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A woman walks past makeshift shelters at a camp for the internally-displaced on the outskirts of Baidoa, in the South West State of Somalia, Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022. The World Food Programme said Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022 it is delivering life-saving food and nutrition assistance to over 4 million people a month to prevent famine in the face of the region’s worst drought in over 40 years. (Geneva Costopulos/WFP via AP)
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Some of the 19 bodies taken from a Tulsa cemetery and later reburied that could include remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre will be exhumed again starting Wednesday, part of a bid to gather more DNA for possible identification.
The latest exhumation of bodies, some of which were taken last year from Oaklawn Cemetery in the northeastern Oklahoma city will be followed by another excavation for additional remains.
“There were 14 of the 19 (bodies) that fit the criteria for further DNA analysis,” according to city spokesperson Michelle Brooks. “These are the ones that will be re-exhumed.”
The 14 sets of remains were sent to Intermountain Forensics in Salt Lake City, Utah, in an attempt to identify them. Brooks said two sets have enough DNA recovered to begin sequencing.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the 14 will be exhumed a second time, Brooks said.
The remains will be reburied at Oaklawn, where the previous reburial drew protests from about two dozen people who said they are descendants of massacre victims and should have been allowed to attend the ceremony, which was closed to the public.
Intermountain Forensics is seeking people who believe they are descendants of massacre victims to provide genetic material to help scientists when they begin trying to identify remains of possible victims.
The exhumations will be followed by another search for bodies in an area south and west of the areas previously excavated in 2020 and 2021.
None of the remains recovered thus far are confirmed as victims of the massacre in which more than 1,000 homes were burned, hundreds were looted and a thriving business district known as Black Wall Street was destroyed.
Historians who have studied the event estimate the death toll to be between 75 and 300.
Victims were never compensated, however a pending lawsuit seeks reparations for the three remaining known survivors of the violence.
The latest search is expected to end by Nov. 18.
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UNITED NATIONS — Syria is facing “acute violence,” the worst economic crisis since the war began in 2011, and a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak with more that 24,000 suspected cases reported throughout the country and at least 80 deaths, U.N. officials said Tuesday.
U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that the conflict remains “very active” across the country despite the “strategic stalemate” that has blocked efforts to launch a political process between the government and opposition.
He pointed to infighting between armed opposition groups in Afrin in northern Aleppo province in recent weeks, pro-government airstrikes in the northwest, violence in the northeast, security incidents in the southwest, airstrikes attributed to Israel on airports in Damascus and Aleppo, and discovery in the northeast of one of the largest Islamic State arms caches since its so-called caliphate fell in 2017.
In recent weeks, Pedersen said, the Syrian currency, the pound, “lost a tremendous amount of its value … which in turn saw food and fuel prices jump to even higher record prices.” And he warned the economic crisis “will only get worst for the vast majority” with winter approaching and additional funding needed urgently.
Reena Ghelani, director of operations for the U.N. humanitarian office, told the council that “communities in Syria are caught in the middle of a spiraling security, public health and economic crisis” that has left many “struggling to survive.”
She said the cholera outbreak is made worse by Syria’s severe water shortage, and compounded by insufficient and poorly distributed rainfall in many places, severe drought-like conditions, low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure.
“The crisis is likely to get even worse: The outlook from now to December suggests an increased probability for below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures,” Ghelani said. “If this materializes, it will further exacerbate an already dire water crisis.”
She said a three-month plan to respond to the cholera outbreak, coordinated by the U.N., needs $34.4 million to assist 5 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene needs and 162,000 with health services. The U.N. will make available about $10 million but “much more is needed,” she said.
The water scarcity has also impacted crops with the lowest wheat harvest since the war began as well as the livelihoods of farmers under threat, Ghelani said.
In addition, the rate of food insecurity “is spiraling out of control,” malnutrition rates are rising, and “Syrians today can afford only 15% of the food they were able to purchase three years ago,” she said.
With winter approaching in weeks, Ghelani said, the number of people across the country needing assistance to survive the cold has increased 30% from last year, including some 2 million in the northwest, mostly women and children living in camps with limited or no access to heating, electricity, water or sewage disposal.
Humanitarian organizations have launched winterization efforts, but the program is “grossly underfunded,” Grelani said, pointing to the sector that provides shelter, blankets, heating, fuel, winter clothes and other non-food items which is only 10% funded.
A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution and ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate.
At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed, and after eight rounds of talks little progress has been achieved so far.
U.N. envoy Pedersen said he continues “to work to unblock obstacles to reconvening the constitutional committee” and is pushing key parties “to engage on step-for-step confidence building measures to help advance” the road map.
Russia’s military support for Syria changed the trajectory of the Syrian conflict. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped up sanctions after President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky accused the West of supporting “terrorists” from al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who are trying to broaden their area of control beyond northwestern Idlib and accused the United States of encouraging “Kurdish separatism.”
Tensions in northern Syria between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed opposition gunmen.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood responded saying “the United States is in Syria for the sole purpose of enabling the ongoing campaign against ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s nuclear energy operator said Tuesday that Russian forces were performing secret work at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, activity that could shed light on Russia’s claims that the Ukrainian military is preparing a “provocation” involving a radioactive device.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made an unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was preparing to launch a so-called dirty bomb. Shoigu leveled the charge over the weekend in calls to his British, French, Turkish and U.S. counterparts. Britain, France and the United States rejected it out of hand as “transparently false.”
Ukraine also dismissed Moscow’s claim as an attempt to distract attention from the Kremlin’s own alleged plans to detonate a dirty bomb, which uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste in an effort to sow terror.
Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates the country’s four nuclear power plants, said Russian forces have carried out secret construction work over the last week at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine.
Russian officers controlling the area won’t give access to Ukrainian staff running the plant or monitors from the U.N.’s atomic energy watchdog that would allow them to see what the Russians are doing, Energoatom said Tuesday in a statement.
Energoatom said it “assumes” the Russians “are preparing a terrorist act using nuclear materials and radioactive waste stored at” the plant. It said there were 174 containers at the plant’s dry spent fuel storage facility, each of them containing 24 assemblies of spent nuclear fuel.
“Destruction of these containers as a result of explosion will lead to a radiation accident and radiation contamination of several hundred square kilometers (miles) of the adjacent territory,” the company said.
It called on the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess what was going on.
The U.N. Security Council held closed-door consultations Tuesday about the dirty-bomb allegations at Russia’s request.
Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia sent a five-page letter to council members before the meeting claiming that according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukraine’s Institute for Nuclear Research of the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv and Vostochniy Mining and Processing Plant “have received direct orders from (President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy’s regime to develop such a dirty bomb” and “the works are at their concluding stage.”
Nebenzia said the ministry also received word that this work “may be carried out with the support of the Western countries.” And he warned that the authorities in Kyiv and their Western backers “will bear full responsibility for all the consequences” of using a “dirty bomb,” which Russia will regard as “an act of nuclear terrorism.”
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky was asked by reporters after the council meeting what evidence Russia has that Zelenskyy gave orders to develop a “dirty bomb.” He replied, “it is intelligence information.”
“We shared it in our telephone conversation with counterparts who have the necessary level of clearance,” he said. “Those who wanted to understand that the threat is serious, they had all the possibilities to understand that. Those who want to reject it as Russian propaganda, they will do it anyway.”
Polyansky said the IAEA can send inspectors to investigate allegations of a “dirty bomb.”
Britain’s deputy U.N. ambassador James Kariuki told reporters after the meeting that “we’ve seen and heard no new evidence” and the U.K., France and the U.S. made clear “this is a transparently false allegation” and “pure Russian misinformation.” He said, “Ukraine has been clear it’s got nothing to hide” and “IAEA inspectors are on the way.”
