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More on Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visiting troops in Ukraine, via AFP:
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited a combat zone in Ukraine to inspect a command post and meet senior military officers, the army said Friday.
Continue reading...Lucky was left in kennels in Bern but escaped and made her way to Lake Geneva before being found and traced to owners
An escaped border terrier named Lucky made an epic 100-mile journey across Switzerland on the eve of the country’s national holiday, according to local media reports.
Her owners had left her in kennels in the region of Bern, but the 14-year-old dog broke out on Monday evening. The following morning she turned up in Geneva 160 kilometres (100 miles) away, the RTS public broadcaster reported.
Continue reading...Monica Poli, a social media star for challenging petty thieves, is a councillor for Lega, which backs anti-Roma policies
Her bellowing cry – “Attenzione pickpocket!” – has turned her into a social media superstar, with videos featuring her crusade against petty crime racking up millions of views, spawning a trove of flattering news profiles and even a handful of dance tracks that riff on her signature catchphrase.
This week, however, it emerged that Monica Poli, TikTok’s celebrated citizen vigilante who publicly shames pickpockets by alerting tourists to their presence, is a councillor for Italy’s far-right Lega (League) party. Led by Matteo Salvini, the party has long been linked to draconian policies and incendiary rhetoric targeting asylum seekers, immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
Continue reading...Footage appears to show a strike on Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship, which transports troops and military hardware
A Russian landing ship was struck and disabled in the country’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk by an unmanned Ukrainian boat, known as a sea drone, Kyiv said, as onboard camera footage appeared to confirm the success of the night attack.
The 112-metre Olenegorsky Gornyak from Russia’s Northern Fleet, which has been used to transport troops and military hardware into occupied Ukrainian ports, was said to have been sufficiently damaged to have been put out of combat action.
Continue reading...Changes to hukou urban quotas will offer easier access to education, healthcare and other benefits
China is to relax its rules on internal migration, making it easier for people to settle in small cities in an attempt to boost its ailing economy and spur growth, the government has announced.
The ministry of public security (MPS) announced plans to lower the bar for obtaining an urban hukou, or household registration. Beijing wants local governments to cancel hukou restrictions in cities with fewer than 3 million people, and relax the restrictions for cities with 3-5 million people, the MPS said.
Continue reading...Ruling allows leader of Congress party to return to parliament and contest national elections
India’s supreme court has suspended Rahul Gandhi’s two-year prison sentence for defamation, paving the way for him to return as an MP and to run in next year’s general election.
Gandhi, the leading face of India’s opposition Congress party, was given a two-year jail sentence for defamation in March, in a case he alleged was politically motivated.
Continue reading...Thousands of scouts to be removed from site after hundreds of heat-related illnesses at event in South Korea
Thousands of UK and US scouts attending the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea are being removed from the official campsite in the south-western county of Buan amid a suffocating heatwave.
The event, which started this week, has drawn 43,000 young scouts from 158 countries, with the UK contingent the largest at 4,500.
Continue reading...Clashes between the army and a regional militia threaten public security and are causing ‘serious economic and humanitarian damage’, said officials
Ethiopia’s council of ministers has declared a state of emergency in the Amhara region after its leader said he was no longer able to contain a surge in violence between a local ethnic militia and the army.
The office of the prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, announced the emergency on Friday, saying attacks by “armed extremist groups” posed an increasing threat to public security and were causing significant economic damage.
Continue reading...With elections due next year, there are fears unrest will grow as the ruling BJP faces criticism over its alleged inaction
An imam stabbed and shot to death in a mosque that was then burned to the ground. A young doctor, walking home, set upon by an armed mob who thrashed and molested her. A railway officer, boarding a train, prowled the carriages for his targets and shot dead three men. The incidents, which all took place in India this week, were seemingly unconnected, yet the victims were united by a common factor: they were all Muslim.
Since the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) came to power in 2014, led by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, incidents of sectarian violence targeting the Muslim minority, who make up about 14% of the population, have become increasingly frequent.
Continue reading...Communist party secretary for Hebei made comments after visiting flood-hit areas earlier this week
Chinese social media users have reacted angrily to comments from a local Communist party official suggesting that the city of Zhuozhou and other flood-hit areas near Beijing should be used as a “moat for the capital”.
