Six In The Morning Sunday 3 July 2022

 

What's been happening in Ukraine?

• Russia says it now controls the whole of the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine after capturing the final holdout of Lysychansk
• Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin that Luhansk had been "liberated", the defence ministry said
• But Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's defence minister, has told the BBC that Lysychansk is not under the "full control" of Russian forces, despite Moscow's claims
• He added that the situation had been "very intense for quite a while now" with Russian ground forces "attacking the city non-stop".
• Elsewhere, at least six people were killed and 15 injured in Ukraine's eastern city of Slovyansk following intense shelling by Russian troops

• Russia has accused Ukraine over explosions which reportedly killed three people in the city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine

• Turkish customs authorities have detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain which Ukraine says is stolen

Fresh row as Israel to conduct forensic tests on bullet that killed Shireen Abu Aqleh

Dispute threatens to derail apparent breakthrough in standoff over investigation into Al Jazeera reporter’s death

Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem

Israel has said it will conduct forensic tests on the bullet that killed the Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, a day after Palestinian officials handed over the evidence to a US security coordinator for examination on what they said was the condition that Israel would not be involved.

The testing will be carried out by Israeli investigators in the presence of US observers, the Israeli military spokesperson Brig-Gen Ran Kochav told Army Radio on Sunday.

Akram al-Khatib, the general prosecutor for the Palestinian Authority (PA), told Voice of Palestine radio the test would take place at the US embassy in Jerusalem, but that “we got guarantees from the American coordinator that the examination will be conducted by them and that the Israeli side will not take part”.

Systematic Abuses at EU External BorderGreek Police Coerce Refugees to Commit Illegal Pushbacks

New reporting exposes how Greek police are exploiting refugees to engage in illegal pushbacks of other would-be asylum-seekers at the EU’s external border. Witness testimony, satellite images and other documents provide evidence of how officials are taking advantage of people seeking protection.

By Giorgos Christides, Klaas van Dijken, Bashar Deeb, Steffen Lüdke, Mohannad al-Najjar, Maximilian Popp, Jack Sapoch, Tomas Statius und Nicole Vögele

Bassel M. has tried nine times in vain to get from Turkey to Greece. He claims to have been threatened and abused by Greek border guards. On his tenth attempt, he decided to join forces with his tormentors.

A man in his late twenties who fled Syria, Bassel M. had just crossed the Evros River on the Turkish-Greek border in an inflatable boat together with other asylum-seekers at the end of 2020 when Greek security forces intercepted the group. The Syrian claims that the officers beat the refugees and then hauled them off in a car without license plates to a police station in the border town of Tychero.

‘We will not compromise’: Hundreds in Sudan continue protests against military rule

Hundreds of Sudanese protesters demanding an end to military rule took to the streets of the capital Khartoum and its suburbs for a fourth straight day Sunday, witnesses said. 

A violent crackdown by security forces during mass rallies on Thursday killed nine people, according to medics, the deadliest day for several months in the long running protests against a military takeover last October led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Recent protests have seen crowds burn tyres and barricade roads with bricks, with security forces using live bullets, firing barrages of tear gas canisters and using powerful water cannons, according to medics and the United Nations.

Thousands told to evacuate Sydney, as heavy rains bring 'life threatening emergency'

Story by Reuters

Updated 0322 GMT (1122 HKT) July 3, 2022

Thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate southwest Sydney, Australia's biggest city, on Sunday with torrential rain and damaging winds pounding the east coast and threatening floods in areas that were hammered in March.

The weather bureau warned of heavy rainfall potentially leading to flash floods and landslides along the east coast region from Newcastle to Bateman's Bay in New South Wales state, with rain expected to intensify over the next two days.

"We are now facing dangers on multiple fronts -- flash flooding, riverine flooding and coastal erosion," New South Wales emergency services minister Steph Cooke said in a televised media briefing.