World
EU rejects claim it ‘aided & abetted’ crimes against migrants in Libya
Brussels insisted on Tuesday that it’s not handing “bodily cash” to Libyan entities after a UN fact-finding mission discovered that the EU “aided and abetted” the fee of crimes in opposition to migrants within the conflict-torn nation.
The UN report launched on Monday and based mostly on tons of of interviews carried out over a three-year fact-finding mission concluded that there’s proof that crimes in opposition to humanity have been dedicated in opposition to Libyans and migrants caught within the nation.
These crimes embody ladies being compelled into sexual slavery, arbitrary detention, homicide, torture, rape, enslavement, and enforced disappearance.
The Libyan coast guard have been in the meantime discovered to be working “in shut coordination” with trafficking networks in Libya with the exploitation of weak migrants producing “important income”.
“The help given by the EU to the Libyan coast guard by way of pull-backs, pushbacks, (and) interceptions led to violations of sure human rights,” investigator Chaloka Beyani instructed reporters. “You possibly can’t push again folks to areas which might be unsafe, and the Libyan waters are unsafe for the embarkation of migrants.”
He mentioned the European bloc and its member states weren’t discovered to be chargeable for conflict crimes, however “the help given has aided and abetted the fee of the crimes.”
‘A stimulus for us to work extra’
Peter Stano, lead spokesperson for the EU exterior affairs service, instructed journalists on Tuesday that “one factor which is essential to remember, we aren’t financing any Libyan entity. We’re not giving bodily cash to companions in Libya, precisely for these causes.”
The EU and its member states have for years offered materials and technical help to the Libyan coast guard in a bid to spice up interception of boats making an attempt the damaging crossings throughout the Mediterranean to illegally attain Europe. This contains coaching for the coast guard in addition to boats.
It has additionally spent tens of tens of millions of euros to guard and help migrants and refugees and help native communities.
“What we’re doing is allocating some huge cash, which is then normally utilized by our worldwide companions. Loads goes by way of the UN, for instance, once we are doing the repatriations, once we are doing reallocations by way of IOM or with the assistance of the UNHCR,” Stano mentioned.
“So I do not agree with the claims that our cash goes to finance the enterprise mannequin of the smugglers or of those that are misusing and mistreating folks in Libya, fairly on the contrary. Many of the cash goes with the intention to maintain these very folks,” he added.
The cash was used, as an illustration, to fund 60,000 assisted voluntary returns and the vacuation of 5,500 refugees from the nation by way of the UNHCR, Stano mentioned.
The EU, he additionally mentioned, is “taking severely the issues” raised by the UN fact-finding mission.
“Our goal, our joint goal, is to assist to enhance the state of affairs of the folks stranded in Libya. And there are outcomes. In fact, there are incidents, there are points that are supply of concern. We attempt to handle them with the companions in Libya, with the worldwide companions.”
“What we’re seeing and witnessing now’s only a stimulus for us to work extra with the intention to convey to the Libyan companions to work with us on these and in addition with the worldwide companions to have interaction much more, as a result of in the long run, it is folks we’re speaking about and it is folks to whom our efforts are directed at,” he mentioned.
In August 2022, there have been nearly 680,000 migrants from over 41 nationalities in Libya, in accordance with the UN’s Worldwide Organisation for Migration. The overwhelming majority are adults though 11% are kids
World
Taylor Swift drops 15 new songs on double album, 'The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology'
NEW YORK (AP) — Could there be a Taylor Swift new album rollout without a few additional surprises?
No.
On Friday, the pop star released her 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” an amalgamation of her previous work and reflecting the artist who — at the peak of her powers — has spent the last few years re-recording her life’s work and touring its material, filtered through synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured considerations.
But that was midnight. At 2 a.m. Eastern, she released “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” featuring 15 additional songs.
“I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment,” Swift wrote in an Instagram caption. “And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
The songs are a natural continuation of the first half of the album; many return to her “evermore” and “folklore” sound, with an assist from her collaborator Aaron Dessner.
