Tag Archives: officials say

Lifestyle

Russia Intensifies Attacks On Ukraine, Summer Travel Season, Wildfire Forecast

Maravi Post Reporter

Ukrainian officials say Russia launched its largest airstrikes since the start of the conflict. Sunday’s attack, which killed 12 people, happened only hours before a prisoner exchange. Memorial Day is considered the unofficial start of summer and the summer travel season, but a deadly midair collision in the nation’s capital in January and reports of air traffic control outages have raised safety concerns. Also, government forecasts predict an above normal wildfire risk for some parts of the country yet cuts to the US Forest Service makes fighting fires harder.

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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Catherine Laidlaw, HJ Mai, Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lindsay Totti. We get engineering support from Damian Herring and our technical director is David Greenberg.

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To avoid conflicts with locals, Zimbabwe tracks elephants with GPS

Maravi Post Reporter

When GPS-triggered alerts show an elephant herd heading toward villages near Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, Capon Sibanda springs into action. He posts warnings in WhatsApp groups before speeding off on his bicycle to inform nearby residents without phones or network access.

The new system of tracking elephants wearing GPS collars was launched last year by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

It aims to prevent dangerous encounters between people and elephants, which are more frequent as climate change worsens competition for food and water.

“Whatever I see on the road, the spoors (tracks), whatever I come across, that’s unusual in the bush, I record it,” says Sibanda, one of the local volunteers trained to be community guardians.

For generations, villagers banged pots, shouted or burned dung to drive away elephants. But worsening droughts and shrinking resources have pushed the animals to raid villages more often, destroying crops and infrastructure and sometimes injuring or killing people.

Increasing conflicts between locals and wildlife

Zimbabwe’s elephant population is estimated at around 100,000, nearly double the land’s capacity.

The country hasn’t culled elephants in close to four decades. That’s because of pressure from wildlife conservation activists, and because the process is expensive, according to parks spokesman Tinashe Farawo.

Conflicts between humans and wildlife such as elephants, lions and hyenas killed 18 people across the southern African country between January and April this year, forcing park authorities to kill 158 “trouble” animals during that period.

Senzeni Sibanda, a local councillor and farmer is tending her tomato crop with cow dung manure in a community garden that also supports a school feeding program. “Drought is getting worse and the elephants devour the little that we harvest,” she says.

“We have a big problem with elephants, but we found them here, they use the same roads, same grazing areas and water sources. These elephants also know when our harvest is ready in the fields”, the farmer adds.

A new tactic: technology

Through the EarthRanger platform introduced by IFAW, authorities now track collared elephants in real time. Maps show their proximity to the buffer zone — delineated on digital maps, not by fences — that separate the park and hunting concessions from community land.

At a park restaurant one morning, IFAW field operations manager Arnold Tshipa monitors moving icons on his laptop as he waits for breakfast. When an icon crosses a red line, signalling a breach, an alert pings.

“Collaring helps us to understand the movement of animals within these human wildlife areas, or corridors per se,” says Tshipa, before adding: “We are going to be able to see the interactions between both wildlife and people. This then allows us to give more resources to particular areas.”

The system also logs incidents like crop damage or attacks on people and livestock by predators such as lions or hyenas and retaliatory attacks on wildlife by humans. It also tracks the location of community guardians like Capon Sibanda.

“Every time I wake up, I take my bike, I take my gadget, then I hit the road,” says Capon Sibanda. He collects and stores data on his phone, usually with photos.

His commitment has earned admiration from locals, who sometimes gift him crops or meat. He also receives a monthly food allotment worth about $80 along with internet data.

Tracking is helping – but not enough

Villagers like Senzeni Sibanda say the system is making a difference: “We still bang pans, but now, we get warnings in time and rangers react more quickly,” she says. Still, frustration lingers. Sibanda has lost crops and water infrastructure to elephant raids and wants stronger action.

Her community, home to several hundred people, receives only a small share of annual trophy hunting revenues, roughly the value of one elephant or between $10,000 and $80,000, which goes toward water repairs or fencing.

She wants a rise in Zimbabwe’s hunting quota, which stands at 500 elephants per year, and her community’s share increased. The elephant debate has made headlines.

In September last year, activists protested after Zimbabwe and Namibia proposed slaughtering elephants to feed drought-stricken communities. Botswana’s then-president offered to gift 20,000 elephants to Germany, and the country’s wildlife minister mock-suggested sending 10,000 to Hyde Park in the heart of London so Britons could “have a taste of living alongside elephants”.

Zimbabwe’s collaring project may offer a way forward.

Sixteen elephants, mostly matriarchs, have been fitted with GPS collars, allowing rangers to track entire herds by following their leaders.

