cross-posted from: https://vegantheoryclub.org/post/684096

Day 4 of trial of Kristian White who definitely didn't straight up murder a 95 year old woman armed with a walker and a fruit knife.

Sure looks like the sort of life-or-death scenario that possibly justifies deploying a torture device from that cctv footage.

“There is a change in Sri Lanka’s political culture that started in September, which must continue.”

The number of Indonesians classified as middle class fell from 57.3 million in 2019 to 47.8 million this year, according to data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Giving evidence to the parliamentary International Development Committee, he broke down as he described children's accounts of being shot by quadcopters. Labour MP Sarah Champion, who chairs the committee, said his evidence was "profound and deeply chilling". The 62-year-old surgeon told MPs: "What I found particularly disturbing was that a bomb would drop, maybe on a crowded, tented area and then the drones would come down." His face shook with emotion as he paused for several seconds to compose himself. He continued: "The drones would come down and pick off civilians - children. "We [were] operating on children who would say: 'I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me.' "That's clearly a deliberate act and it was a persistent act - persistent targeting of civilians day after day."

The report was published amid mounting evidence that Israel is accelerating its efforts to cut the Gaza Strip in two with a buffer zone and is building new infrastructure to support a prolonged military presence, with an increased pace of demolitions and destruction.

Residents in northern Gaza said Israeli forces were besieging displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp from Gaza City.

More than 100 members of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, have made application for a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), conservative Bundestag member Marco Wanderwitz said on Wednesday.

It’s unclear how long the current group of miners have been underground as the groups are reported to often stay underground for months, depending on supplies of basic necessities like food and water from the outside.

“We have taken a decision that no police officer, no soldier or government official will go down to an abandoned mine. There is a high risk of loss of life,” she said.

At a UN committee vote on Thursday, Australia voted with 158 other countries, including the UK and New Zealand, on a resolution to recognise the “permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources”.

Óscar Sánchez Gil was until recently the head of the fraud and anti-money laundering division of Spain’s national police force in Madrid.

Officers arrested him last week along with 15 other people, including his romantic partner, who is also a police officer in the Madrid region, a police source said without naming her.

The attack took place at the Santo Espiritu del Monte Monastery around 10am Saturday, with local TV reporting that seven of the monks were injured after a man took the staff from the statue of Saint Louis in the upper cloister and attempted to carry out his plan to "kill the monks." Only two members of the order were able to escape the attack, one who was taking mass, and another sitting in the garden.

The Hague court of appeal said it could not establish that Shell had a "social standard of care" to reduce its emissions by 45% or any other amount, even though it agreed the company had an obligation to citizens to limit emissions.

“It is time to consider suspending the credentials of Israel as a member state of the UN,” she said. “I understand the sensitivity because none of you have clean hands when it comes to human rights.”

She said no other country had defied so many UN resolutions for so long.

“Victory of Ukraine is a priority for us all; the situation on the battlefield is very difficult,” Kallas told MEPs in her opening remarks. “That is why we must keep on working every day, today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes, and with as much military, financial and humanitarian aid as needed.”

Brasilia's deputy governor said the explosions occurred after a man attempted to enter the court and was stopped. Police confirmed that they discovered a body outside the building, but have yet to offer further details. The country's solicitor general, Jorge Messias, condemned what he said was a deliberate attack and vowed a full investigation into the blasts would be launched.

Human rights groups estimate the deaths could exceed 20,000 during Duterte’s presidency alone. The bloody campaign alarmed Western governments and led to complaints that sparked the investigation by the ICC, a court of last resort for crimes that countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute themselves.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has launched a comprehensive housing initiative to address the country's housing deficit by building a million homes and offering zero-interest mortgages.

The program, aimed at supporting vulnerable groups, focuses on female-led households, young people, Indigenous communities and senior citizens. The announcement is a fulfillment of Sheinbaum's campaign promise to create affordable housing and promote equitable urban development.

Elon Musk, a key Trump backer who is expected to have considerable sway in helping shape Trump’s policies, included a “100” emoji while resharing Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah’s post on X calling for abolishing the Fed.

But the president-elect’s blizzard of Cabinet and staff picks on Tuesday, each one more unorthodox than the last, only bolstered fears among his critics that his chaotic crew is about to take the country on a dangerous ride.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has resigned five days after a report found he likely knew about the actions of a serial abuser spanning decades.

John Smyth physically and sexually abused over 100 boys and young men over decades, until shortly before his death in 2018.