World

(WASHINGTON) — The European Union announced on Friday the launch of the Cyprus Maritime Corridor, a naval route facilitated by Europe’s most southeastern island, Cyprus, to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the corridor is a direct response to the dire conditions of civilians in Gaza, where the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children declared a severe humanitarian emergency that is worsening by the day as the siege and military attacks from Israel continue.

An initial pilot operation launched on Friday in partnership with the World Central Kitchen and the corridor should officially begin to operate on Sunday, according to von der Leyen.

The World Central Kitchen, led by Chef Jose Andres, has served more than 33 million meals since October, and operates over 60 community kitchens in Gaza with the help of 400 Palestinians on the ground. A spokesperson for WCK told ABC News it equipped the boat departing Cyprus with 200 tons of rice, flour and proteins, and prepared another 500 tons of aid ready to follow.

The initiative was made possible by the United Arab Emirates and the United States support to the EU, with Cyprus proving, once again, its historical role as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East after the Amalthea initiative — which outlines a mechanism for securely shipping aid from Cyprus to Gaza via sea.

“The Middle East is a crucial neighbor where Europe’s role and leadership are required,” said Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides at a presser Friday morning, who added that the war is a direct concern for Europeans and that a spillover would be “catastrophic.”

“We are at the point where we simply have to unlock all the possible routes,” President Christodoulides explained, adding that he hopes that the CMC will be “a sustained, long-term maritime lifeline for the civilians in Gaza.”

“This maritime Corridor can — and must — be part of a sustained effort to increase the flow of humanitarian aid and commercial commodities into Gaza through all possible routes,” the White House said in a statement about the initiative.

“The Maritime corridor can make a real difference in the plight of Palestinian people,” von der Leyen said at the announcement of the Corridor. “But in parallel, our efforts to provide assistance to Palestinians in all possible routes of course will continue.”

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the initiative with a statement shared on X, “The Cypriot initiative will allow the increase of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, after security checks are carried out in accordance with Israeli standards.”

At least 20 people have died from malnutrition and dehydration at the north’s Kamal Adwan and Shifa hospitals, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health, including children and a 72-year-old man.

They are among the more than 30,000 killed by the wide-scale attacks carried out by Israel in response to the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas that left over 1,200 dead and 130 victims kidnapped and held hostage.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Armed bandits in Nigeria have kidnapped over 100 school children in Kuriga, north-western Nigeria, oaccording to officials.

The bandits are reported to have stormed into the LEA Primary School in Kuriga town, Kaduna state, on Thursday seizing scores of pupils before marching them into the forest.

The incident is reported to have happened at around 8 a.m. on Thursday shortly after the morning assembly. The headmaster of the school along with some other members of staff are reportedly among the victims.

“With pain in my heart, I visited Kuriga, Chikun Local Government, where bandits kidnapped primary and secondary school pupils and students,” wrote Senator Uba Sani, Governor of Kaduna State, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists.”

Residents told ABC News that most of the pupils ran out of their classes when they sighted the bandits on the school premises. The armed gunmen are reported to have driven into the school grounds on motorcycles.

The mass abduction is the latest in a string of abductions in schools in northern Nigeria, the incidents becoming an increasing point of concern in the country.

As of Friday no group has yet claimed responsibility for the mass abduction.

In 2014, the infamous kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls in Borno State’s Chibok village by Boko Haram militants.

“Hope is risen that we can have some of them back again,” a parent of one of the kidnapped Chibok school girls told ABC News in 2021 anxiously awaiting the girls’ arrival, dozens of whom still remain in captivity.

According to the International Centre for Counterterrorism, women and children are increasingly the victims of kidnappings and forced abductions.

Sani, on Friday, pledged to get back all the abducted students as government officials worked with the school’s management to confirm the headcount of those missing.

In a statement, Sani said the incident has emphasized the need for state police.

“Proactive measures need to be taken to safeguard our schools against terrorists,” said Sani. “With State Police, there will be a standing Police Force in Kuriga drawn from members of the community who understand the terrain, the people and the issues at play. They can gather intelligence with ease. They will also be constitutionally empowered to bear arms, including sophisticated ones. This is important because vigilante groups are not allowed to carry arms.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Sweden’s arduous path to joining the NATO alliance came to a successful close Thursday, as the Swedish prime minister and foreign minister deposited the country’s “instrument of accession” at the State Department in Washington.

