Interesting Global News

Before it started, 56-year-old Kim Yun-suk fell asleep to the hum of insects and woke to the chirping of birds. Now, she is kept awake every night by what sounds like the soundtrack of a low-budget horror movie at top volume. "The peaceful sounds of nature... have now been drowned out," Kim told AFP. "All we hear is this noise."

The campaign is the latest manifestation of steadily-declining ties between the two Koreas this year, which have also seen Pyongyang test ever more powerful missiles and bombard the South with trash-carrying balloons.

Since July, North Korea has been broadcasting the noises for huge chunks of almost every day from loudspeakers along the border. The northern point of Ganghwa -- an island in the Han river estuary on the Yellow Sea -- is only about two kilometres (a mile) from the North. When AFP visited, the nighttime broadcast included what sounded like the screams of people dying on the battlefield, the crack of gunfire, bombs exploding, along with chilling music that started at 11:00 pm.

Experts said the new broadcasts almost meet the criteria for a torture campaign. "Almost every regime has used noise torture and sleep deprivation," Rory Cox, a historian at University of St Andrews, told AFP. "It is very common and leaves no physical scarring, therefore making it deniable."

Exposure to noise levels above 60 decibels at night increases the risk of sleep disorders, experts said, but AFP tracked levels of up to 80 decibels late at night on Ganghwa during a recent trip.

"I find myself taking headache medicine almost all the time," An Mi-hee, 37, told AFP, adding that prolonged sleep deprivation due to the noise has also led to anxiety, eye pain, facial tremors and drowsiness. "Our kids can't sleep either, so they've developed mouth sores and are dozing off at school." Distraught and desperate, An travelled to Seoul and got on her knees to beg lawmakers at the National Assembly to find a solution, breaking down in tears as she described the island's suffering.

Choi Hyoung-chan, a 60-year-old resident, said the South Korean government had failed to protect vulnerable civilians on the frontier. "They should come here and try to live with these sounds for just ten days," he told AFP, referring to officials in Seoul. "I doubt they could even endure a single day."

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed numerous children every single day in the past week, UNICEF said.

Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241120020803/https://truthout.org/articles/unicef-over-200-children-killed-in-lebanon-amid-israels-assault/

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Brazil’s president has opened the second day of a meeting of the world’s 20 major economies by calling for more action to slow global warming, saying developed nations must speed up their initiatives to reduce harmful emissions.

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The European Union on Monday expanded its sanctions against Iran in response to the country’s military support for Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. The EU Council announced a series of restrictive measures aimed at curbing Iran’s supply of drones and missiles to Russia.

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Police and demonstrators have scuffled again in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. Officers moved before dawn to break up a camp protesting the results of last month’s parliamentary election and demanding a new vote.

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More than 35,000 demonstrators poured into the harbourside city of Wellington, police said, shutting down busy streets as their spirited procession inched its way towards parliament. [...] Children marched alongside adults bearing distinctive full-face Maori "moko" tattoos and clutching ceremonial wooden weapons.

Protests have been swelling throughout New Zealand after a minor party in the conservative coalition government drafted a bill to redefine the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Although the bill has almost no chance of passing, its mere introduction has triggered one of New Zealand's largest protests in decades. Many critics -- including some of New Zealand's most respected lawyers -- see it as an attempt to strip long-agreed rights from the country's 900,000 strong Maori population.

At the centre of the outcry is government minister David Seymour, the outspoken leader of the libertarian ACT Party -- a minor partner in the governing coalition. Seymour has long railed against affirmative action policies designed to help Maori, who remain far more likely to die early, live in poverty, or wind up in prison. His bill would look to wind back these so-called "special rights".

Seen as the country's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840 to bring peace between 540 Maori chiefs and colonising British forces. Its principles today underpin efforts to foster partnership between Indigenous and non-Indigenous New Zealanders and protect the interests of the Maori community.

Decades of sporadic conflict between the military and ethnic rebel groups have left the Southeast Asian country littered with deadly landmines and munitions. But the military's ouster of Aung San Suu Kyi's government in 2021 has turbocharged conflict in the country and *birthed dozens of newer "People's Defence Forces" now battling to topple the military.

