Top World News
"He's Not Hitler": Melania Pushes Back Attacks On Husband Donald Trump
10/29/24 8:45 PM
Former US first lady Melania Trump pushed back on Tuesday against attacks on her husband Donald Trump, saying the Republican presidential candidate is "not Hitler."
"Most Difficult Stage": Russia Begins Nuclear Drill, West Plans Response
10/29/24 10:37 PM
Russia's nuclear forces today began a special exercise after orders were received from President Vladimir Putin. The move comes at a critical point in the Ukraine war after senior officials in Moscow termed it the "most difficult phase".
'Befuddled' Congo government hits back at Trump attack: 'Everything he said isn't true'
10/23/24 3:28 PM
Tireless CNN fact checker Daniel Dale on Wednesday slapped down claims made by former President Donald Trump that the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been shipping its violent criminals to the United States.During a fact check of Trump's latest inflammatory claims about immigrants, Dale was asked by host Sara Sidner about Trump's claim this week that "they're emptying out their jails in the Congo and they're delivering them to the border and they're saying, 'Congratulations, this is America.'""Is this true?" asked an incredulous Sidner."It's not," replied Dale. "This is one of those Trump claims that grows bigger and more dramatic with each telling. So it started with, 'Some bad people at the Congo are arriving at the border,' which you can't really fact check. Then it was, 'The Congo is emptying its prisons.' Then it was now the Congo is delivering people to the border."ALSO READ: 'That's a real problem!' Experts expose 'potentially serious' issue with polling dataDale went on to say that "there is no evidence for any" of these claims and he said he even reached out to representatives from the Congolese government for comment."Both of them were just befuddled," he said. "A spokesperson for the DRC said, 'Everything he is saying isn't true.' The ambassador to the Republic of Congo said, 'There is no truth or any sign nor a single fact supporting such a claim or statement.'" Dale also reached out to the Trump campaign and said that "they have not been able to provide a single shred" of proof to back up Trump's claims.Watch the video below or at this link. - YouTube www.youtube.com
'End of an era' for Hezbollah after Israel killed its leader
10/25/24 10:20 AM
The killing of Hezbollah's powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago has marked a fundamental shift for the Iran-backed Lebanese movement and revived calls for it to surrender its vast weapons arsenal."The death of Nasrallah marked the end of an era," said analyst Sam Heller of the US-based think tank Century Foundation.After decades at the helm, Nasrallah's death "will necessarily mark a shift for the organization", Heller added.Nasrallah's influence extended far beyond his loyal Shiite Muslim support base in Lebanon.He was a key pillar in Iran's "axis of resistance" against the United States and Israel, which includes other armed groups in the Middle East as well as Syria.Israel dealt Hezbollah a seismic blow when it assassinated Nasrallah on September 27 in a huge air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs that has thrust the movement into a new age.Hezbollah was already mired in a year of cross-border exchanges of fire with Israel, which it began in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack.Last month, Israel ramped up strikes on Hezbollah strongholds and sent in ground forces while killing one member of the group's top leadership after another.Nasrallah, who had led the group since 1992, spearheaded operations against Israel for decades, and gained cult status among his supporters during the 2006 war.According to Heller, "he was the foremost decision-maker in the organization as it rose to prominence in Lebanon and regionally."The group's governing Shura Council has yet to appoint a successor.Hashem Safieddine, a cleric tipped for the post, was killed by Israel just days after Nasrallah.- Home turf -Hezbollah is now run by a group of leaders, according to its deputy head Naim Qassem.Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, have said that their contact with the group has been cut off for weeks.Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliament speaker who heads the Hezbollah-allied Amal Movement, is tasked with speaking on the group's behalf, Qassem said in a recent speech.Berri is believed to be pushing for a ceasefire, according to local media reports.Hezbollah had long linked a ceasefire in Lebanon to an end to fighting in Gaza, a position it has yet to formally reverse.Even with the group appearing on the back foot, its fighters continue to fire dozens of rockets daily into Israel, some reaching major cities like Haifa and Tel Aviv.This week, Hezbollah claimed a drone strike on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's home in the coastal town of Caesarea.The group says Israeli forces have not been able to take full control of any village in Lebanon, weeks into a ground invasion.Israeli forces operating in Lebanon "face very fierce resistance and are forced to retreat under heavy blows", said a source close to Hezbollah."The maximum depth the Israelis have reached is estimated at about two kilometers (1.2 miles)," said the source, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.Hezbollah, he said, has the advantage because it is fighting on its own terrain, knowing which "trees and rocks" to hide behind.