In a lighthearted ceremony, Secretary of State Antony Blinken posed for photos with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, with the two holding a blue folder containing the document. Blinken quipped, “Well, good things come to those who wait.”

“With receipt of this instrument of accession, let me be the very first to welcome Sweden as a party to the Washington Treaty and the 32nd member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Blinken continued.

Blinken remarked on Sweden’s longstanding military neutrality, and how the country was moved to end its tradition after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. Sweden was called to defend democracy and recognized the existential threat Russia’s aggression presented to European nations, he said.

“None of this was easy, none of this was obvious,” Blinken said, adding it had taken “nearly two years of tireless diplomacy” to add Sweden to the alliance.

“Sweden is now a NATO member,” Kristersson said on X earlier. “Thank you all Allies for welcoming us as the 32nd member. We will strive for unity, solidarity and burden-sharing, and will fully adhere to the Washington Treaty values: freedom, democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. Stronger together.”

Sweden’s membership had been slowed by objections from Turkey and Hungary. The U.S. was able to eventually incentivize Turkey by approving the sale of fighter jets to the country, and Hungary signed off on Sweden’s addition this week.

“This is a historic day,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. “Sweden will now take its rightful place at NATO’s table, with an equal say in shaping NATO policies and decisions. After over 200 years of non-alignment Sweden now enjoys the protection granted under Article 5, the ultimate guarantee of Allies’ freedom and security. Sweden brings with it capable armed forces and a first-class defense industry.”

Sweden’s flag will be raised alongside those of the other 31 Allies in a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels on March 11 and simultaneously at NATO commands across Europe and North America, NATO said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — A senior Egyptian official has told ABC News that the Hamas delegation has left Cairo, thereby ending cease-fire talks and making it unlikely that there will be a break in the violence before the start of Ramadan on Monday.

Story developing…

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Family and friends of an Indiana mother said they were shocked and stunned by her sudden death as she was aboard a flight returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic last week.

Investigators in Turks and Caicos said they are investigating the Feb. 28 death of Stefanie Smith, who was onboard the American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic to North Carolina. Smith, 41, fell ill mid-flight which prompted an emergency landing in Turks and Caicos, where she was transported to a hospital and later died, the Turks and Caicos police said in a statement.

A cause of death was not immediately determined and medical examiners are conducting an autopsy, the police said.

Smith was vacationing with her boyfriend for five days and seemed healthy right before the flight, according to her friend Maria Yannotti, who was also on the trip.

“She loves going to the gym every day, even while we were in the Dominican. She made it a point to get up every morning to go to the gym and run on the beach,” Yannotti, who traveled to the Dominican Republic separately, told ABC News.

Smith’s boyfriend was sitting next to her on the flight and said her eyes rolled back and she started convulsing, according to Yannotti.

A doctor and nurses on board the plane helped to administer CPR to Smith before the plane made an emergency landing, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.

Smith was the mother of two children, an 18-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter, according to her brother Chris Volz. Volz told ABC News that he was not aware that his sister had any pre-existing health conditions.

“She was a special person…Her kids really…love her a lot, and I know she loved them,” he said. “And so it’s tough.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen killed three civilians aboard a Barbadian and Liberian cargo carrier on Wednesday, marking the group’s first fatal strike on a commercial vessel since it began a string of attacks on key shipping lanes in the region in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas, according to U.S. officials.

At about 11:30 a.m. local time, the Houthis launched an anti-ship ballistic missile at the Barbados-flagged and Liberian-owned bulk carrier True Confidence as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden, south of Yemen, the officials said.

“The missile struck the vessel, and the multinational crew reports three fatalities, at least four injuries, of which three are in critical condition, and significant damage to the ship,” U.S. Central Command said in a statement.

The crew abandoned the damaged vessel “and coalition warships responded and are assessing the situation,” according to CENTCOM, referring to an American-led group of military ships deployed in the area to curb Houthi attacks.

The group confirmed responsibility for the strike in their own statement, blaming “American-British aggression” and saying they were supporting Palestinians.

