Six In The Morning Wednesday 18 May 2022

 

Mariupol: The 80 days that left a flourishing city in ruins

By Paul Adams in London and Hugo Bachega in Dnipro
BBC News

After almost three months of relentless assault, Mariupol has fallen. Ukraine's military says its combat mission in the besieged port is over. More than any other Ukrainian city, Mariupol has come to symbolise the ferocious brutality of Russia's assault and the stubbornness of Ukraine's resistance.

On Wednesday 23 February, Ivan Stanislavsky left his camera bag at the office. He was on his way to see the layout of his new book on Mariupol's Soviet-era murals at a colleague's house, and didn't want to lug the gear around. He could always pick it up the next day.

But on Thursday, as he stood in the street outside his locked and deserted office, he could hear thunderous sounds rolling in from the east. The city was under fire.

Climate crisis makes extreme Indian heatwaves 100 times more likely – study

Latest analysis adds to evidence that the impacts of human-caused global heating are already damaging many lives around the world

Damian Carrington Environment editor

@dpcarrington

Record-breaking heatwaves in north-west India and Pakistan have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, according to scientists. The analysis means scorching weather once expected every three centuries is now likely to happen every three years.

The region is currently suffering intense heat, with the Indian capital New Delhi setting a new record on Sunday above 49C and the peak temperature in Pakistan reaching 51C. Millions of people are suffering from crop losses, and water and power outages.

Climate scientists can link global heating to extreme weather events, showing that the impacts are damaging lives around the world right now, even with a 1.1C rise above pre-industrial global average temperatures.

‘Executions, torture and disappearances’: HRW accuses Russia over war crimes in Ukraine

Report published on same day as Russian soldier faces war crimes charges in Kyiv court

Rory Sullivan

Russian forces committed war crimes in northeastern Ukraine by executing and torturing civilians, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed.

In a new report, the NGO documented 22 alleged summary executions in parts of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions that the Kremlin’s troops held between late February and the end of March.

This follows HRW’s earlier investigation into 10 executions that Russian troops are said to have carried out in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and other nearby towns and villages.

 

French court upholds Syria 'complicity in crimes against humanity' charge against Lafarge

A French appeals court has confirmed that the cement giant Lafarge must face charges of complicity in crimes against humanity over alleged payoffs to Islamic State group and other jihadist groups during Syria's civil war, judicial sources told AFP on Wednesday.

Lafarge, now part of the Swiss building materials conglomerate Holcim, has acknowledged that it paid nearly 13 million euros ($13.7) to middlemen to keep its Syrian cement factory running in 2013 and 2014, long after other French firms had pulled out of the country.

The company contends that it had no responsiblity for the money winding up in the hands of terrorist groups, and in 2019 it won a court ruling that threw out the charge of complicity in crimes against humanity.

Abu Akleh pallbearer arrested days after Israelis attack funeral

Amro Abu Khudeir’s lawyer said that the interrogation of the man called ‘the coffin protector’ was about the funeral.

By Arwa Ibrahim

Published On 18 May 202218 May 2022

One of the Palestinian pallbearers attacked by Israeli police while carrying the coffin of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at her funeral on Friday has been arrested by Israeli authorities.

A lawyer representing the 34-year-old Amro Abu Khudeir said that the Jerusalemite had been arrested at his home in the Shuafat area in the early hours of Monday morning, and had been repeatedly interrogated about events surrounding the funeral.

The lawyer, Khaldoun Najm, added that Abu Khudeir had been held in solitary confinement since his arrest.

The 'lucky country' is facing a crucial test. The result will affect us all

By Hilary Whiteman and Hannah Ritchie, CNN

Updated 0249 GMT (1049 HKT) May 18, 2022

Ken Morrison has twice been up to his neck in water during climate disasters.

The first time, in 2007, he was trapped in a pool with a towel over his head as wildfires ripped through Australia's Hunter Valley, a wine-growing region about three hours' drive north of Sydney.

"The roar is unbelievable. You can feel the oxygen getting taken out of the air," recalled the 57-year-old paramedic, who was on the job treating volunteer firefighters for burns and broken bones at the time.