Detainees at Jau prison that mainly houses prisoners of conscience began refusing food on 7 August
At least 500 prisoners are on hunger strike inside a Bahraini prison primarily used to detain prisoners of conscience, refusing food in protest at their detention conditions.
Detainees began refusing food on 7 August, and increasing numbers have joined since.
Continue reading...Drug money claims involving Gustavo Petro’s son Nicolás could hamper progressive agenda
The lawyer representing a businessman accused of financing killings by paramilitary death squads has admitted that his client donated money to the campaign of Colombia’s first ever leftwing president, Gustavo Petro.
Alfonso Hilsaca knowingly gave 400m pesos ($95,000) to Gustavo Petro’s eldest son as a donation to his father’s electoral campaign, his lawyer said this week – though he said Hilsaca had not expected Nicolás Petro to steal the money for himself.
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One civilian was injured and private houses, farm buildings and gas pipelines were damaged in the Russian shelling of the Kherson oblast in the early hours of Friday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said.
The villages of Bilozerka and Dniprovske were the main targets of Russian troops.
Continue reading...Global temperature was warmest on record last month as Britain faced cloudy and wet conditions
At the start of this week Nasa announced that July 2023 had the highest global temperature recorded for that month since 1880. It was also the warmest month on record.
Readers in the UK may find this hard to believe, given the wet and generally miserable conditions in the country that month. Britain received 19% less sunshine and 170% more rain compared with the 1991-2020 average.
Continue reading...Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria police turned down request for escort for Fifa president, which is normally reserved for foreign heads of state
Fifa asked Australian police in multiple jurisdictions to provide escorts for president Gianni Infantino during his travel for the Women’s World Cup, but was turned down.
Infantino asked Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales police to provide him with escorts, the Guardian has confirmed.
Continue reading...No casualties reported after air defences destroyed drone, which fell on building in Expo Center complex, say officials
A Ukrainian drone has smashed into a building in central Moscow after Russian air defences shot it down, disrupting air traffic at all the civilian airports of the Russian capital, Russian officials have said.
A Reuters witness who was in the area in the early hours of Friday described hearing “a powerful explosion”. Reuters images showed workers and emergency workers inspecting a damaged roof of a non-residential building.
Continue reading...Jordanian security services are abducting, harassing and ‘outing’ LGBTQ+ people, activists say, despite repeal of anti-gay laws
Jordanian secret police have been accused of intimidating gay people by “outing” them to their families and of forcing the closure of two LGBTQ+ organisations.
Human rights groups say activists have been abducted, harassed and monitored, as well as having their sexuality revealed to religiously conservative families.
Continue reading...Denis Sharonov is part of a historic exodus as hundreds of thousands of Russians seek to escape Vladimir Putin’s war
The former minister drove his big white truck north until he reached Michigan. The Great Lakes provided a welcome relief from the scorching Texas heat.
After years navigating the byzantine corridors of provincial Russian power, Denis Sharonov now works as a truck driver, steering his way through the vast highways of the US.
Continue reading...Counterfeits are the bane of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, which is now trialling tech in the rind
When is a cheese not what it seems? When it’s a fake parmesan.
Italy’s renowned parmigiano reggiano, favoured for finishing off bowls of pasta and rocket salads, is one of the most counterfeited cheeses in the world. Now its manufacturers have found a new way to hit back against the lookalikes: by adding microchips.
Continue reading...Harmful language and stereotypes about women can lead to distortion of law, says chief justice of India
India’s supreme court has issued a handbook for judges urging them to shun words like seductress, vamp, spinster and harlot when talking about women.
Archaic terms that disparage women and perpetuate gender stereotypes can still be routinely heard in Indian courts long after falling into disuse in other countries. It is not unusual for a wife to be described as chaste or ladylike, and sexual harassment is routinely trivialised as “Eve-teasing”.
Continue reading...Secretary of state Antony Blinken confers ‘full support’ for transfer of F-16s and training of pilots
The United States has approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands as soon as pilot training is completed, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, says in a letter seen by the Reuters news agency.