Before Wednesday’s deadly strike, the Houthis had attacked or threatened commercial vessels at least 66 times since Nov. 19, according to U.S. defense officials.

In that same time, U.S. Navy warships in the region have shot down more than 116 incoming missiles, unmanned aerial attack vehicles and waterborne drones aimed at commercial or Navy ships.

“For months, the United States has warned the world about the reckless attacks being taken by the Houthis and worked hard to counter Houthi threats,” one U.S. official said.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller described the Houthi’s killing of the sailors as “sadly inevitable” during a press briefing Wednesday.

“The Houthis have continued to launch these reckless attacks with no regard for the well-being of innocent civilians who are transiting through the Red Sea,” Miller said. “Now they have unfortunately and tragically killed innocent civilians.”

The Houthis have said their strikes are retaliation for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza while targeting Hamas in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.

In response to the Houthis, the U.S. and U.K. have tried to weaken the group’s offensive power with four major large-scale airstrikes since early January, after the U.S. and other nations demanded the group cease its violence in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The last of these operations was on Feb. 24.

“These reckless attacks by the Houthis have disrupted global trade and taken the lives of international seafarers simply doing their jobs, which are some of the hardest jobs in the world, and the ones relied on by the global public for sustainment of supply chains,” the U.S. official said.

In addition to the large-scale strikes, the U.S. has carried out 39 “dynamic strikes” on missiles and drones being prepared to launch from Yemen since Jan. 11, four of those being carried out alongside U.K. forces, according to the Pentagon.

Some 150 missiles and launchers were taken out in these strikes, according to the Pentagon’s assessment. Several drones were also destroyed.

So far, the actions of the U.S. and its allies have failed to fundamentally curb the Houthis’ capabilities — raising questions about the strategy and long-term steps — though Pentagon officials have also cautioned that they do not want to risk a broader conflict engulfing the region.

ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford and Cindy Smith contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(TEL AVIV, Israel) — Hundreds of truckloads of aid have been stuck waiting to be distributed in Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsens amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to international organizations.

Between 200 and 300 truckloads were at the Kerem Shalom crossing point Tuesday, from Israel into southern Gaza, which have been checked and are waiting to be picked up and distributed, according to Israeli officials from Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

The distribution of aid in Gaza and getting it to those most in need in the north is one of the most pressing issues, COGAT said. Fifteen trucks carrying food and flour entered the north Wednesday, according to a COGAT post on the social platform X.

However, the United Nations said a higher number of aid trucks need to cross into Gaza daily.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) previously said Israel doesn’t provide enough authorization to deliver sufficient aid and, even when it does give authorization, the fighting makes it difficult to deliver that aid.

Israel has denied accusations that it isn’t letting enough aid into Gaza, with officials saying the U.N., its partners and other aid agencies have created logistical challenges, resulting in a bottleneck. The U.N. disputes these claims.

Israel has also blamed Hamas for the lack of aid, claiming the group is holding aid for itself and not distributing it to Gazans. Hamas denies the allegations.

After evidence showed some employees of UNRWA allegedly participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel, the Israeli government has been cutting UNRWA out of the process of distributing aid.

COGAT is now calling on other U.N. agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP) to step up and replace UNRWA.

“The U.N. needs to increase its capability of distributing the aid so that more aid can reach the different parts of the Gaza strip,” Shimon Freedman, COGAT’s spokesperson, told ABC News.

However, the WFP said the number of food trucks entering Gaza has decreased from an average of 150 trucks per day between January and September 2023, to an average of 59 food trucks per day between Oct. 7, 2023. and Jan. 24 of this year, according to a report last month.

This comes as children in Gaza continue to die from malnutrition with the total believed to be 18 so far, according to Gazan health officials.

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that a 15-year-old girl died because of malnutrition and dehydration. Earlier this week, a 9-year-old boy named Yazan al-Kafarna died at Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, in the south of Gaza, hospital director Marwan al-Hamas told ABC News.

Yazan had cerebral palsy and needed a customized diet, which was not available due to the fighting in Gaza, al-Hamas said.

Ramesh Rajasingham, director of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said during a briefing last week that one quarter of the population of Gaza — 576,000 people — were “one step away from famine” and one in six children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza is suffering from acute malnutrition.

