A cow herd in Germany has gained an unlikely following, after adopting a lone wild boar piglet.
Farmer Friedrich Stapel told the dpa news agency that he spotted the piglet among the herd in the central German community of Brevoerde about three weeks ago. It had likely lost its group when they crossed a nearby river.
Stapel said while he knows what extensive damage wild boars can cause, he can’t bring himself to chase the animal away, dpa reported Thursday.
The local hunter has been told not to shoot the piglet — nicknamed Frieda — and in winter Stapel plans to put it in the shed with the mother cows.
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The piglet started following the bovine, after most likely losing its own family crossing a river.AP
"Frieda" the piglet will be looked after by the farmer that found it, during the winter months.AP
“To leave it alone now would be unfair,” he told dpa.
The Kremlin will host a ceremony on Friday at which agreements will be signed on the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories to the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony would take place on Friday at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
Putin will deliver a speech and meet with Russian-backed leaders of the four occupied regions on the sidelines of the ceremony, he added.
Separatist leaders from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics all traveled to Moscow following the announcement of poll results.
The four territories, which together make up around 18% of Ukraine's territory, recently held Moscow-backed "referendums" on joining Russia. These have been widely condemned by Western leaders as a "sham."
Billboards proclaiming "Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson - Russia!" and giant video screens have been set up on Red Square, according to Reuters on Thursday.
Members of the lower house of the Russian parliament have also received invitations to Friday’s ceremony at the Kremlin, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a post by Denis Parfyonov, a Communist Party deputy, on his Telegram channel.
A man casts his ballot during a referendum in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, on September 27. (AP)
Some context: "Votes" for referendums on joining Russia, held in the four occupied areas from Friday to Tuesday, are contrary to international law and have been universally dismissed as "a sham" by Ukraine and Western nations, including US President Joe Biden.
Counts cited in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ranged from 87.05% approval to claims of nearly universal verdicts, yet such figures stand in stark contrast to reality. According to a CNN poll of Ukrainians in February, just before Russia’s invasion, no region in the country had more than one in five people supporting Ukrainian unification with Russia.
CNN’s Jo Shelley contributed reporting to this post.
The Kremlin will host a ceremony on Friday at which agreements will be signed on the annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories to the Russian Federation, President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony would take place on Friday at 3 p.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
Putin will deliver a speech and meet with Russian-backed leaders of the four occupied regions on the sidelines of the ceremony, he added.
Separatist leaders from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics all traveled to Moscow following the announcement of poll results.
The four territories, which together make up around 18% of Ukraine's territory, recently held Moscow-backed "referendums" on joining Russia. These have been widely condemned by Western leaders as a "sham."
Billboards proclaiming "Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson - Russia!" and giant video screens have been set up on Red Square, according to Reuters on Thursday.
Members of the lower house of the Russian parliament have also received invitations to Friday’s ceremony at the Kremlin, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a post by Denis Parfyonov, a Communist Party deputy, on his Telegram channel.
A man casts his ballot during a referendum in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, on September 27. (AP)
Some context: "Votes" for referendums on joining Russia, held in the four occupied areas from Friday to Tuesday, are contrary to international law and have been universally dismissed as "a sham" by Ukraine and Western nations, including US President Joe Biden.
Counts cited in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia ranged from 87.05% approval to claims of nearly universal verdicts, yet such figures stand in stark contrast to reality. According to a CNN poll of Ukrainians in February, just before Russia’s invasion, no region in the country had more than one in five people supporting Ukrainian unification with Russia.
CNN’s Jo Shelley contributed reporting to this post.
Liz Truss’s first few weeks as British prime minister have been defined by crisis. She’d barely been in the job 48 hours when news broke that Queen Elizabeth II had died, placing the country in a state of official mourning and delaying the official launch of the Truss plan for Britain.
Once that official mourning period was over last Monday, her government unleashed a wave of radical policies, climaxing on Friday with the announcement of £45 billion ($48 billion) in tax cuts. The measures included scrapping the top rate paid by the highest earners, in adjustments that will benefit the rich far more than millions of people on lower incomes.
The logic, according to Truss’s government, is that cutting personal and corporate tax will trigger an investment boom and kick-start the British economy.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper last week, Truss defended her economic plans saying that her government was “incentivizing businesses to invest and we’re also helping ordinary people with their taxes.”
