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The Week In News

Khan New ICC Prosecutor

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has selected British human rights lawyer Karim Khan to be its next chief prosecutor.

Khan won the position after earning the support of 72 nations, 10 more than 62 required, and beating out candidates from Ireland, Spain, and Italy. The 50-year-old was selected by secret ballot for the first time in the ICC’s history.

A longtime attorney, Khan has worked in the past for the United Nations probing atrocities committed by ISIS. As the UN’s chief prosecutor, Khan has called for international human rights tribunals for surviving ISIS commanders akin to the Nuremberg Trials of the 1940s.

Previously, Khan represented Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto before the ICC and successfully convinced judges to dismiss the charges against Ruto. He also represented Seif Al-Islam, the son of former Libyan dictator Muammar Ghaddafi.

Khan will replace Fateh Bensouda as the ICC’s prosecutor when she steps down on June 15. Over the past nine years, the Gambian prosecutor has proved to be enormously controversial, initiating war crimes probes into Western nations while ignoring atrocities committed by Russia, China, and Iran.

In July, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Bensouda after she announced that she would probe the U.S. for possible war crimes in Afghanistan. The Biden administration has kept the sanctions in place despite signaling that it will take a less confrontational approach to the ICC.

Last week, the ICC announced that it is permitted to probe Israel for alleged violations committed during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge and of the settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria. The move has been fiercely denounced by Israel as anti-Semitic, who fears that IDF soldiers will be arrested in Europe for alleged crimes against humanity.

Israel reportedly worked behind the scenes to lobby on Khan’s behalf, believing that the jurist is friendlier towards its interests than the competing candidates. Both Israel and the United States are not members of the ICC and do not recognize its jurisdiction.

Taliban Poised to Retake Afghanistan

The Taliban has launched a new offensive that leaves the Islamist group close to retaking key cities throughout Afghanistan only weeks before a planned U.S. withdrawal is set to begin.

Kandahar, a major economic center and the focus of years of U.S. military operations, is now in danger of being conquered by the Taliban after fighters overran its surrounding suburbs. In Kunduz, Taliban operatives used suicide drones and their control of the high ground to seize a dozen positions and army bases.

With the Taliban now dominating all of the highways and access routes leading to the capital of Kabul, the group stands poised to rule vast swaths of the country just as the U.S. plans to withdraw its remaining troops. Under a peace agreement the Trump administration reached with the Taliban in 2020, all foreign soldiers are slated to leave the war-torn country by May 1.

The Taliban’s battlefield success is now complicating the planned draw-down as senior Pentagon officials warn that withdrawing U.S. troops would effectively hand Afghanistan to the extremist group. With no foreign military forces left to stop them, the Taliban would likely continue its offensive until it retakes

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all of the territory it held prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001.

“The threat of Taliban military victories, especially in an area as symbolic and strategic as Kandahar, makes it difficult for the Biden administration to swallow the risks of finalizing a troop withdrawal,” said Afghanistan expert Andrew Watkins from International Crisis Group. “Pulling out might be politically impossible if Kandahar was on the nightly news.”

However, failing to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops by the agreed-upon date would likely cause the Taliban to view the deal as void. This, warn NATO officials, would lead to increased attacks on American troops at a time in which the U.S. is eager to end two decades of war in Afghanistan.

Next week, defense ministers from all NATO members will meet to decide whether to continue the withdrawal as planned. At the same time, the Taliban warns that it would respond with “fire and jihad” to any delay.

“Our message to the upcoming NATO ministerial meeting is that the continuation of occupation and war is neither in your interest nor in the interest of your and our people,” the Taliban said in a statement.

“Anyone seeking extension of wars and occupation will be held liable for it, just like the previous two decades.”

Italy’s New PM

Mario Draghi was sworn in as Italy’s new prime minister, ending a month-long political stalemate that began after the country’s previous government collapsed in January.

The former director of Europe’s Central Bank, Draghi is an experienced economist who is seen as a safe pick to turn around Italy’s battered economy. His work to save the euro from total collapse during the 2008 financial crisis led the Italian press to nickname him “Super Mario” and earned him widespread admiration throughout the continent.

Draghi will head a national unity government that will include all of Italy’s major political parties and has committed to building a non-partisan technocratic cabinet. Such appointments include Bank of Italy Director Franco to the post of economy minister and IT expert Robert Cingolani as the minister of environment.

In addition, 5 Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio will remain on as foreign minister, while Giancarlo Giorgetti from the far-right League party will be industry minister.

