World Geography And Politics Daily News | 03 Jun 2023
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Court halts deportation of man with rare Fabry disease
Youssef Mikhaiel, from Egypt, has won a last-ditch attempt to prevent his removal from the UK.
An Egyptian man with a rare genetic disorder has won a last-ditch attempt to prevent his removal from the UK.
Youssef Mikhaiel, 28, was due to be deported on Monday - but that was postponed after his case was taken to the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
The graduate engineer has Fabry disease, which damages the heart, kidneys and nervous system, and cannot access treatment in his home country.
The Home Office says it still intends to remove him from the UK.
Mr Mikhaiel had been held at Dungavel House detention centre in Lanarkshire for the last two weeks, but was released on bail on Friday afternoon.
A petition for his release had gathered 21,000 signatures within 48 hours.
Mr Mikhaiel told BBC Scotland that he was still anxious because the threat of deportation was still on the table.
"I don't want anything to affect my family or myself, because I still care about my medication condition, how it will affect my lifespan, my career and my future.
"I hope it gets sorted soon," he said.
Fabry disease in an inherited condition in which enzymes cannot break down fatty materials known as lipids, allowing them to build up in the body.
The disorder causes symptoms including chronic pain and high temperatures and can shorten a person's lifespan.
Mr Mikhaiel claims that if he were sent back to Egypt, he would not be able to access a drug called migalastat, which is used in Scotland to treat Fabry disease.
In a letter seen by BBC Scotland, officials at Misr International Hospital in Egypt confirmed that the country's drug authority does not provide the medicine.
It said: "Undoubtedly, the absence of his required treatment for his rare disorder in Egypt would cause intense suffering or death."
The letter added that life expectancy in untreated men was just over 50 years.
Mr Mikhaiel said that returning to Egypt would affect his health, both physically and mentally.
"I didn't ask for this," he added.
"I came here legally for study on a student visa, until I was diagnosed by the NHS in Glasgow.
"It took them almost a year before they knew what I had."
Mr Mikhaiel arrived on a student visa in 2016 and graduated in aeronautical engineering at Glasgow University in 2019.
His visa expired the same year and he applied for leave to remain after he was diagnosed with Fabry disease.
However, his application was refused over a failure to provide evidence in December 2021.
For the last year, he has been reporting to immigration officials in Glasgow.
His solicitor Usman Aslam obtained the letter from Misr Hospital on 15 May. However, Mr Mikhaiel was detained by Home Officials the following day.
On 19 May, Mr Aslam applied to get his client out of detention. He said that he showed the Home Office the letter from the hospital to demonstrate the seriousness of Mr Mikhaiel's condition.
When the Home Office then ordered that he should be removed from the UK, he applied for leave to remain on medical grounds.
Such claims rely on Article 3 - freedom from torture or inhuman treatment - and Article 8 - the right to a family life - under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Mr Aslam said: "That should have stopped that removal. End of story.
"Instead, they continued to say they were going to remove him on Monday 5 June.
"That forced my hand to go to the highest civil court in Scotland."
Mr Mikhaeil's petition for a judicial review was accepted by the Court of Session on Thursday. The court will now have to decide whether the Home Office was right to attempt to remove him from the UK while there was an application pending.
He was released from Dungavel the following day, and was met at the gates by his partner Sarah Bradley.
The Home Office said it does not comment on individual cases.
In a statement, it said: "Detention plays a key role in maintaining effective immigration controls and securing the UK's borders, particularly in connection with the removal of people who have no right to remain in the UK but who refuse to leave voluntarily.
"We take the welfare of people in our care extremely seriously and have a range of safeguards in place, including round the clock access to healthcare professionals for those in detention."
Exclusive: Trump attorneys haven’t found classified document former president referred to on tape following subpoena
Prosecutors subpoenaed Trump for records related to classified document on Iran after he was captured on tape discussing it
Prosecutors issued the subpoena shortly after asking a Trump aide before a federal grand jury about the audio recording of a July 2021 meeting at Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. On the recording, Trump acknowledges he held onto a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran.
