A US F-16 fighter jet shot down an armed Turkish drone in northeast Syria that was operating near US military personnel and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, officials familiar with the incident told CNN.
The US assessed the armed drone posed a potential threat and issued more than a dozen warnings before shooting it down, the officials said. It is unclear how the warnings were issued. US forces exercised their right to self-defense in shooting down the drone, officials said.
There were no reports of US casualties, an official said.
Several drones made repeated approaches toward US troop positions in Hasakah, Syria, the officials said. Turkish airstrikes targeted several Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria on Thursday, killing at least eight people, including six security forces, and wounded three civilians, according to a statement by Kurdish Internal Security Force, Asayish.
The incidents put the US in a precarious position. Turkey is a NATO ally and a critical partner for the US in the region, as well as playing a key role in the Ukraine conflict. At the same time, the SDF partners with the US in the campaign to defeat ISIS.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said the drone didn’t belong to the Turkish armed forces, Reuters reported. CNN is reaching out to the Turkish government.
US officials do not believe the drone was targeting American personnel specifically, but US forces operate closely alongside the Kurds in northern Syria as part of the anti-ISIS coalition there. Turkey considers the Kurdish forces to be a terrorist organization and regularly targets them inside Iraq and Syria.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that Turkey considers all Kurdish militia facilities and infrastructure in Syria and Iraq as “legitimate targets” after the Kurdistan Workers Party carried out a suicide attack in Ankara on Sunday.
Fidan added that “third parties” should stay away from the Kurds.
“I advise third parties to stay away from PKK and YPG facilities and individuals,” he said. “Our armed forces’ response to this terrorist attack will be extremely clear and they will once again regret committing such an action.”
Last November, a Turkish drone strike in northeast Syria endangered US troops and personnel, according to the US military. That prompted a call between the top US general and his Turkish counterpart.
The strike targeted a base near Hasakah, Syria, used by US and coalition forces in the ongoing campaign to defeat ISIS. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said two of their fighters were killed in the attack. The strike earned a stern rebuke from the Pentagon, which said it “directly threatened the safety of US personnel.”
Oil powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members of the BRICS group of developing nations in its first expansion in over a decade.
Also invited are Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and Argentina, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Thursday as he wrapped up the annual summit of the group in Johannesburg.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the kingdom was awaiting details from the BRICS group on the nature of the membership, and would take an “appropriate decision” accordingly.
All sixcountries invited had already expressed an interest in joining. The BRICS group currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“The membership will take effect from the first of January, 2024,” Ramaphosa said.
In a video message, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated the new BRICS members, adding that the bloc’s global influence would continue to grow.
“I would like to congratulate the new members who will work in a full-scale format next year,” Putin said.
“And I would like to assure all our colleagues that we will continue the work that we started today on expanding the influence of BRICS in the world,” the Russian president added.
China’s President Xi Jinping called the bloc’s expansion “historic,” reflecting itsdetermination to “unite and cooperate with developing countries.”
“[It will] inject new impetus into the BRICS cooperation mechanism and further strengthen the power of world peace and development,” Jinping said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also welcomed the expansion, saying his country had always believed that adding new members would strengthen the bloc.
Speaking to Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya, the Saudi foreign minister added that the bloc had “proven itself to be a useful and important channel to strengthen economic cooperation with countries of the so-called Global South.”
Bin Farhan told the BRICS conference earlier Thursday thatthe kingdom would continue to be a “secure and reliable energy provider,” adding that total bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and BRICS nations exceeded $160 billion in 2022.
If Saudi Arabia accepts the invitation, the world’s largest crude oil exporter will find itself in the same economic bloc as the world’s biggest oil importer, China.
It will also mean that Russia and Saudi Arabia — both members of OPEC+, a group of major oil producers — will join each other in a new economic bloc. The two countries often coordinate their oil output, which has in the past put Saudi Arabia at odds with its ally, the United States.
The bloc’s expansion raises the question of potential de-dollarization,a process by which members would gradually switch to using currencies other than the US dollar to conduct trade.The BRICS countries have also been talking about a common currency, an idea analysts have described as unworkable and “unlikely” in the near future.
Putin said the issue of a common currency was a “difficult question” but added “we will move towards solving these problems.”
The expansion takes place at a time when some BRICS members, namely Russia and China, are locked into rising tensions with the West.
Experts have said that choosing to include countries that are openly antagonistic toward the West, such as Iran, could swing the group further toward becoming an anti-Western bloc.
Built off a term originally coined by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill to describe key emerging markets, the group has persisted despite deep differences in political and economic systems among its members.
“Economically, not many of the countries that are applying to join are particularly large,” O’Neill told Bloomberg earlier this week.
Existing BRICS members have “had enough difficulty trying to agree just between the five of them,” he added. “So beyond the admittedly hugely powerful symbolism, I’m not quite sure what having a lot more countries in there is going to achieve.”
BRICS held its first summit in 2009 with four members and then added South Africa the following year. It launched its New Development Bank in 2015.
The United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan said on X, formerly Twitter: “We appreciate the inclusion of the UAE as a member to this important group.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said his country looked forward to joining BRICS in order to strengthen economic cooperation among its members, as well as “raise the voice of the Global South,” according to the presidential spokesperson.
— Manveena Suri, Mostafa Salem, Lizzy Yee, Mengchen Zhang and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this article.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS says it has chosen an undisclosed “D-Day” for a possible military intervention to restore Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup.
Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace & Security of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, said that military forces are “ready to go anytime the order is given” for military intervention in Niger.
“The D-day is also decided, which we are not going to disclose,” Musah told journalists after the two-day meeting of West African defense chiefs in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.
Last week, ECOWAS ordered the “activation” of a regional standby force to prepare itself to enter Niger, which was taken over by a military junta on July 26.
On Friday, Musah reiterated that the bloc’s priority remains “the restoration of the constitutional order in the shortest possible time.”
“We are not going to engage in endless dialogue. It must be fruitful,” the commissioner added.
He also called once again for the release of the country’s “legitimate” leader, the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum, who has been held under house arrest with his wife and son since he was overthrown by the armed junta.
Niger’s junta claimed it had gathered evidence to prosecute him for what it says amount to “high treason.”
Niger, which lies at the heart of Africa’s Sahel, was one of the few remaining democracies in the region.
Bazoum’s election win in 2021 marked a relatively peaceful transfer of power and capped years of military coups following Niger’s independence from France in 1960.
Leaders ECOWAS responded to the coup by enacting sanctions and issuing an ultimatum to the ruling military junta: stand down within a week or face a potential military intervention.
“That is why we say all options are on the table. If they [the junta] want to take the peaceful pathway to the restoration of constitutional order in the country, then we can stand down the military option because it is not our preferred option,” Musah said.
The commissioner said the bloc had decided that the “coup in Niger is one coup too many,” for the region, adding that there will be no further meetings of ECOWAS defense chiefs on the issue.
“We are putting a stop to it at this time,” Musah said in his concluding remarks.
As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the end of its first week, millions have turned to platforms including TikTok and Instagram in hopes of comprehending the brutal conflict in real time. Trending search terms on TikTok in recent days illustrate the hunger for frontline perspectives: From “graphic Israel footage” to “live stream in Israel right now,” internet users are seeking out raw, unfiltered accounts of a crisis they are desperate to understand.
For the most part, they are succeeding, discovering videos of tearful Israeli children wrestling with the permanence of death alongside images of dazed Gazans sitting in the rubble of their former homes. But that same demand for an intimate view of the war has created ample openings for disinformation peddlers, conspiracy theorists and propaganda artists — malign influences that regulators and researchers now warn pose a dangerous threat to public debates about the war.
One recent TikTok video, seen by more than 300,000 users and reviewed by CNN, promoted conspiracy theories about the origins of the Hamas attacks, including false claims that they were orchestrated by the media. Another, viewed more than 100,000 times, shows a clip from the video game “Arma 3” with the caption, “The war of Israel.” (Some users in the comments of that video noted they had seen the footage circulating before — when Russia invaded Ukraine.)
