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier this month, had promised to form a new administration this week after “listening to everybody”. However, with threats from the far right and hard left to call a vote of no confidence in any ministerial team that fails to meet their approval, sources close to Barnier say he is unlikely to put names to posts until the end of next weekend. Vincent Jeanbrun, a spokesperson for the centre-right Republicans party (LR), which Barnier represents, said the PM had “a complex equation to solve” and he did not expect an announcement before then. Barnier has promised to seek ministers from across the political spectrum, but leftwing candidates have been reluctant, while the far-right National Rally (RN) is seen as a behind-the-scenes arbiter. Macron’s decision in June to call a snap general election left the national assembly with three roughly equal political blocs – left, centre and far right – none of which has an absolute majority. A leftwing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), won the most seats, followed by the centrist alliance that includes Macron’s Renaissance party and the centre-right LR – but the RN emerged the most powerful single political party. It is now in a position to make or break any government unless the NFP and centrists ally to oppose it. Christian Le Bart, a political scientist at the Institute of Political Studies at Rennes, said Barnier was “stuck”, particularly as the LR’s group had won only 47 of the 577 seats in the national assembly. “If he reappoints a significant number of [centrist] ministers, people will rightly complain that the executive has not heard the message. And if he swings too far towards the Republicans, everyone will take offence at the fact that a political family with 47 MPs is over-represented in the government,” Le Bart told the newspaper La Dépêche. Marine Le Pen’s far right is banking on a new general election being called next year. Macron cannot dissolve parliament and call another general election until 12 months after the last dissolution. At the weekend, Le Pen told RN leaders she hoped Barnier’s tenure as head of the government would be “as short as possible”. “We find ourselves in a situation where the party that got the least votes is in charge of forming a government. It cannot hold,” she said. On Monday, the RN president, Jordan Bardella, who has said “nothing can be done without the RN”, warned the new premier not to continue with a Macronist programme. He threatened a censure motion against any new government that “recycled” Macron’s interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, or justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti – both on the centre-right of the previous government. “If Michel Barnier continues with the programme driven by Emmanuel Macron since seven years, which was severely defeated in the European and legislative election ballot boxes … then the government will fall,” he told RTL radio. “If Mr Barnier echoes the hopes expressed by millions of French people, then we’ll vote for the bills on a case-by-case basis.” Fabien Roussel, the national secretary of the French Communist party, one of four leftwing parties that make up the NFP, also warned Barnier it was ready to use a censure motion and called on the new PM to repeal the contested pension law that raised the official retirement age from 62 to 64. “He [Barnier] is a veteran of 50 years of rightwing politics … The censure motion is on the table. It’s ready, we’re working on it,” Roussel said. Le Bart believes the only possibility of Barnier escaping censure is a reluctance among opposition parties to leave the country without a government. “They would not want to add disorder to disorder,” he said. A poll by Ipsos published at the weekend suggested 64% of French people believed Macron had ignored the result of the election. Among those who voted for the NFP, that figure rose to 91%. Only one-third of those polled approved of his choice of Barnier as PM. The next parliamentary session will begin on 1 October. One of the government’s first acts will be to draw up and present the 2025 budget.

The Guardian;Israel-Gaza war: new generations being recruited as conflict continues, senior Hamas official says – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/16/israel-gaza-war-hamas-houthis-netanyahu;2024-09-16T15:00:06Z

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed on Monday that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground. The US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthis’ claimed downing of a drone over the country’s southwestern Dhamar province, AP reported. The Houthis have exaggerated claims in the past in their ongoing campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Al Jazeera is reporting that “according to medical sources” who have spoken to the network, the number of people killed by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn is now 21. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and the government has moved to revoke the accreditation of all Al Jazeera journalists living there. Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians and wounded 95,413 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday. A senior Hamas official has told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters have been recruited since the 7 October attacks, less than a week after Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told journalists that Hamas, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza. Osama Hamdan claimed during an interview in Istanbul that the militant group “has a high ability to continue”. “There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.” Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian claimed in a televised news conference on Monday, according to a report from Reuters. On Sunday the Houthis claimed that they had, for the first time, fired an advanced surface-to-surface hypersonic missile towards Israel, which hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them they would pay a “heavy price”. Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month. The campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on 1 September, presented major challenges to Unrwa and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. Gallant’s remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months, Reuters reports. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile programme as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran’s arch-foe Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day”. The Islamic Republic has for years defied western calls to limit its missile programme. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed publicly on Tuesday that three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’ northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed Ghandour, in November. According to reports from Hebrew media, families of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nik Beizer, both 19, and civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed by IDF officials that their loved ones had tragically lost their lives as a result of IDF actions after a comprehensive inquiry. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday. It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. The archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is understood to be considering a visit to Israel after being warned Bethlehem risks becoming a “new Gaza” cut off from the world if extremist Israeli settlers are given their way. The warning was given to the archbishop by Munther Isaac, a Luthern Pastor based in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. That’s all from the Israel-Gaza war live blog for today. Thanks for following along. In Britain, the Labour leadership is facing a challenge at its party conference to extend its current limited arms embargo to Israel to cover all arms export licences and to go faster in recognition of Palestine as a state. Campaigners say they intend to advance an emergency motion similar to one passed unanimously at the TUC last week, calling on the government not just to impose an embargo on 30 arms export licences, but all current licences. They are confident they will receive the votes at conference for the issue to be chosen for debate. The UK government on 3 September, after two months intense internal discussion, suspended 30 of the 350 arms export licences to Israel but the decision has left both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups disssatisfied. The Palestinian ambassador to the UK Husan Zumlot has been working the union conference circuit hard this spring and summer building support, and Labour is also aware that it remains under electoral challenge in some of its strongholds from the Green party and independents in local elections. Both the Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and the Middle East minister Hamish Falconer are due to speak at a Palestinian reception on Monday evening alongside Zumlot. In a 20-minute address to the TUC, Zumlot said it would be unconscionable if the UK continued to sell arms to Israel. The archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is understood to be considering a visit to Israel after being warned Bethlehem risks becoming a “new Gaza” cut off from the world if extremist Israeli settlers are given their way. The warning was given to the archbishop by Munther Isaac, a Luthern Pastor based in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. He told the Guardian: All it takes for Israel is to close two checkpoints and then Bethlehem becomes another Gaza in terms of isolated from the rest of the world. There are new checkpoints, and new gates around towns and cities. Roads are still blocked. We are becoming more isolated and fearful Pointing to the announcement by the Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, of a new settlement to be built in the Al-Mahrur Valley on land that will be seized from Palestinians, Isaac said the confiscation of one of the last Christian villages in the region would further increase Bethlehem’s isolation. He said: I would think three or four times before thinking of going to Ramallah or Nablus, out of fear of not just closures, but really the violence of the settlers these days. The settlers can do whatever they want and never be held accountable, not just in terms of land confiscation, but in terms of violence. After the meeting, the archbishop called for the a ceasefire, saying: “I cry out to God for the war in Gaza to stop. How many more stories of families, homes and communities destroyed must we hear before this senseless killing ceases.” Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Tehran would never give up on its missile programme as it needs such deterrence for its security in a region where Iran’s arch-foe Israel is able to “drop missiles on Gaza every day”. The Islamic Republic has for years defied western calls to limit its missile programme. The United States and its allies have more recently accused Iran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia for its war in Ukraine, imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow and Tehran. Both countries have denied the claims, Reuters reported. At least 16 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across central Gaza on Sunday night and Monday morning, including five women and four children, Palestinian health officials have said. Rescuers said an airstrike early on Monday destroyed a residential building in the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp in the heart of central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children. The al-Awda hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the deaths and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records quoted by local media show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings. In a separate strike targeting a building in Gaza City, six individuals lost their lives. A woman and two children were among the dead, according to the civil defence, a team of emergency responders working under the governance of Hamas. In a message on its official Telegram channel. Israel’s military has claimed its air force “struck Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites in the area of Houla in southern Lebanon.” It said that earlier in Upper Galilee “a number of projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Some of the projectiles were intercepted and the rest fell in open areas. No injuries were reported.” The claims have not been independently verified. Tehran has not sent hypersonic missiles to Yemen’s Houthis, Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian claimed in a televised news conference on Monday, according to a report from Reuters. On Sunday the Houthis claimed that they had, for the first time, fired an advanced surface-to-surface hypersonic missile towards Israel, which hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them they would pay a “heavy price”. Al Jazeera is reporting that “according to medical sources” who have spoken to the network, the number of people killed by Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since dawn is now 21. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel, and the government has moved to revoke the accreditation of all Al Jazeera journalists living there. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Monday that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground. The US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthis’ claimed downing of a drone over the country’s southwestern Dhamar province, AP reported. The Houthis have exaggerated claims in the past in their ongoing campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including five women and four children. A strike early on Monday flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving a total of 10 people dead. Four of the deceased were women and two were children, AP reported. Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians and wounded 95,413 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday. A senior Hamas official has told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters have been recruited since the 7 October attacks, less than a week after Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told journalists that Hamas, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza. Osama Hamdan claimed during an interview in Istanbul that the militant group “has a high ability to continue”. “There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.” Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month. The campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on 1 September, presented major challenges to Unrwa and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. Gallant’s remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months, Reuters reports. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed publicly on Tuesday that three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’ northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed Ghandour, in November. According to reports from Hebrew media, families of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nik Beizer, both 19, and civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed by IDF officials that their loved ones had tragically lost their lives as a result of IDF actions after a comprehensive inquiry. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday. It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90%, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Monday, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month. The campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza under 10 years of age against polio, which began on 1 September, presented major challenges to Unrwa and its partners due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, Reuters reported. It followed confirmation by the World Health Organization (WHO) last month that a baby had been partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Palestinian territory in 25 years. More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated earlier this month before a campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza began on 10 September despite access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel. The first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended successfully, Unrwa’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said, adding that 90% of the territory’s children had received a first dose. “Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required “humanitarian pauses” showing that when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption. Our next challenge is to provide children with their second dose at the end of September,” he wrote on X. Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told US defence secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday that the window was closing for a diplomatic solution to the standoff with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon. Gallant’s remarks came as the White House Special envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to discuss the crisis on the northern border where Israeli troops have been exchanging missile fire with Hezbollah forces for months, Reuters reports. “The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out,” Gallant told Austin in a phone call, according to a statement from his office. As long as Hezbollah continued to tie itself to the Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been engaged for almost a year, “the trajectory is clear,” he said. The visit by Hochstein, who is due to meet Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, comes amid efforts to find a diplomatic path out of the crisis, which has forced tens of thousands on both sides of the border to leave their homes. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed Monday that they shot down another American-made MQ-9 Reaper drone, with video circulating online showing what appeared to be a surface-to-air missile strike and flaming wreckage strewn across the ground. The US military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Houthis’ claimed downing of a drone over the country’s southwestern Dhamar province, AP reported. The Houthis have exaggerated claims in the past in their ongoing campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. However, the online video bolstered the claim, particularly after two recent claims by the Houthis included no evidence. Other videos showed armed rebels gathered around the flaming wreckage, a propeller similar to those used by the armed drone visible in the flames. One attempted to pick up a piece of the metal before dropping it due to the heat. AP’s report continued: Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, identified the drone as an MQ-9, without elaborating on how he came to the determination. He said it was the third downed by the group in a week, though the other two claims did not include similar video or other evidence. The US military similarly has not acknowledged losing any aircraft. Saree said the Houthis used a locally produced missile. However, Iran has armed the rebels with a surface-to-air missile known as the 358 for years. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in seaborne shipments heading to Yemen despite a United Nations arms embargo. Reapers, which cost around $30m apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA over Yemen for years. Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians and wounded 95,413 since 7 October, the Palestinian health ministry said on Monday. In case you missed it, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels will pay a “heavy price” after the group claimed its first ballistic missile strike on Israel and its leader warned of bigger attacks to come. The missile – claimed by the Houthis as an advanced surface-to-surface hypersonic missile – triggered air sirens across the country at about 6.30am, and local media aired footage of people racing to shelters at Ben Gurion international airport south-east of Tel Aviv. According to reports, it hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military is investigating whether the fire was the result of falling fragments caused by the interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if it successfully penetrated Israeli air defences as the Houthis have claimed. Yemen’s Houthis downed a US MQ-9 drone in Dhamar province, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said on Monday. Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 people in the Gaza Strip, including five women and four children. A strike early on Monday flattened a home in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, leaving a total of 10 people dead. Four of the deceased were women and two were children, AP reported. Gaza medical facility Awda hospital received the bodies, confirmed the death toll, and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records show the deceased include a mother, her child, and her five siblings. Another strike on a home in Gaza City killed a further six people which included a woman and two children, as per Hamas-run first responders Civil Defence. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. Welcome to our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Tom Ambrose. A senior Hamas official has told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters have been recruited since the 7 October attacks, less than a week after Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant told journalists that Hamas, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza. Osama Hamdan claimed during an interview in Istanbul that the militant group “has a high ability to continue”. “There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.” Last week, Gallant said Hamas’s military capabilities had been severely damaged after more than 11 months of war. At least 41,206 Palestinians have been killed and 95,337 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. The war was triggered by Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 hostages taken. Hamdan also said Sunday’s first ballistic missile strike on Israel by Yemen’s Houthi rebels showed the limits of Israel’s ability to defend itself, including its oft-touted aerial defence system. “It is a message to the entire region that Israel is not an immune entity,” Hamdan said. “Even Israeli capabilities have limits.” The Israeli military is investigating whether the fire near Kfar Daniel, in central Israel, was the result of falling fragments caused by interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if it successfully penetrated Israeli air defences, as the Houthis have claimed. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday: “This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us.” Here is a summary of the latest developments: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed publicly on Tuesday that three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’ northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed Ghandour, in November. According to reports from Hebrew media, families of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nik Beizer, both 19, and civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed by IDF officials that their loved ones had tragically lost their lives as a result of IDF actions after a comprehensive inquiry. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday. It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children.

The Guardian;Europe floods: death toll rises – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/16/europe-floods-death-toll-storm-boris-poland-austria-romania-slovakia;2024-09-16T14:15:59Z

The death toll in Central Europe rose to at least 15 due to heavy rain and flooding over the past days. While water was receding in some areas, others were shoring up defences. Poland introduced a 30-day “state of natural disaster”. Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said that “in difficult times, we are grateful for the friendship and solidarity of our neighbours and friends.” The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has said that the country set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260.31 million) to help victims of floods. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, said that the situation is difficult. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán said he was postponing “all my international obligations” due to the floods. Factories in the region shuttered production lines. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said that “we need a united and decisive European response to adapt to the escalating challenges of the climate crisis.” Climate scientists said they are troubled by the damage but unsurprised by the intensity. “The catastrophic rainfall hitting central Europe is exactly what scientists expect with climate change,” said Joyce Kimutai, of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute. Meanwhile, the EU is mobilising firefighting planes to help Portugal battle wildfires. Picturesque towns across central Europe are inundated by dirty flood water after heavy weekend rains turned tranquil streams into raging rivers that wreaked havoc on infrastructure. The floods have killed at least 15 people and destroyed buildings from Austria to Romania. The destruction comes after devastating floods around the world last week when entire villages were submerged in Myanmar and nearly 300 prisoners escape a collapsed jail in Nigeria, where floods have affected more than 1 million people. Climate scientists say they are troubled by the damage but unsurprised by the intensity. “The catastrophic rainfall hitting central Europe is exactly what scientists expect with climate change,” said Joyce Kimutai, of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute. She said the death and damage across Africa and Europe highlighted “how poorly prepared the world is for such floods”. Read the full story here. The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said “we need a united and decisive European response to adapt to the escalating challenges of the climate crisis.” Austria’s Karl Nehammer said “in difficult times, we are grateful for the friendship and solidarity of our neighbours and friends.” “Bavaria, Slovenia, South Tyrol, The Netherlands, Liechtenstein and Ukraine have offered help in the fight against the consequences of the floods in Austria. Thank you very much, you are true friends!” he added. While water was receding in some areas, others were shoring up defences for floods heading their way. The Topola reservoir in southern Poland had overflowed and water was gushing towards the village of Kozielno. Local authorities said residents of several nearby towns and villages would be evacuated. In Wroclaw, in the south-western region of Silesia, the mayor Jacek Sutryk said the city of 600,000 people was preparing for water levels peaking on Wednesday. Slovakia’s capital Bratislava and the Hungarian capital Budapest were both preparing for possible flooding as the River Danube rose. Hungarian interior minister Sandor Pinter said efforts were focused on keeping the river and its tributaries within their banks and said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help. In Austria, the levels of rivers and reservoirs fell overnight as rain eased but officials said they were bracing for a second wave as heavier rain was expected. Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said a disaster fund is available to handle damage. 300 million euros can be accessed immediately, and if more is needed, the fund will be increased, he said. Hungarian opposition politician Péter Magyar said national unity is needed as the country braces for flooding, writing that Viktor Orbán, the prime minister, made the right call to cancel his planned travel to the European parliament. Here’s more footage from the region. The Green group in the European parliament said “these floods show that more than ever our fight against climate change is a common social and economic challenge we must tackle together.” Poland is introducing a 30-day “state of natural disaster”. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, has provided an update on the situation in his country, writing that the situation is difficult. The most problematic situation is now in southern Bohemia, he said. Ostrava residents have been asked not to go to the city. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has said that the country set aside 1 billion zlotys ($260.31 million) to help victims of floods, Reuters reported. Here are the latest images from the region. Germany’s Olaf Scholz said his country is ready to help European neighbours impacted by the floors. He also said water levels are rising in Germany and the situation is being closely monitored. The death toll in central Europe has risen as more rivers burst their banks. Six people have died in Romania. Five have reportedly died in Poland. A total of three people have died in Austria: one firefighter died over the weekend and two people were found drowned in their homes, Reuters reported. One person has died in the Czech Republic. The floods in Europe are just one of a number of extreme weather events around the world in the last few days. Floods have also been devastating western and central Africa, with hundreds estimated to have died. Meanwhile in Southeast Asia Typhoon Yagi has been causing havoc, with at least 300,000 people displaced in Myanmar following heavy rains. Although these specific events cannot be definitively attributed to climate change, it’s well established now that extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result, but is also affected by human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use. Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather across the world, driving more frequent and more deadly disasters from heatwaves to floods to wildfires. At least a dozen of the most serious events of the last decade would have been all but impossible without human-caused global heating. Watch footage from Central Europe, which has been hit with torrential rain and flooding. Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who was scheduled to speak at the European parliament this week, said he is postponing “all my international obligations” due to the ongoing floods. Two more people died in Austria, the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said. Factories and stores across central Europe shuttered production lines and closed their doors today due to flooding, Reuters reported. Late yesterday, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, reiterated his call for people to follow instructions from mayors and emergency services. Karl Nehammer, the Austrian chancellor, has said that the Austrian armed forces have been deployed in storm-hit regions and that 2,400 soldiers are on standby to help fill sandbags, evacuate people or do clean-up work. Here are some images of the flooding in Poland. The Hungarian defence forces are deploying equipment to support flood protection efforts. Czech police has said that one person died and seven are missing amid flooding, AFP reported. The death toll rose in central Europe over the weekend after severe flooding impacted the region, the Associated Press reported. Six people died in Romania, one person in Austria and one person in Poland, while police in the Czech Republic said four people were missing.

The Guardian;At least 16 people killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/israeli-airstrikes-gaza-houthis-netanyahu-gallant;2024-09-16T13:11:37Z

At least 16 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes across central Gaza on Sunday night and Monday morning, including five women and four children, Palestinian health officials have said. Rescuers said an airstrike early on Monday destroyed a residential building in the densely populated Nuseirat refugee camp in the heart of central Gaza, killing at least 10 people, including four women and two children. The al-Awda hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the deaths and said another 13 people were wounded. Hospital records quoted by local media show that the dead included a mother, her child and her five siblings. In a separate strike targeting a building in Gaza City, six individuals lost their lives. A woman and two children were among the dead, according to the civil defence, a team of emergency responders working under the governance of Hamas. Israel says its military operations exclusively target combatants and claims Hamas and other armed factions place civilians at risk by operating within residential areas. Eleven months into the Gaza war, the death toll among Palestinians has passed 41,000, according to health authorities in the territory. Most of the dead are civilians and the total is nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or equal to one in every 50 people. The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people died and about 250 were taken hostage. On Sunday evening, a senior Hamas official told Agence France-Presse that new generations of fighters had been recruited since the 7 October attacks, less than a week after the Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, told journalists that Hamas, “no longer exists” as a military formation in Gaza. During an interview in Istanbul, Osama Hamdan claimed that the militant group “has a high ability to continue”. He added: “There were martyrs and there were sacrifices … but in return there was an accumulation of experiences and the recruitment of new generations into the resistance.” Hamdan spoke of a surface-to-surface missile that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. The Hamas official said the attack, claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, showed the limits of Israel’s ability to defend itself, including its aerial defence system. “It is a message to the entire region that Israel is not an immune entity,” Hamdan said. “Even Israeli capabilities have limits.” The Israeli military is investigating whether the fire was the result of falling fragments caused by interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if it successfully penetrated its air defences, as the Houthis have claimed. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Houthis would pay a “heavy price”, while the Houthi leader warned of bigger attacks to come. On Monday, the Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said the group downed a US MQ-9 drone in Yemen’s Dhamar province. In a separate development on Monday, Gallant told the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, that time was running out for an agreement with Hezbollah to halt the fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border, where on Sunday the Israeli military reported that approximately 40 projectiles had been launched, with the majority being intercepted or landing in uninhabited regions. “The possibility for an agreed framework in the northern arena is running out as Hezbollah continues to ‘tie itself’ to Hamas,” Gallant said, “The trajectory is clear.’’ Hezbollah said it would halt its attacks if there was a ceasefire in Gaza, but months of talks brokered by the US, Qatar and Egypt have repeatedly stalled. Gallant told Austin that “in any possible scenario, Israel’s defence establishment will continue to operate with the aim of dismantling Hamas and ensuring the return of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza – by any means”. Meanwhile, media reports in Israel suggested Gallant’s position could be under threat, with sources in the prime minister’s office saying Netanyahu was considering appointing the New Hope chair, Gideon Sa’ar, as Gallant’s replacement. After the report, the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on X “the time has come to [fire Gallant] immediately”. Rumours that Netanyahu would replace Gallant have been circulating for months. The already strained relationship between the two has been tumultuous since Netanyahu’s sudden decision to dismiss Gallant in March 2023 because of his vocal disapproval of the government’s judicial changes. However, the prime minister’s move was later rescinded after public outcry. Some in Netanyahu’s administration have called for Gallant’s removal, citing a range of grievances including his stance against a government-supported ultra-Orthodox enlistment bill and his public disagreement with the prime minister on matters such as a hostage negotiation and Israel’s presence in the Philadelphi corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border.

The Guardian;French rape trial adjourned after Dominique Pélicot health issue reports;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/french-trial-adjourned-after-dominique-pelicot-health-issue-reports;2024-09-16T13:05:42Z

The trial of Dominique Pélicot and 50 other men accused of rape has been adjourned again after it was reported he was suffering from kidney problems and had refused to leave his prison cell. Lawyers now fear the hearing, scheduled to last four months, may have to be postponed and have criticised the prison authorities for not acting sooner to treat him. In a case that has horrified the world, the 71-year-old retired electrician has admitted drugging his wife, Gisèle, and inviting up to 90 men to rape her as she was unconscious and while he filmed the attacks. On Monday, after Pélicot failed to appear, the court appointed two medical experts to examine him. The president of the bench, Roger Arata, said it was hoped the trial could resume on Tuesday but warned he may have to postpone it if the principal accused was too unwell to attend. Defence lawyers have accused the prison authorities of failing to act as soon as Pélicot complained of being unwell 10 days ago. He was reportedly taken to hospital on Sunday evening, where he was diagnosed with a kidney infection, a kidney stone and a “prostate problem”. He was returned to his cell after tests. “This could all have been avoided if he’d been treated from Monday [last week]. Why did they wait eight days?” Pélicot’s defence lawyer Béatrice Zavarro asked outside the court in Avignon. Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau said that if the hearing had to be postponed because of the prison authorities’ failure to treat her former husband, it would be “a legal catastrophe, a scandal”. “We are all waiting to hear if Dominique Pélicot can appear. If the hearing has to be postponed because he has a health problem that wasn’t treated, yes, we can talk of it being a scandal,” Babonneau said. “Of course she [Gisèle Pélicot] is worried. She finds herself in a very difficult situation, as we all are. The trial is really at a very early stage; it has hardly even started. There is the presentation of the videos and the interrogation of the principal accused to come.” Gisèle Pélicot, 72, has become the face of victims of rape and sexual abuse across France, where hundreds of protesters turned out at the weekend to show their support for her, many carrying posters showing her image and the words “Shame changes sides” – implying that instead of female victims being made to feel ashamed, the male accused should be. She has been hailed for her courage in insisting the trial be held in public and not behind closed doors as defence lawyers had requested. In a statement outside the court on Monday morning, Pélicot said she wanted to thank all those “who have shown me their support from the beginning of this ordeal and particularly those who took the time to gather on Saturday across France. “I was deeply touched by this movement … thanks to you all I have the strength to fight this to the end. I dedicate this fight to all people, women and men, who are victims of sexual violence across the world. To all those victims I say today look around you, you are not alone.” Babonneau said: “She does feel very comforted by the support she has received this weekend. She is a simple and genuine woman and was surprised that so many people wanted to show their support. Her message to every victim of sexual abuse is that they should know that they are not alone and should not be alone.” Pélicot had no idea that for more than a decade her husband had recruited men on an online chatroom to rape her while she was in a coma-like state until after he was arrested in 2020 for filming up the skirts of customers in a local supermarket. The accused were aged between 26 and 73 when they were arrested and include a local councillor, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, a soldier, a firefighter and a civil servant. Many were the couple’s neighbours in the small town of Mazan, near Avignon in southern France. Several of the men insist they were unaware Pélicot had been drugged and assumed the sex was consensual. If convicted of rape they face up to 20 years in jail. On Monday, Babonneau said he was shocked to find his client having to queue up to clear security at the courthouse with those accused of raping her. “I arrived to see her in the queue literally sandwiched in between them. It was unbelievable that she should be there. I pulled her out and said we would skip the line,” he said. “She has had to find the strength in herself to cope … I can tell you that she is even more of an incredible woman than she appears.”

The Guardian;France’s European commissioner resigns amid row with von der Leyen;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/france-european-commissioner-thierry-breton-resigns-amid-row-with-von-der-leyen;2024-09-16T12:45:52Z

France’s European commissioner, Thierry Breton, has resigned, citing “questionable governance” at the EU executive led by Ursula von der Leyen. Breton, who was in charge of the EU’s single market and industrial policy, announced his immediate resignation in a post on X on Monday morning. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, had appointed Breton to serve a second term as EU commissioner in June. But Breton said in his resignation letter that von der Leyen had asked Paris to withdraw his name “for personal reasons that in no instance you [von der Leyen] have discussed directly with me”. “In light of these recent developments – further testimony to questionable governance – I have to conclude that I can no longer exercise my duties,” he added. Breton announced his resignation with a touch of theatricality, by posting on X an empty frame hanging on a wall. “Breaking news: my official portrait for the next European Commission term,” he wrote, with his resignation letter following in a separate post. The announcement adds to the disarray over the appointment of von der Leyen’s top team, which is already running late. In seeking a more gender-balanced lineup, von der Leyen inadvertently triggered a political row in Slovenia after putting pressure on the government to withdraw a male candidate. She is expected to reveal details of the next commission, which has a five-year term, after meetings with senior MEPs on Tuesday. Her team consists of 27 EU commissioners, one from each member state, who will collectively be responsible for enforcing EU law spanning a swathe of areas including environment and climate, industrial and economic policy, foreign affairs, migration, farming and fishing. Breton was one of von der Leyen’s most high-profile commissioners, who sparred with US technology companies such as X and Meta over regulations to curb the harmful effects of the internet, and oversaw moves to increase EU production of ammunition in light of the war in Ukraine. Hours after the news broke, France’s foreign minister, Stéphane Séjourné, was announced as his country’s commissioner nominee. A close ally of Macron who served as the leader of the centrist group in the European parliament, Séjourné has been put forward by Paris for a job involving EU industrial and competitiveness policy. The commission has yet to name the person who will take over Breton’s portfolio for the final weeks of the outgoing commission, in a sign his departure has blindsided von der Leyen. EU officials had expected Breton to serve a second mandate, taking on a weighty portfolio as an executive vice-president and one of the most senior members of von der Leyen’s team. His dramatic resignation comes soon after a politically weakened Macron announced the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister in an attempt to quell France’s political crisis following snap elections that resulted in a hung parliament. Against a backdrop of political tumult at home, Macron’s star has waned in the EU, but France remains influential in setting the EU agenda of a more “sovereign Europe”, meaning less dependence on the rest of the world for security, vital resources and industrial goods. After Breton’s announcement, one EU diplomat observed that he “wasn’t as well liked in Paris as he thought he was”. A spokesperson for the European Commission declined to comment on the charges of “questionable governance” under von der Leyen. “The president takes note and accepts Thierry Breton’s resignation and thanks him for his work as commissioner throughout the mandate,” the spokesperson said, citing Breton’s work on EU laws, notably the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act and “other important digital and industrial files”. Von der Leyen had received the resignation letter on Monday morning, the spokesperson said, but they could not say whether the commission president had been informed of Breton’s decision to go before he posted on X. Von der Leyen “hopes to be in a position” to announce the details of her new commission on Tuesday, the spokesperson said, adding that “24 hours in politics are a long time”. A statement from the Élysée Palace described Breton as a “remarkable European commissioner” who had “significantly contributed to advancing a policy of European sovereignty” in digital policy, industry and technology and resilience of the European single market during the Covid crisis. “The president of the republic has always defended obtaining for France a key portfolio of European commissioner, focused on the issues of industrial, technological sovereignty and European competitiveness,” the statement said. The veteran German Social Democrat MEP Bernd Lange said the nomination of the new commission was “slowly degenerating into absurd theatre” and was “not a good omen for the future”. Rym Momtaz, the editor-in-chief of the Carnegie Europe thinktank’s Strategic Europe publication, wrote: “There’s never been any love lost between von der Leyen and Breton, but this EU commission composition is like a Succession/Game of Thrones mashup.” Breton, a former business executive, was not afraid to criticise his boss. He joined other senior colleagues last year in criticising von der Leyen’s decision to appoint a fellow German member of the Christian Democratic Union party to a senior role he was said to be less qualified for than others. When von der Leyen was running for re-election this year, Breton questioned whether she should get a second term. “Is it possible to (re)entrust the management of Europe to the EPP for five more years?” he wrote on X after the centre-right European People’s party alliance gave von der Leyen an underwhelming majority when selecting her as their candidate. “The EPP itself does not seem to believe in its candidate,” he wrote. Von der Leyen, who was reappointed by EU leaders and re-elected by the European parliament to serve a second term, has long faced accusations that she is aloof, lacks transparency and fails to involve senior colleagues in EU decision-making. Supporters point to her record of support for Ukraine and creation of a post-Covid recovery fund, but Breton’s letter is likely to add to criticism about her working methods. Brando Benifei, an Italian Democratic party MEP who worked with Breton in drawing up the EU’s AI Act, wrote on X: “I didn’t agree on all the actions and plans of Commissioner Breton, but his dedication to pursue more European pooled sovereignty and his efforts for a healthier digital environment were to be supported.” Tomasz Froelich, a German MEP with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, described Breton as “one of the greatest threats to freedom of expression in Europe, who recently wanted to cancel Twitter and Elon Musk”, and said his departure was a “good thing”.

The Guardian;Amnesty calls for release of peaceful protesters in Angola;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/amnesty-international-calls-for-release-peaceful-protest-activists-angola;2024-09-16T12:41:26Z

Amnesty International has urged authorities in Angola to free four activists who were detained a year ago for planning a peaceful protest, and an influencer who criticised the president in a TikTok video. The four activists were arrested in September last year before a protest against restrictions on motorcycle taxi drivers. They were sentenced to two years and five months in prison for “disobedience and resisting orders”. The health of three of the four activists has deteriorated sharply in prison, Amnesty said. The southern African country’s government regularly clamps down on dissent. In August, the president, João Lourenço, signed into law two sweeping bills that extended security forces’ control over the media and permitted prison sentences of up to 25 years for protests that cause “vandalism” or service disruptions. Vongai Chikwanda, Amnesty International’s deputy director for east and southern Africa, said: “One year in prison simply for peacefully protesting is a travesty of justice. We see a troubling pattern of Angolan authorities withholding medical care as a means of punishing peaceful dissent, amounting to torture.” Adolfo Campos was in good health when he was imprisoned but has since lost much of his vision and become completely deaf in one ear, Amnesty said. It said prison doctors recommended in February that Campos receive surgery externally, but that had been blocked. Hermenegildo Victor José, known as Gildo das Ruas, also entered prison with no health problems. In June he started experiencing fever and aches, but he was not allowed to see a doctor until the beginning of August. Das Ruas now cannot stand for more than 30 minutes without pain. A wheelchair was delivered to him on 15 August but he was initially stopped from using it. Gilson Moreira, known as Tanaice Neutro, has had bowel surgery scheduled since 2022, which he was denied when he was imprisoned for 18 months. Amnesty International said he had continued to be prevented from having surgery. Ana da Silva Miguel, an influencer also known as Neth Nahara, was arrested in August last year after she criticised the president in a TikTok livestream. Nahara, who is HIV positive, was denied her medication for eight months, Amnesty said. Angola’s ministry of justice and human rights did not respond to requests for comment. The oil-rich country has in recent years been courted by the US and the EU as they seek to fund infrastructure projects and counter Chinese influence.

