AFGHANISTAN
Taliban detain UN workers
Some women employed by the UN have been detained, harassed and had restrictions placed on their movements since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world body, the UN said yesterday. The Taliban early last month informed the global body that Afghan women employed with its mission could no longer report for work. “This is the most recent in a series of discriminatory — and unlawful — measures implemented by the de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan,” the UN said in a report on the human rights situation in the country. Authorities continued to crack down on dissenting voices this year, in particular those who speak out on issues related to the rights of women and girls, the report said. It cited the March arrest of four women who were released the following day during a protest demanding access to education and work in the capital, Kabul, and the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath, a civil society organization campaigning for the reopening of girls’ schools.
NEW ZEALAND
State of emergency declared
Authorities in Auckland yesterday declared a state of emergency as flooding again hit the country’s largest city. Further north in Whangarei, a high-school student was missing after a school group that was exploring caves got into trouble when floodwaters hit. Fire and emergency crews said they had responded to more than 200 calls, most of them in Auckland. Many were for floodwaters entering buildings, but they also responded to landslides, falling trees and trapped vehicles. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said it was a difficult time for the region. “We will get through this. We will support Auckland through it,” he told reporters. “We know that it’s tough coming on top of everything else that they’ve been dealing with, but right now my request to people is just to keep yourself safe.” Authorities said heavy rain was expected to continue off and on until midnight, although they hoped the most severe downpours might have already passed.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police ‘regret’ arrests
Police on Monday expressed “regret” that anti-monarchy demonstrators arrested ahead of the coronation of King Charles III were unable to join the protest as planned and said they would not face further action. Six members of the group Republic, including leader Graham Smith, were detained in central London early on Saturday as they prepared to protest the coronation. The capital’s Metropolitan Police also seized hundreds of their placards, Republic said. They were released late on Saturday, more than 16 hours after being arrested, prompting criticism of the police. In a statement late on Monday, the Met said that the six were arrested “on suspicion of going equipped for locking on,” referring to newly outlawed contraptions used by demonstrators to attach themselves to each other, an object or the ground. Police were days earlier granted new anti-protest powers by the government that expanded, among other things, protest-related offenses to include locking-on and carrying lock-on devices. The Met said that an investigation of the seized items seized “has been unable to prove intent to use them to lock on and disrupt the event.” “We regret that those six people arrested were unable to join the wider group of protesters in Trafalgar Square and elsewhere on the procession route,” it said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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