Afghan Taliban supporters rally against ICC arrest warrant requests

Afghan Taliban supporters rally against ICC arrest warrant requests
Some 200 Taliban supporters rallied in central Afghanistan on Sunday against the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders. (AFP)
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Updated 26 January 2025
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Afghan Taliban supporters rally against ICC arrest warrant requests

Afghan Taliban supporters rally against ICC arrest warrant requests
  • Some 200 Taliban supporters rallied in central Afghanistan on Sunday against the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders

GHAZNI: Some 200 Taliban supporters rallied in central Afghanistan on Sunday against the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders.
The rally followed the announcement by the ICC on Thursday that chief prosecutor Karim Khan was seeking arrest warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani over the persecution of women.
The Taliban government has imposed a raft of restrictions on women and girls, which the United Nations has described as “gender apartheid,” since sweeping back to power in 2021.
Demonstrators in Ghazni city condemned Khan’s move, chanting slogans that included “Death to America” and “long live the Islamic Emirate” — the Taliban authorities’ name for their government.
“We have gathered here to show the West that their decision is cruel and rejected by Afghans,” said Ghazni resident Noorulhaq Omar.
“It will never be accepted because the Afghan nation will sacrifice their life for their emir,” he said, referring to Akhundzada.
Hamidullah Nisar, Ghazni province’s head of the information and culture department, joined residents at the rally.
“We totally reject what the ICC has said against the leadership of the Islamic Emirate, and we want them to take back their words,” he said.
Most demonstrations have been suppressed in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, with the exception of those by the authorities’ supporters.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government dismissed Khan’s arrest warrant requests on Friday as “politically motivated.”
Rights groups and activists have praised the ICC move.


A stabbing attack at a German company kills 1 person and seriously wounds 2

A stabbing attack at a German company kills 1 person and seriously wounds 2
Updated 6 sec ago
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A stabbing attack at a German company kills 1 person and seriously wounds 2

A stabbing attack at a German company kills 1 person and seriously wounds 2

BERLIN: A man armed with a “sharp object” attacked people at a company in Germany, killing at least one, police said.
Two people were seriously wounded in the attack Tuesday in Mellrichstadt, a small town east of Frankfurt in southern Germany, police said in posts on social network X.
A 21-year-old German man was arrested.
There was no danger to the public, authorities said.


Heavy rains kill two in central China: state media

Heavy rains kill two in central China: state media
Updated 2 min 56 sec ago
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Heavy rains kill two in central China: state media

Heavy rains kill two in central China: state media

BEIJING: Heavy rains in central China killed two people and left six others missing, state media reported on Tuesday, as the country endures a summer surge in extreme weather.
“Short-term extremely heavy rainfall” struck the towns of Taiping and Erlangping in Henan province between 9:00 p.m. and midnight on Monday, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the county emergency response center.
A cumulative 225.3 millimeters (8.9 inches) of rain caused the local Shewei River to rise dramatically, “causing damage to some facilities and leaving people trapped,” according to Xinhua.
“So far, two of the trapped people have been rescued, two have died, and six remain missing,” it said.
It also said local authorities had launched a full-scale search-and-rescue mission in the stricken area.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists generally agree are driving climate change and making extreme weather more intense and frequent.
But it is also a global leader in renewable energy, adding capacity at a faster rate than any other country.
Extreme weather has swept large parts of China in recent weeks, with six people killed and more than 80,000 evacuated due to floods in southern Guizhou province last week, according to state media reports.
Authorities issued heat warnings in Beijing last week as temperatures in the capital rose to nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last month in Hunan province, also in central China, due to heavy rain.


Thai court suspends Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call

Thai court suspends Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call
Updated 56 min 45 sec ago
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Thai court suspends Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call

Thai court suspends Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a leaked phone call

BANGKOK: Thailand’s Constitutional Court suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office pending an investigation over a leaked phone call with a former Cambodian leader.
The judges voted unanimously Tuesday to take the petition accusing her of a breach of ethics, and voted 7 to 2 to suspend her from duty.
Paetongtarn has faced growing dissatisfaction over her handling of the latest border dispute with Cambodia, involving an armed confrontation on May 28 in which one Cambodian soldier was killed. The leaked phone call while she engaged in diplomacy over the border dispute set off a string of complaints and public protests.


Trump attacks Musk subsidies in spending bill row

Trump attacks Musk subsidies in spending bill row
Updated 01 July 2025
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Trump attacks Musk subsidies in spending bill row

Trump attacks Musk subsidies in spending bill row
  • As lawmakers began voting on Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill", Musk accused Republicans of supporting "debt slavery"
  • President Trump responded by saying “without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa” on social media

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump once again targeted former aide Elon Musk on Tuesday, attacking the amount of government subsidies the entrepreneur is receiving, after the tech billionaire renewed criticism of the president’s flagship spending bill.
“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far,” Trump said on social media.
“And without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa.”
Musk — who had an acrimonious public falling out with the president this month over the bill — reprised his sharp criticisms and renewed his calls for the formation of a new political party as voting got underway.
Trump responded by suggesting his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)-- which Musk headed before stepping down late May — train its sights on the SpaceX founder’s business interests.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE,” the president said. “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!“
Trump is hoping to seal his legacy with the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which would extend his expiring first-term tax cuts at a cost of $4.5 trillion and beef up border security.
But Republicans eyeing 2026 midterm congressional elections are divided over the package, which would strip health care from millions of the poorest Americans and add more than $3 trillion to the country’s debt.
As lawmakers began voting on the bill on Monday, Musk — the world’s richest person — accused Republicans of supporting “debt slavery.”
“All I’m asking is that we don’t bankrupt America,” he said on social media Tuesday. “What’s the point of a debt ceiling if we keep raising it?“
Musk has vowed to launch a new political party to challenge lawmakers who campaigned on reduced federal spending only to vote for the bill.
“VOX POPULI VOX DEI 80 percent voted for a new party,” he said.


Russia takes full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian backed official says

Russia takes full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian backed official says
Updated 01 July 2025
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Russia takes full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian backed official says

Russia takes full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, Russian backed official says
  • Ukraine says that Russia’s claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognized to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal

MOSCOW: Russia has taken full control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television.
Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Putin in September 2022 declared that Luhansk — along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognize.
“The territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic is fully liberated — 100 percent,” Leonid Pasechnik, who was born in Soviet Ukraine and is now a Russian-installed official cast by Moscow as the head of the “Luhansk People’s Republic,” told Russian state television.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian defense ministry, or comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine says that Russia’s claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognized to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal, and Kyiv has promised to never recognize Russian sovereignty over the areas.
Russia says the territories are now part of Russia, fall under its nuclear umbrella and will never be returned.
Luhansk was once part of the Russian empire but changed hands after the Russian Revolution. It was taken by the Red Army in 1920 and then became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Along with neighboring Donetsk, Luhansk was the crucible of the conflict which began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine’s armed forces in both Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russia controls nearly 19 percent of what is internationally recognized to be Ukraine, including Luhansk, plus over 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.