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☆ DeSantis loses his cool with a reporter after being challenged over claims he witnessed torture while working at Guantanamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ron DeSantis clashed with a reporter when questioned about Guantanamo Bay. A former detainee claims DeSantis witnessed him being force fed. Ron DeSantis was involved in a tetchy exchange with a reporter after being questioned about whether he witnessed detainees being tortured in Guantanamo Bay. The UN has said that it regards the force feeding of inmates at Guantanamo as a form of torture. "So everything at that time was legal in nature one way or another," DeSantis told a CBS affiliate in 2018.

☆ ‘White House Plumbers’ Revisits the Fringes of Watergate
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Adam Nagourney | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

LOS ANGELES — On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested while breaking into the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. Dismissed by the White House press secretary as a “third-rate burglary,” the break-in set off a chain of events that ultimately led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in August 1974. Ever since, the “gate” suffix has been shorthand for scandal, and Watergate has provided fodder for movies, books, podcasts, commentaries and television. But at a time when a former president has been indicted on charges of funneling hush money payments to an adult film star, does Watergate still shock? “White House Plumbers,” premiering Monday, recreates the events that riveted a nation and upended American politics, focusing not on the usual characters — no Nixon, Woodward or Bernstein on the screen here — but on the men behind the crime.

☆ Russia names new peacekeeping head as tensions rise between Armenia and Azerbaijan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Francesco BrembatiApril 26 (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it had appointed one of its most senior army commanders to lead a peacekeeping force in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, as tensions rise again between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russian peacekeepers were deployed in 2020 to end a war over Nagorno-Karabakh, the second that Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought since the 1991 Soviet collapse. The Russian armed forces said the peacekeepers were now headed by Colonel-General Alexander Lentsov, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian ground forces. He added: "We continue to be in close contact with the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) and the Russian peacekeeping contingent to best facilitate humanitarian access." An Armenian spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

GENEVA, April 25 (Reuters) - There is a "high risk of biological hazard" in Sudan's capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials. Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO's latest figures. The WHO has reported 14 attacks on health facilities since the clashes began and is relocating its staff to safety. Smoke is seen rise from buildings during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North, Sudan.

☆ Red Cross Expresses Alarm Over Detainee Health at Guantánamo Bay
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Carol Rosenberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a rare statement of alarm on Friday about deteriorating health conditions and inadequate preparations for aging prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The U.S. military must do a better job of providing care for prisoners who are “experiencing the symptoms of accelerated aging, worsened by the cumulative effects of their experiences and years spent in detention,” Patrick Hamilton, the head of the Red Cross delegation for the United States and Canada, said in the statement. In March, Mr. Hamilton and other delegates made a routine quarterly visit to the detention facility, the organization’s 146th since the wartime prison opened in January 2002. He said the detainees’ “physical and mental health needs are growing and becoming increasingly challenging.”“Consideration must be given to adapting the infrastructure for the detainees’ evolving needs and disabilities, as well as the rules that govern their daily lives,” said Mr. Hamilton, who had last visited the prison in 2003, when 660 men and boys were held there. Today, 30 detainees remain.

☆ Guantanamo inmates showing signs of 'accelerated ageing' - ICRC
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

GENEVA, April 21 (Reuters) - Inmates who have been held for years in the Guantanamo Bay U.S. detention facility in Cuba are showing signs of "accelerated ageing", a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday. Hamilton's comments came after a visit to the facility in March following a 20-year hiatus. There were 40 detainees when President Joe Biden, a Democrat, took office in 2021. Hamilton also urged Washington to resolve the fate of the detainees, urging action to transfer those out who were eligible. Reporting by Emma Farge and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Saudi to unilaterally release detainees to Yemen following prisoner swap
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Relatives of freed detainees released unilaterally by Saudi Arabia wait for their arrival at Sanaa Airport on an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) plane after three days of prisoner swaps between two sides in the Yemen conflict, in Sanaa, Yemen, April 17, 2023. The Houthis' deputy foreign minister on Twitter said 104 Yemenis being held in Saudi Arabia would on Monday be released outside of that main prisoner exchange deal. ICRC planes carried the released detainees between six cities in Yemen and Saudi Arabia over the three-day release. Yemen's conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions hungry, has widely been seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Riyadh and Tehran last month agreed to restore diplomatic ties severed in 2016, raising hopes that Yemen's peace process would see progress.

