US repositioning forces in Niger after military junta tells French troops to leave

Colonel Eric Bometon (R), commander of the "Detachement Air" (DetAir) of the Operation Barkhane, an anti-terrorist operation in the Sahel, and Commander Paul (2nd R) present an US-made drone Reaper bought by the French army on June 9, 2015 in the French army base in Niamey, Niger. (AFP / File Photo)
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Updated 08 September 2023
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US repositioning forces in Niger after military junta tells French troops to leave

  • Washington's 1,100 military personnel in Niamey have largely remained on bases after the Niger military takeover
  • Niger has been a key base for both American and French anti-jihadist operations

WASHINGTON: The United States is moving some of its troops from a base in Niger’s capital Niamey — where rebel officers seized power in a July coup — to another in the Agadez area, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Washington has some 1,100 military personnel in the country, but the Defense Department says they have largely remained on bases while curtailing activities such as joint training after the military takeover in Niger.
The United States “is repositioning some of our personnel and some of our assets from Air Base 101 in Niamey to Air Base 201 in Agadez,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told journalists.
“There’s no immediate threat to US personnel or violence on the ground,” she said, describing the move as a “precautionary measure.”
A “small group” of personnel will remain at Air Base 101 following the move, which is currently ongoing, Singh said.
She also said “some non-essential personnel and contractors” had previously departed the country.
Niger has been a key base for both American and French anti-jihadist operations, and the repositioning of US troops comes after a French defense ministry source said Paris was holding holds talks with Niger on withdrawing “elements” of its presence there.

There have been days of rallies calling for Niger’s former colonial ruler to remove its forces, and military-appointed Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine said earlier this week that “contacts” were under way about a “very swift” departure for Paris’ troops.
But Singh said there is “no tie” between the US move and “what the French military is doing right now.”
Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum was toppled on July 26 by some members of his guard and was detained along with his family.
The West African bloc ECOWAS has taken a hard line on Niger following a cascade of coups in the region, threatening to use force to restore civilian rule.
Troops took power in Mali and Burkina Faso, where like Niger, losses among the armed forces are surging in the face of a long-running jihadist insurgency.
A putsch also took place in Guinea in 2021 after the country’s octogenarian president, Alpha Conde, ran for a third term in office, a move that opponents said breached constitutional limits.
Echoing past US comments, Singh expressed hope for a negotiated solution to the situation in Niger.
“We are hopeful that diplomatic talks will continue and that the situation in Niger will be resolved diplomatically,” she said.


Two killed, 28 wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv: Ukraine official

Updated 8 sec ago
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Two killed, 28 wounded in Russian strikes on Kharkiv: Ukraine official

KYIV, Ukraine: Russian strikes on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv killed two people and wounded 28 early Wednesday, the mayor said.
“Seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs  were carried out in two districts of the city this night,” Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Telegram, later adding: “There is information about two dead already.”


Northern Ireland town hit by ‘racially motivated’ riot

Updated 12 min 52 sec ago
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Northern Ireland town hit by ‘racially motivated’ riot

  • “This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said
  • Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday

BALLYMENA, United Kingdom: Northern Irish police said Tuesday that 15 officers were injured in clashes after “racially motivated” attacks sparked by the arrest of two teenagers for the attempted rape of a young girl.
The unrest in the town of Ballymena, some 30 miles  northwest of Belfast, erupted Monday night after a vigil in a neighborhood where an alleged serious sexual assault happened on Saturday.
“This violence was clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police,” Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said.
Tensions in the town, which has a large migrant population, remained high on Tuesday, as residents described the scenes as “terrifying” and told AFP those involved were targeting “foreigners.”
Two teenage boys, charged by police with the attempted rape of a teenage girl, had appeared in court Monday, where they asked for a Romanian interpreter, local media reports said.
The trouble began when masked people “broke away from the vigil and began to build barricades, stockpiling missiles and attacking properties,” police said.
Houses and businesses were attacked and three people had to be evacuated, the Police Service of Northern Ireland  said, adding it was investigating “hate attacks.”
Security forces also came under “sustained attack” with petrol bombs, fireworks and bricks thrown by rioters, injuring 15 officers including some who required hospital treatment, according to the force.
One 29-year-old man was arrested and charged with riotous behavior, disorderly behavior, attempted criminal damage and resisting police.
Four houses were damaged by fire, and windows and doors of homes and businesses smashed.
Cornelia Albu, 52, a Romanian migrant and mother-of-two who lives opposite a house targeted in the attacks said her family had been “very scared.”
“Last night it was crazy because too many people came here and tried to put the house on fire,” Albu, who works in a factory, told AFP.
“My family was very scared,” she said, adding she would have to move but was worried she would not find another place to live because she was Romanian.
A 22-year-old woman who lives next door to a burnt-out house in the same Clonavon neighborhood said the night had been “terrifying.”
“People were going after foreigners, whoever they were, or how innocent they were,” the woman, who did not want to share her name for security reasons, told AFP.
“But there were local people indoors down the street scared as hell.”
Northern Ireland saw racism-fueled disorder in August after similar riots in English towns and cities.
According to Mark, 24, who did not share his last name, the alleged rape on the weekend was “just a spark.”
“The foreigners around here don’t show respect to the locals, they come here, don’t integrate,” said Mark.
Another man was halfway up a ladder, hanging a Union Jack flag in front of his house as a “precaution — so people know it’s not a foreigner living here.”
“Ballymena has a large migrant population, a lot of people actually work in the town and provide excellent work,” Mayor Jackson Minford told AFP.
“Last night unfortunately has probably scared a lot of people. We are actively working to identify those responsible and bring them to justice,” said Henderson.
Footage on social media appeared to show protesters smashing the windows of houses and some masked individuals kicking in doors.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “disorder” in Ballymena was “very concerning.”
“Obviously, the reports of sexual assault in the area are extremely distressing, but there is no justification for attacks on police officers,” Downing Street added.
 


Spain’s economy minister says ‘overtourism’ challenges need to be addressed

Updated 20 min 19 sec ago
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Spain’s economy minister says ‘overtourism’ challenges need to be addressed

MADRID: Spain could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to some projections, which the country’s economy minister said poses challenges for the country’s residents that the government can no longer afford to ignore.
Last year, Spain received a record 94 million international visitors, making it one of the most visited countries in the world.
“It’s important to understand that these record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. “And we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population.”
Tourism is a key sector for the Southern European nation’s economy, which grew faster than any major advanced economy last year at 3.2 percent, and is projected to grow at 2.4 percent this year, according to the Bank of Spain, well ahead of the expected eurozone average of 0.9 percent.
But a stubborn housing crisis in which home and rental costs have skyrocketed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and elsewhere has led to growing frustration about one aspect tied to tourism in particular: the proliferation of short-term rental apartments in city centers.
The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Signs at demonstrations with slogans such as “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” point to the growing anger.
In response, the government recently announced it was cracking down on Airbnb listings that it said were operating in the country illegally, a decision that the company is appealing.
“We are a 49 million-inhabitants country,” Cuerpo said. The record numbers of tourists illustrate the “attractiveness of our country, but also of the challenge that we have in terms of dealing and providing for a good experience for tourists, but at the same time avoiding overcharging  our own services and our own housing,” he said.
The Bank of Spain recently said the country has a deficit of 450,000 homes. Building more public housing is critical to solve the problem, Cuerpo said. Spain has a lower stock of public housing than many other major European Union countries.
“This is the key challenge for this term,” the minister said of the country’s housing woes.
On the possibility of more US tariffs on EU goods, the top economic policymaker for the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy said he believed the EU still wanted to reinforce economic ties with the US
“From the EU side, we are constructive but we are not naive,” Cuerpo said, adding that the bloc would pursue “other routes protecting our firms and industries” if no agreement with the Trump administration can be reached.
A 90-day pause on tariffs announced by the EU and the US is slated to end on July 14. About halfway through that grace period, US President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on steel imports. The US has also enacted a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and 10 percent so-called reciprocal tariffs on most other goods.
On how Spain’s current housing woes got here, the minister said a steep drop in construction in Spain following the 2008 financial crisis played a role. So did population growth due to immigration, Cuerpo said, and pressures from an increase in the number of tourists.
While building more housing is key, the minister advocated for an all-of-the-above approach, including regulating Spain’s housing market and short-term rental platforms.
“For us, there’s no silver bullet,” he said.


