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world news Diasabra 5 Februari 2022

UK’s Boris Johnson ends week of turmoil in weakened position

(AP) — This was the week functional dynamics.
British Prime Minister Conservative lawmakers loy-
Boris Johnson hoped to al to Johnson depicted the de- Johnson apologized and
get a grip on his govern- partures as part of a planned pledged to fix the problems
ment after weeks of scan- overhaul to restore order to in his office, though he didn’t
dal. By Friday, he was his 10 Downing Street office. admit personal wrongdoing.
struggling to hang on af-
ter a scathing report on Others weren’t so sure. The Rosenfield, Doyle and espe-
lockdown-breaching par- prime minister’s grip on cially Reynolds — who sent
ties and the departure of power has been shaken by 100 government staff an in-
several top aides. public anger at revelations vitation to a BYOB garden
that his staff held “bring your party in May 2020 — were
Johnson was rocked Thurs- own booze” office parties, always likely to be ousted
day by the resignation of birthday celebrations and as part of Johnson’s post-
his policy chief, Munira “wine time Fridays” at times “partygate” shakeup.
Mirza, a trusted adviser who in 2020 and 2021 while mil-
worked with him for more lions in Britain were barred But Mirza’s departure was a cisions about whether Savile people — write letters calling
than a decade. Mirza stood from meeting with friends major blow. In her resigna- should be prosecuted. for one. If Johnson lost such
by the prime minister amid and family because of CO- tion letter, she said Johnson a vote, he would be replaced
“partygate” revelations that VID-19 restrictions. had not heeded her advice Some Conservatives also as party leader and prime
Johnson and his staff broke to apologize for accusing La- recoiled at the use of Sav- minister.
the rules they had imposed A total of 16 parties have bour Party leader Keir Starm- ile in a political attack. In
on the country. But she said been investigated by a senior er in the House of Com- her resignation letter, Mirza Only about a dozen Con-
Johnson’s “scurrilous accu- civil servant, Sue Gray, with mons on Monday of “failing said Johnson had let himself servative legislators have
sation” this week that an op- a dozen of them also under to prosecute Jimmy Savile” down “by making a scurri- publicly called for Johnson
position leader had failed to investigation by the Metro- when Starmer was the U.K.’s lous accusation against the to quit, though the number
stop a notorious pedophile politan Police. director of public prosecu- leader of the opposition.” who have written letters may
was the final straw. tions. Savile was a long-time be higher. Many others are
On Monday, Gray released presenter of youth television The Downing Street exodus biding their time, waiting to
After Mirza quit, Johnson’s an interim report looking shows who was exposed after is sending further shockwaves see whether police censure
office announced the de- at the four parties police are his death in 2011 as a sexual through Conservative law- the prime minister and what
parture of three more top not probing. She found that predator who had abused makers as they mull whether Gray will say in her final re-
staffers: chief of staff Dan “failures of leadership and hundreds of children. to seek a no-confidence vote port, due once the criminal
Rosenfield, communications judgment” allowed events to in the leader who won them investigation is over.
director Jack Doyle and prin- occur that “should not have Starmer said the accusation a big parliamentary majority
cipal private secretary Martin been allowed to take place” was “a ridiculous slur peddled just over two years ago. Un- Huw Merriman, a moderate
Reynolds. Elena Narozanski, and described a Downing by right-wing trolls.” A 2013 der party rules, such a vote Conservative lawmaker, said
who worked in Murza’s poli- Street operation marked by report found that Starmer is triggered if 15% of party the prime minister had to
cy unit, resigned Friday. excessive drinking and dys- hadn’t been involved in de- lawmakers — currently 54 shape up or ship out.

As economy collapses, some young Lebanese turn to militancy

(AP) — Two weeks before near the northern city of ing areas are also a center for after his release. Prisoners Rights, said it is
he was supposed to get Tripoli. many of Lebanon’s Sunni believed that between 70 to
married, Bakr Seif told Muslim community, who re- “He was living in constant 100 young men disappeared
his mother he was going As Lebanon slid deeper into sent what they say is neglect fear. He used to tell me, ‘I from the Tripoli area in past
out to see his fiancee and economic misery over recent from the government in Bei- trust no one but my family,’” months, though the exact
would be back for lunch. months, dozens of young rut. Security forces have tar- his mother said. number is not known.
When he did not show up men have disappeared from geted Sunni youth in crack-
by nighttime, his mother the country’s marginalized downs over militancy, and IS’s top leader, Abu Ibrahim They were from the poorest
called the fiancee, who north and later surfaced in activists have said for years al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was districts in and around Trip-
said he had not been to Iraq, where they are believed that thousands have been de- killed in a U.S. raid on his oli, and some may have been
visit her. to have joined the Islamic tained without trial because safehouse in northwest Syria lured by the promise of jobs,
State group. The migration of suspicions of militant on Thursday. Experts believe not realizing they were join-
That day, Dec. 8, was the last has stoked fears of a new links. that while his elimination ing IS, he said. Others were
time Seif’s mother saw him. wave of radical recruitment, may cause some short-term afraid of being swept up in
Last week, he was among taking advantage of frustra- Seif’s mother believed her disruption, the group can crackdowns.
nine people killed in an Iraqi tion and despair fueled by the son was being detained by replace him and continue its
army airstrike targeting sus- economic meltdown and sec- the Lebanese intelligence. campaign of violence in Iraq Besides the deaths in Sun-
pected militants in eastern tarian tensions. But five or six days before and Syria. day’s strike, at least two other
Iraq. At least four of them he was killed, he called, the Lebanese have been killed in
were Lebanese, all from this Many Lebanese have plum- first she’d heard from him The numbers of Lebanese Iraq since December.
small, impoverished village meted into poverty as the since his disappearance. apparently joining IS is no-
local currency has collapsed, He wouldn’t say where he where near the hundreds Tripoli has been the scene of
the value of salaries and bank was, telling her only, “I have who went to neighboring militant violence in the past
accounts has evaporated, and been wronged, I have been Syria to join rebels there, — the most serious in 2014,
prices have soared. Even be- wronged,” without explana- including ones linked to al- when militants inspired by
fore the crisis, Tripoli was tion, she said. Qaida, at the height of that the Islamic State group car-
Lebanon’s poorest city — country’s civil war. Since that ried out attacks against Leba-
and things have only gotten Seif had spent seven years in war waned several years ago, non’s army.
worse with scores of young, jail on suspicion of “acts of the flow of Lebanese to join
seemingly unemployed men terrorism” and was released dried up. Disappearances of young
in the streets. in June without trial. The men began to rise in late Au-
family maintains his inno- The migration to join IS in gust, not long after a former
But it’s not just poverty driv- cence and opened a grocery Iraq appears to be new. Law- military intelligence mem-
ing some young men to join for him to work in, since no yer Mohammed Sablouh, ber, Ahmad Murad, was shot
IS. Tripoli and its surround- one else would employ him who heads the Center for and killed in Tripoli.