UK prime minister defends tax cuts as pound plummets
But Truss’s plans have seemingly backfired almost immediately. The pound fell to its lowest level in nearly four decades on Monday, at one point reaching near parity with the dollar. It seems very likely that the Bank of England will hike interest rates, which will make repayments harder for those fortunate enough to have mortgages, while those seeking to get mortgages are already seeing products removed by banks.
On Wednesday, the Bank of England announced it would buy UK government bonds in an attempt to “restore orderly market conditions” and to prevent “dysfunction” following the cuts, and subsequent plunge in the pound.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a rare rebuke for a developed country on Tuesday night, criticizing the UK’s tax-cutting plans, saying they will “likely increase inequality.”
The chaos couldn’t have come at a better time for the official opposition Labour Party, which held its annual conference in Liverpool this week.
Going into the conference, Labour was enjoying poll leads it hasn’t seen since the days of the last Labour prime minister to win a general election, Tony Blair.
Opportunity for Labour
The Labour Party has suffered badly since losing power in 2010. Its past two leaders have struggled with their personal credibility on a range of issues, from economics to security.
The party’s last leader, Jeremy Corbyn, came from the far left of the party. He had in the past associated with known extremists, opposed NATO, shared platforms with antisemites and generally existed on the fringes of politics for decades.
When his successor, Keir Starmer, took over in 2020, received wisdom was that his job was to remove Corbyn’s influence from the party and then hand it over to a new leader, probably closer to 2030 than the next scheduled general election in 2024.
This week in Liverpool, however, Starmer’s Labour looked legitimately like a government-in-waiting. It is nothing short of remarkable given that not even a year ago, Boris Johnson looked like the undisputed champion of British politics.
But after scandals sank his premiership and Conservatives’ approval ratings, the unassuming Starmer, a softly-spoken lawyer with a smart haircut and unremarkable suits, really does look as though he could be the next prime minister of the UK.
In the two years of his leadership, Starmer has managed to silence many of the elements of his party that Corbyn attracted. It has gone from being a home for far-left radicals to a party whose conference this week attracted corporate lobbyists who were only too happy to bankroll events and brush shoulders with the potential next government.
And after years of accusations while Corbyn was in charge that Labour was somehow anti-British, conference this year began with delegates singing the national anthem.
Those around Starmer are tempering their optimism. The Labour Party has smelled power before, only to be disappointed when the next general election came around. The UK, particularly England, is a traditionally Conservative-voting country. Previous Labour governments won power largely due to Scottish support.
That has all but drained away since the independence referendum of 2014, in which Scotland voted to stay in the UK by a margin of 55% to 45%. That left nearly half of Scots disgruntled and throwing their support behind the pro-independence Scottish National Party.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, pictured in July 4, 2022, has managed to silence many of the elements of his party that Jeremy Corbyn attracted.
Stefan Rousseau/PA Images/Getty Images
The Labour Party also has form for making unforced errors. While this year’s conference went largely without a hitch, one near-crisis had to be dealt with.
On Tuesday, a video emerged of a Labour MP calling the Conservative finance minister, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, “superficially” Black. The MP, Rupa Huq, had her party whip removed almost immediately, meaning she is expelled from the party and now sits as an independent. Huq later tweeted that she had apologized to Kwarteng for comments she described as “ill judged.”
And Labour Party members know very well that the Conservative Party plays the game of politics better than most. The term “natural party of government” might seem odd, given the chaos taking place around Truss at the moment, but Conservatives like winning at almost any cost.
‘We look like reckless gamblers’
None of this is providing Conservative MPs with much comfort, however.
“Every single problem we have now is self-inflicted. We look like reckless gamblers who only care about the people who can afford to lose the gamble,” one former Conservative minister told CNN on Wednesday morning.
Taking aim at the team around Truss, which is largely comprised of libertarian Conservatives, the former minister said: “We’ve made the mistake of thinking that things which go down well in free-market think tanks go down well with the free market.”
For all that things don’t look great for Truss, there is a fear in Labour circles that the current polling is a reflection of disapproval of the Conservatives rather than enthusiasm for Labour. Many still question whether Starmer truly has the strength of personality to win over sufficient voters to comprehensively defeat the Conservatives at the next election.
