CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli strikes killed 77 Palestinians in Gaza in the past 24 hours, health authorities said on Sunday, as Egypt hosted an Israeli delegation for a new round of talks in a bid to secure a truce with Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
The Israeli military said it killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant in a strike on a command centre in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. It did not mention his name or rank.
“The command centre and terrorists were struck precisely, the military said, adding it was intended to minimise “harm to uninvolved civilians in the area of the hospital”.
“The Al-Aqsa Hospital building was not damaged and its functioning was not affected.”
There was no immediate comment from Islamic Jihad, a militant group and ally of Hamas.
Palestinian health officials and Hamas media said the strike hit several tents inside the Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing four people and wounding several, including five journalists.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the health authorities. Health officials say most of the fatalities are civilians, while Israel says at least a third are fighters.
The war erupted after Hamas militants broke through the border and rampaged through communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The two sides have stepped up negotiations, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, on a six-week suspension of Israel’s offensive in return for the proposed release of 40 of 130 hostages still held by Hamas militants in Gaza after their Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to keep up military pressure on Hamas, while showing flexibility in the talks, saying that only that combination would bring about the release of some 130 hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza.
Hamas says any deal must secure an end to the fighting and withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel has ruled this out, saying it would eventually resume efforts to dismantle the governing and military capabilities of Hamas.
Hamas would not be present at the talks in Cairo, an official told Reuters on Sunday, as it waited to hear from mediators on whether a new Israeli offer was on the table.
In the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Israeli forces continued to blockade the two main hospitals, and tanks shelled areas in the middle and eastern areas of the territory.
Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike killed nine people in Bani Suhaila near Khan Younis, while another air strike killed four people in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said it killed 15 gunmen in the central Gaza Strip and several more in Khan Younis, including near Al-Amal hospital.
In Gaza City, Israeli forces continued to operate inside Al Shifa Hospital, the territory’s biggest, the health ministry said. Residents living nearby said residential districts had been destroyed by Israeli forces near Al Shifa.
“I went out looking to buy some medicine from a pharmacy and what I saw was heart-breaking. Complete streets with buildings that used to stand there had been destroyed,” said Abu Mustafa, 49.
“This is not war, this is genocide,” he told Reuters over the phone from Gaza City.
Facing fierce international pressure, Israel says it is doing all it can to minimize harm to civilians as it battles militants in an urban battlefield.
Netanyahu said that around 200 gunmen have so far been killed at Al Shifa hospital and that hundreds more had surrendered.
“No hospital in the world looks like this. This is what a house of terrorists looks like,” Netanyahu said at a news conference in Jerusalem.
Hamas denies having a military presence at the hospital and its spokespeople have said those killed there were civilians.
The Israeli military said that weapons were found at the hospital and that “Several compounds used to launch anti-tank missiles and where snipers operated were struck by IAF aircraft” in the Rimal neighbourhood near Shifa.
EASTER
At Gaza City’s The Holy Family Church some Christian Palestinians took part in a sombre Easter service.
“My wish is that they leave us alone and that we go back to our lands and children,” said Winnie Tarazzi, a Gaza woman praying at the church.
Gaza’s population comprises an estimated 1,000 Christians, most of whom are Greek Orthodox.
In the peace talks, Hamas also wants hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were displaced from Gaza City and surrounding areas southward during the first stage of the war to be allowed back north.
The World Court on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel, accused by South Africa of genocide in Gaza, to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to the population.
(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovtich and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Nick Macfie, Louise Heavens and Hugh Lawson)
Beyoncé’s new album, “Act Two: Cowboy Carter” dropped at midnight.
The 27-song album features collaborations with different artists, including musician Robert Randolph, leader of Robert Randolph and the Family Band.
“As you can see today with the release of so many songs, rightfully so, I mean she had all of this creative energy for all of these different country collaborations,” he said. “So it’s like rock meets country.”
