Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has accused Israel of carrying out “collective genocide” in Gaza, in some of his strongest criticism of the country since the war began last year.

During a gathering of leaders of Islamic nations hosted by Saudi Arabia in Riyadh on Monday, the country’s de facto leader said: “The Kingdom reiterates its condemnation and absolute refusal of the collective genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people.”

The crown prince, widely known by his initials MBS, also defended Iran, in stark contrast to his comments in 2017 comparing the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to Adolf Hitler.

MBS urged the international community to “compel Israel to respect Iran’s sovereignty and not to attack (Iranian) territories.”

Saudi Arabia has recently signaled more political involvement and policy shifts in support of the Palestinians.

Last year the kingdom was in the process of negotiating a historic normalization agreement with Israel but recently said that was “off the table” without Palestinian statehood, a demand rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Iran sent its First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref to the Riyadh conference, who in his speech mourned the deaths of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar. Saudi Arabia strongly opposes Iran-backed militias such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

Riyadh and Tehran repaired ties last year after decades of animosity over regional influence.

Those attending the high-level meeting included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Bashar al-Assad of Syria, who were also at the meeting, remain embroiled in an ongoing conflict over Turkey’s military operations in northern Syria and its support for rebel groups.

The stated goal of Monday’s meeting was “unifying positions” and “exerting pressure” on the international community to take steps to end the “ongoing attacks and establish lasting peace,” in the region, Saudi’s governmental state agency said.

Over the last decade, Afrobeats has become a global phenomenon, bringing African music into the Western mainstream. There’s now an Afrobeats category at the MTV Video Music Awards, and performers like Burna Boy and Wizkid can sell out major venues in the US and Europe.

While many African artists have been able to ride the wave of the genre’s international popularity, some musicians are now pushing for global recognition beyond its confines.

In recent years, popular music coming out of Africa has widely been classified as Afrobeats in the global soundscape, despite encompassing styles such as hip-hop, R&B, amapiano, dancehall, highlife, and more.

King Promise, whose sound blends R&B, highlife, and hip-hop, began releasing music in 2017 and rose to international fame in 2023 with his TikTok viral dance track “Terminator.” But the 29-year-old singer and songwriter doesn’t want to be boxed into a single sound.

“Afrobeats kind of serves as the umbrella which all of our music comes together (under),” he says. But he adds that the label has a crossover feel “to make it sound appealing not to just to people back home but to the rest of the world as well.”

“I don’t think that’s the best thing,” he argues.

“I make music that I love,” he explained. “If I feel like making R&B today, I make it. If I feel like making highlife I can make it. If I feel like making Afrobeats I can make it. It’s really about my direction.”

The roots of the Afrobeats genre can be traced back to Nigeria and music icon Fela Kuti, who is widely considered the architect of the similarly named genre, Afrobeat. Popularized in the 1970s, Afrobeat merged American jazz and funk with traditional Yoruba music. More recently, Afrobeat morphed into Afrobeats a looser label and catch all for all African music that took inspiration from the original Afrobeat sound.

Although King Promise understands the label from a marketing perspective in Western countries, he and other artists believe it robs them of their authenticity.

At the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, South African Afropop and amapiano singer Tyla described her win for Best Afrobeats song “Water” as “bittersweet” in her acceptance speech.

“The global impact that ‘Water’ had on the world just proves that African music can be pop music too,” she said.

She added, “There’s a tendency to group all African artists under Afrobeats; it’s a thing, and even though Afrobeats has run things and has opened so many doors for us, African music is so diverse. It’s more than just Afrobeats.”

Nigerian superstars including Davido, Tems, Wizkid, and Burna Boy, have publicly distanced their music from the term Afrobeats.

Wizkid even took to social media in March to say that labeling his music Afrobeats was “ like saying every American artist makes rap.”

“It’s almost like artists are being stifled”

“Here you will get put into the same crowd (Afrobeats), so the more street type of song is in the same crowd with someone that sings Afrosoul.”

She added the Afrobeats label makes no distinction between genres or sounds, leading to audiences to expect everyone to sound the same.

“It’s almost like artists are being stifled,” Simi explained.

“You have to be a certain kind of artist before people respect you or give you the kind of accolades that you know you deserve.

