Russia has committed crimes against humanity, says Kamala Harris - The Guardian

The Biden administration has formally concluded that Russia committed crimes against humanity during its nearly year-long invasion of Ukraine, Kamala Harris has said.

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity,” the US vice-president and former prosecutor said in prepared remarks delivered in a speech at the Munich security conference on Saturday.

“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes, you will be held to account.”

The official determination, which came at the end of a legal and factual analysis led by the US state department, carries no immediate consequences for the war.

But Washington hopes it could help further isolate the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and galvanise legal efforts to hold members of his government accountable through international courts and sanctions.

Harris’s speech came as senior western leaders met in Munich to assess Europe’s worst conflict since the second world war.

She said Russia was a “weakened” country after Joe Biden led a coalition to punish Putin for the invasion, but Russia is intensifying assaults in Ukraine’s east.

Ukraine is planning a spring counteroffensive, for which it is seeking more, heavier and longer-range weapons from its western allies.

The war has killed tens of thousands, uprooted millions from their homes, pummelled the global economy and made Putin a pariah in the west.

Washington had already concluded that Russian forces were guilty of war crimes, as had a UN-mandated investigation, but the Biden administration conclusion that Russia’s actions amount to “crimes against humanity” implies a legal finding that acts from murder to rape are widespread, systematic and intentionally directed against civilians. In international law, it is seen as a more serious offence.

The UN-backed commission of inquiry on Ukraine has not yet concluded that the war crimes it says it has identified amount to crimes against humanity.

In her remarks, Harris cited as “barbaric and inhumane” the scores of victims found in Bucha shortly after Russia’s invasion last February; the 9 March bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital that killed three people, including a child; and the sexual assault of a four-year-old by a Russian soldier that was identified by the UN report.

Organisations supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAid) have documented more than 30,000 war crimes incidents since the invasion, according to the US government. Ukrainian officials said they were investigating the shelling of the city of Bakhmut this week as a possible war crime.

Russia, which says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine to eliminate threats to its security and to protect Russian speakers, has denied intentionally targeting civilians or committing war crimes.

Harris said: “Let us all agree: on behalf of all the victims, known and unknown, justice must be served.”

The Biden administration has sought to bring alleged war criminals to justice, including training Ukrainian investigators, imposing sanctions, blocking visas and hiking penalties under US war crimes laws.

Washington has spent $40m (£33m) on the efforts so far and says it is working with Congress to secure an additional $38m.

But the Biden administration’s ability to enforce any such efforts beyond its borders – and certainly within Russia – is limited and collecting evidence in Ukraine has proven difficult.

International legal bodies are also constrained. At the international criminal court, for instance, jurisdiction extends only to member states and states that have agreed to its jurisdiction, such as Ukraine but not Russia. Kyiv has been pushing for a new international war crimes organisation to focus on the Russian invasion, which Moscow has opposed.

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2023-02-18 13:52:00Z
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Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu found dead after Turkey earthquake - The Guardian

The Ghanaian and former Premier League footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the earthquake rubble in Turkey, his agent has said.

Atsu, 31, who played for Newcastle United and Everton, was falsely reported as having been taken to hospital last week.

He had been missing since the earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February, killing tens of thousands of people.

Nana Sechere tweeted: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce to all well wishers that sadly Christian Atsu’s body was recovered this morning. My deepest condolences go to his family and loved ones.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their prayers and support. I ask that whilst we make the necessary arrangements, that everyone would please respect the privacy of the family during this very difficult time.”

Newcastle paid tribute to their former player on Twitter. “We are profoundly saddened to learn that Christian Atsu has tragically lost his life in Turkey’s devastating earthquakes. A talented player and a special person, he will always be fondly remembered by our players, staff and supporters. Rest in peace, Christian.”

In a statement, Everton said: “We are deeply saddened by today’s news that Christian Atsu has been found dead following the earthquake in Turkey earlier this month. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues at Hatayspor and everyone affected by this tragic event that has claimed so many lives.”

“We are deeply saddened by the news Christian Atsu lost his life in the devastation of the earthquakes that have hit Turkey and Syria,” a Premier League statement said. “Our thoughts and condolences are with Christian’s family and friends and everyone affected by this tragic event.”

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2023-02-18 09:50:00Z
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Ruto ally says Telegram account was hacked before Kenyan election - The Guardian

A senior strategist with close links to Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has publicly acknowledged that his Telegram account was infiltrated in the lead-up to last year’s election.

Dennis Itumbi told the Star newspaper that he had noticed “increased activity” on his Telegram last year but called it “inconsequential”.

The admission followed the publication of an investigation by the Guardian and 29 media partners into the activities of a hacking and disinformation specialist named Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces operative who with a team of associates sells his services in order to sway democratic elections.

