Новости за 18.11.2023

Germany's Foreign Ministry scrutinized humanitarian aid payments to the Palestinian territories and did not detect any misuse, the ministry said Saturday after a review prompted by the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.  Europe is one of the main sources of aid to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, where the United Nations estimates that 2.1 million people need humanitarian assistance, among them 1 million children.  The German announcement of the aid review had sparked a mixed reaction at home and elsewhere... Читать дальше...

Ninety-three people released by court order from indefinite immigrant detention will be forced to comply with strict visa conditions starting Saturday. Australia’s High Court ruled November 8 that people could not be held indefinitely in immigration detention. In response, the country’s Labor government rushed new laws through Federal Parliament that force released detainees to adhere to strict visa restrictions, including wearing electronic monitoring devices. Individuals must provide authorities... Читать дальше...

A Chinese man wanted for allegedly embezzling millions of yuan (hundreds of thousands of dollars) from his company and then fleeing to Morocco was extradited back to China on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Security said. The man, a financial executive at the company, used passwords for its bank accounts to transfer money to his personal account, the ministry said in a statement. It didn't name the company but said that Shanghai police filed a case against the man in February 2020. Moroccan police arrested him in April of this year... Читать дальше...

A 23-year-old Taylor Swift fan died at the singer's Eras Tour concert in Rio de Janeiro Friday night, according to a statement from the show's organizers in Brazil. Both fans and politicians reacted to the news with outrage. While a cause of death for Ana Clara Benevides Machado has not been announced, fans complained they were not allowed to take water into Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium despite soaring temperatures. A group launched an online petition Saturday morning calling for a “Benevides... Читать дальше...

A drawing of a nude Donald Trump. A punching bag sculpture shaped like a woman's torso. A display of women's party shoes standing proudly on prayer rugs. All are pieces of contemporary art that have provoked debate and, sometimes, violent reactions.  These pieces and dozens more that were subjected to some sort of censorship have found a home in Spain at Barcelona's Museum of Forbidden Art, or "Museu de l'Art Prohibit" in Catalan. The collection of over 200 works, including ones by well-known... Читать дальше...

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu officially requested that India withdraw its military personnel from the archipelago Saturday, a day after being sworn in. The president's office said in a statement that Muizzu made the request when he met Kiren Rijiju, India's minister for earth sciences, who was in the Maldives for the presidential inauguration. “The president noted that at the presidential election held in September, the Maldivian people had given him a strong mandate to make the request... Читать дальше...

The United Auto Workers union overwhelmingly ratified a new contract with Ford, a pact that, along with similar deals with General Motors and Stellantis, will raise pay across the industry, force automakers to absorb higher costs and help reshape the auto business as it shifts away from gasoline-fueled vehicles.  Workers at Ford voted 69.3% in favor of the pact, which passed with nearly a 15,000-vote margin in balloting that ended early Saturday. Earlier this week, GM workers narrowly approved a similar contract. Читать дальше...

Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. IBM said this week that it stopped advertising on X after a report said its ads were appearing alongside material praising Nazis — a fresh setback as the platform, formerly known as Twitter, tries to win back big brands and their ad dollars, X's main source of revenue. Читать дальше...

A Canadian security forum will present an award Saturday to the people of Israel following the Hamas incursion into the country that left some 1,200 dead and 240 abducted. Following U.S. Senator John McCain's death in 2018, the Halifax International Security Forum presents the award annually in his honor to "individuals from any country who have demonstrated uncommon leadership in the pursuit of human justice." The forum, which attracts military officials, United States senators, diplomats and scholars... Читать дальше...

India captain Rohit Sharma said Saturday his players understand the pressure of being Indian cricketers and remain "calm and composed" for the World Cup final against five-time champion Australia. The hosts are undefeated in 10 matches and will eye their first global trophy in over a decade in front of around 130,000 fans at the world's biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. "Leading up to every game we have been quite composed, quite calm about what we want to do, because we know... Читать дальше...

Nearly 400 U.S.-bound migrants, most of them women, have endured sexual violence this year as they crossed a notorious jungle stretch between Panama and Colombia, according to Doctors Without Borders, or MSF. The situation facing migrants in the Darien Gap is "increasingly cruel and dehumanizing," the international medical aid organization said in its report released Friday, adding that the rate of sex attacks had worsened in recent months. Between January and October, 397 people who received care from MSF ... Читать дальше...

SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was presumed to have failed in space minutes after lifting off on Saturday in a second test after its first attempt to reach space ended in an explosion. The two-stage rocket ship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica, Texas, soaring roughly 90 kilometers (55 miles) above ground on a planned 90-minute flight into space. But the rocket's Super Heavy first stage booster... Читать дальше...

