International News
Overcrowding Kills Infant Gorillas In Rwanda Habitat
Celebrities, politicians and conservationists took turns to announce names for 40 infant gorillas in a glamorous ceremony in Rwanda, where the endangered creatures face a deadly threat from overcrowding.
Around half of the babies will not make it to adulthood due to vicious inter-family fights that are threatening decades of conservation work, experts say.
Efforts over the past half-century have helped the gorilla population recover from critical levels in the Virunga Massif that spans Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
But increased numbers also make the adult male gorillas, known as silverbacks, clash more frequently, with devastating results.
“Silverbacks fight as they try to protect their territories,” said Eugene Mutangana, conservation management expert at the Rwanda Development Board.
“The infants end up dying because the silverback that wins eliminates the young ones,” he told AFP.
He said around half of all young gorillas born over the past decade have been killed in this way.
None of that was mentioned as celebrities such as Hollywood actor Michelle Yeoh and “Transformers” director Michael Bay enjoyed the naming ceremony in the foothills of Volcanoes National Park.
“I hear he is such a good-looking baby gorilla, and being a movie director I promise I am going to make him a famous gorilla movie star,” said Bay, who named his gorilla Umurage, meaning “heritage”.
Short but vicious fights
Rwanda has launched an ambitious programme to expand the gorillas’ habitat by 23 percent that will see around 3,400 human households relocated from the edge of Volcanoes National Park.
But the programme will take more than 10 years to complete, Mutangana acknowledged.
And in the meantime, scarcity of land causes the deadly incidents to continue.
A ranger in the park, who asked not to be named, said he had taken tourists to see gorillas only to come across dead infant ones.
“When families meet, which is not frequent… the males often fight,” he told AFP.
“We leave them to fight. They are normally short but vicious fights. The silverback which wins ends up hitting the infant on hard surfaces until it dies.”
He said grieving mothers will often isolate themselves from the new dominant male.
“It is a sad sight,” the ranger said.
Extreme temperatures were also a cause of death for infant gorillas, he added.
Julius Nziza, lead medic at Rwanda’s Gorilla Doctors Office, said many infants were also left injured by the fights.
“We don’t intervene because it is a natural phenomenon. We only intervene when it is human-induced or life-threatening infections like a serious respiratory disease,” he said.
“The problem can be dealt with through expanding the habitat.”
Recovery, revenue
The number of gorillas in Rwanda fell to just 242 in 1981, according to a study by the late conservationist Dian Fossey.
Conservation efforts, including anti-poaching patrols, community engagement, veterinary care, habitat protection and monitoring led to a gradual recovery, though they are still classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The population has lately climbed to over 1,000 and is rising by four percent annually, though it could be double that without the infant deaths, Nziza said.
Conservation work is also undermined by the presence of numerous armed groups in the remote hills of Virunga, and illegal mining and logging operations.
Humans have encroached on more than half of the protected region, and around 130 rangers have been killed over the years trying to protect it.
The armed clashes have disrupted gorilla feeding and breeding patterns.
The naming ceremony was a high-profile event highlighting the relative success of the country’s conservation efforts.
The gorillas have also become a valuable source of tourism revenue, bringing in around $200 million last year, according to the Rwanda Development Board — with visitor numbers limited by high permit prices of around $1,500.
Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that an Israeli airstrike had killed Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ navy.
“Last night, in a precise and lethal operation, the IDF eliminated the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ navy, Tangsiri, along with senior officers of the naval command,” Katz said in a video statement.
“The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated.”
Since the start of the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, Israel has announced the killing of several top Iranian officials, including supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the Islamic republic’s powerful security chief, Ali Larijani.
In recent days, Israeli forces have carried out several strikes targeting the naval assets of Iran.
Last week, Israeli airstrikes hit several Iranian naval ships in the Caspian Sea, including ones equipped with missile systems, support vessels and patrol craft.
AFP
US President Donald Trump insisted Wednesday that Iran was taking part in peace talks, suggesting Tehran’s denials were because Iranian negotiators fear being killed by their own side.
“They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly. But they’re afraid to say it, because they figure they’ll be killed by their own people,” Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress.
“They’re also afraid they’ll be killed by us.”