- 'Disarm' -Hezbollah is widely believed to be better armed than Lebanon's national military, and remains the only group that did not surrender its weapons after the 1975-1990 civil war.After years of dominating political life in Lebanon, Hezbollah is facing new calls from its critics within the country to change.Lebanese computer engineer Elie Jabbour told AFP he believes the only way forward is for Hezbollah to give up its weapons."The war cannot end before Hezbollah is disarmed," he said."When that happens, it can join state institutions as a political party only," said the 27-year-old.A ceasefire in Lebanon has been tied to the implementation of a UN resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.UN Security Council Resolution 1701 states that only the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers should deploy in areas south of the Litani River -- an area Hezbollah has long operated in.But Lebanon is grappling with a prolonged crisis, leaving the country rudderless until a president is elected after a two-year void.Many in Lebanon blame Hezbollah for blocking the vote.Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces party and a longtime Hezbollah opponent, said any new president must not "leave any group or weapon outside the framework of the state".Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday that only the state should carry weapons.But in a country long wracked by division, attempts to "marginalize Hezbollah politically will... invite a violent response" from the group, Heller said.It "will end in intra-Lebanese conflict," he added.
'No one heard our cries': Tigray war rape survivors recount their ordeals
10/29/24 10:36 AM
Rawa curls up on a chair, pulls her knees tight to her chest and hides her face with a large white veil as if to shield herself from the outside world."There were seven men who raped me," she whispers, haltingly recounting a brutal assault shortly after the start of the two-year war in Ethiopia's northernmost region of Tigray.Rawa, whose name has been changed like those of the other rape survivors interviewed by AFP, had just given birth to twins when the fighting broke out in November 2020.The conflict -- pitting Ethiopian government forces, backed by regional militias and Eritrean troops, against Tigrayan rebels -- killed around 600,000 people, with the warring sides accused of numerous atrocities against civilians.Rawa, one of the million people still displaced by the war, comes from Welkait, an area in the hotly disputed western Tigray region near the border with Eritrea."I stayed behind because I was a new mother, but everyone else fled and left me behind," the 40-year-old tells AFP at a small health clinic in the Tigrayan town of Shire.Several people denounced her, claiming her husband was part of the rebellion. She was arrested and beaten while carrying one of her infant twins in her arms."The baby is no longer alive," she says through sobs, and she still has no idea about her husband's whereabouts."I endured a lot of suffering," she says, describing how she lost consciousness during her savage attack at the hands of seven Eritrean soldiers.Rawa was left HIV positive after the rape."I'm not in very good health and I'm not able to go for medical treatment because I don't have the strength and I don't have money for transport," says Rawa, who is now forced to live on the streets with her remaining children, unable to pay rent.- 'Systematic' rapes -The fighting in Tigray finally ended with the signing of a peace accord in Pretoria in November 2022, but many victims are still struggling to rebuild their lives.Among the many barbaric acts inflicted on civilians during the conflict, rape and sexual violence were "systematic" and used as a weapon of war, according to a study published in 2023 by the scientific journal BMC Women's Health.Estimates of the number of rapes committed vary widely -- up to as many as 120,000 -- according to data compiled by the researchers, with many reluctant to report the attacks.The victims reported that most of the perpetrators were Ethiopian or Eritrean soldiers, but also militiamen from the neighboring Amhara region.The Tigray war had been raging for a year when Tsega -- another rape survivor who spoke to AFP -- went to a small store near her home in the town of Sheraro to buy flour.Her family had nothing left to eat."I thought the stories about soldiers grabbing and raping women were just rumours," says the 29-year-old.On the way to the shop, Tsega came across two Eritrean soldiers who followed her."The soldiers threatened to bomb (the shop) if I didn't come out," she recalls, anxiously twisting a ring around her finger."As soon as I left, they forcefully took me away and raped me.""I only thought of two things: either kill myself or go underground and fight (with the rebels)."- 'Held in a warehouse' -Two years on from the Pretoria deal, teams from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) "are still receiving survivors in need of essential psychological and medical support", says Nimrat Kaur, Shire project coordinator manager for the medical charity.MSF operates two health centres in Shire and Sheraro in collaboration with the regional authorities, with around 40 new people arriving each month.The vast majority of rapes were committed against women and girls. But men were also targeted.Mamay, who was 21 at the time, left his home in Humera in western Tigray when fierce fighting erupted at the start of the conflict.On the road, he was stopped by Eritrean soldiers, along with about 60 other people, including girls aged around 10."They held us in a warehouse, then took us one by one and committed sexual assault on us," says the frail young man."There was no one to hear our cries... no one to help us," he says, adding that they endured daily assaults over a period of almost two years.Mamay was finally released along with other captives after the guns fell silent.Like more than one million other people across Tigray, however, Mamay has still not been able to return home to Humera.But he is not giving up."As a Tigrayan I will not lose hope. Justice will have its day. I'm very sure we will get freedom and return to our homes."