“Someone like Adele is not having this kind of struggle.”

King Promise argues that although the Afrobeats sound has evolved over the years with the fusion of new sounds, the foundational element of the music remains the same: African tradition music. He says that will remain a mainstay in popular music.

“Just like we have hip-hop that stood the test of time, Afrobeats as a representation of our music as Africans on a global scale, it’s locking horns with the biggest, standing its ground, and it’s only getting better,” he said.

As countries around the globe prepare for a second Trump presidency, one world leader is teeing up a carefully calibrated diplomatic strategy.

It said Yoon had done so “following the advice of those around him,” but declined to say when the president practiced golf.

Since Donald Trump reclaimed the White House last week, he has maintained a frenetic schedule as world leaders call to congratulate and court the incoming US leader, with analysts scrutinizing who will clinch a first meeting.

Trump visited more golf courses than any recent president during his first year in office in 2017, spending weekends at his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia, sometimes bringing lawmakers or business leaders with him.

Japan’s late leader Shinzo Abe famously presented gold-plated golf clubs to a newly-elected Trump during a visit to his Manhattan tower in November 2016. The two leaders also golfed together in Florida and Japan.

During his last presidency, Trump met several times with then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and held rocky talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – meeting him in a series of unprecedented summits, and boasting that the two had fallen “in love.”

Back then, golf also featured in the bilateral relationship. During a 2017 visit to South Korea, Trump told local lawmakers that “Korean golfers are some of the best on Earth.” He piled on the praise for Korea’s affinity for golf, noting that “eight of the top 10 players were from Korea and the top four golfers – one, two, three, four – the top four were from Korea.”

But Trump will return to a very different picture on the Korean Peninsula.

There is rising alarm among the US and its allies about Kim and the threat posed by his regime, especially after the talks Trump held during his last presidency collapsed without agreement in a major snub to North Korea’s leader.

And in South Korea, Yoon’s conservative government – which took office in 2022 – has emerged as a strong US partner in ramping up deterrence against North Korea, meaning they’re unlikely to encourage Trump to meet with Kim without a clear path to Pyongyang’s denuclearization.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s relationship with Russia has blossomed. Pyongyang is believed to have sent thousands of troops and tons of munitions to Russia as Moscow wages war on Ukraine, in what Western leaders see as a major escalation.

Another potential headache for Yoon once Trump is in office is the future of the 28,500 US troops in South Korea.

Advocates argue that a significant US military presence in the Korean Peninsula is crucial to strengthening the alliance between the two countries. The troops serve as both a means to deter any potential attack from North Korea and to counter China’s aggression.

But Trump, who has long viewed Washington’s treaty obligations in more transactional terms, has repeatedly said he does not think South Korea is paying enough for those soldiers.

Before Trump’s victory, the two countries last month reached a tentative new five-year cost-sharing agreement for American forces based in South Korea, in a deal aimed at safeguarding the long-running alliance ahead of the US election.

Police in southern China have detained the driver of a car that plowed into people exercising in the grounds of an outdoor sports center on Monday evening, leaving scores injured.

A car “hit multiple pedestrians and then fled the scene” at the Zhuhai Sports Center in the southern city of Zhuhai at around 8 p.m. Monday, police said in a statement.

The driver, a 62-year-old man, is in police custody, the statement said, adding that investigations are underway.

State media reported that the injured were sent to four hospitals for treatment, and one of them received more than 20 people. Chinese authorities did not provide any information on the number of casualties.

The hit-and-run took place on the eve of China’s biggest civil and military airshow, which runs from November 12 to 17 in Zhuhai.

Many of the injured were in sports outfits, including the uniforms of at least two local fitness walking groups.

Chinese media outlet Caixin reported that the vehicle, a SUV, crashed into multiple fitness walking groups hitting dozens of participants. Many of the injured were middle-aged and elderly, though teenagers and children were also among them, Caixin reported.

“(The vehicle) struck all around, injuring people in various sections of the sports field’s circular track, across the eastern, southern, western, and northern areas,” a witness surnamed Liu told Caixin.

The Zhuhai Sports Center features an outdoor track and field and is frequented by local residents for daily exercises. Following the incident, the center announced it would be closed until further notice.