UNICEF spokesman James Elder told ABC News earlier this week that the number of children in Gaza dying from dehydration and malnutrition “will skyrocket” if there is not a cease-fire.

Heavy fighting has made getting in aid challenging. Last week, more than 110 Gazans were reportedly killed and 750 others injured in Gaza City after crowds converged on an aid convoy, with some of those killed by gunfire, said the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. The Israel Defense Forces said dozens of people were killed by trampling or run over by trucks, and that soldiers used live ammunition only to deter crowds that put the troops at risk.

Adam Bouloukos, a senior official at UNRWA, told ABC News that a cease-fire is needed in Gaza to ensure aid reaches the areas that are most in need, stating that “you can’t deliver humanitarian aid if you’re being shot at.”

He said the group has struggled to reach the north due to Israel’s ongoing military operations.

Although several countries, including the U.S., have participated in airdrops of aid, Bouloukos described them as “immensely expensive,” “completely inefficient” and “dangerous” and that the only solution to the humanitarian crisis is getting aid in by road.

Since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, more than 30,700 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 72,100 others have been injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israel since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Israeli officials say 576 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 237 since the ground operations in Gaza began.

ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ODESA, Ua.) — A missile exploded in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, just hundreds of feet from where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to sources.

“It hit in a couple of hundred of meters (about 300 feet) from us, while the meeting was going,” a source added.

The source also added that this was “the closest call ever,” excluding Zelenskyy’s trips to visit troops on the front lines.

However, according to the source, it is unlikely that Zelenskyy was the target, with the source saying Russians were likely just launching missiles at their usual targets.

Neither of the leaders was harmed, but officials said there were dead and wounded in the attack. A source said at least five were killed.

“We saw this attack today,” Mitsotakis said during a joint press conference. “You see who we’re dealing with, they don’t care where to hit. I know that there were victims today. I don’t know all the details yet, but I know that there are dead, there are wounded.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — A U.S. court has absolved five of America’s biggest tech companies in a case over their alleged support of child labor in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday

The five tech giants — Apple, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla — were accused of “knowingly benefiting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to mine cobalt” in case documents seen by ABC News.

However, in a 3-0 decision on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Colombia held that the tech companies could not be held liable, with the court decision stating they did not have anything more than an “ordinary buyer-seller transaction” with suppliers in the DRC.

“Many actors in addition to the cobalt suppliers perpetuate labor trafficking, including labor brokers, other consumers of cobalt, and even the DRC government,” the decision read. “Issuing an injunction to the Tech Companies to ‘stop the cobalt venture from using forced child labor’ would not bind the direct perpetrators of the unlawful labor, who are not before this court.”

The case was brought by 16 plaintiffs in Dec. 2022, including four former miners and legal representatives of child miners who lost their lives and suffered major injuries in cobalt mining operations in the DRC.

The defendants were accused of “knowingly benefitting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the DRC to mine cobalt,” and the case claims that the defendants “know and have known for a significant period of time” about the human rights violations in the DRC’s cobalt mining supply chain.

The case was brought by 16 plaintiffs in December 2022: including four former miners and legal representatives of child miners including some who lost their lives and suffered major injuries in cobalt mining operations in the DRC.

The defendants were accused of “knowingly benefitting from and aiding and abetting the cruel and brutal use of young children in the DRC to mine cobalt”, the case arguing that the defendants “know and have known for a significant period of time” the human rights violations in the DRC’s cobalt mining supply chain.

The DRC is one of the world’s most mineral-rich nations and the Central African nation is home to over 70% of the world’s cobalt reserves.

“Cobalt is a critical mineral,” Anneke Van Woudenberg, executive director of Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), told ABC News. “Cobalt is used in rechargeable batteries of electric vehicles and electronic gadgets, its demand is growing due to the green transition as we shift to net-zero.”

However, human rights organizations have documented “grievous human rights abuses” in the DRC’s cobalt supply chain, including the expansion of cobalt and copper mines that have led to forced evictions, calling for more accountability.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli Middle East expert and Princeton political science student, loved posting on X, formerly Twitter.

Her social media posts praised protesters in Syria for their “immense courage,” called out authoritarianism in Russia, and even lauded anti-corruption protesters in her native Israel.

And then, on March 21, 2023, the posts stopped.

