Articles written by Mike Corder


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  • Israeli soccer fans were attacked in Amsterdam. The violence was condemned as antisemitic

    MIKE CORDER|Nov 8, 2024

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — Israeli fans were assaulted after a soccer game in Amsterdam by hordes of young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people, Dutch authorities said Friday. Five people were treated at hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe. Reports of antisemitic speech, vandalism and violence have been on the rise across Europe since the start of the war in Gaza, and tensions mounted in the Dutch capital a...

  • Nobel Peace Prize given to Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo for its work against nuclear weapons

    MIKE CORDER and ELENA BECATOROS|Oct 11, 2024

    The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons. Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the "taboo against the use of nuclear weapons is under pressure." Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a shift in his country's nuclear doctrine, in a move aimed at discouraging the West from allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with longer-range...

  • Top UN court says Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territories is illegal and should end

    MIKE CORDER|Jul 19, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top U.N. court said Friday that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is "unlawful" and called on it to end and for settlement construction to stop immediately, issuing an unprecedented, sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule over the lands it captured 57 years ago. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denounced the nonbinding opinion issued by the 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the Jewish people's historic "homeland." Bu...

  • Relatives of those killed when MH17 was shot down mark 10 years since tragedy that claimed 298 lives

    MIKE CORDER and ROD McGUIRK|Jul 17, 2024

    VIJFHUIZEN, Netherlands (AP) — Grieving families recited the names and ages Wednesday of all 298 passengers and crew killed when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine 10 years ago, as they marked the anniversary of the tragedy at a solemn ceremony near Amsterdam. The relatives, some weeping or choking back tears, named brothers, sisters, parents, grandchildren, grandparents nieces and nephews in a litany of lost lives that lasted 30 minutes. "It's a black day," said Evert van Zijtveld, who lost his daughter and son, F...

  • Palestinian officials apply to join South Africa's case at top UN court accusing Israel of genocide

    MIKE CORDER|May 31, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Palestinian officials have applied at the top U.N. court for permission to join South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The request published Monday alleges that Israel's ongoing military operation is "part of a systematic effort to wipe Palestinian society and its culture and social institutions from the map." The request to the International Court of Justice was made on behalf of the "State of Palestine" and signed by Palestinian Authority foreign ministry official Ammar Hijazi. South Africa f...

  • Top UN court orders Israel to halt military offensive in Rafah, though Israel is unlikely to comply

    MIKE CORDER|May 24, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Although Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up the pressure on the increasingly isolated country. Criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza has been growing, particularly since it turned its focus to Rafah. This week alone, three European countries announced they would recognize a P...

  • Pro-Palestinian student protests spread across Europe. Some are allowed. Some are stopped

    MIKE CORDER and BARBARA SURK|May 8, 2024

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — Campus protests by pro-Palestinian activists spread across Europe on Tuesday as some called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza, while schools increasingly faced the question under debate in the U.S.: Allow or intervene? German police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin's Free University. Protesters occupied a university building in Amsterdam hours after police detained 169 people at a different campus location. Two remained in c...

  • What is the International Criminal Court and why it has Israeli officials worried

    MIKE CORDER|Apr 26, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Israeli officials sound increasingly concerned that the International Criminal Court could issue arrest warrants for the country's leaders more than six months into the Israel-Hamas war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote Friday in general terms about ICC action against Israeli troops and officials, and Israel's foreign ministry has said it is also tracking reports of pending action. The ICC was set up more than a decade ago to tackle impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and other grave c...

  • UN top court orders Israel to open more land crossings for aid into Gaza

    MIKE CORDER and JOSEF FEDERMAN|Mar 29, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top United Nations court on Thursday ordered Israel to take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including opening more land crossings to allow food, water, fuel and other supplies into the war-ravaged enclave. The International Court of Justice issued two new so-called provisional measures in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of acts of genocide in its military campaign launched after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Israel denies it is committing genocide. It says its military c...

