Long shadow of US invasion of Iraq still looms over international order

‘Tell me, how does this end?’ asked US general David Petraeus during first push to Baghdad in 2003

The French statesman Georges Clemenceau once said: “War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.” In the case of the invasion of Iraq, however, the war that began 20 years ago started in victory and has ended in a series of catastrophes.

The main US military pullout from Iraq was ultimately completed by 2011, finally answering the question posed by Gen David Petraeus during that first push to Baghdad in 2003: “Tell me, how does this end?” Yet the long shadow of the invasion still looms over the international order, staining the reputation of those who instigated it and the political process itself, and dealing a heavy blow to the self-confidence that the west felt in the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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New Zealand scraps transport emissions reform to fund welfare increase

Clean car upgrade scheme among measures to be cut but PM Chris Hipkins denies government is abandoning climate ambitions

New Zealand’s government is dumping a range of high-profile reforms and emissions reduction measures as part of its promise to refocus on “bread and butter issues”, using the savings to introduce a billion-dollar boost to welfare payments to relieve cost of living pressures.

Chris Hipkins, the prime minister, announced on Monday that the government would roll out increases for retirees, students, unemployed people, and parents, ranging from $19 to $46.20 a week. The government estimates that 1.4 million New Zealanders will benefit.

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Ukraine identifies PoW killed by Russians as Oleksandr Igorevich Matsievskyi

Combatant seen in graphic 12-second clip circulated on Telegram had initially been wrongly named Tymofiy Shadura

Ukraine’s security services have concluded that the prisoner of war killed by Russian soldiers in a clip that spread quickly across Ukraine and much of the world is Oleksandr Igorevich Matsievskyi, bringing an end to the dispute over his identity.

In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram last Monday, a detained combatant is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette. The soldier, in uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia on his arm, says “Glory to Ukraine” and is then apparently shot with automatic weapons by a group of Russian soldiers.

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Yellen rejects Silicon Valley Bank bailout as regulators auction assets

US treasury secretary says Biden administration is working closely with regulators to help depositors as fears of banking crisis rise

The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said on Sunday there would be no bailout for Silicon Valley Bank, which collapsed this week, raising fears of a crisis, but also said the Biden administration was working with regulators to help depositors hit by the fall of SVB.

Yellen said conditions did not match the 2008 financial crisis, when the collapse of large institutions threatened to bring down the global financial system. She also sought to calm fears the $23tn US banking system could be affected by the fall of a regional bank.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukraine ‘buying time’ in Bakhmut – as it happened

Both sides claim hundreds of enemy troops killed in past 24 hours. Follow all the latest developments

The Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said on Sunday that he believed the deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea will be extended from its 18 March deadline.

The initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey last July, was intended to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain blockaded by Russia’s invasion to be exported safely from three ports.

Zakharova’s statement is noteworthy and supports several of ISW’s longstanding assessments about deteriorating Kremlin regime and information space control dynamics. The statement supports several assessments: that there is Kremlin infighting between key members of Putin’s inner circle; that Putin has largely ceded the Russian information space over time to a variety of quasi-independent actors; and that Putin is apparently unable to take decisive action to regain control over the Russian information space.

It is unclear why Zakharova – a seasoned senior spokesperson – would have openly acknowledged these problems in a public setting. Zakharova may have directly discussed these problems for the first time to temper Russian nationalist milbloggers’ expectations regarding the current capabilities of the Kremlin to cohere around a unified narrative – or possibly even a unified policy.

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Dozens of people reported missing in Mediterranean after vessel capsizes

Rescue organisations say passengers on boat attempting crossing from Libya to Italy are feared dead

Several dozen people are missing and feared dead in the central Mediterranean after the boat in which they were travelling from Libya capsized in bad weather, two rescue organisations have said.

The Mediterranea Saving Humans NGO tweeted that according to several sources, the vessel, travelling in the direction of Italy, capsized this morning about 110 miles (180km) north-west of Benghazi.

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Moldova police arrest members of Russian-backed network over unrest plot

Police chief says seven people detained for their involvement in causing ‘mass disorder’ during a protest in Chisinau on Sunday

Police in Moldova have said they foiled a plot by groups of Russia-backed actors who were trained to cause mass unrest during a protest against the country’s new pro-western government.

The head of Moldova’s police, Viorel Cernauteanu, said in a news conference that an undercover agent had infiltrated groups of “diversionists,” some Russian citizens, who allegedly were promised $10,000 to organise “mass disorder” during the protest in the capital, Chisinau, on Sunday. Seven people were detained, he said.

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Why Silicon Valley Bank was so important to UK tech sector

SVB specialised in high-growth startups, solving problems other lenders would not touch

Silicon Valley Bank’s name isn’t just hollow branding. Founded in Santa Clara in the 1980s, in the heart of the Bay Area’s tech cluster, it was a regional bank that served the local economy.

As that local economy became the engine of American growth, SVB – which collapsed on Friday – grew alongside it. It remained a tech specialist, a limitation that allowed it to continue to be regulated as a regional bank and so avoid the stricter requirements piled on larger competitors, but otherwise spread across the US and the world.

