What Abdul’s victory in Michigan means for the future

 

WATCH: 'It's up to all of us to fix this,' Obama says about democracy

ICC must be allowed to carry out work ‘without intimidation’, say 93 member states

The Guardian, Harry Davies, Sat 15 Jun 2024

Joint statement of support for international criminal court issued following revelations of Israeli interference 

The international criminal court has been the subject of efforts by Israel and its intelligence
agencies to undermine, influence and intimidate. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

The international criminal court must be allowed to carry out its work “without intimidation”, a group of 93 states has said in a significant public intervention intended to reinforce support for the judicial body. 

In a joint statement issued late on Friday issued late on Friday, the large group of ICC member states vowed to defend the institution and “preserve its integrity from any political interference and pressure against the court, its officials and those cooperating with it”. 

The show of unity for the court and its staff comes in the wake of revelations published by the Guardian about efforts by Israel and its intelligence agencies to undermine, influence and intimidate the court as part of a nine-year campaign of surveillance and espionage. 

It also follows recent warnings by the office of the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that it has been subjected to “several forms of threats” and hostile intelligence activity apparently intended to interfere with and improperly influence the prosecutor’s work. 

Last month, Khan announced that he has filed applications for arrest warrants against senior Hamas and Israeli officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he alleged had been committed during Hamas’s 7 October attack and the ensuing war in Gaza. 

Khan’s decision to seek arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and defence minister, Yoav Gallant, is the first time an ICC prosecutor has taken such action against the leaders of a close western ally. The move provoked a fierce response from Israel and its allies in the US. 

The statement supporting the ICC was drafted by five of the court’s member states – Belgium, Chile, Jordan, Senegal and Slovenia – and is understood to have been presented to the rest of the court’s state parties last week for their endorsement. 

A diplomatic source familiar with the effort said the disclosures about Israeli intelligence operations against the court had been “really eye-opening for a lot of diplomats” and “made some realise that it’s time to put out some sort of statement from the states that belong to the court responding to what has now come to light”. 

However, they said the statement was also a response to other recent forms of hostile activity against the ICC, such as a cyber-attack last year, and came as the prosecutor is conducting an investigation into senior Russian political and military figures allegedly involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. 

“The court is going after some very powerful people, not just in the Palestine investigation, and it’s time to send a message that the state parties are there to defend it,” the source said. 

Longtime ICC observers said it was notable that major western powers such as Germany, France, Canada and the UK had supported the statement, which called on “all states to ensure full cooperation with the court for it to carry out its important mandate”. 

They also pointed to the large number of endorsing states – 93 of the ICC’s 124 members – and noted that previous statements rallying around the court had not garnered as much support. 

“This is a unique moment of international solidarity, with 93 ICC states parties standing up for global justice and accountability for mass atrocities,” Danya Chaikel, the International Federation for Human Rights’s representative to the ICC, said. 

“They are collectively opposing the egregious threats to the court from powerful countries including Israel, the US and Russia, and strongly rejecting their efforts to manipulate the rule of law for political gains,” she added.

UN satellite analysis tracks Ukraine cultural damage

Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2022 

The United Nations is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia's war in Ukraine, announcing Wednesday it will launch its tracking platform publicly within days. 

The UN's culture agency UNESCO said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24. 

They include 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries. 

"Our conclusion is it's bad, and it may continue to get even worse," UNESCO's cultural and emergencies director Krista Pikkat told reporters at a briefing in Geneva. 

So far in the war, none of the seven world heritage sites have been damaged. 

UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- has joined forces with the UN Satellite Centre UNOSAT. 

Based on reports on the ground, UNESCO sends a list of potentially damaged sites to UNOSAT. It then asks for satellite images from commercial suppliers and a small team of experts studies the difference in before-and-after pictures. 

The team matches up the images and is then able to give a time window in which the damage took place. 

It does not attribute blame for the damage. 

"This is a kind of pilot experiment to see how we can usefully compile this information, and possibly in the long term, the ambition would be to widen the scope beyond Ukraine and take the tool to a global level so we can really have a kind of real-time, interactive tool for our experts," said Pikkat. 