'Our pride': Lone child brings hope to Japan's puppet village
10/25/24 10:35 AM
Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets.The two-year-old was the first baby in two decades for Ichinono, one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where the majority of residents are aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ministry data.Revitalizing rural areas is one of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's key campaign pledges as he fights to retain a majority in a general election on Sunday.Ishiba has called Japan's low birth rate a "quiet emergency", one that is starkly evident in places like Ichinono, a bucolic hamlet home to fewer than 60 people."If the village is left as it is now, the only thing that awaits us is extinction," said 74-year-old Ichiro Sawayama, head of its governing body.Many developed nations are facing the same demographic time bomb, but Japan, which allows relatively low levels of immigration, already has the world's second-oldest population after Monaco.Silence pervades the air in Ichinono, where residents have handcrafted stuffed mannequins to create a semblance of a bustling society.Some puppets ride swings while others push a cart of firewood, smiling eerily at visitors."We're probably outnumbered by puppets," Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told AFP.Rice harvesting and sake brewing used to keep Ichinono afloat. Most families in the village used to have children, Yamazaki recalled.But "we were afraid they would become unmarriageable if they remained stuck in a remote place like this", so they were encouraged to attend city colleges."Out they went, and they never came back, getting jobs elsewhere. We're now paying the price," she said.- Pastoral living -One family in Ichinono is a bit different: 33-year-old Rie Kato and 31-year-old Toshiki Kato moved from big city Osaka to Ichinono in 2021, then they had Kuranosuke.The couple decided to ditch urban life for the countryside as the pandemic allowed for more flexible working.As the youngest resident by far, their son is adored by the other villagers, who bring him home-cooked meals and collectively look after him.The toddler is "our pride", village head Sawayama beams, while widow Yamazaki says he is "practically my great-grandchild -- such a sweet thing".The Katos say it is a good thing that he is growing up with the community of Ichinono instead of the anonymity of an Osaka apartment."Just by being born here, our son benefits from the love, support and hope of so many people -- even though he has achieved absolutely nothing in life yet," laughed his father Toshiki.His mother Rie said neighbors in the tight-knit village sometimes ask her a favor or invite her to play the croquet-like sport gateball. The family also helps harvest edamame beans with their neighbors."I feel like my self-worth, as an individual, is recognized here," she said. "I'm sure that's how Kuranosuke will feel about himself growing up."- 'Recreate' Japan? -But Ichinono's insularity can be a turn-off for outsiders.Outdated rules still exist on paper requiring aspiring newcomers to be vouched for by at least three long-term residents, and proffer sacks of rice or cash.Those edicts -- meant to "keep the village cohesive" -- are no longer applied to avoid scaring people away, Sawayama said.While rural decline is a global phenomenon, Japan's topography may worsen the problem, said Taro Taguchi, a community development professor at Tokushima University."Probably nowhere do people live on hillsides as much as in Japan," due to a large population and the scarcity of flat farmland, he told AFP.But the "higher risk of natural disasters and greater proximity to vermin" on mountains make them less attractive when people can choose where they live.Prime Minister Ishiba has vowed to "recreate Japan" with policies including doubling subsidies for struggling regions.But Taguchi cautioned that similar subsidies were often approved by the central government in the past to fund "flashy" revitalization projects like fancy cafes."These initiatives did little to support locals' livelihoods," he said.While working remotely in the IT sector,Toshiki Kato has launched a side project refurbishing century-old houses."My humble hope is to help add some new value to these homes, and keep Ichinono's death at bay even just a year longer," he said.
