Democratic senator worried Netanyahu trying to ‘influence’ US election

Alexander Bolton
Thu, October 3, 2024

Democratic senator worried Netanyahu trying to ‘influence’ US election

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says he’s worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by showing little interest in striking a peace deal with Hamas and instead escalating the threat of a broader war in the Middle East by aggressively confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Murphy acknowledged that the prospect of peace in Gaza before Election Day does not seem likely and that Netanyahu appears to have an eye on domestic U.S. politics as he wages a bombing campaign deep into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.

“I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about this military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,” Murphy told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Netanyahu strikes defiant tone at UN

“I hope this is not true, but it is certainly a possibility that the Israeli government is not going to sign any diplomatic agreement prior to the American election as a means, potentially, to try to influence the result,” Murphy said, alluding to the deep divisions among the Democratic Party over the war in Gaza.

Murphy said he hopes he is wrong in that assessment but stated that the evidence is pointing toward that conclusion.

“I don’t think you have to be a hopeless cynic to read some of Israel’s actions, some of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions, as connected to the American election,” Murphy said.

The lack of a peace deal in Gaza is a politically liability for President Biden and Vice President Harris most prominently in Michigan, which is home to a large population of Palestinian Americans and other people of Middle Eastern heritage.

More than 100,000 Michigan Democratic primary voters cast ballots for “uncommitted” in the February primary to express their concerns and opposition to Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza.

Biden received fewer votes than “uncommitted” in Dearborn and Hamtramck, where Arab Americans comprise a large part of the population.

The escalation of fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, which has drawn Iran closer into direct military conflict with Israel, has given former President Trump an opening to criticize Biden’s and Harris’s handling of foreign policy and national security.

“I’ve been talking about World War III for a long time, and I don’t want to make predictions because the predictions always come true. But they are very close to global catastrophe,” Trump said at an event Tuesday. “We have a nonexistent president and a nonexistent vice president who should be in charge.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc..

Javier Bardem on Gaza: ‘We cannot remain indifferent’ in call for hostage release and cease-fire

LINDSEY BAHR
Updated Wed, October 2, 2024 


People-Javier Bardem-Gaza
This undated photo provided by Peter Singer shows from left, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan. (Peter Singer via AP)

Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Javier Bardem was no longer comfortable being silent on Gaza.

The Spanish actor spoke out about the Israeli-Hamas conflict upon accepting an award at the San Sebastian Film Festival last week. In his nuanced remarks, Bardem condemned the Hamas attacks as well as the “massive punishment that the Palestinian population is enduring.”

He called for immediate cease-fire, Hamas’ release of hostages and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Hamas leaders — some of whom are now dead — who ordered the Oct. 7 attacks to be judged by the International Criminal Court.


In an interview with The Associated Press, Bardem explained why he chose to speak out.

“I believe that we can and must help bring peace. If we take a different approach, then we will get different results,” Bardem told the AP, speaking prior to Iran’s attack on Israel Tuesday. “The security and prosperity of Israel and the health and future of a free Palestine will only be possible through a culture of peace, coexistence and respect.”

Israel’s offensive has already killed over 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents and destroyed much of the impoverished territory. Palestinian militants are still holding some 110 hostages captured in the Oct. 7 attack that started the war, in which they killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Around a third of the 110 are already dead, according to Israeli authorities.

The war has drawn sharp divisions in Hollywood over the past year, where public support of Israel or Palestine has provoked backlash and bullying, with accusations of antisemitism and Islamophobia, and cost people jobs. Even silence has had its consequences. The #blockout2024 movement pressured celebrities who hadn’t said anything — or enough — to take a stand.

“Why now?” Bardem said. “Because to continue to stall negotiations and return to the previous status quo, as they say, or as we are seeing now, embark on a race to further violations of international law would be to perpetuate the war and eventually lead us off a cliff.”

Bardem stressed that while antisemitism and Islamophobia are real and serious problems in the U.S., Europe and beyond, that the terms are being used to divert attention away from the “legitimate right to criticize the actions of the Israeli government and of Hamas.

“We’re witnessing crimes against human rights, crimes under international law, such as, for example, the banning of food, water, medicines, electricity, using, as UNICEF says, war against children and the trauma that’s being created for generations,” Bardem said. “We cannot remain indifferent to that.”

The Oscar-winner, who was born in the Canary Islands and raised Catholic but no longer practices, has spoken up on global issues before, signing an open letter calling for peace during a 2014 conflict between Israel and Hamas, and a few years earlier speaking to a United Nations committee about refugees in Western Sahara, which he narrated a documentary about. He's also an environmental advocate, and spoke to the UN in 2019 about protecting the oceans.

“My mother educated me on the importance of treating all human beings equally, regardless of skin color, ethnicity, religion, nationality, socio and economic status, ability or sexuality,” Bardem said. “Actions inform us and that alone interests me about people. That's why I have always been concerned about discrimination of any kind. That includes antisemitism and Islamophobia."

Bardem is married to Penélope Cruz, with whom he shares two children.

He said that beyond a fear that the framework of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is in danger, he has seen the effects of the conflict up close and the promise of a different approach. Two of his close friends, one Israeli, one Palestinian, both lost daughters to violence years ago and have bonded together in their shared pain and desire to help create positive change.

Those fathers, Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, are members of a nonprofit organization called The Parents Circle Families Forum that emphasizes reconciliation. They wrote a letter that Bardem shared: “What happened to us is like nuclear energy. You can use it for more destruction. Or you can use it to bring light. Losing your daughter is painful in both situations. But we love our life. We want to exist. So we use this pain to support change. To build bridges, not to dig graves.”

Bardem added: “That’s what it should be about: Building bridges, not digging graves. That’s why it’s urgent and important.”

___

For the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas war, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Opinion

Biden Admin Makes Shocking Confession on How Extreme It Is on Israel

Hafiz Rashid
Wed, October 2, 2024

NEW REPUBLIC



On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was confronted during a press conference over whether the United States was using leverage to rein in Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and Gaza.


