world
Shamima Begum who joined ISIS as a teen loses UK citizenship appeal
A British woman whose U.K. citizenship was revoked after she traveled to Syria as a teenager to join the Islamic State group has lost an appeal in her fight to have her citizenship restored.
Shamima Begum, now 23, was 15 when she and two other girls from London joined the extremist group in February 2015. Authorities withdrew her British citizenship on national security grounds soon after she surfaced in a Syrian refugee camp in 2019.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds, ruled there was a “credible suspicion” that Begum was trafficked to Syria for “sexual exploitation.” It said there also were “arguable breaches of duty” by state bodies in allowing her to travel to the country.
But Judge Robert Jay said that evidence was “insufficient” for Begum to win the argument that the deprivation of her British citizenship failed to respect her human rights. Given that she remains in Syria, UK authorities are not compelled to facilitate her return, the judge said.
Also Read: Shamima Begum and Mueen Uddin: Academics, international affairs experts in Bangladesh decry UK’s double standards
“Reasonable people will differ as to the threat she posed in February 2019 to the national security of the United Kingdom, and as to how that threat should be balanced against all countervailing considerations,’’ Jay said in delivering the decision of the tribunal. “However, under our constitutional settlement, these sensitive issues are for the secretary of state to evaluate and not for the commission.”
Arguing the ruling gave far too much power to the Britain’s home secretary, Begum’s lawyers promised an appeal. Daniel Furner, part of Begum’s legal team, said the case was “nowhere near over.”
“What else this judgment calls out for though is some courage and some leadership from the Home Secretary to look at this case afresh in light of the clear and compelling factual findings this court has made,″ Furner said. “We are going to challenge this decision.”
Begum had challenged the action of Sajid Javid, the U.K.’s home secretary at the time, arguing that it left her stateless and that she should have been treated as a child trafficking victim, not a security risk.
The British government claimed she could seek a Bangladeshi passport based on family ties. But Begum’s family argued that she was from the U.K. and never held a Bangladeshi passport.
Javid expressed satisfaction with the decision.
“This is a complex case, but home secretaries should have the power to prevent anyone entering our country who is assessed to pose a threat to it,” he said.
The immigration tribunal held a hearing in November on Begum's appeal. The case threw into sharp relief the larger question of how Western societies deal with people who joined IS but want to go back to their home countries. Thousands remain in camps in northeast Syria.
Begum fled east London with two friends to marry IS fighters in Syria at a time when the group’s online recruitment program lured many impressionable young people to its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Begum married a Dutch man fighting for IS and had three children, who all died.
But her apparent lack of remorse in interviews soon after she surfaced in the refugee camp triggered criticism in Britain. Her tone has changed since then as she reflected on her actions and fought to return home.
Winter storms sow more chaos, shut down much of Portland
Winter storms sowed more chaos across the U.S. on Thursday, shutting down much of Oregon's largest city with almost a foot of snow and paralyzing travel from parts of the Pacific Coast all the way to the northern Plains.
The nearly 11 inches (28 centimeters) that fell in Portland amounted to the second snowiest day in the city's history. It took drivers by surprise, stalling traffic during the Wednesday evening rush hour and trapping motorists on freeways for hours.
Some spent the night in their vehicles or abandoned them altogether as crews struggled to clear roads. Other commuters got off spun-out buses and walked in groups to safety. The National Weather Service, which had predicted only a slim chance of significant snow, planned to review its work.
Read more: US mass shooting linked to extremism spiked over last decade: Report
The weather also knocked out power to almost a million homes and businesses in multiple states, closed schools and grounded or delayed thousands of flights. The system even brought snow to usually balmy Southern California.
Kim Upham endured a 13-hour ordeal as snow brought to a standstill the traffic on U.S. 26, a mountainous highway that connects Portland to the coast. Already treacherous because of its steep grade, the highway was covered in a sheet of ice, forcing some drivers to leave their cars in the middle of the road.
“It was so scary to have semi-trucks behind you and semi-trucks in front of you, and you know you’re on a slope,” she said.
As the hours stretched on, some drivers began to worry about surviving until morning. Upham used a blanket to stay warm and spent the night in her car. To save gas, she turned the vehicle on only intermittently to run the windshield wipers and inch ahead when traffic moved slightly.
