Month: January 2024

UN Top Court to Hear Genocide Case Against Israel Next Week

Posted on by SeeEU

The Hague — The U.N.’s top court will hear submissions next week from South Africa and Israel after Pretoria opened a case for what it called Israel’s “genocidal” acts in Gaza.

South Africa wants to International Court of Justice to urgently order Israel to suspend its military operations in Gaza, in a case which Israel rejected “with disgust.”

The ICJ “will hold public hearings at the Peace Palace in The Hague… in proceedings instituted by South Africa against Israel,” on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 January, the court said in a statement.

The South African application, filed last Friday, related to alleged violations by Israel of its obligations under the Genocide Convention, saying that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Israel rejected the charge, with Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Israel rejects with disgust the blood libel spread by South Africa and its application” to the ICJ.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added Israel displayed “unparalleled morality” in the Gaza war as he too dismissed South Africa’s charge.

South Africa, amongst other urgent measures, is asking the court to order that “Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza” and that both countries “take all reasonable measures within their power to prevent genocide.”

Israel launched a relentless military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

The militants’ attack left about 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel’s ongoing Gaza offensive has killed more than 22,300 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

South Africa will present its arguments on Thursday of next week, while Israel is set to counter on Friday.

A ruling by the ICJ on the request for emergency measures is expected to follow within weeks, but the case proper could still take months, or even years.

Set up after World War II, the ICJ is the UN’s highest legal body and rules in disputes between countries.

Decisions are legally binding, but the court has little power to enforce them.
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Prominent Uganda LGBTQ Activist Injured in Knife Attack

Posted on by SeeAF

kampala, uganda — A prominent Ugandan LGBTQ activist was stabbed on his way to work on Wednesday by unknown assailants on a motorbike, police and a rights campaigner said.

Steven Kabuye, 25, suffered knife wounds and was left for dead in the assault on the outskirts of the capital Kampala before being found by local residents, police said.

Human rights defenders have been warning about the risk of attacks on members of the LGBTQ community after Uganda last year adopted what is considered one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world.

Kabuye told detectives investigating the incident that he had been getting death threats, according to a statement issued by police spokesman Patrick Onyango.

“According to Mr. Kabuye, two unidentified individuals on a motorcycle, wearing helmets, approached him. The passenger jumped off and attacked him, specifically targeting his neck with a knife,” Onyango said.

“Kabuye managed to shield his neck with his right arm, resulting in a stab wound to his hand. Despite attempting to flee, the assailants chased and stabbed him in the stomach, and left him for dead,” he said, adding that local residents found him and took him to a medical clinic.

Richard Lusimbo, the head of community action group Uganda Key Populations Consortium, told AFP that Kabuye was in “critical condition,” but Onyango said he was out of danger.

“All our efforts at the moment [are to ensure] that he gets the medical attention he deserves and also the perpetrators of this heinous act are held responsible,” said Lusimbo.

Kabuye, who works with the Colored Voices Media Foundation that campaigns for LGBTQ youth, told investigators who visited his hospital bedside that he had been receiving death threats since March 2023.

He had returned to Uganda in December for Christmas after traveling abroad in June.

In May last year, Uganda adopted anti-gay legislation that contains provisions making “aggravated homosexuality” a potentially capital offence and penalties for consensual same-sex relations of up to life in prison.

“Having laws like the Anti-Homosexuality Act puts lives of the LGBTQ community at risk and empowers hatred,” Lusimbo said.

The legislation triggered outrage among rights advocates and Western powers, and it is currently being challenged in Uganda’s constitutional court.

President Yoweri Museveni’s government has struck a defiant tone, with officials accusing the West of trying to pressure Africa into accepting homosexuality.
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Chad’s Junta Leader Appoints Pro-Democracy Figure as Prime Minister

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Yaounde — Chad’s military leader has appointed a former opposition leader and pro-democracy figure, Success Masra, as prime minister in a newly-appointed transitional government. Opposition and civil society groups are skeptical that Masra, who recently returned from exile, can convince military ruler Mahamat Idriss Deby to give up power. But Marsa says his appointment does not stop him from making sure Chad carries out elections later this year and returns to civilian rule.

Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo, secretary-general of Chad’s presidency and a close aide of military ruler General Mahamat Idriss Deby, reads the names of members of a new government.

Alhabo says the new government, who he says will prepare Chad for return to civilian rule, was named after consultation with former opposition leader Success Masra, whom Deby appointed as Chad’s transitional prime minister on Monday.

Masra replaced Saleh Kebzabo, a Deby appointment who served as prime minister for 14 months.

On Sunday, Deby said he had accepted Kebzabo’s resignation following the adoption of a new constitution. Last week, Chad’s Supreme Court approved the results of a referendum in which 85% of Chadians voted in favor of the new document.

Neatobei Bidi Valentin is president of the N’djamena-headquartered African Party for Peace and Justice.

He says he does not believe Mahamat Idriss Deby consulted with Masra before naming and installing a new government of 41 members on Tuesday… Neitobei says before the new prime minister and his government were appointed, civil society and the political opposition, including Masra, asked Deby to reduce Chad’s government of transition by half.

Neitobei said a majority of the members of the transitional government appointed by Deby are the military general’s family and friends.

Chad’s civil society groups say Masra and a few former opposition members in the new government will not be able to stop the military ruler from illegally continuing his family’s autocratic rule.

Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, ruled Chad for three decades before dying in April 2021 on the frontlines of a fight against northern rebels.

The younger Deby was to head a transitional council but on October 8, 2022, he dissolved the council and declared himself interim president.

Masra led thousands of civilians in street protests against what he called Deby’s iron fisted-rule and his attempts to continue his father’s dynasty.

Rights groups report that security forces killed 50 people, injured 300 and arrested several hundred during the protests.

Masra fled to the United States through neighboring Cameroon but returned on November 3 after he reached an agreement with Deby. Civil society groups say they were surprised when Masra started urging voters to take part in the constitutional referendum, which opposition groups called a sham to extend Deby’s rule.

Chad’s opposition says by accepting the prime minister’s post, Masra has dashed the hopes of a majority of civilians who counted on his popularity to force the military junta to step aside.

Masra says his appointment does not stop him from pressing for democratic elections for a return to constitutional order.

He says his immediate task is to convince teachers who have been refusing to work since October 2023 in protest of difficult working conditions and poor salaries. He says teachers should return to classrooms and work while he prepares a national dialogue with teachers, because children’s education is a fundamental human right and Chad’s government priority.

Masra said he will make sure living conditions of civilians are improved and the current fuel shortage is eased before the country holds elections in October of this year.

The 40-year-old former opposition leader also says he will work closely with Deby to make sure the general amnesty granted to all civilians and military arrested during the October 2022 protests is fully implemented.
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Turkey Opens First Major Trial Into Earthquake Deaths

Posted on by SeeEU

ISTANBUL — Turkey on Wednesday opened the first major trial linked to the construction of buildings that crumbled in two massive earthquakes that claimed more than 50,000 lives in February 2023.

The hearing in the southeastern city of Adiyaman involves 11 defendants accused of “conscious negligence” while overseeing the construction of the Isias Hotel.

Five of the 11 defendants, including the hotel’s owner, have been arrested and charged with crimes that could see them jailed for more than 20 years each.

The hotel’s collapse killed 24 children from Northern Cyprus who had flown to Turkey to attend a students’ volleyball tournament.

They died together with a group of parents and chaperones in what Turkish prosecutors now say was a tragedy that could have been averted had proper safety standards been met.

The building’s collapse claimed the lives of 72 people in all — 39 of them from Northern Cyprus.

It was the single biggest tragedy in the history of the separatist statelet, whose self-rule is recognized only by Ankara.

