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  • Ukraine claims Russia planning ‘massive’ incident at nuclear site

    Ukraine claims Russia planning ‘massive’ incident at nuclear site

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    Ukraine’s defence ministry has warned that Russia plans to simulate a major accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which is under the control of Russian forces, in a bid to thwart the expected counteroffensive by Ukraine to retake its territory captured by Moscow.

    The Zaporizhzhia plant, which lies in an area of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, is Europe’s biggest nuclear power station and the area has been repeatedly hit by shelling with both sides blaming each other for the dangerous attacks.

    Ahead of Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive, fears have increased that a nuclear disaster could occur amid rising military activity around Zaporizhzhia.

    “Russians are preparing massive provocation and imitation of the accident at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the nearest hours,” the Ukrainian defence ministry’s intelligence directorate said on Friday.

    “They are planning to attack the territory of the ZNPP [Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant]. After that, they will announce the leakage of the radioactive substances,” the intelligence directorate said in a statement and later on social media channels.

    Reports of radioactive material leaking from the plant would cause a global incident and force an investigation by international authorities, during which all hostilities would be stopped, the directorate said. Russia would then use that pause in fighting to regroup its forces and better prepare to stop the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the intelligence service said.

    “They obviously will blame Ukraine,” the directorate said, adding that the attack’s aim would be to “provoke the international community” into investigating the incident and forcing a pause in fighting.

     

    Experts say that reports of a radiation leak at the plant would be followed by immediate evacuations, which could be extremely complex in a war zone. According to experts, for many people, the fear of being contaminated by radiation could also be more dangerous than the radiation itself.

    Last week, witnesses said Russian military forces were enhancing defensive positions in and around the nuclear power plant ahead of Ukraine’s much-anticipated counteroffensive.

    In preparation for the planned radioactive incident, Russia had disrupted the scheduled rotation of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who are based at the plant, Ukraine’s intelligence directorate said.

    The report of a planned incident at Zaporizhzhia was repeated in a tweet by Ukraine’s representative to the United Nations in New York, Sergiy Kyslytsya, who said the events could unfold “in the coming hours”.

    The directorate statement did not provide any proof to support its claims and the Vienna-based IAEA, which frequently posts updates on the situation at the power plant, has made no mention of any disruption to its timetable.

    Kyiv and Moscow have repeatedly accused each other of attacking the plant.

    In February, Russia said Ukraine was planning to stage a nuclear incident on its territory and pin the blame on Moscow.

    Moscow has also repeatedly accused Kyiv of planning “false-flag” operations with non-conventional weapons, using biological or radioactive materials.

    No such attacks have taken place so far.

    The IAEA’s Director General Rafael Grossi will brief the UN Security Council next week on the security situation at Zaporizhzhia and his plan for safeguards at the site. Grossi, who last visited the plant in March, has upped his efforts to reach an agreement with Ukraine and Russia to ensure the plant’s protection during the fighting.

    In a statement last week, Grossi said: “It is very simple: don’t shoot at the plant and don’t use the plant as a military base”.

    “It should be in the interest of everyone to agree on a set of principles to protect the plant during the conflict,” he added.

    Zaporizhzhia once supplied approximately 20 percent of Ukraine’s electricity and continued to function in the early months of Russia’s invasion, despite frequent shelling, before halting power production entirely in September.

    None of Ukraine’s six Soviet-era reactors has since generated electricity but the Zaporizhzhia facility remains connected to the Ukrainian power grid for its own needs, notably to cool the plant’s nuclear reactors.

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  • UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler asking to replace UN’s special envoy in Sudan | CNN

    UN chief ‘shocked’ by letter from Sudan’s military ruler asking to replace UN’s special envoy in Sudan | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was “shocked” by a letter he received on Friday from Sudan’s military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan regarding the UN’s envoy to Sudan, according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. The reaction follows reports that Burhan asked that the envoy be removed.

    Weeks of fierce fighting in Sudan between two rival groups – Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces and the country’s Rapid Support Forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – have left the country in turmoil and scrambled hopes for a peaceful transition to civilian rule.

    Earlier on Friday, Burhan had written to Guterres asking that UN special representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, be removed from his post, Reuters reported citing sources in the Sudanese presidency.

    In an address to the UN Security Council earlier this week, Perthes criticized both leaders of Sudan’s warring parties and warned of “a growing ethnicization of the conflict.”

    The conflict shows no signs of slowing down. “Neither side has yet shown the ability to decisively claim a military victory,” Perthes said on May 22.

    Despite a seven-day ceasefire currently in place – due to expire this weekend – fighting has continued between both sides.

    Mediators have observed the use of artillery and military aircraft and drones, airstrikes, sustained fighting in the heart of the Khartoum Industrial Area, and clashes in Zalingei, Darfur, according to the US embassy in Khartoum.

    Dujarric did not elaborate on the contents of Burhan’s letter, but conveyed a brief written statement in support of Perthes: “The secretary-general is proud of the work done by Volker Perthes and reaffirms his full confidence in his special representative.”

    Speaking to the Security Council on Monday, Perthes also said that the responsibility for the fighting “rests with those who are waging it daily: the leadership of the two sides who share accountability for choosing to settle their unresolved conflict on the battlefield rather than at the table.”

    The conflict in Sudan has resulted in a heavy toll on civilians, with over 700 people killed, including 190 children, and 6,000 others injured, according to Perthes.

    More than a million people have been displaced, seeking shelter in rural areas, other states within Sudan, and crossing Sudanese borders.

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  • Myanmar junta travel restrictions are holding up vital aid to cyclone-hit communities | CNN

    Myanmar junta travel restrictions are holding up vital aid to cyclone-hit communities | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Myanmar’s military junta is holding up humanitarian access to some cyclone-hit communities in western Rakhine state after Cyclone Mocha devastated the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in the poorest parts of the country.

    United Nations agencies said Thursday they were still negotiating access to parts of the state four days after Mocha slammed into Myanmar’s coast on Sunday as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the country.

    Hundreds of people are feared to have died and thousands more are in urgent need of shelter, clean water, food and health care as a clearer picture of the devastation is beginning to emerge.

    While rescue groups have warned of “a large scale loss of life,” the exact number of casualties is hard to know due to flooding, blocked roads, and downed communications.

    Widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure has been reported throughout Rakhine, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

    Storm damage has hampered efforts to access rural and hard-to-reach areas while pre-existing travel restrictions imposed by the junta have delayed the delivery of vital aid to communities in urgent need.

    “Humanitarian actors have made clear that the need to secure travel authorization is impeding their response to the cyclone,” said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar.

    “It seems that many agencies haven’t even been able to conduct needs assessments, let alone deliver aid, because SAC (junta) officials have not granted travel authorization. This is extremely worrying.”

    The UN’s humanitarian office (OCHA) said it was still waiting for access to be granted by the junta to reach communities in Rakhine state in order to “start coordinated field missions to gauge the full scope of the humanitarian situation.”

    “The bureaucratic access constraints are affecting all partners, including the UN and NGOs,” said Pierre Peron, UN OCHA’s regional public information officer. “To deliver, we will need access to affected people, relaxation of travel authorization requirements and expedited customs clearances for commodities.”

    About 5.4 million people in Rakhine and the northeast are estimated to have been in the path of the cyclone, which crashed into the state as an equivalent category 5 hurricane, with winds of over 200 kilometers per hour (195 mph). Of those, more than 3 million people are most vulnerable, according to UN OCHA in its latest update.

    The priority is to assess the damage in Kyauktaw, Maungdaw, Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Rathedaung and Sittwe townships, it said.

    “The road between Yangon and Sittwe has now reopened, potentially providing a transport route for much-needed supplies, if approved. It is also hoped the Sittwe airport will reopen on Thursday,” UN OCHA said.

    Another roadblock to relief efforts is a severe lack of funding, with a $764 million humanitarian response plan less than 10% funded.

    “Colleagues simply will not be able to respond to these additional needs from the cyclone and continue our existing response across the country without more financial support from donors,” said UN OCHA’s Peron.

    Medecins Sans Frontieres told CNN it had a number of travel authorizations already in place for staff for the month of May, “which has allowed us to be fully operational so far and focus on life-saving activities in areas most affected.”

    “Travel within Rakhine state is restricted with the exception of Sittwe, the state capital. Permission is always necessary. All aid agencies are required to apply for travel authorizations to implement activities one month prior to travel,” said Paul Brockmann, MSF’s operations manager for Myanmar.

    A girl draws water from a pump at Basara refugee camp in Sittwe on May 16 in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha.

    Brockmann said the scale of the medical humanitarian needs created by the cyclone are “enormous” and fast approvals of import permits and travel authorizations is “of life-saving importance, considering that 17 townships have been declared disaster zones by the authorities.”

    “The needs are widespread and beyond the capacity of any one organization to respond to,” he said.

    Concerns are high because Rakhine is a largely impoverished and isolated state, which in recent years has been the site of widespread political violence.

    Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in the state due to the protracted conflict, many of them members of the stateless Rohingya minority group, long persecuted in Myanmar.

    Rohingya in Rakhine are mostly confined to camps akin to open air prisons, where authorities place strict controls on their movement, as well as access to schooling and health care.

    Access for certain aid groups and journalists to these areas is heavily restricted.

    Aung Saw Hein, a resident of a displacement camp in the Rakhine capital Sittwe, told CNN the storm has “made us refugees again.”

    “We have been refugees for almost 11 years now… We are not able to access health care, not able to take a rest… we are not able to support our family members with basic needs like food,” he said. “And now this storm completely destroyed our life and brought us on the road again.”

    Myanmar authorities have a long history of impeding access to aid for vulnerable communities.

    In the wake of a brutal and bloody military campaign that forced 740,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh from 2017, aid activities in the north of the state were suspended and authorities denied humanitarian actors access to communities in need, mostly the Rohingya population, according to aid groups.

    A Rohingya woman stands in her damaged house at Basara refugee camp in Sittwe on May 16 following Cyclone Mocha.

    Following the 2021 military coup, the junta and its security forces imposed new travel restrictions on humanitarian workers, blocked access roads and aid convoys, and destroyed non-military supplies, Human Rights Watch reported at the time.

    Rohingya adviser to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government Aung Kyaw Moe tweeted the junta is “blocking aid agencies in Rakhine” and “must not play the same game” as a previous junta administration did in 2008, when after Cyclone Nargis it prevented international disaster relief teams and supplies from reaching those in need. An estimated 140,000 people died.

    “This is their basic MO,” said UN Special Rapporteur Andrews.

