Inside the hospitals that concealed Russian casualties
By Eliza Mackintosh, Sebastian Shukla and Sarah-Grace Mankarious, CNN
Video report by Melissa Bell, Mark Esplin, Oscar Featherstone and Vasco Cotovio, CNN
As his daughter dozed off in the back seat, his wife filmed him driving, his eyes narrowed, focused on the dark road ahead. Andrei, a doctor had been plotting his escape from Belarus since 2020, when the Kremlin-backed regime cracked down on a popular uprising, sending the country spiraling deeper into authoritarian rule and engulfing it in a climate of fear.
When Russia launched its assault from Belarus' southern doorstep, getting out suddenly felt more urgent. His family watched from the windows of their apartment block as helicopters and missiles thundered through the sky. Within days, Andrei — whose name has been changed for his safety — said he found himself being forced to treat Russian soldiers injured in Moscow’s botched assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Then, at the end of March, he was jailed on trumped-up corruption charges. After his release in May, and carefully weighing the risks, he decided it was time to leave.
Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini
Teargas also used against protesters gathered in hometown of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group
Agence France-Presse
Iranian security forces have opened fire on protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s hometown to mark 40 days since her death, a human rights group has said.
“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded.
Despite heightened security measures, columns of mourners had poured into Saqqez in the western Kurdistan province to pay tribute to Amini at her grave at the end of the traditional mourning period.
Spanish man trekking to World Cup believed arrested in Iran
The family of a Spanish man trekking from Madrid to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup says he is believed to be under arrest in Iran where he went missing more than three weeks ago
A Spanish man trekking from Madrid to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is believed to be under arrest in Iran where he went missing more than three weeks ago, his family said Wednesday.
“We learned this morning from the (Spanish) foreign ministry that there’s a 99% chance he is arrested,” Celia Cogedor, the mother of 41-year-old trekker Santiago Sánchez, told The Associated Press.
“We are filled with hope,” she said.
Netherlands probes 'illegal' Chinese police stations
Dutch media reports that overseas Chinese police centers are putting "pressure on dissident Chinese." An NGO report says that Bejing has such centers in "dozens of countries across five continents."
The Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that it was investigating reports that China had set up two illegal police stations in the Netherlands.
"We are now investigating as a ministry what is going on with the centers, and when we have more intel about it we can determine the appropriate action," Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Maxime Hovenkamp said.
"What is correct is that the Chinese government never informed us about the centers via diplomatic channels so that makes them illegal to begin with," Hovenkamp said.
Lebanon presidential hopeful slams Hezbollah's dominance
Lebanese politician Michel Moawad on Wednesday urged lawmakers to back his bid for the presidency, denouncing Hezbollah's "stranglehold" on the crisis-hit country.
MPs have been unable to pick a successor to President Michel Aoun whose term ends next week, stoking fears of a political crisis that would further compound three years of economic meltdown.
"I am practically the only serious candidate running for the presidency," Moawad told AFP in an interview, adding that he had "support from a large majority of the opposition".
Moawad, 50, is the presidential candidate who received the largest backing in Lebanon's divided parliament, mostly from lawmakers opposed to the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement
Atmospheric levels of all three greenhouse gases hit record high
Scientists warn world ‘is heading in wrong direction’ amid rise in nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane
Helena Horton Environment reporter
Atmospheric levels of all three greenhouse gases have reached record highs, according to a study by the World Meteorological Organization, which scientists say means the world is “heading in the wrong direction”.
The WMO found there was the biggest year-on-year jump in methane concentrations in 2020 and 2021 since systematic measurements began almost 40 years ago.
Methane levels have risen rapidly in recent years, puzzling scientists. Some blamed it on an increase in fracking in the US but this came into doubt as industrial emissions were not showing a similarly sharp rise.
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