The indictment says the building was illegally converted from a residence into a hotel in 2001. It adds that the hotel had illegally erected an additional floor to the nine permitted by the original plan.

The plaintiffs include Northern Cyprus Prime Minister Unal Ustel.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged politically unscathed from the disaster, winning reelection months after the quake struck.

He blamed the large death toll on corrupt property developers who paid off local inspectors in order to use cheap building materials and illegally put up additional floors.

Turkish police arrested some 200 people over allegedly poor building construction immediately after the first 7.8-magnitude quake struck.

Erdogan’s critics counter that most of Turkey’s main construction and real estate companies have formed a close relationship with the ruling AKP party during his 21-year rule.
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Burkina Faso Gym Enthusiasts Aim to Improve Health, Fitness in New Year

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Every New Year, people make resolutions to improve their lives. In Burkina Faso’s capital, a common New Year’s goal is to get in better physical shape. Gildas Da met members of Ouagadougou gyms who plan to exercise more in the coming year. Gildas Da has the story, narrated by Arzouma Kompaore.
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California Rose Parade Features Float for Armenian Mothers

Posted on by SeeUS

Armenian Americans in Southern California celebrated their culture with a flowered float in the annual Rose Parade, moving on from a turbulent year that included Armenians’ exodus from their former enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan’s borders. Genia Dulot has our story from Pasadena.
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Sierra Leone Charges 12 for Roles in Coup Attempt

Posted on by SeeAF

Freetown, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone on Tuesday charged 12 people with treason and other offenses for their roles in what authorities have called an attempted coup on November 26, a news release said.

One of those charged was Amadu Koita, whom the government has said was one of the organizers of the coup attempt.

A former soldier and bodyguard of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, Koita was widely followed on social media networks where he criticized the government of current President Julius Maada Bio.

He was arrested December 4 and is one of 85 people — most of them military personnel — who were arrested in connection with the events of November 26.

The 12 alleged perpetrators, including former police officers, were handed charges including “treason, misprision of treason, harbouring, aiding, and abetting the enemy,” according to a news release signed by Information Minister Chernor Bah.

Eleven of them were brought before a judge in the capital Freetown, with the case of one of the accused postponed due to illness, the statement said, adding that all had legal representation.

On November 26, armed attackers stormed a military armory, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations, clashing with security forces.

Twenty-one people were killed and hundreds of prisoners escaped before authorities were able to regain control after what they deemed a coup attempt by members of the armed forces.

The violence sparked fears of another coup in West Africa, where Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea have all experienced putsches since 2020.
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US National Debt Hits Record $34 Trillion as Congress Gears up for Funding Fight

Posted on by SeeUS

WASHINGTON — The federal government’s gross national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, a record high that foreshadows the coming political and economic challenges to improve America’s balance sheet in the coming years. 

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a report Tuesday logging U.S. finances, which have become a source of tension in a politically divided Washington that could possibly see parts of the government shut down without an annual budget in place. 

Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed last June to temporarily lift the nation’s debt limit, staving off the risk of what would be a historic default. That agreement lasts until January 2025. Here are some answers to questions about the new record national debt. 

How did the national debt hit $34 trillion?  

The national debt eclipsed $34 trillion several years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office’s January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $34 trillion in fiscal year 2029. 

But the debt grew faster than expected because of a multiyear pandemic starting in 2020 that shut down much of the U.S. economy. The government borrowed heavily under then-President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden to stabilize the economy and support a recovery. But the rebound came with a surge of inflation that pushed up interest rates and made it more expensive for the government to service its debts. 

“So far, Washington has been spending money as if we had unlimited resources,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. “But the bottom line is, there is no free lunch,” he said. “And I think the outlook is pretty grim.” 

The gross debt includes money that the government owes itself, so most policymakers rely on the total debt held by the public in assessing the government’s finances. This lower figure — $26.9 trillion — is roughly equal in size to the U.S. gross domestic product. 