That caution could be born of a reluctance to get ahead of themselves. And their doubts over Starmer could be the same reason that some Conservatives are quietly optimistic that Truss has more personal substance than her Labour rival and could simply overpower him in the future.
What’s undeniable is that the expectations in British politics have shifted this week. For the first time in years, the next election is undeniably Labour’s to lose.
(CNN) — The wreck of a ship that tried to warn the RMS Titanic of the iceberg that sank it on its maiden voyage has been found at the bottom of the Irish Sea.
The British merchant steamship SS Mesaba sent a warning radio message to the Titanic on April 15, 1912 while crossing the Atlantic. The message was received by the Titanic -- which was advertised as unsinkable -- but did not reach the main control center of the vessel.
Later that night, the Titanic hit the iceberg and sank. More than 1,500 people died in what remains the world's most infamous shipwreck.
The Mesaba continued as a merchant ship until it was torpedoed by a German submarine while in convoy in 1918. Twenty people, including the ship's commander, died.
Its exact location was unknown for more than a century, but scientists have now found the wreck of the Mesaba by using multibeam sonar. The offshore surveying tool uses sound waves to enable seabed mapping in such detail that the superstructure can be revealed on sonar images, allowing researchers at Bangor University and Bournemouth University in the UK to positively identify the shipwreck in the Irish Sea.
This was the first time that the researchers were able to locate and positively identify the wreck, according to a news statement.
'Pieces of the jigsaw'
Michael Roberts, a maritime geoscientist at Bangor University in Wales, led the sonar surveys at the university's School of Ocean Sciences.
For several years, he's been working with the marine renewable energy sector to study the effect of the ocean on energy-generating infrastructure. Shipwrecks proved to be a valuable source of information in this field.
"We knew there were lots of shipwrecks in our backyard in the Irish Sea," Roberts told CNN on Wednesday, adding they could provide "useful insights into what happens when things go onto the seabed."
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg on April 15, 1912.
But it was only when Roberts began working with Innes McCartney, a maritime archaeologist and research fellow at Bangor University, that the "pieces of the jigsaw" began to fit together.
"McCartney was really interested in applying that technology to shipwrecks to identify them," Roberts said. The team of researchers began plumbing down deeper into unsolved mysteries to "tease out their stories."
"Previously we would be able to dive to a few sites a year to visually identify wrecks. The (purpose-built research vessel) Prince Madog's unique sonar capabilities has enabled us to develop a relatively low-cost means of examining the wrecks. We can connect this back to the historical information without costly physical interaction with each site," McCartney added in the release.
Roberts said the cost of discovering and identifying each wreck was between £800 ($855) and £1,000 ($1,070).
A 'game-changer' for marine archaeology
In total, 273 shipwrecks were found by the Prince Madog sprawled in 7,500 square miles of the Irish Sea -- an area roughly the size of Slovenia.
The wrecks were scanned and cross-referenced against the UK Hydrographic Office's database of wrecks and other sources.
Many of the newly identified wrecks, including the Mesaba, had been wrongly identified in the past, researchers said.
McCartney described the multibeam sonar technique as "a 'game-changer' for marine archaeology," allowing historians to use the data it provides to fill gaps in their understanding.
Prince Madog, the Bangor University survey vessel, leaves its berth in Menai Bridge, Anglesey, North Wales in 2016.
David Roberts/University of Bangor
Prince Madog was commissioned by Bangor University and is managed and operated by offshore service provider O.S. Energy. It "really does allow us to go out for up to 10 days at a time and go dot-to-dot between the vessels," Roberts said. "We were doing 15, 20, 25 wrecks a day. It's the ship that underpins everything."
The technology which the ship uses has the potential to be as effective for marine archaeologists as the use of aerial photography by archaeologists on land, according to the release.
"A lot of these wrecks are in deep water. There's no light down there, so you cannot see much at all," Roberts said. "If a diver was to go down and swim the length of the wreck -- they'd never get the kind of images that we would get because of the scale of these things. There's so much sediment you just can't see everything."
"So it's a way of really effectively visualizing using sound to see something you cannot see with the naked eye -- like an ultrasound during pregnancy."
While the technology has the potential to uncover the stories of all these lost ships, Roberts added that researchers "have also been examining these wreck sites to better understand how objects on the seabed interact with physical and biological processes, which in turn can help scientists support the development and growth of the marine energy sector."
