The Kremlin has welcomed statements by former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, known to have held close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin while in office, to use the friendship to contribute to ending the war in Ukraine.
Good, constructive relations on a personal level like those between Schröder and Putin could help to solve problems, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Thursday.
It comes after the former German leader told dpa in an interview that he and Putin “have worked together sensibly for many years. Perhaps that can still help to find a negotiated solution, I don’t see any other way.”
Schröder has been friends with Putin since his time as chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and continues to work for the majority Russian Nord Stream pipeline companies.. Although he has described the Russian attack on Ukraine as a “fatal mistake,” he has not renounced Putin.
The leadership of his Social Democratic Party has marginalized him for this reason, but an expulsion procedure against him failed.
Peskov said Schröder and Putin’s friendship had repeatedly helped “to solve the most difficult questions and ensure the gradual evolution of bilateral developments.”
The Kremlin spokesman added that when it came to those in power in Germany today, he did not see any willingness to end the war in Ukraine, ordered by Russian President Putin in February 2022.
Germany led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, one of Ukraine’s main backers, was massively involved in the war, he claimed, without giving details. The dominant approach in Europe was to “provoke Ukraine into fighting to the last Ukrainian.” Although Moscow was observing varying positions in Europe, it did not see any change in the situation, Peskov said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting between President of the New Development Bank Dilma Rousseff and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Konstantinovsky Palace. Alexey Danichev/KREMLIN/dpa
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal was in Poland on Thursday for talks with his counterpart Donald Tusk to address Polish and western European farmers’ demands that regulations be applied to the cheap Ukrainian food imports that they say are undercutting their livelihoods.
Farmers in many countries have been staging vehement protests against the imports and tensions have grown between Kyiv and its staunch ally Warsaw over the tax-free inflow of Ukraine’s farm produce.
Tusk has suggested that Poland, a NATO member and European Union country bordering Ukraine, will seek quotas on the imports during the talks. He has also suggested boosting imports to needy countries.
The EU has opened its doors wide to Ukrainian farm produce to help the country’s exports after Russia’s 2022 invasion cut many traditional routes.
However, EU lawmakers recently agreed that quotas could be reintroduced on some Ukrainian foods to address the European farmers’ complaints.
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Hundreds of former national security, military and political leaders are calling on the Senate to ratify the United Nations’ Law of the Sea, warning last week in a letter to lawmakers that China is taking advantage of America’s absence from the treaty.
Countries that ratified the Law of the Sea treaty are now rushing to stake claims on the international seabed for deep sea mining. At stake are trillions of dollars worth of strategic minerals strewn on the ocean floor, essential for the next generation of electronics. China has five exploration sites, 90,000 square miles –the most of any country. The U.S. has none. It is blocked from the race because of the Senate’s refusal to ratify the Law of the Sea.
“We are not only not at the table, but we’re off the field,” lawyer John Bellinger, who was a legal adviser to former President George W. Bush, said. “The United States probably has got the most to gain of any country in the world if it were party to the Law of the Sea Convention, and conversely, we actually probably have the most to lose by not being part of it.”
What can be gained from the Law of the Sea Treaty and deep sea mining
Vast quantities of minerals are scattered across the ocean floor. Researchers have found potato-sized lumps of rock, known as nodules, filled with cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper — some of the most valuable metals on earth. They’re vital for everything from electric cars to defense systems.
To avoid a free-for-all, 168 countries, including China, have signed onto the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty, which divides the international seabed.
The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982. Often called the constitution for the ocean, the treaty codifies existing international law on freedom of navigation. It also created the International Seabed Authority, which regulates the new deep sea mining industry.
President Bill Clinton signed the treaty, but it was dead on arrival in the Senate who refused to ratify the treaty, saying it undercut American sovereignty.
Why the U.S. won’t ratify the treaty
Despite broad bipartisan support — including efforts by five presidents — the treaty has hit a wall in the Senate year after year.
Bellinger, who was a legal adviser to former President George W. Bush, testified in favor of the treaty at Senate hearings in 2012. While Bush was not a fan of U.N. treaties, Bellinger said Bush supported the Law of the Sea Treaty, not only for codifying access to the ocean floor, but also because the treaty guarantees the freedom of navigation around the world that’s so important to the Navy.
