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☆ An Iraqi historian was slain after being labeled a spy on Facebook. Exclusive emails show catastrophic delays in removing threatening posts.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Tekendra Parmar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Hisham al-Hashimi reached out to his friend Aws al-Saadi, a Meta Trusted Partner, to ask him to take down posts endangering his life. "One of the reasons for his killing was Meta," al-Saadi told Insider. "Mainly because they assumed that the slow response times had to do with a high volume of cases." Aws al Saadi, a Meta trusted partner, outside the Erbil Citadel in Iraq. Internews hopes this might help create a trusted-partner channel with improved communication, more transparency, and faster response times.

Persons: Hisham al, Hashimi, Saadi, Saadi Al, Meta, al, Saadi isn't, Meta's, Internews, Paul Barrett, University's, Barrett, Rafiq Copeland, Internews Rafiq Copeland, Copeland, Thaier, Sudani Internews, Copland, Meareg Amare, Reem Makhoul Organizations: ISIS, Facebook, Meta, Center for Business, Human Rights, NYU Stern School of Business Meta, Partners, University's Stern School of Business, Global, Internews, Ukrainian, Ethiopian, Erbil Citadel Locations: Baghdad, Iraq, al, Myanmar, Ethiopia, New, Ukraine, Tigray, Hashimi, Iraqi, Erbil, Netherlands

"Without strong international support, Sudan could quickly become a locus of lawlessness, radiating insecurity across the region," Guterres told a fundraising conference hosted by Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations. "I appeal to you all today to provide funding to deliver lifesaving humanitarian aid and support to people living in the most difficult and dangerous conditions," Guterres said. Germany announced on Monday that it was pledging 200 million euros to Sudan and the region until 2024, the United States pledged $171 million, and Qatar pledged $50 million. Before the donor conference, a U.N. appeal for $2.57 billion for humanitarian support within Sudan this year was about 17% funded, a U.N. website showed. More than half of that came from the United States, with the European Commission in second place with about 10% of the total.

Persons: Saba Kareem, Antonio Guterres, Guterres, Volker Turk, Turk, Geneva Hassan Hamid Hassan, Filippo Grandi, Emma Farge, Gabrielle Tétrault, Farber, Khalid Abdelaziz, Aidan Lewis, Christina Fincher Organizations: Baghdad International, REUTERS, GENEVA, United Nations, United, Rapid Support Forces, European Commission, Thomson Locations: Sudan, Iraqi, Baghdad, Iraq, Khartoum, Darfur, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, United States, Jeddah, West Darfur, Geneva, Kuwait, Dubai

☆ Opinion: Uganda anti-LGBTQ law is outrageous. Here’s the smart way to fight it
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Opinion Brett Bruen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But perhaps most importantly in this context, it actually serves to further erode LGBTQ rights around the world. Putin has used attacks on LGBTQ rights as a way to try to appeal to African leaders, suggesting Russia is more aligned with their conservative values. Slapping stiff sanctions on Kampala will reinforce this rhetoric and allow the anti-LGBTQ attacks he’s using to gain greater strength. Instead, we should look at how to prominently elevate and sustain the focus on LGBTQ rights in our relations with Uganda as well as with these other nations. We should invite more Ugandan musicians, artists and actors to collaborate with leading American LGBTQ cultural figures.

Persons: Brett Bruen, Obama, Yoweri Museveni, doles, Brett Bruen CASME, Biden, George Santos, ” Santos, Ugandans, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Putin, Sen, Ted Cruz, Saddam Hussein Organizations: Inc, Georgetown University, Obama White House, CNN, State Department, United Arab, Ugandans, Twitter, Facebook Locations: American, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Iraq, Madagascar, Uganda, United States, Kampala, East, Russia, Zimbabwe, Africa, China, Washington, Moscow, Beijing, Russian, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Eritrea

The funeral homily by Milan's Archbishop Mario Delpini appeared to acknowledge his excesses as well as his qualities. "What can we say about Silvio Berlusconi? [1/9] People wait for the funeral of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in Milan, Italy June 14, 2023. These included Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. "Final farewell to Silvio Berlusconi.