The investigation found that Hanan used hacking techniques to get into the Telegram and Gmail accounts of political advisers close to Ruto, including Itumbi, before last year’s election.

The hacking of Itumbi and two other political advisers close to Ruto did not stop Ruto from winning the poll, but the involvement of figures such as Hanan highlights the potential risk to new democratic systems.

Hanan demonstrated his hacking skills to undercover reporters posing as consultants in a series of meetings last summer, which were secretly recorded by the journalists.

Hanan never explicitly confirmed he had been hired to work in Kenya, or if so who his client might have been, but in his demonstration to the reporters he targeted two Telegram accounts and one Gmail account linked to pro-Ruto advisers.

In a statement about the investigation, Hanan said: “I deny any wrongdoing.”

The revelations about the hacking of Ruto strategists made headlines on local news across Kenya. Initial disputes around the election results were dismissed by Kenya’s supreme court but Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition politician defeated in last year’s election, has continued to challenge Ruto’s victory.

The reaction to the revelations among the political class has been tepid, in part because the national focus has shifted away from politics and to economic challenges. Many ordinary people have become tired of repeated contestation of successive polls in the country.

In a separate development, Odinga appears to have sought to pre-empt questions about the involvement of Israeli mercenaries in the election by claiming that he hired “ethical hackers” to try to provide him with evidence that last year’s poll was rigged.

Odinga, the leader of the Azimio coalition, was declared to have lost narrowly to Ruto and has since repeatedly alleged that he won by a significant margin. He has made similar claims after a series of electoral defeats over the last decade, and for his claims about the 2022 poll he has previously relied on the testimony of a supposed whistleblower from within Kenya’s electoral commission, as well as supposed internal documents. This evidence has been dismissed by Kenya’s supreme court and independent experts.

“I had to look for ethical hackers to know the truth,” Odinga told a Kenyan TV network, according to a report on Monday in the Citizen newspaper. He said the hackers were forced to leave Nairobi, the capital, to avoid surveillance, but he gave few further details nor offered any proof to support his statements.

“We got them from abroad and they came with their machines. They had to go as far as Athi River, some in Kajiado, and even Kiambu, because they were being tracked for about a month,” he said.

Odinga’s claim will further reinforce fears that the use of foreign disinformation specialists have become a routine part of political competition in Kenya, as well as elsewhere in Africa.

On Thursday, the Guardian revealed a failed plan by the hacking and disinformation specialist based in Israel to discredit Muhammadu Buhari and get Goodluck Jonathan re-elected as president of Nigeria in 2015.

Google, which runs Gmail, declined to comment. Telegram said: “Accounts on any massively popular social media network or messaging app can be vulnerable to hacking or impersonation unless users follow security recommendations and take proper precautions to keep their accounts secure.”

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2023-02-17 12:40:00Z
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Cyclone Gabrielle: temporary morgues set up in New Zealand as rescues continue - The Guardian

Authorities in New Zealand have set up two temporary morgues, as the death toll from Cyclone Gabrielle, the country’s most damaging storm in decades, climbs to eight.

A second volunteer firefighter, Craig Stevens, died in hospital after being caught in a landslide near Auckland earlier in the week. A body was also found near Napier on Friday morning, police confirmed. Officials have warned that the toll is likely to rise further.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins toured the Hawke’s Bay region on Friday, saying “the whole country” was feeling for communities affected.

“There are some people who are in a very, very fragile state.

“I just ask people to keep going, you know, we will get through this. We will come out the other side of it. But it is an exceptionally challenging circumstance at the moment.”

Severe storms have cut off entire towns, washed away farms, bridges and livestock, and inundated homes, stranding people on rooftops. Ten thousand people have been displaced and by Thursday afternoon, 3,455 people had been registered by police as “uncontactable”, though some were likely to be multiple reports for the same person, authorities said.

Temporary morgues have been set up in Napier and Hastings as part of “standard practice”, a police spokesperson told news outlet Stuff.

“The facilities have been established as a precaution to ensure that any fatalities can be managed with care and respect, and in accordance with coronial processes. They are held there before being taken to a mortuary,” police said.

The Prime minister, Chris Hipkins, arrived in Napier on Friday morning. “When you look from up on the hill at the extent of the damage it really is confronting just the true extent of the challenge that these guys have got in front of them,” he told a reporter for the New Zealand Herald.

Hipkins also said there was no evidence to support claims of much higher death figures or or injuries, RNZ reported.

“It’s no good to anybody speculating about how many people may have been injured or how many people may have died in this tragedy,” Hipkins said.

“We will certainly share that information as soon as we can but I have heard some outlandish claims out there at the moment that there is no evidence to support.”

