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West African Envoys Meet Mali's Military Junta after Coup

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (C) walks at the International Airport in Bamako upon his arrival Aug. 22, 2020, as part of international efforts to restore order in Mali. (AFP)
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (C) walks at the International Airport in Bamako upon his arrival Aug. 22, 2020, as part of international efforts to restore order in Mali. (AFP)
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West African Envoys Meet Mali's Military Junta after Coup

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (C) walks at the International Airport in Bamako upon his arrival Aug. 22, 2020, as part of international efforts to restore order in Mali. (AFP)
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan (C) walks at the International Airport in Bamako upon his arrival Aug. 22, 2020, as part of international efforts to restore order in Mali. (AFP)

West African envoys held talks with Mali's military junta on Saturday to try to push for a speedy return to civilian rule after a coup in the troubled nation.

The delegation, headed by former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, held talks for half an hour with soldiers who seized power on Tuesday, including new strongman colonel Assimi Goita, an AFP journalist said.

The envoys from the regional ECOWAS bloc also hope to meet ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who is being detained by the junta at a military camp outside Bamako.

Rebel soldiers seized Keita and other leaders after a mutiny on Tuesday, dealing another deep blow to a country already struggling with a brutal extremist insurgency and widespread public discontent over its government.

Mali's neighbors have called for Keita to be reinstated, saying the purpose of the delegation's visit was to help "ensure the immediate return of constitutional order".

"ECOWAS appreciates what is happening in Mali and ECOWAS wants the best for the country," Jonathan said after his arrival.

"We're going to discuss with all stakeholders and I think at the end of the day we'll come out with something that is good for the country, good for ECOWAS and good for the international community."

A delegation official said they would meet Keita, who is being held with prime minister Boubou Cisse in Kati, a military base northwest of Bamako where the coup was unleashed.

Adding to the international pressure, the United States on Friday suspended military aid to Mali, with no further training or support of the Mali armed forces.

'We won'

But thousands of jubilant Malians took to the streets of Bamako on Friday to celebrate the toppling of Keita, who was reelected in 2018 but became the focus of widespread discontent.

The crowds gathered in Bamako's central square draped in the national flag and blasting on vuvuzela horns.

The rally, originally organized as an anti-Keita protest by a loose coalition that has led months of mass rallies against him, was recast to "celebrate the victory of the Malian people".

"I am overjoyed! We won," said Mariam Cisse, 38.

Speaking at the rally Ismael Wague, spokesman for the junta which calls itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, paid tribute to the public.

"We merely completed the work that you began and we recognize ourselves in your fight," he said.

'Transitional council'

The junta has said it welcomes the ECOWAS visit but has not talked of restoring Keita to power.

"A transitional council, with a transitional president who is going to be either military or civilian" would be appointed, Wague told France 24 television Thursday.

Keita won election in a landslide in 2013, presenting himself as a unifying figure in a fractured country, and was re-elected in 2018 for another five-year term.

But he failed to make headway against the extremist revolt that has left swathes of the country in the hands of armed radicals and ignited ethnic violence in the country's volatile center.

Thousands of UN and French troops, along with soldiers from five Sahel countries, have been deployed to try to stem the bloodshed.

In a sign of the continuing challenge facing the country, four soldiers were killed Saturday by an explosive device in the center of the country.

The ECOWAS visit to Mali comes after the UN's peacekeeping mission in the country said a human rights team had gained access to the ousted president and other detainees on Thursday.

A junta member said the coup leaders had released former economy minister Abdoulaye Daffe and Sabane Mahalmoudou, Keita's private secretary, calling the move "proof that we respect human rights".

While Keita and Cisse have no television, radio or phone, other detainees are in a training center, where they are sleeping on mattresses and have a TV, according to witnesses to the visit.

The 75-year-old ousted president "looked tired but relaxed," they said, describing his conditions as "acceptable".

Tuesday's coup was the second in eight years, and has heightened concern over regional stability as its extremist insurgency that now threatens neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso.

