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 Swapping sirens for bells and equipped with voracious appetites, Barcelona’s newest firefighting recruits began delicately picking past hikers and cyclists in the city’s largest public park earlier this year. The four-legged brigade – made up of 290 sheep and goats – had just one task: to munch on as much vegetation as possible.

Their arrival turned Barcelona into one of the latest places to embrace an age-old strategy that’s being revived as officials around the world face off against a rise in extreme wildfires.

While Tehran and Washington are set on pursuing diplomacy, the highly contentious sticking points are:

URANIUM TRACES

    Iran insists the nuclear pact can only be salvaged if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drops its claims about Tehran's nuclear work. Washington and other Western powers view Tehran's demand as outside the scope of reviving the deal.

    In June, the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors overwhelmingly passed a resolution, drafted by the United States, France, Britain and Germany, which criticised Iran for failing to explain uranium traces found at three undeclared sites.

    Iran reacted by further expanding its underground uranium enrichment by installing cascades of more efficient advanced centrifuges and also by removing essentially all the IAEA's monitoring equipment installed under the 2015 deal, a move described by the IAEA chief Rafael Grossi as potentially a "fatal blow" to reviving the agreement. 

    The IAEA has not had access to the data collected by such cameras, which remains with Iran, for more than a year. Grossi said more than 40 IAEA cameras would keep operating as part of the core monitoring in Iran that predates the 2015 deal.

Western powers are increasingly worried Iran is getting closer to being able to sprint towards making a nuclear bomb. Iran denies any such ambition.

"expand [its] comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations" with North Korea, said its President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter sent to his counterpart Kim Jong un on Pyongyang's liberation day, Mr Putin said the move would be in both countries' interests.

In turn, Mr Kim said friendship between both nations had been forged in World War II with victory over Japan.

He added that their "comradely friendship" would grow stronger.

According to a report by North Korean state media outlet KCNA, Mr Putin said the expanded bilateral relations would "conform with the interests of the two countries".

 

In his letter, Mr Kim said the Russia-North Korea friendship "forged in the anti-Japanese war" had been "consolidated and developed century after century".

It added "strategic and tactical cooperation, support and solidarity" between the two countries "had been put on a new high stage, in the common front for frustrating the hostile forces' military threat and provocation".

Pyongyang did not identify the hostile forces by name, but the term has been used repeatedly by North Korea to refer to the US and its allies.

The Soviet Union was once a major ally of North Korea, offering economic co-operation, cultural exchanges and aid.

But the relationship suffered since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, only gradually picking up somewhat after Russia's gradual estrangement from the West since the early 2000s.

In July, North Korea was one of the few countries to officially recognise two Russian-backed separatist states in eastern Ukraine, after Russia signed a decree declaring them as independent.

In retaliation, Ukraine, which is fighting off a Russian invasion of its territory, cut off all diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.

The idea is simple: wildfire-prone areas are handed over to grazing animals, who chomp and trample over dry vegetation that could otherwise accumulate as fuel for fires. Whether the animals are semi-wild or overseen by a shepherd who is usually compensated for their efforts, a job well done usually leaves behind a landscape dotted with open spaces that can act as firebreaks.

Controlled grazing begins on the Barcelona side of the Collserola natural park. Photograph: Ajuntament de Barcelona

It’s a nod to how wildfires were warded off in the past. “We’re not inventing anything new here,” said Guillem Canaleta of the Pau Costa Foundation, a Catalan non-profit that has been implementing the strategy since 2016 in the province of Girona, near Barcelona. “What we’re doing is recovering something that already existed and that was disappearing.

Nearly two months after he was convicted and handed a 30-year prison sentence in New York on charges of federal racketeering and sex- trafficking, disgraced musician R. Kelly is set to return to court for a second federal trial, this time on charges of child pornography and obstruction of justice, in his hometown of Chicago.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in a case that stems from the complaints of several women who allege that Kelly, 55, lured them into sex acts while they were underage. At least two are expected to testify, according to court documents.

 

This trial is expected to resurface accusations brought against Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, 14 years ago in a state trial on charges of child pornography for which he was eventually acquitted.

Illinois federal prosecutors allege that Kelly obstructed justice in that 2008 criminal trial in Cook County, which involved a video recording of Kelly allegedly sexually abusing a minor.

The singer will be tried alongside his former business manager, Derrel McDavid, and associate, Milton “June” Brown, who are both accused of conspiring with Kelly to intimidate and bribe witnesses and cover up evidence in the 2008 trial, according to the federal charges against them.

