WAR IS RAPE

Russia's war on Ukraine: Sexual violence as a weapon of war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said investigators had received reports of "hundreds of cases of rape" in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children. Russian troops have been accused of widespread atrocities across the country, particularly in areas around Kyiv from which they have now withdrawn. The UN has called for an independent investigation into these allegations. For more insight, FRANCE 24 is joined by Hillary Margolis, Senior Researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. "What we would hope is that [the investigation] would entail very well-trained and experienced investigators who are accustomed to documenting this kind of crime that's highly sensitive and that does often entail a significant degree of trauma." In addition to sexual violence, Human Rights Watch is also investigating other types of war crimes: "We are always looking into a wide range of abuses in any conflict," explains Ms. Margolis, "including summary executions, which we've already documented and published, to cases of torture, to use of particular weapons, and any kinds of atrocities against civilians in conflict."

Mass graves and destruction in Bucha and Hostomel

Now that Russian troops have withdrawn, Kyiv's suburbs are being cleared of mines – and bodies are being exhumed. DW's Alexander Savitsky reports from Hostomel and Bucha, where journalists have been granted access again.

Kyiv's northwestern suburbs of Bucha and Hostomel are in ruins

It is an eerie scene. Hostomel was one of a group of pleasant suburbs on the northwestern edge of Kyiv. Now, following the withdrawal of Russian troops, its streets are empty. The first blossom is on the trees, spring birdsong is in the air – but there is also the creaking of broken metal lampposts, and the barking of stray dogs that have lost their owners. The asphalt is strewn with fallen electricity pylons and decimated fences. With every step, broken glass crunches underfoot.

There are burnt-out houses, garages, and cars everywhere. Many of the buildings are five-story apartment blocks – the majority now have no roof. Shooting and shock waves have shattered the windows. On one of the remaining balconies, some laundry flutters in the wind, abandoned in the panic of the Russian invasion. In all the time we – a group of journalists – are in Hostomel, the only other people we see are one man and one woman, middle-aged, who turn toward the press buses with hope in their eyes.

Hostomel suffered significant destruction

Antonov Airlines: A dream destroyed

Hostomel airport, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Kyiv, was the main hub of Antonov Airlines. It is known for its cargo planes, which include the biggest aircraft in the world: the Antonov An-225 "Mriya" – "Dream." The road to the airport has been badly damaged by shelling. A billboard with a portrait of the aircraft designer Oleh Antonov, after whom the cargo and passenger plane manufacturing company is named, remains undamaged. There is a great deal of burned-out Russian military equipment scattered about the airfield. Shells have gouged craters in the earth. After days of bombardment, the doors, walls and roofs of the hangars are riddled with holes.

All that remains of the only An-225 "Mriya" are its nose cone and wings, with the remains of the six engines. The enormous aircraft's burnt-out interior is visible through a gaping hole in the middle. We journalists are allowed to take photos of the uncanny sight, but we can't get too close to the debris, as the airfield is still littered with heavy machine gun cartridges and unexploded ordnance. "The experts will only be able to inspect the plane and establish the cause of the fire once the area has been cleared," says Ukraine's minister of internal affairs, Denys Monastyrskiy, who is accompanying us.

After fierce battles at the airport of Hostomel, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture it

Hostomel: Defended, but deserted

Monastyrskiy says the Russian invaders occupied the airfield on the very first day of the assault on Kyiv, February 24. Dozens of Russian helicopter gunships flew in very low over the Kyiv reservoir, so as to be invisible to radar. The first 500 Russian paratroopers then landed in Hostomel. "The Ukrainian defenders succeeded in shooting down six enemy helicopters in an extremely brutal battle," the minister says. He tells us that hundreds of paratroopers were killed, and the Ukrainian military, using rocket launchers, also wiped out one of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's elite units with all its equipment.

Monastyrskiy says the Russians subsequently sent such massive reinforcements that they were able to take the airport and the town. The intention, the minister says, was for Hostomel to serve as a landing place for Russian forces that would conquer and occupy Kyiv. However, the Ukrainians had blown up the runway, and eventually, after more fierce battles, they forced the invaders to retreat. "But Kyiv is not out of danger," Monastyrskiy says. "We are preparing for the possibility of fresh attacks."

Many civilians were shot dead with sniper rifles or machine gun fire

Bucha: Bodies must be identified

Hostomel and Bucha are directly adjacent: Only a town park marks the administrative boundary between the two. But the difference now is astonishing. Just one week after Bucha was liberated from Russian occupation, there is life in the town again. We see people and civilian cars; more houses here are intact than in Hostomel. Here too, though, damaged buildings, wrecked supermarkets, and roadblocks are reminders of the recent battles.

