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Tag: United Nations
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Biden urges support for Ukraine in U.N. speech
Biden urges support for Ukraine in U.N. speech – CBS News
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U.N. General Assembly opens with world in crisis — but only 1 of the 5 key world powers attending
United Nations — “Drop by drop, the poison of war is infecting our world,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, opening the annual gathering of 193 nations at the U.N. General Assembly.
With the world facing its highest number of violent conflicts since 1945 — beset by the consequences of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the related spike in food prices, as well as record temperatures, climate disasters and unprecedented numbers of migrants and asylum seekers crossing borders to look for better lives — the agenda is daunting.
President Biden will speak there on Tuesday, but the leaders of four of the five veto-wielding, permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Britain, France, Russia and China — will be conspicuously absent. So how much can the United Nations hope to achieve?
Of the 193 U.N. member countries, 145 nations are sending their heads of state or government to the General Assembly — but of the five founding, permanent Security Council members, only Mr. Biden will be in New York this week.
China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Putin rarely attend in person (both addressed the gathering virtually during the pandemic) and this year France’s President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are not showing up.
“While Sunak (U.K.) and Macron (France) have an excuse” — King Charles III is visiting France this week — “I do think it is telling that they are absent,” Richard Gowan, U.N. Director for the International Crisis Group, told CBS News. “That said, I think the General Assembly is a good opportunity for Biden and [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken to work on firming up U.S. ties with non-Western leaders while Xi and Putin are absent.”
Many experts believe that competition between the U.S. and China for allies in what is often referred to as the “Global South” has undermined the U.N.’s ability to bring parties together for solutions to the world’s most pressing collective problems.
“I don’t see next week as being a competition between big powers. Our goal is to support smaller countries — to let them know that we are as committed to them as we always have been,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters before the meetings.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who led a recent regional summit and traveled recently to China, is also not attending.
“Even without Xi and Modi at the U.N., there are quite a few non-Western leaders who will speak forcefully on behalf of the developing world,” Gowan said, citing Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is set to use his speech to make a big push for rebalancing the global system, and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, who will likely also hit similar notes.
He also said that leaders from small states can also have an outsize impact at the General Assembly. An example is Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley — a likely candidate to be the next Secretary General — who has used her recent U.N. appearances to call for reforms to the IMF and World Bank.
“People are looking to their leaders for a way out of this mess,” Guterres said.
MIKE SEGAR / REUTERS
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the continuing bombardment of civilians will be the primary focus at this year’s event because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will take center stage amid the ongoing war. This follows Moscow’s cancellation of a U.N.-backed grain export deal that has caused food crises in developing nations.
Zelenskyy will have several opportunities to get his plea for support across to the world on this trip, including at the U.N. and in Washington, where he will meet with President Biden on Thursday.
Zelenskyy told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday of the horrors that civilians are facing in his country.
“If Ukraine falls, what will happen in ten years? Just think about it. If [the Russians] reach Poland, what’s next? A third World War?” ge said in the interview. “We’re defending the values of the whole world. And these are Ukrainian people who are paying the highest price. We are truly fighting for our freedom, we are dying. … We are fighting for real with a nuclear state that threatens to destroy the world.”
Zelenskyy also insisted Ukraine would not consider giving up territory for a peace deal with Russia.
Nonetheless, U.N. expert Gowan says, “Zelenskyy needs to be careful,” saying that “even those who are sympathetic to Ukraine want to see peace talks sooner rather than later.”
Another pressing issue before the U.N. at this time is the forced displacement of people around the globe, which reached a new record high of 110 million people this year, High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Sunday at U.N. Headquarters, causing a flood of refugees from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Food insecurity is also high on the agenda, with expectations that the daylong summit on Monday on global goals may lead to new pledges.
“The number of people globally who do not have enough to eat is at its highest in modern history,” the U.N.’s World Food Program said. Its executive director, Cindy McCain, said that 700 million people “don’t know when — or if — they will eat again.”
Not many diplomats see breakthroughs coming at U.N. week.
“We must say no to bloc confrontation, power politics or double standards. If the forthcoming General Assembly can set the right direction, rebuild people’s confidence in the U.N., all other issues will be easier to be tackled,” China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told CBS News on Sunday.
Some experts think that focus at the U.N. is more difficult than ever.
“The U.N. is adrift, but that’s not the U.N.’s fault. Guterres has an ambitious and thoughtful agenda for the organization, emphasizing issues like regulating artificial intelligence and combating climate change,” Gowan said. “But the big powers that shape U.N. diplomacy are focused elsewhere, and it is hard to forge agreements on long-term global problems in an era of war and hot crises.”
Asked about the United States’ view of how the U.N. could be made more effective, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield said:
“Our commitment is ironclad – to see that the U.N. and particularly the Security Council is fit for purpose for the next generation.”
“The Security Council … does not represent the world that exists today,” she said. -
U.N. says most deaths from Libya floods were preventable, death toll could reach 20,000
U.N. says most deaths from Libya floods were preventable, death toll could reach 20,000 – CBS News
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U.N. says most Libya flooding deaths could have been avoided, as officials warn the toll could still soar
The number of people killed by the devastating flash flooding in northern Libya remained unclear Thursday, due to the daunting scale of the catastrophe and political chaos that’s left the African nation divided between two governments for years, but it was undoubtedly well into the thousands. With survivors still desperately hoping to find the bodies of lost loved ones in debris-choked towns and cities, the United Nations said most of the thousands of deaths could have been avoided.
With better functioning coordination in the crisis-wracked country, “they could have issued the warnings and the emergency management forces would have been able to carry out the evacuation of the people, and we could have avoided most of the human casualties,” Petteri Taalas, head of the U.N.’s World Meteorological Organization, told reporters.
AFP/Getty
An enormous surge of water, brought by torrential downpours from Storm Daniel over the weekend, burst two upstream river dams and reduced the city of Derna to an apocalyptic wasteland where entire blocks and untold numbers of people were washed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of body bags lined its mud-caked streets Thursday, awaiting mass burials, as traumatized and grieving residents search mangled buildings for the missing and bulldozers worked to clear streets.
