Suspect charged with attempted murder after incident at military training ground
An 18-year-old military recruit has been detained after he shot and killed two fellow soldiers and wounded a third at a training range in central Japan.
“During a live-bullet exercise as part of new personnel training, one Self-Defense Force candidate fired at three personnel,” the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) said in a statement.
Continue reading...Environmental groups criticise revision of law that would have banned installation of gas and oil systems
The German government has staved off a power battle that threatened to cause the ruling coalition to implode after finally agreeing an 11th-hour amendment to a controversial new heating law.
Negotiations over the legislation have dominated the headlines for weeks, with the economy minister, Robert Habeck, of the Greens clashing with the pro-liberal Free Democratic party (FDP) over how much consumers should be burdened with the costs of replacing fossil fuel heating systems with cleaner, climate-neutral energy.
Continue reading...Competition commission accuses firm of favouring its own services to detriment of rivals
The EU has ordered Google to sell part of its advertising business, as the bloc’s competition regulator steps up its enforcement of big tech’s monopolies.
The competition commission said it had taken issue “with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers”.
Continue reading...Russia has had 12 months to prepare defensive positions supported by superior air power
The footage that began circulating on Russian social media channels last week depicted what was portrayed as a significant military setback for Ukraine at the beginning of its counteroffensive.
In a flat, open area south of Zaporizhzhia – bisected by hedges and a wide muddy track – about 12 Ukrainian armoured vehicles had become pinned down, bunched too close together near a minefield.
Continue reading...Commissioner says existential threat unlikely, but ‘guardrails’ needed for decisions affecting livelihoods
Discrimination is a bigger threat posed by artificial intelligence than possible extinction of the human race, according to the EU’s competition commissioner.
Margrethe Vestager said although the existential risk from advances in AI may be a concern, it was unlikely, whereas discrimination from the technology was a real problem.
Continue reading...Instant Brands, which blames rising interest rates for financial problems, will continue to serve retailers
The maker of Pyrex kitchenware and the Instant Pot pressure cooker has filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming rising interest rates for its financial difficulties.
Instant Brands, controlled by the private equity investor Cornell Capital, said late on Tuesday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of Texas, as it tries to restructure liabilities of as much as $1bn (£790m).
Continue reading...Emergency contraception, HIV-prevention and abortion drugs are locked in a warehouse in Khartoum – leaving women to turn to desperate measures
Rape survivors in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.
Access to a warehouse where 47,000 medical post-rape kits are stored has been cut off since the conflict began in April. Women are using social media to share information about where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and infections – or are using herbal remedies.
Continue reading...Former US president arrives in New Jersey after indictment hearing in Miami over classified documents
Meanwhile in Washington, Donald Trump’s allies in Congress are vowing to do all they can to help him fight Jack Smith’s prosecution.
Here’s the judiciary committee’s Republican chair Jim Jordan hinting to CNN that he may demand testimony from Smith, the special counsel appointed by attorney general Merrick Garland specifically to handle the investigations into Trump:
Continue reading...Volodmyr Zelenskiy meets head of UN nuclear watchdog; US House of Representatives votes unanimously to call for return of detained US journalist
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, has met President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to discuss risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of a planned visit to the facility on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy has praised Ukrainian troops in his nighttime address and singled out units operating near Bakhmut, saying “there is forward movement in various areas”.
Putin has claimed Ukrainian losses during the conflict are near “catastrophic” and that the counterattack had not been successful in any area. The Russian president made the claim during televised meetings with war correspondents and military bloggers. “This is a massive counteroffensive, using strategic reserves that were prepared for this task,” Putin said. “They lost over 160, we lost 54 tanks, and some of them are subject to restoration and repair.”
The US House of Representatives has voted unanimously on a resolution calling for Russia to immediately release imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Moscow has also flagged it may withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, after Putin says he has been cheated by the west who have failed to deliver on a promise to help bring Russian agricultural goods to world markets.
A Russian missile strike on an apartment in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine has killed 11 and injured more than 30 people, according to an updated casualty list provided by Volodymr Zelenskiy on Tuesday.
The US government has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $325m which includes artillery rounds, anti-aircraft systems and 15 new Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The UK Ministry of Defence has announced a $115m air defence package for Ukraine. Latvia has allocated another $460,000 in aid to Ukraine following the Kakhova Dam disaster.
Ukrainian forces have been confirmed to have liberated the village of Neskuchne on Tuesday after Reuters journalists were able to reach the area. Russia has yet acknowledge any gains.
