LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May backed calls on Tuesday for her former foreign minister Boris Johnson to apologize for disparaging comments he made about Muslim women wearing burqas - but he branded his critics “ridiculous.”
May said his remarks “have clearly caused offense” and agreed with the chairman of her Conservative party, Brandon Lewis, who had asked Johnson to apologize.
“I do think that we all have to be very careful about the language and terms we use. And some of the terms Boris used describing people’s appearance obviously have offended,” the prime minister said.
“What’s important is do we believe people should have the right to practice their religion and, in the case of women and the burqa and niqab, to choose how they dress.”
In a column in Monday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said women wearing the full face veil looked like “bank robbers” or “letter-boxes,” prompting accusations of Islamophobia.
But the former top diplomat, who has a reputation for causing controversy and quit May’s cabinet last month in protest at her Brexit plan, refused to back down.
“It is ridiculous that these views are being attacked — we must not fall into the trap of shutting down the debate on difficult issues,” a source close to Johnson told reporters.
“We have to call it out. If we fail to speak up for liberal values then we are simply yielding ground to reactionaries and extremists.”
In his article, Johnson said he opposed a ban on face-covering veils, but added that it was “absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter-boxes.”
His remarks drew condemnation from former colleagues.
Junior foreign minister Alistair Burt told the BBC: “I would never have made such a comment, I think there is a degree of offense in that, absolutely right.”
Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi, a former party chairwoman, accused Johnson of adopting the “dog-whistle” tactics of right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s former top aide.
Johnson has been in direct communication with Bannon in recent months, according to media reports.
Warsi said Johnson was hoping to attract support from right-wing Conservatives for an eventual leadership bid, and called for an independent inquiry into Islamophobia in the party.
“It is crass and it must stop, and it must be condemned by the leadership right from the prime minister down.”
But Johnson received support from some quarters, with Conservative MP Nadine Dorries saying he “did not go far enough.”
“Any clothing a woman is forced to wear which hides both her beauty and her bruises should be banned and have no place in our liberal, progressive country,” she said.
UK politician Boris Johnson draws ire with burqa comments
UK politician Boris Johnson draws ire with burqa comments
- Prime Minister Theresa May calls on Johnson to apologize
- Johnson said he opposed banning burqas, but described them as looking like 'letter boxes’
January was 1.75C hotter than pre-industrial times: EU monitor
- Climate scientists announced the unexpected warming as human-caused greenhouse gas emissions crank up the global thermostat
- Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of warming above 1.5C increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts
PARIS: Last month was the hottest January on record, Europe’s climate monitor said Thursday, despite expectations that cooler La Nina conditions might quell a streak of record-breaking global temperatures.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said January was 1.75C hotter than pre-industrial times, extending a persistent run of history-making highs over 2023 and 2024, as human-caused greenhouse gas emissions crank up the global thermostat.
Climate scientists had expected this exceptional spell to subside after a warming El Nino event peaked in January 2024 and conditions gradually shifted to an opposing, cooling La Nina phase.
But the heat has lingered at record or near record levels ever since, sparking debate among scientists about what other factors could be driving heating to the top end of expectations.
“This is what makes it a bit of a surprise... you’re not seeing this cooling effect, or temporary brake at least, on the global temperature that we were expecting to see,” Julien Nicolas, a climate scientist from Copernicus, told AFP.
La Nina is expected to be weak and Copernicus said prevailing temperatures in parts of the equatorial Pacific Ocean suggested “a slowing or stalling of the move toward” the cooling phenomenon.
Nicolas said it could disappear completely by March.
Clear sign the limit was being tested
Last month, Copernicus said that global temperatures averaged across 2023 and 2024 had exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius for the first time.
This did not represent a permanent breach of the long-term 1.5C warming target under the Paris climate accord — but a clear sign that the limit was being tested.
Scientists warn that every fraction of a degree of warming above 1.5C increases the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events like heatwaves, heavy rainfall and droughts.
Copernicus said Arctic sea ice in January hit a monthly record low, virtually tied with 2018. Analysis from the US this week put it at the second-lowest in that dataset.
Overall, 2025, is not expected to follow 2023 and 2024 into the history books: scientists predict it will rank the third hottest year yet.
Copernicus said it would be closely monitoring ocean temperatures throughout 2025 for hints about how the climate might behave.