In a related matter, Russia asked the Security Council to establish a commission to investigate its claims that the United States and Ukraine are violating the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons at laboratories in Ukraine.
Soon after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, its U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, claimed that secret American labs in Ukraine were engaged in biological warfare — a charge denied by the U.S. and Ukraine.
Russia has called a Security Council meeting Thursday on Ukraine’s biological laboratories and its allegations.
The Kremlin has insisted that its warning of a purported Ukrainian plan to use a dirty bomb should be taken seriously and criticized Western nations for shrugging it off.
The dismissal of Moscow’s warning is “unacceptable in view of the seriousness of the danger that we have talked about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Speaking during a conference call with reporters, Peskov added: “We again emphasize the grave danger posed by the plans hatched by the Ukrainians.”
At the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden was asked Tuesday if Russia is preparing to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon after making its claims that Ukraine will use a dirty bomb.
“I spent a lot of time today talking about that,” Biden told reporters.
The president was also asked whether the claims about a Ukrainian dirty bomb amounted to a false-flag operation.
“Let me just say, Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake if it were to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” Biden said. “I’m not guaranteeing you that it’s a false-flag operation yet … but it would be a serious, serious mistake.”
Dirty bombs don’t have the devastating destruction of a nuclear explosion but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin, facing military production delays and mounting losses, urged his government Tuesday to cut through bureaucracy to crank out enough weapons and supplies to feed the war in Ukraine, where a Western-armed Ukrainian counteroffensive has set back Russia’s forces.
In other developments, Ukrainian authorities asked citizens not to return home and further tax the country’s battered energy infrastructure, and Western countries mulled how to rebuild Ukraine when the war ends.
The Russian military’s shortfalls in the eight-month war have been so pronounced that Putin had to create a structure to try to address them. On Tuesday, he chaired a new committee designed to accelerate the production and delivery of weapons and supplies for Russian troops, stressing the need to “gain higher tempo in all areas.”
Russian news reports have acknowledged that many of those called up under a mobilization of 300,000 reservists Putin ordered haven’t been provided with basic equipment such as medical kits and flak jackets, and had to find their own. Other reports have suggested that Russian troops are increasingly forced to use old and sometimes unreliable equipment and that some of the newly mobilized troops are rushed to the war front with little training. Last week, Putin tried to show all is well by visiting a training site in Russia where he was shown well equipped soldiers.
To substitute for increasingly scarce Russian-made long-range precision weapons, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia was likely to use a large number of drones to try to penetrate Ukrainian air defenses. Russia’s “artillery ammunition is running low,” the British report said Tuesday.
The Institute for the Study of War, in Washington, added that “the slower tempo of Russian air, missile, and drone strikes possibly reflects decreasing missile and drone stockpiles and the strikes’ limited effectiveness of accomplishing Russian strategic military goals.”
The Russian military has still managed to inflict heavy damage and casualties, ruining homes, public buildings and Ukraine’s power grid. The World Bank estimates the damage to Ukraine so far at 350 billion euros ($345 billion).
Recent Russian attacks have focused largely on Ukraine’s energy facilities, especially electricity generation and transmission. Electricity shortfalls are so severe that Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk on Tuesday asked citizens living abroad not to return this winter to avoid placing further strain on the power supply.
“We need to survive the winter but, unfortunately, the (electricity) networks will not survive,” Vereshchuk said on Ukrainian television. “We understand that the situation will only get worse, and this winter we need to survive.”
In Berlin, European Union leaders brought together experts to work on a “new Marshall Plan” for rebuilding Ukraine — a reference to the U.S.-sponsored plan that helped revive Western European economies after World War II.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the meeting is addressing “how to ensure and how to sustain the financing of the recovery, reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine for years and decades to come.”
Scholz, who co-hosted the meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, said he’s looking for “nothing less than creating a new Marshall Plan for the 21st century — a generational task that must begin now.”
On the diplomatic front, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday that his country will continue to stand by Ukraine’s side in this war and support its people as long as it takes — by helping to rebuild the destroyed country and sending more weapons.
“Reconstruction is not waiting for the war to end. It must begin now,” the German president said, adding that “not only is Germany helping with the reconstruction, but we’re also helping Ukraine to prevent the brutal destruction, to make sure that the population is protected in the best possible way.”
He promised that Germany would help rebuild destroyed towns immediately and send two more MARS Medium Artillery Missile Systems and four type 2000 self-propelled howitzers.
On the battlefront, Russian missiles set a gas station on fire late Tuesday in the south-central city of Dnipro, killing at least two people and wounding at least three, Ukrainian news agencies reported.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, residents lined up for water and essential supplies Tuesday as Ukrainian forces advanced on the nearby Russian-occupied city of Kherson.
One of Moscow’s allies on Tuesday urged Russia to step up the pace and scale of Ukraine’s destruction.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the regional leader of Chechnya who has sent troops to fight in Ukraine, urged Moscow to wipe off the map entire cities in retaliation for Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s territory. Authorities in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine have repeatedly reported Ukrainian shelling that has damaged infrastructure and residential buildings.
“Our response has been too weak,” Kadyrov said on his messaging app channel. “If a shell flies into our region, entire cities must be wiped off the face of the Earth so that they don’t ever think that they can fire in our direction.”
Kyiv wants to step up the fight, but says it needs more war materiel.
“We need more weaponry, we need more ammunition to win this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told reporters in Berlin. He added: “We need tanks from our partners, from all of our partners; we need heavy armored vehicles, we need additional artillery units, howitzers.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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CAIRO — Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Sudan’s capital of Khartoum on Tuesday, marking the first anniversary of a military coup that upended the nation’s short-lived transition to democracy.
Videos published on social media showed marchers with flags and drums, most of them bound for the Presidential Palace. Other footage showed protesters standing in front of convoys of security forces.
Netblocks, an online network tracker, announced early Tuesday that internet services across the country were blocked. Various Sudanese pro-democracy activists and local journalists reported security forces fired tear gas at protesters and earlier closed off bridges leading into Khartoum. The Associated Press has been unable to verify these claims.
Since its takeover, the military has cracked down and suppressed near-weekly pro-democracy marches, with as many as 118 protesters killed, according to statistics published by the Sudan Doctors Committee.
Sudan’s top general, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and paramilitary deputy Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo were meant to oversee a democratic transition after Sudan’s autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir was toppled in a popular uprising in 2019.
But last year, Burhan dissolved the ruling Sovereign Council, arrested the transitional prime minister and unseated the civilian faction of a power-sharing government that had been in place. He later said he acted to stop a civil war.
Rights groups say hundreds have been detained since the military takeover, many without charge.
In recent weeks, internationally backed talks between Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the ruling military have made some progress.
According to The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change — an alliance of political parties and protest groups — the military has agreed on a draft constitutional document written by the country’s Bar Association. This would allow the appointment of a civilian prime minister who would lead the country through elections by 2024.
But Sudan’s more ardent pro-democracy groups, including the grassroots Resistance Committees who spearhead anti-coup street protests, reject any settlement with the military. Along with the Communist Party, they have demanded that those responsible for the year’s deadly crackdown on demonstrations be tried in court.
‘‘I have no trust in the army’s intentions, the new negotiation is just a new division of wealth and power” said Ammar Yahya, the spokesperson for a Khartoum branch of the Resistance Committees.
The coup has plunged Sudan’s already inflation-riddled economy into deeper peril. International aid has dried up while bread and fuel shortages, caused in part by the war in Ukraine, have become increasingly routine.
In a statement also marking the coup’s anniversary, the head of The U.S. Agency for International Development condemned the takeover but said she was ‘encouraged’ by the recent agreement over the Bar Association’s constitutional document.
‘‘I reiterate the call for the military to cede power back to civilian authorities,’’ Samantha Powell added.