Tsurkov, 37, who was doing field studies in the Karrada district of Baghdad for her doctoral dissertation, was kidnapped by what Israeli and U.S. government officials say was Kataib Hezbollah, one of many Iranian-backed militia groups that in recent months have conducted more than 170 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

Tsurkov’s abduction, which happened while she was leaving a Baghdad café, reignited scrutiny over the deep ties between Kataib Hezbollah and the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi government repeatedly declined to speak to ABC News on the record about Elizabeth Tsurkov or Kataib Hezbollah.

Proof of life

For months after Tsurkov’s disappearance, there was no word. No progress. No ransom demands. Tsurkov’s family didn’t even have proof she was alive.

But then, seven months after she was taken, a video showing a woman who appeared to be Elizabeth Tsurkov was broadcast on the Iraqi TV station Al Rabiaa. The woman had black, unkempt hair. She had dark circles under her eyes. And she read, in Hebrew, what Tsurkov’s family says was a coerced statement and falsely claimed she was both an Israeli spy and a CIA agent.

Emma Tsurkov, Elizabeth’s sister, called that claim “absurd.”

“She has never seen a power structure she did not want to criticize. She would be the worst suited person to be a spy ever in existence,” Emma Tsurkov said.

Emma Tsurkov believes her sister was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah militants because she is an Israeli citizen. Israel and Iraq do not have formal diplomatic relations, so Elizabeth Tsurkov, who attends Princeton on a U.S. student visa, traveled into the country with a passport from Russia, a country where she also has citizenship.

Nearly a year since Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnapping, Emma Tsurkov has not given up hope her sister will be released.

“It’s like I’m missing a limb, but no one can see it,” she told ABC News. “We’re not twins, but I guess we’re as close to twins as people who aren’t twins can be, and I know in my gut that she’s alive. I trust her to keep herself alive. And I know that she is trusting me to get her out of there.”

Getting Elizabeth home

In her attempts to secure her sister’s release, Emma Tsarkov is pushing the United States to put pressure on the Iraqis because of what she says are significant, sometimes overlooked connections between the Iraqi government and the terrorist group holding Elizabeth, Kataib Hezbollah.

“The only thing standing between her and freedom is a stern phone call from Washington, D.C., to Baghdad, telling the Iraqi government ‘you need to get her out.’ This is not sustainable. She cannot stay there,” Emma Tsurkov told ABC News.

Kataib Hezbollah has an official role in the Iraqi government through its position in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, a government-sponsored organization of militias often compared to a kind of Iraqi national guard.

The group is one of “at least four Iran-aligned militias that [have] attacked U.S. forces” while also being “part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias that receives funding from the Iraqi government,” according to a 2023 report by inspectors general for the Departments of State, Defense, and USAID.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that you’ve got a dysfunctional formal Iraqi security establishment that has effectively been instrumentalized and co-opted by these militia groups,” Ranj Alaaldin, director of the Crisis Response Council and a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told ABC News.

Founded in 2014, the PMF cobbled together numerous Iraqi militias and is most notable for its role in fighting ISIS. But several militias in the PMF, including Kataib Hezbollah, are supported by and have deep ties to Iran.

Alaaldin explains after the defeat of ISIS the influence of Kataib Hezbollah and similar militias only grew in Iraq with help from Iran, which experts say aims to use the groups to ultimately drive U.S. troops out of Iraq.

“As far as Iran and Kataib Hezbollah and the PMF are concerned, the U.S. presence in Iraq, U.S. forces, are the last remaining barrier to them imposing their influence and control on the country at large,” he said.

Despite ties to Iran and repeated attacks on American troops in Iraq, experts warn Kataib Hezbollah leaders continue to play a significant role in the PMF and thus the Iraqi government, including holding key official roles in the Iraqi military establishment.

“They are part and parcel of the Iraqi state and government. They are recognized forces within the Iraqi Constitution,” said Alaaldin, who added that relationship “presents a tricky conundrum for both the Iraqis but also the Americans, because it’s not a very black and white picture.”

It’s a complex, geopolitical struggle that Emma Tsurkov is now forced to navigate. She says she will never give up on securing her sister’s release.

“I am never going to stop until I have her back. The only question is how many obstacles will I have to overcome to get her back?” Emma Tsurkov said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.