Biden speaking in Poland after Putin suspends key nuclear treaty
Summary
- President Biden is giving a speech in Poland after Putin raged against the West in an address earlier
- He will paint the war in Ukraine as a struggle between democracy and autocracy after Monday’s high-stakes visit to Kyiv
- Earlier today, Vladimir Putin spoke at length about Russia's war against Ukraine in a State of the Nation address
- He blamed the West for provoking the war and escalating it, saying the US and its allies sought "limitless power"
- In the only major announcement, he said he was suspending Russia's participation in a major arms control agreement with the US
- The speech came ahead of the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Friday
Japan poised to raise age of consent from 13 in overhaul of sexual offence laws
A justice ministry proposal is expected to be submitted to parliament soon, with the way rape crimes are prosecuted under scrutiny as well
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Japan is poised to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16 in an overhaul of legislation prompted by criticism that existing laws fail to protect children from rape and other sexual offences.
A justice ministry panel has proposed raising the age of consent from 13 – the lowest among all G7 countries – as part of a series of reforms to the penal code that will also make voyeurism a criminal offence and clarify the requirements for rape prosecutions.
The overhaul of Japan’s laws on sex crimes comes after several rape acquittals in 2019 caused public outcry, including a case in which a man repeatedly raped his teenage daughter.
German-Iranian sentenced to death in Tehran
A revolutionary court charged 67-year-old Jamshid Sharmahd with "corruption on Earth." He has been accused of heading a pro-monarchist group that has been blamed for a 2008 terrorist attack.
German-Iranian dual citizen Jamshid Sharmahd has been sentenced to death in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported on Tuesday.
Iranian authorities accused the 67-year-old of heading a pro-monarchist group that it says was responsible for a deadly terrorist attack at a mosque in Shiraz in 2008. He denies the allegations.
Sharmahd was officially charged with "corruption on Earth."
The verdict can be appealed at Iran's Supreme Court of Justice.
'My life is here': The foreigners living through war in Ukraine
Issa, Gérard and Rachel have built lives in Ukraine, despite coming from Guinea, France and the US. On February 24, 2022, they were shocked to see their adopted home engulfed in war with Russia – but they chose not to leave Ukraine. One year later, they are still living through the war, side by side with Ukrainians.
It was a Thursday. At 5am on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation aiming to “protect Russian speakers” in Ukraine, and to “de-Nazify” and “demilitarise” the former Soviet state. As the first bombs fell, Russian tanks rolled across the border from Belarus, heading for Kyiv.
“My father was the first person to call me, from the US,” says Rachel, a 30 year old originally from Pennsylvania. “He said, ‘Rachel, missiles are falling, the war has begun’. I told him that it was fake news. An exaggeration.” But as she was lying in bed, the news began to sink in; the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II had begun. “Nothing felt real. Helicopters were landing Russian paratroopers in Kyiv. It felt like anything could happen.”
Panic injures many as traumatised Syria hit by new earthquakes
People in northwest Syria are ‘traumatised’ and still reeling from the February 6 quakes that killed more than 4,000 in Syria.
Fear and panic caused the most injuries in northwest Syria when two new earthquakes hit on Monday evening, just two weeks after the catastrophic 7.8 magnitude earthquake that devastated large parts of the region including southern Turkey.
At least six people have been killed and hundreds wounded across both countries.
“Many were hurt because of stampedes, panicking and even jumping off buildings,” Oubadah Alwan, a spokesperson for the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, told Al Jazeera.
CNN Special Report
How Iran used a network of secret torture centers to crush an uprising
By CNN’s international investigative unit
and visuals team
February 21, 2023
For 40 days, Kayvan Samadi has avoided going to bed during the hours of darkness. Instead, he whiles away the night-time reading books or chatting with the guards manning the entrance of the compound where he’s in hiding – anything to ward off the night terrors.
After his afternoon rest, the 23-year-old medical student makes a cup of Turkish coffee and opens a pink notebook on his lap.
In crisp, evocative sentences written in immaculate handwriting, he records his memories of Iran’s uprising. Like thousands of others, he was rounded up by security forces, caught up in a brutal crackdown against the protests ignited by the death in custody last September of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman Mahsa Amini.
His photographic-like memory comes back in snapshots: A narrow alley leads to a courtyard where a cacophony of voices from a nearby girl’s school fills the air; Iranian intelligence agents drag him past a row of buttonwood trees, shoving him into an unassuming building. This is a secret detention center, somewhere in the northern Iranian city of Oshnavieh, where he would experience the stuff of nightmares.
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