UNESCO is also working with museums and collections in Ukraine to try to combat against the threat of looting -- a common problem in war. 

UNESCO has been discussing with Kyiv about possibly removing cultural heritage items from the country for the duration of the war, but Pikkat acknowledged that it was a "difficult call", with the first move being to evacuate collections to safer parts of Ukraine.

Amanpour says Iran president interview scrapped over headscarf demand

Yahoo – AFP, Ebrahim Raisi, September 22, 2022 

Veteran journalist Christiane Amanpour said Thursday that an interview with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was scrapped after he insisted she wear a headscarf, the focus of major protests in the cleric-run state. 

Amanpour, the chief international anchor of CNN who also has a show on US public broadcaster PBS, said she was ready for the interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly when an aide insisted she cover her hair. 

"I politely declined. We are in New York, where there is no law or tradition regarding headscarves," Amanpour, who was born in Britain to an Iranian father, wrote on Twitter. 

"I pointed out that no previous Iranian president has required this when I have interviewed them outside Iran," she said. 

"I said that I couldn't agree to this unprecedented and unexpected condition." 

She posted a picture of herself -- without a headscarf -- sitting in front of an empty chair where Raisi would have been. 

An aide to Raisi, a hardline cleric, told Amanpour that he was insisting on a headscarf because of "the situation in Iran," she said. 

Iran has been swept by nearly a week of protests since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died after being arrested by morality police that enforce the clerics' rules on how women dress. 

A non-governmental group said that at least 31 Iranian civilians have been killed in the crackdown on the protests, in which women have been seen burning headscarves.

Ottawa compensates Siksika tribe Can$1.3 bn for taken land

MSN - AFP, 2 June 2022

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, pictured in March 2022, said Ottawa had
'acted dishonourably' in taking the Siksika community's land in 1910. © JOHN THYS

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday signed a Can$1.3 billion (US$1.0 billion) deal -- one of the largest of its kind -- to settle a Blackfoot tribe's century-old land claim. 

"We're gathered today to right a wrong from the past," Trudeau said at a signing ceremony on the Siksika First Nation's traditional lands in western Canada. 

The government took almost half of the tribe's reserve lands in Alberta province in 1910 to use for resources development and to sell to settlers. 

The land grab came even though the 115,000 acres (46,000 hectares) in the western prairies region had been secured for the community in a treaty 30 years earlier. 

Trudeau said Ottawa had "acted dishonourably" in taking the community's "most productive agricultural and mineral-rich lands for the benefit of others." 

Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller noted that the Siksika had lost out on a share of the wealth created from these lands, as well as access to many sacred sites. 

He said it was important to recognize such "exploitative bargains and lands surrenders." 

"While this settlement doesn't make up for the past, we hope it will lead to a better and brighter future for this generation and those to come," he added. 

Under the settlement, the Siksika may acquire over time lands for addition to their reserve, to make up for those surrendered in 1910. 

"Our way of life has changed. It will never be the same as it was before," said Siksika Chief Ouray Crowfoot, wearing a feather headdress. 

"This land claim, yeah, $1.3 billion, that's a lot of money. It'll never make it whole of what it was before. But we got to move forward," he said. 

The community, he added, is starting to see a revival of its culture and traditions, as well as the Blackfoot language -- now used on local road signage, for example. 

He also pointed to a nearby archeological dig that is unearthing artifacts dating back thousands of years that show the Blackfoot "survived on these plains since time immemorial." 

"We're a resilient people here at Siksika. We're overcoming and now we're not just surviving, we're moving into an era of thriving."

Biden to visit former 'pariah' Saudi Biden to visit former 'pariah' Saudi Arabia: reports

France24 –AFP, 3 June 2022 

US President Joe Biden will reportedly visit Saudi Arabia, whose leaders he
once said should be pariahs SAUL LOEB AFP

Washington (AFP) – US President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia this month, reports said Thursday, a stark reversal for a leader who once called for the kingdom to be made a pariah. 