[1/4] Head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, meets with Saudi and Omani delegations at the Republican Palace in Sanaa, Yemen April 9, 2023. Another Houthi official, Abdulmalik Alejri, said on Twitter that "with determination and honest intentions remaining difficulties can be resolved". STICKING POINTSTwo Yemeni sources, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the parties could agree on an extended truce deal as they work out remaining differences. The United Nations and the PLC are not directly part of the Saudi-Houthi talks. The PLC was created to solidify the anti-Houthi bloc but has been beset by differences among Yemeni factions.

☆ U.S. China committee chair says there's broad support to block American asset managers from investing in Chinese A.I. firms
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Gallagher told CNBC in a phone interview Tuesday that there was "broad support" among the venture capitalists, and others the committee members met with in California, for barring American asset managers from investing in Chinese AI companies. That's good news in his eyes as he described the AI race between the U.S. and China as neck and neck. He added that American tech companies competing with Chinese firms "don't want us to sort of subsidize their losing the AI race." Gallagher said he believes business leaders now understand that "the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party has changed." And I think the way we've conducted our committee so far, it hasn't been a bomb-throwing exercise.

☆ Saudi, Omani envoys arrive in Sanaa for peace talks with Houthi leaders
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run in parallel to U.N. peace efforts. Peace efforts have also gained momentum after arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to reestablish ties in a deal brokered by China. Yemen's war is seen as one of several proxy battles between Iran and Saudi Arabia. A Houthi official said on Saturday the group had received 13 detainees released by Saudi Arabia in exchange for a Saudi detainee freed earlier, ahead of a wider prisoner exchange agreed by the warring sides. The Saudi government media office did not respond to a Reuters requests for comment on the prisoner exchange and the delegation visiting Sanaa.

☆ Red Cross confirms contact with Russia about Ukrainian kids
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it has been in contact with a Russian official suspected of war crimes as it works for the return of Ukrainian children who were deported to Russia. Deportations of Ukrainian children have been a concern since Russia's Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine. An AP investigation revealed Lvova-Belova's involvement in the abductions and found an open effort to put Ukrainian children up for adoption in Russia. The exact number of Ukrainian children taken to Russia has been difficult to determine, and numbers from the warring countries differ vastly. She claimed no Ukrainian children have been adopted.

☆ Houthi official says Saudi Arabia freed 13 detainees
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( Mohammed Alghobari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Aden, April 8 (Reuters) - An official of Yemen's Houthi movement said on Saturday the group had received 13 detainees released by Saudi Arabia in exchange for a Saudi detainee freed earlier, ahead of a wider prisoner exchange agreed by the warring sides. Houthi official Abdul Qader al-Mortada said on Twitter the 13 detainees had arrived in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which is held by the Iranian -aligned Houthi group that has been battling a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia since 2015. At talks in Switzerland last month attended by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Yemen's Saudi-backed government and the Houthis agreed to free 887 detainees. A visit by Saudi officials would indicate progress in Oman-mediated talks between Riyadh and the Houthis, which run in parallel to U.N. peace efforts, as well as a reduction in tensions after Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to restore relations. The Yemen conflict is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

☆ Ex-DOJ lawyer tells jury he met with Chinese to further illegal lobbying campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | Thomson Reuters | Sarah N. Lynch Is The Lead Reporter For Reuters Covering The U.S. Justice Department Out Of Washington | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

George Higginbotham testified that he made money on the side while working at the Justice Department by offering legal advice to Michel, a long-time friend. But he did so anyway, telling the jury he let his friendship with Michel cloud his judgment. "This could get me in a lot of trouble," he told the jury he recalled thinking, adding that his actions were "definitely outside of official lines." Higginbotham, who pleaded guilty in 2018 for his role in the foreign influence campaign, testified that Justice Department investigators later found out about his meeting and questioned him. Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Stephen CoatesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

