Ukraine to set up mechanism to supply food to Syria, Zelensky says

Ukraine to set up mechanism to supply food to Syria, Zelensky says
“We are ready to assist Syria in preventing a food crisis, particularly through the humanitarian program ‘Grain from Ukraine’,” Zelensky wrote on X. (AFP)
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Updated 15 December 2024
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Ukraine to set up mechanism to supply food to Syria, Zelensky says

Ukraine to set up mechanism to supply food to Syria, Zelensky says
  • Ukraine has been one of the world’s top grain and oilseeds exporters, and has been exporting wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday he had instructed his government to set up supply mechanisms to deliver together with international organizations and partners food to Syria in the aftermath of the fall of President Bashar Assad.
Ukraine has been one of the world’s top grain and oilseeds exporters, and has been exporting wheat and corn to Middle Eastern countries, but not to Syria.
Syria imported food from Russia during the Assad era, but Russian wheat supplies have been suspended amid the uncertainty and payment delays, Russian and Syrian sources said on Friday.
“We are ready to assist Syria in preventing a food crisis, particularly through the humanitarian program ‘Grain from Ukraine’,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“I have instructed the government to establish food supply mechanisms in cooperation with international organizations and partners who can help.”
Ukraine’s exports were buffeted by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, which severely reduced shipments via the Black Sea. Ukraine has since broken a de facto sea blockade and revived exports from its southern ports of Odesa.


Greek court issues charges over 2023 migrant boat disaster

Greek court issues charges over 2023 migrant boat disaster
Updated 16 sec ago
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Greek court issues charges over 2023 migrant boat disaster

Greek court issues charges over 2023 migrant boat disaster
  • 17 coast guards charged over one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest boat incidents
  • Fishing vessel carrying about 750 people capsized in 2023, with only 104 survivors

LONDON: A Greek naval court has charged 17 coast guards over one of the Mediterranean’s deadliest boat disasters, which killed up to 650 migrants.

The overcrowded Adriana fishing vessel capsized and sank near Pylos off the Greek coast in June 2023.

Survivors told the BBC that witnesses were silenced by Greek coast guards, who had caused the Adriana to capsize by trying to tow it. Greek authorities have consistently denied the claims.

Piraeus Naval Court’s deputy prosecutor found that 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard should face criminal charges over the disaster.

One survivor told the BBC on Monday: “It has taken us two years just for these charges to come, even though so many people witnessed what happened.”

Among those facing charges is the captain of the LS-920, the coast guard ship that intercepted the Adriana. The captain is accused of “causing a shipwreck,” leading to the deaths of “at least 82 people.”

That figure represents the number of bodies recovered from the shipwreck, but it is believed that up to 500 more people died, including many women and children who were below deck.

Four other officials, including the then-chief of the coast guard and the supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center in Piraeus, were charged with “exposing others to danger.”

The LS-920 captain was also charged with “dangerous interference of maritime transport” and a “failure to provide assistance.”

The coast guard ship’s crew were charged with “simple complicity” in all the actions allegedly committed by the captain.

The Adriana, which left Libya for Italy with about 750 people on board, had been monitored by the coast guard for about 15 hours before the disaster took place. Only 104 survivors have been recorded.

The BBC conducted a lengthy investigation that challenged the Greek coast guard’s account of the sinking.

Last year, a Greek court threw out a case against nine Egyptians allegedly tied to the disaster, amid claims that they had been scapegoated by Greek authorities.

Syrian refugee Ahmad described the events to the BBC and accused the Greek coast guard of negligence.

“They attached a rope from the left,” he said. “Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it. The Greek vessel moved off quickly, causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.”

Once survivors were rescued, they were ordered to “shut up” by the official in charge of questioning, Ahmad added.

The survivors, he said, were told: “You have survived death. Stop talking about the incident. Don’t ask more questions about it.”

Ahmad said he is “very happy” that the coast guards “are eventually being held accountable for all that they have committed, but until I see them in prison nothing has been done yet.” 