The reported decision comes hours after Saudi Arabia addressed two of Biden's priorities by agreeing to a production hike in oil and helping extend a truce in war-battered Yemen. 

The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, quoting anonymous sources, said that Biden would go ahead with the long-rumored Saudi stop on an upcoming trip. 

CNN said that Biden would meet Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, 36-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was accused by US intelligence of ordering the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she had no travel to announce, adding only: "The president will look for opportunities to engage with leaders from the Middle East region." 

Biden plans this month to travel to a NATO summit in Spain and Group of Seven summit in Germany. 

He is also widely expected to travel to Israel where, as in Saudi Arabia, he is sure to face pointed questions about slow-moving US diplomacy with the two countries' rival, Iran. 

While running for president, Biden called for Saudi leaders to be treated as "the pariah that they are" after the ultraconservative kingdom's chummy relationship with his predecessor Donald Trump. 

Trump had largely shielded Saudi Arabia from consequences after Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote critically about Crown Prince Mohammed in The Washington Post, was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was strangled and dismembered. 

Trump's son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner, had developed a close bond with the prince known by his initials "MBS," reportedly conversing with him over WhatsApp chats. 

Shortly after taking office, Biden released the intelligence report that said MBS authorized Khashoggi's killing and his administration imposed visa restrictions on dozens of Saudis accused of threatening dissidents. 

Biden also scaled back support from a Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen amid revulsion over civilian casualties. 

Addressing some US concerns

A close partner of the United States since the World War II era, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly managed to woo administrations in Washington that initially sought a greater distance. 

US officials were pleasantly surprised on Thursday as major oil producers led by Saudi Arabia grouped under OPEC+ agreed to a larger than expected hike in oil production.

Then US president Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
speak during the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan in June 2019 Ludovic MARIN AFP/File

A rise in supply could help bring down skyrocketing prices at the pump, seen as a major contributor to sagging poll numbers for Biden whose Democratic Party faces difficult congressional elections in November. 

Officials in Washington said that Saudi Arabia was also supportive in diplomacy that led Thursday to the extension of a fragile two-month truce between Yemen's Riyadh-backed government and Iranian-affiliated Huthi rebels. 

"Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the UN-led truce," Biden said in a statement. 

Saudi Arabia has also addressed concerns of US officials who saw the kingdom as overbearing in troubled Lebanon. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, presenting an annual report on religious freedom, praised "important recent moves" to increase interfaith dialogue even as he acknowledges that the kingdom still bans any public practice of religions other than Islam. 

How to address human rights will likely be a complicated question for Biden, with MBS reportedly angered when US officials previously raised the killing of Khashoggi. 

In a rare interview earlier this year with The Atlantic, MBS said of whether Biden understood him: "Simply, I do not care." 

"It's up to him to think about the interests of America," he said with a shrug.Arabia: reports 

Pacific nations reject China security pact

Yahoo – AFP, Frank Bainimarama, 30 May 2022

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that that Beijing is willing to
work with other major powers in the Pacific region to help island nations
develop (AFP/Vaitogi Asuisui MATAFEO) (Vaitogi Asuisui MATAFEO)

Ten Pacific island nations rebuffed China's push for a wide-ranging regional security pact Monday, amid worries the proposal was designed to pull them into Beijing's orbit. 

Talks in Fiji between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and leaders from the small island nations failed to reach an agreement, in a high-profile diplomatic setback for Beijing. 

China is offering to radically ramp up its activities in the South Pacific, directly challenging the influence of the United States and its allies in the strategically vital region. 

The proposed pact would see Beijing train Pacific island police, become involved in cybersecurity, expand political ties, conduct sensitive marine mapping and gain greater access to natural resources on land and in the water. 

As an enticement, Beijing is offering millions of dollars in financial assistance, the prospect of a potentially lucrative China-Pacific islands free trade agreement and access to China's vast market of 1.4 billion people. 

Behind the scenes, Pacific leaders have voiced deep misgivings about the offer. 

