Category Archives: World News

Executed Myanmar activist visited Australia in 2012 to complete a political advisers’ course

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Phyo Zeya Thaw met then prime minister Julia Gillard when he was brought to Australia by AusAid

Phyo Zeya Thaw hadn’t been out of jail long when he came to Australia to do a political advisers’ course 10 years ago.

The Myanmar hip-hop artist turned politician – who eventually turned hip-hop artist again – was one of four people executed by the military junta following accusations of terror acts that many considered unfounded.

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Tunisians vote in referendum on handing president almost total power

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Low turnout suggests voters unconcerned by Kais Saied’s new constitution, which some say marks the end of the Arab spring

Tunisians were on Monday expected to approve giving the president unfettered powers, ending the country’s stumbles towards democratic rule and capping the turbulent decade across the region known as the Arab spring.

As voters trickled to the polls for the referendum, the country that birthed the revolts that rocked the Middle East seemed resigned to a return to pre-revolution autocracy, with a declining economy and political sclerosis sounding the death knell for hopes of widespread reform and free elections that would empower citizens.

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Myanmar junta executes democracy activists in first such killings in decades

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Democracy figures, including former lawmaker in Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, executed after being accused of carrying out ‘terror acts’

Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners including a former politician and a veteran activist, drawing shock and revulsion at the country’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

Junta-controlled media reported on Monday that four men, including Phyo Zeya Thaw, a rapper and former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, and the prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, known as Jimmy, had been executed. They were accused of conspiring to commit terror acts and were sentenced to death in January in closed trials.

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Diana Kennedy, influential guru of Mexican cuisine, dies at 99

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Politicians and chefs pay tribute to the ‘Indiana Jones of food’, who helped preserve and popularise Mexican recipes in the English-speaking world

Diana Kennedy, the British-born food writer who dedicated her career to promoting the richness and diversity of Mexico’s culinary heritage and helped to popularise the national cuisine in the English-speaking world, has died aged 99.

The Mexican culture ministry confirmed Kennedy’s death at her home in Michoacán and paid tribute to her legacy, saying that she, “like few others”, understood that conserving nature and its diversity was crucial to upholding the myriad culinary traditions of Mexico.

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Ukraine claims it will recapture Kherson by September with aid of western weapons

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Aide in southern region says a ‘turning point’ has been reached, heralding switch from defensive moves to long-awaited counterattack

Ukrainian military officials have claimed a “turning point” in the battle to retake the southern region of Kherson, saying they will use western weapons to liberate by September the first major city captured by Russian forces.

Sergiy Khlan, an aide to the administrative head of the Kherson region, said in an interview with Ukrainian television on Sunday: “We can say that a turning point has occurred on the battlefield. We are switching from defensive to counteroffensive actions.”

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California fire crews make progress against ferocious Oak fire near Yosemite

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Fire burning near famous national park exploded in size over weekend but crews achieved 10% containment Monday morning

Firefighters made progress against a ferocious wildfire in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada that forced thousands of residents from their homes in the gateway to Yosemite national park.

The Oak fire started on Friday near the town of Midpines, California, and exploded in size over the weekend.

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How a Trump-backed ‘QAnon whack job’ won with Democratic ‘collusion’

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Republican Dan Cox won nomination for Maryland governor, but current governor says that was thanks to Democrats promoting extremist opponents they think will be easier prey

Dan Cox, an extremist pro-Trump Republican, won his party’s nomination for governor in Maryland last week thanks to “collusion between Trump and the national Democrats”, the current Republican governor said.

“I don’t think there’s any chance that [Cox] can win,” Larry Hogan added, speaking to CNN’s State of the Union.

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Pope in Canada to apologise for abuse of Indigenous children in church schools

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‘This is a trip of penance,’ says Pope Francis, ahead of mass to be held during five-day trip

Pope Francis landed in Canada on Sunday to kick off a five-day trip that will centre around his apology on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church for the abuse that Indigenous children endured at mostly church-run residential schools.

“This is a trip of penance. Let’s say that is its spirit,” the pope told reporters after his flight took off from Rome.

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North-eastern US braces for record-breaking heat

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One heat-related death reported in New York while authorities in Philadelphia extend health emergency declaration

Residents in the north-east US braced for potentially record-breaking temperatures on Sunday as a near-week-long hot spell continued, prompting officials to warn of dangerous heat.

At least one heat-related death, in New York, was reported. Around the region, athletic events were shortened or postponed and cities opened cooling centers and even turned to buses to offer relief from the heat.

