Pro-choice groups condemn rare enforcement of country’s total ban on terminations
A woman in Malta has been charged in court for having an abortion, in a rare enforcement of the country’s total ban on terminations.
The Women’s Rights Foundation of Malta said: “What should have never happened [has] happened today: a Maltese woman was brought to court facing charges of having a medical abortion at home.”
Continue reading...Celebrities and UK royals watch Prince Hussein marry Rajwa Alseif in marriage seen to secure succession and boost state ties
Jordan’s monarchy has cemented the role of its 28-year-old crown prince with a wedding attended by global royalty, including Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales, in a glittering show seeking to buttress the succession and move on from a painful family scandal.
Crown Prince Hussein married Rajwa Alseif, a 29-year-old Saudi architect linked to her own country’s ruling dynasty, on Thursday afternoon in a match seen as boosting Amman’s rocky relationship with its more powerful and oil-rich neighbour.
Continue reading...Parliament hopes report examining historic treatment of Sámi and Kvens will raise awareness and encourage reconciliation
A Norwegian parliamentary commission has published a damning report on historic injustices against Sámi, Kvens and other Indigenous groups.
Norway’s parliament set up the truth and reconciliation commission in 2018 to examine authorities’ historic policies and activities relating to Indigenous people, including attempts to assimilate them.
Continue reading...The world’s richest person lapsed into an unusual silence on social media during his trip to the electric carmaker’s second largest market
Followers of Elon Musk didn’t know what to expect from his trip to China. Would he speak about Tesla, a company with a large market and manufacturing footprint there? Or SpaceX, with its symbiotic relationship with the American state? Or even Twitter, the social network he bought because “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy”?
The one thing no one expected: silence.
Continue reading...Prosecutors are reportedly seeking a prison term and a near-£1m fine for ex-Sega developer Yuji Naka
One of Sonic the Hedgehog’s creators is facing possible jail time and a fine of close to £1m for his alleged part in an insider trading scheme, according to a court report by Japanese media.
Yuji Naka, who co-created Sega’s blue-spiked mascot, was arrested in November last year over allegations he traded in stock with privileged information for a significant profit.
Continue reading...Morris Wortman, 72, was passenger in hand-built, experimental plane that went down in New York state on Sunday, killing pilot too
A New York fertility doctor who was accused of using his own sperm to impregnate several patients died when the hand-built airplane he was in fell apart mid-flight and crashed, authorities said.
Dr Morris Wortman, 72, of Rochester, was a passenger in the experimental aircraft that went down on Sunday in a pasture in Orleans county. The pilot, Earl Luce Jr, of Brockport, also was killed, the county sheriff said.
Continue reading...The Russian businessman is the father of Evgeny Lebedev, who was given a peerage by Boris Johnson
Ukraine has imposed sanctions on Alexander Lebedev – the former KGB intelligence officer whose son Evgeny sits in the House of Lords – in connection with Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The national security and defence council in Kyiv imposed sanctions on Lebedev Sr last October. The decision – first reported by Tortoise media – emerged on Thursday and follows a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Officials say combination of high temperatures and stiff breezes could lead to ‘extreme fire behaviour’ in Maritime province
Officials in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia say a day of blistering heat, strong winds and low humidity could lead to “extreme fire behaviour” as they work to control wildfires that have forced more than 20,000 people from their homes.
Fire crews said on Thursday they were concerned about a phenomenon known as “crossover”, which occurs when temperature rises above 30C, humidity drops below 30% and winds exceed 30km/h.
Continue reading...Chronic emergencies in Africa are being ignored while Ukraine dominates headlines and receives more funding, says NGO
The displacement of 2 million people in Burkina Faso has been named the world’s most neglected crisis, while the world’s attention and aid has been focused on Ukraine, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).
Burkina Faso has endured five years of conflict with militias – who have attacked water sources and forced school closures – now controlling up to 40% of the country’s territory.
Continue reading...President says last year’s killings were result of ‘encouragement of anarchy’ in Amazon under Bolsonaro
Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira will not be forgotten, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed, blaming their killings a year ago on the Amazonian “anarchy” unleashed under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Phillips, a British journalist, and Pereira, a Brazilian Indigenous expert, were shot dead by a group of illegal fishers on 5 June last year while travelling in the remote Javari valley near Brazil’s border with Colombia and Peru.