    “In Rakhine state, in addition to access challenges, the restrictions on freedom of movement imposed on the Rohingya have further impaired their ability to access aid and services, including medical treatment.”

    In a statement, the IFRC said “access in Rakhine and the northwest remains heavily restricted” but the Myanmar Red Cross has a “presence in every affected township through its branches and volunteers.”

    A spokesperson for Partners Relief & Development, which has been working in the camps since the initial violence in mid 2012, said they have had few restrictions on their activity during that time and have a “strong local network carrying out our relief efforts.”

    However, “access has been much more difficult in the past three years and the current government restrictions are now making it more complicated to reach the affected areas,” the spokesperson said.

    “Our hope is that unimpeded access is provided and that the local authorities will not only facilitate access for aid but also contribute assistance and treat the Rohingya with care and dignity.”

    CNN has reached out to Myanmar’s military junta for comment on the restrictions to access and aid in Rakhine following the cyclone.

    Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has been quoted by state media Global New Light of Myanmar as saying “relief teams must be sent to the storm-affected areas to carry out rescue and relief tasks as well as rehabilitation.”

    State media showed Min Aung Hlaing visiting cyclone-affected areas in Bagan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its ancient temples. It also carried reports of the junta’s deputy prime minister Adm. Tin Aung San visiting towns and villages around Sittwe to oversee the delivery of water tanks, food supplies, and cash assistance.

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  • UN Marks First Commemoration Of 1948 Nakba That Displaced Over 750,000 Palestinians

    UN Marks First Commemoration Of 1948 Nakba That Displaced Over 750,000 Palestinians

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    UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the United Nations on Monday to suspend Israel’s membership unless it implements resolutions establishing separate Jewish and Arab states and allows the return of Palestinian refugees.

    Abbas spoke during the first official U.N. commemoration of the flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from what is now Israel following the U.N.’s partition of British-ruled Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states 75 years ago.

    Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, had sent letters to General Assembly ambassadors condemning the commemoration and urging them not to attend what he called an “abominable event” and a “blatant attempt to distort history.” He said those who attended would be condoning antisemitism and giving a green light to Palestinians “to continue exploiting international organs to promote their libelous narrative.”

    Israel and the United States were among those that boycotted the commemoration of what is known as the Nakba, or catastrophe.

    In an hourlong emotion-charged speech, Abbas asked the world’s nations why more than 1,000 resolutions adopted by U.N. bodies regarding the Palestinians had never been implemented. He held up a letter from Israel’s foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, after the resolutions were adopted in 1947 and 1948 promising to create a Palestinian state and allow the return of refugees and said: “Either they do fulfill these obligations, or they stop becoming a member.”

    The General Assembly, which had 57 member nations in 1947, approved the resolution dividing Palestine by a vote of 33-13 with 10 abstentions. The Jewish side accepted the U.N. partition plan and after the British mandate expired in 1948, Israel declared its independence. The Arabs rejected the plan and neighboring Arab countries launched a war against the Jewish state.

    The Nakba commemorates the estimated 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in 1948.

    Local Palestinians, activists and others participate in a “Nakba” rally in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn on May 13, 2023 in New York City. “Nakba,” which is the Arabic word for “catastrophe,” refers to Palestinian’s expulsion from and the destruction of hundreds of villages and cities in 1948 from lands that are now part of greater Israel. Palestinians in America and around the world are marking 75 years since the Nakba.

    Spencer Platt via Getty Images

    The fate of these refugees and their descendants — estimated at over 5 million across the Middle East — remains a major disputed issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel rejects demands for a mass return of refugees to long-lost homes, saying it would threaten the country’s Jewish character.

    The Nakba commemoration comes as Israeli-Palestinian fighting has intensified and protests over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government and its plan to overhaul Israel’s judiciary show no sign of abating. Israel’s polarization and the Netanyahu government’s extremist positions have also sparked growing international concern.

    Abbas specifically blamed Britain, as Palestine’s ruler before the 1947 partition, and the United States, Israel’s most important ally, for the flight of the Palestinians, saying they “bear political and ethical responsibility” for evicting Palestinians and implanting Israel “in our historic homeland.”

    “And Israel would not have continued its hostility and aggression without the support it receives from these two countries,” he said.

    Abbas strongly criticized Israel for calling itself the only democracy in the Middle East, saying “it is the only state in the world that occupies another people.” And he rejected Israel’s insistence that it “made the desert bloom,” saying Palestine pre-1947 was “very civilized,” green, with lakes and rivers, and exported oranges to Europe.

    The Palestinian leader said the most important right Palestinians are demanding now is self-determination and an independent state based on June 1967 borders. He reiterated that the Palestinians have agreed to accept 22% of the 1947 territory as part of a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not the 44% they were given in the partition.

    But he said the two-state solution is being destroyed, pointing to Israeli ministers “publicly calling for another nakba against the Palestinians” and Israelis calling for the killing of Palestinians, insisting defiantly that the Palestinians will never leave or give up East Jerusalem, which they want as their capital.

    Abbas said Palestinians are not against Jews, but “I am against those who occupy our land.” He was born in Safed in the Galilee, now part of Israel, and said like other Palestinian refugees he wants to go home.

    He said Israel should recognize and apologize for the Nakba, which has created the world’s longest refugee crisis, and pay compensation to the refugees and for land it now occupies. And he said that if these root causes are not addressed, the Palestinians will continue to pursue its rights and take legal action, especially at the International Criminal Court, which was greeted by loud applause from the large audience in a U.N. conference room.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during the first commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the United Nations headquarters in New York on May 15, 2023.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during the first commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba at the United Nations headquarters in New York on May 15, 2023.

    Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

    Israel has remained defiant.

    “We will fight the ‘Nakba’ lie with full strength and we won’t allow the Palestinians to continue to spread lies and distort history,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in a statement.

    As the 75th anniversary approached, the now 193-member General Assembly approved a resolution last Nov. 30 by a vote of 90-30 with 47 abstentions requesting the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People to organize a high-level event on May 15 to commemorate the Nakba. The United States was among the countries that joined Israel in voting against the resolution.

    Abbas called for the General Assembly to establish May 15 every year as an international day “to commemorate the Palestinian plight” and to call for Palestinians achieving their rights to an independent state.

    Israel’s foreign ministry said dozens of countries canceled or downgraded their participation in Monday’s event in response to an Israeli campaign. But among the many groups supporting the Nakba commemoration and an independent Palestinian state whose representatives spoke on Monday were the Group of 77, a U.N. coalition of 134 mainly developing nations and China, and the 120-member Nonaligned Movement.

    Speaking at the commemoration, U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo expressed “deep concern” that prospects for restarting negotiations toward a two-state solution “continue to diminish.”

    DiCarlo pointed to the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements, which is “illegal under international law,” pervasive violence including by Israeli settlers, and Israel’s “unabated” evictions, demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned property.

    She also cited the record number of Palestinian civilians killed last year since the U.N. started recording deaths in 2005, and the highest number of Israeli civilians killed since 2015, warning that this year is on track to match or surpass those numbers.

    “Palestinians deserve a life of justice and dignity and the realization of their right to self-determination and independence,” the undersecretary-general for political affairs said. “The U.N. position is clear. The occupation must end.”

    In a speech to the U.N. Security Council on April 25, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki renewed his call for countries that haven’t yet recognized the state of Palestine “to do so as a means to salvage the moribund two-state solution.”

    To hurt Israel economically, Malki urged countries to ban products from Israeli settlements and trade with settlements, to “sanction those who collect funds for settlements and those who advocate for them and those who advance them,” and to list settler organizations that carry out killings and burnings as “terrorist organizations.”

    And he urged the international community to take Israel to the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s highest tribunal. The General Assembly asked the court in December to give its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, a move denounced by Israel.

    Ilon Ben Zion contributed from Jerusalem.

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  • Bangladesh and Myanmar brace for the worst as Cyclone Mocha intensifies | CNN

    Bangladesh and Myanmar brace for the worst as Cyclone Mocha intensifies | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Aid agencies in Bangladesh and Myanmar say they are bracing for disaster and have launched a massive emergency plan as a powerful cyclone barrels toward millions of vulnerable people.

    Since forming in the Bay of Bengal early Thursday, tropical Cyclone Mocha has intensified to a the equivalent of a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane, with sustained winds of 259 kilometers per hour (161 mph) and gusts of up to 315 kph (195 mph).

    The storm is moving north at 20 kph (12 mph), according to the latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center on Sunday.

    Mocha is expected to make landfall Sunday afternoon local time (early Sunday morning ET), likely across Rakhine State in Myanmar and southeastern Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, host to the world’s largest refugee camp.

    Outer bands are already impacting Myanmar and Bangladesh bringing rain and strong winds to the region. Conditions are expected to deteriorate further leading up to landfall, which brings the threats of flooding and landslides.

    Disaster response teams and more than 3,000 local volunteers who have been trained in disaster preparedness and first aid have been put on standby in the camps, and a national cyclone early warning system is in place, according to Sanjeev Kafley, Head of Delegation of the IFRC Bangladesh Delegation.

    Kafley said there are 7,500 emergency shelter kits, 4,000 hygiene kits and 2,000 water containers ready to be distributed.

    In addition, mobile health teams and dozens of ambulances are ready to respond to refugees and Bangladeshis in need, with specially trained teams on stand by to help the elderly, children and the disabled, Arjun Jain, UN Principal Coordinator for the Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh, told CNN.

    “We expect this cyclone to have a more severe impact than any other natural disaster they have faced in the past five years,” said Jain. “At this stage, we just don’t know where the cyclone will make landfall and with what intensity. So we are hoping for the best but are preparing for the worst.”

    Evacuations of people in low-lying areas or those with serious medical conditions had begun, he said.

    In Myanmar, residents in coastal areas of Rakhine state and Ayeyarwady region have started to evacuate and seek shelter at schools and monasteries.

    Hundreds of Red Cross volunteers are on standby and the agency is relocating vulnerable people and raising awareness of the storm in villages and townships, the IFRC’s Kafley said.

    The last storm to make landfall with a similar strength was Tropical Cyclone Giri back in October 2010. It made landfall as a high-end Category 4 equivalent storm with maximum winds of 250 kph (155 mph).

    Giri caused over 150 fatalities and roughly 70% of the city of Kyaukphyu was destroyed. According to the United Nations, roughly 15,000 homes were destroyed in Rakhine state during the storm.

    About 1 million members of the stateless Rohingya community, who fled persecution in nearby Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017, are living in the sprawling and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar.

    Most live in bamboo and tarpaulin shelters perched on hilly slopes that are vulnerable to strong winds, rain, and landslides.

