Reuters World News - Israel in court, UN helicopter capture and Ukraine’s missing orphans

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

The International Court of Justice is set to hear a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza war. Al Shabaab militants have captured a United Nations helicopter when it made an emergency landing in an area controlled by the Islamist group. And in Ukraine, authorities continue to investigate the alleged deportation of dozens of orphans from the formerly occupied southern city of Kherson. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, al-Shabaab captures a UN helicopter in Somalia. Israel faces Gaza genocide charges at the International Court of Justice. The months-long investigation to trace Ukrainian children taken by Russia. And Chris Christie bows out with a hot mic dig at his rivals. It's Thursday, January 11th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. And I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. Al-Shabaab militants have captured a United Nations helicopter in Somalia, carrying two Somali men and several foreign nationals.

It had made an emergency landing in an area controlled by the militant group after suffering some sort of defect shortly after takeoff. Al-Shabaab is linked to Al-Qaeda and has been waging an insurgency against the government since 2006. Aaron Ross is in Nairobi. Aaron, what do we know? know about this incident? So the details are fairly sparse at the moment. We're told that there were about nine passengers on board. Most of them are believed to now be in the hands of El-Shabaab militants. We're still trying to find out more about the precise identities and nationalities of those

on board. So why was the helicopter in the area? So according to Somali military officials we spoke to, the helicopter was conducting a medical evacuation for Somali soldiers. Somali military is engaged in fighting with El-Shabaab and this central part of the military of the country and the U.S. Charters aircraft to the Somali government to conduct medical evacuation. How powerful is al-Shabaab in Somalia? It's a very powerful force. It's estimated to have somewhere in the region of 10,000 fighters

and it has a very strong economic operation as well through informal taxes and other forms of trafficking. The government has been waging military campaigns against it, which have had mixed success. But al-Shabaab has proved Brazilian. and it continues to carry out attacks, has been able to recapture some of the territory that it lost. South Africa is taking Israel to court over allegations of genocide. The politically charged case centers on Israel's offensive in Gaza and is being heard at the United Nations top court.

Anthony Deutsch is following the case in the Hague. South Africa is accusing Israel of violating the 1948 genocide convention, which was adopted by the UN after the Holocaust during World War II, and it claims that through its military operation that began after the October 7th attacks, that the killing of Palestinians, the destruction of homes, the cutting off of food and energy and water and other supplies, that those are all elements which are aimed at bringing about genocide against the specific group of the Palestinian people living in Gaza.

What's Israel's response to the case? Israel has been very vocal in its rejection of this case. It's called it absurd. Its main objection to it or its main defense is that it was defending itself after the Hamas attacks on October 7th, which it says in turn was a genocide against the Jewish people. What is South Africa hoping to achieve at the hearings this week?

They're going to ask the panel of judges to order Israel to halt the military operations that are ongoing in Gaza. And then later this month, probably within a couple weeks, the court will make a decision. And it's a panel of 15 judges and one judge each from South Africa and Israel. And they could ask Israel to halt the military operation. And whether or not Israel is going to abide by that is another matter entirely. While the court's decisions are kind of final and binding, they don't have any way really to enforce them. And some of these rulings in the past have not been adhered to by parties involved in these decisions. And then what?

And then the court will decide whether or not it's going to hear what they call the case on its merit. And that would be a whole other proceeding that would take much longer. it would probably take years for that to be finalized and that the court would actually look at whether or not Israel is violating the genocide convention. The UK appears to be considering retaliatory action after Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. British and American naval forces repelled the largest attack so far on Tuesday, shooting down 21 drones and missiles fired by the Yemen-based militants. When asked about further joint action, Britain's defence minister said, watch this space.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley have traded insults in an acrimonious debate, battling to emerge as the top Republican alternative to Donald Trump. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has withdrawn his bid for the presidential nomination, but not before making his real feelings known. Minutes before his announcement, Christie had a hot mic moment and was recorded apparently talking about Haley. You know, and she's going to get smoked. And you and I both know it. She's not up to this.

His mic also picked up this exchange on DeSantis. DeSantis called me, petrified that I would... He's probably getting out after my eye on. Two House committees have voted to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for not testifying in their impeachment probe of his father. The president's son turned proceedings into a bit of a circus with his surprise appearance. What are you afraid of? have no balls to come up here.

Mr. Chairman, point of inquiry. The younger Biden, who has offered to testify in public but not behind closed doors, eventually left the room, as Representative Marjorie Taylor Green was speaking. Excuse me, Hunter. Apparently, you're afraid of my words. Whoa. The U.S. securities regulator has given the green light for exchange-traded funds that invest directly in Bitcoin.

The move is seen as a watershed moment, widening access to the largest cryptocurrency to everyday investors. Bitcoin has jumped 70% in recent months in anticipation of the SEC decision, so its response has been rather muted. It's trading steady at around $46,000, after briefly topping $47,000. In Ukraine, authorities continue to investigate the alleged deportation of dozens of orphans from the formerly occupied southern city of Heirson. Keev says more than 19,000 children have been illegally transferred to Russia,

or Russian-held territory. Only a fraction have returned home. The ICC issued an arrest warrant last March against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lavova Belova, Russia's Commissioner for Children's Rights, accusing them of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. Putin and the Commissioner deny the allegations. Marie Saito has been to Herson to look into these claims.

My colleagues and I have been spending the last six months investigating I mean, in order to do that story, we realized very quickly that we needed to talk to as many teens and children who had been returned successfully to Ukraine, and also to get ourselves to Herzan and southern Ukraine, where a majority of many of these children have been removed from orphanages. We eventually traced this group to Henichesk, which is still occupied by Russian forces in another part of Herzlorn. and managed to meet with one of the girls who had managed to be rescued, her mother came to take her home to Ukraine. The picture that she painted of her life and of the other orphans who had been taken there were really shocking and extraordinary, having to memorize the Russian anthem, being prevented from wearing blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag.

One of the more famous cases of such child removals from Hewson are the 48,000. infants and toddlers who were removed from an orphanage inside of the city of Herzon. It was again an extremely eerie sight. There was a lot of sounds from artillery shelling. Russian forces are just across the river. But as we were walking around the perimeter, we heard this incredibly loud explosion. So what you're hearing now is me reacting to that enormous sound of the blast and running towards our car and our security advisor.

And later, my colleagues and I worked on tracing where these toddlers and infants who were in this children's home were taken to. And what we found is that they were taken by buses, which was filmed at the time, to Crimea, to three facilities. And at least two of the infants, we additionally traced to Russia, and we reviewed documents that show that they have been issued with new birth certificates, and one of the children, a baby girl called Maharas, has been adopted by a Russian politician and his wife.

I think what a reporting has shown is that there is a machinery, a vast machinery, to deport and to house and to re-educate the Ukrainian children that Russian forces, Russian officials are removing from Ukrainian territory further into occupied territory or into Russia. As part of its investigation, Reuters sought comment from the Russian authorities, including the Kremlin and Maria Lavova Belova's office. They both declined to comment on the findings and the details of the investigation. That's it for today's episode of Reuters' World News.

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