And the peaceful impression is deceptive. The images of bodies on the streets of Bucha are still fresh in the mind, not only for the town's inhabitants but for people all over the world. Even as municipal services are busy clearing the streets, graves are also being dug up, providing more and more evidence of the murder of civilians.

The press bus stops at an Orthodox church. Beside it, bodies are being exhumed from a deep pit. The workers are wearing white protective suits, while the dead lie in black plastic sacks. The priest says many people from Bucha who had lost contact with members of their family are fearfully watching the opening of the graves. "They're hoping that they won't find their relatives among the dead. They're hoping that perhaps they've been taken prisoner, or are in hospital, but have at least survived." The body bags are open, the faces of the dead visible; by now, though, most of them have turned black.

The dead are being exhumed from mass graves to identify them

Andriy Nebytov from the National Police, Kyiv region, tells the reporters that, so far, 40 people have been found in the grave beside the church. A municipal employee got permission from the Russian occupiers to collect the bodies from the streets of the town. "We are now handing over the corpses to forensic experts," Nebytov says. "Many have bullet wounds to the head or on their bodies. We can say that they were targeted and shot with machine guns or sniper rifles."

The police chief says that, with the exception of two military personnel, the dead are male and female civilians of different ages. "In addition to these 40 bodies, more than 400 from the entire Kyiv region have been taken to forensic institutions," says Nebytov. "More than 360 of these are from Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin." And the search is not over yet: "Many people were buried in gardens, because they couldn't be taken to the graveyards during the shelling," he explains.

This article has been translated from Russian.                            

Ukraine war: Russia blocks ships carrying grain exports

Up to 300 ships have been stopped by Russian forces from departing the Black Sea, leaving one of the key global trade routes for grain virtually blocked. The fertile region is known as "the world's breadbasket."





Russia's Navy is blocking scores of ships, many carrying grain exports, from leaving the Black Sea

Wheat exports from Ukraine and Russia, which make up a vital part of the world's food supply are still being blocked by Russia from leaving the Black Sea, Germany's largest agricultural trader BayWa said this week.

"Zero [grain] is currently being exported from the ports of Ukraine — nothing is leaving the country at all," Jörg-Simon Immerz, head of the grain trading at BayWa, told dpa news agency.

He added that the export activity on the Russian side is "very limited."

Immerz's assessment was backed up by the Panamanian Maritime Authority, who said on Wednesday that the Russian Navy was preventing 200-300 ships from leaving the Black Sea — most of them were carrying grain. Other reports suggest around 100 vessels are blocked.

Noriel Arauz, the administrator for the authority, said three Panamanian-flagged ships have come under Russian fire since the invasion of Ukraine started. One of the ships sank and two others were damaged, while no one was injured.

British newspaper The Guardian reported that several other ships have been struck since the invasion began on February 24, including from Bangladesh and Estonia, which killed one person.

Russia blames the stoppage on the high risk of mines, which it said had been laid by the Ukrainian Navy.

Food security threatened

Questions have been raised about how much grain Ukraine will be able to produce this year due to the conflict. At the same time, Russia has vowed to retaliate against Western sanctions that have crippled its economy.

Curbs on wheat and fertilizer exports are presumed to be high on Moscow's list, which could have further consequences for the world's food supply and food price inflation.

Russia produces close to 80 million metric tons of wheat a year and exports close to 30 million tons, while Ukraine exports about 20 to 25 million tons a year.


BayWa's Immerz said the entire market is following Ukraine's exports more than Russia's as they are currently deemed to be more at risk.

"The wheat was sown in the fall and now needs to be fertilized," Immerz said. "The corn hasn't even been sown yet, and if that can't be sown, of course, there will be no crop."

Days after the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged farmers to begin the sowing season as normal, where safe to do so.

BayWa, meanwhile, believes there is no reason to fear a wheat shortage as much more wheat is harvested in the EU than is consumed.

"The EU exports about 30 million metric tons of wheat annually, and Germany is also an exporter in normal years," Immerz said. But that is not true for all types of grain. "We rely on imports for corn," he added.


The port of Odessa (pictured) is one of the main departure points for Ukraine's grain exports
Africa's food needs vulnerable

Meanwhile, a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has warned about the impact of the war on the food situation in Africa.

Between 2018 and 2020, Russia accounted for nearly a third of wheat imports to the continent, while around 12% come from Ukraine.

The UNCTAD report said up to 25 African countries, especially the least developed economies, relied on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine.

The lack of spare capacity in Africa limits the chances of offsetting any lost supplies, while surging costs for fertilizer will be an extra burden for farmers, the UN warned.

Meanwhile, rising costs for shipping and for grains and other staple foods are pushing prices higher, hitting the poorest people the hardest, the report said.

Safe shipping corridors needed

The United Nations' International Maritime Organization (IMO) has called for so-called blue corridors to allow the ships to leave the Black Sea without the risk of attack or hitting a mine.

