Friday, May 24, 2024

Six In The Morning Friday 24 May 2024

 

ICJ orders Israel to halt its offensive on Rafah, Gaza in new ruling

Judges at the top United Nations court order Israel to immediately halt its military assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.


Judges at the top United Nations court ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and withdraw from the enclave, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide, citing “immense risk” to the Palestinian population.

Friday’s decision marked the third time this year the 15-judge panel has issued preliminary orders seeking to rein in the death toll and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Gaza. While orders are legally binding, the court has no police to enforce them.



Peruvian reporter is target of smear campaign after taking on political elite

Gustavo Gorriti, who has long exposed corruption, is the target of a criminal investigation campaigners call ‘politically motivated’

For more than four decades, Gustavo Gorriti has been a thorn in the side of corrupt elites, relentlessly uncovering government wrongdoing in Latin America – most recently exposing an unprecedented level of graft in Operation Car Wash, the continent-wide scandal that has ensnared nearly every elected Peruvian president of this century.

Gorriti made his name reporting the bloody rise of the Mao-inspired Shining Path. He was kidnapped by military intelligence agents during Alberto Fujimori’s 1992 power grab after unmasking his shadowy spymaster Vladimiro Montesinos.

Now at 76, the combative five-time former judo champion is facing a criminal investigation and a smear campaign unlike anything he has faced in the past. The assault comes as his body wrestles with aggressive lymphatic cancer. He completed chemotherapy in December – just as what he calls a “filthier kind of sickness” was pumped out in fake news outlets.


China says military drills around Taiwan test seizing power

Chinese warships surrounded Taiwan as Beijing said the military exercises were a "strong punishment for the separatist acts of 'Taiwan independence' forces." Taipei has condemned the drills.


China's military continued its war drills around Taiwan on Friday, testing their ability to "seize power" and control key areas, with Chinese naval vessels and military aircraft encircling the island.

These drills were launched on Thursday in response to Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te's recent inauguration.

China sees the self-ruled island as a part of its territory, and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it had tracked 49 Chinese fighter jets, as well as 19 naval and coast guard vessels in a 24-hour period from Thursday to Friday.

Five decades on, what remains of the spirit of Portugal's Carnation Revolution?




The events of April 25, 1974 have left an indelible mark on the history of Portugal and Europe. That evening, a group of 200 left-leaning young Portuguese military captains walked out of their barracks and occupied strategic locations. Tired of the ravages of the dictatorship and colonisation, they won the active support of the people. The uprising was nicknamed the Carnation Revolution after the flowers that protesters placed in the soldiers' guns and tanks, in a rare example of a military coup being staged to install democracy. The dictatorship collapsed in a single day. But 50 years on, Portugal’s old demons are surfacing. Chega, a populist xenophobic party, quadrupled its number of MPs in March’s elections. In less than five years, it has become the country’s third-largest political force.


Ex-marine can be extradited to US, Australian judge rules


James FitzGerald, BBC News


A former US marine wanted by Washington can be handed over by Australia, a magistrate in Sydney has ruled.

Daniel Duggan, 55, who is a naturalised Australian citizen, is accused of breaking US arms-control laws by training Chinese fighter pilots.

He has been in custody in Australia since 2022. He denies the charges, which his lawyer has previously described as politically-motivated.

It is now for the Australian attorney general to decide whether the extradition should go ahead. Mr Duggan's legal team is expected to make an appeal, though did not challenge Friday's court ruling.



Wi-Fi, drones and sharp blades on Japan's whaling mothership


By Simon STURDEE and Harumi OZAWA

In whale-motif jacket, shirt and tie plus a whale-shaped hat, Hideki Tokoro shows off Japan's new whaling "mothership", the Kangei Maru -- slicing blades, butchery deck, freezers and all.

"Whales eat up marine creatures that should feed other fish. They also compete against humans," said Tokoro, the president of whaling firm Kyodo Senpaku, touting an industry argument long rejected by conservationists.

"So we need to cull some whales and keep the balance of the ecosystem... It's our job, our mission, to protect the rich ocean for the future," he added while speaking with reporters invited to tour the Kangei Maru after it had docked in Tokyo.






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