Randolph is a six-time Grammy nominee and an expert on the pedal steel guitar. He has collaborated with Joe Walsh of The Eagles, Dave Matthews, Los Lobos and blues legend Buddy Guy.
Robert Randolph appears on CBS Mornings on March 29, 2024 to talk about collaborating on Beyoncé’s new album.
CBS News
Randolph said he was at home cooking on a grill when he received a call about participating on Beyoncé’s latest album. Her hit song “Texas Hold ‘Em” came out last month and made her the first Black woman ever with a No. 1 single on the Hot Country Songs chart.
“So I got the call and I’m like, ‘What, for real? Play on Beyoncé? What am I going to do? Am I going to do “Bootylicious” or something?'” he joked.
Randolph, who collaborated on the song “16 Carriages,” said they would rehearse the song in different ways, adjusting his usual style.
“Oh yeah, I had to work on some country licks,” he said.
On the album, Beyoncé shines light on some of the pioneering, unsung Black artists throughout country music’s history. Randolph said she’s inspiring new artists.
“For the last 20, 30 years, there’s been a lot of Black country artists trying to break through out of Nashville,” he said. “Many have moved there, and just the fact that she’s sort of hinted at releasing a record and now that it’s out, she’s given all of those people newfound hope.”
Kelsie Hoffman
Kelsie Hoffman is a push and platform editor on CBS News’ Growth and Engagement team. She previously worked on Hearst Television’s National Desk and as a local TV reporter in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Six-time Grammy nominee Robert Randolph talks collaboration with Beyoncé as her new album drops – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Robert Randolph, a six-time Grammy nominee and leader of the “Robert Randolph and the Family Band,” discusses his collaboration with Beyoncé as her new album, “Cowboy Carter,” drops.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
The gang leader who has become the face of Haiti’s descent into lawlessness and violence has said he would consider calling a ceasefire only if his consortium of armed gangs was included in international talks on the country’s future.
Jimmy Chérizier, the former police officer better known via his nomme de guerre “Barbecue,” spoke to Stuart Ramsay, the chief correspondent for the U.K.’s Sky News, which like NBC News is owned by Comcast.
He warned that a foreign peacekeeping force would be treated as enemy fighters and meet armed resistance, and that a recent pause in violence was merely a technical halt.
“There is nothing calm, but when you’re fighting you have to know when to advance and when to retreat,” Chérizier said in the interview, which aired Friday.
“I think every day that passes we are coming up with a new strategy so we can advance, but there’s nothing calm. In the days that are coming things will get worse than they are now,” he said.
Chérizier leads the G9 collective of gangs but also leads Viv Ansanm, meaning “Living Together,” a revolutionary gang alliance.
Haitian Gang Leader Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Chérizier is flanked by his henchmen in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 22, 2024.Giles Clarke / Getty Images
As much of 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is now in the control of gangs after Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced he would stand down on March 12 following months of unrest. The United Nations said an estimated 1,500 people have been killed in gang violence this year so far, and 4,500 last year, in a report released Thursday.
At least 450 U.S. nationals have been evacuated from Haiti since March 17, with efforts ongoing to airlift the remaining Americans there, the State Department said in a briefing Thursday.
The pan-Caribbean CARICOM group of nations and the United States pledged to help form a transitional government leading to a democratic nation — but for now the gangs still rule the streets.
Chérizier was dismissive of this process, but said he respected CARICOM and left open the possibility of taking part in a peace deal.
“If the international community comes with a detailed plan where we can sit together and talk, but they do not impose on us what we should decide, I think that the weapons could be lowered,” he said.
“We don’t believe in killing people and massacring people, we believe in dialogue, we have weapons in our hand and it’s with the weapons that we must liberate this country,” Chérizier added.
The consortium of armed gangs Chérizier leads says that Haiti has been controlled by corrupt politicians, dating back at least to the devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed about 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless. Many in Haiti believe that international aid money for reconstruction was mishandled.
