ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

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Updated 08 July 2025
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ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

  • Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, ICC judges said

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls.

Judges said there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.

“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said in a statement.

The Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.

“In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.”

The court said the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least January 20, 2025.

The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It has no police force of its own and relies on member states to carry out its arrest warrants — with mixed results.

In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.

After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid.”

Edicts handed down by Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar, have squeezed women and girls from public life.

The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.

Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs — or being paid to stay home.

Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as traveling long distances without a male chaperone.

A “vice and virtue” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.

When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan said Afghan women and girls were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”

“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” he added.

Khan warned at the time he would soon be seeking additional warrants for other Taliban officials.


Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52

Updated 4 sec ago
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Russia hits Kyiv with missile and drone attack, killing 6 and injuring 52

  • A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added
  • Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble. Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land
KYIV: Russia attacked Ukraine’s capital with missiles and drones overnight, killing at least six people including a 6-year-old boy, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.
Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said at least 52 other people were injured in the attacks, and that the number was likely to rise.
A large part of a nine-story residential building collapsed after it was struck, Tkachenko added. Rescue teams were at the scene to rescue people trapped under the rubble.
“Missile strike. Directly on a residential building. People are under the rubble. All services are on site,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his official Telegram.
Images from the scene showed plumes of smoke emanating from a partially damaged building and debris strewn on the ground.
At least 27 locations across Kyiv were hit by the attack, Tkachenko said, with the heaviest damage seen in the Solomianskyi and Sviatoshynskyi districts.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’s giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress or Washington will impose punitive sanctions and tariffs.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in US-led peace efforts in an attempt to capture more Ukrainian land.

South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again

Updated 5 min 36 sec ago
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South Korean court issues arrest warrant for ex-president Yoon again

  • Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3, sending troops to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law

SEOUL: A South Korean court on Thursday issued a fresh arrest warrant for former president Yoon Suk Yeol, enabling prosecutors to forcibly bring him in for questioning after he refused to appear at his summons multiple times.
The special counsel investigating Yoon and his wife, former first lady Kim Keon Hee, said in a statement that “an arrest warrant has been issued today for former president Yoon Suk Yeol.”
Yoon plunged South Korea into a political crisis when he sought to subvert civilian rule on December 3, sending troops to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers voting down his declaration of martial law.
He became the first sitting president in the country to be taken into custody when he was detained in January after resisting arrest for weeks, using his presidential security detail to thwart investigators.
He was released on procedural grounds in March while his insurrection trial continued, but was detained again early July over concerns he might destroy evidence related to the case.
Prosecutors investigating allegations of parliamentary election tampering summoned Yoon for questioning — but he failed to appear, with his lawyers citing health issues.
On Wednesday, they filed a renewed request for a detention warrant.
Now that the warrant has been issued, prosecutors are authorized to enter Yoon’s current detention facility and compel him to appear for questioning.
Legal troubles are also mounting for Yoon and his wife in cases unrelated to his martial law attempt.
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that a shaman, Jeon Seong-bae, received a diamond necklace and a luxury designer handbag from a senior official of the Unification Church and passed them on to Kim.


‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave

Updated 54 min 1 sec ago
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‘Chamber of horrors’ being exhumed at Ireland mass baby grave

  • The burial site has forced Ireland and the Catholic Church to reckon with a legacy of having shunned unmarried mothers and separated them from their children left at the mercy of a cruel system

