Panama will allow controversial mine to export already mined copper to fund maintenance
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama will allow a controversial mine that was closed after months of protests to export more than 120,000 tons of already mined copper concentrate to pay the costs of maintaining the inactive mine site, government officials announced Friday.
Opposition to the massive copper mine led to some of Panama's most widespread protests in recent years before the country's Supreme Court rejected a deal that allowed a Canadian company to operate it.
Toronto-based First Quantum Minerals said Friday that exporting the material that's sitting at the site will fund maintenance and environmental protection measures.
Panama's President José Raúl Mulino called for those steps in March, when business groups were lobbying him to reopen the mine. Income from the mine accounted for nearly 5% of Panama gross domestic product the last year it operated.
'The purpose is to avoid, above all else, environmental damage,' Trade and Industry Minister Julio Moltó said Friday. He emphasized that the mine was not reopening, but said that the plan would ensure the site remained safe.
The open-pit mine was temporarily closed in 2022 when talks between the government and First Quantum broke down over payments the government wanted. In March 2023, Panama's Congress reached an agreement with First Quantum, allowing subsidiary Panama Copper to continue operating the mine in a biodiverse jungle on the Atlantic coast west of the capital for at least 20 more years.
The deal faced opposition from those who believed Panama wasn't getting as much as it should and from environmentalists and Indigenous groups who raised concerns about the mine's impact.
Protests included a blockade of the mine's power plant. Protesters also blocked parts of the Pan American highway, including a stretch near the border with Costa Rica.
On Nov. 28, 2023, Panama's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the 20-year concession was unconstitutional and then-President Laurentino Cortizo announced the start of a process to close the mine.
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San Francisco Chronicle
31 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
A confidential brief urges the ICC to investigate Wagner's promotion of atrocities in West Africa
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Editor's Note: This story contains graphic images and descriptions of atrocities. The International Criminal Court has been asked to review a confidential legal report arguing that the Russia-linked Wagner Group has committed war crimes by spreading images of apparent atrocities in West Africa on social media, including ones alluding to cannibalism, according to the brief seen exclusively by The Associated Press. In the videos, men in military uniform are shown butchering corpses of what appear to be civilians with machetes, hacking out organs and posing with severed limbs. One fighter says he is about to eat someone's liver. Another says he is trying to remove their heart. Violence in the Sahel, an arid belt of land south of the Sahara Desert, has reached record levels as military governments battle extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Turning from Western allies like the United States and France, the governments in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have instead embraced Russia and its mercenary fighters as partners in offensives. Observers say the new approach has led to the kind of atrocities and dehumanization not seen in the region for decades. Social media offers a window into the alleged horrors that often occur in remote areas with little or no oversight from governments or outside observers. Experts say the images, while difficult to verify, could serve as evidence of war crimes. The confidential brief to the ICC goes further, arguing that the act of circulating the images on social media could constitute a war crime, too. It is the first such argument made to the international court. 'Wagner has deftly leveraged information and communications technologies to cultivate and promote its global brand as ruthless mercenaries. Their Telegram network in particular, which depicts their conduct across the Sahel, serves as a proud public display of their brutality,' said Lindsay Freeman, director of the Technology, Law & Policy program at the Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley School of Law. Under the Rome Statute that created the ICC, the violation of personal dignity, mainly through humiliating and degrading treatment, constitutes a war crime. Legal experts from UC Berkeley, who submitted the brief to the ICC last year, argue that such treatment could include Wagner's alleged weaponization of social media. 