Prosecutors sought “any and all” documents and materials related to Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Iran, including maps or invasion plans, the sources say. A similar subpoena was sent to at least one other attendee of the meeting, another source tells CNN.
The sources say prosecutors made clear to Trump’s attorneys after issuing the subpoena that they specifically wanted the Iran document he talked about on tape as well as any material referencing classified information – like meeting notes, audio recordings or copies of the document – that may still be Trump’s possession.
The fact that Trump’s team was unable to produce the document underscores the challenges the government has faced in trying to recover classified material that Trump took when he left the White House and in understanding the movement of government records that Trump kept.
Over the course of the Justice Department’s investigation, prosecutors have expressed skepticism that all classified documents had been returned. The federal government recovered dozens of documents with classified markings from Trump at various points throughout 2022.
The special counsel’s office complained late last year to a federal judge that they couldn’t be sure Trump had turned over all documents with classified markings in his possession, even after the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago last August, CNN previously reported.
The dispute resulted in several sealed court proceedings where the prosecutors sought to hold Trump in contempt, but the judge declined at that time, and Trump’s team hired two people to search his properties.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
It is unclear if the government already possesses a copy of the Iran document from the boxes Trump’s legal team returned to the National Archives last year or recovered in the subsequent FBI search.
Trump’s lawyers have said Trump and his staff did not review in advance materials in the boxes the former president returned to the Archives and have not been told what documents were recovered from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump’s lawyers wouldn’t receive full access to classified documents seized in the FBI search and have only been able to view recently the boxes Trump returned to the Archives in January 2022 with markers in them in place of classified documents that had been returned in those boxes.
The document Trump references on tape was created before Milley was named as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CNN was told, and Milley was later interviewed by investigators. Sources have been unable to specify if Trump had the document in question with him as he discussed it in the meeting in 2021 or was simply referencing it.
The recording, first reported by CNN, is now in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Justice Department investigation into Trump. Smith has focused in recent months on the meeting as part of the yearlong criminal investigation into the former president’s handling of national security secrets.
The audio of Trump acknowledging he had a classified document undercuts Trump’s repeated claims that he declassified everything he took from the White House when he left office.
Trump on Thursday said he didn’t know anything about the summer 2021 meeting and again called the Justice Department investigation a “witch hunt” and an attempt to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall. “I have the right to declassify as president.”
Trump aides and two people working on the autobiography of Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows attended the Bedminster meeting with Trump. That autobiography includes an account of what appears to be the same meeting, where Trump recalls a report “typed up” by Milley and containing a plan to attack Iran.
The subpoenas were issued immediately after Trump aide Margo Martin, who attended the meeting, appeared before the grand jury in Smith’s investigation and was asked about it. That’s also when Trump’s legal team found out prosecutors had the recording.
The Justice Department had access to a version of the recording before Martin’s grand jury appearance in March, according to one source. Martin’s attorney declined to comment.
After receiving the subpoena to Trump, his legal team spoke with aides and collected materials responsive to the subpoena, including the transcripts of recordings made by Trump aides and any other documents that mentioned Milley or Iran, sources say.
The legal team was unable to locate the document Trump mentions on the tape, the sources say, and it remains unclear if it was ever returned to the government or where it is now.
Trump attorney Jim Trusty declined to say on CNN this week whether the document was ever returned to the National Archives.
This story has been updated with additional details.
Will Putin ever be arrested by the ICC?
The South African government is looking into potential loopholes in the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute that would allow Putin to travel into the country for the BRICS summit in August.
Questions are swirling over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the meetings of the BRICS bloc of developing economies in August in South Africa.
On Wednesday, however, South Africa’s deputy leader Obed Bapela said that Pretoria would move towards imposing a law that would give the government power to decide whether to arrest leaders wanted by the ICC. Bapela also said that the government was writing to the ICC to request a waiver.
As these potential loopholes surface, it begs the question: Will Putin be arrested by the ICC?
“As long as Putin is a sitting head of state, it will be unlikely that he would be brought forward to the ICC,” Anthony Arend, a professor at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told Semafor. He added that there's "zero chance" Putin would be brought in front of a criminal tribunal.