BBC News reporter Tom Bateman cited a diary entry from Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1982, where Reagan phoned Israel’s prime minister at the time, Menachem Begin, and told him to stop Israel’s shelling of Beirut. Bateman asked Miller if U.S. officials were similarly doing everything they could for a cease-fire.


Miller claimed in his reply that during the current conflict, U.S. intervention had led Israel “to take steps that they were not previously doing” regarding humanitarian access and “the shape of their military operations.”

“I do think it is often simplistic to reduce the … understanding of what’s happening to the bilateral relationship between two countries,” Miller added.

Bateman followed up, noting that Begin stopped bombing Lebanon 20 minutes after Reagan’s phone call. Miller deflected.

“I think we have made clear on a number of occasions with the government of Israel what we believe, and there have been times when our intervention has led to direct action by the government of Israel. There are times when they have disagreements with us,” Miller said. “And by the way, that was true in the Reagan administration too.”

Miller’s comments seem to show an unwillingness by President Biden and his administration to use any kind of leverage—such as the billions of dollars in weapons sales or the billions in foreign aid to Israel—to compel Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curtail Israel’s military actions in Lebanon or Gaza.

In 1982, Reagan’s administration halted cluster-bomb shipments to Israel over their use on civilian areas in Lebanon. Reagan then followed with a phone call to Begin where he used language that would seem unfathomable by any American politician today.

“Here, on our television, night after night, our people are being shown the symbols of this war, and it is a holocaust,” Reagan told the Israeli prime minister, warning that it was endangering the U.S.-Israeli relationship. It had an immediate effect, with the bombing not only stopping but with Begin pleading with Reagan not to harm ties between the two countries.

Biden initially spurned months of calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, and still continues to back Israel in its brutal war that has claimed at least 41.000 Palestinian lives. Now Israel, thanks to a green light from the Biden administration, has expanded the war to Lebanon and killed hundreds of lives just in the past week. Biden can call for an arms embargo against Israel at any time, but as Miller’s comments illustrate, he won’t even touch the idea.

Opinion

Biden Gets Stunning Letter on Gaza Cease-Fire

Edith Olmsted
Wed, October 2, 2024

NEW REPUBLIC

Almost 100 health volunteers who worked in Gaza demanded a U.S. arms sales embargo to Israel Wednesday in a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris, we are 99 American physicians and nurses who have witnessed crimes beyond comprehension. Crimes that we cannot believe you wish to continue supporting,” stated the letter, which was obtained by HuffPost.

The letter included first-hand accounts of the brutality that the doctors, nurses, midwives, surgeons, and other health care practitioners had seen during their collective 254 weeks serving in Gaza’ hospitals. The tragedy is a direct result of Israel’s nearly year-long military campaign in Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 41,500 Palestinians, including at least 16,500 children.

The letter noted that the death toll is likely significantly higher than what is reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.

“I’ve never seen such horrific injuries, on such a massive scale, with so few resources. Our bombs are cutting down women and children by the thousands. Their mutilated bodies are a monument to cruelty,” said Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma and critical care surgeon at San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockton, California. Sidhwa spent two weeks volunteering in Khan Younis, where an Israeli strike killed 51 people just on Tuesday.

“With only marginal exceptions, everyone in Gaza is sick, injured, or both. This includes every national aid worker, every international volunteer, and probably every Israeli hostage: every man, woman, and child,” the letter said.

The letter urged Biden and Harris to “withhold military, economic, and diplomatic support from the State of Israel and to participate in an international arms embargo of Israel and all Palestinian armed groups until a permanent ceasefire is established in Gaza.”

“We appreciate that you are working on a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, but you have overlooked an obvious fact: the United States can impose a ceasefire on the warring parties by simply stopping arms shipments to Israel, and announcing that we will participate in an international arms embargo on both Israel and all Palestinian armed groups,” the letter said. “We stress what many others have repeatedly told you over the past year: American law is perfectly clear on this matter, continuing to arm Israel is illegal.”

Last month, a report found that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had received reports from USAID and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration detailing how Israel had deliberately blocked humanitarian aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza, but still told Congress the exact opposite. The State Department even recommended that shipments of nearly $830 million in weapons and bombs to Israel, paid by U.S. taxpayers, ought to be frozen under the Foreign Assistance Act.

Harris has not signaled a significant break with Biden on his policy of empowering Israel’s violence in the Middle East, as Israel has launched a ground offensive into Lebanon, sparking missile strikes from Iran and threatening to blossom into regional war.

Guterres backed by UN Security Council members after Israeli ban

DPA
Wed, October 2, 2024 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting during the 79th UN General Assembly in New York. Andrea Renault/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa


Several countries on the UN Security Council have backed Secretary General António Guterres following fierce verbal attacks from Israel.

The ambassadors of the United Kingdom, France, Russia and South Korea among others emphasised their support for the Portuguese UN chief at an emergency meeting of the most powerful UN body.

Algerian Ambassador to the UN Amar Bendjama said that Israel's decision to declare Guterres persona non grata showed "clear disdain of the UN system and the entire international community."


Israel has justified its decision by the fact that Guterres had not clearly condemned Tuesday's Iranian missile attack.

In addition, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed that the UN chief had not properly condemned the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on October 7 last year, nor had he made any effort to declare Hamas a terrorist organization.

The secretary-general has publicly condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas many times. Declaring a group a terrorist organization requires a corresponding resolution by the UN Security Council, over which Guterres has no power.


UN chief condemns Iran attack after Israel ban

Michael Sheils McNamee - BBC News
Wed, October 2, 2024

[Reuters]


The Secretary General of the United Nations has condemned Iranian strikes on Israel, after earlier being banned from the country for his initial response.

Speaking to the UN Security Council, António Guterres said it was high time to stop what he called the "deadly cycle of tit-for-tat violence" in the Middle East.

In an earlier statement, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared Guterres personal non grata and an "anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists".