John Bellinger
60 Minutes
In 2012 – the last time the Senate held hearings on the treaty – the Law of the Sea had the support of the president through the intelligence community, big oil, major business groups and the U.S. military, Bellinger said. He thought it was a slam dunk.
It failed.
The conservative Heritage Foundation convinced 34 Republican senators to vote against the treaty, saying it would subjugate the U.S. to the U.N.
“The opposition was not on national security reasons or on business reasons,” Bellinger said. “It to me seemed just a reflexive ideological opposition to joining the treaty.”
Heritage Foundation senior policy analyst Steven Groves also testified in 2012. He said the U.S. didn’t need anyone’s permission to mine the seabed. His views haven’t changed.
“What businessman in their right mind said, ‘I’m going to invest tens of billions of dollars into a company that I will then have to go…and ask permission from an international organization to engage in deep seabed mining,'” Groves said.
He insists American companies are staying away not because the U.S. hasn’t ratified the treaty, but because deep sea mining isn’t viable.
“If China wants to go and think that it’s economically feasible to drag those nodules up to the surface and process them, let them do it” Groves said. “The United States has decided to stay out of the game. The one U.S. company that had rights to the deep seabed got out of the game, that’s Lockheed Martin.”
Steven Groves
60 Minutes
But Lockheed Martin has not entirely quit. The defense giant had rights to four Pacific seabed sites; it sold two and is holding onto two in case the treaty passes.
But Lockheed told “60 Minutes” that if the U.S. doesn’t ratify the treaty, it can’t dive in.
Ambassador John Negroponte, a former director of National Intelligence in the Bush administration, said the Heritage Foundation is still standing in the way.
“What Heritage is saying is ‘we don’t even want to give ’em a chance. We have—we know the answer already. And I, you know, I think that’s sort of hypothetical thinking,” Negroponte said. “The pragmatic approach would be to say, ‘OK, let us have access and see what happens.'”
How the U.S.’s failure to ratify the treaty could hurt American business, empower China’s economy
With seabed mining starting as early as next year, China is in place to dominate it. China already controls a near monopoly of critical minerals on land. Now it wants to extend that control to the ocean floor. If it succeeds, there are national security fears the U.S. could end up even more dependent on China for these critical minerals.
“If they end up being the largest producer and we’re not producing at all from the ocean…I think then that might place us in a difficult economic position,” Negroponte said.
In the years since 2012, China has become more assertive on the international scene, especially in the South China Sea, Negroponte said.
“And then with respect to deep seabed mining, they’re eating our lunch,” he said.
John Negroponte
60 Minutes
Unless America ratifies the treaty, it won’t have a say in drafting environmental rules for seabed mining that are underway now. With the U.S. absent, China is the heavyweight in the room at the International Seabed Authority.
“We are conceding,” Negroponte said. “If we’re not at the table and we’re not members of the Seabed Authority, we’re not going to have a voice in writing the environmental guidelines for deep seabed mining. Well, who would you prefer to see writing those guidelines? The People’s Republic of China or the United States of America?”
Military concerns over the U.S. failure to ratify the treaty
Concerns over China’s expansive powers in the deep sea are about more than mining. Many national security, military and political leaders are warning that China is taking advantage of America’s absence from the treaty to pursue overall naval supremacy.
Thomas Shugart, a former U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said being outside the treaty undercuts American credibility while China is laser-focused on building its maritime power. Shugart said China’s deep sea miners have a second mission: collecting information for the Chinese military.
“If you’re going to find submarines in the ocean, you need to know what the bottom looks like. You need to know what the temperature is. You need to know what the salinity is,” Shugart said. “If China is using civilian vessels to sort of on the sly do those surveys, then that could improve their ability to find U.S. and allied submarines over time as they better understand that undersea environment.”
Shugart also said China is flexing its maritime muscle by claiming the South China Sea as its private ocean.
The country has challenged the treaty’s navigation laws that ensure safe passage by harassing passing ships, including the U.S. Navy. China has fired water cannons at its neighbors, caused collisions and even flashed a military-grade laser at ships.
For Groves, of the Heritage Foundation, that’s why the treaty is meaningless.
“It’s China who is a party to the treaty who doesn’t obey the rules of the road,” Groves said. “They’re the ones getting into near collisions with U.S. vessels in the South China Sea. The United States respects and adheres to international law. It is the Chinese who are the scofflaws here. And the idea that the U.S. joining the treaty would somehow change that Chinese behavior has no basis in reality.”
