World News

By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The family of slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh demanded justice for the Al Jazeera reporter’s killing ahead of a meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday.

Lina Abu Akleh, her niece, posted a video on Twitter from outside the State Department saying that she and other family members “are here to demand justice for Shireen.”

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American, was killed on May 11 during an Israeli raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank under circumstances that remain bitterly disputed.

The State Department said this month that Abu Akleh was likely killed by gunfire from Israeli positions but that it was probably unintentional, citing an investigation by the U.S. Security Coordinator.

Abu Akleh’s family and Palestinian officials have criticized the report and maintained she was deliberately targeted. Israel denies this.

“We will pursue accountability for her murder wherever it may take us,” said a statement on Twitter from Lina, Shireen’s brother Tony and nephew Victor. “Shireen lived to uncover the truth behind every story, and so shall we.”

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The family had accused the United States of providing impunity for Israel over her killing. They unsuccessfully requested a meeting with President Joe Biden in person during his trip to Israel this month.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Howard Goller)

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Military Option in Iran Still Possible, Israel’s Defense Minister Says

Benny Gantz says Israel is keeping the military operation option open to delay Iran’s nuclear project. Experts claim it might be too late for that.

A good nuclear deal could delay Iran’s nuclear project, and so could an Israeli military operation attacking the country’s nuclear facilities, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday.

“A good agreement, which oversees all the vital points for Israel, could be very effective. However, I don’t see that happening right now,” Gantz said in an interview with Israeli journalist Alon Ben-David on stage at a conference sponsored by Israel’s Channel 13. When asked about the possibility of an Israeli military operation in Iran he said: “Idiscussed this with President Biden during his visit to Israel. He himself said that this is a viable option – as a last resort.”

The discussion in Israel regarding solutions to Iran’s nuclear project is long and controversial. While some voices support going back to the nuclear deal that Iran signed in 2015 with the world powers, which allows the Islamic Republic to develop a nuclear infrastructure for civil purposes to a certain extent, others claim an agreement isn’t a solid enough guarantee to prevent Iran from developing a military nuclear capability.

“One of the obstacles with the military option is that it is much more complicated than past operations. Iran is different from Syria and Iraq, in the sense that it is not a one-time attack to destroy the whole project,” according to Professor Eyal Zisser, an expert on Iran and Israeli policy at Tel Aviv University. “It’ll be a much more complicated operation, and it’ll require a mass amount of air power,” he told The Media Line.

“However, one of the main differences is that, in this case, the other side has a strong retaliation ability. And this is the dilemma Israel is facing: Is it worth it to risk pilots and civilians when it’s unclear how much a military attack can delay the nuclear project?”

Zisser is not the only one to doubt the military option’s ability to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

In an article published in Time magazine on Monday, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote, “The reality is this: Both Israel and (for sure) the US can operate over the skies of Iran against this or that site or installation and destroy it. But once Iran is a defacto threshold nuclear state this kind of attack simply cannot delay the Iranians from turning nuclear. Indeed, under certain circumstances, it might accelerate their rush toward assembling that bomb, and provide them a measure of legitimacy on grounds of self-defense.”

Barak served as Israel’s prime minister over 10 years ago, when the option of a military operation was first presented in Israel.

But Barak, who was in the inner circle of decision–making at critical times, is also doubtful about Iran’s intention to actively use a nuclear weapon against Israel.

“However, when it comes to nuclear capability, bear in mind that creating a preliminary nuclear arsenal can take a decade or more. It becomes a potential existential threat to Israel only in the longer term,” he wrote.

Gantz’s confirmation that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities is still on the table comes after a series of explosions and accidents at Iranian nuclear plants and on nuclear infrastructure. Last week, Iranian media reported the discovery of what it said was a Mossad–related operational cell, allegedly in possession of explosives and with concrete plans to attack one of the country’s nuclear facilities.

“I think this policy of minor attacks through the years is proving itself,” Zisser analyzed. “On one hand, Israel has managed to create significant delays to the Iranian nuclear project. On the other hand, it kept good terms with the international community. This policy serves Israel well, it seems.”

Statements like Gantz’s interview are not meant only for a domestic audience. Iranian media was quick to report on Gantz’s new statements, with headlines ranging from “Israeli minister of war threatening Iran,” to “The Israeli military not ready for war.”

Dr. Thamar E. Gindin, an expert on Iran at the University of Haifa’s Ezri Center for Iran & Persian Gulf Studies and host of the Enriched Iranium podcast, told The Media Line that when it comes to public opinion in Iran on the nuclear issue, “Israel isn’t conceived as the main threat to Iran’s security.”

