Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports/node/2580634/world
Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports
Screen grabs from videos shared on social media show a former British Army soldier, who reportedly identified himself as James Scott Rhys Anderson, being interrogated by Russian forces who captured him fighting with Ukrainian forces.
Russian forces capture British man fighting with Ukraine, RIA reports
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army
Updated 25 November 2024
Reuters
Russian forces captured a British mercenary fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia’s Kursk region, which is still partially controlled by Kyiv forces, a security source told Russia’s RIA state news agency.
“A mercenary from Great Britain, who called himself James Scott Rhys Anderson, was captured. He is now giving evidence,” the Russian source told RIA in remarks published on Sunday.
In a video posted on unofficial pro-war Russian Telegram channels on Sunday, a young bearded man wearing military clothing with what appears to be his hands tied in the back, says in English that his name is James Scott Rhys Anderson and that he formerly served in the British Army.
Reuters could not independently verify the video and the RIA and other media reports.
It was not clear when the video was filmed. The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment on the reports outside office hours.
The BBC reported earlier that the Foreign Office said it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention.”
Ukraine forces, which staged a surprise incursion in the Russian border region of Kursk in August, still control parts of it. However, Kyiv said over the weekend that it has since lost over 40 percent of the territory that it had captured, as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults.
Rwanda-backed rebels move deeper into eastern Congo as UN reports executions and rapes
UN spokesman says 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured in fighting between DR Congo's army and M23 rebels in Goma and the vicinity
The Southern African regional bloc, of which Congo is a member, resolved Friday to maintain its peacekeeping force deployed in eastern Congo in 2023
Updated 9 sec ago
AP
GOMA, Congo: Rwanda-backed rebels were quickly expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing Goma, the region’s major city, the UN said Friday, also expressing concerns over executions it learned were carried out by the rebels following a major escalation of their yearslong rebellion.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the World Health Organization and its partners conducted an assessment with Congo’s government between Jan. 26-30 “and report that 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured” in Goma and the vicinity.
“These numbers are expected to rise as more information becomes available,” he said.
The rebels were now about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from South Kivu’s provincial capital of Buakavu and “seem to be moving quite fast,” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said at a press briefing on Friday. M23 has captured several towns after seizing neighboring Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for many of the 6 million people displaced by the conflict.
The central African nation’s military has been weakened after it lost hundreds of personnel and foreign mercenaries surrendered to the rebels after the fall of Goma.
Goma’s capture has brought humanitarian operations to “a standstill, cutting off a vital lifeline for aid delivery across eastern (Congo),” said Rose Tchwenko, country director for Mercy Corps aid group in Congo. “The escalation of violence toward Bukavu raises fears of even greater displacement, while the breakdown of humanitarian access is leaving entire communities stranded without support.”
The Southern African regional bloc, of which Congo is a member, resolved Friday to maintain its peacekeeping force deployed in eastern Congo in 2023. The group’s chairman, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, called for “bold” and “decisive steps” to boost the force’s capacity. At their meeting in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, the 16-nation bloc also pledged to work toward a ceasefire.
Leaders of the Southern African Development Community, including chairman Emmerson Mnangagwa (center), pose for a photo ahead of the group's extraordinary summit in Harare, Zimbabwe, on January 31, 2025, to discuss the escalating conflict in the eastern DR Congo. (AFP)
At the United Nations, France circulated a draft Security Council resolution to all 15 members Friday urging a halt to the current offensive in eastern Congo, the withdrawal of “foreign elements,” and a resumption of talks to achieve a cessation of hostilities, France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere said. He expressed hope it can be adopted soon.
The M23 group is the most potent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology. They are backed by around 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to UN experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma for days in a conflict driven by ethnic grievances.
Observers say that unlike the rebels’ first takeover in Congo, their withdrawal could be more difficult now.