TikTok is hardly alone. One post on X, formerly Twitter, was viewed more than 20,000 times and flagged as misleading by London-based social media watchdog Reset for purporting to show Israelis staging civilian deaths for cameras. Another X post the group flagged, viewed 55,000 times, was an antisemitic meme featuring Pepe the Frog, a cartoon that has been appropriated by far-right white supremacists. On Instagram, a widely shared and viewed video of parachuters dropping in on a crowd and captioned “imagine attending a music festival when Hamas parachutes in” was debunked over the weekend and, in fact, showed unrelated parachute jumpers in Egypt. (Instagram later labeled the video as false.)
This week, European Union officials sent warnings to TikTok, Facebook and Instagram-parent Meta, YouTube and X, highlighting reports of misleading or illegal content about the war on their platforms and reminding the social media companies they could face billions of dollars in fines if an investigation later determines they violated EU content moderation laws. US and UK lawmakers have also called on those platforms to ensure they are enforcing their rules against hateful and illegal content.
Since the violence in Israel began, Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the social media watchdog group Center for Countering Digital Hate, told CNN his group has tracked a spike in efforts to pollute the information ecosystem surrounding the conflict.
“Getting information from social media is likely to lead to you being severely disinformed,” said Ahmed.
Everyone from US foreign adversaries to domestic extremists to internettrolls and “engagement farmers” has been exploiting the war on social media for their own personal or political gain, he added.
“Bad actors surrounding us have been manipulating, confusing and trying to create deception on social media platforms,” Dan Brahmy, CEO of the Israeli social media threat intelligence firm Cyabra, said Thursday in a video posted to LinkedIn. “If you are not sure of the trustworthiness [of content] … do not share,” he said.
‘Upticks in Islamophobic and antisemitic narratives’
Graham Brookie, senior director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, told CNN his team has witnessed a similar phenomenon. The trend includes a wave of first-party terrorist propaganda, content depicting graphic violence, misleading and outright false claims, and hate speech – particularly “upticks in specific and general Islamophobic and antisemitic narratives.”
Much of the most extreme content, he said, has been circulating on Telegram, the messaging app with few content moderation controls and a format that facilitates quick and efficient distribution of propaganda or graphic material to a large, dedicated audience. But in much the same way that TikTok videos are frequently copied and rebroadcast on other platforms, content shared on Telegram and other more fringe sites can easily find a pipeline onto mainstream social media or draw in curious users from major sites. (Telegram didn’t respond to a request for comment.)
Schools in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States this week urged parents to delete their children’s social media apps over concerns that Hamas will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days. Photos of dead or bloodied bodies, including those of children, have already spread across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X this week.
And tech watchdog group Campaign for Accountability on Thursday released a report identifying several accounts on X sharing apparent propaganda videos with Hamas iconography or linking to official Hamas websites. Earlier in the week, X faced criticism for videos unrelated to the war being presented as on-the-ground footage and for a post from owner Elon Musk directing users to follow accounts that previously shared misinformation (Musk’s post was later deleted, and the videos were labeled using X’s “community notes” feature.)
Some platforms are in a better position to combat these threats than others. Widespread layoffs across the tech industry, including at some social media companies’ ethics and safety teams, risk leaving the platforms less prepared at a critical moment, misinformation experts say. Much of the content related to the war is also spreading in Arabic and Hebrew, testing the platforms’ capacity to moderate non-English content, where enforcement has historically been less robust than in English-language content.
“Of course, platforms have improved over the years. Communication & info sharing mechanisms exist that did not in years past. But they have also never been tested like this,” Brian Fishman, the co-founder of trust and safety platform Cinder who formerly led Facebook’s counterterrorism efforts, said Wednesday in a post on Threads. “Platforms that kept strong teams in place will be pushed to the limit; platforms that did not will be pushed past it.”
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, said in a letter Wednesday to the European Commission that the platform has “identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-related accounts” and is working with several third-party groups to prevent terrorist content from spreading. “We’ve diligently taken proactive actions to remove content that violates our policies, including: violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media,” she said. The European Commission on Thursday formally opened an investigation into X following its earlier warning about disinformation and illegal content linked to the war.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said that since Hamas’ initial attacks, the company has established “a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation. Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation. We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”
YouTube, for its part, says its teams have removed thousands of videos since the attack began, and continues to monitor for hate speech, extremism, graphic imagery and other content that violates its policies. The platform is also surfacing almost entirely videos from mainstream news organizations in searches related to the war.
Snapchat told CNN that its misinformation team is closely watching content coming out of the region, making sure it is within the platform’s community guidelines, which prohibits misinformation, hate speech, terrorism, graphic violence and extremism.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Large tech platforms are now subject to content-related regulation under a new EU law called the Digital Services Act, which requires them to prevent the spread of mis- and disinformation, address rabbit holes of algorithmically recommended content and avoid possible harms to user mental health. But in such a contentious moment, platforms that take too heavy a hand in moderation could risk backlash and accusations of bias from users.
Platforms’ algorithms and business models — which generally rely on the promotion of content most likely to garner significant engagement — can aid bad actors who design content to capitalize on that structure, Ahmed said. Other product choices, such as X’s moves to allow any user to pay for a subscription for a blue “verification” checkmark that grants an algorithmic boost to post visibility, and to remove the headlines from links to news articles, can further manipulate how users perceive a news event.
“It’s time to break the emergency glass,” Ahmed said, calling on platforms to “switch off the engagement-driven algorithms.” He added: “Disinformation factories are going to cause geopolitical instability and put Jews and Muslims at harm in the coming weeks.”
Even as social media companies work to hide the absolute worst content from their users — whether out of a commitment to regulation, advertisers’ brand safety concerns, or their own editorial judgments — users’ continued appetite for gritty, close-up dispatches from Israelis and Palestinians on the ground is forcing platforms to walk a fine line.
“Platforms are caught in this demand dynamic where users want the latest and the most granular, or the most ‘real’ content or information about events, including terrorist attacks,” Brookie said.
The dynamic simultaneously highlights the business models of social media and the role the companies play in carefully calibrating their users’ experiences. The very algorithms that are widely criticized elsewhere for serving up the most outrageous, polarizing and inflammatory content are now the same ones that, in this situation, appear to be giving users exactly what they want.
But closeness to a situation is not the same thing as authenticity or objectivity, Ahmed and Brookie said, and the wave of misinformation flooding social media right now underscores the dangers of conflating them.
Despite giving the impression of reality and truthfulness, Brookie said, individual stories and combat footage conveyed through social media often lack the broader perspective and context that journalists, research organizations and even social media moderation teams apply to a situation to help achieve a fuller understanding of it.
“It’s my opinion that users can interact with the world as it is — and understand the latest, most accurate information from any given event — without having to wade through, on an individual basis, all of the worst possible content about that event,” Brookie said.
Potentially exacerbating the messy information ecosystem is a culture on social media platforms that often encourages users to bear witness to and share information about the crisis as a way of signaling their personal stance, whether or not they are deeply informed. That can lead even well-intentioned users to unwittingly share misleading information or highly emotional content created with the intention of collecting views or monetizing highly engaging content.
“Be very cautious about sharing in the middle of a major world event,” Ahmed said. “There are people trying to get you to share bullsh*t, lies, which are designed to inculcate you to hate or to misinform you. And so sharing stuff that you’re not sure about is not helping people, it’s actually really harming them and it contributes to an overall sense that no one can trust what they’re seeing.”
EU officials warned TikTok Thursday about “illegal content and disinformation” on its platform linked to the war between Hamas and Israel, calling for CEO Shou Zi Chew to respond within 24 hours.
In a letter to Chew, European Commissioner Thierry Breton said failure to comply with European Union laws around content moderation could result in penalties.
It is the third such letter Breton has sent to large social media platforms this week, after he sent similar warnings to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and Meta.
In August, a recently passed EU law known as the Digital Services Act went into effect for large online platforms including the companies Breton addressed this week. The law sets out specific obligations for social media companies to protect user privacy and safety.
Since the war began, Breton wrote, TikTok has reportedly spread graphic videos and misleading content on the platform.
“I therefore invite you to urgently step up your efforts and ensure your systems are effective, and report on the crisis measures taken to my team,” Breton wrote in the letter, which he shared on X.
TikTok didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok is stepping up efforts to counter misinformation, incitement to violence and hate relating to the Israel-Hamas war on its online platform, it announced Sunday, days after the European Union (EU) warned social media companies they risked falling foul of the bloc’s content moderation laws.
As part of its measures, TikTok is launching a command center to coordinate the work of its “safety professionals” around the world, improving the software it uses to automatically detect and remove graphic and violent content, and hiring more Arabic and Hebrew speakers to moderate content.
