Tag: World News

Sweden’s Loreen could win Eurovision — for the second time

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LONDON (AP) — Loreen’s favorite moment of Eurovision comes as she’s rolled onstage, lying flat between two horizontal screens and sporting spiky jeweled nails, waiting for the music to start.

It’s a moment of calm, about 40 seconds, when the Swedish singer can look at the audience and connect with the crowd, she says. It’s also a stark contrast to the energetic performance that follows, one that has her tipped to come first at the Eurovision Song Contest — for a second time.

Loreen won in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Eurovision 2012 with “Euphoria” and now it’s looking like she could do the double and triumph again more than a decade later with “Tattoo.” If she does win it all, she’d only be the second person in Eurovision history to win twice — and it’s been 36 years since Johnny Logan pulled off that feat for Ireland.

Loreen has already made it through Tuesday’s semifinal to earn a place for Sweden in Saturday’s Grand Final in Liverpool. This time feels different, she says, with the nerves of not knowing what to expect gone.

“It’s like coming back to family. Everything is very familiar. And I also think that the experience that I’ve had these 11 years, like life — up, down, right, left, ding dong — has just taught me a lot,” she says, laughing. “This time feels more effortless, a more motherly energy going on.”

The 39-year-old singer has certainly been keeping an eye on the younger contestants, especially the more nervous performers, to help them feel more positive while bathed in the global spotlight of the competition.

Despite her success so far, Loreen initially turned down the opportunity to compete again, which disappointed the team around her and left her feeling flat. So she decided to consider the alternative.

“I could feel this little still of excitement in me and excitement outside of me. I’m like, My God, I know this rule. You follow the flow. You follow where it’s happiness and joy,” she says. “I’m like, universe, what are you trying to tell me man?”

The universe was right.

“Look at me now,” she adds. “I’m having the time of my life.”

With soaring vocals and an electronic beat, Loreen starts out her performance of “Tattoo” lying down. She slowly rises up, pushing the screen above her, until she’s standing fully, surrounded by images of intense weather, like she’s fought her way to the song’s finale.

There are also the nails. The sharp, jewel-encrusted nails she displays while dancing and gesturing with her hands. They are scattered around the surfaces of her hotel room in Liverpool.

“They’re very beautiful, and when the light hits them — that was the whole idea. These elements, stone, sand, air, mist, wind, sky, sun, the moon, rain,” Loreen explains.

Performance-wise, she says she’s learnt to conserve her energy for the climax of the track. It helps that the audience is joining in.

“The singing together, that was my whole vision in a way. That was what I envisioned in October and I’ve been working for six months, you know, wanting, hoping to connect with you guys through the music,” she says.

And despite being tipped to beat the other 25 acts, she’s not complacent about being favorite.

Loreen reckons that life taught her the hard way not to take anything for granted and to concentrate on the performance.

Even if she doesn’t come first, the song has already inspired fans to tattoo lyrics from “Tattoo” on themselves.

“I mean, that’s nice. But I don’t want them to tattoo that, my face, on there. Like no, don’t do that,” she laughs.

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For more coverage of Eurovision, visit https://apnews.com/hub/eurovision-song-contest

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May 12, 2023
ASEAN leaders to tackle regional crises at tropical resort

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LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia (AP) — A picturesque tourist destination will host crisis-weary Southeast Asian leaders with sun-splashed tropical islands, turquoise waters brimming with corals and manta rays, seafood feasts, and a hillside savannah crawling with Komodo dragons.

The sunshiny setting is a stark contrast to the seriousness of their agenda.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo picked the far-flung, rustic harbor town of Labuan Bajo as a laidback venue to discuss an agenda rife with contentious issues. These include the continuing bloody civil strife in Myanmar and the escalating territorial conflicts in the South China Sea between fellow leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The 10-nation regional bloc and its member states will meet for three days starting Tuesday, with the growing rivalry between the United States and China as a backdrop.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been reinforcing an arc of alliances in the Indo-Pacific region to better counter China over Taiwan and the long-seething territorial conflicts in the strategic South China Sea which involve four ASEAN members: Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Indonesia, this year’s ASEAN chair, has also confronted Chinese fishing fleets and coast guard that have strayed into what Jakarta says was its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone in the gas-rich Natuna Sea.

Widodo, who’s in his final year on the world stage as he reaches the end of his two-term limit, said ASEAN aims to collaborate with any country to solve problems through dialogue.

That includes Myanmar where, two years after the military power grab that forced out Aung San Suu Kyi’s administration and sparked a bloody civil strife, ASEAN has failed to rein in the violence in its member state. A five-point peace plan by ASEAN leaders and the top Myanmar general, which calls for an immediate stop to killings and other violence and the start of a national dialogue, has been disregarded by Myanmar’s ruling military.

ASEAN stopped inviting Myanmar’s military leaders to its semiannual summits and would only allow non-political representatives to attend. Myanmar has protested the move.

In an additional concern involving Myanmar, Indonesian officials said Sunday that 20 of their nationals, who were trafficked into Myanmar and forced to perform cyber scams, had been freed from Myanmar’s Myawaddy township and brought to the Thai border over the weekend. During the summit, ASEAN leaders planned to express their concern over such human trafficking schemes in a joint statement, a draft copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said her country, as ASEAN chair, has tackled the Myanmar crisis in a non-adversarial way.

“Colleagues certainly know that in the early stages of its leadership, Indonesia decided to take a non-megaphone diplomacy approach,” Marsudi said. “The aim is to provide space for the parties to build trust and for the parties to be more open in communicating.”

Widodo’s choice of a seaside venue with stunning sunrises and sunsets and the sound of birds chirping all day complements that approach.

The Indonesian leader also hoped the high-profile ASEAN summit would put Labuan Bajo and outlying islands, dotted with white-sand beaches and even a rare pink-sand beach, under the global tourism spotlight.

“This is a very good moment for us to host the ASEAN summit and showcase Labuan Bajo to the world,” said Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who flew in Sunday with his wife to a red-carpet welcome flanked by military honor guards and dancing villagers with flower-filled headwear.

But there are a few hitches.

The far-flung fishing town with only three traffic lights and about 6,000 residents is acutely short of hotels for ASEAN’s swarm of diplomats, delegates and journalists. Many had to arrange to share rooms.

Unlike the more popular Bali resort island or the bustling concrete jungle of a capital Jakarta, which has hosted international conclaves in upscale hotels and convention centers, Labuan Bajo is a far smaller town that a visitor could cross from end to end with a brisk two-hour walk. There are no public buses, and villagers mostly move around by walking, riding scooters or driving private cars.

A small team of local technicians with hard hats were flown in to lay cables and expand internet connections at the venues on short notice.