“I really don’t want to die on 26,” she added. “I was thinking that quite often, to be honest with you.”
The Multnomah County medical examiner’s office said it was investigating a suspected hypothermia death related to the storm. The agency offered no details.
Amid concern for the thousands of people who live on Portland's streets, city and county officials said they would open three additional overnight shelters Thursday evening, for a total of six. The sites would be able to sleep about 700 people.
Some reveled in the surprise day off in a place that rarely gets measurable snow.
Joan Jasper snapped on skis and was gliding through a residential neighborhood.
Read More: UN approves resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine
“They always have like ‘snowmageddon’ on the news, and so we kind of ignored it — and 11 inches later here we are!” she said. “This is gorgeous.”
In Southern California, the weather service office in San Diego issued its first-ever blizzard warning, covering the mountains of San Bernardino County from early Friday until Saturday afternoon. San Bernardino County lies east of Los Angeles County, where the first mountain blizzard warning since 1989 was scheduled to take effect at the same time.
Karen Krenis was driving to a pottery studio in Santa Cruz, California, when she stopped in her tracks after seeing snow on the beach. She got out of her car and went to take photos. By the time she left, about 50 other people were there. Adults were snapping photos, and children were making snowballs.
“I have lived in California for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Krenis said.
In Wyoming, roads across much of the southern part of the state were impassable, state officials said.
Rescuers tried to reach stranded motorists, but high winds and drifting snow created a “near-impossible situation," said Sgt. Jeremy Beck of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
High winds and heavy snow in the Cascade Mountains prevented search teams from reaching the bodies of three climbers killed over the weekend in an avalanche on Washington state's Colchuck Peak.
Portland residents had expected no more than a dusting to a few inches. The city uses salt on its roads only in extreme situations for environmental reasons, and the chaos Thursday recalled a similar storm in 2017 that left motorists stranded on freeways and shut down the city for days.
The weather service originally predicted a 20% chance that Portland would get more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow. The probability of getting 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) was only around 5%.
The forecast changed rapidly as the storm approached, said Colby Neuman, a weather service meteorologist in Portland. He said forecasters would try to figure out why their models were wrong.
"There’s a balance there between crying wolf and also informing people so they can make their own decisions,” Neuman said.
In Arizona, several interstates and other highways were closed due to high winds, falling temperatures and blowing snow. Forecasters said snow could fall as rapidly as 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) per hour.
A blizzard warning was in effect through Saturday in California for higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, where predictions called for several feet of snow, 60 mph (96 kph) gusts and wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees (minus 40 Celsius).
Electrical grids took a beating in the north as heavy ice and strong winds toppled power lines. In California, lines were fouled with tree branches and other debris.
A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming in contact with a downed power line in the village of Paw Paw, authorities said. Van Buren County Sheriff Dan Abbott called it a tragic accident that was “no fault of the firefighter.”
Widespread power outages were reported in California, Oregon, Illinois, Michigan and New York, according to the website PowerOutage.us.
The largest outages by far were in Michigan, where more than 820,000 customers were without electricity, mostly in the state's southeast corner. Power lines and trees were shrouded in ice. DTE Energy said some outages could last through the weekend.
Afternoon temperatures in the 40s (above 4.4 Celsius) were expected to melt the ice, but DTE said it was bracing for more broken lines.
“A quarter-inch of ice on an electrical system is the equivalent of a baby grand piano hanging on those wires,” said Trevor Lauer, the president of DTE’s electric arm.
In the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, the city offered free dry ice, an acknowledgment that power could be out for a while. Ash Quam praised a public works crew for getting a large ice-coated tree limb out of the street.
“It was so loud when it came crashing down around midnight. By the time I woke up this morning, it was gone,” Quam said on Facebook.
Weather also contributed to another day of problems at the nation's airports. By Thursday afternoon, more than 2,000 flights were canceled and nearly 14,000 were delayed across the country, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
Israel approves over 7,000 settlement homes, groups say
Israel’s far-right government has granted approval for over 7,000 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, settlement backers and opponents said Thursday. The move defies growing international opposition to construction in the occupied territory.