Draghi will need to shepherd Italy through monumental social, health, and economic challenges resulting from the coronavirus. Italy has been devastated by the pandemic, which led to the deaths of 93,000 people and plunged the country into economic collapse.

The new government’s main challenge will be over how to spend the $240 billion in financial aid it received from the EU.

Draghi’s appointment brought to an end a month of political upheaval that began when former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned last month over differences regarding how to spend the aforementioned funds.

“Mario Draghi was the Italian who saved Europe, and I think now he is the European who can save Italy,” said Renzi after Draghi’s appointment was announced.

France Targets Woke Culture

A slew of senior French intellectuals, including President Emmanuel Macron, are warning that France must block far-left “woke” ideas from reaching its shores.

According to the New York Times report, France’s intellectual elite are gearing up to combat ideas on race, gender, and class currently popular in U.S. universities. The battle comes amid the recognition that radical progressive “wokeness” poses a threat to French identity and the

country’s stability.

Witnessing the rioting that plagued the U.S. over the summer along with the current “cancel culture” experienced by those who speak out, Macron seeks to “safeguard French democracy” from “woke” American ideas.

“Emboldened by these comments, prominent intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture,” wrote the New York Times.

“With its echoes of the American culture wars, the battle began inside French universities but is being played out increasingly in the media. Politicians have been weighing in more and more, especially following a turbulent year during which a series of events called into question tenets of French society.”

According to the report, Macron and his cabinet view wokeness as “an existential threat” to the French Republic and something that “fuels secessionism, gnaws at national unity, abets Islamism, and attacks France’s intellectual and cultural heritage.”

While first appearing to embrace progressive attitudes rife in the U.S., Macron has come out as a prominent opponent of identity politics and cancel culture. In October, Macron warned that France was under threat from “certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States.”

Recently, French Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer urged French academics to “declare war on an intellectual matrix from American universities.” Joining him in hitting back at far-left cancel culture was a slew of French thought leaders, who signed a petition accusing U.S. schools of “embracing terrorism” by justifying Islamic terrorism.

The letter, which was signed by over 100 scholars, accused American schools of implementing “a sort of prohibition in universities to think about the phenomenon of political Islam in the name of a leftist ideology that considers it the religion of the underprivileged.”

Association of Gulf Jewish Committees

A new group established on Monday will act as an umbrella for six Jewish communities scattered throughout the Persian Gulf.

Known as the Association of Gulf Jewish Committees (AGJC), the body will work to enhance Jewish life in Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Kuwait. The ACJC is headed by Dubai Chief Rabbi Elie Adabie and Ebrahim Nonoo from Bahrain and comes after Israel normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco in a diplomatic breakthrough known as the Abraham Accords.

The resulting flood of religious tourists overwhelmed the local communal infrastructure and highlighted the need to develop Jewish life in the aforementioned communities.

Currently, the AJGC is planning on opening a Jewish school in the UAE and is working to organize communal seders for the upcoming Passover holiday. As part of an effort to revitalize Jewish life, the AGJC will establish the Bet Din of Arabia, tasked with overseeing kashrut certification, inheritance issues, and Jewish rituals.

In addition, a search is ongoing for three rabbis to serve on the Bet Din along with a kashrut inspector. “We will provide educational services in the forms of shiurim, lectures, conferences, classes,” Rabbi Abadie said. “Some will be given in person – I will travel to different places – and some will be given via Zoom.”

In an interview with the Times of Israel, Rabbi Abadie and Nonoo pointed out that the various communities differ in their character and observance. The United Arab Emirates is populated mainly by Jewish businessmen who arrived within the last decade; the congregation in Bahrain dates back hundreds of years and originates in Iran.

“The Gulf nations have been very supportive of the growth in Jewish life. But, as more people move in and come to visit, we must tend to their educational, cultural, spiritual, and religious needs by establishing programs and institutions to service these increased needs,” said Rabbi Abadie.

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“Each one of our communities has so much to offer the other. While maintaining our independence, this new association allows us to pool our resources for the betterment of all Jews in the Gulf,” added Nonoo. “While our Jewish community has been part of the fabric of Bahrain society for over 100 years, we appreciate the needs of some of the smaller or newer communities in the region and believe we can help them flourish and navigate growth in this part of the world.”

Protests Rock Myanmar

Myanmar’s military has begun to crack down on the throngs of anti-coup protesters packing the capital.