Forty-one workers remained trapped in a collapsed road tunnel in northern India for a seventh day Saturday as a new drilling machine arrived on site to replace the damaged one. The nature of the exceptionally hard rock formation in the area coupled with the clearing of debris damaged the original machine and paused rescue efforts on Friday, according to officials. This added a new challenge to the long-drawn rescue efforts. The number of trapped workers was also revised to 41 from 40, said Anshu Manish... Читать дальше...

A boat carrying Rohingya refugees that was forced back to sea earlier this week was sighted Saturday several miles off the coast of Indonesia's westernmost region, according to a local commander. The group of around 250 people from the persecuted Myanmar minority arrived off Aceh province on Thursday, but residents told them not to land. The boat traveled to another location in Aceh where a second group of residents again turned them back to sea late Thursday. A naval commander in Aceh's... Читать дальше...

The first planeload of Palestinian children wounded in the Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip reached the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, part of a pledged relief effort by the country to aid 1,000 children. The group of 15 people, including children and their family members, made it across the Gaza Strip's Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Friday. They then took a flight to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Emirates. Young children lay asleep on their mothers’ laps as the plane finally landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport. Читать дальше...

Taiwan's two main opposition parties have failed to agree on a joint candidate for president, once again throwing into doubt their ability to unseat the ruling party in January's election. The Nationalist Party and the Taiwan People's Party were expected to unveil an agreed-upon candidate at a news conference Saturday. Instead, they announced the need for further consultations after a disagreement over how to use polling data to make the selection. The failure to agree on a joint candidate... Читать дальше...

Latest Developments: Israel denies reports that it ordered evacuation of Shifa Hospital. Says it had talked with Shifa Hospital director about providing a secure route out of the hospital for those who wanted to evacuate. Palestinian telecommunications company partially restores phone and internet services in Gaza after fuel shipments arrive. Five fighters in the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party were killed overnight in a rare Israeli airstrike on the occupied West Bank... Читать дальше...

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed earlier this week that Beijing will crack down on companies in China that produce precursor chemicals for fentanyl, an agreement that Biden said would "save lives." In exchange, the Biden administration agreed to lift sanctions on China's Physical Evidence Identification Center of the Ministry of Public Security and the National Drug Laboratory. In May 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce sanctioned the lab for allegedly participating... Читать дальше...

Advocates are calling out New Mexico's Democratic governor for disbanding a task force that was charged with crafting recommendations to address the high rate of killings and missing person cases in Native American communities. The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women said in a statement Thursday that dissolving the panel of experts only helps to perpetuate the cycles of violence and intergenerational trauma that have created what many have deemed as a national crisis. Gov. Michelle... Читать дальше...

Many of Malaysia’s urban communities are adding a rural touch. Community gardens are popping up as residents look for ways to bring the great outdoors closer to home. Dave Grunebaum has the story.

Britain's medicines regulator has authorized the world's first gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease, in a move that could offer relief to thousands of people with the crippling disease in the U.K. In a statement Thursday, the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency said it approved Casgevy, the first medicine licensed using the gene editing tool CRISPR, which won its makers a Nobel prize in 2020. The agency approved the treatment for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia who are 12 years old and older. Читать дальше...

British author A.S. Byatt, who wove history, myth and a sharp eye for human foibles into books that included the Booker Prize-winning novel Possession, has died at the age of 87. Byatt's publisher, Chatto & Windus, said Friday that the author, whose full name was Antonia Byatt, died "peacefully at home surrounded by close family" on Thursday. Byatt wrote two dozen books, starting with her first novel, The Shadow of the Sun, in 1964. Her work was translated into 38 languages. Possession... Читать дальше...

The U.S. flu season is under way, with at least seven states reporting high levels of illnesses and cases rising in other parts of the country, health officials say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted new flu data Friday, showing very high activity last week in Louisiana, and high activity in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and South Carolina. It was also high in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory where health officials declared an influenza epidemic earlier this month. Читать дальше...

The United Nations said Friday that nearly 50 civilians have been killed in clashes and attacks in Ethiopia's Amhara region over the past month. Ethiopia's second most populous region has been wracked by unrest for months, with a number of clashes between the Ethiopian military and ethnic Amhara militia known as Fano in recent weeks. "It is imperative that all parties refrain from unlawful attacks and take all necessary measures to protect civilians," Seif Magango, a spokesperson for the U.N. Читать дальше...

China is hosting a joint military exercise with five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in a move that experts say appears to be an image-building show of force in a region where Beijing’s influence is growing. The military exercise comes amid simmering tensions between China and neighboring countries over sovereignty of the South China Sea. The exercise, which began Monday, is taking place in China’s southern Guangdong province on the northern shores of the hotly contested sea. Читать дальше...