Zaporizhzhia: Ukraine suggests UN peacekeepers for nuclear plant
By Claudia Allen
BBC News
Ukraine's nuclear chief has suggested that United Nations peacekeepers could secure the Zaporizhzhia power station.
The plant has been occupied by Russia since the early days of the war and come under repeated attack, with both sides blaming each other.
UN inspectors observed damage at the power station during a visit last week.
The inspectors recommended that a security zone be set up immediately to shield the facility, which is Europe's largest, from the fighting.
Vladimir Putin has said he trusted the report from the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but criticised the agency for not saying Ukraine was to blame for shelling the area.
Hong Kong therapists convicted of sedition over children’s books
Books depicted sheep fleeing from invading wolves, which judge found aimed to incite hatred against China
Sum Lok-kei in Hong Kong and agencies
A court in Hong Kong has convicted five speech therapists of producing “seditious publications” in the form of a series of illustrated children’s books that depicted sheep trying to defend their village from wolves.
The convictions are the latest using a colonial-era sedition offence that authorities have deployed alongside a new national security law to stamp out dissent.
Prosecutors said the animals were analogies for Hong Kong residents and mainland Chinese respectively, and were intended to incite hatred towards the latter. The defence argued that the books’ content was open to interpretation and that they did not call for armed rebellion against the government.
Teacher who refused to use student’s pronouns jailed after returning to school
Enoch Burke, an evangelical Christian, refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns
A teacher has been jailed for refusing to stay away from his school after they suspended him when he refused to call a pupil “they”.
Enoch Burke, an evangelical Christian, was put on a paid suspension by Wilson’s Hospital School in County Westmeath, Ireland after he refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns.
He broke a court order, which compelled him to not go to or try to teach at the school.
Japan ramps up aid to Africa to weaken China's grip
Tokyo has announced an ambitious multibillion-dollar program of economic assistance to Africa, in a bid to counter Beijing's growing economic and political influence.
Japan is ramping up its aid and economic assistance to African nations, with Tokyo recently promising $30 billion (€30.24 billion) to help develop the continent over the next three years.
The financial commitment was unveiled at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which was hosted by the Japanese government in Tunisia over two days in late August.
First organized in 1993, TICAD has traditionally been held in Japan but this year moved to the North African country due to concerns about the COVID pandemic.
Bolsonaro leads controversial bicentennial celebration in Brazil
President Jair Bolsonaro presided over a military parade Wednesday marking 200 years since Brazil's independence, kicking off a day of elaborate festivities that critics accuse the far-right leader of hijacking to bolster his reelection campaign.
‘Backward and inappropriate’: Vietnamese to be blasted - again - by propaganda loudspeakers
By Chau Doan and Mike Ives
For most of his life, Nguyen Lap listened to scratchy announcements from loudspeakers that were affixed to utility poles around Hanoi, draped in electrical wiring and shaded by subtropical foliage.
“In the old days, the loudspeakers worked well because people lacked information,” Lap, 75, said last month here in the Vietnamese capital. “They were loud all day, but it didn’t bother me.”
That does not mean he wants them back.
During the Vietnam War, the loudspeakers warned Lap and others in Hanoi about American B-52s approaching on bombing runs. For decades afterward, they blared Communist Party propaganda and updates on pension payments, power outages and other municipal minutia.
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