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After a tragic shipwreck, no peace for the dead or living | CNN

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After a tragic shipwreck, no peace for the dead or living | CNN



CNN
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Two weeks after a ship full of migrants sank off the coast of southern Italy, there’s nonetheless no peace for the residing or the useless, and the lacking – largely youngsters – proceed to scrub up on the seashores.

The newest – a lady aged 5 – 6 – was found on Saturday morning, bringing the toll from when the ill-fated boat broke aside on the rocks on February 26 off the village of Cutro to 74. Almost half had been minors.

The native coroner’s workplace offered names for lots of the useless together with Torpekai Amarkhel, a 42-year-old feminine journalist from Afghanistan, who was killed alongside along with her husband and two of their three youngsters.

Her different youngster, a seven-year-old daughter, is among the many roughly 30 individuals nonetheless lacking, presumed useless, from the tragedy.

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Amarkhel had fled Afghanistan along with her household following the clampdown on girls, her sister Mida, who had emigrated to Rotterdam, instructed Unama Information radio, a United Nations challenge Amarkhel was concerned in.

Shahida Raza, who performed soccer and hockey for Pakistan’s nationwide staff, was additionally among the many useless. A pal stated she was touring within the hope of securing a greater future for her disabled son.

Initially, these discovered got alphanumeric code numbers, relatively than names. When first responders discovered the corpse of 28-year-old Abiden Jafari from Afghanistan, they recognized her solely as KR16D45 – KR for the close by metropolis of Crotone, 16 as a result of she was the sixteenth sufferer discovered, D for donna or lady, and 45, her estimated age.

However after taking her to the morgue, they found she was a girls’s rights activist who had been threatened by the Taliban, probably inflicting her to threat her life at sea.

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The physique of a six-year-old boy, first recognized as KR70M6, was named by his uncle as Hakef Taimoori.

The uncle had a household picture exhibiting the younger boy carrying the identical footwear as he had on when he washed up on the seashore. His dad and mom and two-year-old brother additionally died within the catastrophe. A 3rd brother stays among the many lacking.

The useless have additionally been caught in a wrestle between the Italian state and members of the family.

The Inside Ministry ordered that every one our bodies be transferred from Calabria the place the caskets have been on show in an auditorium, to the Islamic cemetery of Bologna for burial, in line with Italy’s protocol for irregular migrants who die trying to enter Italy.

Members of the family who both survived the wreck or got here from different components of Europe to assert their family members’ stays protested with makeshift indicators and a sit-in in entrance of the auditorium on Wednesday.

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After a tense negotiation, the Prefecture of Crotone confirmed to CNN that 25 households, largely Afghan and Syrian, agreed to have their family members buried in Bologna,.

All those that haven’t been recognized may even be buried in Bologna together with the stays of a Turkish nationwide who has been recognized as one of many human traffickers.

Pieces of wood wash up on a beach, two days after the boat carrying migrants sank off Italy's southern Calabria region.
Many of those who died will not be returned home to be buried.

The destiny of the remaining stays some extent of negotiation, however the mayor of Crotone Vincenzo Voce stated the Italian state would pay for any repatriations both to international locations of origin or to be buried with members of the family in different components of Italy.

The Italian Inside Ministry instructed CNN it couldn’t touch upon what would occur to the victims’ stays, however confirmed that previous protocol is to not pay for repatriating anybody who died trying to enter Italy as an irregular migrant however to make the nation of origin pay prices. Within the final decade, no repatriations have taken place, the ministry stated.

Of the 82 survivors, three Turkish residents and one Pakistan citizen have been arrested for human trafficking, and eight persons are nonetheless hospitalized.

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A lot of the survivors had been moved this week to a Crotone lodge after human rights advocates led by Italian leftist politician Franco Mari protested the situations during which they had been being saved, which included one shared rest room for males and one other for girls close to sleeping quarters that included solely benches and mattresses on the ground to sleep.

Mari, who visited the reception heart, tweeted that not one of the survivors had sheets, towels or pillows. Twelve others had been moved to a reception heart for unaccompanied minors.