TikTok said in a statement that, following the brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians on October 7, it had “immediately mobilized significant resources and personnel to help maintain the safety of [its] community and integrity of [its] platform.”
“We do not tolerate attempts to incite violence or spread hateful ideologies,” it added. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for content praising violent and hateful organizations and individuals.”
The firm, owned by China’s ByteDance, said it had already removed more than 500,000 videos and shut down 8,000 livestream videos from the “impacted region” since the Hamas attack.
As the conflict escalates — Israel has blocked the provision of electricity, food, fuel and water to Gaza, and has been signaling it is preparing for a ground invasion of the area — millions have turned to social media for updates, while misinformation has proliferated on these sites.
One recent TikTok video, seen by more than 300,000 users and reviewed by CNN, promoted conspiracy theories about the origins of the Hamas attack, including false claims that it was orchestrated by the media.
Last week, the EU told social media companies they needed to better protect “children and teenagers from violent content and terrorist propaganda” on their platforms.
EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to TikTok Thursday, in a letter shared on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, saying the company had 24 hours to detail the steps it was taking to comply with EU rules on content moderation. Breton has sent similar letters to X, Google and Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook.
The European Commission sent a warning letter Friday to Google and its subsidiary YouTube over disinformation and graphic content linked to the Hamas-Israel conflict, in the European Union’s latest effort to scrutinize Big Tech’s handling of the war.
The letter from European Commissioner Thierry Breton, addressed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and also sent to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, reminded the company about its content moderation obligations under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Breton shared the letter on X.
Breton highlighted legal requirements for Google to keep graphic content such as hostage videos away from underage users; to act swiftly when authorities flag content that violates European laws; and to mitigate disinformation.
“This brings me to a second area of pressing concern: tackling disinformation in the context of elections, a priority which we personally discussed when we met in Brussels in May,” Breton wrote, referencing upcoming elections in a number of EU countries.
It also warned of possible penalties if a future investigation were to find Google (GOOGL) is not complying with the DSA.
Breton’s warning comes after similar letters he sent this week to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as well as Meta and TikTok.
Unlike some of those previous letters, however, Breton’s letter to Google does not directly suggest the company has spread misleading or illegal content. And where Breton had asked some of Google’s counterparts to respond to his letter within 24 hours, Friday’s letter to Google merely requests a report “in a prompt, accurate and complete manner.”
In response, YouTube spokeswoman Ivy Choi said the company has been actively working to take offensive videos down.
“Following the devastating attacks on civilians in Israel and the escalating conflict in Israel and Gaza, our teams have removed thousands of harmful videos, and our systems continue to connect people with high-quality news and information,” Choi said. “Our teams are working around the clock to monitor for harmful footage and remain vigilant to take action quickly across YouTube, including videos, Shorts and livestreams.”
YouTube previously told CNN its teams have removed thousands of videos since Hamas’ attacks on Israel began, and that it continues to monitor for hate speech, extremism, graphic imagery and other content that violates its policies.
According to CNN’s own review of the platform, YouTube is also surfacing almost entirely videos from mainstream news organizations in searches related to the war.
The world’s largest tech companies must comply with a sweeping new European law starting Friday that affects everything from social media moderation to targeted advertising and counterfeit goods in e-commerce — with possible ripple effects for the rest of the world.
The unprecedented EU measures for online platforms will apply to companies including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat and TikTok, among many others, reflecting one of the most comprehensive and ambitious efforts by policymakers anywhere to regulate tech giants through legislation. It could lead to fines for some companies and to changes in software affecting consumers.
The rules seek to address some of the most serious concerns that critics of large tech platforms have raised in recent years, including the spread of misinformation and disinformation; possible harms to mental health, particularly for young people; rabbit holes of algorithmically recommended content and a lack of transparency; and the spread of illegal or fake products on virtual marketplaces.
Although the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) passed last year, companies have had until now to prepare for its enforcement. Friday marks the arrival of a key compliance deadline — after which tech platforms with more than 45 million EU users will have to meet the obligations laid out in the law.
The EU also says the law intends “to establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth and competitiveness both in the European Single Market and globally.” The action reinforces Europe’s position as a leader in checking the power of large US tech companies.
For all platforms, not just the largest ones, the DSA bans data-driven targeted advertising aimed at children, as well as targeted ads to all internet users based on protected characteristics such as political affiliation, sexual orientation and ethnicity. The restrictions apply to all kinds of online ads, including commercial advertising, political advertising and issue advertising. (Some platforms had already in recent years rolled out restrictions on targeted advertising based on protected characteristics.)
The law bans so-called “dark patterns,” or the use of subtle design cues that may be intended to nudge consumers toward giving up their personal data or making other decisions that a company might prefer. An example of a dark pattern commonly cited by consumer groups is when a company tries to persuade a user to opt into tracking by highlighting an acceptance button with bright colors, while simultaneously downplaying the option to opt out by minimizing that choice’s font size or placement.
The law also requires all online platforms to offer ways for users to report illegal content and products and for them to appeal content moderation decisions. And it requires companies to spell out their terms of service in an accessible manner.
For the largest platforms, the law goes further. Companies designated as Very Large Online Platforms or Very Large Online Search Engines will be required to undertake independent risk assessments focused on, for example, how bad actors might try to manipulate their platforms, or use them to interfere with elections or to violate human rights — and companies must act to mitigate those risks. And they will have to set up repositories of the ads they’ve run and allow the public to inspect them.
Just a handful of companies are considered very large platforms under the law. But the list finalized in April includes the most powerful tech companies in the world, and, for those firms, violations can be expensive. The DSA permits EU officials to issue fines worth up to 6% of a very large platform’s global annual revenue. That could mean billions in fines for a company as large as Meta, which last year reported more than $116 billion in revenue.
Companies have spent months preparing for the deadline. As recently as this month, TikTok rolled out a tool for reporting illegal content and said it would give EU users specific explanations when their content is removed. It also said it would stop showing ads to teens in Europe based on the data the company has collected on them, all to comply with the DSA rules.
“We’ve been supportive of the objectives of the DSA and the creation of a regulatory regime in Europe that minimizes harm,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs and a former deputy prime minister of the UK, in a statement Tuesday. He said Meta assembled a 1,000-person team to prepare for DSA requirements. He outlined several efforts by the company including limits on what data advertisers can see on teens ages 13 to 17 who use Facebook and Instagram. He said advertisers can no longer target the teens based on their activity on those platforms. “Age and location is now the only information about teens that advertisers can use to show them ads,” he said.
In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson told CNN the DSA deadline “is an important milestone in the fight against illegal content online. We are mindful of our heightened responsibilities in the EU as a major technology company and continue to work with the European Commission on meeting the requirements of the DSA.”
Snapchat parent Snap told CNN that it is working closely with the European Commission to ensure the company is compliant with the new law. Snap has appointed several dedicated compliance employees to monitor whether it is living up to its obligations, the company said, and has already implemented several safeguards.
And Apple said in a statement that the DSA’s goals “align with Apple’s goals to protect consumers from illegal and harmful content. We are working to implement the requirements of the DSA with user privacy and security as our continued North Star.”
Google and Pinterest told CNN they have also been working closely with the European Commission.
“We share the DSA’s goals of making the internet even more safe, transparent and accountable, while making sure that European users, creators and businesses continue to enjoy the benefits of the web,” a Google spokesperson said.
A Pinterest spokesperson said the company would “continue to engage with the European Commission on the implementation of the DSA to ensure a smooth transition into the new legal framework.” The spokesperson added: “The wellbeing, safety and privacy of our users is a priority and we will continue to build on our efforts.”
Many companies should be able to comply with the law, given their existing policies, teams and monitoring tools, according to Robert Grosvenor, a London-based managing director at the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal. “Europe’s largest online service providers are not starting from ground zero,” Grosvenor said. But, he added: “Whether they are ready to become a highly regulated sector is another matter.”
EU officials have signaled they will be scrutinizing companies for violations. Earlier this summer, European officials performed preemptive “stress tests” of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, as well as Meta and TikTok to determine the companies’ readiness for the DSA.