On Sunday, Labuan Bajo’s small airport was jampacked with visitors. Teams of diplomats and journalists arrived to welcome streamers announcing the upbeat summit motto, “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth.”

Outside the airport named after the Komodo dragons, traffic quickly built up under the brutal noontime sun.

When the sun rose Monday morning, workers were still cementing some roadsides around the venues — a day before the summit opening.

Andre Kurniawan, who works at a dive center in Labuan Bajo, said the infrastructure developments would be a boon for Labuan Bajo villagers. “We were isolated from some areas before and now they are open and the areas are getting better. I hope that Labuan Bajo can be a better tourist town in the future,” he said.

Azril Azahari, chair of an association of Indonesian academic experts on tourism, told the AP that Labuan Bajo was not ready and apparently was chosen to host the summit on short notice. “The hotel facilities and the lodging have become a problem. There is a ship being used for accommodation and it’s not a lodging ship,” he said.

Welcoming visitors to her coffee shop ahead of the summit, Suti Ana said even though it wasn’t the best time for Labuan Bajo to host, ASEAN would boost local businesses. “But we cannot wait, so this is the time,” she said.

Choosing the small port town was not a bad idea, Azril said, if it came with adequate planning and government investments in infrastructure.

Located on the western tip of Flores island in southern Indonesia, Labuan Bajo, aside from its beaches and diving and snorkeling spots, has been better known as the gateway to the Komodo National Park — a UNESCO World Heritage site and the only place in the world where Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards, are found in the wild.

Environmentalists and tourism analysts fear that a wider public interest could put further stress on the already endangered Komodo dragons. Only about 3,300 were known to exist as of 2022.

“If more people come, sooner or later the Komodo dragons cannot breed in peace, this can be a problem,” Azahari said, citing longstanding fears that the Komodos could face extinction without full protection.

Despite the odds, Indonesian officials said they would do everything to successfully and safely host the ASEAN summit in Labuan Bajo.

“If there’s any commotion along the way, that will be a big stain on the nation’s dignity,” Edistasius Endi, the regent of Labuan Najo’s West Manggarai district, said in a statement.

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Associated Press journalists Jim Gomez and Achmad Ibrahim contributed to this report.

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Find more of AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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May 12, 2023
Stragglers pack up as Swiss village is evacuated under rockslide threat

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BRIENZ, Switzerland (AP) — Stragglers packed up belongings in cars, trucks and a least one pickup truck before an evacuation order took effect on Friday in a tiny village in eastern Switzerland that is facing an urgent rockslide threat.

As geologists and other experts in fluorescent vests took measurements on Friday, villagers and vacationers bared their emotion that the centuries-old Alpine village of Brienz — home to under 100 residents — could be soon be subsumed under spilling rock.

Swiss authorities say about 2 million cubic meters of rock on an Alpine mountainside overhead could soon come crashing down.

Erosion over generations has left the bald-faced mountainside white, gray and orange with exposed rock and earth, and a few boulders have already made their way onto the edge of the village in the verdant valley. One sat menacingly next to a small wood cabin.

The rumble of shifting ground, the sporadic crackle of rocks colliding, and the remains of dead trees and dirt sliding down the mountain facade Friday brought an eerie sense of portent to the village and underscored the rising urgency for locals to get out of town by the 6 p.m. deadline set by authorities.

Earlier this week, authorities upgraded the alert status to “orange,” which meant residents had to evacuate but could also return during the day to pick up belongings, if conditions allowed.

By Friday evening, authorities had raised the alert to “red” — meaning that no returns would be allowed for the foreseeable future, said Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board in the town of Albula, which counts Brienz in its municipality.

One woman loaded up a pickup truck with a caged pet turtle, named Max, and other belongings as neighbors packed up cars and trucks, too. Barriers blocked off roads and a sign under a portable traffic light read: “Extreme danger of rockfall when red.”

A Zurich woman who has for years vacationed in the bucolic village stood back about 30 meters (100 feet) from a barrier on the edge of the village to look up worryingly at the mountainside.

Centuries-old Brienz straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubunden region, sitting southwest of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (3,800 feet).

The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, officials say. But on Tuesday, they said measurements indicated a “strong acceleration over a large area” in recent days, and “up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days.”

Gartmann said experts estimate a 60% chance the rock will fall in smaller chunks, which may not reach the village or the valley. The landslide could also move slowly. But there’s also a 10% chance that the rock mass may spill down, threatening lives, property and the village itself.

Glacier melt has affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia, but melting glaciers due to “man-made” climate change in recent decades wasn’t a factor, he said.

___

Jamey Keaten contributed from Geneva.

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May 12, 2023
Australia trade minister seeks to mend ties on visit to China

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BEIJING — Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell held meetings and visited businesses in Beijing on Friday, in a sign of progress in restoring a nearly decade-long rift in relations with China.

In Sydney, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday that the two sides need to “develop understanding and dialogue and I’ve said we’ll co-operate with China where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in a national interest.”

China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $287 billion in 2022. China recently resumed imports of Australian coal, cotton and copper, and Farrell has said on his visit he would push for a review of tariffs on Australian barley.

China blocked such imports in retaliation for moves targeting alleged Chinese interference in Australian elections and political life and in social organizations in the large Australian-Chinese community.

While trade ties seem to be improving, the two countries remain far apart on political and security issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

On his arrival Thursday, Farrell said he hoped his visit would “continue that process of stabilizing our relationship and work through a successful pathway for the resolution of all of our outstanding trade differences.”

“The issues didn’t occur overnight and they’re not going to be resolved overnight,” he said.

At a news conference late Friday, Farrell said he raised concern over the cases of Cheng Lei, a Chinese-born Australia journalist who formerly worked for China’s state broadcaster, and Yang Jun, a Chinese-Australian writer. Both are under detention in China with only vague accusations lodged against them and no word on when they might be tried or released.

In April, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said bilateral relations were unlikely to return to the level of the early 2000s, when trade was separated from political and strategic priorities.

Since then, Australia has expanded security cooperation with the United States, China’s main rival for influence in the Asia-Pacific.

Beijing has strongly criticized Australia’s participation in the so-called AUKUS partnership, which links it with the United States and Britain to create an Australian fleet of eight submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology, largely in response to China’s growing military assertiveness in the South China Sea, the South Pacific and the East China Sea.

Albanese will host U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan — countries with which China has active land and sea border disputes — for a May 24 summit of leaders of the so-called Quad nations.

Australia has also blocked the sale of assets, including critical infrastructure, to Chinese companies on national security grounds in recent years.

Farrell also said he would meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao following a commitment in February to improve dialogue “at all levels as a pathway towards the full resumption of trade.”