Seen by some as a revolutionary leader, Chreizier has been accused of brutal violence for years, including the killing of at least 71 civilians and torching of some 400 homes in Port-au-Prince in 2018. That was at the time Haiti’s worst massacre in a decade and led to him being branded a human rights abuser by the U.S. Treasury.
Sky News had to travel along a deserted freeway with abandoned, burnt-out vehicles to reach the man known as Barbecue, who was surrounded by armed guards and carrying two weapons himself.
“We were told that their snipers were watching us, and to drive slowly, and follow our guide’s every move,” Ramsay wrote in his report. He described this once busy route into the capital as “a barricaded battlefield.”
The area claimed by Chérizier’s group was relatively calm and stable — food and water distribution is taking place, with orderly lines of people, he said.
But Chérizier made it clear that any foreign peacekeeping force sent in would face armed resistance.
Kenya has pledged to send 1,000 troops to coordinate a U.N.-backed alliance,but the plan is now on hold. Chérizier said the Kenyans would commit atrocities and he would not allow it.
“It’s evolving. If the Kenyan military or Kenyan police come, whatever, I will consider them as aggressors, we will consider them as invaders, and we do not have to collaborate with any invaders that have come to walk over our independence,” he said.
Chérizier predicted there would be a Haiti “where there are no kidnappings, without raping and killing people,” but this would require “corrupt politicians and the corrupt oligarchs” leaving.
Sierra Ferrell is a singer and songwriter with a fast-rising career, but her road to success has been an unconventional one that was plagued with poverty and addiction before she landed a record deal.
The daughter of a single mom, Ferrell grew up poor in West Virginia, but says she has been singing since she could talk. When she was in her early 20s, as the opioid epidemic was spreading, Ferrell said she fled.
“I left because I feel like I’ve always had this wild side to me. And I knew that if I stayed there, I probably wouldn’t still be alive,” she said. “And so, I left and searched for maybe myself, maybe to find out what else there is, maybe even a reason to live.”
Ferrell, along with a friend, started hitchhiking.
“The very first person that picked us up, he pulled out this knife that was in a sheath and he handed it to me, and he is like, ‘Take this with you. You’re going to need it,'” Ferrell recalled.
When she wasn’t hitching rides, Ferrell, now 35, was hopping trains.
“It felt like I was an outlaw,” she said. “I felt more free.”
For years, Ferrell traveled, busking on the street to get by and relying on the kindness of strangers.
“And what’s also crazy about that scenario is it’s usually the people who have less who give you something because they know what it’s like,” Ferrell said. “A lot of the people who are travelers, they’re usually running from something.”
Ferrell admitted she, too, was running, from addiction and past experiences. But she says they eventually caught up with her and almost led to her demise.
It was during a trip home to West Virginia when Ferrell says she relapsed with a friend, saying that “I did die.”
“I just like collapsed on the floor,” she said. “And I looked up, and like, Chris was like smacking me in the face. And he is like, ‘Sierra, wake up.’ And it was like time didn’t exist anymore.”
Ferrell said she saw a “pin of light” above her that appeared to get larger. Then, she said, her feelings of fear disappeared.
“And the only thing I knew that existed was pure bliss,” she said. “And I saw these figures in a circle, and they knew who I was. And they’re just like, ‘Come, be with us. Come to us. It’s time. Come home.'”
Finally tired of traveling, Ferrell settled in Nashville and started therapy.
“Taking accountability is huge,” she said. “Miraculously, things in your life just start to happen better.”
Ferrell played at American Legion Post 82, and a buzz started to build, leading to a record deal and her debut album.
Sierra Ferrell, singer-songwriter.
CBS News
“It’s kind of funny how the attention comes because it’s like, nothing, nothing, nothing. All at once,” she said.
Ferrell’s new album, “Trail of Flowers,” displays the wisdom of a woman who has lived by her wits.
“I needed to get that wildness out,” said Ferrell, who is touring alongside the Avett Brothers and Zach Bryan this summer. “It kind of really grounded me.”