The year has also seen a resurgence of deadly tribal clashes in the country’s neglected peripheries. Fierce clashes between the Hausa and Berta people last week killed at least 230 people in southern Blue Nile province.
Many analysts consider the rising violence in the south a product of the power vacuum caused by the military takeover, with the ruling generals’ clampdown focused on the center of power, Khartoum and the country’s heartland, while the peripheries descend into chaos.
Burhan and Dagalo have separately promised to step back from politics following the reinstatement of a civilian government. But amid the chaos, both have also sought to further their political influence.
Dagalo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, implicated in the killing of more than 100 sit-in protesters in June 2019 in Khartoum, have continued to expand across the country. Meanwhile, Burhan has overseen the reinstatement of dozens of civil servants sacked by the previous government for their association with al-Bashir’s circle.
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TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan won’t back down in the face of “aggressive threats” from China, the president of the self-governing island democracy Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday, comparing growing pressure from Beijing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tsai’s comments follow the conclusion of the twice-a-decade congress of China’s Communist Party at which it upped its long-standing threat to annex the island it considers its own territory by force if necessary.
The party added a line into its constitution on “resolutely opposing and deterring” Taiwan’s independence “resolutely implementing the policy of ‘one country, two systems,’” the formula by which it plans to govern the island in future.
The blueprint has already been put in place in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has seen its democratic system, civil liberties and judicial independence decimated.
Speaking to an international gathering of pro-democracy activists in Taipei, Tsai said democracies and liberal societies were facing the greatest host of challenges since the Cold War.
“Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is a prime example. It shows an authoritarian regime will do whatever it takes to achieve expansionism,” Tsai said.
“The people of Taiwan are all too familiar with such aggression. In recent years, Taiwan has been confronted by increasingly aggressive threats from China,” she said, listing military intimidation, cyber attacks and economic coercion among them.
The rising Chinese threat has spurred calls on Taiwan for additional defense investments and a lengthening of the term of national service required of all Taiwanese men.
“However, even under constant threats, the people of Taiwan have never shied away from the challenges” and have fought to work against authoritarian forces looking to undermine their democratic way of life, Tsai said.
Tsai was speaking at the opening ceremony of the World Movement for Democracy’s Steering Committee, which is chaired by 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war in 1949 and Taipei enjoys strong U.S. military and political support, despite the lack of formal military ties.
Despite having just 14 official diplomatic allies, Taiwan has drawn increasing backing from major nations, including Japan, Australia, the U.S., Canada and across Europe.
A recent visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged Beijing, which responded with military exercises seen as a rehearsal of a blockade of the island.
On Monday, Tsai met with a German parliamentary delegation focusing on human rights, who expressed concern about how Taiwan would handle threats from China.
“Taiwan is really facing military threats,” delegation head Peter Heidt said. “From Germany’s point of view, changes to the cross-strait status quo, if any, must be based on peaceful means. Also, these changes must be made after both sides have reached a consensus.”
Also on Tuesday, Taiwanese Premier You Si-kun was meeting with Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudik and Lithuanian politician Zygimantas Pavilionis. Taiwan has strongly condemned the Russian invasion and at least one Taiwanese citizen is reportedly fighting with Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian conflict has focused new attention on if and when China might launch military action against Taiwan, given that a solid majority of Taiwanese reject Beijing’s calls for “peaceful reunification.”
A full-scale invasion across the 160-kilometer (100-mile) -wide Taiwan Strait remains a daunting prospect for China despite its recent massive military expansion, especially in its naval and missile forces.
However, Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s securing of another five-year term in office has some observers speculating he may be looking to move up the schedule for bringing Taiwan under China’s control.
Among personnel changes at China’s congress that concluded Saturday, Gen. He Weidong was elevated to second vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. He was formerly head of the Eastern Theater Command, which would be primarily responsible for operations against Taiwan should hostilities break out.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
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WAVERLY, Ohio — An Ohio man convicted of shooting five of eight family members killed in a 2016 massacre testified Monday he had no choice but to kill the mother of his child.
Jake Wagner pleaded guilty last year to shooting the five victims, an attack that investigators said resulted from a custody dispute between two families.
As part of his plea deal, Jake Wagner had agreed to testify against his older brother, George Wagner IV, in exchange for being spared the death penalty.
George Wagner IV, whose trial has entered its eighth week in Pike County court, faces the death penalty if he’s convicted in the slayings of the Rhoden family near Piketon. George Wagner is the first person to go on trial for the killings.
Jake and George’s mother, Angela Wagner, also has pleaded guilty to helping plan the slayings, and is expected to testify. Jake and George’s father, George “Billy” Wagner III, has pleaded not guilty. He likely won’t go on trial until next year. The four members of the Wagner family were not arrested until more than two years after the slayings.
Special prosecutor Angela Canepa has not accused George Wagner, 31, of shooting anyone in April 2016, but she said he took part in planning, carrying out and covering up “one of the most heinous crimes in Ohio history.”
The two families had been close for years, but Canepa described the Wagners as being obsessed with gaining control over the child that Jake Wagner had with Hanna Rhoden.
The Wagner family had pressured Hanna Rhoden to sign away custody of the 3-year-old girl, but Hanna vowed in a Facebook message sent four months before the massacre that “they will have to kill me first,” Canepa has said.
Jake Wagner, who said he feared his daughter might suffer abuse, testified Monday that Hanna Rhoden’s comment was his “tipping point” when he decided Hanna, 19, had to die.
George Wagner was with his brother and his father when they drove to three separate locations where all eight victims were killed, went inside with the pair and helped his brother move two of the bodies, Canepa said previously.
Jake Wagner testified Monday that that was the tipping point that led him to conclude he had to kill Hanna, who was 19 at the time of her death. He said the other intended victims were Hanna’s brothers Frankie and Chris Rhoden and their father, Chris Rhoden Sr. The other four victims were killed because they could have been witnesses, Jake Wagner testified.
Jake Wagner also testified that George Wagner was supposed to kill Chris Rhoden Sr. but didn’t fire, so Jake Wagner shot Rhoden himself.
Defense attorney Richard Nash has said George Wagner is not like the rest of his family and had nothing to do with the killings.
The Wagners spent three months planning the massacre, buying masks, ammunition and a device to jam phone signals, Canepa said. The two brothers even dyed their hair in the week leading up to the killings, she said.
Several discoveries, Canepa said, led investigators to the Wagners including a shell casing found outside the Wagner’s home that matched one from a gun that killed five of the victims.
Those killed were 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr.; his ex-wife, 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; their three children, 20-year-old Clarence “Frankie” Rhoden, 16-year-old Christopher Jr., and Hanna; Clarence Rhoden’s fiancee, 20-year-old Hannah Gilley; Christopher Rhoden Sr.’s brother, 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; and a cousin, 38-year-old Gary Rhoden.
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N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chad’s interim leader Mahamat Idriss Deby on Monday said those who organized protests against his two-year extension of power have shown “the will to start a civil war,” marking his first speech since a violent crackdown on demonstrators left dozens of people dead across the country.
The speech broadcast live on national television and radio comes four days after witnesses said that security forces had fired live ammunition at protesters in the capital, N’Djamena, and in the country’s second-largest city, Moundou.
The opposition has said more than 70 demonstrators were killed, while a combined toll of 62 was given by the government spokesman and a morgue official. The unprecedented violence toward the demonstrators drew swift condemnation from abroad.
Deby, who has been in power since the April 2021 death of his father, defended the crackdown Monday night and blamed the deaths on those who had organized the antigovernment protests.
“These are not simple demonstrations that have been brought under control, but a real insurrection meticulously planned to create chaos in the country,” Deby said in his speech.
Human rights groups have said that the demonstrators were unarmed and that the use of force was disproportionate. However, Deby told Chadians that those who organized the protests “bear a heavy responsibility for the killings of October 20.”
