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 The body of a newlywed pharmacist who was found beaten to death in the bathroom of a luxury honeymoon bungalow in Fiji was so badly injured that it could not be embalmed and had to be cremated before her parents could take her home to the United States. 

Memphis woman Christe Chen, 36, was found dead on July 9 at the secluded $3,500-a-night Turtle Island Resort. She and her husband, Bradley Robert Dawson, 38 - who she married in February - had only checked into the resort two days earlier. 

The couple married after a whirlwind romance in February - three months after they first met - and her parents paid for their honeymoon.  

DailyMail.com revealed that Chen was found bloodied on the bathroom floor of the couple's luxury bungalow. She had suffered multiple traumatic injuries to her body, and blunt force trauma to the head, according to a post-mortem exam report. 

Dawson appeared at the Lautoka High Court on Tuesday evening (ET), clutching a small blue suitcase in anticipation of a bail hearing. However, the date was rescheduled to August 18. He has maintained Chen's death was an accident.

Ronald Gordon, a lawyer representing Chen's estate and her parents, told DailyMail.com that they will take civil action against Dawson if he is not held criminally liable for her death and have not ruled out legal action against Turtle Island Resort. He added that he will also oppose any bail application. 

'The family will follow the proceedings to ensure justice is served for Christe given the horrific injuries she endured,' he told DailyMail.com on Tuesday. 

'The deceased was unable to be taken back to her home because of the nature of her injuries … so she had to be cremated here in Fiji and her ashes were taken back.

Memphis woman Christe Chen, 36, was found dead on July 9 at the secluded $3,500-a-night Turtle Island Resort. She and her husband, Bradley Robert Dawson, 38 - who she married in February - had only checked into the resort two days earlier

 U.S. officials say they have little fear that China would attack Nancy Pelosi’s plane if she flies to Taiwan. But the U.S. House speaker would be entering one of the world’s hottest spots where a mishap, misstep or misunderstanding could endanger her safety. So the Pentagon is developing plans for any contingency.

Officials told The Associated Press that if Pelosi goes to Taiwan — still an uncertainty — the military would increase its movement of forces and assets in the Indo-Pacific region. They declined to provide details, but said that fighter jets, ships, surveillance assets and other military systems would likely be used to provide overlapping rings of protection for her flight to Taiwan and any time on the ground there.

Any foreign travel by a senior U.S. leader requires additional security. But officials said this week that a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi — she would be the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997 — would go beyond the usual safety precautions for trips to less risky destinations.

Asked about planned military steps to protect Pelosi in the event of a visit, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that discussion of any specific travel is premature. But, he added, “if there’s a decision made that Speaker Pelosi or anyone else is going to travel and they asked for military support, we will do what is necessary to ensure a safe conduct of their visit. And I’ll just leave it at that.”

China considers self-ruling Taiwan its own territory and has raised the prospect of annexing it by force. The U.S. maintains informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan even as it recognizes Beijing as the government of China.

The trip is being considered at a time when China has escalated what the U.S. and its allies in the Pacific describe as risky one-on-one confrontations with other militaries to assert its sweeping territorial claims. The incidents have included dangerously close fly-bys that force other pilots to swerve to avoid collisions, or harassment or obstruction of air and ship crews, including with blinding lasers or water cannon.

Dozens of such maneuvers have occurred this year alone, Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant defense secretary, said Tuesday at a South China Sea forum by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. China denies the incidents.

The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security issues, described the need to create buffer zones around the speaker and her plane. The U.S. already has substantial forces spread across the region, so any increased security could largely be handled by assets already in place.

The military would also have to be prepared for any incident — even an accident either in the air or on the ground. They said the U.S. would need to have rescue capabilities nearby and suggested that could include helicopters on ships already in the area.

Pelosi, D-Calif., has not publicly confirmed any new plans for a trip to Taiwan. She was going to go in April, but she postponed the trip after testing positive for COVID-19.

The White House on Monday declined to weigh in directly on the matter, noting she had not confirmed the trip. But President Joe Biden last week raised concerns about it, telling reporters that the military thinks her trip is “not a good idea right now.”

A Pelosi trip may well loom over a call planned for Thursday between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, their first conversation in four months. A U.S. official confirmed plans for the call to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity ahead of the formal announcement.

U.S. officials have said the administration doubts that China would take direct action against Pelosi herself or try to sabotage the visit. But they don’t rule out the possibility that China could escalate provocative overflights of military aircraft in or near Taiwanese airspace and naval patrols in the Taiwan Strait should the trip take place. And they don’t preclude Chinese actions elsewhere in the region as a show of strength.

Security analysts were divided Tuesday about the extent of any threat during a trip and the need for any additional military protection.

The biggest risk during Pelosi’s trip is of some Chinese show of force “gone awry, or some type of accident that comes out of a demonstration of provocative action,” said Mark Cozad, acting associate director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the Rand Corp. “So it could be an air collision. It could be some sort of missile test, and, again, when you’re doing those types of things, you know, there is always the possibility that something could go wrong.”

The United States and its allies should certainly continue providing Ukraine with the matériel it needs, but they should also — in close consultation with Kyiv — begin opening channels of communication with Russia. An eventual cease-fire should be the goal, even as the path to it remains uncertain.

 

Starting talks while the fighting rages would be politically risky and would require significant diplomatic efforts, particularly with Ukraine — and success is anything but guaranteed. But talking can reveal the possible space for compromise and identify a way out of the spiral. Otherwise, this war could eventually bring Russia and NATO into direct conflict.

The current U.S. approach assumes that would happen only if the Ukrainians are given particular systems or capabilities that cross a Russian red line. So when President Biden recently announced his decision to provide Ukraine with the multiple-launch rocket system that Kyiv says it desperately needs, he deliberately withheld the longest-range munitions that could strike Russia. The premise of the decision was that Moscow will escalate — i.e., launch an attack against NATO — only if certain types of weapons are provided or if they are used to target Russian territory. The goal is to be careful to stop short of that line while giving the Ukrainians what they need to “defend their territory from Russian advances,” as Mr.