The comments were issued in response to Guterres initially calling for a ceasefire, but not specifically mentioning the Iran attack.

Addressing the council, the UN secretary general said he had condemned the attack in April, and "as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed, I again strongly condemn yesterday's massive missile attack by Iran on Israel".

On Tuesday, Iran launched about 180 ballistic missiles into Israel, with Israel saying most of them were intercepted.

In a statement after the attack on social media site X, formerly Twitter, Guterres said he condemned "the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation".

Prior to Guterres remarks to the UN Security Council, Katz said in a statement that anyone who "cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil".

He specifically criticised Guterres for "his anti-Israel policy since the beginning of the war".

Tuesday's attack by Iran is the latest in a series of escalations, starting almost a year ago with attacks on Israel by Hamas, and recently involving increased fighting between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October by Hamas gunmen, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Since the attack, a military campaign in Gaza has now killed a total of 41,689 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Over the course of the conflict, there have been a number of clashes between Israel and the United Nations about the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.

There has also been friction between Israel and the UN over the role of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

In January, Israel alleged that a number of the agency's staff members had been involved in the 7 October attacks.

In response to this, the agency launched an investigation - with a number of its international funders withdrawing support for it, before later reinstating it. In August, nine staff members were dismissed over potential involvement in the attacks.

During the conflict, UNRWA has criticised Israel for air strikes in Gaza which have killed its staff members.


Israel declares UN chief Guterres 'persona non grata' over Iran missile attack

RFI
Wed, October 2, 2024 



Israel's foreign minister has announced thatUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been banned from entering the country because he had not 'unequivocally' condemned Iran's recent missile attack on Israel.

On Wednesday, foreign minister Israel Katz that he was barring the United Nations secretary-general from entering Israel, accusing him of being biased against the country after Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at the country.

Many were intercepted mid-air but some penetrated missile defences, but no casualties were reported.

In a brief statement in the wake of Tuesday's attack, Guterres issued a brief statement referencing only the "latest attacks in the Middle East" and condemning the conflict "with escalation after escalation".
'Persona non grata'

Earlier on Tuesday, Israel had sent troops into southern Lebanon, marking an escalation in hostilities between the Jewish state and Iran's proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

Katz said Guterres' failure to call out Iran made him persona non grata in Israel.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel – as nearly all the countries of the world have done – does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil," Katz said.

Israel bans UN secretary-general over anti-Israel actions: 'Doesn't deserve to set foot on Israeli soil'

Peter Aitken, Yonat Friling

FOX NEWS
Wed, October 2, 2024

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on Wednesday following Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, but overshadowing the meeting was Israel's announcement that it had banned the U.N. secretary-general due to his failure to condemn Iran.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said about the decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata.

"This is an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists and murderers," Katz argued. "Guterres will be remembered as a stain on the history of the U.N. for generations to come."

Iran on Tuesday fired over 180 ballistic missiles at Israel after the death of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and after the Israel Defense Forces began focused incursions into Lebanon to hit the terrorist group.

Guterres on Tuesday issued a brief statement following Iran’s attack, calling it the "latest attacks in the Middle East" and broadly condemned the conflict as "escalation after escalation."

He also slammed Israel for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, claiming that Israel has "conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years."

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York, Sept. 27, 2024.

"The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination," Guterres said. "At the same time, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues to deteriorate, with Israeli military operations."

"Construction of settlements, evictions, land grabs and the intensification of settler attacks progressively undermine any possibility of a two-state solution, and simultaneously, armed Palestinian groups have also used violence," he said.

Hamas Leader Killed In Lebanon Was Un Employee, Agency Confirms

Israel blasted Guterres for failing to "unequivocally" condemn Iran’s attack or even name Iran while discussing the attack. Israel responded with the persona non grata declaration, effectively banning him from entering its borders.

"Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as nearly all the countries of the world have done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil," Katz said.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz waits for his British and French counterparts for a meeting, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem on Aug. 16, 2024.

"This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7 and has not led any resolutions to declare them a terrorist organization," Katz continued.

"A secretary-general who provides support to the terrorists, rapists and murderers of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran, the mothership of global terror, will be remembered as a stain on the history of the U.N. for generations to come," he added. "Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres."

And while it took nearly a day following the attacks to condemn Iran, Guterres seemed to get the message, telling council members: "As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April – and as should have been obvious yesterday in the context of the condemnation I expressed – I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attack by Iran on Israel."

Israel’s decision to ban Guterres prompted anger from Algeria, which first expressed "sincere gratitude… solidarity, admiration and support for the secretary-general."

"This decision reflects a clear disdain of the U.N. system and the entire international community," the representative from Algeria said. "For the Israeli authorities, no narrative nor truth exists except their own."

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks at the Security Council meeting, following a ballistic missile attack on Israel, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Oct. 2, 2024.

However, some permanent members of the council expressed clear support for Israel and condemned Iran for the attack while urging Tehran to cease its support for terrorism through its proxy forces.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield "unequivocally" condemned Iran’s attack and called for further sanctions against Tehran. She also explicitly tied Iran to the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, arguing that "Iran was complicit… through its funding, training, capabilities and support for the military wing of Hamas."

Israeli Military Says Regular Infantry, Armored Units Joining Limited Ground Operation In Southern Lebanon

"After Hamas's horrific attack carried out nearly a year ago today, the United States sent a clear message to Iran: Don't exploit the situation in ways that would risk propelling the region into a broader war," Thomas-Greenfield said.

"The IRGC flagrantly and repeatedly ignored this warning by encouraging and enabling the Houthis in Yemen to disrupt global shipping and launch attacks against Israel by supporting militant groups in Syria and Iraq," she continued.

The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency meeting, following a ballistic missile attack on Israel, Oct. 2, 2024.

"Iran's stated intention was to avenge the deaths of two IRGC-supported terrorist leaders and an IRGC commander by inflicting significant damage and death in Israel," she added. "Thankfully, and through close coordination between the United States and Israel, Iran failed to achieve its objectives."

