US, UK sanction senior Houthis as rebels say Red Sea attacks will continue
The Yemeni group says it will continue targeting Israel-linked commercial vessels until aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza. The United States and United Kingdom have issued new sanctions on leaders of Yemen’s Houthis, as the group pledges to continue its attacks on Israel-linked commercial vessels until aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza. The sanctions, announced on Thursday, target four key Houthi officials over their roles supporting or directing attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, the US and UK said. “The Houthis’ persistent terrorist attacks on merchant vessels and their civilian crews … threaten to disrupt international supply chains and the freedom of navigation, which is critical to global security, stability, and prosperity,” Brian Nelson, the US Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement. “Today’s joint action with the United Kingdom demonstrates our collective action to leverage all authorities to stop these attacks.” Those sanctioned were Houthi Defence Minister Mohamed Nasser al-Atifi; commander of Houthi naval forces Muhammad Fadl Abd al-Nabi; coastal defence forces chief Muhammad Ali al-Qadiri; and Muhammed Ahmad al-Talibi, who the two governments described as the Houthi forces’ director of procurement. The UK said the four men were involved in acts which “threaten the peace, security and stability of Yemen”. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said in a statement that the restrictions “reinforce our clear message to the Houthis in recent weeks”, promising to target those behind the “unacceptable and illegal actions” against shipping. War on Gaza The sanctions have come as Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi promised to continue the attacks that have disrupted international commerce in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. “Our country will continue its operations until food and medicine reach the people of Gaza,” al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday. Since November, the Houthis have carried out dozens of attacks on commercial vessels they have said were linked to Israel. They said the operations were meant to pressure Israel into stopping its war on Gaza. The group’s leader added that US and British military action in Yemen conducted in response to the Houthi attacks would not affect their “will and determination”. On Monday, a new round of attacks targeted a Houthi underground storage site as well as missile and surveillance capabilities used by the Iran-aligned group against Red Sea shipping. The Houthi attacks have disrupted international commerce along a route that accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic. Several shipping companies have redirected their vessels around the southern tip of Africa, delaying delivery times and adding a further 3,000-3,500 nautical miles (6,000km) to their route. The US also re-designated the Houthis as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” (SDGTs) earlier this month, a designation attributed to those who are considered to “threaten the security of the US”. In response to the designation and the US and British attacks against targets in Yemen, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Yemen’s capital Sanaa and other cities to protest and to show support for Palestinians in Gaza. Adblock test (Why?)
Top French court rejects large parts of controversial immigration bill
The court rejected measures that toughen access to social benefits, family reunification, and immigration quotas. More than a third of articles in a controversial immigration bill must be scrapped, France’s Constitutional Council has said. The council, a body that validates the constitutionality of laws, rejected measures in the bill on Thursday that call for the toughening of access to social benefits, family reunification, and the introduction of immigration quotas set by parliament. It upheld much of the bill initially presented by President Emmanuel Macron’s government but criticised the contentious additions made under pressure from the political right and far right. The bill includes migration quotas, obstacles to family reunification and delays to migrants’ access to welfare benefits, as well as articles cancelling automatic birthright citizenship and making it easier to deport non-French nationals. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin welcomed the ruling, saying it had validated the government’s initial proposals. “Never has a text provided so many means for expelling delinquents,” he wrote on X. “The Government takes note, as I was able to indicate during the debates, of the censorship of numerous articles added to Parliament for non-compliance with parliamentary procedure,” Darmanin wrote in French. People attend a demonstration against the immigration law, called the ‘Darmanin law’, with one protester holding a placard that reads ‘Withdrawal of the Darmanin law’ in Paris, France [Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters] Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, slammed the ruling, which he described as a “coup by the judges, with the backing of the president”. He called for a referendum on immigration as the “only solution”. The council dismissed 32 out of 86 amendments because they were unrelated to the law’s subject. But they could be accepted later as part of a different bill. The council also criticised three more amendments partially – or in total – over their essence, and partially rejected the setting of immigration quotas by parliament. Earlier this week, the United Nations special rapporteur on racism said the bill violates France’s constitutional commitment to equality and liberty. “When we look at the French Constitution or the way in which the head of state or many in positions of power speak, it’s equality, but that is in strong contradiction to these policies,” Ashwini KP, UN special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, told the Reuters news agency. Ashwini KP also raised concerns over the proposed restrictions to social welfare for migrants and said they would greatly “impact marginalised communities”. Macron has made the bill a key plank of his second term in office and defended its passing through parliament. But the president has faced criticism over the bill, which drew support from the far-right National Rally party. Macron referred the legislation to France’s Constitutional Council to check if it complies with the Constitution. Adblock test (Why?)