The rebels have been emboldened by Rwanda, which feels Congo is ignoring its interests in the region and failed to meet demands of previous peace agreements, according to Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group think tank. “Ultimately, this is a failure of African mediation (because) the warning signs were always there,” said Mutiga. Executions, rape as human rights crisis worsens
UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence spoke at a briefing on Friday about the worsening human rights crisis in the aftermath of the rebellion, including bomb strikes on at least two internally displaced persons camps that killed an unspecified number of people.
“We have also documented summary executions of at least 12 people by M23” from Jan. 26-28, Laurence said, adding that the group has also occupied schools and hospitals in the province and are subjecting civilians to forced conscription and forced labor.
Congolese forces have also been accused of sexual violence as fighting rages on in the region, Laurence said.
“We are verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports of gang rape,” he said.
Members of the M23 armed group arrive in a pickup truck at the compound where residents gather for a protest against the Congolese government, expressing support for the M23 armed group in Goma on January 31, 2025. (AFP)
Rebels repelled as young people volunteer to fight
An attack by the rebels in Kalehe territory, about 140 kilometers (about 85 miles) from the South Kivu provincial capital, on Thursday was repelled by security forces, said Lt. Gen. Pacifique Masunzu, who commands a key military defense zone in South Kivu.
Congolese military bases in Bukavu were being emptied on Thursday to reinforce those along the way to the provincial capital, residents have told The Associated Press.
Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said the United Nations has about 1,200 international and national staff and dependents in Bukavu. “We’re moving some people out of there as a precaution,” he said.
Hundreds of young people on Friday registered as volunteers to join military training in the provincial capital, according to Gabriel Kasanji, a local administrative officer. This follows Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s call on Thursday for a mass military mobilization.
As he took office on Friday as the new governor of North Kivu, which includes Goma, Maj. Gen. Somo Kakule Evariste vowed to “move as soon as possible” to Goma to restore government control.
“This is not the time for speeches,” the general said. “The flame of resistance will never be extinguished.” A devastated Goma grapples with occasional shooting and unexploded ordnance
In Goma, UN peacekeeping chief Lacroix said “the situation remains tense and volatile, with occasional shooting continuing within the city.”
Overall, calm is gradually being restored and water and electricity have been restored in much of Goma, but the airport remains closed and the runway unusable, he said.
The UN peacekeeping force in the city, known as MONUSCO, continues to grapple with unexploded ordnance that is “a very serious obstacle to freedom of movement,” Lacroix said.
“We are going to struggle until we restore democracy,” said Corneille Nangaa, one of the political leaders of M23. “From a failed state to a modern state.”
US envoy leaves Venezuela with six Americans after meeting Maduro
Richard Grenell met Nicolas Maduro in Caracas
Migration, sanctions also discussed
Updated 01 February 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: US President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell said on Friday he was headed back to the United States with six American citizens, a surprise development after he met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
Officials from the Trump administration had said earlier on Friday that one of Grenell’s top aims for the visit was to secure the release of Americans detained in the country, at a time when the Trump administration has been driving a deportation and anti-gang push in the United States.
Grenell did not name the six men, shown with him aboard an airplane in a photo he posted online. They were dressed in light blue outfits used by the Venezuelan prison system.
“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell posted on X. “They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”
Trump cheered the move in his own post, saying Grenell was bringing “six hostages home from Venezuela.”
It is unclear exactly how many Americans were being held by Venezuela, but Venezuelan officials have spoken publicly of at least nine.
Maduro’s officials have accused most of them of terrorism and said some were high-level “mercenaries.” The Venezuelan government regularly accuses members of the opposition and foreign detainees of conspiring with the US to commit terrorism. US officials have always denied any plots.
“American hostages that are being held in Venezuela ... must be released immediately,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy for Latin America, said earlier on Friday, adding the Grenell-Maduro meeting was “not a negotiation in exchange for anything.”
In late 2023, Venezuela’s government released dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, after months of negotiations, while the US released a close ally of Maduro.
