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☆ Seven People Charged After Breaking Into Israeli Arms Company’s U.K. Site
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

British counterterrorism police charged seven people with violent disorder on Tuesday, after a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators forced their way into a building owned by an Israeli defense firm in southwest England. Seven people ages 20 to 51 were charged with criminal damage and violent disorder, the police said in a statement. One man, age 22, was also charged with assault. The Crown Prosecution Service, the public prosecutor for England and Wales, said it would argue in a court hearing on Tuesday “that these offenses have a terrorist connection.”The seven individuals are accused of taking part in a raid in the early hours of Aug. 6 that targeted Elbit, an Israeli defense firm whose British subsidiaries employ around 700 people across 16 sites.

Persons: ” Organizations: Crown Prosecution Service Locations: England, Wales

☆ Seven People Charged Over Break-In at Israeli Arms Company’s U.K. Site
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Persons: ” Organizations: Crown Prosecution Service Locations: England, Wales

☆ Southport Stabbing: What We Know About the U.K. Knife Attack and Suspect
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-30 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A third child has died after a knife attack in Southport, England, and five children and two adults remain in a critical condition, the police said on Tuesday. The attack, which the local police chief, Serena Kennedy, described as “ferocious,” took place at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class for children age 6 to 11. A 17-year-old boy was arrested and is being questioned by the police. Swift said in a statement about the attack on Instagram that she was “completely in shock.”“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously,” she wrote, adding: “The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class.”

Persons: Serena Kennedy, ”, Taylor Swift, Swift, “ Locations: Southport , England, Southport

☆ Jacob Zuma, Ex-President of South Africa, Is Expelled From A.N.C.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-29 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The African National Congress, South Africa’s governing party announced on Monday that it had expelled the country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, officially severing ties with the once-celebrated anti-apartheid fighter after he helped form a rival political party. Though Mr. Zuma has been a vaunted figure in the A.N.C. This year, he used his broad political support to campaign for uMkhonto weSizwe, a rival party known by the initials M.K. The secretary-general of the A.N.C., Fikile Mbalula, said on Monday that Mr. Zuma had been expelled because he “actively impugned the integrity of the A.N.C. from power while claiming that he had not severed his membership.” Mr. Zuma was given 21 days to appeal the decision.

Persons: Jacob Zuma, Zuma, uMkhonto weSizwe, Fikile Mbalula, “, ” Mr Organizations: African National Congress Locations: South

☆ What We Know About the Attacks on France’s Rail Network
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Just hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, France was rocked by a series of arson attacks on its rail network on Friday, stoking fears over security during the Games. No one was killed or reported injured, but the damage to France’s high-speed train lines caused major delays as thousands of local and international travelers were expected to converge on Paris for the ceremony and the Games. The arson attacks, which authorities have described as “criminal,” come amid heightened security concerns, when France is the center of a global spectacle. Here’s what we know about the attacks and the resulting disruptions:Is this a terrorist attack? That is not clear yet, but France’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, has described the fires as “acts of sabotage that were carried out in a prepared and coordinated way.” The police and intelligence services are investigating these “criminal acts,” he added in a post on social media.

Persons: stoking, ”, Gabriel Attal Organizations: Paris Olympics, Games Locations: France, Paris

☆ Two Landslides Kill 229 People in Ethiopia
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | Kumerra Gemechu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first landslide struck the village in the Geze district between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on Monday, said Habtamu Fetena, who heads the local government’s emergency response. Nearly 300 people from two neighboring villages ran to the area to help and began digging through the mud by hand, he said Tuesday. Then about an hour later, without warning, more mud slid down the hillside above the village, and killed many of those trying to help. “They had no clue that the land they were standing on was about to swallow them,” Mr. Fetena said. The village hit by the landslides lies in a region that is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including long droughts followed by strong storms and more frequent and intense rainfalls, experts said.