  • Top UN court orders Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza but stops short of ordering cease-fire

    MIKE CORDER and RAF CASERT|Jan 26, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court on Friday ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza, but the panel stopped short of ordering Jerusalem to end the military offensive that has laid waste to the Palestinian enclave. In a ruling that will keep Israel under the legal lens for years to come, the court offered little other comfort to Israeli leaders in a genocide case brought by South Africa that goes to the core of one of the world's most intractable conflicts. The c...

  • UN court to issue ruling Friday on South Africa's request for order to halt Israel's Gaza offensive

    MIKE CORDER|Jan 24, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations' top court will issue a decision Friday on South Africa's request for interim orders in a genocide case against Israel, including that Israel halt its offensive in Gaza. The decision is a preliminary stage of a case filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel's military action in its war with Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide. Israel strongly rejects the accusation and has asked the court to throw out the case. The court in The Hague, Netherlands, announced t...

  • Israel defends itself at the UN's top court against allegations of genocide against Palestinians

    MIKE CORDER and RAF CASERT|Jan 12, 2024

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Accused of committing genocide against Palestinians, Israel insisted at the United Nations' highest court Friday that its war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and said that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide. Israel described the allegations leveled by South Africa as hypocritical and said that one of the biggest cases ever to come before an international court reflected a world turned upside down. Israeli leaders defend their air and ground offensive in Gaza as a legitimate r...

  • Karikó and Weissman win Nobel Prize in medicine for work that enabled mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

    DAVID KEYTON and MIKE CORDER|Oct 1, 2023

    STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic — technology that's also being studied to fight cancer and other diseases. Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing "to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health," according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm. The panel said the pair...

  • High art becomes body art as visitors to Amsterdam's Rembrandt House Museum get inked

    MIKE CORDER|Jun 18, 2023

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — Henk Schiffmaker's needle whirrs as he tattoos the familiar lines of an elephant on Lilian Rachmaran's back. "Highbrow to lowbrow" is how the famous Dutch tattoo artist describes his latest project — inking sketches by Rembrandt van Rijn onto the skin of visitors to the building the Golden Age master once called home. Or call it high art to body art. The Rembrandt House Museum has transformed one of its rooms into a tattoo parlor for a residency it calls "A Poor Man's Rembrandt," featuring Schiffmaker and other top Amsterdam ta...

  • 300 nabbed in global crackdown on dark web drug marketplace

    MIKE CORDER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST|May 3, 2023

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities in the U.S. and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated over $53 million, and seized a dark web marketplace as part of an international crack down on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind. The worldwide operation targeting the "Monopoly Market" is the latest major takedown of sales platforms for drugs and other illicit goods on the so-called dark web, a part of the internet hosted within an encrypted network and accessible only through specialized a...

  • Elephant in the dining room: Startup makes mammoth meatball

    MIKE CORDER|Mar 29, 2023

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — Throw another mammoth on the barbie? An Australian company on Tuesday lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat. The launch in an Amsterdam science museum came just days before April 1 so there was an elephant in the room: Is this for real? "This is not an April Fools joke," said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. "This is a real innovation." Cultivated m...

  • World leaders head to London for Queen Elizabeth II funeral

    MIKE CORDER and JILL LAWLESS|Sep 18, 2022

    LONDON (AP) — Thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations Sunday for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II — a spectacular display of national mourning that will also be the biggest gathering of world leaders for years. U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders have flown into London for the funeral, to which around 500 royals, heads of state and heads of government from around the globe have been invited. As the dignitaries poured in, the clock was ticking down for those see...

  • Final preparations underway for procession of queen's coffin

    MIKE CORDER and DANICA KIRKA|Sep 14, 2022

    LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II's coffin will leave Buckingham Palace for the last time Wednesday as it is taken amid somber pageantry on a horse-drawn gun carriage past crowds of mourners to the Houses of Parliament, where the late monarch will lie in state for four days. Crowds began massing early along the flag-lined road outside the palace for the procession from the monarch's official London residence to the historic Westminster Hall at Parliament. King Charles III and other members of the royal family will walk behind the coffin. T...