Details of all the wrecks have been published in a new book by McCartney, "Echoes from the Deep."
Top image: The SS Mesaba was torpedoed while in convoy in 1918, six years after it tried to warn the Titanic of the iceberg.
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President Biden’s decision not to attend former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's funeral on Tuesday sends a weak message to China as tensions rise in the region, Japanese political commentator Yoko Ishii told Fox News.
Abe, 67, was assassinated on July 8 while delivering a campaign speech in Nara, Japan. He was a stalwart supporter of U.S. foreign policy throughout his tenure as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.
"I think that it would be significant for Biden to come here now, especially because the threat of China right now is rising more than ever," Ishii, a YouTube commentator, told Fox News. "Taiwan is in danger, and what we hear in Japan is that after Taiwan, it’s Japan."
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which the island's independent government disputes. Tensions in the region have escalated in recent months, particularly after China conducted military drills around Taiwan after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden met with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 26, 2014, in New York City. Biden is not attending Abe's funeral eight years later. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Five missiles China launched during those exercises landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone, according to Japan's defense minister.
"Now is actually the good time to show our message that Japan and the U.S. stand together strongly against China," Ishii told Fox News.
Vice President Kamala Harris is attending Abe’s state funeral on Biden's behalf. Ishii, who identifies as conservative, believes Biden is missing out on a rare opportunity for "funeral diplomacy."
President Biden is signaling weakness to China by skipping Abe's funeral, Japanese YouTuber Yoko Ishii says. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
"Our prime minister, [Fumio] Kishida, is having bilateral talks as much as he can during the three days before and after the … state funeral," Ishii said. "Biden is not taking advantage of this situation. I think it’s unfortunate."
Biden would have presented himself "as a strong leader of the United States" had he chosen to attend Abe's funeral, Ishii said.
"We [could] see that ‘oh, America is America, it’s strong' and 'We have to keep the world order with the leader America,'" she told Fox News. "But because he’s … choosing not to come, I think it’s working in favor for China."
Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, was assassinated July 8 during a campaign speech. (Franck Robichon - Pool/Getty Images)
Abe worked to solidify Tokyo’s position as a key democratic ally of Washington in East Asia. He laid the groundwork for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue – more commonly known as "the Quad" or sometimes "Asian NATO" – which serves as a counterweight to growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific. The bloc is composed of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India and unites shared democratic and economic interests across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
The U.S. is the only Quad member state not sending its top leader to Abe’s funeral. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are set to attend the ceremony alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Biden's failure to attend Abe's funeral casts doubt on his commitment to the Quad and its future, according to Ishii.
"When I think about politics, I think about how our enemies receive our message," Ishii said. "The message that Biden is sending by not coming here is that he doesn’t think so much about" the Quad.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
United Nations — As the U.N. General Assembly winds to a close on Monday, the focus on the horrific images of death and destruction in Ukraine during hundreds of world leaders' speeches underscored the inability of the United Nations to prevent or to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Although President Biden announced large new aid packages and funding for Ukraine, countries around the world took the moment to plea for world leaders to deal with growing inequality, a focus of the opening speech by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
On Saturday, the 193-nation Assembly heard from China and Russia and both took the moment to put the U.S. in their crosshairs.
China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, took aim at the United States, saying, "Protectionism can only boomerang," hoping that the U.S. will not abandon what has become a major trade relationship. Wang and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken did meet at the sidelines of the U.N. meeting.
Beijing's focus was on the current rift with Taiwan, Wang told diplomats — a point aimed at recent comments Mr. Biden made on "60 Minutes."
"Any scheme to interfere in China's internal affairs is bound to meet the strong opposition of all Chinese and any move to obstruct China's reunification is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history," he said.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CBS News this week, that intense U.S. diplomacy has taken place in an effort to persuade China that Russia's invasion of a sovereign nation is contrary to China's longstanding policies. Wang's statements underscored what China President Xi Jinping had told Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks - that China is uncomfortable with the war.
"China supports all efforts conducive to the peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis," Wang told world leaders. "The pressing priority is to facilitate talks for peace. The fundamental solution is to address the legitimate security concerns for all parties."
Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, speaks during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 24, 2022. Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg/Getty Images
"President Xi called on the international community to pursue common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries," Wang went on to say, regarding Ukraine.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke to the General Assembly and then to reporters, making clear that Moscow is not going to make the first steps in talks to end the war in Ukraine, decrying that "Russophobia in the West is unprecedented now, the scope is grotesque."
