World

Voters headed to the polls in the Midwestern US state of Kansas Tuesday to weigh in on the first major ballot on abortion since the Supreme Court ended the national right to the procedure in June.

The vote is heavy with consequences for Kansans themselves, who will decide whether to remove the right to terminate a pregnancy from the traditionally conservative state’s constitution.

But it is also being seen as a test case for abortion rights nationwide, as Republican-dominated legislatures rush to impose strict bans on the procedure following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Other states including California and Kentucky are set to vote on the issue in November, at the same time as Congressional midterm elections in which both Republicans and Democrats hope to mobilize their supporters nationwide around the question of abortion.

In Kansas, where polling stations opened at 7:00 am (1200 GMT), the ballot centers on a 2019 ruling by the state’s supreme court that guarantees access to abortion — currently up to the 22-week stage of pregnancy. 

In response, the Republican-dominated state legislature introduced an amendment known as “Value Them Both” that would scrap the constitutional right — with the stated aim of handing regulation of the procedure back to lawmakers.

In the opposing camp, activists see the campaign as a barely masked bid to clear the way for an outright ban — one state legislator has already introduced a bill that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. 

For Ashley All, spokeswoman for pro-abortion rights campaign Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the amendment would deal a blow to “personal autonomy.”

Activists also complain that the phrasing of the ballot question is counterintuitive, and potentially confusing: voting “Yes” to the amendment means abortion rights being curbed, while people who wish to keep those rights intact must vote “No.” 

– All eyes on Kansas –

Abortion rights advocates in Kansas are looking nervously to neighboring Oklahoma and Missouri, which are among at least eight states to have passed near-total bans — the latter making no exceptions for rape or incest — while Midwestern Indiana adopted its own rigid ban on Saturday.

Kara Miller Karns, a voter in Leawood, Kansas, said she planned to vote for the status quo on Tuesday, saying it was “not acceptable” for her daughters to grow up with fewer rights than she did. 

But in the same neighborhood, 43-year-old Christine Vasquez said she planned to back the constitutional amendment — in hope it would clear the way for a future vote on an abortion ban.

“I believe that life starts at conception,” she told AFP ahead of the ballot.

The outcome in Kansas could mean a boost or a blow to either side of the highly charged US abortion debate.

Kansas leans heavily toward the Republican Party, which favors stricter abortion regulations, but a 2021 survey from Fort Hays State University found that fewer than 20 percent of Kansas respondents agreed that abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape or incest.

A motorist yells at a cyclist, churchgoers avoid a street hawker, a shell-suited pensioner crams bread into her face, the falling crumbs causing a pigeon to double-take.

Ignore the rubble everywhere and it could be a jaunty lunchtime vignette in any city in Europe. But Okhtyrka, in northeast Ukraine, isn’t like other places.

As towns and villages across the neighbouring countryside fell like skittles to the ruthless and swift Russian invasion on February 24, this city of 48,000 on the Vorskla River resisted.

Civilian deaths mounted across the Sumy region in the early weeks of the war, with more than 50 people killed in the battle for the much smaller neighbouring town of Trostyanets.

But Okhtyrka’s mayor Pavlo Kuzmenko says he managed to keep his citizens free and relatively safe by maintaining cool heads. 

“Only 18 civilians have died. I don’t want to praise myself, but it was because of the city administration, because of volunteers, because people stayed in shelters,” he said.

“The biggest challenge at the start of the war was not to have panic among citizens. Panic could ruin the defence of the city.”

A column of Russian tanks rolled into Okhtyrka on the first day of the invasion on February 24, intent on capturing it and moving on to the capital Kyiv.

– ‘Stomach-turning’ –

“They thought they would pass through very quickly,” Kuzmenko told AFP. “As they had in most cities, they put a checkpoint at the entrance and exits, not really leaving anyone in the city.”

The mayor — suddenly thrust to the top of the command structure, with more senior regional government figures either indecisive or unavailable — decided the incursion would not stand.

He led an immediate pushback that saw Ukrainian troops force a hasty retreat of their Russian adversaries, who left behind tanks and other hardware.

A month-long siege followed with the Russians bombarding the city almost daily with BM-27 Uragan missiles as well as Smerch and Grad rockets.

They destroyed the town hall, a shopping centre, the water supply and sewage systems, an oil depot and the local thermal power station.

They also killed at least 70 Ukrainian soldiers at a military base with a powerful thermobaric bomb, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States.

Amnesty International blamed cluster bombs for a “stomach-turning” attack on a pre-school on the second day of the siege in which three people, including a child, were reportedly killed.

– ‘Hero City’ –

But Okhtyrka endured, refusing to live under Russian occupation.

Among the destroyed buildings was the 108-year-old cultural centre, attacked in a night-time bombing on March 8.

