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Australia To Build Eight Nuclear-Powered Submarines

Zoe Maven
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Australia To Build Eight Nuclear-Powered Submarines

Australia will build eight nuclear-powered submarines under a new Indo-Pacific security partnership with the United States and Britain that analysts say will likely rile China, which will see the pact as an attempt to contain it.

In announcing the new security group on Wednesday, the leaders of the United States, Australia and Britain did not mention China, but Washington and its allies are seeking to push back against its growing power and influence, particularly its military buildup, pressure on Taiwan and deployments in the contested South China Sea.

China’s U.S. embassy said that countries “should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or harming the interests of third parties”.

The trilateral pact, including access to U.S. nuclear submarine technology, will be seen in Beijing as a threat, said Asia Society Policy Institute senior fellow Richard Maude.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the focus on the Indo-Pacific but said Australia’s new nuclear-powered submarines would not be allowed in its territorial waters under a long-standing nuclear free policy.

Speaking at a News conference, Ardern said she was pleased to see that the eye has been turned to their region from partners they work closely with, adding it was a contested region and there was a role that others can play in taking an interest in our region.

Lebanon Judge Issues Arrest Warrant For Ex-Minister Over Beirut Blast

Zoe Maven
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Lebanon Judge Issues Arrest Warrant For Ex-Minister Over Beirut Blast

The judge investigating last year’s Beirut port blast on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for former public works minister Youssef Finianos after he failed to show up for questioning.

Finianos, a Hezbollah ally sanctioned by the United States for his links to the group that it considers a terrorist organisation, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The massive August 2020 explosion was caused by a large quantity of ammonium nitrate which had been stored unsafely at the port for years. The arrest warrant is the first for an ex-minister arising from the investigation.

The blast killed hundreds, injured thousands and destroyed large swathes of the city but more than a year later, no top officials have been held accountable, angering many Lebanese.

Judge Tarek Bitar, who is now leading the inquiry into the huge explosion, had issued requests in July to question former prime minister Hassan Diab and other top officials, including former public works minister Finianos, whom Bitar’s predecessor Fadi Sawan had charged with negligence.

All have denied wrongdoing.

Sawan was removed from the probe in February after a court granted a request for his dismissal by two other former ministers he had charged with negligence for the disaster – Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter.

Diab, the former Lebanese prime minister, is due for questioning on Sept. 20, although is unclear whether he will return for the session after leaving Beirut on Tuesday for the United States.

On Thursday, families of the victims demonstrated outside of Beirut’s Palace of Justice and blocked a nearby road, angry at the lack of progress in the investigation.

UN Envoy Meets New Afghan Interior Minister Wanted By U.S.

Zoe Maven
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UN Envoy Meets New Afghan Interior Minister Wanted By U.S.

A U.N. envoy has met Afghanistan’s new interior minister who was for years was one of the world’s most wanted Islamist militants and is now part of a government trying to head off a humanitarian crisis.

The meeting between Deborah Lyons, head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, and Sirajuddin Haqqani focused on humanitarian assistance, Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, said in a statement on Twitter.

Afghanistan was already facing chronic poverty and drought but the situation has deteriorated since the Taliban took over last month with the disruption of aid, the departure of tens of thousands of people including government and aid workers and the collapse of much economic activity.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an international aid conference this week that Afghans were facing “perhaps their most perilous hour”.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan said that in the Wednesday meeting Lyons had stressed the “absolute necessity for all U.N. and humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan to be able to work without intimidation or obstruction to deliver vital aid and conduct work for Afghan people”.

The Taliban repeatedly targeted the United Nations during the two-decades-long U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan that ended last month with the rout of the Western-backed government by the Taliban.

In one of the bloodiest incidents, Taliban militants killed five U.N. foreign staff in an attack on a guest-house in Kabul in 2009.

More recently, gunmen attacked a U.N. compound in the city of Herat in July with rocket-propelled grenades killing a guard, while protesters in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in 2011 killed seven U.N. staff.

ICC Authorizes Full Investigation Into Philippines’s War On Drugs

Zoe Maven
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ICC Authorizes Full Investigation Into Philippines’s War On Drugs

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has formally authorized an official investigation into alleged crimes against humanity during Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

This comes as Tens of thousands of people may have been killed in police drug operations in the Philippines since 2016, according to a United Nations report found last year.

Campaigners say they hope the probe will mark the beginning of the end to impunity in a crackdown that rights groups say has killed dozens of children.

The ICC said in a statement on Wednesday that after considering the evidence of at least 204 victims, there’s “reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting that specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder” had been met.

The Hague-based tribunal added that “the so-called ‘war on drugs’ campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.”

The evidence suggests that a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy,” the ICC added.

Former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda recommended a full investigation into the allegations just before stepping down last June.

Officials reiterated on Thursday that Duterte wouldn’t cooperate because the Philippines was no longer a member of the ICC.

Russia Votes In Parliament Election Without Main Opposition

Zoe Maven
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Russia Votes In Parliament Election Without Main Opposition

Russia is holding three days of voting this weekend in a parliamentary election that is unlikely to change the country’s political complexion.

There’s no expectation that United Russia, the party devoted to President Vladimir Putin, will lose its dominance of the State Duma, the elected lower house of parliament.

The main questions to be answered are whether the party will retain its current two-thirds majority that allows it to amend the constitution; whether anemic turnout will dull the party’s prestige; and whether imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s Smart Voting initiative proves to be a viable strategy against it.

Putin, however, on Thursday urged Russians to vote, saying in a video message that “election of (the Duma’s) new composition is undoubtedly the most important event in the life of our society and country.”