“Saudi Arabia is seen as a much bigger and more immediate threat, while Israel has a rather remote connotation. Iranians who support the nuclear project will usually explain that it is either a way to deter Saudi Arabia from attacking them or a way to become a more immune, stronger regional force. It’s not a common conception to see the nuclear project as a doomsday weapon against Israel,” she added.

Gindin also said that, in the mainstream Iranian community, “Most people in Iran want to go back to the nuclear deal. Not because they’re too keen on details, [but] simply because lifting the sanctions will improve the Iranian economy very fast.”

“When it comes to conditions of going back to the negotiating table, Iran makes at least one valid point,” Gindin said, adding that: “It was the US who broke the deal, and now Iran is required to go back to it with no guarantee to be rewarded for it. In that sense they’re right – they didn’t start this.”

Former US President Donald Trump decided to exit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the previous nuclear deal with Iran, in 2020. Following this decision, the US reimposed sanctions on Iran’s economy and banking services, significantly raising the cost of living in the Islamic Republic.

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BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s next government must prioritize dismantling illegal armed groups and criminal gangs, a report from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Tuesday, with rising violence devastating rural communities.

Violence in Colombia fell dramatically following the 2016 peace deal between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group, but illegal armed groups and criminal gangs have expanded their presence over the past two years, according to the report.

“The state’s predominantly military response has failed to stop the groups’ expansion, with the limited presence of civilian institutions exacerbating the situation,” the OHCHR said in a statement accompanying the report.

Tackling violence and dealing with the presence of armed groups is expected to be a priority for Gustavo Petro, the 62-year-old economist set on Aug. 7 to become the first leftist president in South America’s second most-populous country.

The OHCHR said it verified the killings of 100 community leaders in Colombia in 2021 and has received reports of 114 such killings in the first half of this year, of which it has verified 22.

The government of outgoing President Ivan Duque did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

As well as implementing the 2016 peace agreement, Petro should diminish and dismantle illegal armed structures, which include dissident FARC groups that reject the accord and drug-trafficking gangs, as well as consolidate the state presence in areas most affected by violence, the report recommended.

Petro has pledged to fully implement Colombia’s 2016 peace deal with the demobilized FARC guerrillas and has proposed talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group and criminal groups linked to drug-trafficking.

Colombia’s top criminal gangs, which are linked to producing and trafficking cocaine, last week proposed a ceasefire to Petro’s government as a starting point to peace talks.

The state must protect the population from violence in a way that respects international human rights law, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in the statement.

“The incoming government’s focus on peace and the regional implementation of the peace agreement is a sound approach which my office supports,” Bachelet said.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Will Dunham)

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — The shaken residents of a Vancouver suburb are recovering from a gunman’s hours-long overnight rampage that killed two people and wounded two more before he was shot to death by police.

Authorities initially had said it appeared the attacker was targeting homeless people before dawn Monday, but later said the motive was under investigation. Shootings were reported at a homeless center but also at other sites.

Evidence of the blitz was scattered around Langley, including an overturned bicycle spilling personal possessions onto a street and a shopping cart with someone’s belongings.

Officials said a woman was critically wounded in the first shooting, at midnight at a casino. A man was shot to death at 3 a.m. at a residential complex that provides support for people transitioning out of homlessness. At 5 a.m., the third shooting killed a second man at a bus stop. Then another man was shot in the leg near a highway bypass at 5:45 a.m.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said an emergency response team confronted the gunman far from the fourth attack. Officers fatally shot him, said Ghalib Bhayani, an RCMP superintendent.

Police identified the suspect as Jordan Daniel Goggin, 28, of Surrey, British Columbia.

Authorities said they were working to determine the motive behind the attack. It was not known if the shooter and his victims were acquainted, Bhayani said.

He told reporters that the suspect’s death would be subject to an investigation by the Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia, a civilian-led police oversight agency.

The shootings roiled Langley, a town of 29,000 people about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Vancouver. The town features a variety of shops and restaurants and almost 350 acres (142 hectares) of parks. Many residents moved there for its less expensive housing and commute to Vancouver, the largest city in the province of British Columbia.

Most of the shootings were in downtown Langley. One was in neighboring Langley Township.

After the shooting began, ambulances and police vehicles converged at a mall. The area was cordoned off with yellow police tape and a major intersection was closed. A black tent was set up over one of the crime scenes.