'The online distribution of these images could constitute the war crime of outrages on personal dignity and the crime against humanity of other inhumane acts for psychologically terrorizing the civilian population,' Freeman said. She said there is legal precedent in some European courts for charging the war crime of outrages on personal dignity based predominantly on social media evidence. The brief was submitted to the ICC before the U.S. sanctioned the court earlier this year. It asks the court to investigate individuals with Wagner and the governments of Mali and Russia for alleged abuses in northern and central Mali between December 2021 and July 2024, including extrajudicial killings, torture, mutilation and cannibalism. It also asks the court to investigate crimes 'committed through the internet, which are inextricably linked to the physical crimes and add a new dimension of harm to an extended group of victims.' The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC said their investigations have focused on alleged war crimes committed since January 2012, when insurgents seized communities in Mali's northern regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. The ICC told the AP it could not comment on the brief but said it was aware of "various reports of alleged massive human rights violations in other parts of Mali,' adding that it 'follows closely the situation.' World's deadliest region for terrorism, think tank says As the world largely focuses on wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, the Sahel has become the deadliest place on earth for extremism. Half of the world's nearly 8,000 victims of terrorism were killed across the territory last year, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace, which compiles yearly data. While the U.S. and other Western powers withdraw from the region, Russia has taken advantage, expanding military cooperation with several African nations via Wagner, the private security company. The network of mercenaries and businesses is closely linked to Russia's intelligence and military, and the U.S. State Department has described it as 'a transnational criminal organization.' Since Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in 2023, Moscow has been developing a new organization, the Africa Corps, as a rival force under direct command of Russian authorities. Earlier this month, Wagner announced its withdrawal from Mali, declaring 'mission accomplished' in a Telegram post. In a separate Telegram post, Africa Corps said it is staying. In Mali, about 2,000 Russian mercenaries are fighting alongside the country's armed forces, according to U.S. officials. It is unclear how many have been with Wagner or are with the Africa Corps. Both the Russian mercenaries and local military allies have shared bloody imagery on social media to claim battlefield wins, observers say. 'The mutilation of civilians and combatants by all sides is disturbing enough,' said Corinne Dufka, a Sahel expert and the former head of Human Rights Watch in the region. "But the dissemination of these scenes on social media further elevates the depravity and suggests a growing and worrying level of dehumanization is taking root in the Sahel.' The confidential brief, along with AP reporting, shows that a network of social media channels, likely administrated by current or former Wagner members, has reposted content that the channels say are from Wagner fighters, promoting videos and photos appearing to show abuses by armed, uniformed men, often accompanied by mocking or dehumanizing language. While administrators of the channels are anonymous, open source analysts believe they are current or former Wagner fighters based on the content as well as graphics used, including in some cases Wagner's logo. AP analysis of the videos confirms the body parts shown are genuine, as well as the military uniforms. The videos and photos, in a mix of French and local languages, aim to humiliate and threaten those considered the enemies of Wagner and its local military allies, along with civilian populations whose youth face pressure to join extremist groups. But experts say it often has the opposite effect, prompting reprisal attacks and recruitment into the ranks of jihadis. If the videos aim to deter and terrorize, it's working, some in Mali say. The ones appearing to show atrocities committed by Malian soldiers 'caused a psychological shock in the Fulani community,' a representative of the nomadic community's civil society told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. The Fulani are often caught in the middle of the fight against extremism, the focus of violence from both government forces and extremists, and of jihadi recruitment. Thousands of Fulani have fled to neighboring countries in fear of being victimized, the representative said, and asserted that at least 1,000 others disappeared last year after encountering Mali's army or allied militias, including Wagner. Condemnation and investigations In July last year, a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel reposted three videos of what appeared to be Mali's armed forces and the Dozo hunters, a local defense group often fighting alongside them, committing apparent abuses that allude to cannibalism. One video shows a man in the uniform of Mali's armed forces cooking what he says are body parts. Another shows a man dressed as a Dozo hunter cutting into a human body, saying he is about to eat the liver. In a third video, a group of Dozo fighters roasts what appears