    Jain said the shelters can only withstand wind speeds of 40 kph (24 mph) and he expects winds from Cyclone Mocha to exceed that.

    “Low lying areas of the camps are likely to flood rapidly, destroying shelters, facilities such as learning centers, as well as infrastructure such as bridges that have been constructed with bamboo,” he said.

    The cyclone adds to an already disastrous year for the Rohingya, and without more funds from the international community, Jain said they won’t have enough to rebuild.

    “They faced a 17% cut in their food rations earlier this year due to funding cuts and we expect a further cut in their rations in the coming months. 16,000 refugees lost their home in a devastating fire in March. And now they must deal with the cyclone. Unfortunately, we don’t even have the funds to help refugees rebuild their homes and facilities if the devastation is severe,” he said.

    There are also concerns for 30,000 Rohingya refugees housed on an isolated and flood-prone island facility in the Bay of Bengal, called Bhasan Char. The UN refugee agency said volunteers and medical teams are on standby and cyclone shelters and food provisions are available for those living on the island.

    In Myanmar, about 6 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Rakhine state and across the northwest, with 1.2 million displaced, according to the UN humanitarian agency.

    The past few decades have seen an increase in the strength of tropical cyclones affecting countries in parts of Asia and recent research predicts they could have double the destructive power in the region by the end of the century.

    While scientists are still trying to understand ways climate change is affecting cyclones, a slew of research has linked human-caused global warming to more potent and destructive cyclones.

    Tropical cyclones (also known as hurricanes, typhoons and tropical storms depending on ocean basin and intensity), feed off ocean heat. They need temperatures of at least around 27 degrees Celsius (80 Fahrenheit Fahrenheit) to form, and the warmer the ocean, the more moisture they can take up.

    The waters in the Bay of Bengal are currently around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit Fahrenheit), about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average for May.

    As the climate crisis pushes up the temperatures of oceans – which absorb around 90% of the world’s excess heat – it provides ideal conditions for cyclones to gain strength.

    Warmer oceans also increase the chances of cyclones rapidly intensifying, according to recent research.

    Climate-change fueled sea-level rise adds to the risks, worsening storm surges from tropical cyclones and allowing them to travel further inland.

    Bangladesh and Myanmar are particularly threatened because they are low-lying, as well as being home to some of the world’s poorest people.

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  • House Republicans allege Biden family members received millions in payments from foreign entities in new bank records report | CNN Politics

    House Republicans allege Biden family members received millions in payments from foreign entities in new bank records report | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer laid out new details to support allegations that members of Joe Biden’s family including his son Hunter received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania including when Biden was vice president, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

    New bank records cited in the memo were obtained by the committee through a subpoena and include payments made to companies tied to Hunter Biden. Republicans also alleged that Hunter Biden used his familial connections to help facilitate a meeting in 2016 between a Serbian running for United Nations Secretary-General and then-national security adviser to the vice president Colin Kahl.

    The foreign payments raise questions about Hunter Biden’s business activities while his father was vice president, but the committee does not suggest any illegality about the payments from foreign sources. The bank records by themselves also do not indicate the purpose of the payments that were made.

    The memo marks Comer’s most direct attempt to substantiate his allegations that Biden family members have enriched themselves off the family name. Comer has suggested that Biden may have been improperly influenced by the financial dealings, particularly by his family’s foreign business partners.

    But the latest report does not show any payments made directly to Joe Biden, either as vice president or after leaving office.

    Comer has been publicly teasing information for months about the paper trail committee Republicans have uncovered through subpoenas sent to multiple banks and trips to the Treasury Department to review records.

    Comer and other Republicans on the committee held a press conference Wednesday morning to tout their findings.

    “These people didn’t come to Hunter Biden because he understood world politics or that he was experienced in it, or that he understood Chinese businesses. They wanted him for the access his last name gave him,” Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, said during the news conference.

    On Wednesday, Comer was asked about specific policy decisions Biden made while president or vice president that may have been directly influenced by these foreign payments. Comer failed to name any and instead pointed to then-vice president Biden traveling around the world and discussing foreign aid in the last year of the Obama administration, and added they think there are decisions Biden made as president that “put China first and America last.” Comer said the committee “will get into more of those later.”

    Ahead of the memo’s release, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN, “Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called ‘investigations’ with legitimacy. He has hidden information from the public to selectively leak and promote his own hand-picked narratives as part of his overall effort to lob personal attacks at the President and his family.”

    Abbe Lowell, counsel for Hunter Biden, said in a statement, “Today’s so-called “revelations” are retread, repackaged misstatements of perfectly proper meetings and business by private citizens. Instead of redoing old investigations that found no evidence of wronging by Mr. Biden, Rep. Comer should do the same examination of the many entities of former President Trump and his family members.”

    The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said in a statement to CNN, “Chairman Comer has failed to provide factual evidence to support his wild accusations about the President. He continues to bombard the public with innuendo, misrepresentations, and outright lies, recycling baseless claims from stories that were debunked years ago.”

    Bank records cited in the committee’s memo show that within five weeks of then-Vice President Biden’s meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in 2015, a Romanian who Hunter Biden was doing legal consulting for, Gabriel Popoviciu, started sending money to Rob Walker, a business associate of Hunter’s.

    Walker received more than $3 million from November 2015 to May 2017 and wired approximately $1 million in various installments to Hunter Biden, his business associate James Gillian, and Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s oldest son, Beau Biden who died in May 2015. Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden were romantically involved for a period after Beau’s death.

    It has long been known that Hunter Biden did legal work for Popoviciu, a wealthy Romanian business executive who was convicted in 2016 on corruption charges.

    Comer’s memo raises questions about why Popoviciu was paying a Biden family business associate directly instead of the law firm where Hunter Biden worked at the time or the other firm Hunter reportedly referred Popoviciu to.

    Former President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani was also involved with Popoviciu, which Comer’s memo does not mention.

    Committee Republicans obtained the bank records from subpoenas to four different banks.

    The report also alleges that in 2016, Vuk Jeremic, a Serbian politician who was running for UN secretary-general, tried to use his business relationship with Hunter Biden and his associates to get a meeting with Kahl, who was then an aide in Biden’s vice president’s office.

    In a June 2016 email, Jeremic wrote to Hunter Biden and a business associate, Eric Schwerin, asking to “meet with VPOTUS National Security Advisor Colin Kahl” related to the UN secretary-general election.

    Schwerin instructed Hunter Biden to “Think about how you want to respond,” according to the report.

    In a July 2016 email, Jeremic followed up via email saying, “[m]y meeting with Colin did not last very long, but didn’t go too bad, I think. What is suboptimal is that OVP seems to be outside the decision-making loop on the UNSG elections issue. Colin promised to get better informed on what’s going on at the moment,” according to the report.

    Republicans said they intend to pursue more communications related to the matter, but concluded it appears that “a Biden administration official met with Jeremic to discuss the UN Secretary General election at the direction of Hunter Biden and/or his business associates.”

    Kahl did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jeremic’s attorneys told the committee in a letter last month he would not cooperate with a request for documents and testimony due to separation of powers issues and because House rules limit subpoenas to people “within the United States.”

    The memo also alleges that two Chinese nationals made payments of $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s professional corporation through a Chinese-backed energy company. Republicans claim that at least one of those individuals had ties to the Communist Party of China.

    The memo alleges that those two individuals were connected to CEFC, a Chinese energy conglomerate, had a business relationship with Hunter Biden.

    Committee Republicans claim one of the individuals “used CEFC to bribe and corruptly influence foreign officials.”

    The memo includes a copy of a bank transaction showing that on August 4, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure wired $100,000 to Owasco P.C, Hunter Biden’s professional corporation.

    The memo also includes details from the bank records on how money was moved between companies, including a $100,000 payment to one of Hunter Biden’s companies that was then funded by a Chinese based firm tied to the CEFC, the Chinese energy conglomerate.

    Comer alleges the transaction “disproves President Biden’s claim that his family received no money from China.”

    In the report, the committee acknowledged there “exist legitimate commercial transactions with China-based entities and individuals.”

    “However, the pattern of behavior engaged in by the Bidens and their Chinese counterparties—memorialized in relevant bank records—signals an attempt to layer companies and cloud the source of money,” the committee alleges.

    Comer has previously revealed that members of Biden’s family received just over $1 million indirectly from State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company.

    Senate Republicans in 2020 first detailed how Walker made wire transfers to companies associated with Hunter Biden and president’s brother, James, after receiving a $3 million wire from the Chinese company.

    The latest GOP memo claims Walker also sent some of that money to Hallie Biden and an unknown bank account identified as “Biden.”

    Committee Republicans said they are continuing to trace bank records and have written to additional witnesses involved in certain transactions to request documents as well as interviews.

    According to the report, Republicans intend to pursue legislative changes – a key step needed to justify their investigation if fights over subpoenas head to court.

    Those changes include laws that require additional reporting about the finances of a president or vice president’s family members, public disclosure of foreign transactions involving the family members of senior elected officials and an expedited law enforcement review of any suspicious bank activity reports related to a president or vice president’s immediately family members.

    Comer left the door open on whether his committee would investigate the foreign business dealings of former President Donald Trump and his family ahead of making any legislative recommendations to address influence peddling. To date however, Comer has not looked into Trump’s financial dealings or pursued an investigation into the classified documents that he had at Mar-a-Lago.

    “We’re going to look at everything when we get ready to introduce the legislation to ban influence peddling” Comer said. “This has been a pattern for a long time. Republicans and Democrats have both complained about Presidents’ families receiving money.”

    On the foreign business dealings of Trump’s son-in law, Jared Kushner, specifically, Comer said, “I’m not saying whether I agreed with what he did or not, but I actually know what his businesses are. What are the Biden businesses?”

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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  • Closed-Door UN Meeting Stokes Fears Of Taliban Recognition

    Closed-Door UN Meeting Stokes Fears Of Taliban Recognition

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    Thousands of people around the world are protesting against the ongoing closed-door United Nations meeting about the future of Afghanistan, as fears grow that the talks could lead to the Taliban being recognized as a legitimate governing group.

    Diplomats from nearly 25 countries and groups — including the U.S., China and Russia, as well as major European aid donors and key regional neighbors like Pakistan — are attending the two-day meeting chaired by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The Taliban were not invited to attend the meeting, and they have expressed their displeasure over the exclusion.

    The attendees are set to discuss key issues affecting Afghanistan, including terrorism and women’s rights, according to the U.N.

    Activists against the U.N. formally recognizing the Taliban hold banners during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 30.