On Monday, over 1,000 protesters had been massing opposite the Myanmar Economic Bank in Mandalay when they were set upon by riot police and soldiers. Surrounding them with dozens of military trucks, the troops then beat the protesters with clubs and fired rubber bullets into the crowd.

In the capital of Naypyitaw, armed troops attacked a crowd demonstrating outside police headquarters. Over 40 protesters were rounded up and at least five injured from what eyewitnesses described as “unnecessary police violence.”

On Sunday, the military dispatched armored vehicles to at least three cities for the first time since the coup earlier this month. The U.S. Embassy in Myanmar instructed American citizens “to shelter in place” when seeing the vehicles and warned of the “possibility of telecommunications interruptions overnight between 1:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.”

The rollout of heavy armored vehicles resulted in dozens of embassies for Western countries releasing statements demanding the military “refrain from violence against demonstrators and civilians, who are protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.”

Thousands have been protesting throughout Myanmar ever since General Ming Aung Hlaing led a military takeover of the country’s democratically elected government on February 1. The military junta arrested leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with the senior figures from Myanmar’s ruling party, the National League for Democracy.

China Bans the BBC

China has banned the BBC from broadcasting on the mainland in apparent retaliation after a Chinese channel was yanked off the air in the UK.

China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said in a statement that it had banned the BBC World News for “infringing the principles of truthfulness and impartiality in journalism.” The BBC had recently aired a series of reports regarding Beijing’s coverup of last year’s COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan and systematic human rights violations in the Xinjiang region.

Banning the BBC World News appears to be retaliation after a British regulator withdrew the license for China Global Television Network, or CGTN, effectively removing it from the air. Ofcom, the UK’s regulatory body, pulled the license due to CGTN’s connections to the Chinese Communist Party and said that it “does not meet the legal requirement of having control over the licensed service.”

Beijing’s ban of the BBC was heavily criticized by the broadcaster and British government officials.

“China is taking its place on a very short list of countries alongside North Korea and Iran that explicitly and totally blocked BBC News coverage,” said BBC Director Jamie Angus in an interview with CNN.

“Chinese people are very outward looking,” he added. “They want to understand international news from around the world, but crucially, they want to see how their own country is being reported by the BBC.”

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called blocking the BBC “an unacceptable curtailing of media freedom” and predicted that the move “will only damage China’s reputation in the eyes of the world.”

It is unclear what effect the BBC ban will have in China, as it has long been blocked in most households in mainland China and has only been available in hotels. Beijing has increasingly been blocking access to Western media outlets that have published negative stories, deporting three Wall Street Journal reporters last February after the newspaper ran an anti-China op-ed.

Earthquake Rocks Japan

Over 100 people were injured after Japan was rocked by a powerful 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Saturday.

The earthquake occurred on Japan’s east coast at 11:07 p.m. on Saturday, causing landslides in Fukushima and rocking buildings in Tokyo hundreds of kilometers away. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the epicenter hit 74 kilometers northeast of Namie and was 36 miles deep.

Thankfully, no one was killed in the quake, which collapsed a major thoroughfare in the Fukushima prefectures. Over 890,000 people lost power in the Tohoku and Kanton regions, including large swaths of the capital city of Tokyo.

In a press conference, Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato estimated that the full extent of the damage wouldn’t be known until the end of the week. “Casualties and structural damage are being assessed,” he said, warning the public to be prepared for significant aftershocks.

“Particularly for the next two to three days, there might be very strong earthquakes,” Kato predicted.

Saturday’s quake is said to be an aftershock from the 9.0 earthquake that devastated Fukushima almost exactly ten years ago. The March 2011 disaster and subsequent tsunami resulted in the deaths of 200,000 Jap-

anese and in the meltdown of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Apart from the high death toll, the Fukushima meltdown released radioactive particles into the air from which it will take Japan decades to recover. On Sunday, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in a statement that authorities had detected “no abnormalities” in any of the country’s nuclear reactors after Saturday’s earthquake.

500 Cars Torched on Iran-Afghani Border

Over 500 vehicles were torched after a fuel truck explosion led to a massive conflagration on the Iranian-Afghani border.

The inferno occurred on Saturday near the border crossing of Islam Qala located in Afghanistan’s Herat province. After a fuel tanker ignited due to unknown reasons, secondary explosions led to an enormous blaze that killed 7 people and injured 17.

“Everyone was terrified. They were escaping. Cars were stuck,” recounted eyewitness Khalil Ahmad.

