Stephen A. Smith on the Hunter Biden trial.

The group that pursued a successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the consideration of race in collegiate admissions

Russia was actively preparing to steal grain supplies and starve the Ukrainian population of food for months before Vladimir Putin ordered last year’s invasion, according to new evidence compiled by human rights experts. When Russian tanks did roll across the border on 24 February 2022 they deliberately targeted grain-rich areas and food production infrastructure first, the new report by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance found. GRC found that Russia’s defence contractor began purchasing trucks to transport grain, as well as three new 170-metre bulk carrier cargo ships, as early as December 2021, evidence of advance planning for the pillage of Ukrainian food resources “on an unprecedented scale”. Russia began commandeering Ukrainian farms within less than a week of its invasion, and at its peak was exporting 12,000 tonnes of grain per day from across occupied territories. The evidence of a “highly coordinated level of pre-planning” will be provided by to the International Criminal Court and GRC hopes it will lead to a first international prosecution against Mr Putin for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare. It is “highly likely” Russia will be found guilty, Catriona Murdoch, a partner at Global Rights Compliance, and if so Mr Putin could face another ICC arrest warrant to go with the one issued in March this year for the unlawful deportation of children from occupied Ukrainian territories. “Russia not only deployed a multi-pronged approach by besieging civilian populations, destroying critical infrastructure, but it also pre-planned the seizure and pillage of agricultural commodities in an insidious plan. Moscow has sparked a global food crisis and attacked Ukraine’s agriculture sector as a warfare tactic,” Ms Murdoch told The Independent. The grain pillaged from Ukraine so far has an estimated market value of $1bn per year. Multiple private Ukrainian grain companies were forcibly incorporated into Russia’s state operator, the GRC said. Beyond its impact on Ukrainian citizens, Russia’s invasion has affected millions around the world by increasing global food insecurity – Ukraine was the world’s largest wheat producer prior to the conflict. A farmer in Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine said his grain farm was taken over by Russian forces five days after the full-scale invasion began. “Multiple convoys of vehicles were seen carrying grain in the direction of the Crimean Peninsula in the following weeks, and GPS trackers on farmers’ stolen trucks show them driving through Crimea and into Russia,” the GRC said. Satellite images shared with The Independent by the GRC showed grain trucks at a facility in Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia bearing licence plate numbers registered in occupied Crimea. Other images show train carriages labelled “grain” leaving Beridansk train station in Zaporizhzhia. And another image from March this year shows a newly constructed storage building in Melitopol with grain visible throughout the compound. GRC said that despite the apparent planning that went into Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain, job adverts seen in Russia suggest the government was unable to recruit truck drivers quickly enough to transport the vast quantities of stolen food. The investigation into grain theft ran up to August this year. GRC said that while Russia has not captured any more grain-rich territory since then, it still controls all of the Crimean peninsula – one of the main regions from which grain is transported by sea to Russia and abroad. Yousuf Syed Khan, senior lawyer at GRC, called Russia’s weaponisation of Ukraine’s grain industry “unprecedented in modern history”. Russia is now appealing to the UN and other global powers to ease war-related sanctions so it can resume grain exports from occupied territory to developing countries hit hardest by the food crisis. The offer of grain to friendly third countries was also part of Mr Putin’s failed charm offensive to get back onto the UN Human Rights Council. “Russia is doing this to represent itself as the legitimate authority of Ukrainian territory, in turn also weakening Ukraine’s national economy,” Mr Khan said.

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The Donald Trump campaign’s comparison of the latest criminal charges against him to Nazi Germany is “beyond the pale, in terms of offensiveness and ignorance”, CNN’s Jake Tapper has said. The former president was indicted on Tuesday on four charges by a grand jury hearing evidence in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. This is Mr Trump’s third criminal indictment, his second federal indictment and his first for his alleged conduct while in office as president. In response to the indictment, the Trump campaign issued a statement that the charges against him amounted to election interference along with the comparison to Nazi Germany. “The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, the former Soviet Union, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” a part of the lengthy statement said. “These un-American witch hunts will fail.” Tapper denounced Mr Trump for the ignorant comparison while his colleague Kaitlan Collins, who read his full statement said it was a glimpse of the Trump team’s argument to challenge the charges. “They’re saying it’s persecution and that it is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and the former Soviet Union. Just giving you a kind of window into the argument they’re going to be making tying this all back to the campaign,” Collins said. The remarks also drew criticism from activists and civil rights organisations. “Comparing this indictment to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is factually incorrect, completely inappropriate and flat out offensive,” said Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “As we have said time and again, such comparisons have no place in politics and are shameful.” The reaction by CNN’s Tapper was followed by Fox News host Jesse Watters’ outburst of comparing the indictment to a war crime on the order of the atomic bombing or germ warfare. “This is overkill,” Watters said in a segment on Tuesday. “This is political germ warfare. These are political war crimes. It’s an atrocity. It’s like not just dropping one atomic bomb, you drop 15 dozen.” Later in his show, Watters shopped short of refuting the various charges against Mr Trump, but rather said they shouldn’t be considered significant crimes. The latest legal woe comes for Mr Trump as he faces the prospect of yet another potential indictment in Georgia where the former president was recorded on a phone call pressuring top officials to “find” him enough votes to reverse his loss in the state to Joe Biden during the 2020 election. Read More Trump indictment live updates: Grand jury charges Trump on four counts in 2020 election interference probe Revealed: ‘Monster’ care worker raped elderly dementia patients - but authorities don’t know how many How prosecutors could charge Trump with racketeering in Georgia case Trump indicted on four counts in 2020 election interference probe – live Takeaways from the Trump indictment that alleges a campaign of 'fraud and deceit' The judge assigned to Trump's Jan. 6 case is a tough punisher of Capitol rioters

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A group of senior Gabonese military officers appeared on national television in the early hours of Wednesday and said they had taken power, after the state election body announced President Ali Bongo had won a third term.

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