Arend suggested that the only ways Putin would face an arrest was if he stepped down, if a coup was staged to remove him from power, or if his term ended and he did not get reelected.
Even so, Putin could remain safe in Russia, or –– like in the case of South Africa –– possibly enter into an agreement that would grant him immunity and not risk a political fallout between countries.
However, the arrest warrant imposed by the ICC sets an important precedent, Arend said. “It’s a very narrowly focused charge,” he said, citing allegations of the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia –– which Moscow had previously admitted to doing.
Ukraine Recap: Zelenskiy Meets With Commanders on Air Defense
(Bloomberg) -- China’s envoy, coming off recent visits to Kyiv and Moscow, said it will be “difficult” for all sides to sit down to talks right now as Beijing tries to broker a peace deal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is prepared to respond in concert with Ukraine and other allies “if and when Russia is ready to work for true peace.” Speaking in Helsinki, Blinken said a cease fire “that simply freezes current lines in place” would “legitimize Putin’s land-grab. It will reward th
(Bloomberg) -- China’s envoy, coming off recent visits to Kyiv and Moscow, said it will be “difficult” for all sides to sit down to talks right now as Beijing tries to broker a peace deal. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is prepared to respond in concert with Ukraine and other allies “if and when Russia is ready to work for true peace.” Speaking in Helsinki, Blinken said a cease fire “that simply freezes current lines in place” would “legitimize Putin’s land-grab. It will reward the aggressor and punish the victim.”
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Hungary’s premier called for a cease fire before Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive against Russia, drawing a rebuke from one of Voldymyr Zelenskiy’s top aides. Viktor Orban’s position “insults the values of the European Union and international law in general,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “If the Hungarian Prime Minister is really worried about casualties, he should call his ‘friend Putin’ and ask him to withdraw Russian armed forces.”
Zelenskiy met with top commanders to review air defense capabilities and efforts by third countries to help Russia circumvent sanctions and increase missile output, his office said. He also met with Estonian counterpart Alar Karis. Ukraine overnight shot down 15 cruise missiles and at least 21 Shahed drones over the Kyiv region, the sixth consecutive night the capital was attacked from the air. No casualties were reported, after three people were killed in strikes a day earlier. Drone attacks were reported across a widening swath of Russia, including the Smolensk region, some 250 km (155 miles) north of the border with Ukraine.
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Russian army now second strongest in Ukraine – Secretary Blinken
Many believed Moscow’s pre-war assertions that the Russian military is the second strongest in the world, but the strategic mistakes of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin have relegated it to "the second strongest in Ukraine," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 2.
“The Kremlin often claimed it had the second strongest military in the world — and many believed it,” Blinken said during a speech in Helsinki, Finland.
“Today, many see Russia's military as the second strongest in Ukraine.”
He called Russia's war against Ukraine a "strategic failure" that weakened Russia's "military, economic, and diplomatic power for years to come."
Blinken also rejected calls for a ceasefire while Russian troops remain on Ukrainian soil.
"It would legitimize Russia's seizure of Ukrainian land; this would be a reward for the aggressor and punish the victim," the secretary said.
Earlier, Blinken had said that the United States would help Ukraine build "the army of the future," referring to modern aviation, weapons, and other equipment.
Alexei Navalny is amusing himself by demanding a kangaroo, nunchucks, and a bottle of moonshine from his penal colony wardens
Navalny, a political opponent of Putin serving 11-and-a-half years in a Russian penal colony, said all of his outlandish requests have been denied.
Alexey Navalny said he's amusing himself in prison by making demands to his penal colony wardens.
Navalny said he has asked for moonshine, a kangaroo, a megaphone, and more.
The imprisoned political opponent of Vladimir Putin said all of his requests have been denied.
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny said he's amusing himself in prison by making outlandish demands to his penal colony wardens.
Navalny, who is serving 11-and-a-half years in a penal colony in Russia, said all of his requests have been denied so far.
"I just can't let this pass. According to the Internal Regulations, a convict is allowed to keep an animal with the permission of the administration," Navalny said in a tweet. "I will continue to fight for my inalienable right to have a kangaroo."
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