Pictures from the scene of the blast showed towering plumes of smoke that could be seen from tens of miles away. The explosion was so powerful that it could be seen from space by NASA satellites and spread to Iran’s Dogharoon customs facility.

Younus Qazizada, who heads Herat’s Chamber of Commerce, estimated that the damage caused by the fire could hit tens of millions of dollars.

“Preliminary investigations show that more than $50 million of damage has been caused by the fire so far,” he told Reuters.

Firefighters needed more than 24 hours to fully extinguish the blaze, which was finally brought under control after the Iranian military provided reinforcements. Mohsen Nejat, director-general of crisis management in Iran’s Khorasan Razavi Province, confirmed that Iran had dispatched “rescue forces and firefighters were underway to extinguish the fire inside Afghanistan” following a request by Herat’s governor.

With both countries sharing a 900-kilometer border, Afghanistan is a major market for Iranian goods. Tens of thousands of trucks crisscross the Islam Qala and Zaranj crossings daily. Poor highway infrastructure and lack of law enforcement has made deadly accidents a regular occurrence on the highway connecting Herat and Islam Qala.

U.S. Sanctions Myanmar Leaders

The Biden administration imposed a slew of sanctions on Myanmar after the military overthrew the country’s democratically elected government earlier this month.

In a statement issued last Thursday, Biden announced that he had signed an Executive Order to “immediately sanction the military leaders who directed the coup, their business interests as well as close family members.” Stressing that the U.S. remained committed to democracy and human rights, Biden said that his administration would target anyone who used force against protestors.

The sanctions will see the U.S. Treasury freeze the bank accounts and other assets belonging to 10 current and former officers in Myanmar’s military. Six of the officials on the list played a central role in the coup on February 1, including current leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and his deputy, Soe Win.

Hlaing had already been sanctioned by the Trump administration in 2019 for approving Burma’s crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine state.

Biden’s Executive Order also sanctioned three commercial companies for their ties to Myanmar’s military. The companies are Myanmar Ruby Enterprise, Myanmar Imperial Jade Co., LTD. and Cancri (Gems and Jewellery) Co., LTD.

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steps to prevent the generals from improperly having access to the one billion dollars in Burmese government funds held in the United States,” Biden said.

“We’re also going to impose strong export controls.”

He added, “We’re freezing U.S. assets that benefit the Burmese government while maintaining our support for health care, civil society groups and other areas that benefit the people of Burma directly,” he said, using another name for Myanmar.

In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development said that it was “immediately redirecting $42.4 million of assistance away from work that would have benefited the Government of Burma. Rather than supporting the military, we will redirect these funds to support and strengthen civil society.” The aid had originally been provided as part of the Obama administration’s for Myanmar to transition towards democratic rule.

Separately, the Pentagon imposed controls on sales of “sensitive goods” to Myanmar’s Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs, police, military, and other security forces.

Burma’s military had overthrown the country’s democratically-elected government on February 1, imprisoning leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the deputy speaker of Myanmar’s parliament, and the five chief ministers.

The coup has sparked a wave of demonstrations throughout Myanmar from citizens calling for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released and the return of the country’s elected government.

Turmeric Tumult in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s import ban has led prices of turmeric to skyrocket as curry lovers are forced to pay astronomical prices for their favorite spice.

In March, Sri Lanka slapped a total ban on imports to alleviate its foreign currency crisis. The move forbids imports of all non-essential items in order to free up $4.5 billion in foreign currency the government needs to pay its international debt.

The policy has led to shortages on a slew of items, ranging from vehicles to car tires and even plastic straws. However, it has been the lack of turmeric that has left Sri Lankans raging while sending prices to record heights.

A spice characterized by a warm, bitter taste, turmeric is a key ingredient in curry and other foods popular in Sri Lanka. But with 80% of the 7,500 tons Sri Lanka uses coming from abroad, the import ban has led prices of turmeric to surge to unprecedented levels.

Since March, turmeric prices have jumped 20-fold to hit 9,000 rupees per kilogram, the equivalent of a week’s salary in Sri Lanka and 500% higher than the world average. The astonishing rise has led to an upsurge in smuggling as local criminal gangs seek to capitalize on the high demand for the spice.

Earlier this year, authorities confiscated 25 tons of turmeric that had arrived from India hidden in containers marked “onion.” Sri Lanka’s navy has also reported a sharp rise in seizures of illegal turmeric shipments by Indian fishermen.

“Our home-cooked curries are not the same since the pandemic,” health worker Prarthana Weeras-