In opposition to the backdrop of the saga about what to do with each the survivors and the victims, there’s a rising firestorm concerning the rescue itself.

A surveillance aircraft for European border management Frontex had recognized the ill-fated vessel the day earlier than it sank and had alerted the Italian Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard stated in a press release that the vessel was not recognized as a migrant boat, and that, at any price, it didn’t appear in misery.

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Warmth sensing surveillance photos launched by the Coast Guard present that just one particular person was seen on board the ship after they flew over it.

Survivors recounted to media and human rights teams that they had been locked within the hull of the ship and allowed to return up for air at intervals through the four-day journey from Turkey.

The Crotone public prosecutor’s workplace confirmed to CNN that it had opened a legal investigation into the circumstances of the failed rescue after greater than 40 human rights associations and NGOs signed a petition to demand all information be made public to find out if anybody failed to supply help to the boat in accordance with maritime legislation.

On Thursday, the Council of Ministers led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met on the catastrophe in Cutro and stated they might deal with focusing on trafficking rings and rising jail time for human traffickers to 30 years.

Protests broke out against Italy's government, who have made stopping migrant boats a priority.

Most of the authorities automobiles had been pummeled with stuffed animals by protesters in Cutro who held indicators that stated “not in my title” to protest in opposition to blocking migrants and refugees from getting into Europe via Italy.

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The ministers additionally mentioned “dashing up the mechanism for making use of for asylum” relatively than rising the quota, which stands at accepting 82,700 migrants who qualify for asylum in 2023. Thus far this yr, greater than 17,600 individuals have reached Italy by sea.

In 2022, 105,131 individuals entered the nation by sea. The method to use for asylum usually takes between three and 5 years, relying on the nation of origin. People who find themselves not from asylum-producing international locations, however are financial migrants, are repatriated again to their international locations of origin.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella stated the Afghanistan residents who survived can be prioritized for asylum. It’s but unclear if those that don’t qualify shall be repatriated to their international locations of origin.

Meloni’s right-leaning authorities has vowed to clamp down on human traffickers and NGO rescue vessels. However the boats preserve coming – a whole lot of migrants had been rescued this weekend – and indicators are that they arriving sooner than ever. This tragedy is unlikely to be the final.

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UBS reports stronger than expected profit in first quarter

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UBS reports stronger than expected profit in first quarter

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UBS has reported its first quarterly profit since taking over Credit Suisse as the Swiss lender begins to reap the benefits of rescuing its former rival.

The group on Tuesday reported $1.8bn in net profit for the first three months of the year, up from a $279mn loss in the previous quarter and almost three times the $602mn expected by analysts.

Its wealth management business was again a powerhouse, attracting $27bn in net new assets as clients returned to the lender after pulling money from both UBS and Credit Suisse last year amid the turmoil triggered by the rescue.

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Revenues increased 15 per cent from the previous quarter to $12.7bn, while UBS also trimmed expenses by 5.5 per cent. It generated an additional $1bn in cost savings during the quarter, having eliminated $5bn in costs last year. UBS has said it aims to reduce costs by $13bn by the end of 2026, with a further $1.5bn of savings over the course of 2024.

“This quarter marks the return to reported net profits and further capital accretion — a testament to the strength of our business and client franchises and our ability to deliver significant progress on our integration plans while actively optimising our financial resources,” said chief executive Sergio Ermotti.

While UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse in March 2023, the deal was not completed until last June. UBS executives have warned of a bruising and lengthy integration process that will take time to bed in. Ermotti, who was parachuted in for a second stint as CEO to oversee the takeover, has previously said that 2024 would be the “pivotal year” for the integration during which most costs would hit.

UBS shares are up 42 per cent over the past year but have fallen more than 12 per cent in the past month since the Swiss finance department proposed significantly increasing the group’s capital requirements.

Swiss finance minister Karin Keller-Sutter has since suggested this could lead to $15bn-$25bn of additional capital for UBS, which has “seriously concerned” the bank, according to its chair Colm Kelleher.