UK must sanction Israel over Gaza, say hundreds of senior lawyers, academics

A boy looks for some food on a pile of garbage in Gaza City, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP)
A boy looks for some food on a pile of garbage in Gaza City, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP)
Updated 50 min 11 sec ago
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UK must sanction Israel over Gaza, say hundreds of senior lawyers, academics

A boy looks for some food on a pile of garbage in Gaza City, Sunday, May 25, 2025. (AP)
  • In letter to PM, over 800 signatories call for urgent pressure to safeguard international legal system
  • ‘Decisive action’ can ‘avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza’

LONDON: The UK must issue sanctions on the Israeli government and push for its suspension from the UN, a group of more than 800 senior lawyers, former judges and academics has said.

They added that this would encourage Israel to meet its “fundamental international legal obligations” amid international outrage over the war in Gaza, The Guardian reported.

The appeal came in a letter to UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who delivered a joint statement last week alongside the leaders of France and Canada threatening Israel with “concrete actions.”

Starmer must act without delay and take “urgent and decisive action ... to avert the destruction of the Palestinian people of Gaza,” the letter said.

It was signed by figures including former Supreme Court justices Lord Sumption and Lord Wilson, Court of Appeal judges and more than 70 king’s counsels.

They accuse Israel of carrying out war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law against Palestinians.

The letter warned that there is mounting evidence in Gaza of genocide, which is either being perpetrated or at serious risk of taking place.

It cited recent comments by Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, who said the country’s military would “wipe out” the presence of Palestinian life in Gaza.

“All states, including the UK, are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps within their power to prevent and punish genocide; to ensure respect for international humanitarian law; and to bring to an end violations of (the right to self-determination),” the letter said.

“The UK’s actions to date have failed to meet those standards … The international community’s failure to uphold international law in relation to the Occupied Palestinian Territory contributes to a deteriorating international climate of lawlessness and impunity and imperils the international legal system itself. Your government must act now, before it is too late.”

Last week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy suspended negotiations over a new free trade agreement with Israel.

But he must place further pressure by reviewing existing trade links, imposing sanctions and suspending the 2030 strategy for building closer UK-Israel ties, the letter said.

Israeli ministers and senior military officials must be immediately placed under sanctions, signatories said, accusing them of inciting genocide and sponsoring illegal settlement-building.

Israel has also carried out “an unparalleled assault on the UN,” the letter said, highlighting its banning of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and repeated “attacks on UN premises, property and personnel.” The Israeli strategy points to a “broader challenge to the UN charter system itself,” it added.

Signatory Guy Goodwin-Gill, emeritus fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford, said: “Now is the time for the UK to show its commitment to the rule of law and to a future in which Palestinians can freely fulfil their right to self-determination.

“Everyone must be free from persecution, from displacement and ethnic cleansing, from the devastation and death deliberately inflicted on them in their homes, schools and hospitals, in their farms and villages. No one should ever be a refugee in their own land.”

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 2023.

The letter to Starmer adds further pressure on him to take action against Israel amid mounting international anger over Gaza.

A significant number of MPs from both the ruling Labour Party and opposition Conservative Party have said the UK’s recent actions do not go far enough.


Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage

Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage
Updated 27 May 2025
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Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage

Germany shifts tone on Israel over ‘incomprehensible’ Gaza carnage
  • German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says the Israeli military strikes on Gaza "no longer reveal any logic to me"
  • 51 percent of Germans oppose weapons exports to Israel according to a published survey

