A Swiss woman has been kidnapped in Niger's Agadez, authorities say
This is the second citizen of a Western country to be kidnapped in Agadez this year.
The woman was taken from her home in the Dagamanet neighborhood late Sunday, according to a statement by the governor of Agadez, Brig. Gen. Ibra Boulama Issa, who chaired an emergency meeting Monday on the case.
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Boston Globe
2 days ago
- Boston Globe
Derk Sauer, champion of a free press in a new Russia, dies at 72
Mr. Sauer, a lifelong socialist, continued to promote these freedoms after President Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999 and began dismantling Russia's nascent democracy. Advertisement 'He kept on defending journalism until his very last breath,' Pjotr Sauer, who writes for The Guardian, said in a phone interview Friday. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Mr. Sauer was fatally wounded in a 'freak accident' while sailing with his wife, Ellen Verbeek, his son said. Mr. Sauer was under the deck when the boat hit an underwater rock, causing him to fall from a set of stairs and land on his back, his son said. Mr. Sauer underwent surgery at a hospital in Athens before being transferred to a hospital in Amsterdam, where he spent 10 days, Pjotr Sauer said. After leaving the hospital in Amsterdam, Mr. Sauer spent his final days at a family home in Zeeland with his wife and sons. Mr. Sauer's ability to combine high-quality journalism with business acumen made him a wealthy man. Advertisement He introduced glossy magazines to Russia, beginning with a highly successful local edition of Cosmopolitan. After decades of shortages and travel restrictions, Russians in the 1990s flocked to these aspirational titles for a taste of Western pop culture and consumerism. Mr. Sauer's business newspaper, Vedomosti , set the standard in Russia for reporting on the high-wire drama of the country's booming but corrupt capitalist economy. His English-language newspaper, The Moscow Times, tapped into Russia's small but wealthy new community of expatriates. The paper became a training ground for some of the most prominent Russia experts in Western media, including Ellen Barry of The New York Times and David Filipov, a former Moscow bureau chief for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. 'He brought Russia something they'd never seen, which was quality Western journalism,' Pjotr Sauer said. Derk Erik Sauer was born on Oct. 31, 1952, into a well-off Amsterdam family. His father, Hendrik Sauer, ran a large pension fund, and his mother, Evelien Tazelaar, was a stay-at-home parent. In media interviews, Derk Sauer said that he had rebelled against the social conventions imposed by his father, whom he described as a 'respectable man, incorruptible, exceptionally conscientious.' As a teenager, he joined the Netherlands' small communist party and protested against the war in Vietnam. 'I was a 14-year-old Maoist,' Mr. Sauer said in an interview with The Moscow Times in 2017. After graduating from high school, Mr. Sauer decided not to follow his two brothers to university. Instead, he reported for left-wing publications and campaigned for progressive causes. He briefly helped smuggle weapons for the Irish Republication Army, the paramilitary group that fought for the Irish republican cause in Northern Ireland. Advertisement His antiestablishment activities made him a target of surveillance by Dutch intelligence services for nearly 20 years, Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported in 2023. Mr. Sauer possessed unusually sharp business skills for a professed revolutionary. In the 1980s, he turned the Dutch magazine he was editing, Nieuwe Revu, into a household name with a business strategy that he described as 'sex, news and rock 'n' roll.' That reputation led to a job with the Dutch publishing house VNU, which in 1989 tapped him to start a glossy magazine in the Soviet Union. As the country's leader, Mikhail Gorbachev was relaxing the state's media monopoly under wide-ranging reforms that ended up collapsing the communist state. The initial Russian magazine venture did not flourish. When VNU called him home in the early '90s, Sauer and his business partner, Annemarie van Gaal, decided to stay. They started a new media company, Independent Media. Their big break came a few years later, when Hearst Magazines International gave them the license to publish Cosmopolitan in Russia. It took persistence to convince Hearst, a conservative American media conglomerate, to hand over its flagship title to 'two Dutch people without a headquarters or any experience abroad,' van Gaal said in a phone interview. Cosmopolitan became a major financial success in Russia, enabling van Gaal and Mr. Sauer to acquire local licenses for other publications, including Playboy, Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. The revenue from these titles helped Mr. Sauer to finance journalism projects in Russia that focused more on public-service reporting. According to his associates, Mr. Sauer strongly believed in developing the skills of local journalists. He hoped to build in Russia an independent and financially successful media industry that would hold power to account, as it did in the Netherlands. Advertisement Mr. Sauer offered his employees business courses in publishing and promoted a Master of Business Administration course, said Elizaveta Osetinskaya, a prominent Russian business journalist who worked with Mr. Sauer at Vedomosti. 