to be a human torso. One man carves off a hunk of flesh and tosses it to another. Mali's army ordered an investigation into the viral videos, which were removed from X for violating the platform's rules and put behind a paywall on Telegram. The army chief described it as 'rare atrocity' which was not aligned with the nation's military values, and 'competent services' would confirm and identify the perpetrators. It was not clear whether anyone was identified. A video apparently from Burkina Faso, shared on X the same month, showed an armed man in military pants and sleeveless shirt dancing, holding a severed hand and foot, at one point grinning as the foot dangled from his teeth. In another, a man in Burkinabe military uniform cuts through what appears to be a human body. He says: 'Good meat indeed. We are Cobra 2.' Another man is heard saying: 'This is BIR 15. BIR 15 always does well its job, by all means. Fatherland or death, we shall win.' BIR 15 Cobra 2 is the name of a special intervention unit created by Burkina Faso's ruler, Ibrahim Traore, to combat extremists. 'Fatherland or death' is the motto of pro-government forces. The videos were removed from X and put behind a paywall on Telegram. Burkina Faso's army condemned the videos' 'macabre acts' and described them as 'unbearable images of rare cruelty.' The army said it was working to identify those responsible, adding that it 'distances itself from these inhumane practices.' It was not clear whether anyone has been identified. Other posts shared by alleged Wagner-affiliated channels include images of what appear to be mutilated corpses and beheaded, castrated and dismembered bodies of people, including ones described as extremist fighters, often accompanied with mocking commentary. One post shows two white men in military attire with what appears to be a human roasting on a spit, with the caption: 'The meat you hunt always tastes better,' along with an emoji of a Russian flag. It is hard to know at what scale cannibalism might occur in the context of warfare in the Sahel, and actual cases are 'likely rare,' said Danny Hoffman, chair in international studies at the University of Washington. But "the real force of these stories comes from the fascination and fear they create,' Hoffman said of the videos, with the digital age making rumors of violence even more widespread and effective. 'Whether it is Wagner or local fighters or political leaders, being associated with cannibalism or ritual killings or mutilations is being associated with an extreme form of power," he said. Some of the graphic posts have been removed. Other content was moved behind a paywall. Telegram told the AP in a statement: 'Content that encourages violence is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI and machine learning tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day.' It did not say whether it acts on material behind a paywall. 'White Uncles in Africa' The Telegram channel White Uncles in Africa has emerged as the leading source of graphic imagery and dehumanizing language from the Sahel, reposting all the Mali videos. UC Berkeley experts and open source analysts believe it is administered by current or former Wagner members, but they have not been able to identify them. While the channel re-posts images from subscribers, it also posts original content. In May of this year, the channel posted a photo of eight bodies of what appeared to be civilians, face-down on the ground with hands bound, with the caption: 'The white uncles found and neutralized a breeding ground for a hostile life form.' It also shared an image of a person appearing to be tortured, with the caption describing him as a 'hostile life form' being taken 'for research.' Human Rights Watch has documented atrocities committed in Mali by Wagner and other armed groups. It says accountability for alleged abuses has been minimal, with the military government reluctant to investigate its armed forces and Russian mercenaries. It has become difficult to obtain detailed information on alleged abuses because of the Malian government's 'relentless assault against the political opposition, civil society groups, the media and peaceful dissent,' said Ilaria Allegrozzi, the group's Sahel researcher. That has worsened after a U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in December 2023 at the government's request.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Americans react to US strikes on Iran with worry as well as support for Israel