Ferrell also embraces the upside of her career.
“You got to go through the sadness to appreciate the joy and to know what the joy can give you,” she said.
Anthony Mason
Anthony Mason is senior culture and senior national correspondent for CBS News. He has been a frequent contributor to “CBS Sunday Morning,” and is the former co-host for “CBS This Morning: Saturday” and “CBS This Morning.”
Immigration, the border and the economy have emerged as key issues in this year’s presidential election and may determine who wins the White House. But the person who could tip the scales for either candidate…is another president. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known by his initials “AMLO.” Charismatic, and often combative, “AMLO” won a landslide victory in 2018 on the promise to root-out corruption, reduce poverty and violent crime. Now, 70 years old and in the final stretch of his term, we met the president in Mexico City for a candid conversation about his handling of immigration, trade, the fentanyl crisis, and the cartels. And he told us why he thinks…when Donald Trump says he is going to shut down the border or build a wall, he’s bluffing.
Sharyn Alfonsi: President Trump is saying he wants to build a wall again.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): On the campaign.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But you don’t think he’d actually do it?
President López Obrador (in Spanish) No, no..
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because? Because he needs Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because we understood each other very well. We signed an economic, a commercial agreement that has been favorable for both peoples, for both nations. He knows it. And President Biden, the same.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But what about the people that’ll say, “Oh. But the wall works”?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It doesn’t work!
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
60 Minutes
And President López Obrador says he told that to then-President Trump during a phone call. They were supposed to be discussing the pandemic.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It was an agreement not to speak about the wall because we were not going to agree.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And then you talked about it.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): That was the only time. And I told him, “I am going to send you, Mr. President, some videos of tunnels from Tijuana up to San Diego, that passed right under U.S. Customs.” He stayed quiet, and then he started laughing and told me “I can’t win with you.”
We met President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at Mexico’s National Palace earlier this month. With six months left on his six-year term, López Obrador’s power in Mexico – and influence in the United States – has never been greater. The White House witnessed it – here – last December when a record 250,000 migrants overwhelmed the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Sharyn Alfonsi: President Biden called you. He sent his Secretary of State. What did they say to you and what did they ask for from you?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): For us to try and contain the flow of migration.
A month later, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported the number of migrant crossing dropped by 50 percent.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So what did you do between December and January that changed that number so dramatically?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We were more careful about our southern border. We spoke with the presidents of Central America, with the president of Venezuela and with the president of Cuba. We asked them for help in curbing the flow of migrants. However, that is a short-term solution, not a long-term one.
Mexico also increased patrols at the border, flying some migrants to the southern part of Mexico and deporting others. But by February, the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. began to rise again and the Border Patrol expects a sharp increase in that number this spring.
Sharyn ALfonsi and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: Everybody thinks you have the power in this moment to slow down migration. Do you plan to?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We do and want to continue doing it, but we do want for the root causes to be attended to, for them to be seriously looked at.
With the ear of the White House – President López Obrador proposed his fix- that the United States commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo and legalize millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do the things that you said need to be done, then what?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): The flow of migrants… will continue.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics have said what you’re doing, what you’re asking for to help secure the border is diplomatic blackmail. What do you say?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I am speaking frankly, we have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do those things, will you continue to help to secure the border?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes, because our relationship is very important. It is fundamental.