Access to Derna remained severely hampered five days after the floods struck, as roads and bridges were destroyed and power and phone lines cut to wide areas.
How many are dead and missing in Libya?
There have been wildly varying figures provided by authorities in Libya, but The Associated Press quoted eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, as saying Thursday that more than 3,000 bodies had been buried in Derna alone, while another 2,000 were still being processed. He said most of the dead were buried in mass graves outside the city, while others were transferred to nearby towns and cities.
Abdullah Mohammed Bonja/Anadolu Agency/Getty
Authorities in the east put the death toll in Derna alone at 5,100 as of Wednesday, but that number was widely expected to keep climbing as the grim search through the flood debris continued, and a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya told the AP that at least 9,000 people were still missing.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said earlier in the week that some 10,000 people were missing.
An official with the U.N.’s World Health Organization in Libya told the AP the number of fatalities could reach 7,000, given how many people were still missing, adding that “the numbers could surprise and shock all of us.”
Speaking to the Al Arabia television network, Derna’s Mayor Abdel-Raham al-Ghaithi said the final death toll could even be as high as 20,000.
Aid starts to arrive, with more help promised
The U.N., United States, European Union and multiple Middle Eastern, North African and European nations have pledged to send rescue teams and aid including food, water tanks, emergency shelters, medical supplies and more body bags.
Among the first aircraft to arrive in Benghazi, a 180 mile drive from Derna, were eight Emirati planes carrying rescue teams, hundreds of tons of relief goods and medical aid.
AFAD/ Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The Tripoli-based government has declared a national emergency and deployed aircraft, rescue crews and trucks filled with aid.
The United Nations has pledged $10 million in support.
The need is huge, with at least 30,000 people made homeless in Derna and eastern areas, where other towns and villages were also hit by floods and mudslides, according to U.N. agencies.
Impacts of climate change and conflict combined
Climate experts have linked the scale of the disaster to the impacts of a heating planet, combined with years of chaos and decaying infrastructure in Libya.
Storm Daniel gathered strength during an unusually hot summer and earlier lashed Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece.
“Storm Daniel is yet another lethal reminder of the catastrophic impact that a changing climate can have on our world,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
While the floods were caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel, the damage was compounded by Libya’s desperately poor infrastructure. The country descended into chaos after longtime dictator Muammar Qaddafi was toppled and then killed in a NATO-backed 2011 uprising.
Libya remains divided between two rival blocs — the U.N.-backed, internationally recognized government in Tripoli, and a separate, rival administration based in the disaster-hit east.
According to one report by a regional news outlet Thursday, citing an official with a Libyan “unity” government that has been recognized by only a handful of other nations, all maintenance on both of the burst dams stopped in 2011, when Libya started descending into the civil war that continues today.
STRINGER/REUTERS
The U.N.’s Turk called on all sides in Libya “to overcome political deadlocks and divisions and to act collectively in ensuring access to relief… This is a time for unity of purpose: all those affected must receive support, without regard for any affiliations.”
In an additional threat, landmines left over from the war may have been shifted by the floods, warned Erik Tollefsen, head of the weapon contamination unit at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
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Former New Mexico governor and diplomat Bill Richardson dies at 75
Former New Mexico governor and diplomat Bill Richardson dies at 75 – CBS News
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U.N. nuclear agency reports with “regret” no progress in monitoring Iran’s growing enrichment program
United Nations — “No progress.” That’s the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency’s latest assessment of international efforts to monitor and verify Iran’s nuclear program.
The global body’s work, stemming from the now-defunct 2015 Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA), related to “verification and monitoring has been seriously affected by Iran’s decision to stop implementing its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA” one of the two reports dated September 4 said.
The still-unpublished quarterly reports, obtained by CBS News, on Iran’s nuclear advancement said the “situation was exacerbated by Iran’s subsequent decision to remove all of the Agency’s JCPOA-related surveillance and monitoring equipment.”
The IAEA’s talks with Iran on reinstalling surveillance cameras in the country’s nuclear facilities and answering questions about traces of uranium found at some of the sites previously have not produced results, leading Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi to report to the agency’s Board of Governors that he “regrets that there has been no progress.”
The updates on Iran will be presented at a news conference on the first day of the next 35-nation IAEA board meeting on September 11, agency spokesman Fredrik Dahl told CBS News Monday — about a week before Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is due to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York on September 19.
In an agreement reached six months ago between Grossi and Iranian officials, Iran agreed “on a voluntary basis” to “implement further appropriate verification and monitoring,” but the IAEA’s subsequent May report said it had “not had access to the data and recordings collected by its surveillance equipment being used to monitor centrifuges and associated infrastructure in storage, and since 10 June 2022, when this equipment was removed, no such monitoring has taken place.”
The IAEA did report some limited progress in monitoring in May, but not as required under the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which effectively fell apart, despite efforts by European leaders to salvage it, after then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. unilaterally out of the agreement in 2018.
According to the IAEA, Iran’s enrichment of uranium up to 60% purity has continued, thought it slowed from almost 20 kilograms per month to about 6.5 over the period since the last report was issued in May. Some Western diplomats see that as a small concession by Iran, as inspectors said Iran’s stockpile of highly-enriched uranium grew by 7% over the last quarter compared to 30% during the previous one.
The U.S. and some of its allies have long believed that Iran is trying to cover up clandestine work toward a nuclear weapons program, though the Islamic republic has always denied that. While 60% enriched uranium is not considered weapons-grade, it is a relatively short technical step away from the level of purity required for nuclear weapons.
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP
“As a technical matter, a slowdown of 60% won’t do a much to dispel non-proliferation concerns,” Dr. Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project and senior adviser to the President of The Crisis Group thinktank told CBS News on Monday. “Iran still has sufficient fissile material for multiple weapons if enriched to weapons-grade. Breakout time [to hypothetically launch a weapons program] remains close to nil. IAEA access remains limited, and safeguard questions remain outstanding.”
