By Emily Tamkin
Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at U.N. condemnation of “massive” human rights violations due to war in Ukraine, a reported Britain-EU deal on Northern Ireland, and protests in Mexico.
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U.N. Chief Cites “Most Massive” Violations in Ukraine
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a speech in Geneva that Russia’s war in Ukraine triggered the “most massive violations of human rights,” and that the invasion “unleashed widespread death, destruction, and displacement.”
Guterres pointed in particular to “attacks on civilian and civilian infrastructure,” which, he said, “have caused many casualties and terrible suffering.”
He also cited cases of sexual violence, violations of prisoners’ rights, and arbitrary detention. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said, has been “too often misused and abused,” saying, “Some governments chip away at it. Others use it as a wrecking ball.”
Russia has a permanent seat in and veto power on the U.N. Security Council, and in fact was taking part in a U.N.S.C. meeting when Russia invaded Ukraine last year.
Russia’s war in Ukraine entered its second year last week. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said Monday, “We aren’t seeing any conditions for a peaceful settlement now.”
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What We’re Following Today
U.K. and EU reach Northern Ireland protocol deal. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reached a deal with the European Union over post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland. Sunak said they had agreed to remove “any sense of a border.” Sunak called it a “decisive breakthrough” and “the beginning of a new chapter.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said his party will support the deal, which he says will bolster Britain’s international standing. It is as yet unclear how much support Sunak will have from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and from Brexit hardliners in his own Tory party. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly considering opposing the deal. Former Prime Minister Theresa May called on her peers to support the deal, known as the Windsor framework.
The Biden administration, which has repeatedly stressed that it opposes any moves that jeopardize the Good Friday Agreement, said that it was “grateful” Britain and the European Union had reached a deal.
Crowds march over electoral reform in Mexico. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest electoral reform in Mexico. The protesters, clad in white and pink, yelled, “Don’t Touch my Vote!” Critics of the changes say they threaten Mexico’s democracy. Once the changes, which passed last week, go into effect, funding for local election offices and training for citizens overseeing polling stations will be cut, and punishments for candidates who don’t report campaign spending will be reduced.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says that the changes are not a threat to democracy and that the money spent on elections should instead be spent on the poor. He has said he will sign the changes into law, though judicial challenges are expected.
Keep an Eye On
Montenegro ends court stalemate. A court stalemate that threatened Montenegro’s bid to join the European Union has finally come to an end. The country’s constitutional court had been blocked for months, with four of the seven seats empty since September, but all but one of the four judges was finally elected on Monday.
The court now lacks one member but is functional, which EU officials had told Montenegro was key for its membership to be viable. Montenegro, which joined NATO in 2017, is widely believed to be next up for EU membership. Its political divisions, however, are likely to be on full display in the upcoming presidential elections, which will be held March 19.
Israeli settlers retaliate, burning Palestinian homes, cars. After two Israelis were shot dead while driving through the West Bank, Israeli settlers entered the West Bank town of Hawara, where they threw rocks at houses and burned trees and cars. Nine families were evacuated. The Palestinian health ministry said that one person was shot dead. Ninety-eight Palestinians were reportedly injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told settlers “not to take the law into [their] own hands,” while opposition leader Yair Lapid said “Smotrich’s militias set out to burn Hawara” (referring to Bezalel Smotrich, Netanyahu’s finance minister, to whom Netanyahu recently turned over civil authority of the West Bank despite reported warnings from the Biden administration).
The Biden administration said it expects Israel to “ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks, in addition to compensation for the lost homes and property.”
Monday’s Most Read
•China’s Farmland Is in Serious Trouble by Zongyuan Zoe Liu
•The United States Has Never Recovered From the Falklands War by Antonio De Loera-Brust
•To Save France, Macron Is Dividing Europe by Eoin Drea
Odds and Ends
Prague pangolin. A Chinese pangolin was born for the first time ever in Europe earlier this month in a zoo in Prague. After a rough first few days (her mother wasn’t producing enough milk so she lost weight), she is now apparently doing well and has been dubbed “Little Cone.”
That’s it for today.
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Photo credit: AMANUEL SILESHI/AFP via Getty Images