    DANIEL SLIM via Getty Images

    After regaining power in 2021, the Taliban has cracked down on women’s access to public life, including barring them from attending universities and high schools. The group also decided last month to enforce a ban on Afghan women working for the U.N., which the U.N. warned could force closure of their operation in Afghanistan.

    However, shortly after the Taliban announced the ban, senior U.N. official Amina Mohammed suggested finding “baby steps” toward “recognition” of the group. Later, the U.N. retracted her comment and clarified that the Doha meeting is not focused on recognition.

    Still, Mohammed’s comments have contributed to widespread concerns about the meeting, with critics pointing out a lack of transparency about the discussions.

    Civil society groups and human rights activists highlighted their apprehensions about the possible recognition of the Taliban in an open letter to the U.N. shared on Sunday.

    “Past experiences show that giving into the demands of such regimes by compromising on human rights will only strengthen their grip on power, and prolong the suffering of the people of Afghanistan,” the letter reads.

    They also insisted that women of Afghanistan should be “meaningfully represented” in all talks regarding its future.

    A member of Taliban fires in the air to disperse the Afghan women during a rally to protest against Taliban restrictions on women, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 28, 2021.
    A member of Taliban fires in the air to disperse the Afghan women during a rally to protest against Taliban restrictions on women, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 28, 2021.

    Videos have surfaced on social media showing women in Kabul protesting against the Taliban, holding up placards with slogans such as #NoToTaliban and #AfghanWomenLivesMatter. They can be heard chanting “Taliban recognition is a disgrace to the world” and “We will fight, we will die, but we will get our rights.”

    “Taliban are terrorists and criminals,” Amiri, a protester in Kabul who is being identified by a pseudonym due to fear of retaliation from the group, told HuffPost. “The U.N. must not turn a blind eye to the plight of Afghan women and recognize a terrorist organization that has no achievement except for oppressing women.”

    “It’s funny that we have come to a point where the recognition of the Taliban is a topic of global discussion,” Amiri said. “In a fair world, Taliban should be brought to the International Criminal Court to face justice for the decades of crimes they have committed against the people of Afghanistan.”

    Along with those in Kabul, hundreds of Afghan diaspora members and activists worldwide, including in Washington, D.C., raised their voices in support.

    During a press briefing at the State Department on Tuesday last week, department spokesperson Vedant Patel said the U.S. has no intention of acknowledging the Taliban regime, and that the Taliban’s ongoing human rights violations, particularly against women and girls, are a major obstacle to its goal of being recognized internationally.

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  • Nikki Haley’s Dilemma Is Also the Republicans’ Problem

    Nikki Haley’s Dilemma Is Also the Republicans’ Problem

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    Republicans have had 10 months to hammer out a coherent post-Roe message on abortion. You would think they’d have nailed it by now.

    Yet on Tuesday, Nikki Haley set out to declare her position on the issue—and proceeded to be about as clear as concrete.

    She began with plausible precision. “I want to save as many lives and help as many moms as possible,” the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations told reporters gathered at the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America headquarters, in Northern Virginia—a press event billed as a “major policy speech.” But her statements quickly got squishier. It’s good that some states have passed anti-abortion laws in the past year, she said. And as for the states that have reacted by enshrining abortion-rights protections? Well, she wishes “that weren’t the case.”

    And then she seemed to channel Veep’s Selina Meyer. “Different people in different places are taking different paths,” Haley said, with a self-assurance that belied the indeterminacy of her words.

    Read: Abortion pills will be the next battle in the 2024 election

    Questioning whether any national anti-abortion legislation would ever pass, Haley did gesture at a need for some action. “To do that at the federal level, the next president must find national consensus,” she said. As for what that might look like, she had no words. And she took no questions.

    Some people seemed to like Haley’s speech, in a tepid way. She sounded human when she described how her husband had been adopted, and how she’d struggled with infertility. “Ms. Haley deserves credit for confronting the subject head on, with a speech that wasn’t sanctimonious or censorious,” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board wrote, before concluding, “The party could do worse than Ms. Haley’s pitch.” But it could do better—or at least do with something more specific.

    Leaders of the self-described pro-life movement were predictably annoyed at Haley’s conciliatory-sounding vagueness. “Disappointing speech by @NikkiHaley today. Leads with compromise & defeatism, not vision & courage,” Lila Rose, who heads the group Live Action, tweeted. “We agree that consensus is important, but to achieve consensus we will need to stake out a principled position,” wrote Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America.

    Even Haley’s hosts seemed on the wrong page. “We are clear on Ambassador Haley’s commitment to acting on the American consensus against late-term abortion by protecting unborn children by at least 15 weeks,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement sent to me. But a few hours later, Team Haley emailed me to correct the record: “She committed to working to find a consensus on banning late-term abortion. No specific weeks,” Nachama Soloveichik, Haley’s communications director, wrote. Not only did Haley alienate both sides—she confused them!

    Mary Ziegler: Abortion restrictions targeted at minors never stop there

    Haley is in a tough spot, as are all of the Republican presidential wannabes. They each have their own personal convictions on abortion; former Vice President Mike Pence, for example, has been outspoken in his support for a national ban. But they’re up against an issue that seems to have cost their party a string of recent elections. Most Americans believe that abortion should be accessible, with some limits.

    The “consensus” position, then, is somewhere in the foggy zone between no abortion ever and abortion whenever. But primary elections tend to push candidates toward one extreme or another. “The gap between what the base demands and what swing voters will tolerate has gotten really wide,” Sarah Longwell, the publisher of the Never Trump site The Bulwark, told me. “Nowhere is this more true than on abortion.”

    What all politicians need to do “is settle on a position they believe they can defend, and they need to repeat it consistently and clearly,” Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist, told me. “Any politician whose position on abortion is vague will be wrapped around the axle eventually with questions and doubts about where they actually stand.”

    Some GOP candidates have followed Ayres’s advice. But much axle-wrapping has occurred already in the early days of the 2024 primary season.

    Asked on the campaign trail whether he’d support a 15-week federal ban on abortion, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina told CBS, “I do believe that we should have a robust conversation about what’s happening on a very important topic,” before pivoting so hard to an anecdote about Janet Yellen that I thought he’d need a neck brace. In a follow-up interview, Scott backtracked, clarifying that as president, he would “literally sign the most conservative pro-life legislation” Congress sent to his desk.

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to mount a presidential bid, did approve a very conservative state law recently—a six-week abortion ban. But he signed that legislation in the dead of night earlier this month, while most people in Tallahassee were probably in bed. (By contrast, last year, he celebrated the signing of a 15-week ban with a big party at a church.) The following day, DeSantis gave a speech at a Christian university full of students who are opposed to abortion, yet said nothing about his major legislative achievement. He’s mostly stayed quiet about it since—even at glad-handing events in early primary states.

    So far, the only confirmed presidential candidate who seems clear on his position and keenly aware of the political optics is Donald Trump. Despite being hailed by anti-abortion activists as the “most pro-life president” in history, Trump has never been rigid on abortion (probably because he supported abortion rights for most of his life as a public figure), and he doesn’t talk much about the issue now. But a spokesperson told The Washington Post recently that Trump “believes that the Supreme Court, led by the three Justices which he supported, got it right when they ruled this is an issue that should be decided at the State level.” Shorter Trump: I’ve done my bit—it’s up to the states now. God bless.

    If any national consensus on abortion exists, the GOP strategist Ayres said, Trump’s position “is pretty close” to it. Trump has always seemed to have “a lizard-brain sense of where the voters are,” Longwell said. “He has a relationship to the base, and he doesn’t have to pitch what he believes.” And, unlike DeSantis, Trump has never signed a law banning abortion at any stage, so it’ll be harder to pin him down. Sure, there’s an activist class that would like to see abortion banned in all cases. To them, Trump could reply, You got your justices. You’re welcome.

    Read: The new pro-life movement has a plan to end abortion

    Right now Trump and his lizard brain have a commanding lead in the GOP primary. His victory would set up an interesting general-election situation—a fitting one for our complicated post-Roe country: a former president who once personally supported abortion rights and is now politically opposed to them running against a sitting president whose own position on abortion is the exact opposite.

    Until a Republican presidential nominee emerges, we’ll hear many more Haley-esque platitudes that sound thoughtful and weighty but ultimately aren’t.

    “Whether we can save more lives nationally depends entirely on doing what no one has done to date,” Haley told reporters on Tuesday, before wrapping up her speech with—you could almost hear a drumroll—“finding consensus.” The waffling will continue, in other words, until the primary concludes.

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    Elaine Godfrey

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  • UN’s new Haiti envoy warns of ‘alarming’ surge in violence

    UN’s new Haiti envoy warns of ‘alarming’ surge in violence

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    More than 1,600 homicides, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings reported in first quarter of 2023, BINUH chief says.

    Haitians are living through an “alarming” surge in violence, the head of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) has said, with the number of criminal incidents more than doubling since last year.

    Speaking to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, BINUH chief Maria Isabel Salvador said 1,674 homicides, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings were reported in the first quarter of 2023.

    That is up from 692 such incidents in the same period a year earlier, said Salvador, citing data collected by BINUH and the Haitian National Police (HNP).

    “Gang violence is expanding at an alarming rate in areas previously considered relatively safe in Port-au-Prince and outside the capital,” she said.

    “The horrific violence in gang-ridden areas, including sexual violence, particularly against women and girls, is emblematic of the terror afflicting much of Haiti’s population.”

    Trucks block a street as people protest against gangs in Port-au-Prince, April 25, 2023 [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Salvador to lead BINUH and act as his special representative to Haiti in early March, as the Caribbean nation remains embroiled in a political crisis and faces worsening violence.

    Gang violence has been on the rise, particularly after the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, which created a power vacuum. And the country’s virtually non-existent government system has made stemming attacks even more difficult.

    Haiti’s de facto leader, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whom Moise chose for the post just days before he was killed, has faced a crisis of legitimacy – and attempts to chart a political transition for Haiti have failed, as well.

    The violence has impeded access to healthcare facilities, forced the closure of schools and clinics, and worsened already dire food insecurity by cutting residents of gang-controlled areas off from critical supplies.

    On Sunday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Ulrika Richardson, said fighting between rival gangs in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of Cite Soleil had left nearly 70 people dead between April 14 and 19.

    “The population feels under siege. They can no longer leave their homes for fear of gun violence and gang terror,” Richardson said.

    Also this week, residents of Port-au-Prince lynched suspected gang members and set their bodies on fire in another part of the capital. Images shared online and by news agencies showed a crowd of people standing near a pile of burned human remains in a street.

    In a brief statement shared on Facebook on Monday, the Haitian National Police said officers had confiscated weapons from “armed individuals” travelling in a minibus in Canape Vert.