Last June, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in its 30-year outlook that publicly held debt will be equal to a record 181% of American economic activity by 2053. 

What is the impact to the economy?  

The national debt does not appear to be a weight on the U.S. economy right now, as investors are willing to lend the federal government money. This lending allows the government to keep spending on programs without having to raise taxes. 

But the debt’s path in the decades to come might put at risk national security and major programs, including Social Security and Medicare, which have become the most prominent drivers of forecasted government spending over the next few decades. Government dysfunction, such as another debt limit showdown, could also be a financial risk if investors worry about lawmakers’ willingness to repay the U.S. debt. 

Foreign buyers of U.S. debt — like China, Japan, South Korea and European nations — have already cut down on their holdings of Treasury notes. 

A Peterson Foundation analysis states that foreign holdings of U.S. debt peaked at 49% in 2011 but dropped to 30% by the end of 2022. 

“Looking ahead, debt will continue to skyrocket as the Treasury expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion more by the end of March,” said Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson. “Adding trillion after trillion in debt, year after year, should be a flashing red warning sign to any policymaker who cares about the future of our country. 

How could it affect me?  

The debt equates to about $100,000 per person in the U.S. That sounds like a lot, but the sum so far has not appeared to threaten U.S. economic growth. 

Instead, the risk is long term if the debt keeps rising to uncharted levels. Sohn said a higher debt load could put upward pressure on inflation and cause interest rates to remain elevated, which could also increase the cost of repaying the national debt. 

And as the debt challenge evolves over time, choices may become more severe as the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid increasingly outstrip tax revenues. 

When it could turn into a more dire situation is anyone’s guess, says Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “But if and when that happens, it could mean very significant consequences that occur very quickly. 

“It could mean spikes in interest rates. It could mean a recession that leads to lots more unemployment. It could lead to another bout of inflation or weird goings-on with consumer prices — several of which are things that we’ve experienced just in the past few years,” he said. 

How do Republicans and Democrats differ?  

Both Democrats and Republicans have called for debt reduction, but they disagree on the appropriate means of doing so. 

The Biden administration has been pushing for tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations to reduce budget deficits, in addition to funding its domestic agenda. Biden also increased the budget for the IRS so that it can collect unpaid taxes and possibly reduce the debt by hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years. 

Republican lawmakers have called for large cuts to non-defense government programs and the repeal of clean energy tax credits and spending passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. But Republicans also want to trim Biden’s IRS funding and cut taxes further, both of which could cause the debt to worsen. 

A Treasury Department representative did not respond to a request for comment. 

“There is growing concern among investors and rating agencies that the trajectory we’re on is unsustainable — when that turns into a more dire situation is anyone’s guess,” Akabas said. 
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US Condemns Israeli Ministers’ Call for Palestinians to Emigrate

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washington — The United States on Tuesday denounced controversial comments by two Israeli ministers who said Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate from Gaza and for Jewish settlers to return to the besieged territory.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington “rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.”

“This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible,” added Miller, who reiterated the “clear, consistent, and unequivocal” U.S. position that “Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel.”

Ben Gvir, Israel’s firebrand national security minister, had called on Monday for promoting “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents.”

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete control over the territory’s borders.

The government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested it has any plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the current war broke out on October 7.

But Ben Gvir argued that the departure of Palestinians and re-establishment of Israeli settlements “is a correct, just, moral and humane solution.”

“This is an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza’s residents to emigrate to countries around the world,” he told a meeting of his ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power,” party.

His comments came the day after Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, equally saying Israel should “encourage” the territory’s 2.4 million Palestinians to leave.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to Israel.

After the worst attack in its history, Israel began a relentless bombardment and ground offensive that has killed at least 22,185 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

With heavy combat raging on, 85% of the people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations.
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A Boozy Banana Drink Is Under Threat as Uganda Moves to Restrict Home Brewers

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MBARARA, UGANDA — At least once a week, Girino Ndyanabo’s family converges around a pit in which bananas have been left to ripen. The bananas are peeled and thrown into a wooden vat carved like a boat, and the patriarch steps in with bare feet.

