UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States announced Thursday that it will support the addition of two new permanent seats for African countries on the powerful U.N. Security Council — and a first-ever non-permanent seat for a small island developing nation.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield made the announcement in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, calling it a follow-up to U.S. President Joe Biden’s announcement two years ago that the U.S. supports expanding the 15-member body.
While Africa has three non-permanent seats on the Security Council, that doesn’t allow African countries “to deliver the full benefit of their knowledge and voices,” she said.
“That is why, in addition to non-permanent membership for African countries, the United States supports creating two permanent seats for Africa on the council,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “It’s what our African partners seek, and it’s what we believe is just.”
However, Thomas-Greenfield later said Washington opposes giving veto power to the African countries that would hold the two permanent seats because the veto makes the Security Council’s work “dysfunctional.”
That view shows the limits in the amount of power that Washington wants to give to any other country. While Security Council resolutions are legally binding, they are often ignored by targeted countries.
Virtually all countries agree that nearly eight decades after the United Nations was established in the wake of World War II, the Security Council should be expanded to reflect the world in the 21st century and include more voices. But the central question — and the biggest disagreement — remains how to do it.
The Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, has not changed from its 1945 configuration: 10 non-permanent members from all regions of the world elected for two-year terms without veto power and five countries that were dominant powers at the end of World War II are permanent members with veto power: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Russia’s veto power, for instance, has stymied any council action on the war in Ukraine and U.S. support for its ally Israel has limited the council’s response to the war in Gaza.
Attempts to reform the council to reflect the changing world began in 1979.
In 2005, world leaders called for the council to be “more broadly representative, efficient and transparent.” That year, the General Assembly, which must approve any council reforms, shelved three rival resolutions to expand its membership, a reflection of deep divisions that have continued until today.
In September 2022, Biden called for increasing the number of both permanent and non-permanent members, including “permanent seats for those nations we’ve long supported, and permanent seats for countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.” The United States has long supported permanent seats for Germany, Japan and India.
Thomas-Greenfield made no mention of Biden’s other pledge about permanent seats for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. But a senior U.S. administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters ahead of the announcement, said the U.S. still supports permanent seats for Latin America and the Caribbean, plus Africa.
Responding to countries arguing that it’s time for the U.N. to look beyond just regional representation, the U.S. ambassador also announced that the United States is supporting the creation of an additional rotating seat for small island developing countries.
“These 39 states are not a monolith. They are home to 65 million people, across over 1,000 islands,” she said. “But each has critical insights on a range of international peace and security issues including, notably, the impact of climate change.”
Thomas-Greenfield said the United States plans “to actually put our principles on paper” and draft a resolution to reform the council.
Some countries argue that before negotiating a resolution, “all 193 member states need to be in agreement about what a reformed council should look like,” she said.
“I’m an optimist. But I’m also a realist. And the reality is this: no amount of conversation will ever get us to a place of total consensus on this issue,” Thomas-Greenfield said.
AP reporter Jennifer Peltz contributed from New York.
FILE - Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, speaks after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Aug. 24, 2023, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. An indictment says the music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.”
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
Over the past year, Combs has been sued by people who say he subjected them to physical or sexual abuse. He has denied many of those allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs, 54, would plead not guilty and that he would “fight like hell” to get his client released from custody.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Combs stood up to enter his plea in a New York courtroom Tuesday. His hands were not cuffed but he held them behind his back.
An indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges Combs presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes, coercing and abusing women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line.
A motion for bail from Combs’ attorneys proposes he be released on a $50 million bond secured by his home in Miami.
The motion filed Tuesday also proposes his detention at home with GPS monitoring, with his travel restricted to federal districts in south Florida and southern New York.
The motion says Combs will turn over his passport and that he is attempting to sell his private jet. It says he has remained in the country even though there were no restrictions on his travel, and that his attorneys have kept authorities updated on his location.
It adds that “conditions at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are not fit for pre-trial detention.”