    “In addition, more than a dozen individuals travelling in this vehicle were unfortunately lynched by members of the population,” the police force said.

    On Wednesday, Salvador said the HNP was “severely understaffed and ill-equipped” to address the violence, and “deaths, dismissals and increased resignations” among officers have made these deficiencies worse.

    “The need for urgent international support to the police to address the rapidly deteriorating security situation cannot be over-emphasised,” she said.

    Last October, Henry called on the international community to help set up a “specialised armed force” to quell the violence in Haiti, a demand that has the backing of the UN and the United States.

    “Solutions to the crisis must be owned and led by the people of Haiti, but the scale of the problems is such that they require the international community’s immediate response and support,” Guterres said in a report (PDF) this month, reiterating his support for the armed force.

    Police officers walk near people carrying their belongings amid gang violence in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince
    Police officers walk near people who carry their belongings after fleeing their homes due to clashes between gangs, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on April 24, 2023 [Ralph Tedy Erol/Reuters]

    The UN secretary-general also warned that insecurity in Port-au-Prince had “reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict”.

    But many Haitian civil society leaders have rejected the prospect of international intervention, saying history has demonstrated that foreign forces bring “more problems than solutions”.

    Meanwhile, efforts to set up the international armed force have stalled, with no country agreeing to lead such a mission.

    Instead, the US and some of its allies, notably Canada, have focused on providing equipment and training to the Haitian National Police and sanctioning individuals accused of enabling and profiting from the instability.

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  • U.S. taxpayers helping fund Afghanistan’s Taliban? Aid workers say they’re forced “to serve the Taliban first”

    U.S. taxpayers helping fund Afghanistan’s Taliban? Aid workers say they’re forced “to serve the Taliban first”

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    Aid workers at non-profit organizations in Afghanistan that receive financial support from the U.S. government say they’re being forced to pay fees and provide services to the Taliban. They spoke to CBS News days after the head of a U.S. government oversight office tasked with monitoring how U.S. tax dollars are spent in Afghanistan told lawmakers that his staff “simply do not know” the extent to which the American people may unknowingly be funding the terrorist group.

    “Since the Taliban takeover, the U.S. government has sought to continue supporting the Afghan people without providing benefits for the Taliban regime,” Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko said Wednesday in testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. “However, it is clear from our work that the Taliban is using various methods to divert U.S. aid dollars.”

    Dire circumstances since Taliban takeover

    “Unfortunately, as I sit here today I cannot assure this committee or the American taxpayer, we are not currently funding the Taliban,” Sopko told the lawmakers. “Nor can I assure you that the Taliban are not diverting the money we are sending for the intended recipients, which are the poor Afghan people.”

    US Afghanistan
    Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko (right), speaks during a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee concerning the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, on Capitol Hill, April 19, 2023, in Washington.

    Alex Brandon/AP


    Since the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban took back control of the country in August 2021, the country has spiralled into an economic and humanitarian crisis. International donors suspended most funding that wasn’t for humanitarian aid, and billions of dollars in Afghan government assets were frozen. Now, almost the entire population is at risk of poverty, with over 91% of the average Afghan household’s income spent on food. An estimated 24.4 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian support.

    Sopko presented SIGAR’s list of the greatest sources of risk that could expose continued U.S. financial assistance to Afghanistan to abuse, fraud, waste or mission failure.

    He said the U.S. had made $8 billion in aid available to Afghanistan since the military withdrawal, including around $2 billion in humanitarian aid, a level of assistance he said was “little changed from before the withdrawal.”

    Taliban “taxes and fees”

    At the top of the list of the risks to U.S. funding identified by SIGAR was the Taliban’s interference with the work of local NGOs and United Nations aid agencies on the ground.

    “The Taliban generate income from U.S. aid by imposing customs charges on shipments coming into the country and charging taxes and fees directly on NGOs,” Sopko said, adding that if NGOs don’t pay the Taliban’s fees, they can have their offices closed and their bank accounts frozen.

    taliban-afghanistan-aid-ap22145329808459.jpg
    A Taliban fighter stands guard as people receive humanitarian aid food rations in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 30, 2022.

    AP/Ebrahim Noroozi


    The previous Afghan government also did this, Sopko noted, and the Taliban has imposed taxes on aid in areas it has controlled for years, even before 2021. But Sopko said the Islamic hardliners were going further now, including by imposing fees on vendors that do business with NGOs, such as landlords and cell phone companies.

    Sopko said the Taliban was also diverting funds away from groups it does not support, including the ethnic minority Hazara community and, in certain instances, requiring NGOs to work with them, such as by insisting they rent vehicles only from the Taliban or Taliban-linked groups.

    Aid workers on the ground in Afghanistan have told CBS News that the interference goes beyond all of that, however, and includes the Taliban demanding services directly from the groups that receive U.S. funding. They said those demands have increased since the group retook power almost two years ago.

    “The Taliban first”

    “We have to serve the families of the Taliban police commanders, governors and other people who they ask us to serve specifically,” one aid worker at UNHCR told CBS News on the condition of anonymity. “Once a Taliban governor told one of our subcontracted aid agencies that 15% of the aid must go toward his guards and other Taliban personnel, and it is now a norm to serve the Taliban first and then serve the ordinary civilians.”

    Afghanistan
    A Taliban fighter secures the area as people queue to receive cash at a money distribution site organized by the World Food Program (WFP) in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 17, 2021.

    Petros Giannakouris/AP


    Hamid Khan, an aid worker with a local NGO that’s subcontracted by the United Nations’ World Food Program in Afghanistan, told CBS News that Taliban interference had made it increasingly difficult for the organization to determine on its own who to help.

    He said his NGO aims to assist “people who need the aid the most, such as pregnant women, orphans, widows and other highly in need people, but the Taliban also make their own list of selected people.”

    “If we do not serve them first, then we would be banned from working and dozens of excuses will be made preventing the NGO from working altogether, and the others will also not receive their much needed aid,” Hamid Khan told CBS News.

    “We have to work with them”

    Abdullah Khan, who works for a U.N. agency in Afghanistan, told CBS News that Taliban members position themselves to get access to international aid by becoming partners or shareholders in local non-profit groups, which often work as partners or subcontractors for larger aid organizations.

    “The Taliban can’t dictate to the U.N. directly, but the U.N., the World Food Program, and even the International Committee of the Red Cross-subcontracted NGOs can’t resist Taliban pressure,” said Abdullah Khan. “In one meeting with the provincial governor that we had, we were informed by the Taliban that we must give aid to the families of the suicide bombers who have died and to injured Taliban soldiers who are alive but unable to work. We are facing severe Taliban interference in our aid operations, but to help the poor, we have to work with them.”


    Many Afghans living in fear, one year after U.S. troops withdrew from America’s longest war

    09:12

    A staff member at a regional NGO in northern Afghanistan who asked to remain anonymous told CBS News that the organization was forced to “hire at least 70% of local staff [based] on the wish and will of Taliban members. If we don’t do it, then we are not allowed to operate. We have about 50 employees in each province, and roughly 35 of them are their [the Taliban’s] preferred locals who agreed to share their salaries with the Taliban’s members. We are forced to hire them.”

    He said the work of the NGO was being severely limited by the Taliban’s demands, which he called “cruel.”

    “The ones who need the aid do not get the aid, as it is diverted to the families of Taliban members,” said the aid worker.

    Asked about Taliban interference in aid delivery in Afghanistan, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, told CBS News that all of the global body’s “humanitarian operations work on the basis of serving people according to need, and we ensure in all our work that aid goes to those who need it and is not diverted.”

    Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N. Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, acknowledged to the Security Council in March, however, that “in some provinces we have had to temporarily suspend providing assistance because local officials have placed unacceptable conditions on its distribution. In general, there has been a recent deterioration of the humanitarian space.”

    CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk contributed to this report.

    Haley Ott


    haley-ott-cbs-news.jpg

    Haley Ott is an international reporter for CBS News based in London.

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  • U.S. diplomatic convoy fired on in Sudan as intense fighting continues between rival forces

    U.S. diplomatic convoy fired on in Sudan as intense fighting continues between rival forces

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    A U.S. diplomatic convoy was fired upon in Sudan Monday but those inside were unharmed, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Tuesday. He called the incident “reckless” and “irresponsible.”  

    Blinken, who is in Japan for a Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting, said a convoy of clearly marked U.S. Embassy vehicles came under fire and that preliminary reports indicate the attackers were linked to a powerful force fighting with the Sudanese army for control of the country for a third consecutive day. He said everyone in the convoy was safe and at home.

    Blinken called for an immediate 24-hour ceasefire as a step toward a longer truce.

    He said he spoke by phone with Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and told them any danger to U.S. diplomats and residents in Sudan or U.N. staff and other humanitarian partners was unacceptable.

    In a joint statement Tuesday, the G-7 foreign ministers condemned the fighting. “We urge the parties to end hostilities immediately without pre-conditions,” it said, calling for them to return to negotiations and reduce tensions.

    As explosions and gunfire thundered outside, Sudanese in the capital Khartoum and other cities huddled in their homes.

    KHARTOUM, SUDAN -- APRIL 17, 2023: Maxar closer view satellite imagery of destroyed airplanes at Khartoum International Airport in Sudan.. Please use: Satellite image (c) 2023 Maxar Technologies.
    Maxar satellite imagery shows destroyed airplanes at Khartoum International Airport in Sudan on April 17, 2023.

    Maxar Technologies


    At least 185 people have been killed and over 1,800 wounded since the fighting erupted, U.N. envoy Volker Perthes told reporters. 

    The two sides are using tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons in densely populated areas. Fighter jets swooped overhead and anti-aircraft fire lit up the skies as darkness fell.

    The toll could be much higher since there are many bodies in the streets around central Khartoum that no one can reach because of the clashes. There’s been no official word on how many civilians or combatants have been killed. A doctors’ group earlier put the number of civilian deaths at 97.

    The sudden outbreak of violence over the weekend between the nation’s two top generals, each backed by tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters, trapped millions of people in their homes or wherever they could find shelter, with supplies running low and several hospitals forced to shut down.

    Top diplomats on four continents scrambled to broker a truce, and the U.N. Security Council was set to discuss the crisis.

    “Gunfire and shelling are everywhere,” Awadeya Mahmoud Koko, head of a union for thousands of tea vendors and other food workers, said from her home in a southern district of Khartoum.

    She said a shell stuck a neighbor’s house Sunday, killing at least three people. “We couldn’t take them to a hospital or bury them.”