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World

Police Move in to End Pro-Palestinian Protest at Amsterdam University

People demonstrate in the ABC building of the University of Amsterdam on the Roeterseiland campus in central Amsterdam on May 13, 2024 in the wake of similar protests of students at universities in several European countries that have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel's punishing assault on Gaza. (AFP)
People demonstrate in the ABC building of the University of Amsterdam on the Roeterseiland campus in central Amsterdam on May 13, 2024 in the wake of similar protests of students at universities in several European countries that have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel's punishing assault on Gaza. (AFP)
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Police Move in to End Pro-Palestinian Protest at Amsterdam University

People demonstrate in the ABC building of the University of Amsterdam on the Roeterseiland campus in central Amsterdam on May 13, 2024 in the wake of similar protests of students at universities in several European countries that have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel's punishing assault on Gaza. (AFP)
People demonstrate in the ABC building of the University of Amsterdam on the Roeterseiland campus in central Amsterdam on May 13, 2024 in the wake of similar protests of students at universities in several European countries that have followed the actions on US campuses where demonstrators have occupied halls and facilities to demand an end to partnerships with Israeli institutions because of Israel's punishing assault on Gaza. (AFP)

Police moved in to end a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Amsterdam on Monday after protesters occupied university buildings in various Dutch cities to condemn Israel's war in Gaza, ANP news agency reported.

In local media footage, the students can be heard chanting at the police: "We are peaceful, what are you?" and "Shame on you".

Earlier on Monday, a Dutch protest group said it had occupied university buildings in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Groningen and Eindhoven.

The group told Reuters via email that the occupations would continue until the police broke them up and that the protesters would keep returning until the university meets their demands "for transparency (as well as) boycotting and divesting from Israeli institutions".

In a post on social media site X, Amsterdam police said the university had filed a police report against the protesters for acts of vandalism.

Police are making sure no one can enter the university buildings and will ask protesters to leave the premises voluntarily.

A spokesperson for the University of Amsterdam (UvA) confirmed the occupation and said it had advised people not affiliated with the protest to leave the building.

The Eindhoven University of Technology confirmed that there were "dozens of students peacefully protesting outside next to ten to 15 tents". The University of Groningen did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Footage from local media showed a few tents in front of one of the university buildings.

Students in the Netherlands have been protesting against Israel's war in Gaza since last Monday and Dutch riot police had previously clashed with protesters at the University of Amsterdam.

Students in the United States and Europe have been holding mostly peaceful demonstrations calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for schools to cut financial ties with companies they say are profiting from the oppression of Palestinians.

World

Russia Ready if West Wants to Fight for Ukraine, Lavrov Says 

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) arrives to attend the Victory Day military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2024. Russia celebrates the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. (AFP)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) arrives to attend the Victory Day military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2024. Russia celebrates the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. (AFP)
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Russia Ready if West Wants to Fight for Ukraine, Lavrov Says 

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) arrives to attend the Victory Day military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2024. Russia celebrates the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. (AFP)
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) arrives to attend the Victory Day military parade on Red Square in Moscow on May 9, 2024. Russia celebrates the 79th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. (AFP)

If the West wants to fight for Ukraine on the battlefield, Russia is prepared for it, acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Monday.

"It's their right - if they want it to be on the battlefield, it will be on the battlefield," state-run news agency RIA cited Lavrov as saying.

Russia has stepped up warnings about the dangers of a direct confrontation with NATO since French President Emmanuel Macron refused to rule out the possibility that Western troops could at some point be sent there.

The Kremlin said last week that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous. President Vladimir Putin has said it could lead to World War Three.

Lavrov, who has served two decades as foreign minister, was speaking at a parliamentary hearing on his renomination to the post in a new government being formed after Putin started a fresh six-year term this month.

RIA also cited him as saying that peace talks on Ukraine due to take place in Switzerland next month without Russia's participation amounted to an ultimatum to Moscow.

He compared the situation to "a reprimand for a schoolchild" whose fate was being decided by teachers while he was out of the room, the agency said.

"You can't talk to anyone like that, especially to us," Lavrov said. "The conference... boils down to restating an ultimatum to Russia."

World

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Says His Army Is Locked in ‘Fierce’ Border Battles Amid a Russian Assault 

A fire spreads through a forest following shelling on the outskirts of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 12 May 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
A fire spreads through a forest following shelling on the outskirts of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 12 May 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Says His Army Is Locked in ‘Fierce’ Border Battles Amid a Russian Assault 

A fire spreads through a forest following shelling on the outskirts of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 12 May 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
A fire spreads through a forest following shelling on the outskirts of Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 12 May 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukrainian troops are locked in intense battles with the advancing Russian army in two border areas, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, while the death toll from a Russian apartment building collapse blamed on Ukrainian shelling rose to 15.

Zelenskyy said “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive.

“Defensive battles are ongoing, fierce battles, on a large part of our border area,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the US and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say.

