WORLD - The African Mirror

Jun

09

2024

US Supreme Court justices disclose Bali hotel stay, Beyoncé tickets, book deals

WORLD

U.S. Supreme Court justices reported receiving gifts including a stay in a Bali hotel and tickets to a Beyoncé concert, as well as nearly $1.6 million in book advances and royalties in annual financial disclosure forms for 2023 released. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who has come under criticism for failing to disclose gifts from businessman and Republican donor Harlan Crow, revised his 2019 form to acknowledge he accepted "food and lodging" at a Bali hotel and at a California club. Liberal Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson said she received four concert tickets from music superstar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter valued at $3,711.84. And conservative…

Jun

09

2024

By Manfred Zwecker

Denmark’s Prime Minister Frederiksen assaulted in central Copenhagen, man arrested

WORLD

DENMARK'S Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen walked away following an assault by a man in central Copenhagen and had no outward signs of harm, a resident told Reuters. "Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was beaten on Friday evening at Kultorvet (square, red.) in Copenhagen by a man who was subsequently arrested. The Prime Minister is shocked by the incident," her office said without giving further detail. Police said on social media platform X they had arrested a man and investigated the incident but declined to give further details. "She seemed a little stressed," Soren Kjergaard, who works as a barista on the…

Jun

08

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI

Israeli forces batter central, south Gaza as tanks advance in Rafah

WORLD

WITH a renewed ceasefire push in the eight-month-old Gaza war stalled, Israel bombarded central and southern areas again on Friday, killing at least 28 Palestinians, and tank forces advanced to the western edges of Rafah. U.S.-backed Qatari and Egyptian mediators have tried again this week to reconcile clashing demands preventing a halt to the hostilities, a release of Israeli hostages and Palestinians jailed in Israel, and an unrestricted flow of aid into Gaza to alleviate a humanitarian disaster. But sources close to the talks said there were still no signs of a breakthrough. A month after rumbling into Rafah in what Israel…

Jun

08

2024

By GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and VLADIMIR SOLDATKIN

Amid war, Putin looks east

WORLD

CUT off from the West, Russia is pitching its $2 trillion economy to giants like China and Saudi Arabia and longer-term prospects like Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at its premier investment forum in St Petersburg, which was founded by the tsars as a window to Europe. The war in Ukraine has led to the biggest upheaval in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and Western sanctions have forced a once-in-a-century revolution in Russia's economic relations. Since Peter the Great laid the foundations of the modern Russian state and made St Petersburg the capital in the early…

Jun

08

2024

By ANDREW GOUDSWARD

Trump ally Bannon ordered to report to prison for defying Jan. 6 probe

WORLD

STEVE Bannon, a former top adviser to Donald Trump, must report to prison by July 1 to serve a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress, a federal judge said. The decision means Bannon, a right-wing media firebrand who maintains influence in Trump’s orbit, will likely be behind bars for a critical stretch of the U.S. presidential campaign as former President Trump faces Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election. The order by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington came after a federal appeals court last month rejected Bannon’s bid to overturn his conviction for spurning a subpoena from a congressional panel…

Jun

07

2024

By The African Mirror

Vietnam tycoon on death row for massive fraud illegally moved money overseas, police say

WORLD

VIETNAM real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, sentenced to death in the country's largest-ever financial fraud case, had illegally transferred money abroad, according to police, with state media reporting $4.5 billion had been moved. Police said late on Wednesday an investigation into those transfers and money laundering has been completed, but gave no further details. State media said on Thursday that Lan had illegally transferred $1.5 billion out of Vietnam and moved $3 billion into the country. The reports did not specify which countries were the recipients or origins of that money. A court in April sentenced Lan to death for her…

Jun

07

2024

By The African Mirror

Gaza government media office director, health ministry official say 40 killed in Israeli strike on Nuseirat school

WORLD

THE director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office Ismail Al-Thawabta and a Gaza health ministry official told Reuters that 40 people were killed and 73 were wounded in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat school in the Gaza Strip. The two officials added that 14 children and 9 women were killed in the strike. Earlier, UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma told Reuters that the number of those reported killed in the Israeli offensive on the Nuseirat school was between 35 and 45, adding the number could not be confirmed at this stage. The Israeli military said it assessed that…

Jun

07

2024

By JEFF MASON, ELIZABETH PINEAU and JOHN IRISH

D-Day anniversary 2024: World leaders, veterans, commemorate Normandy landings

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden made an impassioned call for the defence of freedom and democracy at the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, urging Western powers to stay the course with Ukraine and not surrender to Russian tyranny. At a joint ceremony with French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. veterans at the Normandy American Cemetery, Biden said it was "simply unthinkable" to surrender to Russian aggression and he promised no let-up in support for Ukraine. He urged Western and NATO allies to recapture the spirit of D-Day and work together at a time when he said democracy was under greater threat than…

Jun

06

2024

By PATRICIA ZENGERLE

US House passes Republican bill to sanction International Criminal Court over Israel

WORLD

THE Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court over its prosecutor's decision to seek arrest warrants for Israeli officials related to the war in Gaza. The vote was 247 to 155, with 42 Democrats joining Republicans in backing the measure. There were no Republican "nay" votes, although two voted "present." The measure is not expected to become law but reflects continuing support for Israel in Congress amid international criticism over the Middle East country's campaign in the Gaza Strip. The White House last month criticized the ICC's decision to seek the warrants. The…

Jun

06

2024

By The African Mirror

Russian sociologist Kagarlitsky loses appeal against 5-year sentence for ‘justifying terrorism’

WORLD

RUSSIA'S Supreme Court rejected an appeal by sociologist and activist Boris Kagarlitsky against his five-year prison sentence on charges of "justifying terrorism", the TASS state news agency reported. Kagarlitsky, 65, is a longtime political dissident and has spoken out repeatedly against the conflict in Ukraine in a magazine he edited and on his YouTube channel. A petition calling for his release has been signed by intellectuals and politicians from around the world including Canadian author Naomi Klein, former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. A former teacher at the prestigious Moscow Higher School…