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President Joe Biden’s words have once again strayed from his administration’s policy, this time on the highly charged question of whether Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine.

Biden says “yes,” and his administration, rightly, says “no,” or at least, “we are looking into it.”

Biden’s declaration went uncontradicted a little longer than his statement that Vladimir Putin has to be removed from power, but ultimately experienced the same fate.

In prepared remarks in Iowa on Tuesday, Biden said the prices we pay in the United States shouldn’t hinge “on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide half a world away.”

“Yes, I called it genocide,” Biden told reporters afterward. “Because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of ​​even being able to be a Ukrainian.” He added that “we’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”

It’s a time in our culture when hardly anyone exercises great care with words, but it shouldn’t be too much to ask that the president of the United States show more discipline than most.

Instead, Biden continues in the tradition established by Donald Trump of a president routinely saying things at odds with the policy of his own administration.

Just last week, Biden was still refusing to say that Russian atrocities rose to the level of a genocide, and his national security adviser Jake Sullivan was backing him up, arguing that there wasn’t enough evidence for that charge. When last weekend Jake Tapper of CNN pressed him on the question, Sullivan wouldn’t go near the word.

Now, Biden officials are saying that the president “spoke from his heart” (undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland), “was speaking to the impression that he had garnered” (State Department spokesperson Ned Price), and “is allowed to make his views” known at any point he would like” (White House press secretary Jen Psaki).

Once again, the walk-back is appropriate. There are many things that Russia can justly be accused of in Ukraine — from launching a war of unprovoked aggression, to displaying depraved indifference to the lives and welfare of civilians, to carry out war crimes — but committing genocide is not one of them.

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The concept of genocide has to mean something more than doing truly appalling things that should be condemned by all decent people, or the word loses its meaning.

The United Nations defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

The Russians are guilty of great savagery in Ukraine, but there is no evidence that they intend to exterminate the Ukrainians.

Their initial plan was to sweep President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from power quickly and install a pro-Russian government. Every indication is that, if this possibility had truly been in the offing, the Russians would have been happy to have a puppet preside over a pacified Ukraine full of quiescent Ukrainians — in fact, they seem to have erroneously assumed that this is what was going to happen.

Now, having misjudged the courage and national spirit of the Ukrainians (and the stalwartness of the West), the Russians have retreated from Kyiv. The fall-back strategy seems to be to take as much territory in the east and the south as possible in a prelude to forcing an unfavorable settlement on the Ukrainians. This is a cynical approach with all the subtlety of a Grad missile launcher, but it’s not genocide, either.

If there’s no doubt about the viciousness and blood-thirsty criminality of the Russian campaign, it’s not specific to Ukraine. The Russians employed basically the same tactics in Chechnya, Syria and Afghanistan before that. This is the Russian way of war.

Even in Ukraine, it’s not as though the Russians are making cultural and ethnic distinctions in their brutality. The watchword for the scorched-earth nature of their tactics is Mauripol, a predominantly Russian-speaking city with a large Russian population.

Zelenskyy praised Biden for making the accusation of genocide. It makes sense that the Ukrainians want the charge to be part of the conversation — there’s no better way to delegitimize their Russian invaders.

There is no formal obligation to do anything to stop a genocide. Yet, it’s such a monstrous crime, harkening back to the Holocaust, that it creates considerable moral pressure to act.

This is another reason that it’s so strange that Biden used the term. He wants to stop short of a total effort in Ukraine and instead make fine-grained distinctions among various forms of support we provide to the Ukrainians and how we do it — offensive versus defensive weapons, for instance.

If Russia is committing a genocide, how can we sustain, say, our refusal to let the Ukrainians fly MIGs off of Ramstein Air Base? When confronting such an enormity, it seems a minor risk to take.

At the end of the day, though, the word applied to Russia’s atrocities doesn’t matter much. We aren’t going to seek out a direct NATO clash with Russia regardless, nor should we. So whether Biden or his administration is right about the terminology, the only sensible and realistic response is to focus on getting to the Ukrainians every weapon they need as rapidly as possible.

The test in Ukraine then isn’t (thankfully) what Biden says, but what he does.