The sweet juice he presses out is filtered and sprinkled with grains of sorghum, which converts the juice into ethanol and left to ferment for up to a day. The result is a beverage Ugandans call tonto, or tontomera, a word in the Luganda language that alludes to drinkers’ poor coordination. Weaker than bottled beer, the drink has a fruity aroma and bits of sorghum floating on its dark surface.

Tonto is legendary in Uganda. Folk singers have crooned about it, politicians seeking a common touch take a sip when hunting for votes and traditional ceremonies terminate at dusk with tonto parties. Its devotees are many, ranging from officials in suits to laborers in sandals.

But its production is under threat, as cheap bottled beer becomes more attractive to drinkers, and as authorities move to curb the production of what are considered illicit home brews, which have the risk of sometimes deadly contamination. And because tonto production takes place outside official purview, authorities are unable to collect revenue from its sale.

A bill in the national assembly seeking to regulate the production and sale of alcohol would criminalize the activities of home brewers of tonto, along with other traditional brews made across this East African country.

But farmers have a more pressing concern: Not enough new banana juice cultivars are being planted to produce the brew. Communities are prioritizing the more commercially viable varieties that are boiled and eaten as a popular mash called matooke.

Ndyanabo, a farmer in the western district of Mbarara whose first experience with tonto was as a little boy in the 1970s, said he has only a few plants left of the cultivars from which the banana juice is extracted.

He sources his bananas one bunch at a time from farmers near him until he can fill the small pit on his plantation. The natural underground heat ripens the bananas within days as Ndyanabo prepares for the weekly pressing.

The event is so important in the family’s routine that they can’t imagine a time when there would be no tonto to sell.

While Ndyanabo said his weekly brew has an assured market, he has seen both demand and supply slow in recent years. This is partly because the retail price of tonto has been largely static over the decades, while the process of brewing it has become more cumbersome.

The distances traveled in search of bananas have grown. The price of sorghum has gone up.

“You take a lot of time doing this work. It’s not as easy as someone who cuts matooke, puts it on a bicycle and sells it for cash immediately,” Ndyanabo said of the green bananas that are eaten raw as a Ugandan staple. “Alcohol comes from very far.”

He’s been trying to plant more of the banana juice cultivars that are known to grow faster. And his son, Mathias Kamukama, is always there to help.

The family makes five or six 20-liter jerricans in each batch. A jerrican’s worth sells for the equivalent of about $8. A half-liter of tonto retails for about 27 cents, compared to 67 cents for the cheapest bottled beer.

One customer is Benson Muhereza, an electrician who regularly visits a small bar in a poor suburb of Mbarara.

“It’s like a favorite drink when you have your lunch. It’s like a juice. When you don’t want to take beer, you come and have your tonto,” Muhereza said.

He described tonto like a “porridge” that doesn’t give him a hangover. “Every day you should have it,” he said.

Christine Kyomuhangi, the tonto seller, said she receives two jerricans of the brew every day. She acknowledged the threats to her business but smiled, insisting her work is sustainable. She said customers come from all over the city.

“Tonto will never get finished,” she said.
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Tuareg Separatists Reject Proposed ‘Inter-Malian’ Peace Dialogue

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Dakar, Senegal — Separatist Tuareg forces on Tuesday rejected the idea of a direct inter-Malian dialogue for peace and reconciliation put forward by the country’s military rulers, after months of hostilities between rebels and the army.

Fighting between the separatists and Mali government troops broke out again in August after eight years of calm as both sides scrambled to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers.

During his New Year’s address on Sunday, Mali’s military ruler, Colonel Assimi Goita, announced the establishment of a “direct inter-Malian dialogue for peace and reconciliation, in order to eliminate the roots of community and intercommunity conflicts.”