TUAM: Only one stone wall remains of the old mother and baby home in this town, but it has cast a shadow over all of Ireland.
A mass grave that could hold up to nearly 800 infants and young children — some of it in a defunct septic tank — is being excavated on the grounds of the former home run by the Bon Secours Sisters, an order of nuns.
The burial site has forced Ireland and the Catholic Church — long central to its identity — to reckon with a legacy of having shunned unmarried mothers and separated them from their children left at the mercy of a cruel system.
The grave was accidentally discovered by two boys a half century ago. But the true horror of the place was not known until a local historian began digging into the home’s history.
Catherine Corless revealed that the site was atop a septic tank and that 796 deceased infants were unaccounted for. Her findings caused a scandal when the international news media wrote about her work in 2014.
When test excavations later confirmed an untold number of tiny skeletons were in the sewage pit, then-Prime Minister Enda Kenny called it a “chamber of horrors.”
Pope Francis later apologized for the church’s “crimes” that included forced separations of unwed mothers and children. The nuns apologized for not living up to their Christianity.
A cold, cramped and deadly place
The homes were not unique to Ireland and followed a Victorian-era practice of institutionalizing the poor, troubled and neglected children, and unmarried mothers.
The Tuam home was cold, crowded and deadly. Mothers worked there for up to a year before being cast out — almost always without their children.
Corless’ report led to a government investigation that found 9,000 children, or 15 percent, died in mother and baby homes in the 20th century. The Tuam home — open from 1925 to 1961 — had the highest death rate.
Corless said she was driven to expose the story “the more I realized how those poor, unfortunate, vulnerable kids, through no fault of their own, had to go through this life.”
Discovering deeply held secrets
Corless’ work brought together survivors of the homes and children who discovered their own mothers had given birth to long-lost relatives who died there.
Annette McKay said there’s still a level of denial about the abuse, rape and incest that led some women to the homes while fathers were not held accountable.
“They say things like the women were incarcerated and enslaved for being pregnant,” McKay said. “Well, how did they get pregnant? Was it like an immaculate conception?”
Her mother ended up in the home after being raped as a teenager by the caretaker of the industrial school where she had been sentenced for “delinquency” after her mother died and father, a British soldier, abdicated responsibility.
Her mother, Margaret “Maggie” O’Connor, only revealed her secret when she was in her 70s, sobbing hysterically when the story finally came out.
Six months after giving birth in Tuam in 1942, O’Connor was hanging laundry at another home where she had been transferred when a nun told her, “the child of your sin is dead.”
She never spoke of it again.
Some 20 years later, a Sunday newspaper headline about a “shock discovery” in Tuam caught McKay’s attention. Among the names was her long-lost sister, Mary Margaret O’Connor, who died in 1943.
Shame’s long shadow
Barbara Buckley was born in the Tuam home in 1957 and was 19 months old when she was adopted by a family in Cork.
She was an adult when a cousin told her she’d been adopted and was later able to find her birth mother through an agency.
Her mother came to visit from London for two days in 2000 and happened to be there on her 43rd birthday, though she didn’t realize it.
“I found it very hard to understand, how did she not know it was my birthday?” Buckley said. “Delving deep into the thoughts of the mothers, you know, they put it so far back. They weren’t dealing with it anymore.”
She said her mother had worked in the laundry and was sent away after a year, despite asking to stay longer. Her lasting memory of the place was only being able to see the sky above the high walls.
At the end of their visit, her mother told her it had been lovely to meet her and her family, but said she’d never see her again.
Buckley was devastated at the rejection and asked why.
“She said, ‘I don’t want anyone finding out about this,’” Buckley said. “Going back to 1957 — and it was still a dark secret.”
Luck of the Irish
Pete Cochran considers himself one of the lucky ones.
He was 16 months old when he got out of the home and was adopted by a family in the US, where he avoided the stigma that would have dogged him as a so-called illegitimate child in his homeland.
During his visit to Tuam before the dig began, a man from town told him at a bar: “I respect you now, but growing up, I used to spit on you because that’s what I was taught.”
Cochran hopes the dig turns up few remains.
“I hope they don’t find 796 bodies,” he said. “That all these children were adopted and had a good life like I did.”
McKay has had the same hope for her sister. But even if they found a thimble full of her remains, she’d like to reunite her with her mom, who died in 2016.
“The headstone hasn’t got my mother’s name on it because I fought everybody to say I refuse to put my mom’s name on until she can have her child with her,” McKay said.


Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies

Updated 31 July 2025
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Ukraine’s parliament to consider restoring power of anti-graft agencies

  • Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days after lawmakers led by Zelensky’s ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies
  • Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday are expected to consider a bill restoring the independence of the country’s two main anti-corruption agencies

KYIV: Ukrainian lawmakers on Thursday are expected to consider a bill restoring the independence of the country’s two main anti-corruption agencies, aiming to defuse a political crisis that has shaken faith in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership. Thousands of protesters rallied in Kyiv and other cities in recent days in a rare show of discontent after lawmakers led by Zelensky’s ruling party rushed through amendments last week defanging the respected agencies.
Zelensky reversed course after the outcry and under pressure from top European officials, who warned Ukraine was jeopardizing its bid for EU membership by curbing the powers of its anti-graft authorities. Demonstrations had continued even after he submitted the new bill restoring their independence, with hundreds rallying near the presidential administration in Kyiv late on Wednesday to chants of “Shame!” and “The people are the power!.”
“I really want parliament to vote (for the new measure) just as quickly as it did last time,” said protester Kateryna Kononenko, 36, referring to last week’s fast-tracked approval of the controversial amendments.
Activists also called for demonstrations near parliament ahead of Thursday’s vote in an attempt to pressure lawmakers to approve the new bill.
Eradicating graft and shoring up the rule of law are key requirements for Kyiv to join the EU, which Ukrainians see as critical to their future as they fend off a Russian invasion.
Last week’s amendments had given Zelensky’s hand-picked general prosecutor the power to transfer cases away from the anti-graft agencies and reassign prosecutors — a step critics had said was designed to protect allies from prosecution.
While much smaller, the rallies of the past week have sparked comparisons to Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan revolution, when protesters toppled a president they accused of corruption and heavy-handed rule. More than two-thirds of Ukrainians support the recent protests, according to a recent survey by Ukrainian pollster Gradus Research.
Corruption Fighters 
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have stepped up a closely watched campaign against graft since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
They have produced charges against lawmakers and senior government officials, including a then-deputy prime minister who was accused last month of taking a $345,000 kickback. Speaking to Reuters last Friday, after Zelensky’s reversal, NABU chief Semen Kryvonos said he expected pressure against his agency to continue, fueled by what he described as corrupt forces uninterested in cleaning up Ukraine.
He added that he and other anti-corruption officials felt a greater sense of responsibility following the protests, but also called on the country’s leadership to help their effort.
“This responsibility must be shared with the government, which needs to react and say, ‘Okay, there’s corruption here — let’s destroy it.’“


Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

Updated 31 July 2025
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Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

  • Trump says Canada’s Palestine statehood stance may hurt trade deal

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday it will be difficult to make a trade deal with Canada after the country announced it is backing Palestinian statehood.
Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carney announced on Wednesday Canada is planning to
recognize
the State of Palestine at a meeting of the United Nations in September
Canada’s announcement follows France and Britain in recognizing a Palestinian state.
Israel and its closest ally, the US, both rejected Carney’s statements.
Canada and the US are working on negotiating a trade deal by August 1, the date Trump is threatening to impose a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
Carney said on Wednesday that
tariff negotiations
with US President Donald Trump’s administration have been constructive, but the talks may not conclude by the deadline.