In a recent letter to fellow leaders, David Panuelo, the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, warned the offer was "disingenuous" and would "ensure Chinese influence in government" and "economic control" of key industries. 

A more soft-spoken public rebuke came after the talks, when leaders said they could not agree to Beijing's proposed "Common Development Vision" due to a lack of regional consensus. 

"As always, we put consensus first," co-host and Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said after the meeting, indicating that broad accord would be needed before inking any "new regional agreements". 

Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia were said to be among those concerned about the proposals, along with Taiwan-recognising Palau, which was not invited. 

"We would rather deal with our own security issues with China", Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Soroi Eoe told AFP, indicating concern about any region-wide pact. 

Chinese officials -- working frantically to secure support during Wang's 10-day diplomatic blitz of the region -- admitted their entreaties had fallen short. 

"There has been general support from the 10 countries," Chinese ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo told reporters in Suva. "But of course, there are some concerns on some specific issues and we have agreed that these two documents will be discussed afterwards until we have reached an agreement." 

Speaking from Suva, Wang made the face-saving announcement that the 10 countries had agreed to memorandums of understanding on China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative. 

The two sides will "continue to have ongoing and in-depth discussions and consultations to shape more consensus on cooperation", he said, urging those worried by Beijing's intentions not to be "too anxious and don't be too nervous". 

The full proposal has not been made public, but was leaked to media including AFP ahead of Monday's meeting. 

China has said it will release a "position paper" highlighting the proposals to the public in the coming weeks. 

Balancing act 

Western powers have bristled against China's move into the region, with the US State Department warning South Pacific nations to be wary of "shadowy, vague deals with little transparency". 

Australia joined the United States in urging a spurning of China's attempts to expand its security reach deep into the region, with the country's new foreign minister warning of the "consequences" of such deals. 

Many in the Pacific are uneasy at being thrust to the centre of a geopolitical tussle between China and US allies. 

Most capitals are keen to maintain amicable ties with China, balancing relations between Beijing, Washington, Canberra and Wellington, while focusing on the more urgent threat of climate change and day-to-day economic issues. 

During a joint appearance with Wang, Bainimarama hit out at those engaged in "geopolitical point-scoring". 

It "means less than little to anyone whose community is slipping beneath the rising seas, whose job has been lost to a pandemic or whose family is impacted by the rapid rise in the price of commodities", he said. 

All but a few of the Pacific Islands are low-lying and deeply vulnerable to sea-level rises caused by climate change. 

Before the meeting, President Xi Jinping sent a message that China would be "a good brother" to the region and that they shared a "common destiny", according to state broadcaster CCTV.

In rare hearing, Pentagon reports rise in UFOs in past 20 years

Yahoo – AFP, May 17, 2022

A screen grab provided by the Pentagon in April 2020 from a video showing
"unidentified aerial phenomena" (AFP/Handout) (Handout)

An increasing number of unidentified flying objects have been reported in the sky over the past 20 years, a top US defense official told lawmakers Tuesday in the first public hearing on UFOs in half a century. 

"Since the early 2000s we have seen an increasing number of unauthorized and/or unidentified aircraft or objects in military controlled training areas and training ranges and other designated airspace," Scott Bray, deputy director of Naval intelligence, told a House security panel. 

Bray attributed the rise to efforts by the US military to "destigmatize the act of reporting sights and encounters" as well as to technological advances. 

However, he said the Pentagon had detected nothing "that would suggest it's anything non-terrestrial in origin" behind these phenomena. 

On the other hand, Brey also did not definitively rule out that possibility. 

"We've made no assumptions about what this is or isn't," Bray said. 

In June 2021, US intelligence had already claimed in a long-awaited report that there was no evidence of the existence of extraterrestrials in the skies, while acknowledging that they had no explanation for dozens of phenomena observed by military pilots. 

Some could be explained by the presence of drones or birds creating confusion in the radar systems of the US military. 

Others could stem from tests of military equipment or technologies carried out by other powers, such as China or Russia. 