Salman Rushdie is “on the road to recovery,” his agent confirmed Sunday, two days after the author of “The Satanic Verses” suffered serious injuries in a stabbing at a lecture in upstate New York.

The announcement followed news that the lauded writer was removed from a ventilator Saturday and able to talk. Literary agent Andrew Wylie cautioned that although Rushdie’s “condition is headed in the right direction,” his recovery would be long. Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and in an eye that he was likely to lose, Wylie had previously said.

The Taliban was condemned on Sunday for beating women at a demonstration on the eve of the one-year anniversary of their seizure of power.

As Afghanistan marks a year since the West's chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, fears that the Taliban would roll back women’s rights gained during two decades of Western intervention appear to have been justified.

On Saturday a group of 40 women marched in front of the education building in Kabul chanting "bread, work and freedom".

Some defied the strict dress code by refusing to wear face veils.

Taliban militants dispersed the crowd by firing into the air before chasing after the protesters and beating them with rifle butts.

The women shouted 'bread, work, freedom' as they marched through Afghanistan's capital of Kabul on Saturday CREDIT: Nava Jamshidi

The fighters seized the protesters’ mobile phones and ripped up their banners as they cracked down on the first women’s rally in months.

Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, on Sunday condemned the latest curbs: "The EU is particularly concerned by the fate of Afghan women and girls who have seen their freedoms, rights and access to basic services such as education being systematically denied.

Meanwhile, in Britain, Priti Patel hailed the Government’s much-criticised evacuation operation a year ago.

In a video to mark the first anniversary of Operation Pitting, the Home Secretary described the UK effort as "seismic" and a demonstration of the country's "bond of trust" with those Afghans who had helped UK forces.

Ms Patel said 21,000 refugees had been brought to Britain, adding that the government had stood by the pledges it made to Afghans who stood by Britain for the decades of western occupation of the country.

Her remarks were in stark contrast to a highly critical report earlier this year by the cross-party Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster.

It criticised Dominic Raab, the former foreign secretary, and the department’s most senior official for not returning from their summer holidays as the Afghan government crumbled.

“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Rushdie’s son Zafar Rushdie said in a statement Sunday that stressed that the author remained in critical condition. The family statement also expressed gratitude for the “audience members who bravely leapt to his defence,” as well as police, doctors and “the outpouring of love and support.”

Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called “a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack” at the Chautauqua Institution, a nonprofit education and retreat center.

The attack was met with global shock and outrage, along with praise for the man who, for more than three decades — including nine years in hiding under the protection of the British government — has weathered death threats and a $3 million bounty on his head over “The Satanic Verses.”

“It’s an attack against his body, his life and against every value that he stood for,” Henry Reese, 73, told The Associated Press. The cofounder of Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum was on stage with Rushdie and suffered a gash to his forehead, bruising and other minor injuries. They had planned to discuss the need for writers’ safety and freedom of expression.

Authors, activists and government officials cited Rushdie’s bravery and longtime championing of free speech in the face of such intimidation. Writer and longtime friend Ian McEwan labeled Rushdie “an inspirational defender of persecuted writers and journalists across the world,” and actor-author Kal Penn called him a role model “for an entire generation of artists, especially many of us in the South Asian diaspora toward whom he’s shown incredible warmth.”

with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced — stands for essential, universal ideals,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday. “Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear.”

Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim family and has lived in Britain and the U.S., is known for his surreal and satirical prose, beginning with his Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel “Midnight’s Children,” in which he sharply criticized then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

Infused with magical realism, 1988′s “The Satanic Verses” drew ire from some Muslims who regarded elements of the novel as blasphemy.

They believed Rushdie insulted the Prophet Muhammad by naming a character Mahound, a medieval corruption of “Muhammad.” The character was a prophet in a city called Jahilia, which in Arabic refers to the time before the advent of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula. Another sequence includes prostitutes that share names with some of Muhammad’s nine wives. The novel also implies that Muhammad, not Allah, may have been the Quran’s real author.

 

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 was set to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom at Chautauqua Institution in western New York when police say Matar rushed the stage and stabbed the Indian-born writer, who has lived with a bounty on his head since his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" prompted Iran to urge Muslims to kill him.

Following hours of surgery, Rushdie was on a ventilator and unable to speak as of Friday evening, according to his agent, Andrew Wylie. The novelist was likely to lose an eye and had nerve damage in his arm and wounds to his liver, Wylie said in an email.