Communication and access to a number of areas remained difficult, while surveillance flights were being undertaken to survey the damage and identify those who may be isolated. Convoys of trucks carrying essential items such as food, water, medicine and fuel were making their way into remote areas and the defence force is using ships to transport needed items into areas of the east coast.

Among the people confirmed dead earlier this week was a two year old girl named Ivy, who was swept away by the water and drowned. Her mother, Ella Louise Collins, recounted the death of her daughter, writing in a Facebook post, “The water was about 10 centimetres from the ceiling in our house and rose extremely quickly and violently”.

The family of four tried to escape to the safety of a neighbour’s roof, but were stopped by what she called “a sudden torrent of water which almost drowned us all”, and pulled Ivy away.

Collins said “she died very quickly.”

“Please give us time while we ground ourselves and navigate this impossible time.”

On Thursday Hipkins warned that there were some people for whom the police still held “grave concerns”, but added, “We believe the majority of those considered uncontactable simply cannot make contact with loved ones, so police are prioritising those who are in isolated areas.”

Urban search and rescue team leader Ken Cooper said one man had walked 70km from Putorino to Napier to give rescue workers help with their missions.

“That’s a day-and-a-half walk,” he told Radio NZ. “He walked to give us a list of people still trapped up in the east coast.”

In Hawke’s Bay helicopters and boats were being used to check on people in isolated communities, while search and rescue teams continued to operate.

Rescue efforts were likely to be boosted by news from MetService that it no longer had any weather warnings in place in New Zealand and sunshine was forecast for most of the North Island.

Reuters contributed to this report

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2023-02-17 12:38:00Z
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China claims US balloons flew over Tibet and Xinjiang as spying row rumbles on - The Guardian

Diplomatic friction has worsened between the United States and China after Beijing claimed, without evidence, that US high-altitude balloons flew over its Xinjiang and Tibet regions, and threatened unspecified measures against US entities for undermining Chinese sovereignty.

Washington and Beijing are locked in a tussle over flying objects after the US military this month shot down what it called a Chinese spy balloon over the coast of South Carolina. Beijing said it was a civilian research vehicle mistakenly blown off course, and that Washington overreacted.

This week, China has claimed US balloons have flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times on round-the-world flights since May 2022. The White House has disputed this. Beijing has not produced any evidence or specifics of its claims, but on Wednesday claimed US balloons were spotted over the highly securitised regions of Tibet and Xinjiang where Beijing is accused of extensive human rights abuses against the non-Han population.

“Without the approval of relevant Chinese authorities, it has illegally flown at least 10 times over China’s territorial airspace, including over Xinjiang, Tibet and other provinces,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular daily briefing on Wednesday.

The US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, reiterated that China’s claims about US balloons were false.

“They have now said that there have been a gazillion balloons by the US over China. That is absolutely not true. There are no US government balloons over China,” she told an event at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Wang also accused Japan’s government of making “unfounded allegations” after the saga prompted the defence ministry in Tokyo to reanalyse sightings of unidentified aerial objects since November 2019.

The ministry announced late on Tuesday that new analysis “strongly” suggested they were Chinese spy balloons and it had “strongly demanded China’s government confirm the facts”.

Wang accused Japan of “smearing” China “without any solid evidence … China has repeatedly shared information on the unintended entry of a Chinese civilian unmanned airship into US airspace. Japan should adopt an objective and just position, view this unexpected incident caused by force majeure in the right way, and stop following the US’s suit in dramatising it.”

Washington has added six Chinese entities to an export blacklist over connections to Beijing’s suspected surveillance balloon programme. Wang called the sanctions illegal. “China is firmly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant US entities that undermine China’s sovereignty and security in accordance with the law,” Wang said, without specifying the measures.

The balloon dispute has delayed efforts by both sides to try to patch up frayed relations, although Joe Biden, the US president, has said he does not believe ties between the two countries have been weakened.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the balloon, is considering meeting China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, in Munich this week, sources have said.

His deputy, Wendy Sherman, said on Wednesday that communication with China had not stopped but gave no details about any future high-level meetings.

“We hope when conditions make sense that we will be seeing each other face-to-face again. No announcements today,” she said.

With Reuters

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2023-02-16 15:14:00Z
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Live news: Georgia grand jury says some witnesses may have lied in 2020 Trump interference probe - Financial Times

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2023-02-16 17:35:59Z
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian missile hits Lviv in fresh wave of attacks - The Telegraph

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1. Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian missile hits Lviv in fresh wave of attacks  The Telegraph
2. Russia-Ukraine war live: critical infrastructure hit in Russian strikes on western region of Lviv  The Guardian
3. Russia Launches Missile, Drone Strikes Across Ukraine Overnight  Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
4. Live: Russia fires deadly barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine  FRANCE 24 English
5. Russia fires barrage of missiles at targets in Ukraine  The Independent
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2023-02-16 08:44:34Z
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