The new constitution, analysts note, weakens checks and balances in the political system and states that the president “cannot be questioned” about his actions during the discharge of his duties. It also gives the president extensive authority over the judiciary and government, allows him to dissolve parliament and issue laws by decree in its absence. He can remain as president beyond the two terms allowed by the constitution if he believes the country is in danger. “This is the start of a dictatorial era,” said Afaf Daoud, a leader of the Takatol opposition party, one of several groups that had called for a boycott of the referendum. “Under his constitution, there is no counterweight to him because he has marginalised parliament. The charter makes the president completely unaccountable.” Saied has been quoted as saying the next step would be a new electoral law. Such legislation, his opponents warn, will be entirely shaped by the president who has been ruling by decree since September after he shut parliament and seized all powers in July 2021. Until Saied’s power grab, Tunisia was seen as the only example of a successful democratic transition in Arab countries which rose up against dictatorial rule in 2011. The country’s 2014 constitution, the result of extensive open debate, was internationally hailed as a democratic achievement and a milestone in a region where dictatorship is the norm.

view of the environment surrounding the officer during a weekslong field test. Called the Nexx360, the officer’s collar holds four wide-angle cameras. Instead of capturing footage of a narrow field of view in front of the officer, this system gives an all-around view. “This has the potential for being a game-changer,” said Sheriff John Shearon. “There are times when we don’t get good footage of an encounter. The officer may be moving to protect themselves or others; the other person may be moving. An officer doesn’t need to think about where they need to be to get the best body camera footage. This solves that problem.” The cameras serve as a “dispassionate observer,” said Terry Luck, a longtime defense attorney whose practice is in Montgomery. The technology also allows dispatchers – and supervisors – to get real-time images of what’s happening. That’s a huge advantage in rural counties, where help in the form of backup can be 20 minutes or more away, Shearon said.

Alaska

Juneau: Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she recently tested positive for the coronavirus. In a statement on social media, Murkowski said she recently tested positive after experiencing flulike symptoms. The statement did not specify the timing of the test. Her campaign posted photos of events that Murkowski participated in Friday and Saturday in Fairbanks. “I will be following guidance and advice from doctors and will be quarantining at home in Alaska while continuing my work remotely,” Murkowski’s statement said. Karina Borger, a spokesperson in Murkowski’s Senate office, said by email that Murkowski is “vaccinated and boosted.” Borger said she had nothing more to share beyond the social media post.

Japan takes another step toward Covid Russia And Japan Kamal Vai Update today best news

 People hoping to cross the Channel to France this weekend are being warned it will be very busy again, after three days of queues and delays.

And that pattern could continue with drivers warned by the AA they could face a summer of repeat delays.

Vehicles are flowing freely on Monday after a weekend that saw miles of tailbacks build up in Kent.

Kent Resilience Forum's Toby Howe said it was a "very vulnerable situation" and took little to cause congestion.

Queues of lorries have begun to build at Dover, although the port said traffic was flowing normally.

Despite the improved traffic flow a critical incident declared over the weekend has remained in force.

 

Ferry operator DFDS told passengers there were "queues of around an hour" for French border checks, while P&O Ferries said queues had picked up.

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Over the weekend traffic built up on the roads leading to the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone and Port of Dover after the M20 motorway through Kent to the south coast was closed to cars from Maidstone to Folkestone because of Operation Brock, which sees lorries diverted to park on the motorway.

With the motorway shut, car drivers were diverted to smaller roads which then got jammed with miles of tailbacks.

Some people reported sleeping overnight in their cars, while one tired family said the last three miles of their journey took 21 hours.

He said on Friday the Port of Dover had issues with a lack of resources, which was compounded by a crash on the motorway.

"You only need another crash on the road or maybe a train breakdown or a power failure somewhere for it to then become a big problem."

Mr Howe said there needed to be more infrastructure in place to take traffic off the roads, such as lorry parks.

"We shouldn't really have to have queues of traffic due to all of this, so we need more infrastructure in place," he said.

The AA's head of roads policy Jack Cousens said it had been an "incredible weekend of traffic jams" but warned the group was concerned "we could be in for a repeat of this congestion across the summer".

 

John Keefe, director of public affairs for Getlink - which operates the Eurotunnel between Folkestone and Calais, said the issue over the weekend had been caused by the expected "very heavy traffic of passengers" getting away on holidays alongside an unexpected amount of truck traffic, which would normally have crossed to France earlier but had been delayed by an accident on the motorway.

He said there were several factors that could help ease the situation, including bringing in digital technology to speed up border checks, increasing the resilience of the road network - with two of the UK's biggest ports served by the same motorway - and improving the Channel tunnel railway network.

Mr Keefe added: "There are definitely solutions. These solutions are not new. They've been on the table for many, many years.

Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilized for routine defense exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

While there was no direct link between China’s renewed threats and Taiwan’s defensive moves, they underscore the possibility of a renewed crisis in the Taiwan Strait, considered a potential hotspot for conflict that could envelop the entire region.

 

Air raid sirens were sounded in the capital Taipei and the military was holding its annual multi-day Han Kuang drills, including joint air and sea exercises and the mobilization of tanks and troops.

In Taipei, police directed randomly selected subway commuters to shelters when a siren went off shortly after lunchtime. Most departed after about 15 minutes.

Pelosi has not confirmed when, or even if, she will visit, but President Joe Biden last week told reporters that U.S. military officials believed such a trip was “not a good idea.” Administration officials are believed to be critical of a possible trip, both for the problematic timing and the lack of coordination with the White House.

China’s authoritarian ruling Communist Party considers democratic, self-ruling Taiwan its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and regularly advertises that threat by staging military exercises and flying warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone or across the center line of the 180-kilometer (100-mile) -wide Taiwan Strait.

Beijing says those actions are aimed at deterring advocates of the island’s formal independence and foreign allies—principally the U.S.—from interfering, more than 70 years after the sides split amid civil war. Surveys routinely show that Taiwan’s 23 million people reject China’s assertions that the island is a Chinese province that has strayed and must be brought under Beijing’s control.

Pelosi, long a sharp critic of Beijing, is second in line to the White House. She is viewed as a Biden proxy by China, which demands members of Congress follow the commitments made by previous administrations.

