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Crowded together with 90 other migrants on a rickety fishing vessel bound for Spain, Moustapha Diouf watched 10 of them die, one by one, from heat and exhaustion. Worried about health risks posed by the corpses, Mr. Diouf had to throw the bodies overboard. Five were friends. “If we don’t do anything, we become accomplices in their deaths,” said Mr. Diouf, 54, sitting in a dusty office of the nonprofit he co-founded, empty but for one desk and a couple of chairs. “I will fight every day to stop young people from leaving.”

Persons: Moustapha Diouf, Diouf, ”, Mr, “ Locations: Spain, Europe

Liberia’s president, George Weah, conceded defeat on Friday night in his bid for a second term, after a tight runoff against Joseph Boakai, a 78-year-old political veteran, in an election that was considered a test of democracy in the West African nation. Mr. Boakai, who had served as vice president for 12 years under the former president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, defeated Mr. Weah, a 57-year-old former soccer star, by a razor-thin margin. The country’s national election commission stopped short of declaring a winner on Friday afternoon, but announced that with more than 99 percent of the ballots counted, Mr. Boakai held 50.89 percent of the votes, and Mr. Weah 49.11 percent. It was the nation’s tightest election in two decades, and a rematch of the election in 2017, when Mr. Weah handily beat Mr. Boakai. Mr. Weah said in a radio address broadcast late on Friday evening that while his party had lost the election, “Liberia has won.”

Persons: George Weah, Joseph Boakai, Boakai, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Weah, ” Organizations: “ Locations: West African, “ Liberia

☆ Ukraine Gets an Encouraging Sign in Its Bid to Join the E.U.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Monika Pronczuk | More About Monika Pronczuk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The European Union’s executive arm recommended on Wednesday that the bloc open membership talks with Ukraine, an encouraging step for the government in Kyiv in what remains a long and arduous joining process. The recommendation from the executive, the European Commission, comes with the caveat that Ukraine must take steps to address corruption, protect minorities and limit the power of oligarchs. The final decision on opening the talks rests with the leaders of the 27 E.U. member nations, and they are expected to discuss the question at a summit meeting next month, potentially clearing the way for the start of detailed negotiations. Such a move would represent a strong political signal about the European Union’s support for Ukraine, which is battling to maintain backing from its allies in the face of a stagnating counteroffensive against Russia while much of the world’s attention turns to Israel’s war with Hamas.

Organizations: European Commission, Ukraine Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia

On one side of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza sit more than 100 trucks packed with desperately needed food, water and medical supplies. On the other wait more than 2 million Gazans now scraping by on dwindling stocks of basic human necessities. Officials and aid workers on Thursday were hammering out the logistics of opening the gates, saying that a U.N.-led deal had laid the groundwork to allow trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt, offering the renewed promise of relief to the besieged enclave. Aid organizations were told that the crossing would open on Friday morning, according to an aid official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The deal, officials said, includes the U.N. flag being raised at the crossing and international observers inspecting aid trucks before they enter Gaza.

Persons: Egypt — Organizations: Israel, Hamas Locations: Egypt, Gaza, Gazan, Rafah

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who heeded the Israeli military’s order to evacuate portions of the Gaza Strip are confronting deadly airstrikes from Israeli warplanes even after they’ve moved. And a grim question hung over the enclave on Tuesday: Was there anywhere safe to go? Last week, after the deadly Oct. 7 cross-border attacks by Hamas, Israel ordered all of Gaza’s northern residents — some 1.1 million people — to abandon their homes ahead of an expected ground invasion of the strip and to head south. Hundreds of thousands obeyed, leaving by car, motorcycle and even on foot. He added that southern Gaza was relatively safer than the north, but not entirely safe.

Persons: they’ve, Israel, Khan Younis, Nir Locations: Gaza, Rafah

Days after hundreds of Hamas terrorists from Gaza rampaged through border towns in a surprise assault that killed at least 1,400 Israelis, the region is bracing for further conflict. In response to the shocking incursion, Israel has been pummeling the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, and the Palestinian Health Ministry has said that more than 2,800 Palestinians have been killed. Israel has mobilized 360,000 reservists and troops are now massing at the border, leading to speculation that Israel will soon launch a ground offensive. In a region with a long history of conflict, fighting along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon escalated. And Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group, announced that it had targeted four separate Israeli locations.

