Ambassador says weapons were brought to Russia on cargo ship from Simon’s Town naval base, local media reports
The US ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of covertly providing arms to Russia – a charge that drew an angry rebuke from Pretoria.
Reuben Brigety told a media briefing on Thursday that the US believed weapons and ammunition had been loaded on to a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base in December.
Continue reading...Britain donating arms capable of striking targets in occupied Crimea as Kyiv prepares counteroffensive against Russia
Britain has become the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wants to boost its chances in a much-anticipated counteroffensive, prompting a threat from the Kremlin of a military response.
Hours after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he needed more western weapons to be confident of a victory this summer, Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, told MPs that the missiles – which cost more than £2m each – were “now going in, or are in the country itself”.
Continue reading...Former president is accused of seeking millions of euros from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 campaign
French prosecutors have demanded that the former president Nicolas Sarkozy face a new trial over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.
France’s financial crimes prosecutors (PNF) said on Thursday that Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over accusations they sought millions of euros in financing from the regime of the then Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, for his ultimately victorious campaign.
Continue reading...Estrella Santos-Zacaria will have another chance to seek asylum from sexual assault and death threats after being deported in 2008
The US supreme court ruled on Thursday in favor of a transgender Guatemalan woman fighting deportation on the grounds that she would face persecution if returned to her native country.
The unanimous decision in favor of Estrella Santos-Zacaria gives her another chance to argue that immigration officials were wrong to reject her bid to remain in the US.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html.
Continue reading...Clashes between Israel and militants leave 29 dead so far, with airstrikes targeting homes of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders
Fighting between Israel and militant groups in the blockaded Gaza Strip has intensified for the third day despite ceasefire efforts brokered by Egypt, in the worst bout of violence in the region in months that has killed 29 people in Gaza, including at least 10 civilians, and one civilian in Israel.
The latest conflagration began in the early hours of Tuesday, when Israel launched surprise airstrikes targeting the homes of three senior commanders in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful group in the strip after Hamas, despite a fragile ceasefire in place since a day of cross-frontier fire last week.
Continue reading...Shocking photos of chopped-down tree in western Canada highlights flaws in plan to protect forest from loggers, activists say
Stark images of an ancient tree cut down in western Canada expose flaws in the government’s plan to protect old-growth forests, activists have said, arguing that vulnerable ecosystems have been put at risk as logging companies race to harvest timber.
As part of an effort to catalogue possible old growth forests, photographer TJ Watt and Ian Thomas of the environmental advocacy group Ancient Forest Alliance travelled to a grove of western red cedars on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. But then they arrived to the forest in Quatsino Sound, they found hundreds of trees that has recently been logged.
Continue reading...With 20m people at the highest risk of famine for 25 years, farmers are desperately trying to kill the pests before vast swarms form
The northern “breadbasket” of Afghanistan is battling a potentially devastating outbreak of locusts that threaten to eat their way through up to a quarter of the country’s annual wheat harvest, the UN has warned.
After three years of disappointing, drought-afflicted harvests, Afghan farmers were expecting better this year – a much-needed boost for a country where nearly 20 million people are thought to be at the highest risk of famine in 25 years.
Continue reading...Controversial expansion prompts worry and frustration from residents that a ‘sacred place’ could soon be destroyed
Before sunrise on the morning of 29 April 1903, a deep rumble echoed through Crowsnest Valley in western Alberta, Canada. The peak of Turtle Mountain had collapsed, sending a block of limestone nearly 1km wide and weighing 110m metric tonnes hurtling towards the town of Frank, a coalmining community of 600 people.
In less than two minutes, 100 people are believed to have been killed in what remains Canada’s deadliest rockslide. A dozen bodies were recovered, but the vast majority of victims remain buried under boulders the size of vehicles.
Continue reading...Ben Wallace confirms reports that UK is donating Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine
Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Yan Gagin, an assistant to the Russian-imposed head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, has claimed that Ukraine is increasingly using fléchettes shells when attacking targets within the occupied Donetsk region. It quotes him saying:
We are increasingly recording the use by the enemy of artillery shells filled with fléchettes. They have been used especially actively lately.
Continue reading...Losses would be ‘unacceptable’ without more heavy weapons promised by west, says president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine needs “more time” before it can launch its much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russia, adding that some armoured vehicles promised by the west had yet to arrive.
The president said that newly formed brigades were ready to attack: “We can go forward and be successful. But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.”
Continue reading...Exclusive: For 21 years, the detainee has been in US custody without charge, tortured and sexually humiliated, with no prospect for release
• Warning: the images and descriptions of torture in this article are extremely graphic
A detainee held in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay who was used as a human guinea pig in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has produced the most comprehensive and detailed account yet seen of the brutal techniques to which he was subjected.
Abu Zubaydah has created a series of 40 drawings that chronicle the torture he endured in a number of CIA dark sites between 2002 and 2006 and at Guantánamo Bay. In the absence of a full official accounting of the torture program, which the CIA and the FBI have labored for years to keep secret, the images give a unique and searing insight into a grisly period in US history.
Continue reading...Group tell of determination to fulfil American dream after compatriots were killed when SUV driver drove into bus stop
After a tragic start to the week and a night of thunderstorms, a group of migrants in south Texas woke up newly determined to fulfill their American dream.