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Head of global trade union body sacked after donation investigation

ITUC removes Luca Visentini from role in wake of disclosure he took money from main suspect in Qatargate bribery scandal

An Italian union leader has been sacked from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) after he disclosed taking money from the main suspect in the Qatargate bribery scandal that has shaken the European parliament.

Luca Visentini was removed from his position as ITUC general secretary on Saturday following the results of an investigation. “The meeting decided that Luca Visentini no longer had the confidence of the general council as ITUC general secretary,” the trade union body said in a statement.

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Trump should quit 2024 race if indicted in New York, Republican rival says

Ex-Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson: man facing charge over porn star payment should ‘respect institution of the presidency’

Donald Trump should quit the race for the Republican nomination in 2024 if he is indicted in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star during his victorious run in 2016, a prospective rival said.

“It doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of it or he should be charged,” said Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas. “But it’s just such a distraction that would be unnecessary for somebody who’s seeking the highest office in the land.”

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Detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran is no panacea for Yemen war

It may speed up peace talks between Riyadh and the Houthi movement, but it risks locking out other groups

The new detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran is likely to have significant implications for the civil war in Yemen, possibly speeding up peace talks between Riyadh and the Houthi movement, but it also risks locking out other groups, including the main separatist faction, women and western governments.

Saudi Arabia has been holding private direct talks in Oman with the Houthi movement since October but the main separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), has said it will not feel bound by any deal if it extends to issues of the administration, security or distribution of resources in the south of the country.

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Mike Pence: history will hold Donald Trump accountable over Capitol attack

Former vice-president, speaking at Gridiron dinner, says it ‘mocks decency’ to portray January 6 as anything other than a ‘disgrace’

Mike Pence has offered a rebuke of his one-time boss Donald Trump, saying history will hold the former president accountable for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Pence, then vice-president, was in the Capitol when thousands of Trump supporters breached the building in an attempt to stop Congress certifying the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Joe Biden.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Bashar al-Assad seizes his chance for a comeback after Syrian earthquake

Arab neighbours who snubbed president for waging a war against his own people are courting him. What is behind the new attitude?

Walking through Aleppo in Syria last month, Bashar al-Assad did not look like a man shouldering the fate of a nation.

As he posed for photos with locals, who queued to meet him inspecting damage from the earthquake that had devastated parts of northern Syria, Assad appeared to show as much relief as concern for victims. The country’s grinning leader seemed to realise a moment had finally arrived.

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Saudi Aramco’s $161bn profit is largest recorded by an oil and gas firm

Amnesty International hits out at ‘shocking’ annual figure reaped through sale of fossil fuel

Saudi Aramco has reported a record $161bn (£134bn) profit for 2022, the largest annual profit ever recorded by an oil and gas company, fuelled by soaring energy prices and rising global demand.

The largely state-owned company’s profits rose by 46% year on year and it made more than the recent bumper results reported by Shell, BP, Exxon and Chevron combined.

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Israeli troops kill three Palestinian gunmen in West Bank, says military

Israel’s military says soldiers responded after coming under fire

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, adding that another gunman turned himself in and was arrested.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed three people were killed near the city of Nablus on Sunday. It did not immediately disclose their identities. The deaths bring to 80 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the year, as Israel has stepped up arrest raids in the West Bank. Palestinian attacks have killed 14 people in 2023.

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Peru: Six dead as powerful cyclone causes major flooding

Government declares state of emergency after major damage and disruptions in northern regions

At least six people have died in Peru as a powerful cyclone unleashed torrential rains, battering hundreds of homes and causing major disruptions in northern areas.

The government has declared a state of emergency as it seeks to bring relief to regions including Lambayeque, Piura and Tumbes hit by the cyclone known as Yaku.

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‘Farmgate’: Cyril Ramaphosa inquiry ‘clears’ South African president but police still investigating

ANC leader was accused of failing to report theft of foreign cash hidden in sofas at his ranch

South Africa’s anti-corruption watchdog has reportedly cleared president Cyril Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in a preliminary report on a cover-up scandal known as “farmgate”, involving between $580,000 and $5m of foreign currency hidden at his private game farm.

The Public Protector said it had notified implicated parties of the preliminary findings of its probe over the theft of the cash from Ramaphosa’s luxury farmhouse – something the president is accused of having attempted to conceal.

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Sunak heads to US to unveil latest news on Australian nuclear sub deal

Latest phase of Aukus scheme comes amid concerns about growing threat from China

Rishi Sunak will fly to San Diego on Sunday to unveil plans for supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines under the Aukus scheme amid concerns about the growing threat from China.

A major announcement 18 months in the making is expected when the UK prime minister meets his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, and US president Joe Biden.

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Fury in Germany as Hamburg shooting brings ‘lax’ gun laws into focus

Gunman was given a firearms permit despite several psychological red flags

Gun laws in Germany, where weapon ownership is among the highest in Europe, could be further tightened after last week’s mass shooting in which seven people, including an unborn child, were killed in a Jehovah’s Witness hall in Hamburg.

The attack has thrown up the perennial question of whether the various parts of the country’s federal system are working together, and strengthened the hand of those in the governing coalition who are seeking stronger gun controls.

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