The announcement came just days after the U.N. Security Council passed a statement strongly criticizing Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands claimed by the Palestinians. The United States, Israel’s closest ally, blocked what would have been an even tougher legally binding resolution, with diplomats saying they had received Israeli assurances of refraining from unilateral acts for six months.
Read More: 10 Palestinians killed, scores hurt in Israel West Bank raid
The new approvals took place during a two-day meeting that ended Thursday and appeared to contradict those claims. The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Israeli settlement construction, saying it undermines hopes for a two-state solution with the Palestinians, but taken no action to stop it.
Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog group that attended the meeting, said a planning committee granted approvals for some 7,100 new housing units across the West Bank.
The group said the committee scheduled a meeting next month to discuss plans to develop a strategic area east of Jerusalem known as E1. The U.S. in the past has blocked the project, which would largely bisect the West Bank and which critics say would make it impossible to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Read more: UN approves resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine
Lior Amihai, the group's incoming director, said some 5,200 housing units were in the early stages of planning, while the remainder were approved for near-term construction. He also said construction was approved in four unauthorized outposts.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had pledged not to legalize any more wildcat outposts. He made the promise after retroactively legalizing 10 existing outposts earlier this month.
The Israeli government is “spitting on the face of the U.S., only a few days after announcing that they committed to them that there would be no advancement of settlements in the near future,” said Peace Now.
The United States criticized the decision. “We view the expansion of settlements as an obstacle to peace that undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution,” said a National Security Council Statement. But it gave no indication that the U.S. was prepared to act.
Read more: Israel's Netanyahu advances judicial changes despite uproar
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, appealed to the United States to intervene. “The American side is required to stop this violation, which will not lead to any peace or stability in the region,” he said.
The planned construction is likely to add to the already heightened tensions following an Israeli military raid that killed 10 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday.
The international community, along with the Palestinians, considers settlement construction illegal or illegitimate. Over 700,000 Israelis now live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem — territories captured by Israel in 1967 and sought by the Palestinians for a future independent state.
Netanyahu’s new coalition, which took office in late December, is dominated by religious and ultranationalist politicians with close ties to the settlement movement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a firebrand settler leader, on Thursday was officially granted Cabinet-level authority over settlement policies.
Smotrich had promised earlier this month a major settlement push. His office declined to comment Thursday, but settler representatives, who also attended the planning meeting, celebrated what they said were new approvals.
Yossi Dagan, a settler leader in the northern West Bank, welcomed the retroactive approval of 118 homes in “Nofei Nehemia,” an outpost in the northern West Bank, after a 20-year struggle. “Great news for Samaria, for settlement and for the entire nation of Israel,” he said, using the biblical name for the region.
Shlomo Neeman, chairman of the Yesha settler’s council, declared the approvals “a tremendous boost.” Neeman is also mayor of the “Gush Etzion” settlement bloc near Jerusalem, where settlers said hundreds of new homes were approved.
The decision marks one of the largest approvals of settlement construction in years. In comparison, some 8,000 units were approved in the previous two years, according to Peace Now.
“It's very big,” said Amihai.
North Korea says it test-fired long-range cruise missiles
North Korea said Friday it test-fired long-range cruise missiles in waters off its eastern coast a day earlier, adding to a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations as its rivals step up military training.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries didn’t immediately confirm the North Korean launches, which state media said were intended to verify the reliability of the missiles and the rapid-response capabilities of the unit that operates those weapons.
Read more: China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks
The launches would have taken place as the United States and South Korea held a simulated military exercise in Washington aimed at sharpening their response to North Korean nuclear threats.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said the exercise involved four missiles, which flew for nearly three hours after being launched from a northeastern coastal area, drawing oval and figure-eight patterns above the sea, and showed that they can hit targets 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) away.
North Korea first tested a long-range cruise missile system in September 2021 and has implied they are being developed to be armed with nuclear warheads.
It also test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile Saturday and a pair of short-range missiles Monday to demonstrate a dual ability to conduct nuclear strikes on South Korea and the U.S. mainland.
Read more: Fears, questions about N. Korea's growing nuclear arsenal
North Korea said Monday’s short-range launches were a response to the United States flying B-1B bombers to the region for joint training with South Korean and Japanese warplanes on Sunday in a show of force following the North’s ICBM test.
