Israel judicial crisis : Parliament ratifies divisive bill
- Israel’s parliament voted into law a contested curb on some Supreme Court powers submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the Knesset speaker has announced.
- The bill passed by a 64-0 vote, the speaker added, after opposition lawmakers abandoned the Knesset plenum in protest.
Israel turning into a ‘fascist dictatorship’: Knesset member
Knesset Member Ofer Cassif, who represents Israel’s communist Hadash party, says the rolling back of Israel democratic values is a consequence of the way the country has been ruled for more than half a century.
“There is no democracy with occupation. For more than 50 years now, Israel has been engaged in an ongoing dictatorship, a military dictatorship, in the occupied Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem, West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” Cassif told Al Jazeera.
“Either there is democracy or there is no democracy. With occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, which Israel has been pursuing for ages – in the last two years and especially in the last seven months even more so – there cannot be any democracy,” he said.
Talks initiated with North Korea over US soldier who ran across border
British general says US-led United Nations Command gives few details of contacts over Travis King who crossed line on 18 July
The US-led United Nations Command has initiated talks with North Korea about the American soldier who ran into that country and crossed one of the most militarized borders in the world, according to an official.
But a British lieutenant general who helps lead the UN command stopped short of saying exactly when talks about Travis King began, whether they have been constructive or how many exchanges there have been. The lieutenant general, Andrew Harrison, also would not address any known details about King’s health condition.
Russia jails Navalny aide on ‘extremism’ charges
A campaign organizer for imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to nine years in prison as Russian authorities continue to crack down on political opposition.
Russian authorities on Monday sentenced an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison for “participating in an extremist organization,” Navalny’s team announced on Telegram.
Vadim Ostanin was head of Navalny’s office in the Siberian city of Barnaul and was detained in December 2021. He was also charged with belonging to a nonprofit that “infringes on citizens’ rights.”
According to Navalny’s team, Ostanin had carried out “legal political work.”
Ostanin’s conviction is part of a wider crackdown on political opposition in Russia. This has intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Navalny is an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was arrested in January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recovering from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.
Pandas: China’s secret soft-power weapon amid growing tensions with the West
A French zoo will bid farewell to one if its star attractions – a 5-year-old giant panda – on Tuesday, with the bear set to participate in a breeding programme in China’s Sichuan province. Although Yuan Meng was born in France, he is Chinese property on loan to the zoo as part of China’s international “panda diplomacy” programme.
Yuan Meng’s parents, Yuan Zi and Huan Huan, arrived in France from China in 2012, loaned to Beauval Zoo under a Chinese conservation scheme aimed at breeding pandas around the world.
The French team was successful: Yuan Meng became the first panda born on French soil on August 4, 2017, and twin siblings Yuandudu and Huanlili followed in 2021.
As well as boosting numbers of the “vulnerable” species, the pandas have heightened interest in Beauval Zoo in central France. The year Yuan Zi and Huan Huan arrived, visitor numbers doubled to more than 1 million. In 2022, they reached 2 million.
“The pandas gave us an identity. Today, we’re the zoo where you can see pandas,” Beauval’s operations manager, Samuel Leroux, told radio network France Bleu.
Fukushima nuclear plant water release plan raises worries about setbacks to businesses
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.
Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.
The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.
“Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin.
Russia accuses Ukraine of Moscow drone attack
Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a drone attack that damaged at least two buildings in the capital Moscow early on Monday morning.
The Russian defence ministry said two drones were “suppressed and crashed”, adding that there were no casualties.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported that one drone fell close to the defence ministry.
Ukrainian officials are yet to comment, but they rarely claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.
In a separate development, Russian-installed officials ordered people to evacuate one district of Crimea – the Ukrainian southern peninsular annexed by Moscow in 2014 – after a reported overnight Ukrainian drone attack.
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