But Shugart said that when the U.S. calls out China for violating the law, China responds, “well you’re not a signatory… so what do you have to say about it?”
Thomas Shugart
60 Minutes
“We are in a messaging contest and an effort to win hearts and minds all over the world against what is clearly our greatest strategic competitor,” Shugart said.
In Washington, Negroponte’s group continues to lobby the Republican holdouts in the Senate as China forges ahead. When “60 Minutes” reached out to those senators who torpedoed the treaty in 2012, their opposition today was as strong as ever.
“It just doesn’t make sense to a conservative to say, ‘these minerals that are in the deep seabed are so important to the United States, we are done without those, let’s put an international bureaucracy in charge of getting us access to them,'” Groves said.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah who opposed the treaty in 2012, maintains that there’s nothing in the Law of the Sea that advances America’s interests.
“The U.S. needs to reject the constant impulse to cede sovereignty by allowing unelected and unaccountable global bureaucrats [to] regulate away new frontiers,” Lee told “60 Minutes” in a recent statement. “Ratification today would be a win for the climate lobby and the global elites who feel entitled to govern from the shadows. I remain opposed to ratification of UNCLOS because the price of admission is a nonstarter.”
Bill Whitaker
Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.
(KRON) — Church, mosque, and synagogue leaders alike have organized a 22-mile pilgrimage along the East Bay, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday.
From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., this day-long event served as a symbolic gesture of mapping Gaza onto the East Bay. Participants walked from Berkeley to Alameda, mirroring the distance from Gaza City to the Rafah crossing refugee camp.
Hundreds of protesters wearing prayer scarves with “ceasefire” on them also joined the religious leaders on Saturday, each carrying olive branches to serve as a symbol of peace.
National Puppy Day: Santa Rosa non-profit releases live puppy cam
According to one of the organizers, Reverend Dr. Allison Tanner, over 45 faith communities have committed to Saturday’s protest, with over 16 religious congregations displaying ceasefire banners for the pilgrimage.
“I am joining this pilgrimage because my ancestors and descendants demand for me to always seek and live compassion and justice in the world,” said Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, pastor and former moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA. “The generational trauma that is being and has been inflicted upon all involved can be stopped if the world would only exhibit the political and human will to do so.”
The pilgrimage calls for enduring a sustained ceasefire, and an immediate flow of life-saving food, water, fuel and humanitarian services. Protesters are also calling for the release of all hostages: both the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and the Palestinian hostages held in Israeli prisons.
Beyt Tikkun: A Synagogue without Walls is joining this pilgrimage because our Jewish tradition demands that we both speak out and take action to prevent harm when a crime is being committed in our name. In fact, our teachings tell us that if we don’t protest when harm is being committed, whether in our family, our community, or the world, we are responsible for the harm. Our Torah teaches us to choose life – praying with our feet is a way for us to say yes to life and no to war. Nonviolent action is a positive offering to history, is connected with the most profound political and social change, and helps ameliorate humanity’s despair. We stand in solidarity with our Palestinian cousins and demand an immediate ceasefire. We unequivocally say: Never again for anyone.
Rabbi Cat Zavis, Beyt Tikkun Synagogue
This pilgrimage was a part of a broader global movement of solidarity pilgrimages, taking place in 145 cities in 18 countries, including a pilgrimage in every continent.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4.
Johannesburg — A regional bloc of 15 nations in West Africa that had given the military coup leaders Niger —one of its own member states — until Sunday to reinstate the country’s democratically elected president said Monday that it would convene on Thursday to discuss the political situation. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had threatened military intervention if the junta that seized control last month did not relinquish power and reinstate ousted leader Mohammed Bazoum by August 6.
On Sunday, however, it was the coup leaders who took action, closing Niger’s airspace after rejecting the ECOWAS ultimatum. The Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the coup leaders, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, as noting “the threat of intervention being prepared in a neighboring country” as the junta shut down the skies over Niger.
Mohamed Toumba, center, one of the leading figures of the post-coup government in Niger, which calls itself the National Council for the Protection of the Fatherland, attends a pro-coup rally at a stadium in Niamey, the capital city of Niger, August 6, 2023.
Balima Boureima/Anadolu Agency/Getty
A source close to the ousted president told CBS News that Bazoum remained under house arrest, effectively held hostage along with his wife and son, without electricity, running water or cell-phone communication.