Frank James, 62, is charged with a US federal ‘terrorism’ offence that applies to attacks on mass transit systems.

A federal judge in the United States has ordered the man accused of opening fire on a crowded subway train in New York City subway car to be held without bail, after prosecutors said his “terrifying” attack on Tuesday disrupted life in the city in a way not seen in two decades.

Frank James, 62, spoke only to answer “yes” to standard questions during the brief proceeding in a federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday.

James was arrested on Wednesday in lower Manhattan, capping a 30-hour manhunt for the lone suspect wanted in an assault that unnerved riders of the largest and busiest US metropolitan rapid rail network and renewed calls for greater subway security. He is charged with a federal “terrorism” offense that applies to attacks on mass transit systems.

“The defendant terrifyingly opened fire on passengers on a crowded subway train, interrupting their morning commute in a way the city hasn’t seen in more than 20 years,” Assistant US Attorney Sara K Winik said. “The defendant’s attack was premeditated, was carefully planned, and it caused terror among the victims and our entire city.”

In court papers, prosecutors called the shooting calculated, saying that James wore a hard hat and construction worker-style jacket as a disguise and then shed them after the gunfire to avoid recognition. Prosecutors suggested James had the means to carry out more attacks, noting that he had ammunition and other gun-related items in a Philadelphia storage unit.

Police said 10 people were shot outright, five of them hospitalised in critical but stable condition, and 13 others were injured in the stampede of terrified passengers pouring from the smoke-filled subway car onto the platform of the 36th Street station. All were expected to survive.

The gunman vanished in the pandemonium, but investigators said they established James as a suspect when a sweep of the crime scene turned up a credit card in his name and the keys to a van that he had rented and left parked several blocks away.

Authorities at the scene also recovered the Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun used in the attack, along with three extended-ammunition magazines, a torch, a hatchet, a bag of fireworks and a container of gasoline or petrol, according to police and court documents.

At the request of James’s lawyers, Magistrate Roanne Mann said she would ask the US Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide James with “psychiatric attention”, as well as magnesium tablets for leg cramps, at the federal lockup in Brooklyn where he is being held.

Investigators were also examining many hours of videos that James posted on social media, including one a day before the attack, in which he delivered profanity-laced diatribes about racism, society’s treatment of Black people, homelessness and violence. He also talked about his history of psychiatric treatment, and he complained about how New York City’s mayor is dealing with homeless people on subways and with gun violence.

James was born and raised in New York City but had moved to Milwaukee. He had recently left Wisconsin and had briefly lived in Philadelphia.

A flood survivor has told the BBC that she is homeless and hurt after one of South Africa’s worst storms hit KwaZulu-Natal province.

“We’re traumatised, we can’t even eat. For the whole day I didn’t eat because I don’t know what to do,” Boniswa Shangase said.

A state of disaster has been called in the region, after months worth of rain fell in just one day in some areas.

More than 340 people have died, but she survived by jumping out of a window.

“I used the window to get out of the house, you can see I’ve got bruises here,” the 40-year-old restaurant cashier said.

She put everything into making her house a home, and now, it is gone.

She built it 12 years ago and lived there with her two children, but at 22:00 on Monday night everything changed.

Mudslides caused by the excessive rain swept her property downhill in the township of Ntuzuma, in northern Durban.

“Now I’m homeless,” she said. “We can’t live here any more,” nor can she imagine her life staying in a community hall.

Like most people living in informal settlements, she did not have any insurance.

Ms Shangase is not the only one still reeling from the impact of these historic floods.

It is thought more than 6,000 homes have been damaged, according to the AFP news agency.

One man nearly broke down as he explained how he managed to make it out alive, but his child did not. Speechless, he dropped his head and struggled to get his words out, against a backdrop of rubble and destroyed properties.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited affected areas on Wednesday, says climate change is to blame, but some communities disagree. They say poor drainage and building standards have increased the scale of the disaster.

Durban Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda denied that inadequate drainage was to blame, saying the scale of the flood was unexpected.

Informal settlements like some of those in Ntuzuma are built on a slope with limited foundations and flimsy dwellings.