China, a country of 1.4 billion, generally has low violent crime rates. But it has faced a spate of attacks targeting random members of the public, including school children, in recent months.

In October, police arrested a 50-year-old man after a stabbing attack near an elementary school in Beijing injured five people, including three children.

In September, three people were killed and 15 others injured in a knife attack at a suburban supermarket in Shanghai.

Also in September, a bus crashed into a crowd of students and parents outside a school in Tai’an city in Shandong province, killing 11 people and injuring 13 others. Chinese authorities did not reveal whether it was accidental or deliberate.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament on Tuesday for the widespread abuse, torture and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in care, many of them Indigenous.

“It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” Luxon said, as he spoke to lawmakers and a public gallery packed with survivors of the abuse.

An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster and faith-based care suffered “unimaginable” abuse over a period of seven decades, a blistering report released in July said at the end of the largest inquiry ever undertaken in New Zealand.

“For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility,” Luxon said.

“Words do matter and I say these words with sincerity: I have read your stories, and I believe you,” he added. The Prime Minister was apologizing on behalf of previous governments too, he said.

The results were a “national disgrace,” the inquiry’s report said, after a six-year investigation believed to be the widest-ranging of comparable probes worldwide. Of 650,000 children and vulnerable adults in state, foster, and church care between 1950 and 2019 — in a country that today has a population of 5 million — nearly a third endured physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse. Many more were exploited or neglected.

They were disproportionately Maori, New Zealand’s Indigenous people.

In response to the findings, New Zealand’s government agreed for the first time that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture, and pledged an apology to all those abused in state, foster and religious care since 1950.

Luxon’s government was decried by some survivors and advocates earlier Tuesday ahead of the apology for not yet having divulged plans for the financial compensation of those abused.

China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the country’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press.

China’s navy is already the world’s largest numerically, and it has been rapidly modernizing. Adding nuclear-powered carriers to its fleet would be a major step in realizing its ambitions for a true “blue-water” force capable of operating in seas far from China in a growing global challenge to the United States.

“Nuclear-powered carriers would place China in the exclusive ranks of first-class naval powers, a group currently limited to the United States and France,” said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C. “For China’s leadership, such a development would symbolize national prestige, fueling domestic nationalism and elevating the country’s global image as a leading power.”

Researchers at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California said they made the finding while investigating a mountain site outside the city of Leshan in the southwest Chinese province of Sichuan, where they suspected China was building a reactor to produce plutonium or tritium for weapons.

Instead they concluded that China was building a prototype reactor for a large warship. The project at Leshan is dubbed the Longwei, or Dragon Might, Project and is also referred to as the Nuclear Power Development Project in documents.

Neither China’s Defense Ministry nor Foreign Affairs Ministry responded to requests for comment.

Satellite images and public documents helped identify likely carrier project

There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury team is the first to confirm that China is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship.

“The reactor prototype at Leshan is the first solid evidence that China is, in fact, developing a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at Middlebury and one of the researchers on the project. “Operating a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is an exclusive club, one that China looks set to join.”

Drawing on satellite images and public documents including project tenders, personnel files, environmental impact studies — and even a citizen’s complaint about noisy construction and excessive dust — they concluded a prototype reactor for naval propulsion was being built in the mountains of Mucheng township, some 70 miles (112 kilometers) southwest of Sichuan’s provincial capital Chengdu.

The reactor, which procurement documents indicate will soon be operational, is housed in a new facility built at the site known as Base 909, which houses six other reactors that are operational, decommissioned or under construction, according to the analysis. The site is under the control of the Nuclear Power Institute of China, a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation, which is tasked with reactor engineering research and testing.

Documents indicating that China’s 701 Institute, formally known as China Ship Research and Design Center, which is responsible for aircraft carrier development, procured reactor equipment “intended for installation on a large surface warship” under the Nuclear Power Development Project as well as the project’s “national defense designation” helped lead to the conclusion the sizable reactor is a prototype for a next-generation aircraft carrier.

Satellite mages from 2020 to 2023 have shown the demolition of homes and the construction of water intake infrastructure connected to the reactor site. Contracts for steam generators and turbine pumps indicate the project involves a pressurized water reactor with a secondary circuit — a profile that is consistent with naval propulsion reactors, the researchers say.

