Benny Gantz’s cleaner contacted Iran-linked hackers and offered to infect minister’s computer with malware
Israel has charged the housekeeper for the country’s defence minister with espionage for offering to spy for hackers reportedly linked to Iran.
The man, identified as Omri Goren, reportedly has a criminal record but worked at Benny Gantz’s home as a cleaner and caretaker.
Continue reading...Boy is youngest known victim of crisis as medical workers say family was living in forest for a month
A one-year-old child from Syria has died in a forest in Poland near the border with Belarus, according to Polish medical workers, becoming the youngest known victim of the crisis on the eastern edge of the European Union.
Thousands of people attempting to reach the EU are still stranded in freezing conditions, amid a standoff between the bloc and Belarus, which has been accused of deliberately creating the crisis by flying in people from the Middle East and facilitating their travel to the border.
Continue reading...Demonstrations against military coup expected to continue after 15 protesters reportedly killed in a day
Pro-democracy protesters and Sudan’s military appeared set for a cycle of escalation on both sides after a day in which at least 15 demonstrators were killed by security forces.
Despite a heavy-handed crackdown by the military in the capital, Khartoum, and other cities, activists called on Thursday for an escalation of protests against last month’s military coup, a day after the deadliest security clampdown to date on demonstrators demanding the restoration of a civilian government.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Seduced by salary promises, workers at Fifa-endorsed hotels allege they have been exploited and abused
When Fifa executives step on to the asphalt in Doha next November for the start of the 2022 World Cup finals, their next stop is likely to be the check-in at one of Qatar’s glittering array of opulent hotels, built to provide the most luxurious possible backdrop to the biggest sporting event on earth.
Now, with a year to go before the first match, fans who want to emulate the lifestyle of the sporting elite can head to Fifa’s hospitality website to plan their stay in the host nation. There they can scroll through a catalogue of exclusive, Fifa-endorsed accommodation, from boutique hotels to five-star resorts.
Continue reading...With a year to go, the new stadiums, hotels and roads are finished and locals are excited, but the low-paid workers who built them are ambivalent
When asked if he’s looking forward to the World Cup, Mohamed, an Indian salesman, grins as he casts his fishing line off the promenade in the heart of Qatar’s capital, Doha. “Very much,” he says. “I love cricket!”
With a year to go until the football World Cup kicks off, Mohamed’s response may have the event’s organisers worried. After all, about 70% of Qatar’s population are from the cricket-loving subcontinent.
Continue reading...MSF rescue 99 survivors who spent 13 hours on vessel trying to reach Europe as authorities accused of ignoring distress call
Ten people were found dead in the lower deck of a severely overcrowded wooden boat off the coast of Libya, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported.
According to survivors, those who died on Tuesday suffocated after 13 hours on the cramped lower deck, where there had been a strong smell of fuel.
Continue reading...Arrest relates to alleged membership of Kurdistan Workers’ party, which is proscribed by Turkey and the west
The Syrian musician Omar Souleyman, who has performed at festivals around the world, has been arrested in Turkey on terrorism charges related to alleged membership of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK).
The singer and DJ was taken into custody by officers who searched his home in the south-eastern province of Şanlıurfa, his son Muhammad told a Syrian news outlet on Wednesday. An official in the Şanlıurfa governor’s office confirmed the arrest to the Guardian.
Continue reading...We are raiding the Audio Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2018: Israel sees the international boycott campaign as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Palestinians regard it as their last resort. By Nathan Thrall
Continue reading...Head of self-styled Libyan National Army to stand in country’s first presidential elections in December
A Libyan warlord who led a 14-month assault on the capital and once said the country was not ready for democracy has announced his candidacy in its first presidential elections at the end of next month
Khalifa Haftar, the head of the self-styled Libyan National Army, which fought against its internationally recognised government in the 2014-2020 civil war, declared he wanted to bring the Libyan people “glory, progress and prosperity” as he joined a contest that also includes the son of Libya’s former dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, among its hopefuls.
Continue reading...Toronto-based researchers say new evidence suggests Candiru’s software used to target critics of autocratic regimes
Researchers have found new evidence that suggests spyware made by an Israeli company that was recently blacklisted in the US has been used to target critics of Saudi Arabia and other autocratic regimes, including some readers of a London-based news website.
A report by Toronto-based researchers at ESET, an internet security firm, found links between attacks against high-profile websites in the Middle East and UK, and the Israeli company Candiru, which has been called Israel’s “most mysterious cyberwarfare company”.