The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region, along with the ongoing drive into the eastern Donetsk region, come after months when the about 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budged. In the meantime, both sides have used long-range strikes in what largely became a war of attrition.

The Kharkiv incursion may be an attempt to create a “buffer zone” to protect Belgorod, an adjacent Russian border region battered by Ukrainian attacks.

Russian emergency services on Monday finished clearing the rubble in the region’s capital city of Belgorod, where a section of a residential building collapsed following what authorities said was Ukrainian shelling.

Fifteen bodies were pulled from the rubble, Belgorod regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said, and 27 other people were wounded.

Another three people in the city of Belgorod were killed by shelling late Sunday, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a Cabinet shakeup. Shoigu was widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Russia had expected the operation to quickly overwhelm Ukraine’s army and for Ukrainians to broadly welcome Russian troops.

Zelenskyy said fighting in the Donetsk area is “no less intense” than in Kharkiv. He said the Kremlin aimed to “spread our forces thin” by opening a second active front in Kharkiv.

He described the area around Pokrovsk region, just inside the Ukrainian border in Donetsk, as “the most difficult.”

Pokrovsk was a town of around 60,000 people before the war and was until recently a two-hour drive from the front line. Now it is less than half that.

The capture of the Donetsk city of Avdiivka in February opened a door for the Kremlin’s troops to push westward, deeper into Donetsk. Russia illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions in 2022 shortly after it invaded Ukraine, and taking control of all of Donetsk is one of the Kremlin’s main war goals.

World

US Sanctions Test China's 'No Limits' Friendship with Russia

President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Beijing in May. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP
President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Beijing in May. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP
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US Sanctions Test China's 'No Limits' Friendship with Russia

President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Beijing in May. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP
President Vladimir Putin is due to visit Beijing in May. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP

Chinese banks are tightening scrutiny over trade with Russia for fear of incurring strict new US sanctions over the Ukraine war, testing the "no limits" friendship between the two countries.
China's trade with Russia has hit record highs in recent years, drawing accusations that it is helping buoy its longtime ally's economy, with President Vladimir Putin due to visit Beijing in May, said AFP.
But Washington's recent vow to go after financial institutions that help Moscow fund the conflict has tested the boundaries of Beijing's bonhomie -- and left its banks fearful of getting cut off themselves.
An executive order by President Joe Biden in December permits secondary sanctions on foreign banks that deal with Russia's war machine, allowing the US Treasury to cut them out of the dollar-led global financial system.
Since then, several Chinese banks have halted or slowed transactions with Russian clients, according to eight people from both countries involved in cross-border trade.
"At the moment, it's tough to get money in from Russia," said one Chinese clothing wholesaler as he sat outside his store at a cavernous trade center in downtown Beijing this week.
"The banks don't give a reason... but it's probably due to the threat (of sanctions) from America," he said, as a handful of Russian visitors browsed shelves of Chinese electronics, leather bags and tea.
Traders said banks are imposing extra checks on cross-border settlements to rule out any risk of exposure to sanctions -- screening that can take months and has jacked up costs, sparking cash flow crises at smaller import-export businesses.
Another business owner told AFP on condition of anonymity they had been forced to close their China operations and return to Russia as they "cannot get any money from customers".
The traders declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of discussing Beijing and Moscow's trading relationship.
The payment hold-ups have coincided with a fall in Chinese exports to Russia during March and April, down from a surge early in the year.
"Even though the sanctions were imposed to (hinder) the export of certain items from China, they have some impact on ordinary trade," Pavel Bazhanov, a lawyer serving Russian businesses in China, told AFP.
The slowdown in payment processing contrasts "starkly" with the rapid handling of yuan-denominated transactions in the past, he said.
'Better safe than sorry'
Trade between China and Russia has boomed since the Ukraine invasion and hit $240 billion in 2023, according to Beijing's customs figures.
But reports that Russian companies were struggling to clear payments with Chinese banks first emerged in the Russian media at the start of the year.
The Kremlin admitted the problem in February, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later slamming "unprecedented" US pressure on China.
Beijing has not publicly acknowledged the delays but its foreign ministry told AFP it opposed "unilateral and illegal US sanctions".
Behind the scenes, however, Chinese banks are ensuring they do not put targets on their backs, analysts said.
"Finding out whether the payments are related to the Russian military-industrial complex... is creating a considerable challenge for Chinese companies and banks," said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
"They are operating on better-be-safe-than-sorry principles, which reduces the volume of transactions," he told AFP.
Mending US ties
President Xi Jinping and Putin have made much of their countries' "no limits" friendship, and the Russian leader told a business forum last month a visit to China had been planned for May.
But slowing domestic growth in China has created incentives for Beijing not to invite further damage to its economy, the Wilson Center's William Pomeranz said.
Other experts said the banks' newfound caution reflected Beijing's desire to manage its rivalry with the United States ahead of this year's election.
Ties between the world's two largest economies have steadied in recent months after years-long spats over trade, technology and other issues.
Chinese officials may have directed banks to scrutinize Russia payments to ensure they do not create "a wedge issue in the US election", said Wang Yiwei, head of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China.
"China would not be stupid enough" to let a major bank fund Russia's war, Shanghai-based international relations scholar Shen Dingli said.
"(They) won't give the US the option to impose full sanctions."
No greenbacks
Part of the solution could be a move long touted by countries keen to shield themselves from US sanctions: financial systems independent of the US dollar, experts said.
Alexandra Prokopenko, a former advisor at Russia's Central Bank, told AFP that Moscow's wartime pivot to Asia has seen the "fine-tuning of a system for cross-border payments in national currencies (yuan and rubles)".
The system allows banks to skip traditional financial infrastructure like the SWIFT messaging system, insulating them against the effects of sanctions, she said.
Current payment glitches show that approach is "not a panacea", Prokopenko told AFP.
But "Moscow and Beijing are quite adept at adapting processes to an ever-changing environment," she said.

