WORLD BRIEFING: September 23, 2023
Ukraine said Saturday its bold strike on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol had left dozens dead and wounded “including senior leadership.” The attack on Friday is perhaps the most dramatic example yet of the confidence with which Ukraine is going after Russian facilities in occupied Crimea – and shows the vulnerability of critically important infrastructure on the peninsula. In a statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said a special op dubbed “Crab Trap” was timed to strike while senior members of Russia’s Navy were meeting, and that the attack left dozens of dead and wounded “including the senior leadership of the fleet.” No names have been given and CNN has not independently verified the claim. Sevastopol is the largest city in Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine has not given up hope of reclaiming it. “The daring and painstaking work of the Special Operations Forces enabled them to hit the Black Sea Fleet headquarters ‘on time and with precision’ while the Russian Navy’s senior staff was meeting in the temporarily occupied city of Sevastopol,” it said in the statement - CNN
The New York Times reports that the ATACMS missiles being transferred to Ukraine will be equipped with a cluster warhead.
The Lebanese army said on Saturday that it had fired tear gas at Israeli forces in response to attacks by smoke bombs fired by the Israelis in the Bastra area of southern Lebanon. "Elements of the Israeli enemy violated the withdrawal line and fired smoke bombs at a Lebanese army patrol that was accompanying a bulldozer removing an earthen berm erected by the Israeli enemy north of the withdrawal line, the blue line, in the Bastra area," the Lebanese army said in a statement. “The Lebanese patrol responded to the attack by firing tear bombs...forcing them to withdraw to the occupied Palestinian territories." - Straits Times
Rahile Dawut, a prominent Uyghur academic who disappeared six years ago at the height of the Chinese government’s crackdown in Xinjiang, has been given a life sentence in prison, according to a human rights group that has worked for years to locate her. Dui Hua, a California-based group that advocates for political prisoners in China, said in a statement Thursday that the 57-year-old professor — who was convicted in 2018 on charges of endangering state security by promoting “splittism” — had lost an appeal of her sentence in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region High People’s Court - WaPo
The United States is the only Western nation among the world’s 50 most conflict-ridden countries, according to new research that measures political violence around the globe. The U.S. ranking is driven by rising levels of political violence and a proliferation of far-right groups in the country in recent years, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED. ACLED, a data collection, analysis and crisis mapping nonprofit based in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, gathers data for more than 240 countries and territories around the world. In the 12 months to early September, it recorded more than 139,000 incidents of political violence worldwide, an increase of 27% over the prior year. The ACLED Conflict Index ranks every country and territory according to four indicators — deadliness, danger to civilians, geographic diffusion and armed group fragmentation — using data collected for the past year. While most countries saw at least one incident of political violence over the past year, 50 were ranked the highest in terms of their levels of conflict, receiving ratings of “extreme,” “high,” or “turbulent.” Myanmar, with the highest number of armed groups in the world, topped the list with a rating of “extreme,” followed by Syria and Mexico. The U.S. was rated as “turbulent,” along with 19 other countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, including Libya, Ghana and Chad - VOA
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should "never insult Poles," referring to his statements at the U.N. General Assembly, the Polish Press Agency reported on Sept. 22. "I want to tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky never to insult Poles again," Morawiecki said during a meeting with the residents of the Polish town Świdnik. “Protecting Poland's good name is not only my duty and honor, it is also the most important task of our government." During his speech at the U.N. headquarters in New York, Zelensky called out the "alarming" behavior of Ukraine's partners regarding the grain import bans. The president said these nations are inadvertently aiding Russia by their actions.While not naming specific countries, the statement came shortly after Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia said they would prolong the import restrictions. In protest to Zelensky's statement, the Polish government summoned Ukraine's Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Zvarych.Morawiecki also said during his Świdnik meeting that Russia's war against Ukraine affects the security of the entire Europe - Kyiv Independent