For much of the last six years, President López Obrador has held a televised 7 a.m. press conference…five days a week. During our visit he was dissecting “fake news.” The briefinglasted more than two hours.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Is it a pulpit or is it a press conference?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It is a circular dialogue, even though my opponents say that I am on a pulpit.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
60 Minutes
Time is the only luxury AMLO seems comfortable spending. When he took office, he sold the presidential jet, and his predecessors’ fleet of bulletproof cars in favor of his Volkswagen. He uses his daily briefings to rail against “the elite” and enemies, real and perceived. At times it can feel like a political telenovela. At a briefing last month, the president stunned the audience when he read the cellphone number of a “New York Times” reporter – who was pursuing what he viewed as a critical story of him.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It looks like you were threatening that reporter.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I didn’t do it with the intention of harming her. She, like yourself, are public figures, and I am as well.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But you know this is a dangerous place for reporters. And you know that threats often come in text and phones. When you put her phone number up behind you, you realized what you were doing.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no. No.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Well, what did you think you were doing?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It’s a form of responding to a libel. Imagine what it means for this reporter to write that the president of Mexico has connections with drug traffickers… And without having any proof. That is a vile slander.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So then why not just say it’s not true?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because libel, when it doesn’t stain, it smears.
López Obrador’s bare knuckle brawls with the press are in sharp contrast to the softer approach he’s taken with the drug cartels. He dissolved the federal police and created a National Guard to take over public security and he invested millions to create jobs for young people to escape the grip of the cartels. According to the Mexican government, homicides have dropped almost 20% since he took office. The president calls his approach, “hugs, not bullets.”
Sharyn Alfonsi: How is that working out for Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Very well.
Sharyn Alfonsi: There are still 30,000 homicides in Mexico, and very few of those are prosecuted. So, there’s an idea that there’s still lawlessness in Mexico. Is that fair?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Of course we prosecute them. There is no impunity in Mexico. They all get prosecuted.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It’s a small percent.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): More than before.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a press conference
60 Minutes
According to México Evalúa, a Mexican think tank, about 5% of the country’s homicides are prosecuted. And a study last year reported cartels have expanded their reach, employing an estimated 175,000 people to extort businesses and traffic migrants and drugs into the U.S.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Can you reach the cartel and say, “Knock it off?”
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no. What you have to do with the criminals is apply the law. But I’m not going to establish contact, communication with a criminal, the President of Mexico.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you saying you don’t have to reach out to them or communicate with them?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no, because you cannot negotiate with criminals.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The head of the DEA says cartels are mass producing fentanyl, and the U.S. State Department has said that most of it is coming out of Mexico. Are they wrong?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes. Or rather, they don’t have all the information, because fentanyl is also produced in the United States.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The State Department says most of it’s coming from Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico. And the chemical precursors come from Asia. You know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we have customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But there is drug consumption in Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): But very little.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So, why the violence, then, in Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because drug trafficking exists, but not the consumption.
López Obrador says threats by U.S. lawmakers to shut down the border to curb drug trafficking, is little more than saber rattling. That’s because last year, Mexico became America’s top trading partner.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): They could say, “we are going to close the border,” but we mutually need each other.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What would happen to the U.S. if they closed the border?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): You would not be able to buy inexpensive cars if the border is closed. That is, you would have to pay $10,000, $15,000 dollars more for a car. There are factories in Mexico and there are factories in the United States that are fundamental for all the consumers in the United States and all the consumers in Mexico.
Last year, the Mexican economy grew 3% and unemployment hit a record low. But critics says Mexico’s economic growth isn’t because of the president, rather, in spite of him. López Obrador directed billions to signature mega projects like an oil refinery in his home state and a railroad through the Yucatan Jungle…costing an estimated $28 billion.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What about infrastructure? Aren’t there more dire concerns like, you know, clean water, roads, reliable energy, when you’re trying to attract business to Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We are doing both, fixing the roads and building this train. It will link all the ancient Mayan cities and is going to allow Mexicans and tourists to enjoy a paradise region that is the southeast of Mexico.
López Obrador has spent unapologetically on social programs – doubling the minimum wage, increasing pensions, and scholarships. His approval rating has remained high – upwards of 60% for most of his presidency.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics say that you’re popular because you give people money. What do you say?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I would say they are partly right. Our formula is simple: It is not to allow corruption; not to make for an ostentatious government, for luxuries; and everything we save we allocate to the people.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Do you think that you’ve been able to get rid of the corruption in Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Completely?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes, basically, because corruption in Mexico started from the top down.
