Day: September 28, 2023

More than 2,500 migrants died or went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2023, a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees official said Thursday.

“By September 24, over 2,500 people were accounted as dead or missing in 2023 alone,” Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UNHCR New York office, told the U.N. Security Council.

That number marked a large increase over the 1,680 dead or missing migrants in the same period in 2022.

“Lives are also lost on land, away from public attention,” she added.

The land journey from sub-Saharan African countries, where many of the migrants hail from, to departure points on the Tunisian and Libyan coasts “remains one of the world’s most dangerous,” Menikdiwela said.

The migrants and refugees “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step,” said Menikdiwela.

In total, some 186,000 people arrived by sea in southern Europe from January to Sept. 24, landing in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. 

The majority, over 130,000 people, arrived in Italy, marking an increase of 83% compared to the same period in 2022. 

As for departure points, between January and August of this year it is estimated that more than 102,000 refugees and migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia and 45,000 from Libya. 

An estimated 31,000 people were rescued at sea or intercepted and disembarked in Tunisia, and 10,600 in Libya, Menikdiwela said. 

The House late Thursday night overwhelmingly approved $300 million in new aid to Ukraine.

The 311-117 vote came after House GOP leaders on Wednesday stripped the Ukraine assistance from a Pentagon funding bill. All “no” votes came from Republicans.

Though it drew broad support, the funding has been a source of controversy for the past week.

The $300 million was initially included in legislation funding the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2024, which drew opposition from hardline Republicans.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters last week that he would remove the $300 million from the defense bill and hold a separate vote on the funding after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) joined a band of conservatives in sinking a procedural vote to advance the Pentagon measure.

But the Speaker backtracked one day later, announcing that he would not separate the Ukraine aid from the defense bill after realizing that the appropriations measure to fund the State Department also included assistance for Kyiv. He said it would be “too difficult” to remove the Ukraine aid from the State Department legislation, and would ultimately leave both as they were.

The House went ahead and adopted a combined rule — which governs debate on legislation — for the two measures and two other appropriations bills. Greene was the lone “no” vote.

An amendment sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) that would strip the $300 million from the legislation was voted down on Wednesday in a 104-330 vote, with all support coming from Republicans.

House Republicans also soundly rejected an amendment from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to prohibit security assistance for Ukraine in a 93-339 vote.

But late Wednesday night, amid uncertainty over whether the legislation had enough support to pass, the House Rules Committee convened a last-minute hearing to strip the $300 billion from the Pentagon bill and hold a separate vote on the funding.

Support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia has become a hot-button issue in the House Republican conference, with some lawmakers pushing to curtail assistance for Kyiv and others saying the U.S. must support its embattled ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the Capitol and met with lawmakers last week. McCarthy told reporters that Zelensky had asked to address a joint session but he declined because “we just didn’t have time.”

Officials haven’t released new information about the two models found dead days apart in their downtown Los Angeles apartments.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Senior U.S. officials said on Friday that a White House summit with a dozen Pacific Islands leaders this week was successful, and that Washington was listening to the region, not asking countries to choose between the U.S. and China.

U.S. President Joe Biden met the Pacific Island leaders for a second summit in just over a year on Monday, pledging new infrastructure investment including subsea cables, officials said, as part of a charm offensive aimed at curbing inroads by China into a region Washington considers strategically crucial.

Biden also pledged to work with Congress to provide $200 million more in funding for projects aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, spurring economic growth, countering illegal fishing and improving public health.

Dr. Mira Rapp-Hooper, National Security Council senior director for Oceania, told reporters in a teleconference from Washington on Friday that the conversations between Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pacific Island leaders were “collaborative, constructive, forward looking and I think most importantly involved an incredible amount of listening by U.S. government officials”.

The leaders of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, Nauru, Tuvalu and Palau attended the summit.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manesseh Sogavare, who has built close ties with China, said on Wednesday he skipped the summit to avoid a “lecture”.

