Category Archives: World News

Delhi police arrest Muslim journalist Mohammed Zubair over tweet from 2018

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Journalists demand release of co-founder of Alt News after he was accused of insulting Hindus

The co-founder of a factchecking website has been arrested by police in Delhi weeks after he highlighted derogatory comments made by a spokesperson for Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) about the prophet Muhammad.

Mohammed Zubair, who set up the Alt News website, flagged the remarks made during a television debate at the end of May on Twitter, bringing them attention they may not otherwise have had.

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‘The Punisher’: Rodrigo Duterte’s violent reign as Philippines president to end

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Analysis: Duterte’s popularity remains undented among people in poorer areas despite attacks on human rights, rule of law and media

Six years ago, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, known as “the Punisher” because of his merciless approach to crime, was on the brink of taking national power in the Philippines. He promised to move power away from Manila elites, tackle poverty, corruption, and drugs. “When I become president,” Rodrigo Duterte told one rally, “I will order the police to find those people [involved in drugs] and kill them. The funeral parlours will be packed.”

The latter prediction was, at least, correct. When Duterte steps down on 30 June, having reached the end of his term limit, he will leave behind a country in which human rights, the media and rule of law have been weakened, say analysts.

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Three people killed as Amtrak train hits dump truck and derails in Missouri

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Southwest Chief train crash left at least 40 injured in remote rural area, according to unconfirmed reports

Three people were killed and several others were injured when a passenger train traveling from Los Angeles to Chicago struck a dump truck and derailed in a remote, rural area of Missouri on Monday, officials said.

Two of the people who died were on the train and one was in the truck, Missouri state highway patrol spokesman Corporal Justin Dunn said. It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were hurt, the patrol said, but hospitals reported receiving more than 40 patients from the crash and were expecting more.

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At least 16 dead as Russian missile hits shopping centre in Ukraine

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Scores of people injured and at least 40 feared missing after strike in central city of Kremenchuk

A Russian missile hit a crowded shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk on Monday, killing and injuring scores of people, the Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodoymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 1,000 people were inside the building at the time of the strike. Images from the scene showed giant plumes of black smoke and flames, with emergency crews rushing in to search for victims and put out fires.

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Ecuador: Indigenous protesters agree to meet president to discuss demands

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President Guillermo Lasso announces cut to gas prices in effort to quell protests demanding lower fuel and food prices

Ecuadorian Indigenous organizations have said they will meet with the government to discuss demands for lower fuel and food prices which have sparked two weeks of protests, hitting the country’s weakened economy and threatening its oil production.

President Guillermo Lasso late on Sunday announced a 10-cent per gallon cut to gasoline and diesel prices, the latest concession to try to quell the sometimes-violent demonstrations, which began on 13 June.

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Johnson issues open invitation to Russian scientists ‘dismayed by Putin’s violence’

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Prime minister asks disaffected Russian academics to defect to the UK alongside Ukrainian colleagues

Boris Johnson has issued an open invitation for disaffected Russian scientists to defect to the UK, as he used the G7 summit to argue that allowing Russia to prevail in Ukraine would usher in a highly damaging era of global instability.

As part of an expansion to a twinning system with Ukrainian universities, allowing Ukrainian academics to continue their research at UK institutions, Johnson said this offer extended to their Russian counterparts.

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Louisiana judge blocks abortion ban amid uproar after Roe v Wade ruling

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State temporarily blocked from enforcing ban as other US states pass ‘trigger laws’ designed to severely curtail access to abortion

A Louisiana judge on Monday temporarily stopped the state from enforcing Republican-backed laws banning abortion, set to take effect after the US supreme court ended the constitutional right to the procedure last week.

Louisiana is one of 13 states which passed “trigger laws”, to ban or severely restrict abortions once the supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that recognized a right to the procedure. It did so on Friday, stoking uproar among progressives and protests and counter-protests on the streets of major cities.

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US supreme court rules in favor of high school football coach over on-field prayers – as it happened

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Writing for the majority, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued that football coach Joseph Kennedy had a right to publicly pray after games because he was not requiring others to participate in the practice.

“Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks,” Gorsuch wrote.

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Israel eases abortion regulations in response to ‘sad’ Roe v Wade ruling

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New rules will remove abortion approval committees and grant access to abortion pills at local health clinics

Israel has eased its regulations on abortion access, in what the health minister said was a response to last week’s “sad” US supreme court ruling overturning Roe v Wade.

The new rules, approved by a parliamentary committee, grant women access to abortion pills through the country’s universal health system and remove a longstanding requirement that women appear physically before a special committee before they are permitted to terminate a pregnancy.

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Toxic gas leak in Jordan leaves 13 dead and hundreds injured

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Leak at port of Aqaba happened after tank filled with gas fell while being transported, says state news agency

Thirteen people have died and 251 have been injured in a toxic gas leak from a storage tank at Jordan’s Aqaba port, state television reported, as authorities called on residents to shut windows and stay indoors.