Vaez added, however, that the slow-down in the high-enrichment program by Iran could still hold some meaning.
“As a diplomatic signal, it would be the first real indication of some degree of deceleration on Tehran’s part after several years of continued expansion,” he told CBS News.
The two latest IAEA reports will be published at a difficult time for U.S. negotiators, who have been working to negotiate a prisoner swap and on discussions about the release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets ringfenced by the U.S. government. It also comes on the heels of top U.S. negotiator Rob Malley leaving his role.
Western powers argue that, regardless of any incremental slowdown in high-enriched uranium production, Iran is getting too close for comfort to the theoretical ability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran’s existing stockpile of uranium, if further enriched to weapons-grade, would be sufficient to produce two nuclear bombs, according to the IAEA’s previous report from May.
In unusually stern language, the new IAEA reports say Iran’s decision to remove all of the agency’s monitoring equipment “has had detrimental implications for the Agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.”
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Magical Thinking in Milwaukee
One couldn’t help but pity the dutiful campaign staffers and surrogates who trickled into the spin room in Milwaukee last night. They arrived with an unenviable task: to convince reporters that their respective candidates had won the first debate of the Republican presidential primary.
To anyone who had watched, it was plain, of course, that none of the eight Republicans onstage had won in any meaningful sense. Donald Trump—facing four indictments and leading in the polls by 40 points—didn’t even bother to show up. And with many voters tuning in to the race for the first time, Trump’s rivals struggled to show they were equipped to take him down. In fact, few even tried. The former president’s name barely came up in the debate’s first hour—and when the conversation did turn to the subject of his growing rap sheet, most of the candidates defended him. All but two pledged to support Trump as the party’s nominee even if he is convicted. By the end of the evening, Trump’s path to renomination looked clearer than ever.
So how to spin this state of affairs if you work for one of the also-rans?
The answer, it turned out, was simple: Ignore it.
In multiple interviews after last night’s debate, I asked GOP campaign representatives how they planned to win the primary if their candidates were unwilling to directly confront Trump. Some offered platitudes—“This is a marathon, not a sprint.” Others gestured vaguely at plans to criticize the front-runner in the future. Most flatly refused to acknowledge the reality of Trump’s current dominance in the race. They preferred to pretend.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, a supporter of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, scoffed when I mentioned Trump’s lead in the polls. “Go back and look at where Ted [Cruz] was in the numbers in 2016,” Roy instructed me.
“But … Cruz didn’t win the primary,” I replied, confused.
“Well, but he won Iowa!”
Matt Gorman, a spokesperson for Senator Tim Scott’s campaign, complained that reporters and pundits were overstating the likelihood of another Trump nomination. “Too many people think it’s inevitable,” he said. But when asked how that outcome might be avoided, Gorman had only wishful thinking to offer: “We hope that [Trump] debates. That’s our hope.”
It’s easy to see why, in an ideal world, Trump’s rivals would want to get him back on the debate stage. Several of the candidates managed strong moments last night. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley earned loud applause after calling out Republicans in Washington for adding trillions of dollars to the national debt: “Our kids are never going to forgive us for this.” Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie offered a passionate defense of former Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to go along with Trump’s ploy to overturn the 2020 election on January 6, 2021: “He deserves not grudging credit. He deserves our thanks as Americans for putting his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States before personal, political, and unfair pressure.” And the 38-year-old entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy successfully made himself the evening’s main character with a rat-a-tat of Trumpian talking points, one-liners, and comic insults that aggravated his opponents as the debate wore on.
Some of the debate’s sharpest moments came when the candidates were tangling with Ramaswamy. Christie derided him as an “amateur” who “sounds like ChatGPT.” Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations, snapped at him, “You have no foreign-policy experience, and it shows.” Even Pence, who typically affects the manner of a sleepy Sunday-school teacher, seemed to repeatedly lose his cool with Ramaswamy. “Now is not the time for on-the-job training,” Pence said at one point. “We don’t need to bring in a rookie.” (This counts as a harsh burn for Pence.)
On social media and in the press room, theories abounded as to why Ramaswamy seemed to be getting under so many of his opponents’ skin. Maybe it was generational—the know-it-all Millennial with the irritating high-school-debate patter disrespecting his Boomer elders. Or maybe it was his “Ted Cruz energy”—that signature blend of arrogance and smarminess that seems calibrated to repel. Certainly it didn’t help that Ramaswamy insisted on dismissing his opponents as “super-PAC puppets.”
But perhaps the onstage hostility had less to do with Ramaswamy than with that other blustery political neophyte who cartwheeled into GOP politics one day on a whim and promptly overshadowed the rest of the field. With Trump refusing to participate in the debates, Ramaswamy made for a serviceable proxy. (Certainly, his campaign seems to share Trump’s taste for trolling: When I asked Chris Grant, a Ramaswamy adviser, about Pence’s repeated outbursts at the candidate last night, Grant laughed and then giddily compared the former vice president to the grandpa on The Simpsons yelling at a cloud.) Still, sinking Ramaswamy—who currently polls in the high single digits—won’t meaningfully change the shape of the field. The only way to pull that off is to take votes away from the front-runner. And no one seems to have a clear plan to do that.
Back in January, I wrote about the “magical thinking” that pervaded the GOP ahead of 2024. Virtually everyone in the party I talked with—donors, strategists, elected officials—wanted to move on from Trump, but no one was willing to do anything about it. Instead, they all seemed to be waiting for the problem to resolve itself, whether via criminal charges or death or some other miraculous development. “There is a desire for deus ex machina,” one GOP consultant told me at the time. “It’s like 2016 all over again, only more fatalistic.”
Seven months later, on a debate stage in Milwaukee, we witnessed the natural consequence of this attitude. Trump—still alive—is gliding toward his third consecutive presidential nomination while his rivals squabble with one another.
McKay Coppins
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The world’s largest floating wind farm is now officially open — and helping to power North Sea oil operations
The Hywind Tampen project is located in waters off the Norwegian coast.