The centre’s director Tetyana Barchenko, 59, fought back tears as she relived the missile strike that robbed the community of its beating heart.

But, like many locals AFP spoke to, she brimmed with righteous defiance and gratitude for the soldiers who had kept the would-be occupiers at bay.

“This city was never seized, and it was thanks to the army, thanks to the territorial defence force, and because of the patriotism of the local citizens,” she said.

“I would never see myself living under Russian occupation.”

The Russian invaders had encircled Okhtyrka for a month but fell further back on March 26, under fire from Bayraktar combat drones and with the plan to take Kyiv in disarray.

Two days earlier Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky had designated Okhtyrka a “Hero City of Ukraine,” an honorary title awarded only to one other northeastern city, Kharkiv.

– ‘Thanks to soldiers’ –

The population dipped to 20,000 at the height of the fighting — as the city helped about 1,000 people a day flee — but is now back up to somewhere near the original figure.

At a public housing block that had absorbed so much artillery fire, its facade resembled the paper targets at rifle ranges, pensioner Nina Kolot explained the easy symbiosis that had developed between the troops dug-in yards from their homes and the civilians they protected.

“They were here, fighting for the city and we were helping them — cooking food to bring to them,” the 70-year-old told AFP. 

“So it’s thanks to the soldiers — they were everywhere, on the roofs, everywhere — that we were kept safe.” 

A recent increase in shelling has locals fearing that the Russians might soon return but the mayor remains defiant.

“Nobody can be even one percent sure that the enemy will not attack the Sumy region again. The possibility exists and is still high,” Kuzmenko told AFP.

“Every day the Sumy region is being hit by missiles, by rockets, but the enemy cannot seize the cities. They can hold some small localities, some small villages, but they need resources and they have less every day.”

US basketball star Brittney Griner is “hoping” to return home from Russia where she is standing trial on drug smuggling charges, her lawyer said Tuesday, amid talk of a prisoner exchange with Washington. 

Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women’s NBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained in February, just days before Moscow launched its military intervention in Ukraine.

The 31-year-old athlete was charged with drug smuggling for possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil and is on trial in the town of Khimki just outside Moscow.

Griner appeared in court Tuesday wearing a khaki T-shirt, looking down as she walked in and was placed in a defendants’ cage, an AFP journalist reported.

She remained solemn as two narcotics experts gave testimony during the hearing.

“Of course, she heard the news so she is hoping that sometime she could be coming home, and we hope so too,” one of Griner’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina, told reporters in English.

Blagovolina said Griner’s legal team was “not involved in any of the negotiations” on a possible prisoner swap.

She added, however, that Griner would be eligible for an exchange after the verdict that “will be very soon”. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday held his first talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.

Blinken said he “pressed the Kremlin” to accept a proposal from Washington for the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, a US citizen jailed in Russia on espionage charges. 

Griner was detained when she came to Russia to play club basketball with UMMC Ekaterinburg during the US off-season — a common path for American stars seeking additional income.

At a previous hearing, Griner said she did not intend to break the law or use the banned substance in Russia. 

Griner has pleaded guilty and faces up to ten years in prison. 

The next hearing will take place on Thursday.

Almost 700 migrants and asylum seekers crossed the Channel to Britain in a single day this week, a new record for the year, the UK government said Tuesday.

The latest arrivals suggest the government’s controversial policy to deport those attempting the dangerous crossing to Rwanda has so far failed to deter them.

The defence ministry said 696 migrants arrived on 14 small boats on Monday, the highest daily tally in 2022 and only the second time this year it has topped 600.

Large groups of people, including young children, were reportedly brought ashore at Ramsgate, on the Kent coast in southeast England, before being taken by bus to processing centres.

More than 17,000 people have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel — one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes — in small boats so far in 2022, according to government figures.

More than 28,500 — most of them young men — arrived on British shores last year. The all-time daily record of 853 was set in November 2021.

The number of crossing fluctuates through the year, depending on weather conditions and enforcement action along the northern French coastline.

In a bid to deter the arrivals, Britain earlier this year unveiled a new policy to send those crossing for processing and permanent resettlement in Rwanda.

However, the first flight due to take off in mid-June was grounded due to legal challenges, and the policy remains stalled.

Britain has been sending France tens of millions of euros annually to help stop the boat crossings, including for extra beach patrols and equipment such as night-vision goggles.

The Times reported this week that interior minister Priti Patel is set to announce the latest financial deal with Paris, despite questions over the arrangement’s value for money. 

It has drawn consistent criticism from some ruling Conservative MPs, with one senior lawmaker telling the newspaper that Patel was “throwing more good money after bad”.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the two Conservative rivals bidding to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have both vowed to maintain the Rwanda policy.