Equipping themselves with soapy water, buckets, rags and a lot of spirit, about 30 Venezuelan men on Tuesday began operating a donation-based car washing service in a gas station right next to the border that divides Brownsville, Texas, from Matamoros, Mexico.
Continue reading...Researchers say wipes common in schools and care homes exposing people to dangerous chemical group called ‘quats’
Since the pandemic’s outset, the global use of disinfectants has gone through the roof. Clorox dramatically boosted production of its wipe packs to 1.5m a day by mid-2021, and an industry trade group said 83% of consumers surveyed around the same time reported they had used a disinfectant wipe in the last week.
But as schools reopened, a group of toxic chemical researchers grew concerned as they heard reports of kids regularly using disinfectant wipes on their classroom desks, or teachers running disinfectant foggers.
Continue reading...Lost cricket rights prompts outflow but streaming service almost halves losses while theme parks boom
Disney, known for Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel movies, said its flagship streaming service lost 4 million subscribers in the first three months of the year.
Subscribers to Disney+ services, home to movies such as Toy Story, Monsters, Thor and Black Panther, fell to nearly 158m from January to March, the second quarter of customer losses after a 2.4 million drop in the previous three months. Analysts had expected Disney to add more than 1 million customers in the quarter. The shares fell nearly 5% in after-hours trading.
Continue reading...Court orders immediate release of former prime minister who was arrested in Islamabad this week
Pakistan’s supreme court has ruled the arrest of the former prime minister Imran Khan was illegal and ordered for him to be released.
The chief justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, declared that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had acted in violation of the law by arresting Khan on the premises of the Islamabad high court without permission and that such actions would have a “chilling effect”.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Protests could mark the start of a violent showdown that threatens the country’s fragile political system
Good morning.
On Tuesday, the former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was arrested on charges of corruption. The extraordinary scene was caught on video, with Khan at the centre of a gaggle of agents, all dressed in black riot gear who are pulling him into an armoured truck outside the high court in the capital, Islamabad.
US news | Donald Trump made a chaotic appearance at a CNN town hall last night, digging in on lies about the 2020 election and E Jean Carroll’s lawsuit, a day after a New York jury found the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
Wales | Adam Price, the leader of Plaid Cymru since 2018, is resigning from his position after a damning review said his party had failed to “detoxify” its culture and found evidence of misogyny, harassment and bullying. A new leader is expected to be in place for the summer.
Health | The Guardian has found that some online pharmacies operating in the UK are approving and dispatching prescriptions of controversial slimming jabs for people of a healthy weight. Campaigners are urging pharmacies to deploy stronger health checks and screening for eating disorders.
Politics | The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee heavily criticised Liz Truss over her planned trip to Taiwan, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”. Alicia Kearns went on, describing the trip as little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief time as prime minister last year.
Housing | Almost 1.5 million homeowners with fixed-rate mortgages face higher borrowing costs as the Bank of England is expected to push up interest rates to 4.5%. Many will see their annual bills increase by an average of £3,000 when they refinance their loans this year.
Continue reading...War in Ukraine and Pakistan’s ‘monsoon on steroids’ among events driving surge on ‘scale never seen before’ as 71m people displaced
The number of people around the world who were forced to flee their homes leapt by a fifth last year, as a “perfect storm” of Russia’s assault on Ukraine and climate disasters brought displacement on an unprecedented scale.
By the end of 2022 the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) – those forced from their homes but remaining within their country of residence – reached 71 million, according to figures published by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), up from 59.1 million in 2021.
Continue reading...Alicia Kearns, foreign affairs select committee chair, launches blistering attack on former prime minister
The Conservative chair of the foreign affairs select committee has launched a blistering attack on Liz Truss over the former prime minister’s planned trip to Taiwan, calling it “the worst kind of Instagram diplomacy”.
Alicia Kearns said she thought Truss’s trip planned for next week was little more than a vanity project aimed at keeping her profile high after her brief spell as prime minister last year.
Continue reading...Israeli forces admit ‘high possibility’ Al Jazeera reporter was shot by sniper at West Bank refugee camp
Family members, friends and colleagues of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was almost certainly fatally shot by an Israeli sniper, have renewed calls for justice on the first anniversary of her killing, during a week of memorials and events celebrating her life.
Abu Akleh, a household name in the Arab world who worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, was shot in the head in the slumlike refugee camp on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 11 May last year while covering an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid. International outrage at the reporter’s death was fuelled by scenes of violence at her funeral in Jerusalem, when Israeli police attacked pallbearers, almost causing them to drop the coffin.
Continue reading...Russia plans to relocate thousands of staff from nuclear plant, atomic energy company claims, warning of ‘catastrophic lack of qualified personnel’
Russia plans to relocate about 2,700 Ukrainian staff from Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Ukraine’s atomic energy company has claimed, warning of a potential “catastrophic lack of qualified personnel” at the Zaporizhzhia facility in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine.
Workers who signed employment contracts with Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom following Moscow’s capture of the Zaporizhzhia plant early in the war are set to be taken to Russia along with their families, Energoatom said in a Telegram post on Wednesday.
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