But Hwange holds about 45,000 elephants, and parks officials say it has capacity for 15,000.

Project officials acknowledge a huge gap remains.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/15/04/34/05/ED_PYR_1504345_20250516045904.mp4
Lifestyle

At least seven killed by overnight floods in Mogadishu

Maravi Post Reporter

At least seven people have died in devastating overnight floods in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Local officials say torrential rain began on Friday night and lasted for about ten hours, displacing more than two hundred families. Nine houses were destroyed and six major roads badly damaged across several districts of the city.

According to the Banadir regional administration, two of the victims were women, and hundreds more have lost their homes. One father told AFP that two children died in his neighbourhood and he had never seen rain this heavy in Mogadishu. Meanwhile, another resident said people were trapped in their homes as the storm caused widespread havoc.

A UN report published in April says more than 45,000 people have been affected by flash floods in Somalia since mid-April. The Horn of Africa is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense.

In 2023, over 100 people were killed and more than a million displaced by similar flooding, linked to the El Niño weather pattern.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/56/12/07/ED_PYR_1456127_20250511053402.mp4
Lifestyle

Reports that first white South African ‘refugees’ due to arrive in US next week

Maravi Post Reporter

The first group of white Afrikaans-speaking South Africans is reportedly due to arrive in the United States early next week.

They claim to be persecuted in their home country and have been granted “refugee status” by President Donald Trump.

The US president in February signed an executive order halting all aid to South Africa, accusing the government of doing “terrible things” to Afrikaners.

He described them as the victims of “unjust racial discrimination” saying their land was being taken away from them.

Trump’s view appears to stem from a recent law that allows land expropriation without compensation in extremely rare cases.

South African officials say the policy is part of efforts to address land-ownership disparities that are one of the starkest legacies of apartheid.

A large percentage of the country’s private land is still white-owned and, in reality, not a single expropriation has taken place.

The Afrikaner ethnic group are mostly descendants of Dutch colonialists and have a long history in the agricultural sector.

They make up about 60 per cent of the country’s white minority, which itself makes up about 7.2 cent of the population.

Those that have applied to for refugee status in the United States also say they are hoping to move to escape crime, and particularly farm murders.

Police statistics show that out of 26,000 murders last year, just 44 were linked to farming communities. Crime researchers say the overwhelming majority of murder victims are black.

According to the SA Chamber of Commerce in the US, over 67,000 people have expressed interest in Trump’s offer.

The assertion that white South Africans are discriminated against has spread in far-right circles for years and been echoed by Trump’s white South African-born ally, Elon Musk.

Many prominent Afrikaners and other South Africans have shouted down the US president’s statements saying they are patently false.

Trump’s executive order came after he suspended all US refugees admissions, citing security and cost concerns.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/44/95/04/ED_PYR_1444954_20250509090835.mp4
Lifestyle

Heavy shelling over Kashmir Line of Control leaves at least 5 civilians dead

Maravi Post Reporter

Air raid sirens in Rajouri in Indian-controlled Kashmir continued into Friday morning after another night of heavy shelling between Indian and Pakistani soldiers.

The two countries have been engaged in a growing military standoff since an attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled area of the disputed region last month. Twenty-seven people including 25 Hindu tourists were killed and 20 others were injured.

Indian military officials say Pakistani forces barraged their posts overnight with artillery, mortars and gunfire at mulitple locations, leading to fiece exchanges until dawn.

A woman was killed and two other civilians were injured in Uri sector, police say, bringing the civilian death toll in India to 17 since Wednesday.

In Pakistan, across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir, at least four civilians were killed and 12 others wounded, according to local authorities.

In the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, panic spread during an evening cricket match and more than 10,000 people were evacuated from the stadium and the game called off.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/45/27/05/ED_PYR_1445275_20250509092459.mp4
Lifestyle

Tensions flare between India and Pakistan amid missile strikes and escalating rhetoric

Maravi Post Reporter

Tensions between India and Pakistan have reached their most dangerous levels since 2019, following a series of missile strikes, retaliatory threats, and mounting civilian casualties on both sides of the border.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Indian missiles struck several locations across Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. One of the most significant attacks hit the town of Muridke in Punjab province — long associated with militant networks. These strikes, targeting at least 24 sites, were launched in response to what New Delhi claims was a deadly attack on Indian tourists in Kashmir last month, allegedly carried out by Pakistan-based militants.

Indian officials say the targets were linked to internationally proscribed groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed — organisations long accused of orchestrating attacks against Indian civilians and security forces.

“The Indian government says [the strikes] are affiliated with a series of what it considers terrorist groups…responsible for a number of very high-profile attacks — most notably the 2008 attacks in Mumbai,” said Dr. Walter Ladwig, Associate Fellow at King’s College London.