Ni Yuefeng, the Communist party secretary for Hebei, a province that borders the capital on three sides, made the comments after visiting flooded areas earlier this week. Typhoon Doksuri has ripped through north-east China, destroying homes and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
Continue reading...Retaliatory move against Online News Act is ‘epic miscalculation’ that will promote spread of misinformation, analysts say
Social media giant Meta’s ban on news access on its platforms in Canada is an “epic miscalculation” that could damage journalism and promote the spread of misinformation and fake news, experts are warning.
The company announced the move on Tuesday, saying they had begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for users in Canada.
Continue reading...Delegation from Ecowas leaves early, having failed to meet detained president or coup leader
A west African diplomatic mission to Niger to seek the release and reinstatement of the country’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, after a coup has failed, raising the risk of a military intervention.
The delegation, which had flown to the Nigerien capital, Niamey, left on Thursday, earlier than planned, without having met Bazoum or the coup leader, Gen Abdourahamane Tchiani.
Continue reading...Prosecutors say suspect led pro-regime paramilitaries who detained and tortured political opponents
A Syrian man accused of leading a pro-government militia in Tadamon, a Damascus neighbourhood that was the site of a massacre of civilians in 2013 filmed by its perpetrators and revealed by the Guardian last year, has been arrested in northern Germany.
The suspect, identified as Ahmad H in line with German privacy rules, is the first person to be detained in connection with crimes in Tadamon, where militia and soldiers loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, brutalised the local population – recording some of their acts – in the early years of the country’s civil war.
Continue reading...Thousands of people evacuated from homes in Beijing, while South America swelters during heatwave
China has been battered by two typhoons in recent weeks that have caused severe flooding across the east coast. Typhoon Talim hit the south on 17 July, with gusts of 85mph (137km/h), according to the Guangdong weather bureau.
Days later, on 28 July, Typhoon Doksuri struck Fujian province on China’s south-eastern coast with gusts above 100mph.
Continue reading...Information ministry calls for calm after attack by suspected supporters of country’s ruling Zanu-PF party
A Zimbabwean man has died after he and other opposition party supporters were ambushed by suspected supporters of the country’s ruling party on their way to a campaign rally west of the capital, Harare, stoking fears of growing violence three weeks before elections.
Police confirmed the death and said two suspects had been arrested, as the country’s information ministry called for calm.
Continue reading...Second victim in a stable condition after shots were fired when fight broke out in city centre
One of two people who were shot in downtown Auckland on Thursday night has died in hospital, police have confirmed.
Police were called after receiving reports of a fight between a group of people at about 11.30pm on Thursday on lower Queen Street, in Auckland’s city centre.
Continue reading...West African country is enduring hard times – and critics say plan to import liquefied natural gas will only make things worse
John Gakpo has milled corn to make kenkey – a cornmeal dumpling and Ghana’s staple food – in a dimly lit wooden shack in a suburb of the capital, Accra, for 15 years.
In the past, his earnings have been sufficient to provide for his family – but not any more.
Continue reading...Coup leaders and Russia are attempting to frame takeover as anti-neocolonialism after misjudging reaction from Ecowas
In the square in central Niamey on Thursday, the anniversary of Niger’s independence from France, the mainly young men who gathered to demonstrate in favour of the military coup against President Mohamed Bazoum brought with them Russian flags and anti-French slogans.
It remained unclear whether the demonstration was spontaneous or organised to coincide with a speech by the coup leader Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani in which he decried the threat of interference by the west and regional powers led by Nigeria.
Continue reading...Announcement comes weeks after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out of hosting the 2026 Games
The province of Alberta has withdrawn its support for a bid centred around Calgary/Edmonton to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games, weeks after the Australia state of Victoria pulled out of hosting the 2026 Games.
Alberta’s tourism minister, Joseph Schow, said that cost was behind the decision.
Continue reading...Road closures and a huge police presence meant Trump slipped into court out of public view – but onlookers made their voices heard
After hearing that Donald Trump would appear at a federal courthouse in downtown Washington to answer charges filed against him for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, Joan Batista made plans to be outside, celebrating what she viewed as the former president’s long overdue comeuppance.
But when she arrived at the E Barrett Prettyman US courthouse, what she saw bothered her. City trucks equipped with snow plows blocked roads, hundreds of police monitored the building’s entrances and reporters from all around the world ringed its perimeter, hoping for a glimpse of the former president.
Continue reading...