Maduro told officials in an annual speech to the judiciary late on Friday evening that the meeting between him and Grenell had been positive.
“There are things where we’ve reached initial deals and when they are complied with, new issues will open, hopefully new deals for the good of the two countries and the region,” Maduro said, adding he would be looking to see if what had been discussed with Grenell was reflected in what is communicated by the US about the meeting.
“President Donald Trump, we have made a first step, hopefully it can continue,” Maduro said. “We would like it to continue.”
Maduro and Grenell also discussed migration and sanctions at the presidential palace, the Venezuelan government said in a statement earlier on Friday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier on Friday that Grenell was also focused on ensuring 400 members of the Tren de Aragua gang in US custody are returned to Venezuela.
An agreement on Tren de Aragua deportations was “non-negotiable,” Claver-Carone said.
Venezuelan attorney general Tarek Saab said last week that the gang had been dismantled in Venezuela in 2023, but that it was willing to restart legal cooperation with the US in order to extradite gang members.
Since taking power on Jan. 20, Trump has kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, pledging mass deportations.
Some 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States were eligible for deportation reprieves granted by the previous administration, but US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would cut the duration of the protections. She must decide by Saturday whether to terminate them.
SANCTIONS, ELECTIONS AND OIL
Grenell’s visit does not mean the United States recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, Leavitt said.
The two countries have a fraught recent history marked by broken relations, sanctions and accusations of coup-plotting.
But they share interest in several pending bilateral issues, including a license allowing US oil major Chevron to operate in Venezuela.
The administration of former US President Joe Biden reinstated broad oil sanctions after it said Maduro failed to keep promises for a free presidential election and later increased rewards for the capture or conviction of leaders including Maduro, leaving Trump limited options for further penalties.
Maduro’s government-backed victory in the July 2024 vote is contested by the opposition, international observers and numerous countries, including the United States.
Maduro’s government has always rejected sanctions by the United States and others, saying they are illegitimate measures which amount to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that Chevron is trying to protect a special US license allowing it to operate in Venezuela.
Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth told the newspaper the company would engage with the White House, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the license should be reconsidered and Trump said the US would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s administration launched a sweeping round of cuts at the Justice Department on Friday that appeared to focus on FBI agents and others who worked on cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.
The shakeup, detailed in two memos seen by Reuters and by three sources familiar with the matter, is the Trump administration’s latest move to remake the US criminal justice system since he returned to the presidency last week. A group representing FBI agents issued a rare public warning of the potential for hundreds of firings at the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
The new administration already has fired more than a dozen prosecutors who pursued criminal charges against Trump in two cases brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith that have been dismissed. It also has paused all civil rights and environmental litigation and ordered criminal investigations of state and local officials who interfere with his hard-line immigration initiatives.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove on Thursday told the top federal prosecutors in each state to compile a list of all prosecutors and FBI agents who worked on the investigation of the Capitol riot, which was the largest Justice Department probe in modern US history, two sources briefed on the matter said.
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
The FBI was ordered to provide by Tuesday a list of all employees who worked on a 2024 criminal case brought by the Justice Department against leaders of the Hamas militant group, according to a memo seen by Reuters. A source briefed on the matter also said the FBI was asked to provide a list of employees who worked on the two Trump cases brought by Smith.
That memo ordered eight FBI officials to resign or be fired, saying that their participation in the Jan. 6 cases represented part of what Trump has called the “weaponization” of government.
In a statement on Friday, the FBI Agents Association, a membership group of more than 14,000 active and former FBI agents, called the moves “outrageous.”
“Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for failure,” the association added.
The staff cuts are hitting career FBI officials and prosecutors in nonpartisan roles who typically remain in their posts from administration to administration. The bureau has a history of political independence and is responsible for highly sensitive investigations involving counterterrorism, public corruption and cybersecurity.