Ole Berg-rusten | AFP | Getty Images
A facility described as “the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm” was officially opened by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway on Wednesday, marking the culmination of a major renewable energy project years in the making.
Located around 140 kilometers (86.9 miles) off the coast of Norway in depths ranging from 260 to 300 meters, Hywind Tampen uses 11 turbines. The wind farm produced its first power in Nov. 2022 and became fully operational this month.
While wind is a renewable energy source, Hywind Tampen helps power operations at oil and gas fields, the idea being that it will cut these sites’ carbon dioxide emissions in the process.
“Hywind Tampen has a system capacity of 88 MW and is expected to cover about 35 per cent of the annual need for electricity on the five platforms Snorre A and B and Gullfaks A, B and C,” Norwegian energy firm Equinor said.
Floating offshore wind turbines are different from fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines, which are rooted to the seabed. One advantage of floating turbines is that they can be installed in far deeper waters than fixed-bottom ones.
In recent years a range of companies and major economies like the U.S. have laid out goals to ramp up floating wind installations.
Equinor, a major player in the fossil fuel industry, describes the turbines at Hywind Tampen as being “mounted on floating concrete structures with a common anchoring system.”
Alongside Equinor, partners in the Hywind Tampen project include Vår Energi, INPEX Idemitsu, Petoro, Wintershall Dea and OMV.
The project off Norway’s coast marks Equinor’s latest move in the floating wind sector. Back in 2017, it started operations at Hywind Scotland, a five-turbine, 30 MW facility it calls the planet’s first floating wind farm.
“With Hywind Tampen, we have shown that we can plan, build and commission a large, floating offshore wind farm in the North Sea,” Equinor’s Siri Kindem, who heads up the firm’s renewables business in Norway, said in a statement.
“We will use the experience and learning from this project to become even better,” she added. “We will build bigger, reduce costs and build a new industry on the shoulders of the oil and gas industry.”
Powering the oil and gas industry
The use of a floating wind farm to help power the fossil fuel industry is likely to spark significant debate at a time when discussions about climate change and the environment are at the front and center of many people’s minds.
This is because fossil fuels’ effect on the environment is considerable. The United Nations says that, since the 19th century, “human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.”
“Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures,” it adds.
The stakes are high. Speaking at the COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, last year, the U.N. Secretary General issued a stark warning to attendees.
“We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing,” Antonio Guterres said.
“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.”
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Nikki Haley Fast Facts | CNN Politics
CNN
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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.
Haley helped with bookkeeping at her parents’ business when she was a teenager.
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.
November 2, 2010 – Is elected governor of South Carolina, with the support of the Tea Party movement.
January 12, 2011 – Takes office as the governor of South Carolina.
April 2012 – Her autobiography, “Can’t Is Not an Option: My American Story,” is published.
November 8, 2014 – Is reelected for a second four-year term as governor.
June 22, 2015 – Calls for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State House grounds days after Dylann Roof opened fire at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Roof was repeatedly photographed with the Confederate flag. The flag is taken down weeks later.
January 12, 2016 – Delivers the Republican party’s response to President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.
November 23, 2016 – President-elect Donald Trump announces Haley as his selection to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
January 24, 2017 – The Senate confirms Haley as the next UN ambassador by a vote of 96-4.
January 24, 2017 – Resigns as governor of South Carolina.
January 25, 2017 – Is sworn in as ambassador to the United Nations.
September 2017 – In an interview with Elise Labott published in CNN’s STATE Magazine, Haley discusses her conditions for becoming US ambassador to the United Nations, including the condition that she be able to speak her mind.
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.
October 9, 2018 – Haley submits her resignation as UN ambassador. She will leave her post by the end of the year.
February 2019 – Launches the policy advocacy group Stand for America.
February 26, 2019 – Boeing announces its board of directors has nominated Haley for a seat on the board.
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.
February 14, 2023 – Haley announces in a video that she will run for president in 2024.
Nikki Haley’s career as governor of South Carolina
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Inside efforts to avert environmental ‘catastrophe’ in the Red Sea | CNN
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.
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More than half of U.S. under heat alerts as deadly dome expands
More than half of U.S. under heat alerts as deadly dome expands – CBS News
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‘Conversation has commenced’ with North Korea over US solider, United Nations Command says | CNN
Seoul, South Korea
CNN
—
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.
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“Some will starve, many may die,” U.N. warns after Russia pulls out of grain deal
Threats against civilian vessels in the Black Sea are “unacceptable,” a senior U.N. official said Friday following statements by Moscow and Kyiv after Russia withdrew from a key grain export deal.
Russia announced on Monday that it was pulling out of the initiative, which allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain, effectively ending the agreement signed in July last year between Moscow, Kyiv, Istanbul and the U.N. Russian authorities then announced they would consider any ships heading for Ukrainian grain ports on the Black Sea as military targets.
Ukraine responded by issuing a warning to ships heading for Russian-controlled ports.
“Threats regarding potential targeting of civilian vessels navigating in the Black Sea waters are unacceptable,” the U.N.’s under-secretary-general for political affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, told the U.N. Security Council.
“We are also concerned about the reports of sea mines laid in the Black Sea, endangering civilian navigation,” she added. “We strongly urge restraint from any further rhetoric or action that could deteriorate the already dangerous situation.”
DiCarlo said that Russia withdrawing from the grain deal, “coupled with its bombardment of crucial ports, will further compound the crisis.” She said the U.N. would continue its efforts to allow Ukrainian and Russian grain, a key food source for the world, to reach global markets.
Outside the Security Council chamber, Ukraine Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told CBS News as he was going into the meeting: “It’s about many millions of people around the world on the brink of starvation…what happens as a result of the egregious decision to terminate the agreement with the United Nations.”
Kyslytsya said that the Ukrainian government is trying to broker various ways of delivering grain and food to the most needy around the world.