The Guardian;Death toll reaches 16 as ‘dramatic’ flooding in central Europe continues;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/dramatic-flooding-in-central-europe-continues;2024-09-16T12:28:01Z

The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing, as authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria and warned the worst may yet be to come. The number of victims in Poland rose to five after a surgeon returning from work drowned in the south-western town of Nysa, where the hospital was evacuated and patients rescued by raft. Four more people had died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój, firefighters said. In Austria, local media reported that two men aged 70 and 80 drowned after being trapped by rising flood water in their homes in the towns of Böheimkirchen and Sierndorf, both in the hard-hit north-eastern state of Lower Austria. The Czech police chief, Martin Vondrášek, told local radio a woman had drowned in a stream that overflowed its banks near Bruntál, a town of about 15,000 people in the north-east of the country, while seven more people were still unaccounted for. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes across a swathe of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia as Storm Boris unleashed the worst flooding recorded in the region for more than two decades. It was described by one Romanian mayor as a “catastrophe of epic proportions”. The flood water burst dams, inundated streets, knocked out electricity and in some places submerged whole neighbourhoods. “I have lived here for 16 years and I have never seen such flooding,” one Austrian woman, Judith Dickson, told public radio. Seven people died in Romania over the weekend, as well as one in Poland and a firefighter in Austria. The rain was expected to ease in many areas on Monday but, with some rivers unlikely to reach peak water levels for days, several major cities were preparing for potentially disastrous flooding. Extreme rainfall is becoming more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, declared a state of emergency in the flooded areas and announced an emergency aid fund of 1bn zlotys, while his counterpart in Hungary, Viktor Orbán, cancelled all his international engagements. Tusk said he was in touch with the leaders of other affected countries and that they would ask the EU for financial help. “From today, anyone affected by the flood – flooding, collapsed buildings, flooded garages, lost cars, losses linked to the flood – will be able to easily” claim funds, he added. More than 2,600 people were evacuated across Poland in the last 24 hours, according to the defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. Michał Piszko, mayor of the Polish town of Kłodzko on the Czech border, said waters were receding but aid was badly needed. “We need bottled water and dry provisions ... half of the city has no electricity,” he told Polish radio. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described images from the flooded areas in Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland as “dramatic” and said Germany was “deeply saddened by the news of dead and missing people” and ready to help. Hungary’s capital, Budapest, was bracing for severe flooding as the Danube rose. The interior minister, Sándor Pintér, said efforts were focused on keeping the river and its tributaries within their banks and said up to 12,000 soldiers were on standby to help. Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, was also on a high state of alert, while the 600,000 residents of Wrocław in Poland were told water levels might not peak before Wednesday. Austria’s chancellor Karl Nehammer said the situation in his country “continues to worsen”, particularly in Lower Austria, which has been declared a disaster area. More than 10,000 relief workers had evacuated 1,100 houses in the state, he said. Lower Austria’s governor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said people there were facing “difficult and dramatic hours … probably the most difficult hours of their lives”. The municipality of Lilienfeld, with about 25,000 residents, was completely cut off from the outside world, local media reported. So far 12 dams have broken and thousands of households were without electricity and water, authorities said. “It is not over,” Mikl-Leitner added. “It stays critical. It stays dramatic.” She said there there was a high risk of more dams breaking and it was as yet too early to assess the scale of the damage. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, urged people to “follow the instructions of mayors and firefighters”. As of Sunday evening, he said, emergency services had dealt with 7,884 incidents and 119,000 households were without power. At least 12,000 people had been evacuated from their homes across the country, Fiala said, adding that although the rain had stopped in the most affected areas, the situation would become critical for others as the storm moves westwards and rivers continue to rise. “Very difficult days for many people, unfortunately, continue,” Fiala said on Monday, with 207 areas across the country facing flood conditions. The most critical situation was in southern Bohemia, he said, adding: “Please be careful and responsible.” The rising Morava River put about 70% of the Czech city of Litovel, 140 miles (230km) east of the capital, Prague, underwater overnight, its mayor told local media, shutting down schools and health facilities. In the country’s third biggest city, Ostrava, a power plant supplying heat and hot water to the city was forced to shut down. Thousands were evacuated from their homes in Krnov and Český Těšín. In Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of about 56,000 were asked to move to higher ground. “There’s no reason to wait,” the mayor, Tomáš Navrátil, told Czech public radio, saying the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century”. Romania’s prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, said the country would “clean up and see what can be salvaged”, adding that compared with the worst recent flooding in 2013, “the amount of water was almost three times bigger”. One resident of the Romanian village of Pechea, in the stricken Galati region, told Agence France-Presse: “The water came into the house, it destroyed the walls, everything. It took the chickens, the rabbits, everything. It took the oven, the washing machine, the refrigerator. I have nothing left.” The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed solidarity with those affected by flooding and she said the EU would provide support. The climate emergency is causing more incidents of extreme rainfall because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe as a result, but human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use, are also important.

The Guardian;Climate scientists troubled by damage from floods ravaging central Europe;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/climate-scientists-troubled-by-damage-from-floods-ravaging-central-europe;2024-09-16T11:03:16Z

Picturesque towns across central Europe are inundated by dirty flood water after heavy weekend rains turned tranquil streams into raging rivers that wreaked havoc on infrastructure. The floods have killed at least 15 people and destroyed buildings from Austria to Romania. The destruction comes after devastating floods around the world last week when entire villages were submerged in Myanmar and nearly 300 prisoners escape a collapsed jail in Nigeria, where floods have affected more than 1 million people. Climate scientists say they are troubled by the damage but unsurprised by the intensity. “The catastrophic rainfall hitting central Europe is exactly what scientists expect with climate change,” said Joyce Kimutai, of Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute. She said the death and damage across Africa and Europe highlighted “how poorly prepared the world is for such floods”. Scientists take care when attributing extreme rains to human influence because so many factors shape the water cycle. Although it is well established that hotter air can hold more moisture, whether violent downpours occur also depends on how much water is available to fall. Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at ETH Zürich, said immediate analyses of the central European floods suggested most of the water vapour came from the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, both of which have grown hotter as a result of human-induced climate breakdown, resulting in more water evaporating into the air. “On average, the intensity of heavy precipitation events increases by 7% for each degree of global warming,” she said. “We now have 1.2C of global warming, which means that on average heavy precipitation events are 8% more intense.” Weather station data indicates that bursts of September rainfall have become heavier in Germany, Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia since 1950, Kimutai said. In Poland, the floods collapsed a bridge and washed houses away, according to local media. In the Czech Republic, helicopters rescued stranded citizens from rising waters. In Austria, one firefighter is reported to have died in the rescue efforts. In the Austrian capital, Vienna, which has been home to Europe’s biggest weather and climate conference since 2005, the rain flooded a motorway and closed metro lines. Erich Fischer, a climate scientist at ETH Zürich, said scientists at the conference used to discuss the physics of how climate change increases rainfall intensity over lunch on the banks of the New Danube. “It is ironic to now see these banks, where we were sitting in the sun and discussing the science of extreme precipitation, now being flooded.” The death toll from floods hinges on how well communities prepare for the rain and respond to its effects. Scientists have urged governments to invest in adapting to extreme weather events through early warning systems, more resilient infrastructure and support schemes for victims, while also ending their reliance on fossil fuels. “It’s clear that even highly developed countries are not safe from climate change,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at the Grantham Institute. “As long as the world burns oil, gas and coal, heavy rainfall and other weather extremes will intensify, making our planet a more dangerous and expensive place to live.”

The Guardian;Germany reintroduces border checks to far-right praise as EU tensions mount;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/germany-reintroduces-border-checks-to-far-right-praise-as-eu-tensions-mount;2024-09-16T06:38:44Z

Germany has reintroduced temporary checks at all nine of its land borders in a move that has drawn criticism from several of its European partners but praise from the far right. The embattled coalition government in Berlin said last week that checks already being carried out on its borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland would be extended to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark. The decision came after a series of deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers, and historic successes by the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) in two crunch state elections in the east of the country. Nancy Faeser, the country’s interior minister, said the border checks would curb migration and “protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terrorism and serious crime,” but critics have denounced it as politically motivated and likely to be largely ineffective. Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, which includes 25 EU nations plus four others including Switzerland and Norway, allows free movement without border checks and is thought of as one of the bloc’s biggest achievements as well as a critical economic asset. Temporary checks are allowed in exceptional circumstances to avert specific threats to internal security or public policy. Eight members currently impose them on selected borders, citing increased terror threats or pressure on asylum capacity. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, was the first to openly criticise Germany’s decision, calling it “unacceptable from Poland’s viewpoint” and demanding more help from Berlin in securing the EU’s external borders rather than tighter internal controls. Warsaw has proposed consultations with all EU member states bordering Germany to address a decision Tusk said was a result of the country’s “internal political situation” and could lead to “the de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale”. Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said on Thursday it would be wrong to “move to a logic of ad hoc exemptions from the Schengen agreement, with border controls that will … hurt one of the fundamental achievements of the EU.” The response, Mitsotakis said, “cannot be unilaterally scrapping Schengen”. Others, however, were more sanguine, with the Czech interior minister, Vit Rakusan, saying he did not expect much material change as checks would mostly be random. Far-right leaders were jubilant in response to the news. Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom party (PVV) said Berlin’s decision was a “great idea” and asked when the Netherlands would follow suit, while the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbàn, said on X: “Welcome to the club.” Marine Le Pen of France’s National Rally said her party had proposed a “double – external and internal border – system” in recent elections and been told it was not possible. “Now Germany is doing it,” she said. “When will France follow?” Giorgia Meloni’s far-right Brothers of Italy party has praised Berlin’s decision. Orbàn’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said laxity on the EU’s external borders combined with tougher internal border checks were combining to “destroy free movement”. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, whose divided three-party coalition is trailing far behind AfD and the centre-right opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) in the polls a year before federal elections, has defended the decision. With days to go before another critical state election in Brandenburg which the AfD is expected to win, Scholz told parliament the move was necessary and the government would “continue with it, even though it is getting difficult with our neighbours”. It is not yet clear what the impact of the increased border checks will be. Berlin has pledged to “coordinate closely with our neighbours … and keep the impact on everyday life in the border regions as low as possible”. The interior ministry last week insisted the measures, scheduled to last an initial six months, would be in line with existing border controls – in other words, random spot checks or targeting specific vehicles based on police intelligence. Freight industry representatives have said they believe the tighter checks should not lead to excessive tailbacks and consequent economic losses, but associations for cross-border workers have said they will be watching the situation closely. More likely, analysts suggest, are rising tensions with Germany’s neighbours if the checks – along with plans to make it easier to turn people back directly at the border – lead to authorities returning many more people to the country they arrive from.

The Guardian;Monday briefing: How Manchester City’s 130 legal battles could turn football upside down;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/first-edition-manchester-city-premier-league-legal-battle;2024-09-16T05:49:51Z

Good morning. Donald Trump says he is “unharmed” after what the FBI believes was the second attempt on the former president’s life in two months. On Sunday, Trump was golfing at his club in West Palm Beach Florida when a US Secret Service agent spotted a man with a firearm. The suspect fled after the agent opened fire, but he was later detained and remains in custody. For now, it remains too early to speculate on the motives of the alleged attacker, or on how this latest twist will affect the election that is now less than two months away. Today’s newsletter is on one of the most significant legal cases in football history, but for the latest information on the attempted assassination, you can follow live updates on the story and if you need a quick summary of what has happened overnight, we’ve got that covered here. ---------------------------------------- When Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family acquired Manchester City in 2008, the club had only won two league titles and had gone without a trophy for 32 seasons. After decades of purgatory, the last 16 years under Mansour have been defined by a turbo-charged transformation that turned the club into a record-breaking machine. The club made history this year by winning the Premier League title for the fourth time in a row (and its sixth in seven years), sealing a streak of unparalleled dominance. These wins have come at a steep cost – by 2018, City’s owners had spent over £1.3bn directly investing in players, managers, the home stadium and marketing worldwide. But, over the years, there have been accusations that the club’s financial transactions have not all been above board. Last February, the Premier League announced the Sky Blues were facing 115 breaches of its financial rules, which later increased to 130. The case into possible financial impropriety begins today at an unknown location and is expected to run for 10 weeks. For today’s newsletter, I spoke with Jonathan Wilson, who writes the Guardian US football newsletter, about City’s legal battle and what it tells us about the impact of ever-increasing amounts of money on the sport. That’s right after the headlines. Five big stories Europe | Germany will reintroduce temporary checks at all nine of its land borders on Monday in a move that has drawn criticism from several of its European partners but praise from the far right. The decision came after a series of deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers, and historic successes by the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland party in two state elections. Environment | The UK government is planning to appoint a special envoy for nature for the first time, in an attempt to put the UK at the centre of global efforts to tackle the world’s ecological crises, the Guardian has learned. Labour | Keir Starmer is under pressure to distance his government from Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right immigration policies. After the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, said the UK would consider copying Italy’s plans to process asylum applicants in a third country, one backbencher questioned why a Labour administration was “seeking to learn lessons from a neo-fascist government”. Welfare | Black and other ethnic minority benefit claimants are disproportionately likely to be hit with universal credit sanctions – financial penalties typically running into hundreds of pounds – according to official statistics unveiled for the first time. Emmys | Shōgun has made Emmys history as the first ever non-English language series to win for best drama. Hacks was the surprise winner of best comedy series, beating out previous winner The Bear and Abbott Elementary. The Bear took the majority of the comedy awards, winning four Emmys. In depth: ‘We could be talking in terms of hundreds of points being docked’ Jonathan traces this story all the way back to the early 1990s, when top-tier clubs broke away from the Football League to form the Premier League. This nascent league consciously adopted “a very light-touch regulatory approach and that meant that pretty much anybody could buy a club”. What no one anticipated at the time were the oligarchs, venture capitalists and even states that would eventually be investing in English football. Manchester City’s most recent legal woes began in 2018 when German magazine Der Spiegel published leaked emails, and alleged that the club’s owners were breaking Uefa’s financial fair play (known as FFP) regulations through fabricated sponsorship deals and secret contracts. The club was also allegedly paying players using surplus funds from the Abu Dhabi royals, which amounted to more than was in the club’s accounts. The allegations sparked a Uefa investigation that eventually led to a two-year ban from European football. (The ban was eventually lifted after an appeal and the club were instead told to pay an £8m fine). The scrutiny subsided until February 2023, when the Premier League brought a catalogue of charges against the club. *** The Premier League charges Despite the scale and seriousness of the charges, there was no press conference or announcement. “There was no great moment,” Jonathan says. “They just suddenly cropped up on the Premier League’s website and everybody became aware of it quite slowly.” Broadly, the Premier League has accused Manchester City of repeatedly breaching financial rules across nine seasons. The 130 charges include: • 54 breaches of failing to provide accurate and up-to-date financial information from 2009/10 to 2017/18. • 14 breaches of failing to provide accurate financial reports for player and manager compensation from 2009/10 to 2017/18. • Five breaches of failing to comply with Uefa’s regulations, including Uefa’s club licensing and financial fair play regulations. • Seven breaches of Premier League profitability and sustainability regulations from 2015/16 to 2017/18. • 35 breaches of failing to cooperate with Premier League investigations from December 2018 to present. The hearing will litigate these charges, but a verdict is not expected until next spring. When the charges were brought against them, Manchester City said it was “surprised” and issued a full-throated denial of all the charges. *** The stakes There has been a lot of speculation about what could happen to Manchester City if it is found guilty of some or all of these breaches. The punishment could range from a substantial fine to a points deduction, relegation or even expulsion from the league. “We’re not sure what expulsion from the league means in practice because presumably City would try to rejoin, but it’s not clear if they would join at the Championship or League Two or whether they would have to start even lower down,” Jonathan says. Last season, Everton were docked eight points for much smaller infractions than the allegations against Manchester City. “So we could be talking in terms of hundreds of points being docked,” Jonathan says. “Obviously, once you get beyond about 60 or 70 it’s irrelevant because you’re already bottom of the league – there’s no difference”. If this were to happen, City would inevitably appeal, as it did in the Uefa investigation, and it would probably mark a new phase in a very lengthy, very expensive legal battle. Even if City is exonerated, or given a less serious punishment like a fine or a ban from signing players for a year or two, the situation has already left other clubs in the Premier League“furious”, Jonathan says. He says that if Manchester City isn’t severely reprimanded, “[other clubs] are briefing that they are prepared to take legal action of their own and potentially even quit the Premier League and go back into the Football League”. Taking the steps to actually quit the league may prove too difficult in the end, but the fact that some clubs are threatening to do so demonstrates the level of anger and the enthusiasm to see City penalised. The Premier League is in a bind either way. Losing this case would deal a heavy blow to its credibility and authority, while winning would inevitably lead to an extensive and extremely costly legal battle against City that could go on for years. *** The bigger picture The effects of this case on football as a whole could be seismic because it threatens to fundamentally disrupt trust in the sport. “As soon as you think that what you’re watching could be overturned in a court later on, then why would you invest emotionally in that?” Jonathan asks. Once points get docked and the lead position is determined not by results on the pitch but by what happens in these committees, people will inevitably be turned off. The legal battles and financial regulation have begun to subsume the sport itself, Jonathan says. “I think it’s a great shame for Manchester City this season that [City’s lawyer] Lord Pannick is almost as important as Erling Haaland, and that’s really not the way it ought to be,” Jonathan says. However, the City case is just one strand, Jonathan adds, of a much wider problem in the sport and “we are reaching crisis point”. “The problem now with pretty much every European league is that the big teams win everything all the time,” Jonathan says, which disrupts the competitive balance of the games. Inevitably, as these teams win they become wealthier, allowing them to buy the best players and managers, and the cycle continues. As Jonathan says, “the greed is phenomenal”. What else we’ve been reading I loved Neneh Cherry answering Observer reader questions, expertly threaded together by Miranda Sawyer. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters 625,000 children in Gaza are starting a second academic year with no school. Bethan McKernan spoke with educators trying to maintain some semblance of normality for them, although – sadly – “no ceasefire that could help restore normality is on the horizon”. Nimo Hannah Ewens is strong on star singer Chappell Roan and why a whole generation now struggles to respect musicians’ boundaries. Hannah It often feels like every corner of London is littered with Lime e-bikes, strewn about haphazardly across the pavement. One council has said enough is enough. Sammy Gecsoyler spoke with the leader of Brent council, the first in the UK that is trying to impose a ban on the bikes. Nimo I loved Ammar Kalia’s latest New start after 60 column on Norma Geddes, who found her inner artist at 70. Just look how gorgeous Norma’s stained glass is! Hannah Sport Football | Arsenal left rival Tottenham’s stadium with a win for the third season in a row after Gabriel Magalhães’ second-half header settled a feisty and physical north London derby. Newcastle fought back from a half-time deficit with two long-range strikes in the space of five minutes to beat Wolverhampton 2-1, moving into third place in the Premier League. Golf | Suzann Pettersen vowed Europe would “come back very hungry” after losing the Solheim Cup for the first time since 2017. The US held off a brave fightback from Pettersen’s side to win 15.5 to 12.5 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia, where world number two Lilia Vu birdied the final two holes against Swiss rookie Albane Valenzuela to edge a nervy home team over the line. Formula One | Oscar Piastri won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with an exceptional drive for McLaren after an enormously tense battle to the flag with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in Baku. Lando Norris made a superb and unlikely comeback drive to take fourth having started in 15th to keep his title hopes alive, finishing in front of title rival Max Verstappen who was fifth. The front pages The Guardian leads with “Trump targeted in attempted assassination at his golf course”. The Times has “Trump targeted again in attempted assassination”, while the Telegraph follows the same story with “Trump ‘targeted by gunman’ on his golf course”. The Financial Times looks ahead to the presidential election with “Harris maintains post-debate lead over Trump on economy, says poll”. The i reports “PM sets sights on Italy-style migration deal to tackle small boats crisis.” The Mail has “Why can’t millionaire Starmers buy their own clothes?” The Mirror reports on “olive branch” moves from King Charles and Prince William on Prince Harry’s 40th birthday, with “Royal peace gesture”. Today in Focus Revenge of the childless cat ladies Elle Hunt reports on how Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate JD Vance calling Democrats “childless cat ladies” backfired. Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett’s cartoons, the best Saturday magazine content and an exclusive look behind the scenes The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad In the heart of east London, Anthony Ussher has transformed a small patch of land into a thriving garden, blending his passion for sustainable living with innovative composting techniques. What began as a Covid lockdown project to mend fences – literally and figuratively – with his neighbour has evolved into City Soil Lab, a unique composting initiative that turns food waste collected from nearby restaurants into nutrient-rich material. Ussher uses fermentation composting to enrich the garden and to grow herbs and vegetables, which are often on the menu at local high-end restaurants. This example of a closed-loop system is just the start of the project, with other small-scale experiments planned locally. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

The Guardian;‘Quite shocking’ lack of government contact during UK riots, says MCB head;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/muslim-council-of-britain-zara-mohammed-labour-government-riots;2024-09-16T05:00:16Z

The head of the Muslim Council of Britain has called for an explanation and a review of the government’s policy of non-engagement with the body after her appeals for contact during the summer riots were ignored. Zara Mohammed, who was elected more than three years ago as the MCB’s youngest and first female secretary general, said there had been a “quite shocking” lack of contact with the new government at a time when mobs were targeting Muslims and mosques. The MCB had been “heavily engaged” with Labour’s shadow cabinet when the party was in opposition, including a meeting in 2021 between Mohammed and Keir Starmer where they discussed “the importance of engaging with Muslim communities”, she said. Downing Street then ignored attempts to discuss the dangers being posed to Muslim people during the riots, Mohammed said, even as Northern Ireland’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, and senior police officers held talks with her in Belfast. Mohammed, 33, whose tenure as MCB leader will end in January, said she hoped ministers would now review the government’s “baffling” approach to the UK’s largest Muslim umbrella group, which has more than 500 affiliated members including mosques, schools and charitable associations. She said: “There’s been no official communication from government since the election, and when the riots happened, I guess that’s where we would have expected. “We appreciated that, with any new government, they’ve got to settle in, and there’s got to be some time to work out [things]. There’s a lot of things going on in the country, economic downturns, we appreciate that. “But I think what was really disappointing, and perhaps for many in the Muslim community, quite shocking, was no formal or meaningful engagement with the Muslim Council of Britain during a time when mosques and Muslims were being targeted by the far right in a terrifying way.” The Conservative government had a policy of non-engagement with the MCB and in a statement to parliament on 1 August the Labour communities minister Alex Norris disclosed that there had “been no change to HMG [his majesty’s government] policy and there are no plans for ministers to meet with the Muslim Council of Britain”. The new government has not expanded on its approach but the reason given to parliament by Rishi Sunak’s administration for its policy of non-engagement was that “previous MCB leaders have taken positions that contradict our fundamental values and these have not been explicitly retracted”. That statement was a reference to a row dating back to 2009 when the then MCB deputy secretary general, Daud Abdullah, signed a document known as the Istanbul declaration, which advocated attacks on the Royal Navy if it tried to stop arms for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza. The then Labour government said it would have nothing more to do with the MCB unless Abdullah stepped down. He did resign and the MCB said the views expressed did not represent those of the body, leading to a re-engagement in the last year of Gordon Brown’s government. Liberal Democrat ministers in the coalition government elected in 2010 also engaged with the MCB. Penny Mordaunt, when she was the Conservative paymaster general, had a meeting with Mohammed in 2021 but was heavily criticised in parts of the media, including the Daily Mail. Mohammed said the MCB had since been “locked out”, although she added that policy had not been consistent, with the body providing a reference service for the appointment of Muslim chaplains by the Ministry of Defence until it was highlighted in a Daily Telegraph article last year. Last week the deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, told the Commons that the government was “actively considering” its approach to tackling Islamophobia. Mohammed said she was “optimistic” that the government would “get its act together”. She said: “I think what I’m hopeful of is that the government will review the former position and will look at offering a position of clarity as to why [they are not engaging], and having a conversation with us to see, you know, what are the challenges; what are the blocks in 2024, not in 2009. “Ultimately, talking to a national body is critical when it comes to national representative issues. That’s why we exist, because those mosques sign up to be an umbrella where we’ve had big political issues to talk about. “We never claim to be the only voice for British Muslims. We claim to represent our bodies. But just as other faith communities have representative bodies, of course, we have one, and of course we want to vocalise on the policy issues, on national representation.” A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “The government engages regularly with faith communities. During the recent disorder, the minister for faith spoke to representatives of Muslim communities through numerous roundtables and visits to places of worship.”

The Guardian;Ukraine war briefing: people trapped after Russian strike on Kharkiv apartment block, Zelenskiy says ;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/16/ukraine-war-briefing-people-trapped-after-russian-strike-on-kharkiv-apartment-block-zelenskiy-says;2024-09-16T01:01:17Z

One person has died and at least 41 people were wounded on Sunday afternoon when a Russian guided bomb struck a multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said, adding that the bomb hit the 10th floor of the building, with the fire spreading across four storeys. Prosecutors in Kharkiv said on Telegram the body of a 94-year-old woman had been recovered from the ninth floor of the building. Twelve other buildings were also damaged, Terekhov said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday night that rescue operations were under way at the 12-storey building, with people trapped under the rubble. He said three children were among 35 people injured. “In this single strike on Kharkiv, four air bombs were dropped. One hit the building in the city, and the other three struck villages in the region,” he said. Russia did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the attack but has previously denied intentionally targeting civilians despite having killed thousands of them since it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Zelenskiy on Sunday again appealed for a shift in the west’s policy on the use of long-range weapons, saying Russia was carrying out at least 100 airstrikes comparable to the one that hit Kharkiv every day. “The only way to counter this terror is through a systemic solution – long-range capabilities to destroy Russian military aviation at its bases. This is an obvious, logical solution. We have already explained to all our partners why Ukraine truly needs sufficient long-range capabilities,” he said on X. Moscow and Kyiv exchanged drone and missile attacks over the weekend. The Ukrainian air force said on Sunday it shot down 10 of the 14 drones and one of the three missiles Russia launched overnight. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it downed 29 Ukrainian drones overnight into Sunday over western and south-western regions, with no damage caused by the falling debris. It also said another Ukrainian drone was shot down on Sunday morning over the western Ryazan region. Ukrainian troops are suffering high losses because western arms are arriving too slowly to equip the armed forces properly, Zelenskiy told CNN in an interview aired on Sunday. Russia has been gaining ground in parts of eastern Ukraine including around Pokrovsk. Capture of the transport hub could enable Moscow to open new lines of attack. Zelenskiy said the situation in the east was “very tough”, adding that half of Ukraine’s brigades there were not equipped. “So you lose a lot of people. You lose people because they are not in armed vehicles … they don’t have artillery, they don’t have artillery rounds,” said Zelenskiy, speaking in English. CNN said the interview had been conducted on Friday. Zelenskiy said weapons aid packages promised by the United States and European nations were arriving very slowly. “We need 14 brigades to be ready. Until now … from these packages we didn’t equip even four,” he said. The only thing Russian president Vladimir Putin fears is the reaction of his people if the cost of the war makes them suffer, Zelenskiy said. “Make Ukraine strong, and you will see that he will sit and negotiate”. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Saturday said Washington was working on a “substantial” new aid package for Ukraine. Zelenskiy is due to meet President Joe Biden this month and will present a plan to seek an end to the war. The main elements are security and diplomatic support, as well as military and economic aid, he said.

The Guardian;Netanyahu tells Houthis they will pay ‘heavy price’ as missile hits Israel;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/netanyahu-tells-houthis-they-will-pay-heavy-price-as-missile-hits-israel;2024-09-15T18:21:31Z

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned Yemen’s Houthi rebels will pay a “heavy price” after the group claimed its first ballistic missile strike on Israel and its leader warned of bigger attacks to come. The missile – claimed by the Houthis as an advanced surface-to-surface hypersonic missile – triggered air sirens across the country at about 6.30am, and local media aired footage of people racing to shelters at Ben Gurion international airport south-east of Tel Aviv. According to reports, it hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, causing a fire near Kfar Daniel. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military is investigating whether the fire was the result of falling fragments caused by the interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if it successfully penetrated Israeli air defences as the Houthis have claimed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that interceptors from Israel’s Iron Dome and Arrow air defence systems were deployed but said it had not yet determined whether any had been successful. It said an “initial inquiry indicates the missile most likely fragmented in mid-air [after] several interception attempts”, adding that “the entire incident is under review”. Netanyahu hinted at a military response in a statement released at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday. “This morning, the Houthis launched a surface-to-surface missile from Yemen into our territory. They should have known by now that we charge a heavy price for any attempt to harm us,” he said. “Those who need a reminder in this matter are invited to visit the port of Hodeidah,” he added, referring to Yemen’s Red Sea city, which Israeli warplanes bombed in July after the Houthis claimed a drone strike that killed a civilian in Tel Aviv. The Houthi leader, Abdul-Malek al-Houthi, warned on Sunday of further attacks on Israel. “The operation our forces carried out today with an advanced Yemeni missile is part of the fifth stage of the escalation. What is to come will be greater,” he said in a speech. Nasruddin Amer, the deputy head of the Houthi media office, described the attack as the “beginning”, claiming in a post on X that a Yemeni missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept”. A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said a “new hypersonic ballistic missile” had been aimed towards an Israeli military target, which crossed 1,270 miles in 11 minutes and which the IDF failed to intercept, while another senior Houthi official, Hezam al-Asad, posted a taunting message in Hebrew on X. Israeli media reports suggested the missile had been detected at a very late stage.“The warhead of this missile is separate from the body, and with the help of wings and jam-proof navigation systems it zigzags its way towards the target, which can make interception systems very difficult,” said a report on the Ynet newspaper website. The Houthis, who, like Hezbollah, are aligned with Iran, have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea. They have also repeatedly attacked commercial shipping in what they portray as a blockade against Israel in support of the Palestinians, although most of the targeted vessels have no connection to Israel. If Sunday’s strike is confirmed, it would mark the first instance of a missile launched from Yemen landing on Israeli soil. In July, an Iranian-made drone sent by Yemen’s rebels struck Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding at least 10. At the time, the drone appeared to have crossed much of the country through the multilayered air defences that have intercepted almost all Houthi drones and rockets since the war in Gaza began. The incident will raise concerns across Israel about the ability of the country’s anti-ballistic missiles systems to defend it from attacks that could come simultaneously from Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and Yemen. The ballistic missile launched from Yemen was anticipated, with the Houthi foreign minister issuing an early warning the previous day. A senior Biden administration official told CNN in June that Israel’s air defences risked being overwhelmed by multiple attacks. On Sunday morning, the Israeli military also reported that approximately 40 projectiles had been launched from Lebanon, with the majority being intercepted or landing in uninhabited regions. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, and Netanyahu said on Sunday that the current situation was not sustainable. “The existing situation will not continue. We will do everything necessary to return our residents safely to their homes,” he said. “We are in a multi-arena campaign against Iran’s evil axis that strives to destroy us.” Tensions are also high in the West Bank, where Israeli military operations have been going on for weeks and violence has reached unprecedented levels, posing a significant threat to local communities. A UN worker was fatally shot by a sniper while on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank on Saturday. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation worker with Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, became the first employee of the agency to be killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. The incident came as mourners gathered in Turkey to lay to rest a US-Turkish activist who was killed by the Israeli military during a protest in the West Bank this month. In a separate development on Sunday evening, an Israeli border police officer was lightly wounded in a stabbing attack at the Damascus Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, police said. The assailant attacked the officer with a sharp object before attempting to flee into the Old City, according to authorities. A police spokesperson said the attacker was shot and “neutralised”. Ten months into Israel’s war on Gaza, the death toll has passed 41,000, according to health authorities there. Most of the dead are civilians and the total represents nearly 2% of Gaza’s prewar population, or one in every 50 residents. The conflict was triggered by Hamas’s attack on 7 October in which 1,200 people died and about 250 were taken hostage.

The Guardian;‘Catastrophe of epic proportions’: eight drown in Europe amid heavy floods;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/catastrophe-of-epic-proportions-six-drown-in-europe-amid-heavy-floods-storm-boris-poland-austria-slovakia-hungary;2024-09-15T15:45:34Z

Eight people have drowned in Austria, Poland and Romania and four others are missing in the Czech Republic as Storm Boris continues to lash central and eastern Europe, bringing torrential rain and floods that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes. Swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been battered by high winds and unusually fierce rains since Thursday. Austria’s vice-chancellor, Werner Kogler, said on Sunday that a firefighter had died tackling flooding in Lower Austria, as authorities declared the province, which surrounds the capital, Vienna, a disaster area. Some areas of the Tirol were blanketed by up to a metre (3ft) of snow – an exceptional situation for mid-September, which saw temperatures of up to 30C (86F) last week. Rail services were suspended in the country’s east early on Sunday and several metro lines were shut down in Vienna, where the Wien River was threatening to overflow its banks, according to the APA news agency. Emergency services made nearly 5,000 interventions overnight in Lower Austria where flooding had trapped many residents in their homes. Firefighters have intervened about 150 times in Vienna since Friday to clear roads blocked by storm debris and pump water from cellars, local media reported. Extreme rainfall is more common and more intense because of human-caused climate breakdown across most of the world, particularly in Europe, most of Asia, central and eastern North America, and parts of South America, Africa and Australia. This is because warmer air can hold more water vapour. Flooding has most likely become more frequent and severe in these locations as a result, but is also affected by human factors, such as the existence of flood defences and land use. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said one person in the Kłodzko region had drowned. Tusk was travelling through the south-west of the country, which has been hit hardest by the floods. About 1,600 people have been evacuated in Kłodzko, and Polish authorities have called in the army to support firefighters on the scene. “The situation is very dramatic,” Tusk said on Sunday after a meeting in Kłodzko, which was partly under water as the local river rose to 6.7 metres on Sunday morning – well above the alarm level of 2.4 metres – before receding slightly. That surpassed a record set during heavy flooding in 1997, which partly damaged the town and claimed 56 lives. On Saturday, Polish authorities shut the Gołkowice border crossing with the Czech Republic after a river flooded its banks, as well as closing several roads and halting trains on the line linking the towns of Prudnik and Nysa. In the nearby village of Głuchołazy, Zofia Owsiaka watched with fear as the fast-flowing waters of the swollen Biała river surged past. “Water is the most powerful force of nature. Everyone is scared,” said Owsiaka, 65. In Budapest, officials raised forecasts for the Danube to rise in the second half of this week to above 8.5m, nearing a record 8.91m seen in 2013, as rain continued in Hungary, Slovakia and Austria. “According to forecasts, one of the biggest floods of the past years is approaching Budapest but we are prepared to tackle it,” said Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karácsony. Meanwhile, police in the Czech Republic said four people were missing on Sunday. Three had been in a car that was swept into a river in the north-eastern town of Lipová-lázne, while another man was missing after being swept away by floods in the south-east. A dam in the south of the country burst its banks, flooding towns and villages downstream. “What you see here is worse than in 1997 and I don’t know what will happen because my house is under water and I don’t know if I will even return to it,” said Pavel Bily, a resident of Lipová-lázne. In a message on X, Czech police urged people to heed evacuation warnings, adding: “Police and firefighters know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. The situation is changing quickly and we can’t be everywhere immediately. Within a few moments, the only way out could be by helicopter.” Six people have died in floods in south-east Romania over the past two days. In the worst-affected region, Galati in the south-east, 5,000 homes were damaged. Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, said: “We are again facing the effects of climate change, which are increasingly present on the European continent, with dramatic consequences.” Hundreds of people have been rescued across 19 parts of the country, emergency services said, releasing a video of flooded homes in a village by the Danube river. “This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” said Emil Dragomir, the mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Galati where 700 homes had reportedly been flooded. Slovakia has declared a state of emergency in the capital, Bratislava. Heavy rains are expected to continue until at least Monday in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The Guardian;Women ‘disheartened’ by UK decision to halt Harvey Weinstein charges;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/women-attack-uk-decision-to-halt-harvey-weinstein-charges;2024-09-15T15:44:54Z

Women who were key to exposing the disgraced Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein have told of their frustration at the decision by UK prosecutors to discontinue two indecent assault charges against him. Zelda Perkins, a former personal assistant to Weinstein who broke a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to help expose him as a rapist, said the decision called into question the justice system’s attitude towards sexual assault and rape. “It’s about how the Crown Prosecution Service balances what it’s going to cost them in terms of resources and the likelihood of a conviction,” she said. The CPS announced this month that it was discontinuing the charges of indecent assault against a woman in London in 1996 after a review of evidence found “there is no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”. Perkins, who said she had asked the police to return pieces of evidence including diaries and tapes relating to Weinstein, said she believed the UK developments were partly influenced by recent events in the US, where Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for sex crimes was overturned by a New York appeals court. He is due to be retried and now also faces new charges there. “What happened in the US is not about his guilt,” she said. “There was a legal technicality and all that does is highlight, yet again, that this is about the disparity of power. If you are wealthy, you can afford lawyers, you will continue looking for smaller and smaller and smaller legal loopholes. “I don’t think that was the sole reason but it fed into the decision here. There is a huge issue with the British justice system and the ability of the CPS to deal with rape and sexual assault and where they consider it’s worth spending money pursuing cases.” Rowena Chiu, who was also an assistant to Weinstein and who publicly accused him of attempting to rape her in Venice in 1998, said it had been her understanding that British prosecutors were waiting to see how the trials in the US would go. “But it does appear the case that the logistics and the cost and the barriers to getting very powerful, wealthy men convicted remains a deterrent,” she said. “It is disheartening that the balance of power is so tipped against survivors, who have to jump through what seems to be an extraordinary set of hoops in order to get a conviction and to get a conviction to stick. “Legal reform is needed to shift that balance. But I also take an optimistic view. [The New York case] is not over and there are other brave women willing to come forward. I’m constantly impressed by the conviction of people who will not give up and I hope that that is a signal to the world at large that this is a reckoning. This is a new moment. It’s an answer to everyone who said that #MeToo will be flash in the pan. It’s a decade later. We’re still here.” The CPS decision would be “hugely disheartening” to victims of sexual assault, said Perkins, the co-founder of Can’t Buy My Silence, an organisation campaigning against the use of NDAs. But she added: “The root of this issue is much broader than weak men’s proclivity for sexual assault. It has to do with the system that enables those in power to abuse and buy justice. That is far more problematic on a global scale in terms of the integrity of law. Weinstein is going to die in prison, and the headlines always follow how it’s about him not being brought to justice. But I think it’s more about systemic weakness.” Weinstein, 72 – who is recovering from emergency heart surgery – was indicted last week on additional sex crime charges before a retrial in New York. He was convicted in 2020 after a jury found him guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. A Los Angeles jury in 2022 found him guilty in a separate case on three counts of rape and sexual assault and he was sentenced in 2023 to an additional 16 years. He denies wrongdoing.

