Doctors in Gaza say Israel has told them to evacuate key hospital

Summary

1. Doctors and the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza say Israel has told them to evacuate a key hospital in Gaza City
2. There are 400 patients being treated inside Al-Quds hospital and moving them is impossible, the Palestinian Red Cross says
3. Around 14,000 civilians are also understood to be sheltering in the hospital and its grounds
4. Overnight, thousands in Gaza broke into aid depots taking flour and other basic supplies, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees says
5. Phone lines and internet connections are slowly returning after more than a day of almost total communications blackout in Gaza
6. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) say more troops entered the territory overnight, while warplanes attacked more than 450 Hamas targets
7. Israel has been bombing Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people and saw 230 people kidnapped as hostages
8. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 8,000 people have been killed since Israel’s retaliatory bombing began

Oppression in RussiaYegor’s High Price for Protesting the War

By Christina Hebel and Katya Kravets (Photos) in St. Petersburg and Otradnoye

It’s 9:39 p.m. on February 28, 2023, when Yegor Balazeikin lights a bottle of diesel on fire in front of the military recruitment office in Kirovsk and throws it against the building. The flames go out immediately, as images from a surveillance camera show. Yegor tries again, kneeling in the snow to light another bottle. The second effort produces some small flames, but they, too, quickly vanish.

Yegor Balazeikin is ultimately unable to set fire to this facility in northwestern Russia that sends young men into the war in Ukraine. The only things left from his attempt on this winter evening: diesel stains, broken glass and a scrap of cloth.

 

‘We don’t have the budget to feed all the inmates’: A rise in deaths in DR Congo prisons

Overcrowding, lack of food, disease … In September alone, 14 inmates died in the main prison in Goma, the capital of North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Images of inmates crammed into tents and photos of bodies being removed leaked onto social networks in mid-October. Our Observers told us about the alarming living conditions in this prison, which holds ten times more prisoners than its intended capacity.

Men, most of them emaciated, sitting on the floor and crammed by the dozen under tents. These are the images from inside Munzenze prison, Goma’s central prison, which have been leaked in WhatsApp groups since October 5.

Other images posted on WhatsApp show the removal of at least four people, presumably dead, from the prison.

Five photos of inmates’ death certificates have also been shared: two are from October, while the other three are dated April, February and January 2023. We are not publishing them for reasons of confidentiality, but a prison employee has confirmed that they are genuine.

 

Ten times too many inmates

According to an official source, who wished to remain anonymous, 14 inmates at Munzenze prison died in September and eight in October.

Bangladesh opposition figure detained amid protests

Bangladesh police detained Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir from the opposition BNP for questioning. The arrest came a day after violent clashes broke out in the capital, Dhaka.

Bangladesh police on Sunday arrested Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir from the country’s main opposition party as a nationwide strike began.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman said Alamgir had been “detained for interrogation.”

Rahman told the AFP news agency that Alamgir would be questioned over Saturday’s violence, in which a police officer and a protester were killed and at least 26 police ambulances were torched or damaged. Alamgir has not been charged with anything.

‘There is zero work’: Occupied West Bank paralysed as economy stalls

Israel-ordered shutdowns and settler attacks in occupied West Bank take devastating toll on Palestinian economy.

 The central bus stop in downtown Ramallah is usually bustling with people and traffic.

But since October 7, the buses have been parked up and the drivers sitting idle, watching the news, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee to pass the time.

“There is zero work,” 40-year-old driver Saleh Nakhleh told Al Jazeera from the rest stop at the bus station, in the central Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“We are barely making ends meet,” the father-of-four said.

 

Israel pounds Gaza with non-stop strikes after overnight bombing causes ‘total chaos’

Turkey’s Erdogan says he will ‘declare Israel a war criminal’

Victoria Craig

Reporting from Istanbul

To a passionate crowd in Istanbul, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called Israel’s strikes in Gaza a “massacre,” and said the nation’s western allies were “the main culprit” behind what he called war crimes by Israel.

“Israel, we will declare you as a war criminal to the world. We are preparing for this and we will introduce Israel to the world as a war criminal.”

Erdogan has also continued his stance that he does not consider Hamas a “terrorist organisation”. It is proscribed as such in the US, UK and elsewhere.