A United States drone strike killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri at a hideout in Kabul, President Joe Biden said Monday, declaring “justice had been delivered” to the families of the 9/11 attacks.

Zawahiri’s assassination is the biggest blow to Al-Qaeda since US special forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, and calls into question the Taliban’s promise not to harbour militant groups.

It was the first known over-the-horizon strike by the US on a target in Afghanistan since Washington withdrew its forces from the country on August 31 last year, days after the Taliban swept back to power.

The Taliban condemned the drone strike Tuesday, but made no mention of casualties nor did they name Zawahiri.

“Justice has been delivered and this terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in a sombre televised address, adding he hoped Zawahiri’s death would bring “closure” to families of the 3,000 people killed in the US on September 11, 2001.

Zawahiri was believed to be the mastermind who steered Al-Qaeda’s operations — including the 9/11 attacks — as well as bin Laden’s personal doctor.

A senior administration official said the 71-year-old Egyptian was on the balcony of a three-storey house in the Afghan capital when targeted with two Hellfire missiles after dawn Sunday.

“We identified Zawahiri on multiple occasions for sustained periods of time on the balcony where he was ultimately struck,” the official said. 

The house is in Sherpur, one of Kabul’s most affluent neighbourhoods, with several villas occupied by high-ranking Taliban officials and commanders.

The Taliban’s interior ministry previously denied reports circulating on social media of a drone strike, telling AFP a rocket struck “an empty house” in Kabul, causing no casualties.

Early Tuesday, however, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that an “aerial attack” was carried out.

“The nature of the incident was not revealed at first,” he said.

“The security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Emirate investigated the incident and found in their preliminary investigations that the attack was carried out by American drones.”

– ‘Grossly violated’ –

Although Biden did not mention the Taliban in his televised address, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “by hosting and sheltering” Zawahiri, the Islamist group had “grossly violated the Doha Agreement” which paved the way for America’s withdrawal.

Zabihullah, in turn, accused Washington of breaking the 2020 deal.

“Such actions are a repetition of the failed experiences of the past 20 years and are against the interests of the United States of America, Afghanistan, and the region,” he said.

Zawahiri, who grew up in a comfortable Cairo household before turning to violent radicalism, had been on the run since the 9/11 attacks.

He took over Al-Qaeda after bin Laden was killed, and had a $25 million US bounty on his head.

News of his death comes a month before the first anniversary of the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, leaving the country in the hands of the Taliban insurgency that fought Western forces for two decades.

Under the Doha deal, the Taliban promised not to allow Afghanistan to be used again as a launchpad for international jihadism, but experts believe the group never broke ties with Al-Qaeda.

“What we know is that the senior Haqqani Taliban were aware of his presence in Kabul,” the senior US official said. 

Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani also heads the feared Haqqani Network, a brutal subset of the Taliban blamed for some of the worst violence of the past 20 years and which has been described by US officials as a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.

In Sherpur, locals told AFP they long thought the targeted house  — surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, and now with green tarpaulin covering the balcony where Zawahiri was believed to have been killed — was empty.

“We have not seen anybody living there for almost a year,” said an employee of a nearby office.

“It has always been in dark, with not a single bulb lit.”

Some residents found it hard to believe that Zawahiri had been hiding in their midst.

“It’s just propaganda,” Fahim Shah, 66, told AFP.

“They should show to the people and to the world that ‘we had hit this man and here is the evidence,'” added Abdul Kabir.

– Doctor turned jihadist –

Zawahiri lacked the potent charisma that helped bin Laden rally jihadists around the world but willingly channelled his analytical skills into the Al-Qaeda cause.

Still, the group is believed to have been degraded since the US invasion of Afghanistan, and the White House official said Zawahiri was “one of the last remaining figures who carried this kind of significance”.

The organisation is “at a crossroads”, said Soufan Center researcher Colin Clarke. 

“Despite Zawahiri’s leadership, which minimised AQ’s losses while rebuilding, the group still faces serious challenges going forward. For one, there’s the question of who will lead Al-Qaeda after Zawahiri’s gone.”

Zawahiri’s father was a renowned physician and his grandfather a prayer leader at Cairo’s Al-Azhar institute, the highest authority for Sunni Muslims.

He became involved with Egypt’s radical Islamist community at a young age and published several books which came for many to symbolise the movement.

He left Egypt in the mid-1980s, heading for Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar where the resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was based.

Thousands of Islamist fighters were flooding into Afghanistan at the time, setting the stage for Zawahiri’s first meeting with bin Laden. 

In 1998 he became one of five signatories to bin Laden’s “fatwa” calling for attacks against Americans.

Jihadist monitor SITE said some militants were questioning the veracity of the report he had been killed, while others believed Zawahiri had achieved his desire of “martyrdom.” 

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