For much of the year, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton has been publicly reminding X of its coming obligations as the company has backslid on some of its content moderation practices. Even as Breton concluded that X was taking its stress test seriously in June, the company had just lost a top content moderation official and had withdrawn from a voluntary EU commitment on disinformation that European officials had said would be part of any evaluation of a platform’s compliance with the DSA.
X told CNN ahead of Friday’s deadline that it was on track to comply with the new law.
Analysts anticipate that the EU will be watching even more closely after the deadline — and some hope that the rules will either encourage tech platforms to replicate their practices in the EU voluntarily around the world or else drive policymakers to adopt similar measures.
“We hope that these new laws will inspire other jurisdictions to act because these are, after all, global companies which apply many of the same practices worldwide,” said Agustin Reyna, head of legal and economic affairs at BEUC, a European consumer advocacy group. “Europe got the ball rolling, but we need other jurisdictions to win the match against tech giants.”
Already, Amazon has sought to challenge the very large platform label in court, arguing that the DSA’s requirements are geared toward ad-based online speech platforms, that Amazon is a retail platform and that none of its direct rivals in Europe have likewise been labeled, despite being larger than Amazon within individual EU countries.
The legal fights could present the first major test of the DSA’s durability in the face of Big Tech’s enormous resources. Amazon told CNN that it plans to comply with the EU General Court’s decision, either way.
“Amazon shares the goal of the European Commission to create a safe, predictable and trusted online environment, and we invest significantly in protecting our store from bad actors, illegal content, and in creating a trustworthy shopping experience,” an Amazon spokesperson said. “We have built on this strong foundation for DSA compliance.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
The European Union has told Meta it has a week to explain in greater detail how it is fighting the spread of illegal content and disinformation on its Facebook and Instagram platforms following the attacks across Israel by Hamas.
The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, said it had sent the formal request for information to Meta (META) Thursday.
The commission also asked TikTok for more information on the steps it had taken to prevent the spread of “terrorist and violent content and hate speech,” it said, but without referring to the Israel-Hamas war.
Last week, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton wrote to several social media companies, including Meta and TikTok, giving them 24 hours to detail the measures they were taking to comply with EU rules on content moderation enshrined in the recently enacted Digital Services Act (DSA).
On Friday, Meta said its teams had been working “around the clock” since the attacks by Hamas on October 7 to monitor its platforms and outlined some of its actions against misinformation and content that violates its policies and standards.
And on Sunday, TikTok announced that it had, among other measures, launched a command center to coordinate the work of its “safety professionals” around the world and improve the software it uses to automatically detect and remove graphic and violent content.
But the European Commission has made it clear it needs more information. In its Thursday announcement, the body gave both Meta and TikTok until October 25 to respond to its requests and warned that it had the power to impose financial penalties if it was not satisfied with their responses.
Both companies also have until November 8 to detail how they intend to protect the “integrity of elections” on their platforms, the commission said.
Both Meta and TikTok are bound by obligations set out in the DSA, a landmark piece of legislation, enacted in August, that seeks to more stringently regulate large tech companies, and protect people’s rights online.
The commission’s formal requests come a week after it issued a similar ultimatum to X, the company formerly known as Twitter, asking for information on how it intends to stop the spread of illegal, misleading, violent and hateful content.
The commission said it had opened an investigation into X’s compliance with the DSA. It has not announced parallel investigations into Meta or TikTok.
Microsoft will allow business customers in Europe to buy its video and chat app Teams separately from its Office software, it said Thursday, a month after the European Union opened an antitrust investigation into the company’s bundling of the products.
The change will take effect from October 1, affecting business customers in the EU and four other European countries that use Microsoft 365 and Office 365 suites.
Microsoft (MSFT) will also make it easier for other companies — for example, Zoom and Slack, which is owned by Salesforce — to integrate their products with Microsoft 365, the new name for Office 365.
“We believe these changes balance the interests of our competitors with those of European business customers, providing them with access to the best possible solutions at competitive prices,” Nanna-Louise Linde, the company’s vice-president for European government affairs, said in a blog post.
Microsoft will continue to engage with the investigation and “remain open to exploring pragmatic solutions that benefit both customers and developers in Europe,” she added.
The company will charge “core enterprise customers” €2 ($2.2) less per month for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 — which include Word, Excel and Outlook among other apps — without the popular Teams app.
New customers in Europe will be able to buy Teams, best-known for its video-conferencing feature, separately for €5 ($5.4) per month.
“Existing enterprise customers who already have a suite with Teams can choose to stay with their current productivity suite or to move to a without-Teams suite,” Linde said.
The EU launched its probe into possible anticompetitive practices by Microsoft following a 2020 complaint by Slack that alleged Microsoft illegally tied Teams to its dominantworkplace software.
European Union officials on Tuesday called on large social media platforms to step up their enforcement against online mis- and disinformation, particularly about the war in Ukraine.
In prepared remarks Tuesday, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova particularly criticized X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, as having the “largest ratio of mis/disinformation posts” among platforms that submitted reports to the EU.
“Disinformation actors were found to have significantly more followers … and tend to have joined the platform more recently than non-disinformation users,” Jourova added.
X’s report follows a decision this spring to withdraw from commitments to abide by a voluntary code of conduct around disinformation, a move that raised eyebrows among watchdog groups and regulators. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The reports unveiled this week by the EU reflect transparency filings attesting to the companies’ efforts to live up to the code. In the EU, adhering to the voluntary code is a factor in determining a platform’s overall compliance with the Digital Services Act, a tough set of binding regulations for online platforms that took effect this summer. For large social media platforms, violations of the DSA can mean billions in fines.
The reports from companies, including Google, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok, cover a wide range of content types and enforcement actions by the platforms. The largest platforms have committed to issuing reports every six months, and this week’s release reflects the first set to cover a full six-month period, the European Commission said.
Google’s report showed that in the first half of the year, it blocked more than 31 million euros in advertising revenue to EU-based accounts spreading disinformation, while TikTok said it removed more than 140,000 videos with over one billion views that had run afoul of the company’s misinformation policies, according to the European Commission.
Meanwhile, Microsoft reported that it blocked more than 6.7 million fake accounts from being created on LinkedIn, and Google said that in the first quarter of the year, its subsidiary YouTube removed hundreds of channels linked to the Russia-backed disinformation group known as the Internet Research Agency.
But Jourova said the companies cannot rest.
“I expect the platforms to do more efforts with better results,” she said in her prepared remarks. “Russian propaganda and disinformation is still very present on online platforms. This is not business as usual; the Kremlin fights with bombs in Ukraine, but with words everywhere else, including in the EU.”
Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union may soon be able to opt out of targeted ads if they pay for a monthly subscription.
A source familiar with the matter told CNN that Meta is evaluating a range of options to comply with multiple European regulations aimed atcurbing US technology companies’ use of personalized ads. Over the last year, the EU has tightened regulations and will require big tech companies to ask users for their consent around such advertising.
In July, a court ruled tech companies could use subscription models as a way of offering such consent, including asking users if they want to access Facebook and Instagram without advertising, for a fee.
Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies may collect and use the personal data of EU citizens so long as the usage falls into certain disclosed categories. Meta has previously argued that its data collection for advertising is needed for fulfilling the “contracts” between the platform and end users to provide service. But privacy advocates and regulators have said that justification doesn’t support the use of personal data for advertising.
CNN’s source said Meta remains in close discussions with its lead regulator in Europe, the Irish Data Protection Commission, about a compliance solution. The plans, if implemented, would not apply to users outside of Europe.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported Meta aims to charge about $14 a month to users who want to bypass targeted ads on Instagram on their phones and $17 to access both Facebook and Instagram without ads, to comply with EU regulations.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on the possibility of rolling out a subscription plan but echoed that it is looking at all options.
“Meta believes in the value of free services which are supported by personalized ads,” the company said in a statement. “However, we continue to explore options to ensure we comply with evolving regulatory requirements. We have nothing further to share at this time.”
Here’s a look at the life of Nikki Haley, former US ambassador to the United Nations and former Republican governor of South Carolina.
Birth date: January 20, 1972
Birth place: Bamberg, South Carolina
Birth name: Nimrata Nikki Randhawa
Father: Ajit S. Randhawa, professor and business owner
Mother: Raj Kaur Randhawa, teacher and business owner
Marriage: Michael Haley (1996-present)
Children: Rena and Nalin
Education: Clemson University, B.S., 1994
Religion: Christian
Haley’s parents are Indian immigrants who owned Exotica International Inc., a small foreign goods store that evolved into a multimillion-dollar clothing and gift venture. Exotica closed in 2008 when the Randhawas retired.
