Border Patrol chief Jason Owens says border situation is a

The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine arrest its security chief and send him to Russia

Russia is demanding that Ukraine arrest its own security chief and extradite him to Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Vasyl Malyuk of being involved in terrorist acts.
Malyuk said in July 2023 that his agency had destroyed a bridge in Crimea in October 2022.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded on Sunday evening that Ukraine arrest the head of its own security services and extradite him to Russia.

The ministry issued a statement blaming Vasyl Malyuk, the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine, for an explosion at a bridge in Crimea that Russia said killed five people in October 2022.

The statement called the explosion one of several “barbaric bomb attacks,” mentioning them alongside the devastating Moscow concert hall attack in March 2022 that killed at least 140 people.

Russia has accused Kyiv of facilitating the concert hall attack, with leader Vladimir Putin saying that Ukraine’s authorities allowed the gunmen to pass through its borders. No evidence was presented to support this accusation, and the terrorist group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the killings.

As for the bridge explosion in Crimea, Malyuk said publicly in July 2023 that his agency was behind the attack.

“It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year,” he told Ukrainian TV, per The Associated Press.

Before this admission, Ukraine was already widely regarded as responsible for the bridge’s destruction.

Russia’s foreign ministry described the bridge attack as a terrorist act, and said it told Kyiv to “immediately arrest and extradite every person implicated.”

Moscow and Kyiv have been engaged in open war since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine’s security service told local media that Russia’s claims of Kyiv-sanctioned terrorism were “especially cynical on the anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bucha and the atrocities committed by the Russians there.”

“So any words by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry are worthless,” it said in a statement, per Ukrainska Pravda.

The security service added that Putin himself is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, over accusations of his forces carrying out war crimes against children in Ukraine.

The press team for the Security Service of Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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China profiting from EU climate policy on cars, says German EPP chief

China is profiting from the European Union’s climate policy, according to a German lawmaker heading a centre-right European party who spoke out in favour of the combustion engine.

It is clear “that the ban on the combustion engine was a serious industrial policy mistake from which China is benefiting,” the head of the European People’s Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, told the Funke media group newspapers.

We want to “remedy this after the European elections,” Weber said in reports published on Sunday.

He was referring to a decision by EU members last year to ban new cars with combustion engines, despite efforts by Berlin to block the move. Germany is a major producer of cars with combustion engines and its auto industry is a key sector in the German economy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently said the combustion engine decision would be reviewed in 2026.

The Green Deal, as EU climate policy measures are known, should not become a “China Deal,” said Weber, noting the growing number of electric carmakers from China entering the European market.

German carmakers including Volkswagen and BMW are lagging behind their Chinese rivals in terms of e-car sales.

Germans are only slowly embracing e-cars, Federal Motor Transport Authority data shows, with nearly 1.41 million purely battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) registered on January 1 in Germany, some one in 35 on German roads.

Growth in electric car sales could slow in 2024 since the cancellation of state subsidies. At just under 50,000, new BEV registrations in January and February were well below the average figures for the previous year.

However the governing coalition, which includes the Green Party, hopes to have 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030.

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Serbia’s Vucic Names Defense Chief Vucevic as Premier-Designate

(Bloomberg) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic proposed his ally and deputy prime minister as the country’s new government leader, more than three months after a general election cemented his hold on power.

False posts ahead of India vote target West Bengal chief with ‘fake injury’ claim

Ahead of India’s general elections that begin April 19, critics of West Bengal state leader Mamata Banerjee shared a photo collage they falsely claimed depicted her faking an injury. But the pictures — one showing her with a bloodied forehead while the other showing a different part of her face bandaged — were from two separate incidents. A spokesman for Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party told AFP she was wounded when she slipped and fell at her home in March.

Warning: This story contains images of an injured woman

“What kind of drama is this? The injury is in the middle of forehead and the bandage has been applied on the side,” said the Hindi-language caption to the collage shared on Facebook on March 16, 2024.

Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been in power for over a decade in West Bengal state that is home to 90 million people.

Her Trinamool Congress (TMC) will battle Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for seats in the lower house of parliament in upcoming elections that start mid-April.

<span>Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on March 22, 2024</span> — Screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on March 22, 2024

The photo collage was also shared alongside a similar false claim on Facebook here and here, and on social media platform X here.

Comments on the posts indicated social media users believed the claim.

“Election gimmick,” one wrote. Another said: “Why does such drama happen just before elections?”

Separate incidents

Reverse image searches on Google found the pictures in the collage were taken from two separate incidents that happened in different months.

The picture that showed Banerjee with blood from a wound on her forehead was among the three photos published by her party on X here on March 14, 2024 (archived link).

The post said: “Our chairperson @MamataOfficial sustained a major injury. Please keep her in your prayers.”

Below is a screenshot comparison of the picture in the false posts (left) and the one shared by TMC (right):

Similar pictures were published by local news websites here and here which reported Banerjee fell in a room at her house on March 14 and was rushed to a hospital (archived links here and here).

The image showing her with the bandage on her face, however, was from an incident that happened over a month prior. It corresponds to a photo published by news website Indian Express on January 25, 2024 (archived link).