Persons: Silvio Berlusconi, Berlusconi, Silvio, Marta Fascina, Marina, Donald Trump, Milan's, Mario Delpini, Lucia Adiele, Sergio Mattarella, Giorgia Meloni, Brothers, Matteo Salvini's, Giuseppe Conte, Rosy Bindi, Tomaso Montanari, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Mohammed Shia, Viktor Orban, Orban, Vladimir Putin, Putin, there's, Cristiano Corvino, Angelo Amante, Alvise Armellini, Gavin Jones, Federico Maccioni, Alexandra Hudson, Nick Macfie Organizations: MILAN, Wednesday, AC Milan soccer, Reuters, Forza Italia, Police, Italian, REUTERS, Matteo Salvini's League, European Commission, Siena's University for Foreigners, Thomson Locations: Milan, Italian, Altamura, Italy, Thani, Iraqi, Hungarian, Ukraine, Kyiv

The budget deficit is estimated at a record 64.36 trillion Iraq dinars, more than double the last budget deficit in 2021, according to a budget document and lawmakers. The budget sets the exchange rate for oil revenues in U.S. dollars at 1,300 dinars per dollar. It will remain valid through 2025, though it is subject to amendment, including to the oil price it uses given its near-total dependence on oil revenue. To break even, Iraq required an oil price of $96 bpd, it said, while the price averaged $71.3 bpd in May. Baghdad previously had no say over Kurdistan's expenditure of oil revenues, with Kurdistan unilaterally exporting crude via Turkey despite Baghdad's objections.

Persons: Mohammed Nouri, Ahmed Tabaqchali, Ahmed Rasheed, Timour, Shri Navaratnam, Robert Birsel Organizations: Media, REUTERS, London School of Economics Middle East Center, Monetary Fund, Thomson Locations: Baghdad, Iraq, REUTERS BAGHDAD, Kurdistan, Iraqi, Turkey, Erbil, Iraq's, Kurdish, Ankara

☆ Iraq to pay $2.76 billion in gas and electricity debt to Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BAGHDAD, June 10 (Reuters) - Iraq has agreed to pay about $2.76 billion in gas and electricity debt to Iran after receiving a sanctions waiver from the United States, a senior Iraqi foreign ministry official said. Due to decades of conflict and sanctions, Iraq is dependent on imports from Iran for a lot of its gas needs. However, U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil and gas have hampered Iraq's payments for imports, putting it in heavy arrears and leading Iran to retaliate by cutting gas flows regularly. Iran has been unable to access billions of dollars in assets in several countries due to U.S. sanctions. The United States has insisted that oil-rich Iraq, the OPEC group's second-largest producer, moves towards self-sufficiency as a condition for its exemption to import Iranian energy, yet Baghdad has struggled to do so.

Persons: Fuad Hussein, Antony Blinken, Ahmed Al, Sahhaf, Hussein, Yahya Al, Ahmed Rasheed, Amina Ismail, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: U.S, Riyadh Conference, Reuters, Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Commercial Bank of Iraq, United, OPEC, Dubai, Thomson Locations: BAGHDAD, Iraq, Iran, United States, Iraqi, Riyadh, Baghdad

"The fresh water is finished," said Khamis Adel, a lifelong fishermen and indigenous Marsh Arab from Al-Khora in Basra. It's a question asked by many who once lived off Iraq's marshlands, rich waterways which gave birth to civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. As the rivers and marshlands dry out, so too does the economy that they sustain. "Now a fisherman is nothing, they are like beggars," he said, pushing his boat along the canal in humid heat. Even after the 2003 U.S. invasion, when parts of the marshes were flooded again, water levels did not fully recover.