Anti-personnel mines and explosive remnants of war killed or wounded 1,003 people in Myanmar in 2023, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday. There were 933 landmine casualties in Syria, 651 in Afghanistan and 580 in Ukraine, the ICBL said in its latest Landmine Monitor report.

Myanmar is not a signatory to the United Nations convention that prohibits the use, stockpiling or development of anti-personnel mines.

ICBL said it had seen evidence of junta troops forcing civilians to walk in front of its units to "clear" mine-affected areas.

All sides in the fighting were using landmines "indiscriminately," the United Nations Children's Fund said in April. Rebel groups have told AFP they also lay mines in some areas under their control.

The ICBL said at least 5,757 people had been casualties of landmines and explosive remnants of war across the world in 2023. Of those, 1,983 were killed and 3,663 wounded. Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.

The West African country, plagued by jihadist and separatist violence, has been led by the military since back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021. Maiga, who was appointed by the military after the second coup, had been seen as isolated in his position as prime minister, with little room for manoeuvre. His dismissal creates further uncertainty in an already troubled context.

Maiga on Saturday publicly condemned the lack of clarity regarding the end of the transition to civilian rule. He said the confusion could pose "serious challenges and the risk of going backwards".

Maiga, 66, previously served as a minister on several occasions and ran three times as a presidential candidate. He was the civilian face of the junta's strategic pivot away from former colonial ruler France and toward closer political and military ties with Russia.

At the United Nations in September 2021, Maiga denounced what he called the "abandonment in mid-air" regarding the announced withdrawal of the French anti-jihadist force deployed in the country. He said the withdrawal forced Mali to explore new avenues with other partners, at a time when the presence of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner loomed.

After his criticism of the junta on Saturday, Maiga's position became increasingly untenable. An influential group supporting the military rulers, the Collective for the Defence of the Military (CDM), had called for him to step down within 72 hours. Limited demonstrations took place on Tuesday in support of the military and calling for the prime minister's resignation. Maiga's comments gave rise to speculation as to whether he was positioning himself for a possible future presidential election.

The U.S. government has recognized Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo González as the “president-elect” of the South American country, months after President Nicolás Maduro claimed to have won the July election.

Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241120020242/https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-presidential-election-maduro-colombia-petro-g20-f2c27ee80ed50cae7109499a23c59552

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Kizza Besigye's wife says he is being held in a military jail and demands the government free him.

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The census is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, and will provide sorely needed up-to-date demographic data for the country which has an estimated population of around 44 million. It will be the first census to cover all 18 governorates since 1987, when dictator Saddam Hussein was in power, following repeated delays caused by years of war and political tensions between factions.

A count conducted in 1997 excluded the three northern provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdistan region. The upcoming census has reignited tensions between Baghdad and Kurdistan over disputed territories in the north.

The census includes religion but does not differentiate between sects, such as Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and, unlike previous counts, it excludes ethnicity.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said the census was important for "development and planning steps in all sectors that contribute to the advancement and progress of Iraq", where electricity is scarce and infrastructure largely in disrepair.

During the census a two-day curfew will operate, with families having to stay at home so 120,000 researchers can collect data directly from households.

Demographics are likely to have shifted with the exile of hundreds of thousands of Christians, and also of tens of thousands of Yazidi families who were displaced from Sinjar by atrocities committed by IS extremists.

To organise the count, authorities partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in an effort to generate "accurate demographic information, facilitating effective policymaking and promoting inclusive growth".

Previous censuses were cancelled mainly because of tensions over disputed territories between the Kurdish, Arab, and Turkoman communities in the northern governorates of Kirkuk and Nineveh.

In the census, Baghdad has agreed to register only the descendants of families who were present in the disputed territories during the 1957 count, in order to prevent subsequent waves of migration from disrupting the demographic balance. Newcomers will be counted in their province of origin.

Pope Francis seeks an investigation into the possibility of genocide occurring in Gaza, excerpts released on Sunday of his new book demonstrate.

Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20241118200335/https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/11/pope-francis-urges-investigation-for-possible-crime-of-genocide-in-gaza/

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The three men were arrested earlier this month after travelling to the capital Bamako for what they thought were routine negotiations with the ruling junta. Instead, British chief executive Terence Holohan and two of his colleagues were "unexpectedly detained" for questioning.

Resolute said it would pay the Malian government $80 million (€75 million) from "existing cash reserves", with a further payment of $80 million in the "coming months".

Since seizing power, Mali's leaders have vowed to claw back gold mining revenues from foreign companies operating in the country. [...] Gold contributes a quarter of the national budget and three-quarters of export earnings.

The Australian company also owns a gold production site in Mako in neighbouring Senegal, and has other exploration operations in Mali, Senegal and Guinea.

The arrest of the Resolute team came soon after four employees at another foreign mining firm, Canadian company Barrick Gold, were detained in Mali for several days in September before being released..Barrick Gold said it had reached an agreement with the state and in October paid 50 billion CFA Francs (€76 million).

A statement by the group said the sanctions "result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements".

US authorities said Monday they would impose sanctions on Amana and its construction branch Binyanei Bar Amana, as well as others who have "ties to violent actors in the West Bank". "Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank", the US Treasury said. "More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land," it added.

All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law. Settlement outposts are built by private actors including Amana, and are also illegal under Israeli law.

The new sanctions will block Amana assets in the United States and prevent financial transactions between it and US-based individuals and institutions. Several Israeli settlers have already been the target of US sanctions.

Amana was founded in 1979 to develop the Jewish presence in the West Bank, the northern Israel region of Galilee and in the Negev region in the south. It has founded and developed dozens of settlements and settlement outposts since then.

"We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington, and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted," Amana said Tuesday of US President-elect Donald Trump's perceived leniency towards Israeli actions.

The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA), said in its latest report that 300 incidents involving settlers occurred in the West Bank between October 1 and November 4. Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, about 490,000 settlers live in the West Bank, which is home to three million Palestinians.

International condemnation was swift, with the United States, Australia and rights groups slamming the sentencing as evidence of the erosion of political freedoms in the city since Beijing imposed the security law in 2020.

The group, which included figures from across Hong Kong's once-diverse political spectrum, was charged with subversion after they held an informal poll in 2020 as part of a strategy to win a pro-democracy electoral majority.

Along with Tai, pro-democracy politicians Au Nok-hin, Andrew Chiu, Ben Chung and Australian citizen Gordon Ng were singled out as organisers and received sentences of up to seven years and three months. Australia's government said it was "gravely concerned" by the sentencing, and said it would continue to advocate for Ng's "best interests". The other 40 defendants received terms beginning from four years and two months.

Western countries and international rights groups have condemned the trial as evidence of Hong Kong's increased authoritarianism.

China and Hong Kong have pushed back against criticism, saying the security law restored order following the 2019 protests, and warning against "interference" from other countries.

Forty-seven people were initially charged after they were arrested in January 2021, making this case the largest by number of defendants. Thirty-one pleaded guilty, and 16 stood a 118-day trial last year, with 14 convicted and two acquitted in May. The aim of the election primary, which took place in July 2020, was to pick a cross-party shortlist of pro-democracy candidates to increase their electoral prospects. Three senior judges handpicked by the government to try security cases said the group would have caused a "constitutional crisis".

WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice will ask a judge to force Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab to sell off its Chrome internet browser, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the plans.

The DOJ will also ask the judge, who ruled in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, to require measures related to artificial intelligence and its Android smartphone operating system, the report said.

Google controls how people view the internet and what ads they see in part through its Chrome browser, which typically uses Google search, gathers information important to Google's ad business, and is estimated to have about two-thirds of the global browser market.

The DOJ declined to comment. Google, in a statement from Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president, Google Regulatory Affairs, said the DOJ is pushing a "radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case," and would harm consumers.

The move would be one of the most aggressive attempts by the Biden administration to curb what it alleges are Big Tech monopolies.

Ultimately, however, the re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency could have the greatest impact over the case.