Organizations: Palestinian Health Ministry, United Locations: Gaza, Israel, United Nations, Lebanon, Lebanese

He calls for a return of the Russian Empire, and has repeatedly denied the existence of a Ukrainian identity. Mr. Malofeyev has been cut off from most Western financial systems since 2014, when the Treasury Department and other international regulators accused him of financing Russian proxy forces inside Ukraine. Mr. Malofeyev, though, has continued to use his charity, the St. Basil the Great Foundation, to raise money for orphanages in the Russian-occupied Donbas and Zaporizhzhia regions. In an interview, Mr. Malofeyev said he did not know whether those orphanages hosted Ukrainian children who had been forcibly relocated, but said the resettlement effort had been unfairly demonized.

Persons: Konstantin Malofeyev, Malofeyev, Basil the Organizations: Hague, Treasury Department, Basil the Great Foundation Locations: Russian, Russia, Ukraine

She is too young to quit and too old to uproot her life, she said, and the authorities have not provided enough support and information on how to change what she now does. Although only nine million out of almost 400 million voters in Europe work in agriculture, they are a vocal and influential bloc that attracts the sympathy of many on a continent where a nation’s identity is often tied to the food it produces. A host of new groups are vying to displace traditional parties. They include the Farmer Citizen Movement, known by its Dutch acronym BBB, which was established four years ago. The party has just one seat in the 150-member Dutch House of Representatives, but it swept regional elections in March, and polls predict it will do well in national elections in November.

Persons: ”, Breunissen Organizations: Political, Farmer Citizen Movement, Dutch, of Locations: Europe

The United States and Europe have wrestled for months with the question of how to pay for Ukraine’s reconstruction from the war. As Russia pounds cities, factories and infrastructure in Ukraine, the estimated costs have swelled to $500 billion, with some experts citing numbers as high as $1 trillion. One solution seemed brilliant in its simplicity: What better way to foot the bill, and to make a moral point, than to make Russia pay? Experts warn that it would likely violate international law and potentially set a dangerous precedent for countries to take the assets of others. The money once seemed easily within reach — since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Western nations have frozen more than $330 billion in Russian Central Bank assets held abroad.

Organizations: Russian Central Bank Locations: States, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, —

☆ 8 Men Are Convicted in 2016 Terrorist Bombings in Brussels
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Monika Pronczuk | More About Monika Pronczuk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Eight men were found guilty on Tuesday of having organized a series of bombings in Brussels in March 2016 that amounted to the deadliest terrorist assault in Belgium’s history. The verdict capped an eight-month trial, the largest ever organized in Belgium, with testimony from almost 1,000 registered survivors, witnesses and experts. Eight of the men standing trial were charged with murder and attempted murder in a terrorist context, and one was charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group. The jury, composed of Brussels residents of all ages and skin colors, pronounced six men guilty of murder and attempted murder. Two were acquitted on the murder charges, but were found guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

Persons: —, Ibrahim Farisi, Smail Farisi Locations: Brussels, Paris, Belgium, Europe

☆ In a Bid to Curb Migrants, Europe Strikes a Deal With Tunisia
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Monika Pronczuk | More About Monika Pronczuk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS — The European Union has struck a deal with Tunisia to try to stem the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, amid heated debate over the fallout of the bloc’s migration policies, including a shipwreck last month that was the deadliest in years. will provide a broad package of support for the North African country’s embattled economy. Tunis, the capital, is a major port city less than 130 nautical miles from the Italian island of Sicily, and even closer to smaller Italian islands. That makes Tunisia not just a source of migrants itself but also a major transit stop for sub-Saharan Africans who are trying to reach Europe. Tunisian authorities have come under fire for alleged rights abuses of sub-Saharan migrants, including rounding up hundreds of them and abandoning them at the desert border with Libya with no food or water.

Organizations: The European Locations: BRUSSELS, Tunisia, Europe, African, Tunis, Sicily, Libya

A deal to ensure that data from Meta, Google and scores of other companies can continue flowing between the United States and European Union was finalized on Monday, after the digital transfer of personal information between the two jurisdictions had been thrown into doubt because of privacy concerns. The decision adopted by the European Commission is the final step in a yearslong process and resolves — at least for now — a dispute about American intelligence agencies’ ability to gain access to data about European Union residents. The debate pitted U.S. national security concerns against European privacy rights. The accord, known as the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, gives Europeans the ability to object when they believe their personal information has been collected improperly by American intelligence agencies. A new independent review body made up of American judges, called the Data Protection Review Court, will be created to hear such appeals.

Persons: Didier Reynders, Merrick B, Garland, Gina Raimondo Organizations: Meta, Google, European Union, European Commission, European, U.S Locations: United States, European Union

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