Her husband served in the National Guard and was deployed in Afghanistan for a year. He was part of an agricultural team that trained Afghan farmers how to turn their poppy crops into food crops.
Haley was raised in the religion of Sikh but converted to Christianity in her 20s. In an interview with the New York Times, Haley said she and her husband, “chose Christianity because of the way we wanted to live our life and raise our children.”
In 2011, she made history by being the first woman and the first person of an ethnic minority to hold the governorship of South Carolina. She is also the second Indian-American governor in US history. Bobby Jindal was the first, in Louisiana.
1998 – Is named to the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
2003 – Is named to the Lexington Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors.
2004 – Becomes the president of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
2004 – Haley is elected to South Carolina House of Representatives’ 87th District.
2005 – Is elected chairman of the State House’s Freshman Caucus.
2006 – Serves as majority whip in the South Carolina General Assembly.
2006 and 2008 – Is reelected to her seat in the South Carolina state House of Representatives.
December 10, 2017 –Haley says that any women who speak up about inappropriate sexual behavior “should be heard,” including Trump’s accusers.
December 21, 2017 – In a speech in front of the UN General Assembly, Haley warns participating countries that the United States will think twice about funding the world body if it votes to condemn Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there. Despite Haley’s threat, member nations overwhelmingly vote in favor of the resolution condemning the Trump administration for its decision on Israel.
December 26, 2017 – Haley says the United States has negotiated a $285 million reduction of the UN budget for 2018-2019, compared to the budget for 2016-2017.
April 29, 2019 – Haley is elected to Boeing’s board of directors during the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
November 12, 2019 – Haley’s memoir, “With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace” is published.
December 2019 – During an interview with conservative podcaster, Glenn Beck, Haley revisits her decision to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House after the 2015 mass shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Haley says that gunman Dylann Roof “hijacked” the meaning of the flag. She explains the flag signified service, sacrifice and heritage to many people. She later says, via Twitter, that her remark was misconstrued by “the outrage peddlers in the liberal media.”
March 19, 2020 – Boeing releases a March 16 letter from Haley in which she resigns from the board of directors. She states, “I cannot support a move to lean on the federal government for a stimulus or bailout that prioritizes our company over others and relies on taxpayers to guarantee our financial position. I have long held strong convictions that this is not the role of government.”
October 4, 2022 – Haley’s book, “If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons from Bold Women,” is published.
European officials warned X on Tuesday that the company formerly known as Twitter appears to have been hosting misinformation and illegal content about the war between Hamas and Israel, in potential violation of the European Union’s signature content moderation law.
In a letter addressed to X owner Elon Musk, Thierry Breton, a top European commissioner, said X faces “very precise obligations regarding content moderation” and that the company’s handling of the unfolding conflict so far has raised doubts about its compliance.
As a platform subject to Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA), X could face billions in fines if regulators conclude that violations have occurred. X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The warning letter highlights X’s potentially vast legal exposure as it battles a wave of bogus claims linked to the war that have been attributed to everything from fake White House press releases to false news reports and out-of-context videos from unrelated conflicts or even video games.
Much of the problematic content appears to stem from platform changes made under Musk’s supervision, Breton suggested in the letter, which he shared on X.
For example, he wrote, X announced over the weekend that it was making it easier for accounts to qualify for newsworthiness exceptions to its platform rules. The change to X’s Public Interest Policy made it so that accounts no longer require a minimum of 100,000 followers to qualify; they need only be “high profile” accounts that, as before, represent current or potential government officials, political parties or political candidates.
Removing the follower threshold and replacing it with a celebrity standard leaves it “uncertain” what content, particularly “violent and terrorist content that appears to circulate on your platform,” will be removed, Breton wrote.
Under the DSA, which became enforceable for large platforms in August, companies must also act swiftly when officials highlight content that violates European laws, which X may not be doing, Breton warned.
“We have, from qualified sources, reports about potentially illegal content circulating on your service despite flags from relevant authorities,” Breton wrote.
“I remind you that following the opening of a potential investigation and a finding of non-compliance, penalties can be imposed,” he added.
In an exchange on X, Musk replied to Breton. “Our policy is that everything is open source and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports,” Musk wrote. “Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that that the public can see them.”
Breton posted back: “You are well aware of your users’ — and authorities’— reports on fake content and glorification of violence. Up to you to demonstrate that you walk the talk. My team remains at your disposal to ensure DSA compliance, which the EU will continue to enforce rigorously.”
The EU letter comes as misinformation about the conflict continues to spread widely across X.
On Tuesday, the investigative journalism group Bellingcat said a fake video designed to look like a BBC News report was circulating on social media.
The video falsely claimed Bellingcat found evidence that Ukraine had smuggled weapons to Hamas. Elliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, said the report was “100% fake.”
In an effort to make the video look like a real BBC News report, its creators used graphics almost identical to what the BBC uses in its own online video reports.
The video circulated on Telegram and was shared by at least one verified account on X.
X did not remove the fake BBC News video, but it did append a small label under the video noting it is “manipulated media.”
In response to a question about the fake video, a BBC spokesperson said, “In a world of increasing disinformation, we urge everyone to ensure they are getting news from a trusted source.”
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a BBC News reporter, wrote on X Tuesday, “The video is 100% fake.”
Since taking over, Musk has laid off large swaths of X’s content moderation and policy teams, prompting backlash from civil society groups, which have warned about an increased threat of misinformation and hate speech.
In what he called an effort to deter the creation of automated accounts, Musk also eliminated the traditional verification badges that once reassured users of an account’s authenticity, replacing it with a paid system that has allowed any user to receive a verification badge without undergoing an identity check. Misinformation experts have said that the move undermined users’ ability to determine the credibility of any given account, particularly during a fast-moving news event.
But Musk himself has directly contributed to the chaos, at one point sharing – and then deleting – a post recommending that users follow an account that has been known to share misinformation, including a fake report earlier this year of an explosion at the Pentagon.
X says it has removed “hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts”and taken down thousands of postssince the attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, even as the European Commission formally opened an investigation into X after a previous warning about disinformation and illegal content on its platform linked to the Israel-Hamas war.
The platform, formerly known as Twitter, was given 24 hours by the European Unionearlier this week to address illegal content and disinformation regarding the conflict or face penalties under the bloc’s recently enacted Digital Services Act.
CEO Linda Yaccarino responded to EU official Thierry Breton in a letter dated Wednesday that she posted to X. She said the company had “redistributed resources and refocused internal teams who are working around the clock to address this rapidly evolving situation.”
“There is no place on X for terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups and we continue to remove such accounts in real time,” Yaccarino wrote.
“X is… addressing identified fake and manipulated content during this constantly evolving and shifting crisis,” she added. The platform had “assembled a leadership group to assess the situation” shortly after news broke about the attack, Yaccarino said.
European Union officials are now assessing X’s compliance with the DSA and have asked the company to start responding to investigators by as early as Oct. 18.
The probe covers X’s “policies and practices regarding notices on illegal content, complaint handling, risk assessment and measures to mitigate the risks identified,” the Commission said in a release.
“X is required to comply with the full set of provisions introduced by the DSA since late August 2023,” the release added, “including the assessment and mitigation of risks related to the dissemination of illegal content, disinformation, gender-based violence, and any negative effects on the exercise of fundamental rights, rights of the child, public security and mental well-being.”
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Beyond X, European officials have sent similar warnings to Meta and TikTok in recent days.
The announcement did not name the Israel-Hamas war. But this week, EU officials sent a letter to X owner Elon Musk warning that if an investigation finds that the company had failed to meet its legal obligations in connection with content about the war, it could face steep penalties, including billions in fines.
A slew of mischaracterized videos and other posts went viral on X over the weekend, alarming experts who track the spread of misinformation and offering the latest example of social media platforms’ struggle to deal with a flood of falsehoods during a major geopolitical event.
Since the attack on Israel, Yaccarino said X had acted to “remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content” that break its rules on violent speech, manipulated media and graphic media. It had also responded to more than 80 “take down requests” from EU authorities to remove content.
“Community Notes” — which allow X users to fact check false posts — are visible on “thousands of posts, generating millions of impressions,” shewrote.