An unmarked police SUV at one of the shooting scenes, near a bus depot, had at least seven bullet holes in the windshield and one through the driver’s window.

Mass shootings are less common in Canada than in the United States. The deadliest gun rampage in Canadian history happened in 2020 when a man disguised as a police officer shot people in their homes and set fires across the province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people.

The country had overhauled its gun-control laws after an attacker killed 14 women and himself in 1989 at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college.

It is now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon in Canada. To purchase a weapon, the country also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notification and criminal record checks.

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By Philip Pullella and Tim Johnson

MASKWACIS, Alberta (Reuters) – Pope Francis apologized on Monday to Canada’s native people on their land for the Church’s role in schools where indigenous children were abused, calling their forced cultural assimilation a “deplorable evil” and “disastrous error.”

Speaking near the site of two former schools in Maskwacis, Alberta, Francis apologized for Christian support of the “colonizing mentality” of the times and called for a “serious” investigation of the schools to help survivors and descendants heal.

“With shame and unambiguously, I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the indigenous peoples,” said Francis, who arrived and left in a wheelchair due to a fractured knee.

The address to the First Nations, Metis and Inuit people was the first apology on Canadian soil by the pope as a part of tour to heal deep wounds that rose to the fore after the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools last year.

The 85-year-old pope had promised such a tour to indigenous delegations that visited him earlier this year at the Vatican, where he made an initial apology.

Indigenous leaders wearing eagle-feather war headdresses greeted the pope as a fellow chief and welcomed him with chanting, beating of drums, dancing and war songs.

“I am here because the first step of my penitential pilgrimage among you is that of again asking forgiveness, of telling you once more that I am deeply sorry,” he said.

He was addressing the indigenous groups in the Bear Park Pow-Wow Grounds, part of the the ancestral territory of the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot, Saulteaux and Nakota Sioux people.

“Sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the indigenous peoples. I am sorry,” he said. “In the face of this deplorable evil, the Church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children.”

After the pope spoke, Chief Wilton Littlechild placed a feather headdress on the pontiff’s head. Francis stood from his chair and wore it for a few moments before a clapping crowd.

An indigenous singer also performed a version of Canada’s national anthem in Cree, with tears pouring down her face. A red banner with names of missing children was carried before the pope, who kissed it.

Before his address, Francis prayed silently in a field of crosses in the cemetery of a church for indigenous people and passed by a stone memorial to the two residential schools once in the area.

CULTURAL DESTRUCTION

Between 1881 and 1996 more than 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and brought to residential schools. Many children were starved, beaten for speaking their native languages, and sexually abused in a system that Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission called “cultural genocide.”

“I ask forgiveness, in particular, for the ways in which many members of the Church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools,” the pope said.

Most of the schools were run for the government by Roman Catholic religious orders of priests and nuns.

Last year, the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in British Columbia were discovered. Since then, the suspected remains of hundreds more children have been detected at other former residential schools around the country.

Many survivors and indigenous leaders say they want more than an apology. They also want financial compensation, the return of artefacts sent to the Vatican by missionaries, support in bringing an alleged abuser now living in France to justice and the release of records held by the religious orders that ran the schools.

Some also have called for the Catholic Church to renounce 15th-century papal bulls, or edicts, that justified colonial powers taking away indigenous land.

For Wallace Yellowface, 78, a boarding school survivor from the Pikanni Nation Reserve in southern Alberta, the pope’s message was too little offered too late.

“It’s late for an apology, and I don’t think it will do me much good,” he said, adding that he was still trying to find out what happened to his sister who attended a residential school.

Still, many of the indigenous people in the crowd cried openly or applauded each time the pope said he was sorry or condemned policies to wipe out indigenous cultures.

In January, the Canadian government agreed to pay C$40 billion ($31.5 billion) to compensate First Nations children who were taken from their families.

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has promised to raise C$30 million for healing and other initiatives. The fund has raised C$4.6 million so far.

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer, Editing by Deepa Babington)

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The U.S. is sending a high-profile diplomatic delegation to visit the Solomon Islands next week led by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and including Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy.

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday the trip is to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal and for the diplomats to meet with Solomon Islands officials to “highlight the enduring relationship” between the two nations.

The visit will hold particular personal interest for Sherman and Kennedy, whose fathers both fought there during World War II.

And it comes after the U.S. and several Pacific nations expressed deep concern about a security pact the Solomon Islands signed with China in April, which many fear could result in a military buildup in the region.