With 14 parties fielding candidates for half of the Duma’s 450 seats that are chosen by party list, the election has a veneer of being genuinely competitive. But the three parties aside from United Russia that are expected to clear the 5% support necessary to get a seat rarely challenge the Kremlin.

The Kremlin wants control over the new parliament, which will still be in place in 2024, when Putin’s current term expires and he must decide on running for reelection or choosing some other strategy to stay in power.

The other half of the seats are chosen in individual constituencies, where independent candidates or those from small parties such as the liberal Yabloko may have stronger chances. These seats are also where the Navalny team’s Smart Voting strategy could make inroads.

UN Chief Urges ‘Rapid’ Emission Cuts To Curb Climate Change

Zoe Maven
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UN Chief Urges ‘Rapid’ Emission Cuts To Curb Climate Change

The head of the United Nations on Thursday called for “immediate, rapid and large-scale” cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to curb global warming and avert climate disaster.

Ahead of the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting next week, Antonio Guterres warned governments that climate change is proceeding faster than predicted and fossil fuel emissions have already bounced back from a pandemic dip.

Speaking at the launch of a U.N.-backed report summarizing current efforts to tackle climate change, Guterres said recent extreme weather showed no country is safe from climate-related disasters.

He said these changes are just the beginning of worse to come and appealed to governments to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accord.

In their report, titled United in Science 21, six U.N. bodies and scientific organizations drew on existing research to argue that there is a direct link between human-caused emissions, record high temperatures and disasters that have a tangible impact on individuals and societies, including “billions of work hours  lost through heat alone.”

Because of the long-lasting effects of many emissions already released into the atmosphere, further impacts are inevitable, they noted.

The Authors wrote that Even with ambitious action to slow greenhouse gas emissions, sea levels will continue to rise and threaten low-lying islands and coastal populations throughout the world,”.

Burundi Rights Abuses Worsening Under New Govt, UN

Zoe Maven
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Burundi Rights Abuses Worsening Under New Govt, UN

United Nations investigators say despite Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye’s pledges to end repression, the human rights situation in the East African country has worsened in the 15 months since he took office.

Ndayishimiye’s election last year had raised hopes of a more open political environment emerging after many years of violence and severe rights violations in the troubled nation.

But in a report released Thursday, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said that although the authorities appeared to have eased some restrictions, conditions had actually worsened for opposition parties, journalists and NGOs, which are facing a renewed crackdown.

The UN statement said members of opposition parties… are still regularly targeted by abusive restrictions and are subject to grave human rights violations such as disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions and torture.

Observers had hoped that Ndayishimiye’s government would help the country turn a corner and improve its human rights record, but UN investigators said Burundian security forces were still committing violations.

Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when then president Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected in polls boycotted by most of the opposition.

At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 forced into exile as a result of violence which the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.

Marks & Spencer Shuts France Stores On Brexit Fallout

Zoe Maven
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0
Marks & Spencer Shuts France Stores On Brexit Fallout

British retailer Marks and Spencer said Thursday it planned to shut more than half its stores in France with Brexit affecting supplies of fresh and chilled products.

Announcing the closure of 11 out of 20 franchise stores, the food-to-clothing retailer said in a statement that “the lengthy and complex export processes… following the UK’s exit from the European Union are significantly constraining” supplies.

Paul Friston, managing director of the British company’s international arm, added that while it will shut all 11 franchise stores with partner SFH in France over the coming months, the nine franchise stores with partner Lagardere Travel Retail will remain open across airports and train stations”M&S has a long history of serving customers in France and this is not a decision we or our partner SFH have taken lightly,”

Marks said it planned to close the mainly Paris stores by the end of the year.

Already following Britain’s formal EU exit at the start of the year, Marks has reconfigured its food business in Czech Republic, removing the sale of all fresh and chilled products from stores.

It comes as British businesses across various sectors are struggling with deliveries as the pandemic and Brexit result in a shortage of lorry drivers.

Consequently, Britain on Tuesday said it would push back its implementation of full post-Brexit borders checks on goods from the European Union, as Covid, red tape and new immigration rules fuel supply problems.

Rights Group Accuses Egypt’s Security Of Intimidation Tactics

Zoe Maven
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0
Rights Group Accuses Egypt’s Security Of Intimidation Tactics

A global human rights group Thursday accused Egypt’s main domestic security agency of harassing and intimidating rights advocates and activists to silence them.

The Amnesty International report was the latest rebuke to Egypt’s government, which faces increasing pressure from the U.S. to improve its human rights record.

The rights group said the National Security Agency was “increasingly using a well-honed pattern of unlawful summons, (and) coercive questioning” of activists in practices amounting to “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

The London-based group said it documented how the agency, which handles terror-related and political cases, used such measures to “control the lives” of at least 26 people, including seven women, between 2020 and 2021.

The report is titled: “This will only end when you die,” in reference to what one activist was told of her regular summons to the agency.

Amnesty did not disclose the names of those activists. The NSA is overseen by the Interior Ministry. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has in the past maintained that his country has no political prisoners.

Egypt’s government has in recent years waged a wide-scale crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people, mainly Islamists, but also secular activists involved in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Many people have been imprisoned on terrorism charges, for breaking a ban on protests or for disseminating false news.

Nigeria probes report air force killed civilians

Henry Williams
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Nigeria probes report air force killed civilians

Nigeria’s air force says it is now investigating reports that shots fired from one of its aircraft killed civilians in the north-east of the country.

In a statement it retracted its earlier denial, which we reported on, saying it was based on incorrect reports that those who died were killed in a bombing adding that the aircraft involved was not carrying any bombs.

Spokesperson Air Commodore Edward Gabkwet said that there had been intelligence reports of militant activity and an aircraft was sent to respond in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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