“The house is surrounded by heavily armed soldiers, including some on the roof,” the source said, adding that they were still confident Bazoum would resume his presidency soon.
Military intervention has always been touted as a last resort by ECOWAS and some observers believe the bloc’s hardline stance, with the August 6 ultimatum, was prompted by pressure from Western allies such as the U.S. and France.
But it also reflects a fresh approach by the new chairman of ECOWAS, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is determined to protect member states and ensure their militaries don’t get any coup ideas of their own.
The putsch in Niger was the seventh coup in just three years in a region that’s become known as Africa’s “coup belt.”
Amid the threat of regional war, West African countries have been racing to pick a side. Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have said they would send troops, although the Nigerian Senate has yet to approve Tinubu’s deployment request, insisting that the president explore options other than the use of force.
In contrast, Burkina Faso and Mali — both ECOWAS members, but both ruled by military-backed governments ushered in by their own recent coups — have said any intervention in Niger would be considered a declaration of war against them, too.
Algeria, which shares a long land border with Niger, has also warned against a military solution to the crisis.
Niger’s military rulers claim they seized power because of a deteriorating security and economic situation in the country, but there have also been suggestions the coup was staged after reports started circulating that the junta’s leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, was about to be sacked as head of the elite presidential guard — a position he’s held since 2011.
Tchiani served as a battalion commander for ECOWAS forces during conflicts in Ivory Coast in 2003, and he knows exactly what an intervention mission by the bloc involves.
Members of Niger’s junta have met with counterparts in Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries that are clients of the Russia’s mercenary group Wagner, which has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in African countries where its private army is deployed.
Wagner mercenary group accused of atrocities in Africa
03:10
Shortly after the July 26 coup in Niger, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered his support for the rebellious generals. After his brief, failed mutiny in Russia, Prigozhin may be looking to refocus his company’s efforts in Africa, and he could see uranium-rich Niger as a business opportunity.
Some analysts have warned that if ECOWAS does go ahead with a military intervention, it could increase the risk of Wagner forces joining the fray, as the junta would launch into a desperate search for military support.
Tens of thousands of supporters came to a rally organized by the coup leaders at a stadium in Niger’s capital city of Niamey on Sunday, cheering the generals’ decision not to stand down in the face of ECOWAS’ ultimatum. Some members of the crowd could be seen waving Russian flags.
Niger is effectively the lynchpin of the United States’ counterterrorism strategy in the wide region of northern Africa known as the Sahel. The country’s recently deposed, civilian-led government was a key partner in Washington’s fight against Islamic extremist insurgencies that have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more across the region.
U.S. military personnel have been training local forces to fight extremist groups, with Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali all battling to repel insurgents.
There are about 1,100 U.S. troops in Niger, where the U.S. military operates out of two bases, and in 2017, Niger approved the use of armed American drones in the country to target militants.
To date, Washington has stressed that it has no intention of pulling its troops out of Niger, but that it is monitoring the situation closely.
With the threat of regional war looming, economic sanctions imposed by ECOWAS against Niger are already hitting hard in a country that’s deeply impoverished and has been ravaged by food insecurity and the deadly effects of climate change.
A Russian “guided air bomb” hit a blood transfusion center in northeast Ukraine Saturday night, killing two people and injuring four, Ukrainian officials said.
“This war crime alone says everything about Russian aggression,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Telegram post, alongside a picture of a building engulfed in flames.
He said that a “guided air bomb” had hit the blood transfusion center in the northeastern city of Kupiansk.
In a separate post on his own Telegram channel, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said initial reports suggested two men had died and another four were injured in the “large scale fire.”
Houses and farm buildings were also damaged, he said, adding that residential housing and other agricultural buildings had also been struck in nearby villages.
NBC News could not independently verify these claims, and Russia has repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilians in what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine, although Western leaders and Ukraine’s armed forces estimate thousands of people, both military members and civilians,have been killed, and millions more displaced.
The city of Kupiansk and its outlying settlements are in Kharkiv, which were seized by Russian troops in the early days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The area was liberated during a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September but has since come under heavy shelling and attacks.
Elsewhere, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said in a Telegram post that the Chongar Bridge, which links the peninsula to the Russian occupied Ukrainian mainland, had been hit with a “missile strike.”