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May 12, 2023
Stragglers pack up as Swiss village is evacuated under rockslide threat

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BRIENZ, Switzerland — Stragglers packed up belongings in cars, trucks and a least one pickup truck before a looming deadline on Friday to evacuate a village in eastern Switzerland that is facing an urgent rockslide threat.

About 2 million cubic meters of rock on an Alpine mountainside overhead could soon come crashing down.

As geologists and other experts in fluorescent vests took measurements on Friday, villagers and vacationers bared their emotion that the centuries-old Alpine village of Brienz — home to under 100 residents — could be soon be subsumed under spilling rock.

The rumble of shifting ground and the sporadic crackle of a few rocks colliding and sliding down underscored the rising urgency for locals to get out of town by a 6 p.m. deadline set by Swiss authorities.

One woman loaded up a pickup truck with a caged turtle and other belongings as neighbors packed up cars and trucks too.

A Zurich woman who has for years vacationed in bucolic, calm Brienz, stood back about 30 meters (100 feet) from a last barrier on the edge of the village to look up worryingly at the mountainside. She asked not to be quoted by a reporter.

At a local town hall meeting on Tuesday, authorities ordered the evacuation and said people wouldn’t be allowed to remain overnight after Friday, though they could return from time to time starting Saturday, depending on the risk level.

The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubunden region, sitting southwest of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (3,800 feet).

The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, local officials say. But they issued a statement on Tuesday saying measurements indicated a “strong acceleration over a large area” in recent days, and “up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days.”

Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board in the town of Albula, which counts Brienz in its municipality, said experts estimate there’s a 60% chance that the rock will fall in smaller chunks, which may not reach the village or the valley. The landslide could also move slowly.

But there’s also a 10% chance that the 2-million-cubic meter mass may spill down, threatening lives, property and the village itself, he said.

Gartmann said that glacier melt had affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia, but melting glaciers due to “man-made” climate change in recent decades wasn’t a factor.

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May 12, 2023
Stragglers pack up as Swiss village is evacuated under rockslide threat

[ad_1]

BRIENZ, Switzerland — Stragglers packed up belongings in cars, trucks and a least one pickup truck before a looming deadline on Friday to evacuate a village in eastern Switzerland that is facing an urgent rockslide threat.

About 2 million cubic meters of rock on an Alpine mountainside overhead could soon come crashing down.

As geologists and other experts in fluorescent vests took measurements on Friday, villagers and vacationers bared their emotion that the centuries-old Alpine village of Brienz — home to under 100 residents — could be soon be subsumed under spilling rock.

The rumble of shifting ground and the sporadic crackle of a few rocks colliding and sliding down underscored the rising urgency for locals to get out of town by a 6 p.m. deadline set by Swiss authorities.

One woman loaded up a pickup truck with a caged turtle and other belongings as neighbors packed up cars and trucks too.

A Zurich woman who has for years vacationed in bucolic, calm Brienz, stood back about 30 meters (100 feet) from a last barrier on the edge of the village to look up worryingly at the mountainside. She asked not to be quoted by a reporter.

At a local town hall meeting on Tuesday, authorities ordered the evacuation and said people wouldn’t be allowed to remain overnight after Friday, though they could return from time to time starting Saturday, depending on the risk level.

The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubunden region, sitting southwest of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (3,800 feet).

The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, local officials say. But they issued a statement on Tuesday saying measurements indicated a “strong acceleration over a large area” in recent days, and “up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days.”

Christian Gartmann, a member of the crisis management board in the town of Albula, which counts Brienz in its municipality, said experts estimate there’s a 60% chance that the rock will fall in smaller chunks, which may not reach the village or the valley. The landslide could also move slowly.

But there’s also a 10% chance that the 2-million-cubic meter mass may spill down, threatening lives, property and the village itself, he said.

Gartmann said that glacier melt had affected the precariousness of the rocks over millennia, but melting glaciers due to “man-made” climate change in recent decades wasn’t a factor.

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May 12, 2023
Toyota: Data on more than 2 million vehicles in Japan were at risk in decade-long breach

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Toyota’s much-touted online service for its drivers had a data breach spanning over a decade, risking outside access to information on more than 2 million vehicles

ByYURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer

TOKYO — A decade-long data breach in Toyota’s much-touted online service put some information on more than 2 million vehicles at risk, the Japanese automaker said Friday.

Spanning from January 2012 to April 2023, the problem with Toyota’s cloud-based Connected service pertains only to vehicles in Japan, said spokesperson Hideaki Homma.

The Connected service reminds owners to get maintenance checks and links to streaming entertainment and provides help during emergencies. It can call for help after a crash or locate a car that’s been stolen.

No issues arising from the breach have been reported so far.

Although there is no evidence any information was leaked, copied or misused due to the breach, the data at risk includes: the vehicle identification number, which is separate from the license plate; the location of the vehicle and at what time it was there; and video footage taken by the vehicle, known as the “drive recorder” in Japan.

Such information cannot be used to identify individual owners, according to Toyota Motor Corp., which makes the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models.

Vehicles belonging to about 2.15 million people have been affected, including those who used net services called G-Link, G-Book and Connected.

Toyota’s Connected service in Japan is operated by a subsidiary. Until recently, no one noticed outside access to such information should have been turned off, Homma said.

“We are so sorry to have caused such trouble to all the people,” he said.

The problem is a major embarrassment for Japan’s top automaker, which has built a reputation for quality and attention to detail.

Automakers worldwide are competing to differentiate model offerings with the latest technology to lure buyers.

The problem with the system has been fixed, Homma said, so it’s safe to continue driving Connect-enabled vehicles as usual, and there is no need to bring them in for repairs.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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May 12, 2023
Toyota: Data on more than 2 million vehicles in Japan were at risk in decade-long breach

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Toyota’s much-touted online service for its drivers had a data breach spanning over a decade, risking outside access to information on more than 2 million vehicles

ByYURI KAGEYAMA AP Business Writer

TOKYO — A decade-long data breach in Toyota’s much-touted online service put some information on more than 2 million vehicles at risk, the Japanese automaker said Friday.

Spanning from January 2012 to April 2023, the problem with Toyota’s cloud-based Connected service pertains only to vehicles in Japan, said spokesperson Hideaki Homma.

The Connected service reminds owners to get maintenance checks and links to streaming entertainment and provides help during emergencies. It can call for help after a crash or locate a car that’s been stolen.

No issues arising from the breach have been reported so far.

Although there is no evidence any information was leaked, copied or misused due to the breach, the data at risk includes: the vehicle identification number, which is separate from the license plate; the location of the vehicle and at what time it was there; and video footage taken by the vehicle, known as the “drive recorder” in Japan.

