Students barred from Iranian universities for refusing to wear a hijab

Female students reportedly given sham disciplinary ‘hearings’, suspended from classes and threatened with ‘zero grades’ for defying head covering law

At least 60 female students in Iran have reportedly been barred from university for flouting the country’s mandatory hijab law.

Videos recently shared by citizen journalists show the harassment of women and girls in subways, streets and university campuses by disciplinary committees and pro-regime civilians. In defiance, female university students across the country have been recording themselves without headscarves.

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Sudan on brink of all-out civil war, UN chief warns, after airstrike kills at least 22

António Guterres decries conflict’s ‘utter disregard’ for human rights law as clashes reported in multiple states

Sudan is on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” that could destabilise the entire region, the United Nations has warned, after an airstrike on a residential area killed about two dozen civilians.

The health ministry reported “22 dead and a large number of wounded among the civilians” from the strike on Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman, in the district of Dar al-Salam.

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US says it killed Islamic State leader Usamah al-Muhajir in Syria

Statement says that strike was carried out by the same drones that were earlier harassed by Russian aircraft

The US military said on Sunday it conducted a strike that killed Usamah al-Muhajir, an Islamic State leader in eastern Syria.

“The strike on Friday was conducted by the same MQ-9s that had, earlier in the day, been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours,” a statement from US Central Command said.

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Syria cancels accreditation of two BBC journalists

British broadcaster says it will continue to provide impartial news after being accused by Bashar al-Assad’s government of politicised coverage

Syria’s information ministry says it has cancelled the accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of “false” and “politicised” coverage.

The accreditations of an unidentified correspondent and a camera operator had been revoked following “subjective and false information and reports” on Syria, the ministry said on its website on Saturday. It described other BBC reports as “politicised”.

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Israeli protests reignite as PM pushes on with justice system overhaul

Large crowds in Tel Aviv demonstrate against Benjamin Netanyahu’s bid to rein in supreme court

There have been huge anti-government protests in Tel Aviv against a renewed push by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to overhaul the justice system.

Tens of thousands demonstrated across the country, with the rally in Tel Aviv drawing crowds far larger than recent protests, N12 News and Channel 13 reported.

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Israeli forces kill two Palestinian militants in West Bank raid

Palestinian health ministry says ‘two martyrs’, Khairi Shaheen, 34, and Hamza Maqbul, 32, were killed in Nablus

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank during a raid on the northern city of Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian officials have said.

The Palestinian health ministry announced “two martyrs and three injured as a result of the occupation aggression on Nablus”.

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UN condemns Israel’s use of excessive force in attack on Palestine

The secretary general, António Guterres, called on Israel to abide by international law after its attack on Jenin in the West Bank

In a rare condemnation of Israel, the UN has denounced the country’s excessive use of force in its largest military operation in two decades targeting a refugee camp in the West Bank.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, clearly angered by the impact of the Israeli attack on the Jenin refugee camp, said it had left over 100 civilians injured, forced thousands to flee, damaged schools and hospitals and disrupted water and electricity networks.

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Israeli court acquits officer over killing of autistic Palestinian man

Shooting of Iyad Halak in Jerusalem in 2020 drew comparisons to police killings in US

An Israeli court has acquitted a police officer of recklessly killing an unarmed autistic Palestinian man in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Iyad Halak, 32, was shot dead in May 2020 after an encounter with police in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

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US releases footage of Russian fighter jets ‘harassing’ US drones over Syria

US defence official accuses Russian military of ‘reckless behaviour’ by flying dangerously close and releasing flares during US mission against Islamic State

The US Air Force has released video footage it says shows Russian fighter jets flying dangerously close to several US drones over Syria on Wednesday, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive manoeuvres.

US Air Forces Central said in a statement describing the scenes: “These events represent a new level of unprofessional and unsafe action by Russian air forces operating in Syria.”

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Australia should recognise state of Palestine as part of ‘fair go’ ethos, de facto ambassador says

Izzat Abdulhadi of Palestinian delegation calls for government to resist ‘pressure’ to avoid contentious topic – and to strongly condemn Israel’s raids on Jenin

Australia should stand up for the “fair go” by recognising Palestine as a state, according to its de facto ambassador, who argues that Israel’s “brutal” military operation in the city of Jenin only increases the urgency for bold steps.

Palestinian recognition is one of the foreign policy issues set to be discussed when Labor holds its next national conference in Brisbane in August.

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Missing Israeli-Russian academic being held in Iraq by militia group

Elizabeth Tsurkov went to Iraq to do research for Princeton University, office of Israeli prime minister says

An Israeli-Russian academic who went missing for months in Iraq is alive and being held in the country by an Iraqi Shia militia group, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.

Elizabeth Tsurkov was captured by Kata’ib Hezbollah in March, the office said. She holds Israeli and Russian passports and entered Iraq using her Russian passport, according to the Israeli government.

