Category Archives: World News

Taliban orders female Afghan TV presenters to cover faces on air

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Female anchors post pictures of themselves being ‘erased’ on orders of virtue and vice ministry

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have ordered all female TV presenters to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest media outlet has said.

The order came in a statement from the Taliban’s virtue and vice ministry, tasked with enforcing the group’s rulings, as well as from the information and culture ministry, the Tolo news channel tweeted on Thursday. The statement called the order “final and non-negotiable”, the channel said.

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Israel will not hold criminal inquiry into killing of journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh

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Military police say they are satisfied with assurances of Israeli troops over death of US-Palestinian despite international demands

Israel will not launch a criminal investigation into the killing of the US-Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, which Palestinian officials and witnesses have blamed on Israeli soldiers.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces claimed that because Abu Aqleh was killed in an “active combat situation”, an immediate criminal investigation would not be launched, although an “operational inquiry” would continue.

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Mozambique confirms first wild poliovirus case in 30 years

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Case in child in Tete province follows detection of similar strain in Malawi in February, officials say

Mozambique has identified its first case of wild polio in three decades following the genetic sequencing of a similar strain of the childhood disease in Malawi earlier this year.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said the detection of the new case was “greatly concerning” and that it demonstrated “how dangerous this virus is and how quickly it can spread”.

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Twenty-five ethnic Pamiris killed by security forces in Tajikistan protests

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Escalating tensions erupt into regime-backed violence against the minority group in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan

At least 25 people were killed on Wednesday by security forces in Tajikistan during a protest in the autonomous region of Gorno-Badakhshan (GBAO), where the Tajik regime has targeted the Pamiri ethnic minority.

The deaths mark an escalation of violence in the region. Conflict between the central government and the Pamiri has continued for decades, with the cultural and linguistic minority ethnic group suffering human rights abuses, as well as discrimination over jobs and housing.

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Baloch women fear crackdown after Karachi suicide attack

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Pakistan’s first female suicide bombing marks shift in nature of Baloch militancy

On 26 April, Pakistan’s first female suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers and the driver of the minibus they were travelling in as she blew herself up in front of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi.

The impacts have been felt far and wide. Chinese teachers working at the cultural and educational institutions have now left Pakistan, and in the restive province of Balochistan female activists are facing greater pressures, with three reported abductions this week.

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Widow of man killed in Libya accuses South Africa of ‘silence’ in hunt for his body

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The South African government sent Anton Hammerl’s passport to his widow in 2016 but has refused to say how it came to have it

The widow of a British-based photographer who was murdered by Col Gaddafi’s forces in Libya in 2011 has accused South Africa of withholding crucial information about her husband’s death that could help in efforts to locate his body.

Anton Hammerl was killed in an incident in May 2011 that saw other journalists, including James Foley – who was later kidnapped and beheaded by Islamic State in Syria – taken prisoner.

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Biden takes action on baby formula shortage | First Thing

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US president authorized defense department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies from overseas

Good morning.

As parents across the country continue to struggle to find infant formula to feed their babies, Joe Biden yesterday invoked the Defense Production Act to speed production of infant formula and authorized flights to import supply from overseas.

The 1950 law requires suppliers of formula manufacturers to fulfil orders from those companies before other customers.

Biden also authorized the defense department to use commercial aircraft to fly formula supplies that meet federal standards from overseas to the US, in what the White House is calling “Operation Fly Formula”.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration is streamlining its review process to make it easier for foreign manufacturers to begin shipping more formula into the US.

At the start of May, 43% of baby formula was out of stock at retailers. Read more here on how this crisis came to be.

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French dijon mustard supply hit by climate and rising costs, say producers

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Poor seed harvests have led to empty shelves at supermarkets in France and global shortages

Climate change and rising costs are causing supermarkets in France to run out of dijon mustard, raising questions over whether the shortage could spread to other countries.

French mustard producers said seed production in 2021 was down 50% after poor harvests, which they said had been brought on by the changing climate in France’s Burgundy region and Canada – the second largest mustard seed producer in the world.

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‘Huge spike’ in global conflict caused record number of displacements in 2021

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Those fleeing combat were internally displaced 14.4m times, with biggest toll in sub-Saharan Africa, report reveals

Conflict and violence forced people from their homes a record number of times last year, a report has found, with sub-Saharan Africa bearing the brunt of mass internal displacement caused by “huge spikes” in fighting.

People fleeing violence were internally displaced 14.4m times in 2021, an increase of 4.6m on 2020, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).

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‘History repeating’: Amazon base in Cape Town splits Indigenous groups

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Building work is quiet, for now, on £200m project that pits different visions of South Africa’s future against one another

Smoke curls into the air, a drum beats, the dance begins, a chant is raised. Ten metres away, cars howl past on a busy road, drivers unaware of the sacred ritual taking place in the centre of a bustling South African city.

Francisco Mackenzie, a chief of the Cochoqua community of the Khoi people, talks of ancient beliefs and battles five centuries ago, against invaders from overseas. He points to the iconic skyline of Table Mountain, and then to a nearby building site.