“They recruited and used terrorist and paramilitary groups to carry out gratuitous mass murders,” he said.
“I will use all legal means at my disposal to prevent these plans that are harmful to our country,” he added.
Deby’s father, the late President Idriss Deby Itno, led Chad for more than three decades. He died after being attacked by rebels while visiting his troops on the frontlines in the north, officials said.
Last Thursday marked what was to be the end of Chad’s 18-month transition, but the government recently announced that Deby would stay in power for another two more years instead. Protests were held in five cities around the country Thursday.
“The fight we are waging is for justice and equality for the 17 million Chadians by breaking with this armed dynasty serving 3% of the people,” prominent opposition leader Succes Masra after the deadly protests, accusing the government of trying “to create civil war.”
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Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.
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PONTIAC, Mich. — A teenager pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism and first-degree murder in a Michigan school shooting that killed four students and may be called to testify against his parents, who’ve been jailed on manslaughter charges for their alleged role in the tragedy.
Ethan Crumbley, 16, pleaded guilty to all 24 charges, nearly a year after the attack at Oxford High School in southeastern Michigan. In the gallery, some relatives of the victims wept as assistant prosecutor Marc Keast described the crimes.
“Yes,” Crumbley replied, looking down and nodding in affirmation, when asked if he “knowingly, willfully and deliberately” chose to shoot other students.
The prosecutor’s office said no deals were made ahead of Monday’s plea. A first-degree murder conviction typically brings an automatic life prison sentence in Michigan, but teenagers are entitled to a hearing where their lawyer can argue for a shorter term and an opportunity for parole.
“We are not aware of any other case, anywhere, in the country where a mass shooter has been convicted of terrorism on state charges,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said.
The teenager withdrew his intent to pursue an insanity defense, and repeatedly acknowledged under questioning by Judge Kwame Rowe that he understands the potential penalties.
His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, are jailed on charges of involuntary manslaughter, accused of making the gun accessible to their son and ignoring his need for mental health treatment. Ethan Crumbley’s lawyer, Paulette Michel Loftin, said it’s possible he could be called upon to testify against them. She said they’re under a no-contact order, and he has not spoken to his parents.
Ethan Crumbley was 15 at the time of the shootings and had no discipline issues at the school, roughly 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Detroit, but his behavior earlier that day raised flags.
A teacher had discovered a drawing with a gun pointing at the words: “The thoughts won’t stop. Help me.” There was an image of a bullet with the message: “Blood everywhere.”
James and Jennifer Crumbley declined to take their son home on Nov. 30 but were told to get him into counseling within 48 hours, according to investigators.
Ethan Crumbley had brought a 9mm Sig Sauer handgun and 50 rounds of ammunition to school in his backpack that day. He went into a bathroom, pulled out the weapon and began shooting. Within minutes, deputies rushed in and he surrendered without resistance.
A day earlier, a teacher had seen Ethan Crumbley searching for ammunition on his phone. The school contacted Jennifer Crumbley, who told her son in a text message: “Lol. I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Parents have rarely been charged in school shootings, though the guns used commonly come from the home of a parent or close relative. Jennifer Crumbley referred to the gun on social media as a “Christmas present” for her son.
Ethan Crumbley admitted under questioning Monday that his own money was used to purchase the gun, which his father bought for him on Nov. 26, a few days before the shooting. He also said the gun was “not locked” in a container or safe the morning he took it to the school.
Sheriff Michael Bouchard told reporters Monday that Ethan Crumbley still had 18 rounds of ammunition when he was arrested.
“It’s my belief he would have fired every one of those had he not been interrupted by deputies going immediately in,” said Bouchard who also called Ethan Crumbley “a twisted and evil person.”
“I hope he gets life without parole,” the sheriff added. “He has permanently taken lives away from four lovely souls and he’s permanently affected many, many more.”
Prosecutors earlier this year disclosed that Ethan Crumbley had hallucinations about about demons and was fascinated by guns and Nazi propaganda.
“Put simply, they created an environment in which their son’s violent tendencies flourished. They were aware their son was troubled, and then they bought him a gun,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
His parents said they were unaware of their son’s plan to commit a school shooting. They also dispute that the gun was easy to grab at home.
Madisyn Baldwin, Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana and Justin Shilling were killed, while six students and a teacher were wounded. In addition to the counts of first-degree murder and terrorism causing death, Ethan Crumbley admitted guilt to seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony.
The judge set Feb. 9 for the start of hearings to determine if he’ll be sentenced to life without parole or get a shorter sentence due to his age, and a chance at release. His lawyers will be able to argue a variety of mitigating circumstances, including family life and mental health. Prosecutors didn’t signal in court if they will argue for a no-parole sentence.
Loftin said the teenager is remorseful: “He’s taking accountability for his actions,” she said. As for the victims, she said “I don’t think there are any words that could make them feel any better.”
Meghan Gregory, whose son, Keegan, was hiding in a school bathroom with Justin Shilling when Shilling was fatally shot, told reporters after the hearing that it was tough to see Crumbley for the first time in person.
She said her son did not want to attend, but did ask for a link to the livestream so he could watch the hearing from afar.
“He struggles with the thought of being in the same room,” Gregory said. “I mean, he was held hostage by him for almost six minutes.”
Detroit attorney Ven Johnson, who is suing the Oxford school district and the Crumbley family on behalf of several victims’ families, said Monday’s plea “is one small step forward on a long path towards obtaining full justice for our clients.”
“We will continue to fight until the truth is revealed about what went wrong leading up to this tragedy, and who, including Crumbley’s parents and multiple Oxford Community Schools employees, could have and should have prevented it,” Johnson’s statement said.
Wolf Mueller, another lawyer representing victims’ families, said it was “pretty incredible to hear” and “a stunning development” that Ethan Crumbley acknowledged he purchased the gun with his own money.
“It was cold-blooded what he did,” Mueller said. “And, while he may have been dealt a bad set of cards with the parents, it’s still a choice that he made to do the harm and bring the tragedy to Oxford.”
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Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.
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Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.
MOVIES
— In the new Netflix film “The Good Nurse,” Jessica Chastain plays an overworked ICU nurse and single mother who, after a patient’s death, starts to suspect things about about her new colleague Charlie, played by Eddie Redmayne. Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm directed the thriller, streaming on Wednesday, off of a script “1917” and “Last Night in Soho” screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns. For something more family friendly, Netflix also the stop-motion animation pic “Wendell & Wild,” featuring the voices of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as demon brothers. It’s an original idea from director Henry Selick, who also directed the spooky but kid-friendly classics “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline.” “Wendell & Wild” starts streaming on Oct. 28.
— For some fresh Halloween scares, several well-reviewed thrillers are hitting video on demand on Tuesday First up is “Pearl,” Ti West’s technicolor horror prequel starring Mia Goth as a farmgirl in a pandemic plagued Texas town in 1918 whose dreams of movie stardom drive her a bit mad. There are references to everything from “Singin’ in the Rain” to “The Wizard of Oz,” but with a sinister, murderous edge. Before the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival earlier this fall, West said, “I just had this interest in making, for lack of a better term, a children’s movie that has a more demented adult story to it.” Goth helped write the script too, which involves an epic monologue at the end done in almost a single take.
