Thousands rallied in the capital behind the far-right populist but polls suggest his presidency is coming off the rails ahead of next year’s elections
André Meneses made a gun sign with his hands to convey what he thought should happen to those who opposed Jair Bolsonaro’s project for Brazil.
Related: Bolsonaro supporters clash with police before major rally in Brasília
Continue reading...The US is proposing big spending, but initiatives are designed to undermine China rather than address actual needs on the islands
After decades of ambivalence, the United States plans to expand its footprint in the Pacific islands region to dimensions larger than at any time since the second world war.
But the Biden administration may be on the brink of embracing a flawed foreign policy initiative spanning almost one-third of the globe.
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Statements are coming in from opponents of the new Texas voting law. Here are some edited versions of some of them:
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Continue reading...Overall jabs administered in the UK stand at 91,827,909; Sweden will remove virtually all Covid restrictions on 29 September
The pandemic has left thousands of migrants stranded in Yemen because of restrictions on movement.
The UN’s migration agency IOM said 32,000 are stuck in Yemen, which is a transit hub for migrants leaving the Horn of Africa and trying to cross through Saudi Arabia.
Another 22,698 people took up first doses of the vaccine in Britain on Monday, taking the latest figures for overall jabs in the UK to 91,827,909, according to government data.
Four in five over-16s have now been fully vaccinated, with the highest percentage (84.1%) in Wales.
Continue reading...Key positions given to figures who dominated 20-year battle against US-led coalition
The Taliban have named UN-sanctioned veteran Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund as the leader of Afghanistan’s new government, while giving key positions to figures who dominated the 20-year battle against the US-led coalition and its allies.
Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a press conference on Tuesday that Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar would be the deputy leader.
Continue reading...Environmental party given highest one-off sum in its history by Dutch tech entrepreneur
Germany’s Greens have so far received more large donations ahead of this September’s federal elections than the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel, after a Dutch tech entrepreneur gave the environmental party the highest one-off sum of cash in its history.
Steven Schuurman, co-founder of software company Elastic, whose net worth is listed by Forbes magazine as 2bn US dollars (£1.45bn), on Tuesday transferred to the German Greens (Die Grünen) a donation of 1.25m euros (£1m).
Continue reading...Warm-blooded animals are changing beaks, legs and ears to adapt to hotter climate and better regulate temperature
Animals are increasingly “shapeshifting” because of the climate crisis, researchers have said.
Warm-blooded animals are changing their physiology to adapt to a hotter climate, the scientists found. This includes getting larger beaks, legs and ears to better regulate their body temperature.
Continue reading...Environmental activists demand delay to Glasgow climate talks if costs and travel restrictions block attendance of those worst-hit
The Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow should be postponed until the government can ensure that the talks won’t be a “rich nations stitch-up”, a diverse coalition of international organisations has said.
With less than two months to go before the talks, the Climate Action Network (CAN), a global alliance of more than 1,500 civil society organisations, is warning that many delegates from the global south will be unable to attend due to vaccine inequity and prohibitive quarantine costs.
Continue reading...Acting president of self-declared government calls on civilian armed groups to target military that seized power in February coup
Myanmar’s self-declared parallel government, which was set up by pro-democracy politicians, has announced a “defensive war” against the junta, calling for civilian armed groups to target the military and its assets.
Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), said Tuesday marked the beginning of a nationwide revolt. He warned people to avoid unnecessary travel and stock up on essentials.
Continue reading...Outgoing chancellor implores public to pick Armin Laschet over his surging centre-left rival
Angela Merkel has used what is likely to be her last speech in the German parliament to make her most impassioned intervention in the electoral race so far, urging the public to vote for her party’s beleaguered candidate over his surging centre-left rival.
The chancellor, who will stand down after federal elections on 26 September, warned of the possibility of the Social Democratic party (SPD) and the Greens governing the country in a coalition with the far-left Die Linke.
Continue reading...Ruling party failed to comply with order on judicial independence, European Commission claims
Poland’s nationalist government risks daily fines for flouting a European court order, after EU authorities in Brussels urged financial penalties over what are seen as threats to judicial independence.
The European Commission called on the European court of justice (ECJ) to hit the Polish government with daily fines “to ensure compliance”, in a move hailed as a watershed moment in the struggle over the rule of law in the central European country.