Two victims, including a pregnant woman, are in a serious condition according to Israeli hospital officials

 

Israeli security forces inspect the bus after a shooting attack that injured eight, including a pregnant woman, outside Jerusalem’s Old City early on Sunday. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images

 

Associated Press in Jerusalem

Sun 14 Aug 2022 04.02 BST

 

A gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early on Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in a suspected Palestinian attack that came a week after violence flared between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.

Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.

 

The shooting occurred as the bus waited in a parking lot near the Western Wall, which is considered the holiest site where Jews can pray.

 

Funerals and Islamic Jihad battle songs: Gaza after the ceasefire

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Israeli security forces pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.

The Jerusalem shooting followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Last weekend, Israeli aircraft carried out an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting.

Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants.

Israeli investigators inspect the bus after the shooting. Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.

Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed and several hundred injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.

The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.

A day after the ceasefire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Wylie did not respond to messages requesting updates on Rushdie's condition on Saturday, though the New York Times reported that Rushdie had started to talk, citing Wylie.

The stabbing was condemned by writers and politicians around the world as an assault on freedom of expression. In a statement on Saturday, President Joe Biden commended the "universal ideals" that Rushdie and his work embody.

"Truth. Courage. Resilience. The ability to share ideas without fear," Biden said. "These are the building blocks of any free and open society."

The study, published in the Science Advances journal, found an increased likelihood of runoff water occurring from harsher storms, creating the threat of debris flows and landslides later, according to a press release from the University of California, Los Angeles.

With every degree that the Earth gets warmer, the likelihood for a “megastorm” increases, too, the study found.

Researchers looked at two different scenarios using present climate models and high-resolution weather modeling. One scenario involved a long series of storms taking place during what scientists predicted climate conditions would be like between 2081 and 2100.

The other scenario predicted what it would be like if those storms took place in the current climate, according to the release. 

In the Sierra Nevada Mountains, storms that took place toward the end of the century would see between 200 percent and 400 percent more runoff because of higher precipitation.

The Arlington Police Department reported Saturday that a rideshare driver, with a passenger in his car, went off the road and slammed into the restaurant at about 6:45 p.m. Friday. Video obtained by CBS News showed flames and smoke billowing from Ireland's Four Courts pub, which is located in Arlington's Courthouse neighborhood.

Police Saturday upped the injury toll from 14 to 15, confirming that a total of nine people were hospitalized. Two of those were still in critical condition, and a third was in serious condition. The other six were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, and included the driver and passenger, police said.

“There are localized spots that get over 100 liquid-equivalent inches of water in the month,” UCLA climate scientist and co-author of the research David Swain said in a statement regarding the end-of-the-century scenario.

“On 10,000-foot peaks, which are still somewhat below freezing even with warming, you get 20-foot-plus snow accumulations. But once you get down to South Lake Tahoe level and lower in elevation, it’s all rain. There would be much more runoff.”

The researchers also noted that the state risks a $1 trillion disaster. In addition, parts of major cities like Los Angeles and Sacramento would be underwater if the state endured the kind of flooding that took place during the Great Flood of 1862 in the current climate. 

“Modeling extreme weather behavior is crucial to helping all communities understand flood risk even during periods of drought like the one we’re experiencing right now,” Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said in a statement.

 

“The department will use this report to identify the risks, seek resources, support the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan, and help educate all Californians so we can understand the risk of flooding in our communities and be prepared.”

The department contributed some funding toward the study.

Neither local nor federal authorities offered any additional details on the investigation on Saturday. Police said on Friday they had not established a motive for the attack.

An initial law enforcement review of Matar's social media accounts showed he was sympathetic to Shi'ite extremism and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), although no definitive links had been found, according to NBC New York.

The IRGC is a powerful faction that controls a business empire as well as elite armed and intelligence forces that Washington accuses of carrying out a global extremist campaign.

Asked to comment on the case, Matar's lawyer Barone said, "We're kind of in the early stages and, quite frankly, in cases like this, I think the important thing to remember is people need to keep an open mind. They need to look at everything. They can't just assume something happened for why they think something happened."

A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Friday, he said.

Matar was born in California and recently moved to New Jersey, the NBC New York report said, adding that he had a fake driver's license on him. He was arrested at the scene by a state trooper after being wrestled to the ground by audience members.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney requested that Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence (DNI), conduct an immediate review following the extraordinary search of a former president's home, according to a letter dated Saturday that was obtained by CNN. The DNI oversees the intelligence community in the executive branch.

"If this report is true, it is hard to overstate the national security danger that could emanate from the reckless decision to remove and retain this material," Maloney of New York and Schiff of California wrote.

