The World Today for July 31, 2024

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Growing Back Limbs

IRAQ/ SYRIA

The terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) no longer makes headlines like the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East do. Ten years ago, however, it was a different story.

Then, amid the chaos that reigned after the US invaded Iraq and Syria plunged into civil war, ISIS seized Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, and began establishing a new caliphate on a wide swath of land in both countries. The group became the primary threat to world order at the time.

As PBS’ Frontline showed, before falling to a coalition of local and foreign forces in 2019, ISIS launched a reign of terror, committing genocide against the Yazidi minority, destroying non-Islamic religious sites, beheading journalists, humanitarian workers and others, and conducting terror attacks in Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, and elsewhere.

Now, however, ISIS appears to be reconstituting. Citing US military sources, the Associated Press reported that ISIS is on track to double the number of attacks it has staged in Iraq and Syria in 2024 compared with 2023. Its terrorists already conducted 153 attacks through June this year. Last year, they staged 121 attacks. And since 2019, the group has killed more than 4,000 people.

This shift comes amid many changes in the past 10 years. As memories of ISIS’ rule have receded into the past, local leaders have changed their views on confronting the group.

In Syria, for example, Kurdish rebels fighting the Syrian central government have released around 1,500 aged or sick ISIS fighters who have been in detention since 2019, wrote Middle East Eye. The Kurds are detaining a total of 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 2,000 whose home countries have refused to take them back.

Iraqi leaders have also wanted American and other foreign troops to leave the country, reported Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet. Their decision partly stems from frustration with American strikes against pro-Iranian military groups and interests in Iraq. ISIS groups, incidentally, have attacked US installations in Iraq and Syria as payback for American support for Israel’s war against the Iranian-supported Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera added.

These developments potentially have emboldened ISIS to expand its reach beyond Iraq and Syria, too. ISIS fighters, who are radical Sunni Muslims, recently attacked a Shiite Muslim mosque in Oman. An ISIS affiliate has been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. The group is also active in Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and other African countries. In Mozambique, an ISIS-linked force has caused violence that has claimed 6,000 lives and displaced more than one million people, added World Politics Review.

It’s a deadly and oppressive but remarkably resilient franchise, wrote the Economist: “The history of global jihadism is one of reinvention under pressure from the West.”

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Hands Off

ISRAEL

Dozens of far-right protesters supported by members of the Israeli cabinet stormed a military base on Monday where soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner were being detained, an attack condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition, the Washington Post reported.

The nine reservists being prosecuted were serving at the Sde Teiman detention base in Israel’s Negev desert, which for months has been the focus of international attention because of allegations of abuse of Palestinian prisoners held there.

Footage shared on social media showed protesters and far-right lawmaker Zvi Sukkot rattling the base’s gates to allow him to enter, while guards contained crowds in the perimeter.

Meanwhile, protesters broke into the Beit Lid base, a military court building where the reservists were transported. They confronted troops serving at the base and called them “traitors,” reported Israel’s Haaretz.

Sde Teiman was designed as a temporary detention camp, where Palestinian prisoners, usually suspected of links with militant groups, are held before being either released without charge, or transferred to a civilian Israeli prison.

But detention at Sde Teiman can last for weeks, even months, in extreme conditions, with rights groups and lawyers accusing officials of allowing rape and torture there.

At the same time, politicians criticized the arrest of the soldiers. “Take your hands off the reservists,” said Finance Minister Bezahel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Netanyahu and opposition politicians condemned the breach. Interior Minister Yoav Gallant wrote that it “plays into our enemies’ hands during wartime.”

A military official told CNN they considered the breach as serious as concerns over a widening war with Hezbollah following a rocket attack in the Golan Heights that Israel and Washington blamed on the Lebanese group.

Also on Monday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fanned those worries by threatening to invade Israel to support Palestinians, “just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya,” Politico reported.

Israel reacted to Erdogan’s comments by demanding that NATO expel Turkey, which holds the alliance’s second-biggest military.

Battery Park

SERBIA

Thousands of people protested in western and central Serbia on Monday against a lithium project stemming from an agreement between the country and the European Union (EU) despite environmental concerns, the Associated Press reported.

The epicenter of the protests was in Šabac, in western Serbia, 31 miles northeast of a mining site where multinational company Rio Tinto is set to launch the project. It is simultaneously the largest lithium reserve in the Balkan country – and a lush area with thriving biodiversity.

