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London — Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, resigned Tuesday after an investigation found that he failed to tell police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it. 

Pressure on Welby had been building since Thursday, when release of the inquiry’s findings kindled anger about a lack of accountability at the highest reaches of the church. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Monday that his position was “untenable” after some members of the church’s national assembly started a petition calling on Welby to step down because he had “lost the confidence of his clergy.” 

“I believe that stepping aside is in the best interests of the Church of England, which I dearly love and which I have been honored to serve,” Welby said in a statement. 

The strongest outcry came from the victims of John Smyth, a prominent attorney who abused teenage boys and young men at Christian summer camps in Britain, Zimbabwe and South Africa over five decades. Andrew Morse, who was repeatedly beaten by Smyth over a period of five years, said that resigning was a chance for Welby to start repairing the damage caused by the church’s handling of historical abuse cases more broadly. 

“I believe that now is an opportunity for him to resign,” Morse told the BBC before Welby stepped down. “I say opportunity in the sense that this would be an opportunity for him to stand with the victims of the Smyth abuse and all victims that have not been treated properly by the Church of England in their own abuse cases.” 

Welby’s resignation comes against the backdrop of widespread historical sexual abuse in the Church of England. A 2022 report by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse found that deference to the authority of priests, taboos surrounding the discussion of sexuality and a culture that gave more support to alleged perpetrators than their victims helped make the Church of England Church of England “a place where abusers could hide.” 
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CATARROJA, Spain — Thousands of students in Spain’s eastern Valencia region returned to classes on Monday, two weeks after floods killed over 200 people and devastated towns in the area.

Controversy over the regional government’s handling of the floods still rages, and a teachers’ union accused it of exaggerating the number returning and leaving the clean-up to teachers and pupils.

Twenty-three people remain missing in the Valencia region after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, sending tides of muddy water through densely populated city suburbs, drowning people in cars and underground car parks, and collapsing homes.

A total of 47 schools in 14 affected municipalities reopened to more than 22,000 children on Monday, the region’s education department said. Last week, it said it expected around 70% of students in the worst-affected areas to return this week.

“The schools that have opened their doors today have followed cleaning and disinfection protocols to ensure maximum safety for students, teachers and staff,” it added.

But the regional teachers’ union STEPV said it believed that the numbers returning on Monday were lower, without providing an alternative figure.

Spokesperson Marc Candela said many schools were not ready to resume lessons, adding: “Teachers and parents are cleaning the schools with their own materials such as brooms.”

Educators wanted professional cleaning crews to sanitize facilities, as was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

Parents are also worried about their children’s emotional states, said Ruben Pacheco, head of the regional federation of parents’ associations, FAMPA:

“Families are exhausted, suffering psychologically, and nothing should be decided without consulting them so as not to generate more discomfort than they’ve already suffered.”

Candela said the department had held an online course for teachers last week with recommendations for psychological care, but had not dispatched additional counselors.

Carolina Marti, head teacher at a school in Castellar-Oliveral, said it had received 60 children from neighboring towns, while five teachers were on medical leave.

She said children and teachers were struggling to reach the school as many roads remained impassable.
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A Russian airstrike on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown killed a mother and her three children and left 14 people wounded, officials said Tuesday.

Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said rescue and recovery operations were complete after the residential building in Kryvyi Rig was hit a day earlier.

The office of the prosecutor general said a 32-year-old woman and children who were 10, 2 and 2 months old were killed.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at an oil depot, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on the Telegram messaging app.

He said a tank caught fire and 10 fire crews responded in the Starkooskolsky District near the Ukrainian border.

The Russian defense ministry also said 13 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight, all in regions bordering Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 46 Russian drones overnight.

In addition, Ukrainian’s military was “holding back a fairly large grouping of Russian troops – 50,000 of the occupier’s army personnel,” in the Kursk region, Zelenskyy said in his address to the nation Monday.

“Our forces’ strikes on Russian arsenals have reduced the amount of artillery used by the occupier, and this is noticeable at the front. That is why we need decisions from our partners – America, Britain, Germany – on long-range capabilities,” Zelenskyy said. “This is vital. The further our missiles and drones can hit, the less real combat capability Russia will have.”

North Korea defense pact

The forces in Kursk include 11,000 North Korean troops deployed by Russia to Kursk, Zelenskyy has said, although Moscow will neither confirm nor deny their involvement.

State media in North Korea reported that country ratified a defense agreement with Russia on Tuesday, formalizing months of deepening security ties.

The deal “was ratified as a decree” of leader Kim Jong Un, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday.

The notice comes after Russian lawmakers voted unanimously last week to ratify the deal, which President Vladimir Putin later signed.

“The treaty will take effect from the day when both sides exchanged the ratification instruments,” KCNA said.

Putin and Kim signed the strategic pact in June, during Putin’s visit to North Korea. 

Material from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.
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LONDON — The head of the Church of England, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found that he failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Some members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, have started a petition calling on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to step down, saying he had “lost the confidence of his clergy.” The petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by late morning London time on Monday.

Compounding the pressure, a senior cleric added her voice to those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Welby’s position is “untenable.”

Calls for Welby’s resignation have grown since Thursday, when the church released the results of an independent review into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa over five decades.

The 251-page report concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Welby last week took responsibility for not ensuring that the allegations were pursued as “energetically” as they should have been after he learned of the abuse but said he had decided not to resign.

On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Welby’s “horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse.”

“As he has said, he had no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013 — and therefore, having reflected, he does not intend to resign,” the statement said. “He hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world.”

Church officials were first made aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report “participated in an active cover-up” to prevent its findings from coming to light, the Makin Review found.

Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth moved to Zimbabwe and subsequently relocated to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young men in Zimbabwe and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until he died in August 2018.

Smyth’s abuse wasn’t made public until a 2017 investigation by Britain’s Channel 4 television, which led Hampshire Police to start an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and had been preparing to extradite him.

The Makin Review found that if Smyth had been reported to police in 2013, it could have helped to uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction.

“In effect, three and a half years was lost, a time within which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuse he was committing in South Africa discovered and stopped,” the review found.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is seen as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals with respect to the communion’s other primates.
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AMSTERDAM — The International Criminal Court’s governing body will launch an external probe into its chief prosecutor Karim Khan over alleged sexual misconduct, it said in a statement on Monday, confirming a previous report by Reuters.

“An external investigation is … being pursued in order to ensure a fully independent, impartial and fair process,” the statement said, also calling upon all parties to cooperate fully.

Khan said in a statement that he would stay on in his key function of overseeing investigations into alleged war crimes, including in the Israel-Gaza conflict, while any issues relevant to the investigation would be handled by deputy prosecutors.

Khan has previously denied allegations of misconduct that were reported to the court’s governing body last month. At that time, he asked the court’s own internal oversight body to investigate them.

ICC judges are reviewing Khan’s May request for arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, his defense chief and Hamas leaders. Khan said the misconduct allegations aligned with a misinformation campaign against his office.

The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression in member states or by their nationals.
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stockholm — A Swedish Eritrean journalist held incommunicado without charge in Eritrea for more than 23 years won a Swedish rights prize on Monday for his fight for freedom of expression, the jury said.

Dawit Isaak was among a group of around two dozen people, including senior cabinet ministers, members of parliament and independent journalists, who were seized in a purge in September 2001.

He was awarded the Edelstam Prize “for his outstanding contribution and exceptional courage in standing up for freedom of expression, one’s beliefs, and in the defense of human rights,” the Edelstam Foundation said in a statement.

Amnesty International considers Isaak a prisoner of conscience, and press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says he and his colleagues detained at the same time are the longest-held journalists in the world.

U.N. rights experts have demanded Asmara immediately release him.

Eritrea has provided no news about him, and there are fears he may no longer even be alive. He would be 60 years old.

His daughter Betlehem Isaak will accept the award on his behalf in Stockholm on November 19.

Isaak fled to Sweden in 1987 during Eritrea’s struggle against Ethiopia, which eventually led to independence in 1993.

After obtaining Swedish citizenship, he returned to Eritrea in 2001 to help shape the media landscape, and co-founded Setit, the country’s first independent newspaper.

He was arrested shortly after the paper published articles demanding political reforms.

Asmara has not provided any information about his whereabouts or health over the years, which U.N. experts in 2021 deemed “extremely concerning.”

But they said a credible source had indicated Isaak was still alive in September 2020.

The Edelstam Prize is awarded in memory of Swedish diplomat Harald Edelstam, who as ambassador to Chile at the time of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 military coup granted thousands of Chileans and other Latin Americans safe conduct to, and political asylum in, Sweden.
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warsaw, poland — Polish President Andrzej Duda marked Independence Day on Monday with a call for sustained U.S. commitment to Europe’s security in view of Russian aggression in the region and argued that Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders should be restored.

Weighing on the minds of many is the war across Poland’s border in Ukraine, and an expectation that Donald Trump’s return to the White House will bring a change in the security situation in the region.

Some fear Trump could end the U.S. commitment to NATO or make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could result in a permanent loss of territory for Ukraine and encourage Russia to attack other nations. Others believe Trump could persuade Putin to stop the fighting.

Duda, who has had friendly relations with Trump, said in a speech in Warsaw that Europe will continue to need U.S. protection.

“It is a pipe dream — as some people think — that Europe can ensure its own security today,” Duda said.

He emphasized that the security guarantees of successive U.S. presidents are extremely important in times of resurgent Russian imperialism.

“Today we have no doubts that for the security of Europe and the world, it is necessary to strengthen Euro-Atlantic ties,” Duda said.

He said the territorial integrity of all countries, especially Ukraine, should be respected and it “must return to its borders from before the Russian attack, not only the one in 2022 but also the first one, in 2014.”

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Later in a news conference, Duda said he had spoken to Trump and that they would meet before the inauguration in January.

Duda spoke as Poland marked the 106th anniversary of its restored independence at the end of World War I after more than a century of being partitioned and ruled by Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. The date of Nov. 11 carries powerful weight for a nation where the trauma of losing national sovereignty endures.

In Warsaw, tens of thousands of people took part in a march organized by nationalist groups that has sometimes seen violent clashes in past years but passed without major incident Monday. Organizers estimated turnout at 250,000 while city hall put it at 90,000. Police said they detained 75 people and seized banned items from participants, including pyrotechnic materials, knives, telescopic batons and brass knuckles.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the conservative Law and Justice party, which governed Poland from 2015-2023 and is seeking a comeback, joined the march with other party members.
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London — A British soldier accused of passing sensitive information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pleaded guilty Monday to escaping from prison while awaiting trial.

Daniel Abed Khalife is on trial at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, accused of collecting sensitive information between May 2019 and January 2022.

Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, also denies leaving a fake bomb on a desk and absconding from his barracks in 2023.

Prosecutors had also alleged Khalife escaped from London’s Wandsworth prison in September 2023 by tying himself to the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a brief nationwide manhunt.

The 23-year-old had originally pleaded not guilty to escaping from lawful custody but changed his plea to guilty Monday after having given evidence for several days earlier this month.

Khalife is also charged with gathering information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iran, obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax.

He still denies those three charges and his trial continues.
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