Thirty people killed in latest herder violence in Nigeria’s Plateau State
Intercommunal violence is common in the state due to tensions over land between nomadic herders and indigenous farmers. At least 30 people have been killed in renewed violence in Nigeria’s central Plateau State, where clashes between Muslim herders and Christian farming communities have erupted for years, a community organisation and an aid group source said on Thursday. Despite a 24-hour curfew imposed on Tuesday in Plateau’s Mangu local district, schools, places of worship, and homes have been burned and ransacked in more attacks, community leaders said. The Mwaghavul Development Association, an organisation for ethnic Mwaghavul people who are mostly Christians, blamed Fulani Muslim herders for attacking Kwahaslalek village, killing approximately 30 people. “At the moment, our people are left at the mercy of God and the little they can do in self-defence,” the association said in a statement. That figure was confirmed by a local rescue official and a source at an aid group working on the ground, who spoke to the news agency AFP on condition of anonymity. The aid source said more than 100 people had been wounded. Security personnel are yet to comment on the death toll from the most recent attacks. Two camps for the displaced have been set up in Mangu town, for about 1,500 people, local chairman of Nigeria Red Cross Nurudeen Husaini Magaji told AFP. Plateau’s governor announced the curfew on Tuesday after another clash that officials blamed on a dispute between a herder moving his cattle and other residents using the road. [embedded content] A history of communal conflict The state lies in the Middle Belt, a region seen as the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south. Intercommunal violence has been common in the region, which is home to dozens of ethnic minorities like the Mwaghavul. Clashes in the region and the northwest are rooted in community tensions over land between nomadic herders and indigenous farmers, but exacerbated by the effects of climate change and population rise in the region. Multiple local reports have attributed the farmers as saying they have had to organise into self-defence vigilante groups to fend off attacks by the herders. The situation has been worsened by reprisal attacks and a web of broader criminality. Heavily armed gangs, known locally as bandits, raid villages especially in the northwest states, looting and kidnapping for ransom. The conflict has also seeped into parts of southwest and southeast Nigeria. In recent times, tensions have soared since nearly 200 people were killed over Christmas in raids on mostly Christian villages. The Jama’atu Nasril Islam, a Muslim community organisation, also said that clashes erupted between Tuesday and Wednesday in Mangu town, with places of worship and faith-based schools attacked. “We call on the government and security agencies to intensify their efforts in securing the lives and properties of the inhabitants of Mangu and other flash points,” JNI’s state director Salim Musa Umar said. “All concerned should also do everything possible to prevent any possible escalation.” [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
Swedish PM Kristersson agrees to meet Hungary’s Orban for talks on NATO bid
After ratification by Turkey, Hungary is the only country left effectively holding up Sweden’s NATO membership. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has agreed to meet his counterpart from Hungary, the only NATO member yet to ratify his country’s membership in the military alliance. Swedish public television on Thursday published a letter Kristersson penned to Prime Minister Viktor Orban in which he said he accepted an invitation received this week to meet in Budapest “at a time convenient for both of us”. “The completion of the ratification process of Sweden’s NATO membership in the Hungarian parliament will create a solid foundation to move ahead in our bilateral relationship, and to reinforce mutual understanding and trust,” Kristersson said in the letter. He added that “a more intensive dialogue between our countries would be beneficial”, noting they would also have the opportunity to speak in Brussels on February 1 at a meeting of the European Council. The publication of the letter comes a day after Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s NATO membership. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to add his signature in the coming days. Kristersson said after the vote in Ankara that Sweden was “one step closer” to joining the alliance. In a post on X on the same day, Orban wrote that his country supports Sweden’s membership and said he would urge lawmakers to approve its accession quickly. Just finished a phone call with @NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg. I reaffirmed that the Hungarian government supports the NATO-membership of #Sweden. I also stressed that we will continue to urge the Hungarian National Assembly to vote in favor of Sweden’s accession and… — Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) January 24, 2024 But on Thursday, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker, Laszlo Kover, said there was no urgency in backing Sweden’s NATO membership bid. “I do not feel any particular urgency. Moreover, I do not think there is an extraordinary situation,” Kover said. Finland became the 31st member of the alliance in April, which doubled the length of NATO’s border with Russia. It also strengthened the defences of three small Baltic countries that joined the bloc after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago. Sweden and Finland both had a lengthy history of military non-alignment harkening back to the Cold War. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rocked ties on the continent and changed their policy. Both Orban and Erdogan maintain relatively friendly relations with Russia. Adblock test (Why?)
This 9-year-old is reporting the war on Gaza
NewsFeed Meet Lama Abu Jamous, a 9-year-old girl who has gathered a social following as an aspiring journalist covering Israel’s war on Gaza. Published On 25 Jan 202425 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Burkina Faso army strikes killed dozens of civilians, says HRW
The army’s fight against rebels has been criticised as heavy-handed, with the HRW report being the latest instance of that criticism. International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday accused the Burkina Faso army of killing at least 60 civilians in drone strikes which the government said targeted armed groups. The deaths occurred in three military drone strikes since August, two at crowded markets and another at a funeral, the rights group said in a new report. Since becoming head of state after a 2022 coup, Captain Ibrahim Traore has focused on a strong security response in reclaiming swathes of territory controlled by armed groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the ISIS (ISIL) group. But those efforts have often been criticised as heavy-handed, with the HRW report being the latest instance of that criticism. HRW said it interviewed dozens of witnesses between September and November 2023 and analysed photographs, videos and satellite images. “The Burkina Faso military used one of the most accurate weapons in its arsenal to attack large groups of people, causing the loss of numerous civilian lives in violation of the laws of war,” the New York-based group said in its report. The drone strikes “violated laws-of-war prohibitions against attacks that do not discriminate between civilians and military targets and were apparent war crimes,” it added. A series of drone attacks On August 3, Burkina’s government-run Radiodiffusion Television du Burkina (RTB) channel reported a “successful” air operation against a group of armed fighters in the northern town of Bouro. RTB showed a video of a guided munition striking dozens of people and animals in a glade. Locals told HRW that 28 men were killed and many wounded in a packed market. They added that the al-Qaeda-affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) controlled Bouro and surrounding areas. Three survivors said four motorbikes ridden by rebels, entered the market at the moment of the strike, when hundreds of civilians were present. On November 18, a military drone hit another crowded market, across the border in Mali, near the town of Boulkessi, according to the report. It said at least seven men were killed and at least five others injured. An RTB reporter described the target as a “logistics base” for rebel fighters. But a 69-year-old man, who lost two sons aged 20 and 40 in the strike, told HRW: “My sons had gone to the market to sell their products. They were traders, civilians, not fighters.” Three days later, in the northern Burkinabe town of Bidi, a drone strike reportedly hit a tent where around a hundred people had gathered for a funeral, killing 24 men and a boy. In its report, HRW says that residents are sometimes forced to collaborate with the rebels who control the areas. The rights group said in the report that the Burkina government should “urgently and impartially investigate these apparent war crimes, hold those responsible to account, and provide adequate support for the victims and their families”. Beyond the drone attacks, there have also been other instances of government forces acting with impunity in counterinsurgency operations. In April 2023, 136 people including women and infants in the northern village of Karma were killed by security personnel, as reported by the NGO the Collective against Impunity and Stigmatisation of Communities (CISC). Adblock test (Why?)