'It was this combination of journalism and business that really drew me in,' she said in a phone interview Friday. 'I was thinking, 'One day I will be like Derk.'' In 2014, Mr. Sauer took charge of another Russian business publication, RBC, just as Putin annexed Crimea and steered Russia decisively away from Western-style democracy. Mr. Sauer brought in experienced reporters and editors, including Osetinskaya, and tasked them with turning RBC into a Western-style financial daily. By 2016, the jig was up. Under pressure from the government, the paper's oligarch owner fired an RBC editor. The rest of the editorial team resigned in protest, and Mr. Sauer left soon after. 'Derk tried to sort it out, to protect his team and sail through the storm,' Osetinskaya said. 'But by then the country had changed. There was too much pressure.' After Putin invaded Ukraine, Mr. Sauer became one of the most prominent champions of independent Russian journalists who had fled the country to escape repression. He used his connections and influence in the Netherlands to help Russia's main independent news channel, TV Rain, relocate to Amsterdam in 2023. 'Right now, it's blacker than black,' Mr. Sauer told Dutch television program Buitenhof after the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in prison last year. 'The rudeness, the cruelty, I just don't know what to do anymore,' he said. 'The repression and the fear are enormous.' Advertisement In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Sauer is survived by two other sons, Tom and Berend, and two granddaughters. This article originally appeared in
American Military News
2 days ago
- American Military News
Iran Accused Of Kidnap Plot As US, Allies Warn Of Growing Threats In West
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. It was a chilling message in a call from the police: 'The Islamic republic is trying to kidnap you and take you to Iran.' Darya Safai, a Belgian lawmaker of Iranian origin, revealed details of the call this week. In an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Farda, she said the plot followed earlier death threats from Iran. 'The security forces themselves were really surprised at how it was possible for them to be going after a member of parliament because this is an open declaration of war against European countries,' she said. Safai's is not an isolated case. Three days after she revealed the warning she had received from Belgian police, a joint statement was issued by the United States and 13 Western allies on 'Iranian State Threat Activity.' 'We are united in our opposition to the attempts of Iranian intelligence services to kill, kidnap, and harass people in Europe and North America in clear violation of our sovereignty,' the July 31 statement said. It did not go into details but follows a series of recent cases in Western countries. British spy chief Ken McCallum said in October 2024 that police and intelligence services had thwarted more than 20 Iran-linked plots to kidnap or murder people in the United Kingdom since early 2022, including British nationals. In March, two Russian men were convicted for a plot, with Tehran's support, to assassinate Iranian-American dissident journalist Masih Alinejad. There have been similar incidences reported in other countries that signed the statement, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected the joint statement on August 1, saying the accusations were 'blatant fabrications and a diversionary tactic, part of a malicious campaign of Iranophobia aimed at pressuring the Iranian people.' Safai welcomed the joint statement, having told RFE/RL days before that 'the first thing European governments can do is believe that the Islamic republic does not understand the language of diplomacy.' Born in Tehran in 1975, Safai was briefly detained for taking part in student protests in 1999 before fleeing to Belgium. Elected to parliament in 2019, she has campaigned for Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to be added to the European Union's list of designated terrorist organizations. The United States gave it the designation in 2019. Safai has also been a prominent campaigner for the rights of women to enter sports stadiums in Iran, which are restricted. She told RFE/RL that her activism had clearly put her in the regime's sights. 'This is actually an attack on the entire democratic system of all Western countries because I was elected through the people's will to do the things I am doing there,' she added.