“We do not use grain as weaponized means of foreign policy or waging war,” Ukraine’s U.N. top diplomat told CBS News.
The U.N.’s humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths said this week had been one of “sadness and disappointment.” But for many of the 362 million people in need of humanitarian aid around the world, it was a “threat to their future.”
“They’re not sad, they’re angry, they’re worried, they’re concerned. Some will go hungry. Some will starve, many may die as a result of these decisions,” Griffiths added.
Meanwhile, Russia said Friday that it understood the concerns African nations may have after Moscow left the grain deal, promising to ensure deliveries to countries in need.
Those countries in need would receive the necessary assurances at a summit later this month, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Vershinin told journalists.
“We understand the concerns our African friends may have,” said Vershinin. “But I want to say that these concerns are not only understandable but will be fully taken into account.
Asked about Putin’s upcoming meeting with African countries, Kyslytsya told CBS News, “I have lots of confidence in the maturity of many African leaders ….I don’t think they will be easily bought by freebees and giveaways,” adding that they are “not ready to go up against the very fundamental principles of international law.”
U.K. Ambassador Barbara Woodward also addressed the consequence of Russia’s exit from the grain deal.
“It’s hardly surprising that we heard Kenya say that this is a real stab in the back for the hungry and the poor in Africa, in the Horn of Africa, particularly as they face worst drought impacted by climate change… that’s a real humanitarian consequence of Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal,” Woodward told CBS News and reporters at the press area before the meeting.
CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk contributed to this report.
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North Korea’s ambassador blames US for regional tensions in a rare appearance at UN Security Council
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea’s U.N. ambassador defended his country’s recent long-range missile launch in a rare appearance at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday where he also accused the United States of driving the situation in northeast Asia “to the brink of nuclear war.”
Kim Song told the council that Wednesday’s test-flight of the developmental Hwasong-18 missile was a legitimate exercise of the North’s right to self-defense. He said the United States was raising regional tensions with nuclear threats and deploying a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea for the first time in 14 years.
Kim said the missile launch had “no negative effect on the security of a neighboring country,” pointing to Japan’s announcement that the ICBM — which flew at a steep angle — landed in open waters outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to bolster his country’s nuclear fighting capabilities as he supervised the second test-flight of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the mainland United States.
North Korea has test-fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile in three months after it threatened “shocking” consequences to protest alleged spying by United States military flights.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has alleged that the country’s warplanes repelled a U.S. spy plane that flew over its exclusive economic zone.
South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook countered, asking: “How can an ICBM launch ever make neighboring countries appear safe?”
Diplomats said Kim’s appearance was the first time a North Korean diplomat addressed the Security Council since 2017.
Hwang said each of North Korea’s repeated ballistic missile launches allow the country to advance its technology toward its goal of having an arsenal of nuclear-armed weapons.
Immediately before the meeting, a statement from nine council members including the U.S. and Japan, joined by South Korea, was read to reporters condemning the launch “in the strongest possible terms” and stressing that it was the 20th ballistic missile launch this year in blatant violation of multiple Security Council resolutions banning such tests.
In Pyongyang, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, slammed the U.N. Security Council for convening a meeting to “pick a quarrel with” her country’s self-defense step while ignoring the U.S. push to increase the danger of a nuclear war. In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong called the council “a new Cold War mechanism totally inclined to the U.S. and the West.”
She also warned that the United States would pay a price for its hostility toward the North. “I do not conceal the fact that very unlucky things will wait for the U.S.,” she said without elaborating but reiterated her country’s push to build up its nuclear deterrence capability.
The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017, and China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches.
The two veto-wielding permanent members have blocked any council action including statements to the media since then.
The statement by the 10 countries said the Security Council cannot remain silent in the face of so many North Korean provocations and must send a message to all proliferators “that this behavior is unlawful, destabilizing, and will not be normalized.” It also called on all countries to confront North Korea’s illicit activities to generate revenue such as cybercrime.
But Russia and China remained opposed to any council action.
China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun took note of the latest missile test but criticized the heightened U.S. military pressure on North Korea and its deployment of strategic weapons to the Korean Peninsula.
He said the long-time view of the U.S. and other countries that North Korea poses a security threat and their obsession with sanctions put North Korea under “existential pressure,” while the country’s own legitimate concerns “have never been addressed.”
Zhang said history since the 1990s clearly shows that dialogue and negotiation are the only way to ease tensions, and he urged the U.S. and North Korea to resume talks.
The statement from the 10 countries said they remain committed to diplomacy without preconditions. Song made no mention of talks, which have been stalled since 2018.
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Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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UN uncovers 87 bodies in Darfur mass grave horror | CNN
CNN
—
The head of a United Nations agency has called for an investigation into the killing of at least 87 people who were discovered in a mass grave in Sudan’s West Darfur region.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has demanded a “prompt, thorough and independent investigation” into the grim discovery outside the region’s capital El-Geneina.
Inside the mass grave were bodies of ethnic Masalit who along with other non-Arab communities are often targeted by Arab militias, supported by the RSF, according to Human Rights Watch.
The deceased were allegedly killed last month by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militia.
“According to credible information gathered by the Office, those buried in the mass grave were killed by RSF and their allied militia around 13-21 June in El-Geneina’s Al-Madaress and Al-Jamarek districts…,” the UN body said in a statement Thursday.
The statement added that the bodies included individuals who were victims of the violence that occurred following the assassination of Khamis Abbaker, the Governor of West Darfur, on June 14.
Furthermore, the victims also include those who died due to untreated injuries.
Türk strongly condemned the killings and said he was “appalled by the callous and disrespectful way the dead, along with their families and communities, were treated.”
“There must be a prompt, thorough and independent investigation into the killings, and those responsible must be held to account,” Türk added.
He urged the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and other parties involved in the conflict to abide by international law and facilitate prompt searches for the deceased, their collection, and evacuation, without discrimination based on ethnic background.
“The RSF’s leadership and their allied militia as well as all parties to an armed conflict are required to ensure that the dead are properly handled, and their dignity protected,” Türk stressed.