Persons: Essam, Khamis Adel, Mohsen, Hasan Moussa, Hasan, Naame Hasan, Adel, Saddam Hussein, Ahmed Saeed, Issam, Timour Azhari, William Maclean Organizations: REUTERS, UNESCO, of, U.N's, Organization for Migration, WE, Thomson Locations: Iraqi, Basra, Iraq, BASRA, NAJAF, Al, Khora, of Eden, Mesopotamia, Turkey, Iran, Najaf, U.S, Issam Sudani, Timour, Baghdad

☆ Netanyahu convenes Iran war drill, scorns UN nuclear watchdog
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Israel has long maintained that for diplomacy to succeed, Iran must be faced with a credible military threat. The agency's capitulation to Iranian pressure is a black stain on its record," Netanyahu told his cabinet in televised remarks. After then U.S. President Donald Trump quit the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, Tehran ramped up uranium enrichment. In a 2012 U.N. speech, Netanyahu deemed 90% enrichment by Iran a "red line" that could trigger preemptive strikes. Focussing domestic attention on Iran might provide Netanyahu with respite from a months-long crisis over his proposals to overhaul Israel’s judiciary.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu ramped, U.N, Israel, Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Dan Williams, Angus MacSwan, Grant McCool Organizations: Iran's, UN, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Thomson Locations: Tehran, Iran, Israel, Tel Aviv, Syria, IRAN, Soviet, Vienna

☆ Factbox: What have OPEC+ producers said ahead of June oil policy meeting?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, May 30 (Reuters) - Mixed signals by major OPEC producers and their main allies have sparked volatility in oil prices ahead of an OPEC+ oil policy meeting set to take place this weekend. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday he expected no new steps from OPEC+ in Vienna, Russian media reported. Novak later added in a statement that OPEC+ would make a decision on what is best for the oil market. Three sources with knowledge of current Russian thinking told Reuters last week Russia is leaning towards leaving oil production volumes unchanged. IRANIranian President Ebrahim Raisi told the secretary general of OPEC on Saturday that he hopes oil producers can calm the market, calling for the unity of OPEC members, Iranian media reported.

VILNIUS, May 29 (Reuters) - Latvians woke up to go to work on Monday morning, only to find they didn't have to. Their parliament had met at midnight to declare a holiday after the national ice hockey team chalked up its best-ever result at the world championship. Latvia, where hockey is the national sport, was co-hosting the men's championship with Finland, and the Latvians' extra-time victory over the U.S. for third place was greeted with wild jubilation. At quarter to midnight on Sunday, sporting red and white national team jerseys, members of parliament convened for a ten-minute session to unanimously declare the holiday. The bill was introduced by a smiling member of parliament with her face painted in the colours of the national flag.

☆ Opinion | Who Should We Honor on Memorial Day?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Kayla M. Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

While I worked in signals intelligence in Iraq, my friend Alyssa Peterson worked in human intelligence. In 2020, more than 6,100 veterans died by suicide. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, better known as the Wall, is inscribed with over 58,000 names of Americans who died in or supporting combat, or within 120 days of injuries or illnesses incurred in the combat zone. Their names will not be inscribed on the Wall, though the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is seeking to memorialize them in other ways. I will forever mourn and honor her, too, among our war dead this and every Memorial Day, whether or not her name is ever inscribed on a list of those killed in the global war on terrorism.

☆ Jordan, Iraq power link to start production on July 1
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

May 27 (Reuters) - An electricity grid interconnection between Jordan and Iraq will begin supplies to Iraq on July 1, an Iraqi official was quoted as saying on Saturday. A spokesperson for Iraq's electricity ministry told the state news agency that production will start with an initial capacity of 50 megawatts. Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Hatem Maher; Editing by Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Iraq says Iran blames reduced gas exports on 'technical' matter
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

An Iraqi delegation led by the electricity minister will travel to Iran next week to discuss the issue, Iraqi state media reported on Tuesday, noting gas imports had decreased by 20 million cubic meters at the time. Iraq usually imports between 50 million to 70 million cubic meters of gas, according to Iraq's electricity ministry spokesperson Ahmed Moussa. Iraq imports electricity and gas from Iran that in total makes up between a third and 40% of its power supply, especially crucial in the sweltering summer months when temperatures can top 50 degrees Celsius (122°F) and power consumption peaks. During Friday's phone call, Amirabdollahian thanked Iraq for trying to resolve the issue of financial transfers with Washington, the statement said. Iraq spends roughly $4 billion per year on imports of Iranian gas and power while at the same time burning massive quantities of natural gas as a byproduct of its hydrocarbons sector.