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The scale of the damage to infrastructure has been vast with electricity and water supplies hit, although authorities say some of these services have now been restored.

Rescue missions, with some residents are being evacuated to places of safety, but large parts of the KwaZulu-Natal province remain submerged including highways and roads, so some communities remain totally cut off.

The coastal city of Durban is where most of the images of cars submerged in water and flattened properties have come from.

In an informal settlement on the banks of the Umgeni River near Durban, there is despair and frustration.

Police fired stun grenades to disperse one group of protesters.

They said they were living in the informal settlement because the government had taken too long to build them proper houses.

And after their houses collapsed into the river bed when the ground gave way, they say the government has not done enough to support them.

The police say there have been similar protests elsewhere in the region.

The provincial government says it is “immediate interventions” for affected families.

The city has also witnessed several outbreaks of looting, with 12 people arrested on Wednesday night after two retail outlets were targeted, a local media report. According to the IOL news site, the suspects took groceries and appliances.

Containers stored in the dockyards of one of the largest ports in Africa have been totally washed away. The state transport company says it has suspended shipping until further notice, which will certainly affect trade across southern Africa.

There are accounts of destruction to churches as well as more than 240 schools damaged in the province.

Although the floods are now subsiding and some communities recovering, more rains are forecast over the Easter weekend and the province remains on high alert.

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Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala – On a recent afternoon, the COVID-19 vaccination center in the heart of the Indigenous Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan was quiet. The health center had a vaccine supply, but demand was low.

The lack of coordination of a Guatemalan government-led campaign to overcome vaccine hesitancy has resulted in the expiration of millions of doses across the country this year, critics have said, as more than half of the population remains unvaccinated.

According to Juan Manuel Ramirez, an evangelical preacher in Santiago Atitlan, some community members have taken the vaccine, knowing it helps protect against severe disease. But others have subscribed to conspiracy theories about its potential dangers.

“There are other people who also have other types of thoughts, such as that the vaccine comes with a chip,” he told Al Jazeera. “Because of that, there is uncertainty, and therefore they have not been vaccinated.

Earlier this month, approximately 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by the United States expired. In March, the same fate befell nearly three million doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, worth more than $33m. And by the end of June, more than two million doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines will also expire.

“The main factor of the expiration of the vaccine is a very slow rate of vaccination,” Oscar Chavez, cofounder of the GT Data Laboratory think-tank, told Al Jazeera. “The vaccination rhythm is very inefficient.”

Problems with access

Guatemala has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the Americas, with about 48 percent of the population receiving at least one dose and fewer than 20 percent receiving three doses, according to health ministry data. The Guatemalan government has cited the resistance of the population to its vaccination campaigns as the reason for the mass expiry of doses.

“We have tried to make available all the vaccines of different brands to the public,” Guatemalan Health Minister Francisco Coma said in a media statement. “Unfortunately, there has been a rejection among the public to vaccination.”

But experts have contended that the larger problem is the Guatemalan government’s failure to facilitate access to the vaccine for marginalized groups or to combat the spread of misinformation.

“It is not that the people do not want to be vaccinated; rather, it is a problem of access,” Chavez said. “The government has not facilitated access to the vaccine to everyone.”

Guatemala’s vaccine rollout was chaotic from the outset, as the country was late in obtaining doses and relied largely on donations. The government also faced criticism for failing to develop an adequate vaccination strategy, particularly in rural areas that lack internet access and mobile phone coverage. All of which eroded public trust.

Compounding matters, alleged anomalies in the government’s $160m deal to buy millions of doses of the Sputnik V vaccine spurred an investigation by the country’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.

“What I see is a lack of planning and foresight,” Nancy Sandoval, an infectious diseases specialist and former president of the Guatemalan Association of Infectious Diseases, told Al Jazeera. “This had an impact on the perception and trust of vaccines.”

Many communities did not have the necessary infrastructure to administer the vaccines, setting off protests from medical workers. In other areas, residents said they were not provided with timely information about the vaccines in their Indigenous languages.