An environmental impact report calls the Longwei Project a “national defense-related construction project” that is classified “secret.”

“Unless China is developing nuclear-powered cruisers, which were pursued only by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, then the Nuclear Power Development Project most certainly refers to a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier development effort,” researchers wrote in a detailed 19-page report on their findings shared exclusively with the AP.

Jamie Withorne, an analyst at the Oslo Nuclear Project who was not involved in the research and reviewed the findings, said Middlebury’s team made a “convincing argument.”

“From the identifying reports, co-location with other naval reactor facilities, and correlating construction activity, I think it can be said that it is likely the Longwei Project is housed at Base 909, and it could potentially be located at the identified building,” she said.

The research does not, however, provide clues as to when a Chinese nuclear-powered carrier could be built and become operational, she said.

Sarah Laderman, a senior analyst with Open Nuclear Network, a program of the US-based NGO PAX sapiens foundation, said the findings were “carefully conducted and thoroughly researched.”

“Given the evidence presented here, I see a compelling case made that China seems to be working towards building a nuclear propulsion system for its naval surface ships (likely aircraft carriers) at this location,” said Laderman, who is based in Vienna and was not involved in Middlebury’s research.

Pursuit of a nuclear-powered carrier

China’s first carrier, commissioned in 2012, was a repurposed Soviet ship, and its second was built in China but based upon the Soviet design. Both ships — named the Liaoning and the Shandong — employ a so-called “ski-jump” type launch method, with a ramp at the end of a short runway to help planes take off.

The Type 003 Fujian, launched in 2022, was the country’s third carrier and its first to be indigenously designed and built. It employs an electromagnetic-type launch system like those developed and used by the US Navy. All three carriers are conventionally powered.

Sea trials hadn’t even started for the Fujian in March when Yuan Huazhi, political commissar for China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy, confirmed the construction of a fourth carrier. Asked if it would be nuclear-powered, he said at the time that would “soon be announced,” but so far it has not been.

There has been speculation that China may begin producing two new carriers at once — one Type 003 like the Fujian and one nuclear-powered Type 004 — something that it has not attempted before but that its shipyards have the capacity to do.

Matthew Funaiole, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ China Power Project, said he doubts China’s next carrier will be nuclear-powered. Instead, he said, he would expect the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s fourth carrier to focus on optimizing the existing design of the Fujian carrier with “incremental improvements.”

Nick Childs, senior fellow for naval forces and maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the Chinese “have taken an incremental approach to their carrier development with a number of ambitions that will evolve over time.”

“For now, their deployments have been relatively cautious, remaining largely within range of shore support, but projecting influence and to some extent coercion within their near waters.”

Eventually, however, “larger carriers more akin to their US counterparts will give them more options to project power,” Childs said.

It takes several years to build a carrier and bring it into operation, but developing nuclear propulsion for its next generation of warships would eventually give China more power to run advanced systems, such as electromagnetic launchers, radars and new technology weapons, Childs said.

“As well as obviating the need for the ship to refuel regularly and therefore giving it much greater range, nuclear power means that without the need to carry fuel oil for the ship there will be room aboard for fuel and weapons for its aircraft, extending their capabilities,” Childs said.

“Much will depend on what overall size the next carrier is, but the addition of nuclear power will represent a significant step further in China’s carrier development with a vessel more comparable to the US Navy’s carriers.”

Zhao, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said nuclear-powered carriers would provide the Chinese military “with greater flexibility and endurance to operate around strategic hotspots, especially along the First Island Chain, where most territories disputed by China are located,” said Zhao.

The First Island Chain includes the self-governed island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own and vows to annex it by force if necessary.

The US is obligated by a domestic law to supply Taiwan with sufficient weapons to deter invasion, and it could provide assistance to the island from its bases in the Pacific in the event of an invasion or blockade. Tensions also have risen in the South China Sea between China and neighboring nations over territorial disputes and maritime claims.

“These carriers could also extend Chinese operations deeper into the Western Pacific, further challenging the US military’s ability to ‘intervene’ in regional matters that China views as best resolved by countries from the region only,” Zhao said.

US-China rivalry

Chinese President Xi Jinping has tasked defense officials with building a “first-class” navy and becoming a maritime power as part of his blueprint for the country’s rejuvenation.