The report said the West Bengal chief minister sustained a head injury at the time when her car made a sudden halt to avoid hitting another vehicle.

A video report uploaded on regional Bengali-language news outlet ABP Ananda’s YouTube channel on January 24 showed Banerjee briefing the media about the incident (archived link).

The visuals from the 2:05 mark of the report showed her with the same bandage as in the picture in the collage.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo in the false posts (left) and the video uploaded on ABP Ananda’s YouTube channel (right):

Responding to the posts, Trinamool Congress spokesman told AFP on March 28 the collage showed “two very different incidents”.

“Mamata Banerjee hit her head on the windshield and sustained minor injury on January 24,” Dutta said, referring to the picture of her with the bandage.

The more recent injury, caused by her slipping and falling at home in March, caused “a major gash on her forehead” and several other cuts. “There were four stitches that were applied to her. Later she was at home, under treatment,” Dutta added.

AFP had previously debunked misinformation targeting Banerjee here and here.

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White House orders federal agencies to name chief AI officers

The White House is ordering all federal agencies to name chief artificial intelligence officers to oversee the federal government’s various approaches to AI and manage the risks that the rapidly evolving technologies might pose.

That directive is part of a government-wide policy from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, that Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday, following a sweeping AI executive order President Biden signed in October. The White House is trying to push the federal government — known more for its slow-moving bureaucracy than its ability to adopt cutting-edge technology — to keep up with the changes in the field of artificial intelligence.

“We have directed all federal agencies to designate a chief AI officer with the experience, expertise, and authority to oversee all — I’m going to emphasize that — all AI technologies used by that agency,” Harris said Wednesday in embargoed remarks on the new policy. “And this is to make sure that AI is used responsibly, understanding that we must have senior leaders across our government who are specifically tasked with overseeing AI adoption and use.”

The new OMB policy also requires federal agencies to establish AI governance boards to coordinate and establish rules for the use of AI technologies across each agency. The White House says the departments of Defense, Housing and Urban Development, State and Veterans Affairs have already set up governance boards. The Biden administration plans to hire 100 AI professionals across agencies by this summer.

By December, federal agencies must also put in place what the White House calls “concrete safeguards” when they use AI “in a way that could impact Americans’ rights or safety.”

For example, Harris said Wednesday, if the VA wants to use AI in VA hospitals to help diagnose patients, the department would first need to demonstrate the AI doesn’t produce “racially biased diagnoses.”

The White House will also be requiring federal agencies to post a list of their AI systems online, along with an assessment of the risks those systems might pose and how they plan to manage them, Harris said. That list will need to be published and updated each year.

“President Biden and I intend that these domestic policies will serve as a model for global action,” Harris said.

Overseeing the federal government’s adoption of AI technologies is one of the many hats Harris has been given as vice president. She delivered a major policy speech in London in November on the U.S. government’s vision for the future of AI.

AI has at times become a problem for Mr. Biden personally. AI was used to impersonate the president in fake robocalls that went out to New Hampshire voters, and fake and manipulated videos of the president have emerged online.

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UN chief calls for slavery reparations

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called for slavery reparations over the transatlantic slave trade, which deprived enslaved people of “education, healthcare, opportunity and prosperity.”

“We call for reparatory justice frameworks, to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination,” Guterres said Monday, which marked the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“We appeal for the space and necessary conditions for healing, repair and justice,” he said.

More than 12.5 million Africans were forcibly transported by European merchants on their ships and sold into slavery. Some merchants profited off enslaved people’s labor. Those who survived trips were put on plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean.

“This laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy that still echoes today,” Guterres said. “Descendants of enslaved Africans and people of African descent are still fighting for equal rights and freedoms around the world.”

A U.N. report issued last year said countries could consider financial reparations for the enslavement of people of African descent, but it recognized the process of making legal claims and identifying victims and perpetrators is complex.

“Under international human rights law, compensation for any economically assessable damage, as appropriate and proportional to the gravity of the violation and the circumstances of each case, may also constitute a form of reparations,” according to the report released in September.

“In the context of historical wrongs and harms suffered as a result of colonialism and enslavement, the assessment of the economic damage can be extremely difficult owing to the length of time passed and the difficulty of identifying the perpetrators and victims,“ the report said.

Hilary Beckles, the chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, echoed Guterres’s remarks.

“This is the movement that will signal, finally, the collective victory of humanity, of good over evil,” Beckles said, according to Reuters. The CARICOM Reparations Commission was created to pursue reparations from former colonial powers like Portugal, France and Great Britain.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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U.N. chief calls for slavery reparations to overcome ‘generations of discrimination’

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called on Monday for reparations over the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people as a way to tackle its legacy in today’s society, including systemic racism.

From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery. Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, while others profited from their labour.

In a statement to mark the U.N. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, Guterres said the past “laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy.”

“We call for reparatory justice frameworks to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination,” Guterres said.

In September, a U.N. report suggested countries should consider financial reparations to compensate for slavery. The idea of paying reparations or making other amends for slavery has a long history but the movement has been gaining momentum worldwide.

