Month: August 2022

BEIRUT -- A Lebanese submarine has found the remains of at least 10 migrants who drowned when their boat sank earlier this year off the coast of Lebanon with about 30 people on board, the navy announced Friday. The boat, carrying dozens of Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians trying to migrate by sea to Italy, went down more than 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the port of Tripoli, following a confrontation with the Lebanese navy. Ten bodies were recovered that night, including one of a child, while 48 survivors were pulled from the Mediterranean Sea. According to navy estimates, 30 people were believed to have gone down with the boat. Since Monday, the small, 3-person underwater craft — a Pisces VI submarine — has been searching for the remains. The wreck was located on Wednesday, Kate Spade...

TORONTO -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Friday about Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic and China’s increasing interest in that part of the world. During a visit to Canada's north, Stoltenberg said the shortest path to North America for Russian missiles and bombers is over the North Pole. He said Russia has set up a new Arctic Command and has opened hundreds of new and former Soviet-era Arctic military sites, including airfields and deep-water ports. “We see a significant Russian military build-up with new bases, new weapons systems, and also using the High North as a test bed for their most advanced weapons, including hypersonic missiles,” Stoltenberg said at a Canadian military base in Cold Lake, Alberta. Stoltenberg also noted China has declared itself a “near ...

Recent natural disasters, ranging from flooding to wildfires, have made clear the effects of climate change in the present moment. As the climate crisis worsens, a massive amount of people may be forced to move from their homes. The international think-tank Institute for Economics & Peace estimates that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050. Gaia Vince, a science journalist and author of the recent book “Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World,” spoke with ABC News Prime about the argument she makes in her books that nations have to start planning now for future climate refugees, and that there may be silver linings in that process. PRIME: Gaia, thank you so much for joining us tonight. VINCE: Huge pleasure, Mona. PRIME: Your book lays out that...

TOKYO -- The brazen assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe with a handmade gun shocked a nation unused to high-profile political violence. But there has been another surprise in the weeks since the murder as details have emerged about an alleged assassin who was well-off until his mother’s huge donations to the controversial Unification Church left him poor, neglected and filled with rage. Some Japanese have expressed understanding, even sympathy, for the 41-year-old suspect, especially those of a similar age who may feel pangs of recognition linked to their own suffering during three decades of economic malaise and social turmoil. There have been suggestions on social media that care packages should be sent to suspect Tetsuya Yamagami’s detention center to cheer him...

Former US President Donald Trump has asked a judge to freeze a justice department investigation of files seized from his home in an FBI search. In a lawsuit, his legal team asked that an independent lawyer be appointed to oversee documents that agents removed from Mar-a-Lago in Florida this month. Eleven sets of classified files were taken from Mr Trump's estate on 8 August, according to the FBI. Mr Trump is being investigated for potentially mishandling documents. On Monday, his lawyers asked that a third-party attorney - known as a special master - be appointed to determine whether the seized files are covered by executive privilege, which allows presidents to withhold certain communications from public release. Special masters a...

Russia has accused Ukrainian special services of killing the daughter of one of President Vladimir Putin's allies in a car bombing at the weekend. Darya Dugina, aged 29, died on Saturday when a vehicle she was driving exploded near Russia's capital Moscow. Her prominent ultra-nationalist father, Alexander Dugin, said to be close to Mr Putin, may have been the intended target of the attack. Ukrainian officials have denied any involvement in the explosion. But Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday it had solved the case and said that Ukraine was directly responsible. The FSB told Russian media that a Ukrainian woman had moved to Russia in July alongside her young daughter - but that she was in fact a Ukrainian specia...