LA protests far different from ‘92 Rodney King riots

Updated 36 min 8 sec ago
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LA protests far different from ‘92 Rodney King riots

The images of cars set ablaze, protesters tossing rocks at police and officers firing nonlethal rounds and tear gas at protesters hearkens back to the last time a president sent the National Guard to respond to violence on Los Angeles streets.
But the unrest during several days of protests over immigration enforcement is far different in scale from the 1992 riots that followed the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King.
President George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to call in the National Guard after requests from Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson. After the current protests began Friday over Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines despite strident opposition from Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Trump cited a legal provision to mobilize federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday saying Trump had overstepped his authority. On Tuesday, Newsom filed an emergency motion in federal court to block the troops from assisting with immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Unlike the 1992 riots, protests have mainly been peaceful and been confined to a roughly five-block stretch of downtown LA, a tiny patch in the sprawling city of nearly 4 million people. No one has died. There’s been vandalism and some cars set on fire but no homes or buildings have burned.
More than 100 people have been arrested over the past several days of protests. The vast majority of arrests were for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail.
Several officers have had minor injuries and protesters and some journalists have been struck by some of the more than 600 rubber bullets and other “less-lethal” munitions fired by police.
Outrage over the verdicts on April 29, 1992 led to nearly a week of widespread violence that was one of the deadliest riots in American history. Hundreds of businesses were looted. Entire blocks of homes and stores were torched. More than 60 people died in shootings and other violence, mostly in South Los Angeles, an area with a heavily Black population at the time.
The 1992 uprising took many by surprise, including the Los Angeles Police Department, but the King verdict was a catalyst for racial tensions that had been building in the city for years.
In addition to frustration with their treatment by police, some directed their anger at Korean merchants who owned many of the local stores. Black residents felt the owners treated them more like shoplifters than shoppers. As looting and fires spread toward Koreatown, some merchants protected their stores with shotguns and rifles.


Correspondent Terry Moran out at ABC News, two days after suspension over Stephen Miller post

Updated 58 min 9 sec ago
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Correspondent Terry Moran out at ABC News, two days after suspension over Stephen Miller post

  • Moran said Miller’s “hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”

Correspondent Terry Moran is out at ABC News, two days after the organization suspended its correspondent for a social media post that called Trump administration deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller a “world class hater.”
The network said Tuesday that it was at the end of its contract with Moran “and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision not to renew.”
The Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, quickly condemned Moran for his late-night X post criticizing Miller, which was swiftly deleted.
Moran had interviewed President Donald Trump only a few weeks ago. He said in his X post that the president was also a hater, but that his hatred was in service of his own glorification.
But for Miller, Moran said, “his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate.”
Moran, 65, had worked at ABC News since 1997. He was a longtime co-anchor of “Nightline,” and covered the Supreme Court and national politics. During an interview with Trump that was broadcast in prime-time a month ago, the president said “you’re not being very nice” in the midst of a contentious exchange about deportations.
In a particularly bad case of timing for him, Moran’s contract with ABC had been due to expire on Friday, according to people with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about personnel issues.
His post, a breach of traditional journalism ethics on expressing personal opinions on reporting subjects, came at what was already a sensitive time for ABC News. The network agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s presidential library in December, in order to settle a defamation lawsuit over George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate assertion that Trump had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump aide Steven Cheung responded to Moran’s exit on Tuesday with a profane comment on X, saying those who talk down the president and his staff “get hit.”