Oceans are a vital climate regulator and carbon sink, and cooler waters can absorb greater amounts of heat from the atmosphere, helping to lower air temperatures.
They also store 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by humanity’s release of greenhouse gases.
“This heat is bound to resurface periodically,” said Nicolas.
“I think that’s also one of the questions — is this what has been happening over the past couple of years?“
Sea surface temperatures have been exceptionally warm over 2023 and 2024, and Copernicus said readings in January were the second highest on record.
“That is the thing that is a little puzzling — why they remain so warm,” Nicolas said.
The culprit: burning fossil fuels
Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next.
But natural warming cycles like El Nino could not alone explain what had taken place in the atmosphere and seas, and answers were being sought elsewhere.
One theory is that a global shift to cleaner shipping fuels in 2020 accelerated warming by reducing sulfur emissions that make clouds more mirror-like and reflective of sunlight.
In December, another peer-reviewed paper looked at whether a reduction in low-lying clouds had let more heat reach Earth’s surface.
“It’s really still a matter of debate,” said Nicolas.
The EU monitor uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations to aid its climate calculations.
Its records go back to 1940, but other sources of climate data — such as ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons — allow scientists to expand their conclusions using evidence from much further in the past.
Scientists say the period being lived through right now is likely the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years.
Trump is targeting antisemitism in schools. Experts fear other civil rights will be ignored
WASHINGTON: The federal office that enforces civil rights at schools across the US has been ordered to target complaints of antisemitism above all else as it molds to President Donald Trump’s agenda, raising fears that other rights violations will go unpunished.
Trump’s new leader of the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights told staff this week they will be expected to aggressively pursue complaints involving antisemitism and hew closely to Trump’s wishes, according to sources who were on the call with Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
Already there are signs of a hard turn on civil rights enforcement, including new actions focused squarely on anti-Jewish bias and transgender issues.
Responding to a White House order last week, the office launched new antisemitism investigations at five universities including Columbia and Northwestern. Days earlier, it opened an inquiry into Denver public schools over an all-gender bathroom that replaced a girls’ bathroom while leaving another one exclusive to boys.
The office’s fleet of lawyers have mostly been sidelined while the new administration shifts priorities. Daily work has been frozen, which is typical when a new president takes office, but sources say there’s a new blackout on communication with schools, colleges or those submitting complaints. Questions about how to enforce Title IX go unanswered, leaving schools in the dark as they navigate a new memo from the agency last week.
The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
In the staff call, Trainor said the office must be more aggressive and faster than it was under former President Joe Biden. He accused the previous administration of neglecting its duty to fight antisemitism, leaving more than 100 cases open. Trump has called for a review of all antisemitism cases opened since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, including those resolved under Biden.
With a rigid focus on antisemitism and gender identity, there’s fear the office won’t give adequate attention to racial discrimination, mistreatment based on disability, or Islamophobia. The office is required to process all complaints it fields, but politics can play a role in setting priorities and choosing which cases to pursue.
Raymond Pierce, who led the office under Democratic President Bill Clinton, said focusing on antisemitism alone doesn’t fulfill the mission of the office — to enforce civil rights laws.
“Antisemitism is an issue,” he said. “But the Civil Rights Act is broader than just religion.”
In a statement, Trainor promised his office “will vigorously investigate all alleged violations of civil rights laws within its purview.”
Trainor had also warned staff of a coming “restructuring” and acknowledged that Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is examining the Education Department. It raised worries about staffing cuts in a civil rights office that has seen dwindling numbers even as it received a record 22,687 complaints last year.
Additionally, there’s concern Trump in his quest to shut down the Education Department will slash the office’s budget and move it to the Justice Department, as suggested in the Project 2025 blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The impact of Trump’s changes are most likely to be felt by Black students and those who are disabled, according to lawyers and advocates. For decades, the Office for Civil Rights has worked to force equal access for marginalized students, said Derek W. Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina.
If the office finds merit in a complaint, it has the power to withhold federal funding until schools or states comply.
“Are there local and state officials who want to do right by kids? Of course, there are,” Black said. “But are there districts that don’t think it’s a big deal or don’t want to do right by poor kids? Unfortunately, there are.”