Taiwan is among the few issues that enjoys broad bipartisan support among lawmakers and within the administration, with Biden stating earlier this year that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it came under attack.

U.S. law requires Washington provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” but remains ambiguous on whether it would commit forces in response to an attack from China.

 

Though the sides lack formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s chief provider of outside defense assistance and political support, in a reflection of its desire to limit China’s growing influence and maintain a robust American presence in the Western Pacific.

Moldova is “very worried” about a potential Russian invasion as Russian forces prepare step up attacks in Ukraine’s east and south, close to the border with the tiny nation of 2.5 million.

© Pool/ReutersMoldova ‘very worried’ Russia may invade, prime minister says

Moldova’s prime minister, Natalia Gavrilita, said the possibility that her country could be the next to be invaded on orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a hypothetical scenario for now.”

“But if the military actions move further into the southwestern part of Ukraine and toward Odessa, then of course we are very worried,” she said in an interview Sunday with CNN.

What is Transnistria, and will Russia advance toward Moldova?

Moldova, which remains militarily neutral, split from the Soviet Union and gained independence in 1991. It has publicly condemned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees from across the border.

“We had to deal very quickly with a massive refugee flow,” Gavrilita said, adding that recent polling revealed a significant majority of Moldovans were willing to take in even more displaced people.

The energy supply of Moldova, considered one of the world’s poorest countries, is controlled by Russia, and the nation has long expressed concern over Russia’s next step in the conflict. Putin’s war next door poses Moldova’s most direct challenge to date, as The Washington Post reported earlier this year.

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After Ukraine, Gavrilita said Moldova has been hit hardest economically since Russia’s invasion, citing high inflation.

Moldova was granted candidate status to join the European Union alongside Ukraine last month.

The two nations will have to go through a lengthy process to become members and are expected to meet certain criteria.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the move to grant candidate status strengthened Ukraine and Moldova “in the face of Russian aggression” along with the European Union and sent a strong signal to Putin.

E.U. leaders make Ukraine, Moldova candidates for membership

In April, a Russian military commander suggested that Moscow would seek to create a corridor through Ukraine’s south to Transnistria, a breakaway republic in eastern Moldova. Following the remarks, Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador to express “deep concern.”

Gavrilita expressed alarm Sunday that Russian troops “are on the territory of the secessionist Transnistria region,” and warned that other countries should also be concerned about Putin’s ambitions.

“If a country can start an annexation war without any regard for international law, then in this sense, nobody is safe,” said the prime minister, who took office in August last year. “I think a lot of countries are worried.”

Gavrilita added that Moldova is doing “everything possible to maintain peace and stability and to ensure that the fighting does not escalate.”

During a visit to Indonesia on Sunday, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years.

Milley’s Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, told him in a call earlier this month that Beijing had “no room for compromise” on issues such as Taiwan.

China’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will take “resolute and strong measures,” but has not specified actions it would take in response to a visit to Taiwan by Pelosi, who would be the highest-ranking elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997. Speculation has centered on a new round of threatening military exercises or even an attempt to prevent Pelosi’s plane from landing by declaring a no-fly zone over Taiwan.

German business confidence has dropped to its lowest level since the early months of the pandemic amid fears a cut-off in Russian gas supplies could push Europe’s largest economy into a downturn.

The Ifo Institute’s gauge of expectations fell to 80.3 in July from 85.8 in June – a much deeper decline than forecast. An index of current conditions also dropped.

Clemens Fuest, Ifo President, said: “Germany is on the brink of a recession. High energy prices and the threat of gas shortages are weighing on the economy. Companies are expecting significantly worse business activity in the coming months.”

The report reflects mounting gloom in Germany, which is also grappling with rampant inflation and supply chain troubles exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

A gauge of private-sector activity by S&P Global last week showed the economy began contracting in July for the first time this year.

Factory orders weaken - but cost pressure ease

UK manufacturers have reported a weakening of demand over the last three months. On the plus side, though, they said inflation is showing signs of peaking.

The latest survey of the sector by the CBI showed order books growing at their slowest pace in 15 months. An index of output expectations fell to the lowest since January 2021.

Businesses are still deeply pessimistic as fears about a global recession mounted.

However, the pressure from soaring raw material prices appears to be easing, with average costs per unit of output rising less quickly than in the quarter to April.

11:23am

Ukraine downgraded by Fitch as it begins 'default-like' process

Ukraine has been downgraded by Fitch Ratings after the country began the formal process to defer payments on its external bonds and restructure $22.8bn (£18.9bn) in sovereign debt.

The country’s credit score was lowered to C from CCC by Fitch, which said the Government’s request to postpone foreign-debt payments constitutes a “default-like process.”

The rating would be lowered again to RD if the proposal is accepted by creditors – a move that the firm said is likely.

The rating company said: “Even if not accepted, Fitch considers that the risk of missed payments or initiation of an alternative distressed-debt exchange process is high as the Government seeks to preserve liquidity in the face of acute military spending pressure.”

Kyiv filed a formal request last week asking bondholders to agree to a two-year payment freeze and changes to coupons on its so-called GDP warrants by the middle of next month.

The Finance Ministry said it “received explicit indications of support” for the plan from a select group of its biggest debt holders, including BlackRock and Fidelity International.

Beyond a payment delay, Fitch said a broader restructuring of the Government’s commercial debt will also be required, though timing remains uncertain.

The firm expects the war to continue well into next year, leading the economy to contract 33pc this year – a hit that will have long-term effects as the government estimates at least $750bn in reconstruction costs over the next decade.

“If the U.S. is determined to make (a visit) happen, they know China will take unprecedented tough measures and the U.S. must make military preparations,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Beijing’s Renmin University.

“Expect huffing and puffing, maybe some fire-breathing, military posturing, and perhaps economic punishment of Taiwan,” said Michael Mazza, a defense and China expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

The timing of a Pelosi visit, which could happen sometime in early August, is especially sensitive, hinging on multiple factors. Among them is the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army—the military branch of the ruling Communist Party—which falls on Aug. 1, a date used to stoke nationalism and rally the troops.

Chinese leaders are also under pressure from hardline nationalist forces within the party ranks.