 

 

The FBI on Monday executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, with agents removing 11 sets of classified documents, some of which were marked as "top secret/SCI" -- one of the highest levels of classification.

 

Key lines from the search warrant and receipt for Trump's Florida home

Court documents unsealed and released on Friday identify three federal crimes that the Department of Justice is looking at as part of its investigation: violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal handling of government records. The inclusion of the crimes indicated the department had probable cause to investigate those offenses as it was gathering evidence in the search. No one has been charged with a crime.

The letter outlined the House chairs' specific requests, including to "instruct the National Counterintelligence Executive, in consultation with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community and other Inspectors General as appropriate, to conduct a damage assessment."

 

The letter continued: "In addition, we ask that you commit to providing an appropriate classified briefing on the conduct of the damage assessment as soon as possible. Even as the Justice Department's investigation proceeds, ensuring that we take all necessary steps to protect classified information and mitigate the damage to national security done by its compromise is critically important."

 

CNN reported earlier Saturday that one of Trump's attorneys signed a letter in June asserting that there was no more classified information stored at Mar-a-Lago, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The letter signed by the attorney raises fresh questions about the number of people who may have legal exposure in the ongoing investigation into the handling of classified materials from Trump's time in the White House.

Before the FBI search warrant used at Mar-a-Lago was revealed Friday, Schiff lauded Attorney General Merrick Garland's request to unseal it, and Trump's legal team ultimately agreed to its release. Schiff also said the House Intelligence Committee would decide whether it would investigate the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago.

"Hopefully (the unsealing) will give the public a sense of why the Justice Department made the decision they did. I have great confidence that Garland considered all of the factors in making the decision," he said.

This story has been updated with additional background.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misquoted the letter from Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Adam Schiff to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

The cause of a large boom that was heard across the Wasatch Front on Saturday has not yet been determined, but all signs seem to point to the heavens above.

Early reports of a large boom began about 8:32 a.m. on Saturday, resulting a flurry of social media posts. Many uploaded videos of home cameras that captured the loud boom, heard throughout most of the Wasatch Front, northern Utah and even parts of southern Idaho.

The University of Utah Seismograph Stations quickly confirmed that the boom was not an earthquake. Soon after, both Gov. Spencer Cox and the Utah National Guard tweeted that the boom was not related to any military installations, a frequent cause of sonic booms.

All the focus then turned to the galaxies.

Several people reported seeing a burning object in the sky, thinking the boom may be related to a meteor. The National Weather Service's Salt Lake City office bolstered the meteor theory when flashes appeared on its maps that weren't caused by a thunderstorm.

 

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 When Fawzia Amini worked as a senior judge in Afghanistan's Supreme Court, she presided over cases of violent crimes against women, hearing harrowing and heart-breaking accounts of child marriage, sexual assault and femicide.

Last August, as the Taliban stormed Kabul and took control of Afghanistan, they shuttered the Elimination of Violence Against Women Court that Amini headed, fired all its judges and, she said, froze their bank accounts. At the same time, the group took control of key prisons and released thousands of inmates, including some of the men she had sentenced in her courtroom, she says.

Amini said she felt afraid and started to seek asylum for herself and her family to escape Kabul.

The crisis now facing female judges is emblematic of the Taliban's wholesale dismantling of women's rights won over the last two decades in Afghanistan.

Since 2001, when the group was last in power, the international community pushed for legal protections for Afghan women and trained a cadre of young female judges, prosecutors and lawyers to uphold them. In 2009, then-President Hamid Karzai decreed the Elimination of Violence against Women (EVAW) law, making acts of abuse toward women criminal offenses, including rape, forced marriage, and prohibiting a woman or girl from going t

 

Specialized courts to try cases of the law's violation -- like the one where Amina and Samira worked -- were rolled out in 2018 and set up in at least 15 provinces across the country, according to Human Rights Watch. While full implementation was spotty and achievements fell short of what was hoped, the law became a driver for slow but genuine change for Afghan women's freedoms -- change that has swiftly been eroded.

Over the past year, the Taliban's leaders have banned girls from high school and blocked women from most workplaces. They've stopped women from taking long-distance road trips on their own, requiring that a male relative accompany them for any distance beyond 45 miles.

New guidelines to broadcasters prohibit all dramas, soap operas and entertainment shows from featuring women, and female news presenters have been ordered to wear headscarves on screen. And, in their latest decree, the Taliban ordered women to cover their faces in public, ideally by wearing a burqa.