Historically, most complaints to the department have involved disability discrimination, but last year accusations of sex discrimination surged to account for more than half of all complaints, according to an annual report. Disability discrimination accounted for 37 percent, while discrimination over race or national origin accounted for 19 percent.
In addition to its duty to investigate complaints, the office creates federal rules to interpret federal law for schools and colleges. That role has been at the center of a political tug-of-war over Title IX, with recent administrations repeatedly rewriting the rules governing investigations of campus sexual misconduct.
The Biden administration issued new rules last year expanding Title IX to protect transgender and LGBTQ+ students, and boosting victims’ rights. A federal judge overturned the rules in January, reverting to a previous set of rules from Trump’s first term.
In a memo to schools and colleges last week, the Office for Civil Rights emphasized that the earlier Trump rules would be enforced, but it created confusion about how to handle cases that were opened when Biden’s rules were in effect. With no communication from the department, there has been little clarity for schools.
There are also questions about how antisemitism investigations will change. Trump has used heated rhetoric to push for more aggressive action against colleges found to have tolerated antisemitism, and Trainor blasted the Biden administration for signing “toothless” agreements to resolve cases. No new guidance has been issued to lawyers who investigate cases.
As the office awaits orders to resume its work, it faces a growing backlog of complaints.
Before Trump took office, there were more than 140 open investigations involving shared ancestry, many of them dealing with antisemitism or Islamophobia. The Biden administration opened more than 100 investigations after Oct. 7, 2023. A flurry of schools reached deals to settle the cases before Trump took office amid fears that he would issue heavier sanctions.
Trump’s demand that US aid workers return home sparks outrage in Washington and anxiety overseas
- USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Musk’s budget-cutting team target federal programs they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda
- Supporters of USAID from both the GOP and Democrats say USAID's work overseas is essential to countering the influence of Russia, China and other adversaries and rivals abroad
WASHINGTON: Frustration boiled over Wednesday among supporters of the United States’ lead aid agency at a Washington rally, and anxious aid workers abroad scrambled to pack up households after the Trump administration abruptly pulled almost all agency staffers off the job and out of the field.
The order issued Tuesday followed 2 1/2 weeks that have seen the Trump administration and teams led by billionaire ally Elon Musk dismantle much of the US Agency for International Development, shutting down a six-decade mission intended to shore up US security by educating children, fighting epidemics and advancing other development abroad.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been touring Central America on his first visit in office, defended the administration’s broad shutdown of aid funding and other actions while saying, “Our preference would have been to do this in a more orderly fashion.”
But, Rubio said, the administration faced a lack of cooperation in an attempt to review the worth of each agency program. He gave no evidence, and agency staffers deny his and Musk’s claims of obstruction. As a result, Rubio said, the administration would now “work from the bottom up” to determine which US aid and development missions abroad were in the national interest and would be allowed to resume.
“This is not about ending foreign aid. It is about structuring it in a way that furthers the national interest of the United States,” he said in the Guatemalan capital of Guatemala City.
In Washington, Democratic lawmakers and hundreds of others rallied outside the Capitol to protest the fast-moving shutdown of an independent government agency. “This is illegal and this is a coup,” California Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs cried.
“We are witnessing in real time the most corrupt bargain in American history,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen shouted to supporters at the rally, referring to Musk, his support for President Donald Trump and his role in challenging USAID and other targeted agencies.
“Lock him up!” members of the crowd chanted. Addressing Democratic lawmakers, who have promised court battles and other efforts but have been unable to slow the assault on USAID, they said: “Do your job!”
Scott Paul, a director at the Oxfam American humanitarian nonprofit, said the damage already done meant that key parts of the global aid and development system would have to be rebuilt “from scratch.”
Jennifer Kates, senior vice president and director of the global health and HIV policy program at KFF, cited one large organization alone that expects to close up to 1,226 maternal and child-care clinics serving more than 630,000 women.
“The health care system is not one that you just press on and off,” Kates said. If the US shutdown lays off staffers and closes those clinics, “you can’t just say, ‘All right, we’re ready to start again. Let’s go.’”
USAID has been one of the agencies hardest hit as the new administration and Musk’s budget-cutting team target federal programs they say are wasteful or not aligned with a conservative agenda.