According to Yaccarino, notes related to the conflict take about five hours on average to show up after a post is created, a revelation that could fuel concerns that fake or manipulated content is being seen by thousands — or in some cases millions — of people before being moderated.
The DSA is one of the most ambitious efforts by policymakers anywhere to regulate tech giants and companies face billions in fines for violating the act.
Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.
CNN
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Moored five miles off the coast of Yemen for more than 30 years, a decaying supertanker carrying a million barrels of oil is finally being offloaded by a United Nations-led mission, hoping to avert what threatened to be one of the world’s worst ecological disasters in decades.
Experts are now delicately handling the 47-year-old vessel – called the FSO Safer – working to remove the crude without the tanker falling apart, the oil exploding, or a massive spill taking place.
Sitting atop The Endeavor, the salvage UN ship supervising the offloading, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly said that the operation is estimated to cost $141 million, and is using the expertise of SMIT, the dredging and offshore contractor that helped dislodge the Ever Given ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week in 2021.
How to remove one million barrels of oil from a tanker
Twenty-three UN member states are funding the mission, with another $16 million coming from the private sector contributors. Donors include Yemen’s largest private company, HSA Group, which pledged $1.2 million in August 2022. The UN also engaged in a unique crowdfunding effort, contributing to the pool which took a year to raise, according to Gressly.
The team is pumping between 4,000 and 5,000 barrels of oil every hour, and has so far transferred more than 120,000 barrels to the replacement vessel carrying the offloaded oil, Gressly said. The full transfer is expected to take 19 days.
The tanker was carrying a million barrels of oil. That would be enough to power up to 83,333 cars or 50,000 US homes for an entire year. The crude on board is worth around $80 million, and who gets that remains a controversial matter.
Here’s what we know so far:
The ship has been abandoned in the Red Sea since 2015 and the UN has regularly warned that the “ticking time bomb” could break apart given its age and condition, or the oil it holds could explode due to the highly flammable compounds in it.
The FSO Safer held four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez off Alaska in 1989 which resulted in a slick that covered 1,300 miles of coastline. A potential spill from this vessel would be enough to make it the fifth largest oil spill from a tanker in history, a UN website said. The cost of cleanup of such an incident is estimated at $20 billion.
The Red Sea is a vital strategic waterway for global trade. At its southern end lies the Bab el-Mandeb strait, where nearly 9% of total seaborne-traded petroleum passes. And at its north is the Suez Canal that separates Africa from Asia. The majority of petroleum and natural gas exports from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The sea is also a popular diving hotspot that boasts an impressive underwater eco-system. In places its banks are dotted with tourist resorts, and its eastern shore is the site of ambitious Saudi development projects worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
The first step of the mission was to stabilize and secure the vessel to avoid it collapsing, Gressly said. That has already been achieved in the past few weeks.
“There are a number of things that had to be done to secure the oil from exploding,” Gressly told CNN, including pumping out gases in each of the 13 compartments holding the oil. Systems for pumping were rebuilt, and some lighting was repaired.
Booms, which are temporary floating barriers used to contain marine spills, were dispersed around the vessel to capture any potential leaks.
The second step is to transfer the oil onto the replacement vessel, which is now underway.
Oil being removed from tanker near Yemen in Red Sea
After The Safer is emptied, it must then be cleaned to ensure no oil residue is left, Gressly said. The team will then attach a giant buoy to the replacement vessel until a decision about what to do with the oil has been made.
“The transfer of the oil to (the replacement vessel) will prevent the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill in the Red Sea, but it is not the end of the operation,” Gressly said.
While the hardest part of the operation would then be over, a spill could still occur. And even after the transfer, the tanker will “continue to pose an environmental threat resulting from the sticky oil residue inside the tank, especially since the tanker remains vulnerable to collapse,” the UN said, stressing that to finish the job, an extra $22 million is urgently needed.
A spill would shut the Yemeni ports that its impoverished people rely on for food aid and fuel, impacting 17 million people during an ongoing humanitarian crisis caused by the country’s civil war and a Saudi-led military assault on the country. Oil could bleed all the way to the African coast, damaging fish stocks for 25 years and affect up to 200,000 jobs, according to the UN.
A potential spill would cause “catastrophic” public health ramifications in Yemen and surrounding countries, according to a study by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Eritrea would bear the brunt.
Air pollution from a spill of this magnitude would increase the risk of hospitalization for cardiovascular or respiratory disease for those very directly exposed by 530%, according to the study, which said it could cause an array of other health problems, from psychiatric to neurological issues.
“Given the scarcity of water and food in this region, it could be one of the most disastrous oil spills ever known in terms of impacts on human life,” David Rehkopf, a professor at Stanford University and senior author of the study, told CNN.
Up to 10 million people would struggle to obtain clean water, and 8 million would have their access to food supplies threatened. The Red Sea fisheries in Yemen could be “almost completely wiped out,” Rehkopf added.
The tanker has been an issue for many people in Yemen over the past few years, Gressly said. Sentiment on social media surrounding the removal of oil is very positive, as many in Yemen feel like the tanker is a “threat that’s been over their heads,” he said.
The tanker issue remains a point of dispute between the Houthi rebels that control the north of Yemen and the internationally recognized government, the two main warring sides in the country’s civil conflict.
While the war, which saw hundreds of thousands of people killed or injured, and Yemen left in ruins, has eased of late, it is far from resolved.
Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst for Yemen at the International Crisis Group think tank in Brussels, sees the Safer tanker issue as “an embodiment of the conflict in Yemen as a whole.”
“The government sees the Houthi militias as an illegitimate group controlling the tanker, and the Houthis do not recognize (the government),” Nagi told CNN.
The vessel was abandoned after the outbreak of the Yemeni civil war in 2015. The majority of the oil is owned by Yemeni state firm SEPOC, experts say, and there are some reports that it may be sold.
“From a technical point of view, the owner of the tanker and the oil inside it is SEPOC,” Nagi said, adding that other energy companies working in Yemen may also share ownership of the oil.
U.N. begins high-risk operation to prevent catastrophic oil spill from Yemen tanker
The main issue, Nagi added, is that the Safer’s headquarters are in the government-controlled Marib city, while the tanker is in an area controlled by the Houthis. The Safer is moored off the coast of the western Hodeidah province.
Discussions to determine the ownership of the oil are underway, Gressly said. The rights to the oil are unclear and there are legal issues that need to be addressed.
The UN coordinator hopes that the days needed to offload the oil will buy some time for “political and legal discussions that need to take place before the oil can be sold.”
While the UN may manage to resolve half of the issue, Nagi said, there still needs to be an understanding of the oil’s status.
“It still poses a danger if we keep it near a conflict zone,” he said.
Men in military fatigues claimed to have taken power in Niger hours after President Mohamed Bazoum was reportedly seized by members of the presidential guard on Wednesday, sparking international condemnation and renewed uncertainty in a volatile part of Africa beset by coups and militant extremism.
In a video communique, a man identified as Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane and flanked by several apparent soldiers, announced, “We have decided to put an end to the regime that you know,” citing a deteriorating security situation in the country and “poor economic and social governance.”
National institutions have been suspended and the country’s land borders are temporarily closed, he also said, appearing to read from a text on the table before him.
Niger has a long history of military coups since its independence from France in 1960 however in recent years it had been less political unstable. When Bazoum came to office in 2021, it was the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
Much of Africa’s Sahel region has found itself confronting Islamist insurgencies, including Niger which has received support from the United States and France in tackling extremists.
But the region has also seen multiple coups in recent years, including in Niger’s neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso.
While events inside Niger remained murky, including the precise whereabouts of Bazoum, international criticism of the attempted coup grew overnight.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he “strongly condemns… the unconstitutional change of government in Niger” and called for “an immediate end to all actions undermining democratic principles in Niger.”
Guterres was “deeply disturbed by the detention of President Mohamed Bazoum and is concerned for his safety and well-being,” he said in a statement.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said that there had been an “attempt to seize power by force” in the West African country.
“ECOWAS condemns in the strongest terms the attempt to seize power by force and calls on the coup plotters to free the democratically-elected President of the Republic immediately and without any condition,” the bloc added.
White House officials said they “strongly condemn any effort to detain or subvert the functioning of Niger’s democratically elected government.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the partnership between Washington and the West African country is contingent on its “continued commitment to democratic standards.”
