Danelo Cavalcante: Escaped US killer shaves beard as search widens

Morocco earthquake live: Rural communities most hard hit by temblor

Red Cross federation releases $1m from disaster fund for Morocco

Assad’s Criminal ConglomerateSyrian Economy Continues to Spiral Toward Collapse

It was almost as though nothing at all had happened. In May 2023, Arabic leaders welcomed long-ostracized Syrian dictator Bashar Assad back into the fold at the Arab League summit – complete with brotherly kisses, warm embraces and the proverbial red carpet, which skewed violet in this particular case. Syria had been blacklisted in 2011 when the regime in Damascus began shooting at demonstrators, who were still largely peaceful at the time. In the years that followed, Assad’s troops – with the enthusiastic support of first the Hezbollah and then the Iranians and Russians – transformed the rebellious parts of the country into smoking heaps of rubble, killing hundreds of thousands of Syrians and forcing millions more to flee.

Vatican beatifies Polish family that sheltered Jews

For the first time, the Vatican has given an entire family one of Catholicism’s highest honors. Jozef Ulma, his wife Wiktoria and their seven children were killed by Nazis in 1944 along with eight Jews they were hiding.

The Vatican on Sunday beatified an entire family for the first time to honor it for giving shelter to Jews during World War II while Poland was under German occupation.

Jozef Ulma, 44, his pregnant wife Wiktoria, 31, and their children, all under 8 years of age, were killed by German police on March 24, 1944, after being betrayed to Nazi authorities for sheltering eight Jewish people in their attic. The eight Jews were also killed.

After the massacre at the Ulmas’ farmhouse, 24 Jews in the family’s hometown of Markowa in southeast Poland were murdered by their Polish neighbors.

Niger military accuses France of deploying forces with view to ‘intervention’

Niger’s coup leaders have accused France of gathering forces, war materials and equipment in several neighbouring West African countries with a view to “military intervention”.

Relations with France, Niger’s former colonial power, degraded after Paris stood by ousted president Mohamed Bazoum following the July coup.

“France continues to deploy its forces in several ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) countries as part of preparations for an aggression against Niger, which it is planning in collaboration with this community organisation,” Niger’s regime spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane said on Saturday.

The Sahel state is also embroiled in a standoff with the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to intervene militarily if diplomatic pressure to return Bazoum to office fails.

Russia hails unexpected G20 ‘milestone’ as Ukraine fumes

More than 1,000 dead after strong Morocco earthquake

Summary

1. More than 1,000 people have died after a powerful earthquake struck central Morocco, according to the country’s interior ministry
2. The quake – measuring magnitude 6.8 – sent people rushing into the streets in Marrakesh and other cities
3. Many of the deaths were said to be in hard-to-reach mountain areas
4. The quake struck just after 23:00 local time, at a relatively shallow depth of 71km (44 miles) south-west of Marrakesh, according to the US Geological Survey
5. Dramatic video footage shows damaged buildings and rubble-strewn streets

‘The toll is linked to the fact that we have infrastructure issues’

Dina Anwar, a reporter for World News Morocco, was in the country’s capital, Rabat, when the earthquake hit.

“We were lucky enough in Rabat to be evacuated immediately; unfortunately, it was not the same for other cities. We didn’t know what to do, we only knew that we shouldn’t be in our houses,” she recalls about last night.

She says people around her were panicking, but as a journalist, she was also trying to keep up with what was happening as well as trying to reach out to her loved ones in Agadir, her hometown.

North Korea marks 75 years of Kim dynasty rule

The Kim clan has ruled North Korea since the country was established in 1948. Some analysts say Kim Jong Un’s young daughter could be next in line, but others remain skeptical.

When Kim Jong Un steps out onto the balcony of the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang on Saturday to greet the crowd and mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of North Korea, much attention will be focused on the people around him.

China and Russia have both confirmed that representatives of their governments will attend the celebrations and the scheduled military parade.

But even more interesting for North Korea analysts would be the presence or the absence of Kim Ju Ae, the North Korean leader’s 11-year-old daughter.

Kim Ju Ae first appeared in public at a missile launch in November 2022. Since then, she has accompanied her father on many occasions.

Rescues underway in Greek towns cut off by floods

Firefighters backed by the army were rescuing hundreds of people Saturday in villages in central Greece blocked off by floods that have claimed at least 10 lives.