And by banishing women from the judiciary, the Taliban have effectively denied them the right to legal recourse to remedy any of these infringements. It has left women and girls with nowhere to turn in a system that enshrines a hardline Islamic interpretation of patriarchal rule, Amini explained.

 

Judge Fawzia Amini is pictured on an overnight bus journey to Mazar-i-Sharif, from where she flew out of the country.

 

It was that terrifying reality, she says, which forced her to flee. Amini, her husband and daughters took a bus in September from Kabul to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, driving 12 hours overnight with the headlights switched off to avoid detection.

"It was very hard for us," she said, tears filling her eyes. "During that time, we were very worried about everything."

From Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport, they boarded a plane chartered specifically for female judges, organized with help from Baroness Helena Kennedy, one of Britain's most distinguished lawyers.

 

 

Last August, Kennedy, a member of the House of Lords, said she was flooded with WhatsApp messages from dozens of desperate judges, women she had developed a connection with through her work setting up a bar association in Afghanistan.

"It started with receiving really tragic and, and passionate messages on my iPhone," she said. "Messages from people saying, 'Please, please help me. I'm hiding in my basement. Already, I've received messages of threat. Already, there is a target on my back.'"

Determined to help, Kennedy, along with the International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute, raised money for evacuations via a GoFundMe page and charitable donations from philanthropists. Over the course of several weeks, Kennedy says, the team chartered three separate planes that got 103 women, most of them judges, and their families out of Afghanistan.

The women are now scattered across several Western countries, many still stuck in legal limbo and seeking more permanent residency for themselves and their families.

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rock that stands alone in the western deserts of Central Australia—may seem an unlikely place from which to reflect on the scourge of violence against Black Americans that stains the U.S. body-politic today. But understanding the consequences of one event that happened far away in 1934 is a powerful reminder that the struggle to make Black lives matter and counter white supremacist violence transcends national boundaries.

In June 1931, Constable Bill McKinnon arrived in Alice Springs to take up his appointment as a police officer in central Australia. He was barely thirty—lean, brash, and tough—a no-nonsense raconteur with a sharp tongue and unyielding determination.

In 1934, after chasing down six Aboriginal men for the killing of an Aboriginal man that had taken place under tribal law, he cornered one man in a cave and shot and killed him at Uluru, a place that has long been sacred for the Anangu, its traditional owners, and is now spiritually significant for the entire nation.

 

In 1935, an Australian government Board of Inquiry, which exhumed the man’s body and eventually took his remains back to Adelaide, found that the killing was “ethically unwarranted” but “legally justified.” Remarkably, McKinnon claimed that he had fired his pistol into the cave in “self-defense.” Now, almost 100 years later—after the discovery of new evidence that proves he lied to the Inquiry—the murder of one defenseless Aboriginal man in the heart of Australia highlights the entrenched inequalities in societies rooted in violence and oppression.

There’s a reason that so many Aboriginal people identified with George Floyd. Australia’s First Nations people—twelve times more likely to be incarcerated than white Australians—continue to see themselves as victims of state-sanctioned violence, often involving police.

An undersea earthquake shook part of eastern Indonesia on Sunday, but there were no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the 5.7-magnitude quake struck about 158 kilometers (98 miles) off Laikit village in North Sulawesi province. It said the quake was centered about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) beneath the sea.

The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysical Agency, which put the quake at 5.9-magnitude and 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) depth, said the quake was unlikely to trigger a tsunami.

Indonesia, a vast archipelago of 270 million people, is frequently struck by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis because of its location on the "Ring of Fire,” an arc of volcanoes and fault lines that arcs the Pacific.

In February, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed at least 25 people and injured more than 460 in West Sumatra province. In January 2021, the same magnitude earthquake also killed more than 100 people and injured nearly 6,500 in West Sulawesi province.

One person is dead and 17 others were injured when a vehicle struck a crowd of people in Berwick, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, authorities said.

"A vehicle drove through a community event," state Trooper Anthony Petroski said Saturday night.

 

After the crash, the suspect is thought to have fatally attacked a woman in neighboring Luzerne County, he said.

"The male suspect in both incidents is in custody," the trooper said. His identity was being withheld.

Police have not released the identities of the two people killed or any of the 17 injured, who were taken to several area hospitals.

Geisinger Medical Center, in nearby Danville, received 13 patients by mid-evening, spokesperson Natalie Buyny said by email. Conditions of the injured were not available.

"Staff is assessing and triaging patients for appropriate care," Buyny said.

