Wagner mutiny: Group fully funded by Russia, says Putin
Russia's president has said members of the Wagner mercenary group were fully funded by the state.
According to Vladimir Putin, Wagner was given 86.262bn roubles ($1bn) from May 2022 to May 2023 alone for salaries and bonuses, which came from the defence ministry and state budget.
The private army's revolt on Saturday rocked Russia.
It's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, arrived in Belarus on Tuesday after agreeing to leave Russia.
His arrival was confirmed by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Earlier, a private jet linked to Prigozhin was tracked landing in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
French newspaper staff strike after ‘far-right personality’ made editor
Public figures write letter in support of strike at Le Journal du Dimanche in protest at appointment of Geoffroy Lejeune
Actors, novelists and leftwing politicians have joined support for major strike action at France’s flagship Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, in protest at the appointment ahead of its acquisition by the billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré of an editor-in-chief who previously worked for a far-right magazine.
“For the first time in France since the liberation, a large national media will be run by a far-right personality. This is a dangerous precedent which concerns us all,” read an open-letter to Le Monde signed by hundreds of figures including the rapper and producer JoeyStarr, the actors Dénis Ménochet and Mathieu Amalric, the film-maker Nicole Garcia, as well as historians, academics and many politicians on the left, including the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
Afghanistan: 1,000 civilians killed since Taliban takeover
A UN report says Afghans are struggling to access medical and psychosocial help due to a sharp drop in donor funding since the Taliban took power in Kabul.
More than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in bombings and other violence since the Taliban took over in 2021, according to the UN.
In a report released on Tuesday, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said there were 3,774 civilian casualties, which includes figures for those who died as well as those who were injured.
According to the UN, there were 1,095 civilian deaths in the country, between mid-August 2021 and May 2023.
Among the deceased were 92 women and 287 children.
The number of deaths has falledn sharply compared to the period before the Taliban seized power — more than 3,035 civilians were killed in 2020 alone, according to UN estimates.
Iranian art school students beaten and arrested for defying headscarf rules
A group of Iranian students, incensed at rules imposed on June 12 requiring female students to wear a maqna’a – a conservative Islamic headscarf in black that covers the head, neck and shoulders – began a sit-in in protest. They also wrote an open letter to the university administration, which said: “We have nothing to say to you except ‘no'.” A number of students were beaten and arrested for taking part in the protest, while also being threatened with suspension and even death. Thousands of people have posted “no” on their social media accounts in solidarity and students at dozens of other universities have published open letters in support of the Tehran art students.
It all started on Monday, June 12, when students at Tehran University of Art received a text message: “Female students must wear a maqna’a starting June 17 if they want to attend university classes.”
The new rule was imposed just days before final exams and the end of the semester. One student we spoke to said students who still refused to wear a headscarf felt “taken hostage” by the strict imposition at exam time. Students began a sit-in and protested against the rule.
Kabuki actor Ennosuke arrested for alleged role in mother's suicide
Popular Japanese kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke, 47, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of helping his mother take her own life in mid-May, in what is believed to have been a family suicide pact, an investigative source said.
Ennosuke, whose real name is Takahiko Kinoshi, was found collapsed at his parents' home in Tokyo on May 18, along with his mother Nobuko, 75, and his father Hiroyuki, 76, known as kabuki actor Ichikawa Danshiro.
The couple was later pronounced dead, with Ennosuke having been hospitalized until he was taken to the police station Tuesday morning for voluntary questioning, where he was subsequently arrested.
Why killer whales won’t stop ramming boats in Spain
When Daniel Kriz saw a pair of killer whales underneath his boat while crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in April, he thought: “Not again.”
For Kriz, a veteran skipper who was delivering a racing catamaran across the Atlantic, it was the second such encounter in three years, after a pod of orcas had surrounded and disabled his boat in 2020.
“We were suddenly surprised by what felt like a bad wave from the side,” he said of the recent incident. “That happened twice, and the second time we realized that we had two orcas underneath the boat, biting the rudder off. They were two juveniles, and the adults were cruising around, and it seemed to me like they were monitoring that action.”
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