That harkens back to the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995 and 1996, when China held exercises and launched missiles into waters north and south of the island in response to a U.S. visit by the island’s then-president Lee Teng-hui. The U.S. responded by dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area, a move that helped spur China’s massive military upgrading in the years since that has radically changed the balance of power in Asia.

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 Former President Trump attacked the work of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at a rally supporting several candidates in Arizona on Friday. 

Trump held a rally in Prescott Valley to support his endorsed candidate for governor, Kari Lake, and his endorsed candidate for Senate, Blake Masters. During his speech, he said he was watching the committee’s most recent hearing on Thursday, which focused on Trump’s actions as the riot took place at the Capitol building, and called it a “hoax.” 

Trump also denied testimony that Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, gave to the committee last month. 

Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, Trump’s deputy chief of staff at the time, told her about an incident in the presidential vehicle on Jan. 6 in which Trump became heated when he was told he could not go to the Capitol following his speech at the Ellipse that day. She said Ornato told her that Trump attempted to grab the steering wheel of the vehicle and lunged at a Secret Service agent. 

Hutchinson testified that Robert Engel, the agent that Trump allegedly lunged at, was present when Ornato told her of the incident and Engel did not dispute any details. 

Trump denied Hutchinson’s account, saying he would not have done that and could not physically have. He praised the Secret Service for denying the account. 

Ornato and Engel have said they would be willing to testify to dispute Hutchinson’s testimony on the incident. 

But the House Jan. 6 committee showed additional witnesses at its hearing on Thursday that seem to support Hutchinson’s testimony. 

For 20-year-old Yash Teli, memory is a curse. When he closes his eyes, he can see his father’s bloodied body lying in the street, his throat slit.

Sitting in a room full of mourners on a recent afternoon in Udaipur, India, next to a large photograph of his father that was draped with a garland of roses, he was reminded of the blood. 

 

“I don’t want to remember him like that,” he said as his mother’s wails could be heard from another room. “How will I ever sleep now?”

Udaipur, a city of about 600,000 in the western Indian state of Rajasthan, has been a tinderbox since the gruesome slaying last month of Yash’s father, Kanhaiya Lal Teli, a Hindu tailor. In a video posted online by his attackers, identified by police as two local Muslims, the elder Teli can be seen in his shop measuring a man who then attacks him with a cleaver, joined by the man filming. They later accused the tailor of insulting Islam.

The killing shocked people across India, a majority-Hindu country of 1.4 billion, where religious violence is more often aimed at Muslims amid rising discrimination experts say is fueled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Shamseer Ibrahim, a 36-year-old Muslim activist, said that state endorsement of anti-Muslim violence was damaging the democratic and secular values of India, whose long history of interreligious co-existence has been punctuated by bloody outbreaks of strife.

“Under the Modi regime, the spirit of the Indian Constitution is being diminished,” he said in a phone interview. “A very dangerous future awaits Indian society.”

“I realized that there is no democracy in India. It is ruled by Islamists,” he said in anguish, a statement at odds with the fact that Hindu nationalists are in power. “They don’t have a right to live. Cruel people like them should be killed.”

“Us and them” attitudes are nothing new in India, which has long struggled with religious, ethnic and linguistic divisions. But critics say that under Modi and the BJP, the conflict between Hindus and Muslims — who make up about 14 percent of the population and constitute the third-largest Muslim population in the world — has taken a violent turn toward “us versus them.”

“There are organized forces that are riling prejudices and instigating Hindus against Muslims,” said Apoorvanand, a political commentator and professor of Hindi at the University of Delhi who goes by one name. “The BJP’s entire politics surround this: to divide the nation permanently.”

Modi and his party have not commented in the past when Muslims were killed in communal violence. But after Kanhaiya Lal’s killing, they criticized the government of Rajasthan, which is controlled by the opposition Congress party, saying it was on the way to becoming “a Talibani state.”

“The appeasement of Muslims by Congress has increased the audacity of the jihadis to such an extent that they are openly killing Hindus and threatening the prime minister,” Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, a BJP member of Parliament from Rajasthan, said at a news conference last month.

 

Yash Teli, left, next to his slain father’s photo with a relative at his home in Udaipur this month.Yashraj Sharma

‘They don’t have a right to live’

Yash was in the Udaipur market the evening of June 28 when he got a phone call from his cousin: “They have done it. They killed him.”

India, a regional power growing closer to the United States, had been tense for weeks after two top BJP officials made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad, the ancient founder of Islam, and his wife Aisha. The remarks drew protests across the country and diplomatic outrage from the Muslim world, leading Modi and the BJP to distance themselves from the officials.

Days before he was brutally killed, Kanhaiya Lal, 46, was briefly detained by local police who accused him of “hurting religious sentiments” by expressing support online for the anti-Islamic remarks by the BJP officials. In a second video posted after the killing, his attackers cited his social media comments, which the tailor had later deleted. They also threatened a similar attack against Modi.

Police have identified the assailants as Ghaus Mohammad and Riyaz Akhtari, both residents of Udaipur. The two men are in the custody of the National Investigation Agency, India’s premier anti-terrorism task force, and have been charged under the country’s anti-terrorism law. NBC News was unable to reach their attorneys or ascertain whether they had entered any plea.

DeSantis is yet again raising 2024 rumors with his appearance at the Student Action Summit held by right-wing group Turning Point USA - where former President Donald Trump is slated to speak just a day later.

The governor devoted a significant portion of his address to Republicans' bid to win Congress in November's midterm elections while also hammering Biden for inflation and the border crisis - a decidedly national politics-focused message for an official who has shrugged off White House ambitions but not explicitly ruled them out.

'If we get that red wave in the House and in the Senate, and Republicans have majorities, here's what I think we as voters want to see - we want to see you do something with those majorities,' DeSantis said.

'We want to see you hold [Biden] and his ilk accountable for what they're doing at the southern border.'

He further fueled 2024 buzz by attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is widely seen as a potential Democratic contender should Biden not run again.