  • Russia-Ukraine: What to know about Europe's security crisis

    MIKE CORDER|Feb 23, 2022

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — From a hastily convened meeting of the United Nations Security Council to capitals around the world, leaders have condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin's recognition of two pro-Russia regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and his order to send troops there. The U.S., European Union and U.K. announced tough economic sanctions, warning more would follow if Putin proceeds further. Governments also warned of a global fallout from the crisis over Ukraine, which was evident Tuesday as oil prices rose, stock m...

  • Cold case team shines new light on betrayal of Anne Frank

    MIKE CORDER|Jan 16, 2022

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — A cold case team that combed through evidence for five years in a bid to unravel one of World War II's enduring mysteries has reached what it calls the "most likely scenario" of who betrayed Jewish teenage diarist Anne Frank and her family. Their answer, outlined in a new book called "The Betrayal of Anne Frank A Cold Case Investigation," by Canadian academic and author Rosemary Sullivan, is that it could have been a prominent Jewish notary called Arnold van den Bergh, who disclosed the secret annex hiding place of the Frank fa...

  • Global sting began by creating message service for crooks

    MIKE CORDER and NICK PERRY|Jun 9, 2021

    SAN DIEGO (AP) — When the FBI dismantled an encrypted messaging service based in Canada in 2018, agents noticed users moving to other networks. Instead of following their tracks to rivals, investigators decided on a new tactic: creating their own service. ANOM, a secure-messaging service built by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, launched in October 2019 and solidified its following after authorities took down another rival. Popularity spread by word of mouth. When ANOM was taken down Monday, authorities had collected more than 27 m...

  • New Dutch exhibition takes unflinching look at slavery

    MIKE CORDER|May 19, 2021

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — The delicacy of one of the first objects in new exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum belies its brutality. At the end of a thin iron rod are the artistically interwoven letters GWC — used to brand the initials of a Dutch trading company into the skin of enslaved workers. The stark contrast between finery and brutality, wealth and inhumanity is a recurring pattern at the museum's unflinching exhibition titled, simply, "Slavery," that examines the history of Dutch involvement in the international slave trade. Nearby, a huge woo...

  • Activists cheer victory in landmark Dutch climate case

    Mike Corder|Dec 20, 2019

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a ruling hailed as an "immense victory for climate justice," the Netherlands' top court ruled Friday in favor of activists who have for years been seeking legal orders to force the Dutch government into cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Activists in a packed chamber of the Supreme Court in The Hague erupted into applause and cheers as Presiding Judge Kees Streefkerk rejected the government's appeal against earlier rulings ordering the government to cut emissions by at least 25% by the end of 2020 from b...

  • Dutch prosecutors charge isolated farm father with sex abuse

    Mike Corder|Nov 29, 2019

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch father accused of holding six of his children against their will on an isolated farm for nine years is now also suspected of sexually abusing two of his other children, prosecutors said Thursday. The abuse allegations add a grim new element to a case that is shrouded in mystery and garnered huge attention across the Netherlands. The 67-year-old father and a 58-year-old man, who is reportedly an Austrian national and rented the farm to the family, are suspected of illegal deprivation of liberty and abuse f...

  • Scientists link Europe heat wave to man-made global warming

    Mike Corder|Aug 2, 2019

    AMSTERDAM (AP) — The heat wave that smashed temperature records in Western Europe last month was made more likely and intensified by man-made climate change, according to a study published Friday. The rapid study by a respected team of European scientists should be a warning of things to come, the report's lead author said. "What will be the impacts on agriculture? What will the impacts on water?" said Robert Vautard of the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France. "This will put really tension in society that we may not be so well equipped t...

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