Victims of Rwandan genocide still being found 30 years on
With shovels and garden hoes, villagers stood this January digging where a house once stood in Rwanda to reveal a mass grave filled with bones – victims of the genocide still being found 30 years on. Around 100 volunteers, many wearing face masks and rubber gloves turn over the red soil in Ngoma village in the country’s south, with a sombre determination as a crowd watches on from a slope above. Skulls, teeth and other shards of bone are placed carefully into plastic bags while shoes and tattered clothing – possible clues to identify loved ones never found – are collected elsewhere. The remains of 119 people had been unearthed over three days, said Napthali Ahishakiye, president of the genocide survivors’ group Ibuka. Andre Kamana, deputy mayor of the wider Huye district in the country’s south, said there was no telling how many more might be found. “Every time they dig deeper, they find more layers of soil with remains,” he said grimly. Discoveries of mass graves are remarkably frequent even three decades after the 1994 slaughter instigated by the Hutu extremist regime in Rwanda at the time. The United Nations estimates that around 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi minority, were killed over 100 days in an ethnic pogrom that turned neighbours against each other in the tiny East African nation. Villagers and volunteers looking for human remains under the foundations of a house in Ngoma [Guillem Sartorio/AFP] ‘Family secret’ In Ngoma, a three-hour drive from the capital Kigali, roadblocks were erected and Tutsis dragged from their cars and murdered, said Goreth Uwonkunda, a 52-year-old who has lived her entire life in the village. “The history here is terrible… this is clearly one of the mass graves where they were dumped,” she told AFP. “The killers buried victims on top of others. We found big bones, some intact, even whole skulls.” The mass grave was discovered beneath a family home. Five of the family members have been arrested on suspicion of complicity in genocide and concealment of evidence. The investigation began last October when a whistleblower tipped off the authorities about the likelihood of a mass grave on the unremarkable rural property on a hillside off a main road. “It is suspected that those who lived in that house knew what was underneath them, and it was a family secret,” Ibuka’s Ahishakiye said. The appalling discovery has horrified those living near the graves all these years. “I knew the people who lived in this house, and I am quite shocked that they comfortably slept on top of bodies every night and were alright with it. It is shameful and shocking,” said Uwonkunda. The remains of 119 people have been found in Ngoma since January 21, 2024 [Guillem Sartorio/AFP] ‘Decent burial’ But such graves are still being found across the country with grim regularity, underscoring the sheer scale of the slaughter between April and July 1994. Last April, in the western district of Rusizi, 1,100 bodies were discovered in mass graves located on a plantation belonging to a Catholic parish. Three years earlier, in April 2020, a pit believed to contain as many as 30,000 bodies was exhumed near a dam in the east of the country. Six months later, 5,000 bodies were discovered in Gatsibo district. Ibuka says the remains of more than 100,000 genocide victims have been unearthed across Rwanda in the past five years alone. “We suspect that similar mass graves remain undiscovered across the country, because there are survivors looking for their loved ones, 30 years after the genocide,” said Ahishakiye. “The biggest challenge is that vital information about the location of these mass graves is held by people who took part in the killings, or relatives of the killers, and are adamant against revealing such information.” One still searching for answers is Celestin Kambanda, a 70-year-old farmer who has found none of the seven children he lost in the genocide. In Ngoma, he keeps vigil and waits for any sign among the scraps of cloth and bone being prised from the mud. “I came here to see if I could recognise any of my children, maybe from the clothing they wore when they disappeared,” he told AFP. “I would hope to give them a decent burial one day.” Adblock test (Why?)