France also described the unfolding events as an attempted power grab.
“(France) strongly condemns any attempt to seize power by force and joins the calls of the African Union and ECOWAS to restore the integrity of Nigerien democratic institutions,” Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
Cameron Hudson, a senior associate at the Center for the Strategic and International Studies, said there had been indications that Niger’s military leadership were not pleased with the level of support they were given to fight militants and that a coup could impact that campaign.
“It’s a very fragile state and a very fluid situation right now and until we hear more from the coup plotters themselves it’s hard to know exactly what their motivations are right now,” he told CNN.
“If the military is more concerned with domestic politics, then there is a risk that they are no longer going to be fighting the fight against these terrorist groups that are now encroaching on Niger and on the capital,” he added.
Niger, he said, is “one of the poorest countries in the world with one of the highest birth rates”.
“It has endemic problems, poverty, and terrorism, so there are many factors contributing to instability in the country,” he added.
In 2017, four US special forces soldiers were killed in an ambush by more than 100 ISIS fighters in Niger.
Wednesday’s fast moving events in Niger prompted intense discussions between the country’s Presidential Guard and government authorities, a source close to the president told CNN. The source did not reveal what exactly was being discussed.
Niger’s presidential complex was sealed off Wednesday, with heavily armed members of the Presidential Guard assembling outside the Presidential Palace early that morning. Roughly twenty members of the Presidential Guard could be seen outside the palace complex later in the day.
A statement on the presidency’s social media channels said President Mohamed Bazoum is “doing well” and the army and national guard were “ready to attack the elements of the GP [Presidential Guard] involved in this fit of anger if they do not return to their better senses.” CNN cannot verify the statement.
The country’s interior minister, Hamadou Souley, was also arrested by the presidential guard on Wednesday morning local time and is being held in the presidential palace in the capital Niamey along with Bazoum.
Hundreds of protesters later gathered in the capital Niamey in support of Bazoum. Presidential guards to fired “warning shots” to block their advance when protesters were about 300 meters (984 feet) from the presidential palace, but CNN saw no injuries.
Up to 400 protesters were seen later on Wednesday, some holding photos of Bazoum and signs saying: “No to the destabilization of the republic’s institutions.”
Niger’s presidential office said in a tweet on Wednesday that “spontaneous protests by democracy advocates broke out all over the (capital) city of Niamey, (around) the country and in front of Niger’s embassies abroad after the announcement this morning that President (Mohamed) Bazoum is being held in his palace by his guard.”
The presidential guards are holding Bazoum inside the palace, which has been blocked off by military vehicles since Wednesday morning, Reuters and the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Wednesday. Reuters cited security sources and AFP referenced sources close to Bazoum.
CNN has so far been unable to reach the country’s Ministry of Defence and Interior Ministry for comment.
A member of the National Guard guarding the building for both ministries told CNN that there are currently no officials inside.
The US Embassy in Niger said it had received reports of political instability within the capital Niamey.
“At this time the city is calm. We advise everyone to limit unnecessary movements, and avoid all travel along Rue de la Republique until further notice,” the embassy said.
Agency footage from the capital Niamey shows the rest of the cityappearing calm.
Nigerian president Bola Tinubu – the current chair of ECOWAS – issued a statement condemning “unpleasant developments” in Niger.
Tinubu said they were “closely monitoring the situation and developments.”
“It should be quite clear to all players in the Republic of Niger that the leadership of the ECOWAS Region and all lovers of democracy around the world will not tolerate any situation that incapacitates the democratically-elected government of the country.
“The ECOWAS leadership will not accept any action that impedes the smooth functioning of legitimate authority in Niger or any part of West Africa,” the statement said.
A “conversation has commenced” with North Korea over US Army Pvt. Travis King, who crossed the border between North and South Korea last week in the demilitarized zone separating the two nations, the deputy commander of the United Nations Command (UNC) said Monday.
King, believed to be the first US soldier to cross into North Korea since 1982, had a history of assault, was facing disciplinary action over his conduct and was meant to go back to the US the day before the incident.
Gen. Andrew Harrison said the case of King is still under investigation and he could not provide further detail on the private, who the US military said “willfully and without authorization” crossed into North Korea while taking a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area, a small collection of buildings inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that has separated North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“There is a mechanism that exists under the armistice agreement, whereby lines of communication are open between the UNC and the Korean People’s Army, and that takes place in the JSA. That process has started,” Harrison told journalists at the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club.
He acknowledged that the answers he could provide were “disappointing,” but “I’m constrained by what I can say.”
“You may not get the answers for what you’re desperate for,” Harrison told the journalists.
The UN Command was making King’s welfare its primary concern as the process goes forward, he said.
“Obviously, there is so much welfare at stake, and clearly we’re in a very difficult and complex situation which I don’t want to risk by speculation or going into too much detail about the communications that are existing,” he said.
The UNC is a multinational military force that includes the United States which fought on the side of South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
It controls the South Korean side of the JSA, the one place where the North and South can meet for talks.
King has not been publicly seen or heard from since he crossed into North Korea last Tuesday. North Korea has also not said anything about the status or condition of the missing soldier.
His reasoning for crossing the border into one of the world’s most authoritarian places – and a country which the US does not have diplomatic relations with – has so far remained a mystery.
A US Army official told CNN the private was set to be administratively separated from the service when he returned to Fort Bliss in Texas.
But before he could board an American Airlines flight from Incheon International Airport outside of Seoul last Monday, King bolted.
“He passed through all the security points up to the boarding gate but he told the airline staff that his passport was missing,” an official at the Incheon airport told CNN. The airline staff then escorted him back outside to the departure side, the official said.
King had reservations for a Joint Security Area tour for the next day and somehow made it to the excursion, joining other tourists as they went into the DMZ and the Joint Security Area, where he then ran into North Korea.
While the Anglosphere was wracked by a burst of populism in 2016, most European countries proved remarkably resilient. Long-held grievances in the United Kingdom and United States fueled Brexit and took Donald Trump to the White House, but Europe – seeming at times to look aghast across the Channel and Atlantic – appeared largely immune. Brussels had fretted about a “Brexit domino effect.” In reality, the opposite came to be.
In the five years from 2016, French centrism spurted out a new political party led by Emmanuel Macron that quelled the National Front. Angela Merkel’s resignation passed without populist fanfare and delivered a moderate successor. Mario Draghi, the technocrat par excellence, slid seamlessly from the European Central Bank to Italy’s premiership. Spain even went left.
There were outliers: Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Poland and Viktor Orban in Hungary continued to shape their nations in their populist parties’ image. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to third place in the 2017 federal elections. The billionaire tycoon Andrej Babis gained power that same year – but told CNN at the time he was more like the Czech Michael Bloomberg than the Czech Donald Trump. The story of that period was the so-called populist “wave” cresting early, and not sweeping much away. Voters in European nations largely toed the line.
Today, there is not that same cohesion. The far right is on the march across the continent. Italy’s government under Giorgia Meloni is further to the right than at any point since the rule of Mussolini. The AfD recently won a district council election for the first time, with more victories expected to follow. In France, the perma-threat of a Marine Le Pen presidency grows with every protest against Macron’s government, whether over police violence or pension reform. Far-right parties are propping up coalitions in Finland and Sweden. Neo-Nazi groups are growing in Austria.
And in Spain, the center-left coalition looks set to crumble after elections this weekend, paving the way for the far-right Vox party to enter government for the first time as part of a coalition.
Why did Europe largely avoid the sort of populism that took root in the US and UK in 2016? And why are populist parties now steadily marching into the mainstream across the continent?
It is often said that majoritarian electoral systems – as in the US and UK – help to shut extreme views out, while proportional systems – more common in Europe – welcome them in. Proportional systems give a louder legislative voice to parties like the AfD and Vox; winner-takes-all systems keep them quiet.
For example, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), despite winning more than 12% of the vote, secured only one seat in Parliament in the 2015 general election. Thanks to the UK’s first-past-the-post system, while there was significant support for UKIP’s anti-European Union, anti-immigration platform, it was not concentrated enough in any single constituency to deliver many seats. Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP, ran in seven elections but never won a seat – a supposed benefit of majoritarian systems.