The country’s most recent white paper on national defense, dated 2019, said the Chinese navy was adjusting to strategic requirements by “speeding up the transition of its tasks from defense on the near seas to protection missions on the far seas.”

The People’s Liberation Army Navy is already the world’s largest navy with more than 370 ships and submarines. The country also boasts powerful shipbuilding capabilities: China’s shipyards are building many hundreds of vessels each year, whereas the US is building five or fewer, according to a US congressional report late last year.

However, the Chinese navy lags behind the US Navy in many respects. Among other advantages, the US currently has 11 carriers, all nuclear powered, allowing it to keep multiple strike groups deployed around the world at all times, including in the Indo-Pacific.

But the Pentagon is growingly increasingly concerned about China’s rapid modernization of its fleet, including the design and construction of new carriers.

That aligns with China’s “growing emphasis on the maritime domain and increasing demands” for its navy “to operate at greater distances from mainland China,” the Defense Department said in its most recent report to Congress on China’s military.

And China’s “growing force of aircraft carriers extend air defense coverage of deployed task groups beyond the range of land-based defenses, enabling operations farther from China’s shore,” the report said.

A Spirit Airlines plane was hit by gunfire Monday over Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, according to diplomatic source in the country, resulting in what the airline described as “minor injuries” to one of its crew members.

Spirit said Monday that its flight 951 from Fort Lauderdale in Florida to Port-au-Prince was diverted and landed in Santiago in the Dominican Republic, where “an inspection revealed evidence of damage to the aircraft consistent with gunfire.”

The airline said one of its flight attendants reported minor injuries and was being evaluated by medical personnel and that no other injuries were reported. It added that the aircraft has been taken out of service, and Spirit services to Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haitien have been suspended.

Haiti has been ridden with widespread gang activity and political chaos for nearly a year, with international actors also impacted by direct violence in recent weeks. Last month, a United Nations helicopter was also hit by bullets while flying over Port-au-Prince. And in a separate incident in October, gangs targeted US embassy vehicles with gunfire, later prompting the evacuation of 20 embassy staffers.

In late February and early March, coordinated gang attacks forced the closure of both the airport and main seaport in the Haitian capital, choking off vital supplies of food and humanitarian aid to the Caribbean nation.

The latest incident comes amid political turmoil, following a vote by Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council to replace Prime Minister Garry Conille after less than half a year in office.

According to a government communique, the governing council signed a declaration on November 8 which removed Conille from his position and named businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé as the new prime minister.

Conille’s predecessor Ariel Henry stepped down earlier this year amid spiraling gang violence.

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has ordered preparations for the annexation of settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Smotrich, who is in charge of the settlements, said on Monday that he had instructed his department to “prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty.”

It is unclear whether his long-standing desire to apply full Israeli law in West Bank settlements has any chance of being implemented soon. His announcement was likely motivated in large part by staking out political ground in Israel’s fractious domestic politics.

President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the US election “brings an important opportunity for the State of Israel,” Smotrich told the Knesset, or Israeli parliament.

The “only way to remove” the “threat” of a Palestinian state, Smotrich added, “is to apply Israeli sovereignty over the entire settlements in Judea and Samaria,” the biblical term by which Israelis refer to the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since seizing the territory from Jordan in 1967. In the decades since, it has expanded Jewish settlements in the area, which are considered illegal under international law, despite signing a series of peace agreements with the Palestinians in the 1990s.

Around half a million Israelis live in West Bank settlements. Smotrich, himself a settler, has long called for Israeli law to apply in the settlements, and previously opposed the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

The minister said he intends to “lead a government decision” that will allow Israel to “work with the new administration of President Trump and the international community to apply sovereignty and achieve American and international recognition.”

During his first term, Trump took several steps in Israel’s favor. In 2017, he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, upending decades of US policy and international consensus. He also recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria during the 1967 war and is also considered occupied under international law.

“I have instructed the Settlement Division in the Ministry of Defense and the Civil Administration to begin professional and comprehensive work to prepare the necessary infrastructure for applying sovereignty,” Smotrich said on Monday.

“In his first term, President Trump led dramatic steps, including… affirming the legality and legitimacy of settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Smotrich added. “Alongside this, there were the Abraham Accords – peace for peace.” Those accords, a set of agreements facilitated by Trump’s first administration, saw Israel normalize relations with four Arab nations.