West Darfur remains one of the most conflict-ridden areas in the Sudanese Darfur region, with a long history of severe violence.
The recent killings reflect the atrocities committed during the early 2000s, where hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives in an ethnic cleansing campaign led by the Janjaweed, an Arab militia that preceded the RSF.
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Israeli raid on West Bank refugee camp cut water access for thousands, left 173 homeless, U.N. says
The U.N.’s humanitarian agency says thousands of people living in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank still have no reliable access to fresh water a week after Israel’s military carried out a deadly, two-day raid on the camp. Israel has defended the raid, arguing that it was necessary to target Palestinian militant groups that operate out of the refugee camp.
“Jenin Refugee Camp, home to about 23,600 people, including 7,150 children, still lacks access to water, a week after the destruction of the local water network in a two-day operation carried out by Israeli forces,” a report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday. It estimated that access to water for 40% of the Jenin camp’s residents was still cut.
ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP/Getty
Last week’s operation, which left at least 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead, also drove many Palestinians from their homes in Jenin and left a trail of damage and destruction in its wake, according to the report.
The U.N. agency said at least 173 people, or about 40 families, were still displaced from their homes a week after the military operation.
The report says thousands of others have returned to homes left “uninhabitable” by the Israeli assault, which included strikes by armed drones.
An estimated $5.2 million will be needed to address immediate humanitarian needs in Jenin, according to the OCHA report.
The operation was Israel’s biggest in the West Bank in almost two decades. The Israel Defense Forces struck the camp in an operation it said was aimed at destroying and confiscating weapons from terrorists.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Jenin Wednesday to survey the damage. His visit came just days after three of his senior officials were forced to flee a funeral by heckling crowds furious at the PA’s response to the Israeli assault, the Reuters news agency reported.
Palestinian authorities have launched a ministerial committee to provide reconstruction assistance in the Jenin camp, and the U.N. has said it is in contact with local officials to coordinate those efforts.
Violence between Israel and Palestinians has escalated this year, with the West Bank on track to see its deadliest year since 2005, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Tension has risen steadily since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power last year, bringing with him Israel’s most far-right government ever.
Netanyahu’s cabinet includes members of ultra-nationalist political parties that had long been relegated to the sidelines of Israel politics, including his new domestic security minister, who once chanted “death to Arabs” and was convicted of inciting racism.
Aside from the mounting tension with Palestinians, the new Israeli government has also faced a major backlash from Israelis who believe Netanyahu and his political allies are eroding democratic checks and balances in the country.
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Muslim nations demand action after ‘Islamophobic’ Quran burning
Motion at the UN Human Rights Council urges action over Quran burning incidents in Sweden, which Pakistan says incited ‘religious hatred’.
Muslim nations including Iran and Pakistan say the desecration of the holy Quran amounts to an incitement of violence and called for accountability after a series of stunts in Sweden caused a backlash around the world.
A motion filed at the United Nations human rights body on Tuesday was in response to the latest incident last month, and calls on countries to review their laws and plug gaps that may “impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred”.
The debate highlighted rifts in the UN Human Rights Council between the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Western members concerned about the motion’s implications for free speech and challenges posed to long-held practices in rights protection.
An Iraqi immigrant to Sweden ripped, burned, and stomped on the Quran outside a Stockholm mosque last month during the Eid al-Adha holiday, sparking outrage across the Muslim world and angry protests in several Pakistani cities.
“We must see this clearly for what it is: incitement to religious hatred, discrimination and attempts to provoke violence,” Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told the Geneva-based council via video, saying such acts occurred under “government sanction and with the sense of impunity”.
— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) July 11, 2023
‘Irresponsible and wrong’
Bhutto Zardari’s remarks were echoed by comments from ministers from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, with the latter calling the Quran burning an act of “Islamophobia”.
“Stop abusing freedom of expression,” said Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi. “Silence means complicity.”
In 2020, members of a Danish far-right group burned a copy of the Quran in Stockholm, days after a similar incident in the southern city of Malmo.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian urged Sweden and European nations to take “urgent and effective measures” against such incidents.
Some Western nations condemned the stunts, but also defended “free speech”.
Germany’s UN Ambassador Katharina Stasch called the acts in Sweden a “dreadful provocation”, but added “freedom of speech sometimes also means to bear opinions that may seem almost unbearable”.
France’s envoy said human rights were about protecting people, not religions and their symbols.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk told the council that inflammatory acts against Muslims, as well as other religions or minorities, are “offensive, irresponsible and wrong”.
The @UN Human Rights Council is holding an URGENT DEBATE to “discuss the alarming rise in premeditated & public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran in some European & other countries” https://t.co/Rp5jDsAkcg
— United Nations Human Rights Council 📍 #HRC53 (@UN_HRC) July 11, 2023
Taliban targets ‘Sweden’
The Taliban administration said in a statement it halted all activities by Sweden in Afghanistan “after the insulting of the holy Quran and granting of permission for insulting of Muslim beliefs”.
It did not provide details on which organisations would be affected by its ban. Sweden no longer has an embassy in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over in 2021.
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA) aid organisation said it was seeking clarification with authorities.
“SCA is not a Swedish government entity. SCA is independent and impartial in relation to all political stakeholders and states, and strongly condemns all desecration of the holy Quran,” the NGO said in a statement.
“For over 40 years SCA has been working in close collaboration with the rural population and in deep respect of both Islam and local traditions in Afghanistan.”
Thousands of Afghan staff work for the organisation throughout the country in health, education and rural development. SCA treated 2.5 million patients in its health clinics last year.
SCA strongly condemns all acts of desecration of the Holy Quran and seeks clarity on the July 11 directive from the DFA on Sweden’s activities in Afghanistan. SCA is not a government entity. Full statement here: https://t.co/J3XoOa3txd
— Svenska Afghanistankommittén SAK/SCA (@SAK_Sweden) July 11, 2023
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U.S. sending controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of $800 million aid package
Washington — The Biden administration will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday, vowing the U.S. will not leave Ukraine defenseless and asserting that Kyiv has promised to use the controversial weapons carefully.
