NuseReal
Your second place to come to for news of use to international Switzerland
The U.N.'s week ahead
Updated daily for 18:00 CET (12:00 in New York) but the week's earlier stories are at the links
below.
News agency, multiple sources or UN preferred. * = read with extra caution. ! = updated since
posted.
😡 = Left blindspot ‖ 😰 = Right blindspot ‖ red headline = alt-right ;● = may require signup or subscription
News of the week, except today
Newest first
Day's Headlines
Half of Britain's butterfly species at risk of extinction — ground.news: 5 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
2024 Olympic Games in Paris on the brink as 40 nations threaten to pull out — thethaiger.com — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
EU: Centre for prosecution of 'aggression' crimes in Ukraine to be set up in The Hague — ground.news: 18 sources — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
War crimes round–up: Liberian civil war rebels on trial again, survivor testifies against Gambian 'death squad' — genevasolutions — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
— The appeal trial against former lieutenant–colonel and spokesperson Gibril Massaquoi of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) – a Sierra Leonean group that had close ties with Charles Taylor – began on 10 January in Turku, Finland. In April 2022, a lower court had dismissed charges against Massaquoi for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including homicide, sexual violence, and the recruitment of child soldiers, arguing "reasonable doubt" that he took part in those acts.
The appeal trial is set to continue in Liberia on 6 February and will probably go until June. Civitas Maxima and its Liberian sister NGO, the Global Justice and Research Project, had submitted the initial information about Massaquoi's alleged involvement to the Finnish authorities.
Meanwhile, a Liberian former rebel commander is seeking to overturn Switzerland's first–ever war crimes ruling. Alieu Kosiah, former United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) commander was convicted to twenty years in prison in June 2021 by the Swiss Federal Criminal Court for war crimes, which included, ordering and committing the murder of civilians, rape and cannibalism, during the first Liberian civil war that ran between 1989 and 1997. Kosiah is the first Liberian to be tried for war crimes perpetrated during the conflict. Another Liberian rebel leader was found guilty of crimes against humanity and torture by a court in Paris in November 2022.
Kosiah's appeal trial opened in Bellinzona on 11 January and is expected to end on 3 February. Alain Werner, director of Civitas Maxima, is representing four of the plaintiffs who came to Switzerland to testify.
European Central Bank raises rates by 50 basis points to 2.5%, pledges further hike in March — cnbc — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
— It follows four hikes in 2022 which brought euro zone rates out of negative territory for the first time since 2014.
Protected Areas Fail To Safeguard over 75% Of Global Insect Species — eurasiareview — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
Ukraine roundup
Headlines for Internationalists
China to fully resume travel with Hong Kong, Macau on Feb 6 — ground.news: 36 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
UK: Pontins asylum accommodation plans scrapped — ground.news: 5 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
Nearly 14,000 Nigerian Farmers and Fishers Sue Shell for Destroying Their Livelihoods With Oil Pollution — ecowatch — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
Migrant workers sent home almost $800 billion in 2022 — weforum — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
— If China is excluded from the calculation, remittances are the largest source of external finance in low and middle–income countries, exceeding the value of foreign direct investment and official development aid, the World Bank says.
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Togo and Chad get $311 million from World Bank for renewables — cnbc — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
Miscellaneous news
Man arrested at the late Queen Elizabeth’s Windsor Castle home with a crossbow pleaded guilty in a London court to an offence under the Treason Act and threatening to kill the monarch — ground.news: 21 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
Nick Kyrgios avoids conviction after pleading guilty to assaulting ex-girlfriend — ground.news: 142 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
Gary Glitter freed after serving half his jail sentence for sex abuse of 3 girls — ground.news: 34 sources — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
Mafia fugitive for 17 years found working as pizza chef in France after he bragged about his food to newspaper — dailymail.co.uk — 3 February 2023 (LINK)
Michael Jordan Made More Than Twice The Amount Of Money In 2022 Than He Did Over The Span Of His 15-Year NBA Career — totalprosports.com — 2 February 2023 (LINK)
Missing radioactive capsule found on remote road in Western Australia — axios — 1 February 2023 (LINK)
— It vanished while being transported by truck from Rio Tinto's Gudai-Darri mine in the remote Pilbara region of W.A. to a storage facility about 870 miles away in the state capital Perth. Authorities said they found the capsule on the side of the road and it's believed to have fallen from the truck.
