Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author:

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 902

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 902

As the war enters its 902nd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, August 15, 2024. Fighting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s forces were advancing in the Russian region of Kursk with Kyiv claiming control of at least 1,000 square kilometres (386sq miles) of Russia. Ukraine said the week-old offensive was creating a strategic buffer zone to protect its border areas from Russian attacks. Moscow said the area under Ukraine’s control was about half that claimed by Kyiv and that it had thwarted their attempts to push deeper into five areas in the Kursk region. Ukraine said its army would allow the evacuation of civilians from the Kursk region into Russia and Ukraine and admit international humanitarian organisations to the area. Russia’s Belgorod border region declared a state of emergency amid what the governor said was daily Ukrainian bombardment. Ukraine’s General Staff said Kyiv hit four Russian military airfields overnight in the Russian regions of Voronezh, Kursk and Nizhny Novgorod, targeting fuel stores and aerial weapons. Zelenskyy called the attack “timely” and “accurate”. Moscow said it shot down 117 of the Ukrainian drones as well as four missiles. Police said two medics were killed and three civilians injured in a Russian drone attack on a medical battalion vehicle in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. At least two people were injured in a Russian missile attack on port infrastructure in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, officials said. Politics and diplomacy Germany issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor over his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in 2022. Hackers linked to Russian intelligence are targeting the Kremlin’s critics and Western diplomats with phishing emails, according to new research from digital rights groups Citizen Lab and Access Now. The attacks began in 2022 with victims in the double digits, the groups said. The former US ambassador to Ukraine was among those targeted. Russia has launched more than 10,000 cases against people accused of “discrediting” the army since it began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the Mediazona website, which monitors the country’s courts. Polish prosecutors said that they formally indicted Pavel Rubtsov, better known as Pablo Gonzalez, on charges of espionage. The dual Russian-Spanish man was part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West last month. China said its special envoy on Eurasian affairs had a phone call with Pope Francis’s special envoy on Ukraine and discussed the conflict. Adblock test (Why?)

Compensation arrives 7 years after siege that left Marawi a ‘dead city’

Compensation arrives 7 years after siege that left Marawi a ‘dead city’