Continue reading...Thousands of ethnic Koreans left Japan for North Korea decades ago lured by promise of a better life
A Japanese court has summoned North Korea’s leader to face demands for compensation by several ethnic Korean residents of Japan who say they suffered human rights abuses in North Korea after joining a resettlement programme there that described the country as a “paradise on Earth”, a lawyer and plaintiff have said.
Kim Jong-un is not expected to appear in court for the hearing on 14 October, but the judge’s decision to summon him was a rare instance in which a foreign leader was not granted sovereign immunity, said Kenji Fukuda, a lawyer representing the five plaintiffs.
Continue reading...Israeli media describe errors that allowed rare jail break for high security Palestinian prisoners
The escape of six high security Palestinian prisoners from an Israeli prison took place amid a parade of farcical errors that included the reported availability of prison blueprints online and a sleeping guard in a watchtower.
As hundreds of Israeli troops scoured villages and the countryside for the escapees from Gilboa prison, including five members of Islamic Jihad and a high-profile figure from Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, reports in the Israeli media detailed a series of bungles by the country’s prison authority that allowed the rare jailbreak.
Continue reading...RTBF reporter unwittingly spoke to Salah Abdeslam, alleged kingpin of attacks that killed 130
A day before he goes on trial in the French capital, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF has released an interview with the alleged kingpin of the Paris terror attacks, recorded as he was fleeing France in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre.
Salah Abdeslam and 19 others are accused of planning, aiding and carrying out the 13 November suicide bomb and gun attacks on the Stade de France, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall that killed 130 people and injured 490.
Continue reading...Unicef says hundreds of children have been separated from their families in chaos of Kabul evacuation
Access to food aid and other life-saving services in Afghanistan is close to running out, the United Nations has warned, as concern mounts that the country is facing a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.
The grim assessment from the UN’s Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs [OCHA] came amid an appeal for an extra $200m (£145m) in emergency funding in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover sparked a host of new issues.
Continue reading...Figures based on reported number of US airstrikes highlight the human cost of the 20-year ‘war on terror’
US drone and airstrikes have killed at least 22,000 civilians – and perhaps as many as 48,000 – since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, according to new analysis published by the civilian harm monitoring group Airwars.
The analysis, based on the US military’s own assertion that it has conducted almost 100,000 airstrikes since 2001, represents an attempt to estimate the number of civilian deaths across the multiple conflicts that have comprised aspects of the “war on terror”.
Continue reading...Analysis of alleged anti-terrorist shootouts reveals security forces routinely suppressing opposition, claims Human Rights Watch
Egyptian security forces engaged in an extended campaign of extrajudicial killings of detainees, routinely masked as shootouts with alleged terrorists, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch.
The report details what it alleges are a pattern of extrajudicial assassinations between 2015 and last year, a period in which the Egyptian interior ministry said publicly that 755 people were killed in alleged exchanges of fire with security forces, while naming just 141.
Continue reading...Violence erupts as rightwing activists attempt to break through blockade and force their way to congress
Pre-dawn skirmishes have erupted between police and supporters of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, as rightwing activists tried to force their way towards congress before major pro-government rallies that have put Latin America’s biggest democracy on edge.
Footage published by the Brasilia-based news website Metrópoles showed military police using pepper spray to repel a crowd of cheering Bolsonaristas in the early hours of Tuesday.
Continue reading...Digital ID systems are a powerful development tool, providing a legal identity to millions, but their misuse can be deadly
The Taliban have openly talked about using US-made digital identity technology to hunt down Afghans who have worked with the international coalition – posing a huge threat to everyone recorded in the system. In addition, the extremists now also have access to – and control over – the digital identification systems and technologies built through international aid support.
These include the e-Tazkira, a biometric identity card used by Afghanistan’s National Statistics and Information Authority, which includes fingerprints, iris scans and a photograph, as well as voter registration databases. It also includes the Afghan personnel and pay system, used by the interior and defence ministries to pay the army and police.
Continue reading...Firms accused of ‘rounding up workers like animals’ for compulsory vaccination as country acts to stop spread of virus
Thousands of workers in Zimbabwe have been told they will face the sack if they refuse to be vaccinated with one of the Covid-19 jabs, according to the country’s biggest worker’s union.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), an amalgamation of 35 labour unions representing 189,000 people, has accused employers of infringing workers’ rights, saying there is no law providing for compulsory vaccinations. It has taken the government and six companies to court for ordering employees to have the vaccine, arguing that the companies are “taking the law into their own hands” by forcing the issue.
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