In Pakistan, the response was swift. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the strikes and praised his country’s military response. Speaking before a cheering parliament, he declared: “With the grace of God…our brave forces have given a resounding response to your dirty attack and turned the darkest night into the brightest night.”

Pakistan’s military reported that at least 26 civilians — including women and children — were killed in the Indian airstrikes. Among the dead were students at a seminary in Bahawalpur and worshippers at a mosque near a former Lashkar-e-Taiba complex in Muridke.

Dr. Ladwig warned that Pakistan’s response would likely follow its long-standing strategic doctrine. “The Pakistani military has a proclaimed policy of what they call quid pro quo plus,” he explained. “Whatever India does, we will do at least that in return, but also possibly a little bit more.”

This doctrine played out visibly in 2019, when India conducted airstrikes following a suicide bombing that killed Indian paramilitary forces. Pakistan swiftly retaliated with its own airstrikes. The hope among analysts is that, as with that crisis, both sides will seek to demonstrate resolve without crossing into full-scale war.

“That would be the optimistic case here,” said Ladwig. “That the Pakistani military will respond in some way that allows them to defend or restore their honour, but that it goes no further… If not, we could quickly escalate beyond control.”

Adding to the gravity is the evolving military landscape in South Asia. While India maintains a significantly larger defence budget, Pakistan’s military modernisation has been advancing rapidly — thanks in large part to Chinese support.

“Pakistan is reported to have gained access to Chinese variants of Russian air defence systems,” said Ladwig, pointing to jointly developed fighter jets and more robust air defences. “Although Pakistan has a significantly smaller defence budget, one of its huge assets is the fact that its main weapon supplier is China — and China delivers.”

India, for its part, continues to face challenges in modernising its armed forces. Despite multiple attempts, it has struggled to finalise large-scale arms procurements, relying heavily on legacy Russian tanks and a limited fleet of French Rafale jets.

In cities across India, civil defence drills have intensified, with air raid sirens echoing through urban centres. Schools are participating in emergency simulations, and citizens are bracing for further escalation. New Delhi has named its military operation “Sindoor,” after the red powder worn by married Hindu women — a symbolic nod to those widowed in last month’s Kashmir massacre.

Meanwhile, anti-India protests have erupted across Pakistan, with chants of defiance and vows of vengeance. Pakistan’s National Security Committee has warned that it “reserves the right to respond at a time, place, and manner of its choosing.”

Diplomatic ties have fractured further. Islamabad has closed border crossings, expelled Indian diplomats, and accused New Delhi of using terrorism allegations to justify attacks on civilians.

As the region sits on edge, the spectre of nuclear conflict looms in the background. Both countries possess nuclear weapons and a history of conflict stretching back to their partition in 1947. What happens next depends heavily on Pakistan’s next move — and whether the cycle of violence can be contained before it spirals out of control.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/29/60/08/ED_PYR_1429608_20250508083933.mp4
Lifestyle

Israeli cabinet approves plans to capture all of the Gaza Strip

Maravi Post Reporter

More hardship in store for the embattled population of Gaza as the Israeli cabinet on Monday approved plans to capture the entire Palestinian enclave and stay there for an unspecified amount of time.

It also calls for hundreds of thousands of people to move to Gaza’s south and would see Israel take over aid deliveries to the devastated territory.

A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he’s “alarmed” by the Israeli decision.

Israel’s army spokesperson, Brigadier General Effie Defrin, said the objective of the operation is to “return our hostages, topple and subdue the Hamas regime”.

“These two goals are intertwined. The operation will include a broad offensive that includes moving a majority of Gaza’s population to protect it in a sterile area from Hamas,” he said.

This would likely amount to their forcible displacement and exacerbate an already dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Defrin added that the operation would include “continued airstrikes, the elimination of terrorists, and the dismantling of infrastructure”.

Details of the plan were not formally announced, and its exact timing and implementation were not clear.

Its approval came hours after the Israeli military chief said the army was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers.

An defence official said the operation would not begin until after US President Donald Trump wraps up his expected visit to the Middle East this month.

The announcement has angered the families of the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza, who fear that any extension of the conflict will endanger their loved ones.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on Monday to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, calling for a deal to release the captives.

Israel says 59 hostages remain in Gaza, although about 35 of them are believed to be dead.

Since Israel ended a ceasefire with the Hamas militant group in mid-March, it has unleashed fierce strikes on the territory that have killed hundreds.

It has captured swathes of territory and now controls roughly 50 per cent of the enclave.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

Israel’s offensive has displaced more than 90 per cent of Gaza’s population. Palestinian health officials say more than 52,000 people there have been killed, many of them women and children.