Marawi, Philippines – Maisara Dandamun-Latiph’s office sits on a hill overlooking the ruins of Marawi, the southern Philippine city that was destroyed during a five-month battle with hardline fighters linked to the ISIL (ISIS) group in 2017. Dandamun-Latiph was named chairperson of the Marawi Compensation Board in 2023, after years of promises to rebuild the city came to nothing. Now, Marawi residents are finally beginning to receive payouts, in a compensation process that also must navigate a frayed and fragile trust. “We want the people to be on board with us,” Dandamun-Latiph told Al Jazeera. “The people deserve nothing less than very good service after what has happened.” Marawi was completely destroyed after the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups launched an attack in 2017, holding on to the city during a five-month siege before the Philippine military recaptured it. Of the more than 1.1 million people who once lived there, most have not returned. The administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte released more than $200m in funding to rebuild Marawi. But rather than new homes, the money went mostly to public infrastructure projects, such as a new lakeside stadium and convention centre, which now stand alone amid the ruins. “It’s normal for [residents] not to be so trustful of government, especially with what happened,” Dandaman-Latiph said. Maisara Dandamun-Latiph says fairness is crucial in decisions on compensation [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] The Marawi Compensation Board was created by an act of congress in 2022 to handle claims of wrongful death and damaged or destroyed property. Last year, President Ferdinand Marcos appointed Dandaman-Latiph, a respected lawyer and civic leader, as its chairperson. The board has received 14,495 claims so far and has approved 596, totalling about $16.8m for destroyed structures and civilian deaths. Some 87 civilians died in the siege, with Amnesty International accusing ISIL-affiliated fighters and the Philippine military of human rights violations. All claims are processed in batches in the order they are received, said Dandaman-Latiph, who stressed the need for fairness in both determining compensation and hiring staff for the office. “It has to be based on merit,” she said. “Otherwise, this office will fail.” A hopeful process Dandamun-Latiph’s office is full of claimants on any given day, many of whom she knows by name. As she walks along the corridor to her office, she chats with an elderly woman, then spins around and crouches down to greet a child. “Here, everybody knows everybody,” she said. Faisah Dima-Ampao, a Marawi native, had just returned to the city in 2017 after working in Saudi Arabia for 36 years. When the fighting began, her mother did not evacuate, believing – as many did at the time – that it would last only for a few days. Her mother has never been found, and the family home was completely destroyed. The Sarimanok Sports Stadium and a neighbouring convention centre were built using relief funds despite protests from community leaders [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] After the siege, Dima-Ampao’s family received about $1,400 from a government task force, along with sacks of rice, chicken and groceries that were “only enough for one month for a small family”, she said. Dima-Ampao compares her situation unfavourably to survivors of conflict in Syria and Lebanon, where she says governments rebuilt housing within one or two years. “But in Marawi, it didn’t happen,” she said. “They didn’t give us anything.” Now, she feels somewhat vindicated by the compensation process, which she says has been smooth. She has received $6,100 in compensation for the death of her mother and is waiting for her family’s lost property claim to be processed. The compensation board has embraced a data-driven approach, plotting damaged and destroyed properties on a 3D map and matching them against claims. It also allows residents to prove property ownership via other means, like inviting witnesses, if their documents were lost in the siege. “They just carried them, their families and their clothes on their back,” Dandaman-Latiph said. “We do not want to overburden them.” ‘A dead city’ But even as residents begin to receive compensation, the payouts will not rebuild the city of Marawi, which remains largely in ruins. Marawi’s former commercial centre stands vacant. Weeds and wildflowers have taken over vacant lots and wound their way around the husks of the buildings. Near the city’s largest mosque, which was quickly rebuilt after the siege, one family was rebuilding its house. Three blocks away, a man was selling dodol, a glutinous rice cake, from a street cart. But the stores and restaurants that once made Marawi popular as a trading post and culinary destination have not returned, giving residents little incentive to come back. Some Marawi residents have begun to rebuild their homes, but most people have not returned [Nick Aspinwall/Al Jazeera] The newly built stadium and convention centre stand on the shore of Lanao Lake – the jewels of the Duterte administration’s rebuilding project. However, they have rarely been used, and they’ve become targets for those wishing the money had gone to housing and job creation. “You think that’s the priority of the people who don’t have any livelihood to play tennis or run or jog or do track and field or play football? What they need is to have a livelihood,” said Acram Latiph, a professor at Mindanao State University. “There were a lot of resources wasted,” he said. “All they did was prolong the agony of the people.” Last December, a bombing attack during a Catholic mass at Mindanao State University was a reminder of the threats that remain in the region. Four people were killed and at least 50 injured in an attack that was claimed by ISIL. “It’s not a question of whether it will happen. It’s a question of when,” Latiph said. “They’re like cockroaches.” Still, many residents blame the authorities for what happened to Marawi and question whether the siege had to happen in the first place. “They said let’s just sacrifice Marawi and compensate the people afterwards,” he said. “It was a

Minouche Shafik resigns as Columbia president after tumultuous year

Minouche Shafik resigns as Columbia president after tumultuous year

Shafik drew criticism over her handling of Gaza war protests that rocked the university campus earlier this year. Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, has announced her resignation after a tumultuous year marked by tensions with staff and students over her handling of campus protests against the Gaza war. The university announced her departure in a statement on its website on Wednesday. “This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote in a letter to the university’s staff and students. “It has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.” David Greenberg and Claire Shipman, co-chairs of the university’s Board of Trustees, said they understood and respected her decision. Protests against the Gaza war began on Columbia’s New York City campus in April inspiring similar encampments at other institutions across the United States and beyond. As the protests gathered momentum, Shafik was summoned to a congressional committee over allegations the university had failed to protect students and staff from rising anti-Semitism. The next day, she allowed New York City police onto the campus to clear the protests and about 100 people were arrested, triggering outrage from protesters and some academics and calls for her resignation. Tensions rose further at the end of April, when police returned again to campus, arresting some 300 people and removing the encampment. “Over the summer, I have been able to reflect and have decided that my moving on at this point would best enable Columbia to traverse the challenges ahead,” Shafik said. “I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins.” Shafik’s resignation was welcomed by some of the protesters, as well those who had accused her of allowing anti-Semitism to flourish. The trustees said Katrina Armstrong would step in as Columbia’s interim president. She is currently the chief executive officer of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. The new academic year is due to start on September 3. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since Israel began its war in Gaza, after Hamas fighters launched a surprise attack into Israel on October 7 last year. At least 1,139 people were killed in that attack and some 240 people taken captive. The war in Gaza has reduced much of the Palestinian territory to rubble and displaced most of its residents. South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in a case that is now being investigated by the International Court of Justice. Adblock test (Why?)