Two months before the election, Trump claimed he would prosecute Google for what he perceives as bias against him. But a month later, Trump questioned whether breaking up the company was a good idea.

The company plans to appeal once U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta makes a final ruling, which he is likely to do by August 2025. Mehta has scheduled a trial on the remedy proposals for April.

Prosecutors had floated a range of potential remedies in the case, from ending exclusive agreements where Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and other companies to remain the default search engine on tablets and smart phones, all the way to divesting parts of its business, such as Chrome and Android operating system.

Because Chrome's market share is so high, it is an important revenue driver for Google. At the same time, when users sign into Chrome with a Google account, Google can offer more targeted search ads.

Google maintains its search engine has won users with its quality, adding that it faces robust competition from Amazon (AMZN.O) and other sites and users can choose other search engines as their default.

The government has the option to decide whether a Chrome sale is necessary at a later date if some of the other aspects of the remedy create a more competitive market, the Bloomberg report said.

Kim met Monday with Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov, who is leading a delegation focused on "cooperation in trade, economy, science and technology," the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. A delegation from a Russian military academy also arrived in the North Korean capital, KCNA said, without providing details about the visit.

Last week, Pyongyang said it had ratified a landmark defence pact with Russia, after Russian lawmakers voted unanimously in favour of the deal, which Putin later signed. Noting the new treaty, Kim said his meeting with Kozlov was aimed at "further promoting" trade as well as "scientific and technological exchange," according to KCNA. The North Korean leader added the two countries' relations "have reached a new strategic level".

In exchange for North Korea's sending troops, the West fears Russia is offering technological support that could advance Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.

Experts say Pyongyang could be using Ukraine as a means of realigning its foreign policy. By sending soldiers, North Korea is positioning itself within the Russian war economy as a supplier of weapons, military support and labor — potentially even bypassing its traditional ally, neighbor and main trading partner, China, according to analysts.

Provisional results showed 91.8 percent of voters had backed the new constitution, the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI) said in a statement. An estimated 860,000 people in Gabon were registered to vote. The interior ministry said 53.54 percent turned out to cast their ballot.

National broadcaster Gabon TV said there were no serious incidents reported during voting across 2,835 polling stations nationwide.

The proposed new constitution sets out a vision of a presidency with a maximum of two terms, but increases the length from five to seven years. It also abolishes the post of prime minister and stops family members from succeeding a president. Presidential candidates would have to be exclusively Gabonese – with at least one Gabon-born parent – and have a Gabonese spouse.

transitional president Brice Oligui Nguema, declared the referendum a "great step forward" as he cast his vote at a Libreville school. "All Gabonese are coming to vote in a transparent fashion," the junta chief told the press, having ditched his general's uniform for a brown civilian jacket over jeans.

Oligui has vowed to hand power back to civilians after a two-year transition but has made no secret of his desire to win the presidential election scheduled for August 2025. Opponents of the proposed text had dismissed it as tailor-made for strongman Oligui to remain in power.

Police opened fire in both encounters, killing 10, and then chased down those who fled with the help of self-defense groups, formed by residents opposed to the gangs and their violent rule over swaths of the country.

Well-armed gangs control some 80 percent of the city, routinely targeting civilians despite a Kenyan-led international force that has been deployed to help the outgunned police.

The Haitian capital has seen renewed fighting in the last week from Viv Ansanm, an alliance of gangs that in February helped oust former prime minister Ariel Henry. Streets were almost deserted on Tuesday after police and residents erected barricades in several neighborhoods.

Viv Ansanm spokesman Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherisier, a notorious gang leader, has called for the resignation of the transitional government currently leading the country. “The Viv Ansanm coalition will use all its means to achieve the departure of the CPT,” Cherisier said Monday, using the acronym for the Transitional Presidential Council.

The council itself -- made up of unelected officials tasked with the difficult mandate of leading the country to its first elections since 2016 -- is facing its own internal disarray.

The country lost major links to the rest of the world last week when the United States banned all civilian flights to the country for a month, after three jetliners approaching or departing Port-au-Prince were hit by gunfire.