But Transparency International reports no improvement in the corruption problems that have plagued Mexico for decades. Huge crowds gathered last month, accusing the president of trying to eliminate the country’s democratic checks and balances. In June, Mexico will have one of largest elections in its history…in addition to the presidency, 20,000 local positions are up for grabs. The cartels have funded and preyed on local candidates. Last month, two mayoral hopefuls were killed within hours of each other, raising fears of a bloody election.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I can travel throughout the entire country without problem. There is no region that I cannot go and visit.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The number of government officials and candidates murdered rose from 94 in 2018 to 355 last year. You don’t view that as a threat to you, obviously, but do you view it as a threat to democracy?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation) No. There are some specific instances. There is no state repression.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But if a candidate’s afraid to run because they may be assassinated, isn’t that a threat to democracy?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Generally, they all participate, there are many candidates, from all the parties.
His hand-picked successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has a commanding lead in the polls, and could become Mexico’s first female president. López Obrador told us when he leaves office, he will retire from politics and write books. But what he does next at the border –or doesn’t do – could shape the next chapter of the United States.
Produced by Michael Karzis. Associate producer, Katie Kerbstat Jacobson. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Daniel J. Glucksman
Sharyn Alfonsi
Sharyl Alfonsi is an award-winning correspondent for CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — The military junta that seized power in Niger two weeks ago has named new ministers and barred most international mediators from the country, in what analysts described as an attempt to consolidate power in the face of international pressure.
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS, which previously threatened to use military force to reinstate the democratically elected government, is expected to meet again Thursday to discuss the situation.
The junta refused to admit mediation teams that were meant to arrive Tuesday, sent by the United Nations, the African Union, and ECOWAS. The junta cited “evident reasons of security in this atmosphere of menace,” according to a letter seen by The Associated Press.
ECOWAS set a deadline of Sunday for Niger to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum, a deadline that the junta ignored and which passed without action from the bloc.
In a statement Tuesday, ECOWAS said it was trying to find a peaceful solution to the crisis and will continue to “deploy all necessary measures to ensure the return to constitutional order.”
The military leaders chose civilian economist Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine as prime minister. Zeine is a former minister of economy and finance who left office after his government was ousted by a previous military coup in 2010, and later worked at the African Development Bank.
“The establishment of a government is significant, and signals at least to the population, that they have a plan in place, with support from across the government,” said Aneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official who specialized in African affairs and who is now director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a risk advisory group.
Mutinous soldiers detained Bazoum and seized power on July 26, claiming they could do a better job at protecting the nation from jihadi violence. Groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have ravaged the Sahel region, a vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert.
But most analysts and diplomats say that reason doesn’t hold weight and that the takeover was the result of a power struggle between the president and the head of his presidential guard, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, who now says he runs the country.
The coup comes as a blow to many countries in the West, which saw Niger as one of the last democratic partners in the region they could work with to beat back the extremist threat. It’s also an important supplier of uranium.
Niger’s partners have threatened to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance if it does not return to constitutional rule.
While the crisis drags on, Niger’s some 25 million people are bearing the brunt. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, and many Nigeriens live hand to mouth and say they’re too focused on finding food for their families to pay much attention to the escalating crisis.
Harsh economic and travel sanctions imposed by ECOWAS since the coup have caused food prices to rise by up to 5%, say traders. Erkmann Tchibozo, a shop owner from neighboring Benin who works in Niger’s capital, Niamey, said it’s been hard to get anything into the country to stock his shop near the airport.
If it continues like this, the situation is going to become very difficult, he said.
Niamey appeared more tense on Tuesday, with security forces checking vehicles. This week, the junta shut Niger’s airspace, and temporarily suspended authorization for diplomatic flights from friendly and partner countries, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Also this week, acting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met with the coup leaders, but said they refused to allow her to meet Bazoum, who has been detained since being toppled. She described the mutinous officers as unreceptive to her appeals to start negotiations and restore constitutional rule.