'We believe every parent in the state of Florida has a right to send their little kid to elementary school without having radical gender ideology injected into the curriculum. It is totally inappropriate to take some six year old kid and to say, well, "You may have been born a boy, but maybe you're really a girl." That is wrong and may fly in California but it does not fly here in the state of Florida', DeSantis said.

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 Towns and farmlands inundated by floods, homes and roads buried by landslides, crops withering under scorching heat, hazmat-suited Covid workers collapsing from heatstroke.

Since summer began, scenes of devastation and misery have been playing out across China as the world's most populous nation grapples with an unrelenting torrent of extreme weather emergencies.

Scientists have been warning for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more frequent. Now, like much of the world, China is reeling from its impact.

 

 

Since the country's rainy season started in May, heavy rainstorms have brought severe flooding and landslides to large swathes of southern China, killing dozens of people, displacing millions and causing economic losses running into billions of yuan.

In June, extreme rainfall broke "historical records" in coastal Fujian province, as well as parts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. At the same time, a sweltering heat wave began to envelop northern China, pushing temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

That heat wave has now engulfed half the country, affecting more than 900 million people -- or about 64% of the population. All but two northeastern provinces in China have issued high-temperature warnings, with 84 cities issuing their highest-level red alerts last Wednesday.

In recent weeks, a total of 71 national weather stations across China have logged temperatures that smashed historical records. Four cities -- three in the central province of Hebei and one in Yunnan in the southwest -- saw temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), according to the National Climate Center.

 

China has vowed to annex Taiwan by force if necessary, and has advertised that threat by flying warplanes near Taiwanese airspace and holding military exercises based on invasion scenarios. It says those actions are aimed at deterring advocates of the island’s formal independence and foreign allies – principally the U.S. – from coming to its aid, more than 70 years after the sides split amid civil war.

A visit by Pelosi would “severely undermine China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-U.S. relations and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang said at a daily briefing.

“If the U.S. were to insist on going down the wrong path, China will take resolute and strong measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zhao said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan. Jean-Pierre said the United States’ support for Taiwan remained “rock solid,” while reiterating the U.S. longstanding commitment to the “One China” policy that recognizes Beijing as the government of China but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

 

The stifling heat has coincided with a surge in Covid cases, making government mandated mass testing all the more excruciating for residents -- including the elderly -- who must wait in long lines under the sun. It has also become a dangerous task for health workers who, as part of the government's 'zero-Covid' policy, are required to spend long hours outdoors covered head to toe in airtight PPE equipment as they administer the tests.

 

People queue at a Covid testing site in Beijing on June 13.

 

Several videos of Covid workers collapsing on the ground from heatstroke have gone viral on social media.

The heat wave has also caused power shortages in some regions and hit the country's crop production, threatening to further push up food prices.

And the worst might be still to come, according to Yao Wenguang, a Ministry of Water Resources official overseeing flood and drought prevention.

"It is predicted that from July to August, there will be more extreme weather events in China, and regional flood conditions and drought conditions will be heavier than usual," Yao told Xinhua News Agency last month.

Counting the costs

China is a "sensitive area" that has been significantly affected by global climate change, with temperatures rising faster than the global average, according to the country's latest Blue Book on Climate Change, published by the China Meteorological Administration last August.

Between 1951 and 2020, China's annual average surface temperature was rising at a pace of 0.26 degrees Celsius per decade, the report said. Sea levels around China's coastlines rose faster than the global average from 1980 to 2020, according to the report.

The changing climate can make extreme weather events -- such as summer floods, which China has grappled with for centuries -- more frequent and intense, said Johnny Chan, an emeritus professor of atmospheric science at the City University of Hong Kong.

 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of senior officials is casting an inconvenient light on an issue that the Biden administration has largely ignored since the outbreak of war with Russia: Ukraine’s history of rampant corruption and shaky governance.

As it presses ahead with providing tens of billions of dollars in military, economic and direct financial support aid to Ukraine and encourages its allies to do the same, the Biden administration is now once again grappling with longstanding worries about Ukraine’s suitability as a recipient of massive infusions of American aid.

Those issues, which date back decades and were not an insignificant part of former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, had been largely pushed to the back burner in the immediate run-up to Russia’s invasion and during the first months of the conflict as the U.S. and its partners rallied to Ukraine’s defense.

Yet even as Russian troops were massing near the Ukrainian border last fall, the Biden administration was pushing Zelenskyy to do more to act on corruption — a perennial U.S. demand going back to Ukraine’s early days of independence.

“In all of our relationships, and including in this relationship, we invest not in personalities; we invest in institutions, and, of course, President Zelenskyy has spoken to his rationale for making these personnel shifts,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday.

Price declined to comment further on Zelenskyy’s reasoning for the dismissals or address the specifics but said there was no question that Russia has been trying to interfere in Ukraine.

“Moscow has long sought to subvert, to destabilize the Ukrainian government,” Price said. “Ever since Ukraine chose the path of democracy and a Western orientation this has been something that Moscow has sought to subvert.”

Still, in October and then again in December 2021, as the U.S. and others were warning of the increasing potential for a Russian invasion, the Biden administration was calling out Zelenskyy’s government for inaction on corruption that had little or nothing to do with Russia.

Prime Minister and Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been the face of the government's handling of the economic crisis, will face a hefty challenge after late support swelled for his main rival.

Dullas Alahapperuma, a former government minister and spokesman, was nominated by a breakaway faction of the ruling coalition, and ethnic minority parties also said they’ll support him. Marxist party leader Anura Dissanayake was also expected to run.

The winner will serve the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term that ends in 2024. Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned by email last week after protesters furious over the country’s economic collapse stormed his official residence and took over key state buildings.

India Trump might run in 2024 to avoid Going To Auk And USA Best Bangladesh

 new report from Rolling Stone says that while Donald Trump is seriously considering running for president in 2024, one of his main motives for doing so might be to seek the protection of presidential immunity in the face of multiple intensifying legal investigations that could result in criminal charges.

On Monday, the  U.S. Attorney's office confirmed they would not be moving forward with the case. 

'The Office would be required to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these invited guests were guilty of the crime of unlawful entry because their escort chose to leave them unattended,' the federal prosecutor said. The feds said that they 'wouldn't have been able to obtain and sustain convictions on these charges.'