World

Seven Killed in Attack on Pakistan Army Post near Afghan Border

Pakistani police carry a motorcycle during clashes with people protesting the arrest of committee leaders and activists in night raids in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday (EPA)
Pakistani police carry a motorcycle during clashes with people protesting the arrest of committee leaders and activists in night raids in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday (EPA)
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Seven Killed in Attack on Pakistan Army Post near Afghan Border

Pakistani police carry a motorcycle during clashes with people protesting the arrest of committee leaders and activists in night raids in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday (EPA)
Pakistani police carry a motorcycle during clashes with people protesting the arrest of committee leaders and activists in night raids in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday (EPA)

Seven members of the Pakistani security forces were killed in two separate attacks near the Afghan border, the Pakistani Army said on Sunday.
The Army said in the first attack, an improvised explosive device targeted a vehicle of a bomb disposal squad in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan province on Saturday.
Following the blast, the militants opened fire. Five members of the security forces were killed and two wounded.
In the second attack, militants stormed a checkpoint in the Mir Ali region and killed two soldiers.
Pakistan has seen an increase in attacks by the Pakistani Taliban since their Afghan counterparts seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Meanwhile, officials in the High Commission for Migrant Affairs said more than 200 Afghan migrant families have returned to the country after being deported by Iran and Pakistan.
According to the report, the returnees from Iran and Pakistan arrived on Friday, the Afghani Khaama Press news agency said.
The High Commission said the returnees arrived through the Torkham, Spin Boldak, Pul-e Abrisham, and Islam Qala crossings.
This came as Pakistan, Iran and Türkiye have recently increased the deportation of Afghan citizens.
Pakistan had begun to deport unregistered Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan last November. The deportation of Afghans aims to put more pressure on the Taliban government, which Islamabad accuses of not seriously dealing with fighters, who carry out deadly cross-border attacks.
Separately, the Pakistani police announced last Thursday that unidentified gunmen shot and killed six workers in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan, in a region where militants have long waged ethnic violence against outsiders.
The men were killed late Wednesday at their home, 25 kilometers from Gwadar in Balochistan province where major Chinese investment has funded a deepwater port.
“We are investigating the matter at the moment but apparently it looks like they were attacked because they were Punjabis,” Muhammad Mohsin, a senior police official in Gwadar, told AFP.
Punjabis is a majority ethnic group in Pakistan.They are the largest ethnic group of Pakistan.

 

World

IAEA Team to Visit Tehran in Coming Days

Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
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IAEA Team to Visit Tehran in Coming Days

Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)
Head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, visits Isfahan last Tuesday. (dpa)

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will visit Tehran in the coming days to finalize a draft text on the implementation of an agreement that will address all outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear program, Iranian news outlets said on Sunday.