The Guardian;Middle East crisis: Netanyahu says Israel will ‘exact heavy price’ for Houthi attack – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/15/middle-east-crisis-live-un-worker-killed-by-israeli-sniper-in-west-bank-israel-reports-missile-from-yemen;2024-09-15T15:00:07Z

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed publicly on Tuesday that three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’ northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed Ghandour, in November. According to reports from Hebrew media, families of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nik Beizer, both 19, and civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed by IDF officials that their loved ones had tragically lost their lives as a result of IDF actions after a comprehensive inquiry. Israel is allegedly recruiting asylum seekers from Africa to take part in military operations in Gaza in exchange for residency rights, according to an investigation by Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz. According to the report, based on testimonies of asylum seekers and defence officials, speaking off-the-record, Israel’s defence establishment is “offering African asylum seekers who contribute to the war effort in Gaza assistance in obtaining permanent status in Israel”. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday. It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. A missile fired at central Israel from Yemen hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports. Moments earlier, air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Houthis in Yemen should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price after an attack on Israeli soil. At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel “will not continue,” and that he was determined to do everything possible to return northern evacuees to their homes. Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday. “It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement. Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more, AFP reports. Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front. At least 41,206 Palestinians have been killed and 95,337 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza, AFP reports. Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages. Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike. Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governantes, the humanitarian organisation shared on X. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion. That’s all from the Middle East crisis live blog. Thanks for following along. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed publicly on Tuesday that three Israeli hostages were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’ northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed Ghandour, in November. According to reports from Hebrew media, families of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nik Beizer, both 19, and civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed by IDF officials that their loved ones had tragically lost their lives as a result of IDF actions after a comprehensive inquiry. For ten months, the IDF denied the incident, after the army in December recovered their bodies from a Hamas tunnel in Jabaliya on 14 December. On Sunday, the IDF said: “The findings of the investigation suggest that the three, with high probability, were killed by a byproduct of an IDF airstrike, during the assassination” of Ghandour. “This is a highly probable estimate given all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death,” the military says. Every evening, for two hours, Asma Mustafa sits down with the small children of Nuseirat camp in central Gaza for what now passes as school in the beleaguered strip. She makes do with what is available: sometimes there are pens and paper for basic maths and literacy, but most of the time class time is taken up with storytelling, singing and play. “I have been doing this since November,” said Mustafa, 38, who taught at a girl’s high school in Gaza City before the war. “Many children are now working or helping their families find basic things like food during the day, but I try to give them a little bit of structure and normality in the evenings.” Last week was supposed to mark the beginning of the new school year in Palestine, but in Gaza 625,000 school-age children are now entering a second year in which they have been denied the right to education because of the Israel-Hamas war. More than 45,000 six-year-olds were due to start school this year. In the 11 months since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, almost all of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, and some of the strip’s schools have become shelters – but about 90% of Gaza’s 307 public school buildings and all 12 universities have been damaged or destroyed in Israeli attacks, according to the Education Cluster, a collection of aid groups led by Unicef and Save the Children. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a surface-to-surface ballistic missile that landed a few miles south-east of Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned the group it would pay a “heavy price”. The missile triggered air sirens across the country at about 6.30am, with local media airing footage of people racing to shelters at the international airport. According to reports, the missile hit an open area in the Ben Shemen forest, sparking a fire near Kfar Daniel. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The Israeli military is investigating if the fire was the result of falling fragments due to the interceptor missiles launched at the projectile, or if the rocket had actually penetrated Israeli air defences as the Houthis have claimed, saying the group had used a hypersonic missile for the first time. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they made several attempts to intercept the missile using their multi-tiered air defences but had not yet determined whether any had been successful. “An initial inquiry indicates the missile most likely fragmented in mid-air,” the IDF said, with “several interception attempts made by the Arrow and Iron Dome aerial defence systems”. It added that “the entire incident is under review”. Israel is allegedly recruiting asylum seekers from Africa to take part in military operations in Gaza in exchange for residency rights, according to an investigation by Israel’s daily newspaper Haaretz. According to the report, based on testimonies of asylum seekers and defence officials, speaking off-the-record, Israel’s defence establishment is “offering African asylum seekers who contribute to the war effort in Gaza assistance in obtaining permanent status in Israel”. Haaretz reported that the programme was being carried out in an “organised manner” under the supervision of “defence establishment” legal advisers. Sources who spoke with Haaretz said: “While there were some inquiries about granting status to asylum seekers who assisted in the fighting, none were actually given status. At the same time, the defence establishment sought to provide status to others who contributed to combat efforts.” Contacted by the Guardian, the IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment, citing it is still reviewing and “checking” the allegations. Benjamin Netanyahu said the Houthis should expect a “heavy price” for the missile attack on Israel. “Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory airstrike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv. The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October. The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli airstrikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80. Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli airspace, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March. Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the 7 October operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said. The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”. The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas. “No injuries were reported,” the military said. In an update to our earlier report on a missile fired from Yemen landing in Israel, the missile triggered air raid sirens at Israel’s international airport. Israel hinted that it would respond militarily. There were no reports of casualties or major damage, but Israeli media aired footage showing people racing to shelters in Ben Gurion international airport. The airport authority said it resumed normal operations shortly thereafter. A fire could be seen in a rural area of central Israel, and local media showed images of what appeared to be a fragment from an interceptor that landed on an escalator in a train station in the central town of Modiin. The Israeli military said it made several attempts to intercept the missile using its multitiered air defences but had not yet determined whether any had been successful. It said the missile appeared to have fragmented mid-air, and that the incident is still under review. The military said the sound of explosions in the area came from interceptors. The Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel since the start of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but nearly all of them have been intercepted over the Red Sea. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to New York on 24 September, the first day of the high-level general debate by world leaders at the annual UN general assembly, his office said Sunday. It said Netanyahu is scheduled to stay until 28 September in the US, which he had visited in July for official talks and a congressional address. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. A missile fired at central Israel from Yemen hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports. Moments earlier, air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Houthis in Yemen should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price after an attack on Israeli soil. At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel “will not continue,” and that he was determined to do everything possible to return northern evacuees to their homes. Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday. “It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement. Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more, AFP reports. Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front. At least 41,206 Palestinians have been killed and 95,337 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza, AFP reports. Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages. Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike. Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governantes, the humanitarian organisation shared on X. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Houthis in Yemen should have known that Israel would exact a heavy price after an attack on Israeli soil. At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also said that the current situation in northern Israel “will not continue,” and that he was determined to do everything possible to return northern evacuees to their homes. At least 41,206 Palestinians have been killed and 95,337 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday. Hezbollah warns Israel against Lebanon border flare-up Hezbollah’s second-in-command warned on Saturday that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more, AFP reports. Naim Qassem, number two in the Iran-backed Lebanese group, was speaking after defence minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was determined to restore security to its northern front. In a speech in Beirut, Qassem said: “We have no intention of going to war, as we consider that this would not be useful.” “However, if Israel does unleash a war, we will face up to it – and there will be large losses on both sides,” he said. On Saturday evening, the Israeli military said its air force had struck suspected Hezbollah weapons storage facilities at two locations in Lebanon’s eastern Beqaa Valley, as well as in six locations in the south. Three children were among four people wounded in an Israeli strike in the northern Beqaa’s Hermel district, 140km from the Israeli border, the Lebanese health ministry said. Yemen’s Houthis claimed responsibility for a ballistic missile attack that reached central Israel for the first time on Sunday. “It forced more than two million Zionists to run to shelters for the first time in the enemy’s history,” the military spokesperson for the Houthis said in a statement. Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel’s main cities on Saturday in a bid to increase pressure on the government to secure the release of hostages in Gaza, AFP reports. Weekly rallies have sought to keep up pressure on the Israeli government, accused by critics of stalling on a deal to free the remaining hostages. Protest organisers say crowd sizes have swelled this month after an announcement by Israeli authorities that six hostages whose bodies were recovered by troops had been shot dead by militants in a southern Gaza tunnel. Thousands of people joined the rally in Tel Aviv and another in Jerusalem, seat of the Israeli parliament, AFP correspondents said. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing rising anger from critics who accuse him of not doing enough to secure a truce deal that would see hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Of 251 captives seized during Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, 97 are still held in the Gaza Strip including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. The vast majority of the hostages freed so far were released during a one-week truce in November. Israeli forces have rescued alive just eight. A missile fired at central Israel from Yemen hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports. Moments earlier, air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel, sending residents running for shelter. “Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in central Israel, a surface-to-surface missile was identified crossing into central Israel from the east and fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said. Loud booms were also heard in the region, which the military said came from missile interceptors that had been launched. It added that its protective guidelines to Israel’s residents were unchanged. Smoke could be seen billowing in an open field in central Israel, according to a Reuters witness, though it was unclear if the fire was started by the missile or debris of an interceptor. A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. The war in Gaza has overshadowed spiralling conflict in the West Bank, which has seen weeks of Israeli military operations and violence has reached “unprecedented levels, placing communities at risk,” Unrwa said. For more on this story: Welcome back to our live coverage on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. I’m Tom Ambrose. The UN says a sniper killed one of its employees on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Meanwhile, a missile fired at central Israel from Yemen has hit an unpopulated area, causing no injuries according to Israel’s military on Sunday, Reuters reports. More details on those stories shortly, in other recent developments: Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike. Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governantes, the humanitarian organisation shared on X. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion.

The Guardian;Israeli military admits ‘high probability’ it mistakenly killed hostages;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/israeli-military-admits-high-probability-it-mistakenly-killed-hostages;2024-09-15T14:46:21Z

The Israeli military has said there is a “high probability” that three hostages found dead in a tunnel at the end of last year were mistakenly killed in a strike that also took the life of Hamas’s northern Gaza brigade chief, Ahmed al-Ghandour, in November. The families of Col Nik Beizer and Sgt Ron Sherman, both 19, and the French-Israeli civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were abducted by Hamas on 7 October, were informed in the last week by officials from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that a comprehensive inquiry revealed their loved ones had lost their lives as a result of IDF actions. Their bodies were recovered on 14 December from a tunnel in Jabaliya but the most likely cause of death was only recently determined, the military said. “The findings of the investigation suggest that the three, with high probability, were killed by a byproduct of an IDF airstrike,” a statement said. “This is a highly probable estimate given all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death.” The families were initially told the hostages had been killed by Hamas captors and, in January, the IDF rejected Hamas’s assertions that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike. The conclusions of the investigation could add to pressure on the government to strike a deal to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas. The mothers of the two soldiers had pressed, since their bodies were discovered, for a full account of how their sons had died. “We have to find out the truth about everything,” Maayan Sherman, the mother of Sherman, told the Wall Street Journal in May. “Even if the truth is: ‘We had to kill them.’” The November airstrike was aimed at al-Ghandour, who was taking cover in a tunnel. The IDF’s inquiry at the time concluded that the military was unaware of the presence of hostages in the area during the strike. “At the time of the strike, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the targeted compound,” the military said. “Furthermore, there was information suggesting that they were located elsewhere, and thus the area was not designated as one with suspected presence of hostages.”

The Guardian;Saudi Arabia calls for more pressure on Iran as Houthi threat grows;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/saudi-arabia-iran-houthi-threat-yemen-israel-red-sea;2024-09-15T14:13:57Z

The claimed acquisition by Yemen’s Houthi rebels of hypersonic missiles capable of penetrating Israeli air defences threatens to further heighten Middle East tensions, as Saudi Arabia calls for more than “pinprick bombings” to constrain the supply of weapons to the group. Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemen government opposing the Houthis, believes Iran has been arming the group, including with the weapons used in the attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Those attacks have led to a halving of the traffic on the Red Sea route, pushing up the costs of maritime transport and damaging the Egyptian economy through disruption to the Suez canal. But in the Houthi capital, Sana’a, from where the rebel group mastermind their attacks on shipping, the leadership celebrated Sunday’s claimed attack on Israel – which landed in an open area near Ben Gurion international airport – as a homegrown breakthrough and claimed the technology was created by the hard work of Yemeni technicians. It promised more strikes would come. Before the attack the Houthis had issued warnings of some kind of attack on Israel. Previous Houthi missile attacks have not penetrated far into Israeli airspace, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March. An attack with an Iranian-made drone on Tel Aviv in July killed one person and wounded 10 others. Israel used its Arrow and Iron Dome defences against the Houthi missile on Sunday but has not yet determined if any of the multiple attempts to intercept it were successful. The Houthis, a Shia group that have held Sana’a since 2014, may have employed the Qadr F variant of Iran’s 20-year-old Qadr-110 or Ghadr-110 medium-range ballistic missile. Iran has repeatedly been accused, including by the UN, of supplying weapons to the Houthis initially for use in fighting the Saudi-backed Yemen government based in Aden. Despite an intensive bombing campaign by the Saudis in 2016, the Houthis have proved impossible to displace, even mounting drone attacks into Saudi Arabia. A ceasefire exists inside Yemen but the UN special envoy for the country, Hans Grundberg, told the UN security council that the threat of a return to all-out civil war remained. Turki al-Faisal, a former Saudi intelligence chief and diplomat, has expressed the kingdom’s disappointment at the way Iran has been helping the Houthis. Speaking at Chatham House in London on Friday, he called for more international action to block such assistance and said the “pinprick bombings” mounted on Houthi positions by US and UK naval forces in the Red Sea needed to be more effective. “We have seen the deployment of European and US fleets along the Red Sea coast and more can be done there to interdict the supply of weaponry that comes to the Houthis from Iran,” he said. “Putting pressure on Iran by the world community can have a positive impact on what the Houthis can do in launching these missiles and drones to hit international commerce.” Faisal claimed that by continuing to interfere in Arab states such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as well as in Palestine, Tehran had not fulfilled its side of the diplomatic bargain struck between Iran and Saudi Arabia in China two years ago. “The Houthis now hold the world as hostage in the Bab al-Mandab entrance to the Red Sea, and yet Iran is not showing that it can do something there if it wanted to, and the kingdom would have expected Iran to be more forthcoming in showing not just to us but to others that it can be a positive factor in securing stability and removing differences not just with Saudi Arabia but the rest of us.” He said it was unclear if the Iranians could control the Houthis, and the world was in trouble if it could not. Saudi Arabia has not joined the US military attacks because it says it has been pursuing a diplomatic route to form a national government in Yemen. The commander of the Middle East-based US 5th Fleet, V Adm George Wikoff, has said sporadic US and UK bombardments of the Houthi positions along the Yemen coast has not yet led to commercial shipping returning. The attacks caused a 50% drop in ship traffic through the Red Sea, prompting shipping companies to begin routing vessels around Africa, adding 11,000 nautical miles and $1m in fuel costs to journeys. The Houthi attacks have continued despite multiple strikes against positions on the Yemen coastline by the US and Israel in recent months.

The Guardian;‘The war has stolen our future’: Gaza children begin second school year without education;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/gaza-children-school-year-education-israel-war;2024-09-15T12:23:29Z

Every evening, for two hours, Asma Mustafa sits down with the small children of Nuseirat camp in central Gaza for what now passes as school in the beleaguered strip. She makes do with what is available: sometimes there are pens and paper for basic maths and literacy, but most of the time class time is taken up with storytelling, singing and play. “I have been doing this since November,” said Mustafa, 38, who taught at a girls’ high school in Gaza City before the war. “Many children are now working or helping their families find basic things like food during the day, but I try to give them a little bit of structure and normality in the evenings.” Last week was supposed to mark the beginning of the new school year in Palestine, but in Gaza 625,000 school-age children are now entering a second year in which they have been denied the right to education because of the Israel-Hamas war. More than 45,000 six-year-olds were due to start school this year. In the 11 months since Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, almost all of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, and some of the strip’s schools have become shelters. But about 90% of Gaza’s 307 public school buildings and all 12 universities have been damaged or destroyed in Israeli attacks, according to the Education Cluster, a collection of aid groups led by Unicef and Save the Children. “Education has totally stopped since 7 October and the future is still unclear,” Mustafa said. “There’s no vision for how we start again because we are still under attack. Everything and everyone is targeted – the tents, the shelters, the schools, the streets. It’s a very dangerous situation.” According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose data various investigations and the World Health Organization have found to be broadly accurate, 25,000 school-age children have been killed or injured in the war. For those who are clinging on, daily life has become a nightmarish struggle. There is no reliable data but it appears that many children have been put to work, collecting firewood or building makeshift shelters and gravestones. Younger children are sent to queue for hours at water and food distribution stations. Yara al-Shawa, 22, from Gaza City, found out last September she had won a full scholarship towards a master’s programme in human rights law in Qatar. Unable to leave the strip because of the Israeli blockade, she and her school-age siblings now spend morning to night trying to keep their family alive and well. “My younger brother now takes on responsibilities that no child should bear: gathering supplies, fetching water, tending to our household needs. School is a distant memory for him now. He’s been forced to grow up too fast under these circumstances,” she said of 15-year-old Ayman. “I’m always struck by how much he has changed. He’s not little any more,” she added. “The war has stolen our future. What once seemed like achievable dreams – me becoming a lawyer, my brother finishing school – now feel like fantasies.” Studies show that the more school time children miss, the more difficult it is to catch up on lost learning, and the less likely they are to return. Younger children’s cognitive, social and emotional development suffers; girls are more likely to be married off at younger ages, and boys forced into work or militancy. Small-scale initiatives to keep children learning and engaged are present all over Gaza, and last month Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, managed to launch a “back to learning” programme in 45 shelters across the strip, which includes games, drama, arts, music and sports activities to try to mitigate the war’s impact on children’s mental health. For Mustafa, the teacher in Nuseirat, the Unrwa programme is welcome but highlights how much more needs to be done. “There is only so much local or international organisations can do when sometimes five notebooks cost $50,” she said. “There is nowhere safe, schools and shelters are targeted. These challenges can’t be solved except by ending the war.” For now, as internationally mediated talks founder once again, no ceasefire that could help restore normality is on the horizon. Like so many in Gaza, Mustafa has little choice but to cling to the hope that the war will end soon and the children of Gaza will be able to go back to a more normal life. “The kids of Gaza are the future. They give me hope,” she said. “They give me the power to keep standing, to keep going.”

The Guardian;South Africa school language law stirs Afrikaans learning debate;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/south-africa-school-language-law-stirs-afrikaans-learning-debate;2024-09-15T12:20:29Z

A contentious South African education law has drawn furious condemnation from politicians and campaigners who claim it is putting Afrikaans education under threat while evoking for others an enduring association of the language with white minority rule. The Basic Education Laws Amendment Act was signed into law on Friday by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who said he would give dissenting parties in his coalition government three months to suggest alternatives to two sections that give provincial officials the powers to override admission decisions and force schools to teach in more than one of South Africa’s 12 official languages. The provisions have meanwhile been welcomed by those who say they are necessary in order to stop some government schools using language to racially exclude children. The controversy has tapped into multiple sensitive political topics in South Africa: forcing children to learn in languages they don’t understand, the enduring association for some of the Afrikaans language with apartheid, persistent racial inequalities and the parlous state of many schools. “We have seen cases of learners being denied admissions to schools because of their language policies,” Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, the country’s largest party, said before signing the bill, which was passed before May’s elections. “The bill is part of the states’ ongoing effort to build an education system that is more effective and more equitable.” The Democratic Alliance (DA), which gets the majority of its support from white voters and is the second largest party in South Africa’s coalition government, threatened legal action if mother-tongue schooling was not protected after the three-month negotiation period. “Afrikaans-medium schools constitute less than 5% of the country’s schools,” said the DA’s leader and agriculture minister, John Steenhuisen, referring to schools that teach only in Afrikaans. “Their existence in no way contributes to the crisis in education, and turning them into dual-medium or English-medium schools will not help improve the quality of education for South Africa’s learners.” Afrikaans evolved from the Dutch settlers around Cape Town, as well as African and south-east Asian enslaved people, local Indigenous people and their mixed-race Cape Coloured descendants. Some of the first texts in Afrikaans were written in Arabic script by Cape Malay Muslim scholars in the early 19th century. Language and education have a tortuous history in South Africa. When the Boer war ended in 1902, Afrikaans became a form of resistance among white Afrikaners to British colonial rule and English education. After Afrikaner nationalists took power in 1948, with policies including intentionally making segregated black schools worse, the language became identified with white minority rule. In 1976, hundreds of children were shot dead by police in the Soweto uprising when they marched peacefully against the imposition of Afrikaans tuition in schools. According to census data, the number of South Africans speaking Afrikaans at home rose from 5.9 million in 1996 to 6.6 million in 2022, with the majority of speakers non-white. But by share of the population the figure has fallen from 14.5% to 10.6%, and some Afrikaner rights groups argue they are losing their language, culture and identity. “For our cultural community it’s essential that we have schools where there is Afrikaans education, it’s used as the language of tuition and that it should be monolingual schools,” said Alana Bailey, the head of cultural affairs at Afriforum, which she said campaigns for minority rights, rejecting accusations of racism. Since apartheid ended, many black parents living near the limited number of good historically white schools have tried to send their children there. In some cases this has resulted in officials trying to force Afrikaans-only schools to also teach in English, with legal battles reaching the constitutional court. “There were historically quite a few Afrikaans schools that were not full to capacity and would use language provision as a way to create barriers to access,” said Brahm Fleisch, a professor of education at the University of the Witwatersrand, expressing his support for the new law as a safeguard. “When schools are full and there’s no evidence of discrimination on the basis of race … schools are not compelled to change their language policy.” South Africa’s constitution guarantees the right to education in an official language of choice where “reasonably practicable”. But Marius Swart, a language policy expert at the University of Stellenbosch, said the lack of state capacity meant mother-tongue education in indigenous languages was still a distant dream for many children. Meanwhile, most of South Africa’s children continue to struggle in school. In 2021, a survey found that 81% of 10-year-olds could not read for understanding. “We still, to a very large extent, have a stratified school system with a relatively small elite of rich schools,” Swart said. “With relatively rich children from relatively rich families attending them and then many, many children who are in … poorly resourced schools and who really struggle.”

The Guardian;Real Madrid pauses concerts after ‘torture-drome’ noise complaints;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/real-madrid-bernabeu-stadium-cancels-reschedules-concerts-noise-complaints;2024-09-15T11:56:47Z

Real Madrid has cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at its Santiago Bernabéu stadium and is working to comply with council noise regulations after local people complained that a series of loud, late gigs had turned the arena into a “torture-drome”. Although best known as the home of one of Spain’s greatest football teams, the Bernabéu – which has just undergone a five-year, €900m (£760m) refurbishment – has hosted a string of high-profile concerts over the spring and summer. Recent headliners have included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G. But while the concerts delighted some music fans, they drove many local people to despair. Faced with decibels far exceeding legal levels, midnight finish times, fans camping out in local parks, drunk people urinating in doorways and the blocking off of residential roads, a group representing those living around the stadium began legal action against those responsible, including Madrid city council. In a statement released on Friday, the club said it had decided to rethink its concert schedule. “Real Madrid FC is announcing that it has decided to provisionally reschedule its event and concert programme at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium,” it said. “This decision is part of a raft of measures that the club is taking to ensure that the concerts comply strictly with the relevant municipal regulations.” Despite the introduction of soundproofing measures, “different organisers and promoters” had still found it difficult to comply with council noise regulations, the statement said. It added: “Real Madrid will continue working to make sure that the necessary sound production and emission conditions are in place to allow concerts to be held in our stadium.” The statement said concerts by the Spanish artists Dellafuente and Aitana, slated for November and December, would be rescheduled, as would concerts next March by Lola Índigo. A K-pop concert in October has been cancelled. The club said it was still planning a large number of shows and events to make the most of the revamped stadium, but added: “Real Madrid will continue working with the Madrid regional government and Madrid city council when it comes to sustainability and coexistence, and its aim is always to ensure that the stadium’s activities live up to its commitment to the city of Madrid and are beneficial to the surrounding environment.” José Manuel Paredes, a spokesperson for the association that was formed in response to the concert noise, said the announcement had come as a temporary relief to those around the stadium but stressed that the group had not abandoned its legal action. “We’ve managed to stop things in the neighbourhood getting worse for at least six months, so things are better,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re giving up the fight. The problem is still the fact that the stadium isn’t equipped to be a concert venue, nor will it be.” Paredes said the Bernabéu was only licensed by the council to hold sporting fixtures and the odd “extraordinary event”, and was not meant to be holding frequent concerts. “We just need them to follow the law – no more, no less,” he said.

The Guardian;Kyiv’s botanical garden staring at disaster as Russia targets Ukraine’s energy sector;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/kyivs-botanical-garden-staring-at-disaster-as-russia-targets-ukraines-energy-sector;2024-09-15T10:22:30Z

Zhanna Yaroslavska showed off a barrel-shaped stove in the middle of a tropical greenhouse. Nearby was a large pile of logs. “It’s a pretty neanderthal arrangement,” she explained. “When the power shuts off we feed the stove with wood. In winter we do this round the clock. Our plants require constant temperatures. They don’t like cold and hot.” Inside the glass nursery were dozens of rare specimens. All were bromeliads native to the Americas. Silvery wisps of beard-like Tillandsia descended from a pipe. A pineapple poked out of a stem. A screen next to the stove protected a group of starfish-like earth stars, native to Brazil. The collection needed a minimum temperature of 10C, Yaroslavska – a senior researcher – said. Below that everything would die off. The greenhouse is one of eight in the Mykola Hryshko national botanical garden in Kyiv. Founded in 1935, it is Ukraine’s biggest garden and one of the largest in Europe. It is home to about 13,000 species of trees, flowers and other plants from around the world. The 52-hectare (130 acres) site has scientific departments and two laboratories. With its roses and camellias, it is a popular venue with wedding photographers. But the park is now staring at disaster. In recent months, Russia has systematically destroyed most of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Power cuts in the capital and across the country are common, with the situation getting worse. The city authorities have said they will not be able to guarantee supply in the freezing months ahead. Prices for electricity have doubled, as the garden’s funding has shrunk. “Worst-case scenario is we lose a big part of our collection,” Roman Ivannikov, the head of the tropical and subtropical plant department, said. Money is so tight he and his colleagues recently took a pay cut. Last winter, £55,000 in donations kept the garden going, allowing the purchase of 242 tonnes of fuel pellets. Volunteers chopped firewood. The garden is appealing for help, under the hashtag #greenhousewarming. Before the first chilly night of October arrives, Ivannikov said his team urgently needed additional generators. The orchid house had a unique collection of exotic specimens and was especially vulnerable. Last year, three Samsung heat pumps were fitted to maintain temperatures at 20-22C. But there was no back-up in the case of a prolonged shutdown. Ivannikov pointed out some of the collection’s highlights. They included an egg-in-the-nest orchid from China – it has a strange white-and-purple-spotted flower – and a delicate green jewel orchid. Another example – Doritis pulcherrima – was descended from a plant sent into space in 1986. The orchid was part of a Soviet mission to the Mir space station, where the crew performed experiments in biology. The garden collaborates with international partners. In 2014, it sent plants to Vietnam, after their original habitat was destroyed to make way for banana and coffee crops. “I travelled with 45 orchids,” Ivannikov recalled. “I watched on TV, as Russia took Crimea.” Scientific conferences with Moscow stopped. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion Ivannikov took his family out of Kyiv and returned a week later. The Kremlin continues to fire missiles at the capital. From time to time, falling debris breaks glass in the hothouses. Blast waves from explosions have dislodged a chunk of wall and knocked over red-listed plants. “We haven’t had a direct hit. But we suffered a lot of damage,” Ivannikov said. In January, a rocket flew above the main orangery, a giant glass dome containing banks of shaggy vines and a towering king palm. Iryna Yudakova, an engineer, was inside. “I didn’t hear the air alarm. I went out and saw a streak in the sky,” she said. “There was an explosion. A piece of shrapnel fell next to me. Another hit a window. I was lucky.” Yudakova said she enjoyed her job but that the pay – 8,000 hryvnia a month (£150) – was measly. “Previously I was a psychologist. When the war started I lost my clients. Without my husband I couldn’t survive,” she said. Yudakova’s duties include looking after the rhododendrons and azaleas. In February, one of her favourite plants – an old specimen bred in Germany in the 1930s – lost most of its leaves during a blackout. “It got too cold,” she said. “The younger, smaller plants survive better.” Standing next to the denuded shrub, she reflected: “It’s like losing a relative or a pet. I think of them as my kids. I water them, care for them, talk to them.” Many employees have worked at the garden for decades. Others fled Russian occupation. Among them are a father and daughter in charge of the bonsai collection, who escaped from Mariupol. Ivannikov said his soldier cousin died defending the eastern city, which Russia flattened in 2022. About 1,000 volunteers do various tasks. They prune lavender, remove unwanted hops and water juvenile plants. “It’s gardening therapy. The volunteers do useful work. They go home feeling better,” Ivannikov said. Last weekend, dog walkers and young couples visited the alpine garden and sat in a pleasant outdoor cafe. A red squirrel bounded between trees. Next to the administration building – where new orchids are nurtured in glass flasks – a sale of succulents was going on. Proceeds went to Ukraine’s armed forces. Back at the bromeliad house Yaroslavska said she would like to replace the building – constructed in 1976 under communism – with a modern, more heat-efficient version. She recognised there was no point in making improvements while the war rumbled on and bombs fell randomly from the sky. For now, the objective was for the garden and its 4,000 tropical and subtropical plants to get through the coming winter. There were also smaller challenges, she said. A bold squirrel had climbed in through a ventilation window and made off with the figs from a rare tree. Apart from getting rid of the squirrel, what else did she want? “If I had a magic wand I would wish there was no Russia,” she replied. “No Russia means no problem. We could live normally.”

The Guardian;US rejects claims of CIA involvement in alleged plot to kill Maduro after Venezuela arrests six ;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/us-rejects-claims-of-cia-involvement-in-alleged-plot-to-kill-maduro-after-venezuela-arrests-six;2024-09-15T01:09:39Z

The US state department rejected allegations of CIA involvement in an alleged assassination plot against Nicolás Maduro after Venezuelan officials announced the arrest of three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech on Saturday. The claims of a plot against Maduro – the Venezuelan president, whose recent re-election is contested – were made on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the interior minister. Cabello said the foreign citizens including a US navy member were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership. In the television programme, Cabello showed images of rifles that he said were confiscated from some of the alleged plotters. The US state department late on Saturday confirmed the detention of a US military member and said it was aware of “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela”. “Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela.” The claims come two days after the US treasury imposed sanctions on 16 allies of Maduro, accused by the US government of obstructing voting during the disputed 28 July Venezuelan presidential election and carrying out human rights abuses. During the past week, Spain’s parliament recognised the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the election, angering Maduro allies who called on the Venezuelan government to suspend commercial and diplomatic relations with Spain. Tensions between Venezuela’s government and the US have increased as well following the election, whose result sparked protests within Venezuela in which hundreds of opposition activists were arrested. Venezuela’s electoral council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro administration, said Maduro won the election with 52% of the vote but did not provide a detailed breakdown of the results. Opposition activists surprised the government by collecting tally sheets from 80% of voting machines. They were published online and indicate that Gonzalez won with twice as many votes as Maduro. Despite international condemnation, Venezuela’s supreme court, which has long backed Maduro, confirmed his victory in August. Venezuela’s attorney general then filed conspiracy charges against Gonzalez, who fled to Spain last week after it became clear he would be arrested. Maduro has dismissed requests from several countries, including the leftist governments of Colombia and Brazil, to provide tally sheets that prove he won. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has long claimed the US is trying to overthrow him through sanctions and covert operations. The Maduro administration has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to gain concessions. In a 2023 deal, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the US government to secure a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who was held in Florida on money laundering charges. According to US prosecutors, Saab had also helped Maduro to avoid US treasury sanctions through a complex network of shell companies. Associated Press contributed reporting

The Guardian;Ukraine war briefing: more than 100 Ukrainians released in prisoner swap with Russia;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/15/ukraine-war-briefing-more-than-100-ukrainians-released-in-prisoner-swap-with-russia;2024-09-15T00:51:17Z

More than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war will be able to return to their families after an exchange of captives of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. The swap on Saturday, mediated by the United Arab Emirates, involved 206 military personnel from both countries. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that of the 103 Ukrainian “warriors” who were released, 82 were soldiers and privates and 21 were officers, including police officers and border guards. In return for their freedom, Ukraine released more than 100 Russian military personnel taken prisoner in the Kursk border region since Ukrainian forces invaded. It is the second such swap since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia, and occurred after mediated negotiations. Russian shelling killed at least seven people in four attacks on the south, south-east and east of Ukraine on Saturday, regional Ukrainian governors said. Russian shells struck an agricultural enterprise in the town of Huliaipole, killing three people in the Zaporizhzhia region in south-east Ukraine, governor Ivan Fedorov said. A missile attack in the suburbs of Odesa killed a man and a woman and injured a 65-year-old woman, the Odesa regional governor said. Shelling killed one person in the southern region of Kherson, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin. In the Kharkiv region, the body of a 72-year-old woman was retrieved from the rubble after Russia struck the village of Pisky-Radkivski, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Details could not be independently verified. Britain and the US have raised fears that Russia has shared nuclear secrets with Iran in return for Tehran supplying Moscow with ballistic missiles to bomb Ukraine. During their summit in Washington DC on Friday, Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, and the US president, Joe Biden, acknowledged that the two regimes were tightening military cooperation at a time when Iran is in the process of enriching enough uranium to complete its long-held goal to build a nuclear bomb. British sources indicated that concerns were aired about Iran’s trade for nuclear technology, part of a deepening alliance between Tehran and Moscow. However, it’s unclear how much technical knowledge Tehran has to build a nuclear weapon at this stage, or how quickly it could do so. Iran denies that it is trying to make a nuclear bomb. Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not “threats and pressure”, state media reported on Saturday. Abbas Araqchi’s comments came a day after the EU’s chief diplomat said the bloc was considering new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, in reaction to reports Tehran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine. Keir Starmer has been urged by former UK defence secretaries and an ex-PM to allow Ukraine to use provided long-range missiles inside Russian territory even without US backing, according to the Sunday Times. The call came from five former Conservative defence secretaries – Grant Shapps, Ben Wallace, Gavin Williamson, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox – as well as from Boris Johnson. They warned Starmer that “any further delay will embolden president Putin”, the Sunday Times reported. Starmer and Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia. No decision was announced. Joe Biden will use the remaining four months of his term “to put Ukraine in the best possible position to prevail”, according to the US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Biden would meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in late September at the UN general assembly in New York to discuss aid to Ukraine, Sullivan said. “President Zelenskiy has said that ultimately this war has to end through negotiations, and we need them to be strong in those negotiations,” Sullivan said, adding Ukraine would decide when to enter talks with Russia. The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, said North Korean military aid to Russia presented the biggest concern on the battlefield compared with support provided by Moscow’s other allies. “They supply huge amounts of artillery ammunition, which is critical for Russia,” he said, pointing to the ramp up in the battlefield hostilities after such deliveries. Ukraine and the US, among other countries and independent analysts, say the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, is helping Russia in the war against Ukraine by supplying missiles and ammunition in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow. Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday that Russia could destroy Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of western long-range missiles by Ukraine. Medvedev claimed Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use other weapons technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when the Kremlin’s patience runs out.