Persons: Habtamu Fetena, “, ” Mr, Fetena Locations: Ethiopia, Geze

More than 150 people were killed in southwestern Ethiopia on Monday after a landslide flattened several houses in a village following days of heavy rain, and neighbors who rushed to dig out those buried under the mud were hit with a second landslide about an hour later. The first landslide struck the village in the Geze district between 8:30 and 9 a.m. on Monday, said Habtamu Fetena, who heads the local government’s emergency response. Nearly 300 people from two neighboring villages ran to the area to help and began digging through the mud by hand. Then about an hour later, without warning, more mud slid down the hillside above the village, and killed many of those trying to help their neighbors.

Persons: Habtamu Fetena Locations: Ethiopia, Geze

Huda Omari sat outside a broker’s office in Jordan for two days, waiting for her visa to make the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, to Saudi Arabia. In Egypt, Magda Moussa’s three sons pooled their resources to scrape together nearly $9,000 to realize a dream of accompanying their mother to the hajj. When she got the go-ahead for the trip, she said, relatives and neighbors in her village ululated in celebration. The dayslong pilgrimage is a profound spiritual journey and an arduous trek under the best of circumstances. But this year, amid record heat, at least 1,300 pilgrims did not survive the hajj, and Saudi authorities said that more than 80 percent of the dead were pilgrims who lacked permits.

Persons: Huda Omari, Magda Moussa’s, Omari, Moussa Organizations: Saudi Locations: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt

☆ 4 Takeaways From Iran’s Presidential Runoff
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-06 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The victory of reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian in Iran’s presidential runoff signals a shift from the government of Ebrahim Raisi, a conservative Shiite Muslim cleric and the preceding president who was killed in a helicopter crash in May. Mr. Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old cardiac surgeon who served as a lawmaker in previous reformist governments and as health minister, beat the hard-line conservative candidate Saeed Jalili in Friday’s runoff, the government announced on Saturday. A stark choice spurred higher voter turnoutThe runoff presented a political choice stark enough to galvanize Iranians who had boycotted the first round of elections. Turnout in the first round was about 40 percent, continuing a downward trend seen in recent parliamentary elections. Faced with candidates who represented radically different visions for Iran’s future, many voters who had stayed away from the polls during the first round decided to cast their ballots in the runoff.

Persons: Masoud, Ebrahim Raisi, Pezeshkian, Saeed Jalili Organizations: Mr

☆ Russia Committed Human Rights Violations in Crimea, European Court Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-25 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that Russia and its proxy security forces in Crimea have committed multiple human rights violations during its decade-long occupation of the former Ukrainian territory. Between 2014 and 2018, there have been 43 cases of enforced disappearances, with eight people still missing. The disappeared were mostly pro-Ukrainian activists and journalists, or members of Crimea’s Tatar ethnic minority, the court found. Investigations of the disappearances went nowhere, the court added in its judgment. Men and women were abducted by the Crimean self-defense forces, by Russian security forces or by agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.

Persons: Russia’s Organizations: European, of Human, Crimean, Federal Security Service Locations: Russia, Crimea, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Simferopol

☆ Official Death Toll From Hajj Pilgrimage Climbs Into the Hundreds
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Emad Mekay | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, one of the most important events on the Muslim calendar, at least 450 died under a scorching sun as they prayed at sacred sites around the holy city of Mecca. The pilgrims, some who have saved their whole lives for the hajj, spend days walking and sleeping in tents during their journey to Mecca, the holist city for Muslims. The hajj is one of Islam’s five pillars, and all Muslims who are physically or financially able are obliged to embark on the pilgrimage. Indonesia has so far reported the most deaths, 199, and India reported 98. The number of dead is expected to rise as neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt, where many pilgrims come from, have released death tolls for their citizens.

Locations: Saudi Arabia, Mecca, Indonesia, India, Egypt

☆ South Africa Moves Closer to Electing a Leader, but Unity Is Elusive
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-14 | by ( John Eligon | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Entering a new era of unpredictable politics, South Africa’s newly elected Parliament convened for the first time on Friday as lawmakers prepared to elect the country’s next president after national elections last month. The long-governing African National Congress, which failed to secure an absolute majority for the first time since it came to power after the end of apartheid, was expected to form a delicate alliance with rival parties, clearing the way for Cyril Ramaphosa to be elected president for a second term. But the two weeks after the election have been marked by turbulent negotiations between the A.N.C., which Mr. Ramaphosa leads, and rival political parties. The process has exposed deep fissures within the A.N.C. and in the broader society, and in a telling development, Parliament opened without any kind of formal announcement about a coalition agreement.

