World News

By Maya Gebeily

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Kenyan cleaner Noel Musanga survived Lebanon’s economic meltdown, waves of COVID-19 and Beirut’s port blast. But when her internet provider announced rates would double, she feared her last lifeline to family and work would snap.

The freelance migrant worker already barely earned enough to survive. Now, the higher telecoms bill means she will have to ration her calls to relatives and potential employers.

“It will be like (being) in a deep hole,” Musanga said in her ground-floor apartment in the densely-populated Burj Hammoud neighbourhood on the edge of Beirut.

Lebanon hosts an estimated 250,000 migrant workers primarily from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations.

Their residence is usually subject to “kafala”, a sponsorship system that rights groups say gives employers excessive control over workers’ lives.

Lebanon’s three-year financial downturn has only added to their woes, with employers abandoning domestic migrant workers in the streets as their monthly wages – between $150 to $400 – became too expensive.

Some went freelance, living on their own and taking on cleaning or nannying work to pay the bills.

But that has become harder by the day. Lebanon’s currency has lost 95% of its value while food and public transportation costs have risen roughly eleven-fold.

The internet is the next big challenge.

Until this month, Lebanon’s telecoms sector had continued to use the government’s old peg of 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar to charge for phone calls, broadband and mobile internet.

With slim revenues, the state struggled to import enough fuel to run telecoms transmitter stations, leading to cuts in coverage throughout 2021.

To reverse that trend, Lebanon’s cabinet said telecoms tariffs would be calculated based on the much weaker flexible currency rate set by the government’s Sayrafa platform.

‘EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE’

Using the government’s formula, that would cause up to four-fold increases in customers’ bills, according to digital rights group SMEX.

Musanga, who also volunteers as a migrant rights advocate, said that mark-up will be life-changing for vulnerable workers.

They would have to choose between paying for a home connection or a mobile one, which they would likely use less to conserve data packages.

It could also present a higher risk for workers seeking to escape abusive employers.

“All the time, I’m on the phone receiving complaints from the girls on contract who are in trouble … So, I have to have the internet to reach them and solve all these problems,” Musanga said.

The higher cost of living all-around also meant migrant workers had almost nothing left to send in remittances to their relatives back home.

“Now in Lebanon if you are here, you are wasting your time, wasting your energy … Because everything is expensive, and you’ll have nothing to save for yourself or send to your family. So it’s better to go home,” she said.

The price jumps could even have an impact on the mental health of migrant workers and their families back home.

With cases of domestic violence on the rise across Lebanon since 2019, workers’ families back home would be in a constant state of worry if they didn’t hear from them, Kareem Nofal, communications specialist at the Anti-Racism Movement, said.

Live-in workers had relied on their phones and Wi-Fi connections to stay connected, particularly throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Tsigereda Birhanu, a 27-year-old advocate for migrant workers in Lebanon, told Reuters.

“That’s their therapy,” Birhanu said.

“If you don’t have 3G, if you don’t have internet, you are going to lose everything.”

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Europe’s top rights court said on Monday that Turkey had not complied with a ruling that called for the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala, moving further in a process that could lead to Ankara’s suspension from the Council of Europe (CoE).

The Committee of Ministers of the CoE, which oversees the implementation of the rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) referred the case back to the court in February.

(Reporting by Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Catherine Evans)

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By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A U.N. Security Council mandate for U.N. aid deliveries to some 4 million people in Syria from Turkey expired on Sunday as diplomats struggled to find a deal with Russia, which traded barbs with the United States over the renewal of the operation.

Ireland and Norway are still working to reach a compromise, diplomats said, but a vote on Sunday was unlikely so the huge U.N. aid operation would be shut down. In 2020 the mandate ran out, but was renewed a day later on the council’s fifth attempt.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told Canada’s CBC television on Sunday that the operation, which delivers aid including food, medicine and shelter, was a lifeline and that if it cannot continue “people will die.”

Russia vetoed a one-year extension on Friday and then failed in its own push for a six-month renewal, which would have required the 15-member body to adopt a new resolution in January to extend it for another six months.