Boston Globe
4 days ago
- Boston Globe
Death toll soars in Russian strike on Kyiv
Among the dead were five children, the youngest two years old, and 159 were injured, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. He said that in July alone, Russian forces launched about 3,800 drones, 260 missiles — including 128 ballistic missiles — and 5,100 guided bombs. In June, an overnight attack killed 28 people. Advertisement Zelensky called the overnight attack on Thursday 'a vile blow' and said it demonstrated that additional pressure on Moscow was needed and that Ukraine's Western allies should tighten their sanctions regime against the Kremlin. President Trump has been threatening to do just that. 'No matter how much the Kremlin denies their effectiveness, [the sanctions] are working and must be stronger — to hit everything that allows such strikes to continue,' Zelensky wrote, after receiving a report on the strike from Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Trump appears ready to slap additional sanctions on Moscow in a bid to pressure Russia to accept a ceasefire. On Thursday, Trump called the airstrikes on Ukraine 'disgusting' and 'a disgrace,' though he questioned whether sanctions would influence Russian President Vladimir Putin. Advertisement 'I don't know that sanctions bother him,' he said. 'I don't know if that has any effect, but we're going to do it.' The Patriot transfer to Ukraine was made possible by an agreement with the US that Germany would be 'the first nation to receive newly produced, latest-generation Patriot systems at an accelerated pace,' which Berlin would pay for, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement. The delivery to Ukraine would also include 'additional system components within the next two to three months,' Pistorius said. Ukrainian officials have not commented on the German transfer. However, Patriot antiaircraft systems are highly valued for their ability to shoot down cruise and ballistic missiles, which Russian forces have been firing at Ukrainian targets in clusters, combined with waves of drones, to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses. Ukraine's air force said that Thursday's overnight attack involved more than 300 drones across Ukraine, 21 of which struck targets, and Kyiv bore the brunt. The Ukrainian military also said that eight cruise missiles were fired, five of which penetrated its air defenses. Media reports indicated that all the missiles were directed at Kyiv. One missile partially destroyed an apartment block in a western district of the capital, burying more than a dozen people under rubble. Trump also has been threatening secondary sanctions that would penalize buyers of Russian oil, mainly China and India, potentially starving Russia of funds for its war machine, but so far, he has refrained from imposing them, arguing this could alienate Moscow and reduce hopes of reaching a peace deal. Advertisement Russia, meanwhile, has launched deadly attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, while grinding forward and seizing more territory in eastern Ukraine. Russia has struck playgrounds, maternity hospitals, apartment buildings, civilian buses, and other civilian targets. Russia's Ministry of Defense insists that Russia attacks military targets with 'precision strikes.' Earlier in the week, Trump tightened the deadline to 10 days from 50 days for Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or face new sanctions. Trump said that his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, would fly to Russia to meet with officials after visiting Gaza and Israel. Witkoff has met Putin four times in solo meetings in a bid to broker a peace deal, eschewing State Department experts on Russia, and using an interpreter supplied by the Kremlin on at least one occasion. He initially appeared to credit Putin with a will to end the war in return for keeping the territory Russia has seized and shutting Ukraine out of NATO. Those hopes proved overly optimistic. On Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a radio interview that senior US officials were in contact with their Russian counterparts this week but made 'no progress' on securing a ceasefire. Trump has suggested that he is losing patience with Putin after phone conversations in which Putin appeared conciliatory, only to launch new airstrikes, while Ukraine has accepted Trump's call for a ceasefire, Rubio suggested. 'And I think what bothers the president the most is he has these great phone calls where everyone … claims, 'Yeah, we'd like to see this end, if we could find a way forward,' and then he turns on the news and another city has been bombed, including those far from the front lines,' Rubio said. Advertisement 'So, at some point, [Trump has] got to make a decision here about how much to continue to engage in an effort to do ceasefires if one of the two sides is not interested in one,' Rubio said. On Friday, Putin said that any disappointments in the progress of peace talks arose from 'excessive expectations.' 'Negotiations are always in demand and always important, especially if it is a desire for peace. I evaluate them positively overall,' Putin told journalists after meeting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko at Valaam island in Karelia, in northwest Russia. Putin said Russia's conditions had not changed. Those conditions have long been tantamount to Ukraine's surrender. Putin said Russia needed 'a lasting and durable peace on good basic foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine and would guarantee security of both countries.'