Summary

1. Israel is continuously pounding Gaza with airstrikes following a night of intensified bombing
2. The BBC’s Rushdi Abualouf says the north of the Strip was hit overnight “on a scale we’ve never seen before” and that there was “total chaos” in the territory
3. We do not yet have any specific casualty figures from the overnight bombardment. Communication networks went down last night and getting information out of Gaza is difficult
4. Israel’s military said its ground forces entered Gaza overnight as part of an expanded ground operation and were “still in the field”

Iranian teenager dies after alleged hijab encounter with officers, reports say

Armita Geravand, 16, fell into coma on 1 October and was pronounced brain-dead last week

Germany: Arrest warrant issued for far-right politician

Daniel Halemba, who recently won a seat in Bavaria’s state parliament, is being sought for an undisclosed reason. However, the 22-year-old was part of a student fraternity being investigated for displaying Nazi symbols.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the newly-elected far-right politician to Bavaria’s state parliament, the Würzburg public prosecutor’s office said on Saturday

Daniel Halemba, a 22-year-old lawmaker with the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) is being investigated for reasons that prosecutors refused to make public.

“For tactical reasons, we don’t want to say anything about the exact accusation or the reason for the arrest,” said a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office told DPA news agency.

Thousands of demonstrators join banned pro-Palestinian march in Paris

Thousands of demonstrators protested in Paris on Saturday in a banned march in “support of the Palestinian people” AFP correspondents saw.

A large contingent of police blocked marchers in a central part of the capital.

Among the protesters were elected officials wearing tricolor scarves, including a green MP and a far-left lawmaker.

“(The need for) a ceasefire is urgent, to stop killing women, children and men,” said the deputy mayor of the central town of Corbeil-Essonnes, Elsa Toure.

The devastating conflict erupted after Hamas militants carried out a shock cross-border attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1,400 people dead, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.

About 1 million nuisance calls made to Japan embassy in China over Fukushima

Around 1 million nuisance calls have been made to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing since the release of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea began in late August, Japanese government sources said Friday.

Tokyo has repeatedly asked the Chinese government to deal with the calls, saying they impede operations at the embassy, but the situation has yet to improve, according to the sources.

On the back of growing anti-Japan sentiment in China amid Beijing’s fierce opposition to the discharge, the daily number of harassing calls received by the embassy peaked at more than 40,000 on Aug. 25, a day after the release started, and has stayed at around 15,000 per day recently, they said.

Claims Russia executes own soldiers and offensive intensifies: Here’s what to know about the latest in Ukraine

This week, Ukrainian forces continued to hold out against a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine as the White House claimed Russia is executing its own troops for disobeying orders.

In southern Ukraine, authorities issued evacuation orders for civilians where Russia has stepped up aerial attacks.

Strikes in a western Ukrainian city blew out windows at a nuclear power plant, once again raising safety concerns.

Divers search Maine river near shooting suspect’s car

Maine’s ‘weak gun laws’ called into question

During the press conference, a reporter asks about Maine’s yellow flag law and what officials knew about the suspect before the mass shooting.

Concern that the law, meant to keep guns away from people experiencing mental health crises, was not followed in this situation has been repeatedly expressed.

Notably, on Thursday night Maine Senator Susan Collins, a Republican, said “it certainly seems that on the basis of the facts that we have, that the yellow flag should have been triggered”.

Summary

1. A manhunt for a US army reservist suspected of murdering 18 people and injuring 13 others in a mass shooting in Maine has entered its third day
2. Robert Card, 40, is said to be “armed and dangerous” and residents are still being told to shelter in place
3. Officers raided a home in Bowdoin on Thursday night, but departed several hours later
4. At a news conference on Friday, police said divers were scouring the river near a boat dock where the suspect’s car was located.
5. Officials said a note was also found at a property belonging to the suspect, but declined to offer details
6. Meanwhile, Lewiston, a city of about 38,000, is on lockdown. Schools as well as most local businesses are staying closed on Friday
7. The attack has sparked calls for more gun control measures in the US, with Congressman Jared Golden calling for an assault weapons ban, reversing his previous stance

She fled the Israeli army as a young woman. Now in her 90s, she is running again

Revealed: the industry figures behind ‘declaration of scientists’ backing meat eating

Document used to target top EU officials over environmental and health policies but climate experts view it as propaganda

Serbia: Migrants die in shooting near Hungary border

A shootout between migrants at an abandoned warehouse complex has left three people dead and one person seriously injured. It came in an area known to be used by people smugglers.

Three migrants died in a shootout near Serbia’s border with Hungary on Friday.

Criminal gangs have been fighting for control of the area along an EU entry route used by smuggling rings.

What we know about the shooting

A gunbattle took place between migrants in an abandoned warehouse complex in a village called Horgos.

Serbian media reported that it was not clear who had initiated the shooting that also left another person seriously injured.

A number of officers attended the scene but the police are yet to release a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard recruits volunteers to fight in Gaza

The Iranian regime has launched an online campaign to recruit volunteers – including children – to fight alongside Hamas in the war against Israel. But the government’s propaganda efforts are not making much headway among anti-regime Iranians.