The United States, Britain and France have said a six-month extension is not long enough for aid groups to plan and operate effectively.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, spoke to aid groups on Sunday, who told her that without the U.N. operation 70% of food needs would go unmet.”

“An entire generation is at risk,” she posted on Twitter. “The NGOs (aid groups) asked the UNSC to continue fighting to save these lives … We have been working all weekend with the UNSC to find compromise.”

Russia’s Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy replied on Twitter: “There’s no need to fight and you know it perfectly well!” He said Russia was not trying to kill the U.N. operation and just wanted to make it more efficient and transparent.

After the two council votes on Friday, Polyanskiy said that Moscow would continue to veto any text other than its own.

Russia argues that the U.N. aid operation violates Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It says more aid should be delivered from inside the country, raising opposition fears that food and other aid would fall under government control.

The Security Council vote on the authorization of the aid operation has long been a contentious issue, but this year also comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and Western powers over Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

In 2014, the Security Council authorized humanitarian aid deliveries into opposition-held areas of Syria from Iraq, Jordan and two points in Turkey. But veto powers Russia and China have whittled that down to just one Turkish border point.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Diane Craft)

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By Anna Voitenko and Max Hunder

CHASIV YAR/KYIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -At least 15 people were killed and two dozen more were feared trapped after Russian rockets hit a five-story apartment block in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, local officials said on Sunday as rescuers picked their way through rubble.

Ukraine also reported clashes with Russian troops on fronts in the east and south, while Moscow said its forces struck Ukrainian army hangars storing U.S.-produced M777 howitzers, a type of artillery, near Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region.

Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike on the apartment building took place on Saturday evening in the town of Chasiv Yar. The regional emergency service gave the death toll at 15 on Sunday afternoon.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram that six people had been rescued from the rubble at Chasiv Yar, and that 23 people, including a child, remained buried.

“We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen,” said a local resident who gave her name as Ludmila, speaking as rescuers removed a body in a white sheet and cleared rubble using a crane as well as their hands.

“The second, I do not even remember, there was lightning, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.” Another survivor, who gave her name as Venera, said she had wanted to save her two kittens.

“I was thrown into the bathroom, it was all chaos, I was in shock, all covered in blood,” she said, crying. “By the time I left the bathroom, the room was full up of rubble, three floors fell down. I never found the kittens under the rubble.”

FIGHTING FOR TERRITORY

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a Telegram post that the strike was “another terrorist attack,” and Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism as a result.

Russia, which says it is conducting a “special military operation” to demilitarize Ukraine, denies deliberately attacking civilians.

Luhansk and Donetsk provinces comprise the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial region that has become Europe’s biggest battlefield in generations. Russia wants to wrest control of the Donbas on behalf of the separatists that it supports.

Ukraine and the West – which has been supporting Ukraine with weapons and stiff sanctions on Russia – call Moscow’s invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.

Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions near the town of Sloviansk in Donetsk but were forced to withdraw, Ukraine’s military said, adding that Russian forces had launched a cruise missile attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv from their side of the border. It gave no details of damage or casualties.

Luhansk region Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Russian forces were gathering near the village of Bilohorivka, about 50 km (30 miles) east of Sloviansk.

Russia is “shelling the surrounding settlements, carrying out air strikes, but it is still unable to quickly occupy the entire Luhansk region,” he said on Telegram.

Russia claimed control over all of Luhansk province last weekend.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had destroyed two hangars near the Donetsk town of Kostyantynivka holding the U.S.-made M777 howitzers, which it said had been used to shell residential areas of Donetsk.

Russian news agencies quoted separatist officials as saying on Sunday that Ukraine’s military had been shelling Donetsk using NATO-standard 155-mm artillery since the morning, wounding two residents.

Reuters could not independently verify battlefield accounts.

Ukrainian military spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.

In the south, Ukrainian forces fired missiles and artillery at Russian positions, including ammunition depots in the Chornobaivka area, Ukraine’s military command said.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned civilians in the Russian-occupied Kherson region on Sunday to urgently evacuate as Ukraine’s armed forces were preparing a counter-attack there, not giving a timeframe for action.

“I know for sure that there should not be women and children there, and that they should not become human shields,” she said on national television.

(Reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Robert Birsel, William Maclean and Patricia Zengerle;Editing by Pravin Char, Alex Richardson, Frances Kerry and Aurora Ellis)

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SAO PAULO (Reuters) -A local official from Brazil’s leftist opposition Workers’ Party (PT) was shot dead on Saturday by a federal prison guard who was shouting support for right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, according to state law enforcement and a witness.

Marcelo Arruda, a municipal guard and PT official, was celebrating his birthday party in the southern Brazilian city of Foz de Iguacu, in the state of Parana, when Jorge Jose da Rocha Guaranho entered the event and shot him dead.

According to a statement from Parana’s public security department, Arruda and Guaranho “had a disagreement” at Arruda’s birthday party, which resulted in both men being shot. Arruda died, while Guaranho was in intensive care.

Previously, the Workers’ Party had said in a statement that Guaranho also died.

Arruda’s death augurs badly ahead of an October general election that many expect to become highly fraught in politically polarized Brazil.

Leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is the PT’s presidential candidate and currently leads Bolsonaro in polls.

Bolsonaro, who has long railed against Lula and his leftist allies, has floated the idea of not accepting any election loss, citing unfounded claims of election fraud and problems with Brazil’s widely respected electronic voting system.

According to a state civil police report and a witness who spoke with Reuters, Guaranho appeared at the party, uninvited, pointing a gun while also shouting insults at those present and words in support of Bolsonaro.

Aluizio Palmar, a journalist at the party, told Reuters that a man arrived and started screaming in support of Bolsonaro, describing him as a “legend.”

According to Palmar, the man left but returned about 15 or 20 minutes later, pointing a gun at Arruda.

Arruda ordered him to stop, identifying himself as a member of the security forces.

Both men then opened fire, according to a civil police report and security camera images circulated in local media, which showed them both injured, rolling around on the floor.

“Another dear comrade passed away this morning, a victim of intolerance, hatred and political violence,” said the PT’s national president Gleisi Hoffmann in a statement.

Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Eduardo SimõesWriting by Ana Mano; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)

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By David Brunnstrom

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bali on Saturday after a G20 ministerial meeting on the Indonesian island where the top U.S. diplomat led efforts to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine.

U.S. officials say Blinken’s first face-to-face meeting with Wang since October, which includes a morning session of talks and a working lunch, is aimed at keeping the difficult U.S. relationship with Beijing stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict.

Blinken is expected to repeat warnings to China not to support Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine and the two sides will address contentious issues that include Taiwan, China’s extensive South China Sea claims, Beijing’s moves to expand its influence throughout the Pacific, human rights, and trade tariffs.

However, both sides share an interest in keeping the relationship stable and Blinken and U.S. officials say U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak again coming weeks, something Saturday’s meeting is likely to address.

Daniel Russel, a top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama who has close contact with Biden administration officials, said he believed a key aim for the meeting would be to explore the possibility of an in-person meeting between Biden and Xi, their first as leaders, possibly on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November.

Washington calls China its main strategic rival and is concerned it might one day attempt to take over the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan, just as Russia attacked Ukraine.

The current top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said on Tuesday he expected a “candid” exchange with Wang and said it would be another opportunity “to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine.”

Shortly before Russia’s Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion, Beijing and Moscow announced a “no limits” partnership. But U.S. officials have said they have not seen China evade tough U.S.-led sanctions on Moscow or provide military equipment to Russia.

However, China has refused to condemn Russia’s actions and criticized the sweeping sanctions. U.S. officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China start offering material support for Russia’s war effort, which Moscow calls a “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military though Kyiv counters that it is an imperial-style land grab.

U.S. officials are not expecting specific outcomes from Saturday’s talks, but Kritenbrink said it was “critical” to maintain open lines of communication with China to “prevent any miscalculation that could lead inadvertently to conflict and confrontation.”

The meeting will be the latest high-level U.S.-China contact.

Despite their strategic rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain major trading partners and Biden has been considering scrapping tariffs on a range of Chinese goods to curb surging U.S. inflation before the November midterm elections, with control of Congress in focus.

