World News

Speirs was arrested in September after footage of him snorting off a plate was published by News Corp. He initially denied wrongdoing and reportedly told the news outlet it was a "deepfake" and that he had never used cocaine.

The Israeli military acknowledged on Thursday that it was responsible for killing a United Nations aid worker in a strike on a UN guesthouse in Gaza last month, backtracking on its previous denials in the face of mounting public evidence of Israeli responsibility.

The Israeli military said its preliminary investigation into the incident “indicates that the fatality was caused by tank fire from IDF troops operating in the area.”

Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at more than €8,000 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks, a Kenyan magistrate has said.

Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya's main airport, said she would not rush the case but would take time to review environmental impact and psychological reports filed in court before passing sentence on 7 May.

China on Thursday sent three astronauts to its permanent space station Tiangong to replace the crew stationed there since last October.

The Shenzhou-20 spaceship took off at 5:17 p.m. local time (0917 GMT) from Gobi Desert in northwestern China, according to state media.

This could also be a precursor to Kazakhstan leaving the OPEC+ alliance unofficially led by Saudi Arabia, which has since 2022 agreed on a series of collective production cuts totalling around 5.85 million barrels per day (bpd), or nearly 6% of global production. But the agreement has been far from water-tight, as a number of members have failed to comply with their production targets, including Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.

Kazakhstan has arguably been the worst offender recently. Its crude oil production surged in March to 1.85 million bpd from an average of 1.74 million bpd in 2024, after production began at the extension of the country’s giant Tengiz field at the start of the year, far exceeding the country’s output quota of 1.468 million bpd, according to OPEC data.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Wednesday that its analysis of the IDF’s own materials collected as part of an internal investigation into the incident contradicted the army’s claim that soldiers did not shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian ambulances and a fire engine in the early hours of 23 March.

Instead, Haaretz said, soldiers fired continuously at the vehicles for three and a half minutes from close range despite the aid workers’ attempts to identify themselves.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/42924967

Bombing tents, targeting journalists, killing families: just a normal day for the terror state of Israel.

"Al-Aqsa Radio journalist Saeed Abu Hassanein was killed along with his wife and daughter when their tent was bombed by Israel."

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250424-israel-kills-another-palestinian-journalist-and-his-family/

@palestine@lemmy.ml @palestine@a.gup.pe

#Palestine #FreePalestine #Gaza #GazaGenocide #Israel #IsraelWarCrimes #journalism #news #media #warcrimes #Genocide #family

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33260481

In a case that has drawn international attention, renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Siwei was sentenced to 11 months in prison following a closed tribunal in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Lu, charged with 'illegally crossing the border,' was initially detained in Laos while attempting to join his family in the United States, despite having legal travel documents.

Lu, a prominent figure known for defending clients in politically sensitive cases, has faced relentless state scrutiny. Despite securing temporary release in 2023 after being extradited back to China, he was re-arrested in 2024 as authorities pursued border-crossing allegations. His ongoing legal battles have spotlighted Beijing's expanded reach in transnational repression, igniting calls for international human rights advocacy.

During his recent trial, which barred public access, Lu's defense argued for a reduced sentence based on time served, including his Lao detention. The appeal was dismissed, and he was fined 10,000 yuan. Lu's imprisonment, estimated to extend until mid-2024, signals increasing crackdowns on dissenters against the backdrop of closed legal proceedings and intimidation of supporters.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/33238989

Archived

• Pipeline: A Chinese prison is part of the pipeline that delivers fentanyl to the U.S., ProPublica found in a review of U.S. and Chinese documents and interviews with investigators.
• Fallout: Opioid overdoses have killed more Americans than the number of U.S. deaths in several wars combined.
• Permissive: Veteran federal agents told ProPublica that China has failed to cooperate and even interfered with drug investigations; China insists it has cracked down.

China’s vast security apparatus shrouds itself in shadows, but the outside world has caught periodic glimpses of it behind the faded gray walls of Shijiazhuang prison in the northern province of Hebei.

Chinese media reports have shown inmates hunched over sewing machines in a garment workshop in the sprawling facility. Business leaders and Chinese Communist Party dignitaries have praised the penitentiary for exemplifying President Xi Jinping’s views on the rule of law.

But the prison has an alarming secret, U.S. congressional investigators disclosed last year. They revealed evidence showing that it is a Chinese government outpost in the trafficking pipeline that inundates the United States with fentanyl.

[...]

Although China tightly restricts the domestic manufacturing, sale and use of fentanyl products, the nation has been the world’s leading producer of fentanyl that enters the United States and remains the leading producer of chemical precursors with which Mexican cartels make the drug. Overdoses on synthetic opioid drugs, most of them fentanyl related, have killed over 450,000 Americans during the past decade — more than the U.S. deaths in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.

The involvement of a state-run prison is just one sign of the Chinese government’s role in fomenting the U.S. fentanyl crisis, U.S. investigators say. Chinese leaders have insistently denied such allegations. But U.S. national security officials said the Yafeng case shows how China allows its chemical industry to engage openly in sales to overseas customers while blocking online domestic access and enforcing stern laws against drug dealing inside the country. Beijing also encourages the manufacture and export of fentanyl products, including drugs outlawed in China, with generous financial incentives, according to a bipartisan inquiry last year by the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.

[...]

A diverse cast of cardinals gathering at the Vatican for Pope Francis’ funeral will soon turn to voting for his successor as head of the Catholic Church. Only a few are considered likely candidates for the papacy, or “papabile” in Italian.

Because of Francis’ elevation of prelates from the “peripheries,” many of the electors will have met only this week, while those who work in the Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, know each other and many others besides. The magazine Cardinalis and the website Cardinal Report offer insight into every member of the College of Cardinals and where they stand on certain issues, but being recognizable will be an advantage in this conclave of strangers.

Sharon Osbourne has urged US authorities to revoke work visas for Kneecap after the Irish language rap group used a performance at Coachella to denounce Israeli attacks on Gaza.

The TV presenter accused the band of hate speech and supporting terrorist organisations and said it should not be allowed to perform in the US. “I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she exhorted followers on X on Tuesday.