In his first day back in the White House on Jan. 20, Trump granted clemency to all of the nearly 1,600 people charged with storming the Capitol in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Ed Martin, the Trump-appointed top federal prosecutor in Washington, has since launched an inquiry into the use of a felony obstruction charge in prosecutions of people accused of taking part in the Jan. 6 attack.
Major cities targetted
At least five top FBI officials in major US cities — Miami, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans and Las Vegas — were ordered to resign or be fired, one of the sources said. Another source said that a sixth senior FBI official, in Los Angeles, was given a similar order.
Another five top officials in FBI headquarters were ordered to leave or face termination earlier in the week, another source told Reuters.
FBI and Justice Department officials declined to comment on the various moves.
“What we are seeing is a raw, unfiltered exercise of presidential authority to purge the government of anyone who put the Constitution first, instead of adherence or loyalty to Donald Trump,” said Bradley Moss, an attorney who represents federal employees.
“At a time when we are facing a multitude of threats to the homeland ... it is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging dozens of the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” Democratic US Senator Mark Warner said in a statement. Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI, told a US Senate panel on Thursday during his confirmation hearing that he would protect the bureau’s 37,000 employees against “political retribution” if he were confirmed. The same day, the Justice Department said it was investigating the release by an upstate New York sheriff’s office of an immigrant living in the US illegally. This appears to be its first use of a new policy to criminally investigate state and local officials who do not comply with Trump’s directives.
Bove, in a separate Friday memo seen by Reuters, ordered the firings of all prosecutors who had been hired on a probationary basis to work on Jan. 6-related cases, noting that Trump characterized their work as “a grave national injustice.”
About 20 people were fired as a result of that order, according to a source familiar with the move.
Bove also accused the Biden administration of rushing to convert the status of probationary prosecutors to permanent status after Trump won the election in a bid to save their jobs.
Plane with 2 aboard crashes in Philadelphia and sets multiple homes ablaze
Updated 01 February 2025
AP
PHILADELPHIA: A medical transport jet crashed in Philadelphia on Friday about 30 seconds after taking off, setting homes ablaze and unleashing a fireball into the night sky. Two people were on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he is offering all “Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly.”
The crash comes two days after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. An American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors in that crash.
The plane appeared to be a Learjet 55 that quickly disappeared from radar after takeoff. It was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
The crash happened less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights. Photos taken at the crash site appear to show residential homes on fire.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in Mayfair, a nearby neighborhood, on Friday when he heard a loud bang and his house shook. He said it felt like a mini earthquake and when he checked his home security camera footage, he said it looked like a missile was coming down. “There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.
Flight data showed a jet taking off from the airport at 6:06 p.m. and disappearing from radar about 30 seconds later after climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet (487 meters).
The plane crashed in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center where first responders were blocking traffic and onlookers crowded onto a street corner in the residential neighborhood of Rhawnhurst. Philadelphia’s emergency management office said that roads are closed in the area.
One cellphone video taken by a witness moments after the plane crashed showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. A wall of orange glowed just beyond the intersection as a plume of black smoke quickly rose into the sky and sirens blared.
Jim Quinn, 56, lives about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from the crash site. He was leaving his home Friday evening when he heard the crash. “All we heard was a loud roar and didn’t know where it was coming from. We just turned around and saw the big plume.”
Quinn then went inside and looked at his doorbell camera footage, which captured a streak of white diving down from the sky, followed by what he described as a fireball. Quinn said that the blast shook houses in the residential neighborhood, and that it was congested with traffic that was redirected from the crash site.
The plane’s owner, Jet Rescue, provides global air ambulance services. The company, based in Mexico, flew baseball hall of famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was involved in transporting patients critically ill with COVID-19.
A message seeking comment was left with Jet Rescue’s US headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The NTSB, which investigates air crashes, said it was gathering information about the crash.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he thinks they will perhaps do something he described as significant.
Trump did not elaborate. He made the comments to reports in the White House’s Oval Office. He also said that Washington was having serious discussions with Moscow.