Washington will expedite the approval of transfer requests for F-16s, the letter – sent to Blinken’s counterparts in Denmark and the Netherlands – was reported to say. The US must approve the transfer of the military jets from its allies to Ukraine.
Continue reading...Propaganda video shows troops running past anti-landing barricades similar to those that dot Taiwan’s coast
China’s army released a propaganda video showing soldiers preparing for a conflict in what appears to be the Taiwan strait.
The one-and-a-half-minute video, published on the Eastern Theatre Command’s official WeChat account on Thursday, is titled “Reading the Strait” and shows soldiers in combat gear doing press-ups under crashing waves, a tank battalion driving into the sunset and troops running up sandy shores past anti-landing barricades, similar to those that dot Taiwan’s coast.
Continue reading...Talks in Riyadh declared successful by Tehran after years of hostility between regional rivals
Iran’s foreign minister has visited Saudi Arabia, the first such trip in years, marking the continuing thaw in relations between two powers who recently have been locked in destabilising competition.
The visit by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian comes as the countries have been trying to ease tensions including over Iran’s nuclear programme, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across the region’s waterways.
Continue reading...At least 177 officials reportedly under investigation amid revival of Xi Jinping’s decade-old anti-corruption drive
China’s graft-busters have set their sights on the country’s healthcare sector, in what has been described as the biggest crackdown on corruption in the history of the industry.
At least 177 hospital bosses and Chinese Communist party (CCP) secretaries have been placed under investigation this year according to local media reports – more than double the number last year. In a press conference on Tuesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said the campaign would focus on people who had used their position to procure kickbacks and corruption in the pharmaceutical sector, the state tabloid the Global Times reported.
Continue reading...Threat raised to second-highest level as prime minister says country has thwarted planned attacks
Sweden has raised its terrorist threat level to the second-highest number possible, as the prime minister said the country had thwarted planned attacks.
The move comes amid heightened security fears following a string of Qur’an burnings that have caused outrage around the world.
Continue reading...Suspects accused of using chemicals to destroy locks of apartment doors during 90 break-ins
Five people have been charged over 90 burglaries in the Paris region in which acid was used to break the locks on apartment doors.
Four of the suspects have been held in pre-trial detention since Wednesday and the fifth is being monitored by police, prosecutors in Nanterre, north-west of the French capital, told AFP.
Continue reading...Worst wildfires in the Canary Islands in at least 40 years drawing closer to the capital Santa Cruz
More than 7,500 people have been evacuated or ordered to stay indoors as the worst wildfire in at least four decades ravages the Canary island of Tenerife, burning through 2,600 hectares (6,425 acres) of land and drawing closer to the capital, Santa Cruz.
Fernando Clavijo, the regional president of the Canaries, said more than 250 firefighters – backed by military emergency crews and 17 aircraft – were working to tackle the fire, which broke out in the north-east of the island on Tuesday and which currently has a 32km (20-mile) perimeter.
Continue reading...More than 20,000 residents given until noon on Friday to leave home in face of advancing wildfire that could arrive by weekend
Long lines of traffic have clogged the only road out of the Canadian city of Yellowknife, after authorities ordered the first ever evacuation of a capital in the face of an advancing wildfire.
More than 20,000 residents – the entire population – have been given until noon on Friday to leave their homes, as water bombers flew throughout the night and authorities warned that the fire could reach the city by the weekend.
Continue reading...Ecowas says it is ready to restore democracy and describes president Mohamed Bazoum as a hostage
A west African regional political grouping has reiterated it is prepared to intervene militarily in Niger following last month’s coup, describing the country’s detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, as a hostage.
Ecowas’s commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, made the comments as military chiefs of staff from the bloc met in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on Thursday and accused Niger’s military junta of “playing cat and mouse” with the grouping by refusing to meet its envoys.
Continue reading...Eight onboard and two motorists on ground killed as aircraft comes down in Elmina
A light plane crashed into a street in Malaysia’s central Selangor state on Thursday, killing eight people on board and two motorists on the ground.
“For now, I can say at least 10 people were killed in the plane crash. Two passing motorists – one in a car and one on a motorcycle – also perished together with the eight onboard the plane,” said the local police chief, Mohamad Iqbal Ibrahim.
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