"The ongoing military action in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov presents a serious and immediate threat to the safety and security of crews and vessels operating in the region," IMO said in a statement released earlier this week.

"The seriousness of the situation is underlined by a growing number of open-source reports of security incidents involving merchant shipping," it added.

IMO is currently liasing closely with all key stakeholders in the region to "contribute to attempts to address the safety and security of shipping" in the Black Sea region.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

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 EU uses development aid to strongarm Africa on migration

EU development programs like the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa prioritize curbing migration over fostering development, critics say. How does the EUTF square with the stated aims of the European Union's aid policies?

As the EU tries to curb irregular migration to Europe, development aid gets co-opted for leverage

In raw numbers, the European Union and its members provide the most development aid in the world, about €75 billion in 2019 alone. About one-third of that aid currently goes to Africa. With historical inequities keeping African nations at a disadvantage in negotiations, EU countries often use development funds as levers for their own political agendas. In recent years, migration control has been at the forefront of these efforts.

Africa has been the focus of Western European development policy since the precursors to the EU were established in the 1950s. With large parts of Africa still colonized by the inheritor states of the European empires, structures such as the European Development Fund aimed to continue the development policies of the former empires, historian Sara Lorenzini said: "The idea was to build European-style welfare states in the colonies and for Europe to retain geopolitical weight as a third force during the Cold War."

As African nations started to gain independence in the 1960s, development policies allowed European countries to maintain their influence on the continent.

Development aid is still a geopolitical tool

Political agendas continue to shape where aid goes — and which projects get prioritized. "The main agenda in Africa continues to be geopolitical," said Jan Orbie, the director of the Centre for EU Studies at Ghent University. "In the past 10 years, development policy has become more connected to migration, to energy policy, to trade."

Data on official development aid collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows, for example, that EU institutions and member states spend a lot more of their development aid north of the Sahara than other donors do — often in countries considered the origin or transit states for migrants who make their way to the European Union.

One instrument that exemplifies the European Union's focus on migration control is the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which just concluded its six-year funding period. After large numbers of irregular migrants reached the European Union in 2015, EU policymakers were eager to prevent a repeat. A result of the ensuing negotiations was the now roughly €5 billion in "emergency" project funding for the EUTF, largely redirected from existing development funds. Its purpose was to dispense money quickly — without much parliamentary oversight and the bureaucracy it would bring. "The trust fund illustrates that the EU can act very quickly, efficiently and cohesively when it wants to," Orbie said. "Whether that's a good thing is another question."

Success defined as fewer Africans arriving in EU

The funds are officially meant to "address root causes of irregular migration" in the recipient countries. But the priority of policymakers seems to be to prevent migrants from arriving at EU borders, as an Oxfam report found. In one board meeting, the head of the Directorate General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Christian Danielsson, happily asserted how the EUTF for Africa had "confirmed its value in supporting an effective management of migration flows from, to and within" North Africa.

The Oxfam report also found that most of the funding goes to development cooperation projects in nations perceived as countries of origin for migrants, while transit countries receive more money for migration management projects. Only about 1% of the EUTF, €56 million, was spent on fostering legal pathways for African migrants.

€5 billion isn't much compared with total aid volume 

The fund's total volume may not seem like much: €5 billion in funding commitments, spread over five years and about 30 recipient countries. Between 2016 and 2020, the time period for which the OECD provides complete data, official development aid donors committed over $1.7 trillion (€1.6 trillion) to these countries, with about one-third of that coming from the European Union and its member states.

But the EUTF often goes hand in hand with other funds managed by the European Union and its member states — and the political interests behind them. Refusing to cooperate with one program might disadvantage recipient countries when it comes to future funding.

And the money from the EUTF still makes a difference in individual countries. The fund makes up more than a third of the total EU development money that goes to Sudan and Libya, which also receive among the highest absolute sums from the EUTF.

Even countries with more diverse funding sources can be susceptible to political pressure from the European Union. "African countries now have to negotiate about migration so that they can get aid, they can gain access to foreign currency and other diplomatic support," said Mehari Taddele Maru, a professor at the Migration Policy Centre and formerly the program coordinator for migration at the African Union Commission.

In 2017, for example, the European Union negotiated a deal with Ethiopia to accelerate the return of nationals deported from EU countries, voluntarily or involuntarily. The European Council attributes Ethiopia's cooperation to "the financial instruments ... in particular the EU Trust Fund." Records on EUTF projects show that Ethiopia was allocated funding at first in December 2016. Then funding flows stopped for almost the entire year of 2017. Days after the agreement had been reached, €14 million in EUTF funding for "stimulating economic opportunities and job creation for refugees and host communities in Ethiopia" was approved. The country has now received more than €300 million from the fund.