Continue reading...Exclusive: methodology used by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism risks undermining media in global south, says Ressa
Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa has claimed Oxford University’s leading journalism institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.
One of the world’s most prominent and respected journalists, Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), because of deep concerns about how it compiles an annual Digital News Report.
Continue reading...Montana teen Mica is one of 16 plaintiffs in historic trial, alleging state has violated residents’ right to healthy environment
Mica, aged 15, learned about climate change when he was just four, when his parents showed him the documentary Chasing Ice.
“I understood it more than my parents thought I would,” he testified in a groundbreaking trial on Tuesday. “I just knew something bad was happening, but I didn’t know exactly what it was.”
Continue reading...Wilson the Belgian shepherd featured prominently in drawings by Indigenous children as they recover in Bogotá hospital
The four Indigenous children who survived a plane crash and 40 days alone in the Colombian Amazon are continuing their recovery in Bogotá’s military hospital, and the oldest two have been well enough to pick up crayons.
In their first pictures released by Colombia’s armed forces, a four-legged figure jumps from the page: Wilson, the Belgian shepherd dog who helped lead rescuers to their location – and who remains missing in the jungle.
Continue reading...President admits Russia has lost 54 tanks in the opening assaults but insists Ukraine’s losses are greater
Vladimir Putin has denied Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s claims of early success in Ukraine’s long-anticipated counteroffensive, which has seen Kyiv’s troops regain some territory, while admitting that Russia had lost 54 tanks in the opening assaults.
In a televised meeting with military bloggers, Russia’s president conceded that his forces had taken losses but insisted that Ukraine had lost 25% to 30% of its foreign-supplied military vehicles including 160 tanks.
Continue reading...Gabriel Fortin, 48, is alleged to have killed two HR directors and a jobs centre worker and wounded a fourth person in 2021 attacks
An unemployed French engineer has gone on trial accused of shooting dead three women he blamed for his failure to find a job.
Gabriel Fortin, 48, allegedly killed two human resources directors and a jobs centre employee, and attempted to kill another worker, after a string of dismissals.
Continue reading...More than 600 people still missing, authorities say, amid reports pastor ordered followers to starve themselves
The death toll linked to a Kenyan pastor accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus has passed 300, with the figure expected to increase as more exhumations are planned.
Authorities say the dead were members of the Good News international church, led by Paul Mackenzie, who is accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s brigades record videos of flag-raisings in a series of villages but its fundamental challenge of a lack of combat aircraft remains
Two things stand out with Ukraine’s counteroffensive more than a week under way. Ukraine is pushing forward at several points, mostly along the southern front but also in the east. And in some places, its army is making incremental but real gains, liberating villages near the frontline.
In the last week Ukraine has attacked on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia sector, where the frontlines meet the Dnipro River at a point; again south of Orikhiv 18 miles east and, most significantly, either side of a Russian salient at the border between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.
Continue reading...Victims, including women and children, were reportedly returning from ceremony
A boat carrying residents returning from a wedding capsized in northern Nigeria killing about 100 people, police and local residents have said, as a search for survivors intensified.
The boat capsized early on Monday on the Niger River in the state of Kwara close to neighbouring Niger state, a police spokesperson, Okasanmi Ajayi, said.
Continue reading...Journalists say directive on hate speech issued by regulator indirectly affects coverage of former PM
Broadcast journalists in Pakistan have decried a de facto ban on mentioning Imran Khan by name or showing his image after a series of directives issued by the country’s media regulator.
Pakistan’s parliament ousted Khan from parliament in April last year. Since then he has been making nearly daily headlines with fiery speeches and tweets directed at the government and army.
Continue reading...Knesset to elect two members to judges selection committee, with hardliners in ruling coalition pushing to pick both members
Israeli politics is once again reaching a fever pitch before a crucial vote related to the government’s controversial proposals to overhaul the judiciary.
The Knesset will convene on Wednesday to elect two representatives to Israel’s judicial selection committee – the composition of which is at the heart of the now six-month-old battle over the future of Israeli democracy.
Continue reading...Move follows reports of extortion by Mexican officials in Nuevo Laredo who threaten migrants with missing asylum appointments
The Biden administration has stopped taking mobile phone app appointments to admit asylum seekers at a Texas border crossing that connects to a notoriously dangerous Mexican city after advocates warned US authorities that migrants were being targeted there for extortion.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) gave no explanation for its decision to stop scheduling new appointments via the CBP One app for the crossing in Laredo, Texas.
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