Such information cannot be used to identify individual owners, according to Toyota Motor Corp., which makes the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models.

Vehicles belonging to about 2.15 million people have been affected, including those who used net services called G-Link, G-Book and Connected.

Toyota’s Connected service in Japan is operated by a subsidiary. Until recently, no one noticed outside access to such information should have been turned off, Homma said.

“We are so sorry to have caused such trouble to all the people,” he said.

The problem is a major embarrassment for Japan’s top automaker, which has built a reputation for quality and attention to detail.

Automakers worldwide are competing to differentiate model offerings with the latest technology to lure buyers.

The problem with the system has been fixed, Homma said, so it’s safe to continue driving Connect-enabled vehicles as usual, and there is no need to bring them in for repairs.

___

Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama

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May 12, 2023
Israeli airstrikes, Palestinian rockets continue even as hopes for a cease-fire grow

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The most violent confrontation in months between Israel and Palestinian militants continued for a third straight day on Friday, as Israeli warplanes struck targets in the Gaza Strip and militants fired more rockets at Israel.

There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side Friday, as foreign mediators pressed ahead with efforts to reach a cease-fire. The past few days of fighting have killed 31 Palestinians in Gaza and a 70-year-old man in central Israel.

The Israeli military said its warplanes struck Islamic Jihad rocket launchers. Gaza residents reported explosions in farms near the southern city of Rafah. A burst of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip sent air raid sirens wailing near Israel’s southern border Friday, breaking a 12-hour lull that had raised hopes that Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations could soon be able to broker a cease-fire.

The cross-border exchanges this week have pitted Israel against Islamic Jihad, the second-largest militant group in Gaza after the territory’s Hamas rulers. Since Tuesday, Israel says its strikes have killed five senior Islamic Jihad figures. Islamic Jihad has retaliated with over 800 rockets fire toward densely populated parts of Israel. In that time, Israel’s military said it has used airstrikes to hit at least 215 targets in Gaza, including rocket and mortar launch sites and militants preparing to use them.

Israeli bombs and shells have destroyed 47 housing units, and damaged 19 so badly they were uninhabitable, leaving 165 Palestinians homeless, Gaza’s housing ministry reported. In addition, nearly 300 homes sustained some damage.

Palestinians on Friday surveyed the wreckage wrought by the fighting.

“The dream that we built for our children, for our sons, has ended,” said Belal Bashir, a Palestinian living in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whose family home was reduced to a heap of rubble in an airstrike late Thursday. He and his family would have been killed in the thundering explosion if they hadn’t ran outside when they heard shouting, he said.

“We were shocked that our house was targeted,” he added as he pulled his young children’s dolls and blankets from a bomb crater.

At least 31 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed in the fighting, including seven children and four women, according to the U.N. humanitarian office. At least three of the children were killed by misfired Palestinian rockets, according to the Israeli military and the Palestinian Center for Rights. Over 90 Palestinians have been wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.

The civilians deaths have drawn condemnation from the Arab world and concern from the United States and Europe. In its past four wars against Hamas, Israel has repeatedly faced accusations of war crimes due to the high civilian death tolls and its use of heavy weapons against the crowded enclave. Israel, in turn, contends that Palestinian militant groups use civilians as human shields by fighting in their midst.

Hamas, the de facto civilian government with an army of some 30,000 in Gaza, has sought to maintain its truce with Israel while attempting to keep abysmal living conditions in the blockaded enclave from spiraling since a devastating 11-day war in 2021 that killed over 260 Palestinians. The group, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, has sat out this round of fighting — as it did a similar burst of violence last summer. In a sign of restraint, Israel has limited its airstrikes to Islamic Jihad targets.

Both sides had seemed on the brink of a cease-fire before the eruption of Thursday’s violence. Friday’s relative calm boosted hopes of progress.

Hamas officials told local media that Egypt was ramping up its diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting through “intensive contacts” with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Islamic Jihad figures have sent mixed signals about the cease-fire talks. Senior official Ihsan Attaya complained early Friday that the mediators “have been unable to provide us with any guarantees.” A sticking point has been Islamic Jihad’s demands that Israel cease its policy of targeted killings, Attaya said.

Islamic Jihad political bureau member Mohamad al-Hindi sounded more optimistic. From Cairo, where he traveled Thursday to hash out the details of a possible truce, he told media that he hoped both sides “would reach a cease-fire agreement and honor it today.”

This week’s battles began when Israel launched, on Tuesday, simultaneous airstrikes that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders along with some of their wives and children as they slept in their homes. Israel said it was retaliating for a barrage of rocket fire launched last week by Islamic Jihad following the death of one of its West Bank members, Khader Adnan, from a hunger strike while in Israeli custody.

The airstrikes and rockets have shifted the focus of conflict back to Gaza after months of surging violence in the occupied West Bank under Israel’s most right-wing government in history.

Israel has been carrying out near-nightly arrest raids in the West Bank that have killed 109 Palestinians so far this year — the highest such death toll in two decades. At least half of the dead are affiliated with militant groups, according to a tally by The Associated Press. At least 20 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis during that time.

___

DeBre reported from Jerusalem

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May 12, 2023
Zelenskyy barred from addressing ‘nonpolitical’ Eurovision Song Contest

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The Eurovision Song Contest has barred President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from addressing the final of the pan-continental music competition

LIVERPOOL, England — This weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest will have Ukrainian flags, Ukrainian musicians and Ukrainian fans — but not the country’s wartime leader.

Organizers rejected a request from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a video address to the final of the pan-continental music competition on Saturday. He was expected to urge the world continue its support for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian invasion.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision, said that letting Zelenskyy participate would breach “the nonpolitical nature of the event.”

Zelenskyy’s request “to address the audience at the Eurovision Song Contest, whilst made with laudable intentions, regrettably cannot be granted by the European Broadcasting Union management as it would be against the rules of the event,” the organization said.

Founded in 1956 to help heal a continent shattered by war, Eurovision strives to keep pop and politics separate. Overtly political lyrics, signs and symbols are banned.

But politics can’t be shut out entirely. Russia was banned from the contest after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Belarus had been kicked out the previous year over its government’s clampdown on dissent.

Last year’s contest was won by Ukraine, and the U.K. has stepped in to host on its behalf.

Acts from 26 countries will compete in Saturday’s live final at the Liverpool Arena, which will be co-hosted by Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina. It will feature a performance by last year’s Eurovision winner, Kalush Orchestra, and other Ukrainian performers, and images of Ukraine will be shown before each act performs.

“We believe that this is the best way to reflect and celebrate Ukraine’s Eurovision Song Contest win and show we are united by music during these hard times,” the broadcasting union said.