BERLIN: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz delivered his most severe rebuke of Israel to date on Tuesday, criticizing massive air strikes on Gaza as no longer justified by the need to fight Hamas and “no longer comprehensible.”
The message, delivered from a press conference in Finland, reflects a broader shift in public opinion but also a greater willingness from top-ranking German politicians to criticize Israel’s conduct since the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas.
There was similar criticism from Merz’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul and calls among his junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, to halt arms exports to Israel or else risk German complicity in war crimes.
While not a complete rupture, the shift in tone is significant in a country whose leadership follows a policy of special responsibility for Israel, known as the Staatsraeson, due to the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust.
Germany, along with the United States, has been one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, but Merz’s words come as the European Union is reviewing its Israel policy and Britain, France and Canada also threatened “concrete actions” over Gaza.
“The massive military strikes by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip no longer reveal any logic to me. How they serve the goal of confronting terror. ... In this respect, I view this very, very critically,” Merz said in Turku, Finland.
“I am also not among those who said it first ... But it seemed and seems to me that the time has come when I must say publicly, (that) what is currently happening is no longer comprehensible.”
The comments are particularly striking given that Merz won elections in February promising to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on German soil in defiance of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Merz also has hanging in the chancellery a picture of Zikim beach, where Hamas fighters arrived on boats during their rampage in 2023 that killed around 1,200 people.
The Chancellor plans to speak to Netanyahu this week, as attacks on Gaza killed dozens in recent days and its population of 2 million is at risk of famine. He did not reply to a question about German weapons exports to Israel, and a government official told a briefing that this was a matter for a security council presided over by Merz.
Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, acknowledged German concerns on Tuesday but made no commitments.
“When Friedrich Merz raises this criticism of Israel, we listen very carefully because he is a friend,” Prosor told the ZDF broadcaster.
PRESSURE FROM BELOW?
Merz’s comments come on top of a groundswell of opposition to Israel’s actions. A survey by Civey, published in the Tagesspiegel newspaper this week, showed 51 percent of Germans opposed weapons exports to Israel.
More broadly, while 60 percent of Israelis have a positive or very positive opinion of Germany, only 36 percent of people in Germany view Israel positively, and 38 percent view it negatively, a survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation found in May.
This represents a notable change from the last survey in 2021, when 46 percent of Germans had a positive opinion of Israel. Only a quarter of Germans recognize a special responsibility toward the state of Israel, while 64 percent of Israelis believe Germany has a special obligation.
In another striking rebuke of Israel, Germany’s commissioner for antisemitism Felix Klein this week called for a discussion about Berlin’s stance on Israel, saying German support after the Holocaust could not justify everything Israel was doing.
Israeli historian Moshe Zimmermann said popular opinion in Germany toward Israel has reacted the same way as in other countries.
“The difference is in the political elites — the political elite is still under the influence of the lessons of WWII in a very one-dimensional way: ‘Jews were our victims during WWII, so we have to take sides with the Jews wherever they are and whatever they do,’” he said.
“You can feel it in the reaction of the new foreign minister, Wadephul, and indirectly the fact that Merz didn’t repeat his promise to invite Netanyahu. This is an unprecedented situation where the pressure from below is forcing the political class to reconsider.”


Indonesia intercepts record meth haul from Golden Triangle

Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency officers show a 2-ton methamphetamine haul seized off Riau Islands.
Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency officers show a 2-ton methamphetamine haul seized off Riau Islands.
Updated 27 May 2025
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Indonesia intercepts record meth haul from Golden Triangle

Indonesia’s National Narcotics Agency officers show a 2-ton methamphetamine haul seized off Riau Islands.
  • 2 tonnes of meth bound for Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries, narcotics agency says
  • Separate drug bust this month turned up 1.2 tonnes of cocaine and 768 kg of methamphetamine

JAKARTA: Indonesia has marked the biggest seizure of drugs in its history as authorities intercepted 2 tonnes of methamphetamine coming from the Golden Triangle, the world’s most notorious drug-producing region.

The drug bust, carried out by a joint task force from the National Narcotics Agency, the Indonesian Armed Forces, Customs, and the National Police, was a five-month intelligence-based operation.

As the Sea Dragon Terawa vessel, which carried the narcotics, entered Indonesian waters last week, it was escorted to Tanjung Uncang port in Batam for a customs search and crew inspection.

During the search, authorities discovered cardboard boxes wrapped in clear plastic, each containing numerous green tea packages containing 2,000 packages of methamphetamine weighing 2,115 kg, the narcotics agency said in a press conference on Monday.

