A look back at Elon Musk's major moments in Washington as he leaves Trump administration
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
A suspected drone attack on a hospital in Sudan kills 6, activists say
CAIRO (AP) — A suspected drone attack by Sudanese paramilitaries Friday hit a hospital in southern Sudan, killing at least six people and knocking the facility out of service, officials and rights advocates said. The Emergency Lawyers, a rights group, blamed the Rapid Support Forces for the attack on the Obeid International Hospital, al-Dhaman, in Obeid, the capital city of North Kordofan province. At least 15 others were wounded in the attack, it said. In a statement on social media, the hospital said the attack resulted in severe damage to its main building. Services at the hospital, the main medical facility serving the region, were suspended until further notice, it said. Sudan plunged into civil war on April 15, 2023, when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open warfare in the capital Khartoum and other parts of the country. The Emergency Lawyers, which tracks Sudan's war, said the attack on the hospital was part of a large-scale artillery offensive on the city, which is held by the military. Obeid is 363 kilometers (225 miles) south of Khartoum. There was no immediate comment from the RSF. The attack was the latest on Obeid. On May 10, at least 20 inmates were killed in a drone attack on the city's main prison. That attack was also blamed on the RSF. The war in Sudan has been marked by atrocities including mass rape and ethnically motivated killings that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, especially in the western region of Darfur, according to the United Nations and international rights groups. The conflict created the world's worst humanitarian crisis and pushed parts of the country into famine. Thousands of people have been killed and over 14 million were forced to flee their homes.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Syria's only female minister says lifting of economic sanctions offers hope for recovery
DAMASCUS (AP) — The lifting of economic sanctions on Syria will allow the government to begin work on daunting tasks that include fighting corruption and bringing millions of refugees home, Hind Kabawat, the minister of social affairs and labor, told The Associated Press on Friday. Kabawat is the only woman and the only Christian in the 23-member cabinet formed in March to steer the country during a transitional period after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December. Her portfolio will be one of the most important as the country begins rebuilding after nearly 14 years of civil war. She said moves by the U.S. and the European Union in the past week to at least temporarily lift most of the sanctions that had been imposed on Syria over decades will allow that work to get started. Before, she said, 'we would talk, we would make plans, but nothing could happen on the ground because sanctions were holding everything up and restricting our work.' With the lifting of sanctions they can now move to 'implementation.' One of the first programs the new government is planning to launch is 'temporary schools' for the children of refugees and internally displaced people returning to their home areas. Kabawat said that it will take time for the easing of sanctions to show effects on the ground, particularly since unwinding some of the financial restrictions will involve complicated bureaucracy. 'We are going step by step,' she said. 'We are not saying that anything is easy -- we have many challenges — but we can't be pessimistic. We need to be optimistic.' The new government's vision is 'that we don't want either food baskets or tents after five years,' Kabawat said, referring to the country's dependence on humanitarian aid and many displacement camps. That may be an ambitious target, given that 90% of the country's population currently lives below the poverty line, according to the United Nations. The civil war that began in 2011 also displaced half the country's pre-war population of 23 million people. The U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates that about half a million have returned to Syria since Assad was ousted. But the dire economic situation and battered infrastructure have also dissuaded many refugees from coming back. The widespread poverty also fed into a culture of public corruption that developed in the Assad era, including solicitation of bribes by public employees and shakedowns by security forces at checkpoints. Syria's new rulers have pledged to end the corruption, but they face an uphill battle. Public employees make salaries far below the cost of living, and the new government has so far been unable to make good on a promise to hike public sector wages by 400%. 'How can I fight corruption if the monthly salary is $40 and that is not enough to buy food for 10 days?' Kabawat asked. Women and minorities The country's new rulers, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa — the former head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, a Sunni Islamist insurgent group that spearheaded the offensive against Assad — have been under scrutiny by western countries over the treatment of Syrian women and religious minorities. In March, clashes between government security forces and pro-Assad armed groups spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks on members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs. Hundreds of civilians were killed. The government formed a committee to investigate the attacks, which has not yet reported its findings. Many also criticized the transitional government as giving only token representation to women and minorities. Apart from Kabawat, the cabinet includes only one member each from the Druze and Alawite sects and one Kurd. 'Everywhere I travel… the first and last question is, 'What is the situation of the minorities?'' Kabawat said. 'I can understand the worries of the West about the minorities, but they should also be worried about Syrian men and women as a whole.' She said the international community's priority should be to help Syria to build its economy and avoid the country falling into 'chaos.' 'Rebuilding our institutions' Despite being the only woman in the cabinet, Kabawat said 'now there is a greater opportunity for women' than under Assad and that 'today there is no committee being formed that does not have women in it.' 'Syrian women have suffered a lot in these 14 years and worked in all areas," she said. "All Syrian men and women need to have a role in rebuilding our institutions.' She called for those wary of al-Sharaa to give him a chance. While the West has warmed to the new president -- particularly after his recent high-profile meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump — others have not forgotten that he fought against U.S. forces in Iraq after the invasion of 2003 or that his HTS group was formed as an offshoot of al-Qaida, although it later cut ties. 'People used to call (Nelson) Mandela a terrorist, and then he became the first leader among those who freed South Africa, and after that suddenly he was no longer a terrorist," Kabawat said. She urged skeptics to "give us the same chance that you gave to South Africa.'
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Leadership shakeups at agency tasked with carrying out Trump's mass deportations agenda
WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign is undergoing a major staff reorganization. In a news release Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced leadership changes at the department tasked with finding, arresting and removing immigrants who no longer have the right to be in the country as well as at the agency's investigative division. Kenneth Genalo, who had been the acting director of Enforcement and Removal Operations, is retiring and will serve as a special government employee with ICE. Robert Hammer, who has been the acting head of Homeland Security Investigations, will transition to another leadership role at headquarters. The agency said Marcos Charles will become the new acting head of ERO while Derek Gordon will be the acting head at HSI. ICE also announced a host of other staff changes at various departments within the agency. ICE said the changes would 'help ICE achieve President Trump and the American people's mandate of arresting and deporting criminal illegal aliens and making American communities safe.' The news comes after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said on Fox News earlier this week that the administration was setting a goal of 3,000 arrests by ICE each day and that the number could go higher. 'President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,' said Miller. Three thousand arrests per day would mark a huge increase in daily arrests from current figures. Between Jan. 20 and May 19 the agency arrested 78,155 people, which translates to an average of 656 arrests per day. This is the latest staff shakeup at an agency that is central to Trump's vision of removing everyone in the country illegally. In February, the acting director of ICE was reassigned as well as two other top ICE officials. Carrying out deportations, especially in high numbers, poses logistical challenges. There are a limited number of enforcement and removal officers — those tasked with tracking down, arresting and removing people in the country illegally — and the number of officers has remained stagnant for years. ICE also has a limited number of detention beds to hold people once arrested and a limited number of planes to remove them from the country. But the administration is pushing for a major funding boost as part of a package in Congress that could supercharge immigration enforcement. The plan would aim to fund the removal of 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers. The plan also calls for 10,000 more ICE officers and investigators. ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that the news release about the announcement of the staff reorganization at Immigration and Customs Enforcement was issued on Thursday, not Tuesday. Rebecca Santana, The Associated Press