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa, Ramaphosa Organizations: African National Congress Locations: South

☆ Malawi’s Vice President Killed in Plane Crash
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-11 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | Golden Matonga | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The president of Malawi said Tuesday that the country’s vice president had been killed in a plane crash a day earlier that had prompted a massive search effort. The plane went missing on Monday morning, prompting a massive search and rescue operation for the vice president, Saulos Chilima, and the nine other people on board. In an address to the nation on Tuesday, President Lazarus Chakwera said the wreckage had been found and there were no survivors. “Something terrible went wrong with that flight,” Mr. Chakwera said. He called Mr. Chilima, 51, a “good man” who “served his country with distinction.”

Persons: Saulos Chilima, Lazarus Chakwera, Mr, Chakwera, Chilima, “ Locations: Malawi

☆ White Politician Poised for Power Faces Hurdle in South Africa
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-07 | by ( John Eligon | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nine months ago, John Steenhuisen, who leads South Africa’s second-largest political party, the Democratic Alliance, stood before news cameras and signed an agreement not to work with the long-governing party, the African National Congress. “So help me God,” Mr. Steenhuisen said, raising his right hand and chuckling. He and the Democratic Alliance are now plowing ahead with the most important political negotiations in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994 and have drafted a document laying out their core principles for joining a government with the African National Congress, or A.N.C. The governing party’s slide — taking just 40 percent of the vote, ending three decades of dominance — has left Mr. Steenhuisen, 48, standing at the brink of his political dreams. As head of the party that took second place, with nearly 22 percent of the vote, Mr. Steenhuisen seems likely to get a leading role in the next government, political analysts say.

Persons: John Steenhuisen, ” Mr, Steenhuisen, — Organizations: South, Democratic Alliance, African National Congress Locations: South Africa

☆ South Africa’s President Announces Plan to Form National Unity Government
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-06 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Days after his African National Congress party faced historic losses at the polls, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said on Thursday that he will seek to form a government that includes a wide range of parties, some with starkly opposing views. since the fall of apartheid, South Africa has been in limbo since the watershed election on May 29 when voters punished the ruling party for failing to address issues like skyrocketing unemployment, regular power outages and high rates of crime. Over the next few days, a weakened A.N.C. “We invite political parties to form a government of national unity as the best option to move our country forward,” Mr. Ramaphosa said in a news conference late on Thursday night. “This moment calls for the broadest unity of the people of South Africa.”

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa of, “, Mr, Ramaphosa, ” Organizations: African National Congress Locations: Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, South Africa, Africa’s

☆ ‘A.N.C. Has Been Humbled’: a Couple’s Vote Explains Why
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

From their home in northern Johannesburg, the Mathivha family celebrated the latest update: with the majority of votes counted, the African National Congress had earned a mere 41 percent. For the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994, the party once led by Nelson Mandela failed to win an outright majority of the votes in a national election. In the last election, in 2019, the A.N.C. The drop to 41 percent in this election has cost the party its majority in Parliament, which elects the country’s president. Now, it will have to work with smaller opposition parties, like those the Mathivhas voted for instead of the A.N.C.

Persons: ”, Buhle, Khathu Mathivha, Ms, Mathivha, Nelson Mandela Organizations: African National Congress Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa

☆ What’s Next for South Africa After Voters Rebuked Its Reigning Party?
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-02 | by ( John Eligon | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

South Africa is headed for big change. — which has governed with sizable electoral majorities since the start of democracy in South Africa in 1994 — won only about 40 percent of the vote in last week’s election. “In their desperation, I wonder what kind of choices they will make,” said Bhekindlela Cebekhulu, 40, a theater performer in Soweto. Will South Africa have a white president soon, or might parties promoting socialism seize ownership of his home, asked Mr. Cebekhulu, who said he voted for the A.N.C. Most of all, he said, he worried about former President Jacob Zuma’s threats to change the Constitution.