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May 12, 2023
AP Week in Pictures: Europe and Africa

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May 5-11, 2023

From the war in Ukraine and Russia’s celebration of Victory Day, to people fleeing fighting in Sudan and the coronation of U.K. King Charles III in London, this gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Europe and Africa.

The selection was curated by AP photographer Gregorio Borgia in Rome.

Follow AP visual journalism:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

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May 12, 2023
Greece’s prime minister tells AP he will extend ‘hand of friendship’ to rival Turkey if reelected

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Greece’s prime minister tells AP he will extend ‘hand of friendship’ to rival Turkey if reelected

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May 12, 2023
Japan, South Korea eye visit by team of experts as Fukushima nuclear plant prepares water release

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Officials from Japan and South Korea eyed a potential visit by South Korean experts to the Fukushima nuclear plant before it begins the controversial release of treated but radioactive water to sea. It’s one of their major sticking points between the two sides that are quickly thawing long-strained ties.

Discussions were to take place later Friday, and the Japanese government was expected to give updates on the status of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which is preparing for a release of the water, saying it’s an unavoidable step to move its decommissioning process forward.

The government and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, say the release will begin between spring and summer and take decades to finish.

A massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt and release large amounts of radiation. Water used to cool the three damaged reactor cores, which remain highly radioactive, leaked into the basements of the reactor buildings and was collected, treated and stored in about 1,000 tanks that now cover much of the plant.

The government and TEPCO say the tanks must be removed so that facilities can be built for the plant’s decommissioning, while minimizing risks of leaks in case of another major disaster. The tanks are expected to reach their capacity of 1.37 million tons in spring 2024.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, during his May 7-8 visit to Seoul for a summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, announced that Japan will receive a team of experts to visit the plant later in May to address South Korea’s concerns in a show of his enthusiasm to further improve relations.

Seoul wants to send some 20 government experts to visit Fukushima Daiichi plant May 23-24, although the group’s size would be determined after talks with Japan, according to South Korean officials. Japan was reluctant to accept private experts, saying it’s a government-to-government matter.

Japan is expected to give them a tour — not a safety inspection — of the plant.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Thursday the visit would not affect the timing of a planned release of the water and that Japan continues to give explanation about safety measures to gain understanding.

Japanese officials say the water will be safely filtered to below releasable levels by international standards and further diluted by large amounts of seawater before release, making it unharmful to human health or to marine life.

The plan has faced fierce protests from local fishing communities that are concerned about safety and reputational damage. Neighboring countries, including South Korea, China and the Pacific Island nations, have also raised safety concerns.

Some scientists say the impact of long-term, low-dose exposure to tritium and other radionuclides on the environment and humans is still unknown and the release should be delayed.

Japan has been assisted by the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure credibility and transparency.

Historical disputes have strained ties between Tokyo and Seoul — most recently over compensation of wartime Korean forced laborers during Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula. But their relationship has thawed rapidly since March, when Yoon’s government announced a local fund to compensate some of the former laborers. Tokyo and Seoul, under pressure from Washington, share a sense of urgency to mend ties amid growing security threats in the region.

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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

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May 11, 2023
Australian trade minister visits China as part of joint efforts to repair ties

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Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell is visiting China as part of a joint effort to repair ties scarred by political rifts over the past decade

BEIJING — Australian Trade and Tourism Minister Don Farrell visited China on Thursday as part of a joint effort to repair ties scarred by political rifts over the past decade.

In a statement issued by his office, Farrell said he would be “advocating strongly for the full resumption of unimpeded Australian exports to China.”

China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, with two-way exchanges totaling $287 billion in 2022. China recently resumed imports of coal, cotton and copper from Australia after a lengthy unannounced trade embargo.

Farrell said he would push for a review of tariffs on Australian barley and represent “the interests of Australian exporters and producers.”

China blocked such exports in retaliation for government actions targeting Beijing’s alleged interference in Australian elections, civic life and the large Australian-Chinese community.

Despite improvements in economic relations, ties between the two remain tense.

In April, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said bilateral relations were unlikely to return to the level of the early 2000s, when trade was separated from political and strategic priorities.

Since then, Australia has expanded security cooperation with the United States, China’s main rival for influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Beijing has strongly criticized Australia’s participation in the so-called AUKUS partnership, linking it with the United States and Britain to create an Australian fleet of eight submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology, largely in response to China’s growing military assertiveness in the South China Sea, the South Pacific and the East China Sea.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will host U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of India and Japan — countries with which China maintains active border disputes — for a May 24 summit of leaders of the so-called Quad nations.

Australia has also blocked the sale of assets, including critical infrastructure, to Chinese companies on national security grounds in recent years.

Farrell said he would meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao following a commitment in February to improve dialogue “at all levels as a pathway towards the full resumption of trade.”

“Since then, the Australian Government is pleased there have been several positive trade developments,” his office quoted him as saying.

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May 11, 2023
New fighting kills 2 Palestinian militant commanders, elderly man in Israel as Egypt pushes truce

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed two militant commanders Thursday, while a 70-year-old man was killed by Palestinian rocket fire in the first fatality inside Israel amid the current wave of fighting. The continuing bloodshed, which has left 30 Palestinians dead, came despite Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire.

It has been the worst bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza in months, with at least 10 civilians — mostly women and children — among the dead. The conflagration, now in its fourth day, comes at a time of soaring tensions and spiking violence over the past year in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian militants launched unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel throughout the day. One rocket struck an apartment block in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, killing a 70-year-old man, the MADA rescue service said. It said four others were moderately wounded.

Earlier Thursday, Israeli military pressed ahead with its strikes against the Islamic Jihad militant group and said a senior commander in charge of the group’s rocket launching force, Ali Ghali, was killed when his apartment was hit.

Later in the day, Israel said it killed another Islamic Jihad commander who was meant to replace Ghali in southern Gaza. Islamic Jihad confirmed the man, Ahmed Abu Daqqa, was one of its commanders.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said at total of 30 people had have been killed since the fighting erupted. An Associated Press tally showed that among the dead were 14 militants, including at least five Islamic Jihad commanders; 10 civilians; and six others, including four who Israel says were killed in failed rocket launches, whose affiliation remained uncertain.

Late Thursday, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said its preliminary investigations indicated that three Palestinians, including two children aged 8 and 16, died when “homemade rockets had fallen short” inside Gaza in three incidents. It said 26 other people were wounded in these cases.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Israeli Army Radio that two other militants were also killed in the early morning strike, although no group immediately claimed them as members, and that the rest of the building remained intact.

“The apartment was targeted in a very precise way,” Hagari said. “I hope this leads to a reduction, a blow and a disruption of the Islamic Jihad rocket abilities.”