The official IRNA news agency said Iran and the Agency are working to finalize a draft text for bilateral cooperation, before head of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, presents his quarterly report on Iran's nuclear activities at the quarterly meeting of the Agency's 35-nation, Board of Governors (BoG), which begins on June 3.

At a meeting last February, major powers demanded that Grossi provide an early report on Iranian activities to discuss possible action against Tehran.

Grossi flew to Iran last week, 14 months after the two sides had reached an agreement over unresolved issues, particularly an investigation into unexplained uranium traces found at two out of three Iranian sites the IAEA team inspected after months of stonewalling.

Despite the agreement, the IAEA still faces a range of difficulties in Iran, including the fact Tehran only implemented a small fraction of what Grossi thought it committed to in a “Joint Statement” on future cooperation they made in March 2023.

According to IRNA, the IAEA team will discuss in Tehran three main issues. The first part concerns past issues that were closed in the 2015 nuclear deal in the form of the PMD (Possible Military Dimensions of Iran’s Nuclear Program) file. In this part, the two sides will discuss the unexplained uranium traces the IAEA found at two Iranian sites.

The second part concerns current conditions at the framework of compliance found in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its annexes.

And the third part concerns the person of the Director General of the IAEA, who must act as a facilitator and mediator to remove obstacles and resolve issues, which are mainly political, in a constructive and successful manner within the framework of the Agency’s professional responsibility, said IRNA.

The three issues were raised last Tuesday by Iran's nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami in Isfahan during a press conference with Grossi, who stressed “we do not seek to have a new document” after agreeing with his Iranian counterpart to activate a March 2023 joint statement as a path forward for cooperation between the IAEA and Iran.

Grossi later said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that at his meeting with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, he proposed “concrete practical measures” with the “aim of restoring process of confidence building and increasing transparency.”

For his part, Abdollahian emphasized that the IAEA must take unbiased and professional positions.

World

Pro-Palestinian Protests Dwindle on Campuses as US College Graduations Are Marked by Defiant Acts 

This photo provided by Duke University shows commencement speaker Jerry Seinfeld, front row second from left, on stage during the school's graduation ceremony, Sunday, May 12, 2024, in Durham, NC. (Duke University via AP)
This photo provided by Duke University shows commencement speaker Jerry Seinfeld, front row second from left, on stage during the school's graduation ceremony, Sunday, May 12, 2024, in Durham, NC. (Duke University via AP)
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Pro-Palestinian Protests Dwindle on Campuses as US College Graduations Are Marked by Defiant Acts 

This photo provided by Duke University shows commencement speaker Jerry Seinfeld, front row second from left, on stage during the school's graduation ceremony, Sunday, May 12, 2024, in Durham, NC. (Duke University via AP)
This photo provided by Duke University shows commencement speaker Jerry Seinfeld, front row second from left, on stage during the school's graduation ceremony, Sunday, May 12, 2024, in Durham, NC. (Duke University via AP)

A tiny contingent of Duke University graduates opposed pro-Israel comedian Jerry Seinfeld speaking at their commencement in North Carolina Sunday, with about 30 of the 7,000 students leaving their seats and chanting “free Palestine” amid a mix of boos and cheers.

Some waved the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag. Seinfeld, whose namesake sitcom was one of the most popular in US television history, was there to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.

The stand-up comic turned actor, who stars in the new Netflix movie “Unfrosted,” has publicly supported Israel since it invaded Gaza to dismantle Hamas after the organization attacked the country and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The ensuing war has killed nearly 35,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The small student protest Sunday at Duke’s graduation in Durham, North Carolina, was emblematic of campus events across the US Sunday after weeks of student protests resulted in nearly 2,900 arrests at 57 colleges and universities.

Students at campuses across the US responded this spring by setting up encampments and calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it. Students and others on campuses whom law enforcement authorities have identified as outside agitators have taken part in the protests from Columbia University in New York City to UCLA.

Police escorted graduates' families past a few dozen pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to block access to Sunday evening's commencement for Southern California’s Pomona College. After demonstrators set up an encampment last week on the campus’ ceremony stage, the small liberal arts school moved the event 30 miles (48 km) from Claremont to the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles. Tickets were required to attend the event, which the school said would include additional security measures.

In April, police wearing riot gear arrested 19 protesters who had occupied the president's office at the college with about 1,700 undergraduates.

Demonstrator Anwar Mohmed, a 21-year-old Pomona senior, said the school has repeatedly ignored calls to consider divesting its endowment funds from corporations tied to Israel in the war in Gaza.