The trip will also highlight the reopening of the U.S. embassy in the capital, Honiara, which is part of an express U.S. strategy to counter China’s growing influence.

The U.S. previously operated an embassy in the Solomon Islands for five years before closing it in 1993.

Kennedy has just begun her role in Australia after formally presenting her credentials on Monday. When she arrived in Australia last week, she told reporters the Pacific region was critical and “I think the U.S. needs to do more.”

“We’re putting our embassies back in and the Peace Corps is coming, and USAID is coming back and we’re coming back,” she said.

Kennedy said the Pacific held great personal significance because her father, the late President John F. Kennedy, had served there during World War II and “was rescued by two Solomon Islanders and an Australian coast watcher.”

Sherman’s father Mal Sherman was a Marine who was wounded during the Battle of Guadalcanal.

As well as Sherman and Kennedy, the delegation will include Kin Moy, a state department principal deputy assistant secretary, and Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Stephen Sklenka, the deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

During the Aug. 6-8 trip, Sherman is scheduled to give speeches at Skyline Ridge, the site of the U.S. Guadalcanal Memorial, and at Bloody Ridge.

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By Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian presidential election frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva favors reopening talks on a stalled European Union trade deal with South American trade bloc Mercosur to add provisions on environmental protection, human rights and technology, a senior foreign policy adviser said.

If the leftist former president wins the October vote, Brazil would likely join calls by Argentina and environmentalists to review the agreement now blocked in Europe over concerns about destruction of the Amazon rainforest under far right President Jair Bolsonaro, adviser Celso Amorim told Reuters.

“That does not mean renegotiating the whole pact or starting from zero,” said Amorim, who was Lula’s foreign minister during his two terms as president from 2003 to 2010.

The position spotlights a delicate balance for Lula, who has made bold environmental pledges while shoring up old ties with agribusiness leaders who criticize Europe’s environmental demands as hypocritical barriers to trade.

“Without it becoming a pretext for protectionism, I think we can strengthen clauses on climate,” said Amorim.

“It has to be a balanced agreement that takes into account global warming and the need for sustainable development while, on the other hand, allowing industrial development with up-to-date technology that must be green,” he said.

Amorim also suggested “adjustments” to the accord, which took two decades to negotiate, in order to improve provisions on government purchases, services and intellectual property.

He said Lula believes in the need for a strategic accord between the EU and Mercosur, creating the largest free trade area in the world.

Lula was leading by double digits in opinion polls ahead of the Oct. 2 election against Bolsonaro, whose presidency has seen increased deforestation of the Amazon.

“With Bolsonaro in government, there cannot be any Mercosur agreement, that is crystal clear,” said European Member of Parliament Anna Cavazzini, who last week led a Greens/EFA political group mission to Brazil to evaluate the threat to the Amazon region from illegal gold mining and logging.

In 2020, her Greens/EFA successfully pushed through an amendment barring the Mercosur pact from advancing in its current form because of deforestation.

“The deal must be renegotiated to make absolutely clear that we do not import goods from deforested areas,” she said in a telephone interview, adding: “I don’t know if we need an agreement at all.”

Cavazzini and two MEP colleagues, Michele Rivasi and Claude Gruffat, visited indigenous communities and met their leaders during their visit to the Amazon, where they said the lack of law enforcement was “shocking.”

“Being there and seeing how much the indigenous people are really affected was heartbreaking,” Cavazzini said. “Brazil and Europe need to change course and act, otherwise the forest will disappear.”

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Lisandra Paraguassu; Additional reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Brad Haynes and Grant McCool)

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MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) — Pope arrives at site of a former Indigenous residential school in Canada to apologize for Catholic missionary abuses.

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By Elias Biryabarema

KAMPALA/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Congo Republic on Monday, the second leg of an African tour aimed at strengthening Moscow’s ties with a continent that has refused to join Western condemnation and sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

African countries, which have a tangled legacy of relations with the West and the former Soviet Union, have largely avoided taking sides over the war in Ukraine. Many import Russian grain and increasingly energy too, but they also buy Ukrainian grain and benefit from Western aid flows and trade ties.

Africa is also being courted by the West this week, with French President Emmanuel Macron due to visit Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau and U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer on his way to Egypt and Ethiopia.

Lavrov has already visited Egypt and will head from Congo to Uganda, then Ethiopia, where African Union diplomats said he had invited ambassadors from several member states to a private meeting on Wednesday, dismaying Western donors.