— Also coming to VOD on Tuesday is “Barbarian,” the low-budget indie horror starring Justin Long that became a sleeper hit at the box office. “Barbarian” stars Georgina Campbell as a woman who is inadvertently double booked with a stranger (“It’s” Bill Skarsgård) in a creepy Detroit-area Airbnb run by Long’s character, a TV actor facing sexual misconduct allegations. Writer-director Zach Cregger said he pitched the movie, which has an unconventional structure that essentially resets itself midway through, to every studio that’s made a horror in the last 15 years and everyone said no. To date, it’s made over $40 million against a $4 million production budget.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
MUSIC
— Breakout country artist of the year Lainey Wilson’s new studio album comes out Friday, featuring 14 tracks, all of which she co-wrote except one cover. Singles from “Bell Bottom Country” include the sweet first-love ditty “Watermelon Moonshine” and “Heart Like a Truck,” with the lyrics: “I got a heart like a truck/It’s been drug through the mud/Runs on dreams and gasoline.” Wilson is the winner of the Academy of Country Music’s New Female Artist of the Year Award in 2021 and won their coveted Song of the Year Award last year for her smash hit single, “Things a Man Oughta Know.”
— It’s time to celebrate Garbage. A new compilation called “Anthology” will be available on double transparent yellow vinyl and two CD editions, as well as through major online streaming platforms starting Friday. It’ll contain the hits “Stupid Girl,” “I Think I’m Paranoid,” “Why Do You Love Me” and “Only Happy When It Rains.” Among the 35 tracks is a rare recording called “Witness to Your Love.” Lead singer Shirley Manson teased the compilation, saying it is “testimony to almost three decades of creative work together, our collective tenacity and our terrifying ability as a group to withstand ritual humiliation on a regular basis.”
— It might be a tad early, but it’s always time for a Louis Armstrong Christmas album. While Satchmo’s holiday tunes are standard yuletide fare, he never released a Christmas album during his lifetime. Now, for the first time, “Louis Wishes You a Cool Yule” is being released digitally on Friday, followed by CD, red vinyl and a limited edition vinyl picture on Nov. 11 — marking his first-ever official Christmas album. The 11 tracks include “Cool Yule,” “Christmas Night in Harlem” and the swinging “’Zat You Santa Claus?” Fans of Armstrong can also check out the Apple TV + film “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” also dropping Friday, Oct. 28.
— “Till,” director Chinonye Chukwu’s fact-based account of Emmett Till’s mother’s quest for justice, was a powerful film, made that much more stirring by its score. The work by Abel Korzeniowski, who composed, orchestrated and conducted, is out Friday, and has stirring strings, dark pulses and thrilling sequences. Listen to “This Is My Boy” and try not to be moved. Korzeniowski says: “It is a tribute to those, who against all odds, and despite the world’s indifference to their plight, continue to preserve their humanity.”
— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy
TELEVISION
— Get in the Halloween mood with Netflix’s “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities,” an anthology produced by the Oscar-winning filmmaker with the aim of challenging “traditional” expectations of horror. The eight stories include “The Autopsy,” based on a Michael Shea short story and starring F. Murray Abraham, Glynn Turman and Luke Roberts; the H.P. Lovecraft-based “Dreams in the Witch House,” with Rupert Grint and Ismael Cruz Cordova, and “Lot 36,” one of two episodes based on an original story by del Toro and starring Tim Blake Nelson and Elpidia Carrillo. Episodes will be released daily in pairs from Tuesday to Friday.
— “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes,” debuting Tuesday, on PBS’ “Frontline” (check local listings), details the toll of Russia’s war on Ukraine and the challenges of holding Russia to account for its actions. The documentary is part of a collaboration between “Frontline” and The Associated Press that includes gathering, verifying and cataloging potential war crimes and co-publishing stories and videos from AP and “Frontline” war reporting. The joint initiative, which includes the War Crimes Watch Ukraine interactive experience, has documented more than 500 incidents involving potential war crimes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
— A gunman’s deadly attack on a house of worship, its causes and the aftermath are examined in HBO’s “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting,” debuting 9 p.m. EDT Wednesday. The film, directed by Trish Adlesic, delves into the 11 lives that were lost in the October 2018 tragedy and the effect on family members, survivors and the community at large. The attack also is viewed in the context of rising hate speech and actions. Michael Keaton, Billy Porter and Mark Cuban, the film’s prominent executive producers, are natives of the Pittsburgh area. An original song, “A Tree of Life,” is performed by Broadway and film star Idina Menzel.
— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber
VIDEO GAMES
— The venerable “Call of Duty” series returns Friday for its annual round of gun-happy chaos. This year’s chapter, “Modern Warfare II,” comes from Activision’s Infinity Ward studio, generally regarded as the publisher’s premier storyteller for rock-solid single-player campaigns. Special ops Task Force 141 is back on the prowl, this time fighting a terrorist network and a drug cartel that have teamed up on a scheme to launch stolen missiles at the United States. As usual, there are plenty of options for multiplayer mayhem, from competitive battles royale to cooperative raids. The game is available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox X/S, Xbox One and PC.
— “Bayonetta 3” brings Platinum Games’ flamboyant, demon-hunting witch — imagine a cross between Kim Kardashian and Tina Fey in full dominatrix gear — back to the Nintendo Switch on Friday. Longtime admirers might miss the original voice actress behind Bayonetta, who skipped this sequel due to a pay dispute and has called on her fans to boycott it. Still, devotees of Platinum’s brand of campy, high-octane hack-and-slash action won’t be able to resist the siren’s call, especially since this installment promises “a virtual coven of Bayonettas, each more fabulous than the last.”
— Lou Kesten
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Catch up on AP’s entertainment coverage here: https://apnews.com/apf-entertainment.
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Teen pleads guilty to 24 charges including terrorism and murder in Michigan school shooting that killed 4 students
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NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — A soldier killed during the Korean War has been laid to rest in his hometown in eastern Pennsylvania, while a second Korean War soldier also recently identified will be buried next month in another part of the state.
Edward Reiter dropped out of Northampton Area High School during his junior year and — with his father’s reluctant permission — enlisted in the Army, The (Allentown) Morning Call reported. Eight months later, still just 17, he disappeared on a battlefield in July 1950 in the first weeks of the Korean War.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced in August that unidentified remains from the war buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu were disinterred in 2019 and identified as his through analysis of dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA and other evidence.
“He’s never been forgotten,” the Rev. Patrick Lamb said during a eulogy Saturday at Queenship of Mary Catholic Church before Reiter was buried with military honors at Our Lady of Hungary Cemetery in Northampton, where his parents are interred.
About 20 family members attended the service, including Reiter’s sister, Rose Prickler, who held a memorial Mass for him at the church every year, the Morning Call reported. She was presented with her brother’s Purple Heart by a National Guard support specialist.
“I hope you will understand our total and profound appreciation,” consulate principal officer Daesup Chung told the family, which besides Prickler consisted of nieces and nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews. Another sister, Helen Templeton, was unable to attend and the rest of his siblings have passed on.
Also accounted for in August was U.S. Army Cpl. David N. Defibaugh, 18, of Duncansville, who went missing in action in July 1950, but the announcement was made only last week after his family received a full briefing on his identification. Defibaugh will be buried Nov. 4 in Altoona, authorities said.
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CAIRO — Two days of tribal fighting in Sudan’s south killed at least 220 people, a senior health official said Sunday, marking one the deadliest bouts of tribal violence in recent years. The unrest added to the woes of an African nation mired in civil conflict and political chaos.
Fighting in Blue Nile province, which borders Ethiopia and South Sudan, reignited earlier this month over a land dispute. It pits the Hausa tribe, with origins across West Africa, against the Berta people.
The tensions escalated Wednesday and Thursday in the town of Wad el-Mahi on the border with Ethiopia, according to Fath Arrahman Bakheit, the director general of the Health Ministry in Blue Nile.
He told The Associated Press that officials counted at least 220 dead as of Saturday night, adding the tally could be much higher since medical teams were not able to reach the epicenter of the fighting.
Bakheit said the first humanitarian and medical convoy managed to reach Was el-Mahi late Saturday to try to assess the situation, including counting “this huge number of bodies,” and the dozens of injured.