☆ Turkey's runoff election is paralyzing key oil exports from northern Iraq
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Ruxandra Iordache | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Oil typically flows through Turkey from both the Iraqi state and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). More specifically, this Kirkuk crude flows down the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline linking the north of the Gulf country with Turkey's Ceyhan port in the Mediterranean. But the flows have been paralyzed since March 25 by a legal dispute involving federal Iraq, the KRG and Turkey. This decision led to U.S. companies deciding to exit contracts in Kurdistan and deterred some KRG oil buyers from further purchases. "The ruling party in Turkey [Erdogan's AKP] wants to settle the elections and then deal with KRG's oil with Baghdad."

Persons: KRG, Hayan Abdul, Ghani, —, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Lawk Ghafuri, Yerevan Saeed, Saeed, Bilal Wahab, Wagner Organizations: CNBC, Kurdistan Regional Government, Turkey Pipeline, International, Commerce's, Reuters, ICC, Baghdad, BTC, Kurdistan, Gulf Institute, Sinjar, Washington Institute for Near East Locations: Turkey, Ankara, Baghdad, Iraqi, Kurdistan, Kirkuk, Iraq, Basra, Paris, U.S, Ceyhan, Baku, Syria, Erbil, Yerevan, Washington

☆ Lebanon strikes deals to get more oil from Iraq
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIRUT, May 16 (Reuters) - Lebanon has agreed deals to secure more fuel supplies from Iraq, the two countries said on Tuesday, as Beirut battles to produce more power to help it emerge from years of economic crisis. Iraq has also agreed a commercial deal to provide 2 million metric tonnes of crude per year to its neighbour, Fayad said. Under the heavy fuel oil deal, first agreed in July 2021, Iraq provides the Lebanese government with the fuel in exchange for services including health care for Iraqi citizens. Lebanon then swaps the heavy fuel oil for gas oil that it can use at its power stations, which have operated for decades at partial capacity but have almost de facto shut down during a financial crisis that has hit the state's ability to buy fuel. Fayad said the two million tonnes of crude under the commercial deal would also be swapped.

At least 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) production was shut in last week in Alberta. Also supporting oil prices, the U.S. could start repurchasing oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after completing a congressionally mandated sale in June, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told lawmakers on Thursday. Global crude supplies could also tighten in the second half as OPEC+ - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia - plan additional output cuts. Fears of a slowdown in the global economy limited gains in oil prices. "If credit conditions ease over the coming months, allaying economic fears for the world's largest economy, oil prices could bounce back without assistance but it seems a little premature at this point," said OANDA analyst Craig Erlam.

☆ Oil prices rise as tight supplies compete with economic concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Noah Browning | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, May 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Monday as the prospect of tightening supplies due to OPEC+ production cuts and a resumption in U.S. buying for reserves outweighed concerns about fuel demand in top global oil consumers the United States and China. Still, global crude supplies could tighten in the second half as OPEC+ - the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia - is making additional output cuts that are reducing sour crude volumes. However, Iraq does not expect OPEC+ to make further cuts to oil output at its next meeting on June 4, said its oil minister, Hayan Abdel-Ghani. Meanwhile, flows of northern Iraqi crude oil to Turkey's Ceyhan port have yet to resume following Baghdad's request to restart them last week, industry sources said on Monday, helping keep global supplies tight. The tightening of sanctions will also seek to undermine Russia's future energy production and curb trade that supports the Russian military, the people said.