'Wiped off the face of the Earth': How Russia erased a Ukrainian city
10/28/24 10:22 AM
"It barely exists anymore," said the mayor of Vovchansk, an industrial town razed by a Russian onslaught shocking even for the killing fields of eastern Ukraine.Vovchansk has no great history but its geography could not be more tragic. Just five kilometers (three miles) from the Russian border, drone footage from the Ukrainian military this summer shows a lunar landscape of ruins stretching for miles.And it has got worse since."Ninety percent of the centre is flattened," said mayor Tamaz Gambarashvili, a towering man in uniform, who runs what is left of Vovchansk from the regional capital of Kharkiv, an hour and a half's drive away."The enemy continues its massive shelling," he added.Six out of 10 of Vovchansk's buildings have been totally destroyed, with 18 percent partially ruined, according to analysis of satellite images by the independent open-source intelligence collective Bellingcat. But the destruction is much worse in the city centre, which has been levelled north of the Vovcha River.AFP and Bellingcat joined forces to tell how, building by building, an entire city was wiped off the map in just a few weeks -- and to show the human toll it has taken.The sheer pace of the destruction dwarfed that of even Bakhmut, the "meatgrinder" Donbas region city where some of the most brutal killing of the war has been done, a Ukrainian officer who fought in both cities told AFP."I was in Bakhmut, so I know how the battles unfolded there," Lieutenant Denys Yaroslavsky insisted."What took two or three months in Bakhmut happened in just two or three weeks in Vovchansk."- Invaded, then freed -Vovchansk had a population of about 20,000 before the war. It now lives only in the memories of the survivors who managed to flee.Beyond its factories, the city had a "medical school, a technical college, seven schools and numerous kindergartens," Nelia Stryzhakova, the head of its library, told AFP in Kharkiv.It even had a workshop that made "carriages for period films. We were even interesting, in our own way," insisted Stryzhakova, 61.Add to that a regional hospital, rebuilt in 2017 with nearly 10 million euros ($10.8 million) of German aid, a church packed for religious feasts, and a vast hydraulic machinery plant. Once the town's economic lifeblood, its ruins are now being fought over by both armies.Vovchansk was quickly occupied by the Russian army after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but was then retaken by Kyiv in a lightning counter attack that autumn.Despite enduring regular Russian bombardment, it was relatively calm. Then something very different happened on May 10.- Badly defended -Exhausted after weeks of hard fighting 100 kilometers to the south, the Ukrainian 57th Brigade was regrouping near Vovchansk when one of its reconnaissance units noticed something strange."We spotted two Russian armoured troop carriers that had just crossed the border," recalled Lieutenant Yaroslavsky, who was leading the unit.They were the advance guard of one of the most intense Russian offensives since the beginning of the war, with Moscow throwing several thousand soldiers at the city."There were no fortifications, no mines" to slow down their advance, Yaroslavsky said, still furious at the "negligence or corruption" that allowed this to happen.Some "17,000 people lost their homes. Why? Because someone didn't build fortifications," fumed the 42-year-old officer."We control the city today, but what we control is a pile of rubble," he added bitterly.President Volodymyr Zelensky cancelled an overseas trip to rush to Kharkiv, admitting that the Russian army had pushed between five and 10 kilometers into Ukraine.The people of Vovchansk, meanwhile, were living a nightmare.