“In such clashes, everyone loses,” he said. “We hope it ends soon and never happens again. But we need strong political, security and civil interventions to achieve that goal.”
Footage from the scene, which corresponded to the AP’s reporting, showed burned houses and charred bodies. Others showed women and children fleeing on foot.
Many houses were burned down in the fighting, which displaced some 7,000 people to the city of Rusyaris. Others fled to neighboring provinces, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Overall, about 211,000 people have been displaced by tribal violence and other attacks across the country this year, it said.
Authorities ordered a nighttime curfew in Wad el-Mahi and deployed troops to the area. They also established a fact-finding committee to investigate the clashes, according to the state-run SUNA news agency.
The fighting between the two groups first erupted in mid-July, killing at least 149 people as of earlier October. It triggered violent protests and stoked tensions between the two tribes in Blue Nile and other provinces.
The latest fighting comes at a critical time for Sudan, just a few days before the first anniversary of a military coup that further plunged the country into turmoil. The coup derailed the country’s short-lived transition to democracy after nearly three decades of the repressive rule of Omar al-Bashir, who was removed in April 2019 by a popular uprising.
In recent weeks the military and the pro-democracy movement have engaged in talks to find a way out of the ongoing situation. The generals agreed to allow civilians to appoint a prime minister to lead the country through elections within 24 months, the pro-democracy movement said last week.
However, the violence in Blue Nile is likely to slow down such efforts. Protest groups, who reject the deal with the ruling generals, have been preparing for mass anti-military demonstrations called for Tuesday, the anniversary of the coup.
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CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine — In the last, brief conversations Viktoria Skliar had with her detained boyfriend, the Ukrainian prisoner of war was making tentative plans for life after his release in an upcoming exchange with Russia.
The next time Skliar saw Oleksii Kisilishin, he was dead — one of several bodies in a photo of people local authorities said were killed when blasts ripped through a prison in a part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
For months, Skliar had held out hope she would reunite with her partner, who had been one of the defenders of the Azovstal steel plant, the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the besieged city of Mariupol.
Now, she has retrained her focus on getting his body back. Against enormous odds, Ukraine has now received the remains of dozens of prisoners who were held at the prison in Olenivka. But with experts still needing months to identify all the bodies — and no guarantee Kisilishin is among them — Skliar’s quest is far from over.
That she even knows her boyfriend is dead is remarkable. She recognized his tattoos in a photo shared on social media following the July 29 blasts. It showed him laid out, semi-naked, on the ground in a line with eight other bodies.
“When I saw the photo, my eyes did not go beyond Oleksii’s body,” Skliar told The Associated Press. “I didn’t have time to cry. I cried all my tears when they were in Azovstal. My first thought was to get the body back somehow.”
Skliar said she contacted representatives with the International Committee of the Red Cross, told them about the photo and gave them his name in the hopes that they’d be able to arrange for him to be brought home. The humanitarian organization couldn’t tell her much — the group had to wait for official lists of prisoners and agreements from politicians before it could help repatriate any bodies.
While she waited for word, Skliar feared her loved one would end up in a mass grave.
Kisilishin, who died at 26, was called back to the Azov Regiment, part of the Ukrainian National Guard, where he’d served until 2016, two weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The animal caregiver and activist had chosen to return to defend his hometown of Mariupol, rather than stay in Kyiv, where he’d met Skliar at an equestrian club a year before.
When Kisilishin was holed up at the Azovstal steel mill during a three-month siege of the city, they spoke every day until Russian forces encircled the plant.
In May, he was captured when the last Azovstal defenders were told by Ukraine’s military to turn themselves over to Russian forces.
From captivity, Skliar continued to have phone calls from him, though they never lasted longer than a minute. Her boyfriend said little about himself, responding only “it’s OK” or “bearable” when she asked him how he was.
Then, Skliar said she received a call from Kisilishin — and his voice was cheerful. “He said that they will be taken somewhere. He hoped for an exchange,” she said.
She believes he was taken to Olenivka that day or soon after. Later, she said she heard from the Red Cross that he would be part of an upcoming prisoner exchange. But three weeks after that, he was dead.
Authorities at the prison and Russian officials have said 53 Ukrainian POWs died in the blasts and another 75 were wounded. On a list of the victims released by Moscow and published in Russian media, Kisilishin was number 43.
What exactly happened in Olenivka remains unknown.
Russia claims Ukraine’s military hit the prison with rockets. The Ukrainian military denied launching any strikes and accused Russia of mining it. Kyiv alleges that the Kremlin’s forces tortured prisoners held in Olenivka — and that the blasts were meant to cover up any evidence of those crimes.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights raised concerns recently about reports that prisoners in Olenivka and elsewhere were subjected to beatings, electrocution and other abuse.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Ukrainian allegations of what happened in Olenivka.
Russia and Ukraine agreed in August to a U.N. fact-finding mission, but U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said just over a week ago that the “appropriate security guarantees” were not in place for the work to start.
When other Ukrainian POWs returned in September, the photos showed emaciated but smiling faces. Skliar believes Kisilishin was supposed to be among them.
Instead, he probably returned to Ukraine in a bag labeled “Olenivka” — with 62 other bodies that were exchanged on Oct. 11. Relatives of soldiers have given DNA samples, and experts are now working to identify the remains, said the representative of the Patronage Service of the Azov Regiment, Natalia Bahrii.
It’s not clear why there were more than 60 bodies in the exchange, even though authorities put the death toll from the blasts at just over 50.
Kisilishin’s father, Oleksandr — who himself was captured as a POW and released — has given a sample.
To honor his son, the father, working with the NGO UAnimals, plans to arrange grants for animal shelters — continuing the work that Kisilishin devoted his life to.
The older Kisilishin and Skliar don’t talk much about their loved one. “We can’t have him back anyway,” Skliar recounted the father once said to her.
Still, Skliar hopes she will one day be able to bury him.
“He fought for the free people of a free country; he defended his city, Mariupol,” Viktoria said. “He is a warrior. And he has the right to be buried in the land he defended.”
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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KYIV, Ukraine — Russian-installed authorities in Ukraine told all residents of the city of Kherson to leave “immediately” Saturday ahead of an expected advance by Ukrainian troops waging a counteroffensive to recapture one of the first urban areas Russia took after invading the country.
In a post on the Telegram messaging service, the pro-Kremlin regional administration strongly urged civilians to use boat crossings over a major river to move deeper into Russian-held territory, citing a tense situation on the front and the threat of shelling and alleged plans for “terror attacks” by Kyiv.
Kherson has been in Russian hands since the early days of the nearly 8-month-long war in Ukraine. The city is the capital of a region of the same name, one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday.
On Friday, Ukrainian forces bombarded Russian positions across the province, targeting pro-Kremlin forces’ resupply routes across the Dnieper River and preparing for a final push to reclaim the city. Ukraine has retaken some villages in the region’s north since launching its counteroffensive in late August.
Russian-installed officials were reported as trying desperately to turn Kherson city — a prime objective for both sides because of its key industries and ports — into a fortress while attempting to relocate tens of thousands of residents.
The Kremlin poured as many as 2,000 draftees into the surrounding region to replenish losses and strengthen front-line units, according to the Ukrainian army’s general staff.
The wide Dnieper River figures as a major factor in the fighting, making it hard for Russia to supply its troops defending the city of Kherson and nearby areas on the west bank after relentless Ukrainian strikes rendered the main crossings unusable.
Taking control of Kherson has allowed Russia to resume fresh water supplies from the Dnieper to Crimea, which were cut by Ukraine after Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. A big hydroelectric power plant upstream from Kherson city is a key source of energy for the southern region. Ukraine and Russia accused each other of trying to blow it up to flood the mostly flat region.
