Friday, June 24, 2022

Six In The Morning Friday 24 June 2022

 

Roe v Wade: US Supreme Court strikes down abortion rights

Millions of women in the US will lose the legal right to abortion, after the Supreme Court overturned a 50-year-old ruling that legalised it nationwide.

The court struck down the landmark Roe v Wade decision, weeks after an unprecedented leaked document suggested it favoured doing so.

The judgement will transform abortion rights in America, with individual states now able to ban the procedure.

Half of US states are expected to introduce new restrictions or bans.

Thirteen have already passed so-called trigger laws that will automatically outlaw abortion following the Supreme Court's ruling. A number of others are likely to pass new restrictions quickly.



Shireen Abu Aqleh killed by ‘seemingly well-aimed’ Israeli bullet, UN says

Review finds Al Jazeera journalist was not hit by firing from Palestinians, as was initially claimed by Israel

Agence France-Presse in Geneva


The UN has said its investigations have found that the shot that killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh on 11 May was fired by Israeli forces.

The Palestinian-American journalist, who was wearing a vest and helmet marked “press”, was killed while covering an Israeli army operation in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.

“We find that the shots that killed Abu Aqleh came from Israeli security forces,” the UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in Geneva. “It is deeply disturbing that Israeli authorities have not conducted a criminal investigation.”


Seville to name and classify heatwaves in ‘world first’ to highlight climate threat

Initative comes weeks after Spain recorded earliest heatwave in over 40 years

Aisha Rimi

Seville has launched a new pilot project to name and classify the frequent heatwaves that hit the southern Spanish city.

The pioneering system will include three categories and will alert the population up to five days in advance of extreme heat, the town’s mayor Antonio Munoz announced.

He said: “We are the first city in the world to take a step that will help us plan and take measures when this type of weather event happens.”


Afghanistan earthquake: Can the Taliban deal with the aftermath?

The powerful tremor has killed more than 1,000 people, and the death toll is likely to rise manifold. People urgently need aid, but with the Taliban in power international help for quake victims is a complicated affair.

"Some 24 people were killed only in our area. All our houses have been destroyed. Our food items are buried under the debris. We need food and shelter urgently," Kowsar, a resident of the Gyan district in Afghanistan's Paktika province, told DW.

"Our district has been wrecked by the quake and the death toll is too high. Mass graves are being dug and bodies are being buried in them," he added.

Kowsar, who lost his father in the magnitude 6 earthquake, said that he woke up to strong jolts of the quake on Wednesday. "As I left my room, everyone was covered under the dust. We managed to evacuate my mother, younger brothers and sisters, but couldn't save my father."


Youth in India protest army recruitment scheme and ‘economic distress’

In India, young people who see the public sector as an avenue out of unemployment have been protesting a new army recruitment scheme that they say reduces job security. Videos of the protests on June 16 and 17 in the northeast show blockaded or destroyed railway stations as well as violent clashes with the police. Our Observer says these protests represent "the accumulated anger of the youth, at unemployment and economic distress". 

The protests have been particularly violent in India's poorer northern states since the government unveiled a new army recruitment programme on June 14. In Telangana, where police opened fire on crowds, a 19-year-old man was killed on June 17. Numerous people have been injured in protests around the country. 

Videos show protesters vandalising railway stations with stones and bamboo canes and setting trains on fire. The premises of the ruling BJP party in Bihar were also targeted on June 16 and 17.

US conducts Taiwan Strait flyover amid tensions with China

Updated 1234 GMT (2034 HKT) June 24, 2022


A US Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane flew over the Taiwan Strait on Friday in a demonstration of the United States' "commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," just days after 29 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's self-declared air defense identification zone, US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement.

"A U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace on June 24. The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows including within the Taiwan Strait. By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations. The aircraft's transit of the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States' commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," the statement read.



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