The Guardian;Mother of man accused in California wildfire says ‘he did not light that fire’;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/arson-southern-california-wildfire-san-bernardino;2024-09-14T23:43:22Z

The mother of the 34-year-old man accused of starting the Line fire in southern California – which has scorched at least 38,000 acres (15,378 hectares) and destroyed one home – has spoken out in defense of her son, telling the Los Angeles Times on Thursday that “he did not light that fire”. Arson-related charges have been filed against Justin Wayne Halstenberg, who is accused of starting the San Bernardino county blaze on 5 September. He is due to be arraigned on Monday according to the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office. Halstenberg’s mother, Connie Halstenberg, told the Los Angeles Times that there were things that her son does that she does not approve of but that “he is not an arsonist”. Prosecutors in the San Bernardino county district attorney’s office allege that Halstenberg tried to start a fire in at least two other locations before succeeding. The first, on Bacon Lane in Highland, California, was reported and extinguished by firefighters. “The second was stomped out by a good Samaritan,” the district attorney’s office said. “Undeterred, he ignited a third fire which is what we now know as the Line fire,” prosecutors said in the statement. Prosecutors said additional charges may be filed for any further structure damage or injuries as the fire continues. The full extent of the damage caused by the blaze remains unclear, but Jason Anderson, the San Bernardino county district attorney, said at least one home had been destroyed. The wildfire was 25% contained as of Saturday. Cool weather over the next several days should help, fire officials said. The Line fire is burning through dense vegetation that grew after two back-to-back wet winters when snowstorms broke tree branches, leaving behind a lot of “dead and down fuel”, Jed Gaines, a Cal Fire operations section chief, said. Four firefighters have been injured in the fire, according to Cal Fire, the latest on Friday. Los Angeles news channel KESQ reported that a firefighter had been airlifted to a hospital after experiencing weakness on the frontlines, citing a Cal Fire official. Thousands of firefighters, aided by cooler weather, made progress on Saturday against three southern California wildfires, and officials in northern Nevada were hopeful that almost all evacuees from a blaze there could soon be home. Authorities have started scaling back evacuations at the largest blaze. The Bridge fire east of Los Angeles has burned 81 sq miles (210 sq km), torched at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. Two firefighters have been injured in the blaze, state fire officials said. Don Freguila, an operations section chief, said on Saturday that containment was estimated at 3% and improving, with nearly 2,500 firefighters working the lines. He said Saturday’s focus would be the fire’s west flank and northern edge near Wrightwood, where air tankers have dropped retardant on the flames in steep, rugged areas inaccessible to ground crews. “A lot of good work. We’re really beating this up and starting to make some good progress,” Freguila said. He said a new spot fire broke out on Friday night near the Mount Baldy ski area along the blaze’s southern edge, burning only about an acre before crews “buttoned it up”. The Airport fire in Orange and Riverside counties has been difficult to tame because of the steep terrain and dry conditions, and because some areas had not burned in decades. Reportedly sparked by workers using heavy equipment, it has burned more than 37 sq miles (96 sq km). It was 9% contained as of Saturday. “Although direct lines have been challenging to build due to rugged terrain, favorable weather conditions have supported their efforts,” the Saturday situation report from the California department of forestry and fire protection said. Eleven firefighters and two residents have been injured in the blaze, according to the Orange county fire authority. The fire has destroyed at least 27 cabins in the Holy Jim Canyon area, authorities said. The southern California blazes have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures since they escalated during a triple-digit heatwave. Smoke and ash from the wildfires have degraded the air quality, as the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued advisories for residents to limit their exposure to the smoky orange skies. The blaze in Nevada near Lake Tahoe broke out last weekend, destroying 14 homes and burning through nearly 9 sq miles (23 sq km) of timber and brush along the Sierra Nevada’s eastern slope. Some 20,000 people were forced from their homes early this week. Fire officials said there was a 90% chance the last of the evacuees would be able to return to their homes by the end of Saturday. Containment of the blaze was estimated at 76% Saturday, fire spokesperson Celeste Prescott said. Some of the 700 crew members should soon be sent off to other fires, she added. Firefighters were mostly mopping up but anticipated winds picking up in the afternoon, and so stood ready to attack any spots that flare up. “We’re on the verge of big success here,” said Charles Moore, the Truckee Meadows fire district chief.

The Guardian;‘Transformative, for better and for worse’: what’s the legacy of Peru’s Alberto Fujimori;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/transformative-for-better-and-for-worse-whats-the-legacy-of-perus-alberto-fujimori;2024-09-14T19:37:36Z

At 11.45 on Thursday morning, six white-gloved pallbearers carried a coffin holding the body of the most divisive, beloved and reviled Peruvian politician of the last four decades. They passed the mourners, the cameras and the flag-topped lances of the Húsares de Junín cavalry regiment, and set it down in the hall of Lima’s brutalist culture ministry. Behind the coffin, holding hands and dressed in black under a pale but warm spring sky, came its occupant’s eldest daughter and youngest son. A crowd of ministers, political allies and military top brass awaited them at the ministry. And so began three days of national mourning to honour Alberto Fujimori, the political upstart who served as president of Peru from 1990 to 2000 and who, nine years later, was ordered to serve a 25-year sentence for authorising kidnappings and murders during his government’s “war against terrorism”. On Saturday, after a state funeral at the ministry, supporters gathered as he was buried at the Campo Fe de Huachipa cemetery in the city. The fact that Fujimori, who died of cancer aged 86 on Wednesday, was afforded the kind of send-off not seen since the 2020 funeral of the Peruvian former UN secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar may have infuriated many in the South American country, but it came as little surprise. After all, the life and legacy of Fujimori – who was pardoned and released from prison just 10 months ago – is perhaps the most bitter and disputed topic in contemporary Peru. To many, he will always be the cynical autocrat whose corruption, hunger for power and disdain for human rights poisoned the nation. To others, he will forever remain the political outsider who came from nowhere but somehow managed to defeat the twin scourges of terrorism and hyperinflation. Those in the latter camp were evident on the streets outside the culture ministry on Thursday, where they queued, cheered and cried as they reminisced about the man affectionately known as “El Chino”, while floral wreaths sent by the country’s business elite piled up. “He’s getting the honours he deserves because he was the best president in the history of Peru,” said Milagros Parra, 54, who had come with companions from the San Juan de Lurigancho neighbourhood on the outskirts of Lima. “He inherited a country full of blood with massive hyperinflation. We have to thank him.” Her friend Bonifacia Moreno, 79, was also grieving. “Our economy is thanks to him; our peace is thanks to him, she said. “Who will defend us now?” Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, was the all-but-unknown candidate who ran against the Peruvian novelist – and future Nobel prize-winner – Mario Vargas Llosa in the 1990 election, which was held after almost a decade of the Shining Path’s Maoist terrorism and years of economic upheaval. With Vargas Llosa perceived as another candidate from the country’s white, Lima-centric elite, Fujimori, an agricultural engineer and mathematician schooled in France and the US, capitalised on his appeal to ordinary Peruvians by riding a tractor and pledging “honesty, technology, work”. The pitch worked and Fujimori won. His drastic market reforms and deregulation of the Peruvian economy appealed to the business elite, while programmes to build schools, roads and bridges in poor, abandoned communities, won him votes and lifelong support. As a result, said José Alejandro Godoy, the author of two books about Fujimori, “both wealthy and poor sectors continue to be the main bases of support for him and the political movement he founded”. But, faced with economic and terrorist turmoil from the outset, Fujimori governed with an increasingly authoritarian hand in connivance with his spymaster, Vladimiro Montesinos, a corrupt lawyer and former soldier who offered him control of the judiciary and the armed forces. Emboldened by broad public support, Fujimori embarked on the “war against terrorism” that eventually crushed the Shining Path insurgency and then the smaller Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which made headlines when it took hostages during a party at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in December 1996. The capture in 1992 of the Shining Path’s leader, Abimael Guzmán, proved a major coup – the much-feared terrorist mastermind was paraded in a cage in prison stripes – as did the operation that ended the siege at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in April 1997. Desperate for an end to the bloodshed – the country’s truth and reconciliation commission would later establish that 69,280 people were killed between 1980 and 2000, 54% of them by the Shining Path – many Peruvians supported Fujimori’s “by any means necessary” tactics. In the early 1990s, Fujimori holed up in the intelligence service headquarters from where he directed a dirty war using a death squad, the Grupo Colina, to carry out massacres for which he was eventually convicted and jailed for 25 years in 2009 in a landmark trial against a former head of state. These crimes, which included the murder of an eight-year-old boy and a string of other human rights violations, turned a large sector of public opinion against Fujimori, as did increasing revelations of corruption. But it took time. Even when he dissolved congress in 1992, allied himself with the military and co-opted national institutions to rewrite the constitution, allowing him to run for re-election, he still had broad support. With a chokehold on power, he gutted and corrupted public bodies and, via Montesinos, controlled a significant part of the press that trashed his opponents through tabloids known as the prensa chicha. “He perfected the use of ‘fake news’ to control and subjugate the population,” said Jo-Marie Burt, professor of political science at George Mason University and a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America. Things finally began to fall apart towards the end of his second term when he began pushing for a third mandate using much of the apparatus of a co-opted state. Protests against his regime grew until they became daily in Lima and, after an election in 2000 that was beset with allegations of ballot-rigging – and the emergence of videos that showed Montesinos bribing lawmakers with stacks of cash – Peruvians tired of the Fujimori government and its graft. Soon after, on an official trip to Asia, Fujimori fled to Japan, his parents’ homeland, and resigned the presidency by fax. But Peru’s congress rejected his resignation and, instead, stripped him of the presidency, arguing that he was “morally unfit” to be head of state. With Fujimori in disgrace and, latterly, in prison, it was left to his daughter, Keiko, who had been his first lady since 1994 when her parents separated, to defend and perpetuate her father’s legacy. Today, Keiko, who has finished second in the past three presidential elections, remains the standard bearer for the political force known, after her father, as fujimorismo – a viciously divisive movement that has contorted Peruvian politics ever since he won power. Fujimori may be dead, but experts say his shadow lingers – and will continue to do so for a while yet. Hundreds of thousands of women and men – many poor and Indigenous – are still seeking justice after being forcibly sterilised under his presidency. For Godoy, the late president “degraded Peruvian politics to extremes rarely seen in national history” and can be considered the father of the “competitive authoritarianism” seen today in El Salvador under Nayib Bukele. The author Michael Reid describes Fujimori as “a transformative president for better and for worse”. Although many, unsurprisingly, associate the late president with human rights violations and the poisoning of democracy, Reid points out that “most poorer Peruvians look back on Fujimori as somebody who saved the country and somebody who improved their lives and the economy” during a time of crisis. But, he added, Fujimori “introduced corruption as an instrument of rule and I think that was immensely damaging … Above all, his legacy, sadly, has been one of dividing Peruvians because he did rule as an autocrat from 1992 to 2000.” As Peru digs in for the mourning period and the many memories it will stir up, some have noted that, in a quirk of fate, Fujimori died exactly three years to the day after his terrorist nemesis Guzmán died in a military hospital , also at the age of 86. Some have even dared to imagine that the coincidence might herald a better future for a country desperately in need of a break with its recent past. “And so Alberto Fujimori dies on the same day as Abimael Guzmán,” the Peruvian writer Santiago Roncagliolo wrote on X. “Let’s hope this is an omen for an era with neither terrorists nor dictators. Let’s hope the universe is saying that Peru can be a democracy.”

The Guardian;‘It’s the height of horror’: protests in 30 French cities in support of Gisèle Pélicot ;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/its-the-height-of-horror-protests-in-30-french-cities-in-support-of-gisele-pelicot;2024-09-14T18:48:43Z

Hundreds of protesters gathered across France on Saturday in support of Gisèle Pélicot, the woman whose husband drugged her and invited more than 80 men to rape her at their home over the course of a decade. Feminist groups organised about 30 protests in cities including Paris and Marseille. Demonstrators also gathered in Brussels. At Place de la République in Paris, protesters held placards with messages of support for victims of sexual violence. One read: “Gisèle for all. All for Gisèle.” The case of the 72-year-old, who was repeatedly assaulted while unconscious, shocked the world. Her husband, Dominique, 71, who has pleaded guilty, is being tried with 50 other men accused of raping her. Gisèle Pélicot has been widely praised for her courage in saying the trial should be held in public, rather than behind closed doors. The men who allegedly raped her were aged between 26 and 73 when they were arrested and include a local councillor, a journalist, a former police officer, a prison guard, a soldier, a firefighter and a civil servant. Many were the couple’s neighbours in the small town of Mazan, near Avignon, in southern France. It was only after a security guard caught Dominique Pélicot filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket and he was arrested that the crime he committed against his wife of 50 years was discovered. Detectives found a file labelled “Abuses” on a USB drive. It contained about 20,000 images and films of his wife being raped up to 100 times. A video obtained by Paris Match shows him filming up a woman’s skirt in 2020. The security guard can be heard saying: “You’re disgusting… You’re lucky. If it was my mother I’d rip your head off.” At the trial in Avignon, Gisèle Pélicot said police had “saved my life”. When showed evidence of the rapes, she said, her world “fell apart”. She told the court the word rape was not strong enough; it was “torture”. The couple were married at 21 and had three children and seven grandchildren. “We weren’t rich, but we were happy,” she said. “Even our friends said we were the ideal couple.” Several of the men whom Pélicot, a retired electrician, recruited on an online chatroom insist they did not know his wife had been drugged and thought the sex was consensual. At a protest in Marseille, Martine Ragon, 74, said she was there to “denounce rape culture”. She told journalists: “This well-publicised trial will allow people to speak out about it, to raise awareness.” Her partner, Gérard Etienne, 75, added: “We need to support women who are treated like this. When you hear some of the testimonies, you wonder how a man can treat a woman like that.” Photographer Pedro Campos, 21, agreed: “It’s shocking… because we see that the [men on trial] are a bit like Mr Everyman. It goes against the idea that there is only one type of rapist.” Deborah Poirier, 36, protesting in Nice, said the attack was “the height of horror, crystallising everything that should never happen again”. The trial, scheduled to last four months, was suspended on Thursday, as it entered its second week, after Dominique Pélicot was taken ill on the day he was to be cross-examined. It will reopen on Monday, but presiding judge Roger Arata has warned that the hearing may have to be postponed if Pélicot remains unable to give and hear evidence.

The Guardian;Funeral for slain Turkish American Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi draws hundreds;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/aysenur-ezgi-eygi-funeral-turkey;2024-09-14T18:28:46Z

Hundreds of people waving Turkish and Palestinian flags gathered on Saturday for the funeral of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish American activist killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Cevdet Yılmaz, Turkey’s vice-president; Hakan Fidan, the foreign minister; Numan Kurtulmuş, the parliament speaker; and Özgür Özel, the main opposition leader from the Republican People’s party (CHP) were among mourners at the ceremony in the Turkish Aegean coastal city of Didim. A guard of honour carried the 26-year-old’s coffin, which was draped with a Turkish flag. “The blood of Ayşenur Eygi is as sacred as that of every Palestinian martyred, and we will follow it until the end. As the Turkish nation, we are fully committed. As a state, we are fully committed,” Kurtulmuş told reporters. Eygi was killed on 6 September as she took part in a protest against settlement expansion in the West Bank. Israel has acknowledged that its troops shot the activist, but says it was an unintentional act during a demonstration that turned violent. “She was directly targeted and shot behind her left ear. May God have mercy on her, and may her soul rest in paradise,” Kurtulmuş said. Ankara said it will request international arrest warrants for those to blame for what it calls an intentional killing. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris released statements on Wednesday after previously being criticised by the family for not calling to offer condolences. In Wednesday’s statement, the US president called the killing of Eygi “totally unacceptable” and called for full accountability. “Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” Biden said. The vice-president echoed Biden’s words, calling the killing “a horrible tragedy that never should have happened”. The White House has still not called for an independent investigation in to Eygi’s killing. In response to Wednesday’s statement, Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner, said that Biden had not directly contacted the family and renewed calls for an independent inquiry in the case. “The White House has not spoken with us,” he said in the statement. “For four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: to call us, offer his condolences and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation of the killing of Ayşenur.” Kurtulmuş said Turkey would “ensure this case is pursued until the end”. “We will hold them accountable in all international courts. Yesterday, we completed all autopsies in accordance with international standards,” he said. Prayers were held for Eygi in various Turkish cities, including Istanbul and Ankara. Reuters contributed to this report

The Guardian;Inside Japan’s biggest prison: home to yakuza… and hundreds of old men;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/inside-japan-biggest-prison-tokyo-home-to-yakuza-and-hundreds-of-old-men;2024-09-14T17:00:32Z

With its glass frontage and portico, Fuchū prison could be mistaken for a local government office. Inside, visitors enter an airy reception area where a banner declares support for the local football team, FC Tokyo. But stepping through a heavy, guarded door reveals that this is unmistakably a place of incarceration. Its walls house 1,700 inmates, including a large number serving sentences of less than 10 years but who, in the words of the prison literature, have “advanced criminal tendencies”. The atmosphere is one of calm and order: cells with neatly folded bedding, piles of books and spotless mint-green walls. The silence is broken by the sound of a guard greeting the prison’s chief, Hiroyuki Yashiro, as he chaperones a small number of media organisations, including the Observer, that have been granted rare access to the frontline of Japan’s criminal justice system. About a third of the men imprisoned at Fuchū, Japan’s biggest prison, have links to the yakuza – Japan’s crime syndicates. They are easy to spot, sporting elaborate, sprawling tattoos only partly concealed by regulation white vests. But it is hard to imagine many of them chasing their nemeses through the streets of Tokyo, roughing up business owners for protection money or going head-to-head with members of a rival gang. Like many of the inmates here, they have long since entered the twilight of their criminal careers. The proportion of foreign inmates at Fuchū, in Tokyo’s western suburbs, has risen slightly due to a drop in the size of the overall prison population but, according to Yashiro, the biggest challenge comes from its large and growing population of older men – a criminal cohort that reflects wider demographic trends in Japan, where almost a third of the 125 million population is aged 65 or over. In Fuchū, 22% of inmates fit into that age bracket, bringing with them needs that can give the prison the feel of a care home, from the specially appointed wet rooms to the nursing care qualifications younger inmates acquire to look after their older counterparts and, perhaps, use to find a job after release. “Some of the older men struggle to walk or bathe unaided and have to take medication, so that is why we get younger men to help them,” says Yashiro, adding that more than 70% of older inmates require treatment for chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease and mental health conditions. The age gap is visible in the prison’s workshops. In one, younger men spend eight hours a day making bags and T-shirts, learning car maintenance, printing pamphlets or manning the kitchens and laundry facilities. In another, however, older men are given no more demanding a task than to assemble plastic laundry pegs to improve their strength and manual dexterity. Fuchū’s most famous inmates include Kenichi Shinoda, the octogenarian head of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s most powerful crime syndicate, and Michael Taylor, the ex-US Green Beret who helped Carlos Ghosn flee Japan in 2019. Taylor, who served just over a year of his sentence at Fuchū before being transferred to prison in the US, has spoken since his release of the harsh conditions: extreme temperatures, a lack of water, and a long list of rules and regulations – applicable to all inmates irrespective of age – that include not speaking to fellow prisoners during work or meals, having to sit a certain way for long periods in their cells, limited visiting rights and just 30 minutes of exercise a day. TV viewing is monitored and rationed, although Fuchū’s 370 foreign inmates have access to English- and Chinese-language radio broadcasts. Roll call is at 6.45am, and lights out at 9pm. Inmates bathe three times a week, with 15 at a time sharing a large communal bath. Japanese prison regulations are based on the 1908 penal code, which has retained its draconian foundations despite several revisions. In a damning report on the experience of female prisoners last year, Human Rights Watch said: “Japan’s prisons impose harsh conditions of confinement. Imprisoned people are subject to strict regulations enforced by prison guards with the threat of solitary confinement for disciplinary infractions. “Regulations in Japan’s prisons are often rigidly enforced in ways that risk worsening social isolation and creating psychological harm for imprisoned people. For instance, imprisoned people are often restricted from interacting with other imprisoned people without permission, including looking in their direction or even making eye contact.” But officials point to the absence of the overcrowding, drug abuse and violence that blight prisons in comparable countries – a relative calm they insist is possible only if rules are followed to the letter. Maintaining order is a trade-off between security and individual freedom, according to Fuchū’s director, Yuiichiro Kushibiki. “This place works because everyone is treated the same,” he says. “There is no hierarchy among criminals here. Look around … there are about 60 men in this workshop, and only a couple of guards. That can only happen if inmates follow the rules and, in turn, build respect with the staff.” In an area of a workshop, an ageing inmate attempts to throw beanbags on to a tabletop, while another slowly turns the pedals of an exercise bike. “We had to find a different way to treat frail and elderly inmates,” says Masanori Hayashi, the prison’s occupational therapist. “A lot of them can’t handle ordinary work or normal prison life”.” For some members of Fuchū’s ageing population, life after release will not necessarily herald a new start. According to Yashiro, about 40% “do not have proper living arrangements” on the outside and will need welfare assistance. The tour ends with a view of the visiting area, where inmates meet family and legal representatives a minimum of twice a month – and up to five times if they earn privileges for good behaviour – in cubicles divided by screens. Some older prisoners, though, will never set foot here. “They have no family left or who want to see them,” says Yashiro. “It’s much harder for older inmates to adjust after they are released. There are men here who find life easier on the inside.”

The Guardian;UN employee shot dead by Israeli sniper in occupied West Bank;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/un-employee-shot-dead-by-israeli-sniper-in-occupied-west-bank;2024-09-14T16:30:28Z

A sniper killed a UN worker on the roof of his home in the northern West Bank, the UN has said, as friends and family gathered in Turkey to bury a US-Turkish activist who had been killed by the Israeli military at a protest six days earlier and around 30km away. Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, a sanitation worker with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, was the first Unrwa employee killed in the West Bank in more than a decade. Shot in the early hours of Thursday morning in el Far’a camp, he left behind a wife and five children. The war in Gaza has overshadowed spiralling conflict in the West Bank, which has seen weeks of Israeli military operations and violence has reached “unprecedented levels, placing communities at risk,” Unrwa said. “Civilian infrastructure, including water and electricity networks, have been destroyed, with precarious access for communities to basic supplies,” the agency said in a statement about Jawwad’s death. “Unrwa has been forced to suspend services to refugees because of the unacceptable risk to staff and beneficiaries.” The violence was thrown into the international spotlight last week when an Israeli soldier killed 26 year-old US-Turkish activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi at a protest in Beita. She was in the town with International Solidarity Movement, a group dedicated to bringing observers trained in non-violent methods to protests. On Saturday hundreds of people gathered for her burial in the Turkish coastal town of Didim, where her coffin was carried by an honour guard from the Turkish military. Many in the crowd carried Palestinian flags, and photos of Eygi. Eyewitness Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli protester, said she posed no threat to troops when she was killed and that the shooting came during a moment of calm, following clashes between stone-throwing protesters and Israelis firing tear gas and bullets. The Israeli military said she was shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by one of its soldiers who were targeting violent protestors. Her family have called for an investigation and the shooting drew criticism from US officials including president Joe Biden, who said he was “outraged and deeply saddened”. The refugee camps of the northern West Bank, including Tulkaram, Jenin, Nur Shams and el Far’a, where Unrwa employee Jawwad was killed, have been a particular focus over weeks of Israeli military operations. The Israeli military said Jawwad was killed by a sniper during an operation in the camp. It said he was throwing “explosive devices” at its troops from his home, without providing evidence. “It was found that the terrorist was known to Israeli security forces and he had been complicit in additional terrorist activities,” spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said in a statement. UNWRA regularly provides lists of all staff members in Gaza and the West Bank to the Israeli government, and was not informed of any concerns about Jawwad before he was killed. Staff learned about the Israeli allegation from a statement on the social media site X. The killing came days after Israeli airstrikes on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza killed six UNWRA staff members, bringing the total number of agency employees killed in this war to at least 220. Israel’s military said three of the dead Unrwa workers were Hamas employees, without providing evidence. An independent review of previous Israeli claims that Unrwa staff were members of terrorist organisations found that the country was yet to provide any supporting evidence. It was led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna.

The Guardian;Crisis at Jewish Chronicle as stories based on ‘wild fabrications’ are withdrawn ;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/crisis-at-jewish-chronicle-as-stories-are-withdrawn;2024-09-14T15:36:38Z

The world’s oldest Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, has removed a series of sensational articles relating to the Gaza war after claims that the material was fabricated by a “freelance journalist” who had also misrepresented his résumé. After an investigation last week into the author, Elon Perry, the Jewish Chronicle put out a two-paragraph announcement late on Friday night, saying that it was unsatisfied with explanations supplied by the journalist regarding his assertions. “The Jewish Chronicle has concluded a thorough investigation into freelance journalist Elon Perry, which commenced after allegations were made about aspects of his record. While we understand he did serve in the Israel Defense Forces, we were not satisfied with some of his claims. “We have therefore removed his stories from our website and ended any association with Mr Perry. “The Jewish Chronicle maintains the highest journalistic standards in a highly contested information landscape and we deeply regret the chain of events that led to this point. We apologise to our loyal readers and have reviewed our internal processes so that this will not be repeated.” Founded in 1841, the JC – as it is familiarly known – has long been a respected institution in British Jewish life, attracting prominent Jewish journalists and writers to contribute. But the recent events have caused consternation about the direction of the paper as it has drifted further right under its editor, Jake Wallis Simons, and amid question over who owns it. The extraordinary events of the past week, which have now seen a series of high-profile articles taken down, began several months ago when a writer described as a British-based Israeli journalist began contributing a series of reports allegedly based on Israeli intelligence sources. Highly sensational, the articles purported to describe blow-by-blow Israeli operations – including what would be regarded as sensitive details – and intelligence purportedly gathered by Israel on the fugitive Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his plans. Journalists covering the Gaza conflict, already dubious about the veracity of the material, were unable to establish a meaningful record of Perry’s bona fides as described by the paper. Those suspicions were pushed into the open last week as a series of reports in the Israeli media described Perry’s articles as “fabrications”. In recent months, there have been suggestions in the Israeli media that stories have been placed in European newspapers, including one in the German tabloid Bild, that are based on fake or misrepresented intelligence, planted as part of an effort to support prime minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s negotiating position over Gaza. At a 4 September press conference for foreign media, Netanyahu suggested that if the Gaza border area with Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor – a sticking point in negotiations between Hamas and Israel for a ceasefire-for-hostages-deal – was not under Israeli military control, then Sinwar could use it to escape, perhaps taking hostages with him. The following day, an article by Perry in the JC had turned that into reality. The piece claimed that intelligence existed showing that Sinwar planned to escape to Iran with the hostages, derived from the interrogation of a senior Hamas figure and a document found late in August. Picked up by various Israeli media – and also promoted by Netanyahu’s son Yair and his wife Sara – the story, however, was quickly knocked down as a “wild fabrication”, with an IDF spokesman describing it as baseless. Digging by reporters in Israel and elsewhere also quickly established that Perry’s claims about his background, including his supposed work as a journalist and academic, and parts of his military record, were untrue or questionable. In particular, Perry faced questions about his claim to have served as a soldier during the famous Entebbe hostage rescue mission in 1976 and that he was a professor at Tel Aviv University for 15 years. The removal of the articles, after an investigation formally announced by the paper only the day before, raises serious questions for JC editor Wallis Simons, a former novelist who has written for the Mail, the Telegraph and Spectator. Despite being provided with a series of questions, Wallis Simons and the JC have so far declined to describe how Perry – an individual with no discernible journalistic track record, let alone as an investigative reporter – came to be writing for the paper or what due diligence had been exercised over an increasingly fantastic series of claims. Perry told the Observer that “the JC made a huge mistake with its statement”. He described the criticism as a “witch-hunt… caused by jealousy from Israeli journalists and outlets who could not obtain the details that I managed to.” The Perry affair comes on top of growing disquiet over the paper’s recent direction. In February, the Sunday Times Whitehall editor, Gabriel Pogrund, aired his misgivings about the paper on social media, including over its murky ownership arrangements that have puzzled observers. “The coarseness and aggression of the JC’s current leadership is such a pity and does such a disservice to our community,” wrote Pogrund. “It also once again poses the question: who owns it!? How is it that British Jews don’t know who owns ‘their’ paper. Moreover, how can a paper not disclose its ownership? It’s an oxymoron. I hate having to pose the question publicly but I asked privately more than a year ago to no avail.” Pogrund’s reservations are widespread among liberal British Jews, who feel it no longer represents them as it once did. “There was a sense that it was in the pocket of no one. It worked for the whole Jewish community, and because of that it had a greater institutional reach … in the Jewish community,” said one figure familiar with the paper’s history and role. “It has become much narrower in its outlook and campaigns on a particular set of issues.” The question of the ownership of the JC was examined in an article by Alan Rusbridger, the former editor of the Guardian, in Prospect magazine earlier this year. He suggested the paper was ultimately backed by a billionaire American, who has denied the claim. Among those commenting on the Jewish Chronicle’s removal of Perry’s articles were some who had been reposting them, including Eylon Levy, the combative former Israeli government spokesman who apologised for circulating the misleading articles to his 200,000 followers. “The @JewishChron has removed the dodgy stories by ‘freelance journalist’ Elon Perry and ended its work with him,” wrote Levy on X. “This is exactly how media should treat reporters who quote dodgy sources. My apologies to anyone misled by my posting of these reports.” Some were sceptical, however, that the removal of Perry’s stories would end the issue, including Ben Reiff of +972, one of the Israeli publications involved in exposing the fabrications. “It seems that by firing Elon Perry @JewishChron is hoping to put this whole affair to bed, as if decisions weren’t made at the very top to employ a fake journalist, publish nine fake articles without verifying sources, and use the paper [as] an active agent in a pro-Bibi influence op,” wrote Reiff on X.

The Guardian;Fury in Turkey as animal lovers and politicians attack ‘massacre law’ to deal with 4m stray dogs;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/fury-in-turkey-animal-lovers-politicians-attack-massacre-law-to-deal-with-4m-stray-dogs;2024-09-14T15:00:31Z

Next to the network of the highways that crisscross Turkey, among the lush forests or mountain peaks that dot the country, large stray dogs are a common sight. Most are pale white Akbaş dogs or Kangal shepherds, with their distinctive dark muzzle, pale golden coat and large bodies designed to herd livestock, although on the streets of Istanbul they are more commonly found lazing outside coffee shops, rotund and docile from a lifetime of treats. In cities at least, the stray dogs are popular enough to be seen as part of the architecture. One particularly large and sleepy example that dozes outside an ice-cream shop on Istanbul’s main shopping street has become a local celebrity nicknamed “The Boulder”, complete with a string of rave reviews left by delighted tourists. The dog is marked as an Istanbul tourist attraction on Google Maps, which features a recommendation to avoid petting him. Despite their welcome presence on the streets in some parts, Turkey’s estimated 4 million stray dogs have become the focus of a furious national debate. Last December, a 10-year-old boy was mauled by a pack of strays while walking to school, prompting president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pledge that the government would find a solution. “It is our duty to protect the rights of our people harmed by stray dogs,” he said. In late July, Turkish lawmakers worked overnight to push through a last-minute bill they claimed would resolve the issue of stray dogs, quickly sowing the seeds of outrage among opposition groups and animal rights activists. The new law, called the “massacre law” by its opponents, requires already underfunded and crowded Turkish shelters to take in strays to be vaccinated, spayed or neutered before putting them up for adoption, adding that any that are ill or pose a risk to humans will be euthanised. Mayors who fail to comply can face penalties, including up to two years in prison. The new law quickly proved just as divisive as the dogs’ presence, pitting Turks who view their country as a nation of animal lovers where street strays are treated well, against supporters of the state, who say decisive action is needed for public safety. Proponents of the law claim that stray dogs are a blight, with Erdoğan calling them “a problem that no other developed country has”, and pointing to a need to control the fabric of city life at street level. Opposition activists have united against the law, calling on the authorities to properly enforce previous legislation – also introduced by Erdoğan – which calls on local councils to vaccinate and neuter the dogs, rather than threatening penalties and a cull. At a protest in Istanbul, where police quickly surrounded demonstrators to assess whether their placards met their approval, a large crowd chanted “get your hands off our animals”. Zeynep Tekin said she had turned out to protest because she feared the crackdown on stray animals represents the state’s latest effort to control public life, worried about where it might lead. The government, she said, should instead show care by properly funding municipal shelters to improve conditions, which activists believe would prove most effective. “This is about much more than an animal rights issue … this is a war between the Turkish government and the oppressed,” she said, concerned that the authorities could seek to remove other minority groups from public life if this new law went unchallenged. The same exuberance permeated a gathering of hundreds of animal rights and leftwing activists, with some eager to unite around a cause that has fuelled their longstanding discontent with the conservative shift under two decades of AKP rule. Others said they were focused entirely on the dogs, as they waved approved placards showing puppies alongside Turkish flags. “We’re here to defend the right to life,” said protester Tulin Yeniçeri. “This isn’t anything political.” Longtime volunteer İnci Kutay recalled her time at a municipal shelter in Istanbul, where she described the “terrible conditions” of just two square metres of space for each dog. Sending more animals to these facilities was a death sentence, she said, and one she feared would be enacted brutally due to low budgets. “This is why we object to the new law – the municipalities don’t cover the costs for the animals currently in your care. How are they going to do this for the ones they collect? At least if they are released they have a chance for a good life in the neighbourhood,” she said. Proponents of the new law include Murat Pinar, who founded the Safe Streets Association after his daughter died when she was hit by a truck while running away from stray dogs in the town of Antalya. He said he wanted an end to what he called the “disorderly conduct” of the protests against the new law. Previous measures to curb the problem weren’t enough, he said, calling the protesters members of “marginal groups like feminists, LGBTQ and even some groups that are considered terrorist organisations in our country”.