“We’ve been time and time again ignored by the institution,” Mohmed said outside the Shrine on Sunday. “So today we have to say, it's not business as usual.”

At the University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved flags and chanted during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. There were no major counterprotests, but some attendees voiced frustration.

“I feel like they’re ruining it for those of us who paid for tickets and came to show our pride for our graduates,” said Annie Ramos, whose daughter is a student. “There’s a time and a place, and this is not it.”

This weekend's commencement events remained largely peaceful.

At Emerson College in Boston, some students took off their graduation robes and left them on stage. Others emblazoned “free Palestine” on their mortar boards. One woman, staring at a camera broadcasting a livestream to the public, unzipped her robe to show a kaffiyeh, the black and white checkered scarf commonly worn by Palestinians, and flashed a watermelon painted on her hand. Both are symbols of solidarity with those living in the occupied territories.

Others displayed messages for a camera situated on stage, but the livestream quickly shifted to a different view, preventing them from being seen for long. Chants during some of the speeches were difficult to decipher.

Protests at Columbia University, where student uprisings inspired others at campuses across the country, led the school to cancel its main graduation ceremony in favor of smaller gatherings.

The University of Southern California told its valedictorian, who publicly backed Palestinians, that she could not deliver her keynote speech at its graduation ceremony because of security concerns. It later canceled its main graduation ceremony.

At DePaul University in Chicago, graduation is more than a month away. But as the academic year closes, school leaders said they had reached an “impasse” with the school's pro-Palestinian protesters, leaving the future of their encampment on the Chicago campus unclear.

The student-led DePaul Divestment Coalition, which is calling on the university to divest from economic interests tied to Israel, set up the encampment nearly two weeks ago. The group alleged university officials walked away from talks and tried to force students into signing an agreement, according to a student statement late Saturday.

World

Putin Replaces Shoigu as Russia’s Defense Minister as He Starts His 5th Term 

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned Sputnik agency Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, on September 19, 2018. (AFP/Sputnik)
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned Sputnik agency Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, on September 19, 2018. (AFP/Sputnik)
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Putin Replaces Shoigu as Russia’s Defense Minister as He Starts His 5th Term 

In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned Sputnik agency Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, on September 19, 2018. (AFP/Sputnik)
In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state owned Sputnik agency Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, on September 19, 2018. (AFP/Sputnik)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a Cabinet shakeup that comes as he begins his fifth term in office.

In line with Russian law, the entire Russian Cabinet resigned Tuesday following Putin’s glittering inauguration in the Kremlin, and most members have been widely expected to keep their jobs, while Shoigu's fate had appeared uncertain.

Putin signed a decree on Sunday appointing Shoigu as secretary of Russia's Security Council, the Kremlin said. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrei Belousov to become the country’s defense minister in place of Shoigu.

The announcement of Shoigu’s new role came as 13 people were reported dead and 20 more wounded in Russia’s border city of Belgorod, where a 10-story apartment building partially collapsed after what Russian officials said was Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine hasn’t commented on the incident.

Belousov's candidacy will need to be approved by Russia's upper house in parliament, the Federation Council. It reported Sunday that Putin introduced proposals for other Cabinet positions as well, but Shoigu is the only minister on that list who is being replaced. Several other new candidates for federal ministers were proposed Saturday by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, reappointed by Putin on Friday.

Shoigu's deputy, Timur Ivanov, was arrested last month on bribery charges and was ordered to remain in custody pending an official investigation. The arrest of Ivanov was widely interpreted as an attack on Shoigu and a possible precursor of his dismissal, despite his close personal ties with Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday that Putin had decided to give the defense minister role to a civilian because the ministry should be “open to innovation and cutting-edge ideas.” He also said the increasing defense budget “must fit into the country’s wider economy,” and Belousov, who until recently served as the first deputy prime minister, is the right fit for the job.

Belousov, 65, held leading positions in the finances and economic department of the prime minister's office and the Ministry of Economic Development. In 2013, he was appointed an adviser to Putin and seven years later, in January 2020, he became first deputy prime minister.

Peskov assured that the reshuffle will not affect “the military aspect," which “has always been the prerogative of the Chief of General Staff,” and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who currently serves in this position, will continue his work.

Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in an online commentary that Shoigu’s new appointment to Russia’s Security Council showed that the Russian leader viewed the institution as “a reservoir” for his "'former' key figures — people who he can’t in any way let go, but doesn’t have a place for.”