The comments came as Russian forces launched new military strikes in Ukrainian cities, including Zaporizhzhia. Russia is also holding referendums in portions of Ukraine it currently occupies. There, Ukrainians are voting on whether to become part of Russia. It's a move that is not only considered illegitimate by the West, but as possible justification for Russia's use of force later in these regions.
"The sham Moscow runs in occupied territories can't be called referenda," Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told CBS News on Saturday. "And its results are and will be null and void."
Asked by CBS News about Putin's comments suggesting the use of nuclear weapons that Mr. Biden referred to, Lavrov referred to Russia's "doctrine for nuclear security" in which self-defense is core, a definition that is often in the eyes of the beholder.
As to next steps for the U.N., the attempt to garner unity against the war will continue, albeit without results. In a letter, obtained by CBS News, which was sent by Kyslytsya to Nicolas de Rivière — France's permanent representative to the U.N., and who is also serving as the current Security Council president this month — Ukraine has requested a meeting of the 15-nation body next week to discussion the "sham 'referendums' in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine."
Tropical Depression 9 just upgraded to Tropical Storm Ian Friday evening. It has been a busy few days in the tropics as Fiona, a Category 3 storm heads to Canada, and Tropical Storm Hermine formed just off the West Coast of Africa. Read more about them here.
In the meantime, the focus at the NBC2 First Alert Hurricane Tracking center will be Tropical Storm Ian.
Ian was still able to reach tropical storm status while enduring a bit of wind shear south of Hispaniola, which means this is a hardy storm. Over the weekend, Ian will be entering an even better environment for development once the storm gets south of Jamaica and/or Cuba. This is where the storm will find an environment with relatively low wind shear and very warm ocean waters. This will give the storm the opportunity to intensify quickly to a hurricane. The environment is so conducive for tropical development that a major hurricane (Cat 3 or higher) is forecast by next week.
The latest forecast cone has the storm moving through the western side of Cuba. Although there are some areas of higher terrain in this part of Cuba, it is not where the tallest mountains are.
Furthermore, it is the narrowest part of Cuba which will minimize land interaction. For the aforementioned reasons, the storm will have a chance to maintain its strength north of Cuba.
If the storm is able to avoid a lot of land interaction, and slide through the Yucatan Channel, a stronger storm may be possible.
However, just because it is farther west, does not mean Florida is in the clear. The jet stream is forecast to pull the storm north into the Gulf and SWFL may be stuck dealing with the stronger side (the east side) of the hurricane.
It is important to remember the cone only represents where the center of low pressure will go. Given the graphic below, there is an equal chance that the center of the storm may be south of the Florida Panhandle as it is near the Bahamas come Wednesday at 2 PM.
For this reason, it is nearly impossible to tell the magnitude of the impacts we will have here in SWFL. It is too early to know how much rain, wind, and/or storm surge we will have next week.
It is clear this will be a significant storm for some parts of the eastern Gulf, but the specifics aren’t there yet.
Over the weekend, it is a good idea to refresh your hurricane kit and get a plan together with your family. Stay tuned to NBC2 on air and online as we gather more information.
Announcing the biggest tax cuts in 50 years at the same time as boosting spending, Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the government needed a "new approach for a new era, focused on growth."
The sweeping tax cuts, which include slashing the top rate of income tax to 40% from 45%, reductions in duties paid on house purchases, and the cancellation of a planned hike in business taxes, would wipe £45 billion ($50 billion) off government revenues over the next five years, the UK Treasury said.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank, called the government's plans "extraordinary."
"It's half a century since we've seen tax cuts announced on this scale," he said in a tweet.
The pound sank almost 2.6% to $1.097 on Friday after Kwarteng's announcement to its lowest level since 1985. British government bonds also sold off sharply. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond, which moves opposite prices, shot above 3.7%. It started the year below 1%.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng walks outside Number 10 Downing Street, in London, Britain September 6, 2022.
At the same time as cutting taxes, Kwarteng said the government will press ahead with subsidizing energy bills for millions of households and businesses at a cost of £60 billion ($67 billion) just for the next six months, funded by borrowing rather than by taxing the windfall profits of oil and gas companies.