The decision comes on the eve of the NATO summit in Lithuania, where President Biden is likely to face questions from allies on why the U.S. would send a weapon into Ukraine that more than two-thirds of alliance members have banned because it has a track record for causing many civilian casualties. And it was met with divided reactions from Congress, as some Democrats criticized the plan while a Republican backed it.
The munitions — which are bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets — are seen by the U.S. as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian front lines. U.S. leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before Mr. Biden made the final call this week.
In an interview with CNN, Mr. Biden said it was a “very difficult decision” and that it “took me a while to be convinced to do it.” But he said Ukraine’s dwindling ammunition supply tipped the scale in favor of providing the cluster bombs.
“The main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now — keep them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas — or they don’t. And I think they needed them,” Mr. Biden said.
Sullivan also defended the decision, saying the U.S. will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate,” meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode. The unexploded rounds, which often litter battlefields and populated civilian areas, cause unintended deaths. U.S. officials have said the U.S. will provide thousands of the rounds, but provided no specific numbers.
Pierre Crom/Getty Images
“We recognize the cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance,” he said during a White House briefing. “This is why we’ve deferred the decision for as long as we could. But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions and take more Ukrainian territory and subjugate more Ukrainian civilians, because Ukraine does not have enough artillery. That is intolerable to us.”
Questioned at length about the move, Sullivan said Ukraine provided written assurances that it will use the cluster munitions “in a very careful way that is aimed at minimizing any risk to civilians.” And noting that the U.S. consulted closely with allies before finally making the decision, he said the U.S. made the determination that “we will not leave Ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict. Period.”
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, some cluster munitions leave behind bomblets that have a high rate of failure to explode — up to 40% in some cases. The rate of unexploded ordnance for the munitions that will be going to Ukraine is under 3% and therefore will mean fewer unexploded bombs left behind to potentially harm civilians.
A convention banning the use of cluster bombs has been joined by more than 120 countries that agreed not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to clear them after they’ve been used. The U.S., Russia and Ukraine are among those who have not signed on.
Ryan Brobst, a research analyst for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said that while the majority of NATO members have signed on to the cluster munitions ban, several of those nearest Russia — Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Turkey — have not.
“The most important of those are Poland and Romania,” Brobst said, noting that the U.S. weapons will probably go through those countries en route to Ukraine. “While some allies raise objections, this is not going to prevent [cluster munitions] from being transferred into Ukraine.”
The cluster munitions are included in a new $800 million package of military aid the U.S. will send to Ukraine. Friday’s package, which will come from Pentagon stocks, will also include Bradley and Stryker armored vehicles and an array of ammunition, such as rounds for howitzers and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, officials said.
Tony Overman / AP
Providing the cluster bombs will also ease the pressure on limited U.S. ammunition stockpiles. The U.S. has been taking massive amounts of 155 mm rounds from Pentagon stocks and sending them to Ukraine, creating concerns about eating into American stores. The cluster munitions, which are fired by the same artillery as the conventional 155 mm, will give Ukraine a highly lethal capability and also allow them to strike more Russian targets using fewer rounds.
At a Pentagon briefing Thursday, Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said the Defense Department has “multiple variants” of the munitions and “the ones that we are considering providing would not include older variants with [unexploding] rates that are higher than 2.35%.”
He said the U.S. “would be carefully selecting rounds with lower dud rates, for which we have recent testing data.”
So far the reactions from allies have been muted. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed on Friday that the military alliance takes no position on cluster munitions and it is a decision that allies will make. And Germany, which has signed the ban treaty, said it won’t provide the bombs to Ukraine, but expressed understanding for the American position.
“We’re certain that our U.S. friends didn’t take the decision about supplying such ammunition lightly,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told reporters in Berlin. “We need to remember once again that Russia has already used cluster ammunition at a large scale in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
Oleksandra Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament who has been advocating that Washington send more weapons, noted that Ukrainian forces have had to disable mines from much of the territory they are winning back from Russia. As part of that process, Ukrainians will also be able to catch any unexploded ordnance from cluster munitions.
“We will have to de-mine anyway, but it’s better to have this capability,” Ustinova said.
The last large-scale American use of cluster bombs was during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to the Pentagon. But U.S. forces considered them a key weapon during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, according to Human Rights Watch. In the first three years of that conflict, it is estimated the U.S.-led coalition dropped more than 1,500 cluster bombs in Afghanistan.
Proponents of banning cluster bombs say they kill indiscriminately and endanger civilians long after their use.
Marta Hurtado, speaking for the U.N. human rights office, said Friday that “the use of such munitions should stop immediately and not be used in any place.”
“We will urge the Russian Federation and Ukraine to join the more than 100 states that have ratified the convention of cluster munitions and that effectively ban their use,” she added.
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UN nuclear agency chief says he’s satisfied with Japan’s plans to release Fukushima wastewater
FUTABA, Japan (AP) — The head of the U.N. atomic agency toured Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Wednesday and said he is satisfied with still-contentious plans to release treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Mariano Grossi observed where the treated water will be sent through a pipeline to a coastal facility, where it will be highly diluted with seawater and receive a final test sampling. It will then be released 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) offshore through an undersea tunnel.
“I was satisfied with what I saw,” Grossi said after his tour of equipment at the plant for the planned discharge, which Japan hopes to begin this summer. “I don’t see any pending issues.”
The U.N. nuclear agency has given its endorsement to Japan’s planned release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, saying it meets international standards and its environmental and health impact would be negligible.
South Korea has adopted a new law that changes how people count their ages. The country’s previous age-counting method made people a year or two older than they really are.
Japan and South Korea have agreed to revive a currency swap agreement for times of crisis. The move is the latest sign of warming ties as the countries work to smooth over historical antagonisms.
The wastewater release still faces opposition in and outside Japan.