"The government was cash-starved, so they agreed," Mehari said. "The same with Niger, Nigeria and others: The hardening of borders is happening in Africa because of European intervention." 

A study by the German Development Institute suggests that this is particularly the case in West Africa, where EU programming tends to hinder free movement — even within the region. On the Horn of Africa, in contrast, EU interventions tend to support projects that allow people to move freely within the region.

From 'emergency' to steady flows: The future of EU aid spending on migration

At the end of 2021, the EUTF for Africa stopped accepting new projects. And the European Union is restructuring its development spending. A range of schemes, including the EUTF, will now be combined in one big fund: the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI).

It spans €80 billion for the funding period from 2021 to 2027, 10% of which is designated for migration-management programs. "There were political objectives to have a prominent figure and a clear focus on migration governance," said Anna Knoll, the head of the migration program at the European think tank ECDPM. The acute feeling of emergency guiding EU policymakers in 2015 has passed, but Knoll said the NDICI would likely continue some of the current trends: The European Union retains a strong focus on controlling migration, and it continues to use aid funds as a tool to further EU interests in Africa. 

Edited by: Milan Gagnon 
 
This project is a collaboration among several media outlets in the European Data Journalism Network. While DW was project lead, Voxeurop, Openpolis and OBCT were contributing partners. 

Palestinian rights lawyer killed in Israel West Bank clashes




Israeli troops clash with Palestinians in Nablus after entering the West Bank city with Jewish builders to carry out repairs at a flashpoint religious site (AFP/-)


The brother of Palestinian lawyer Muhammad Hassan Muhammad Assaf mourns over his body during the funeral in the village of Kafr Laqif near Qalqilya in the northwest of the occupied West Bank 

(AFP/JAAFAR ASHTIYEH)\

Israel has poured in additional forces and is reinforcing its wall and fence barrier with the occupied territory after four deadly attacks have claimed 14 lives in Israel, most of them civilians, in the past three weeks (AFP/JACK GUEZ)


Jaafar Ashtiyeh with Daniella Cheslow in Tel Aviv
Wed, April 13, 2022

A Palestinian lawyer was killed Wednesday, the fifth day of Israeli raids in the West Bank following deadly attacks in the Jewish state, amid heightened tensions after a flashpoint religious site was vandalised.

Israel has poured in additional forces and is reinforcing its wall and fence barrier with the occupied territory after four deadly attacks have claimed 14 lives in Israel, most of them civilians, in the past three weeks.

Violent clashes erupted in the West Bank city of Nablus where Israeli forces were escorting a work crew that came to repair Joseph's Tomb, which is sacred to Jews and which was smashed in an act of vandalism last weekend.

Israeli troops racing through the city's streets in an armoured convoy opened fire as a crowd pelted them with rocks and incendiary devices.

"Hundreds of Palestinians instigated a violent riot, burned tyres and hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers" who responded with "riot dispersal means and live ammunition," the army said.

The Palestinian health ministry said human rights lawyer Muhammad Hassan Muhammad Assaf, 34, "died after being shot in the chest by the Israeli occupation army during the aggression on the city of Nablus".

The Israeli army did not confirm its forces had shot the lawyer, whose death brought to 16 the number of Palestinian fatalities in the ongoing escalation.

- 'On the offensive' -

Witnesses told AFP Assaf was standing by the roadside, having just taken his nephews to school, when he was hit by a bullet as Israeli forces fired while pulling out of Nablus.

Assaf was mourned as a "fierce defender of his people" by his employer, the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh charged that Israeli soldiers "murder for the sake of murder, with a license granted by the prime minister of the occupying state, Naftali Bennett, without the slightest regard for international law".

Bennett has warned that Israel is now "on the offensive" and determined to arrest militant suspects.

The latest major attack Israel suffered was a shooting rampage last Thursday in Tel Aviv that claimed three lives and wounded over a dozen more. The gunman, from Jenin, died in a shootout with Israeli forces following an all-night manhunt.

The Israeli army said Wednesday it also carried out "counterterrorist operations" in the Palestinian militant bastion of Jenin and other West Bank cities.

In the city of Tulkarem, Israeli border police said they shot and wounded "a suspect in terrorist activity" who fled special forces trying to arrest him.

Violence flared near Joseph's Tomb as Israeli forces escorted the Jewish settler construction crew sent in to repair the damaged site.

- 'Restore the honour' -

Bennett had vowed on Sunday that "we will not abide such an assault on a place that is holy to us -- on the eve of Passover", the Jewish festival.

The operation's commander could be heard in a video telling his soldiers that "we get to restore the honour to this land and the people of Israel", and that they would enter the site "as sons of kings".

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported 31 people wounded around the Nablus site and a nearby village, including 10 hit by live rounds.