The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

Source: Africanews

https://video.euronews.com/mp4/ED/14/06/82/01/ED_PYR_1406821_20250505181909.mp4
Lifestyle

ICJ begins hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations in Gaza, West Bank

Maravi Post Reporter

A Palestinian diplomat told the United Nations’ top court on Monday that Israel is killing and displacing civilians and targeting aid workers in Gaza, in a case that Israel criticized as part of its “systematic persecution and delegitimization.”

Israel denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and did not attend the hearing at the International Court of Justice.

In The Hague, Palestinian Ambassador to the Netherlands Ammar Hijazi accused Israel of breaching international law in the occupied territories.

“Israel is starving, killing and displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives,” he told the court.

The hearings are focussed on a request last year from the U.N. General Assembly, which asked the court to weigh in on Israel’s legal responsibilities after the country blocked the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on its territory.

In a resolution sponsored by Norway, the General Assembly requested an advisory opinion, a non-binding but legally important decision from the court, on Israel’s obligations in the occupied territories to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population?”

Hearings opened as the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is nearing collapse. Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian supplies since March 2. It renewed its bombardment on March 18, breaking a ceasefire, and seized large parts of the territory, saying it aims to push Hamas to release more hostages. Despite the stepped-up Israeli pressure, ceasefire efforts remain deadlocked.

The World Food Program said last week its food stocks in the Gaza Strip have run out, ending a main source of sustenance for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as many families are struggling to feed their children.

What will happen in the court?

The United Nations was the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian representatives. In total, 40 states and four international organizations are scheduled to participate.

The United States, which voted against the U.N. resolution, is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.

The court will likely take months to rule. But experts say the decision, though not legally binding, could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid to Israel and public opinion.

“Advisory opinions provide clarity,” Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia, told The Associated Press. Governments rely on them in international negotiations and the outcome could be used to pressure Israel into easing restrictions on aid.

Whether any ruling will have an effect on Israel, however, is unclear. Israel has long accused the United Nations of being unfairly biased against it and has ignored a 2004 advisory ruling by the ICJ that found its West Bank separation barrier illegal.

While Israel was not in court, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hit back at the case.

“I accuse UNRWA, I accuse the U.N., I accuse the secretary-general and I accuse all those that weaponized international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday, South Africa, a staunch critic of Israel, will present its arguments. In hearings last year in a separate case at the court, the country accused Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza — a charge Israel denies. Those proceedings are still underway.

Israel’s troubled relations with UNRWA

Israel’s ban on the agency, known as UNRWA, which provides aid to Gaza, came into effect in January. The organization has faced increased criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who claim the group is deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that claim.

On Monday, Amir Weissbrod, a Foreign Ministry official, presented Israel’s case against UNRWA. He accused it of failing to act before the war against evidence that Hamas had used its facilities, including by digging tunnels underneath them. The official said UNRWA employed 1,400 Palestinians with militant ties. Israel says some of those employees also took part in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and Weissbrod said at least three of those employees still worked for the U.N. The presentation included videos, documents and pictures of the alleged employees.

The Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and set off the war in Gaza. UNRWA said it fired nine staffers after an internal U.N. investigation concluded that they could have been involved, although the evidence was not authenticated and corroborated.

The Israeli ban doesn’t apply directly to Gaza. But it controls all entry to the territory, and its ban on UNRWA from operating inside Israel greatly limits the agency’s ability to function. Israeli officials say they are looking for alternative ways to deliver aid to Gaza that would cut out the United Nations.

UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel during the war surrounding Israel’s creation the previous year until there is a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The agency has been providing aid and services — including health and education — to some 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Israel’s air and ground war has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Source: Africanews

Lifestyle

Trump On TikTok Ban, N. Korean Soldiers in Ukraine, Obesity Drug Shortage Ends

Maravi Post Reporter

President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay implementation of the law banning TikTok. Western officials say North Korean soldiers are dying in high numbers along the Ukrainian front. The FDA says Zepbound is no longer in shortage, raising its cost.

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U.S. Asylum Rule Change, Gaza Aid Pier, Haiti Update

Maravi Post Reporter

The Biden administration has proposed a change to immigration laws meant to discourage people from crossing the border illegally. An American-built floating pier off the coast of Gaza is nearly ready — and U.S. officials say it will help increase the flow of aid into the war zone. And two months after armed gangs took control of the capital of Haiti the country may finally be starting to stabilize.

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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelley Dickens, Vincent Ni, Tara Neill, Ben Adler, Lisa Thomson and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Destinee Adams and Kaity Kline. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent and our technical director is Stacey Abbott. Our executive producer is Erika Aguilar.

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