The leak on Monday came after a cable lifting a tank filled with 25 tonnes of chlorine snapped, sending the container crashing down.

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Cyclone numbers have fallen since start of 20th century, study suggests

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Scientists warn that while total number of cyclones may be decreasing, global heating will see a higher proportion of more damaging storms

Global heating has coincided with fewer tropical cyclones forming each year around the globe compared with the second half of the 19th century, according to a new study.

The average annual number of cyclones fell by 13% across the 20th century, with steeper declines seen after 1950.

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Cyprus unity in fight against wildfires hailed as ‘very positive’

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With relations between island’s two communities at a low, assistance from Greek Cypriots has been welcomed

There is not much that can bring Greek and Turkish Cypriots together these days. But when wildfires raged across the Mediterranean island last week, they put differences aside to jointly combat the blazes. So rare was the sight that on Monday the war-split country’s permanent UN representative praised the “very positive” show of unity.

“It illustrates a fundamental point about this island, and that is the solidarity among Cypriots,” Colin Stewart said on Monday after meeting the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, whose forestry department had rushed to help extinguish the blaze.

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Moroccan authorities accused of trying to cover up Melilla deaths

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Concern at apparent plan to bury victims without investigating cause of death or trying to identify them

There are growing calls for an investigation into the deaths of up to 37 people who died trying to scale a fence to enter Melilla, Spain’s enclave in north Africa.

About 2,000 people stormed the heavily fortified border between the Moroccan region of Nador and the Spanish enclave on Friday. The Moroccan authorities say 23 people died and 140 police were injured during the attempt, while several NGOs say the number of dead is 37.

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Israel and Saudi Arabia ‘in talks over joint defence against Iran’

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US-brokered summit discusses shared threat of Tehran’s growing missile and drone capabilities

Top military officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia have met in secret US-brokered talks to discuss defence coordination against Iran, according to a report.

Delegations from Riyadh, as well as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt, met the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh in March, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, citing US and regional officials.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: at least 16 killed after missile strike hits busy shopping centre in Kremenchuk

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Zelenskiy says over 1,000 civilians were inside mall at time of attack, as eight civilians killed while collecting water in Lysychansk

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to address world leaders at the G7 meeting virtually today. He has just posted to Telegram pictures of damage from missile strikes in Kyiv, with the message:

No Russian missiles, no strikes can break the morale of Ukrainians. And each of their missiles is an argument in our negotiations with partners.

Our armed forces continue to destroy the occupiers on the line of contact. In the Kharkiv direction, the invaders attacked in the direction of Dementiivka and Pitomnyk, suffered losses and retreated. In the area of Izium, the enemy does not stop trying to advance. Our defenders are resisting, destroying the occupiers’ manpower and armoured vehicles.

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Weather tracker: Japan swelters as ‘heat dome’ pushes up temperatures

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Trapped warm air and high pressure result in country recording temperature of 40C for first time in the month of June

There were scorching conditions across Japan over the weekend, with the 40C threshold breached for the first time in the month of June. A temperature of 40.2°C was recorded on Saturday in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, north-east of Tokyo,which beat the previous June record of 39.8°C set in 2011. Several heatstroke alerts were in place across the region with people rushed to hospital for heat-related illnesses, with many older and young people succumbing to heat exhaustion.

High pressure to the east of Japan over the Pacific induced a south to south-westerly airflow that brought warm air up from the equatorial region, which fuelled the high temperatures. High pressure over a number of days contributed to creating a “heat dome”, trapping the warmer air and helping temperatures rise day on day.

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Zelenskiy calls on G7 leaders to help end war in Ukraine by winter

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President speaks on video link, as leaders discuss economic measures and US confirms plans to send air defence system

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged G7 leaders gathered in Germany to help end the war in Ukraine by the winter as they planned new economic measures against Russia and vowed to “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”.

A six-page communique from the group of seven industrialised countries – the US, UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Italy – said it was “committed to helping Ukraine to end Russia’s war … to defend itself and to choose its future”. It said it would provide materials, training, logistics, intelligence and economic support.

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‘People are walking off the job’: workers blame American Red Cross for US blood shortage

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Employees say staff shortages and low pay are causing donors to leave before giving blood, amid delays over union contract

The American Red Cross, which controls about 40% of the blood supply in the US, declared a national blood shortage in January, the worst shortage in over a decade.

The Red Cross emphasized decreasing blood donations as a driving factor for shortages, citing a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood during the pandemic. The shortage has continued across the US in recent months.

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Alarm in Beijing after announcement zero-Covid policy may last five years

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Communist party official posts notice saying mass mandatory testing and travel curbs will continue

Authorities in Beijing have sparked confusion and alarm after announcing the strict zero-Covid policy could be in place for the next five years, including mass mandatory testing and travel restrictions.

The notice, published on Monday afternoon, was attributed to Cai Qi, the Beijing secretary of the Chinese Communist party. The original text said: “In the next five years, Beijing will unremittingly grasp the normalisation of epidemic prevention and control.”

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