An invitation letter from the Russian ambassador to Ethiopia and the AU, sent to a number of African ambassadors and seen by Reuters, said the goal of the meeting was to deepen cooperation between Russia and African states.

Two AU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity said the planned meeting, which would coincide with Hammer’s visit, was causing friction among Western donors because it signalled a pivot towards Russia.

Spokespersons for the AU, which is based in Addis Ababa, and for the Ethiopian foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

In a column published in newspapers in the four countries included in his tour, Lavrov praised Africa for resisting what he called Western attempts to impose a unipolar world order.

“We appreciate the considered African position as to the situation in and around Ukraine,” he wrote in the column, adding that African countries had come under “unprecedented” Western pressure to join the sanctions.

BALANCING ACT

In Congo Republic, a small oil-producing former French colony north of the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, Lavrov visited President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who has been in power since 1979, with a five-year gap from 1992 to 1997.

In a statement, Lavrov’s spokeswoman said this was the first visit by a Russian or Soviet foreign affairs minister to the country. She said friendly ties dated back to the Soviet era and that 8,000 Congolese citizens had studied in Russia.

Lavrov was expected later in Uganda, where President Yoweri Museveni has a long history of balancing strong relations with Western allies and good ties with Moscow.

Sarah Bireete, head of Kampala-based campaign group the Centre for Constitutional Governance, said Museveni, who has been in power for 36 years, was increasingly keen on Russia because it did not question his government’s record.

“Uganda has strong alliances with the West but they are beginning to question his democratic credentials so Museveni is now running to Russia which doesn’t query his human rights or democracy record,” she said.

Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kainerugaba, an army general widely seen as being groomed to succeed his father, praised Russia on social media shortly after President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24.

“The majority of mankind (that are non-white) support Russia’s stand in Ukraine. Putin is absolutely right!” he wrote.

Uganda’s state broadcaster said it would carry news bulletins from Russian state-funded channel RT twice a day under a new memorandum of understanding signed with Moscow.

Uganda is among several nations in Eastern Africa suffering from food shortages due to the region’s worst drought in 40 years, plus soaring inflation fueled by the crisis in Ukraine.

Western powers have blamed Russia for the crisis, and last week the United States announced a $1.3 billion package to help tackle hunger in the region. Russia blames Western sanctions for grain supply problems.

(Additional reporting by Addis Ababa newsroom and Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Gareth Jones/Mark Heinrich)

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(Reuters) -Myanmar’s military authorities have executed four democracy activists accused of helping carry out “terror acts”, state media said on Monday, the Southeast Asian nation’s first executions in decades.

Reaction to reported the executions:

MYANMAR SHADOW NATIONAL UNITY GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN KYAW ZAW

“Extremely saddened…condemn the junta’s cruelty with strongest terms if it’s the case.

“The global community must punish their cruelty.”

INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP MYANMAR ANALYST RICHARD HORSEY

“Any possibility of dialogue to end the crisis created by the coup has now been removed. This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one. It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation.”

MYANMAR PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS THEINNY OO

“He (Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy) fought for the country…I’m sorry for the loss of our comrade. The fascists do things the fascist way. We will continue our fight for democracy.”

KHIN ZAW WIN, DIRECTOR OF TAMPADIPA INSTITUTE, A MYANMAR THINK TANK

“First of all it means there is no turning back. There were no executions for 30 years and we thought death sentence may be permanently abolished. This turns back the clock. Country going back into dark ages.”

U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN MYANMAR, TOM ANDREWS

“I am outraged and devastated at the news of the junta’s execution of Myanmar patriots and champions of human rights and democracy. My heart goes out to their families, friends and loved ones and indeed all the people in Myanmar who are victims of the junta’s escalating atrocities. ..These depraved acts must be a turning point for the international community.”

MATTHEW SMITH, HEAD OF SOUTHEAST ASIA’S FORTIFY RIGHTS

“These horrendous executions were murders. They’re a part of the junta’s ongoing crimes against humanity and attack on the civilian population. The junta would be completely wrong to think this would instil fear in the hearts of the revolution.”

ELAINE PEARSON, ACTING ASIA DIRECTOR AT HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

“The Myanmar junta’s execution of four men was an act of utter cruelty. These executions…followed grossly unjust and politically motivated military trials. The junta’s barbarity and callous disregard for human life aims to chill the anti-coup protest movement. European Union member states, the United States, and other governments should show the junta that there will be a reckoning for its crimes.”

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Complied by Michael Perry; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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