UNITED NATIONS/KABUL, April 5 (Reuters) - U.N. chief Antonio Guterres condemned on Wednesday a ban by Afghanistan's Taliban authorities on Afghan women working for the United Nations, calling it "an intolerable violation of the most basic human rights" that should be immediately revoked. The United Nations has told some 3,300 Afghan staff - of which about 400 are female - not to report to their offices until further notice for security reasons. "Banning Afghan women from working with the U.N. in Afghanistan is an intolerable violation of the most basic human rights," Guterres posted on Twitter. Top U.N. officials in Kabul met with the Acting Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi on Wednesday after the Taliban authorities signaled on Tuesday that they would enforce a ban on Afghan women working for the world body. So far it is only 5% funded and the United Nations says nearly three-quarters of the country's 40 million people need help.

☆ Apple's Tim Cook, Disney's Bob Iger to discuss China with lawmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A group of lawmakers will travel to California to meet with tech and media executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger, to discuss China-related topics, CNBC has confirmed. Around a dozen lawmakers representing both parties on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are set to make the three-day trip, led by Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., a spokesperson for the committee told CNBC. Just last week, Cook, whose company relies on China's massive workforce for phone production, met with China's minister of commerce about supply chain issues. Gallagher has previously said he wants Iger and Big Tech executives to testify before the panel. Companies named in this report either did not immediately respond or did not provide a comment.

☆ Russia's war on Ukraine latest: Russia attacks along Ukraine front
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A destroyed Russian tank remains on the side of the road near the frontline town of Kreminna, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Luhansk region, Ukraine March 24, 2023. * Russia's defence ministry said its forces had destroyed a hangar housing drones belonging to Ukraine's armed forces in the southwestern Odesa region of the country. DIPLOMACY* Russia's parliament speaker proposed banning the activities of the International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Putin, accusing him of the war crimes. * Democratic and Republican U.S. senators urged the Biden administration to share information with the ICC as it pursues war crimes charges against Putin. * U.S. President Joe Biden, appearing in Ottawa with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said he would continue to pressure Putin and help Ukraine.

☆ Russia presses along Ukraine front after reports of Bakhmut slowdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Mike Collett-White | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

As winter turns to spring, the main question in Ukraine is how much longer Russia can sustain its offensive, and when or whether Ukraine can reverse the momentum with a counterassault. [1/5] Anti-aircraft unit serviceman of the 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, call sign "Chub", 34, prepares to pose for a portrait with a portable anti-aircraft missile system, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Soledar north of Bakhmut, Ukraine March 23, 2023. The International Committee of the Red Cross said some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many elderly and with disabilities, were clinging on in horrific circumstances in Bakhmut and surrounding settlements. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, saying Ukraine's ties to the West were a security threat. Since then, tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians as well as soldiers on both sides have been killed.

☆ Thousands of civilians 'at the limit of existence' in Ukraine's Bakhmut, Red Cross says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

GENEVA, March 24 (Reuters) - Some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many elderly and with disabilities, are clinging on to existence in horrific circumstances in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday. Russian forces have been trying for months to capture the city in Europe's bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two. "All you see is people pushed to the very limits of their existence and survival and resilience." Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a "special military operation", saying Kyiv's ties to the West were a security threat. Since then, tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers on both sides have been killed.

☆ Two decades after Saddam's fall, Iraqis still haunted by disappearances
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Charlotte Bruneau | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

As exhumations dragged on, more atrocities were committed in sectarian conflict and amid the rise and fall of armed groups, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State militants, as well as Shi'ite Muslim militias. Tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed by Saddam's forces during his rule. According to Siddiq, massacres committed by Islamic State militants, who seized much of northern Iraq in 2014 and held it for three violent years, have been prioritised. In Sinjar, where Islamic State committed what U.N. investigators described as genocide against Iraq's Yazidi minority, about 600 victims have been reburied, with some 150 identified. His name was not among the hundreds of victims identified by Siddiq's team, and Mohammed remains in limbo.