Prior to the ICBM launch, North Korea vowed an “unprecedentedly” strong response over a series of military drills planned by Seoul and Washington. North Korea for decades has described the annual U.S.-South Korea drills as rehearsals for a potential invasion, although the allies say their exercises are defensive in nature.
Long-range cruise missiles are among a growing number of North Korean weapons and are designed to be maneuverable in flight to better evade missile defenses.
Since the collapse of nuclear negotiations with the United States in 2019, North Korea has been accelerating its development of short-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles targeting South Korea, including those that travel on low trajectories that theoretically make them harder to intercept.
Read more: N Korea calls UN chief's remarks on missile test 'unfair'
North Korea is also trying to develop solid-fuel ICBMs, which could be easier to move on vehicles and can be fired faster than the North’s existing liquid-fuel ICBMs, reducing opportunities for opponents to detect the launches and counter them.
The KCNA said Thursday’s tests were aimed at verifying the war readiness of its nuclear combat force, which is “bolstering up in every way its deadly nuclear counterattack capability against the hostile forces.”
North Korea is coming off a record year in weapons demonstrations with more than 70 ballistic missiles fired, including ICBMs with potential to reach the U.S. mainland. It also conducted what it described as simulated nuclear attacks against South Korean and U.S. targets in response to the allies’ joint military exercises.
Leader Kim Jong Un doubled down on his nuclear push entering 2023, calling for an “exponential increase” in nuclear warheads, mass production of battlefield tactical nuclear weapons targeting “enemy” South Korea and the development of more advanced ICBMs.
Read more: Russia, China show off ties amid maneuvering over Ukraine
The U.S. Department of Defense and South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the U.S. and South Korean militaries conducted a simulation at the Pentagon on Wednesday that was focused on the possibility of the North Korean use of nuclear weapons. The allies also discussed various adoptions to demonstrate their “strong response capabilities and resolve to response appropriately” to any North Korean nuclear use.
The Americans during the meeting highlighted the Biden administration’s 2022 Nuclear Posture Review, which states that any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or its allies and partners is “unacceptable and will result in the end of that regime,” the U.S. Department of Defense said. It was referring to a legislatively mandated document that spells out U.S. nuclear policy and strategy for the next five to 10 years.
Read more: North Korea confirms ICBM test, warns of more powerful steps
The U.S. and South Korean delegations also visited U.S. nuclear submarine training facilities at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, where they were briefed on the mission of Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. U.S. officials at the base described such forces as key means of providing U.S. extended deterrence to allies, referring to a commitment to defend them with the full range of its military capabilities, including nuclear ones.
In face of the North’s growing threats, South Korea has been seeking stronger reassurances from the United States that it would swiftly and decisively use its nuclear capabilities to defend its ally from a North Korean nuclear attack.
“The United States will continue to work with (South Korea) to ensure an effective mix of capabilities, concepts, deployments, exercises, and tailored options to deter and, if necessary, respond to coercion and aggression by (North Korea),” the Department of Defense said in a statement.
The U.S. and South Korean militaries have another joint computer-simulated exercise and field training scheduled in March, which South Korean officials say would involve the allies’ biggest live-fire training in years.
China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks
China, a firm Russian ally, has called for a cease-fire between Ukraine and Moscow and the opening of peace talks as part of a 12-point proposal to end the conflict.
The plan issued Friday morning by the Foreign Ministry also urges the end of Western sanctions imposed on Russia, measures to ensure the safety of nuclear facilities, the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians, and steps to ensure the export of grain after disruptions caused global food prices to spike.
China has claimed to be neutral in the conflict, but it has a “no limits” relationship with Russia and has refused to criticize its invasion of Ukraine over even refer to it as such, while accusing the West of provoking the conflict and “fanning the flames" by providing Ukraine with defensive arms.
Read more: UN approves resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine
China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to oppose the U.S.-led liberal international order. Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the strength of those ties when he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow this week.
China has also been accused by the U.S. of possibly preparing to provide Russia with military aid, something Beijing says lacks evidence.
Given China's positions, that throws doubt on whether its 12-point proposal has any hope of going ahead — or whether China is seen as an honest broker.
Before the proposal was released, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it an important first step.
“I think that, in general, the fact that China started talking about peace in Ukraine, I think that it is not bad. It is important for us that all states are on our side, on the side of justice,” he said at a news conference Friday with Spain's prime minister.