Kherson’s Kremlin-backed authorities previously announced plans to evacuate all Russia-appointed officials and as many as 60,000 civilians across the river, in what local leader Vladimir Saldo said would be an “organized, gradual displacement.”
Another Russia-installed official estimated Saturday that around 25,000 people from across the region had made their way over the Dnieper. In a Telegram post, Kirill Stremousov claimed that civilians were relocating willingly.
“People are actively moving because today the priority is life. We do not drag anyone anywhere,” he said, adding that some residents could be waiting for the Ukrainian army to reclaim the city.
Ukrainian and Western officials have expressed concern about potential forced transfers of residents to Russia or Russian-occupied territory.
Ukrainian officials urged Kherson residents to resist attempts to relocate them, with one local official alleging that Moscow wanted to take civilians hostage and use them as human shields.
Elsewhere in the invaded country, hundreds of thousands of people in central and western Ukraine woke up on Saturday to power outages and periodic bursts of gunfire. In its latest war tactic, Russia has intensified strikes on power stations, water supply systems and other key infrastructure across the country.
Ukraine’s air force said in a statement Saturday that Russia had launched “a massive missile attack” targeting “critical infrastructure,” adding that it had downed 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from the air and sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said that Russian launched 36 missiles, most of which were shot down.
“Those treacherous blows on critically important facilities are characteristic tactics of terrorists,” Zelenskyy said. “The world can and must stop this terror.”
Air raid sirens blared across Ukraine twice by early afternoon, sending residents scurrying into shelters as Ukrainian air defense tried to shoot down explosive drones and incoming missiles.
“Several rockets” targeting Ukraine’s capital were shot down Saturday morning, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging service.
The president’s office said in its morning update that five suicide drones were downed in the central Cherkasy region southeast of Kyiv. Similar reports came from the governors of six western and central provinces, as well as of the southern Odesa region on the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s top diplomat said the day’s attacks proved Ukraine needed new Western-reinforced air defense systems “without a minute of delay.”
“Air defense saves lives,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said on Telegram that almost 1.4 million households lost power as a result of the strikes. He said some 672,000 homes in the western Khmelnytskyi region were affected and another 242,000 suffered outages in the Cherkasy region.
Most of the western city of Khmelnytskyi, which straddles the Bug River and had a pre-war population of 275,000, was left with no electricity, shortly after local media reported several loud explosions.
In a social media post on Saturday, the city council urged local residents to store water “in case it’s also gone within an hour.”
The mayor of Lutsk, a city of 215,000 in far western Ukraine, made a similar appeal, saying that power in the city was partially knocked out after Russian missiles slammed into local energy facilities and damaged one power plant beyond repair.
The central city of Uman, a key pilgrimage center for Hasidic Jews with about 100,000 residents before the war, also was plunged into darkness after a rocket hit a nearby power plant.
Ukraine’s state energy company, Ukrenergo, responded to the strikes by announcing that rolling blackouts would be imposed in Kyiv and 10 Ukrainian regions to stabilize the situation.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, the company accused Russia of attacking “energy facilities within the principal networks of the western regions of Ukraine.” It claimed the scale of destruction was comparable to the fallout earlier this month from Moscow’s first coordinated attack on the Ukrainian energy grid.
Both Ukrenergo and officials in Kyiv have urged Ukrainians to conserve energy. Earlier this week, Zelenskyy called on consumers to curb their power use between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and to avoid using energy-guzzling appliances such as electric heaters.
Zelenskyy said earlier in the week that 30% of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed since Russia launched the first wave of targeted infrastructure strikes on Oct. 10.
In a separate development, Russian officials said two people were killed and 12 others were wounded by Ukrainian shelling of the town of Shebekino in the Belgorod region near the border.
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Kozlowska reported from London.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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CONAKRY, Guinea — The government led by Guinea’s coup leader reached an agreement late Friday with West African regional mediators on a schedule for holding new elections a little over two years from now.
The regional bloc known as ECOWAS has spent more than a year negotiating with Col. Mamady Doumbouya’s government following the September 2021 coup and had imposed sanctions on the junta leadership. It was not immediately known how soon those might be lifted.
The junta initially proposed a three-year transition, which was rejected by the regional mediators who already had obtained two-year transition deals after similar coups in both Mali and Burkina Faso. Guinea’s two-year clock starts in January, with elections then due in early 2025.
For some, the news was bittersweet as demonstrations protesting the duration of the transition in Guinea have turned deadly, including three killed Thursday.
“It took more than 17 deaths to reach a consensus,” complained Aly Baldé, whose brother was shot dead in Conakry.
Guinea became the second country hit by a recent coup in West Africa, a little over a year after Mali’s military junta overthrew that country’s democratically elected ruler. Since then, Burkina Faso has seen two coups of its own.
Burkina Faso and Mali already have agreed with ECOWAS on election dates — Mali’s is scheduled to be held by March 2024, but the situation in Burkina Faso is now in doubt after the latest coup there.
A deal had been reached with the man who first toppled Burkina Faso’s president in January to hold a vote by July 2024. But it remains to be seen whether Capt. Ibrahim Traore, who seized power on Sept. 30, will fully honor that agreement.
ECOWAS has said that Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso will all remain suspended from the bloc until elections are held.
Beyond setting dates, ECOWAS also has expressed concerns about what shape the future elections will take and whether the coup leaders turned interim presidents will be allowed to run as candidates.
Earlier this month, Doumbouya reiterated that neither he nor any member of the junta or the transitional government would take part in the eventual elections now due by January 2025.
Doumbouya emerged as the leader after mutinous soldiers overthrew President Alpha Conde last year.
Conde had won a landmark 2010 election after decades of dictatorship and strongman rule in Guinea, only to eventually try to seek a third term in office. He claimed the country’s term limits did not apply to him. While he succeeded in winning a third term, he was overthrown nine months later.
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Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
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Today in History
Today is Saturday, Oct. 22, the 295th day of 2022. There are 70 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Oct. 22, 1962, in a nationally broadcast address, President John F. Kennedy revealed the presence of Soviet-built missile bases under construction in Cuba and announced a quarantine of all offensive military equipment being shipped to the Communist island nation.
On this date:
In 1836, Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.
In 1926, Ernest Hemingway’s first novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” was published by Scribner’s of New York.
In 1928, Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover spoke of the “American system of rugged individualism” in a speech at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
In 1934, bank robber Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd was shot to death by federal agents and local police at a farm near East Liverpool, Ohio.
In 1968, Apollo 7 returned safely from Earth orbit, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1979, the U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment — a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.
In 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization was decertified by the federal government for its strike the previous August.
In 1995, the largest gathering of world leaders in history marked the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
In 2001, a second Washington, D.C., postal worker, Joseph P. Curseen, died of inhalation anthrax.
In 2014, a gunman shot and killed a soldier standing guard at a war memorial in Ottawa, then stormed the Canadian Parliament before he was shot and killed by the usually ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.
In 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first pennant since 1945, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0 in Game 6 of the NL Championship Series. (The Cubs would go on to beat Cleveland in the World Series in seven games.)
In 2020, in the closing debate of the presidential campaign, President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden clashed over how to tame the raging coronavirus; Trump declared that the virus would “go away,” while Biden countered that the nation was heading toward a “dark winter.”
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate, held in Boca Raton, Florida, accusing him of “wrong and reckless leadership that is all over the map”; the Republican coolly responded, “Attacking me is not an agenda” for dealing with a dangerous world. An Italian court convicted seven experts of manslaughter for failing to adequately warn residents of the risk before an earthquake struck central Italy in 2009, killing more than 300 people. (The verdicts were later overturned.) American Indian activist Russell Means, 72, died in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Five years ago: The latest allegations of sexual harassment or assault in Hollywood targeted writer and director James Toback; the Los Angeles Times reported that he had been accused of sexual harassment by 38 women. U.S.-backed fighters in Syria captured the country’s largest oil field from the Islamic State group, marking a major advance against the extremists. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scored a major victory in national elections that decisively returned his ruling coalition to power.