"This outcome does not diminish the fact that this attack, intended to cause significant death and destruction, marked a significant escalation by Iran," she stressed.

The United Kingdom also condemned Iran’s attack and expressed "full support" for Israel "in exercising its right to defend itself against Iranian aggression."

France urged Iran to "abstain from any action that could lead to additional destabilization," going further to condemn the "attack that targeted civilians in Jaffa."

"Civilian populations are the first victims of this horrible situation," the French representative said. "The situation is serious."

Iran ultimately pleaded its case before the council, arguing that the Security Council has "remained paralyzed due to the United States obstruction" and accused permanent members France and the United Kingdom of acing as "serious enablers" of Israel who "attempt to justify Israeli heinous crimes under the guise of self-defense, shifting the blame onto Iran."

Reuters contributed to this report.

UN calls Israel's ban on its top leader a political statement in long-running rift

EDITH M. LEDERER
Wed, October 2, 2024 


UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during a Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters, Friday, Sep. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura


UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations on Wednesday called Israel’s ban on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres entering the country a political statement by its foreign minister and stressed that the world body’s contacts with Israel will continue “because they have to.”

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz deeming the U.N. chief “persona non grata” is also “one more attack on the United Nations staff that we’ve seen from the government of Israel.”

Israel’s accusations of U.N. bias and antisemitism date back decades, but the rift has intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks in the country’s south killed about 1,200 people and launched the war in Gaza. Israel’s offensive against the militant group has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters but that a little more than half were women and children.

An Israeli ground incursion in Lebanon and other attacks against Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group also backed by Iran, and an Iranian missile strike against Israel on Tuesday have threatened to plunge the Middle East into all-out war. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Wednesday on the Middle East.

Guterres didn't respond to a question about the ban as he headed to the meeting, where he demanded a halt to the escalation of “tit-for-tat violence” that he warned is leading people in the Middle East “straight over the cliff.”

Earlier in the day, Katz accused Guterres of being biased against Israel and claimed the U.N. chief never condemned the Hamas attacks and sexual violence committed by its fighters.

Dujarric strongly disagreed, saying Guterres has condemned “over and over again the terror attacks, the acts of sexual violence and other horrors that we’ve seen.”

But the Israeli government strongly objected to the secretary-general’s phrase in his initial condemnation that said Hamas’ attack didn’t happen “in a vacuum.”

Israel also has accused staff from the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, called UNRWA — the key provider of assistance in Gaza, of being Hamas members and participating in the Oct. 7 attacks and has curtailed their activities.

The U.N.’s internal watchdog has been investigating those Israeli allegations. UNRWA said Monday that a top Hamas commander killed in Lebanon was an employee who had been suspended since allegations of his ties to the militant group emerged in March.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has accused Israel of trying to destroy its operations. The agency provides education, health care, food and other services to several million Palestinians and their families.

Guterres also has accused Israel of “collective punishment” of Palestinians in its nearly yearlong military response to the Hamas attacks in Gaza, saying he has not seen so much death and destruction during his seven years as secretary-general.

Dujarric said that in his 24 years at the U.N., there have been U.N. staff declared persona non grata by a country but that he didn’t know of a secretary-general being banned.

He stressed that the United Nations has never recognized the concept being applied to U.N. staff.

Under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the practice applies to a country declaring a diplomat persona non grata — not an international organization.

“We continue our contacts with Israel at the operational level and other levels, because we need to,” Dujarric said.

PRISON NATION U$A

Justice Department finds Georgia is 'deliberately indifferent' to unchecked abuses at its prisons

BY JEFF MARTIN, KEVIN McGILL and ALANNA DURKIN
Updated Tue, October 1, 2024 

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, center, of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division speaks about a new Department of Justice report about the state of Georgia's prisons at a press conference at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in Atlanta, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. On her left is U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia and on her right are U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary for the Middle District of Georgia and U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg for the Southern District of Georgia. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)More


ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prison officials are “deliberately indifferent” to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse at state lockups, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday, threatening to sue the state if it doesn’t quickly take steps to curb rampant violations of prisoners’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel punishment.

Prison officials responded with a statement saying the prison system “operates in a manner exceeding the requirements of the United States Constitution” and decrying the possibility of “years of expensive and unproductive court monitoring” by federal officials.

Allegations of violence, chaos and “grossly inadequate” staffing are laid out in the Justice Department's grim 93-page report, the result of a statewide civil rights investigation into Georgia prisons announced in September 2021. The system holds an estimated 50,000 people.


“In America, time in prison should not be a sentence to death, torture or rape,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who oversees the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said Tuesday as she discussed the findings at an Atlanta news conference.

In its response, the Georgia Department of Corrections said it was “extremely disappointed” in the accusations. The Justice Department’s findings “reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the current challenges of operating any prison system,” the agency said.

Who's in control?

The report said large, sophisticated gangs run prison black markets trafficking in drugs, weapons and electronic devices such as drones and smart phones. Officials fight the flow of contraband through the arrest of smugglers and mass searches. “However, the constant flow of contraband underscores that these efforts have been insufficient,” the report said.

Inmate gangs have allegedly “co-opted” some administrative functions, including bed assignments, said Ryan Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. “The leadership of the Georgia Department of Corrections has lost control of its facilities."

Death behind bars

The number of homicides among prisoners has grown over the years — from seven in 2018 to 35 in 2023, the report said. The report said there were five homicides at four different prisons in just one month in 2023.

And the homicide numbers are often hard to nail down in Georgia Department of Corrections statistics, according to the report.

“GDC reported in its June 2024 mortality data that, for the first five months of 2024, there were 6 homicides, even though at least 18 deaths were categorized as homicides in GDC incident reports, and GDC assured us these suspected homicides were under investigation," the report said.