Shortly after Hamas conducted its bloody “Al-Aqsa Flood” terrorist operation in Israel on October 7, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard launched an online recruitment campaign with the same name, hoping to convince young Iranian men and boys to join the Palestinian armed group in its war efforts.

The campaign, taken up by Iranian state TV and radio, and several websites affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, has already garnered more than 3 million ready-to-be-deployed volunteers, Iranian television reported.

The “Al-Aqsa Flood” campaign features a young boy in his pre-pubescent teens wearing military fatigues in front of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque. The child also has the symbolic pro-Palestine keffiyeh scarf wrapped around his neck, and wears a pin with General Qassem Soleimani’s portrait on his jacket. Soleimani, who long headed the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Al-Quds unit, was killed by American forces in Baghdad in 2020.

Retrial starts for former death row inmate Hakamada

By YURI MURAKAMI/ Staff Writer

October 27, 2023 at 18:50 JST

A 90-year-old woman made an impassioned plea on Oct. 27 for the swift acquittal of her brother who spent decades on death row after being convicted of murder on dodgy evidence.

But Hideko Hakamada and her brother, Iwao, 87, will likely have to wait until next year for his name to be cleared.

That is because prosecutors, despite being rebuked by a high court, still plan to convict him again at his retrial, which started on Oct. 27 at the Shizuoka District Court.

Their arguments will prolong the retrial, and the verdict—most likely not guilty—may be handed down next spring.

‘Armed and dangerous’ suspect still at large as 18 killed in Maine shooting

Summary

1. The suspect in shootings that killed 18 people in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night remains at large
2. Police earlier named Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest, saying he is “armed and dangerous”
3. State Governor Janet Mills warns the public not to approach the suspect
4. Lewiston, a city of about 38,000, is on lockdown – businesses have been told to close and people to stay at home
5. Officers have widened the “shelter in place” order to include nearby Bowdoin, Auburn and Lisbon
6. Police responded to reports at two locations – a restaurant and a bowling alley
7. A mother, who was at the bowling alley, says she lay on top of her 11-year-old daughter to protect her

What we learned from that news conference

Pakistan sets up deportation centers for illegal migrants

Pakistan has issued a final warning to all illegal immigrants to leave the country voluntarily before a November 1 deadline. Deportation centers are already being set up to detain those who remain past the deadline.

Pakistan has finalized a plan to deport all illegal immigrants, including an estimated 1.7 million Afghans, by November 1, officials said on Thursday.

“It is a challenging task,” caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti told a news conference in Islamabad, adding that Pakistan was determined to remove all illegal immigrants.

“All the illegal immigrants have been identified. The state has a complete data,” said Bugti. “I want to appeal one more time that all the illegal immigrants should leave voluntarily by the deadline.”

Islamabad announced the deportation of the undocumented immigrants in October.

According to Bugti, there will be no deadline extension. He also said that action would be taken against anyone involved in helping or hiding the immigrants

‘Time bomb’: Tree-killing bugs threaten France’s lush forests

 Last year, ferocious wildfires destroyed thousands of hectares of one of France’s most picturesque forests.

Now French authorities are battling an invasion of beetles that are devouring the weakened pines of La Teste-de-Buch, in the southwestern region of Gironde.

“The year 2023 is as cruel and dramatic as the wildfires,” said Matthieu Cabaussel, one of the trustees managing the private forest of La Teste-de-Buch. “It’s a double punishment.”

The stenographer bark beetle, a brown, airborne insect measuring half-a-centimetre, primarily attacks pines damaged by fire or storm.

The parasite lays its eggs in the bark, and when these hatch, the larvae tunnel down into the trunk of the tree until it dies.

Where 250-year-old maritime pines once stood, machines now hum as workers fell, prune, saw and evacuate trees infested with parasites.

S Korea, U.S. and Japan condemn N Korea’s alleged supply of munitions to Russia

By HYUNG-JIN KIM

South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned what they call North Korea’s supply of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying Thursday that such weapons shipments sharply increase the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

A joint statement by the top diplomats of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan came days after Russia’s foreign minister scoffed at a recent U.S. claim that his country received munitions from North Korea, saying that Washington has failed to prove the allegation.

“We will continue to work together with the international community to expose Russia’s attempts to acquire military equipment from (North Korea),” said the joint statement by South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

‘Everything is destroyed’: Civilians trickle out of Avdiivka as Russian assault leaves Ukrainian town in ruins

A Ukrainian police officer inspects a half-destroyed building when, suddenly, he rushes to the ground, ducking for cover.

“Incoming,” he shouts to his partner, in body camera video seen by CNN, as a shell lands nearby. “There will be more.”

There’s little to police these days in Avdiivka as most of the people who used to live in this frontline city are gone. But some 1,600 have remained, and this unit — the White Angels — are there to evacuate them to safety.