“One hit, some of the missiles were shot down by air defense forces,” he said. “There is damage to the roadbed of the automobile bridge, repair work is already beginning. There are no victims.”
Farther north, Alexei Kulemzin, the Russian-installed mayor of the city of Donetsk said a fire had broken out at the University of Economics and Trade after 40 missiles were fired in its vicinity.
Alexei Kostrubitsky, the Russian-installed Donetsk regional emergency minister, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces had used cluster munitions in the shelling, which had caused the fire.
NBC News could not verify these claims, but both sides have used cluster munitions over the course of the invasion.
The intense overnight fighting came as officials from 40 different countries, including the U.S. and China, met in Jeddah to begin Ukraine-organized peace talks seeking to find a way to start negotiations over Russia’s war on the country.
Ukrainian and Western diplomats hope that the senior officials from countries across both the global North and South will agree on key principles for a future peace settlement to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Russia was not invited.
The renewed global push to peace comes as Russia exited a Turkey and U.N.-backed deal in July allowing for the safe export of Ukrainian grain, causing a jump in global food prices.
Historian on Trump indictment and holding leaders accountable – CBS News
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Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer, editor of “The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment,” discusses the latest criminal indictment against the former president as a result of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the January 6 insurrection. Zelizer explains that, in bringing Trump to trial, the Department of Justice has boldly declared – regardless of the political fallout – it will hold our leaders accountable if they violate sacrosanct democratic principles.
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CAIRO (AP) — A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals “responsible for the atrocities” in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mount.
The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere. In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say.
In a press release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to “ensure that the UN Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account.” The U.S. is set to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council later this month.
The New York-based watchdog group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These include Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor, and Sirba.
“The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at HRW.
In June, the U.S. imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials, and leaders from the former government led by Omar al-Bashir. It did note specify which individuals were affected.
Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.
HRW’s call for sanctions comes just days after Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.
In its 56-page report, HRW said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls — as young as 12 — and held them “for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members.”
The nearly four month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.
Meanwhile, the fighting has forced another 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said Thursday that 20.3 million people in the country now “face severe hunger,” double what the figure was this time last year.
CAIRO (AP) — A leading human rights group called Friday on the United States and the United Nations to impose further sanctions on the Sudanese individuals “responsible for the atrocities” in Darfur, as evidence of scorched-earth attacks mount.
The northeast African country plunged into chaos in April when monthslong tensions between the military, led by Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in the capital of Khartoum, and elsewhere. In Darfur, the scene of genocidal war in the early 2000s, the conflict has morphed into ethnic violence, with RSF and allied Arab militias targeting African communities in the western region, U.N. officials say.
In a press release, Human Rights Watch said Washington should impose targeted sanctions to “ensure that the UN Security Council finally acts to protect civilians and to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account.” The U.S. is set to take over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council later this month.
The New York-based watchdog group said at least seven villages and towns have been almost completely burned to the ground or destroyed in West Darfur alone, according to satellite footage and testimonies analyzed by the group. These include Habilla Kanari, Mejmere, Misterei, Molle, Murnei, Gokor, and Sirba.
“The world should not stand by as town after town in West Darfur is burned to the ground, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing for their lives,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at HRW.
In June, the U.S. imposed sanctions against four key companies either linked to or owned by the warring factions. The White House also placed visa restrictions on army and RSF officials, and leaders from the former government led by Omar al-Bashir. It did note specify which individuals were affected.
Last Month, Karim Khan, a prosecutor from the International Criminal Court, told the United Nations that he would be investigating alleged new war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur.
HRW’s call for sanctions comes just days after Amnesty International separately accused both warring parties of committing extensive war crimes including deliberate killings of civilians and mass sexual assault. Amnesty said almost all rape cases were blamed on the RSF and its allied Arab militias.
In its 56-page report, HRW said the RSF abducted 24 women and girls — as young as 12 — and held them “for several days during which they were raped by several RSF members.”
The nearly four month conflict in Sudan has killed more than 3,000 people and wounded more than 6,000 others, Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim said in televised comments in June. The true tally is likely much higher, according to doctors and activists.
Meanwhile, the fighting has forced another 4 million people to flee their homes either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries, according to figures from the U.N. migration agency.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, said Thursday that 20.3 million people in the country now “face severe hunger,” double what the figure was this time last year.