    In central Khartoum, sustained gunfire erupted and white smoke rose near the main military headquarters, a major battlefront. Nearby, at least 88 students and staffers have been trapped in the engineering college library at Khartoum University since the start of fighting, one of the students said in a video posted online Monday. One student was killed during clashes outside and another wounded, he said. They do not have food or water, he said, showing a room full of people sleeping on the floor.

    Even in a country with a long history of military coups, the scenes of fighting in the capital and its adjoining city Omdurman across the Nile River were unprecedented. The turmoil comes just days before Sudanese were to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.

    Under international pressure, Burhan and Dagalo had recently agreed to a framework agreement with political parties and pro-democracy groups, but the signing was repeatedly delayed as tensions rose over the integration of the RSF into the armed forces and the future chain of command.

    The U.S., U.N. and others have called for a truce. Egypt, which backs Sudan’s military, and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — which forged close ties to the RSF as it sent thousands of fighters to support their war in Yemen — have also called for both sides to stand down.

    Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said late Monday that Cairo was in “constant contact” with both the army and the RSF, urging them to halt the fighting and return to negotiations.

    But both generals have thus far dug in, demanding the other’s surrender.

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell tweeted that the EU ambassador to Sudan “was assaulted in his own residency,” without providing further details. A spokesperson for Borrell told Agence France-Presse the veteran diplomat was “OK” following the assault.

    Dagalo, whose forces grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias in Sudan’s Darfur region, has portrayed himself as a defender of democracy and branded Burhan as the aggressor and a “radical Islamist.” Both generals have a long history of human rights abuses and their forces have cracked down on pro-democracy activists.

    Heavy gunbattles raged in multiple parts of the capital and Omdurman, where the two sides have brought in tens of thousands of troops, positioning them in nearly every neighborhood.

    Twelve hospitals in the capital area have been “forcefully evacuated” and are “out of service” because of attacks or power outages, the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate said, out of a total of around 20. Four hospitals outside the capital have also shut down, it added in a statement late Monday.

    Hadia Saeed said she and her three children were sheltering in one room on the ground floor of their home for fear of the shelling as gunfire rattled across their Bahri district in north Khartoum. They have food for a few more days, but “after that we don’t know what to do,” she said.

    Residents said fierce fighting with artillery and other heavy weapons raged Monday afternoon in the Gabra neighborhood southwest of Khartoum. People were trapped and screaming inside their homes, said Asmaa al-Toum, a physician living in the area.

    Fighting has been particularly fierce around each side’s main bases and at strategic government buildings — all of which are in residential areas.

    The military on Monday claimed to have secured the main television building in Omdurman, fending off the RSF after days of fighting. State-run Sudan TV resumed broadcasting.

    On Sunday, the RSF said it abandoned its main barracks and base, in Omdurman, which the armed forces had pounded with airstrikes. Online videos Monday purported to show the bodies of dozens of men said to be RSF fighters at the base, strewn over beds, the floor of a clinic and outside in a yard. The authenticity of the videos could not be confirmed independently.

    The military and RSF were also fighting in most major centers around the country, including in the western Darfur region and parts of the north and the east, by the borders with Egypt and Ethiopia. Battles raged Monday around a strategic airbase in Merowe, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of the capital, with both sides claiming control of the facility.

    Only four years ago, Sudan inspired hope after a popular uprising helped depose long-time autocratic leader Omar al-Bashir.

    But the turmoil since, especially the 2021 coup, has frustrated the democracy drive and wrecked the economy. A third of the population — around 16 million people — now depends on humanitarian assistance in the resource-rich nation, Africa’s third largest.

    Save the Children, an international charity, said it has temporarily suspended most of its operations across Sudan. It said looters raided its offices in Darfur, stealing medical supplies, laptops, vehicles and a refrigerator. The World Food Program suspended operations over the weekend after three employees were killed in Darfur, and the International Rescue Committee has also halted most operations.

    With the U.S., European Union, African and Arab nations all calling for an end to fighting, the U.N. Security Council was to discuss the developments. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was consulting with the Arab League, African Union and leaders in the region, urging anyone with influence to press for peace.

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  • Students trapped, hospitals shelled and diplomats assaulted as Sudan fighting intensifies | CNN

    Students trapped, hospitals shelled and diplomats assaulted as Sudan fighting intensifies | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    For more than three days, students at the University of Khartoum have been trapped inside campus buildings as artillery and gunfire rain down around them in Sudan’s capital.

    Fierce fighting between the country’s army and a paramilitary group has spread across the nation since erupting Saturday – but the university area is a particular hotspot due to its proximity to the General Command of the Armed Forces, with warplanes hovering overhead and nearby buildings destroyed by fire.

    “It is scary that our country will turn into a battlefield overnight,” said 23-year-old Al-Muzaffar Farouk, one of 89 students, faculty members and staff sheltering inside the university library.

    Food and water are running low, but leaving is not an option – one student has already been killed by gunfire outside. Khalid Abdulmun’em had been trying to run to the library from a nearby building when he was struck, said Farouk.

    The students retrieved his body and brought it inside “despite the bullets that were falling on us,” he added.

    The university confirmed Abdulmun’em’s death in a Facebook post, saying he had been shot in the campus’ surroundings. In a separate post on Monday, the university urged humanitarian organizations to help evacuate dozens of people stranded on campus.

    Khartoum has been wracked by violence and chaos in a bloody tussle for power between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s military leader, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

    The two leaders have traded blame for instigating the fighting and breaking temporary ceasefires. Meanwhile, civilians are paying the price, with at least 180 people killed and 1,800 others injured, according to UN officials on Monday.

    “I can see outside smoke rising from buildings. And I can hear from my residence blasts, heavy gunfire from outside. The streets are totally empty,” said Red Cross staffer Germain Mwehu from Khartoum.

    “In the building where I stay, I saw families with children, children crying when there are airstrikes, children horrified,” Mwehu said, adding that people had little to no access to food or medicine given the fierce fighting outside.

    Children are among those killed; a 6-year-old child died on Monday after the RSF shelled a hospital in Khartoum and damaged a maternity ward. Medics were forced to evacuate, leaving patients behind – some just newborns in incubators.

    At least half a dozen hospitals have been struck by both warring sides, according to Sudan’s Doctors Trade Union.

    Even diplomats and humanitarian workers have been targeted.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed there was an attack on a US diplomatic convoy on Monday.

    “Yesterday, we had an American diplomatic convoy that was fired on. All of our people are safe, but this the action was reckless, it was irresponsible and, of course, unsafe,” Blinken said in a press conference on Tuesday.

    The European Union ambassador to Sudan was also assaulted in his residency on Monday, though he is now doing fine, according to a spokesperson for the EU’s top diplomat.

    And three workers from the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) were killed in the western region of Darfur, prompting the WFP to temporarily halt all services in the country.

    In statements early Tuesday morning, the two rival factions pointed fingers at each other.

    The RSF accused the army of conducting airstrikes on residential neighborhoods and of attacking the EU ambassador’s headquarters in Khartoum; meanwhile, the army accused the RSF of targeting the ambassador’s residency, and of targeting the WFP’s headquarters in Darfur.

    The UN and various foreign leaders have called for peace, with Blinken speaking separately with Burhan and Dagalo on Tuesday.

    Blinken “expressed his grave concern about the death and injury of so many Sudanese civilians,” and argued a ceasefire was necessary to deliver aid, reunify separated families, and ensure the safety of diplomatic and humanitarian staff, according to a readout from the US State Department.

    In his own statement, Dagalo said the RSF “will have another call” to continue dialogue. Burhan’s office also confirmed he had spoken with Blinken about the critical situation in Sudan.

    The foreign ministers of G7 nations, comprised of some of the world’s largest economies, urged the factions to “end hostilities immediately” in their joint statement from Japan on Tuesday.

    Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan, said on Monday the organization has been trying to convince the two rival parties to “hold the fire” for a period of time, and asked them to protect embassies, UN offices, humanitarian and medical facilities.

    Both sides had agreed to a three-hour ceasefire on Sunday, and again on Monday, with fighting resuming afterward, Perthes said.

    But both Burhan and Dagalo have since accused the other of breaking that ceasefire.

    When CNN spoke to Burhan on Monday afternoon, the sound of gunshots rang out in the background despite the supposed ceasefire – and Burhan claimed Dagalo had violated it for the second day.

    A spokesperson for the RSF rebutted the accusation, claiming that they had been trying to abide by the ceasefire, but “they keep firing which leaves no choice” but for the RSF to “defend itself by firing back.”

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  • Hospitals under attack as fighting grips Sudanese capital for third day | CNN

    Hospitals under attack as fighting grips Sudanese capital for third day | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Intense fighting has gripped Sudan for a third day and hospitals are under attack from missiles as they battle to save lives, amid a bloody tussle for power that has left close to 100 people dead and injured hundreds more.

    Clashes first erupted Saturday between the country’s military and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, who told CNN on Sunday the army had broken a UN-brokered temporary humanitarian ceasefire.

    On Monday, residents in the capital Khartoum endured sounds of artillery and bombardment by warplanes with eyewitnesses telling CNN they heard mortars in the early hours. The fighting intensifying after dawn prayers in the direction of Khartoum International Airport and Sudanese Army garrison sites.

    Hospitals in the country – which are short of blood supplies and life-saving equipment – are being targeted with military strikes by both the Army and the RSF, according to eyewitness accounts to CNN and two doctors’ organizations, leaving medical personnel unable to reach the wounded and to bury the dead.

    One doctor at a Khartoum hospital – whom CNN is not naming for security reasons – said his facility has been targeted since Saturday. “A direct strike hit the maternity ward. We could hear heavy weaponry and lay on the floor, along with our patients. The hospital itself was under attack.”

    CNN has reached out to the Sudanese military and the RSF for comment.

    Another doctor at the same al-Moallem Hospital told CNN that hospital staff stayed on site under bombardment from the RSF for two days, before being evacuated by the Sudanese military. “We were living in a real battle,” the doctor said. “Can you believe that we left the hospital and left behind children in incubators and patients in intensive care without any medical personnel? I can’t believe that I survived dying at the hospital, where the smell of death is everywhere.”

    Hemedti said Monday his group will pursue the leader of Sudan’s Armed Forces Abdel Fattah al-Burhan “and bring him to justice,” while Sudan’s army called on paramilitary fighters to defect and join the armed forces.

    Verified video footage shows military jets and helicopters hitting the airport; other clips show the charred remains of the army’s General Command building nearby after it was engulfed in fire on Sunday.

    Residents in neighborhoods east of the airport told CNN they saw warplanes bombing sites east of the command. “We saw explosions and smoke rising from Obaid Khatim Street, and immediately after that, anti-aircraft artillery fired massively towards the planes,” one eyewitness said.