While a spokesperson for the Guatemalan presidency told Al Jazeera that the government ran campaigns specifically targeting Indigenous communities, critics say these efforts failed to adequately combat vaccine misinformation.

Conspiracy theories

Santiago Atitlan was one of the communities where conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine gained a foothold. One local evangelical church became a breeding ground for such misinformation, as churchgoers regularly participated in mask-free marches through the town.

“Unfortunately, people believe lies more than truth,” Ramirez said. “Since there has been fear, then people refuse to get vaccinated.”

Al Jazeera approached more than a dozen people in Santiago Atitlan, but all declined to comment publicly about their views on the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Ramirez has taken steps to preach the benefits of the vaccine to his congregation of around 400 people. Municipal authorities have also sent health workers door-to-door to promote the vaccine, but even with these efforts, many residents have remained resistant.

One health worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, told Al Jazeera that they were not getting enough support from the health ministry, and that individual health providers could be charged for any vaccines that expired.

The government’s failure to address such concerns and to build trust within communities has been frustrating, Sandoval said.

“Vaccines work and they save lives, but there are political decisions that are wrong,” Sandoval said. “This type of action, such as the loss of vaccines, negatively affects confidence in vaccines that we know work.”

Visitors to Rwanda often blown away to find a country where things seem to work efficiencies. It is neat and tidy with lush green views – and the wi-fi is good in the capital, Kigali.

Everyone tends to pay their taxes; services are reliable; the roads are safe – the government calls it “one of the world’s safest nations”.

Take the pandemic for example. Rwanda did not hesitate to take coronavirus by the horns: lockdowns were implemented quickly and strictly enforced. Today more than 60% of the population is vaccinated – something the British Medical Journal calls a feat “in a continent that is a Covid-19 vaccine desert”.

But this underlying compliance and Kigali’s landscaped flower beds is a collective fear.

Walk into a bar and try to start up a controversial debate, and you will be shut down – and there is every likelihood your behavior will be reported to the authorities.

Those deemed a real threat will be dealt with harshly.

“It does looks like the Switzerland of Africa but it is an extremely repressive and frightening country,” Michela Wrong, author of a recent book on Rwanda called Do Not Disturb, told the BBC.

On the last Saturday of every month, everyone gets together in their neighbors to do a collective clean-up – roads are swept, rubbish collected. It is called Umuganda, which in Kinyarwanda means “Community Work”.

One Rwandan, who asked not to be named, explains there is no law that forces people to attend the Umuganda – but there is a fear you will gain a reputation, that someone will report you, that your name will be logged as a troublemaker.

Driving school and language classes

Any camp that asylum seekers are sent to under the new UK deal is likely to be a well-organised affair – not the refugee camps you sometimes see with tents or plastic sheeting stacked on to thorns.

The country, which has a population of 13 million, has already taken in more than 900 African asylum seekers from Libya since 2019 – under a deal with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the African Union (AU).

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They have been housed at Gashora, about 60km (40 miles) from Kigali. The UNHCR says it is not a refugee camp, but an Emergency Transit Mechanism – and more than half of them have already been relocated to Sweden, Canada, Norway, France, and Belgium.

The UN site, which has permanent structures, aims to teach those who suffered appalling conditions in Libyan camps, the skills to help them in their new life. The camp has a driving school and offers language classes, amongst other things.

But when Denmark announced last year that was planning a similar deal to the one the UK has just launched, the AU hit out.

“Such attempts to stem out migration from Africa to Europe are xenophobic and completely unacceptable,” it said last August.

Africa already shouldered 85% of the world’s refugees “often in protracted situations, whereas only 15% are hosted by developed countries”, it said.

Wrong called it a “cynical and amoral deal”.

“It’s all about sending a deterrent to asylum seekers… anyone who is trying to flee repression in Africa is going to be horrified at being sent to Rwanda,” she said.

Unlike the UNHCR project, details being released of the UK scheme suggest asylum seekers would be in Rwanda for longer – “so that they can resettle and thrive”, as the home secretary put it.

It is not clear how many people Rwanda is expecting to accept, given it is one of the most densely populated countries in Africa but UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it would take “tens of thousands in the years ahead”.