[1/5] Iraqi residents walk along Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, Iraq, May 14, 2023. "This push to develop the capital Baghdad is the most extensive undertaking of its kind," he told Reuters in an interview. 'BAGHDAD COMING BACK'Iraqi-Canadian artist Iyad Al-Mosawi fled Baghdad as a child amid war with Iran in the 80s and did not return until 2019. "I find that Baghdad is coming back," Mosawi said, noting he had attended eight exhibition openings in just two weeks. Reporting by Timour Azhari and Amina Ismail in Baghdad; Writing by Timour Azhari; Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria on the day of the drone attack. Photo: Rick Bajornas/Un/Zuma PressAn Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq was behind the drone attack that killed a U.S. military contractor in northeast Syria on March 23 and wounded more than two dozen American civilian and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqi origin of that attack hasn’t been previously reported but was acknowledged by a senior U.S. military official Saturday in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal.

The United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in Syria on on the day of the drone attack. Photo: Rick Bajornas/Un/Zuma PressAn Iranian-backed militia in northern Iraq was behind the drone attack that killed a U.S. military contractor in northeast Syria on March 23 and wounded more than two dozen American civilian and military personnel, according to U.S. officials. The Iraqi origin of that attack has not been previously reported but was acknowledged by a senior U.S. military official Saturday in response to questions from The Wall Street Journal.

☆ Three New Story Collections Make Place a Protagonist
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Justin Taylor | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The Turkish president Recep Erdogan looms large in Kenan Orhan’s I AM MY COUNTRY: And Other Stories (Random House, 227 pp., $27), a powerful and provocative debut collection with a vivid sense of place. A garbagewoman hoards discarded items she finds in the course of her collections: musical scores, musical instruments, eventually musicians. This smart, heartfelt saga is dragged down by talking birds who pithily argue ethics with their would-be keeper. In “The Smuggler,” set during the Syrian civil war, a Syrian man must get a pregnant 15-year-old Kurdish girl across the border into Turkey by pretending to be her husband. This is Orhan at his best: finding comedy lurking on the outskirts of tragedy, reveling in the inherent absurdism of the all-too-real.

[1/5] Teacher Inese Rudzite stands in front of Russian citizens during the Latvian language learning class in Riga, Latvia May 2, 2023. Speaking Russian instead of Latvian has not been a problem until now, but the war in Ukraine changed the picture. He said the test was needed because Russian authorities justified their invasion of Ukraine by the need to protect Russian nationals abroad. "I think that learning Latvian is right, but this pressure is wrong," Sevastjanova said. But now I end up learning Latvian instead.

“This is the second train, there was one like it just before.”The video, seemingly filmed in late March, shows old Soviet tanks being transported, somewhere in Russia. Moscow has been known to bring out older military equipment from storage to help it prosecute the war in Ukraine, but these are different. The tanks are T-55s, a model first commissioned by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks form a threatening ring round the Parliament buildings in Hungary on November 12, 1956. T-55 tanks drive through the streets of Prague, capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

☆ Iraqi court sentences police officer to death for murder of government adviser
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BAGHDAD, May 7 (Reuters) - An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced to death a police officer blamed for leading a group that gunned down well-known analyst and government adviser Hisham al-Hashemi three years ago in Baghdad. A Baghdad court issued a death sentence on Sunday against Ahmed Hamdawi under Iraqi counter-terrorism laws, a judicial authority statement said. Media were not allowed access, but a lawyer who attended the court session said Hamdawi did not say anything in the court in response to the judge's ruling. In 2021, Iraqi state television aired a video showing Hamdawi saying he led the group that killed Hashemi. Some Islamic State supporters cheered his death, but no group had claimed the murder.

Companies TotalEnergies SE FollowBAGHDAD, May 3 (Reuters) - Iraq and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) expect to kick-start a long-delayed $27 billion project within the next two weeks, Iraq's oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said on Wednesday. Abdel-Ghani said at a conference in Baghdad he expected five side agreements related to the deal to be signed in the next two weeks, paving the way for implementation to commence. Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne said last week the two sides had reached an agreement on Iraq's stake in the project. "I think (it) is a good setup with our finalising of all the paperwork," Pouyanne said on TotalEnergies' first-quarter results call last week. "The government of Iraq confirmed the whole contract, no modification at all ... so that was for me more than a good news," Pouyanne said.

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