NBC affiliate WBRE of Wilkes-Barre reported that a vehicle struck multiple people who were attending a benefit in the borough of Berwick.

The crowds had gathered to raise funds for the families of the three children and seven adults who died in an early morning house fire Aug. 5 in neighboring Nescopeck.

Shortly after the crash, state police were called about a man physically assaulting a woman in Nescopeck, where he was taken into custody by municipal police, Petroski said.

Police have not said whether there is a connection between the suspect and the woman who was killed, and are investigating whether he intentionally drove into the crowd.

Today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up 3.2 percent of Australia’s total population, yet they account for almost 30 percent of the country’s prison population. Their chances of dying in custody are almost six times greater than other Australians. Nationally, their suicide rates are more than double that of other Australians. Crucial social indicators such as life expectancy, health, housing, education, and employment—many of them impervious to the policies of successive governments to “close the gap”—continue to illustrate the alarming inequalities between Indigenous and other Australians. Despite the recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Indigenous deaths in Custody (a large number of which are yet to be implemented), more than 500 Aboriginal people have died in custody since the Commission’s report was handed down.

Authorities say Muhammad Afzaal Hussain was shot at with two guns and police matched casings found at the scene of both homicides to a pistol and rifle found in Muhammad Syed's home and car.

Albuquerque police have said Muhammad Syed is also a "primary suspect" in the deaths of Naeem Hussain and Mohammad Zahir Ahmadi, 62, in November 2021, but he has not been charged in either case.

"Law enforcement officers also have recently discovered evidence that appears to tie the defendant, Shaheen Syed, to these killings," according to the motion to detain.

John Anderson, Shaheen Syed's attorney, declined to comment on Saturday. Shaheen Syed's family could not be reached for comment.

 

HaLim Via Online Covid Update Public sector strike cripples cash-strapped Lebanon 2022

 arek Younes was once solidly middle class and felt he helped contribute to society as an inspector in the Lebanese government’s consumer protection agency. But the country's economic free-fall has eroded his income and civic pride.

Such worries are coming on top of concerns about inflation and what central banks might do to curb that trend. Higher interest rates tend to work as a minus for share prices.

Shares fell in Tokyo and Hong Kong but rose in other regional markets. U.S. futures edged higher. Oil prices fell.

Japan's technology investor SoftBank Group Corp. dropped more than 4% in Tokyo trading. On Monday it reported a record quarterly loss of $23 billion. A global nose-dive of technology-related issues, such as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, dragged on its sprawling portfolio of investments.

Analysts monitoring Asian markets said regional tensions also remain a risk, because of the flareup between China and Taiwan after the recent visit of U.S. House Speak Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.

In his desperation, Younes has joined tens of thousands of public sector employees across the country in an open-ended strike that has already lasted for six weeks.

The protest of the civil servants who form the backbone of government signals a further erosion of Lebanon’s public institutions, already struggling to afford their most basic operating costs.

The strike gives a bleak preview of how Lebanon could sink even deeper, should officials continue to delay decisive action on key financial and administrative reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund to make Lebanon's comatose economy viable again.

While polling stations have opened peacefully in most parts of north-eastern Kenya, there are reports of raids and voter intimidation in some areas by al-Shabab Islamist militants.

The region’s proximity to Somalia’s border makes it vulnerable to attack by al-Shabab, notorious for raiding the region’s Garissa University in 2015.

Last night, suspected militants are believed to have attacked villages and settlements in parts of Mandera county along the border.

Communication lines have been cut to the area - where it is thought Arabia town, around 70km (40 miles) east of Mandera town, was targeted.

There have also been reports of militants preventing people from travelling to their respected polling stations in parts of Wajir East, another constituency along the border.

In Qarsa village, residents - who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity - described how militants had ordered passengers onboard a truck ferrying voters to disembark and later set it on fire.

They say the insurgents have been issuing warnings to locals not to take part in the election.

Contacted for comment, Wajir County police commander, Hilary Toroitich, did not pick up the BBC’s calls or respond to text messages.

There are also been reports of incidents that have forced electoral officials to delay despatching voting material to polling stations:

• In Konton village, also Wajir East constituency, shots – thought to be coming from al-Shabab fighters – were being fired from the bush
• In Eldas constituency, west of Wajir town, there are reports of violence as supporters of a parliamentary candidate are said to be blocking electoral officials.

Meanwhile, the protest further disrupted life in Lebanon, with even the most basic government services on hold. Court cases have been delayed. Identity cards, birth certificates and school transcripts are not being issued. Air traffic controllers announced that they would stop working nights in August.

