The Week 07Feb2020

The world at a glance ... NEWS 9

St. Petersburg, Russia

Home of ‘The Base’? The leader of the American white suprema-

cist group The Base apparently runs the extremist outfit from

Russia, an investigation by The Guardian revealed last week. The

group shot into the headlines last month when seven alleged Base

members were arrested by the FBI and charged with plotting to kill

anti-fascist activists and to stage terrorist attacks at a gun-

rights rally in Richmond, Va. Documents passed to The

Guardian by a whistleblower indicate that The Base—

an English translation of al Qaida—is headed by Rinaldo

Nazzaro, alias “Norman Spear” and “Roman Wolf.”

A former New Jersey resident who ran a security-

consulting business in the U.S., Nazzaro is now

thought to live in St. Petersburg with his Russian

wife. The Base, which recruits members online,

wants to start a race war in the U.S. and estab-

lish a white homeland in the Pacific Northwest.

Abugrein, Libya

Cease-fire collapses: Heavy fighting

broke out between troops loyal to

Libya’s rival governments this week,

obliterating the cease-fire brokered

in Berlin just days earlier. The forces

of rebel Gen. Khalifa Haftar—who

is supported by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Russian

mercenaries—seized the town of Abugrein, which had been under

the control of the United Nations–recognized Government of

National Accord. That government, which has links to political

Islam, is backed by Turkey, Italy, and Qatar. Haftar’s forces also

shelled the GNA-controlled capital, Tripoli. “With the enemy’s

repeated violations of the cease-fire, the foe is rendering the cease-

fire useless,” said GNA military spokesman Mohamed Gnounou.

Planeloads of weapons were still being delivered to areas in

Libya’s east and south, which are controlled by Haftar, even

though an arms embargo was agreed to at the Berlin summit.

Nairobi

Plague of locusts: Billions of desert locusts are chomping their

way across East Africa in the worst swarms that the region has

experienced in decades. One megaswarm in Kenya covers some

930 square miles and could contain up to 200 billion locusts.

Over the past few months, the insatiable insects have eaten at

least 175,000 acres of cropland in Ethiopia and Somalia and

more than 1 million acres in

Kenya. “Corn, sorghum, cowpeas,

they have eaten everything,” said

Kenyan farmer Ndunda Makanga.

Unusually heavy rains in October

and November drove the popula-

tion explosion—locusts like to lay

their eggs in moist soil—and when

the rainy season begins in March,

the insects’ numbers could swell

by a factor of 500.

Tehran

Victims’ families threatened: The Iranian

regime is warning the grieving relatives of

people who died on Ukraine International

Airlines Flight 752, the passenger jet

mistakenly shot down by Iran’s Islamic

Revolutionary Guard Corps in early January,

to stay silent about the tragedy—or else.

Javad Soleimani Meimandi’s wife, Elnaz

Nabiyi, was among the 176 people who died when the plane was

hit by missiles, and he was furious when a Revolutionary Guard

commander and a representative of the regime attended Nabiyi’s

funeral. Soleimani Meimandi called the men “shameless” on social

media and hours later received a message on his phone “telling me

to shut my mouth, and that this is my first and last warning.” He

was summoned to a government office but instead fled to Canada,

where he and his wife were graduate students.

Manila

Warning the U.S.: Philippine President Roberto Duterte

said last week that he will terminate the deal that

lets American troops operate in the country

unless the U.S. restores the visa of a close

Duterte ally accused of human rights

violations. As national police chief from

2016 to 2018, Philippine Sen. Ronald

dela Rosa directed Duterte’s brutal

anti-drug crackdown, in which officers killed thousands of sus-

pected drug dealers and users. Duterte has given the U.S. a month

to restore dela Rosa’s visa or he’ll tear up the Visiting Forces

Agreement. “I’ll end that son of a bitch,” he said in a speech. If the

VFA is scrapped, said political scientist Jeffrey Ordaniel, “it will

be virtually impossible for the U.S. to preposition troops, defense

equipment, and supplies” if trouble erupts in the South China Sea.

Deh Yak, Afghanistan

U.S. plane crash: American troops this week recovered the bod-

ies of two U.S. service members who died when their surveil-

lance plane crashed in Taliban-controlled territory in eastern

Afghanistan. “The remains were found near the crash site, treated

with dignity and respect by the local Afghan community, in accor-

dance with their culture,” the U.S. military said in a statement.

The two-person Bombardier E-11 plane is an advanced commu-

nication aircraft that helps ground troops and commanders keep

in contact, which can be difficult in the mountainous country. The

plane went down in bad weather, and the Pentagon said there was

no indication that enemy fire played a role.

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Duterte

Haftar’s troops

Elnaz and Javad

Inside a swarm

Nazzaro