Out of Kigali, Wrong says it is a “poor agrarian society where every inch of fertile land is being cultivated and which doesn’t really have room to take refugees”.

YouTubers prosecuted

No-one expects much opposition at home to the move – as critics of Paul Kagame, who led the rebel forces which ended the 1994 genocide and has been president since 2000, tending to regret it.

Last month, Human Rights Watch issued a report about the prosecution over the last year of at least eight YouTubers considered to be critical of the government. One, who filmed and criticized soldiers forcefully expelling residents during a slum clearance, has been ruling to seven years in jail.

Critics who flee the country have been pursued and assassinated by Rwandan agents in exile – or in the case of Paul Rusesabagina, the hotel manager who saved the lives of more than 1,000 people during the genocide and on which the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda was based, put on trial.

After the genocide – in which 800,000 people were killed – Rusesabagina became a Belgian citizen and used his fame to speak out against what he said was President Kagame’s repressive rule.

But in 2020, his family says he was abducted while passing through Dubai and taken to Rwanda and has been convicted to 25 years in jail for backing a rebel group.

His daughter, Carine Kanimba, told the BBC said it showed Rwanda had zero respect for human rights: “Rwanda is a dictatorship, there is no freedom of speech, there is no democracy. In the last election the president won the elections by 99% , which tells you this is not a democracy.

“I don’t understand why the British government would decide to send vulnerable people to a country that is known to subdue its own people.”

A Conservative love affair

The reason perhaps lies at the door of Mr Kagame, who stands more than 6ft, is a charismatic, Arsenal football club-loving, driven man. Many Western leaders – those who may feel the guilt of not doing more to stop the genocide that Rwanda defines for many outsiders – are enamored by him.

“He’s very good at identifying the issues that keep Western leaders awake at night and presenting them with a solution which seems to be effective and cut-price,” says Wrong, pointing to how Rwandan troops were sent to Mozambique last year to deal with a jihadist insurance.

Last year, Mr Kagame said he was offering refugee centers on “humanitarian grounds”. One of Rwanda’s few opposition parties has said it is all about money.

Western nations are impressed by Rwanda’s rapid economic development since the genocide and by the fact corruption appears not to be an issue – though they do issue human rights warnings.

The UK Conservative party’s love affair with Rwanda started in 2007, while in opposition, with something called Project Umbano, founded by Andrew Mitchell.

The former development minister organized for MPs to fly out each August to work on development projects – and coach cricket.

A cricket charity linked to the project began raising funds and a few years ago the state-of the art Gahanga Cricket Stadium, also known as the Kicukiro Oval, was opened just outside Kigali.

Some see the asylum-seeker deal as part of a sophisticated strategy to improve Rwanda’s image, as the country gears up to host the Commonwealth summit this June.

But Rwanda’s government spokesperson dismissed its critics, saying no-one was persecuted in Rwanda for having an opinion

“We know the kind of situations that people from countries like that have been through and this is a place where they will be safe, they will be protected and can live dignified lives and have an opportunity to develop their talents,” Yolande Makolo told the BBC.

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WHO says no country in the region is currently seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases.

The number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa have dropped to their lowest levels since the pandemic began, marking the longest decline yet seen in the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

In a statement on Thursday, the UN health agency said COVID-19 infections due to the Omicron surge had “tanked” from a peak of more than 308,000 weekly cases to fewer than 20,000 last week. Cases and deaths fell by 29 percent and 37 percent respectively in the last week; deaths decreased to 239 from the previous week.

“This low level of infection has not been seen since April 2020 in the early stages of the pandemic in Africa,” WHO said, noting that no country in the region is currently seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases.

The agency warned, however, that with winter approaching for southern hemisphere countries, “there is a high risk of another wave of new infections.”

The coronavirus spreads more easily in cooler temperatures when people are more likely to gather in larger numbers indoors.

“With the virus still circulating, the risk of new and potentially more deadly variants emerging remains, and the pandemic control measures are pivotal to [an] effective response to a surge in infections,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director.