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‘It’s just like the intifada’: Palestinians reel from Israel’s raid on Jenin

Clean-up begins after three-day operation, the largest attack on occupied West Bank in two decades

On the second floor of the Shibli family home in the Jenin refugee camp, three small boys knelt on the tile floor, picking up hundreds of spent bullet casings left by Israeli snipers who had used their kitchen as a firing position. The cartridges clinked and chimed gently as the children cleared up and their glum parents surveyed the extent of the damage inflicted on their property.

The 50 members of the extended family, who all live in flats in the same large building, returned to their homes on Wednesday morning after Israeli forces withdrew the night before. The three-day operation, codenamed Home and Garden, was the largest Israeli offensive in the occupied West Bank in two decades, involving airstrikes and up to 2,000 ground troops.

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Iranian envoy tells UK to stick to terms of nuclear deal and lift missile sanctions

Diplomat says accord could collapse if European signatories retain restrictions on weapon development

The UK, France and Germany should stick to the terms of the Iran nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Iranian missile development, Tehran’s chargé d’affaires to London has said.

Speaking on the eve of a UN security council debate on Iran, Mehdi Hosseini Matin said on Wednesday that such a breach would lead to the collapse of the deal, known as the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA). It would, he added, also affect the atmosphere around recent bilateral talks in Oman between Iran and the US to secure a separate mini-agreement covering the release of US prisoners, maintaining aspects of the nuclear deal and the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad.

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Israeli forces withdraw from Jenin as rockets fired from Gaza

Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead after one of Israel’s biggest military operations in occupied West Bank in years

Israel has withdrawn its forces from the Palestinian city of Jenin after carrying out one of its biggest military operations in the occupied West Bank for years.

Local media quoted the Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari as saying all troops had left Jenin and that the operation was completed. Witnesses in Jenin reported seeing convoys of Israeli military vehicles leaving the city after dark.

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Israel’s Jenin assault displaces thousands as violence spirals on

Armoured incursion in response to rising bloodshed across Israel and West Bank looks political as much as tactical

In the darkness of the night, thousands of people stumbled in lines through the Jenin refugee camp, guiding each other through the twisted metal, churned-up concrete and spent ammunition littering the streets during a lull in Operation Home and Garden, Israel’s biggest offensive in the West Bank for 20 years.

Videos of the streams of people – about 3,000-4,000, according to Palestinian officials – fleeing to safety on Monday night were widely shared by Palestinians on social media, where they were likened to images of the Nakba, the expulsion of the Arab population from the newly created state of Israel in 1948.

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Fears for Libyan oil production amid military threats

Gen Khalifa Haftar warned of military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly

Fears have been raised of a damaging oil shutdown in Libya with implications for global energy markets after Libya’s strongman in the east, Gen Khalifa Haftar, warned of military action unless oil revenues are divided fairly within the next two months.

With the country long divided between two governments in the east and west and little prospect of presidential elections designed to reunify the country at least until next year, politicians in the east have threatened to put oil revenues under judicial control preventing the revenue reaching the Central Bank from the National Oil Corporation (NOC), the state-run oil firm.

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Spanish police arrest 15 after long investigation into alleged people-smuggling gang

Operation allegedly involved moving people from Syria to Spain on a circuitous route via Sudan and north Africa

Spanish police have broken up what they say is an organised criminal gang involved in a highly unusual people-smuggling operation involving the moving of migrants from Syria to Spain on an 8,000km trip via Sudan.

A year-long investigation, which was coordinated by Europol and involved dozens of police officers from France, Norway and Germany, uncovered a network of alleged people-smuggling cells across north Africa and northern Europe as well as the main nerve centre of the gang in southern Spain.

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France brings back women and children held in camps in Syria

Twenty-five children and 10 adults sent to camps for suspected jihadists repatriated to France

France has repatriated 25 children and 10 women who were held in prison camps for suspected jihadists in north-east Syria, the fourth such operation in a year, the foreign ministry has said.

The minors would be handed over to childcare services while the adults would be handed over to the relevant judicial authorities, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

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Thousands of Palestinians flee Jenin refugee camp after major Israeli raid

Deputy governor says about 3,000 have left, to be housed in schools and shelters, as Arab states condemn military operation

Several thousand Palestinians have fled their homes in the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank after the launch of the biggest Israeli military operation in the area in two decades, Palestinian officials say.

“There are about 3,000 people who have left the camp so far,” the Jenin deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Roub, told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, adding that arrangements were being made to house refugees in schools and other shelters in Jenin city.

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‘History repeats itself’: Israeli attack turns Jenin into war zone once again

Old traumas are revived in West Bank city that was scene of some of worst fighting in second intifada

In Jenin’s centre and at the main entrance to the city’s refugee camp, the ground shook with the boom of explosions; rounds of artillery and machine gun fire drowned out ambulance sirens and shouts and screams. Roads were littered with bullet casings and broken glass, and the air was filled with teargas and plumes of black smoke from burning tyres, set alight to block Israeli access and vision.

Jenin, a poverty-stricken city in the north of the occupied West Bank, witnessed some of the worst fighting of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, of the 2000s. Two decades later, full-scale warfare has returned to the city’s streets, bringing old traumas to the surface for older generations and opening the eyes of younger ones.

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