Kuwait emir who was its defense minister in ’90 Iraq invasion dies
Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Kuwait’s ruling emir, died Saturday after a three-year, low-key reign focused on trying to resolve the tiny, oil-rich nation’s internal political disputes. He was 86.
Authorities gave no cause of death.
The state-run KUNA news agency said Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber, now 83, a longtime leader in the country’s security services, had been named emir Saturday and now is one of the Gulf Arab countries’ last octogenarian leaders. Sheikh Meshal was Kuwait’s deputy ruler and Sheikh Nawaf ’s halfbrother.
Sheikh Nawaf was sworn in as emir in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, following the death of his predecessor, the late Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah.
As defense minister, Sheikh Nawaf oversaw the rapid collapse of his forces during Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of his country in August 1990. He faced widespread criticism for his decisions during the war.
A U.S.-led, multinational force later expelled the Iraqis from Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. Al Sabah never published the findings of its investigations into the government’s actions around the invasion.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he was saddened by the death.
“Sheikh Nawaf was a valued partner and true friend of the United States throughout his decades of service,” Biden said in a statement.
“We honor his life and the vision we shared for greater peace and stability across the Middle East,” he said. “We will continue to strengthen the longstanding ties between the governments and people of the United States and Kuwait as we pursue that future together.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stopped off in Kuwait on Sunday to pay his respects to Kuwaiti officials, and is expected to be in Israel on Monday.
Sheikh Nawaf was largely an uncontroversial choice for emir, though his advancing age led analysts to suggest his tenure would be short. It was — he had the third-shortest tenure of any emir since the ruling Al Sabah family’s reign in Kuwait, beginning in 1752.
A boat carrying dozens of migrants trying to reach Europe capsized off the coast of Libya, leaving more than 60 people dead, including women and children, the U.N. migration agency said.
The shipwreck, which took place overnight between Thursday and Friday, was the latest tragedy in this part of the Mediterranean Sea, a key but dangerous route for migrants seeking a better life in Europe. Thousands have died, according to officials.
The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said in a statement late Saturday that the boat was carrying 86 migrants when strong waves swamped it off the town of Zuwara on Libya’s western coast and that 61 migrants drowned, according to survivors.
“The central Mediterranean continues to be one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes,” the agency wrote on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The European Union’s border agency said in a statement Sunday that its plane located the partially deflated rubber boat Thursday evening in Libya’s search and rescue zone.
Migrant shipwreck:
“The people were in severe danger because of adverse weather conditions, with waves reaching heights of 2.5 meters (8.2 feet),” the agency, known as Frontex, said.
Serbia election: Serbia’s governing populists claimed a sweeping victory Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election, marred by reports of major irregularities both during a tense campaign and on voting day.
Acting Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that with half the ballots counted, the governing Serbian Progressive Party’s projections showed it won 47% percent of the vote and expected to hold around 130 seats in the 250-member assembly. The main opposition Serbia Against Violence group won about 23%, Brnabic said.
The main contest in the parliamentary and local elections was between President Aleksandar Vucic’s Serbian Progressives and the centrist coalition that sought to undermine the populists
who have ruled the troubled Balkan state since 2012.
The Serbia Against Violence opposition coalition was expected to mount its biggest challenge for the city council in Belgrade, with analysts saying an opposition victory in the capital would seriously dent Vucic’s hardline rule in the country.
Vucic, however, said his party was also leading in the vote in the capital, though he added that post-election coalition negotiations would determine who governs in Belgrade.
DeSantis camp: The top strategist for the embattled super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign for the White House resigned Saturday night in the latest sign of trouble for the GOP hopeful less than one month before voting begins with Iowa’s kickoff caucuses.
Jeff Roe, the top adviser to Never Back Down, is the latest senior staffer to exit Never Back Down, which
has been the largest outside group supporting DeSantis’ candidacy.
He announced his departure on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, hours after The Washington Post published a story focused on internal disputes and suspicions between Never Back Down, the campaign, and other DeSantis allies that included accusations of “mismanagement and conduct issues, including numerous unauthorized leaks containing false information.”
“I can’t believe it ended this way,” Roe wrote on X, sharing a statement in which he said he “cannot in good conscience stay affiliated with Never Back Down given the statements” in the story, which he said were false.
Numerous senior members of Never Back Down have been fired or resigned in recent weeks, including two chief executives, the group’s chairman and its communications director. At the same time,
DeSantis’ Florida allies have created a new super PAC, Fight Right, which had earned the public blessing of the DeSantis campaign.
North Korea fires missile:
North Korea on Sunday fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea, South Korea said, in a possible display of defiance against the latest steps by Washington and Seoul to tighten their nuclear deterrence plans against North Korean threats.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile was fired from an area near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang at around 10:38 p.m. and flew 354 miles before landing in the sea.
The South Korean military said it was sharing the launch information with the United States and Japan to further analyze the details. It criticized the launch as a “clear violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from using ballistic technologies.