Analysts say Xi has an interest in maintaining stable relations with Washington for the time being as he seeks an unprecedented third term at a congress of the ruling Communist Party later this year.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Monday and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan met last month with China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Luxembourg.

The White House said on Tuesday it is still looking at options on whether to cut tariffs on Chinese imports, even as industry requests to keep the duties in place mounted. No breakthrough announcement is expected from Blinken and Wang’s meeting on Saturday.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)

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By Satoshi Sugiyama and Tim Kelly

NARA (Reuters) -A steady stream of mourners on Saturday visited the scene of the bloody assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s in the western city of Nara, an unusual act of political violence that has shocked the nation.

Japan’s longest serving modern leader was gunned down while making a campaign speech on Friday morning by a 41-year-old man, in a deed decried by the political establishment as an attack on democracy itself.

“I’m just shocked that this kind of thing happened in Nara,” Natsumi Niwa, a 50-year-old housewife, said after offering flowers with her 10-year-old son near the scene of the killing at a downtown train station.

Abe, a conservative and architect of the “Abenomics” policies aimed at reflating the Japanese economy, inspired the name of her son, Masakuni, with his rallying cry of Japan as a “beautiful nation”, Niwa said. “Kuni” means nation in Japanese.

Campaigning resumed on the final day of electioneering before polling for the upper house of parliament, which is expected to deliver victory to the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, an Abe protege.

“A wave of sympathy votes now could boost the margin of victory,” James Brady, vice president at advisory firm Teneo, wrote in a note. The Liberal Democratic Party, where Abe retained considerable influence, had already been expected to gain seats before the assassination.

Abe’s death has raised questions about the security measures for public figures in Japan, where politicians commonly make direct appeals to voters outside train stations and supermarkets during campaigning season.

A scion of a political family who became Japan’s youngest post-war premier, Abe was rushed to a Nara hospital following the shooting. He did not regain consciousness and was pronounced dead about five and a half hours after the late-morning attack.

Police are scrambling to establish details of the motive and method of Abe’s killer.

A motorcade thought to be carrying the body of the slain politician left the hospital early on Saturday. It is thought to be heading for his Tokyo residence, local media reported.

Kishida spoke on Saturday with U.S President Joe Biden, who expressed his condolences and praised Abe’s leadership, NHK reported.

Abe was key in the creation of the Quad grouping aimed at countering China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The other members, the United States, India and Australia, expressed shock at the assassination in a joint statement.

“We will honour Prime Minister Abe’s memory by redoubling our work towards a peaceful and prosperous region,” the statement said.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama and Tim Kelly in Nara and the Tokyo newsroom; Editing by Sandra Maler and William Mallard)

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By David Brunnstrom

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on Saturday for the first in-person talks since October after attending a G20 summit where the top U.S. diplomat led efforts to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine.

U.S. officials say Blinken’s meeting with Wang in Bali, Indonesia, including a morning session of talks and a working lunch, is aimed at keeping the difficult U.S. relationship with China stable and preventing it from veering inadvertently into conflict.

“There is no substitute for face to face … diplomacy, and in a relationship as complex and consequential as the one between the United States and China there is a lot to talk about,” Blinken told reporters at the beginning of the meeting.

“We very much look forward to a productive and constructive conversation,” he said.

Blinken is expected to repeat warnings to China not to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and the two sides will address contentious issues that include Taiwan, China’s extensive South China Sea claims, its expansion of influence in the Pacific, human rights, and trade tariffs.

However, both sides share an interest in keeping the relationship stable and Blinken and U.S. officials say President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak again in coming weeks, something Saturday’s meeting is likely to address.

“China and the United States are two major countries, so it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges,” Wang told reporters.

“At the same time, we do need to talk together to ensure that this relationship will continue to move forward along the right track,” Wang said.

Daniel Russel, a top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama who has close contact with Biden administration officials, said he believed a key aim for the meeting would be to explore the possibility of an in-person meeting between Biden and Xi, their first as leaders, possibly on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Bali in November.

The United States calls China its main strategic rival and is concerned it might one day attempt to take over the self-ruled democratic island of Taiwan, just as Russia attacked Ukraine.