Sexual abuse allegations

Multiple allegations of sexual abuse are recounted in the report, including abuse of LGBTQ inmates. A transgender woman reported being sexually assaulted at knifepoint. Another inmate said he was “extorted for money” and sexually abused after six people entered his cell.

“In March 2021, a man from Georgia State Prison who had to be hospitalized due to physical injuries and food deprivation reported his cellmate had been sexually assaulting and raping him over time,” the report said.

Again, the true number of such assaults may be higher. Victims are often reluctant to report sexual abuse, the report noted. And the report alleged that investigations of such abuse are sometimes questionable, as in the case of an Autry State Prison inmate who reported being raped at knifepoint. “A chemical examination of a rectum swab indicated the presence of seminal fluid, and the man was found to have bruising to his anal area. Despite this, the final OPS investigative report incorrectly determined that no seminal fluid was detected, and the allegations were not substantiated.”

In pursuit of racial justice

Clarke said Tuesday that efforts to stop the violence, suffering and chaos in the Georgia prison system also figure into the pursuit of racial justice.

“We know that across the country, Black people are disproportionately represented in the prison population," she said. "And Georgia is no exception — 59% of people in Georgia’s prisons are Black, compared to 31% of the state’s population.”

What's next?

Included in the report are 13 pages of recommended short-and long-term measures the state should take. The report concludes with a warning that legal action was likely. The document said the Attorney General may file a lawsuit to correct the problems in 49 days, and could also intervene in any related, existing private suits in 15 days.

“We can’t turn a blind eye to the wretched conditions and wanton violence unfolding in these institutions,” Clarke said. “The people incarcerated in these jails and prisons are our neighbors, siblings, children, parents, family members and friends.”“

However, Clarke did not discuss possible legal action during the news conference in Atlanta. She said the Justice Department looked forward to working with Georgia officials to address the myriad problems.

“Certainly, severe staffing shortages are one critical part of the problem here,” Clarke said. “We set forth in our report minimal remedial measures that include adding supervision and staffing, fixing the classification and housing system, and correcting deficiencies when it comes to reporting and investigations.”

___

McGill reported from New Orleans; Durkin, from Washington.

Georgia prisons 'horrific and unsafe' with homicides rampant: Justice Department

Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
Tue, October 1, 2024 

Scroll back up to restore default view.


WASHINGTON – The Georgia Department of Corrections houses inmates in “horrific and unsafe conditions” in violation of the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, a Justice Department report released Tuesday alleges.

The report found the state “deliberately indifferent to these unsafe conditions” for nearly 50,000 prisoners. The constitutional violations, which the state has known about for years and failed to remedy, resulted from staffing deficiencies, the physical condition of the buildings, the management of gangs and the control of weapons and other contraband, the report found.

"Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia's state prison system," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "People are assaulted, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed. Inmates are maimed and tortured, relegated to an existence of fear, filth and not-so-benign neglect."

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke speaks during a news conference where she announced that the Justice Department will file a lawsuit challenging a Georgia election law that imposes new limits on voting, at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on June 25, 2021.

Clarke said federal officials looked forward to working swiftly with state officials to remedy the constitutional violations. But state officials denied constitutional violations and said all prison systems have problems with staffing and violence.

The Georgia Department of Corrections was “extremely disappointed” to learn about the federal accusations about the system, spokesperson Joan Heath said. Correctional staffing, violence and gang activity are problems at all prisons, including the federal Bureau of Prisons, she said.

“Contrary to DOJ’s allegations, the State of Georgia’s prison system operates in a manner exceeding the requirements of the United States Constitution,” Heath said. “Hence, DOJ’s findings today reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the current challenges of operating any prison system.”

Georgia’s prisons would cooperate with federal authorities, Heath said. But the Justice Department’s “track record in prison oversight is poor,” including monitoring Riker’s Island in New York for eight years despite employing one guard for each inmate there, she said.

The report identified hundreds of serious incidents of “systemic violence and chaos” in the prisons. In December 2023, the prisons experienced five homicides at four prisons, and other serious incidents, including numerous deaths after altercations between inmates, and a Central State Prison inmate dying from cardiac arrest after being stabbed, treated at a hospital and returning to prison.

The investigation found 142 inmates were killed in Georgia's prisons from 2018 to 2023. That homicide rate was three times the national rate during the same period.

In April 2023, Smith State Prison had two brutal assaults with one resulting in a man’s death. On April 5, an inmate was discovered dead, possibly strangled by his roommate. The local coroner noted the body was badly decomposed and had likely been dead for over two days.

Sexual violence also is a systemic problem, according to the report. Inmates reported 635 sexual-abuse allegations in 2022, the most recent year available, 639 in 2021 and 702 in 2020.

In August 2020, an inmate at Phillips State Prison was held hostage and tortured for four days, having been stabbed from behind with his eye pierced and suffering a traumatic brain injury, the report said.

“Individuals incarcerated by the Georgia Department of Corrections should not be subjected to life threatening violence and other forms of severe deprivation while serving their prison terms,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Georgia prisons 'horrific and unsafe,' violate the Constitution: DOJ
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Georgia prisons ‘deliberately indifferent’ to abuses: DOJ
Juliann Ventura
Tue, October 1, 2024 at 1:40 PM MDT·2 min read





The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday released the findings of its probe into the conditions of prisons in the state of Georgia, which it said were “inhumane” and in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.

“Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia’s state prison system,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the statement.

“Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons.”

Clarke added the department is “committed to using its authority to bring about humane conditions of confinement that are consistent with contemporary standards of decency and respect for basic human dignity.”

Georgia has the fourth highest state prison population in the U.S. According to the nearly 100-page report, the state violates incarcerated peoples’ rights by failing to protect those in medium- and close-security facilities from “widespread physical violence and subjecting incarcerated persons to unreasonable risk of harm from sexual abuse across its facilities.”

The report specifically notes that it fails to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals from sexual violence or abuse.

The report said that from 2018 to 2023, 142 people were killed in the state’s prisons. There were seven homicides in the prison system in 2018, 13 in 2019 and more than 20 every year since, according to the probe.