The US military and intelligence are primarily interested in determining whether these aerial objects may be linked to threats against the United States. 

"Unidentified Aerial Phenomena are a potential national security threat. And they need to be treated that way," said Democratic Representative Andre Carson of Indiana, who was chairing the panel holding the hearing.

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift.

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

Zelensky tells UN to 'act immediately' on Russia or close

Yahoo – AFP, Philippe RATER, April 5, 2022

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, addresses a meeting of the United Nations Security
Councilin New York City on April 5, 2022 (AFP/TIMOTHY A. CLARY) (TIMOTHY A. CLARY)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky challenged the United Nations to "act immediately" or "dissolve yourself altogether" during a blistering address Tuesday in which he showed harrowing footage of dead bodies -- including children -- he said were victims of Russian atrocities. 

Likening Russia's actions in Bucha and other Ukrainian cities to violence carried out by "terrorists" such as the Islamic State group, Zelensky called on the 15-member Security Council -- which aims to ensure international peace and security -- to expel Russia "so it cannot block decisions about its own aggression, its own war." 

Russia, as one of the five permanent members of the Council, has a veto, which it has repeatedly wielded to block resolutions and negotiations on the global stage. 

That means it cannot be expelled from the body, as it would simply veto any vote or recommendation by the Security Council to do so. 

"If there is no alternative ... then the next option would be dissolve yourself altogether," Zelensky continued. 

"Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to close the UN? ... If your answer is no, then you need to act immediately." 

Bearded and dressed in his now trademark military green T-shirt, Zelensky, speaking remotely from Kyiv, gave a chilling rendition of the atrocities he said were carried out by Russian troops against civilians in Bucha, a town outside the Ukrainian capital. 

Bucha had been occupied by Russian troops, but when they withdrew recently Ukrainian authorities and independent international journalists including AFP found bodies of people in civilian clothing, some with their hands tied behind their backs. 

Zelensky aired a graphic, 90-second clip of what he said were images from towns including Bucha and the southern port of Mariupol. 

The footage showed partially uncovered dead people, including children, in shallow graves, several bodies in a courtyard and dead people with hands tied behind their back slumped towards a wall. 

"Now the world can see what the Russian military did in Bucha," Zelensky said. 

"They were killed in their apartments, houses, blowing up grenades, civilians were crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road, just for their pleasure. They cut off limbs... slashed their throats," he said. 

"Women were raped and killed in front of their children, their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressors did not hear what they wanted to hear from them. 

"This is no different from other terrorists such as Daesh ... and here it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council," he said, using another acronym for the Islamic State group. 

"Accountability must be inevitable," he said, claiming that "hundreds of thousands" of Ukrainians had also been deported to Russia. 

Moments later Russia's ambassador, in his own comments, rejected the claims entirely. 

'No witnesses' 

Addressing his remarks directly to Zelensky, Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow places "on your conscience the ungrounded accusations against the Russian military, which are not confirmed by any eye witnesses." 

At least one witness has told AFP of watching Russian soldiers shoot a man in cold blood in Bucha. 

Russia has claimed that images presented by Ukrainian authorities to show there had been a massacre in Bucha were fake, or that the deaths occurred after Russian soldiers pulled out of the areas.

 It has not offered evidence, and satellite imagery has shown bodies there for weeks, before Moscow withdrew its troops from the town. 

Nevertheless Nebenzia repeated those claims, telling the council: "You only saw what they showed you. You couldn't ignore the flagrant inconsistencies in the version of events which are being promoted by Ukrainian and Western media." 

He also denied Zelensky's allegation of mass deportations. 

Since the invasion began "over 600,000 people have been evacuated to Russia, including over 119,000 children," Nebenzia told the body. 

He said the evacuations were "voluntary," not "coercion or abduction." 

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, sparking outrage across the world and displacing millions of Ukrainians.

UN chief calls Russia-Ukraine war 'unwinnable'

France24 – AFP, 22 March 2022 

In this file photo taken on February 28, 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
speaks on the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the General Assembly emergency special
session in New York Kena Betancur AFP/File

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – UN chief Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that it was time for Russia to end their "absurd war" in Ukraine, declaring the conflict "unwinnable." 