One year ago: The Supreme Court allowed a Texas law banning most abortions to remain in effect while agreeing to hear arguments in the case. Florida businessman Lev Parnas, who helped Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, was convicted in New York of campaign finance crimes. Actor Peter Scolari, best known for his role on TV’s “Newhart,” died in New York at 66 after a two-year battle with cancer. Jay Black, front man for the 1960s rock band Jay and the Americans, died at 82.
Today’s Birthdays: Black Panthers co-founder Bobby Seale is 86. Actor Christopher Lloyd is 84. Actor Derek Jacobi is 84. Actor Tony Roberts is 83. Movie director Jan (yahn) de Bont is 79. Actor Catherine Deneuve is 79. Rock musician Eddie Brigati is 77. Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is 75. Actor Jeff Goldblum is 70. Rock musician Greg Hawkes is 70. Movie director Bill Condon is 67. Actor Luis Guzman is 66. Actor-writer-producer Todd Graff is 63. Rock musician Cris Kirkwood is 62. Actor-comedian Bob Odenkirk is 60. Olympic gold medal figure skater Brian Boitano is 59. Christian singer TobyMac is 58. Singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding (Wesley Stace) is 57. Actor Valeria Golino is 56. Comedian Carlos Mencia is 55. Country singer Shelby Lynne is 54. Reggae rapper Shaggy is 54. Movie director Spike Jonze is 53. Rapper Tracey Lee is 52. Actor Saffron Burrows is 50. Actor Carmen Ejogo is 49. Former MLB player Ichiro Suzuki (EE’-cheer-oh soo-ZOO’-kee) is 49. Actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson is 47. Christian rock singer-musician Jon Foreman (Switchfoot) is 46. Actor Michael Fishman is 41. Talk show host Michael Essany is 40. MLB infielder Robinson Canó is 40. Rock musician Rickard Goransson (Carolina Liar) is 39. Rock musician Zac Hanson (Hanson) is 37. Actor Corey Hawkins is 34. Actor Jonathan Lipnicki is 32. Actor Sofia Vassilieva (vas-ihl-lee-A’-vuh) is 30. Actor Elias Harger is 15.
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UNITED NATIONS — The United States and key Western allies accused Russia on Friday of using Iranian drones to attack civilians and power plants in Ukraine in violation of a 2015 U.N. Security Council resolution and international humanitarian law.
Russia countered by accusing Ukraine of attacking infrastructure and civilians for eight years in the eastern separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed earlier this year.
The U.S., France, Germany and Britain supported Ukraine’s call for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to send a team to investigate the origin of the drones.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the drones are Russian and warned that an investigation would violate the U.N. Charter and seriously affect relations between Russia and the United Nations.
U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis said that “the U.N. must investigate any violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions — and we must not allow Russia or others to impede or threaten the U.N. from carrying out its mandated responsibilities.”
The Western clash with Russia over attacks on civilians and infrastructure and the use of Iranian drones came at an open council meeting that also focused on the dire humanitarian situation in Ukraine as winter approaches. Almost 18 million people, more than 40% of Ukraine’s population, need humanitarian assistance, U.N. humanitarian coordinator Denise Brown says.
U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo expressed grave concern to the council that Russian missile and drone attacks between Oct. 10 and Oct. 18 in cities and towns across Ukraine killed at least 38 Ukrainian civilians, injured at least 117 and destroyed critical energy infrastructure, including power plants.
She cited the Ukrainian government’s announcement that 30% of the country’s energy facilities have been hit, most notably in the capital Kyiv and in the Dnipropetrovsk, Lviv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.
“Combined with soaring gas and coal prices, the deprivation caused by these attacks threatens to expose millions of civilians to extreme hardship and even life-endangering conditions this winter,” she said.
DiCarlo, the U.N. undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, said that “under international humanitarian law, attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited.” So are “attacks against military objectives that may be expected to cause harm to civilians that would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated,” she said.
Nebenzia claimed that high-precision missile strikes and Russian drones — not Iranian drones — hit a large number of military targets that included infrastructure in an effort to degrade Ukrainian military activities.
“Of course, this did not sit well with the West and they became hysterical, and this is what we’re witnessing loudly and clearly today at the meeting,” the Russian ambassador said.
He said the West doesn’t want “to face facts” and acknowledge that civilian infrastructure was hit only in cases where drones had to change course because of Ukrainian defense actions. He said Ukrainian air defenses also hit civilian sites because they missed incoming attacks.
In a letter to the Security Council on Wednesday, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya accused Iran of violating a Security Council ban on the transfer of drones capable of flying 300 kilometers (about 185 miles).
That provision was part of Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six key nations — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear activities and preventing the country from developing a nuclear weapon.
U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear agreement in 2018 and negotiations between the Biden administration and Iran for the United States to rejoin the deal have stalled.
Under the resolution, a conventional arms embargo on Iran was in place until October 2020. But restrictions on missiles and related technologies run until October 2023, and Western diplomats say that includes the export and purchase of advanced military systems such as drones, which are also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.
Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said Wednesday that he “categorically rejected unfounded and unsubstantiated claims that Iran has transferred UAVs for the use (in) the conflict in Ukraine.” He accused unnamed countries of trying to launch a disinformation campaign to “wrongly establish a link” with the U.N. resolution.
“Moreover, Iran is of the firm belief that none of its arms exports, including UAVs, to any country” violate Resolution 2231, he added.
France, Germany and Britain on Friday supported Ukraine’s accusation that Iranian has supplies drones to Russia in violation of the 2015 resolution and they are being used in attacks on civilians and power plants in Ukraine. They backed Kyiv’s call for a U.N. investigation.
The three European countries said in a joint letter to the 15 council members that reports in open sources suggest Iran intends to transfer more drones to Russia along with ballistic missiles.
Neither Iran nor Russia sought advance approval from the council for the transfer of Mohajer and Shahed UAVs and therefore “have violated resolution 2231,” the letter said.
The U.S. sent a similar letter, saying Iranian drones were transferred to Russia in late August and requesting the U.N. Secretariat team responsible for monitoring the resolution’s implementation to “conduct a technical and impartial investigation that assesses the type of UAV’s involved in these transfers.”
Nebenzia also sent a letter contending that DiCarlo is siding with the West on carrying out an investigation. His letter insists that “the U.N. Secretariat has no authority to conduct, or in any other form engage, in any `investigation’” related to Resolution 2231.
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DAMASCUS, Syria — Israel carried out an airstrike on the Syrian capital of Damascus and its southern suburbs late Friday, in the first such attack in more than a month, state media reported. There were no casualties in the strikes.
The Syrian military said later that several Israeli missiles were fired toward some military positions near Damascus. It saidt Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles, adding that there was only material losses.
Residents in the capital earlier said they heard at least three explosions.
Syrian state TV said Syrian air defenses responded to “an Israeli aggression in the airspace of Damascus and southern areas.”
The pro-government Sham FM radio station said the attacks were close to the Damascus International Airport south of the capital.
Friday’s strikes were the first since Sept. 17, when an Israeli attack on the Damascus International Airport and nearby military posts south of the Syrian capital killed five soldiers. That attack came days after an Israeli strike shit the main airport in the northern city of Aleppo.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, but rarely acknowledges or discusses such operations.
Israel has acknowledged, however, that it targets bases of Iran-allied militant groups, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.
The Israeli strikes comes amid a wider shadow war between the country and Iran. The attacks on the airports in Damascus and Aleppo are over fears it was being used to funnel Iranian weaponry into the country.
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