Within the first five months of this year, there were 18 confirmed or suspected homicides in the state’s prisons, the DOJ’s report said.

The national average homicide rate in state prisons in 2019 was 12 per 100,000 people, the report said. In Georgia’s state prisons, the rate was more than double that year, at 34 per 100,000 people, the investigation noted.

The investigation also found that in nearly all of the interviews conducted at Georgia’s state prisons in 2022 and 2023 — 16 of the 17 total — incarcerated individuals had “consistently reported that they have witnessed life-threatening violence” and that weapons are “widespread.”

The DOJ noted that it believes that “many violent incidents often go unreported when they occur in unsupervised housing units or other areas with inadequate staff supervision.”

The Hill has contacted the Georgia Department of Corrections for comment.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. 

Georgia prison conditions 'horrific and inhumane': US Justice Dept

AFP
Tue, October 1, 2024 

A Justice Department report says conditions in Georgia's prisons are 'horrific and inhumane' (Stefani Reynolds) (Stefani Reynolds/AFP/AFP)


Prisons in Georgia are plagued by assaults, murder and sexual violence and officials in the southern US state are "deliberately indifferent" to the horrible conditions, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

"Time in prison should not be a sentence to death, torture or rape," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said at a press conference releasing the findings of an investigation into Georgia's prisons.

Prisoners are confined in "horrific and inhumane conditions," Clarke said. "People are assaulted, stabbed, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed."

The Justice Department report said "the State is deliberately indifferent to these unsafe conditions" and while it has known about them for years it has "failed to take reasonable measures to address them."

Georgia has the fourth-largest incarcerated population in the United States with nearly 50,000 people behind bars in 34 state-operated prisons and four private prisons.

Georgia's prison population has more than doubled since 1990. Fifty-nine percent of the inmates in state prisons are Black while Blacks make up 31 percent of the state's population.

The report detailed a number of harrowing incidents including two brutal cases in April 2023 within days of each other at Smith State Prison.

In one incident, an inmate was found dead in his cell, possibly strangled by his roommate, the report said.

"The local coroner noted the body was badly decomposed, and the man likely had been dead for over two days," it said.

Four days earlier, an inmate was assaulted by multiple other prisoners and a video of the assault was uploaded on social media, where the victim's family saw it, the report said.

In the video, the man is seen sitting on the floor with his hands tied behind his back while a group of men punch, kick and stab him.

The Georgia Department of Corrections reported a total of 142 homicides in its facilities between 2018 and 2023.

The Justice Department probe exposed "long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard for the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons," Clarke said.

Peter Leary, US Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, said he hopes the report serves as a "wake-up call" and the department can "work collaboratively with the State of Georgia to improve these deadly conditions."

Justice Department finds unconstitutional conditions in Georgia prisons

Natasha Young
Tue, October 1, 2024 



SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV)—The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it found that conditions of confinement in Georgia’s prisons violate the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.

“Our findings report lays bare the horrific and inhumane conditions that people are confined to inside Georgia’s state prison system,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Our statewide investigation exposes long-standing, systemic violations stemming from complete indifference and disregard to the safety and security of people Georgia holds in its prisons. People are assaulted stabbed, raped and killed or left to languish inside facilities that are woefully understaffed. Inmates are maimed and tortured, relegated to an existence of fear, filth and not so benign neglect.”

The department’s 93-page report details its findings from a thorough investigation of Georgia’s state-operated and private correctional facilities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Georgia said. Georgia has the fourth-highest state prison population in the country, with approximately 50,000 people incarcerated.
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Georgia said that the report concludes that:

The State of Georgia engages in a pattern or practice of violating incarcerated persons’ constitutional rights by failing to protect individuals housed in medium- and close-security facilities from widespread physical violence and subjecting incarcerated persons to unreasonable risk of harm from sexual abuse across its facilities.

Specifically, Georgia fails to protect incarcerated persons, including persons who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI), from harm caused by sexual violence or abuse.


Critical understaffing and systemic deficiencies in physical plant, housing and classification, contraband control, incident reporting and investigations all contribute to the widespread violence.


Georgia allows gangs to exert improper influence on prison life, including controlling entire housing units and operating unlawful and dangerous schemes in and from the prisons, harming both incarcerated people and the public.

Major strike disrupts Savannah port operations as 45,000 workers nationwide demand fair wages

“These dangerous conditions not only harm the people Georgia incarcerates — it places prison employees and the broader community at risk,” Clarke said. “The Justice Department is committed to using its authority to bring about humane conditions of confinement that are consistent with contemporary standards of decency and respect for basic human dignity.”

The findings announced Tuesday are the result of the Justice Department’s civil investigation and are separate from any criminal cases brought by the Justice Department, the release said.

The Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Georgia conducted the investigation.

findings_report_-_investigation_of_georgia_prisonsDownload

Comments of Georgia U.S. Attorneys on the findings of the Justice Department:

“Individuals incarcerated by the Georgia Department of Corrections should not be subjected to life threatening violence and other forms of severe deprivation while serving their prison terms,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan for the Northern District of Georgia. “Our constitution requires humane conditions in prisons, that, at a minimum, ensure that people in custody are safe. The findings of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act investigation of the Georgia Department of Corrections reveal grave and diffuse failures to safeguard the men and women housed in its facilities, including disturbing and increasing frequencies of deaths among incarcerated people. We expect the State of Georgia to share our sense of urgency about the seriousness of the violations described in this report and to work cooperatively with the Justice Department, our office and our U.S. Attorney partners in the Middle and Southern Districts to remedy these systemic deficiencies in Georgia prisons.”

“We hope these findings are a wake-up call. Incarcerated people and staff in the Georgia Department of Corrections face unacceptable, systemic risks, and the impact affects all of our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Peter Leary for the Middle District of Georgia. “We hope to work collaboratively with the State of Georgia to improve these deadly conditions; indeed, the Constitution requires it.”