Figures such as former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have also been appointed to the security council. Medvedev has served as the body’s deputy chairman since 2020.

Shoigu was appointed to the Security Council instead of Nikolai Patrushev, Putin's long-term ally. Peskov said Sunday that Patrushev is taking on another role, and promised to reveal details in the coming days.

Shoigu has been widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine. Russia had expected the operation to quickly overwhelm Ukraine’s much smaller and less-equipped army and for Ukrainians to broadly welcome Russian troops.

Instead, the conflict galvanized Ukraine to mount an intense defense, dealing the Russian army humiliating blows, including the retreat from an attempt to take the capital, Kyiv, and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv region.

Before he was named defense minister in 2012, Shoigu spent more than 20 years directing markedly different work: In 1991, he was appointed head of the Russian Rescue Corps disaster-response agency, which eventually became the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He became highly visible in the post. The job also allowed him to be named a general even though he had no military service behind him as the rescue corps absorbed the militarized Civil Defense Troops.

Shoigu does not wield the same kind of power as Patrushev, who has long been the country's top security official. But the position he will take — the same position that Patrushev worked to transform from a minor bureaucratic role to a place of sizable influence — will still carry some authority, according to Mark Galeotti, head of the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.

High-level security materials intended for the president’s eyes will still pass through the Security Council Secretariat, even with changes at the top. “You can’t just institutionally turn around a bureaucracy and how it works overnight,” he said.

Thousands of civilians have fled Russia's renewed ground offensive in Ukraine’s northeast that has targeted towns and villages with a barrage of artillery and mortar shelling, officials said Sunday.

The intense battles have forced at least one Ukrainian unit to withdraw in the Kharkiv region, capitulating more land to Russian forces across less defended settlements in the so-called contested gray zone along the Russian border.

By Sunday afternoon, the town of Vovchansk, among the largest in the northeast with a prewar population of 17,000, emerged as a focal point in the battle.

Volodymyr Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said that Russian forces were on the outskirts of the town and approaching from three directions.

An Associated Press team, positioned in a nearby village, saw plumes of smoke rising from the town as Russian forces hurled shells. Evacuation teams worked nonstop throughout the day to take residents, most of whom were older, out of harm's way.

At least 4,000 civilians have fled the Kharkiv region since Friday, when Moscow’s forces launched the operation, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in a social media statement. Heavy fighting raged Sunday along the northeast front line, where Russian forces attacked 27 settlements in the past 24 hours, he said.

Analysts say the Russian push is designed to exploit ammunition shortages before promised Western supplies can reach the front line.

Ukrainian soldiers said the Kremlin is using the usual Russian tactic of launching a disproportionate amount of fire and infantry assaults to exhaust Ukrainian troops and firepower. By intensifying battles in what was previously a static patch of the front line, Russian forces threaten to pin down Ukrainian forces in the northeast, while carrying out intense battles farther south where Moscow is also gaining ground.

It comes after Russia stepped up attacks in March targeting energy infrastructure and settlements, which analysts predicted were a concerted effort to shape conditions for an offensive.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had captured four villages on the border along Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, in addition to five villages reported to have been seized on Saturday. These areas were likely poorly fortified because of the dynamic fighting and constant heavy shelling, easing a Russian advance.

Ukraine’s leadership hasn't confirmed Moscow’s gains. But Tymoshko, the head of the Kharkiv regional police, said that Strilecha, Pylna and Borsivika were under Russian occupation, and it was from their direction they were bringing in infantry to stage attacks in other embattled villages of Hlyboke and Lukiantsi.

World

Iran’s Nuclear File Returns to the Forefront

Rafael Grossi speaking on May 7 at Vienna Airport after his return from Tehran. (EPA)
Rafael Grossi speaking on May 7 at Vienna Airport after his return from Tehran. (EPA)
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Iran’s Nuclear File Returns to the Forefront

Rafael Grossi speaking on May 7 at Vienna Airport after his return from Tehran. (EPA)
Rafael Grossi speaking on May 7 at Vienna Airport after his return from Tehran. (EPA)