☆ Watch live: U.S. House China panel holds first hearing after lawmakers push seven bills targeting Beijing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., ranking member of the select committee, called the balloon a "violation of American sovereignty" in a joint statement. The administration's move prompted the advancement of several bills designed to bolster U.S. national security against China. Seven out of 10 bills passed by the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday addressed China or its neighbor, Taiwan. The Select Committee will not allow the CCP to lull us into complacency or maneuver us into submission." Matthew Pottinger, former U.S. Deputy national security adviser; former U.S. National Security Adviser H.R.

Shunned by the West, Assad has been basking in an outpouring of support from Arab states that have normalised ties with him in recent years, notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia sent its first reported plane of aid to Assad-controlled Aleppo, a notable gesture from a Gulf state still at odds with Syria's president. 'BREAK THE SIEGE'The UAE has pledged $50 million in aid to Syria, without saying in which part of Syria it will be spent. Once a backer of Assad's foes, the UAE has been pressing other Arab states to re-engage with Damascus, according to two Gulf sources, despite opposition from its strategic ally the United States. Tunisia, which cut off ties with Syria a decade ago, has said it will strengthen relations with Damascus since the quake.

☆ The Paradox of Prosecuting Domestic Terrorism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( James Verini | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +52 min

The preventive approach to domestic terrorism goes back even further than the 1990s and it begins with the basic police work and surveillance of the joint terrorism task forces. In fact, there is no section of the U.S. Criminal Code that criminalizes domestic terrorism as such. The absence of clear law around domestic terrorism, and the imperatives of prevention, mean that investigators and prosecutors who work domestic terrorism cases must focus on more common charges: weapons violations, illegal drug possession, burglary, aiding and abetting and so forth. But this was not enough to overrule the fear of domestic terrorism that was gripping the nation and that hung in the courtroom. It reflected the legal paradoxes of the case and domestic terrorism law in general or, maybe more accurately, the absence of it.

☆ Ukraine's Zelenskiy urges U.N. action on deportations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Ukraine has for months denounced reports of mass deportations to Russia, often to remote regions thousands of kilometres from Ukraine. Zelenskiy described as genocide what he said were Russia's policies of captivity and forcing refugees to take on Russian citizenship. Zelenskiy has criticised as ineffective the efforts of other international organisations to tackle the issue of the deportations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the 57-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. An official Ukrainian portal called Children of War lists 459 children killed and 916 wounded in the conflict as of Jan. 26. The U.S. State Department has cited figures of between 900,000 and 1.6 million deported Ukrainians, including 260,000 children.

☆ Top diplomats, former UN officials seek to fix 'Wild West' of peacemaking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

But the framework's proponents, who have just completed a two-year consultation period in dozens of countries, say today's peace brokers are applying the wrong strategy. "You could say 'Why the hell are people talking about peace when the whole thing falls apart?' "Right now the peacemaking space is like the Wild West," said Hiba Qasas, the executive director of the Principles for Peace Initiative, who is Palestinian and a former U.N. official. Current shortcomings are widely acknowledged and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres is working on a so-called "New Agenda For Peace" this year. (This story has been corrected to change "UN officials" to "former UN officials" in the headline)Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/5] A doctor visits patients in a hospital following an increase in the number of pneumonia cases in Kabul, Afghanistan, December 17, 2022. Every time 10-month old Rahmat's parents bring him home from the crowded, but warmer hospital, they say he gets sick again. Doctors and aid workers say thousands of children are being admitted to hospital with pneumonia and other respiratory diseases caused by the cold and malnutrition. Hospital figures showed more than 6,7000 children were admitted in November for pneumonia, coughs, asthma and other respiratory conditions, compared to around 3,700 the same month the previous year. In a ward dedicated to pneumonia patients at the hospital, babies lay two or three to a bed, with worried parents and a handful of stretched medical staff overseeing them.

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