 

Over the past year, public transportation drivers and public school teachers held unsuccessful sporadic strikes and protests, which they hoped would be a wake-up call for government.

“I don’t know how we’re thinking about economic recovery, if you have that many people who were once middle class now living in poverty,” Younes told The Associated Press. “We are extending our hand and making compromises, but the government needs to do so as well and give us some of our rights.”

Many point to decades of corruption and nefarious financial management as a cause for Lebanon’s economic downward spiral, now in its third year. They say a handful of members of Lebanon’s ruling elite caused the world's worst economic crisis since the mid-19th century, with three quarters of the population now considered poor.

The government has not increased wages for public sector workers since the onset of the country’s fiscal crunch in late 2019, during which the Lebanese pound lost over 90% of its value against the dollar. On top of that, food, gasoline and medicine prices are up sharply due to high inflation.

Younes, who heads the Association of Public Administration Employees, said public sector wages once secured a middle class lifestyle at around $1,300 per month. But that value has rapidly plummeted to the equivalent of under $70. In a country of about 6 million people, some 350,000 Lebanese work in the public sector and their salaries account for a huge chunk of the national budget.

 Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen in a shootout Tuesday during an arrest operation in the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, police said.

Palestinian health officials said one person was killed and at least 40 people wounded in the gun battle, a day after a cease-fire ended three days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli police said forces encircled the home of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi, who they say was wanted for a string of shootings in the West Bank earlier this year. They said al-Nabulsi and another Palestinian militant were killed in a shootout at the scene, and that troops found arms and explosives in his home.

Israel has conducted near nightly arrest raids in the West Bank in recent months as part of a crackdown on Palestinian militant groups, foremost Islamic Jihad, in the aftermath of a string of deadly attacks targeting Israelis earlier this year that left 19 people dead. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops during these arrest raids.

 

Last week, Israel arrested Bassam al-Saadi, a senior Islamic Jihad militant in the West Bank city of Jenin, during one of the nightly operations. The group said it was going “on alert,” and on Friday Israel said it had launched a series of strikes on Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip in response to an “imminent threat” by the militant group.

During the three days of Gaza fighting, at least 46 Palestinians were killed, including 16 children and four women, and 311 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Twelve of those killed were Islamic Jihad militants, one was from a smaller armed group, and two were Hamas-affiliated policemen who were not taking part in the fighting, according to the armed factions.

Israel estimated that a total of 47 Palestinians were killed, including 14 killed by misfired Islamic Jihad rockets. It said 20 militants and seven civilians died in Israeli airstrikes and that it was still investigating six deaths.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians seek it as the heartland of their future state. Israel views the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people, and has constructed dozens of settlements, now home to over 400,000 Israelis.

The Palestinians and much of the international community consider Israel’s West Bank settlements a violation of international law and an obstacle to a peaceful resolution of the decades-long conflict.

pleased to update shareholders on Marvel's equity holding Power One Resources Corp., on its listing application. Power One was wholly owned subsidiary of Marvel Discovery and received its final approvals on the plan of arrangement (Spin-Out) dated April 23, 2021.

As part of the transaction, Marvel Shareholders received 16 million common shares, with Marvel receiving 5 million common shares for transferring ownership of the Serpent River Pecors project (Elliot Lake Ont.), and the Wicheeda project (Prince George, B.C.), to Power One.

Chief Executive Officer Karim Rayani Comments; "We are thrilled to finally move forward on Power One, we believe these projects have tremendous potential. We are in the right place at the right time - the resurgence of Uranium as a clean energy and the growing demand and interest in green and critical elements for a cleaner future is not going away. We have oversubscribed our offering and look forward to reporting back on a final approval date".

Marvel has made great progress to date, and we are now finalizing the response back to TSX.V for listing of Power One's shares. We believe this to be highly advantageous situation for Marvel and its shareholder as this further protects our share capitalization without the expenditures needed to advance these projects. We still hold a sizeable equity stake in Power One and will remain as operator.

South Korea's top diplomat, Park Jin, arrived in the eastern port city of Qingdao on Monday for meetings with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in the first high-level visit to China by President Yoon Suk-yeol's administration.

Park said he will propose joint action plans to strengthen the relationship, which marks its 30th anniversary this year, reinforce strategic communication and discuss the issues of denuclearising North Korea and stabilising global supply chains.

The Yoon administration has been seeking to curb North Korea's weapons tests and bring it back to denuclearisation talks, which have stalled since 2019.