The Guardian;Icelandic fishing giant Samherji sues art student for spoofing corporate website;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/icelandic-fishing-giant-samherji-sues-art-student-for-spoofing-corporate-website;2024-09-14T14:57:10Z

Iceland’s biggest fishing company is suing an art student at London’s high court for spoofing its website and issuing a fake public apology over a high-profile corruption scandal. The costly lawsuit, which will be heard this month, is feared by the student’s supporters to have a potentially chilling effect on artists engaging critically with large corporations, while also raising questions about the UK’s status as the go-to litigation jurisdiction for powerful businesses. Oddur Eysteinn Friðriksson, a 41-year-old Icelandic artist and MA fine arts student at the University of Bergen who goes under the moniker Odee, describes his practice as “culture jamming”, a term used for artists such as US duo The Yes Men or British street artist Banksy, who impersonate brands or companies to draw attention to corporate malpractices. For his 2023 work, We’re Sorry, Odee copied the corporate identity of Samherji, one of Europe’s largest fishing and fish processing companies, and on 11 May 2023 launched the website samherji.co.uk, containing a statement entitled: “Samherji Apologizes, Pledges Restitution and Cooperation with Authorities.” The pretend apology related to a corruption scandal known as the “Fishrot files”: in 2019, documents released by WikiLeaks and investigations by Icelandic media suggested Samherji had allegedly bribed officials in Namibia in exchange for profitable trawling rights. Two Namibian ministers and Samherji’s chief executive resigned in the wake of the scandal. In a genuine 2021 apology, the fishing company conceded that “mistakes were made”, while strongly denying allegations of bribery. Investigations are ongoing in both Namibia and Iceland. In addition to the website, Odee sent out a press release from samherji@samherji.co.uk to 100 media outlets in 20 countries that acknowledged “the severity of the allegations against us, which include corruption, bribery, and neocolonialism”. A 10-metre mural containing the same text went on display a week later at Reykjavík’s contemporary art museum, as part of Friðriksson’s BA graduation show. “Icelanders have been very critical of imperialist tactics throughout history. So to have this company drag the reputation of the country through the mud and put this huge stain on our history was just appalling,” Odee told the Observer. “An apology with promise of restitution and cooperation with the authorities is the only thing that can actually settle this matter”. Samherji reacted swiftly, putting out a statement identifying the spoof before it was picked up as genuine by the media, and filing an application for an interim injunction that led to the website being taken down on 24 May last year. Around the same time, Samherji filed a complaint in London accusing Odee of trademark infringement and malicious falsehood and seeking damages, which will be heard at the high court on 25 September. In preliminary proceedings, lawyers representing Samherji have insisted they are not complaining about the allegations per se but “the way the allegations are made”, and that the like-for-like impersonation of their corporate identity meant Odee’s “culture jamming” intervention did not qualify as parody. The case is reminiscent of a landmark lawsuit which ended litigation between French fashion house Louis Vuitton and the Danish artist Nadia Plesner over her use of images of its luxury bags in her work. The court eventually ruled in her favour, which allowed her to exhibit her painting Darfurnica, which dealt with the Darfur genocide. Plesner, as well as The Yes Men, have written letters of support for the Icelandic artist. One factor that distinguishes the two cases is that Louis Vuitton sued in the Netherlands, where there was negative media attention. Another is that Plesner managed to sell her work for $45,000. Odee, meanwhile, said that though he has received offers for We’re Sorry, he would not sell it as a matter of principle. In preliminary hearings, the high court judge initially questioned whether “Iceland is not the better place for this sort of issue to be ventilated”, though later appeared satisfied with the prosecution’s argument that the spoofed website’s co.uk suffix meant it was targeted at the UK. Andra Matei, a Paris-based free-speech lawyer whose legal NGO Avant Garde Lawyers has been supporting Odee in the case, suggested that comparatively high legal fees in the UK also meant a London-set lawsuit would lend a natural advantage to a big corporation such as Samherji. The company did not respond to a question from the Observer asking to explain why it was suing the artist under English jurisdiction. Odee said he had so far raised more than 33,000 Norwegian krone (£2,350) via a crowdfunding scheme, but would need about 150,000 NOK to defend himself at this point. He said he had rejected two offers for a settlement since it would have hinged on him destroying the artwork and never publicly talking about it in the future. He added: “I would never settle with Samherji, I believe that freedom of speech will prevail.” “We want Odee to have his day in court,” Matei told the Observer. “How important is it for us that artists get to express themselves freely and amplify important questions on issues like corruption and injustice? These are conversations we need to be having as a society.” Odee was previously threatened with legal action by the now defunct Icelandic low-budget airline WOW Air, after launching a spoof new airline with the similar-looking name MOM Air, which charged passengers for toilet paper, soap and life jackets. “Culture jamming is artistic jiu jitsu,” he said. “The more force someone applies to silence it, the harder they tend to fall.”

The Guardian;Hundreds released in Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap deal – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/14/russia-ukraine-war-live-nato-putin-zelenskiy;2024-09-14T14:34:15Z

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war, with each side releasing 103 people, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Saturday. The ministry said the Russian soldiers exchanged on Saturday had been taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian forces captured territory there last month in their first major incursion into Russia. Ukraine has made a new call on the West to allow it to strike deeper into Russia after a meeting between US and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in their policy on the use of long-range weapons. “Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said Saturday. US historian and author Timothy Snyder on Saturday led a charity run in Kyiv to raise awareness of the conditions under which Ukrainian prisoners of war are held in Russia as the conflict approaches a third winter. The race came after a recent escalation in Russian missile and drone attacks, largely aimed at Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not “threats and pressure”, state media reported on Saturday, after the US and three European powers imposed sanctions against the country’s aviation sector. Abbas Araqchi’s comments come a day after the European Union’s chief diplomat said the bloc is considering new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, in reaction to reports Tehran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine. Nato could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent Russia’s invasion in 2022, the outgoing head of the western military alliance said in an interview released on Saturday. “Now we provide military stuff to a war – then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS. Russian forces shelled 15 border areas of Ukraine’s Sumy region a total of 84 times on Friday, killing two people and wounding nine, the regional authority said. The authority, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said two people had died near the town of Yampil, Reuters reported. Russian forces have taken control of the village of Zhelanne Pershe in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run TASS news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace said the wrangling over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in Russia was just benefiting Vladimir Putin. The Tory former minister said: “I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again, another tug of war around another capability.” Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday Russia could destroy Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of western long-range missiles by Ukraine. Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when its patience runs out. Moscow knows that the West has made a decision on whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range missiles and has informed Kyiv, the TASS news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Saturday. Ryabkov did not clarify what the purported decision was, but said that since Moscow’s verbal warnings to the West against further escalation have not worked, Russia would need to switch to sending signals in different ways. Joe Biden dismissed sabre-rattling threats made by Vladimir Putin as the US president met with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House on Friday. Biden said he did not accept that Ukraine using western-made Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets in Russia would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow. At a foreign policy summit on Friday afternoon, Biden said: “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin.” Earlier, Russia announced it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage. Moscow’s FSB domestic spy agency said on Friday that it had acted on documents showing part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN told the security council on Friday that loosening the missile strike restrictions would mark an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and Nato. Washington officials accused Putin of trying to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine, reports Andrew Roth. In Europe, leaders played down Putin’s threats. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said: “I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin. They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front.” Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk had produced the desired result of slowing Moscow’s advance on another front in Ukraine’s east. The Ukrainian president said in Kyiv on Friday that Russia’s counterattack in Kursk produced no major successes – contradicting Vladimir Putin’s accounts of Russian advances on both fronts. Zelenskiy said Russia had about 40,000 troops on the Kursk front. “So far we have seen no serious [Russian] success.” Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its troops had taken back 10 villages out of 100 that Kyiv had occupied. The battlefield reports of either side were not able to be independently verified. That’s all from me, Tom Ambrose, and the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along. Iran’s foreign minister said that Tehran was open to diplomacy to solve disputes but not “threats and pressure”, state media reported on Saturday, after the US and three European powers imposed sanctions against the country’s aviation sector. Abbas Araqchi’s comments come a day after the European Union’s chief diplomat said the bloc is considering new sanctions targeting Iran’s aviation sector, in reaction to reports Tehran supplied Russia with ballistic missiles in its war against Ukraine. “Iran continues on its own path with strength, although we have always been open to talks to resolve disputes … but dialogue should be based on mutual respect, not on threats and pressure,” Araqchi said, according to the official news agency IRNA. Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran had not delivered any ballistic missiles to Russia and sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and three European powers would not solve any problems between them. Ukraine has made a new call on the West to allow it to strike deeper into Russia after a meeting between US and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in their policy on the use of long-range weapons. “Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said Saturday. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.” The renewed appeal came as Kyiv said Russia launched more drone and artillery attacks into Ukraine overnight, AP reported. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on allies to approve the use of western-provided long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. So far, the US has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine. US historian and author Timothy Snyder on Saturday led a charity run in Kyiv to raise awareness of the conditions under which Ukrainian prisoners of war are held in Russia as the conflict approaches a third winter. The race came after a recent escalation in Russian missile and drone attacks, largely aimed at Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure. People clapped and cheered after Snyder, a 55-year-old Yale University professor who has written extensively on eastern Europe and the global resurgence of authoritarian regimes and is much admired in Ukarine, addressed the nearly thousand runners. He then joined a workout and participated in the run. “Thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers are illegally held in captivity during an illegal war,” Snyder told the Associated Press just ahead of the run. “This race is about reminding everyone of that and expressing solidarity with Ukrainians and giving Ukrainians a chance to do something together,” he said. The United Arab Emirates mediated an exchange of 206 prisoners between Russia and Ukraine, Emirati state news agency WAM said, noting it was the country’s eighth such mediation. In a statement confirming the prisoner swap, the Russian defence ministry said: As a result of the negotiation process, 103 Russian servicemen captured in the Kursk region were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime In return, 103 Ukrainian army prisoners of war were handed over. At present, all Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives. Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war, with each side releasing 103 people, the Interfax news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Saturday. The ministry said the Russian soldiers exchanged on Saturday had been taken prisoner in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian forces captured territory there last month in their first major incursion into Russia. Nato could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent Russia’s invasion in 2022, the outgoing head of the western military alliance said in an interview released on Saturday. “Now we provide military stuff to a war – then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS. Russian forces shelled 15 border areas of Ukraine’s Sumy region a total of 84 times on Friday, killing two people and wounding nine, the regional authority said. The authority, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said two people had died near the town of Yampil, Reuters reported. Russian forces have taken control of the village of Zhelanne Pershe in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run TASS news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace said the wrangling over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in Russia was just benefiting Vladimir Putin. The Tory former minister said: “I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again, another tug of war around another capability.” Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday Russia could destroy Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of western long-range missiles by Ukraine. Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when its patience runs out. Moscow knows that the West has made a decision on whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range missiles and has informed Kyiv, the TASS news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Saturday. Ryabkov did not clarify what the purported decision was, but said that since Moscow’s verbal warnings to the West against further escalation have not worked, Russia would need to switch to sending signals in different ways. Joe Biden dismissed sabre-rattling threats made by Vladimir Putin as the US president met with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House on Friday. Biden said he did not accept that Ukraine using western-made Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets in Russia would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow. At a foreign policy summit on Friday afternoon, Biden said: “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin.” Earlier, Russia announced it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage. Moscow’s FSB domestic spy agency said on Friday that it had acted on documents showing part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN told the security council on Friday that loosening the missile strike restrictions would mark an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and Nato. Washington officials accused Putin of trying to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine, reports Andrew Roth. In Europe, leaders played down Putin’s threats. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said: “I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin. They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front.” Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk had produced the desired result of slowing Moscow’s advance on another front in Ukraine’s east. The Ukrainian president said in Kyiv on Friday that Russia’s counterattack in Kursk produced no major successes – contradicting Vladimir Putin’s accounts of Russian advances on both fronts. Zelenskiy said Russia had about 40,000 troops on the Kursk front. “So far we have seen no serious [Russian] success.” Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its troops had taken back 10 villages out of 100 that Kyiv had occupied. The battlefield reports of either side were not able to be independently verified. The Ukrainian general staff said on Friday that Russian forces had focused their assaults near the town of Kurakhove, about 33km (20 miles) south of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured Dolynivka, positioned between Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, the latest in a series of localities Moscow says it has seized. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 49 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been returned from Russia, with Agence France-Presse witnessing the group being greeted at the border with Belarus. The Ukrainian president did not clarify whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is usually the case, but AFP journalists had earlier seen Russian prisoners of war being loaded on to a bus near the border. Romania started training its first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots this week, the Nato country’s defence ministry said. The first four pilots had started their “theoretical training”, a ministry spokesperson told AFP, with practical training to follow “towards the end of the year”. Drone fragments fell on a municipal building in Kyiv’s Obolon district north of the city centre early on Saturday, said the mayor. Writing on Telegram, Vitali Klitschko said no fire broke out and emergency services were sent. He earlier said air defence units had been in action. A Reuters witness said explosions were heard. The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, urged people to remain in shelters as drones still posed a threat. The air raid alert was later lifted for the city but remained in effect for several regions of central Ukraine. Russian forces have taken control of the village of Zhelanne Pershe in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run TASS news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Saturday. Moscow knows that the West has made a decision on whether to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range missiles and has informed Kyiv, the TASS news agency cited Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Saturday. Ryabkov did not clarify what the purported decision was, but said that since Moscow’s verbal warnings to the West against further escalation have not worked, Russia would need to switch to sending signals in different ways. Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace said the wrangling over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in Russia was just benefiting Vladimir Putin. The Tory former minister said: “I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again, another tug of war around another capability.” The row over whether western missiles can be used to strike targets across Ukraine’s border follows similar delays over decisions on supplying tanks and fighter jets. “All of that delay, all of that tug of war favours Russia and allows Putin to insert, in the delay, threats and new red lines and efforts to divide and rule in the international community,” Sir Ben told BBC Radio 4’s Today. He said Putin was “a bully, and for a bully to succeed all he needs to do is intimidate people, all he needs to do is get people to pause and … that’s how he gets us to change our behaviour”. Senior Russian security official and former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday Russia could destroy Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with non-nuclear weapons in response to the use of western long-range missiles by Ukraine. Medvedev said Moscow already had formal grounds to use nuclear weapons since Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, but could instead use some of its new weapon technologies to reduce Kyiv to “a giant melted spot” when its patience runs out. “Holy shit! It’s impossible, but it happened,” he wrote in English on the Telegram messaging app. Earlier, Russia announced it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage. Moscow’s FSB domestic spy agency said on Friday that it had acted on documents showing part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. The Foreign Office, however, said the move had been made last month as part of a continuing diplomatic tit-for-tat. Sources indicated the British diplomats had left Russia weeks ago and were being replaced. A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The accusations made today by the FSB against our staff are completely baseless … We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests.” The British government expelled the Russian defence attache in May, accusing him of being an undeclared intelligence officer, and removed diplomatic status from several Russian-owned buildings in the UK. Joe Biden dismissed sabre-rattling threats made by Vladimir Putin as the US president met with the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the White House on Friday. Biden said he did not accept that Ukraine using western-made Storm Shadow missiles to bomb targets in Russia would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow. At a foreign policy summit on Friday afternoon, Biden said: “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin.” Biden and Starmer’s top foreign policy teams were meeting at the Blue Room in the White House. At the start of the meeting, James Matthews from Sky News jumped the gun by asking Biden: “What do you say to Vladimir Putin’s threat of war?” Biden scolded him. “You be quiet, I’m going to speak, OK?” the president said, before beginning his prepared remarks. Also present at the Blue Room meeting were Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary. Other British participants included Tim Barrow, the national security adviser, and Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray. Nato could have done more to arm Ukraine to try to prevent Russia’s invasion in 2022, the outgoing head of the western military alliance said in an interview released on Saturday. “Now we provide military stuff to a war – then we could have provided military stuff to prevent the war,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told German weekly newspaper FAS. Stoltenberg pointed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s reluctance to provide weapons that Kyiv had asked for before Russia’s full-scale invasion because of fears that tensions with Russia would escalate. After the war began, Kyiv, which is not a member of Nato, received one weapons system after another from its allies after initial hesitation. Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, will step down in October from his role at Nato, which he has held since 2014. Dutch former prime minister Mark Rutte was announced in June as the organisation’s next boss. In the interview, Stoltenberg said an end to the war in Ukraine would be achieved only at the negotiating table. “To end this war there will have to be again dialogue with Russia at a certain stage. But it has to be based on Ukrainian strength,” he said. Stoltenberg declined to confirm that he would take over from German diplomat Christoph Heusgen as chair of the Munich Security Conference after leaving Nato. He told FAS he had “many options” and would reside in Oslo. Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s war on its neighbour throughout the day. We start with news that Russian forces shelled 15 border areas of Ukraine’s Sumy region a total of 84 times on Friday, killing two people and wounding nine, the regional authority said. The authority, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said two people had died near the town of Yampil, Reuters reported. Sumy region has long been the target of Russian shelling in the 2-1/2-year-old war. It lies opposite Russia’s southern Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have launched an incursion since early in August. In other news this morning: Keir Starmer and Joe Biden have discussed letting Ukraine fire long-range, western-supplied missiles into Russia, while stopping short of any formal announcement. Vladimir Putin has threatened it would amount to Nato joining the war. The UK prime minister told reporters at the White House that he had a “wide-ranging discussion about strategy” with the US president but that it was not just a meeting about “a particular capability”. Biden dismissed Vladimir Putin’s sabre-rattling threats, saying he did not accept that Ukraine using Storm Shadows missiles against Russia proper would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow, reports Dan Sabbagh in Washington. “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin,” Biden said. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN told the security council on Friday that loosening the missile strike restrictions would mark an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and Nato. Washington officials accused Putin of trying to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine, reports Andrew Roth. In Europe, leaders played down Putin’s threats. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said: “I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin. They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front.” Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk had produced the desired result of slowing Moscow’s advance on another front in Ukraine’s east. The Ukrainian president said in Kyiv on Friday that Russia’s counterattack in Kursk produced no major successes – contradicting Vladimir Putin’s accounts of Russian advances on both fronts. Zelenskiy said Russia had about 40,000 troops on the Kursk front. “So far we have seen no serious [Russian] success.” Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its troops had taken back 10 villages out of 100 that Kyiv had occupied. The battlefield reports of either side were not able to be independently verified. The Ukrainian general staff said on Friday that Russian forces had focused their assaults near the town of Kurakhove, about 33km (20 miles) south of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured Dolynivka, positioned between Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, the latest in a series of localities Moscow says it has seized. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 49 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been returned from Russia, with Agence France-Presse witnessing the group being greeted at the border with Belarus. The Ukrainian president did not clarify whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is usually the case, but AFP journalists had earlier seen Russian prisoners of war being loaded on to a bus near the border. Romania started training its first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots this week, the Nato country’s defence ministry said. The first four pilots had started their “theoretical training”, a ministry spokesperson told AFP, with practical training to follow “towards the end of the year”. Drone fragments fell on a municipal building in Kyiv’s Obolon district north of the city centre early on Saturday, said the mayor. Writing on Telegram, Vitali Klitschko said no fire broke out and emergency services were sent. He earlier said air defence units had been in action. A Reuters witness said explosions were heard. The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, urged people to remain in shelters as drones still posed a threat. The air raid alert was later lifted for the city but remained in effect for several regions of central Ukraine.

The Guardian;More than 100 Ukrainians released in prisoner-of-war swap with Russia;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/more-than-100-ukrainians-released-prisoner-of-war-swap-russia;2024-09-14T14:26:47Z

More than 100 Ukrainian prisoners of war will be able to return to their families after an exchange of captured members of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. The prisoner swap on Saturday, mediated by the United Arab Emirates, involved 206 military personnel from both countries. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that of the 103 Ukrainian “warriors” who were released, 82 were soldiers and privates and 21 were officers, including police officers and border guards. Later, he said that his forces’ incursion into Kursk had helped bring about the prisoner exchange. In his nightly video address Zelenskiy thanked his forces for their work on the prisoner exchanges, and added: “In particular, our operation in the Kursk region gave a necessary boost.” Photographers captured the moment that the smiling and emotional Ukrainians, wrapped in their country’s flag, embraced their fellow soldiers after being swapped at an unknown location in Ukraine. They looked pale and thin, and all of the men released had shaved heads. One kneeled on the ground, his national flag draped around his shoulders, and stared down at his homeland as he made an emotional phone call. In return for their freedom, Ukraine has handed over 103 Russian military personnel taken prisoner in the Kursk border region when Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August. The Russian defence ministry said in a statement that all these Russians were now in Belarus, “where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives”. It is the second such swap since Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, and occurred after mediated negotiations between the two countries. UAE officials said that the number of captives exchanged through its mediation efforts now stood at 1,994. On Saturday, Ukraine made a new call on the west to allow it to strike deeper into Russia, after a meeting on Friday between Joe Biden and Keir Starmer failed to produce a visible shift in British and US policies on the use of long-range weapons. Zelenskiy has been pushing for months to use British Storm Shadow missiles, which can strike targets at least 190 miles (300km) away, to bomb airbases, missile sites and other military targets inside Russia. So far, the US has only allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons to strike within a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine. “Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said on Saturday. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.” On Thursday, Vladimir Putin warned western leaders that allowing Ukraine to use western-made long-range missiles would amount to Nato being at war with Russia. At Friday’s foreign policy summit with Starmer at the White House, Biden said he did not accept that and then told reporters: “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin.” On Saturday, a senior Nato military official said Ukraine would have a good reason to strike deeper into Russia using western weapons. Adm Rob Bauer said the law on armed conflict gave a nation the right to defend itself and that did not stop at its border. He said: “In military terms, you do (those attacks) because you want to weaken the enemy that attacks you in order to not only fight the arrows that come your way, but also attack the archer. “So, militarily, there is a good reason to do that; to weaken the enemy, to weaken its logistics lines, fuel, ammunition that comes to the front.”

The Guardian;Israel-Gaza war: UN worker killed in West Bank during Israeli operation – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/14/israel-gaza-war-live-unrwa-west-bank-middle-east-latest;2024-09-14T14:01:41Z

It has just gone 5pm in Gaza and Tel Aviv. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Israel-Gaza war coverage here and on the Middle East here. Here is a recap of the latest developments: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said that one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month. Unrwa identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation labourer. It said he was “shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper” in Faraa refugee camp. The Israeli military called the UN worker a “terrorist” who posed a threat to troops. Mourners gathered in the Aegean town of Didim, south-west Turkey, on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case. Initial findings from an autopsy in Izmir, Turkey, revealed a bullet hit Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in the head state-run TRT television reported. The cause of Eygi’s death was defined as “skull fracture, brain haemorrhage and brain tissue damage”. The report overlapped with an initial autopsy carried out by three Palestinian doctors, which concluded that a bullet passed directly through the victim’s skull. Her mother, Rabia Birden, on Friday urged Turkish officials to pursue justice. “The only thing I ask of our state is to seek justice for my daughter,” she was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency. A campaign is under way to drive Unrwa out of existence, its commissioner general has said, days after 18 people were killed when Israeli jets bombed an Unrwa school in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, Gaza’s civil defence agency said.“We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike. Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governates, the humanitarian organisation shared on X. Iran launched a satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to state-run media. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch’s success, nor did Iranian authorities immediately provide footage or other details. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. The second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday. The new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July. A man was shot and sustained life-threatening injuries on Thursday in Newton, Massachusetts, after he tackled a pro-Israel demonstrator. During a news conference on Thursday evening, Marian Ryan, the Middlesex district attorney, said that the incident took place at about 6.40pm on Thursday evening. The individual sustained life-threatening injuries, and is being treated at a local hospital, she said. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Gaza and the West Bank, said in a statement on Saturday that he is “hopeful these pauses will hold” as the UN agency prepare for the next round of polio vaccinations in Gaza in four week’s time. About 559,000 children under the age of 10 have recovered from their first dose, the WHO said, as part of a campaign to inoculate children in Gaza. According to the Associated Press (AP), the second doses are expected to begin later this month as part of an effort in which the WHO said parties had already agreed to. “As we prepare for the next round in four weeks, we’re hopeful these pauses will hold, because this campaign has clearly shown the world what’s possible when peace is given a chance,” Peeperkorn said. Initial findings from an autopsy in Izmir, Turkey, revealed a bullet hit Aysenur Ezgi Eygi in the head, reports Agence France-Presse, citing state-run TRT television. The cause of Eygi’s death was defined as “skull fracture, brain haemorrhage and brain tissue damage,” TRT television reported. According to AFP, the report overlapped with an initial autopsy carried out by three Palestinian doctors, which concluded that a bullet passed directly through the victim’s skull. Her mother, Rabia Birden, on Friday urged Turkish officials to pursue justice. “The only thing I ask of our state is to seek justice for my daughter,” she was quoted as saying by Anadolu news agency. Her father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, paid tribute to his daughter in Didim, telling AFP that she was a “very special person”. “She was sensitive to human rights, to nature, to everything,” he said. US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for Israel to provide “full accountability” for Eygi’s death. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has vowed to ensure “that Aysenur Ezgi’s death does not go unpunished”. Mourners gathered in south-west Turkey on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist, who was shot dead while protesting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey, further escalating tensions over the war in Gaza. Eygi’s body, wrapped in the Turkish flag and carried by uniformed officers, arrived at its final resting place in the Aegean town of Didim. A picture of Eygi was placed near the coffin during the funeral at the local mosque. A large crowd gathered during the prayers including Eygi’s family, members of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted AKP party, and activists advocating the Palestinian cause. Protesters chanted slogans near the mosque showing their support for Palestinians. Eygi was shot while taking part in a demonstration on 6 September in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, near Nablus. She was a human rights activist and volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement, which calls for resisting the oppression of Palestinians using non-violent methods. Her family wanted Eygi to be buried in Didim, where her grandfather lives and her grandmother has been laid to rest. She was a frequent visitor to the seaside resort. Ankara said this week it was probing her death and pressed the UN for an independent inquiry. Turkey said it was also planning to issue international arrest warrants for those responsible for Eygi’s death, depending on the findings of its investigation. The Israeli military has said it was likely Eygi was hit “unintentionally” by forces while they were responding to a “violent riot”, and said it is looking into the case. President Erdoğan himself did not show up in Didim but he sent his vice-president, foreign, interior and justice ministers. Opposition CHP party chief Ozgur Ozel attended the funeral. It’s approaching 3pm in Gaza. Here are the day’s main developments: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said that one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month. The Israeli military called the UN worker a “terrorist” who posed a threat to troops. A campaign is under way to drive Unrwa out of existence, its commissioner general has said, days after 18 people were killed when Israeli jets bombed an Unrwa school in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, reports the Associated Press. The body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish-American activist killed on 6 September by an Israeli soldier, has been returned to her home town, accompanied by a police honour guard. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) shared its latest situation update on Saturday. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced (some, up to 10 times or more). The situation update also details the latest on the emergency polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip, as well as information such as Unrwa’s response in areas such as food assistance, health and psychosocial support. A new attempt has begun to try to salvage an oil tanker burning in the Red Sea after attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an EU naval mission said on Saturday. The EU’s Operation Aspides published images dated Saturday of its vessels escorting ships heading to the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion, reports the Associated Press (AP). The mission has “been actively involved in this complex endeavor, by creating a secure environment, which is necessary for the tugboats to conduct the towing operation,” the EU said. A phone number for the mission rang unanswered on Saturday, reports the AP. The Sounion came under attack from the Houthis beginning on 21 August. The vessel had been staffed by a crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, who were taken by a French destroyer to nearby Djibouti. According to the AP, the Houthis later planted explosives aboard the ship and detonated them. That has led to fears the ship’s 1m barrels of crude oil could spill into the Red Sea. The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran. At least 41,182 Palestinians have been killed and 95,280 others injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since 7 October, Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday, reports Reuters. The toll includes 64 deaths in the previous 48 hours, according to the ministry. Gaza’s ministry of health does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) disaster risk management teams, in cooperation with the Palestine Ministry of Social Development, distributed food parcels to 11,000 families in Gaza and North Gaza governates, the humanitarian organisation shared on X. “This effort aims to alleviate the ongoing suffering of citizens due to the worsening humanitarian situation in the northern part of the [Gaza] Strip, caused by the shortage of food supplies as the Israeli occupation continues to block the entry of humanitarian aid,” the PRCS wrote on Friday. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad issued a decree naming former communications minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali to form a new cabinet, state media said on Saturday. According to Reuters, the new cabinet will replace an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July. Al-Jalali served as communications minister from 2014-2016. He has been subject to EU sanctions since 2014 for his “responsibility for the regime’s violent repression of the civilian population”. According to UN figures, at least 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 from an uprising against Assad’s rule. Agence France-Presse (AFP) have some additional reporting on the news that Israeli airstrikes overnight into Saturday in central and southern Gaza killed at least 14 people. “We have recovered the bodies of 11 martyrs, including four children and three women, after an Israeli airstrike hit the house of the Bustan family in eastern Gaza City,” Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP. The strike took place near the Shujaiya school in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, he said. “Rescuers are continuing to search for the missing,” Bassal said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the strike, reports AFP. Bassal said Israeli forces carried out similar strikes in some other parts of the territory overnight, killing at least 10 people. Five people were killed in northwestern Gaza City when an airstrike hit a group of people near Dar Al-Arqam school, he said. Three others were killed in a strike in the al-Mawasi area of the southern Khan Younis governorate, where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought refuge, Bassal added. Iran launched a satellite into space on Saturday with a rocket built by the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Associated Press (AP) reports citing state-run media. The AP reports that Iran described the launch as a success, which would be the second such launch to put a satellite into orbit with the rocket. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch’s success, nor did Iranian authorities immediately provide footage or other details. The launch comes amid heightened tensions gripping the wider Middle East over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, during which Tehran launched an unprecedented direct missile-and-drone attack on Israel. Meanwhile, Iran continues to enrich uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, raising concerns among nonproliferation experts about Tehran’s programme. Iran identified the satellite-carrying rocket as the Qaem-100, the IRGC used in January for another successful launch. Qaem means “upright” in Iran’s Farsi language. The solid-fuel rocket put the Chamran-1 satellite, weighing 60 kilograms (132 pounds), into a 550 kilometer (340 mile) orbit, state media reported. The US state department and the US military did not immediately respond to the AP’s requests for comment over the Iranian launch. The US had previously said Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN security council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile programme expired last October. According to the AP’s report, the US intelligence community’s worldwide threat assessment this year said Iran’s development of satellite launch vehicles “would shorten the timeline” for Iran to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile because it uses similar technology. Intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Iran is now producing uranium close to weapons-grade levels after the collapse of its nuclear deal with world powers. Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear weapons, if it chooses to produce them, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly has warned. Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space programme, like its nuclear activities, is for purely civilian purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organised military nuclear programme up until 2003. Julian Borger, the Guardian’s world affairs editor, has written a piece on Israel’s prime target: the hunt for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Here is an extract: The nearly year-long hunt for Sinwar has involved a mix of advanced technology and brute force, as his pursuers have shown themselves prepared to go to any lengths, including causing extremely high civilian casualties, to kill the Hamas leader and destroy the tight circle around him. The hunters are a taskforce of intelligence officers, special operation units from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), military engineers and surveillance experts under the umbrella of the Israeli Security Agency, more widely known by its Hebrew initials or the acronym Shabak. Personally and institutionally, this team is seeking redemption for the security failures that allowed the 7 October assault to happen. But despite their motivation, they have so far failed to pin down their quarry. You can read the full piece here: A man was shot and sustained life-threatening injuries on Thursday in Newton, Massachusetts, after he tackled a pro-Israel demonstrator. During a news conference on Thursday evening, Marian Ryan, the Middlesex district attorney, said that the incident took place at about 6.40pm on Thursday evening. A small group of pro-Israeli demonstrators were on one side of the street, Ryan said, and a man, who has not been publicly identified, was walking on the other side of the street and started exchanging words with the group. Words were “exchanged back and forth”, Ryan said, and then the incident escalated when the individual crossed the street and “jumped upon one of the demonstrators”. “A scuffle ensued,” Ryan said, adding that during the confrontation the individual who had come across the street “was shot by a member of the demonstrating group”. The individual sustained life-threatening injuries, and is being treated at a local hospital, she said. The person who used the gun was identified on Thursday by authorities as 47-year-old Scott Hayes from Framingham. The Middlesex district attorney’s office said on Thursday evening that Hayes was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday. You can read the full piece here: The body of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, the Turkish-American activist killed on 6 September by an Israeli soldier, was returned to her home town late on Friday accompanied by a police honour guard, the Associated Press (AP) reports, citing the official Turkish news agency. Draped in a Turkish flag, the coffin was carried from a hearse to a hospital in Didim by six officers in ceremonial uniform. Her funeral is due to be held in the coastal town in western Turkey later Saturday. The 26-year-old activist from Seattle, who held US and Turkish citizenship, was killed after a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli protester who witnessed the shooting. The Israeli military said on Tuesday that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli forces. Turkey announced it will conduct its own investigation into her death. Anadolu agency reported her body arrived in Didim after an autopsy at the Izmir Forensic Medicine Institute. As Eygi’s family watched the coffin being unloaded, her mother had to be helped by medics, the agency said. Her death earned condemnation from US secretary of state Antony Blinken as the US, Egypt and Qatar push for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages. Talks have repeatedly been unable to progress as Israel and Hamas accuse each other of making new and unacceptable demands. Israeli airstrikes hit central and southern Gaza overnight into Saturday, killing at least 14 people, reports the Associated Press (AP). Airstrikes in Gaza City hit one home housing 11 people, including women and children, and another strike hit a tent in Khan Younis housing Palestinians displaced by the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s civil defence said on Saturday. They followed airstrikes earlier this week that hit a tent camp on Tuesday and a UN school housing displaced people on Wednesday. A campaign is under way to drive the UN relief agency for Palestinians, Unrwa, out of existence, its commissioner general has said, days after 18 people were killed when Israeli jets bombed an Unrwa school in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said in an interview that the Israeli government was seeking to close down the agency, having failed to persuade western donors to stop funding it on the grounds of allegations about links between Unrwa staff and Hamas. “This deliberate attempt to eliminate Unrwa and prevent it from operating would have devastating consequences for the multilateral system, the UN and the cause of a Palestinian transition to self-determination,” Lazzarini said. On Wednesday Unrwa said six staff members had been killed in two airstrikes that hit al-Jaouni school in Nuseirat, in central Gaza – the highest death toll among its staff in a single incident. The Israel Defense Forces said the strikes killed nine Hamas members, three of whom had doubled as Unrwa workers. Lazzarini said the IDF had not previously informed his agency that the three staff were Hamas members. “None of these names have ever been on any IDF list notified to us, so I have absolutely no way of being able to authenticate or not,” he said. “These people were working in the shelter … There was no indication they were military operatives.” Unrwa, one of the UN’s largest agencies, has 13,000 staff working in Gaza and more than 30,000 in the region providing health and educational facilities to Palestinian refugees. You can read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: It has gone 10am in Gaza and Tel Aviv. This is our latest live blog on the Israel-Gaza war and the wider Middle East crisis. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said on Friday that one of its employees was killed during an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, where raids have escalated since last month. The Israeli military called the UN worker a “terrorist” who posed a threat to troops. Unrwa said the employee was its first to be killed in the Palestinian territory in more than a decade, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. But, he is among dozens of Palestinians killed during the large-scale Israeli operation that began days ago and is ongoing, with several more Palestinians dead since Wednesday. Unrwa identified the employee as Sufyan Jaber Abed Jawwad, who worked as a sanitation labourer. It said he was “shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper” in Faraa refugee camp. An Israeli military spokesperson, Lieut Col Nadav Shoshani, said on X that during an operation in Faraa “a terrorist was identified hurling explosive devices that posed a threat” to forces, leading troops to open fire to remove the threat. It was later “discovered he is also an Unrwa employee”, Shoshani said. Jawwad’s death is in addition to those of six other Unrwa staffers the UN said were killed in Gaza on Wednesday during a strike on a school turned shelter. Mourners carried Jawwad’s body through the streets of Faraa on Friday, while in nearby Tubas, funerals also took place for other Palestinians, who were killed by an airstrike. In other developments: The Israeli military said it acted this week in Syria against targets, after Syrian state media reported Israeli airstrikes killed 18 people in western Syria and injured dozens more. The Israeli military targeted “several terrorists” in southern Syria, it said. A war monitor said Israeli forces helicoptered into Syria days ago and destroyed an underground missile production facility built under Iranian supervision, with two US media outlets also reporting the raid. The Israeli military declined to comment. Mourners will gather in south-west Turkey on Saturday for the funeral of a US-Turkish activist shot dead while protesting against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The killing last week of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, has sparked international condemnation and angered Turkey. Israel’s military said she was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its forces. Turkey said it would conduct its own investigation into her death. Eygi’s body, wrapped in the Turkish flag, arrived on Friday at its final resting place in the Aegean town of Didim – Eygi was a frequent visitor to the seaside resort – following a martyrs’ ceremony at Istanbul airport. The head of Unrwa said a campaign was under way to drive it out of existence. Philippe Lazzarini, the UN relief agency’s commissioner general, said in an interview that the Israeli government was seeking to close down the agency, having failed to persuade western donors to stop funding it on the grounds of allegations about links between Unrwa staff and Hamas, reports Patrick Wintour. Israeli police said on Friday they had arrested a 17-year-old in connection with a vehicle explosion in the central city of Ramla on Thursday that left four people dead. Police had said they suspected the explosion to be linked to “a criminal conflict between crime families in the Arab neighbourhood” of the mixed city. The Israeli army took reporters on Friday to tunnels uncovered by troops in southern Gaza, including the entrance to the underground chamber where the bodies of six Israeli hostages killed by Hamas were recovered on 1 September. The military did not allow reporters into the tunnel, in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah, for security reasons. But it has released footage showing a cramped and airless passage it said was about 20m (66ft) below ground where it said the hostages had been held possibly for weeks. Turkey’s spy chief has met a Hamas delegation in Ankara and discussed the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza, state broadcaster TRT said on Friday. Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency, had met the delegation from the Hamas political bureau leadership, TRT Haber said, citing Turkish security sources, without saying who the delegation members were. Ministers from Muslim and European countries along with the EU’s foreign affairs chief gathered in Madrid on Friday to discuss how to advance a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Together, we want to identify the concrete actions that will enable us to make progress towards this objective,” the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on X. South Africa is “determined” to pursue its genocide case against Israel at the international court of justice and will next month file more evidence, president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday. Israel strongly denies the accusation.

