Appellate court quashes convictions linked to lease violations but Lai may still spend rest of his life in prison

A Hong Kong appellate court on Thursday overturned fraud convictions against the media mogul Jimmy Lai, a rare victory in the prominent pro-democracy activist’s legal battles.

Lai, 78, an outspoken critic of China’s ruling Communist party who founded the now defunct Apple Daily, will stay in prison because weeks ago he was sentenced to 20 years after being convicted in another case brought under a China-imposed national security law.

It is more than five years since he was arrested under the law, which was used in a years-long crackdown on many of Hong Kong’s leading activists.

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Two women have been arrested and detained in Uganda after allegedly kissing in public, an act of “same-sex activity” which can lead to a life sentence in the east African country.

Stolen from r/Marxism_memes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it was looking into whether it had improperly withheld documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files after several news organizations reported that some records involving uncorroborated accusations made by a woman against President Donald Trump were not among those released to the public.

The announcement followed news reports saying that a massive tranche of records released by the Justice Department did not include several summaries of interviews that the FBI conducted with an unidentified woman who came forward after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and claimed to have been sexually assaulted by both Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 1980s.

Australia's prime minister has apologised for calling a former Australian of the Year and sexual abuse survivor "difficult", saying it was only in reference to the hardships she has faced.

During a one-word response game, Anthony Albanese used the adjective to describe Grace Tame, who was named the 2021 Australian of the Year for her advocacy for child sexual abuse survivors.

Tame, 31, said the description was "misogynist's code for a woman who won't comply. History tends to call her 'courageous'."

It prompted Albanese to apologise "if there was any misinterpretation" and that Tame "has had a very difficult life, but she deserves great credit for turning that into a benefit for others".

But hours later, Tame dismissed Albanese's apology, taking to Instagram to post: "Spare me the condescension, old man. We all know what you meant."

Palestinian solidarity is being “silenced, criminalised and sanctioned”, according to an advocacy group that says it has recorded more than 900 examples of repression across Britain in the last six years.

People had been targeted with smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest, according to the European Legal Support Center, which, along with the research group Forensic Architecture, has created the “index of repression”.

The ELSC said such consequences had been justified by allegations of antisemitism or terrorism support, with the main “actors of repression” being police (220 incidents), educational institutions (192), pro-Israel advocacy groups (141), and journalists and other media actors (141).

At a press conference on Wednesday, Bob Trafford, of Forensic Architecture, said: “The data, painstakingly gathered and verified by ELSC, reveals the operation of a system, not something which is centrally directed, of course, but something which is organic, multipolar, self-reinforcing and mutually exacerbating.

“A system which seeks to raise intolerably the personal cost to any individual who speaks or acts in light of their conscience … seeks to reduce civil society’s capacity to call out genocide and to demand at the same time robust action by our governments.”

Hospitals that cause harm and injury to women and babies during childbirth often resort to a “cover-up” of their mistakes, falsify medical records and deny bereaved parents answers, a damning report has found.

“Negligent” care has devastating emotional and psychological consequences for families, disputes between maternity staff have a “disastrous” impact on mothers, and ethnic minority and poorer women have worse outcomes because of racism and discrimination, Lady Amos said.

Recent rises in older motherhood and obese women having babies have also contributed to maternity care becoming more complicated, the ex-Labour cabinet minister added in a report the government commissioned amid mounting alarm about NHS childbirth services in England.

“The system is not working for women, babies and families, or for staff,” Amos concluded after spending months talking to hundreds of families and maternity staff.

“We have seen maternity and neonatal services trying to respond in difficult circumstances and dealing with competing pressures but too often failing to deliver the safe care that women, families and babies expect and deserve, at times with devastating consequences.”

NHS trusts continue to provide poor care because they are doing too little to improve its quality and safety as a result of not learning lessons from previous maternity scandals, she added.

They launder capitalism's exploitation but they don't produce anything. While the most exploited is in Africa.

A loud cheer and sounds of clapping reverberated around Bansilalpet, a neighbourhood in Hyderabad, when the first trickle of clean water dribbled out of the ground. After an 18-month effort to clear out 3,000 tonnes of rubbish and restore the stone walls and adjacent area, the 17th-century Bansilalpet stepwell had become a source of clean drinking water for the first time in four decades.

“It was such a joyous moment to see water collecting into the stepwell after clearing 40 years of garbage,” says Hajira Adeeb, a 45-year-old resident of Bansilalpet, who grew up seeing the well become transformed from the community’s water source to a dumping ground. “I visit almost every day. The area is clean and lit up in the evenings. I enjoy sitting there.”

India is famed for its stepwells – multi-storey structures built to provide access to groundwater, with steps and platforms descending to the water level. Thousands were built across the country near natural aquifers – underground porous rock saturated with water – mostly between the 11th and 18th centuries.

The wells were abandoned under the rule of the British, who considered them unhygienic and largely prohibited their use, and deteriorated further in the late 20th century when people started to use them as a place to discard rubbish.

While many wells have disappeared or crumbled, the Stepwell Atlas, a collaborative effort between researchers and organisations including the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach), lists more than 3,000. About 100 are in the southern Indian state of Telangana, with nearly half of these in the state’s capital, Hyderabad.

The well at Bansilalpet was the first of its kind in Telangana to do so and has become a template for the revival of other stepwells in the state. Since its restoration was completed in December 2022, the well has consistently maintained a water depth of nine metres (28ft) in the summer months.

Ukraine will speed up the placement of anti-drone nets over roads in frontline areas, aiming to cover 4,000km of roads by the end of this year, the defence minister has said. A growing number of nets have been installed over the past year but more were needed, Mykhailo Fedorov said, adding that an additional 1.6bn hryvnias ($37m) had been allocated from the budget to bolster protection measures and counter Russian drones. Moscow has been targeting military supply routes and rear bases deeper and deeper into Ukraine with the remotely piloted aircraft and drones have also struck hospitals, infrastructure and civilian traffic. Nets can snag propellers and prevent drones from reaching their targets. “In just one month, we increased the speed [of coverage] from 5km per day in January to 12km in February,” Fedorov said on Telegram on Wednesday. “This significantly improved the safety of military movements and ensured stable functioning of frontline communities. In March, we plan to close 20km of roads per day.”

Russian strikes in multiple Ukrainian cities wounded 23 people including a child, officials said on Thursday, before US-Ukraine talks in Geneva aimed at ending Russia’s war. The Ukrainian air force reported high-speed targets heading towards the capital shortly before Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said Russia was striking the city with drones and ballistic missiles. Kyiv police said debris caused fires and damage in three districts. In the north-eastern city of Kharkiv and a nearby village, 14 people were wounded, among them a seven-year-old boy, said the regional chief, Oleg Synegubov. Towards the south, Zaporizhzhia also came under heavy fire, with regional head Ivan Fedorov saying seven people were wounded after strikes damaged 19 apartment blocks, four houses and other buildings. In the central city of Kryvyi Rig, two people were wounded, regional chief Oleksandr Ganzha said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has offered an explanation for comments made this week about 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame in which he labelled her "difficult".

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7440390

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Iranian authorities have escalated their crackdown following the January 2026 uprising. After repeatedly threatening fast-tracked executions, they sentenced at least eight people to death in February 2026.

At the same time, at least 22 others now face the death penalty. Alarmingly, this group includes two children.

Authorities are rushing these cases through the courts. Reports indicate that officials relied on “confessions” obtained under torture and denied people fair trials. As a result, at least 30 people, including children, are now at risk of execution after proceedings that fail to meet basic standards of justice.

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