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Jacinda Ardern loses sense of taste after Covid, can’t enjoy cheese roll

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New Zealand PM remains in isolation but tried to uphold budget breakfast tradition with finance minister via Instagram

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says she has lost her sense of taste after testing positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.

Thursday was budget day in New Zealand, when traditionally the prime minister has an early morning breakfast with finance minister Grant Robertson. Typically, the two share cheese rolls – a South Island New Zealand delicacy involving cheddar cheese and powdered soup rolled inside a piece of toasted white bread. This year, the breakfast took place via Instagram live stream – and the prime minister said the cheese rolls were missing their usual flavour notes.

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New Zealand budget 2022: Ardern offers $1bn in sweeteners to tackle cost of living ‘storm’

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PM says budget, which includes major spending on climate and health care reform, aims to ensure long term ‘economic and social security’

Weekly $27 cash payments, fuel discounts and half-price public transport are among the short-term sweeteners offered up by New Zealand’s government in its latest budget, as it tries to juggle the cost-of-living crisis with big-ticket spending commitments, including $11.1bn of healthcare system reform and $2.9bn responding to the climate crisis.

“While we know the current storm will pass, it is important we take the hard edges off,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said in remarks accompanying the budget’s release.

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North Korea promotes traditional medicines in bid to fight Covid outbreak

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State media have told patients to use painkillers as well as unverified home remedies such as willow leaf tea

North Korea is ramping up production of drugs and medical supplies including sterilisers and thermometers as well as encouraging the use of traditional Korean medicines said to reduce fever and pain as it battles an unprecedented coronavirus outbreak.

Traditional medicines were “effective in prevention and cure of the malicious disease,” state-run news agency KCNA said, although no medical evidence exists for those claims.

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US reports rare case of monkeypox amid small outbreaks in Europe

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Man who recently traveled to Canada has first case in US this year, but officials are preparing for more

Massachusetts officials on Wednesday reported a rare case of monkeypox in a man who recently traveled to Canada, and health officials are looking into whether it is connected to small outbreaks in Europe.

Monkeypox is typically limited to Africa, and rare cases in the US and elsewhere are usually linked to travel there. A small number of confirmed or suspected cases have been reported this month in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain.

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The person in the room? US court mulls if elephant has human rights

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Nonhuman Rights Project argues that Happy the elephant’s right to ‘bodily liberty’ is being violated at the Bronx Zoo

Happy, by species, is an Asian elephant. But can she also be considered a person?

That question was before New York’s highest court on Wednesday in a closely watched case over whether a basic human right can be extended to an animal.

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White House braced for North Korean nuclear test during Biden’s Asia trip

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National security adviser says intelligence reflects ‘long-range missile test or a nuclear test, or frankly both’

The White House is braced for a North Korean missile or nuclear test while Joe Biden is on a trip to South Korea and Japan, which begins on Friday.

The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters on Wednesday: “Our intelligence does reflect the genuine possibility that there will be either a further missile test, including long-range missile test, or a nuclear test, or frankly both in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region.

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US withdrawal triggered catastrophic defeat of Afghan forces, damning watchdog report finds

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Report by special inspector general blames Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani

Afghan armed forces collapsed last year because they had been made dependent on US support that was abruptly withdrawn in the face of a Taliban offensive, according to a scathing assessment by a US government watchdog.

A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (Sigar) on the catastrophic defeat that led to the fall of Kabul on 15 August, blamed the administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden as well as the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani.

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UN confirms death of one of last Rwandan genocide fugitives

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Phénéas Munyarugarama is second person wanted for their involvement in 1994 mass killings to die

One of the last five fugitives wanted for his role in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Phénéas Munyarugarama, died in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002, UN prosecutors have announced.

Munyarugarama, a local army commander, “died of natural causes” and was buried in Kankwala, in the eastern DRC, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) announced in The Hague.

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Why has Erdoğan doubled down on threat to veto Nordic Nato bids?

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Analysis: By demanding extradition of alleged PKK members, Turkish president could have one eye on elections

After initial hesitation about the seriousness of Turkey’s objections, its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has doubled down on his threat to veto Finland’s and Sweden’s applications for membership of Nato, saying there is no point in either country sending delegations to Ankara to persuade him otherwise.

On Wednesday, he also extended his demands from the two he outlined on Monday to 10, leading to claims that he is using blackmail.

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Former police officer pleads guilty to manslaughter in George Floyd killing

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Thomas Lane agrees to spend three years in prison after accepting guilty plea, a year after Derek Chauvin convicted of murder

A former Minneapolis police officer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to manslaughter in the murder of George Floyd and agreed to spend three years in state prison, officials said.

Thomas Lane’s plea to a count of aiding and abetting manslaughter came a year after his former colleague Derek Chauvin, who was recorded by a bystander killing Floyd by kneeling on his neck, was convicted of murder and sentenced to more than two decades in prison.

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