    Amid the chaos, both parties to the fighting are working to portray a sense of control in the capital. The armed forces said Monday the Rapid Support Forces are circulating “lies to mislead the public,” reiterating the army have “full control of all of their headquarters” in the capital Khartoum.

    Sudan’s national state television channel came back on air on Monday, a day after going dark, and is broadcasting messages in support of the army.

    A banner on the channel said “the armed forces were able to regain control of the national broadcaster after repeated attempts by the militias to destroy its infrastructure.” Although the armed forces appear to have control of the television signal, CNN cannot independently verify that the army is in physical control of the Sudan TV premises.

    A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows two burning planes at Khartoum International Airport on Sunday.

    A banner on the channel said “the armed forces were able to regain control of the national broadcaster after repeated attempts by the militias to destroy its infrastructure.”

    In the Kafouri area, north of Khartoum, clashes and street fights broke out at dawn Monday, prompting residents to begin evacuating women and children from the area, Sudanese journalist Fathi Al-Ardi wrote on Facebook. In the Kalakla area, south of the capital, residents reported the walls of their houses shaking from explosions.

    Reports also emerged of battles hundreds of miles away in the eastern city of Port Sudan and the western Darfur region over the weekend.

    As of Monday, at least 97 people have been killed, according to the Preliminary Committee of Sudanese Doctors trade union. Earlier on Sunday, the World Health Organization estimated more than 1,126 were injured.

    The WHO has warned that doctors and nurses are struggling to reach people in need of urgent care, and are lacking essential supplies.

    “Supplies distributed by WHO to health facilities prior to this recent escalation of conflict are now exhausted, and many of the nine hospitals in Khartoum receiving injured civilians are reporting shortages of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids, medical supplies, and other life-saving commodities,” the organization said on Sunday.

    Water and power cuts are affecting the functionality of health facilities, and shortages of fuel for hospital generators are also being reported,” the WHO added.

    In the CNN interview, Dagalo blamed the military for starting the conflict and claimed RSF “had to keep fighting to defend ourselves.”

    He speculated that the army chief and his rival, al-Burhan, had lost control of the military. When asked if his endgame was to rule Sudan, Dagalo said he had “no such intentions,” and that there should be a civilian government.

    Amid the fighting, civilians have been warned to stay indoors. One local resident tweeted that they were “trapped inside our own homes with little to no protection at all.”

    “All we can hear is continuous blast after blast. What exactly is happening and where we don’t know, but it feels like it’s directly over our heads,” they wrote.

    Access to information is also limited, with the government-owned national TV channel now off the air. Television employees told CNN that it is in the hands of the RSF.

    The conflict has put other countries and organizations on high alert, with the United Nations’ World Food Program temporarily halting all operations in Sudan after three employees were killed in clashes on Saturday.

    UN and other humanitarian facilities in Darfur have been looted, while a WFP-managed aircraft was seriously damaged by gunfire in Khartoum, impeding the WFP’s ability to transport aid and workers within the country, the international aid agency said.

    Qatar Airways announced Sunday it was temporarily suspending flights to and from Khartoum due to the closure of its airport and airspace.

    On Sunday, Dagalo told CNN the RSF was in control of the airport, as well as several other government buildings in the capital.

    Meanwhile, Mexico is working to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, with the country’s foreign minister saying Sunday it is looking to “expedite” their exit.

    The United States embassy in Sudan said Sunday there were no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation yet for Americans in the country, citing the closure of the Khartoum airport. It advised US citizens to stay indoors and shelter in place, adding that it would make an announcement “if evacuation of private US citizens becomes necessary.”

    The fresh clashes have prompted widespread calls for peace and negotiations. The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, is scheduled to arrive in Khartoum on Monday, in an attempt to stop the fighting.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also for an immediate ceasefire.

    “People in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they want democracy, they want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to return to that path,” Blinken said, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 foreign minister talks in Japan on Monday.

    The UN’s political mission in Sudan has said the country’s two warring factions have agreed to a “proposal” although it is not yet clear what that entails.

    At the heart of the clashes is a power struggle between the two military leaders, Dagalo and Burhan.

    The pair had worked together to topple ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and played a pivotal role in the military coup in 2021, which ended a power-sharing agreement between the military and civilian groups.

    The military has been in charge of Sudan since then, with Burhan and Dagalo at the helm.

    But recent talks led to cracks in the alliance between the two men. The negotiations have sought to integrate the RSF into the country’s military, as part of the effort to transition to civilian rule.

    Sources in Sudan’s civilian movement and Sudanese military sources told CNN the main points of contention included the timeline for the merger of the forces, the status given to RSF officers in the future hierarchy, and whether RSF forces should be under the command of the army chief, rather than Sudan’s commander-in-chief, who is currently Burhan.

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  • Cindy McCain on her latest challenge

    Cindy McCain on her latest challenge

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    Cindy McCain on her latest challenge – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    In Rome this month, Cindy McCain started her new job as executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, an organization working in 123 countries with the ambitious goal of ending world hunger. She talks with correspondent Seth Doane about the increased political and logistical challenges of feeding the world’s neediest, a task made more critical by the pandemic and war in Ukraine; and about the advice she continues to carry with her from her husband, the late Sen. John McCain.

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  • Leaked Pentagon docs show rift between U.S. and U.N. over Ukraine

    Leaked Pentagon docs show rift between U.S. and U.N. over Ukraine

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    United Nations – Fallout from the leaked trove of classified defense and intelligence documents continues, as some of the material purports to show possible surveillance by the U.S. of the United Nations secretary-general and a disagreement over the handling of a key initiative to help export grain from Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion. 

    Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has been arrested for his alleged connection to the leaked documents, some of which may have been doctored.

    Leaked documents first reported by BBC focus in part on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a series of agreements brokered by the U.N. and Turkey to move grain out of Ukraine’s ports and assist Russia in the export of fertilizers.  

    One of the documents appeared to reveal that the U.S. felt that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ “actions are undermining broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine,” in order to protect the grain deal, which he considers key to addressing global food insecurity. Gutteres has gone so far as to tell Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the U.N. will continue efforts to improve Russia’s ability to export, even if that involves sanctioned Russian entities or individuals, the documents showed.

    Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Western governments have coordinated harsh sanctions against Russian officials and entities, aimed at crippling the nation’s economy and the ability of its citizens and companies to do business with the rest of the world.

    But Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador pushed back on the characterization of Guterres as friendly to Moscow. “He made an important contribution to allow Ukraine and U.N. together with Turkey sign the Istanbul agreement within his Black Sea Grain Initiative,” Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told CBS News on Thursday.

    The documents, if authentic, also reveal surveillance by the U.S. of the U.N. chief. In particular, the retelling of a discussion between Miguel Graca, the Director of the Executive Office of the U.N. Secretary-General, and Gutteres in which the U.N. chief appeared annoyed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for Gutteres to travel to Kyiv. Guterres has made several trips to Ukraine since the start of the invasion, including his latest trip to Kyiv last month.

    “The secretary-general has been at this job, and in the public eye, for a long time. He’s not surprised by the fact that people are spying on him and listening in to his private conversations,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told CBS News. “What is surprising is the malfeasance or incompetence that allows that such private conversations to be distorted and become public.”

    Dujarric on Thursday told reporters, “We take whatever measures we can, but the need to respect the viability of U.N. communications applies to every member state.”  

    Ukraine also dismissed the insinuation that the U.N. sides with Russia in the conflict. 

    “Secretary-General Guterres made his position on the full-scale aggression of Russia against Ukraine very clear on the night of the invasion, a position now guided by several U.N. General Assembly resolutions supported by the overwhelming majority of the member states,” Kyslytsya said.

    “The secretary-general has never misled me. He is very attentive to the issues I bring to his attention. He follows on my requests even when he travels,” Kyslytsya said, adding, “I think that Antonio Guterres is a world-class statesman with many decades of experience of dealing with many dramatic challenges.”

    Guterres has shuttled back and forth between U.N. Headquarters, Moscow and Kyiv since the war began last February. He has known Russian President Vladimir Putin for many years, having first met him in 2000 when Guterres was prime minister of Portugal. Guterres in 2016 visited the Kremlin as one of his first foreign trips after he was elected to steer the U.N.

    “Guterres has been commendably frank in criticizing Russia, but the Black Sea deal was a big win for him and he is locked into defending it,” Richard Gowan, an expert on the global body and director of the U.N. International Crisis Group, told CBS News.

    It was still unclear as of Thursday how much of the information in the leaked documents, some of which officials have said are from late February and early March, is accurate. Some of the images appeared to have been manipulated.

    Sources told CBS News that the Department of Defense and the intelligence community are actively reviewing and assessing the validity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media.

    — Eleanor Watson and Camilla Schick contributed to reporting

    Pamela Falk


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    Pamela Falk is the CBS News correspondent covering the United Nations, and an international lawyer.

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  • Migrant deaths in Mediterranean reach highest level in 6 years

    Migrant deaths in Mediterranean reach highest level in 6 years

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    The number of migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first three months of 2023 reached their highest point in six years, according to a new report Wednesday from the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

    In the first quarter of the year, the IOM documented 441 deaths of migrants attempting to cross what the agency calls “the world’s most dangerous maritime crossing.” It’s the highest fatality count for a three-month period since the first quarter of 2017, when 742 deaths were recorded, according to IOM numbers. 

    Every year thousands of migrants, in sometimes rickety and overcrowded smuggler boats, attempt to reach Europe’s southern shores from North Africa. 

    Migration Italy
    A ship carrying some 700 migrants enters the Sicilian port of Catania on April 12, 2023. 

    Salvatore Cavalli / AP


    Last weekend, 3,000 migrants reached Italy, bringing the total number of migrant arrivals to Europe through the Central Mediterranean so far this year to 31,192, the IOM said. 

    The report seeks to serve as a wake-up call that food insecurity, the COVID-19 pandemic and violent conflicts worldwide have dramatically increased the movement of both migrants and refugees around the world.

    “The persisting humanitarian crisis in the Central Mediterranean is intolerable,” said IOM Director General António Vitorino in a statement. “With more than 20,000 deaths recorded on this route since 2014, I fear that these deaths have been normalized.”

    “States must respond,” Vitorino said, adding that delays and gaps in search and rescue operations “are costing human lives.”

    The IOM noted in its report that the number of recorded deaths was “likely an undercount of the true number of lives lost in the Central Mediterranean.” 

    “Saving lives at sea is a legal obligation for states,” the IOM chief said, adding that action was needed to dismantle the criminal smuggling networks “responsible for profiting from the desperation of migrants and refugees by facilitating dangerous journeys.” 