He said the dialogue would “prioritize national ownership of the peace process.”

Goita added that the unity, secularity and territorial integrity of the Malian state would not be discussed and vowed to continue the fight against “armed terrorist groups,” a label Mali’s military leaders extend to the Tuareg separatists.

An Algiers-brokered peace agreement between Bamako and predominantly Tuareg armed groups was signed in 2015.

Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for the Tuareg rebellion, told Agence France-Presse that Goita’s announcement of an inter-Malian peace dialogue was “a way of pronouncing the [2015] agreement definitively null and void and kicking out the international mediation.”

“We see this as a rejection of an agreement already signed by all parties and guaranteed by the international community, and we are not ready to take part in a peace process that will only be a sham,” he added.

Mali’s military leaders, who seized power in a 2020 coup, in November recaptured the strategic northern town of Kidal, a stronghold of Tuareg-dominated separatist groups that has long posed a major sovereignty issue for the ruling junta.

At the time, the rebels admitted they had lost their stronghold town but vowed to keep fighting.

Algeria is the main mediator in efforts to return peace to northern Mali, and some leaders of Tuareg separatist groups currently live in Algeria, according to the heads of their movements.

Relations between Mali and Algeria have been at an all-time low since Bamako criticized Algiers for holding meetings with Tuareg separatists without involving the Malian authorities.

Both countries recalled their ambassadors at the end of December.

Meanwhile, Malian forces said Tuesday they had repelled a “terrorist” attack near the key northeastern city of Menaka, near the border with Niger and surrounded by Islamic State group fighters.

The MSA-GATIA alliance of pro-Bamako armed groups said they had suffered three fatalities and killed four jihadist fighters.
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Ukrainian Apartment Dweller Works Hard to Cope After Russian Bombing

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VYSHNEVE, Ukraine — Inured by nearly two years of war, Olena Ohiievych wasted no time getting to work on Tuesday as she confronted the shambles left in her apartment by the latest Russian air attacks on Kyiv and its suburbs. 

It was cold outside and bound to get colder. 

“There are no windows left, no balcony. The balcony doors are shattered, the window glass and frame in every room have been torn out,” said Ohiievych, 25, who manages social media accounts. “We will install something. We plan to do something about all this.” 

The overnight missile and drone attack was the second major assault on the capital in five days, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. Officials said the attacks were likely to intensify. 

Bundled up in a bright pink ski jacket and scarf, with the daytime temperature just above zero degrees Celsius, Ohiievich was determined to stay in her apartment on Kyiv’s western outskirts. 

A group of friends she enlisted was already measuring the windows. 

“My plan is to cover the window with film today. If we don’t have time, then we will stay with my parents in the countryside,” she said. 

“I hope that with united effort, with my friends, we will do it, at least for the first couple days. So, we can stay here when it’s freezing. And sleep here.” 

In the courtyard, residents surveyed shrapnel holes on the facade of the multistory block and loaded up a truck with shattered glass and window frames. 

Ohiievich said she considered herself lucky to have emerged unhurt. 

“The building began to shake, like this,” she said gesturing rapidly. “I thought it was going to collapse on itself, that we were going to be squashed, that the wall behind us would fall and that would be it.” 

Within seconds, those inside, seated on the floor, were covered in dust and unable to see anything, but were unhurt.  

“This wall likely saved our lives,” she said, looking around the room. “The only thing that crumbled was the stucco, that’s it. There was no shrapnel, thank God. This mirror is not broken. We stayed far away from it.” 
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Global Shipping Firms Continue to Pause Red Sea Shipments

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OSLO, NORWAY — Denmark’s Maersk and German rival Hapag-Lloyd said on Tuesday their container ships would continue to avoid the Red Sea route that gives access to the Suez Canal following a weekend attack on one of Maersk’s vessels.  