“This is the movement that will signal, finally, the collective victory of humanity, of good over evil,” Hilary Beckles, chair of the reparations commission of the Caribbean Community political and economic union, or Caricom, said at the U.N. General Assembly.

The Caricom reparations commission was set up to seek reparations, including debt cancellations and support to tackle public health crises, from former colonial powers such as the United Kingdom, France and Portugal.

The Repair Campaign, which is producing socio-economic reparation plans for Caricom nations, released a poll on Monday that showed four in ten people in the United Kingdom agreed the Caribbean should receive financial compensation, while three in five agreed a formal apology was due.

Verene Shepherd, Director of the Centre for Reparation Research at the University of the West Indies said it was time for “Britain and other former and current colonial powers to own up to their responsibility.”

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UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths is stepping down for health reasons

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths is stepping down for health reasons after nearly three years of trying to tackle mounting humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Gaza and Africa, the United Nations announced Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres praised Griffiths “for his tremendous leadership and service to the United Nations and the humanitarian community in advocating for people affected by crises and mobilizing resources to address their needs,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Griffiths, 72, told The Associated Press earlier this month that he got a severe case of COVID-19 in October and is still suffering from long COVID.

Griffiths took on the job of U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator in July 2021 as crises were escalating around the globe and funds for humanitarian aid were shrinking.

A veteran British diplomat and seasoned negotiator with wide global experience, he served as the U.N. special envoy for Yemen for three years before taking on the U.N.’s top humanitarian post.

Haq said Griffiths will remain in his post until the end of June to allow for a smooth transition.

In 1994, Griffiths served in Geneva as director of the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which preceded the establishment of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, that he now heads.

From 1999 to 2010, he was the founding director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, where according to the U.N. he specialized in developing political dialogue between governments and insurgents in a range of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Griffiths served as the first executive director of the European Institute of Peace from 2014-2018 and he served as special adviser to three U.N. special envoys for Syria and as deputy head of the U.N. mission in Syria from 2012-2014, during the early years of the ongoing conflict there.

Earlier in his career, he was a British diplomat and worked for various international humanitarian organizations, including UNICEF, Save the Children and Action Aid.

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Israel not allowing UNRWA aid into northern Gaza, agency chief says

Israel is no longer allowing UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, to send aid convoys into northern Gaza where civilians are said to be on the verge of famine, according to UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.

“UNRWA, the main lifeline for Palestine refugees, is denied from providing lifesaving assistance to northern Gaza,” Lazzarini wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

“Despite the tragedy unfolding under our watch, the Israeli authorities informed the UN that they will no longer approve any UNRWA food convoys to the north,” he continued.

“This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine.”

More than five months into the war between Israel and Palestinian extremist organization Hamas, the humanitarian situation in sealed-off Gaza has reached catastrophic levels, according to aid organizations. People in northern Gaza are on the brink of famine, the UN has said.

Most people from northern Gaza have fled to other parts of the coastal area amid Israeli bombardment, but some 300,000 are believed to remain, with only little aid reaching them infrequently.

Israel has rejected accusations it is hindering aid deliveries into Gaza, instead accusing aid organizations of not distributing them properly, while the groups say they are lacking proper protection.

Most recently, Israeli allegations that individual employees of the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) could have been involved in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 led to the withdrawal of international aid funds.

Meanwhile on the ground, the Israeli military said that it had launched a new military operation in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said troops had surrounded two hospitals amid heavy shelling.

The assault was proceeded by Israeli airstrikes on approximately 40 sites, which the Israeli military said included “military compounds, underground tunnels and additional terror infrastructure.”

In the al-Amal hospital, a paramedic had been fatally wounded by gunfire and another had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Red Crescent.

Dpa is unable to independently confirm the Israeli military’s statements or the reports from the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The Gaza Health Ministry says 32,226 Palestinians have now been killed and more than 74,500 others injured by Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war on October 7, when Hamas fighters and other militants killed some 1,200 people.

The figures from the ministry, controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, could not be independently verified. However, the UN says that the authority’s figures have proved to be generally credible in the past.

The Israeli military separately said that one of its soldiers was killed during an operation at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the largest medical facility in the Palestinian territory, where renewed Israeli military operations have been ongoing for the past week.

The military says 252 of its soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground offensive in the Gaza Strip at the end of October.

Israeli commanders claim that dozens of Palestinian militants have been killed in the hospital area since the operation began a week ago. Dpa is unable to independently verify those statements.

Israeli troops previously entered the al-Shifa hospital in mid-November. The military said that troops discovered a tunnel complex used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and said that militants returned to the hospital after Israeli troops withdrew.

Israel accuses Hamas of systematically misusing medical facilities for military purposes, an allegation that Hamas has denied.

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Border Patrol chief Jason Owens says border situation is a “national security threat”

Border Patrol chief Jason Owens says border situation is a “national security threat” – CBS News

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In an exclusive interview with CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez, U.S. Border Patrol chief Jason Owens said the situation at the southern border is a “national security threat.” “What’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known got-aways,” Owens said.

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