- 'Drones like mosquitoes' -"The Russians started bombing," said Galyna Zharova, who lived at 16A Stepova Street -- an apartment building now reduced to ruins, as images analyzed by Bellingcat and AFP confirmed."We were right on the front line. No one could come and get us out," added the 50-year-old, who now lives with her family in a university dormitory in Kharkiv."We went down to the cellar. All the buildings were burning. We were crammed into basements (for nearly four weeks) until June 3," her husband Viktor, 65, added.Eventually, the couple decided to flee on foot. "Drones were flying around us like wasps, like mosquitoes," Galyna remembered. They walked for several kilometres before being rescued by Ukrainian volunteers."The city was beautiful. The people were beautiful. We had everything," sighed librarian Stryzhakova. "No one could have imagined that in just five days, we would be wiped off the face of the Earth."The 125,000 books in the library she had run at 8 Tokhova Street went up in smoke.More than half of the families in eastern Ukraine have relatives in Russia. In Vovchansk, before the war in the Donbas region began in 2014, people crossed the border daily to shop, with Russians flocking to the city's markets."There are many mixed families," said Stryzhakova. "Parents, children, we're all connected. And now we've become enemies. There's no other way to put it."The Russian defense ministry did not respond to AFP's questions asking for its account of what happened in the city.Mayor Gambarashvili, who was hit in the leg by shrapnel as he oversaw the city's evacuation, shook his head when asked to estimate the number of civilian casualties.Dozens, no doubt. Perhaps more. There were still around 4,000 people in Vovchansk on May 10, mostly older people, since most families with children had been evacuated months earlier.\- Families divided by war -Kira Dzhafarova, 57, believes her mother, Valentina Radionova, who had lived at 40 Dukhovna Street in a small house with a charming garden, is likely dead.Their last phone conversation was on May 17. "At 85, I'm not going anywhere," her mother insisted. Satellite images and witnesses have since confirmed that the house was completely destroyed."Since then I know it's over," sighed Kira, who provided DNA for identification, if and when the fighting ends.In a particularly cruel irony, her mother, a Russian national, had moved to Vovchansk so she could be equidistant between her two children, who had fallen out.Kira has lived in Kharkiv for 35 years and became officially Ukrainian two years ago. Her older brother, who she believes supports Russian President Vladimir Putin, remained in Belgorod, the family's hometown and the first big Russian city on the other side of the border.Kira, a psychiatrist, now only refers to him as her "former brother".AFP was unable to contact him directly.Volodymyr Zymovsky, 70, is also missing. On May 16, he decided to flee the bombardment in a car with his 83-year-old mother, his wife Raisa, and a neighbor. Zymovsky and his mother were both shot dead, "most likely by a Russian sniper", Raisa said.Amid the hail of bullets, the 59-year-old paediatric nurse had barely got out of the car when she was grabbed by Russian soldiers and held for two days. She managed to escape, hid in a neighbor's cellar for a night, and eventually fled through the forest.She recounted her harrowing odyssey in a calm, measured voice. One thing alone seems to matter to her now: finding the bodies of her husband and mother-in-law and giving them a proper burial.- 'They took my son' -A rumor has circulated among the survivors that the bodies that littered the streets of Vovchansk for days were thrown into a mass grave. Where and by whom, no one knows.A handful of civilians still remain in Vovchansk. Oleksandre Garlychev, 70, claims to have seen at least three when he returned to his former apartment on a bicycle in mid-September to retrieve belongings.Garlychev lived at 10A Rubezhanskaya Street, in a southern part of the city that was relatively spared. He only left on August 10.Vovchansk's survivors -- and even a few of its officials -- quietly wonder whether it will ever be rebuilt given its proximity to the border, regardless of how the war ends.Asked whether she could ever forgive her husband's killer, Raisa Zymovska fell silent for a long time. Then, in a whisper, she replied: "I don't know, I really don't. As a Christian, yes, but as a human being... What can I say?"As for the librarian Stryzhakova, she can no longer bring herself to open a Russian book, even the classics, since her only son Pavlo was killed in the Battle of Bakhmut."I know that literature is not to blame, but Russia, all of it disgusts me. They took my son, it's personal."© Agence France-Presse
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09/24/22 1:25 AM
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10/29/24 4:53 AM
A boat carrying Egyptian migrants to Europe has capsized off Libya’s coast, killing 12, authorities say