Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray

Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray
Internally displaced people walk through the Sebacare camp on the outskirts of Mekele in Tigray region of Ethiopia on Feb. 12, 2025. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 13 March 2025
Follow

Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray

Fears grow of renewed conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray
  • Tigray was the scene of one of the most devastating wars of the century between 2020 and 2022
  • War pitted local forces against the federal government and allied militias, as well as the army of Eritrea

ADDIS ABABA: Tensions were rising between rival factions in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray on Thursday, as France warned against travel there.
Tigray was the scene of one of the most devastating wars of the century between 2020 and 2022, estimated to have claimed as many as 600,000 lives.
That war pitted local forces against the federal government and allied militias, as well as the army of neighboring Eritrea.
Despite a peace agreement in November 2022, the region has not found stability and disputes between rival factions have intensified in recent months.
The federal government placed veteran Tigray politician Getachew Reda as head of an interim regional administration but he has been challenged by his former ally, the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Debretsion Gebremichael.
On Tuesday, forces loyal to Debrietson took control of Adigrat, Tigray’s second largest city.
“The town is under renewed tension, the population fears a return to the bad old days of the war,” a local resident said on condition of anonymity.
Getachew ordered the suspension of three generals of the Tigray Defense Forces, accusing the rival faction of trying to “take over the whole of Tigray” in an interview with Tigrai Mass Media Agency.
“Given the ongoing internal clashes in Tigray, particularly in Adigrat and in the regional capital, Mekele, all travel throughout the Tigray region is now formally discouraged,” the French foreign ministry warned on Wednesday.
It also called on French nationals in Tigray to “stock up on emergency supplies (food, water, medicine, and possibly fuel) and to exercise utmost caution.”
On Wednesday, Getachew’s administration asked the Ethiopian government to “provide necessary assistance,” without specifying what it needed.
Federal authorities in the capital Addis Ababa have not yet commented.
In February, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed lamented that Tigrayans “still live in fear and terror amid rumors of war.”
France also urged “the avoidance of all unnecessary travel” to the northern Afar region, which borders Eritrea, at a time when tensions are high between the two Horn of Africa neighbors.


Multiple dead after vehicle drives into crowd at Vancouver street festival, police say

Multiple dead after vehicle drives into crowd at Vancouver street festival, police say
Updated 36 min 54 sec ago
Follow

Multiple dead after vehicle drives into crowd at Vancouver street festival, police say

Multiple dead after vehicle drives into crowd at Vancouver street festival, police say

VANCOUVER: Several people were killed after a driver plowed into a crowd at a street festival on Saturday in the Canadian city of Vancouver, local police said.
"A number of people have been killed and multiple others are injured," Vancouver Police posted on X. "The driver is in custody."
The incident happened as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day, Vancouver mayor Ken Sim posted on X.
The festival commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century.
"Our thoughts are with all those affected and with Vancouver's Filipino community during this incredibly difficult time," Sim wrote.
Police said the incident happened shortly after 8:00 pm Saturday (0300 GMT Sunday) in the city's Sunset on Fraser neighborhood. Vancouver's Mayor Ken Sim said, "I am shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific incident at today's Lapu Lapu Day event."
 


Yemen’s Houthis fire missile toward Israel even as US forces strike militia positions

Yemen’s Houthis fire missile toward Israel even as US forces strike militia positions
Updated 27 April 2025
Follow

Yemen’s Houthis fire missile toward Israel even as US forces strike militia positions

Yemen’s Houthis fire missile toward Israel even as US forces strike militia positions
  • Missile intercepted before it crossed Israeli territory, Tel Aviv says
  • Ongoing US strikes on Houthi targets started March 15

JERUSALEM: Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched a missile early Sunday toward Israel, which the Israeli military said it shot down.
Sirens sounded in parts of Israel around the Dead Sea over the attack, which the Houthis did not immediately claim.
“The missile was intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the Israeli military said.
American airstrikes, meanwhile, continued targeting the Houthis overnight into Sunday, part of an intense campaign targeting the rebels that began on March 15.
The US is targeting the Houthis because of the group’s attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis are the last militant group in Iran’s self-described “Axis of Resistance” that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.
Assessing the toll of the month-old US airstrike campaign has been difficult because the military hasn’t released information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed. The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and don’t publish complete information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.
On April 18, a strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign.