“More than 2,850 people have been rescued since the beginning of the bad weather,” fire department spokesman Yannis Artopios told broadcaster Mega on Saturday.

“There are still many people in the villages around Karditsa, Palamas and toward Trikala. They are not missing, they are trapped,” he said, adding that six people were officially missing.

Several houses remain under water in the village of Palamas and rescue workers were trying to reach marooned people, an AFP journalist said.

“It was truly hellish,” said 54-year-old Palamas resident Eleni Patouli.

“We were stick without help or information for hours. The (emergency services) 112 message to evacuate arrived just as we were facing up to the flooding and we had no means of escape,” she told AFP.

Pro-China Muizzu leads closely watched Maldives election: Partial results

Opposition candidate takes lead over incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in election closely watched by India and China.

Vote counting is under way in Maldives’s presidential election, with partial results showing the pro-China mayor of the island nation’s capital, Mohamed Muizzu, taking a lead over incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

The outcome of Saturday’s election could determine the battle for influence between India and China in the popular Indian Ocean honeymoon destination.

Fukushima water discharge unlikely to impact Tokyo-Seoul ties: expert

By Ko Hirano

The release into the Pacific Ocean of treated radioactive water from a crippled nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan is unlikely to have a major impact on Tokyo-Seoul relations and become a key issue in next spring’s general election in South Korea, according to a South Korean scholar.

Polls in South Korea show the main opposition Democratic Party’s attacks on President Yoon Suk Yeol for giving a tacit nod to the water discharge have not won broad public support, partly due to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s conclusion that the Japanese action complies with global safety standards.

“The party is attacking Japan and the Yoon administration with the water discharge but apparently using it as a political issue, rather than a scientifically verified issue — a tactic China is employing,” Park Jung Jin, a professor of international relations at Tsuda University in Tokyo, said in a recent interview.

‘MeToo’ for mothers: Australian inquiry hears troubling accounts of birth trauma

Sitting before a parliamentary panel in a bare-walled function room of a hotel on the southeastern Australian coast, Naomi Bowden broke down several times as she recounted a series of distressing events after her daughter Stella’s stillbirth in 2009.

The 2015 Paris treaty has successfully driven climate action, but “much more is needed now on all fronts,” said the report, which will underpin a crucial climate summit in Dubai at the end of the year.

“The world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement,” including capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times, the report said.

Global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2025 and drop sharply thereafter to keep the 1.5C target in view, the stocktake said, drawing from a major scientific assessment by the UN‘s IPCC science advisory panel.

Achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 – another Paris goal – will also require phasing out the burning of all fossil fuels whose emissions cannot be captured, it said.

Arundhati Roy on the G20 summit: ‘Don’t turn a blind eye to India’s chaos’

From her New Delhi home, the acclaimed Indian writer and activist talks about the G20 summit and the state of India’s minorities.

India is preparing to host world leaders at a Group of 20 (G20) summit this weekend in what is being described as a crucial moment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cement his place as a global leader.

New Delhi has gone under a massive – and controversial – “beautification drive” for the event, with many slums bulldozed and their occupants displaced.

Newly-painted lotus flower murals – the election symbol of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – have appeared and billboards with Modi’s face line the reworked roads.

Mali hit by waves of attacks that have left more than 60 dead amid spiraling insecurity

Mali has been hit by a wave of attacks over a 24-hour period, sparking fears of spiraling insecurity in the aftermath of two coups in the volatile Sahel country.
On Friday, Mali’s armed forces reported a “complex” suicide attack on the airport area of the military base in the northern Gao region, according to a post on its official Facebook page.
It said the situation was still being assessed and gave no further details.

Grand jury wanted charges against Graham, Loeffler and others

A close call for Lindsey Graham and others

Anthony Zurcher

BBC North America correspondent

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, as well as former Georgia Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, may have narrowly avoided being indicted by Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis.

In one of the most noteworthy revelations in a court document released in Georgia today, the grand jury that investigated efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election voted to recommend indictments for the three senators.

When Willis unveiled her sprawling racketeering charges against 19 individuals including former President Donald Trump, however, the three senators were not included.

Ukraine war: US to arm Kyiv with depleted uranium tank shells