Read more: Russia, China show off ties amid maneuvering over Ukraine
State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier Thursday that the U.S. would reserve judgment but that China’s allegiance with Russia meant it was not a neutral mediator. “We would like to see nothing more than a just and durable peace ... but we are skeptical that reports of a proposal like this will be a constructive path forward,” he said.
Price added that the U.S. hopes “all countries that have a relationship with Russia unlike the one that we have will use that leverage, will use that influence to push Russia meaningfully and usefully to end this brutal war of aggression. (China) is in a position to do that in ways that we just aren’t.”
The peace proposal mainly elaborated on long-held Chinese positions, including referring to the need that all countries' “sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity be effectively guaranteed."
Read more: Philippines eyes South China Sea patrols with US, Australia
It also called an end to the “Cold War mentality" — it's standard term for what it regards as U.S. hegemony and interference in other countries.
“A country’s security cannot be at the expense of other countries’ security, and regional security cannot be guaranteed by strengthening or even expanding military blocs,” the proposal said. “The legitimate security interests and concerns of all countries should be taken seriously and properly addressed.”
China abstained Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces. It is one of 16 countries that either voted against or abstained on almost all of five previous resolutions on Ukraine.
The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its allies, passed 141-7 with 32 abstentions, sending a strong message on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion that appears to leave Russia more isolated than ever.
While China has not been openly critical of Moscow, it has said that the present conflict is “not something it wishes to see,” and has repeatedly said any use of nuclear weapons would be completely unacceptable, in an implied repudiation of Putin’s statement that Russia would use “all available means” to protect its territory.
Read more: China blasts Pentagon official’s Taiwan visit, military ties
“There are no winners in conflict wars," the proposal said.
“All parties should maintain rationality and restraint ... support Russia and Ukraine to meet each other, resume direct dialogue as soon as possible, gradually promote the de-escalation and relaxation of the situation, and finally reach a comprehensive ceasefire," it said.
UN approves resolution calling for Russia to leave Ukraine
The U.N. General Assembly approved a nonbinding resolution Thursday that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces, sending a strong message on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion that Moscow's aggression must stop.
The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its allies, passed 141-7, with 32 abstentions.
Read more: China calls for Russia-Ukraine cease-fire, peace talks
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the vote was more evidence that not only the West backs his country.
“This vote defies the argument that the global south does not stand on Ukraine’s side," Kuleba said. "Many countries representing Latin America, Africa, Asia voted in favor.”
The General Assembly has become the most important U.N. body dealing with Ukraine because the Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, is paralyzed by Russia’s veto power. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, unlike Security Council resolutions, but serve as a barometer of world opinion.
The seven countries voting against Thursday's resolution were Belarus, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, North Korea, Eritrea and Mali, which has developed close military ties with Russia. Amendments proposed by Belarus would have weakened or stripped much of the language but were resoundingly defeated.
Read more: No economic ‘knockout’ yet from West’s sanctions on Russia
The vote was slightly below the highest total for the five previous resolutions approved by the 193-member world body since Russia sent troops and tanks across the border into its smaller neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022. That tally, in an October resolution against Russia’s illegal annexations, won approval by 143 countries.
Foreign ministers and diplomats from more than 75 countries addressed the assembly during two days of debate, with many urging support for the resolution that upholds Ukraine’s territorial integrity, a basic principle of the U.N. Charter that all countries must subscribe to when they join the world organization.
The war has killed tens of thousands on both sides and has reduced entire Ukrainian cities to ruins and its impact has been felt worldwide in higher food and fuel costs and rising inflation.
Venezuela’s deputy ambassador addressed the council on behalf of 16 countries that either voted against or abstained on almost all of five previous resolutions on Ukraine: Belarus, Bolivia, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Laos, Mali, Nicaragua, North Korea, St. Vincent, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
Read more: Putin raises tension on Ukraine, suspends START nuclear pact
While other countries focused on Russia’s actions, Venezuelan Deputy Ambassador Joaquín Pérez Ayestarán said Wednesday that all countries without exception “must stringently comply with the United Nations Charter,” a barely veiled dig at an international order long dominated by the U.S. and Europe, and at what some call violations of the charter.