The strikes targeted the top floor of a building in a residential, Qatari-built complex in southern Gaza Strip. The pre-dawn airstrike in the city of Khan Younis caused damage to three surrounding buildings. The complex, known as Hamad City, consists of several tall buildings and thousands of housing units. The strike created panic among residents, with falling debris and shattered glass littering the streets.

“My children started crying. I did not see anything because of the dust, broken glasses, and debris,” said Abdullah Hemaid, who lives across from the targeted building.

Islamic Jihad said Ghali was a commander in charge of its rocket squad and a member of its armed group’s decision-making body. The group has said it will only cease fire if Israel agrees to halt targeted killings of its fighters.

The current round of fighting erupted overnight Tuesday when Israel killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders in near-simultaneous airstrikes.

On Wednesday, a state-run Egyptian TV station announced that Egypt, a frequent mediator between the sides, had brokered a cease-fire. But with the violence continuing late Thursday, there was still no breakthrough.

The Israeli military says that in its strikes on some 150 targets, it has zeroed in on militants with what it says are precision strikes. But children, among them a 4-year-old, were also killed.

Hagari, the military spokesman, told Army Radio that a quarter of the rockets launched have fallen in Gaza, killing at least four, including a 10-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds and a 51-year-old man. That claim could not immediately be independently confirmed.

Efforts to mediate a cease-fire were still underway Thursday with top Islamic Jihad political bureau member Mohamad al-Hindi arriving to Cairo to discuss details. A delegation of Egyptian mediators also was traveling to Israel, according to Israeli press reports.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that “despite our strenuous efforts, these efforts still have not yielded the desired fruits and results.”

Israeli officials declined to comment.

The initial Israeli airstrikes set off a burst of rocket fire on Wednesday that triggered air-raid sirens throughout southern and central Israel.

The military said more than 500 rockets have been fired toward Israel. It said most were intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system or fell in open areas.

Damage was reported when rockets slammed into buildings that were empty because residents had fled the area. Three buildings in the southern town of Sderot were struck Thursday, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel says the airstrikes are a response to a barrage of rocket fire launched last week by Islamic Jihad in response to the death of one of its West Bank members from a hunger strike while in Israeli custody.

Israel has come under international criticism for the high civilian toll. In past conflicts, rights groups have accused Israel of committing war crimes due to high civilian deaths. Israel says it does its utmost to avoid civilian casualties and holds militant groups responsible because they operate in heavily populated residential areas. It also says militants fire rockets indiscriminately at Israeli communities.

Hagari said Israel does its best to avoid harming civilians and that under international norms, there was a “proportionate ratio” of combatants to noncombatants among the dead in Gaza.

In signs that both sides were trying to show restraint, Israel has avoided attacks on the ruling Hamas militant group, targeting only the smaller and more militant Islamic Jihad. Hamas, which has much more to lose than Islamic Jihad, also has remained on the sidelines.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and numerous smaller engagements since the Islamic militant group took control of Gaza in 2007.

The army said that schools would remain closed and restrictions on large gatherings would remain in place in southern Israel until at least Friday. Residents were instructed to stay near bomb shelters.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, where Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the past year, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 30-year-old man died after he was shot by Israeli troops in a raid on Wednesday, and that a 66-year-old Palestinian man died after he was shot during a gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants in a refugee camp near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Thursday.

The Israeli army said it has arrested 25 suspected Islamic Jihad members in West Bank raids in recent days.

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Ben Zion reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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May 11, 2023
Mexico arrests 2 more in March kidnap, killing of Americans

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MEXICO CITY — Prosecutors in Mexico said Thursday they have arrested two more men in the March 3 kidnapping of four Americans and the killing of two of them.

The Gulf drug cartel turned over five men to police soon after the abduction in the border city of Matamoros, and prosecutors said the two newly arrested suspects also appeared to be members of the same cartel.

The two were arrested during raids in the northern border state of Tamaulipas on Sunday and flown to Mexico City on a military plane. It was not immediately clear why the arrests were not announced at the time.

Federal prosecutors did not provide the full names of the suspects, but the details and first names match two men listed on a federal database as being arrested in Tamaulipas that day. Those names — Axel Alfredo Cárdenas and Alan Alexis Cárdenas — suggest they are related to Osiel Cárdenas Guillen, the Gulf cartel leader captured in 2003.

Prosecutors confirmed the two were sons of Osiel Cardenas’ nephew, José Alfredo Cárdenas Martínez, who was arrested in 2022. They also said the pair assumed leadership roles in the cartel following their father’s arrest.

The two allegedly headed up the gangs of cartel gunmen known as the Scorpions and the Cyclones. They were caught in an early morning raid in which police found six guns and over a thousand doses of “synthetic drugs,” a term used in Mexico to refer to either methamphetamines or fentanyl.

The statement did not specify the charges the men would face, but it said they had been engaged in drug and migrant smuggling, kidnappings and extortion in the Matamoros area.

In March, less than a week after the abductions, a letter claiming to be from the Gulf cartel’s Scorpions faction condemned the violence and said the gang had turned over to authorities its own members who were responsible. A Mexican woman also died in the March 3 shootings.

“We have decided to turn over those who were directly involved and responsible in the events, who at all times acted under their own decision-making and lack of discipline,” the letter reads, adding that those individuals had gone against the cartel’s rules, which include “respecting the life and well-being of the innocent.”

Five men were found tied up inside one of the vehicles that authorities had been searching for, along with the letter.

The four Americans crossed into Matamoros from Texas so that one of them could have cosmetic surgery. Around midday, they were fired on in downtown Matamoros and then loaded into a pickup truck.

Americans Zindell Brown and Shaeed Woodard died in the attack; Eric Williams and Latavia McGee survived. Most of them had grown up together in the small town of Lake City, South Carolina.

A Mexican woman, Areli Pablo Servando, 33, was also killed, apparently by a stray bullet.

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May 11, 2023
US Abrams tanks for training Ukrainian forces arrive in Germany ahead of schedule

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Abrams tanks needed for training Ukrainian forces have arrived in Germany slightly ahead of schedule and are on their way to the Grafenwoehr Army base where the training will begin in two to three weeks, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that the U.S. had moved “a number of tanks over into theater” so the Ukrainians could begin training on them. By the time they complete the training, expected to last about 10 weeks, the Abrams tanks currently being built for the Ukrainian forces will be ready, he said.

A U.S. official said the 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks needed for the training arrived at the port in Bremerhaven, Germany, last weekend and they will get to the base by early this coming week. Their arrival at Grafenwoehr is a couple of weeks ahead of the schedule that was mapped out when military leaders from around Europe and elsewhere met in Germany last month to discuss Ukraine‘s needs for the war against Russia.