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — One of Layton Tallwhiteman's earliest memories was watching the news at his uncle's house in Montana in 2003 and seeing the U.S. bomb Baghdad to launch the war in Iraq. Recollections of that war — waged in part to find weapons of mass destruction that did not exist – flooded back for Tallwhiteman after President Donald Trump ordered weekend bombing strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities amid its escalating conflict with Israel. The administration has indicated it wants to avoid getting pulled into all-out war. Tallwhiteman, who grew up on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation southeast of Billings, is skeptical. 'Their idea is to eliminate the threat. Like Bush said in Iraq, 'We're going to eliminate the threat. We're going to find weapons of mass destruction and eliminate them.' Did that work the way he planned? No, obviously it didn't,' said Tallwhiteman. The 30-year-old driver for a food distribution company said he usually votes Libertarian, but backed Democrat Kamala Harris over Trump last year. Across the U.S. on Sunday, Americans expressed a mixture of support, apprehension and confoundment at the bombings, which officials said caused severe damage to Iran's nuclear sites. Administration officials said the strikes left room for Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program. Yet if the conflict spirals, it could test Trump's foreign diplomacy skills and also his support at home. 'It had to be done' B-2 bombers that participated in the weekend strikes returned home to Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Sunday. Nearby, retired Air Force veteran Ken Slabaugh said he was '100% supportive' of Trump's decision and the military personnel who carried it out. Slabaugh said Iran has showed resistance to negotiations over its nuclear program for decades, a problem that he said Trump inherited. Iran can't be trusted, Slabaugh said, nor allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. 'It simply had to be done,' he said of the strikes, adding that he's now concerned for members of the military around the world. 'I'm proud of the guys and the gals that are doing the work out there. Nobody in the world does this like we do, and we have the freedom and liberty we enjoy because of that,' Slabaugh said. In Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Andrew Williams, 18, said he was surprised by the timing of the attack given that many Republicans had expressed opposition to U.S. involvement in the Israel-Iran war. Still, he thought it was necessary if Iran was building nuclear weapons. 'If we are able to get rid of that, that is something we should do,' Williams said. Robert Wallette of Billings said Trump had 'good reason' to conduct the bombing as a demonstration of American support for Israel. 'Iran's evil, evil people. They hate Americans,' he said. Concern about conflict spinning out of control Wallette, 69, a retired contract specialist at the federal Indian Health Service, said he hated Trump when the Republican was first elected because of his arrogant style. His perspective started to shift after Trump moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In 2024, Wallette voted for Trump based on his promises to curb illegal immigration, putting him among the 60% of voters backing Trump last year in Yellowstone County, which includes Billings. Notwithstanding his support, Wallette was unsure if Trump can avoid the U.S. getting drawn into a deeper conflict with Iran. 'Other countries are getting involved and this may be out of his control,' he said. Kent Berame, 32, of Davie, Florida, said it was a little outrageous for Trump to go rogue and approve the attack without explicit support from Congress. He said he doesn't agree with the United States supporting Israel's recent attacks on Iran. 'There's concern that we're putting troops in danger,' said Berame, a Democrat who owns his own marketing company. 'And obviously there's a retaliatory response toward all of our bases over there.' Berame said it's frustrating that the U.S. might be increasing hostilities with Iran just a few years after finally ending the war in Afghanistan. 'I don't want to see any U.S. soldiers in harm's way or in danger,' he said. Back in Billings, Trump voter Patty Ellman said she worries about the U.S. getting sucked into another extended conflict. 'We have enough going on in America to get into other countries' wars. Let's just take care of us right now,' she said. Ellman, a 61-year-old who stepped in as caregiver for her ex-husband after he suffered a stroke, said the U.S. should retaliate if attacked, but otherwise stay out of Iran's conflict with other countries. 'That's their business,' she said. 'We need to worry about Americans and how we're going to survive and are we going to have Social Security.' With contributions from David Fischer in Davie, Florida; Nicholas Ingram in Knob Noster, Missouri; and Mingson Lau in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Magistrate judge rejects Trump admin bid to jail Kilmar Abrego Garcia ahead of trial