The decline in Africa is consistent with falling COVID-19 numbers globally, although in China officials fear the country still does not have its latest surge in Omicron-involved cases under control despite a “zero-tolerance” approach that has triggered a three-week lockdown in Shanghai, where at least 15 million people are still barred from going outside.

Meanwhile, scientists in the US warn the country may be about to see a wave of cases driven by the Omicron subvariant BA.2, which has already peaked across Europe. The country expected to soon mark the deaths of at least one million Americans killed by COVID.

Earlier this week, WHO said scientists in Botswana and South Africa have detected new forms of the Omicron variant, labeled as BA.4 and BA.5, but are not sure yet if they might be more transmissible or dangerous.

Despite repeated warnings from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus that the coronavirus would devastate Africa, the continent has been among the least affected by the pandemic.

In an analysis released last week, WHO estimated that up to 65 percent of people in Africa have been infected with the coronavirus and said unlike many other regions, most people infected on the continent did not show any symptoms.

WASHINGTON — The ultranationalist Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, commonly referred to as “Putin’s Brain” for his influence within the Kremlin, said earlier this week that the Russian military retreat from Kyiv was a “temporary situation,” predicting that after a regrouping, a broader campaign across Ukraine could commence again.

Dugin made his comments to a Turkish newspaper; the interview was reported on by RIA Novosti, a Kremlin-controlled wire news service that has consistently amplified anti-Ukrainian rhetoric.

“The Russian army is currently fighting the sovereign powers that impose a unipolar world,” Dugin said, in reference to the alliance of pro-Ukrainian allies led by the United States. “We cannot lose this war. Otherwise, the whole world will turn into a large fire.”

An eclectic thinker with a fondness for the occult, Dugin has published several books calling for a broader Slavic empire that would include Ukraine, as well as Moldova and Belarus.

Putin shares these expansionist views. In a lengthy 2021 article, “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” he historical revisionism to argue Ukrainian nationhood was an anberration resulting from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Since then, Ukraine has tried to orient itself away from its much larger neighbor and toward the West. Putin has seen that move as an affront, first trying to bring Ukraine back into the fold in 2014, when Russian forces and pro-Russian paramilitaries took over the Crimean peninsula, as well as two eastern border regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, with large Russian -speaking populations.

When the second invasion of Ukraine began in February, Russian forces moved toward Kyiv and other large cities, only to see their gains quickly reversed by a spirited Ukrainian resistance equipped with Western arms. Facing the unthinkable prospect of defeat, Russian units retreated into Belarus, while the Kremlin sought to revise its war aims downward. Despite having once aimed regime change, Moscow appeared to indicate that it would settle for the territorial gains it made in Crimea and Ukraine’s east borderlands in 2014.

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In his interview with Turkiye Gazetesi, the Turkish newspaper, Dugin raised expectations once more, predicting a new countrywide offensive.

He described retreat as a “purely tactical move” that would allow the army to execute “revisions,” a seeming reference to organizational changes like the appointment of Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, a veteran of Russia’s brutal campaign in Syria, to head an offensive in the east.

But, Dugin warning, gains in the east alone are “not a victory for Russia. Our soldiers will not return home until targets across the country have been destroyed and security has been established, or until Zelensky surrenders,” he said.

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How are Ukrainian forces taking out so many Russian tanks? Use this embed to learn about some of the weapons systems the US is sending to the Ukrainian army.

UNHCR raises alarm as investigation reveals how single men proposed sharing beds with vulnerable women fleeing war.

London, United Kingdom – The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on the United Kingdom to review its Homes for Ukraine scheme, following reports that refugee women felt at risk from their sponsors.

The initiative allows anyone in the country with a spare room to open their homes to Ukrainians as long as they can offer accommodation for at least six months.

But there are growing concerns that women are being put at risk via the programme, which is more than 150,000 people signed up to as hosts days after it launched on March 18.

Last week, an undercover investigation by The Times newspaper revealed how single British men were proposing sharing beds and sending inappropriate and sexually suggestive messages to women fleeing war.

That report and others came as James Jamieson, the chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), warning of the possibility that Ukrainian refugees could become homeless.