The US leader’s comments came after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that “we do not intend to negotiate”.
Trump repeated his assertion that Iran was being “decimated” in the conflict now in its fourth week, even though Tehran still maintains an effective stranglehold over the crucial Strait of Hormuz oil route.
Lashing out at his domestic opponents, Trump also claimed Democrats were trying to “deflect from all of the tremendous success that we’re having in this military operation.”
In a mocking reference to calls from Democrats for him to seek the approval of Congress for the conflict, Trump added: “They don’t like the word ‘war,’ because you’re supposed to get approval, so I’ll use the word military operation.”
The White House said earlier that Trump was ready to “unleash hell” if Iran did not admit defeat, while also insisting that Tehran is still taking part in talks.
Iranian state media had earlier cited an unidentified official as saying that the Islamic republic had responded “negatively” to a reported 15-point plan from Washington.
‘Talks continue’
“If Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, President Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
“President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again.”
Asked if negotiations with Iran had stalled, Leavitt replied: “Talks continue. They are productive.”
Leavitt declined to say whom the US was dealing with in Tehran following the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, whose son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public.
Reports have suggested the Trump administration’s interlocutor is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and one of its most prominent non-clerical figures.
The spokeswoman also declined to confirm reports that top US officials including Vice President JD Vance were set to hold talks with the Iranians in Pakistan, which has emerged as a key mediator.
Trump is moving thousands of airborne troops and extra marines to the Gulf amid speculation that he might order a ground invasion to either seize Iranian oil assets in the Gulf or secure the Strait of Hormuz.
The White House meanwhile appeared to stick to the four to six-week timeline it has previously given for the war.
Trump announced Wednesday that his visit to China to meet Xi Jinping had now been rescheduled for mid-May, having postponed it by six weeks to deal with the conflict.
“We’ve always estimated approximately four to six weeks (for the length of military operations against Iran), so you could do the math on that,” Leavitt added.
AFP
Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro will appear in a New York court on Thursday for the second time since his capture by US forces in an extraordinary nighttime raid.
Maduro, 63, and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been held in a Brooklyn jail for almost three months after American commandos snatched the pair from their compound in Caracas in early January.
The stunning operation deposed the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013 and has since forced the oil-rich country to largely bend to the will of US President Donald Trump.
Maduro has declared himself a “prisoner of war” and pleaded not guilty to the four counts of “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Thursday’s hearing at 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) will likely see Maduro push for the dismissal of his case as lawyers tussle over who will pay the former leader’s legal fees.
Venezuela’s government is seeking to cover the costs, but because of Washington’s sanctions, his lawyer, Barry Pollack, must obtain a US license that has not been issued.
Pollack argued in a court submission that the license requirement violated Maduro’s constitutional right to legal representation and demanded the case be thrown out on procedural grounds.
Deadly Raid
Detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Centre, a federal prison known for unsanitary conditions, Maduro is reportedly alone in a cell with no access to the internet or newspapers.
A source close to the Venezuelan government said the incarcerated Maduro reads the Bible and is referred to as “president” by some of his fellow detainees
He is only allowed to communicate by phone with his family and lawyers for a maximum of 15 minutes per call, the source added.
“The lawyers told us he is strong. He said we must not be sad,” said his son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, adding his father told him: “We are fine, we are fighters.”
Maduro and his wife were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of January 3 in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.
At least 83 people died, and more than 112 people were injured in the assault, according to Venezuelan officials.
No US service members were killed.
US Pressure
At his first US court appearance in January, Maduro struck a defiant tone as he identified himself as the president of Venezuela despite being captured.
The South American country is now led by Delcy Rodriguez, who has been Maduro’s vice president since 2018.
Under US pressure, she is grappling with leading a country saddled with the world’s largest proven oil reserves but an economy in shambles.
Rodriguez has since enacted a historic amnesty law to free political prisoners jailed under Maduro and reformed oil and mining regulations in line with US demands for access to her country’s vast natural wealth.
This month, the State Department said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Venezuela in a sign of thawing relations.
Security is expected to be heightened around the New York courthouse for Thursday’s hearing.
Presiding over the case is Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old judge credited with overseeing several high-profile trials during his decades on the bench.
AFP
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