The U.S. has some 1,100 military personnel in the country and has seen Niger as a strategic and reliable partner in the region.
Nuland made more headway than other delegations. A previous ECOWAS delegation was prevented from leaving the airport.
It’s unclear what coordination is taking place among the various mediation attempts. Some experts have worried that if efforts are not coordinated, it could undermine ECOWAS.
“I think the U.S would come to a modus vivendi with this junta, if the junta proved particularly amenable to U.S interests, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table for now,” said Alexander Thurston, assistant professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati.
But analysts say the longer it takes to find a solution, the more time the junta has to dig in and the less momentum there will be to oust it. Regional countries are also divided on how to proceed.
Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, both of which are run by military regimes, have sided with the junta and warned that an intervention in Niger would be “would be tantamount to a declaration of war” against them. In a joint letter Tuesday to the United Nations, the two countries appealed for the organization to “prevent by all means at its disposal, armed action against a sovereign state.”
Mali and Burkina Faso also sent representatives to Niamey this week to discuss military options. Officials from all sides said the talks went well.
WASHINGTON — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had sharp words for Donald Trump in a town hall in New Hampshire and rebuked the former president for his previous praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Vladimir Putin who is executing these atrocities against people who were just in their country living their lives,“ Christie said, “This is the guy that Donald Trump calls a great leader and brilliant.”
“If he believes that Vladimir Putin is brilliant and a great leader, is that really the character and judgment that you want sitting (in the White House)?” Christie continued.
Christie’s comments come off the heels of a surprise visit to Ukraine where he met with President Volodomyr Zelenskyy to assess the war effort against Russia and U.S. aid to Kyiv. At his town hall in New London, Christie reaffirmed his support for Ukraine.
“We should have lots of debates about the appropriate use of American military money, of the appropriate use of American ingenuity in supporting allies,” Christie said. “But I’ll tell you this, the country that I’ve grown up in, we’ve never ever let this happen to an ally without helping them.”
The Republican presidential field has been divided over whether the U.S. should continue providing military aid to Ukraine as it fends off Russian aggression. Christie has sought to differentiate himself from the rest of the pack by voicing strong support for Kyiv. Former Vice President Mike Pence, another presidential hopeful, also visited Ukraine in June to reaffirm U.S. support for the war effort.
Here are other highlights from Christie’s town hall in New Hampshire.
‘Everyone will be completely shocked’:Christie expects a big win in New Hampshire primary
Christie takes shot at DeSantis for saying Trump lost 2020 election−in 2023
Trump was not the only 2024 GOP candidate who was on the receiving end of Christie’s attacks.
Christie also took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his recent interview with NBC News in which DeSantis said Trump lost the 2020 election, long after he repeatedly dodged the question.
“Let me give a big round of applause to governor DeSantis for catching up on two-and-half-year-old news.” Christie quipped.
The former New Jersey governor has repeatedly blasted Trump for his false claims of election fraud and has reaffirmed on the campaign trail to voters the 2020 election was not stolen.
“Let me be clear and not just be critical, the election was not stolen,” Christie said.
Christie slams GOP-backed gender-affirming care bans for trans youth
Christie also slammed various GOP-led efforts to ban gender-affirming health care for young transgender people, chiding Republicans for not focusing on “the big problems.”
“You know what my position is on that?” Christie said. “Parents should be the ones making those decisions. How is a governor sitting in a statehouse know better about what should happen inside your home than you do?”
DeSantis again was on the receiving end of Christie’s attacks, but the former New Jersey governor also blasted Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders for signing a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Christie accused those Republicans of not being true to “small government” conservatism.
“Now all of a sudden we’ve got big government conservatives like Ron DeSantis doing this stuff” Christie said. “I don’t want anybody telling me how to raise my kids.”
In New Hampshire, Christie sees backlash over abortion
One challenge that has plagued Republicans in the 2024 presidential field has been abortion. Candidates have offered widely differing views on restrictions as the GOP grapples with electoral backlash after the constitutional right to an abortion was overturned last summer.