Continue reading...Ex-partner of Lord Ashcroft’s son discharged gun at Henry Jemmott in 2021 as the pair drank together
The Canadian socialite and former partner of the son of the billionaire and Conservative party grandee Michael Ashcroft has been fined after killing a police officer in Belize.
Jasmine Hartin, 34, was ordered to pay £30,000 by the supreme court in Belize City for manslaughter by negligence. She must also undertake 300 hours of community service and film a video about the dangers of “drinking and making foolish decisions”.
Continue reading...Alexandre Saraiva gives alert on organised crime in region ahead of anniversary of killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira
The rapid advance of organised crime groups in the Brazilian Amazon risks turning the region into a vast, conflict-stricken hinterland plagued by heavily armed “criminal insurgents”, a former senior federal police chief has warned.
Alexandre Saraiva, who worked in the Amazon from 2011 to 2021, said he feared the growing footprint of drug-trafficking mafias in the region could spawn a situation similar to the decades-long drug conflict in Rio de Janeiro, where the police’s battle with drug gangs and paramilitaries has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Continue reading...Photos and videos on phone found near site of men’s killing show some of their last movements in Brazilian Amazon
Some of the last images of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira have been found after Indigenous activists recovered a mobile phone Pereira was carrying when the two men were killed in the Brazilian Amazon last year.
The phone was found last October when activists from Univaja, the Indigenous association where Pereira worked, returned to a stretch of flooded forest along the Itaquaí River where the men’s bodies were taken after they were shot dead on their boat on the morning of 5 June 2022.
Continue reading...New law that criminalises ‘wilfully damaging’ country’s national interest raises fears of crackdown on dissent
Zimbabwe’s parliament has outlawed criticism of the government before presidential and parliamentary elections in August, with violations of a new law punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
The criminal law code amendment bill, widely known as the “patriotic bill”, contains a clause that criminalises “wilfully damaging the sovereignty and national interest of Zimbabwe”.
Continue reading...Suspect, 48, was earlier charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to a couch and the hostel in Wellington
New Zealand police have filed five murder charges against the man they say lit a deadly fire at a Wellington hostel two weeks ago.
Police had earlier filed arson charges against the 48-year-old, accusing him of setting fire to a couch and to the hostel itself. He has remained in jail since his arrest two days after the fire.
Continue reading...Gelje Sherpa was guiding Chinese client to summit when he saw Malaysian climber clinging to rope
A Malaysian climber narrowly survived after a Nepali sherpa guide hauled him down from below the summit of Mount Everest in a very rare high-altitude rescue, a government official has said.
Gelje Sherpa, 30, was guiding a Chinese client to the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) Everest summit on 18 May when he saw the Malaysian climber clinging to a rope and shivering from extreme cold in the area known as the death zone, where temperatures can dip to -30C or lower.
Continue reading...Macron says negotiated peace might take priority over Putin war crimes trial; US announces $300m arms package but ‘don’t use on Russian soil’
Continue reading...The shipment comes with a warning that the weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia
The United States has announced a new $300m arms package for Ukraine, including air defense systems and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition – but warned Kyiv that US weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia.
“We have been very clear with the Ukrainians privately – we’ve certainly been clear publicly – that we do not support attacks inside Russia. We do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside Russia,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
Continue reading...Park has long been a target of activists who have sought to shut it down over the lack of care given to its captive animals
A theme park in Canada is facing charges for its handling of black bears in captivity, placing fresh scrutiny on a park that animal rights activists have long sought to shut down.
Ontario’s ministry of the solicitor general said on Wednesday it had laid the charges against Marineland, an amusement park on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The province said the park had failed to comply with an order related to its captive American black bears.
Continue reading...Infants, toddlers and older children died from fever or lack of food while trapped in deteriorating conditions
At least 60 infants, toddlers and older children have perished over the past six weeks while trapped in harrowing conditions in an orphanage in Sudan’s capital as fighting raged outside.
Most died from lack of food and from fever. Twenty-six died in two days over the weekend.
Continue reading...