The holy site, where Jews say the Biblical patriarch Joseph is buried, is a frequent flashpoint between Israelis and Palestinians. It was partially destroyed in 2000 during a Palestinian uprising and also torched in 2015.


Palestinian authorities consider the wider site an Islamic archaeological monument where a revered cleric was buried two centuries ago.

The clashes have come during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and ahead of the start of Passover Friday, an overlap that can heighten tensions around sacred sites in Jerusalem's Old City.

Last year Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, fired rockets toward Jerusalem following disturbances at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, setting off a devastating 11-day war.

dac/jjm/fz/lg

With M16s and Telegram, West Bank militants vow to resist Israel

AFP - The Nation press
2022-04-13 | 

Palestinian children burn tyres following an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on April 12, 2022(AFP)

Armed with M16 rifles and encrypted messaging apps, Palestinian militants are resisting Israeli forces in Jenin, the West Bank home of the gunman behind last week's deadly Tel Aviv shooting rampage.

Heaps of car tyres are piled high, to be turned into burning road barricades next time the Israeli army jeeps roll in for another incursion into this long-time bastion of resistance to occupation.

"Who are you?" Khaled asks a visiting AFP team through his car window, while on guard duty outside the flashpoint Jenin refugee camp. "What are you doing here? Are you Israelis?"

His job is to be on the lookout outside the town of 13,000 for Israeli forces, and pass on any sightings to the heavily armed fighters hidden deep within the camp, a concrete maze of narrow alleyways.

After Israel has suffered a three-week wave of attacks that has claimed 14 lives and appalled the nation, its army has focused its response on this restive camp since Saturday.

But Jenin is determined to resist.

Israel's aim is to apprehend relatives and supporters of the 28-year-old Tel Aviv shooter, Raad Hazem, the camp's new "hero" who killed three Israeli civilians, and wounded over a dozen more in Tel Aviv last week.

Huge images celebrating Hazem -- who was shot dead after a massive manhunt -- adorn the walls. Sometimes, they are plastered over yellowing pictures of "martyrs" since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, of the early 2000s.

Since the Tel Aviv attack, seven young Palestinians from Jenin, including armed fighters, have been killed in Israeli raids.

If Israel, bereaved by the attacks on its soil, has "gone on the offensive", as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowed, then the fighters of Jenin are orchestrating a defence of their own.



A masked spokesperson of the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, a faction 

affiliated to the Fateh movement, is pictured holding a M16 assault rifle 

in the West Bank town of Jenin on April 12(AFP)


- Fear of covert units -


"We're here defending all of Jenin, all of its villages," said another guard, who did not give his name to avoid being targeted by Israel.

"If there's any problem, if the army is coming in, on Telegram you'll get a message -- 'the army is in this area, in that area' -- and we gather to defend our country," he said.

Another guard, who used the pseudonym Mohammed, said "we try to identify unknown cars and strangers and relay this information on Telegram.

"We are afraid of the mistaravim -- Israeli units who pretend to be people from our country, who speak Arabic and dress like us. We fear they will be admitted to Telegram groups and share false information."

Over the past few days, the Israeli security services have demanded that the father of Hazem surrender, threatening a larger operation if he doesn't.

On Sunday, soldiers opened fire on the car of the gunman's brother, Hamam Fathi Hazem.

Since then, Hazem's father has gone into hiding.

Hamam is also in hiding, but he gets out on occasion, to drive the camp's narrow streets in a battered car that is decorated with posters of his late brother.

"Sometimes I hide, sometimes I go out. If the Israelis catch me it will be God's will," he whispered, pointing to a bullet hole in his car from a near-miss at the weekend.



Map locating Jenin, in the West Bank.(AFP)


- 'Martyr, prisoner or disabled' -

Modern weapons circulate widely in the camp, and the fighters are ready for battle, says a masked spokesman of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, a faction affiliated to the Fatah movement, and whose movement coexists with the Islamists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

M16s and similar assault rifles looted from Israeli supplies trade for around 15,000 euros ($16,200) here.

"The combat units are deployed in the streets and alleys of the camp," the spokesman said. "The camp is full of weapons.

"We confirm our commitment inside the camp to repel this occupation through all means and all combat tactics," he added, a checked keffiyeh scarf across his face and an automatic weapon in his hand.

Jenin has seen intense battles before. In April 2002, bloody urban warfare with Israeli forces left dozens dead and much of the camp reduced to rubble.

Twenty years later "nothing has changed" for the young people here, said Ahmed Tobasi, director of a performance space in the camp, the Freedom Theatre.

"There is a constant state of frustration", said the 37-year-old, who lost many friends in the 2002 siege.

"I'm not married, and today I'm thinking about whether I want to bring children into this," he said.