Prosecutors say Combs repeatedly engaged in violence towards his employees and others.
In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors say Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator kidnapped someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 in order to facilitate a break-in at another person’s home. They say multiple witnesses, police reports and other records corroborate the incident.
The detention memo also says that two weeks later, Combs' allies set fire to a vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping a Molotov cocktail inside.
Prosecutors say police and fire department reports document the arson and that multiple witnesses heard Combs brag about his involvement.
Prosecutors say Combs should be denied bail because he is a serious flight risk.
In a detention memo filed in court, prosecutors say Combs has “seemingly limitless resources” to flee, pointing out that his net worth is close to $1 billion, including over $1 million in personal cash on hand as of last December.
They said he has had a personal plane for international travel since 2019, along with multiple vehicles in multiple locations.
The letter says Combs “has the money, manpower, and tools” to flee without detection.
Prosecutors say the violence Combs exacted on his victims was so extreme that he should be denied bail.
In a detention letter written for the federal judge overseeing the music mogul's case, prosecutors described how Combs would assault women, employees and others “by throwing objects at them, choking them, pushing them, kicking them, and slamming them against walls and on to the ground.”
The letter says the violence was sometimes spontaneous and sometimes premeditated, including “resorting to kidnapping and arson when the defendant’s power and control were threatened.”
Prosecutors say Combs’ “disposition to violence cannot be reasonably prevented through bail conditions.”
The letter also says Combs should be denied bail because he has already reached out to potential witnesses in the case and that further attempts at witness tampering are likely.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams says Combs did not act alone.
During a news conference Tuesday, Williams said Combs’ security and household staff, as well as operators high up in the music industry were complicit. Williams says they cleaned up damaged hotel rooms and "delivered large quantities of cash to Combs to pay for the commercial sex workers.”
Williams says the investigation is ongoing, and is urging "anyone with information about this case to come forward and to do it quickly.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, whose office is bringing the case against Sean “Diddy” Combs, says the music mogul led a criminal organization that carried out kidnapping, forced labor and sex trafficking, among other crimes.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Williams said authorities will seek to have Combs detained while he awaits trial.
He spoke before a display board showing images of some of the items recovered in searches of Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in March, including AR-15s and a drum magazine containing dozens of rounds of ammunition. He says agents also seized electronic devices that contain images and videos of sexual encounters.
Williams says: “Combs led and participated in a racketeering conspiracy that used the business empire he controlled to carry out criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice.”
Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, has said he will fight to keep his client free. He says Combs is innocent and will plead not guilty.
Comb’s former longtime girlfriend, whom he was seen attacking in a March 2016 security video, has declined to comment on the federal case against him.
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for the singer Cassie Ventura, said in a statement released before Combs was due to appear in court Tuesday that neither he nor his client have anything to say on the matter.
Wigdor says: “We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know.”
Ventura reached a settlement with Combs last November, one day after filing a lawsuit containing allegations of beatings and abuse by the music producer.
Outside the Manhattan courthouse early Tuesday, Combs’ lawyer, noted that his client came to New York City voluntarily because they knew the charges were coming.
Marc Agnifilo said: “Not a lot of defendants do that. He came to New York to, to basically engage the court system and start the case.”
Though the indictment was not unsealed at the time of his comments, Agnifilo said they know what the charges will be and that Combs is “innocent of these charges.” He vowed to “fight like hell” to get Combs released from federal custody.
The indictment alleges Combs hit, kicked and threw objects at victims, and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. It says Combs also threw people around, choked and shoved them.
Prosecutors say his employees and associates witnessed his violence and, rather than intervening, helped him cover it up, including by preventing victims from leaving, and locating and contacting victims who attempted to flee.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women on numerous occasions, throwing objects and kicking them, and enlisting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
Lawrence Stark, of the Bronx borough of New York, makes comments in support of Sean "Diddy" Combs, outside Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