This is not Swift’s first time surprising her fans, and certainly not her first time doing so with a surprise album release. A few months after “folklore” was released in 2020, she announced “evermore” would arrive at the midnight the same day. And speaking of midnight, she dropped a “3am” edition of “Midnights” featuring seven new tracks in 2022 a handful of hours after the original release.
World
Iranian 'nuclear energy mountain' is 'fully safe' after Israeli strike: state media
Iranian nuclear sites are “fully safe” and have not been impacted by Israeli strikes, the country’s regime says.
Israel carried out limited strikes on areas of Iran early Friday in retaliation for Tehran firing a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel last Saturday.
The region surrounding the city of Isfahan — home to the country’s “nuclear energy mountain” — was among the areas targeted in the strike.
ISRAEL STRIKES SITE IN IRAN IN RETALIATION FOR WEEKEND ASSAULT: SOURCE
Isfahan is home to Iran’s Uranium Conversion Facility and three research reactors. The country’s underground Natanz enrichment site is also in the region.
Iranian state media stated following the attack that the nation’s atomic sites were “fully safe” and not struck by the missiles.
“The explosion this morning in the sky of Isfahan was related to the shooting of air defense systems at a suspicious object that did not cause any damage,” Iranian army commander Gen. Abdolrahim Mousavi said.
REPORTS OF ISRAEL’S RETALIATORY STRIKES AGAINST IRAN PROMPT REACTIONS FROM LAWMAKERS: ‘RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF’
The International Atomic Energy Agency, a United Nations affiliate watchdog organization, later confirmed “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites.”
The agency said it “continues to call for extreme restraint from everybody and reiterates that nuclear facilities should never be a target in military conflicts.”
Details surrounding the intended target of the strike – if there was one – were not immediately available, but Fox News was previously able to confirm the target was “not nuclear or civilian.”
A senior Iranian official allegedly told Reuters that Iran has no plans to immediately respond to the Israeli strike, which was described differently in Iranian state media. The explosions heard in Isfahan were allegedly a result of the country’s air defense systems activating and not a missile attack, the official told Reuters.
Former Israel Defense Forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus wrote on X that while Iran appears to downplay the strike, he “think[s] they’ve gotten the message.”
Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz, Jennifer Griffin and Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.
World
No, the head of the World Economic Forum is not dead
Rumours have emerged online that the WEF’s executive chairman and founder, Klaus Schwab, has been hospitalised, arrested, and may even be dead. The Cube takes a look at where the false claims have come from.
Social media users have been claiming that the World Economic Forum (WEF) executive chairman and founder, Klaus Schwab, was recently admitted to hospital in a serious condition.
A large number of posts on X spreading the rumours have been seen and shared thousands of times. Some of them link his supposed condition to a cardiac incident after running, while others even go as far as claiming he may be dead.
None of these claims is true.
It seems like the allegations stemmed from satirical articles, such as this one from the website Weekly Crier.
It doesn’t provide any details about Schwab’s supposed hospitalisation, nor does it cite any sources.
The website’s own “About Us” page says that it posts “satire and comedic opinion pieces and editorials”, alongside supposedly “reliable and unbiased news and information”.
Not only that, the WEF has confirmed that Schwab is in perfectly good health.
The organisation has said that the claims are “entirely baseless and unfounded” and that Schwab’s health is “excellent”.
It added that, like many high-profile individuals and organisations, he has routinely been the target of conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns.
They’re not wrong: the claims about Schwab’s health came in lockstep with other misleading allegations that the US Delta Force arrested Schwab at his home in Switzerland.
An article by website Real Raw News said that a Delta Force strike team apprehended Schwab after a “deadly firefight” in his house, and that he was found in bed connected to an adrenochrome infusion machine.
Once again, this appears to be an attempt at satire.
Real Raw News’s “About Us” page also says that the website contains “humour, parody and satire”, but that hasn’t stopped the claims from also doing the rounds on social media.
Various posts on X, Reddit and Facebook have all shared the allegations out of context, although some of them at least with a dose of scepticism.
The WEF hasn’t made any reference to an arrest, and a quick Google search for the story from more reliable news outlets doesn’t yield any results.
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