“We were on the verge of applying sovereignty over the settlements in Judea and Samaria, and now the time has come to do so.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, is under mounting pressure to resign after a damning report accused him of failing to take sufficient action against a sadistic child abuser.

A review of the church’s handling of “horrific” abuse perpetrated by John Smyth has put Archbishop Justin Welby’s position in doubt after it found that he “held a personal and moral responsibility to pursue this (case) further” once aware of it, while a cover-up had been perpetrated by the church hierarchy who knew “at the highest level, about the abuse.”

Now, three members of the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, have started a petition calling for Welby to stand down immediately.

As well as heading the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury acts as the “first among equals” leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which includes the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Scrutiny of Welby centers on what he knew of allegations against Smyth, who is now dead. The former British lawyer has been considered the worst abuser to be associated with the Church of England, having carried out “prolific, brutal and horrific” physical, psychological, and sexual attacks on as many 130 boys and young men, according to the Makin Report, released on November 7. The report details abuse spanning from the 1970s up until Smyth’s death in 2018; it frequently involved savage beatings, with even members of his own family among the victims.

The independent review, commissioned by the church, found that while Welby “may not have known of the extreme seriousness of the abuse… it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.” It added that “it is not possible to establish whether Justin Welby knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK prior to 2013.”

The Bishop of Newcastle, however, told the BBC on Monday that Welby’s position was untenable. Helen-Ann Hartley said it was difficult for the church to continue to “have a moral voice… when we cannot get our own house in order.”

Lambeth Palace, the archbishop’s headquarters, said in a statemen on Monday that Welby “does not intend to resign” and that he has “apologised profoundly both for his own failures and omissions, and for the wickedness, concealment and abuse by the church more widely.”

Failure to act

After Channel 4 News reported on Smyth’s abuse in 2017, the Bishop of Guildford, Andrew Watson, came forward as a victim, saying he had suffered a “violent, excruciating and shocking” beating at the hands of Smyth.

Smyth died in South Africa aged 77 while under investigation by UK police but the church’s review found that there was a “missed opportunity” in 2012 and 2013 by the highest levels of the church to “properly” report him to law enforcement. The failure to do so, it concludes, “may have resulted in an ongoing and avoidable safeguarding threat.”

Smyth, who was accused of carrying out abuse at his home, identified several of his victims through evangelical Christian summer camps he helped run for students from Britain’s elite private colleges in the 1970s and 1980s. Although Smyth sought ordination to the Church of England, he was refused and moved to Zimbabwe in 1984. The report estimates he went on to abuse 85 to 100 male children aged 13 to 17 in Africa.

The case is particularly sensitive for Welby, who was educated at Eton College, the most famous private school in Britain, and who worked at the summer camps where he met Smyth. He later exchanged Christmas cards with Smyth and donated small amounts of money to his “missions” in Zimbabwe, according to the report.

Some church officials were made aware of Smyth’s abuses through a report into his activities as far back as 1982 but Welby, ordained in 1993, has insisted he did not know about any abuse until 2013.

The archbishop accepts that at the point he was informed, he “personally failed” to ensure that Smyth was “energetically investigated” but has insisted he plans to stay in post. He also apologized for not meeting Smyth’s victims sooner.

During his time in office, Welby has demanded accountability from those accused of mishandling abuse, including his predecessor, Lord Carey, and the former Bishop of Lincoln.

A resignation by an Archbishop of Canterbury over child abuse would be without any obvious historical precedent and there is no mechanism with which to remove an archbishop.

They arrived in huge numbers on shared bikes after pedaling 30 miles in the evening chill, pumped by the adrenaline of youth and the thrill of embarking on a spontaneous adventure with friends.

Nighttime bike rides to Kaifeng, an ancient city in central China’s Henan province known for its historic sites and soup dumplings, have been all the rage among college students in the nearby provincial capital Zhengzhou – a trend initially encouraged by the government as it sought to promote local tourism.

But now, officials are scrambling to curb the craze by deploying police and closing bike lanes after its popularity appears to have gotten out of hand. Tens of thousands of cyclists brought intercity traffic to a standstill, while piles of discarded bikes overwhelmed the streets of Kaifeng, leaving commuters in Zhengzhou struggling to find bikes to ride home.

