NEW YORK – US social media giants have rolled back content moderation in recent months, leading to an “explosion of hate” online, according to the head of a leading New York-based antisemitism watchdog. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, says antisemitism has surged since the start of the Gaza war, after Palestinian militant group...
WASHINGTON – United States president Donald Trump welcomed five African leaders to a White House lunch yesterday, with commerce and trade expected to feature prominently amongst a mixed bag of potential agenda items. The presidents of Senegal, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon – five nations located along Africa’s Atlantic Coast – will convene at Trump’s...
MOSCOW – The Kremlin yesterday expressed shock over the apparent suicide of former transport minister Roman Starovoyt following his sacking by President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. Starovoyt served as transport minister for a year and previously was the governor of the border Kursk region, where Ukraine had launched an incursion. Authorities said Starovoyt’s body...
DUBAI – A damaged cargo ship was under “continuous attack” in the Red Sea on Tuesday, a maritime monitor said, after Yemen’s Huthi rebels ended a lull in their campaign against shipping through the vital waterway. The Eternity, a Liberian-flagged bulk carrier, first came under attack on Monday, shortly after the Iran-backed Huthis claimed responsibility...
GENEVA – The United Nations yesterday expressed serious concern over the deaths of at least 10 people in Kenya where police and protesters clashed during anti-government demonstrations the previous day. The violence erupted on Saba Saba Day (meaning Seven Seven) when demonstrators annually mark the events of 7 July 1990 when Kenyans rose up to...
NAIROBI – The World Food Programme said yesterday it had airdropped food aid to help tens of thousands of people in remote parts of South Sudan where surging conflict has pushed some communities “to the brink of famine”. The unstable east African nation has seen a drastic uptick in violence since simmering rivalry between President...
Russia said Sunday it had captured another two settlements in eastern Ukraine, one in the Donetsk region and one in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine did not immediately comment on Russia’s claims. Moscow has been grinding forward on the front line for over a year, pressing its advantage against overstretched and outmanned Ukrainian troops. On Sunday,...
China hit back on Sunday at an European Union (EU) ban on Chinese firms from major medical equipment purchases with a reciprocal bar on European companies in the latest trade salvo between the two economies. China’s finance ministry said in a statement that EU companies, except “those with European capital established in China, will have...
JERUSALEM – A group of 169 aid organisations called for an end to a US- and Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme in Gaza after repeated reports of people being killed while seeking rations. The NGOs urged a return to the UN-led aid mechanism that existed in the war-torn territory until March, when Israel imposed a full...
MOSCOW – The Kremlin yesterday slammed Azerbaijan’s detention of Russian journalists and urged Baku to release them, further escalating a diplomatic rift between the ex-Soviet neighbours. Moscow and Baku been been embroiled in a spat after two ethnic Azerbaijanis died over the weekend following Russian police raids targeted at the diaspora in Yekaterinburg in a...