"Today, as a child in Jenin camp, you grow up knowing my future is limited to three choices: become a martyr, a prisoner, or disabled".

UK Tory MPs hold Johnson's political fate in their hands


Joe JACKSON
Wed, 13 April 2022,


Recent polling suggests many people are still angry at Johnson over the 'partygate' affair 

(AFP/Tolga Akmen)

Boris Johnson has survived the initial fallout from becoming the first British prime minister to be fined for breaking the law, but his long-term position remains precarious, analysts said Wednesday.

The embattled UK leader offered a "full apology" Tuesday after being penalised for breaching Covid lockdown laws by attending a brief celebration of his birthday in 2020, but defied calls to resign.

However, the so-called "partygate" scandal shows little sign of abating.

Johnson faces further possible fines as police continue their probe into numerous rules-breaching events in Downing Street, while his ruling Conservatives look set to be punished in local elections next month.

And once police have concluded their investigation, a senior civil servant's detailed report on the scandal will be published in full, which seems likely to increase the political pressure.

Once-mutinous Conservative MPs have in recent weeks rallied around their leader as the war in Ukraine and the growing cost-of-living crisis diverted attention away from the furore.

But commentators are questioning whether Johnson, 57, can maintain that support if he is repeatedly fined, his party fares poorly in the May 5 nationwide polls and further lurid details of parties emerge.

"A lot more fines and a lot more headlines might change the view of more voters and that in turn might change the mind of Conservative MPs if they do very badly in the elections," Anand Menon, a politics professor at King's College London, told AFP.

"He's clearly willing and able to brazen some things out in a way other, earlier prime ministers probably weren't... I don't think he's superhuman, though."

- 'His fate' -

Johnson's position was hanging by a thread earlier this year following a stream of controversies since last summer that culminated in "partygate" and an increasingly rebellious mood among his MPs.

Several Conservative lawmakers publicly withdrew their support for his leadership, with more reportedly writing letters of no-confidence in him to the party's 1922 Committee.

If the grouping of backbenchers receives at least 54 such letters from Johnson's 360 MPs, it would spark a confidence vote and his possible removal as leader.

"Boris Johnson will remain PM so long as he... retains the confidence of the Conservative group of MPs," Robert Hazell, of University College London's Constitution Unit, explained.

"It is they who will decide his fate."

Johnson is expected to face lawmakers when they return from their Easter break next week to explain why he repeatedly insisted in the House of Commons that no lockdown rules had been broken.

Knowingly misleading parliament is a breach of government ministers' code of conduct, which states they should resign as a result.

Hannah White, of the Institute for Government think tank, told the BBC that Johnson's refusal to do so "puts us in a very difficult situation".

"If it is now henceforth precedent that if you break the law as a minister, you don't automatically have to resign, that's... quite a difficult precedent to have been set," she said.

- 'Anger' -

White noted that Johnson was hoping voters' anger over "partygate" had dissipated.

But Britons across the country made huge sacrifices during the pandemic, including not being able to attend loved one's funerals. Opinion polls suggest that many remain furious at the behaviour in Downing Street.

A snap survey Tuesday by YouGov found 57 percent of respondents thought Johnson should resign after having been fined.

"They are able to see that Boris Johnson has done a good job on Ukraine but that anger about 'partygate' has continued throughout the entire time," James Johnson, a Conservative pollster, told BBC radio.

"I think we're going to see this really light that anger up all over again," he said. It would be "deluded" to think the Tories could avoid fallout from the scandal at the ballot box, he added on Twitter.

London Metropolitan Police, which is conducting the "partygate" probe, said Tuesday over 50 fines had been issued so far. The initial March 29 announcement had referred to just 20.

Johnson's wife Carrie and finance minister Rishi Sunak have also been fined, and the British leader attended several more of the events under investigation.

That has led to a widespread expectation that more fines are imminent -- possibly as voters head to the polls in three weeks.

Sebastian Payne, the Financial Times' Whitehall editor, predicted that a poor Conservative electoral performance paired with the prime minister being fined again could be "the final straw" for its lawmakers.

"If they see electoral evidence that things are not going in their direction and that the 'partygate' situation is causing them to lose votes, that could change their thinking," he told BBC News.

jj/jwp/jj

Amnesty accuses Mali of impunity over stalled war crimes cases

 

Amnesty International accused Malian authorities Wednesday of making little progress in investigating war crimes or civilian abuses in the Sahel state, arguing that "impunity still prevails" in such cases. In a report, the rights group said that instances of war crimes and violence against civilians had risen since 2018, particularly in conflict-torn central Mali. Ousmane Diallo, Researcher at Amnesty International Office for West and Central Africa, speaks to FRANCE 24.