The Biden Administration had reached out to Sogavare “at the highest levels to encourage him to join us” and were disappointed he did not attend, Rapp-Hooper said.

The top diplomat for East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink said the United States was not “asking countries to choose” between development partners, and was optimistic about U.S. partnerships in the region.

Agreements will be concluded and implemented “very soon” with three Pacific Island nations covered by so-called Compacts of Free Association, said Kritenbrink in the teleconference.

The U.S. has said it will commit a total of $7.1 billion over 20 years to the Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Marshall Islands, subject to congressional approval, and the finalisation of the Marshall Islands negotiations.

Under the agreements, due to expire on Sept. 30, the U.S. has responsibility for their defense and provides economic assistance.

Blinken held discussions with the three leaders about a plan to ensure U.S. financial obligations are met to the freely associated states if there was another shutdown of government agencies next week, Kritenbrink said.

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – The number of people crossing the perilous Darien Gap linking Panama and Colombia has hit a record high of 400,000 in the year to September, official data showed, as migration to the United States intensified despite efforts to curb the flow.

More than half of those migrants were children and babies, Panama’s security ministry said in a statement, adding that September alone saw the number of crossings increase by a fifth compared to the previous month.

The year-to-date figure of 402,300 migrants is almost double the number for the whole of 2022.

The United Nations had estimated in April that the number of migrants for the entire year would be 400,000.

Most of the migrants traversing the dangerous stretch of jungle are Venezuelans, with others from Ecuador, Haiti and other countries, Panama’s security ministry has said.

Panama announced earlier this month measures to stop the increase in migration, including deporting more people with criminal records and a decrease in the number of days some tourists are allowed to stay in the country.

These measures follow a two-month program launched in April by the United States, Panama and Colombia to tackle undocumented immigration.

Costa Rica, another transit country for the migrants, declared a state of emergency earlier this week, and its President Rodrigo Chaves said he would visit the Darien Gap in early October in an effort to contain a migrant crisis.

The United States in May rolled out a new policy to deter illegal crossings, including deporting migrants and banning re-entry for five years, as the Biden administration grappled with migration at record highs.

The tougher measures drove the border-crossing rate down some 70% initially, but the number of migrants arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico has surged recently, suggesting the early deterrent effect is wearing off.

Some African and Cuban migrants and asylum seekers heading to the United States told Reuters they were flying into Nicaragua to bypass the perils of the Darien Gap.

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Remember when certain Georgia Republican state legislators vowed to somehow magically oust Fulton County DA Fani Willis in spite of not having the votes or ability to do so, and pretty much the entire media tried to convince you that they were going to pull it off?

It obviously didn’t happen, given that Fani Willis is still standing. It was never going to happen, because in spite of all the doomsday hype, Georgia Republicans never actually gave themselves the ability to remove Willis. They only gave an independent review board the theoretical ability to remove Willis. Which meant it was never going to happen, because if they had wanted to remove her, they’d have given themselves the ability to do it.

Now things have taken an interesting turn. Georgia Republican state legislator Colton Moore, who verbally led the charge in insisting that Fani Willis would be ousted, has instead been ousted himself. Once he realized that his fellow Georgia Republicans weren’t willing to go along with pretending that Willis was going to be ousted, he turned on them, and started attacking them. Now, in response, Georgia Republican legislators have indefinitely suspended him from their caucus. This isn’t an outright expulsion, but it’s certainly an ouster.

Major media outlets on both sides spent months pointing to Colton Moore’s rhetoric as supposed proof that Georgia Republicans were indeed going to oust Fani Willis. The media certainly got their ratings out it by pretending that Willis was in danger. But in the end, math is math, and there were never even close to being enough Georgia Republicans who wanted to stick their neck out by actually trying to oust Willis. As Palmer Report said from day one, Willis’ ouster was simply never going to be a thing. And now it’s Colton Moore who’s been ousted instead.

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