The tanks the U.S. is providing Ukraine are being built to its military’s specifications and will get to Ukraine by early fall, just as the troops are finished with their instruction. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of the delivery not publicly released.

The tank training will be the latest and most lethal new layer of combat instruction the U.S. is providing Ukraine’s troops to give them the best chance to overwhelm and punch through Russia’s battle lines. Over the past few months U.S. troops have trained more than 8,800 Ukrainians, including on how to use Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles and M109 Paladins together on the battlefield. The Bradleys and Strykers are armored and armed vehicles used to ferry troops, and the Paladin is a self-propelled howitzer gun.

During Thursday’s hearing, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, pressed Austin to move quickly to get the tanks into Ukrainian troops’ hands and onto the battlefield.

“We are doing everything possible to accelerate the delivery of these tanks, and early fall is a projection,” Austin said.

Collins and others noted the urgency of the fight in Ukraine, and she told Austin and Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to be blunt about Ukraine’s needs. Defense leaders should not let budget concerns dissuade them from seeking more weapons if that’s what Kyiv needs to be successful in a counteroffensive, said Collins, the ranking Republican on the panel.

“It is critical that the administration provide Ukraine with what it needs in time to defend and take back its sovereign territory,” she said. “We expect the administration not to wait until the 11th hour if the Ukrainians seek more before the end of the fiscal year.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., noting the broader implications of the war, questioned Milley on the impact a Russian victory could have on China and its deliberations on whether to move to take the self-governing island of Taiwan, which Beijing claims.

“I think that the Chinese are watching the war between Russia and Ukraine very carefully,” Milley said, adding that if Russian President Vladimir Putin succeeds, “China will learn certain lessons.”

“It may not be the single decisive point, but I think it will calculate into their decision-making process as to whether or not they attack to seize the island of Taiwan. So I think the outcome of Ukraine is critical to much broader issues than just Ukraine,” Milley said.

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May 11, 2023
What is Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Gaza militant group now fighting Israel?

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JERUSALEM — The cycle has become grimly familiar.

Over three days, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed at least 28 people, including senior Palestinian militants, as well as children as young as 4 years old. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired over 600 rockets toward Israel, killing one person, setting off warning sirens as far north as the coastal city of Tel Aviv and sending tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters.

The most violent conflagration in months between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza has pitted the Israeli military against Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second-largest militant group after Hamas.

But Hamas, the militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, has sat this one out. As it tries to rein in its conflict with Israel and improve the miserable quality of life for the 2 million Palestinians under its control, Hamas has let the smaller Islamic Jihad group take the lead, as it did in a similar round of fighting last summer.

Here’s a look at the group that has been exchanging blows with Israel:

WHAT IS PALESTINIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD?

Like the larger and stronger Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad was formed in the 1980s as a radical Islamist movement to resist Israel’s occupation of Gaza.

The founder, Fathi Shikaki, a Palestinian inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran, sought to attract Palestinian nationalists disillusioned by secularism and Islamists disillusioned with what they saw as moderation by the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood movement, said Erik Skare, an expert on the group at the University of Oslo.

After the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s and early 90s, the Palestinian Liberation Organization began peace talks with Israel that led to the formation of the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad rejected the idea of peace talks and instead remained sworn to Israel’s destruction. Badly weakened in Israel’s brutal crackdown in the first uprising, Islamic Jihad later resurged during the second Palestinian uprising in 2000-5, as it orchestrated suicide bombings in Tel Aviv night clubs and other brazen attacks.

Rather than engage in Palestinian elections or concern itself with social welfare as Hamas has done, Islamic Jihad has kept a singular focus on fighting Israel. The group also maintains a presence in the occupied West Bank, where its militants have attacked Israeli civilians and battled soldiers as violence in the territory surges to heights unseen in two decades.

WHO SUPPORTS ISLAMIC JIHAD?

Iran, the archenemy of Israel in the Middle East, heavily funds Islamic Jihad. Over the years, Iran has sent rockets, anti-tank weapons and mortar shells to Islamic Jihad and Hamas, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency assesses. Some parts have been smuggled through tunnels along Gaza’s southern border and other weapons are locally produced.

Hamas ruptured relations with Iran over its support for President Bashar Assad in the devastating Syrian civil war. Although it has begun to repair those ties, it also has worked to improve relations with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states. Islamic Jihad, meanwhile, has cultivated closer ties with Iran.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD?

Although Hamas and Islamic Jihad have the shared goal of fighting Israel, key differences have stirred tensions. Islamic Jihad — focused solely on military confrontations — has the most to gain from violence with Israel, while Hamas, as the de facto civilian government, increasingly has the most to lose. In the past, escalations between Israel and the Islamic Jihad have dragged in Hamas, jeopardizing its cash flow from ally Qatar, cutting off supplies to the territory and decimating public services and vital infrastructure. An 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021 killed over 260 Palestinians and devastated the territory.

Sensitive to public opinion, the ruling militant group has sought to keep a lid on conflict with Israel that could spark popular anger, cost thousands of Gazans permits to work inside Israel, and deepen the fatigue of a population that already has suffered four bloody wars and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAMAS AND ISLAMIC JIHAD IN THIS CONFLICT?

To preserve its reputation as the main Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas has professed support for its heavily armed and rebellious rival through an umbrella group known as the “joint operations room.” But behind the scenes, experts say Hamas is conveying a very different message.

“Publicly, Hamas has to support Islamic Jihad. But it’s also telling them, there are red lines you can’t cross so we avoid a major escalation,” said Skare. “(Hamas) is urging Islamic Jihad to show restraint.”

WHAT IS DRIVING ISLAMIC JIHAD THIS TIME?

In a surprise attack Tuesday, Israeli warplanes killed three top Islamic Jihad commanders along with wives of two of them and some of their children as they slept in their homes. The Israeli military alleged the commanders were were involved in launching rockets against Israel last week in response to the death of a prominent hunger-striking Islamic Jihad leader in Israeli prison. Experts say the group’s retaliation signals its own sensitivity to Palestinian public opinion.

“If Islamic Jihad didn’t respond by throwing hundreds of rockets at Israel it would lose its strength and meaning as a political party,” said Reham Ouda, an independent Gaza-based political analyst.

WHAT DOES ISRAEL HOPE TO GAIN?

The Israeli military described its targeted killings of Islamic Jihad commanders earlier this week as an effort to eliminate a dangerous wild card from the territory. Israel alleged one had been trying to establish a rocket-manufacturing operation in the West Bank. Soon after its first strikes, Israel declared its mission accomplished and has been careful not to attack Hamas sites in the ensuing exchange of fire. Involving Hamas would significantly escalate the conflict, increasing the likelihood of Israeli casualties and pushing up the Palestinian death toll. That could intensify international scrutiny of the country’s military — already accused of possible war crimes in previous Gaza wars.