California start-up sending tiny robots on fantastic voyage into brains

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Sending miniature robots deep inside the human skull to treat brain disorders has long been the stuff of science fiction—but it could soon become reality, according to a California start-up.

Bionaut Labs plans its first clinical trials on humans in just two years for its tiny injectable robots, which can be carefully guided through the brain using magnets.

"The idea of the micro robot came about way before I was born," said co-founder and CEO Michael Shpigelmacher.

"One of the most famous examples is a book by Isaac Asimov and a film called 'Fantastic Voyage,' where a crew of scientists goes inside a miniaturized spaceship into the brain, to treat a blood clot."

Just as cellphones now contain extremely powerful components that are smaller than a grain of rice, the tech behind micro-robots "that used to be science fiction in the 1950s and 60s" is now "science fact," said Shpigelmacher.

"We want to take that old idea and turn it into reality," the 53-year-old scientist told AFP during a tour of his company's Los Angeles research and development center.

Working with Germany's prestigious Max Planck research institutes, Bionaut Labs settled on using magnetic energy to propel the robots—rather than optical or ultrasonic techniques—because it does not harm the human body.

Magnetic coils placed outside the patient's skull are linked up to a computer that can remotely and delicately maneuver the micro-robot into the affected part of the brain, before removing it via the same route.

The entire apparatus is easily transportable, unlike an MRI, and uses 10 to 100 times less electricity.

'You're stuck'

In a simulation watched by AFP, the robot—a metal cylinder just a few millimeters long, in the shape of a tiny bullet—slowly follows a pre-programed trajectory through a gel-filled container, which emulates the density of the human brain.

Once it nears a pouch filled with blue liquid, the robot is swiftly propelled like a rocket and pierces the sack with its pointed end, allowing liquid to flow out.

Inventors hope to use the robot to pierce fluid-filled cysts within the brain when clinical trials begin in two years.

If successful, the process could be used to treat Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a rare brain malformation affecting children.

Sufferers of the congenital ailment can experience cysts the size of a golf ball, which swell and increase pressure on the brain, triggering a host of dangerous neurological conditions.

Bionaut Labs has already tested its robots on large animals such as sheep and pigs, and "the data shows that the technology is safe for us" human beings, said Shpigelmacher.

If approved, the robots could offer key advantages over existing treatments for brain disorders.

"Today, most brain surgery and brain intervention is limited to straight lines—if you don't have a straight line to the target, you're stuck, you're not going to get there," said Shpigelmacher.

Micro-robotic tech "allows you to reach targets you were not able to reach, and reaching them repeatedly in the safest trajectory possible," he added.

'Heating up'

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year granted Bionaut Labs approvals that pave the way for clinical trials to treat Dandy-Walker Syndrome, as well as malignant gliomas—cancerous brain tumors often considered to be inoperable.

In the latter case, the micro-robots will be used to inject anti-cancer drugs directly into brain tumors in a "surgical strike."

Existing treatment methods involve bombarding the whole body with drugs, leading to potential severe side effects and loss of effectiveness, said Shpigelmacher.

The micro-robots can also take measurements and collect tissue samples while inside the brain.

Bionaut Labs—which has around 30 employees—has held discussions with partners for the use of its tech to treat other conditions affecting the brain including Parkinson's, epilepsy or strokes.

"To the best of my knowledge, we are the first commercial effort" to design a product of this type with "a clear path to the clinic trials," said Shpigelmacher.

"But I don't think that we will be the only one... This area is heating up."This start-up is building tiny injectable robots to attack tumors

© 2022 AFP

'Screwed' either way: Macron-Le Pen presidential duel leaves young Mélenchon voters cold

Bahar MAKOOI 
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French far-leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday fell just short of advancing to the presidential run-off, leaving far-right flagbearer Marine Le Pen to challenge Emmanuel Macron again for France's top job. But among 18-to-25 year-olds, it was Mélenchon, 70, who won the night with 29 percent of their vote. What his supporters do next will be critical on April 24. FRANCE 24 met with students north of Paris who voted for Mélenchon. None were keen to help re-elect Macron, even against the far right.

© AFP/File

"Macron or Le Pen, we're screwed in any case. For my first election, I'd hoped for better," mused Esteban, one hand in his pocket, the other resting against a Vélib bike-share stand outside Paris 8-Saint-Denis University, north of the French capital. Voting in Sunday's first round, the 18-year-old cast his vote for Mélenchon. "It was the vote closest to my convictions. I'm not going to lie to you: It makes me lose hope in a better world, or at least one with more social progress," he lamented after his candidate's narrow defeat.

The film student is waiting for a professor who asked his class to come in despite the strike action under way, unrelated to the dramatic contest for the Élysée Palace. The university's entrance is blocked off by a chain of bins linked together. It's 2pm and the picketing students have left their morning posts. The school had decided anyway to close for the day. The posters and flyers in the bins shed light on the strikers' demands: "The presidency of the university refuses to register students fleeing the war in Ukraine. There are still 23 students without residency papers that the school is refusing to admit!"