The move to drop the charges has infuriated conservatives who believe its proof of the Justice Department's double standard when it comes to holding liberals accountable.

Fox News's Jesse Watters questioned whether the Biden-appointed Attorney was giving January 6 rioters and Colbert's team the same treatment. At least 876 people have been charged over the January 6 riot which left seven dead and saw crowds siege the Capitol.

'The person responsible for dropping the charges was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, who was appointed by Joe Biden and works for the Attorney General. It turns out that he's also the prosecutor investigating January 6th. Is he giving those guys the same treatment,' Watters asked on his show.

Kingpin actor Randy Quaid branded the decision to drop the charges 'disgusting'.

The report comes as Mr Trump’s ally Steve Bannon faces the start of his trial on criminal contempt of Congress. The former president’s longtime lieutenant and hardcore right-wing agitator refused to comply with the House select committee’s subpoena, and his various last-ditch efforts to head off or delay the trial have failed.

On another front, the January 6 committee is expected to receive the deleted text messages and audios by Secret Service by Tuesday.

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In markets from Boston to Beijing, much of the shrimp on sale comes from India, which has quickly grown into one of the world’s largest producers of the shellfish. Globally, the shrimp export market was worth nearly $25bn in 2020, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. And analysts, including those at Rabobank, estimate that India has become the world’s largest exporter by value. Its shrimp exports jumped three-fold in the decade to 2020, to be worth about $5bn, according to the country’s ministry of fisheries. Notably, India is ranked as the number one shrimp supplier to the US, according to Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return Initiative (Fairr) — an investment advisory network focused on sustainable food production. But this rapid expansion has also meant that the country’s shrimp industry has become a test case for whether authorities and producers in a fast-growing farming sector can control the use of antibiotics. Experts say that, for producers in countries like India, who often lack the infrastructure and resources of farmers in richer countries, the pressure to overuse antibiotics can be strong. Like farmers in other sectors, many Indian producers use antibiotics to treat and control disease among their shrimp. However, regulators in Europe and elsewhere worry this can spill into misuse, such as using drugs to help healthy shrimp grow, with significant implications for global health. Overuse of antibiotics for livestock and seafood production exacerbates the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), where drugs cease to be effective against infection. A study in The Lancet medical journal published this year found that more than 1.2mn people died from bacterial AMR globally in 2019. Medical researchers expect the toll to rise. “The problem is going to increase as we intensify and try to produce more food,” says Charles Tyler, a professor of environmental biology at the University of Exeter, who has studied India’s shrimp industry. “That’s going to cause a massive burden in terms of disease. Whatever people say about AMR, it is going to get worse because of the way we’re producing food and the intensification of it.” Whatever people say about AMR, it is going to get worse because of the way we’re producing food and the intensification of it Charles Tyler, University of Exeter Indian shrimp became globally competitive as farmers intensified production, concentrating more and more shrimp into ponds and settling on high-yielding species like whiteleg shrimp. Jennifer Cole, a lecturer in global and planetary health at Royal Holloway University in London, says the wetter climate and more frequent flooding in places like north-east India — a consequence of climate change — has also pushed farmers into aquaculture. The industry’s intensification has led to diseases spreading more easily among shrimp. This can have devastating economic consequences for producers. Because of the industry’s export-oriented nature, antibiotic use in shrimp in India is actually subject to tighter standards than other forms of animal agriculture, says Amit Khurana, director of the sustainable food systems programme at the Centre for Science and Environment think-tank in New Delhi. Some also argue that measuring the scale of antibiotic overuse in the Indian shrimp industry can be difficult. But groups such as Fairr warn there is evidence of high usage as producers administer treatments preemptively or to promote growth. In response, Importing nations have become stricter about India as a source of shrimp. The EU has increased the rate of testing for antibiotic residue in Indian shrimp shipments, according to a 2020 study of the sector for industry journal Reviews in Aquaculture. US regulators have even resorted to rejecting some Indian shipments after detecting antibiotics, according to US producer industry group the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

“We expect to get them by this Tuesday,” representative Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said. “We need all the texts from the 5th and the 6th of January.”

The committee’s next hearing is set to focus on Mr Trump’s inaction during the attack on the Capitol. It will be held in prime time on Thursday.

A high of 38.1C was reached in Suffolk on Monday, just short of the UK record of 38.7C set in 2019. Wales recorded its hottest day on record with 37.1C.

Network Rail said that the forecast temperatures for parts of the network are higher than the design limits for track and overhead line equipment.

Media caption,

Heatwave: Top tips to stay cool in 60 seconds

There have also been warnings of pressure on hospitals and ambulance services as temperatures are set to peak on Tuesday afternoon.

Following the government's latest emergency Cobra meeting, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said more call handlers had been put in place and additional funding made available for ambulance and 111 services.

Monday saw a number of schools close despite government advice against doing so, although one teaching union said the majority of schools had remained open.

Water companies in southern and eastern England have warned increased demand is leading to low pressure - and even interrupted supply - for some households.

 In addition to the security experts, Reuters spoke to six witnesses at the scene and examined multiple videos available online, taken from different angles, to piece together a detailed account of security measures ahead of his shooting.

     After leaving 67-year-old Abe exposed from behind as he spoke on a traffic island on a public road, his security detail allowed the shooter – identified by police as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41 – to come within metres of Abe unchecked, carrying a weapon, the footage showed.

     "They should have seen the attacker very deliberately walking towards the rear of the prime minister and intervened," said Kenneth Bombace, head of Global Threat Solutions, which provided security to Joe Biden when he was a presidential candidate.

Yamagami came within around 7 metres (23 feet) of Abe before firing his first shot, which missed, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing investigative sources. He fired the second shot, which hit, at around 5 metres away, it said.

     Abe's bodyguards did not appear to have "concentric rings of security" around him, said John Soltys, a former Navy SEAL and CIA officer now a vice president at security firm Prosegur. "They didn't have any kind of surveillance in the crowd."

     Asked about the experts’ analysis, the Nara Prefectural Police, in charge of security for Abe's campaign stop, told Reuters in a statement the department was "committed to thoroughly identifying the security problems" with Abe's protection, declining to comment further.