“The 2-tonne methamphetamine (bust) is the largest seizure in the history of drug eradication in Indonesia,” the narcotics agency’s head, Marthinus Hukom, told reporters.

Six crew members — four Indonesians and two Thais — have been arrested by police. Under Indonesian law, they could face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

They are believed to be part of the same group that was behind another drug haul intercepted in the waters off Riau Islands earlier this month.

The crew of the Aungtoetoe99 vessel — comprising nationals of Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand — was arrested on May 13 with 1.2 tonnes of cocaine and 768 kg of methamphetamine.

Hukom said they were offered 50,000 baht ($1,500) per trip by a syndicate operating in the Golden Triangle region.

The Golden Triangle, where the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet, has been synonymous with the global drug trade. From the 1950s to the early 2000s, it was one of the largest heroin-producing regions.

Recently, it has also become a major source of methamphetamine, especially meth pills and crystal meth, much of which is trafficked throughout Asia and beyond.

“Information from partners indicates that there is an international narcotics syndicate from the Golden Triangle region whose operations involve a network of illicit drug distribution in Indonesia,” Hukom said.

“The narcotics carried by the vessel Sea Dragon Terawa are suspected to have been intended for distribution to several countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.”


Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival

Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival
Updated 6 sec ago
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Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival

Syrian man pleads guilty to deadly knife rampage at German festival
  • Issa Al Hasan, 27, made the confession at the start of his trial
  • “Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,” Hasan said of the attack in August in the western city of Solingen

DUSSELDORF, Germany: A Syrian man suspected of belonging to the Daesh group pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing three people and wounding 10 more in a stabbing spree at a German summer festival last year.

Issa Al Hasan, 27, made the confession at the start of his trial, which was held under tight security at the higher regional court in Duesseldorf.

In a statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan, sitting under police guard behind a protective glass screen, admitted having “committed a grave crime.”

“Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,” Hasan said of the attack in August in the western city of Solingen.

“Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too,” he said in the statement.

“I deserve and expect a life sentence.”

The stabbing spree at the mid-summer street festival was one of a string of attacks that shocked Germany and stoked security fears.

Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation.

German authorities’ failure to remove him from the country fired a bitter debate over immigration in the run-up to national elections in February this year.

Hasan faces charges including three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and membership of a foreign terror organization.

Prosecutors say he set out to harm “nonbelievers” at the “festival for diversity” in the center of the western city of Solingen.

Hasan allegedly saw his targets “as representatives of Western society” and sought “to take revenge against them for the military actions of Western states.”

A member of Daesh whom Hasan had contacted that month allegedly encouraged him to go ahead with the plan and promised him that the group would claim it and use it for propaganda purposes.

The group later said via its Amaq outlet on the Telegram messaging app that an Daesh “soldier” had carried out the attack in “revenge” for Muslims “in Palestine and everywhere.”

Prosecutors say Hasan had filmed videos in which he pledged allegiance to Daesh and forwarded them on to his Daesh contact just before he committed the attack.

In the statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan recanted his alleged motivation for carrying out the attack.

“I killed and injured innocent people, not unbelievers,” he said.

“Christians, Jews and Muslims, we all are cousins, not enemies.”

The Solingen stabbing spree was one in a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that pushed immigration to the top of the political agenda in Germany.

In May 2024, a man with a knife attacked people at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim, mortally wounding a police officer who intervened.

The Afghan suspect in the stabbing went on trial in February and is also alleged to be sympathetic to the Daesh group.

In December, a Saudi man was arrested after a car rammed into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.

And in January, a man with a kitchen knife attacked a group of kindergarten children in Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old boy and a man who tried to intervene.

A 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested at the scene of the attack, which came during campaigning for elections on February 23.

Just 10 days before the vote, an Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of plowing a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens.

The center-right CDU/CSU, which demanded tough curbs on immigration in the wake of the attacks, came first in the election with 28.5 percent of the vote.

The biggest gains however were made by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which saw its share of the vote more than double to over 20 percent.