'Blank ballot or Le Pen vote'

Esteban's friend Bruno (not his real name) wants to talk, too. He jumps in to finish his mate's sentences. An 18-year-old student from Paris, Bruno hails from a very politically aware family, he explained. "My grandfather was a Communist member of the French Resistance and my father was steeped in that culture," he boasted. "I especially do not want to see Macron in power again, so for the second round I'm hesitating between casting a blank ballot and voting Le Pen. Marine Le Pen is better than Macron on social issues. And Macron, after all, put cabinet ministers in office who conducted far-right policies," Bruno said, accusing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin of hardline repression.

Esteban concurred. He resents the incumbent for going back on his environmental promises. "There was yet another report [by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] recently saying we have three years to take action on climate change," he explained. Neither friend said he could identify with the run-off candidates' stances on environmental issues.

"However, I find the protectionism that Marine Le Pen is proposing more interesting than Macron's ultra-liberalism," Bruno said. Having a far-right National Rally leader as president of France doesn't scare him, he explained. "The zero immigration policy doesn't work, it can't be applied. It's obvious. Even Macron hasn't managed to see through deportations. It'll be like it was for Donald Trump – did you know he deported fewer migrants than Barack Obama had?"

'I'll have to pick up Le Pen's platform'

"I don't like Macron and the favours he does for his mates on the sly, like for his friends at McKinsey," Esteban said, citing the consulting firm the French government has hired for its services, not without controversy, adding yet another line to the student's laundry list of grievances.

The French financial prosecutor's office on March 31 opened a preliminary probe against the US consulting firm McKinsey over possible tax fraud. But neither student is reserving their judgement in the meantime. "He doesn't leave anything to chance," Esteban said of Macron. "He's someone who seeks to profit from everything."

While he is certain not to vote for Macron, Esteban begins expressing doubts about voting for Le Pen over the course of the conversation. "I'll have to pick up Marine Le Pen's platform anyway to see what ballot I put in the box," he said.

Esteban is comfortable talking politics with his mother, who strings together odd jobs in the south of France. "My mother is an actress. She's over 50, but she is a waitress, a home-care worker. She serves lunches in school canteens to earn a wage because she had problems with getting [the unemployment insurance agency] to recognise her status as a temporary entertainment worker," he explained, with a worried look. "She voted for Mélenchon and she'll cast a blank ballot in the second round."

'I'll still go to the ballot box'

Not everyone shares their parents' politics, though. Nineteen-year-old Lilou, for one. Waiting outside the university for her film professor, too, she explained choosing Mélenchon in the first round, initially for his environmental proposals. "In my family, votes were always kept secret. But I think my parents voted for Macron," she said, before hesitating. "Which candidate proposed raising the minimum pension?" she asked. The topic is front and centre in Lilou's family; everything rests on her father's pension. "My mother stopped working at the age of 25 to raise my sister, my brother and me," she explained.

For Lilou, one worry is money. "Macron wants students to pay for university, to raise registration fees. That won't be possible," she said. While that proposal does not actually feature clearly in Macron's campaign platform, it was attributed to him in January after remarks he made to a conference of university presidents, saying "we will not be able to remain lastingly in a system where higher education has no price for the near-entirety of students". The comment set off fierce reactions from student unions, after which the incumbent went back on his equivocal remarks. "When one wants to fight students' economic insecurity, one doesn't raise registration fees," he said later that month. But to hear Lilou tell it, fears remain.

One thing is certain: Lilou won't be voting for Macron. "I'll still go to the ballot box. It's important. But since I don't like either of the candidates, I prefer not to take part in this vote. I will cast a blank ballot," she explained.

Clinging to leftist hopes for parliament

More students are arriving outside the shuttered university. A group is due to attend a political science talk on preventing inequality, set to take place outdoors in a nearby square.

Before joining the rest of the group, one student shared her disappointment with a reporter. She voted for Mélenchon and said she refuses to cast a Macron ballot in the April 24 run-off. "It would be lending him legitimacy, when he didn't manage to stand in the way of the rise of the far right. Quite the opposite," she contended. "I'm angry with him for his increasingly repressive politics, for the police violence he couldn't put a stop to, for his disdainful line against the poorest people," she said.

The 21-year-old prefers to sit out the second-round vote, she said. But she is anxious for the next election after that: French voters go back to the polls on June 12 and 19 to elect their lower-house National Assembly lawmakers. "I'm clinging to the legislative elections to get a left-wing majority. I will have no relief before I'm sure we can counter the future president's power," she said, before turning to join her friends.

This article has been translated from the original in French.