Ayestarán said the countries in his group were against what he called divisive action in the General Assembly, and for “a spirit of compromise.”
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters that the aggressor and the victim can’t be put on equal footing.
“Russia has not sent any positive signal of any minimum willingness to work for a peace,” Borrell said. Instead, Russia is intensifying attacks, firing 50,000 rounds every day, and has put 300,000 soldiers on the front lines, double the 150,000 it massed before the invasion, he said.
Facing this reality, Borrell said, the EU and the West have to support Ukraine militarily, impose sanctions on Russia, and try to isolate Moscow diplomatically which is what Kyiv’s supporters are trying to do at the United Nations this week.
Read more: Global impact: 5 ways war in Ukraine has changed the world
China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dai Bing, told the assembly Thursday: “We support Russia and Ukraine in moving towards each other. ... The international community should make joint efforts to facilitate peace talks.”
China says it is neutral in the conflict and an advocate of peace talks, but has not criticized the invasion or described it as such. Beijing has condemned the U.S. and its allies over sanctions on Moscow and military assistance to Ukraine. China and Russia have increasingly aligned their foreign policies to oppose the U.S.-led international order.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed the strength of those ties when he met Russian leader Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow this week.
More broadly, Russia and Ukraine have been trying to win support from around the world.
The head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, spoke Tuesday about the U.N. resolution with India's national security adviser because “Ukraine is interested in the broadest possible support for the resolution, in particular from the countries of the global south,” a statement from Zelenskyy’s office said.
India had a Cold War dependence on the Soviet Union and has abstained several times from voting on U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding that Russia cease its invasion.
Less-powerful countries, including many in Africa, also have been caught up in the diplomatic wrangling.
“We were colonized, and we forgive those who colonized us. Now the colonizers are asking us to be enemies with Russia, who never colonized us; is that fair?” Uganda’s foreign minister, Abubaker Jeje Odongo, told the Sputnik news agency this month.
Russia is Africa’s top arms supplier and Odongo also noted that most of his country’s military equipment is Russian-made.
“Countries in Africa have traditionally been attached in the Cold War division to the Soviet Union, having the old nostalgia, but also Russia has good tools, how to motivate them to be on their side,” Slovak Foreign Minister Rastislav Káčer told reporters in New York on Thursday. “And then there are others, like China, who are big powers, and are very carefully following what’s going on, and calculating what’s good for them.”
Death toll from Turkey, Syria earthquake tops 47,000
The death toll from the massive earthquake that hit parts of Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6 continues to rise as more bodies are retrieved from the rubble of demolished buildings. A magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck the already battered province of Hatay this week damaged or demolished more buildings, compounding the devastation.
Here’s a look at the key developments Thursday from the aftermath of the earthquake.
DEATH TOLL TOPS 47,000
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has raised the number of fatalities in Turkey from the magnitude 7.8 earthquake to 43,556.
The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria now stands at 47,244.
Read: 6.8 earthquake shakes lightly populated part of Tajikistan
In an interview with state broadcaster TRT late on Wednesday, Soylu said teams were sifting through two buildings in hard-hit Hatay province in search of further bodies. Search operations elsewhere have come to an end, he said.
Meanwhile, at least 164,000 buildings have either collapsed or are so damaged that they need to be demolished, said Murat Kurum, Turkey’s minister for the environment and urbanization.
SYRIANS SHELTER IN TENTS AND CARS
The local civil defense in northwestern Syria, known locally as The White Helmets, said Thursday that thousands of children and tens of thousands of families have taken shelter in cars and tents “fearing they would face a repeat of the earthquake.”
In government-held Syria, a first plane from Bahrain loaded with aid landed in Damascus. The Gulf monarchy is among many Arab countries that in recent years have tried to thaw relations with President Bashar Assad, after shunning him in 2011 for his brutal crackdown on protesters.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two key U.S. allies in the region, have also delivered aid.
6.8 earthquake shakes lightly populated part of Tajikistan
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook a lightly populated, remote part of Tajikistan early Thursday near China’s far western Xinjiang region.
It was 67 kilometers (41 miles) west of Murghob, Tajikistan, and 20 kilometers (12 miles) below ground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Mughrob is the district capital with a population of a few thousand people high in the Pamir Mountains.
