World News

Despite a legal attempt to stop it, documentary The Bibi Files, which shows leaked interrogation footage of the Israeli prime minister, made its debut at the festival

Legendary actor James Earl Jones dies at 93.

Rest in peace to someone who's work filled many lives with joy!

Hospitals and adoption agencies colluded to force single mothers to give up their children, truth commission finds

South Korea has found new evidence that mothers were forced to give up their children for adoption in countries including Australia, Denmark and the United States.

It has been known for some time that at least 200,000 South Korean children had been adopted abroad since the 1950s, but allegations have emerged that hospitals, maternity wards and adoption agencies systematically colluded to force parents – primarily single mothers – to give up their children.

Adoption workers in some cases insisted that adoptees were abandoned children and blamed the biological parents for not looking for them.

But a report from a government Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate the claims has detailed some of the coercive methods used to force mothers living in welfare shelters to give up their sometimes day-old children.

The law would make Australia one of the first countries in the world to impose an age restriction on social media, but opponents say it could drive online activity underground.

Australia plans to set a minimum age limit for children to use social media citing concerns about mental and physical health, drawing a backlash from digital rights advocates who warn the measure could drive dangerous online activity underground.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his center-left government would run an age verification trial before introducing age minimum laws for social media this year.

Albanese did not specify an age but said it would most likely be between 14 and 16.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20142269

By Mohammad Salem and Nidal Al-Mughrabi

September 10, 2024 7:11 AM EDT

The sale of disposable vapes is set to be banned under proposals going to Cabinet.

The Minister for Health is expected to get Government approval to draft these laws which will ban the sale, manufacture or import of single-use or disposable vapes in Ireland.

Stephen Donnelly plans to introduce this ban on environmental and public health grounds.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/16337814

David Missal, a University of Hong Kong graduate and spokesman for the Tibet Initiative Deutschland lobby group, said he was held for 13 hours and ultimately refused entry to Hong Kong. He had come from mainland China.

China’s Defense Ministry on Monday announced joint naval and air drills with Russia starting this month, underscoring the closeness between their militaries as Russia presses its grinding invasion of Ukraine.

...

China has refused to criticize Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, and blamed the U.S. and NATO for provoking President Vladimir Putin.

While China has not directly provided Russia with arms, it has become a crucial economic lifeline as a top customer for Russian oil and gas as well as a supplier of electronics and other items with both civilian and military uses.

Russia and China, along with other U.S. critics such as Iran, have aligned their foreign policies to challenge and potentially overturn the Western-led liberal democratic order. With joint exercises, Russia has sought Chinese help in achieving its long-cherished aim of becoming a Pacific power, while Moscow has backed China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and elsewhere.

After a record number of killings, Colombia has ranked as the most dangerous country for environmentalists, Global Witness said. The government responded, describing the report as "dishonorable."

A recorded total of 196 environmental activists and land defenders from around the world were killed in 2023, watchdog Global Witness said Tuesday, with Colombia ranking as the deadliest place.

Latin America remained the most dangerous region of the world for environmental activists, with 85% of the killings occurring there.

Colombia saw 79 such murders in 2023 — the highest recorded for an individual country since the organization began its annual review in 2012. Brazil, Honduras and Mexico were next in line.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/41893267

Exclusive: Foreign minister Penny Wong says she ‘welcomes’ the British move and Palestinian civilians ‘cannot pay the price’ of defeating Hamas

As the conflict spreads to the Bamar heartland, there are growing reports of abuses and internecine fighting among resistance groups.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/13189597

Hypocrisy, thy name is liberal democracy?

At least 40 were killed after missiles struck a tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Civil Defense officials said. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas operatives.

(Washington Post gift article, no paywall)

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on a tent encampment designated as a humanitarian zone in Khan Younis, Gaza officials said early on Tuesday, in what the Israeli military said was an attack on a Hamas command centre.

A Gaza civil defence official told Agence France-Presse that 40 people were killed in the attack inside the Al-Mawasi camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Earlier, the civil emergency service said airstrikes on a tent camp for displaced Palestinians killed and wounded 65 people in the southern part of the strip, but did not break down the number of dead and injured.

Residents and medics said the tent encampment in the al-Mawasi area was struck by at least four missiles. The camp is crowded with displaced Palestinians who have fled from elsewhere in the enclave.

MBFC
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Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa want international criminal court to class environmental destruction as crime alongside genocide

Three developing countries have taken the first steps towards transforming the world’s response to climate breakdown and environmental destruction by making ecocide a punishable criminal offence.

In a submission to the international criminal court on Monday, they propose a change in the rules to recognise “ecocide” as a crime alongside genocide and war crimes.

If successful, the change could allow for the prosecution of individuals who have brought about environmental destruction, such as the heads of large polluting companies, or heads of state.

Thailand will distribute 145 billion baht (US$4.2 billion) of its "digital wallet" handout programme earlier than scheduled to support vulnerable groups, a deputy finance minister said on Monday (Sep 9), stressing the need for short-term economic stimulus.

In remarks during a budget debate in the Senate, Julapun Amornvivat said the government has prepared 450 billion baht (US$13.29 billion) in total for its signature handout programme, which seeks to stimulate economic activity by transferring 10,000 baht to 50 million Thais to spend in their localities.

The measure, which was scheduled for rollout in the last quarter of this year, is the cornerstone of Thailand's plans to jumpstart Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, which grew 2.3 per cent in the second quarter.

The handout scheme has been criticised by economists including two former central bank governors as fiscally irresponsible. The government rejects that, but has struggled to find sources of funding.

It insists the policy is necessary to energise the economy, which the central bank expects to grow just 2.6 per cent this year, up from 1.9 per cent in 2023 and far adrift of most regional peers.