The Guardian;‘Inhumane’ treatment of migrants rounded up in UK’s failed Rwanda plan revealed;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/revealed-inhumane-treatment-of-migrants-uk-failed-rwanda-plan-laid-bare;2024-09-14T14:00:29Z

The “inhumane” treatment of migrants rounded up in a “futile” operation for the now scrapped Rwanda scheme, has been laid bare in testimonies from Home Office staff that reveal force was used against distressed detainees. Internal documents disclosed to the Observer and Liberty Investigates under the Freedom of Information Act also reveal four recorded instances of migrants attempting to harm themselves after being apprehended. Dozens of migrants facing removal to Rwanda under the previous Conservative government were detained as part of a surprise initiative, Operation Vector, launched days before the 2 May local elections in England and Wales in what critics say was an “act of political theatre”. The arrests continued until at least a week before Rishi Sunak announced the snap general election on 22 May. He said the next day that no flights would take off until after the election on 4 July. The Labour government subsequently scrapped the scheme. The Operation Vector reports record how Home Office immigration enforcement officers used force 60 times between 30 April and 15 May, giving a rare glimpse into the dawn raids or detention of migrants as they showed up for routine reporting centre appointments. The documents also include testimonies from security staff at the Harmondsworth immigration removal centre in west London that detail two cases of force being used on detainees who remained locked up weeks after the Rwanda scheme was postponed by Sunak. The new government could be hit by costly compensation claims, with the charity Bail for Immigration Detainees preparing to mount legal action, arguing the detention of about 150 migrants the government wanted to send to Rwanda was unlawful, against Home Office policy, as it could not imminently remove them, and “political theatre”. Home Office accounts show the department paid out £56.8m in compensation for more than 2,700 wrongful detentions in the five years before the Rwanda raids. Fran Heathcote, general secretary for the Public and Commercial Services union, whose members include immigration enforcement officers, said the union “opposed the Rwanda scheme from the start because we knew it was inhumane as well as impractical”. She added: “What also concerns us is the likelihood Rishi Sunak knew full well the Rwanda scheme was futile and causing distress to individuals but continued to push it ahead of the general election to make a political point.” Campaigners say further physical and mental harm could be inflicted under Labour home secretary Yvette Cooper’s plan to increase deportations to 2018 levels – with a goal to remove thousands of migrants and refused asylum seekers by the end of the year. Measures she announced last month include redeploying hundreds of caseworkers to process their cases and moving ahead with Conservative plans to reopen two immigration removal centres. Steve Smith, chief executive of the refugee charity Care4Calais, warned that Labour’s plans “simply means more despair”. The Operation Vector documents reveal cases of officers restraining detainees and of others being held while in clear distress. One enforcement officer wrote of intervening to prevent a man tying his coat around his neck while “screaming and crying” in the back of a van transporting him to a detention centre. In two other cases, officers described restraining detainees who were banging their heads against the walls of transportation vans, while a third was handcuffed after reportedly headbutting a windowsill. In one case, the wife of a man being detained was described as becoming “very erratic/hysterical”. An officer wrote:“She was shouting and screaming on and off the floor […]A few of us needed to collectively push her out of the room… We collectively blocked the doorway so she wouldn’t get back in.” On 29 April – the first day of the roundup – an officer reported striking an asylum seeker with a palm heel martial arts technique, pinning him to the ground and putting him in a wristlock after he attempted to escape while being escorted to a cell van. Two weeks later, another officer wrote of using a pain-inducing wristlock technique on a vulnerable man who resisted being handcuffed after he turned up at a reporting centre. One man became severely distressed after being handcuffed inside a reporting centre and sustained a cut to his wrist as he struggled, asking repeatedly to call his brother while “dry heaving and spitting on the floor”, according to a report. The documents also offer an insight into how frustrations mounted inside Harmondsworth, where inspectors recently said conditions are the worst they have seen. A spokesperson for Mitie, the private security contractor that runs the centre, said it has since taken “significant action” to address inspectors’ concerns and thatimprovements had “already been made”. Custody officers employed by Mitie used force on detainees who the government planned to send to Rwanda in two incidents as recently as 11 and 12 June – nearly three weeks after the scheme was paused before the election. Many migrants held across the country before potential deportation to Rwanda have reportedly since been released. A spokesperson for Mitie said: “Use of force is only used as a last resort, and our accredited detention custody officers [DCOs] have all undergone specialist use-of-force training in line with Home Office guidance. With this accreditation, DCOs are lawfully permitted to apply use of force when it is reasonable, necessary and proportionate.” Smith of Care4Calais said: “There is little doubt that the last government used the survivors of war, torture and modern slavery as political pawns as their polling plummeted. “The Rwanda plan may have been scrapped, but the anxiety it caused will live with those who were forcibly detained by politicians willing to use human suffering as an electioneering tool.” Sunak and the Conservative party were approached for comment. The Home Office declined to comment.

The Guardian;Hundreds of Jews were offered the chance to escape Nazi Austria. Civil servants in the UK turned them away;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/how-chance-for-austrian-jews-to-escape-to-northern-ireland-was-lost;2024-09-14T13:00:28Z

On 26 August 1938, Zionistische Rundschau, a Jewish newspaper in Vienna, ran a two-paragraph article under a tantalising headline: “Jewish artisans for Northern Ireland”. The authorities in Belfast were seeking immigrants from central Europe with skills to train local people and set up enterprises, said the article. “Applications for the registration of startups should be sent to the Northern Ireland Ministry of Commerce, which will examine them in a careful but supportive manner.” It was, one reader recalled, “like a sign from destiny”. Five months earlier, Adolf Hitler’s troops had annexed Austria and unleashed a campaign of confiscations, intimidation and violence against Vienna’s 170,000 Jews. Now, for some artisans and business owners, came the possibility of sanctuary in a corner of the UK, an escape ahead of the Holocaust. Around 300 applications with the names of 730 men, women and children landed at Stormont, the seat of Northern Ireland’s government. A handful of civil servants processed the applications. Most ended up inscribed with one of two brief, dry responses: “Regret” or “No reply”. The first was an instruction to junior civil servants and typists to send a letter of rejection. The second was an instruction to not bother sending any reply. Just a few dozen applications were accepted before the scheme ended. Northern Ireland’s chance to save hundreds and potentially thousands of Jews, and give an example to the rest of the world years before Oskar Schindler, slipped away. A new book, The Saved and the Spurned: Northern Ireland, Vienna and the Holocaust by Noel Russell, has told the full story for the first time. Based on archives, unpublished family memoirs, letters and interviews with survivors, it tells a heartbreaking story of lost opportunity as evil seeped across Europe. “It was shocking to learn that people turned away had been murdered in the Holocaust,” said Russell. “It was very emotional to read the letters. Your heart bleeds when you find out what happened to them.” There is inspiration in the tales of those who did reach Northern Ireland and made an outsized economic and cultural impact, but the overriding sense is regret at what might have been, said Russell, a journalist-turned-author. “Civic society was not unified enough to put pressure on the government to allow in refugees. There was a chance missed. For people to be saved, you’ve got to be more openminded than the bureaucracy. I think there would have been a more generous response had more people known what was happening.” The Stormont authorities, using their limited autonomy from Westminster, conceived the initiative in response to a moribund economy and crippling unemployment. There was a precedent: two centuries earlier, Huguenots fleeing persecution in France had founded a linen industry. And earlier in 1938, a Jew named Alfred Neumann had brought in seven workers from Austria to train locals at a fabric factory in Newtownards, County Down, providing a template for a wider scheme. The Zionistische Rundschau news item came as Nazi officials, including Adolf Eichmann, ratcheted up pressure on Vienna’s Jews. They were hounded from homes and jobs, forced to scrub pavements, jeered at, beaten and detained. The Belfast Telegraph and other Northern Ireland newspapers chronicled the persecution – there were vivid, syndicated reports - but Stormont’s bureaucrats viewed the scheme in narrow economic terms, said Russell. “They weren’t operating as humanitarian appraisers, they were operating as civil servants with a job creation scheme to implement.” Neumann advised the officials yet they still rejected applicants with valuable skills, said Russell, a former BBC producer and documentary maker. One reason was a fear of duplicating existing businesses. “I don’t think they showed much imagination.” Another was that the Home Office in London tightened rules on admitting refugees from Austria. After the November 1938 pogrom known as Kristallnacht, some applicants strayed from the usual neutral tone and betrayed anguish – “please help a despaired family,” said one – but the rejections continued. “Synagogues burned, murders, it was just a hellhole for Jews. People were clutching at any straw to get out,” said Russell. Of the 730 people named in petitions, about 630 were rejected. Of them, around 125 were murdered in extermination camps such as Sobibor and Treblinka, with the fate of others unclear, said the author. The hundred or so Jews who were admitted to Northern Ireland settled, found jobs and some built factories. Neumann was credited with bringing about 70 of them. After war broke out, he was interned as an enemy alien and put on a ship, the SS Arandora Star, with Italian, German and Austrian detainees that in July 1940 was sunk by a German submarine. He drowned. The anti-immigrant riots in Belfast and other parts of the UK last month showed a depressing lack of humanity, said Russell. “It makes you realise that terrible things that happened can easily be inflamed again.”

The Guardian;Hi-tech, strategic: new wave of Kashmir militant attacks before elections stuns Indian forces;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/hi-tech-strategic-new-wave-of-kashmir-militant-attacks-before-elections-stuns-indian-forces;2024-09-14T12:00:27Z

On the evening of 9 June, as hundreds of high-profile guests gathered in Delhi to watch Narendra Modi sworn in as Indian prime minister for the third time, a bloody massacre unfolded 400 miles (640km) north in the mountains of Kashmir. A bus carrying Hindu pilgrims was ambushed by militants in the southern Reasi area of Indian-administered Kashmir, killing nine and injuring 33. “A masked militant appeared on the road and started firing towards us, hitting the driver in his forehead,” said Santosh Kumar Verma, 44, a pilgrim from the state of Uttar Pradesh, who was sitting on the front seat of the bus. Even after the bus had rolled down into a deep gorge, militants continued to fire on it for half an hour. “The aim was clearly to kill all of us and send a message to Modi,” said Verma, who was hospitalised by his injuries. The Reasi attack was not an isolated incident but part of a mounting number of militant ambushes in Kashmir that have killed almost 200 security personal and over 350 civilians since 2020. While Indian-administered Kashmir has been in the grip of an insurgency by militants loyal to Pakistan since the 1990s, experts say this new wave of attacks is more concerning and technologically advanced than anything he region has faced in decades, and has left the military and intelligence agencies scrambling to bring it under control. Regional elections will be held in Kashmir this week for the first time in a decade, with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party’s manifesto boasting of transforming the region from a “terrorist hotspot to a tourist spot”. Yet the recent rise in attacks appears to contradict the Modi government’s claims to have brought peace to Kashmir. Since independence in 1947, both India and Pakistan have claimed the entire region as their own while controlling only parts of it. Three wars have resulted. In the 1990s, the independence movement in Indian-administered Kashmir took a violent turn, with the backing of Pakistan. Thousands of Kashmiris took up arms to fight against Indian rule and were joined by militants from Pakistan, as well as some veteran mujahideen of the Soviet-Afghan war. India launched a heavy-handed military operation in response, reducing the influence of militants but also bringing accusations of grave human rights violations. The separatist insurgency, however, could never be crushed completely. Waves of terrorist attacks and the rise of new militant figures ensured that Kashmir still remains one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world. In August 2019, the Modi government unilaterally stripped Kashmir of the partial autonomy it had enjoyed since independence and brought it under the full control of New Delhi. In the aftermath, Modi sent thousands of additional troops to Kashmir, imposed a harsh communication blackout and put severe restrictions on physical movement of millions of Kashmiris. Hundreds were jailed and local journalists were routinely detained and harassed. Many in the Indian establishment celebrated the move but it was met with widespread fury within Kashmir and over the border in Pakistan. The Modi government justified its decision to take control of Kashmir on the basis of ensuring safety and security for the region. Yet according to India’s security establishment, Kashmir’s insurgency has far from disappeared, and some experts believe this latest wave of attacks is directly linked to the actions of the Modi government. “The threat India faces on its border is totally unprecedented,” said Pravin Sawhney, a former Indian army officer and a defence expert. After an ambush killed five soldiers last November, India’s army chief, Gen Upendra Dwivedi, who was then head of its Northern Command, said these new militants were “highly trained”, possibly in “Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries”. He also alleged that some of them were retired Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan has not responded to the allegation. Shesh Paul Vaid, former director general of Jammu and Kashmir police, said that, as well as being highly skilled, these militants were also using sophisticated weapons such as M4 assault rifles that the US military left behind in Afghanistan and steel-cased bullets. “The way they have been ambushing our forces in the last two years reveals a totally new phenomenon,” said Vaid. “I have decades of experience in dealing with the insurgency, but I can tell you that we have never faced anything like this – certainly not in the past two decades.” Five officers from the Indian military, and local police and intelligence, who requested to remain anonymous, described how these recent attacks were no longer carried out by radicalised young men who had little training in combat and would often post their activities on the internet. Instead, they described a new batch of militants who appeared to be highly trained to military standards and were coming over the border from Pakistan, equipped with hi-tech equipment, including drones, and were using virtually untraceable Chinese applications to communicate. “The attacks over the last two years have stunned us,” said one army official. “These people have received extensive guerrilla warfare training and their goal is to cause the maximum casualties possible.” Instead of getting killed in the ambushes, as was previously the norm – either from suicide attacks or in gunfights with police – these militants have tended to lay in wait, sometimes for days, and then hit their Indian army targets with precision. They have then disappeared back into the forests and taken advantage of the rough mountainous terrain to stay hidden, making them difficult to track. They have also been using drones to ensure a supply of weapons and cash as far as nine miles within the Indian border. “We are having difficulty gathering intelligence on these militants,” said the army officer. “We lack understanding of who they are and how damaging they could be to us.” According to police and Indian military officers, there are about 150 militants active in the region. Security officials described how Indian soldiers were ambushed by militants who wore body cameras and then released the videos online in the aftermath. In July, after an attack in the region’s Doda area, militants released a gruesome video online of an Indian army officer being beheaded. “Now there is a change in tactics. They [militants] ambush soldiers, then disappear and later show up in some other place and attack there,” said former Northern Command chief Deependra Singh Hooda. Those who have taken responsibility for the attacks claim to be from newer militant groups such as People’s Anti-Fascist Front, the Resistance Front and the Kashmir Tigers, which all emerged after Modi’s cancellation of Kashmir’s special status in 2019. However, the Indian army claims these groups are simply a rebranding of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist outfits historically responsible for driving the insurgency. Another source of concern is where these ambushes have been taking place. The region’s Jammu province, the only Hindu majority area, had largely escaped militant attacks. However, after new networks were established, Jammu has now emerged as one of the focal points of ambushes against the Indian military. Experts believe it is part of a well-thought-out strategy to target places where Indian forces have been pulled out and deployed in other troubled border areas, particularly along the India-China border. Fear of the insurgency has become so potent in the Jammu region that it has led to the revival of a controversial local civilian militia, which is now being armed with automatic and semi-automatic rifles by the state. This militia, known as the Village Defence Guards, also existed back in the 1990s when it became notorious for committing human rights violations such as rape, murder and extortion. Among those who recently volunteered was Raj Kumar, 45, who lives in Garkhal village in Jammu. “There is an increase in militancy activities so we patrol the village day and night and keep an eye out for the militants,” said Kumar, adding that the government had promised them even more weapons and training. “The militants have sophisticated weapons and training – that is why we are asking for additional support from the government,” he added. “This time we are more afraid.”

The Guardian;War, deforestation, flooding: in Afghanistan they are all linked;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/afghanistan-war-deforestation-flooding-climate-change;2024-09-14T04:00:17Z

On 10 May 2024, Haroon Nafas was in his family’s guesthouse in Baghlan, north Afghanistan, spending time with friends who had come to stay. It had been raining lightly all through the afternoon, but at about 3pm the group heard a loud crashing noise. “We immediately went outside to see what was causing the sound,” says Nafas. “Initially, we were confused, thinking it might have been a plane. But then we realised, no, it’s a flood.” Nafas rushed home to his own house, which fortunately was located up on a hillside, and started gathering his family. Meanwhile, several town members sought shelter atop the local mosque, including Nafas’s brothers, who used a mulberry tree to climb on to the roof and reach safety. Others were not so lucky. “The flood was very severe, maybe up to 30 metres high,” says Nafas. “People were even dragged in from the roofs of certain buildings. The damage from the waters spread several kilometres. Some households lost up to 11 family members.” Over two days, at least 315 people were killed in Baghlan and more than 2,000 homes destroyed. About 1,600 people were injured, and hundreds more were missing. Flash floods also wreaked havoc in other provinces across Afghanistan, with at least 50 people killed in Ghor. Afghanistan has always been prone to natural disasters. Among low-income nations, it ranked second in the number of deaths caused by them between 1980 and 2015, according to one report. However, the frequency and extremity of disasters such as flash flooding is on the rise, and climate breakdown is not solely responsible for these changes. The country’s history of armed conflict has exacerbated the situation severely. Dr Najibullah Sadid, an environmental researcher and water resources expert based in Germany, says it is crucial that warring parties are held more accountable as toxic artillery often gets left behind and damages the environment. Explosives can damage ecosystems, disrupt biodiversity and weaken soil structure, and can damage groundwater resources. According to a report by the Progressive magazine, the US dropped more than 85,000 bombs on Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021. In spots where massive ordnance air blast bombs, nicknamed “the mother of all bombs”, were dropped, such as Nangarhar province, scientists have found that plant yields halved due to the spread of toxins. Such toxins can also be carried to other regions by the wind or in water. Mine contamination is another problem. As of 2021, only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces had ever (temporarily) been declared mine-free. The remaining 33 provinces still have explosive ordnance scattered across them. Despite this, funding for the country’s mine action sector has been declining, from $113m (£86m) in 2011 to $32m in 2020. The Taliban takeover in August 2021 has threatened these streams further, as many donors remain reluctant to engage with the new government, despite improved operating conditions and access to previously unreachable locations. According to the United Nations Mine Action Service about 45,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or wounded by landmines since 1989. Sadid says the mines have a direct connection to the recent flash floods: “Landmines [and] de-mining activity disrupt soil structure. Disrupt this, and you are basically exposing the soil to erosion. The debris flow in Baghlan, for example, can be linked to war because the floods originated from a valley which is completely dry.” Conflict-caused deforestation also worsens flash floods. In 1970, Afghanistan had 2.8m hectares (6.9m acres) of forest, covering 4.5% of the country. By 2016, this had shrunk to about 1.5%. In Nuristan, a province in eastern Afghanistan, forest cover had reduced by 53% in that time. “Vegetation retains a lot of rainwater,” says Sadid. “When there is no forest, the land becomes exposed to landslides, and the runoff increases. That’s why we now see very extreme flash floods occurring in some parts of Afghanistan.” For Sayed Abdul Baset, a disaster risk reduction expert and Herat resident, the issue hits close to home. The former adviser to the Afghan government says there is still an opportunity to unite and mobilise despite the problems caused by climate breakdown. “These natural disasters are related to the activities of the land,” he says. “They show how unsafe our homes are, how weak our coping capacity and early warning systems are. We don’t have water pipes. The topography of the soil is not good. There is no flood zoning. People live in floodplains. It is a very painful picture. It is no less than a war.” Sohila Akbari, who is based in Herat, has been leading humanitarian efforts as part of a 12-woman team for more than a decade. With financial contributions collected from the Afghan diaspora and donors abroad, her grassroots organisation Committee Akbari regularly distributes emergency aid such as food, clothes and tents to the city’s poorest and disaster-struck. “I first started interacting with those struggling through my work as a teacher,” says Akbari. “Slowly, I started to develop an interest in finding other ways to help. I’ve since connected with Afghans all over to try to take the work further.” Akbari was herself a victim of the devastating series of earthquakes that hit Herat in October 2023, killing more than 2,000 people. “It was a very horrible day. We hadn’t experienced an earthquake in years. It took us all by surprise.” She recalls hearing a horrible noise that resembled explosions. “You couldn’t even stand. The ground would go out from under you. Our house was on the third floor so it was especially bad. I remember telling the children to run, just run. Don’t worry about me. They ran. I was in the stairwell when the ceiling caved. I thought I was finished.” They spent the next few days seeking shelter in a local school. After two days, Akbari resumed her distribution efforts to those who had been most severely affected. “We are in the city. What else can we do if we don’t help? We will do our best. What little we can do, we will do it,” she says. It is through locals such as Akbari, who are already familiar with the people affected, that aid can have the most successful outcome, says the longtime climate journalist Laurie Goering. “This is the giant question in climate finance right now. How do you actually move such big amounts of money from governments and organisations to those women in Afghanistan? Taking advantage of local systems and actors, and finding intermediary groups to get more of that money to where it’s needed is really important,” Goering says. As for how much compensation warring states owe for the destruction caused in Afghanistan, Goering refers to the United Nations Development Programme’s loss and damage fund as a good place to start. This is a new fund aimed at helping impoverished nations cope with the damage caused by climate-induced natural disasters. Support will be offered in the form of grants. “The fund is designed to help communities and countries recover from things they couldn’t have adapted to,” says Goering. “So that money would be really useful in places like Afghanistan.” Since their rise to power in August 2021, the Taliban have remained excluded from the global stage. For Goering, this poses an extra challenge: “It’s hard to get funds if you’re excluded from international systems. There’s a lot of thinking at the moment about how to move money to very vulnerable places without going through the government.” Despite Afghanistan being one of the countries most vulnerable to global heating, due to its arid climate, mountainous topography and reliance on agriculture, it was once again excluded from the Cop28 climate talks last year, something Goering says is problematic. “Afghanistan doesn’t have high emissions,” she says. “This is something that’s happening globally, that everybody must work on together. Otherwise, we won’t solve the problem.” It is a sentiment shared by Rahmani, who believes support from international institutions and existing data could go a long way: “We need to create a roadmap for each region of Afghanistan. Also, 60% of Afghans are young. They can be taught. With a very small budget, they can be provided with employment, education and training in the climate field.” However, to truly muster the potential of younger generations, Rahmani admits better climate awareness is a crucial first step: “People think that this is God’s will, that because of our sins, these disasters happen to us and that we can’t do anything about it. Such beliefs and social behaviours have a lot of impact.” Rahmani also hopes to see more remediation from warring parties, as well as high-emitting nations. “These countries have a responsibility,” he says. “This is happening because of them. Places like the United States, England, Brazil and China – they keep their industry alive with fossil fuels and adapt themselves and raise their resilience. But for Afghanistan, which is currently very limited in terms of global relations, those conditions are completely closed.” In March, the UN security council voted to extend its mission in Afghanistan for another year, but this is focused mostly on the humanitarian crisis rather than climate impacts. There is also an ongoing parliamentary inquiry in the Netherlands on the impact of the Dutch and Nato’s 20-year intervention in Afghanistan. Similar initiatives by other countries embedded in the Nato campaign could accelerate reparations and aid. For Rahmani, prioritising smart policies and expanding irrigation projects, such as those implemented in recent years across Nangarhar province, is the way to go. “We had a very large climate project a while ago, backed by millions of dollars. But unfortunately, all the work is suspended. We need funds. These are very serious issues. It is very necessary for the people of the world to be united so that we can solve these problems.” Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, large-scale conflict has reduced significantly. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, no new conflict displacement was recorded in 2023. However, by the end of that year, there were still 1.5 million people internally displaced as a result of natural disasters. For Baghlan resident Nafas, the most pressing need for those affected is clean water. He hopes the humanitarian response offers a solution before the situation on the ground worsens. “The tap systems have all been damaged,” he says. “All the canals are covered with mud. There is no drinking water, no water for ablution, for people’s livestock, for agriculture. Incomes have also been suspended. People are living in makeshift tents. It’s chaos. It is hot now but soon the cold season will come.” Interviewees’ names have been changed to protect their identities.

The Guardian;Israel’s prime target: the hunt for Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/hunt-for-hamas-leader-yahya-sinwar-israel-prime-target;2024-09-14T04:00:16Z

A group of Israeli hostages were huddled in a tunnel in Gaza a few days after they had been dragged from their homes on 7 October, when the man who had plotted their abduction appeared out of the subterranean gloom. His hair and beard were grey and his dark-ringed eyes stared out from under thick black brows. It was a face familiar to them from a thousand broadcasts and newspaper stories: Yahya Sinwar. The Hamas leader in Gaza was the most feared man in Israel, even before he ordered the October raid in which 1,200 people – two-thirds of them civilians – were killed and 250 taken hostage. In fluent Hebrew, perfected over more than 22 years in an Israeli prison, Sinwar reassured them that they were safe and would soon be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. One of the hostages, Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old veteran peace campaigner from the Nir Oz kibbutz, had no time for his show of concern for their welfare and challenged the Hamas leader to his face. “I asked him how he wasn’t ashamed to do something like this to people who had supported peace all these years?” Lifshitz told the Davar newspaper after her release following 16 days in captivity. “He didn’t answer. He was quiet.” A video recorded on Hamas security cameras at about the same time, on 10 October, and found by the Israeli military some months later, shows Sinwar following his wife and three children through a narrow tunnel and disappearing into the murk. That was the last sighting of the man who unleashed the Gaza war. According to Gaza health officials, 41,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in a devastating Israeli response that has flattened much of the territory, driving 90% of the population from their homes and bringing 2.3 million people to the edge of famine. Through all this, the prime target of the Israeli bombardment has remained at large and apparently unscathed. The nearly year-long hunt for Sinwar has involved a mix of advanced technology and brute force, as his pursuers have shown themselves prepared to go to any lengths, including causing extremely high civilian casualties, to kill the Hamas leader and destroy the tight circle around him. The hunters are a taskforce of intelligence officers, special operation units from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), military engineers and surveillance experts under the umbrella of the Israeli Security Agency, more widely known by its Hebrew initials or the acronym Shabak. Personally and institutionally, this team is seeking redemption for the security failures that allowed the 7 October assault to happen. But despite their motivation, they have so far failed to pin down their quarry. “If you’d told me when the war began that more than 11 months later he would still be alive, I would have found it amazing,” said Michael Milshtein, a former head of the Palestinian affairs section in Israeli Military Intelligence (Aman). “But remember, Sinwar prepared for a decade for this offensive and IDF intelligence was very surprised by the size and length of the tunnels under Gaza and how sophisticated they were.” The IDF estimates there are 500km (300 miles) of tunnels under Gaza, an entire underground city. A second important challenge, according to at least some in the defence establishment, is that Sinwar is likely to have surrounded himself with human shields. Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy director of the Mossad, said: “Because of the hostages, we are very careful with what we are doing. I believe if there were no such restrictions, we would have found him easier.” Whether or not Sinwar has a ring of human shields around him, the potential presence of hostages has not prevented the IDF from dropping hugely powerful 2,000lb (900kg) bombs on suspected Hamas hideouts in recent weeks. Out of its two primary war aims, the Netanyahu government puts the destruction of Hamas above the rescue of the hostages. There is no shortage of expertise among Sinwar’s hunters. Targeted killings have been a core tactic of Israel’s military since the founding of the state. Since the second world war, Israel has assassinated more people than any other country in the western world. Yahalom, a special section within the Combat Engineering Corps, has more experience in tunnel warfare than any of its counterparts in western armies, and has access to state-of-the-art US-made ground-penetrating radar. The clandestine signals intelligence unit 8200 is a global leader in electronic warfare and has been eavesdropping on Hamas communications for decades. The Shin Bet lost many of its sources in Gaza after Israel pulled out of the territory in 2005, but worked hard to rebuild its network of informants after Israel launched its ground invasion last October, recruiting from among the desperate flows of Palestinians fleeing the onslaught. Despite the capabilities of this formidable taskforce, it has come close to catching Sinwar just once, in a bunker beneath his home town of Khan Younis in late January. The fugitive warlord had left behind clothing and more than 1m shekels (over £200,000) in wads of banknotes. This was seen by some as a sign of panic, though the Hamas leader was ultimately estimated to have left a few days before Israeli forces raided the bunker. The assumption made by Sinwar’s trackers is that he has long since abandoned using electronic communication, well aware of the skills and technology possessed by his pursuers. It was not only Hebrew that Sinwar studied in Israeli jail but also the habits and culture of his enemy. “He really understands the basic instincts and the deepest feelings of Israeli society,” said Milshtein, now at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University. “I’m quite sure every move he makes is based on his understanding of Israel.” Sinwar still communicates with the outside world, albeit with apparent difficulty. The long negotiations over a ceasefire in Cairo and Doha have often been paused while messages are sent to and from the subterranean commander. One strong possibility is that Sinwar uses couriers to remain in command, drawn from a small and shrinking coterie of aides he trusts, starting with his brother Mohammed, a senior military commander in Gaza. It is the hope of the team hunting Sinwar that the need for contact with couriers, to issue orders and control the hostage negotiations, will ultimately prove his undoing, just as a courier led American trackers over several years to Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It is believed that it was a courier who led the Israeli hunters to their biggest scalp of the war so far. At 10.30am on 13 July, Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s veteran commander who had topped Israel’s most wanted list since 1995, emerged from a hiding place near a camp for displaced people at al-Mawasi to take in some air with a close lieutenant, Rafa’a Salameh. Within an instant, both men were killed by bombs dropped by Israeli jet fighters – at least, according to IDF accounts – along with scores of Palestinians. Hamas insists Deif is still alive but he has not been seen since. Many in the Israeli security establishment rued what they saw as a missed historic opportunity in September 2003 when they had planes ready to bomb a house where the entire Hamas leadership was holding a meeting. After furious argument in the military chain of command, the air force used a precision missile fired into the presumed meeting room, rather than flattening the whole building with a hail of bombs, out of concern for civilian casualties. They picked the wrong room and the Hamas leaders survived. By July this year, the likelihood of killing large numbers of civilians was no longer an obstacle. In targeting Deif, the air force used 2,000lb bombs, the very weapons the Biden administration had stopped sending in May because of their indiscriminate destructive force. Israel reportedly dropped eight of them on 13 July. Ninety Palestinians in the vicinity were killed and nearly 300 injured. “It seems that the main source for the attack on Mohammed Deif, that actually gave the information about his location, was a human source – one of these messengers that go from one tunnel or shelter to another and bring messages between one commander to another,” Milshtein said. “So maybe there will be an opportunity to follow one of these messengers [to Sinwar], or if one of them is an agent of Israel’s Shin Bet.” Yossi Melman, a co-author of Spies Against Armageddon and author of other books on Israeli intelligence, said Deif may have made a mistake that Sinwar was unlikely to repeat. “Deif was maybe more arrogant or maybe he told himself they tried to kill me so many times, and I lost an eye and an arm but I still survived, so maybe God is with me,” Melman said. “The Shabak and the army were waiting just for this opportunity. All these targeted killings are about waiting for the one minor mistake by the other side. But Sinwar is more cautious. He is not a military commander who has show himself to be among his people.” On Tuesday this week, the air force again dropped 2,000lb bombs on al-Mawasi, designated by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”. At least 19 people were killed and 60 injured. The IDF said it had carried out “precision strikes” on Hamas targets, but did not specify the target. It is possible that a deal will be made in which Sinwar goes into exile, and some suggest he may already be across the border, hiding in a tunnel on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border. That would cut against the conventional wisdom about the ideological zeal of a man who rose through Hamas ranks as the executioner of suspected informers. “My personal assessment is that the likelihood of this option is very low,” said Milshtein, whose job in the Aman military intelligence service was to study Sinwar and other Hamas leaders. “It is in his basic DNA to stay in Gaza and to fight until death. He will prefer to die in his bunker.” Ben-Barak, the former Mossad deputy chief, agreed. “I don’t think he will cross into Egypt, because the moment that people know he is not in Gaza, the whole [Hamas] operation will collapse – its morale and so on. That’s why I don’t think he would do that. He’s not a coward.” Sinwar’s death or capture would undoubtedly be hailed as a major military success by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has made the destruction of Hamas’s “military and governing capabilities” a primary war aim. Whether it would stop the war is quite another question. “When we catch him, the situation will be much better, maybe for a couple of weeks,” Ben-Barak said. “After that, someone else will come. It is an ideological war, not a war about Sinwar.” Milshtein said: “After almost 50 years of assassinations, we understand this is a basic part of the game. Sometimes it is necessary to assassinate a very prominent leader. But when you start to think it will be a gamechanger and that an ideological organisation will collapse because you kill one of its leaders, that is a total mistake. “I’m quite sure that someone will replace, or actually has already replaced, Mohammed Deif, and if Sinwar is killed there will be someone else … You cannot create a fantasy. It will not end the war.”