The quake was strongly felt across the border in some areas of Kashgar prefecture and Kizilsu Kyrgyz autonomous prefecture in Xinjiang, but no casualties or damage has been reported so far, state media CCTV said, citing local information officers.
China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake was 7.2 magnitude and 10 kilometers (6 miles) deep. Measurements by different agencies often differ.
UNESCO chief urges tougher regulation of social media
The United Nations’ educational, scientific and cultural agency chief on Wednesday called for a global dialogue to find ways to regulate social media companies and limit their role in the spreading of misinformation around the world.
Audrey Azoulay, the director general of UNESCO, addressed a gathering of lawmakers, journalists and civil societies from around the world to discuss ways to regulate social media platforms such as Twitter and others to help make the internet a safer, fact-based space.
The two-day conference in Paris aims to formulate guidelines that would help regulators, governments and businesses manage content that undermines democracy and human rights, while supporting freedom of expression and promoting access to accurate and reliable information.
The global dialogue should provide the legal tools and principles of accountability and responsibility for social media companies to contribute to the “public good,” Azoulay said in an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference. She added: “It would limit the risks that we see today, that we live today, disinformation (and) conspiracy theories spreading faster than the truth.”
The European Union last year passed landmark legislation that will compel big tech companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta to police their platforms more strictly to protect European users from hate speech, disinformation and harmful content.
The Digital Services Act is one of the EU’s three significant laws targeting the tech industry.
In the United States, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission have filed major antitrust actions against Google and Facebook, although Congress remains politically divided on efforts to address online disinformation, competition, privacy and more.
Filipino journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa told participants in the Paris conference that putting laws into place that would prevent social media companies from “proliferating misinformation on their platforms” is long overdue.
Ressa is a longtime critic of social media platforms that she said have put “democracy at risk” and distracted societies from solving problems such climate change and the rise of authoritarianism around the world.
By “insidiously manipulating people at the scale that’s happening now, ... (they have) changed our values and it has rippled to cascading failure,” Ressa told the AP in an interview on Wednesday.
“If you don’t have a set of shared facts, how do we deal with climate change?” Ressa said. “If everything is debatable, if trust is destroyed (there’s no) meaningful exchange.”
She added: “Just a reminder, democracy is not just about talking. It’s about listening. It’s about finding compromises that are impossible in the world of technology today.”
US mass shooting linked to extremism spiked over last decade: Report
The number of U.S. mass killings linked to extremism over the past decade was at least three times higher than the total from any 10-year period since the 1970s, according to a report by the Anti-Defamation League.
The report — provided to The Associated Press ahead of its public release on Thursday — also found that all extremist killings identified in 2022 were linked to right-wing extremism, with an especially high number linked to white supremacy. They include a racist mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 Black shoppers dead and a mass shooting that killed five people an LGBT nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that we live in an age of extremist mass killings,” the report from the group’s Center on Extremism says.
Between two and seven extremism-related mass killings occurred every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, but in the 2010s that number skyrocketed to 21, the report found.
The trend has since continued with five extremist mass killings in 2021 and 2022, as many as there were during the first decade of the new millennium.
The number of victims has risen as well. Between 2010 and 2020, 164 people died in ideological extremist-related mass killings, according to the report. That’s much more than any decade except the 1990s, when the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people.
Extremist killings are those carried out by people with ties to extreme movements and ideologies.
Several factors combined to drive the numbers up between 2010 and 2020. There were shootings inspired by the rise of the Islamic State group, as well as a handful targeting police officers after civilian shootings and others linked to the increasing promotion of violence by white supremacists, said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the ADL’s Center on Extremism.
The center tracks slayings linked to various forms of extremism in the United States and compiles them in an annual report. It tracked 25 extremism-related killings last year, marking a decrease from the 33 the year before.
Ninety-three percent of the killings in 2022 were committed with firearms. The report also noted that no police officers were killed by extremists last year, for the first time since 2011.
With the waning of the Islamic State group, the main threat in the near future will likely be white supremacist shooters, the report found. The increase in the number of mass killing attempts, meanwhile, is one of the most alarming trends in recent years, said Center on Extremism Vice President Oren Segal.
“We cannot stand idly by and accept this as the new norm,” Segal said.