He told the PA Media news agency that there had been a “concerning increase” in the number of Ukrainian refugees leaving hosts after the relationship broke down, “including those arrived via the family scheme and where the families’ accommodation is not suitable.”

In a statement on Tuesday, the UNHCR said the British government needed to develop a “more appropriate matching process” to ensure women, including those with children, are put in touch with families or couples, rather than single men.

“Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation and violence already experienced,” it said.

‘Free-for-all matching process wide open to be exploited’

As it stands, the government does not match hosts with refugees under the scheme.

Instead, potential sponsors directly contact Ukrainians using unregulated Facebook groups and other social media platforms, a process experts warned was unsafe.

“We are terrified the free-for-all matching process is wide open to be exploited by people traffickers and other people happy to prey on vulnerable refugees,” Louise Calvey, head of services and safeguarding at UK charity Refugee Action, told Al Jazeera.

“Ministers must step in and properly regulate sponsor matching to make sure that vulnerable people who have come here for protection are safe.”

A government spokesperson told Al Jazeera by email that attempts to exploit vulnerable people were “truly despicable”.

But they defended the scheme’s existing safeguards as “robust”, saying the Home Office was carrying out security and background checks on all sponsors.

“Councils must make at least one in-person visit to a sponsor’s property and they have a duty to make sure the guest is safe and well once they’ve arrived,” the spokesperson said.

By Wednesday, 25,100 visas had been granted under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

But by Monday, only 3,200 Ukrainians had actually arrived in the UK via the programme, which has seen refugees face lengthy waits for their visa approval and been criticized as overly bureaucratic.

A further 13,200 Ukrainians had arrived by the same date under a separate visa for those with a family member in the UK.

In total, more than 4.7 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its offensive on February 24, according to the UNHCR.

The majority – about 2.7 million – have sought refuge in neighbor Poland. Romania, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia have also welcomed thousands.

Somalia’s new MPs are being sworn in following a unique election for its parliament – known as the House of the People. But the people did not vote in a poll that has been dragging on for a record four months – more than double the time it took to pull off India’s election, the biggest democratic exercise in the world, in which more than 600 million people voted.

In, only a few thousand people voted for a parliament that would represent the nation of around 16.3 million.

This is because Somalia uses a complex and indirect political system and political parties do not contest elections. Nor do one-person-one-vote elections take place.

Instead, the 275-member House of People is chosen by delegates appointed by clan elders and members of civil society who are selected by regional state officials. The MPs then vote for a president, who leads the country.

A 54-member lower chamber, the Senate, representing Somalia’s five regional states, also takes part in the presidential vote.

Why are MPs chosen like this?

It shows the power of clans in Somalia – they form the backbone of a society in which Western-style democracy has not taken root.

They also fill the vacuum created by the absence of a functioning state – Somalia has not had one since the socialist regime led by Siad Barre collapsed in 1991.

As there is intense rivalry among Somalia’s clans, the system is based on a power-sharing formula, where the four major clans have an equal number of parliamentary seats and the remaining clans are lumped together and given half the number.

This makes Somalia’s clan representatives political kingmakers.

Most of them are due to be sworn in on Thursday, following the elections for the two parliamentary chambers. But elections in some regions have not yet been concluded because of disputes over various issues, including the eligibility of candidates.

However, this is unlikely to delay the inauguration of other MPs.

The elections were rocked by my massive corruption, abuse of power and disregard of the election’s rules. It is believed millions of dollars were spent in buying delegates in some cases.

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Unfortunately, the country does not have institutions that can act against corruption.

Qatar is a major player in the political scene. Analysts believe that it is single-handedly financed current President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s campaign in the 2017 vote, and had huge access to his administration.

What will be the new MPs’ priorities?

Huge public pressure exists for parliament to move swiftly to elect a new president, as President Farmajo’s term expired in February 2021.

But he remained in office because political bickering and the lack of delayed preparations the parliamentary election, leaving him – and lawmakers – without a mandate to govern.

The parliamentary election was finally held under pressure from Western donors – including the US which restricted visas for officials seen as undermining the electoral process.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it could stop financial support for Somalia by mid-May if elections were not completed.