 

The video footage showed that, after the first shot, Abe turns and looks over his left shoulder. Two bodyguards scramble to get between him and the shooter, one hoisting a slim black bag. Two others head toward the shooter, who moves closer through the smoke.

     Although Abe's security tackled the assailant moments later and arrested him, it was the "wrong response" for some of the security to go after the shooter instead of moving to protect Abe, said Mitsuru Fukuda, a Nihon University professor specialising in crisis management and terrorism.

     There was enough security, "but no sense of danger," said Yasuhiro Sasaki, a retired police officer in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo who handled security for VIPs. "Everyone was startled and no one went to where Abe was."

     The Tokyo police, in charge of VIP politicians' bodyguards, referred questions to the Nara police.

On Monday:

• Flights into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire stopped after part of the runway melted
• Flights were suspended at Luton Airport after a section of the runway lifted
• Chester Zoo said it would close to during the heatwave to keep its animals and visitors safe
• Food delivery firm Just Eat suspended deliveries in some areas
• Museums, including London's Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum, closed some galleries

The peak temperature reached on Monday made it the third-hottest day on record and the hottest of the year so far.

A temperature of 37.1C was measured in Hawarden, Flintshire, making it the hottest day on record for Wales, according to provisional figures from the Met Office.

Scotland and Northern Ireland also saw their warmest days of the year, with temperatures of 31.3C and 31.1C recorded in Aboyne, Aberdeenshire and Derrylin, Co Fermanagh respectively.

Temperatures remained in the low and mid-20s overnight, raising the possibility the UK would also see its warmest night on record.

The Met Office has issued a red extreme heat warning covering much of central, northern, and south-east England.

At least four people are believed to have drowned after attempting to escape the heat in rivers and lakes.

Network Rail has issued a "do not travel" warning for Tuesday affecting services travelling through the "red zone" of the Met Office's weather warning.

No Thameslink or Great Northern services are scheduled to run north from London all day and there will be no services from London King's Cross or on the East Coast mainline.

 

Aloam Danga Covid Update victims warily welcome death sentence for Uk And India

 When Muhammed Sandeng first learned that his father, political activist Ebrima Solo Sandeng, had been tortured to death at the Gambian national spy agency's headquarters, he felt one emotion above all else.

Twenty-six percent of all crossers had previously attempted to cross the border within the last year, which is up from the usual 15 percent between 2014 and 2019, CBP said. 

The largest group to come through was single adults, making up 68 percent of the crossing, with 140,197 people.

Unaccompanied children increased four percent in June, with 15,271 encounters. Family units decreased 13 percent, with 59,534 people. 

The report was published just a few weeks after 53 migrants perished inside a truck that reached 105 degrees in June.

Pacific island nations, courted by China and the United States, put the superpowers on notice, telling the world's two biggest carbon emitters to take more action on climate change while pledging unity in the face of a growing geopolitical contest.

Leaders at a four-day summit of the Pacific Islands Forum, meeting in Fiji's capital Suva, bristled at a Chinese attempt to split some of the nations off into a trade and security agreement, while Washington pledged more financial and diplomatic engagement.

The exclusive economic zones of the 17 forum members span 30 million square km (10 million square miles) of ocean - providing half the world's tuna, the most-eaten fish. The nations are also feeling some of the severest effects of climate change as rising seas inundate lower-lying areas.

At the summit that ended on Thursday, leaders adopted language several members have used in declaring a climate emergency, saying this was supported not only by science but by people's daily lives in the Pacific.

A communique, yet to be released, shows the nations focussed on the next United Nations climate conference, COP27. They will push for a doubling of climate finance to flow from big emitters to developing nations within two years, money they say is needed to adapt to rising sea levels and worsening storms.

© Reuters/STAFF Pacific Islands Forum Chairman and Fiji PM Bainimarama attends the launch of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continen

The communique, seen by Reuters, also calls for meaningful progress at COP27 on financing for the "loss and damage" to vulnerable societies that cannot adapt and will need to relocate communities - a battle lost at last year's global climate talks.

"What matters most to us is we secure bold commitments from all countries at COP27 to phase out coal and other fossil fuels and step up finance to the most vulnerable nations and advance causes like 'loss and damage' that matter dearly to the most at-risk island communities," Fiji's President Frank Bainimarama told reporters.

"We simply cannot settle for any less than the survival of every Pacific island country," said Bainimarama, the forum's chairman.

More than four months into Russia’s invasion, the wail of air raid sirens warning of an incoming strike has become, to some Ukrainians, a kind of background noise: irritating, alarming, but also possible to ignore.

A series of deadly missile attacks by Russian forces in recent days that have hit civilian targets, however, has changed the calculus, sending Ukraine’s leaders scrambling to reinforce the message that adherence to the advisory to seek shelter saves lives.

“I’m begging you, once again: Please don’t ignore the air alert signals,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a national address this weekend. “Appropriate rules of conduct must be followed at all times.”

Many people in Ukraine still lack access to bomb shelters. In Kharkiv, the nation’s second-biggest city, officials have said they do not plan to reopen schools in the fall, partly because not all schools have them. In Lviv, the western Ukrainian city near the Polish border where hundreds of thousands of displaced Ukrainians have settled, all new buildings must include bomb shelters.

But many Ukrainians in bigger cities have become not just complacent about the danger but too weary of war to worry about the threat of attacks.

On Saturday evening in Kharkiv, where there are Russian artillery strikes almost every night, young people at a popular bar drank at outdoor tables and listened to live music.

“My neighbors go to the basement; older people go, but young people don’t,” said one of the patrons, Maryna Zviagintseva, 28.

“I think in the first month everyone was afraid and they would go down into the metro or somewhere,” said Vladyslav Andriienko, 29, a construction worker. “Now people try to live a normal life.”

In the most deadly strike in the past week, three Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea hit the center of the provincial capital of Vinnytsia, killing 23 people and wounding 140 others. The dead in the strike on Thursday included Liza Dmytriyeva, a 4-year-old with Down syndrome, and two other children.