The measures come a day after the Bank of England warned that the country was already likely in a recession. It jacked up interest rates for a seventh time since December last year in a bid to tame 10% inflation that is causing a deep cost-of-living crisis for millions of people.
'Unfunded giveaways'
News of the heavy additional government borrowing rattled investors already concerned that the country is spending beyond its means. The IFS warned in a Wednesday report that government borrowing was on an "unsustainable path."
George Saravelos, global head of foreign exchange research at Deutsche Bank, said in a research note on Friday that the United Kingdom's "very large, unfunded tax cuts and other fiscal giveaways" was adding to worries about the country's economy.
"The UK's immediate challenge is not low growth," Saravelos said. "The large fiscal spend just announced may boost growth a little in the short term. But the bigger question is this: who will pay for it?" he added.
A senior government minister, Simon Clarke, speaking earlier Friday denied suggestions that new Prime Minister Liz Truss was taking a huge gamble with the British economy.
"The evidence of the 1980s and the 1990s is that a dynamic low tax economy is what delivers the best growth rates — this isn't a gamble, the weight of history and evidence is with us," he told the BBC.
The hefty energy subsidies will mean inflation should peak at 11% next month, according to the Bank of England, rather than shooting even higher this winter. But investors are concerned that the additional government spending will keep inflation at an elevated level. And a falling pound only makes matters worse by raising the cost of imports.
The opposition Labour Party criticized the government's plans to ramp up borrowing instead of increasing a tax on the windfall profits of energy companies.
"The oil and gas giants will be toasting the Chancellor in the boardrooms as we speak, while working people are left to pick up the bill — borrowing higher than it needs to be just as interest rates rise," said Rachel Reeves, the opposition's finance spokesperson.
Kwarteng also announced he would end a cap limiting bankers' bonuses to double their annual salary that was introduced after the global financial crisis to deter excessive risk-taking. He said he wanted to encourage global banks to invest in the United Kingdom.
Labour's Reeves said the plan would "reward the wealthy" and represented a return to the "trickle down [economics] of the past."
— Mark Thompson, Julia Horowitz and Amy Cassidy contributed reporting.
The victory of Pol Pot’s forces saw Yath Run separated from his parents and sent to a children’s labour camp in Cambodia’s rural northwestern Battambang province.
Decades later, Yath Run’s anger has not dissipated for the regime that separated him from his family, and whose policies and purges led to the deaths of two million people in fewer than four years.
A life spent in prison was not enough, he said, speaking ahead of Thursday’s final ruling by the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, which affirmed the life sentence of former regime head of state Khieu Samphan for genocide and crimes against humanity.
“They deserved a sentence of 200 or 300 years in jail and even their remains should be in handcuffs until their jail terms have been served,” 56-year-old Yath Run said.
Punishment for Khmer Rouge leaders should continue in death too; none of their relatives — not even children — should be allowed to attend their funerals, he said, proposing that the government designate a specific burial site just for the remains of the regime’s leadership.
(Left to right) Khmer Rouge Minister of National Defence Son Sen; Head of State Khieu Samphan; ‘Brother No 2’ Nuon Chea; ‘Brother No. 1’ Pol Pot; the regime’s Minister of Culture, Education and Propaganda Yon Yat, and Meas Sophy, Pol Pot’s first wife with a young Sar Phacheta, Pol Pot’s daughter. The identities of others in the photograph are unknown [Courtesy of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia]
“They should not be allowed to have a funeral ceremony because during their regime innocent people were massacred and their bodies had no coffins to lie in,” he said.
The rejection of Khieu Samphan’s appeal by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) — the official name of the war crimes tribunal — marked the final ruling in the UN-backed court’s 16 years of work.
The court said that it had upheld his conviction and life sentence “in light of all the circumstances, including the tragic nature of the underlying events and the extent of the harm caused by Khieu Samphan”.
Some have criticised the tribunal for taking more than a decade and a half and spending more than $330m to charge five senior Khmer Rouge leaders and successfully sentence just three. Others say the work of healing from the nightmare of the Khmer Rouge will continue in Cambodia long after the court’s now completed legal work.
Khieu Samphan, the 91-year-old former head of state of Pol Pot’s regime, is the sole surviving senior leader of the regime behind bars.
The regime’s self-styled ‘Brother No 1’, Pol Pot, died in 1998 before he could be brought to justice.