    The delays in government-led rescues on this route were a factor in hundreds of deaths, the report noted. 

    The report is part of the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, which documents the Central Mediterranean route taken by migrants from the North Africa and Turkish coasts, often departing Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria for Italy and Malta. Those nations serve as a transit point from all parts of the world, and have done so for many years. 

    Last November, Italy announced that it would close its ports to migrant ships run by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  

    The report noted a February shipwreck off Italy’s Calabrian coast in which at least 64 migrants died. 

    It also mentioned a boat carrying about 400 migrants that went adrift this past weekend, between Italy and Malta, before it was reached by the Italian Coast Guard after two days in distress. In a video posted to social media Wednesday, a spokesperson for Sea-Watch International, an NGO, criticized Malta for not assisting the ship, saying that Malta did not send a rescue ship “because they want to avoid” migrants “reaching their country.”

    “So far this year, Malta did not rescue any person in distress,” the spokesperson alleged.

    Italy, for its part, on Tuesday declared a state of emergency over the migrant crisis, pressing the European Union for help.  

    An attempted crackdown on smuggler ships has pushed migrants to take a longer and more dangerous Atlantic route to Europe from northwest Africa, resulting in what an Associated Press investigation dubbed “ghost boats” that have washed up with dead bodies, sometimes abandoned by their captains.

    “Every person searching for a better life deserves safety and dignity,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a former refugee chief, said in February when the death toll spiked. “We need safe, legal routes for migrants and refugees.”

    Pamela Falk


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    Pamela Falk is the CBS News correspondent covering the United Nations, and an international lawyer.

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  • U.N. to review presence in Afghanistan after Taliban bars Afghan women workers

    U.N. to review presence in Afghanistan after Taliban bars Afghan women workers

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    The United Nations said Tuesday it is reviewing its presence in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred Afghan women from working for the world organization — a veiled suggestion the U.N. could move to suspend its mission and operations in the embattled country.

    Last week, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers took a step further in the restrictive measures they have imposed on women and said that Afghan women employed with the U.N. mission could no longer report for work. They did not further comment on the ban.

    The U.N. said it cannot accept the decision, calling it an unparalleled violation of women’s rights. It was the latest in sweeping restrictions imposed by the Taliban since they seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops were withdrawing from the country after 20 years of war.

    The 3,300 Afghans employed by the U.N. — 2,700 men and 600 women — have stayed home since last Wednesday but continue to work and will be paid, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The U.N.’s 600-strong international staff, including 200 women, is not affected by the Taliban ban.

    The majority of aid distributed to Afghans is done through national and international non-governmental organizations, with the U.N. playing more of a monitoring role, and some assistance is continuing to be delivered, Dujarric said. There are some carve-outs for women staff, but the situation various province by province and is confusing.

    “What we’re hoping to achieve is to be able to fulfill our mandate to help more than 24 million Afghan men, women, and children who desperately need humanitarian help without violating basic international humanitarian principles,” Dujarric told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

    In a statement, the U.N. said it “will endeavor to continue lifesaving, time-critical humanitarian activities” but “will assess the scope, parameters and consequences of the ban, and pause activities where impeded.” 

    Regional political analyst Torek Farhadi told CBS News earlier this month that the ban on women working for the U.N. likely came straight from the Taliban’s supreme leader, who “wants to concentrate power and weaken elements of the Taliban which would want to get closer to the world community.”

    “This particular decision hurts the poor the most in Afghanistan; those who have no voice and have the most to lose.”

    The circumstances in Afghanistan have been called the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis, and three-quarters of those in need are women or children. Female aid workers have played a crucial role in reaching vulnerable, female-headed households.

    The Taliban have banned girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade and women from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan women from working at local and nongovernmental groups — a measure that at the time did not extend to U.N. offices.

    Tuesday’s statement by the U.N. said its head of mission in Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, has “initiated an operational review period” that would last until May 5.

    During this time, the U.N. will “conduct the necessary consultations, make required operational adjustments, and accelerate contingency planning for all possible outcomes,” the statement said.

    It also accused the Taliban of trying to force the U.N. into making an “appalling choice” between helping Afghans and standing by the norms and principles it is duty-bound to uphold.

    “It should be clear that any negative consequences of this crisis for the Afghan people will be the responsibility of the de facto authorities,” it warned.

    Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by the Taliban edict banning women from working at NGOs — and, now, also at the U.N.

    The U.N. described the measure as an extension of the already unacceptable Taliban restrictions that deliberately discriminate against women and undermine the ability of Afghans to access lifesaving and sustaining assistance and services.

    “The Taliban is placing medieval misogyny above humanitarian need,” the U.K.’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told diplomats last week after a closed Security Council meeting.

    –Ahmad Mukhtar and Pamela Falk contributed reporting.

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  • UN tells Afghan staff to stay home after Taliban bans women from working with the organization | CNN

    UN tells Afghan staff to stay home after Taliban bans women from working with the organization | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The United Nations has instructed all of its personnel in Afghanistan to stay away from its offices in the country, after the Taliban banned Afghan women from working with the organization.

    “UN national personnel – women and men – have been instructed not to report to UN offices, with only limited and calibrated exceptions made for critical tasks,” the organization said in a statement.

    It comes after Afghan men working for the UN in Kabul stayed home last week in solidarity with their female colleagues.

    The UN said the Taliban’s move was an extension of a previous ban, enforced last December, that prohibited Afghan women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations.

    The organization said the ban is “the latest in a series of discriminatory measures implemented by the Taliban de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan.”

    It will continue to “assess the scope, parameters and consequences of the ban, and pause activities where impeded,” the statement said, adding that the “matter will be under constant review.”

    Several female UN staff in the country had already experienced restrictions on their movements since the Taliban seized power in 2021, including harassment and detention.

    Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Special Representative, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, called the Taliban’s decision an “unparalleled violation of human rights” last week.

    “The lives of Afghanistan women are at stake,” he said, adding, “It is not possible to reach women without women.”

    The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, is engaging with the Taliban at the highest level to “seek an immediate reversal of the order,” the UN said last week.

    “In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization just because they are women. This decision represents an assault against women, the fundamental principles of the UN, and on international law,” Otunbayeva said.

    Other figures within the organization also condemned the move, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling it “utterly despicable.”

    After the Taliban banned female aid workers in December, at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups temporarily suspended their operations in Afghanistan – diminishing the already scarce resources available to a country in dire need of them.

    The Taliban’s return to power preceded a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsening issues that had long plagued the country. After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding – crippling an economy heavily dependent on overseas aid.

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  • Csaba Korosi: Can the UN be led by those urging peace, not war?

    Csaba Korosi: Can the UN be led by those urging peace, not war?

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    The United Nations General Assembly president discusses whether reform is required for the UN to make progress.

    The United Nations has faced criticism for decades over its effectiveness, especially its means to resolve conflicts and ease the suffering of the most vulnerable.

    Many argue that veto powers held by its Security Council permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, create an uneven balance of power.

    Delegates from 46 of the poorest nations have come together in Doha for the fifth conference of the UN’s least developed countries.

    But does the UN need to be reformed first, as critics say, to make progress?

    The UN General Assembly President, Csaba Korosi, talks to Al Jazeera.

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  • U.S. balks as Russian official under international arrest warrant claims Ukrainian kids kidnapped for their safety

    U.S. balks as Russian official under international arrest warrant claims Ukrainian kids kidnapped for their safety

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    United Nations – At an informal meeting boycotted by the U.S. and Britain’s ambassadors and labelled an abuse of Russia’s power as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council by over four dozen countries, Moscow’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights asserted Wednesday that Russia’s only motivation in removing children from Ukraine was to evacuate them from a dangerous war zone.

    Maria Lvova-Belova, who gave the briefing remotely, is among the Russian officials, along with President Vladimir Putin, for whom an international court issued arrest warrants last month over the alleged forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

    She told the Security Council members who did attend the meeting that there had been an “emergency character” to Russia’s actions, claiming it was necessary to “move these children from under shelling and move them to safe areas.”

    Her claims contrasted starkly with evidence the International Criminal Court has received about the forced removal of children and infants from Ukraine. CBS News correspondent Chris Livesay spoke with Ukrainian children last year who were among the thousands allegedly taken from their country into Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

    The boys CBS News met were rescued and had made their way back to Ukraine, but many others remain separated from their families. Livesay presented his report to the U.N. as it heard evidence.

    “If she wants to give an account of her actions, she can do so in the Hague,” the U.K. Mission to the U.N. said in a statement, adding that “their briefer, Maria Lvova-Belova, is subject to an international arrest warrant from the ICC for her alleged responsibility in the war crimes of unlawful deportation and unlawful transfer of these children.”

    U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters before the meeting that Washington was firmly opposed to “a woman who has been charged with war crimes, who has been involved in deporting and removal of children from their homes to Russia,” being given any platform to defend the actions.

    Russia convened the meeting just days after it took over the rotating monthly presidency of the Security Council.

    Ukraine and the U.S. had warned that handing Russia the gavel to chair the council, the U.N.’s most powerful body, would provide President Vladimir Putin’s regime a greater platform to spread disinformation at a pivotal moment in his war against civilians in Ukraine.

    “We strongly are opposed to that,” said Thomas-Greenfield. “And that’s why we’ve joined the U.K. in blocking UN WebTV from being used to allow her to have an international podium to spread disinformation and to try to defend her horrible actions that are taking place in Ukraine.”

    Thomas-Greenfield, who did not attend the meeting, said, “We will have an expert sitting in the chair who has been instructed to walk out when the briefer that we’ve objected to is speaking.”

    The ICC has received evidence that at least 6,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to camps and other facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied territory and subjected to pro-Russian re-education. They have in many cases been denied any contact with their families, according to a report from the Conflict Observatory, a research group that monitors alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

    Ukraine’s government puts the figure much higher, claiming to have documented 14,700 cases of children being deported, among some 100,000 who have been moved into Russia or Russian-occupied territory.

    The ICC said in a statement in March, when it announced an international arrest warrant for Putin, that the Russian leader was “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

    Russia’s U.N Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia complained about the U.S. and other nations boycotting the meeting on Wednesday, saying: “You know you’re not interested. Of course, it’s not very pleasant for you to hear this and compromise your narrative. You don’t need the truth.”

    Britain’s ambassador James Kariuki said the fact that Russia had invited someone to address the council who had been indicted by the ICC, “speaks for itself.”

    Pamela Falk


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    Pamela Falk is the CBS News correspondent covering the United Nations, and an international lawyer.

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