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Seventeen dead after boat carrying Haitian migrants capsizes in Bahamas

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Twenty five people rescued in dangerous route frequently used by migrants seeking to reach the US

Seventeen people died after a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized off the coast of the Bahamas, authorities said on Sunday, as more Haitians attempt to reach the US to flee gang violence and poverty at home.

Rescue teams recovered the bodies of 17 people including an infant and 25 people were rescued, the Bahamian prime minister, Philip Davis, told reporters. Davis said authorities believe the people were on a speedboat heading for Miami.

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British man feared drowned in Italy’s Lake Garda after diving in to save son

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Aran Chada, 51, believed to have had seizure after leaping from boat into water

A British man is feared to have drowned in Lake Garda in Italy after diving in to save his teenage son.

Aran Chada, a 51-year-old sales director from Leicestershire, is believed to have had a seizure when he leapt from a boat into the water, the Times reports.

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Russia rallies support in Africa as doubt cast on Ukraine grain deal

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Russian foreign minister starts trip in Egypt, one day after Russian strike on Odesa put question mark over deal to restart exports

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has reassured Egypt over Russian grain supplies at the start of a four-country tour of Africa, amid uncertainty over the future of a deal to resume Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea.

Egypt, one of the world’s top wheat importers, bought 80% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine last year, and has been torn between ties to Moscow and its close relationship to the west.

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Biden ‘doing just fine’ after testing positive for Covid, White House says

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Ashish Jha, coronavirus response coordinator, and physician Kevin O’Connor say president contracted BA.5 variant

Joe Biden is “feeling well” and “doing just fine” after testing positive for Covid, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Ashish Jha said: “So it is the BA.5 variant, which is about 80% of infections. But thank goodness, our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president’s doing well.

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Viktor Orbán sparks outrage with attack on ‘race mixing’ in Europe

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Hungary’s far-right prime minister says countries where races mingle are ‘no longer nations’

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races, in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”.

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‘She’s very charismatic’: could Giorgia Meloni become Italy’s first far-right leader since Mussolini?

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Brothers of Italy leads far-right alliance in pole position for snap summer election

When the far right took power in Ladispoli, a beach town near Rome, in 2017, ending 20 years of leftwing administration, among its priorities was naming a square after Giorgio Almirante, a minister in Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship and founder of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Protests from anti-fascist groups failed to thwart the plan, and in 2019 the nameplate was unveiled during a ceremony that included a blessing from the priest of the church on the same square. Almirante was described by mayor Alessandro Grando, who won a second term in June, as “the father of Italian rightwing socialism and point of reference for many Italians”.

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Josh Hawley, senator who ran from Capitol mob, mocked by home paper

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Kansas City Star editorial excoriates Republican as ‘laughingstock’ as memes based on January 6 video proliferate

Josh Hawley, the Missouri senator shown running from the mob he incited on January 6, is “a laughingstock” who should be afraid of what the Capitol attack committee might disclose next, a leading newspaper in his home state said.

Hawley was widely criticised for raising a fist to protesters outside Congress on 6 January 2021, then after the mob sent by Donald Trump failed to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election win, voting to object to results anyway.

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Israeli forces kill two Palestinian fighters in West Bank gun battle

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Palestinian authorities confirm death of two men and say six more were wounded during clash in Nablus

Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian fighters in a pre-dawn clash in the occupied West Bank and attacked a fishing boat off the Gaza Strip coast that was accused of smuggling in Hamas supplies from Egypt.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade militant group claimed the two Palestinians killed on Sunday at a house in Nablus as its members. The Palestinian health ministry said six others were wounded.

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Barcelona school and residents create solar energy community

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Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the city

A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.

The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.

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Flooding in southern Iran kills at least 22 people

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Vehicles carried away by rising waters after heavy rainfall in the largely arid country

Flooding in southern Iran has killed at least 22 people and left one person missing after heavy rainfall in the largely arid country, a local official has said.

Videos posted on local and social media on Saturday showed vehicles being carried away by the rising waters of the Roodball river in the southern province of Fars. One video showed adults pulling a child from a car as it began to shift downstream.

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Kherson’s secret art society produces searing visions of life under Russian occupation

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Painters, playwrights and photographers have defied the threat of arrest in southern Ukrainian city to share their experiences

Under the threat of imprisonment, interrogation and the constant pressure of searches by Russian soldiers, six artists secretly met in a basement studio in the occupied Ukrainian city of Kherson.

In the months after their homes were taken over by Putin’s forces, the artists formed a residency during which they created dozens of works, including drawings, paintings, video, photography, diary entries and stage plays.

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