Persons: —, ”, Bhekindlela Cebekhulu, Mr, Cebekhulu, Jacob Zuma’s Organizations: African National Congress, “ Locations: Africa, South Africa, Soweto, Will South Africa

☆ South Africans Turn Away from Ruling Party, Early Election Results Show
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

South Africans were on edge Thursday as votes trickled in from a tight national election, with early returns showing poor results for the African National Congress, the party that has governed the country for three decades. — for the first time — would need to form a coalition with one or more rival parties in order to stay in power. In South Africa’s parliamentary system, President Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the African National Congress, would need the support of members of the opposition in order to serve a second term. would significantly change South African politics, and also its policies, shifting the country away from a government dominated by a single party to one held together by fragile coalitions. in small municipalities, but has been fraught in large cities like Johannesburg, where it has led to political infighting.

Persons: —, Cyril Ramaphosa Organizations: African National Congress Locations: Africa’s, Johannesburg

☆ South Africans Vote, Many Hoping for Change as Seismic as Mandela’s Rise
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( John Eligon | Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Volunteers with the party worked feverishly to hold onto their majority, shuttling voters to polling stations, extolling the party’s virtues from loudspeakers on pickup trucks and handing out the party’s bright yellow T-shirts. Top party officials chanted alongside these foot soldiers, as if rallying them for battle. Pollsters have widely predicted that the party will win a plurality but draw less than 50 percent of the vote for the first time. If that happens, it will be forced to ally with one or more other parties in order to form a government and remain in power. Voters are electing a National Assembly, which will choose whether to keep or unseat President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Persons: feverishly, Pollsters, Cyril Ramaphosa Organizations: African National Congress, Volunteers, National Assembly Locations: Africa

☆ South Africa’s Young Democracy Leaves Its Young Voters Disillusioned
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | Joao Silva | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At the dawn of South Africa’s democracy after the fall of the racist apartheid government, millions lined up before sunrise to cast their ballots in the country’s first free and fair election in 1994. South Africa is now heading into a pivotal election on Wednesday, in which voters will determine which party — or alliance — will pick the president. This downward curve has mirrored the support for South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress, or A.N.C., which was a liberation movement before becoming a political machine. A new generation of voters do not have the lived experience of apartheid nor the emotional connection that their parents and grandparents had to the party. as a governing party is all young people know, and they blame it for their joblessness, rampant crime and an economy blighted by electricity blackouts.

Persons: Nelson Mandela Organizations: South, African National Congress Locations: South Africa

☆ South Africa’s Highest Court Says Jacob Zuma Can’t Run in Election
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | More About Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Constitutional Court later overturned his medical parole, but Mr. Zuma then received a presidential pardon from his successor-turned-political rival, Mr. Ramaphosa. While he was granted a remission that reduced his time in prison, he had been sentenced to 15 months, which made him ineligible to run, the court decided. According to South African law, a person who has been convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 12 months in prison cannot serve in the National Assembly. “It is declared that Mr. Zuma was convicted of an offense and sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment,” Justice Leona Theron said. Mr. Zuma is not “eligible and not qualified” to stand for election until five years after the completion of his sentence, the justice added.

Persons: Zuma, Ramaphosa, Leona Theron, Mr, ” Organizations: Constitutional, National Assembly, Mr Locations: Africa

☆ Jacob Zuma, Once Leader of the A.N.C., Becomes Its Political Rival
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | Joao Silva | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Jobless graduates, struggling business owners and army veterans marched through the eastern South African city of Pietermaritzburg this week, chanting the name “Jacob Zuma.”The 500 or so demonstrators brought to a standstill parts of the city, in KwaZulu-Natal Province — the traditional stronghold of Mr. Zuma, a past president of both South Africa and the African National Congress, the party that governed the country for three decades. Demanding water and electricity, the protest over commonplace local concerns was also a show of power for the new political party that Mr. Zuma now leads — uMkhonto weSizwe, or M.K. — with the hope of eroding the dominant position of his former allies. “We are going to have to fight for things to change,” said Khumbuzile Phungula, 49, who joined the march after her neighborhood went weeks without water. is all about change.”