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man whose illegal deportation became a high-profile symbol of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration-enforcement policies, may not be held in jail pending trial on immigrant smuggling charges he was abruptly returned to the U.S. to face earlier this month, a federal magistrate judge ruled Sunday. Despite the decision by Nashville-based U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes, Abrego is unlikely to be released anytime soon. The Justice Department immediately filed an appeal and there is an order to keep him in immigration custody, at least in the near term. Still, the ruling is a blow to the nascent criminal case, which alleges Abrego regularly drove undocumented immigrants across the U.S. for years as part of an international human smuggling ring. Holmes said prosecutors failed to produce enough plausible evidence that Abrego posed a danger to the community, was likely to flee or that he victimized minors while he allegedly transported immigrants across the country. And she repeatedly described the evidence presented by prosecutors as strained, unreliable and contradictory. While Trump has insisted that Abrego is a member of the violent MS-13 gang, Holmes said the proof prosecutors presented of his gang ties during a daylong court hearing in Nashville earlier this month didn't amount to much. 'Given the volume of resources committed to the government's investigation of Abrego since April 2025…the Court supposes that if timely, more specific, concrete evidence exists of Abrego's alleged MS-13 gang membership or a consistent pattern of intentional conduct designed to threaten or intimidate specific individuals, the government would have offered that evidence,' the judge wrote. Holmes also noted that, while MS-13 has been tied by the government to violent crimes and a variety of other offenses, 'Abrego has no reported criminal history of any kind.' In fact, Holmes said the contention that Abrego was in the gang at all was built on 'double hearsay' that was at times inconsistent. Holmes repeatedly noted that the government's case for detaining Abrego pending trial was built upon multiple layers of hearsay that sometimes 'defy common sense' and were often drawn from statements of cooperating witnesses with extensive criminal history who are seeking favors from federal prosecutors. Prosecutors said Abrego might flee because he could effectively receive a life sentence, based on the possibility of up to 10 years in prison for each immigrant he transported. But the judge said the prosecution's calculation was wrong, and she observed that past sentences for charges similar to Abrego's were not nearly that steep, averaging around 12 months. 'The Court is unconvinced that the potential sentence Abrego faces if convicted as charged is so extraordinary as to compel finding that this case involves a serious risk of flight,' Holmes wrote. Prosecutors also sought Abrego's pretrial detention based on claims that his alleged crimes involved minors. A Homeland Security Investigation agent testified that 'cooperators' said Abrego drove an SUV-loaded with undocumented immigrants from Houston to Maryland sometimes as often as three to four times a week with his own children in the vehicle, but Holmes said the accounts did not seem plausible. 'The sheer number of hours that would be required to maintain this schedule, which would consistently be more than 120 hours per week of driving time, approach physical impossibility,' the judge wrote. A Justice Department spokesperson had no immediate comment. But federal prosecutors quickly appealed Holmes' ruling to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, the Obama-appointed trial judge ultimately slated to preside over the case. The ruling is the latest twist in a saga that has resulted in multiple black eyes for Trump's mass deportation policy, including a rebuke from the Supreme Court and a slew of federal judges who found Abrego was denied due process when he was summarily deported to his native country in March. Abrego was among hundreds of immigrants abruptly arrested and delivered to El Salvador on three flights that also included people targeted by Trump under an unprecedented invocation of wartime deportation powers. Though Abrego wasn't among that group, the administration labeled him as an MS-13 member and said he was not entitled to much, if any, due process as a result of Trump's determination. However, at the time of his deportation, Abrego was subject to a 2019 immigration court order barring his deportation to El Salvador, where a judge concluded Abrego was likely to face persecution and violence. The administration acknowledged the error in response to a lawsuit filed by Abrego and his family, but for weeks the administration resisted court orders demanding officials attempt to secure his release from Salvadoran custody and return to the United States. While Abrego was still in a Salvadoran jail last month, U.S. prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment of him in connection with a 2022 traffic stop on Interstate 40 in Tennessee. Prosecutors say Abrego was driving an SUV with nine undocumented immigrants in it, and that he regularly ferried immigrants between Texas and Maryland for $1000 to $1500 a trip as part of an international ring that helped people cross into the U.S. illegally. Abrego's defense lawyers contend the criminal charges amount to retaliation for the attention his case drew to the Trump administration's hastily executed deportation of hundreds of men to a notorious, anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador in March. Prosecutors insist that Abrego will remain in immigration custody even if he's released to await trial on the criminal charges. However, if that were the case, he could seek bond from an immigration judge.