Continue reading...6,000 people said to be displaced after withdrawal of government forces from the long contested and strategic port
The UN has called for talks about the implications of the Houthis’ complete takeover of the long-contested strategic port of Hodeidah in Yemen, amid reports that the withdrawal of the government forces had led to as many as 6,000 people being displaced.
The Houthi takeover of the port, the scene of on and off fighting for more than 5 years, marks a significant breakthrough in a conflict that has seen territorial stalemate through much of this year, but hundreds killed in fierce fighting.
Continue reading...Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights, including 13 Australians, were subjected to compulsory intimate searches in October 2020
A group of women subjected to invasive gynaecological searches at Doha airport will sue Qatari authorities, seeking redress for an ordeal that sparked global condemnation, their lawyer said on Monday.
Women on 10 Qatar Airways flights from Doha, including 13 Australians, were subjected to the examinations late last year as authorities searched for the mother of a newborn found abandoned in an airport bathroom.
Continue reading...Baghuz bombing of people trying to escape fighting was covered up, says NY Times report
The US military has confirmed for the first time a 2019 air strike in Syria that killed up to 80 people, mostly women and children, but claimed the strike was justified as it killed Islamic State fighters who were attacking coalition forces.
The confirmation from US Central Command followed a report by the New York Times in which former and current Pentagon officials alleged there had been a cover-up of a likely war crime. Central Command argued that because some women and children had taken up arms for IS, whether by indoctrination or choice, they “could not strictly be classified as civilians”.
Continue reading...Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has spent past decade out of sight after his father was killed in 2011 uprising
Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the sons of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has confirmed that he is to run for the presidency of Libya in elections due to start on 24 December.
He registered his nomination in the southern city of Sebha, the High National Electoral Commission has confirmed.
Continue reading...Teargas and live bullets used to break up demonstration in Khartoum against the military coup
Sudanese security forces killed at least five people on Saturday and injured dozens more when they used teargas and live bullets to break up a protest in Khartoum against a military takeover of the government.
Protesters defied a military shutdown of the city to call for a return to civilian rule, as plain-clothed snipers reappeared on the streets on Saturday. On Friday, coup leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan cemented his hold on power by swearing in a new ruling council that excluded the main civilian coalition.
Continue reading...UK government watchdog finds lack of due diligence over human rights in occupied territories
JCB, the British tractor firm, has been found by a UK government watchdog to have failed to carry out due diligence human rights checks over the potential use of its equipment to demolish homes in the occupied Palestinian territories (OPT).
The watchdog ruled: “It is unfortunate that JCB, which is a leading British manufacturer of world-class products, did not take any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts and that its products are potentially contributing to those impacts.”
Continue reading...Travel agents in Middle East and migrants who have reached Poland describe how thousands are making the journey
On a dark forest road last month, Polish police were in pursuit of a speeding car that had skipped a checkpoint. The car’s driver was a people smuggler, and his passengers three Syrians who had paid thousands for him to take them to Germany, the final leg of their journey from the Middle East via Belarus. A truck coming in the opposite direction tried to dodge them but could not. Ferhad Nabo, 33, a married father of two from Kobane, was killed instantly in the crash.
“He left Syria, like many others, to reach Europe,” said his cousin Rashwan Nabo, a Syrian humanitarian worker. Ferhad had boarded a direct flight to Minsk from Erbil, in northern Iraq. “In Raqqa, Damascus and Aleppo, word has been spreading for months that the easiest and fastest way to reach Europe is a direct flight to Belarus,” his cousin said.
Continue reading...Başak Demirtaş and her doctor sentenced over ‘falsified’ medical report on her miscarriage
The wife of a jailed Kurdish politician has been sentenced to two and a half years in a Turkish prison over a typo in a medical report on a miscarriage, in a case denounced as an “appalling” political persecution.
A court in Diyarbakır handed down sentences of 30 months each for Başak Demirtaş, a teacher, and her doctor on Thursday for submitting a falsified medical report, a local Kurdish news agency reported.
Continue reading...Western delegates on UN security council call for ‘strong reaction’ from international community, but make no mention of Russia
The United States and European delegations on the UN security council have urged action over Belarus’s behaviour on its border with Poland, describing the migrant crisis as “orchestrated” and saying Minsk was endangering migrants “for political purposes”.
Poland says the government of strongman Alexander Lukashenko has lured about 2,000 migrants, mainly Kurds from the Middle East, to Belarus for the purpose of sending them across the border into Poland and thus the EU in revenge for sanctions.
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