The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said on Tuesday he expected a “candid” exchange with Wang and said it would be another opportunity “to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine”.

Shortly before Russia’s Feb. 24 Ukraine invasion, Beijing and Moscow announced a “no limits” partnership. But U.S. officials have said they have not seen China evade tough U.S.-led sanctions on Russia or provide it with military equipment.

However, China has declined to condemn Russia’s actions and it has criticized the sweeping sanctions.

U.S. officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, should China start offering material support for Russia’s war effort, which it calls a “special military operation” to degrade the Ukrainian military though Kyiv counters that it is an imperial-style land grab.

Despite their strategic rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain major trading partners and Biden has been considering scrapping tariffs on a range of Chinese goods to curb surging U.S. inflation before the November midterm elections, with control of Congress in focus.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Robert Birsel)

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MADRID (Reuters) – Morocco and the European Union have agreed to cooperate more closely in combatting human trafficking after at least 23 migrants died during an attempted mass border crossing from Morocco into the neighbouring Spanish enclave of Melilla, Spain and Morocco said in a joint statement on Friday.

The announcement came after Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit met in Rabat to discuss how to address what they said were “new strategies” used by migrants seeking to reach European soil, the statement said.

“Morocco is a strategic partner, a committed partner of the EU when it comes to managing migration in an orderly way. And we stands ready to deepening our cooperation, (…) working together in effective and efficient readmissions and returns and investing in legal pathways together,” Johansson said in an accompanying video shared by Spain.

Some 2,000 migrants stormed the border with Melilla at the end of June, triggering two hours of violent skirmishes with Moroccan security forces and Spanish border guards.

Around 100 eventually managed to cross Europe’s only land border with Africa but dozens of badly injured and dead migrants were later pictured lying stacked together by a Moroccan border fence.

Moroccan authorities said the migrants died in a stampede and others fell as they climbed.

Local human rights organisations claimed people had lain injured for hours without medical treatment, leading to a higher death toll. The United Nations and other human rights NGOs called for an independent probe into the clashes, while Morocco and Spain’s prosecutor opened their own inquiries.

Shortly after the incident, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez accused smuggling mafias of having organised the assault and thanked the Moroccan security forces for their help policing the border.

The representatives of Spain and the EU on Friday repeated their thanks to Morocco but also described what happened as “painful” and expressed regret for the deaths.

“It is important that we address these dangerous situations and these well-organized smuggling groups together to save lives and to manage migration in an orderly way,” Johansson said.

The agreement will include support for border management, strengthening police cooperation – including joint investigations – and strengthening cooperation with EU agencies, the statement said.

Spain says its policy of working with African countries to contain migration at the point of origin has succeeded in stopping 40 percent of irregular migratory movements.

(Reporting by Belén Carreño, additional reporting by Ahmed Eljechtimi; editing by Aislinn Laing and Jonathan Oatis)

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ZURICH (Reuters) -Three organisations have filed a criminal complaint to federal prosecutors in Switzerland, alleging a failure to exercise due diligence at UBS in relation to funds they say were received by an alleged associate of former Congolese president Joseph Kabila.

The complaint, filed by Swiss campaign group Public Eye, alongside two other groups, relates to a possible failure to exercise due diligence regarding financial transactions within the largest Swiss bank.

UBS declined to comment.

The criminal complaint, filed to Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, centres on transactions totalling $19 million they say were sent to the alleged associate’s UBS accounts in Zurich and Geneva in 2012 and 2013.

An attorney for Kabila did not immediately respond to requests for comment by telephone and text message.

The individual named by Public Eye also did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn.

The Office of the Attorney General confirmed it had received the criminal complaint.

“The criminal complaint will now be examined in accordance with the usual procedure,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Based on the filing, the attorney general’s office may decide to open criminal proceedings, assign such proceedings to regional prosecutors or determine that no proceedings are necessary.

Swiss financial market supervisor FINMA said it was aware of the case and was in contact with UBS regarding it. It declined to comment on further details.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; additional reporting by Fiston Mahamba in Goma; editing by David Evans and Louise Heavens)

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