 


Tesla could benefit the most from new rules on reporting of self-driving car crashes

Tesla could benefit the most from new rules on reporting of self-driving car crashes
Updated 27 April 2025
Follow

Tesla could benefit the most from new rules on reporting of self-driving car crashes

Tesla could benefit the most from new rules on reporting of self-driving car crashes
  • Tesla CEO and Trump adviser Elon Musk had complained the old reporting rules cast his company in a bad light
  • Critics said the new rules is "a win for Tesla, a loss for Waymo,” Tesla's rival which is not covered by the exemptions

NEW YORK: Rule changes announced by the Trump administration this week could allow automakers to report fewer crashes involving self-driving cars, with Tesla potentially emerging as the main beneficiary.
The Transportation Department announced Thursday that it will no longer require automakers to report certain kinds of non-fatal crashes — but the exception will apply only to partial self-driving vehicles using so-called Level 2 systems, the kind Tesla deploys. Tesla CEO Elon Musk had complained the old reporting rules cast his company in a bad light.
If Tesla and other automakers are required to report fewer crashes into a national database, that could make it more difficult for regulators to catch equipment defects and for the public to access information about a company’s overall safety, auto industry analysts say. It will also allow Tesla to trumpet a cleaner record to sell more cars.
“This will significantly reduce the number of crashes reported by Tesla,” said auto analyst Sam Abuelsamid at Telemetry Insight. Added Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, noting that Tesla rival Waymo won’t get an exception, “This is a win for Tesla, a loss for Waymo.”
Tesla stock soared nearly 10 percent Friday on the rule changes. Wall Street analysts, and Musk critics, have said that Musk’s role as an adviser to President Donald Trump could put Tesla in position to benefit from any changes to regulations involving self-driving cars.
Other car makers such as Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru and BMW make vehicles with Level 2 systems that help keep cars in lanes, change speed or brake automatically, but Tesla accounts for the vast majority on the road. Vehicles used by Waymo and others with systems that completely take over for the driver, called Automated Driving Systems, will not benefit from the change.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which enforces vehicle safety standards, said the new rules don’t favor one type of self-driving system over another, and that raft of changes it announced will help all self-driving automakers.
“No ADS company is hurt by these changes,” the agency said in statement to The Associated Press, using the acronym for Automatic Driving System. It added that the changes also make sense because “with ADS, no driver is present meaning stronger safety protocols are needed.”
Waymo declined to comment for this story. The AP reached out to Tesla but did not receive a reply.
Under the change, any Level 2 crash that is so bad it needs a tow truck to come will no longer be required to be reported if it doesn’t result in death or injury or air-bag deployment. But if a tow truck is called for crashes of vehicles using ADS, it has to be reported.
The vast majority of partial self-driving vehicle crashes reported under the old NHTSA rules involved Teslas — more than 800 of a total 1,040 crashes in the past 12 months, according to an AP review of the data. It’s unclear how many of those Tesla crashes required the vehicles to be towed, because a column requesting that information in the database is mostly blank.
The NHTSA said after the story was published that only 8 percent of total reported crashes under the old criteria were cases in which partial self-driving vehicles had to be towed away and there was no other qualifying crash-reporting factor involved. It is not clear about cases where tow-away information wasn’t provided.
The relaxed crash rule was part of several changes described by the Transportation Department as a way to “streamline” paperwork and allow US companies to better compete with the China in the race to make self-driving vehicles. The department said it would also move toward national self-driving regulations to replace a confusing patchwork of state rules.
“We’re in a race with China to out-innovate, and the stakes couldn’t be higher,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday. “Our new framework will slash red tape and move us closer to a single national standard.”
Traffic safety watchdogs had feared that the Trump administration would eliminate the NHTSA reporting requirement completely.
The package of changes came days after Musk confirmed on a conference call with Tesla investors that the electric vehicle maker will begin a rollout of self-driving Tesla taxis in Austin, Texas, in June. Waymo, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet, already has cybercabs available in that city and several others.
Musk has argued that the previous reporting requirements were unfair since Tesla vehicles all use its partial self-driving systems and therefore log more miles than any other automaker with such technology. He says that his cars are far safer than most and save lives.
Tesla sales have plunged in recent month amid a backlash against Musk’s backing of far-right politicians in Europe and his work in the US as head of Trump’s government cost-cutting group. The company has pinned its future on complete automation of its cars, but it is facing stiff competition now from rivals, especially China automaker BYD.


ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say

ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say
Updated 27 April 2025
Follow

ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say

ICE deports immigrant mother of an infant and 3 children who are US citizens, lawyers say
  • Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have in recent days deported the Cuban-born mother of a 1-year-old girl — separating them indefinitely — and three children ages 2, 4 and 7 who are US citizens along with their Honduran-born mothers, their lawyers said Saturday.
The three cases raise questions about who is being deported, and why, and come amid a battle in federal courts over whether President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far and too quickly at the expense of fundamental rights.
Lawyers in the cases described how the women were arrested at routine check-ins at ICE offices, given virtually no opportunity to speak with lawyers or their family members and then deported within three days or less.
The American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Project and several other allied groups said in a statement that the way ICE deported children who are US citizens and their mothers is a “shocking — although increasingly common — abuse of power.”
Gracie Willis of the National Immigration Project said the mothers, at the very least, did not have a fair opportunity to decide whether they wanted the children to stay in the United States.
“We have no idea what ICE was telling them, and in this case what has come to light is that ICE didn’t give them another alternative,” Willis said in an interview. “They didn’t gave them a choice, that these mothers only had the option to take their children with them despite loving caregivers being available in the United States to keep them here.”
The 4-year-old — who is suffering from a rare form of cancer — and the 7-year-old were deported to Honduras within a day of being arrested with their mother, Willis said.
In the case involving the 2-year-old, a federal judge in Louisiana raised questions about the deportation of the girl, saying the government did not prove it had done so properly.
Lawyers for the girl’s father insisted he wanted the girl to remain with him in the US, while ICE contended the mother had wanted the girl to be deported with her to Honduras, claims that weren’t fully vetted by US District Judge Terry Doughty in Louisiana.
Doughty in a Friday order scheduled a hearing on May 16 “in the interest of dispelling our strong suspicion that the Government just deported a US citizen with no meaningful process,” he wrote.
The Honduran-born mother — who is pregnant — was arrested Tuesday on an outstanding deportation order along with the 2-year-old girl and her 11-year-old Honduran-born sister during a check-in appointment at an ICE office in New Orleans, lawyers said. The family lived in Baton Rouge.
Doughty called government lawyers on Friday to speak to the woman while she was in the air on a deportation plane, only to be called back less than an hour later and told that a conversation was impossible because she “had just been released in Honduras.”
In a Thursday court filing, lawyers for the father said ICE indicated that it was holding the 2-year-old girl in a bid to induce the father to turn himself in. His lawyers didn’t describe his immigration status, but said he has legally delegated the custody of his daughters to his sister-in-law, a US citizen who also lives in Baton Rouge.
Cuban-born woman is deported, leaving behind child and husband
In Florida, meanwhile, a Cuban-born woman who is the mother of a 1-year-old girl and the wife of a US citizen was detained at a scheduled check-in appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa, her lawyer said Saturday.
Heidy Sánchez was held without any communication and flown to Cuba two days later. She is still breastfeeding her daughter, who suffers from seizures, her lawyer, Claudia Cañizares, said.
Cañizares said she tried to file paperwork with ICE to contest the deportation Thursday morning but ICE refused to accept it, saying Sánchez was already gone, although Cañizares said she doesn’t think that was true.
Cañizares said she told ICE that she was planning to reopen Sánchez’s case to help her remain in the US legally, but ICE told her that Sánchez can pursue the case while she’s in Cuba.
“I think they’re following orders that they need to remove a certain amount of people by day and they don’t care, honestly,” Cañizares said.
Sánchez is not a criminal and has a strong case on humanitarian grounds for allowing her to stay in the US, Cañizares said, but ICE isn’t taking that into consideration when it has to meet what the lawyer said were deportation benchmarks.
Sánchez had an outstanding deportation order stemming from a missed hearing in 2019, for which she was detained for nine months, Cañizares said. Cuba apparently refused to accept Sanchez back at the time, so Sanchez was released in 2020 and ordered to maintain a regular schedule of check-ins with ICE, Cañizares said.


Trump urges ‘free’ transit for US ships through Panama, Suez canals

Trump urges ‘free’ transit for US ships through Panama, Suez canals
Updated 27 April 2025
Follow

Trump urges ‘free’ transit for US ships through Panama, Suez canals

Trump urges ‘free’ transit for US ships through Panama, Suez canals
  • “American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Saturday urged free transit for American commercial and military ships through the Panama and Suez canals, tasking his secretary of state with making progress “immediately.”
Trump has for months been calling for the United States to take control of the Panama Canal but his social media post also shifted focus onto the vital Suez route.
“American Ships, both Military and Commercial, should be allowed to travel, free of charge, through the Panama and Suez Canals!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He claimed both routes would “not exist” without the United States and said he had asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to “immediately take care of” the situation.

Egypt’s Suez Canal, a key waterway linking Europe and Asia, accounted for about 10 percent of global maritime trade before attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on shipping routes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The Iran-backed rebels began targeting vessels after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians, forcing ships to take a long and costly detour around the southern tip of Africa.
Egypt said last year its canal revenues had plunged 60 percent, a loss of $7 billion.
The US military has been attacking Houthi positions since January 2024, but those assaults have intensified under Trump, with almost daily strikes in the past month.
Trump has vowed that military action would continue until the Houthis are no longer a threat to shipping.