But it’s not that simple. Afraid of losing voters to UKIP (and other far-right parties), the governing Conservatives ended up adopting many of its positions. First, holding a referendum on Brexit – then pursuing a hardline form of it. Middle-of-the-road Conservatives found they had to make room in their party for more extreme views, or face losing electoral ground to parties that championed them. The system that was meant to shut extremists out of the building ended up welcoming in their ideas. Farage saw many of his policies implemented without having to win a seat.
By contrast, despite often having extremist parties in the building, almost all mainstream European parties would simply refuse to consider them as potential coalition partners, under the principle of the “cordon sanitaire.” For instance, when the then-National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine) unexpectedly defeated the Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin in the 2002 French Presidential election, the Socialists swung their weight behind the center-right candidate Jacques Chirac, delivering him a landslide in the second-round runoff. Despite their ideological differences, the mainstream parties simply refused to cooperate with extremists.
Now, that dynamic has been reversed. Extremist parties that were once excluded from governing coalitions are increasingly propping them up, and the membrane separating the far and center right is proving increasingly permeable.
In Finland, Petteri Orpo – largely seen as dependable and level-headed – only replaced Sanna Marin as Prime Minister in April after allying with the nationalist Finns Party. The party’s Vilhelm Junnila lasted barely a month as finance minister before resigning after allegations he had joked about Nazism at a far-right event in 2019. Swedish Prime Minister Ulif Kristersson relies on the votes of the increasingly Euroskeptic, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats.
One peculiar feature of this new dynamic is how the far right and center right increasingly use each other’s language. Mainstream center-right parties, fearful of losing votes to more extreme groups, have increasingly begun to adopt their policies. In the Netherlands, Mark Rutte’s run as the second-longest serving leader in Europe ended this month after his new, hardline stance on asylum seekers proved too extreme for his more moderate coalition partners, causing his government to collapse.
Conversely, far-right parties have attempted to sanitize some of their rhetoric, hoping to appear a more credible electoral prospect. After the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager, which sparked huge protests in France, Marine Le Pen’s response was markedly restrained.
Philippe Marlier, a professor of French politics at University College London, told CNN that rather than seizing on traditional far-right rallying calls of “riots, ethnic minorities, rebelling against public authorities,” Le Pen’s “low-key” response was tempered “to appeal to a much broader audience than typical far-right voters.” This is part of a “long-term strategy of coming across no longer as a far-right politician, but as someone who eventually – in four years’ time – could be seen as a credible replacement for Macron.”
Italy’s Meloni provided the model for this. When Lega leader Matteo Salvini, a long-term admirer of Vladimir Putin, planned a trip to visit the Russian President in June last year, Meloni took the opposite stance, restating her support for Ukraine and pledging to uphold sanctions against Russia if she was elected, as she then was in September. Using more moderate rhetoric is reaping electoral success for far-right politicians across the continent.
Similarly, Germany’s AfD has begun to speak more seriously about economic policy, echoing traditional conservative values of fiscal prudence. While its flirtation with anti-vax politics may have cost it votes in the 2021 election, it has since enjoyed success in the east of the country, arguing that the government’s commitment to climate policies and supporting Ukraine’s war effort are placing overly burdensome costs on the German taxpayer. These moves suggest far-right parties, while not abandoning their extremist positions, are learning to speak the language of the mainstream to great effect.
All this is to say that the “supply side” of populism warrants as much attention as its “demand side.” It matters not just what voters want to buy, but what – and how – parties are selling. A bottom-up theory of populism suggests that dramatic shifts in public opinion create irresistible “waves” of support that mainstream parties are unable to resist. But, as the American political scientist Larry Bartels points out, there is also a top-down theory: Rather than an unexpected “wave,” there has long been a “reservoir” of populist sentiment in Europe. What matters is how politicians draw on it.
The “demand side” often attributes the rise of populism to economic grievances and a cultural backlash. Financial crises, like that of 2008-2009, or big social shifts, like the European migrant crisis of 2015, are said to provide fertile ground for the seeds of populism to take root. Often the two factors can complement each other: The AfD, for instance, was founded during the Eurozone crisis in opposition to the common currency, but gained more support after adopting anti-Islamic policies following Germany’s welcoming of migrants mostly from the Middle East.
The early 2020s, then, may seem to provide ground more fertile than the previous decade for these sorts of sentiments to grow. The continent has seen the return of inflation and the soaring cost of living; the end of quantitative easing and rising interest rates; increased tax burdens as government balance sheets recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and look to fund net-zero policies and increased defense spending. Recent opinion polls show the issue of immigration is also increasing in salience, as migrants continue to turn up on Europe’s shores.
And yet, recent Eurobarometer polling shows that the public’s perception of the European economy is less bleak than we might expect – and far better than during previous crises. Negative perceptions of Europe’s economy rocketed after the financial crisis, and rose again after the start of the pandemic, but are now net positive. Similarly, trust in the European Union has been on an upward trend since 2015, and trust in national governments has remained broadly constant, but improved since the financial crisis.
And so the recent successes of far-right parties cannot be explained by dramatic shifts in public opinion. Europe has weathered financial and migrant crises before, which did not translate into widespread support for populism.
Instead, what we are seeing is a different sort of populism to the one that wracked the US and UK in 2016: A populism fueled by the collapse of the cordon sanitaire between mainstream conservatives and the far right, and one which may have learned the lessons of its short-lived predecessors.
The defenestration of Boris Johnson and legal travails of Donald Trump perhaps offered the comforting conclusion that populism will inevitably implode: Its policy failures will be too great, the personal foibles of its leaders too unbearable, crass – and potentially criminal.
But, on the continent, there is a newer, smarter brand of populism taking root. Whereas the UK has been content to break international law in pursuit of Brexit and its crackdown on asylum seekers, populist leaders in Europe are taking greater care not to renege on their international commitments. Many are content to wage culture wars at home, while remaining reliable partners abroad.
Orban, then Kaczynski, provided the model for this. Meloni, since, has taken quickly to the craft: Remaining responsible on the continental stage while coldly implementing far-right policies on the domestic one. This weekend, Spain may also set out on this path. After Rutte’s resignation, the Netherlands may too.
A lot depends on the ability of mainstream parties – particularly on the left – to build tents big enough to accommodate their differences, rather than compromising with far-right parties to prop up their coalitions. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has managed this since 2018, though with dwindling success. His ability – or otherwise – to do so again this weekend may serve as a harbinger of the continent’s future.
The Biden administration has suspended funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology following a monthslong review that determined that the Chinese research institute “is not compliant with federal regulations and is not presently responsible,” according to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS, which conducted the review, also proposed barring the Wuhan Institute from doing business with the federal government going forward, according to the memo, which is dated to Monday and was first reported by Bloomberg.
The lab has not received any federal funding from the US National Institutes of Health since July 2020, according to an HHS spokesperson.
The determination came after the research institute failed to provide the National Institutes of Health with requested documents amid reported safety concerns at the lab.
“This action aims to ensure that WIV does not receive another dollar of federal funding,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “The move was undertaken due to WIV’s failure to provide documentation on WIV’s research requested by NIH related to concerns that WIV violated NIH’s biosafety protocols.”
In Monday’s memorandum, HHS’s deputy assistant secretary for acquisition concludes that the Wuhan Institute’s “disregard of the NIH’s requests” and the NIH’s conclusion that the institute’s research likely violated biosafety protocols present a risk that the institute “not only previously violated, but is currently violating, and will continue to violate, protocols of the NIH on biosafety.”
“Therefore, I have determined that the immediate suspension of WIV is necessary to mitigate any potential public health risk,” the official, whose name is redacted, writes in the memo.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is at the center of a theory that Covid-19 escaped from the lab in late 2019, triggering the global pandemic.
The US intelligence community has yet to reach a conclusion about where the virus originated. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified report last month that stated the US intelligence community could not determine whether researchers at the lab who fell ill in the fall of 2019 were infected with Covid-19, but identified safety and security issues at the lab. Many other experts say evidence suggests that the coronavirus likely emerged naturally and spread to humans in a Wuhan seafood market.
The National Institutes of Health notified EcoHealth Alliance – a US-based organization that received a 2014 grant from NIH that was partly funneled to the Wuhan Institute – in April 2020 that it was reviewing allegations linking the Wuhan Institute to the coronavirus pandemic. And in July of that year, NIH told EcoHealth it had received reports of “biosafety concerns” at the lab.