The Guardian;Ukraine war briefing: Biden, Starmer stop short of announcing Storm Shadow permission;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/ukraine-war-briefing-biden-starmer-stop-short-of-announcing-missile-strike-permission;2024-09-14T02:20:47Z

Keir Starmer and Joe Biden have discussed letting Ukraine fire long-range, western-supplied missiles into Russia, while stopping short of any formal announcement. Vladimir Putin has threatened it would amount to Nato joining the war. The UK prime minister told reporters at the White House that he had a “wide-ranging discussion about strategy” with the US president but that it was not just a meeting about “a particular capability”. Before the meeting, officials had said Starmer would press Biden to back his plan to let British Storm Shadow be used to strike inside Russia. Britain’s PM indicated he and Biden would discuss the plan at the UN general assembly in New York the week after next “with a wider group of individuals”. Biden dismissed Vladimir Putin’s sabre-rattling threats, saying he did not accept that Ukraine using Storm Shadows missiles against Russia proper would amount to Nato going to war with Moscow, reports Dan Sabbagh in Washington. “I do not think much about Vladimir Putin,” Biden said. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN told the security council on Friday that loosening the missile strike restrictions would mark an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and Nato. Washington officials accused Putin of trying to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine, reports Andrew Roth. In Europe, leaders played down Putin’s threats. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said: “I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin. They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front.” Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk had produced the desired result of slowing Moscow’s advance on another front in Ukraine’s east. The Ukrainian president said in Kyiv on Friday that Russia’s counterattack in Kursk produced no major successes – contradicting Vladimir Putin’s accounts of Russian advances on both fronts. Zelenskiy said Russia had about 40,000 troops on the Kursk front. “So far we have seen no serious [Russian] success.” Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its troops had taken back 10 villages out of 100 that Kyiv had occupied. The battlefield reports of either side were not able to be independently verified. The Ukrainian general staff said on Friday that Russian forces had focused their assaults near the town of Kurakhove, about 33km (20 miles) south of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had captured Dolynivka, positioned between Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, the latest in a series of localities Moscow says it has seized. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 49 Ukrainian prisoners of war had been returned from Russia, with Agence France-Presse witnessing the group being greeted at the border with Belarus. The Ukrainian president did not clarify whether it was part of an exchange with Russia, as is usually the case, but AFP journalists had earlier seen Russian prisoners of war being loaded on to a bus near the border. Romania started training its first group of Ukrainian F-16 pilots this week, the Nato country’s defence ministry said. The first four pilots had started their “theoretical training”, a ministry spokesperson told AFP, with practical training to follow “towards the end of the year”. Drone fragments fell on a municipal building in Kyiv’s Obolon district north of the city centre early on Saturday, said the mayor. Writing on Telegram, Vitali Klitschko said no fire broke out and emergency services were sent. He earlier said air defence units had been in action. A Reuters witness said explosions were heard. The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, urged people to remain in shelters as drones still posed a threat. The air raid alert was later lifted for the city but remained in effect for several regions of central Ukraine. Russia announced it had revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage. Moscow’s FSB domestic spy agency said on Friday that it acted on documents showing part of the UK Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. The Foreign Office, however, said the move had been made last month as part of a continuing diplomatic tit-for-tat. Sources indicated the British diplomats had left Russia weeks ago and were already being replaced. The US has imposed new sanctions on Russia over its role to “undermine democracies”, the US secretary of state said. “The actions we’re exposing today and the actions we exposed last week do not incorporate the full scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine democracies,” Antony Blinken said. “Far from it.” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would meet Joe Biden “this month” to present his “victory plan” on how to end the war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader gave no details on how to end more than 30 months of fighting, saying only that his proposal would involve “a system of interconnected solutions that will give Ukraine enough power – enough to put this war on a course to peace”. The German chancellor has said he will not send long-range missiles requested by Ukraine. Germany possesses powerful Taurus cruise missiles. Olaf Scholz said on Friday: “Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change.” Boris Johnson met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv and renewed calls for permission for Storm Shadow strikes on Russia aimed at “stopping the appalling Russian attacks with glide bombs and now Iranian missiles”. Zelenskiy also met with The American actor Michael Douglas and his son Dylan in Kyiv. The Ukrainian president said that they, alongside Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, discussed “the situation in our country, cooperation with partners, support for Ukraine, and the fourth Summit of Ladies and Gentlemen”. Ukraine’s government has approved a 2025 draft budget with a strong focus on defence spending, the prime minister said. Denys Shmyhal said on Friday that the draft, to be submitted to parliament, provided for 2tn hryvnias (US$48.2bn) in revenues and 3.6tn hryvnias in expenditures. The draft also included a provision of 2.22tn hryvnias (US$53.5bn) for defence. “The priority for this budget is very clear – the country’s defence and security,” he said. “We will again direct all domestic resources to these objectives.”

The Guardian;Keir Starmer meets with Joe Biden at White House as Putin warns Nato against letting Ukraine send long-range missiles – as it happened;https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/sep/13/russia-ukraine-moscow-kyiv-long-range-weapons-nato-keir-starmer-joe-biden-latest-news-updates;2024-09-13T23:24:51Z

In a one-on-one meeting at the White House on Friday, Joe Biden and Keir Starmer discussed pleas from Ukraine for their support to use long-range missiles in the war against Russia. No official position was announced after the roughly 20-minute meeting, during which the US president and UK prime minister also reportedly discussed challenges in the Middle East. The meeting came after mounting pressure from both Ukraine and Russia about intervention in the war. “We are now in the third year of a full-scale war. After so much death, destruction and countless Russian war crimes, Putin can still afford to destroy life in Ukraine as he pleases, buy and produce missiles, bombs and artillery, and issue ultimatums to the world,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian leader, said in a post on X on Friday before the meeting. “He expects the world to fall for his madness.” Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin threatened that if the US and UK agreed to loosen restrictions on long-range strikes into Russia, it would be seen as an act of aggression signifying Nato countries were “at war”. “This will mean that Nato countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia,” Putin told Russian reporters on Thursday. “And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” More on these discussions – and the decisions the countries come to – are expected in the coming weeks as leaders reconvene at the United Nations general assembly later this month. This wraps our live coverage for today. You can continue to read our expert analysis and key updates here. Thanks for tuning in with us as we gather the latest updates! Have a good night. Keir Starmer has left the White House after his discussions with Joe Biden, telling reporters gathered outside that the “long and productive discussion,” focused on Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific, according to the BBC. He did not disclose whether the two leaders agreed to support the use of long-range missiles and, though he emphasized that Ukraine has a right to defend itself, he said Putin will have to end the war. Politico reports that no final decision was made on the use of Storm Shadow missiles, which action Putin threatened would be taken as an escalation and as Nato involvement in the war. Starmer said the issue will be taken up again at the United Nations general assembly at the end of September. “We’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA in just a few days time with a wider group of individuals,” he told reporters. Here is where things currently stand: Keir Starmer arrived at the White House on Friday to meet with Joe Biden. The two leaders are expected to discuss the possibility of expanding Ukraine’s long-range missile capabilities. Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with American actor Michael Douglas and his son Dylan in Kyiv amid Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia. In a post on X, Zelenskiy said they, alongside Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, discussed “the situation in our country, cooperation with partners, support for Ukraine, and the fourth Summit of Ladies and Gentlemen”. David Petraeus, the former CIA director, said Vladimir Putin is bluffing over his red line on long-range missiles and that there’s nothing more “conventionally that he can actually do that he’s not already doing”. Petraeus, speaking to the BBC, said the potential lifting of restrictions over the use of long-range weapons inside Russia was “long overdue” and “it’s never too little too late”. Antony Blinken said the US is imposing new sanctions on Russia over its role to “undermine democracies”. The US secretary of state said: “The actions we’re exposing today and the actions we exposed last week do not incorporate the full scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine democracies. Far from it.” European policy leaders are downplaying Vladimir Putin’s war threats over Ukraine’s potential allowance to expand its long-range missile usage. “It is necessary to take all events in Ukraine and on the Ukrainian-Russian front very seriously, but I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from president Putin,” said the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk. “They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front,” he added. Boris Johnson met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday and renewed calls for Britain to allow the country to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia. “It is vital that Ukraine should be able to defend itself properly by stopping the appalling Russian attacks with glide bombs and now Iranian missiles,” the former UK prime minister said following the meeting. Germany’s chancellor has said he will not send long-range missiles to Ukraine, despite Ukraine’s insistence on the weapons. At a press conference on Friday, as reported by Agence France-Presse, Olaf Scholz said: “Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change.” In contrast with Germany, Canada said on Friday that it fully supports Ukraine’s use of long-range weaponry in its war against Russia. Speaking to reporters, Justin Trudeau said that his country supports Ukraine’s use of the weapons to “prevent and interdict Russia’s continued ability to degrade Ukrainian civilian infrastructure”, Reuters reports. In his opening remarks before his meeting with the UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Joe Biden said: “First, Ukraine, I want to thank you for the UK leadership on this front. The United States is committed to standing with you to help Ukraine as it defends against Russia’s onslaught of aggression. It’s clear that Putin will not prevail in this war. The people of Ukraine will prevail.” In response, Starmer said: “Thank you for the invitation to be back here just two months after our last meeting here, and it’s really important to us great allies, that special relationship have this time to talk about the global issues you have just identified, starting, of course, with Ukraine, where I think the next few weeks and months could be crucial, very, very important, that we support Ukraine in this vital war of freedom.” In response to a question on what he thinks about Vladimir Putin’s comment on a “war with Russia” over the possibility of Ukraine’s expanded long-range missile capacity, Joe Biden said: I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin. Keir Starmer has arrived at the White House before his meeting with Joe Biden. The UK prime minister and the US president are expected to discuss the possibility of expanding Ukraine’s long-range missile capabilities. Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with American actor Michael Douglas and his son Dylan in Kyiv amid Ukraine’s ongoing war against Russia. In a post on X, Zelenskiy said they, alongside Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, discussed “the situation in our country, cooperation with partners, support for Ukraine, and the fourth Summit of Ladies and Gentlemen”. Speaking to Zelenskiy, Douglas called him an “inspiration” and a “great reminder for our country about what democracy means”. David Petraeus, the former CIA director, said Vladimir Putin is bluffing over his red line on long-range missiles and that there’s nothing more “conventionally that he can actually do that he’s not already doing”. Petraeus, speaking to the BBC, said the potential lifting of restrictions over the use of long-range weapons inside Russia was “long overdue” and “it’s never too little too late”. He said he believed the Russian president was bluffing, adding that the Russian leader “has established innumerable red lines before. The Ukrainians and/or western countries have crossed just about all of them. He’s even rattled the nuclear sabre so much so that his own biggest ally and partner China, President Xi, said don’t even think about that. As did [Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister], an important customer in India for Russian crude oil and so forth. So no, I don’t think there’s anything more conventionally that he can actually do that he’s not already doing. Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said the government has approved the 2025 draft budget, which has a strong focus on defence spending. The budget, which will be submitted to parliament, provides for 2tn hryvnias ($48.2bn)in revenues and 3.6tn hryvnias in expenditures, according to Reuters. It also includes a provision of 2.22tn hryvnias ($53.5bn) for defence. Shmyhal said preparations in drafting the budget – the third since the start of Russia’s invasion – had been completed “despite all the challenges and uncertainty”. He added: The priority for this budget is very clear – the country’s defence and security. There would be “more money for Ukrainian weapons, equipment, drones”, he said. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will send staff to Moscow next week to review the Russian economy for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine, in a move that has prompted anger and dismay across European capitals. Officials of the Washington-based organisation will travel to the Russian capital and meet “stakeholders” before publishing an assessment of the economy and providing recommendations about how the Kremlin might improve its economic handling and tackle issues such as the climate crisis. After Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the IMF stopped its annual consultations with Russia. The organization said it was a “mutual obligation” to carry out an article IV review of a member country and that the process was only suspended because of the volatility of economic data. The situation in Russia was now “more settled”. On Friday, nine European countries protested against the IMF’s plans, saying it would damage the reputation of the Washington-based fund to resume dialogue with a country that had invaded another. “We would like to express our strong dissatisfaction with such IMF plans,” the finance ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Poland said in a letter to the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, seen by Reuters. Drone operators and a volunteer medic have given the Guardian an inside look at their efforts to evacuate casualties on the frontlines of the Ukrainian incursion. The Guardian’s Shaun Walker reports: Deep into one recent night, at a Ukrainian mobile drone command point hidden amid the fields and forests close to the border with Russia, the largest of six screens flashed with images of the wiggling course of the River Seym, deep inside Russia on the other side of the border. Straddling the river, a thin band was visible, rendered in white by the night vision imaging: a pontoon bridge. Inside the command point, Anna, Pavlo and Ivan watched the display intently. “Move in closer,” murmured Ivan, the team’s 48-year-old commander. Pavlo pushed a button and the camera zoomed in. “Yesterday, we destroyed this crossing, but they’ve repaired it again, probably in the last few hours,” he said, picking up his phone to send the information to an encrypted group chat of Ukrainian commanders in the area. For the full story, click here: In response to a question on Vladimir Putin’s statement on potential “war with Russia” over Ukraine’s long-range missile capacities, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Friday: I’m not going to get into hypotheticals. I’m not going to get into internal policy deliberations from here. I will say what you’ve heard from my [National Security Council] colleagues at this podium, you’ve heard from this president: this war can end today if Mr Putin will end the war that he started. It is his aggression. It is his war that he started. He can end it. He could end it. I’m going to leave it there. She added: We are going to do everything that we can so that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself. That is our commitment. I think you have seen this, a very much focused, a tremendous amount of support from this administration and also from our partners and allies in doing just that. And that’s what you could expect to see. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Finland for its provision of another defense package in its war against Russia. In a statement on X, the Ukrainian president wrote: I am grateful to @alexstubb and @FinGovernment for Finland’s decision to provide Ukraine with another defense package, valued at 118 million euros. This brings the total value of Finland’s military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion to 2.3 billion euros. Zelenskiy added: This support is not just about defending Ukraine – it’s about protecting the people of all Europe and strengthening our entire continent. The security of Europe’s eastern flank can only be ensured through our continued unity and cooperation. Antony Blinken said the US is imposing new sanctions on Russia over its role to ‘undermine democracies’. The US secretary of state said: Today, we’re imposing sanctions on three entities and two individuals for Russia’s covert global influence operations, including interference in Moldova’s democracy and its upcoming elections. The actions we’re exposing today and the actions we exposed last week do not incorporate the full scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine democracies. Far from it. Russia’s weaponization of disinformation to subvert and polarize free and open societies extends to every part of the world. In response, today, the United States, United Kingdom and Canada are launching a joint diplomatic campaign to rally allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by RT and other machinery of Russian disinformation and covert influence.” Antony Blinken is now delivering remarks about the influence of Russian state-owned outlets including RT. The US secretary of state said: One of its projects is a large, online crowdfunding program in Russia, operating within RT and through social media channels to provide support and military equipment, supplies, weaponry to Russian military units in Ukraine. This includes sniper rifles, suppressors, body armor, night vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, personal weapon sites, diesel generators. While the crowdfunding campaign is out in the open, what’s hidden is that this program is administered by the leaders of RT.” European policy leaders are downplaying Vladimir Putin’s war threats over Ukraine’s potential allowance to expand its long-range missile usage. The Guardian’s Lili Bayer reports: “It is necessary to take all events in Ukraine and on the Ukrainian-Russian front very seriously, but I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from president Putin,” said the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk. “They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front,” he added. The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, also responded to Putin’s threats, telling reporters: “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. Ukraine has the right to self-defence.” Starmer, who will meet the US president, Joe Biden, in Washington on Friday, said the UK had provided ‘training and capability’ to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion and he was visiting Biden partly because ‘there are obviously further discussions to be had about the nature of that capability’. For the full story, click here: Boris Johnson met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Friday and renewed calls for Britain to allow the country to use Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Russia. “It is vital that Ukraine should be able to defend itself properly by stopping the appalling Russian attacks with glide bombs and now Iranian missiles,” the former UK prime minister said following the meeting. “It is obvious that they should be able to use Storm Shadow, Scalp and ATACMS as fast as possible against targets in Russia itself. Every day that goes by means more pointless and tragic loss of Ukrainian lives.” US officials and lawmakers have shot back at Vladimir Putin after the Russian leader said that Nato’s potential lifting of restrictions on Ukraine to launch long-range strikes into Russia would mean Nato countries were “at war” with Russia. “This will mean that Nato countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia,” Putin told Russian reporters on Thursday. “And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” The remarks provoked an angry response in Washington, where officials accused Putin of sabre-rattling in order to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine. Senator Jim Risch, ranking member of the Senate foreign relations committee, told the Guardian that Ukraine should have authorisation to strike targets deep inside Russia, including active Russian bombers launching missiles against Ukrainian cities. “Putin’s latest threats about direct confrontation with Nato are simply an effort to coerce the west out of supporting Ukraine,” Risch said. “He knows that long-range strikes from Ukraine would cause significant damage to his war effort. Several Russian missiles have landed in Nato territory and Nato has not escalated.” “Ukraine must be allowed to defend itself, period,” he continued. “If that means striking a Russian bomber launching missiles at Ukrainian civilians from Russian airspace, then Ukraine should be able to take that shot.” Speaking with reporters on Friday, John Kirby said that there would likely be no announcements about the lifting of restrictions on Ukraine’s use of British- and French-supplied missiles in Ukraine. But at the same time, the US national security council spokesperson said, the US and its Nato allies have “our own calculus for what we decide to provide to Ukraine”. “I never said that we don’t take Mr Putin’s threats seriously,” Kirby said. “He starts brandishing the nuclear sword, for instance, yeah, we take that seriously. We constantly monitor that. He obviously has proven capable of aggression. He’s obviously proven capable of escalation … But it is not something that we haven’t heard before. So we take note of it. We got it.” In contrast with Germany, Canada said on Friday that it fully supports Ukraine’s use of long-range weaponry in its war against Russia. Speaking to reporters, Justin Trudeau said that his country supports Ukraine’s use of the weapons to “prevent and interdict Russia’s continued ability to degrade Ukrainian civilian infrastructure”, Reuters reports. The Canadian prime minister added that Vladimir Putin is trying to destabilize international order, saying: “That’s why Canada and others are unequivocal that Ukraine must win this war against Russia.” Germany’s chancellor has said he will not send long-range missiles to Ukraine, despite Ukraine’s insistence on the weapons. At a press conference on Friday, as reported by Agence France-Presse, Olaf Scholz said: Germany has made a clear decision about what we will do and what we will not do. This decision will not change. Scholz’s remarks come amid an meeting between Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, and Joe Biden, the US president, over the possibility of allowing Ukraine to expand its strike capacity into Russia. Germany has repeatedly refused to send Ukraine its own long-range Taurus missiles. Earlier today, Scholz’s spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said that “the weapons the US and Britain are now discussing” have a longer range than anything Germany had supplied. Meanwhile, Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister, said that what the US and Britain agree “remains their business”. In a post on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed his gratitude to the US for its military and financial support to Ukraine, adding that his country nevertheless needs “permission to use long-range weapons”. Zelenskiy went on to say: “I hope the relevant decision will be made.” Zelenskiy’s post comes before a meeting between Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, and Joe Biden, the US president, who are expected to discuss the possibility of Ukraine using Storm Shadow missiles for expanded strikes into Russia. The European Commission has presented three new ways to EU ambassadors to renew sanctions on Russia’s central bank assets, Reuters reports. In June, G7 leaders and the EU agreed to use the interest on frozen Russian assets to support the G7 loan to Ukraine as part of its self-defense against Russia. According to Reuters, the assets held by the G7 are valued at around $300bn and, that in order to secure the loan, the G7 wants to ensure that the sanctions on the assets are not lifted. Speaking to Reuters, one diplomat said: “Possible options were presented this morning ... already discussed with the US.” Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the UN security council on Friday that if western countries allow Ukraine to conduct long-range strikes in Russia then Nato countries would be “conducting direct war with Russia”. “The facts are that Nato will be a direct party to hostilities against a nuclear power, I think you shouldn’t forget about this and think about the consequences,” Nebenzia told the 15-member council The comments echo words from Russian president Vladimir Putin who on Thursday said any western decision to let Kyiv use such longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow. On Friday Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin had delivered a clear message to the west about the consequences of allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory, and that there was no doubt that Putin’s message had reached those it was intended for The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer is in Washington to meet with US president Joe Biden later today, in which it is expected they will agree that Ukraine can use British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets inside the Russian Federation Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been meeting foreign ministers from Poland and Lithuania in Kyiv today, and said they discussed “the need to use long-range weapons against military targets on the territory of the aggressor state” The UK government has said that claims made by Russia’s security services about six members of British diplomatic staff it has expelled from Russia are “baseless”. The FSB security agency said on Friday it had taken the measure after uncovering documents showing that part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. Russian media has named and published photographs of the six British members of diplomatic staff who were expelled Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case against the head of Ukraine’s armed forces Maj Gen Dmitry Krasilnikov over the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Zelenskiy said today that the Kursk offensive had “slowed” Russia’s advance in east Ukraine 49 captured Ukrainian service personnel and civilians have been returned from captivity by Russia. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, said “the state of health of the prisoners is very serious” Nato said on Friday it strongly condemned a Russian missile strike on a civilian grain ship in the Black Sea on Thursday The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed that air defences there have shot down seven Ukrainian drones in a day Several people have been killed and injured by Russian strikes in Odesa, Sumy and Kherson Rights campaigners say that as many 3,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Hungary have been affected by a new Hungarian decree that cancels state-funded shelters for refugees from western Ukraine Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the UN security council on Friday that if western countries allow Ukraine to conduct long-range strikes in Russia then Nato countries would be “conducting direct war with Russia.” “The facts are that Nato will be a direct party to hostilities against a nuclear power, I think you shouldn’t forget about this and think about the consequences,” Nebenzia told the 15-member council. The comments echo words from Russian president Vladimir Putin who on Thursday said any western decision to let Kyiv use such longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow – a dramatic escalation of his rhetoric about the war which began with the Russian invasion in February 2022. “This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” the Russian president told a state television reporter. “It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia. He added that Russia would take “appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face” as a result. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Putin had delivered a clear message to the west about the consequences of allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory, and that there was no doubt that Putin’s message had reached those it was intended for. The UK’s prime minister Keir Starmer is in Washington to meet with US president Joe Biden later today, in which it is expected they will agree that Ukraine can use British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles at targets inside the Russian Federation. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to social media about his meetings with the foreign ministers of Lithuania and Poland today. He said: We discussed important issues, including Russia’s ongoing terror, the need to use long-range weapons against military targets on the territory of the aggressor state, the implementation of bilateral security agreements and the peace formula, preparations for the second peace summit, and accelerating Ukraine’s accession to the EU and Nato. We are grateful to Lithuania and Poland for standing with us from the very beginning until our common victory. Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case against the head of Ukraine’s armed forces over the incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, state-owned new agency Tass reports in Russia. It says that as a result of action by Maj Gen Dmitry Krasilnikov, “a significant number of civilians were killed and wounded, residential buildings, civilian infrastructure facilities, and vehicles were destroyed and damaged. In addition, civilians living in the Kursk region were forced to leave their permanent places of residence.” The European Commission has presented to EU ambassadors three new options to extend the sanctions renewal period covering Russia’s central bank assets, crucial to secure a $50bn G7 loan for Ukraine, Reuters reports EU diplomats said on Friday. Nato said on Friday it strongly condemned a Russian missile strike on a civilian grain ship in the Black Sea on Thursday. “There is no justification for such attacks. Yesterday’s strike shows once again the reckless nature of Russia’s war,” Reuters reports Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said. Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of using strategic bombers to strike a civilian grain vessel in Black Sea waters near Nato member Romania. It was the first time a missile has struck a civilian vessel transporting grains at sea since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022. Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs, has been in Kyiv today meeting sneior Ukraine leaders including Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and has just posted to social media that he is not there to offer “thoughts and prayers”, instead, he says he is there “to commit to victory, as short as it takes.” The Russian embassy in London has said in a social media post that “the investments that the UK promised to send to Ukraine, like all the previous ones, will likely go up in smoke in the Special Military Operation zone or, more probably, disappear down the bottomless pockets of the corrupt Ukrainian elites.” Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the Kursk offensive “slowed” Russia’s advance in east Ukraine, AFP reported. It gave the results we expected, to be honest. In Kharkiv region, the enemy has been stopped, the progress in Donetsk region has been slowed down, although it is very difficult there. The Ukrainian president said there are 40,000 Russian troops fighting in the Kursk region. Earlier my colleagues Archie Bland and Dan Sabbagh put together this explainer on the issue of deploying “Storm Shadow” missiles in Ukraine for use against targets inside Russia. The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed that air defences there have shot down seven Ukrainian drones in a day. In his most recent update, Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a UAV on the territory of the Bryansk region has been thwarted. There are no casualties or damage.” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram about the latest prisoner exchange with Russia. Ukraine’s president said: Another return of our people, for which we always wait and work for. 49 Ukrainian men and women at home. These are soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine, the national guard, the national police, the state border service, as well as our civilians. I thank our entire team, which ensures the release of prisoners and hostages from Russian captivity. We have to bring home all our soldiers and civilians. Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, is reporting that 49 captured Ukrainian service personnel and civilians have been returned from captivity by Russia. Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights is quoted in reports saying “the state of health of the prisoners is very serious.” Ukrainian news sources are reporting that two people have been killed in an Russian airstrike in Yampil in Sumy region. Six others were injured, including a child. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been giving his daily media briefing, during which Reuters reports he said president Vladimir Putin had delivered a clear message to the west about the consequences of allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory with western long-range missiles, and that there was no doubt that Putin’s message had reached those it was intended for. The UK government has said that claims made by Russia’s security services about six members of British diplomatic staff it has expelled from Russia are “baseless”. In a statement, the UK government said: The accusations made today by the FSB against our staff are completely baseless. The Russian authorities revoked the diplomatic accreditation of six UK diplomats in Russia last month, following action taken by the UK government in response to Russian state directed activity across Europe and in the UK. We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests. The announcement that Russia evoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow on accusations of espionage came as Keir Starmer was landing in Washington to discuss letting Ukraine use long-range missiles deep inside Russian territory. The FSB security agency said on Friday it had taken the measure after uncovering documents showing that part of the Foreign Office was helping coordinate what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” in Ukraine. The Guardian’s political correspondent Kiran Stacey reports: The Guardian understands the move was made several months ago, after the Metropolitan police charged a group of British men with planning an arson attack against Ukrainian-linked businesses on behalf of the Russian state. But it was only announced in a statement on Friday morning. Russian media has named and published photographs of the six British members of diplomatic staff. Ashifa Kassam is the Guardian’s European community affairs correspondent Rights campaigners say that as many 3,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Hungary have been affected by a new Hungarian decree that cancels state-funded shelters for refugees from western Ukraine. The government issued the new decree in June, limiting state-funded housing to Ukrainian refugees that hail from areas it deems as war-torn. The decree entered into force late last month, essentially declaring swathes of Ukraine safe to return to. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which works closely with affected groups, said approximately 3,000 Ukrainian refugees were affected by the new decree, leading to homelessness and the inability to access social services such as health care and education, which require a registered address in Hungary. While the decree includes a stipulation that the government will review the situation monthly, rights campaigners pointed to a Lviv attack by Russian forces in early September and noted that, one week later, the Hungarian government had not modified its stance regarding refugees from this area. This week Human Rights Watch, arguing that the decree breaches the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive that was triggered in March 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, urged the European Commission to “take immediate action” and initiate infringement proceedings against Hungary under EU law. Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch said: Leaving refugees fleeing a devastating war homeless not only flies in the face of Hungary’s international obligations but is also a worrying reminder of the government’s consistently inhumane and cruel policies with respect to people seeking safety in Hungary. The European Commission should press Budapest to do its duty and ensure that all Ukrainian refugees enjoy the benefits of temporary protection. In an operational update on its official Telegram channel, Russia’s ministry of defence has claimed, without providing evidence, that Ukraine has lost over 12,000 service personnel during its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. It claims that Russia has repelled three attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through in the Kursk region in the past day. It also claims that 12 members of Ukrainian forces inside Russia surrendered. The claims have not been independently verified. The European Union has issued a statement saying that it “strongly condemns the recent transfer of Iranian-made ballistic missiles to Russia” and has threatened further sanctions. It says: This transfer is a direct threat to European security and represents a substantive material escalation from the provision of Iranian UAVs and ammunition, which Russia has used in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine. The EU’s position on Iran’s involvement in Russia’s war has always been clear. The EU has repeatedly strongly cautioned Iran against transfers of ballistic missiles to Russia. The EU will respond swiftly and in coordination with international partners, including with new and significant restrictive measures against Iran, including the designation of individuals and entities involved with Iran’s ballistic missile and drone programmes, and in this regard is considering restrictive measures in Iran’s aviation sector as well. Earlier Reuters reported that France had summoned Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Paris to remonstrate over the transfer of the missiles from Iran to Russia. The Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has posted to social media to say that Whitehall sources have told her that the British government “strongly rejected a claim by Russia’s security service that the officials [expelled by Russia] had been involved in spying and sabotage.” Haynes said the source told her that the expulsion of six British diplomats happened last month, and “is linked to a set of tit-for-tat expulsions”, suggesting it was not a direct Russian response to the British prime minister’s trip to Washington today or the threat that Ukraine will be authorised to use long-range British-supplied “Storm Shadow” missiles against targets inside Russia. Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform is carrying news of damages and injuries overnight. In Odesa region “falling debris from enemy drones” damaged windows in 20 residential buildings and a 74-year-old man was injured. In Kherson region two civilians were injured after explosives were dropped from a Russian drone. Russia’s ministry of defence has said that its service personnel carrying out exercises in the Barents Sea have conducted tests of firing cruise missiles, and have also participated in exercises to simulate hunting and tracking down enemy submarines. It described the exercises as a success. Russia is conducting its largest naval set of exercises since the Soviet era. The head of Russia’s security council, Sergei Shoigu, visited North Korea on Friday and met with the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, Reuters reports, citing Interfax. Reuters has a quick snap that France is to summon Iran’s chargé d’affaires in Paris over the country’s decision to supply further arms to Russia. More details soon … Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk has dismissed comments by Russian president Vladimir Putin about the risk of escalation if Ukraine is allowed to use longer-range Nato-supplied weapons to strike at targets inside Russian, as Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been requesting. Reuters reports that, speaking to the media, Tusk said on Friday morning: It is necessary to take all events in Ukraine and on the Ukrainian-Russian front very seriously, but I would not attach excessive importance to the latest statements from President Putin. They rather show the difficult situation the Russians have on the front. The Russian president has said that lifting long-range missile restrictions on Ukraine would mean that Nato countries would be at war with Russia. Taking questions from reporters in Moscow, Putin said: “If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of Nato countries, the United States, and European countries in the war in Ukraine.” Earlier today a key ally of Putin, the chairman of Russia’s State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, echoed those words, claiming “The US, Germany, Britain and France are discussing the possibility of strikes using long-range weapons on the territory of our country. This is nothing but an attempt to camouflage and conceal their direct participation in military action.” The UK prime minister Keir Starmer is in Washington today to meet with US president Joe Biden, where he is expected to seek US approval for a plan to allow Ukraine to utilise the British “Storm Shadow” missile to strike targets inside Russia. The UK government has reiterated that it sees it as “a significant escalation” that Iran has supplied Russia with more armaments. In a statement about UK prime minister’s visit to Washington today, the government said: The prime minister has arrived in Washington to hold talks with US president Joe Biden today. In an extended meeting at the White House, the prime minister and the president will discuss a wide range of pressing international issues – including our ongoing support for Ukraine. It follows the foreign secretary and US secretary of state’s visit to Kyiv this week, where they heard directly from President Zelenskiy about Ukraine’s current position against Russia’s ongoing barbaric invasion. In a significant escalation, it was also confirmed this week that Iran has transferred ballistic missiles to Russia – bolstering Putin’s capability to continue his illegal war. The UK confirmed an extra £600m ($790m / €710m) of support for Ukraine yesterday, on top of the £3bn ($3.9bn / €3.6bn) a year for as long as needed confirmed by the prime minister in July. The statement made no specific mention of discussing allowing Ukraine to use longer range weapons against targets inside Russia. The New York Times has been suggesting overnight that US president Joe Biden will be minded to approve the use of longer-range Nato-supplied weapons launched at targets inside Russia by Ukraine. It writes: President Biden appears on the verge of clearing the way for Ukraine to launch long-range western weapons deep inside Russian territory, as long as it doesn’t use arms provided by the US, European officials say. Britain has already signaled that it is eager to let Ukraine use its “Storm Shadow” long-range missiles to strike at Russian military targets far from the Ukrainian border. But it wants explicit permission from Biden in order to demonstrate a coordinated strategy with the US and France, which makes a similar missile. American officials say Biden has not made a decision, but will hear from UK prime minister Keir Starmer on Friday. Biden has hesitated to allow Ukraine to use American weapons in the same way, particularly after warnings from American intelligence agencies that Russia could respond by aiding Iran in targeting American forces in the Middle East. Reuters reports Ukraine’s air force said on Friday it shot down 24 of 26 Russia-launched drones overnight over five Ukrainian regions. The news agency cited to a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app. The chairman of Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, on Friday accused Nato of being a direct party to military action in Ukraine, suggesting it was already heavily involved in military decision-making. The comments were made by Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, came a day after Putin warned that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with western-made long-range missiles. Reuters quotes Volodin, accussing Nato of helping Ukraine choose which Russian cities to target, of agreeing specific military action, and of giving Kyiv orders: The US, Germany, Britain and France are discussing the possibility of strikes using long-range weapons on the territory of our country. This is nothing but an attempt to camouflage and conceal their direct participation in military action. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has said the British diplomatic mission in Russia had been engaged in activities “far beyond” the Vienna convention that were “aimed at causing harm to our people”. Speaking to state-owned news agency Tass, she said: We fully share the assessments of the activities of the British so-called diplomats expressed by the Russian FSB. The British embassy has gone far beyond the limits outlined by the Vienna conventions. But the most important thing is that we are not only talking about the formal side of the issue and the inconsistency with the declared activities, but about such actions aimed at causing harm to our people. Zakharova did not produce any evidence to back up the assertion. Russia has claimed that a department in the British foreign office has been, Tass reports, “transformed into a special service for inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.” Russia’s FSB security service has revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow whose actions it said showed signs of spying and sabotage work. The FSB said on Friday it had documents showing that a British Foreign Office department in London was coordinating what it called “the escalation of the political and military situation” and was tasked with ensuring Russia’s strategic defeat in its war against Ukraine. “Thus, the facts revealed give grounds to consider the activities of British diplomats sent to Moscow by the directorate as threatening the security of the Russian Federation,” the FSB said in a statement. It added: “In this connection, on the basis of documents provided by the Federal Security Service of Russia and as a response to the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London, the ministry of foreign affairs of Russia, in cooperation with the agencies concerned, has terminated the accreditation of six members of the political department of the British embassy in Moscow in whose actions signs of spying and sabotage were found.” The six diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photographs of them. An FSB employee told Rossiya-24: “The English did not take our hints about the need to stop this practice [of carrying out intelligence activities inside Russia], so we decided to expel these six to begin with.” Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Here are your headlines … Russia’s FSB security service has revoked the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow whose actions it said showed signs of spying and sabotage work. The six diplomats were named on Russian state TV, which also showed photographs of them Vladimir Putin has said that a western move to let Kyiv use longer-range weapons against targets inside Russia would mean Nato would be “at war” with Moscow. Putin spoke as US and UK top diplomats discussed easing rules on firing western weapons into Russia, which Kyiv has been pressing for, more than two and a half years into Moscow’s offensive. The Russian president has frequently accused Nato of being an active participant in the war The UK prime minister Keir Starmer has told Putin that he started the war in Ukraine and could end it at any time. Responding directly to threats by the Russian president, Starmer told reporters: “Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away. Ukraine has the right to self-defence” Ukraine’s air force said on Friday it shot down 24 of 26 Russia-launched drones overnight over five Ukrainian regions Russia says its forces have recaptured 10 settlements after it launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region to push out Ukrainian troops who stormed across the border five weeks ago. With fierce fighting continuing, Russia’s defence ministry listed the names of 10 settlements it said it had retaken It is Martin Belam with you today. You can contact me on martin.belam@theguardian.com.