“The safety and security of Georgia’s prisons are inescapably linked to the overall safety and security of our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg for the Southern District of Georgia. “The long-term dysfunction in the management of the prison system has led to the proliferation of criminal networks inside those facilities that endanger private citizens, staff and incarcerated people and directly lead to unacceptable and avoidable violence and abuse against incarcerated people. We are committed to working with the Georgia Department of Corrections to create a safer environment inside and outside Georgia’s prisons.”

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. 

WALES

Depression and closed shops: Port Talbot residents fear impact of blast furnace closure

Jem Bartholomew

THE GUARDIAN
Thu, 3 Oct 2024, 


Tata shut blast furnace 4 at Port Talbot steel plant this week after years of heavy losses.Photograph: Dimitris Legakis/Athena/The Guardian

Steve Partridge was in sombre spirits as he set up for the Port Talbot Cymric choir’s annual concert in the “heartbreaking” atmosphere brought by the closure of the last blast furnace at the vast local steelworks this week.

A “lifer” at the plant, he is now the choir’s chair, organising the concert that will take place on Friday night in a former art deco cinema only five days after one of the most significant days in the south Wales town’s recent history.

The Port Talbot steelworks used to employ nearly 20,000 people and was “the beating heart of the town”, says Partridge, 60. But today it employs about 4,000 people – and will soon lose nearly 2,000 more from the blast furnace closure, despite the protestations of unions and £500m in government funding to construct a greener electric arc furnace.

Partridge urges the government and its Indian owner, Tata Steel, which also owns Tetley Tea and Jaguar Land Rover, to “really think about what you’re doing to the area. It’s not just facts and figures, it’s people’s lives … “[These are] young men, who thought it was a job for life … it’s devastating.

“I spent 40 years in the steelworks,” says Partridge, who retired in 2021, and whose grandfather, father, two brothers, brother-in-law, nephew and countless friends worked in the industry. “I’m lucky. I had a job for life.”

But he adds: “My nephew works there, has a mortgage, and he’s just had a second child. What’s going to happen to him? There are hundreds of them.”

After years of heavy losses, Tata shut the plant’s blast furnace 5 in July. On Monday afternoon, blast furnace 4 followed, falling quiet for the last time. The choir posted a moving tribute that Partridge, a second tenor, says has been viewed more than 40,000 times.

Steven*, a GP based in Port Talbot, says he has seen the impact on patients who have gone from secure and well-paid jobs to precarious low-wage work.

“Some of the effects that we see are not only financial … we see increased rates of alcohol use, depression, anxiety, domestic abuse, homelessness,” he says.

The symptoms often affect whole families, Steven says, with children experiencing behavioural issues or constipation amid stressful situations like mass redundancies.

In recent months, Steven says, there has been “a palpable gloom around the town”.

When Gwyneth*, 72, was growing up in Port Talbot, her father worked at what was once the biggest steel complex in Europe. “My dad used to say: ‘We make the best steel in the world’,” she says.

“The buses would be coming from all over – Swansea, Neath, Porthcawl – bringing men in.” The work gave the town a strong sense of pride and resilience, Gwyneth says, but she fears the cuts will hurt the community.

“It’s just going to be such a devastation,” Gwyneth says, adding that she is concerned for the future of other businesses – high street shops, cafes, restaurants, taxi and bus firms and more that rely on workers spending their wages locally.

“I worry for the youngsters, there’s no hope here for anybody now,” she says. “It’s such a shame. It’s an ‘ugly, lovely town’, to quote Dylan Thomas [who coined the phrase about Swansea], but it’s our town.”

People who left the area remember what the loss of a core industry can do to a region. James, a 57-year-old IT manager living in London, grew up around Maesteg, a former mining community a few miles from Port Talbot. The last Maesteg coalmine closed in 1985, when James was just leaving sixth form, and he saw the town’s rapid decline.

He recalls his headteacher telling pupils to get out of the area while they could. James returned home after his studies in about 1989. “I went back to look for jobs – I was an engineer at that point – and there was nothing,” he says. “I was earning more … working in bars in London.”

Unemployment was “brutal” in the town, he remembered, meaning all four of James’s siblings moved away – and even now, he says, Maesteg is “an economy that has not got out of second gear”. He fears the same future for Port Talbot down the road after the job cuts.

Nick Winstone-Cooper, 59, was a laboratory manager in Port Talbot steelworks during the 1990s and his job included tasks such as sampling and analysing iron ore. He says the job losses will be “devastating for the town”, as well as harming jobs among suppliers.

Port Talbot “will be ruined”, Winstone-Cooper says, noting that it has hosted an ironworks since the 13th century – but without the steel industry “the local shops and cafes will empty the town”..

“The town is built around the steelworks,” Gwyneth says. “When we come home from holiday, you come in down the M4, and when I see the steelworks I think, ‘OK, I’m home.’”

*Some names have been changed.

Starmer gives up British sovereignty of Chagos Islands ‘to boost global security’

Dominic Penna
Thu 3 October 2024 

The Chagos Islands were governed as an overseas territory of the UK 

- CPA Media Pte Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo


Sir Keir Starmer has given up the Chagos Islands, handing the Indian Ocean territory to Mauritius.

The islands were British-owned from 1814 but have now been signed away by the Government in a deal that it claimed would safeguard global security by ending a long-running dispute.

They include Diego Garcia, which hosts a strategically important US-UK military base.


A joint statement by the British Prime Minister and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth said: “Under the terms of this treaty the United Kingdom will agree that Mauritius is sovereign over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia.”

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, said in a statement on Thursday that the agreement would still secure the “vital” military base for future use.

He said: “This government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”

Demonstrators from the Chagos Islands in 2019, with the territory having been at the centre of a dispute over Britain’s decision to separate it from Mauritius in 1965 - AFP

Grant Shapps, a former defence secretary, said: “This is absolutely appalling. Surrendering sovereignty here creates read-across to other British bases. It’s a weak and deeply regrettable act from this government.”