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UBS reported $78bn of common equity tier one capital on Tuesday. The bank’s CET1 ratio, which compares its core capital with its risk-weighted assets and indicates its financial resilience, was 14.8 per cent.

The bank said it was on track to meet its 2024 capital return targets and has promised to buy back $2bn of shares from investors.

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The history of 'outside agitators' — from Gaza protests to Martin Luther King Jr. : Consider This from NPR

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The history of 'outside agitators' — from Gaza protests to Martin Luther King Jr. : Consider This from NPR

Police take demonstrators into custody on the campus of the Art Institute of Chicago after students established a protest encampment on the grounds on May 4.

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Police take demonstrators into custody on the campus of the Art Institute of Chicago after students established a protest encampment on the grounds on May 4.

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You’re reading the Consider This newsletter, which unpacks one major news story each day. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to more from the Consider This podcast.

1. It’s become a focus during the pro-Palestinian protests.

We’ve heard the term “outside agitators” a lot in the last few weeks as nationwide protests against Israel’s war in Gaza have spread across college campuses.

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More than 2,100 people have been arrested at the protests, and New York City officials say nearly half of the 282 people detained at two separate schools this past week are not currently affiliated with either institution.

Mayor Eric Adams has been among the most vocal critics of outsiders, saying they are the reason for the strong police presence on campuses.

“There is a movement to radicalize young people and I’m not going to wait until it’s done and all of a sudden acknowledge the existence of it,” he said — an assertion that many students disagree with.

This narrative of outsiders co-opting protests is not new. Here are times you may have heard it before:

  • In 2020, during protests against the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
  • During the 2014 Ferguson, Mo., protests after the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown.
  • During the anti-Vietnam War protests.
  • To describe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement.

Protesters confront police officers during a pro-Palestinian protest at Emory University on April 25.

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Protesters confront police officers during a pro-Palestinian protest at Emory University on April 25.

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2. The term is vague and adaptable.

The “outside agitator” label is not clearly defined and is somewhat malleable, says Justin Hansford, a law professor at Howard University and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center.

Hansford took part in the 2014 protests in Ferguson and says he has visited the recent campus protests against the war in Gaza. He told Consider This that “outside agitators” are usually characterized in three ways:

  • They are are bad people
  • They are not a legitimate part of the protest or movement
  • They are manipulative and are trying to cause trouble

“Using that phrase makes [the protests] seem more dangerous … it really just changes the vision and the image of what the protest is,” he said.

Hansford also makes the distinction between agitators — who may be trying to instigate trouble — and infiltrators — who may belong to an opposing group trying to undermine a cause from the inside.

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3. The motivations for using this specific phrase.

Hansford acknowledges that there are outsiders coming to the protests on college campuses. He says history has shown authorities use the phrase “agitators” to create a pathway for a more aggressive response to protests.

“People look to the righteous outrage of folks who see these terrible images — whether it’s George Floyd or what’s happening happening in Gaza — and there’s a certain level of sympathy,” he said. “So it becomes a political risk to be seen as cracking down really harshly on folks who are sympathetic.”

But if authorities can make it seem like they are going after nefarious outside agitators, Hansford said, it then goes over more smoothly politically.

To understand how the term was used against Martin Luther King Jr. and other Black protesters, listen to the full Consider This episode by tapping the play button at the top of the page.

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Live news: US stocks close higher as traders hope for rate relief

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Live news: US stocks close higher as traders hope for rate relief

US stocks started the week on an upbeat note, closing more than 1 per cent higher as investors continued to price in interest rate cuts before the end of the year.

The benchmark S&P 500 gauge added 1 per cent on Monday, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.2 per cent, with Nvidia, Micron Technology, Meta and Netflix helping to lead the gains.

Government bond moves were relatively muted, with the policy-sensitive two-year yield advancing 0.03 percentage points to 4.84 per cent as the price of the debt instrument edged lower.

Labour market data on Friday showed US employers added far fewer jobs than expected in April, fuelling optimism about rate relief. 

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