Both shipping giants have been rerouting some sailings via Africa’s southern Cape of Good Hope as Yemen-based Houthi militants attack cargo vessels in the Red Sea. The disruption threatens to drive up delivery costs for goods, raising fears it could trigger a fresh bout of global inflation.  

Maersk had on Sunday paused all Red Sea sailings for 48 hours following attempts by Houthi militants to board the Maersk Hangzhou. U.S. military helicopters repelled the assault and killed 10 of the attackers. 

“An investigation into the incident is ongoing, and we will continue to pause all cargo movement through the area while we further assess the constantly evolving situation,” Maersk said in a statement.  

“In cases where it makes most sense for our customers, vessels will be rerouted and continue their journey around the Cape of Good Hope.” 

Maersk had more than 30 container vessels set to sail through Suez via the Red Sea, an advisory on Monday showed, while 17 other voyages were put on hold. 

Hapag-Lloyd said its vessels would continue to divert away from the Red Sea — sailing instead via Africa’s southern tip — until at least January 9, when it will decide whether to continue rerouting its ships. 

The Suez Canal is used by roughly one-third of global container ship cargo. Redirecting ships around the southern tip of Africa is expected to cost up to $1 million extra in fuel for every round trip between Asia and northern Europe. 

The Maersk Hangzhou, which was hit by an unknown object during the weekend attack, was able to continue on its way. 

The Iran-backed Houthis, who control parts of Yemen after years of war, started attacking international shipping in November in support of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its war with Israel in the Gaza Strip. 

That prompted major shipping groups, including Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, to stop using Red Sea routes, instead taking the longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope. 

But after the deployment of a U.S.-led military operation to protect ships, Maersk had said on December 24 that it would resume using the Red Sea. 
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Student Newspaper: Harvard President Gay Resigns

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WASHINGTON — Harvard President Claudine Gay has resigned, the Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported on Tuesday, after she and other presidents of Ivy League schools were widely criticized for their congressional testimony about antisemitism on campus. 

Gay’s tenure was the shortest in Harvard’s history, the newspaper said, and followed increasing pressure for her resignation last month, after University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill stepped down. 

Gay, Magill and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth testified before a U.S. House of Representatives committee on December 5 about a rise in antisemitism on college campuses following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October. 

The trio declined to give a definitive “yes” or “no” answer to Republican Representative Elise Stefanik’s question as to whether calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct regarding bullying and harassment, saying they had to balance it against free speech protections.

More than 70 U.S. lawmakers signed onto a letter demanding that the governing boards of the three universities remove the presidents, citing dissatisfaction with their testimony. 

However, Gay received support from some of her colleagues at Harvard. Several hundred faculty members last month signed a petition asking school administrators to not bend to political pressure to fire the school’s president over her testimony. 

Gay has also been hit with accusations of plagiarism. She planned to submit three corrections to her 1997 dissertation after a committee investigating plagiarism allegations against her found that she had made citation errors, a university spokesperson said. 
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France Embassy in Niger Closed ‘Until Further Notice’: Ministry

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Paris — France has closed down its embassy in Niger until further notice, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday, barely two weeks after the last French troops left the country in the wake of a coup that ousted a key Paris ally.

The closure of the embassy in Niamey represents one of the final chapters in the winding down of a French presence in its former colony following the July coup that left the country in the hands of military leaders.

“The French embassy in Niger is now closed until further notice,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the mission would continue activities from Paris.

It said that for the five months since the coup “our embassy has suffered serious obstacles making it impossible to carry out its missions” including a blockade around the mission.

Most staff, including the ambassador who was expelled by the new military leaders, left some time ago.

The military ousted elected leader Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and scrapped defense deals with France, its traditional security partner. Bazoum remains under house arrest in Niamey.

The last contingent of what was once 1,500 French troops deployed in the country to fight a jihadist insurgency left Niger on December 22.

Despite the French pull-out, other Western nations retain a presence in Niger. 