US embassies in many of the more than 100 countries where USAID operates convened emergency town hall meetings for the thousands of agency staffers and contractors looking for answers. Embassy officials said they had been given no guidance on what to tell staffers, particularly local hires, about their employment status.
A USAID contractor posted in an often violent region of the Middle East said the shutdown had placed the contractor and the contractor’s family in danger because they were unable to reach the US government for help if needed.
The contractor woke up one morning earlier this week blocked from access to government email and other systems, and an emergency “panic button” app was wiped off the contractor’s smartphone.
“You really do feel cut off from a lifeline,” the contract staffer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of a Trump administration ban forbidding USAID workers from speaking to people outside their agency.
USAID staffers and families had already faced wrenching decisions as the rumored order loomed, including whether to pull children out of school midyear. Some gave away pet cats and dogs, fearing the administration would not give workers time to complete the paperwork to bring the animals with them.
Despite the administration’s assurances that the US government would bring the agency’s workers safely home as ordered within 30 days, some feared being stranded and left to make their own way back.
Most agency spending has been ordered frozen, and most workers at the Washington headquarters have been taken off the job, making it unclear how the administration will manage and pay for the sudden relocation of thousands of staffers and their families.
The mass removal of thousands of staffers would doom billions of dollars in projects in some 120 countries, including security assistance for Ukraine and other countries, as well as development work for clean water, job training and education, including for schoolgirls under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
The online notification to USAID workers and contractors said they would be off the job, effective just before midnight Friday, unless deemed essential. Direct hires of the agency overseas got 30 days to return home, the notice said.
The United States is the world’s largest humanitarian donor by far. It spends less than 1 percent of its budget on foreign assistance, a smaller share of its budget than some countries.
Hundreds of millions of dollars of food and medication already delivered by US companies are sitting in ports because of the shutdown.
Health programs like those credited with helping end polio and smallpox epidemics and an acclaimed HIV/AIDS program that saved more than 20 million lives in Africa have stopped. So have programs for monitoring and deploying rapid-response teams for contagious diseases such as Ebola.
South African Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told Parliament on Wednesday that officials scrambled to meet with US Embassy staff for information after receiving no warning the Trump administration would freeze crucial funding for the world’s biggest national HIV/AIDS program.
South Africa has the world’s highest number of people living with HIV, at around 8 million, and the United States funds around 17 percent of its $2.3 billion-a-year program through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. The health minister did not say whether US exemptions for lifesaving care affect that work.
Democrats and others say the USAID is enshrined in legislation as an independent agency and cannot be shut down without congressional approval. Supporters of USAID from both political parties say its work overseas is essential to countering the influence of Russia, China and other adversaries and rivals abroad, and to cementing alliances and partnerships.
In Istanbul on Wednesday, Hakan Bilgin sat in the downsized office of his medical-care nonprofit, surrounded by half-unpacked boxes and worried colleagues. Days ago, Doctors of the World Turkiye received an unexpected stop-work order from USAID, forcing them to close 12 field hospitals and lay off over 300 staff members in northern Syria.
“As a medical organization providing lifesaving services, you’re basically saying, ‘Close all the clinics, stop all your doctors, and you’re not providing services to women, children and the elderly,”’ Bilgin said.
Ukraine wants partner countries to join in postwar development worth billions
- Ukraine has “huge potential” to become a guarantor of energy security in Europe by buying liquefied natural gas from the United States
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine wants to collaborate with partner countries on postwar projects worth billions of dollars not just in mining rare earth elements, but also in energy and construction sectors to help rebuild the country, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Wednesday.
Sybiha responded to comments by President Donald Trump who said Monday that he wanted to gain access to Ukraine’s valuable rare earth materials as a condition for continuing support for its war against Russia.
Ukrainian officials have said Russia wants to get its hands on Ukraine’s vast natural resources.
Kyiv intends to offer “guarantees of the presence of major businesses in Ukraine and the vested interests of our closest allies — the United States — in developing these (rare earth) deposits and ensuring their protection,” the foreign minister said.
But cooperation should not be limited to rare earth materials, Sybiha said in a news conference alongside visiting UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Ukraine has “huge potential” to become a guarantor of energy security in Europe by buying liquefied natural gas from the United States and storing it in its massive underground tanks for later distribution, he said.