The Secretary General told reporters at the world body's headquarters in New York that the war "is going nowhere, fast." 

"For more than two weeks, Mariupol has been encircled by the Russian army and relentlessly bombed, shelled and attacked. For what?" he said. 

"Even if Mariupol falls, Ukraine cannot be conquered city by city, street by street, house by house." 

Guterres added that "the only outcome" to more fighting was "more suffering, more destruction, and more horror as far as the eye can see." 

Negotiators from Moscow and Kyiv have held ongoing talks aimed at ending nearly four weeks of fierce fighting, but have failed to announce any progress so far. 

Guterres said though that he believed diplomatic negotiations to bring a halt to fighting were making headway. 

"There is enough on the table to cease hostilities now and seriously negotiate now. 

"This war is unwinnable. Sooner or later, it will have to move from the battlefield to the peace table. That is inevitable," he added. 

The UN General Assembly is due to reconvene a special emergency session on Ukraine on Wednesday and hold a vote this week on a non-binding French and Mexican resolution condemning Russia's invasion. 

Earlier this month, 141 out of 193 United Nations member states supported a similar resolution. 

The vote will indicate whether Russia has lost or gained any support over its actions since that vote on March 2. 

South Africa, which abstained last time around, has circulated a rival draft resolution which calls for an end to hostilities but makes no mention of Russia as the aggressor.

Canada agrees to $31bn compensation for Indigenous children taken from families

Yahoo – AFP, January 5, 2022 

Over the past three decades, at least 150,000 Indigenous children were ripped from
their homes and placed into one of 139 residential schools (AFP/Geoff Robins)

Canada announced a $31.5 billion agreement on Tuesday to reform its discriminatory child welfare system and compensate Indigenous families who suffered because of it, in what an official called the country's largest settlement. 

The agreements-in-principle include $20 billion Canadian dollars ($15.7) for First Nations children who were removed from their families and caregivers and put into state care, typically schools meant to forcibly assimilate them. 

The other $20 billion Canadian dollars will be earmarked for reforming the child and family services system over the next five years. 

"No compensation amount can make up for the trauma people have experienced," said Patty Hajdu, the Minister of Indigenous Services. "But these Agreements-in-Principle acknowledge to survivors and their families the harm and pain caused by the discrimination in funding and services." 

The deal, which stemmed from lawsuits brought by First Nations families against the Canadian government, acknowledges that "discriminatory underfunding" of child and family services in indigenous communities had inflicted suffering on those involved. 

Despite making up less than eight percent of children under 14, Indigenous children account for more than half of those in Canada's foster care, according to a 2016 census. 

Over the past three decades, at least 150,000 Indigenous children were ripped from their homes and placed into one of 139 residential schools.

 Thousands died, mostly from malnutrition, disease or neglect, in what a truth and reconciliation committee called "cultural genocide" in a 2015 report. Many others were physically or sexually abused. 

On the heels of the discovery of more than 1,200 unmarked graves at these schools, Canada is starting to come to terms with the nationwide trauma. 

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller called Tuesday's agreement "the largest settlement in Canadian history" at a videoed news conference. 

The amount to be paid to each individual, as well as how and when, will be determined later in consultation with experts and the country's largest Indigenous organization, the Assembly of First Nations, according to lawyers representing complainants in two class action cases. 

"This settlement is historic and hopefully a turning point in this country's work on reconciliation," Robert Kugler, one of the lawyers, said in a statement. The amount, he added, "underscores the severity of the harm suffered, and will provide financial support to enable victims to better their lives going forward." 

The Canadian government has previously fought orders to compensate Indigenous families over systems it has admitted were discriminatory, including in an appeal filed last year seeking to overturn a landmark decision awarding billions to indigenous children. 

Canada has said it believes the payments are necessary, but would rather iron out the details in talks. 

Tuesday's agreements-in-principle are expected to be finalized in the coming months.