There may also be political considerations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing one of the gravest national crises in Israeli history over his coalition’s plans to overhaul the judiciary. The proposal has triggered mass weekly protests and escalated tensions with foreign allies. After weeks in which it seemed Netanyahu’s popularity was plunging, the bombardment of Gaza has united the country against a common threat and appeared to put the seasoned leader back in control.

But even if this violence offers Israel a brief respite from its social turmoil, it won’t alter the fundamental dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After a few weeks or months of quiet, the bloody cycle will likely begin again.

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May 11, 2023
Norway takes over presidency of Arctic Council from Russia

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway took over the Arctic Council’s rotating presidency from Russia on Thursday amid concerns that the work of the eight-country intergovernmental body on protecting the sensitive environment is at risk because of suspension of cooperation with Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

In March 2022, seven western members of the Arctic Council which doesn’t deal with security issues but makes binding agreements on environmental protection and gives a voice to the Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region, suspended their participation in the intergovernmental body in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a month earlier.

The countries — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the United States — said that they wouldn’t send representatives to the council’s meetings in Russia — the world’s largest Arctic state — although they remained convinced of the value of Arctic cooperation.

Research involving Russia, ranging from climate work to mapping polar bears, has been put on hold, and scientists have lost access to important facilities in the Russian Arctic.

The Arctic Council, which covers an area home to more than 4 million people, is one of the only places where Russia sits at the same table as Western countries.

During Russia’s two-year chairmanship, the Arctic Council faced the greatest threat to its existence since it was created in 1996.

That could have implications for the Arctic environment, with melting sea ice and the interest of non-Arctic countries in the vast region’s mostly untapped mineral resources. The region also could see new naval passageways and new opportunities for trade, as travel time for ships between Asia and the West could be noticeably slashed.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen recently said that the council was “limping along a bit. But there is really no alternative.”

“It is a huge challenge for Norway. They have to isolate Russia and at the same time they have to make sure not to provoke Russia to dissolve the Council,” said Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen, of the Arctic University of Norway in Tromsoe.

And on top of the member states, six organizations representing Arctic Indigenous peoples have status as permanent participants.

Gjedssø Bertelsen feared that Indigenous peoples might “lose an important forum and a prominent platform,” adding that many of the groups are cross-border organizations and don’t follow national borders.

Several countries like France, Germany, China, Japan, India and Korea attend the meetings of the Arctic Council as observers, meaning international politics is another challenge for Norway’s presidency, he told The Associated Press.

A security policy expert on polar regions, Dwayne Ryan Menezes, warned that with Norway taking over, the forum’s problems won’t go away.

The Scandinavian country ”clearly recognizes the challenges that lie ahead, especially with respect to the future of Arctic cooperation through the Arctic Council at a time when cooperation with Russia is still suspended,” he said.

“But it will make it possible for the majority of member states to have a close working relationship with the chair once again, which will aid the forum’s work of promoting cooperation and coordination,” he said.

“Norway will continue to focus on the core issues the Council deals with, including the impacts of climate change, sustainable development and efforts to enhance the well-being of people living in the region,” Huitfeldt said.

She vowed “to resume its important work during Norway’s period as chair. Together with the other member states, we will now explore how this can be achieved in practice.”

Formally, the 13th meeting of the Arctic Council was held in Salekhard, Russia, but unlike in 2021, when the Icelandic foreign minister handed over a wooden hammer to Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov as Iceland passed on the chairmanship baton, Thursday’s attendees were the participating countries’ Arctic ambassadors — not foreign ministers — who met in an online event.

That meeting issued a statement “recognizing the historic and unique role of the Arctic Council for constructive cooperation, stability and dialogue between people in the Arctic region.” But there was no mention of Ukraine.

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May 11, 2023
For turning ‘mines to vines,’ founder of Roots of Peace wins World Food Prize

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DES MOINES, Iowa — A California peace activist who has worked to remove land mines from war-torn regions and replace them with grape vines, fruit trees and vegetables was named the 2023 World Food Prize laureate Thursday at a ceremony in Washington.

The Des Moines, Iowa-based foundation awarded its annual prize to Heidi Kühn, founder of Roots of Peace. Since founding her nonprofit in the basement of her San Rafael, California, home in 1997, Kühn’s organization has helped remove thousands of mines and assist farmers in more than a half-dozen countries. The group recently signed an initial agreement to begin work in Ukraine.

Kühn, 65, said she formed the idea of starting her group after hosting an event at her home for dignitaries advocating for the eradication of land mines.

“Looking back on it, perhaps it was a vision of turning blood into wine, killing fields into vineyards and hatred into love,” Kühn said in an interview last week.

Kühn was named the winner of the prize, which carries a $250,000 award, at an event featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and Terry Branstad, the World Food Prize Foundation president and former U.S. ambassador to China. Kühn, who was visiting minefields in Azerbaijan when the award was announced, will be formally given the prize at an event in October in Des Moines.

“Her work shows the world the vital role that agriculture must have in the resilient recovery from conflict to restoration of peace,” Branstad said during the announcement. “For making her mission to turn mines to vines, I am so pleased to announce that the 2023 World Food Prize laureate is Heidi Kühn.”

Kühn said she created her nonprofit after becoming sick with cancer at age 30 while heading a TV production company and raising three children, ages 1, 3 and 5.

“My little prayer was, ‘Dear God, grant me the gift of life and I will do something special with it,’” said Kühn, who survived the cancer and had another child.

After learning about the world’s estimated 60 million land mines, and in part inspired by Princess Diana’s efforts to ban the explosives, Kühn said she met with vintners in California’s Napa Valley and began a fledgling effort that has steadily grown over the decades.

Roots of Peace started in Croatia and then went on to establish programs in Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Israel, Iraq, Palestinian areas, and Vietnam.

Besides lining up crews to remove mines, Roots of Peace completes market assessments to help determine how farmers can make a living off the newly cleared land. In Vietnam, for example, the group helped plant more than a million pepper trees that resulted in a harvest of high-grade pepper that is now sent to the U.S.

While her organization has become established with funding from a variety of government and private sources, Kühn said, her transition from raising four young children to heading an international mine-clearing organization still can seem strange, even to her.

“It is rather bizarre to be raising four kids, and then their mother is going off to a mind field,” Kühn said. “It is unusual.”

Norman Borlaug, an Iowa native who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work to alleviate hunger through wheat research and other efforts, established the World Food Prize in 1986. The award has been given to 52 people in honor of their achievements in improving the quality, quantity and availability of the world’s food supply.

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May 11, 2023