Iran’s nuclear file has returned to the forefront, with the approaching regular meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's governors, next month, in Vienna.
Neither Iran nor the agency deviated from the pre-written scenario, which is being implemented and consists of several stages. The first is for the agency’s director, Rafael Grossi, to take the initiative, several weeks before the meeting, to attract attention to the aforementioned file through heated statements, saying that Iran is not cooperating satisfactorily with his inspectors.
This stage paves the way for Grossi’s visit to Tehran and lengthy meetings with senior officials, usually followed by two press conferences: the first in Iran, alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, or Mohammad Eslami, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and the second upon his landing at Vienna Airport.
What is often striking is that Grossi’s tone varies depending on the place. His rhetoric is diplomatic in Tehran, and direct, even sharp, in Vienna.
However, the last scenario takes place amidst very important transformations, the first of which is the entry of Israel directly into the line after the bombing of the Iranian consulate headquarters in Damascus and the killing of senior leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and the subsequent Iranian response inside Israel and the Israeli response inside Iran.
If a group of countries, led by the United States, intervened, directly or through mediation, to prevent sliding into open war in the Middle East region, this factor has a direct impact on the future of the Iranian nuclear program. Tehran has in fact always kept its nuclear program out of its general policy and within its “technical” limits.
But today, the situation has changed. After a senior Revolutionary Guard threatened that Iran can abandon its nuclear doctrine, which was determined by the Supreme Leader in a famous fatwa, here is his advisor, Kamal Kharazi, coming out to wave the nuclear card.
The Iranian Students News Agency quoted Kharazi as saying: “We have not yet taken a decision to make a nuclear bomb, but if Iran’s existence becomes threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.”
It is clear today that Tehran has begun to view its nuclear program, and even present it as a “weapon of deterrence.”
Western capitals, led by Washington, were keen, in recent meetings, to avoid taking any measures against Tehran, in order to encourage it to calm tensions in the Middle East, as it has the ability to influence and stop supplying Russia with drones.

 

 

World

Small Pro-Palestinian Protests Held Saturday During College Commencements

Graduate students walk out of commencement in protest against the war in Gaza at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)
Graduate students walk out of commencement in protest against the war in Gaza at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Small Pro-Palestinian Protests Held Saturday During College Commencements

Graduate students walk out of commencement in protest against the war in Gaza at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)
Graduate students walk out of commencement in protest against the war in Gaza at the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium on May 11, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Getty Images/AFP)

Small pro-Palestinian protests popped up sporadically Saturday as colleges and universities from North Carolina to California held commencement ceremonies, including dozens of graduating students at Virginia Commonwealth University who walked out on an address by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

While some of the estimated 100 students and family members who left during the Republican governor's speech showed support for Palestinians, others held signs signaling opposition to Youngkin's policies on education, according to WRIC-TV.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a small group of demonstrators staged what appeared to be a silent protest during commencement at Camp Randall Stadium. A photo posted by the Wisconsin State Journal showed about six people walking through the rear of the stadium, with two carrying a Palestinian flag.

Marc Lovicott, a spokesperson for campus police, said the group, which he believed were students because they were wearing caps and gowns, “was kind of guided out but they left on their own.” No arrests were made.

The demonstration came after pro-Palestinian protesters at the campus agreed Friday to permanently dismantle their two-week-old encampment and not disrupt graduation ceremonies in return for the opportunity to connect with “decision-makers” who control university investments by July 1. The university agreed to increase support for scholars and students affected by wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, pro-Palestinian demonstrators splattered red paint on the steps of a building hours ahead of the school’s commencement ceremony and chanted on campus while students wearing light blue graduation gowns posed for photos, the News & Observer reported.

At the University of Texas, Austin, a student held up a Palestinian flag during a commencement ceremony and refused to leave the stage briefly before being escorted away by security.

And at the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators began waving flags and chanting during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, where they were joined by others, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. There were no major counterprotests, but some attendees voiced frustration.

“I feel like they’re ruining it for those of us who paid for tickets and came to show our pride for our graduates,” said Annie Ramos, whose daughter is a student. “There’s a time and a place, and this is not it.”

Saturday's events were less dramatic than what happened on other campuses Friday, when police made dozens of arrests as pro-Palestinian protest encampments were dismantled at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Those actions came hours after police tear-gassed demonstrators and took down a similar camp at the University of Arizona.

The Associated Press has recorded at least 75 instances since April 18 in which arrests were made at US campus protests. Nearly 2,900 people have been arrested at 57 colleges and universities. The figures are based on AP reporting and statements from schools and law enforcement agencies.

At Virginia Commonwealth University, Youngkin, who also received an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Saturday's commencement, did not appear to address the students who left the event.

“The world needs your music,” Youngkin said during his speech. “You, all of you, will be the symphony. Make it a masterpiece.”