Six In The Morning Sunday 18 August 2024

 

Kyiv blows up second bridge in Kursk as Putin hits back with missiles attack on capital

Strikes come as UN nuclear watchdog issues warning over safety at Zaporizhzhia plant

Ukraine’s armed forces says it has attacked a second bridge over the Seym river in Russia’s Kursk region, where another bridge was destroyed earlier this week. 

Air force commander Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk wrote: “Minus one more bridge! The aviation of the air force continues to deprive the enemy of its logistical capabilities with accurate air strikes, which significantly affects the course of hostilities.”

Eighteen members of same family killed in Israeli strike on Gaza

Dead included 11 siblings aged between two and 22, hospital says, as well as their parents and grandmother

Guardian staff and agencies

Sun 18 Aug 2024 10.20 BST

An Israel airstrike in Gaza has killed at least 18 people from the same family, even as mediators expressed optimism for an imminent ceasefire dealbetween Israel and Hamas after 10 months of war.

The airstrike on Saturday hit a house and adjacent warehouse sheltering displaced people at the entrance to the town of Zawaida, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah, to where casualties were taken. An Associated Press reporter there counted the dead.

Among those killed was Sami Jawad al-Ejlah, a wholesaler who coordinated with the Israeli military to bring meat and fish to Gaza. The dead also included his two wives, 11 of their children aged two to 22, a grandmother to the children, and three other relatives, according to a list provided by the hospital.

X shuts Brazil operations over 'censorship' orders: Musk

A feud between X owner Elon Musk and a Brazilian top court judge has culminated in the platform shutting down its local operations for the staff’s "safety."

Social media website X, formerly Twitter, will wind up its local operations in Brazil after a legal battle at the Supreme Court over the platform's rights and responsibilities, owner Elon Musk said Sunday

But the company said the website would remain available to users in Brazil. 

While X argued that it was protecting free speech and standing up against "illegal secret censorship," Brazil's Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes argued he was standing up against disinformation and tyranny in Brazil.

Bangladesh's Yunus pledges support for Rohingya refugees, vital garment industry

Bangladesh's interim prime minister Muhammad Yunus said in his first major policy address on Sunday that his government would maintain support for the more than one million Rohingya refugees in the country, adding that reviving the mainstay garment industry, disrupted by weeks of civil unrest, would also be a priority.

Bangladesh will maintain support both for its immense Rohingya refugee population and its vital garment trade, Nobel laureate and new leader Muhammad Yunus said Sunday in his first major policy address.

Yunus, 84, returned from Europe this month after a student-led revolution to take up the monumental task of steering democratic reforms in a country riven by institutional decay.

His predecessor Sheikh Hasina, 76, had suddenly fled the country days earlier by helicopter after 15 years of iron-fisted rule.

Nigeria police working to secure release of 20 kidnapped medical students

Nigerian Medical Association says students from universities of Jos and Maiduguri were taken while travelling in Benue State.

Nigerian police and security agencies are working to secure the release of 20 medical students who were kidnapped in the eastern part of the country, officials say.

The medical students were on their way to an annual convention when they were abducted in Benue State on Thursday evening, police and university sources said on Saturday.

The Federation of Catholic Medical and Dental Students said in a statement that the students were travelling to the convention in the city of Enugu when they were taken.

World Court to hold hearings in case that may define countries' climate obligations

The International Court of Justice will hold public hearings starting Dec 2 in an advisory opinion case that may become a reference point in defining countries' legal obligations to fight climate change.

The ICJ, known as the World Court, is the United Nations' highest court for resolving international disputes. In 2023, the U.N. General Assembly asked it for a formal opinion on questions including whether large states that contribute to greenhouse-gas emissions may be liable for damages caused to small island nations.

While the ICJ's advisory opinions are not binding under international law, they are significant legally and politically. The opinion on climate change, expected in 2025, will likely be cited in thousands of climate-driven lawsuits pending in courts around the world.