Persons: “ Jacob Zuma, ”, Zuma, — uMkhonto, Khumbuzile Phungula Organizations: African National Congress Locations: African, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu, Natal Province, South Africa

☆ Inquiry Into Johannesburg Fire Blames City Officials for Deadly Conditions
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

An inquiry into a deadly fire in Johannesburg last August that killed 76 people and exposed a housing crisis in South Africa’s largest city placed the blame on officials who ignored “ringing alarm bells” for years. The eight-month inquiry, led by a retired constitutional court justice, released its findings in a report on Sunday. The report said that years of inaction by city agencies had allowed the building to fall into lethal disrepair, and singled out a high-ranking official for blame. In the early hours of Aug. 31, a fire ripped through a derelict building in downtown Johannesburg. Once a women’s shelter, it had been all but abandoned by city agencies although it was owned by the government and managed by the Johannesburg Property Company, a government agency.

Organizations: Johannesburg Property Company Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa’s, South

Has South Africa Truly Defeated Apartheid? U.S.A., 2020 – 63% U.K., 2019 – 62% 60% 49% 40% 20% 1994 2004 2014 2019 Sources: Collette Schulz-Herzenberg, "The South African non-voter: An analysis"; Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, 2020 (South Africa); Pew Research (United States and U.K.)On a continent where coups, autocrats and flawed elections have become common, South Africa is a widely admired exception. −4% −6% Sources: Harvard Growth Lab analysis of World Economic Outlook (South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa) and World Development Indicators (upper-middle-income countries). 50% unemployment rate 40% Black unemployment rate 30% The unemployment gap between Black and white South Africans remains wide. In 2022, about 6 percent of South Africans aged 18 to 29 were enrolled in higher education, according to Statistics South Africa.

Persons: Nelson Mandela, they’ve, Collette Schulz, Konrad Adenaur Stiftung, —, Walter Sisulu, Joao Silva, New York Times Jack Martins, ”, Mandela’s, Wandile Sihlobo, Johann Kirsten, Sihlobo, Kirsten, haven’t, Zinhle Nene, Peter Mokoena, “, Mokoena, Nokuthula Mabe, Mabe, Jacob Zuma, Chrispin Phiri, Cyril Ramaphosa, Israel, Sibusiso Zikode, Zikode, Mr Organizations: African National Congress, Pew Research, Human Sciences Research, World Bank, Black South, Charter, New York Times, University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Economic Empowerment, South, Harvard, Economic, Government, Black, Mr, Stellenbosch University . White, Statistics, Security, JOHANNESBURG Jobs, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown, West University, Education, Statistics South, General Household Survey, of, Stellenbosch University, Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services, Institute for Security Studies, International Court of Justice Locations: Africa, South Africa, Black, States, Soweto, Kliptown, Johannesburg, South, Saharan Africa, Carletonville, JOHANNESBURG, Downtown Soweto, JOHANNESBURG Sandton, JOHANNESBURG Sandton Downtown Soweto, North, Mahikeng, Botswana, Statistics South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, African, Germany, Russia, India, China, Ethiopia, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, New York Times South Africa, Gaza, Durban, South Africa’s

☆ Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s Scandal-Ridden Ex-President, Is Running Again
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Lynsey Chutel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Jacob Zuma, who resigned as South Africa’s president in shame in 2018, is now staging his biggest comeback act yet by running in next month’s parliamentary elections with an upstart opposition party at the top of its ticket — the slot designated for a party’s presidential contender. Mr. Zuma’s participation in the race is a blow to a faltering African National Congress — the party he once led — which has governed the country since the end of apartheid three decades ago. and its leader, the country’s current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, are now struggling to win back the trust of voters disillusioned by a stagnant economy and years of corruption. On Wednesday, his party — uMkhonto weSizwe — released its list of national candidates with his name at the top. His party, known as MK, was formed only last December, but has already climbed in the polls, gained ground in local elections and won several legal battles for the right to contest the May 29 election.

Persons: Jacob Zuma, Mr, Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma, — Organizations: South, African National Congress

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