The United States said in December that it was ready to resume cooperation with Niger on the condition its military regime committed to a rapid transition to civilian rule.

A U.S. official said in October that Washington was keeping about 1,000 military personnel in Niger but was no longer actively training or assisting Niger forces. 

Smaller numbers of German and Italian forces also remain, with the West eager to avoid Russia seeking to fill any vacuum created by the French withdrawal. 
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Israel to Appear Before World Court to Counter South Africa’s Gaza Charges

Posted on by SeeAF

JERUSALEM — Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, to contest South Africa’s genocide accusations over the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government spokesman said on Tuesday. 

South Africa asked the court on Friday for an urgent order declaring that Israel was in breach of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention in its conflict with Hamas.  

“The State of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice at The Hague to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel,” spokesman Eylon Levy told an online briefing.  

“We assure South Africa’s leaders, history will judge you, and it will judge you without mercy,” Levy said. 

South Africa has for decades backed the Palestinian cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories. It has likened the plight of Palestinians to those of the Black majority in South Africa during the apartheid era, a comparison Israel strongly denies. 

The International Court of Justice, sometimes known as the World Court, is the United Nations venue for resolving disputes between states. Israel’s foreign ministry has said the suit was “baseless.” 

Lawyers representing South Africa are preparing for the hearing scheduled for January 11 and 12, Clayson Monyela, a spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said in a post on the social media platform X. 

The war was triggered by a cross-border attack by Hamas Islamist militants on October 7, which Israel says killed 1,200 people. 

Israel responded with an air and land assault that has killed more than 22,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. While its casualty figures do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, the ministry has said that 70% of Gaza’s dead are women and those under 18. Israel disputes Palestinian casualty figures and says it has killed 8,000 fighters. 

Levy listed a series of measures Israel’s military has taken to minimize harm to noncombatants.  

He said Hamas bore full moral responsibility for the war it started and was “waging from inside and underneath hospitals, schools, mosques, homes and UN facilities,” Levy said. 

He added, without elaborating, that South Africa was complicit in Hamas’ crimes against Israelis. 

Hamas, designated a terror group by the United States and European Union, denies using Gaza’s population as human shields.
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Jubilant Spanish Soccer Fan Returns Home After Being Freed by Iran

Posted on by SeeEU

Madrid — A Spanish soccer fan who was detained by the Iranian authorities on espionage charges for over a year as he walked to the Qatar Soccer World Cup from Europe returned to his home country on Tuesday.

Santiago Sanchez, who was 41 when he disappeared, touched down at Madrid’s Barajas Airport at around 1 p.m. (1200 GMT), where a large crowd of well wishers awaited him.

“It has been very long, very hard but I am here in my country,” a jubilant Sanchez told reporters at the airport after an emotional reunion with his family and friends.

“We are not aware of how fortunate we are to have been born here in this country,” he added, referring to Spain.

Sanchez was last heard of on Oct. 1, 2022, when he sent friends a picture of himself on the Iraq-Iran border with the caption: “Entry to Iran.”

The Spanish authorities later confirmed he had been charged with espionage and they were seeking his release.

His detention coincided with the biggest protests in Iran’s history following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Iranian Kurdish woman who was arrested for allegedly flouting mandatory dress codes.

His release was revealed on Dec. 31 by Iran’s Embassy in Spain which said it took place “within the framework of friendly and historical relations between the two countries and in compliance with the laws of Iran.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares confirmed the news on Monday, writing on the social media platform X: “Today, happiness is complete. Finally Santiago will be very soon reunited with his family and friends in Spain.”

“The nightmare has ended at last,” Sanchez’s mother, Celia Cogedor, told reporters at the airport as she waited for his arrival.

She thanked Spanish authorities, particularly its ambassador to Iran, for their efforts, saying that without their help he would not have left Iran for years. 

“The worst were the first months (after his disappearance) because nobody knew if he was alive or dead,” Cogedor said. 
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