Authorities cited traffic disruptions and safety concerns for the clampdown on the impromptu gathering.

But the scenes of hordes of university students mobilizing, organizing and congregating in public are likely to have rattled local officials given the ruling Communist Party’s history with youth movements in China and its obsession with stability.

On Friday night, Zhengkai Avenue, a main road connecting the two cities, was crammed by an endless flow of young cyclists as police tried to maintain order; at some sections, the riders completely took over the five car lanes, according to videos circulating on Chinese social media.

Over the weekend, authorities in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou closed off bike lanes on Zhengkai Avenue, to try to stop cyclists from entering.

Meanwhile, three bike-sharing platforms in Zhengzhou issued a joint statement, warning that their bikes will be locked down automatically if ridden out of the city.

To prevent students from joining the cycling crowd, some colleges and universities in Zhengzhou even imposed restrictions on leaving campus, according to accounts shared by students on social media.

Spontaneous youth gatherings, political or otherwise, have long been treated with deep suspicion by Chinese authorities.

In the spring of 1989, university students in Beijing rode their bikes to Tiananmen Square to join pro-democracy protests that ended in a bloody crackdown by the Chinese military. It remains one of China’s most sensitive political taboos to this day, so much so that most of what happened is heavily censored inside the country.

And in late 2022, it was mostly young people who took to the streets in major Chinese cities or gathered on university campuses to protest leader Xi Jinping’s stringent Covid-19 restrictions in one of the most extraordinary challenges to the Communist Party’s rule in decades.

The bike rides to Kaifeng, however, didn’t seem designed to deliver a political message.
While some student cyclists carried Chinese flags, sang the national anthem and shouted slogans in support of the Communist Party – one even waved a banner demanding unification with Taiwan – most appeared to have just joined the ride for fun.

But as the night rides exploded in scale and started to spread to other cities, local officials stepped in.

The emergency measures mark an abrupt U-turn from the government. Previously, authorities rushed to promote the trend, which started in June when four female university students in Zhengzhou made an impulsive trip to Kaifeng on share bikes to satisfy their late-night craving for soup dumplings.

Their journey quickly went viral, inspiring more Zhengzhou students to follow suit as the hashtag “youth is priceless” trended on social media.

“Riding a shared bike from Zhengzhou to Kaifeng for breakfast. Youth is meant for enjoying, going wild and having endless energy,” a student rider wrote on Douyin, TikTok’s sister app in China, in a post that garnered nearly 250,000 likes.

Eager to attract more tourists and cash in on its newfound internet fame, Kaifeng went out of its way to welcome the students, including offering free entry to tourist sites.

State media also chimed in to cheer the students’ journey as showing the “passion of youth.”

“What began as a spontaneous trip for dumplings has turned into a symbol of youthful energy and the joy of shared experiences, making the early-morning streets of Henan come alive in a new and unexpected way,” said a report carried on the English website of the People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party.

“I met so many people just like me along the way – some carrying flags, others with music playing, and even some singing together,” a student from Henan University told the People’s Daily. “When we hit an uphill climb, everyone cheered each other on. We didn’t know each other, but we felt like comrades.”

The craze – and the ensuing crackdown – has divided opinion on the Chinese internet.

Some blamed the students for overwhelming Kaifeng and causing trouble to residents. Others said local authorities should have been better prepared for the influx of students before they jumped in to promote the trend.

“The local tourism bureau wants to cash in on the trend but isn’t prepared with necessary measures,” said a comment on microblogging site Weibo.

But seeking fun or chasing discounts were not the only motivations for making the hourslong journey. For some students, it also provided a rare escape from their anxiety about the grim job market and uncertain future amid a slowing economy.

A final year university student in Zhengzhou told the state-run West China City Daily that she was so busy with job hunting that she felt trapped in a “bottomless pit.”

She went for a night ride to Kaifeng with a friend on November 3, after reading about the trend on social media.

“Night cycling feels like an adventure,” she told the newspaper, adding that all her anxiety and worries melted away as she listened to music and chatted with her friend during the journey.

“In that moment, I wished I could just keep riding and never return to reality.”