Under Sir Tony Blair, Britain discussed a US request for permission to use Diego Garcia to house a Guantanamo Bay-style prison camp for hundreds of 500 terror detainees.

While the idea was rejected for being impractical, documents suggested the CIA may have still used the island to fly suspects to secret “black site” prisons around the world.
‘Mutually beneficial’

The agreement was welcomed by Joe Biden, the US president, who said it would lead to “peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes”.

Mr Biden said: “I applaud the historic agreement and conclusion of the negotiations between the Republic of Mauritius and the United Kingdom on the status of the Chagos Archipelago.

“It is a clear demonstration that through diplomacy and partnership, countries can overcome long-standing historical challenges to reach peaceful and mutually beneficial outcomes.

“This agreement affirms Mauritian sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, while granting the United Kingdom the authority to exercise the sovereign rights of Mauritius with respect to Diego Garcia.

“Diego Garcia is the site of a joint US-UK military facility that plays a vital role in national, regional, and global security. It enables the United States to support operations that demonstrate our shared commitment to regional stability, provide rapid response to crises, and counter some of the most challenging security threats we face. The agreement secures the effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century.

“We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Mauritius and the United Kingdom in upholding a free and open Indo-Pacific.”


UK to give up Chagos Islands sovereignty to secure future of military base

Richard Wheeler and David Hughes, PA
Thu 3 October 2024

Britain is giving up sovereignty of a remote group of islands in return for securing the long-term future of a strategically important military base.

The UK Government said it has reached a political agreement with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands, also known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, following negotiations which began in 2022.

Mauritius will assume sovereignty over the Indian Ocean archipelago while the joint US-UK military base remains on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

A group of Chagossians on a visit to Diego Garcia in April 2006 (Foreign and Commonwealth Office/PA)


The Foreign Office said the agreement means the status of the base will be undisputed and legally secure.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the “historic” agreement and said it secures the “effective operation of the joint facility on Diego Garcia into the next century”.

But Conservative leadership candidates reacted angrily, with former foreign secretary James Cleverly labelling the Government “weak” and Robert Jenrick saying there had been a “surrender”.

Chagossians were forced to leave the central Indian Ocean territory by 1973 to make way for the military base.

The expulsions are regarded as one of the most shameful parts of Britain’s modern colonial history and Chagossians have spent decades fighting to return to the islands.

The United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, previously ruled the UK’s administration of the territory was “unlawful” and must end.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “This Government inherited a situation where the long-term, secure operation of the Diego Garcia military base was under threat, with contested sovereignty and ongoing legal challenges.

“Today’s agreement secures this vital military base for the future.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the UK, as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner.”

The Foreign Office said the agreement is subject to a treaty and supporting legal instruments being finalised, adding that both sides have committed to complete this as quickly as possible.

A Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spoke to his Mauritius counterpart, Pravind Jugnauth, on Thursday morning.

The spokesman said: “The leaders began by welcoming the political agreement achieved today between the UK and Mauritius on the exercise of sovereignty over the Chagos archipelago after two years of negotiations.

“The Prime Minister reiterated the importance of reaching this deal to protect the continued operation of the UK/US military base on Diego Garcia.

“He underscored his steadfast duty to national and global security which underpinned the political agreement reached today.”


Conservative former minister Mr Jenrick said: “It’s taken three months for Starmer to surrender Britain’s strategic interests.

“This is a dangerous capitulation that will hand our territory to an ally of Beijing.”

Mr Cleverly wrote on social media: “Weak, weak, weak! Labour lied to get into office. Said they’d be whiter than white, said they wouldn’t put up taxes, said they’d stand up to the EU, said that they be patriotic. All lies!”

Fellow Tory leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat said: “This is a shameful retreat undermining our security and leaving our allies exposed.”

He said the Foreign Office had “negotiated against Britain’s interest” and it was “disgraceful that these negotiations started under our watch”.

Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, wrote on social media platform X: “This is a shameful betrayal by Labour.

“The right of self-determination of the Chagossian people has been disregarded. No territory of the Crown should be handed away without consent.

“The loyal people of all UK’s Overseas Territories will shudder at this announcement.”

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UK hands over sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius in a deal to secure US base

Associated Press

Thu 3 October 2024 at 4:42 am GMT-6·2-min read

LONDON (AP) — Britain's government said Thursday it agreed to hand sovereignty of the long-contested Chagos Islands, an archipelago of more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean, to Mauritius, in a deal that secures the future of a strategically important U.K.-U.S. military base there.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the agreement secures the vital military base at Diego Garcia, the largest in the chain of islands, for the future.

The U.K. government said without the deal the secure operation of the military base would be under threat, with contested sovereignty and legal challenges, including through various international courts and tribunals. As part of the deal, the U.K. will retain sovereignty of Diego Garcia for an initial period of 99 years.

“It will strengthen our role in safeguarding global security, shut down any possibility of the Indian Ocean being used as a dangerous illegal migration route to the U.K., as well as guaranteeing our long-term relationship with Mauritius, a close Commonwealth partner,” Lammy said.

The deal was strongly supported by international partners including the U.S., British officials said.

The agreement will have to be signed off in a treaty and is dependent on legal processes being finalized. Both sides have committed to complete this as quickly as possible

The Chagos Islands have been at the heart of what Britain calls the British Indian Ocean Territory since 1965 when they were siphoned away from Mauritius, a U.K. territory that gained independence three years later.

The U.S. Navy base at Diego Garcia was built in the 1970s and provides what American authorities have described as “an all but indispensable platform” for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.

Around 1,500 inhabitants from the Chagos Islands were displaced to make way for the U.S. base. It's unclear immediately whether they and their descendants, who are mainly living in the U.K., Mauritius and the Seychelles, will have a right to return.

In a statement, the White House said President Joe Biden applauded the “historic agreement” on the status of the Chagos Islands. It called the Diego Garcia base vital in preserving “national, regional, and global security.”