Earlier Wednesday, Grossi met with local mayors and fishing association leaders and stressed that the IAEA will be present throughout the water discharge, which is expected to last decades, to ensure safety and address residents’ concerns. He said he inaugurated a permanent IAEA office at the plant, showing its long-term commitment.
The water discharge is not “some strange plan that has been devised only to be applied here, and sold to you,” Grossi said at the meeting in Iwaki, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the plant. He said the method is certified by the IAEA and is followed around the world.
The IAEA, in its final report on the Fukushima plan released Tuesday, concluded that the treated wastewater, which will still contain a small amount of radioactivity, will be safer than international standards and its environmental and health impact would be negligible.
Local fishing organizations have rejected the plan because they worry their reputation will be damaged even if their catch isn’t contaminated. It is also opposed by groups in South Korea, China and some Pacific Island nations due to safety concerns and political reasons.
Fukushima’s fisheries association adopted a resolution on June 30 reaffirming its rejection of the plan.
The fishery association chief, Tetsu Nozaki, urged government officials at Wednesday’s meeting “to remember that the treated water plan was pushed forward despite our opposition.”
Grossi is expected to also visit South Korea, New Zealand and the Cook Islands to ease concerns there. He said his intention is to explain what the IAEA, not Japan, is doing to ensure there is no problem.
In an effort to address concerns about fish and the marine environment, Grossi and Tomoaki Kobayakawa, president of the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, signed an agreement on a joint project to determine whether they are impacted by tritium, the only radionuclide officials say cannot be removed from the wastewater by treatment.
In South Korea, officials said in a briefing Wednesday that it’s highly unlikely that the released water will have dangerous levels of contamination. They said South Korea plans to tightly screen seafood imported from Japan and that there is no immediate plan to lift the country’s import ban on seafood from the Fukushima region.
Park Ku-yeon, first vice minister of South Korea’s Office for Government Policy Coordination, said Seoul plans to comment on the IAEA findings when it issues the results of the country’s own investigation into the potential effects of the water release, which he said will come soon.
China doubled down on its objections to the release in a statement late Tuesday, saying the IAEA report failed to reflect all views and accusing Japan of treating the Pacific Ocean as a sewer.
“We once again urge the Japanese side to stop its ocean discharge plan, and earnestly dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water in a science-based, safe and transparent manner. If Japan insists on going ahead with the plan, it will have to bear all the consequences arising from this,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.
Grossi said Wednesday he is aware of the Chinese position and takes any concern seriously. “China is a very important partner of the IAEA and we are in close contact,” he said.
A massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and contaminating their cooling water, which has leaked continuously. The water is collected, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks, which will reach their capacity in early 2024.
The government and TEPCO, the plant operator, say the water must be removed to prevent any accidental leaks and make room for the plant’s decommissioning.
Japanese regulators finished their final safety inspection last week, and TEPCO is expected to receive a permit within days to release the water.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, after meeting with Grossi, said Japan will continue to provide “detailed explanations based on scientific evidence with a high degree of transparency both domestically and internationally.”
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Associated Press video journalist Haruka Nuga in Tokyo and reporter Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
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UN nuclear agency endorses Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean
TOKYO (AP) — The U.N. nuclear agency gave its endorsement on Tuesday to Japan’s planned release of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, saying it meets international standards and its environmental and health impact would be negligible.
The plan is opposed by groups in South Korea, China and some Pacific Island nations because of safety concerns and political reasons. Local fishing organizations are worried that their reputation will be damaged even if their catch isn’t contaminated.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, submitted its final assessment of the plan to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Tuesday.
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The report is a “comprehensive, neutral, objective, scientifically sound evaluation,” Grossi said. “We are very confident about it.”
The report said IAEA recognizes the discharge “has raised societal, political and environmental concerns, associated with the radiological aspects.” However, it concluded that the water release as currently planned “will have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.”
Japan’s plan and the equipment for the discharge are “in conformity with the agreed international standards and its application,” Grossi said.
He said the dilution of treated but still slightly radioactive wastewater for gradual release into the sea is a proven method widely used in other countries, including China, South Korea, the United States and France, to dispose of water containing certain radionuclides from nuclear plants.
Much of the Fukushima wastewater contains cesium and other radionuclides, but it will be filtered further to bring it below international standards for all but tritium, which is inseparable from water. It then will be diluted by 100 times with seawater before it is released.
But Haruhiko Terasawa, head of the Miyagi prefectural fisheries cooperatives, said they will continue to oppose the release while concerns remain.
“The treated water is not a problem that ends after a single time or a year of release, but lasts as long as 30-40 years, so nobody can predict what might happen,” he told TV Asahi.
Japan has sought the IAEA’s support to gain credibility for the plan. Experts from the U.N. agency and 11 nations have made several trips to Japan since early 2022 to examine preparations by the government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to radionuclides remains unknown and urge a delay in the release. Others say the discharge plan is safe but call for more transparency in sampling and monitoring.
Kishida, after meeting with Grossi, said Japan will continue to provide “detailed explanations based on scientific evidence with a high degree of transparency both domestically and internationally.”
A massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and their cooling water to be contaminated and leak continuously. The water is collected, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks at the plant which will reach their capacity in early 2024.
The government and TEPCO say the water must be removed to prevent any accidental leaks and make room for the damaged plant’s decommissioning.
Japanese regulators finished their final safety inspection of the equipment last Friday and TEPCO is expected to receive a permit in about a week to begin gradually discharging the water at a location 1 kilometer (1,000 yards) offshore through an undersea tunnel. The start date for the release, which is expected to take decades, is still undecided.
The IAEA will continue to monitor and assess the release, Grossi said.
During his four-day visit, Grossi will also visit the Fukushima plant and meet with TEPCO officials, local fishing groups, heads of nearby municipalities and other stakeholders.
“I believe in transparency, I believe in open dialogue and I believe in the validity of the exercise we are carrying out,” he said.
Grossi is also expected to visit South Korea, New Zealand and the Cook Islands after his visit to Japan to ease concerns there.