The next day, at least 10 Russian missiles slammed into the southern city of Mykolaiv, hitting two universities, a hotel and a mall. Later on Friday, three people were killed and 16 others were wounded when at least one missile struck a target in Dnipro, in central Ukraine.

Anti-aircraft batteries shot down one missile over the Kyiv region in northern Ukraine on Friday and four others in Dnipro, Ukrainian military authorities said.

And on Saturday, a Russian rocket hit a warehouse in the Odesa region, causing a fire, according to a spokesman for the regional military administration, Serhii Bratchuk. He said that there were no casualties because the security guards retreated to a shelter as soon as they heard the siren.

A senior U.S. military official said on Friday that between 100 and 150 civilians may have been killed in Russian strikes in Ukraine that week. Moscow denies that it targets civilians in what it says is a limited military action in Ukraine aimed at ridding the country of Nazis.

Ukrainian officials, however, say the strikes are primarily aimed at spreading terror and form part of a genocidal campaign by President Vladimir V. Putin and his military.

“This is the extermination of Ukrainians as a nation,” said Oleksandr Motuzianyk, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman, on television on Friday. “This is an attempt to break the spirit of Ukrainians and reduce the level of their resistance.”

Moscow’s recent military gains, particularly in Luhansk Province in the eastern Donbas region, flow largely from the superiority of its artillery, but an influx of weapons from the United States and other countries is starting to redress that balance. Mr. Zelensky said that the situation partly explains the increase in recent strikes.

“The occupiers realize that we are gradually becoming stronger,” he said. “The goal of their terror is very simple: to put pressure on you and me, on our society, to intimidate people, to cause as much as possible damage to Ukrainian cities, while Russian terrorists are still able.”

Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe, who literally made waves at the last global climate conference by standing knee-deep in seawater to show what his country faces, told Reuters: "There is technology available to protect the islands and raise the islands and that is what we are seeking. It is very costly."

As the Pacific summit was ending, Australian coal-mining stocks soared on expectations China could resume imports after a two-year political dispute halted coal shipments to the world's biggest coal burner from its second-biggest exporter.

In contrast to the market's bullishness, leaders in the forum's thatched-roof headquarters discussed how to deal with the statehood of people whose nation has sunk in rising seas, or rights to fishing grounds defined by their distance from a landmass that may disappear.

'SPLINTERING REGIONALISM'

The communique cites an urgent need for assistance on debt vulnerability and the rising cost of food amid the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In a video address to the forum, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to triple funding to Pacific islands over a decade under a fisheries treaty, and open more embassies.

Pacific leaders at times showed irritation at the global focus on the contest between the Washington and Beijing over their region.

Australia, in tune, said less about security and pledged greater support for the climate change agenda of its neighbours, although maritime surveillance announcements to protect sustainable fishing hinted at its core anxiety.

"It's harder for countries that are responsible for most of the illegal fishing then to argue they are going to support the region to stop illegal fishing," Australia's Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said in an interview, referring to China.

Australian officials privately say they do not want security choices in the region driven by economic ties to China, and although Pacific islands are sophisticated actors, they need funding support because many have historical debts to Beijing.

The death toll in the tragedy is the deadliest human smuggling attempt in American history.

'We continue to rescue and provide medical assistance to those in distress,' Magnus said.

'My message to those considering taking this dangerous journey is simple: this is not an easy passage, the human smugglers only care about your money – not your life or the lives of your loved ones, and you will be placed in removal proceedings from the United States if you cross the border without legal authorization and are unable to establish a legal basis to remain.'

In addition, cocaine seizures went up a shocking 62 percent and methamphetamine seizures also increased 14 percent. However, heroin and fentanyl seizures decreased 49 and 41 percent.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said it's normal for migration numbers to fluctuate month-to-month and that the agency is 'committed to implementing our strategy of reducing irregular migration, dissuading migrants from undertaking the dangerous journey, and increasing enforcement efforts against human smuggling organizations.'

"It was all fear -- fear, fear, fear -- you had to be wise for your life because you didn't know what would happen," the student, 19 at the time, told AFP.

 

 

On Wednesday, Sandeng felt something new, "fulfilment and relief", after the High Court of Banjul found five ex-intelligence officials guilty of the 2016 murder.

His father's violent death was one of the most high-profile abuses committed under ex-president Yahya Jammeh's brutal 22-year regime and galvanised a political movement that eventually ousted the dictator.

The former head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Yankuba Badjie, its former operations chief, Sheikh Omar Jeng, and former officials Babucarr Sallah, Lamin Darboe and Tamba Mansary were all handed death sentences.

They will be converted to life sentences because The Gambia has a moratorium on executions.

"We were always there, during the preliminaries, and listening to all of those (hearings) was not easy -- it was painful and made us relive most of the trauma," said Sandeng, now 25.

"The persistence has paid off."

- 'Beginning of the end' -

Solo Sandeng, a key member of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), was arrested at an April 2016 anti-Jammeh protest and died in custody two days later.

According to Abdoulie Fatty, a Gambian lawyer, that was "the beginning of the end" for the dictator, who is accused of committing a litany of crimes, including rape, witch hunts and forcing bogus cures on AIDS patients.

The killing encouraged the political opposition to unite behind Adama Barrow, who beat Jammeh in the December 2016 presidential election.

Launched in 2017, the trial was fraught with tension, reflected by brawls outside the court.

The accused blamed Solo Sandeng's murder on Jammeh's private death squad despite it taking place on the intelligence agency's grounds.

Witnesses recounted how men took turns beating him in custody "until his whole body was bleeding and blood was coming out from his head".

"These were people who symbolised Jammeh's dictatorship -- the NIA symbolised Jammeh's dictatorship," said Fatty.

Badjie, the agency's director, was "probably the second most powerful individual in the country", he added.

On Wednesday, security guards had to remove several members of the public when shouting broke out after the guilty verdicts were pronounced.

- Scepticism -

The ruling offers some hope to other Jammeh-era victims.

"For me, personally, as a victim, it means a lot," said Isatou Jammeh, whose own father -- Yahya Jammeh's brother -- disappeared and was later killed after challenging the ex-president.

"Seeing them sentenced means that there is rule of law, and it serves as an example to all those who have committed gruesome crimes," she said.