1,000 migrant kids still separated from parents: US official

migrant

The US is still working to reunite an estimated 1,000 migrant children separated from their parents as a result of former President Donald Trump’s controversial 2018 policy according to US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated at a Senate hearing on funding for his agency that a task force established by … Read more

US Capitol riot probe to hold public hearings in June

US

The committee investigating the 2021 US Capitol assault plans to hold public hearings in June and release its findings later this year, at the height of the midterm election campaign. Key witnesses interviewed by the congressional investigation will testify publicly for the first time in eight hearings on the alleged plot that led to the … Read more

Zelensky, Putin invited to G20 summit: Indonesian leader

Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to the G20 summit in November, which will also include Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Indonesia’s leader on Friday. Indonesia, which holds the G20 presidency this year, has faced intense pressure from the West, led by the United States, to exclude Russia in the aftermath of its … Read more

Biden, Mexican president discuss ‘unprecedented’ migration flow

Putin's Victory Day remarks blaming NATO for war with Ukraine are "patently false and absurd," White House says

President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador were virtually meeting Friday to discuss “unprecedented” flows of migrants and refugees at the US-Mexico border, a major political headache for the White House ahead of the November elections. The call, set to begin for 1:00 p.m. (1700 GMT), focuses on the increasingly complex relationship … Read more

Moroccan activist sentenced to two years for online posts

moroccan

In a case criticized by Amnesty International, a Moroccan court sentenced an activist to two years in prison on Friday for criticizing government officials on social media. Saida El Alami, 48, a vocal human rights activist with regular online posts who was arrested on March 23, was found guilty in a Casablanca court of crimes … Read more

Finnish court acquits ex-rebel accused of Liberia war crimes

Liberia

On Friday, a Finnish court acquitted a suspected warlord accused of atrocities during Liberia’s civil war, including rapes, ritual murders, and child soldier recruitment. The Pirkanmaa district court ruled in its decision that the prosecution had “not proven with sufficient certainty” that Gibril Massaquoi, 52, was involved in the alleged crimes during the latter years … Read more

Radio Liberty producer killed in Kyiv during UN visit

kyiv

One of the staff members of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv on Friday, during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Radio Liberty journalist and producer Vera Gyrych died as a result of a Russian missile hitting the house where she lived in Kyiv. The attack … Read more

Saudi Arabia and Turkey reset relations after Khashoggi killing

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have pledged to patch things up, vowing to put an end to a feud between the two regional heavyweights that has erupted since the murder of journalists Jamal Khashoggi. Erdogan met with the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on his first … Read more

At least 10 killed as bomb rips through mosque in Afghan capital

Afghan

According to interior ministry officials, a bomb blast in the Afghan capital on Friday blasted through a Sunni mosque, killing at least 10 worshippers, the latest in a string of bombings that have rocked the country during the fasting month of Ramadan. Scores of civilians have been killed in mostly sectarian attacks targeting Shiite and … Read more

Divided UN extends Libya mission by three months

UN

The UN Security Council voted on Friday to extend the political mission in Libya for only three months, with Russia vetoing a lengthier extension until a new UN ambassador is chosen. The resolution extends the mandate of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) “until 31 July 2022” and “calls on the Secretary-General to nominate … Read more

UN panel rules Brazil court violated Lula’s rights

UN

The prosecution of Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on corruption allegations breached his right to an impartial trial, according to the UN Human Rights Committee. The judgment by the Geneva expert panel came as a triumph for the communist leader, who was imprisoned from April 2018 to November 2019, just as he prepares … Read more

Hong Kong student gets five-years for Telegram ‘secession’ messages

Hong Kong

Hong Kong judge enhanced a university student’s prison sentence to five years for messages on Telegram advocating for Hong Kong’s independence from China and demands to resist communist authority, On Friday. Lui Sai-yu, a 25-year-old engineering student, pled guilty to “incitement to secession,” a criminal under Beijing’s national security law, enacted in 2020 to suppress … Read more

Germany summons Turkish envoy over Kavala’s jailing

Germany

Germany summoned Turkey’s ambassador on Friday over the imprisonment of Osman Kavala, a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan according to a foreign ministry official, “I can tell you that we summoned the Turkish ambassador to the foreign ministry today and made the government’s position very clear once again,” the spokesman told a … Read more

Boris Becker jailed by British court over bankruptcy

Boris Becker

Boris Becker, a former tennis player, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Friday after a British court found him guilty of crimes related to his 2017 bankruptcy. The six-time Grand Slam champion, 54, will serve half of his sentence after being found guilty of transferring large sums of money from … Read more

Niger to vaccinate children against malaria

Niger

According to AFP, Niger’s health minister has approved the vaccination of children under the age of five against malaria with a ground-breaking British vaccine. Malaria claimed the lives of 4,000 persons in the impoverished Sahel region in 2021, the majority of them were children. “The Niger government has approved the use of the RTS, S/AS01 … Read more

Two UK aid workers ‘captured’ by Russian forces in Ukraine

Ukraine

Two British humanitarian workers in Ukraine have been detained by Russian soldiers on suspicion of being “spies,” according to a non-profit organization and the family of one of them. According to Presidium Network, a humanitarian organization, Russian soldiers “caught” Paul Urey and Dylan Healy on Monday at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia … Read more

UK drugmaker AstraZeneca profit slumps but sales jump

UK

AstraZeneca’s first-quarter net profit dropped due to restructuring and legal costs associated with its massive takeover of US biotech firm Alexion, but sales rose. In the three months to the end of March, profit after tax fell by 75% to $386 million (366 million euros), compared to the same period the previous year. Sales of … Read more

Tensions rise as West shifts decisively behind Ukraine

Ukraine

Despite the risk of a direct conflict with Russia, the West altered gears in its backing for Ukraine this week, becoming less cautious about its military support and more clear in its war goals. “We want to see Russia diminished to the point where it can’t do the types of things it did in invading … Read more