In the more libertarian-minded state of New Hampshire, where the majority of Granite State voters across the political spectrum support abortion rights, an attendee asked Christie about his stance on abortion while also adding he thought abortion should be “between a woman, her husband and a doctor.”
“I believe every state should be able to make, and its people, to make their own judgment about abortion,” Christie said, reiterating that he considers himself “pro-life.”
Christie’s answer quickly drew a protest from an attendee who disagreed, showing how politically volatile the issue can be in the state. For Christie’s part, he did not mince words when it came to his answer.
“The states should decide it, and once we have those decisions in the states, I don’t want to give you an illusion, it won’t be resolved. It’s too emotional an issue,” Christie said.
(Bloomberg) — Talks are ongoing to restart the deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain via a safe corridor on the Black Sea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Tuesday after speaking with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The statement came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country could start picking Russian targets to attack in the Black Sea if Russian forces continued to block Ukraine’s ships and bombard its ports and other infrastructure.
Russian air defense shot down two military drones near Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram, while Zelenskiy said nine people were killed in a Russian cruise-missile strike on the town of Pokrovsk this week, and 82 people were wounded.
Latest Coverage
Poland Calls on EU to Provide Funds for Ukraine Grain Transit
Russian Court Freezes $36 Million in Goldman Sachs’s Assets
Stuffed Russian Grain Ports Show Risk of Black Sea Escalation
China’s Rare Russia Rebuke Doesn’t Mean Xi Is Ditching Putin
Russia Seaborne Crude Steady Before Ukraine’s Black Sea Attack
Ukraine Black Sea Drone Attacks Signal Rapidly Expanding War
Markets
Wheat held gains as traders weighed a potential escalation in hostilities between Ukraine and Russia that may threaten Black Sea exports. Futures in Chicago traded near $6.81 a bushel after advancing almost 9% over the previous three sessions.
NIAMEY, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Niger mediation efforts appeared stalled on Wednesday after the leaders of a July coup rejected another diplomatic mission, and neighbouring allies who back the armed takeover appealed to the United Nations to prevent a military intervention.
Niger’s junta denied entry to a joint delegation from African countries and the United Nations on Tuesday, resisting pressure to negotiate ahead of a summit on Thursday in which the main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), will discuss possible use of force.
The move has dimmed hopes of a diplomatic resolution to the standoff that threatens to further destabilise West Africa’s Sahel region – one of the world’s poorest that is already dealing with a string of coups and a deadly Islamist insurgency.
Neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, also ruled by military juntas, asked the U.N. Security Council in a letter on Tuesday to prevent any armed action against Niger, saying it would have “unpredictable” consequences and lead to the break-up of ECOWAS.
“The Transitional Governments of Burkina Faso and the Republic of Mali appeal to the primary responsibility of the Security Council… to use all means at its disposal to prevent armed action against a sovereign state,” said the letter signed by both countries’ foreign ministers and posted on X by the Malian foreign ministry.
They said they were committed to finding solutions through diplomacy and negotiation, but did not give details.
Mali and Burkina Faso had previously vowed to come to Niger’s defence if the regional bloc intervened, saying they would consider that a declaration of war against them.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late on Tuesday that he had spoken to ousted Niger President Mohamed Bazoum to express continued efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
“The United States reiterates our call for the immediate release of him and his family,” he posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Bazoum has been detained in his residence since the July 26 coup.
Nigeria’s President and ECOWAS chairman Bola Tinubu imposed more sanctions on Tuesday aimed at squeezing entities and individuals involved in the takeover, and said all options were still on the table.
ECOWAS has said that the use of force would be a last resort if the soldiers do not step down and free Bazoum. The bloc’s defence chiefs have agreed on a possible military action plan, which heads of state are expected to consider at their summit in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
(Writing by Nellie Peyton; Editing by William Maclean)