Once a new government takes office, it will have to address Somalia’s challenges – including the drought. It has been worsening in the last three years and the aid agencies are now warning of a famine.

More than 3.5 million people need food aid, and 1.4 million children face severe malnutrition.

What’s the West’s interest in Somalia?

Their main concern is the growth of militant Islam. Somalia is the headquarters of al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda affiliate designated as the most dangerous in Africa.

Militant Islam grew in Somalia about two decades ago after US-backed Ethiopian troops stormed the capital, Mogadishu, to oust the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from power.

The defeat of the UIC led to al-Shaba gaining strength, as the militants vowed to drive out the “invaders”.

Today, al-Shabab controls many parts of Somalia, and carries out frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the government and establishing Islamist rule.

In the 2012 and 2016 election, al-Shabab threatened and even kidnapped clan elders after condemning them for participating in what it saw as an un-Islamic election.

This time around, its to the elections has been muted, with fears that its members or sympathis may have secretly sought more seats in a bid to the system from within.

The fear was publicly expressed by neighbor Djibouti’s President Omar Guelleh in 2020, when he was quoted as saying: “I fear we will end up with a parliament indirectly controlled by al-Shabab because they’ll have bought the support of some of the MPs .”

Some analysts felt Mr Guelleh was exaggerating the possibility of al-Shabab gaining a foothold in parliament, but there is no doubt that it is a major political force in Somalia.

Could Somalia become a democracy?

Somalia’s power-brokers agreed a long time ago that one-person-vote elections would be held by this year, but they failed to fulfill the promise.

That was not surprising, as some of the key requirements – including the registration of political parties and the ratification of a new constitution via a referendum – did not happen.

It is unclear to what extent it will be the priority of the next government, which will have lots of huge challenges

Zack Tahhan, who moved to the US from Syria five years ago, says he was among those who spotted the subway gunman.

Praise is pouring in for a Syrian immigrant who is among a number of people claiming to have spotted and reported the man wanted for shooting 10 people on a busy subway train in Brooklyn, New York.

Zack Tahhan told reporters on Wednesday that he was installing security equipment for a shop when he spotted 62-year-old Frank James, whose image had been widely dispersed by local authorities as the man wanted for the attack on Tuesday morning.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is the guy, we need to get him,’” Tahhan told a drove of reporters near the scene after James’ arrest.

“He was walking down the street, I see the police car. I said, ‘Yo, this is the guy,’ and we catch him, thank God,” said Tahhan, who said he lives in New Jersey now, having moved to the US from Syria five years ago.

New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted a video of Tahhan, writing “thank you for your bravery today, Zack.”

“All of New York is grateful,” she said.

Thank you for your bravery today, Zack.

All of New York is grateful. https://t.co/YPcU1EQO7p

— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) April 13, 2022

The NYPD, who is leading the investigation, did not immediately confirm what role Tahhan played in the capture, with several others also telling local media they had called police on James.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press, quoting two law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said James reported himself to police before he was arrested at a fast-food restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.

The hashtag #ThankYouZack trended on social media following the arrest.

On Twitter, James J Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, wrote “Thanks Zack, for making us proud”.

New York City Councilman Robert Holden said “Thank you, Zack Tathhan (sic)! Great work!”

Thank you, Zack Tathhan! Great work! #thankyyouzack https://t.co/OxFQURgJuA

— Robert Holden (@BobHoldenNYC) April 13, 2022

Authorities charged James with a federal terrorism offense for the attack in which he detonated two smoke grenades and fired at least 33 shots with a 9mm handgun on a packed subway train in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park.

Ten people were injured by gunfire while another 13 were wounded in chaotic scenes, which left residents on edge as James went uncaptured for 30 hours.

All of the victims are expected to survive their injuries.

Police said James had traveled from the city of Philadelphia to New York City in a rented van. He left a trail of clues at the scene of the attack, including keys to the rental van and a receipt for a storage unit packed with ammunition in Philadelphia.

He had posted hours of disjointed video rants online which included bigoted remarks about people of various backgrounds, complaints about New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and the conditions of the subway.

He was set to be arraigned on Thursday.