The Guardian;From spy cams to deepfake porn: fury in South Korea as women targeted again;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/from-spy-cams-to-deepfake-porn-fury-in-south-korea-as-women-targeted-again;2024-09-13T20:00:07Z

The anger was palpable. For the second time in just a few years, South Korean women took to the streets of Seoul to demand an end to sexual abuse. When the country spearheaded Asia’s #MeToo movement, the culprit was molka – spy cams used to record women without their knowledge. Now their fury was directed at an epidemic of deepfake pornography. For Juhee Jin, 26, a Seoul resident who advocates for women’s rights, the emergence of this new menace, in which women and girls are again the targets, was depressingly predictable. “This should have been addressed a long time ago,” says Jin, a translator. “I hope that authorities take precautions and provide proper education so that people can prevent these crimes from happening.” The National police agency said this week that it was investigating 513 cases of deepfake pornography – in which the faces of real women and girls are digitally superimposed on to a body without their knowledge or consent. That represents a 70% jump in cases in just 40 days, the Yonhap news agency said, underlining the country’s struggle to rein in the use of digital technology to sexually abuse women and girls. Recent reports about the rapid rise in deepfake porn have prompted a new round of soul-searching in a country whose positive contribution to global pop culture is being sullied by its status as the world’s digital sex crime capital. The exact number of victims is difficult to verify, but if the current trend continues South Korea is expected to reach a record high by the end of the year. The number of reported cases of deepfake porn has risen steadily in recent years, from 156 in 2021 to 180 in 2023. The victims are predominantly young women and girls, including students, teachers, and soldiers. Last year almost two-thirds were in their teens. Local media reports say the perpetrators are also often minors. Teenagers accounted for 79% of those detained in the first nine months of this year, according to Yonhap. The scale of the problem has stunned many South Koreans. One Telegram chatroom known for creating and distributing deepfake pornography reportedly had 220,000 members, another more than 400,000 users. Some rooms encouraged members to humiliate or degrade women through deepfakes. Several years after South Korea made international headlines with its molka problem, the government is again under pressure to stamp out this wave of online sex crimes. A large protest is scheduled to be held in Seoul on 21 September. The global deepfake capital South Korea holds the unenviable title of the country most targeted by deepfake pornography. Its female singers and actors constitute 53% of the individuals featured in deepfakes worldwide, according to a 2023 report by Security Hero, a US startup focused on identity theft protection. Police have launched an investigation into Telegram, and the country’s media regulator plans to hold talks with the messaging app’s representatives to discuss a joint response to the problem. The education ministry has launched a taskforce to investigate incidents at schools, teach children how to protect their images and support victims. John McGuire, a professor of philosophy at Hanyang University, said digital ethics education was not a realistic solution to AI-related problems. “South Korea has just emerged as a test case for this challenge,” he says. “We are going to need every tool at our disposal to address the present and future problems associated with AI technology.” Telegram, whose founder was arrested last month as part of a French investigation into child sexual abuse, apologised “if there had been an element of misunderstanding”. It said it had taken down dozens of videos, some at the request of the country’s media watchdog. South Korea’s government said it would push for tougher laws to make buying or viewing sexually exploitative deepfakes a crime. Campaigners, however, say the measures are unlikely to quell the appetite for digitally altered sexually explicit material. South Koreans enjoy some of the world’s fastest average internet speeds and smartphone usage rates, but that combined with the popularity of Telegram, advances in AI and lax laws has supercharged the problem. The country’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, attributed the crisis on Thursday to the “abnormal development” of social media and advances in AI, rather than government failings. South Korean authorities, however, have been aware of the dangers of digital manipulation since 2019, when the so-called “nth room” case revealed that women, including underage girls, had been coerced into sending sexually explicit videos that were circulated online. Police asked Telegram to assist their investigation, but were reportedly ignored. The ringleader was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison, but no action was taken against Telegram amid concerns over censorship. “Online gender-based violence is an increasing problem globally but is especially widespread in South Korea,” said Heather Barr, an associate director at Human Rights Watch. “Judges, prosecutors, police, and lawmakers in South Korea, the vast majority of them men, do not take these crimes seriously enough. Women seeking police help are often dismissed, re-traumatised, and even ridiculed. There is very little sexuality education in South Korea’s schools to help young people understand how wrong this conduct is.” ‘The world I knew completely collapsed’ While politicians and authorities scramble to find solutions, there is palpable anger online, prompting petitions on the national assembly website calling for stricter laws. The crisis has affected online behaviour, with reports suggesting many children are removing photos from social media or deactivating their accounts. One adult victim said it had been a “huge trauma” to bring her assailant to justice after she received a barrage of Telegram messages in 2021 containing deepfake images showing her being sexually assaulted. Her attacker was a fellow student at the prestigious Seoul National University with whom she had seldom interacted but had thought of as gentle. “It was hard to accept,” the woman, who requested anonymity, told Agence France-Presse. “The world I thought I knew completely collapsed,” she said in a letter she plans to submit to a court later this month. “No one should be treated as an object or used as a means to compensate for the inferiority complexes of individuals like the defendant, simply because they are women.” South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has urged police to eradicate deepfake crimes. He told a recent cabinet meeting: “Some people may dismiss it as just a prank, but it is clearly a criminal act that exploits technology behind the shield of anonymity.” More than 80 women’s rights groups have criticised the official response to deepfakes, framing the crisis as evidence of deeply rooted gender discrimination in one of Asia’s biggest economic and cultural powerhouses. “The fundamental cause is structural gender discrimination, and the solution is gender equality,” they said in a statement. “What needs to be expelled from online spaces is not women’s self-expression, but deeply rooted male culture. Neither Telegram nor the so-called ‘acquaintance humiliation’ behaviour is new. Deepfake technology has merely been superimposed, as if it were something new, on misogyny that photographs, synthesises, edits and processes women’s bodies without consent and does not regard women as fellow citizens.” K-pop labels whose stars are among the victims have been drawn into the debate. JYP Entertainment has described deepfake pornography as “a blatant violation of the law”. The large number of teenagers among the perpetrators and victims mean the repercussions of deepfakes are being felt in South Korean schools. According to the Korean Federation of Teachers union, even students and teachers who have not been directly affected “are experiencing extreme fear and anxiety about potentially being used for sex crimes or distributed online without their knowledge”. Agencies contributed to this report

The Guardian;‘We can’t even buy our own land’: the Tongan women pushing for change;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/14/we-cant-even-buy-our-own-land-the-tongan-women-pushing-for-change;2024-09-13T20:00:07Z

Ofa Ki Levuka Guttenbeil-Likiliki was attending a workshop on gender issues in Tonga many years ago when she came to a striking realisation: “If my father dies everything in our house, from the land to belongings, will automatically transfer to my brother.” The 49-year-old went straight to her dad and said “if you die, I will inherit nothing. He looked at me with nothing to say, and I told him that it was really unfair.” It marked the beginning of her journey as an advocate; Guttenbeil-Likiliki is now director of the Women and Children Crisis Centre in Tonga. The not-for-profit group supports survivors of violence and advocates for policy changes. Next month the centre will be renamed Fefine To’a – meaning “the strength of a courageous Tongan woman” – and the organisation will make the push for women’s rights to own land one of its key priorities. “We can’t even buy our own land, and even if we do, it has to be in our husbands’ names,” she says. Under an 1875 law, women in Tonga are prohibited from owning land. The law also makes it difficult for women who marry non-Tongans to buy land together. Women can only inherit land in specific circumstances, such as when there are no male heirs, and they must remain unmarried. Among others critical of the restrictions is Teisa Cokanasiga, a lawyer who works in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa. Her husband is Fijian, meaning they can rent, but not own land. “I had wanted to buy and own land under my name but because I am a woman and my husband is not of Tongan nationality, we could only lease,” says Cokanasiga. The law makes it difficult for women to be financially independent. Cokanasiga says many women want to set up farming businesses “but not being able to own a piece of land discourages them because they’re only able to lease.” Resistance to reform Changing Tonga’s land laws would be a complex process requiring a shift in social attitudes, and past efforts for reform have been met with resistance. Tonga and Palau are the only Pacific countries that have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). There have been several attempts to ratify the CEDAW in Tonga over the last two decades, but these have failed. In 2015, public protests opposing ratification were held involving local church groups, and a petition of about 15,000 signatures was submitted to the King. Cokanasiga says reforming the land system “would take a lot of consultations with the public and would have to change the minds of the majority of parliament and would also have to get through to the King, who gives the final say by giving his royal assent or not, before a law is made law.” Earlier this year, Tonga’s minister of tourism and foreign affairs, Fekitamoeloa ‘Utoikamanu, told Pacific Media Network that she supports “the issue of equality and the opportunity for women to be able to make choices in terms of land ownership” but Tongans must “see how we can make the most benefit out of the current system.” “We’ve had to look at what options are available to us to have some kind of legal ownership of land, and one of those options is to lease,” ‘Utoikamanu told Pacific Media Network. A spokesperson for the government from the Crown Law office said there are no immediate plans to amend Tonga’s Land Act. “The ownership of land for women in Tonga remains a challenge, and any changes to the Land Act will require extensive consultation with His Majesty the King and the people of Tonga,” the spokesperson said. Despite these challenges, some women in Tonga remain determined to push for change. One not-for-profit called Ma’a Fafine Moe Famili is advocating and raising awareness on the need for women to have the right to own land. Guttenbeil-Likiliki is also pushing for reform. She is organising women’s forums across Tonga to gather information on development issues, including land rights. “Right now we’re having subnational women’s fono (a community meeting) across the outer islands, and then we’re going to end off with the national women’s fono here on the main island,” she says. She hopes when the “findings are presented to parliament, the government will address these issues” in the coming years. “Tongan women are finding opportunities in places like Australia and New Zealand because there isn’t enough option given for them here in Tonga,” Guttenbeil-Likiliki says. “We need to change that before it’s too late.”

The Guardian;‘Ukraine must defend itself’: Washington leaders dismiss Putin’s war talk;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/ukraine-must-defend-itself-washington-leaders-dismiss-putins-war-talk;2024-09-13T19:41:04Z

US officials and lawmakers shot back after Vladimir Putin said that Nato’s potential lifting of restrictions on Ukraine to launch long-range strikes over the border into Russian territory would mean Nato countries were “at war” with Russia. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, met with the US president, Joe Biden, on Friday at the White House, where the two were expected to discuss – though not necessarily announce – a loosening of restrictions on Storm Shadow missiles that would allow Ukraine to strike targets as far as 155 miles inside Russia. “This will mean that Nato countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia,” Putin told Russian reporters on Thursday. “And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.” The missiles are jointly produced in the UK and France, and both countries appear to be seeking Biden’s go-ahead to loosen restrictions on the use of the long-range missiles. Western officials have indicated that the US is not planning to allow its own missiles to be used to strike targets deeper inside Russia. Washington and London have indicated they do not plan to announce any change in policy. Moscow’s ambassador to the UN told the security council on Friday that loosening the restrictions would mark an escalation to “direct war” between Moscow and Nato. The remarks provoked an angry response in Washington, where officials accused the Russian ruler of sabre-rattling in order to scare Nato countries away from supporting Ukraine. Senator Jim Risch, the ranking member of the Senate foreign relations committee, said Ukraine should have authorisation to strike targets deep inside Russia, including active Russian bombers launching missiles against Ukrainian cities. “Putin’s latest threats about direct confrontation with Nato are simply an effort to coerce the west out of supporting Ukraine,” Risch said. “He knows that long-range strikes from Ukraine would cause significant damage to his war effort. Several Russian missiles have landed in Nato territory and Nato has not escalated. “Ukraine must be allowed to defend itself, period. If that means striking a Russian bomber launching missiles at Ukrainian civilians from Russian airspace, then Ukraine should be able to take that shot,” he added. Speaking with reporters on Friday, the US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said that there would probably be no announcements about the lifting of restrictions on Ukraine’s use of British and French-supplied missiles in Ukraine. But at the same time, he said that the US and its Nato allies have “our own calculus for what we decide to provide to Ukraine”. “I never said that we don’t take Mr Putin’s threats seriously. He starts brandishing the nuclear sword, for instance, yeah, we take that seriously. We constantly monitor that. He obviously has proven capable of aggression. He’s obviously proven capable of escalation … But it is not something that we haven’t heard before. So we take note of it. We got it,” Kirby said. Biden and Starmer were meeting for their second time at the White House after last month’s Nato summit, which was held just days after Labour won the UK general election and retook power after 14 years in opposition. The two leaders were expected to discuss a host of foreign policy topics, including Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, the Aukus partnership between the UK, Australia and US, and more. The Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is expected to present his “victory plan” to Biden on the sidelines of the UN general assembly this month. Pressure is growing on Ukraine in the run-up to the US presidential elections, which could see Donald Trump return to power. As fevered discussions over the future of the war take place behind closed doors, Washington and its allies have continued to pledge to stand behind Ukraine in the war. “We are going to do everything that we can so that Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself,” said the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, on Friday. “That is our commitment. I think you have seen this, a very much focused, a tremendous amount of support from this administration and also from our partners and allies in doing just that. And that’s what you could expect to see.”

The Guardian;Canadian military admits new sleeping bags are not suited to Canadian winters;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/canada-military-sleeping-bags;2024-09-13T18:32:59Z

The Canadian military has admitted that new sleeping bags issued to troops last year were not suited to “typical Canadian winter conditions”. According to a briefing note obtained by the CBC, the army issued the new sleeping bags in the autumn of last year in Alberta, where several hundred troops were preparing for a joint Canada-US exercise in Alaska. Soldiers who used the bags reportedly found “several critical issues … related to lack of warmth”, according to the 5 December 2023 note. In temperatures ranging from 5C (41F) to -20C (-4F), troops reported being cold in the sleeping bags overnight, even when they heated their tents with stoves. The official who authored the note concluded that the bags were “better suited for use in weather conditions that are characteristic of late spring to early fall”. It recommended loaning the troops some of the army’s original Arctic sleeping bags, which were first acquired in 1965. The defence department spent more than C$34.8m (US$25.6m) on the new sleeping bags to replace those original Arctic bags. In a statement to the CBC, it declined to answer what cold-weather testing had been done before the purchase, saying only that the bags had been “chosen following a rigorous competitive process” and that the “technical requirements used to make the selection included insulation value, weight of the bags and the packing volume”. It added that it still considers the new bags suitable for most uses – but now additionally aims to buy new sleeping bags that are adapted for winter in the far north and the Arctic. “I wonder if they should have just gone to Canadian Tire,” Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary, an expert in Arctic military affairs, told CBC, referencing a popular retail company.

The Guardian;Briton and Americans among 37 given death sentence over DRC coup attempt;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/briton-americans-sentenced-to-death-drc-coup-attempt;2024-09-13T18:22:57Z

A Briton and three Americans are among 37 people sentenced to death on Friday over an attempt to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the opposition figure Christian Malanga on 19 May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Félix Tshisekedi. Armed men first attacked the parliamentary speaker Vital Kamerhe’s home in Kinshasa, then briefly occupied an office of the presidency, before Malanga, a US-based Congolese politician, was killed by security forces. Malanga was shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said. The defendants, who also include a Belgian, a Canadian national and several Congolese, can appeal against the verdict on charges that included terrorism, murder and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in July. The three Americans convicted were Malanga’s son Marcel Malanga, 21, as well as Tyler Thompson Jr and Benjamin Zalman-Polun. Marcel had told the court that his father, from whom he had been estranged, threatened to kill him unless he participated. He said it was his first time visiting the country at the invitation of his father whom he had not seen in years. Thompson, 21, flew to Africa from Utah with Marcel for what his family believed was a vacation with all expenses paid by the elder Malanga, the court previously heard. The pair had played high school football together in Salt Lake City. Other teammates had accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to join him on a “security job” in DRC. Thompson’s family have said he had no knowledge of the elder Malanga’s intentions, nor any plans for political activism or intentions to enter DRC. They have said they understood the itinerary to be South Africa and Eswatini. Zalman-Polun, 36, was a business associate of Christian Malanga. There was no official information available about the Briton, who was reported to also be a naturalised Congolese citizen. A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are providing consular assistance to a British man detained in DRC and are in contact with the local authorities. “We have made representations about the use of the death penalty to the DRC at the highest levels, and we will continue to do so.” The verdict was read out on live television in the yard of Ndolo military prison on the outskirts of Kinshasa. In March, DRC reinstated the death penalty, lifting a 21-year-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks. The justice ministry said at the time that the ban from 2003 had allowed offenders accused of treason and espionage to get away without sufficient punishment.

The Guardian;Greece’s leftwing Syriza party ousts leader Stefanos Kasselakis;https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/13/greeces-leftwing-syriza-party-ousts-leader-stefanos-kasselakis;2024-09-13T16:32:48Z

A Greek American shipping investor and former banker who emerged seemingly out of nowhere to assume the reins of Greece’s main leftwing opposition party Syriza has been deposed after a late night meeting of the party’s secretariat. After a drama-filled gathering of Syriza’s political secretariat on Thursday, Stefanos Kasselakis was told the party’s highest body had voted overwhelmingly and conclusively in favour of his removal. By Friday the 36-year-old had left Syriza’s headquarters, amid reports of cadres barred from even entering his parliamentary office. It was a humbling end to a rollercoaster 11 months in office for the country’s first openly gay party leader. After two days of acrimonious talks, Syriza’s central committee had declared on Sunday that Kasselakis had been ousted in a motion of no confidence. From his luxury villa on the island of Spetses, the businessman contested the decision, writing on X “I’m still here” and urging his supporters to avoid public displays of anger and exhibit self-restraint. The challenge to his ousting forced the political secretariat to convene an emergency session that wrapped up on Thursday night. Kasselakis was a political neophyte when he took over the party in September last year. Some leftwingers, disgusted by his lack of ideological affiliation and perceived rightwing populism, broke away in protest and formed a splinter group called the New Left. This week he argued that the decision to get rid of him had been brought about via “a secret ballot” and had gone against the more than 136,000 party members who had voted him into the office after the abrupt resignation of Alexis Tsipras, the former premier who had previously led the leftwing bloc. Insiders said Kasselakis had not ruled out participating in leadership elections in late November. “What we’ve just seen is the overwhelming majority of Syriza cadres coming to the conclusion that so many had come to earlier: that Kasselakis was not the right man for the post,” the leftwing writer Dimitris Psarras told the Guardian. “He ran Syriza as if it were a company, conducting meetings via Zoom, disregarding the decision-making organs that are so much of every party’s ‘internal’ life, showing little respect for colleagues, thinking he could govern by simply firing people left and right. In the end everyone was against him.” By the time his expulsion was confirmed on Friday, the Greek American was being branded a “Trump of the Balkans” who had to go. “Hopefully this will be the last instalment of a drama that has often seemed like a crazy Netflix series,” said Psarras. “Polls had shown support for Syriza plummeting with Kasselakis at the helm.” In a survey released on Wednesday Syriza was polling at 9.3% and had fallen to third place behind the centre-left Pasok party. Kasselakis, who moved to the US as a teenager after being awarded a scholarship, had deftly used social media to reach a wider audience in the run-up to elections last year. Leading figures in the party had come to his aid but by this week even they had retreated. “Supporting Kasselakis was a mistake,” said Pavlos Polakis, a former alternate health minister whose backing for the entrepreneur was seen as decisive in his winning the leadership race. “Last summer I believed we needed to rebuild Syriza after Tsipras’ resignation,” he told Open TV on Friday. “Seeing his appeal to young people, I believed he could lead Syriza’s reorganisation … but he failed in many respects. He didn’t form a political team. Leftist parties aren’t one-man shows,” he added echoing the view that too much attention had been placed on Kasselakis’s lifestyle while in office. Kasselakis had vowed from the outset to apply root-and-branch change to Syriza by embracing centrist views and transforming it into a US-style “big tent” democratic party. This week his dwindling group of supporters said there was “still a chance” he could seek to establish his own party. “It seems that he liked his time in politics heading a political party,” said Psarras. “It’s too early to rule out his departure from the Greek political scene.”

NPR;China frees American pastor after 18 years in detention;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/g-s1-23219/china-frees-american-pastor-after-18-years-in-detention;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:10:28 -0400

The State Department said that 68-year-old David Lin is coming home after being arrested in China on vague contract charges that he and his family deny. He had been jailed there for 18 years.

NPR;Here's what we know about the suspect in Trump's apparent attempted assassination;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/nx-s1-5113801/trump-shooting-assassination-attempt-suspect-ryan-wesley-routh;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:52:47 -0400

Ryan Wesley Routh's digital footprint paints a picture of a disillusioned former Trump voter who took up an impassioned defense of Ukraine. Here's what else we know about the 58-year-old suspect.

NPR;2nd apparent assassination attempt on Trump: Everything we know so far;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/g-s1-23232/up-first-newsletter-second-apparent-assassination-attempt-trump-emmy-awards-recap;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:01:00 -0400

The FBI is investigating a second apparent assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump Sunday. The gunman was about 300 to 500 yards from Trump with an AK-style rifle with scope.

NPR;A celestial trifecta: What to know about Tuesday’s lunar eclipse;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/nx-s1-5107675/lunar-eclipse-harvest-moon-supermoon-tuesday-what-to-know;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

This month's harvest moon will not only coincide with a supermoon, but also with a blood moon and partial lunar eclipse.

NPR;When Wil was struggling with depression, a therapist said just the right thing;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/12/nx-s1-5109954/depression-therapist-therapy-kindness-help;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

In 2014, Wil Davenport was being treated for depression at an inpatient mental health program. One day, his therapist issued a challenge that renewed his sense of purpose.

NPR;For people with opioid addiction, Medicaid overhaul comes with risks;https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/09/14/nx-s1-5078745/for-people-with-opioid-addiction-medicaid-overhaul-comes-with-risks;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

More than a million Americans use Medicaid to get addiction treatments like methadone. But as states update their systems, some patients have lost coverage. Even a short gap can be life-threatening.

NPR;Her piano concert was six years in the making. Then Puerto Rico's power went out;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/nx-s1-5103787/piano-concert-puerto-rico-power;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Puerto Rico’s unstable electric grid affects every sector of society, including the island’s rich cultural scene. An outage abruptly ended an emerging pianist’s recent concert, touching a nerve.

NPR;People who exercise have healthier belly fat, new study finds;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/14/nx-s1-5108843/exercise-fat-healthy-weight-obesity;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

Here's another good reason to keep exercising. A study finds people with obesity who exercise can store more fat<strong> </strong>under the skin instead of around their organs, which is much better for their health.

NPR;Rupert Murdoch is set to face his kids in court, with Fox News’ fate in the balance;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/15/nx-s1-5113155/murdoch-family-trust-fox-news-succession;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0400

The future of Fox News – and the rest of the Murdoch media empire – is at stake in a trial this week in Reno, Nevada. Rupert Murdoch wants to change his will to consolidate his eldest son’s power.<br /><br />

NPR;Shanghai hit by strongest typhoon since 1949;https://www.npr.org/2024/09/16/g-s1-23216/shanghai-strongest-storm-1949;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 04:27:37 -0400

More than 414,000 people had been evacuated ahead of the powerful winds and torrential rain from Typhoon Bebinca. Schools were closed and people were advised to stay indoors.

Al Jazeera;Storm Boris death toll rises as floods continue to ravage central Europe;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/storm-boris-death-toll-rises-as-floods-continue-to-ravage-central-europe?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:33:56 +0000

Death toll due to devastating flooding reaches at least 15 as many areas brace for more torrential rain.

Al Jazeera;After seven weeks in office, how is Iran’s President Pezeshkian faring?;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/after-seven-weeks-in-office-how-is-irans-president-pezeshkian-faring?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:34:21 +0000

Pezeshkian has promised to closely follow the supreme leader while trying to unite the public and political factions.

Al Jazeera;UK PM Starmer seeks immigration lessons from Italy’s Meloni;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/uk-pm-seeks-immigration-lessons-from-italys-meloni?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:43:26 +0000

Keir Starmer’s meeting with the far-right premier in Rome branded ‘disturbing&#039;.

Al Jazeera;What we know about Donald Trump’s second apparent assassination attempt;https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/16/what-we-know-about-donald-trumps-second-apparent-assassination-attempt?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:18:51 +0000

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says he is ‘safe and well’ after Secret Service opened fire on a gunman.

Al Jazeera;Russian corruption purge expands as two more defence officials arrested;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/russian-corruption-purge-expands-as-two-more-defence-officials-arrested?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:13:25 +0000

Confessing to taking bribes, the duo are the latest to be arrested in a &#039;purge&#039; by the Defence Ministry.

Al Jazeera;UEFA Champions League 2024-25: Schedule, title favourites, players to watch;https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2024/9/16/uefa-champions-league-2024-25-matches-teams-format-key-dates-draw-final-favourites-record?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:08:24 +0000

Europe&#039;s top club competition returns with more teams vying for the prize in the four-month-long group stage.

Al Jazeera;NATO obligations cannot override international law;https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/16/nato-obligations-cannot-override-international-law?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:06:36 +0000

Arms-exporting NATO members cannot overlook their international legal obligations by citing alliance commitments.

Al Jazeera;Video: Muslim-owned shops attacked in India as religious violence flares;https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/16/video-muslim-owned-shops-attacked-in-india-as-religious-violence-flares?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:06:22 +0000

Religious tension in India between Hindu and Muslim communities erupted into violence in Rajasthan.

Al Jazeera;Project 2025 will go on, even if Kamala Harris wins the US presidency;https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/9/16/project-2025-will-go-on-even-if-kamala-harris-wins-the-us-presidency?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:04:23 +0000

Many pillars of Project 2025 have already been implemented at the federal and state level.

Al Jazeera;Ukraine’s ‘Bucha witches’ volunteer to shoot down Russian drones;https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/9/16/ukraines-bucha-witches-volunteer-to-shoot-down-russian-drones?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:06:53 +0000

About 100 women train to target Russian weaponry in the Kyiv suburb that captured the world&#039;s attention at start of war.

Al Jazeera;Ukraine invites UN and Red Cross to Russia’s Kursk region;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/ukraine-invites-un-and-red-cross-to-kyiv-controlled-kursk?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:36:50 +0000

Kremlin slams invitation as &#039;pure provocation&#039; as it prepares to welcome Red Cross chief.

Al Jazeera;Germany expands border controls as right pressures government on migration;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/germany-expands-border-controls-as-right-pressures-government-on-migration?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:14:52 +0000

The governing parties are seeking to head off challenge of the far right as it faces key elections.

Al Jazeera;Trump assassination attempt : Who is suspect Ryan Routh?;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/trump-assassination-attempt-who-is-suspect-ryan-routh?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:01:34 +0000

The FBI says Donald Trump was the target of &#039;what appears to be an attempted assassination&#039; at his Florida golf club.

Al Jazeera;Tribal violence over Papua New Guinea mines kills at least 20: UN;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/shootouts-near-gold-mine-in-papua-new-guinea-leave-at-least-20-dead-un?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:17:21 +0000

As clashes in Porgera Valley intensify, authorities allow police to use ‘lethal force’ to quell violence.

Al Jazeera;Ten maps to understand the occupied West Bank;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/ten-maps-to-understand-the-occupied-west-bank?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:44:00 +0000

Since 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank. Here are 10 maps showing how military control affects Palestinian lives.

Al Jazeera;Hong Kong’s security law threatens to jail activist for ‘seditious’ T-shirt;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/hong-kongs-security-law-threatens-to-jail-activist-for-seditious-t-shirt?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:36:26 +0000

Chu Kai-pong faces a sentence of up to 10 years in jail after becoming the first convict under the strict new laws.

Al Jazeera;Premier League vs Manchester City: What’s the trial on 115 charges about?;https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2024/9/16/premier-league-vs-manchester-city-whats-footballs-big-trial-all-about?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:23:03 +0000

Al Jazeera gives lowdown on the charges, the club&#039;s response and the impact of a potential guilty verdict against City.

Al Jazeera;Unsanctioned Israeli leaflets order Lebanon residents to evacuate;https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/9/16/unsanctioned-israeli-leaflets-order-lebanon-residents-to-evacuate?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:22:58 +0000

The Israeli military says the dropping of leaflets is unauthorised, and no evacuation is under way.

Al Jazeera;Rescuers put human remains in backpack after Israeli attack on Gaza City;https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/9/16/rescuers-put-human-remains-in-backpack-after-israeli-attack-on-gaza-city?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 08:01:12 +0000

Video shows rescue workers in Gaza collecting the remains of victims in a children’s school bag after an Israeli attack.

Al Jazeera;At least 8 dead as Storm Boris continues to pound Central, Eastern Europe;https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/9/16/at-least-8-dead-as-storm-boris-continues-to-pound-central-eastern-europe?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 07:14:16 +0000

Strong winds and unusually heavy rainfall have been pummelling the region for days.

Al Jazeera;Kashmir election: Are separatist candidates change agents or Trojan horses?;https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/9/16/kashmir-election-are-separatist-candidates-change-agents-or-trojan-horses?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 06:15:01 +0000

For decades, the Jamaat-e-Islami boycotted elections. Now, the banned group has upended its position—and the campaign.

Al Jazeera;Japan’s elderly population rises to record 36.25 million;https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/9/16/japans-elderly-population-rises-to-record-36-25-million?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 04:57:28 +0000

Japanese aged 65 or older now account for nearly 30 percent of the population, government data shows.

Al Jazeera;Shogun, Hacks, Baby Reindeer win big at Emmys;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/shogun-hacks-baby-reindeer-win-big-at-emmys?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 04:42:53 +0000

Sweeping Japanese epic takes home a record 18 awards, the most for a single season.

Al Jazeera;China frees US pastor David Lin who was jailed for life in 2006;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/china-frees-us-pastor-david-lin-who-was-jailed-for-life-in-2006?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 03:34:49 +0000

Lin&#039;s release raises hopes for two other US citizens detained in China and considered wrongfully detained by Washington.

Al Jazeera;Typhoon Bebinca hits Shanghai, strongest storm since 1949;https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/9/16/typhoon-bebinca-hits-shanghai-strongest-storm-since-1949?traffic_source=rss;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 02:59:18 +0000

Shanghai&#039;s 25 million people advised to stay at home as Bebinca pounds city with heavy rain and strong winds.

BBC News;Huw Edwards given six-month suspended jail sentence for indecent images of children;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgm7dvv128ro;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:01:01 GMT

The disgraced former BBC News presenter is also placed on the sex offenders' register for seven years.

BBC News;Death toll rises in flood-hit central Europe;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yjjqyv84eo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:23:58 GMT

Several people have died across the Czech Republic, Austria, Romania and Poland following devastating floods.

BBC News;I was told I had four days to live, says Lib Dem deputy leader;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crl88ep1d9zo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:47:04 GMT

The Liberal Democrat deputy leader tells her party's conference about living with Crohn's disease.

BBC News;Hearing to explore what caused Titan submersible disaster;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2kk1g66n7o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:24:26 GMT

Investigators hope to find what led to the implosion of the deep-sea vessel that was en route to the wreck of the Titanic.

BBC News;New XEC Covid variant starting to spread;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jddenj5p5o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:49:59 GMT

It has some new mutations that might help it spread this autumn, scientists say.

BBC News;Tories demand inquiry into gifts for Starmer's wife;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeyy0dlp24o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:24:55 GMT

The PM insisted "rules are being followed" after clothing for his wife was not initially declared.

BBC News;Girl died from sepsis after GP sent her home twice;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kdd9q804qo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:39:05 GMT

Mia Glynn's parents launch a claim for negligence after their daughter died hours after seeing a GP.

BBC News;Rich should pay more inheritance tax, says Ed Davey;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgnne7ded8o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:00:11 GMT

The Lib Dem leader calls on Labour to reform inheritance tax to make it "fairer" in a BBC interview.

BBC News;TikTok says US ban would have "staggering" impact on users' free speech;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3y79llndo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:15:38 GMT

The US government wants TikTok sold or divested because it says it is a threat to national security.

BBC News;Rupert Murdoch's 'Succession' court battle begins;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyllp4rey9o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 16:20:12 GMT

The court battle will determine the future of the billionaire's media empire.

BBC News;Channel 4 will not remove alleged abuser from Married At First Sight;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cje33zgln2yo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 12:55:52 GMT

Accusations of domestic abuse were made against Alexander Henry, who is in the reality show's new series.

BBC News;What do we know about suspect Ryan Wesley Routh?;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3611zjjnd2o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 11:00:37 GMT

He appears to have mixed politics and a history of support for Ukraine - as well as a number of legal issues.

BBC News;How events unfolded on Trump's golf course;https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/czd11ryq9rjo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 06:33:08 GMT

Donald Trump has been targeted in an alleged assassination attempt, for the second time in a matter of months.

BBC News;Trump thanks Secret Service - but is he protected enough?;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6255djzj68o;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:53:26 GMT

Agents are praised for foiling a would-be attack - but some say the Republican needs more protection.

BBC News;Political violence becomes America's new norm - but is still shocking;https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq6449gy87jo;Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:38:03 GMT

Donald Trump is the target of an apparent assassination attempt two months after being hit by a bullet at a rally.