Woman rescued from flood after 15 hours on overturned car
NewsFeed A helicopter crew rescued a woman in California who spent 15 hours on top of her car waiting for help, after it overturned as she tried to get through a flooded creek. Local officials said the woman was unharmed. Published On 25 Jan 202425 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Palestinians collecting aid in Gaza flee gunfire
NewsFeed Palestinians say Israeli forces fired on them as they collected aid in northern Gaza. Video shows hundreds of people fleeing as gunfire is heard. Published On 25 Jan 202425 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Japan sentences man to death for Kyoto anime studio fire that killed 36
Judge says attack on renowned Kyoto Animation by Shinji Aoba, 45, ‘instantly turned the studio into hell’. A court in Japan has sentenced a man to death after he was convicted of murdering 36 people in an arson attack on a Kyoto animation studio in 2019. The Kyoto District Court on Thursday said it found Shinji Aoba, 45, mentally capable of facing punishment for murder, arson and other crimes in the attack on Kyoto Animation’s Studio 1 on July 18 that year which shocked Japan and drew an outpouring of grief from anime fans worldwide. Prosecutors said Aoba had been motivated by a grudge against the studio, which he claimed had stolen his ideas after rejecting his novels in an annual contest. The court found no evidence the studio had plagiarised his work. NHK national TV, quoted Judge Keisuke Masuda, as saying: “The attack that instantly turned the studio into hell and took the precious lives of 36 people, caused them indescribable pain.” Survivors reported that on the morning of the attack, Aoba had broken into the building, spreading petrol on the ground floor and lighting it while shouting “drop dead”. Reeling The anime industry was left reeling by the crime, which killed young artists working in the three-storey building. About 70 people had been working on the premises at the time. Many of the victims were believed to have died of carbon monoxide poisoning. More than 30 other people were badly injured. One of the survivors said he saw a black cloud rising from downstairs, then he felt scorching heat and jumped from a window, gasping for air. A number of victims were found on a spiral stairwell leading to the roof, suggesting they were overcome as they desperately tried to escape. Mentally fit The arsonist appeared in court in a wheelchair. He had himself been left severely burned after his attack and spent 10 months in hospital before his arrest in May 2020. Shinji Aoba, sentenced to death for killing 36 people at Kyoto Animation in July 2019, is seen on a stretcher as he is carried to Fushimi police station after being arrested in Kyoto, western Japan, on May 27, 2020 [File: Kyodo via Reuters] His lawyers argued he was mentally unfit to be held criminally responsible, unable to distinguish between good and bad. However, the judge ruled that Aoba was “neither insane nor suffering diminished mental capacity at the time of the crime”, NHK reported. “I didn’t think so many people would die, and now I think I went too far,” Aoba told the court when the trial opened in September, reports said at the time. Studio ‘spread joy’ The fire was Japan’s deadliest since 2001, when a blaze in Tokyo’s congested Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people. Firefighters called the incident “unprecedented” and said rescuing people trapped inside was “extremely difficult”. After the attack, there was an outpouring of shock and grief around the world, with Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeting that the studio’s artists “spread joy all over the world and across generations with their masterpieces”. A US animation company raised $2.4m via crowdfunding to help the firm get back on its feet. Known as KyoAni, the studio was founded in 1981 by a couple. It is known for popular TV series, including The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and K-ON!. A man prays after placing flowers near the torched Kyoto Animation building to mourn the victims of the arson attack, in Kyoto, Japan, July 19, 2019 [File: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters] For families of the deceased, the pain of their loss remains excruciating to this day. “I should have told her not to go to work that morning,” the mother of 49-year-old Naomi Ishida told the Mainichi Shimbun daily this week. “Even if he gets the death penalty, Naomi and others won’t come back. I feel empty,” she said. Criticism Polls show public support is high for capital punishment, which has been criticised by rights groups. Japan is one of the few developed countries meting out the punishment, typically in murder cases with more than one victim. Inmates are often informed of their execution on the morning of the day they are to be hanged. The highest-profile executions in recent years were in 2018, when Japan hanged 13 people – including the guru of a doomsday cult – responsible for the 1995 sarin attacks on Tokyo’s underground railway. The last execution was in 2022 and, as of December, 107 people were on death row. Adblock test (Why?)