Sybiha also said there was “joint interest” from Ukrainian and American businesses in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, estimated to cost more than $400 billion. “This will be one of the largest projects of this century and, accordingly, one of the largest opportunities for our allies.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky said in an interview broadcast Tuesday night that the war has killed 45,100 Ukrainian troops. The fighting also has injured close to 390,000 troops, he told Piers Morgan Uncensored on YouTube.
On Dec. 8, he said Ukraine had lost some 43,000 soldiers on the battlefield and 370,000 wounded.
Russia hasn’t given its number of killed since September 2022, seven months after its all-out invasion.
If the US stops sending vital military aid, that could also jeopardize European support, Zelensky said in the interview. “Without a doubt, we cannot do without this kind of (Western) support,” he said.
Zelensky said Wednesday that the United States must be part of any Western troop deployment to safeguard a peace deal with Russia and shield against another invasion. Sending only European troops would not be enough, he said.
“Because this is not just a matter of numbers, it is about sharing responsibility and ensuring security guarantees. This cannot be done without the United States of America,” he said at a news conference with Lammy.
Ukrainian forces are slowly losing ground, especially in eastern areas, where they are being pushed backward by their bigger foe.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Wednesday that Russian troops had captured the villages of Baranivka in the eastern Donetsk region and Novomlynsk in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Baranivka’s capture is part of Russia’s effort to envelop Pokrovsk, a key road and rail hub whose loss would compromise a wider area of defense, while the seizure of Novomlynsk is part of Russia’s onslaught toward Kupiansk, another important train junction.
Ukraine keeps hitting the Russian military’s rear areas and supply lines in an effort to disrupt the creeping advance.
Ukraine’s Army General staff claimed Wednesday that Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia overnight, setting it on fire.
According to the General Staff, the oil refinery and petroleum product manufacturing plant supplies gasoline and diesel to the Russian army.
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, claimed that fragments of a downed Ukrainian drone hit an oil tank at an oil depot in the village of Novominskaya early Wednesday, sparking a fire.
The fire was put out shortly after and there were no injuries, emergency officials said.
Russian diplomat says US must make first step to improve ties
- Relations between Russia and the United States have plunged to lows not seen in decades due to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine
The United States must make the first move in improving ties with Russia after years of failing to listen to the Kremlin and misguided policies intended to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow, a senior Russian diplomat said on Wednesday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said it was wrong to base a foreign policy on the need to “come to an agreement with the White House at any price.”
Relations between Russia and the United States have plunged to lows not seen in decades due to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
But since the election and inauguration of Donald Trump, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has made a point of describing the US president as smart and pragmatic and said he would like to meet him soon.
In a commentary on the Foreign Ministry website, Ryabkov said the Kremlin had long sought to be a partner with the West, “but no one was listening or, in theory, wanted to listen.
“And that is because the underlying aim was to weaken the geopolitical rival to the maximum,” he said.
Russia, he said, had regained “its lawful place in world geopolitics by frustrating the plans of Joe Biden’s administration ... to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Moscow in a hybrid war ‘to the last Ukrainian.’“
“Against the background of this failed policy and with the change of administration, it is the United States that must take the first step in normalizing relations on the basis of mutual respect and equal rights,” Ryabkov wrote.
Ryabkov said Russia was “open to dialogue and ready to reach agreement through hard bargaining while taking account of realities on the ground ... So it is up to D. Trump and his team to make a decision.”
PRELIMINARY CONTACTS
Russia’s ambassador to Britain, Andrei Kelin, quoted by the RIA news agency, described the contacts between the White House and the Kremlin as “very preliminary.” RIA said Kelin told ITV news that the discussions were “only to assess positions, to determine the boundaries of what is possible.”
Putin has said any talks on ending the war in Ukraine must take account of the realities of Russia holding large chunks of Ukrainian territory.
He has also questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a negotiating partner, saying he has remained in office beyond his mandate.
Zelensky, in his nightly video address, spoke of further diplomatic efforts with Washington to advance peace efforts.
“We are significantly intensifying our contacts with the American administration,” he said. “And we also have quite meaningful contacts with other partners.”
Trump has pledged to end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible and said he is ready to meet Putin.
Russian officials have denied any direct contacts with the US about preparations for a phone call between the two leaders as a first step to an eventual meeting later this year.
Two Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters this week that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit.