A photo of Pol Pot taken by a visiting Vietnamese delegation to Cambodia on July 27, 1975. The Khmer Rouge had swept to power a little over three months earlier [Courtesy of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia]
Nuon Chea, known as ‘Brother No 2’ and the regime’s chief ideologue, was sentenced to two life terms in prison by the tribunal for crimes against humanity and genocide. He died in 2019.
Former Khmer Rouge foreign minister, Ieng Sary, was charged with crimes against humanity but died of ill health before the completion of his trial in 2013.
His wife, Ieng Thirith, the regime’s former minister of social action and sister-in-law of Pol Pot, was also charged but was later ruled unfit to stand trial on the grounds of mental health. She died in 2015.
Kaing Guek Eav, better known as ‘Duch’, was convicted of crimes against humanity in 2010 for atrocities perpetrated at the S-21 prison and torture centre in Phnom Penh. Duch died in 2020.
‘Brother No 2’ Nuon Chea (seated on the left) gives a lecture to senior Khmer Rouge officials, including Head of State Khieu Samphan, Foreign Affairs Minister Ieng Sary and brutal military commander Ta Mok [Courtesy of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia]
Troubling memories
More than 40 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, survivors are still troubled by their memories of that period, according to new research conducted by the Documentation Centre of Cambodia [DC-CAM], the country’s leading research institution archiving the events of the Khmer Rouge era.
Based on a survey of more than 31,000 survivors conducted between August 2021 and August 2022, 87 percent of respondents reported that they still had troubling memories of the past.
Those memories “resonated” with survivors, and “25 percent of respondents reported still suffering nightmares of this period, despite the fact that it occurred over forty years ago”, DC-CAM’s Director Youk Chhang wrote.
Reflecting on the conclusion of the war crimes tribunal, Youk Chhang said the process was personal to each survivor, but the legal process had allowed Cambodians to be more open about what had occurred.
That openness had allowed them to look more deeply into their own personal and collective past. Cumulatively, that had resulted in people being willing to address issues more openly, which would help Cambodia in the future, he said.
DC-CAM also found that 47 percent of those surveyed had followed the work of the tribunal compared with 51 percent who had not. A staggering 81 percent answered “good/satisfied” when asked what they thought of the tribunal, compared with 8 percent who answered “not good/not satisfied”.
When asked what the tribunal’s contribution to the individual and wider society had been, the overwhelming response was “justice”.
Education was also considered the most important way to “help the younger generation remember the history of the Khmer Rouge and prevent” the return of such a brutal regime.
Reconciliation
“For me, the most important thing that came out was the effect that the court had on national reconciliation,” said Craig Etcheson, author of Extraordinary Justice: Law, Politics, and the Khmer Rouge Tribunals.
Etcheson, who was also an investigator with the tribunal’s office of the co-prosecutor from 2006 to 2012, said the court process had started new conversations in Cambodian society.
Parents could finally speak to their children about the events of the late 1970s, Etcheson said. They could explain why, previously, they may not have been able to talk about what had happened, and also why they may have behaved in certain ways, he said.
The tribunal had “reached into every nook and cranny of the country” and “across social divides”, he told Al Jazeera.
There was outreach to explain the court’s purpose through TV coverage, road shows, art exhibitions, and performances.
Important modules on Cambodian history during the period of the regime had been added to the school curriculum, and about 100,000 Cambodians had visited the tribunal’s proceedings, he said.
As chief of the tribunal’s public affairs office from 2006-2009, Helen Jarvis remembered a feeling of slight trepidation when first travelling to Cambodia’s rural areas to distribute information about the war crimes court, nervous about how people might react.
Former rank and file members of the Khmer Rouge had lived quietly in cities, towns and villages since the movement spluttered to its end in the late 1990s, as fighters were given a choice to defect to the government or face arrest, and as their military strongholds accepted Phnom Penh’s authority.
“I was so hesitant at the beginning, wondering how would we be received,” Jarvis recounted, adding that to her surprise, her team never once encountered hostility or negativity during those trips.
“It was enthusiasm I think, especially in rural communities right from the start. But we didn’t have sufficient funding, in my view, to do it really well,” she said.
The tribunal — the first hybrid war crimes court where national staff collaborated with international UN staff in a country where mass crimes were perpetrated — will be remembered for its public outreach and the participation of victims in the legal proceeding, she said, although she felt neither area had been adequately provided with funding or staff in the initial planning.