“They have usurped our rivers, our forests,” activist Nebojsa Kovandzic told the newswire. “Everything (the government) do, they do for their own interests and never in the interest of us, citizens.”

Earlier this month, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and the EU’s Green Deal commissioner Maroš Šefčovič signed a deal to allow excavation at the site.

The bloc considers lithium a “critical material,” as it is used in electric car batteries and mobile devices, wrote Reuters.

The site would become Europe’s largest lithium mine, reducing the EU’s dependence on China, which has close ties with Serbia.

The mining company argues the deal would create thousands of jobs, Radio Free Europe reported. However, critics say it would cause irreversible damage to the environment while providing little benefit to the public.

Deposits in the region were discovered in 2004, leading to an exploration project led by Rio Tinto. However, following major protests, the government suspended the project in 2022.

This month, however, Serbia’s top court overturned the decision, allowing the $2.4 billion project to resume, sparking environmental concerns anew.

Vučić said the mining would not resume before 2028, while Scholz assured the EU would only greenlight the project if it met the bloc’s environmental requirements.

Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but its accession has been hindered by environmental standards and concerns over democratic backsliding under Vučić’s leadership, among other obstacles.

A Bitter Aftertaste

VENEZUELA

At least 16 people died in protests following the contested election win of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, while the opposition said their candidate won in a landslide, Reuters reported.

The announcement of the election board on Monday, awarding the outgoing president a third term, triggered protests from both pro- and anti-Maduro camps in the capital, Caracas, and other cities.

Law enforcement shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the angry crowds, while some protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs in return.

Across the country, protesters knocked down statues of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s late socialist ruler who chose Maduro as his successor, noted the Telegraph.

The election board said Maduro won the presidential vote with 51.2 percent of the votes, while the opposition’s candidate Edmundo González garnered 44.2 percent.

But the opposition, considering the board to be a mouthpiece for Maduro, said their own assessment of partial tallies showed that González had won more than twice as many votes as the incumbent.

The opposition’s claims were in line with pollsters’ predictions of a Maduro defeat ahead of the election.

On Tuesday, protests spread to poor neighborhoods that had previously offered overwhelming support for Maduro. Throughout the capital, protesters chanted “Freedom! Freedom!”

Maduro dismissed the protesters’ demands, saying that “they are trying to impose in Venezuela a coup d’état.”

The election left the international community divided, with the United States and other Western powers as well as numerous South American countries expressing concerns over a lack of transparency and credibility, while China, Russia, and Mexico offered Maduro their congratulations.

Meanwhile, Peru recalled its ambassador and ordered Venezuelan envoys to leave within 72 hours, in a show of disapproval over Maduro’s victory, Reuters reported.

DISCOVERIES

The Elusive Cetacean

Earlier this month, a whale washed ashore on a beach at Taieri Mouth in New Zealand’s southern Otago province.

Beached cetaceans are not new in New Zealand – a hotspot for marine mammal strandings – but this one was no ordinary whale: It was a spade-toothed whale, a species considered one of the world’s rarest marine mammals.

Marine scientists and officials of the Department of Conservation (DOC) said the whale was about 16 feet long and was identified based on its color patterns, skull shape, beak and teeth.

To date, no beached spade-toothed whales have ever been found alive, according to USA Today.

“Spade-toothed whales are one of the most poorly known large mammalian species of modern times,” said DOC Coastal Otago operations manager Gabe Davies in a statement. “Since the 1800s, only six samples have ever been documented worldwide, and all but one of these was from New Zealand. From a scientific and conservation point of view, this is huge.”

The species was first described in 1874 from a lower jaw and two teeth found on Pitt Island, New Zealand. Previous specimens were often misidentified and buried before DNA testing could confirm their species.

Researchers explained that the species is a member of the beaked whales group, which consists of 21 species. The creatures primarily feed on squid and fish, but have been difficult to study because of their deep-diving nature and infrequent surfacing.

The discovery of the cryptic animal is a boon for scientists, who are rushing to analyze its remains to learn more about them, including their behavior and habitat.

“This is going to lead to some amazing science and world-first information,” Hannah Hendriks, a marine technical adviser for the DOC, told the Associated Press.

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