“It really is ironic – those were two big gaps. But they turned out to be the most important legacy, in my view.”
Moving forward
Asked if he felt the tribunal had been successful, DC-CAM’s Youk Chhang cautioned that “success” was never a word to use when dealing with genocide and discussing the deaths of two million people.
The most important part of the court process was its inclusion of survivors in the proceedings, he said, adding that the tribunal “allowed people to participate and to agree and disagree” and to “bring about closure to him or her personally”.
“Despite that some people did not like the court, it allowed people to express [their criticism] – that makes the court more healthy,” he said.
While the tribunal had been significant in terms of justice, prosecutions and convictions, Youk Chhang says there remains a lot more to be done after the genocide.
“The court is not the department of history or the counselling service,” he said. “That is what continues after the court is gone.”
Teenager Khlout Sopoar was born a year after the UN-backed war crimes tribunal began its work in Cambodia.
Sopoar never experienced the suffering or trauma of previous generations that lived through the regime and its aftermath.
Yet, the 15-year-old student was very clear in her judgement of the enormity of the crimes, their punishment, and the need to reconcile.
Khieu Samphan, the last surviving senior leader of the regime, was deserving of life in prison, she said.
And, the survivors of the regime should accept the justice delivered by the court.
“I think the atrocity committed by the Khmer Rouge regime was enormous,” Sopoar said.
“But the victims should accept the sentence,” she said.
For Sopoar and millions of Cambodians, the end of the legal proceedings marks a time to move forward.
KYIV/RIYADH, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine carried out an unexpected prisoner swap on Wednesday, the largest since the war began and involving almost 300 people, including 10 foreigners and the commanders who led a prolonged Ukrainian defence of Mariupol earlier this year.
The foreigners released included two Britons and a Moroccan who had been sentenced to death in June after being captured fighting for Ukraine. Also freed were three other Britons, two Americans, a Croatian, and a Swedish national.
The timing and magnitude of the swap came as a surprise, given Russian President Vladimir Putin had announced a partial troop mobilisation earlier in the day in an apparent escalation of the conflict that began in February. Pro-Russian separatists had also said last month that the Mariupol commanders would go on trial. read more
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the swap - which involved help from Turkey and Saudi Arabia - had been under preparation for quite a long time and involved intense haggling. Under the terms of the deal, 215 Ukrainians - most of whom were captured after the fall of Mariupol - were released.
In exchange, Ukraine sent back 55 Russians and pro-Moscow Ukrainians and Viktor Medvedchuk, the leader of a banned pro-Russian party who was facing treason charges.
"This is clearly a victory for our country, for our entire society. And the main thing is that 215 families can see their loved ones safe and at home," Zelenskiy said in a video address.
"We remember all our people and try to save every Ukrainian. This is the meaning of Ukraine, our essence, this is what distinguishes us from the enemy."
Zelenskiy thanked Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan for his help and said five senior Ukrainian commanders would remain in Turkey until the end of the war.
Kyiv had a long and difficult fight to secure the release of the five, he said.
They include Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov battalion that did much of the fighting, and his deputy, Svyatoslav Palamar. Also freed was Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade.
The three men had helped lead a dogged weeks-long resistance from the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol's giant steel works before they and hundreds of Azov fighters surrendered in May to Russian-backed forces.
"We're proud of what you've done for our nation, proud of each and every one of you," Zelenskiy said in a video call with the five which was released by his office.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the deal and why it had freed men who Russian-backed separatists said would go on trial later this year.
Saudi Arabia brokered an arrangement whereby the 10 foreigners were flown to Saudi Arabia. The mediation involved Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has maintained close ties with Putin.
The freed prisoners included U.S. citizens Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, both from Alabama, who were captured in June while fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Also freed were Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who were all sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
Large numbers of foreigners have travelled to Ukraine to fight since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.
The head of the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said earlier this month that Russia was not allowing access to prisoners of war, adding that the U.N. had evidence that some had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment that could amount to war crimes. read more
Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs.
Reporting by Valentyn Ogirenko in Kyiv, Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh and David Ljunggren in Ottawa Editing by Rosalba O'Brien
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September 22, 2022 at 07:09AM
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Russia, Ukraine announce major surprise prisoner swap - Reuters
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