Also high on the agenda is boosting cultural and people-to-people exchanges as well as restarting K-pop exports, which have been effectively banned amid tension over the THAAD U.S. missile defence system stationed in South Korea, Park said.

"I would like to discuss ways to promote communication and exchanges between the younger generations who will carry the future of both countries," Park said on Twitter.

"Considering the global popularity of the Korean wave, I will discuss ways to widely introduce K-pop and cultural content including movies, dramas and games to China."

The talks come amid intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, and Park is also expected to reassure Beijing about bilateral ties despite stronger ties with Washington and tensions over Taiwan.

Park said before leaving for China on Monday that South Korea's position of respecting one China remains unchanged, but maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to regional security and prosperity.

Both sides also face a potential flare-up over THAAD and Seoul's possible participation in a U.S.-led chip alliance involving Taiwan and Japan, which China opposes.

China argues THAAD's powerful radar could peer into its airspace, and sharply cut trade and cultural imports with South Korea after Seoul announced the system's deployment in 2016, dealing a major blow to bilateral relations.

On January 1^st, 2022, Power One arranged a non-brokered private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to $800,000. Power One closed that offering February 1^st, 2022 and has since increased it taking in $ 1.1 million in subscriptions. Please see

Gazipur fire between Israel and Gaza militants Fast Latesha Corvid Update To Dhaka

 A fragile cease-fire deal to end nearly three days of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza held throughout the night and into Monday morning — a sign that the latest round of violence appears to have abated.

The flare-up was the worst fighting between Israel and Gaza militant groups since Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers fought an 11-day war last year, adding to the destruction and misery that have plagued blockaded Gaza for years.

Since Friday, Israeli aircraft had pummeled targets in Gaza while the Iran-backed Palestinian Jihad militant group fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.

As a familiar campaign jingle brings the Kenyan crowd to their feet, Hellen Atieno joins her compatriots and sways to the catchy tune at a political rally in the lakeside city of Kisumu.

Just don't expect the 23-year-old to vote.

The Biden administration’s response to the riot is “political persecution” under which more than 800 people have been arrested and over 200 criminal sentences have been handed out, she said.

The congresswoman added that people who did things that “they shouldn’t have done” should be treated better during their imprisonment, bringing up her visit to jails.

“OK, they got charged for things they shouldn’t have done, OK, that happened, they deserve their day in court, they deserve their due process rights, but honestly, my gosh, what’s happening to these people is so heartbreaking,” she said in the Lindell TV interview.

She added: “I was in that jail, I saw them, it’s so sad. They hadn’t bathed, they didn’t have haircuts, they couldn’t shave because they weren’t vaccinated. They were treated worse if they weren’t vaccinated, but, what kind of country are we?”

The Georgia representative has not given a clear stand on whether she believes Mr Trump’s supporters were involved in the US Capitol riots.

One of the biggest supporters of Mr Trump’s claims that the election declaring Joe Biden the winner was stolen, Ms Greene had sent a text message to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on the day of the violent attack and said that she feared there was an active shooter at the site.

"I have only come to the rally because there is money. I hope there will be something," Atieno told AFP, referring to the widespread Kenyan practice of offering freebies to prospective voters.

Currently without a job, the former fishmonger says she is so fed up with the country's insular political class that she plans to stay home when Kenya votes on August 9 in parliamentary and presidential polls.

 

She is not alone.

The East African economic powerhouse ranks among the world's youngest countries -- three-quarters of Kenyans are aged under 34, according to government figures.

Many have no interest in participating in an electoral process they widely dismiss as corrupt and pointless.

The number of registered young voters has dropped five percent since the 2017 poll, in contrast to over-35s, whose tally has increased, Kenya's election commission announced last month.

Over 22 million Kenyans are eligible to take part in this year's polls, with young people accounting for less than 40 percent of that number, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) said.

- 'A dirty game' -

Politicians have responded with a freebie bonanza, offering cash, umbrellas, shirts, caps and even packets of maize flour -- a dietary staple -- to anyone who attends their rallies.

Over three days of fighting, 43 Palestinians were killed, including 15 children and four women, and 311 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Israel said some of the dead were killed by misfired rockets.

Israel on Monday said it was partially reopening crossings into Gaza for humanitarian needs and would fully open them if calm was maintained.

Life for hundreds of thousands of Israelis was disrupted during the violence. Security precautions imposed in recent days on residents of southern Israel were being gradually lifted Monday, the military said.

The violence had threatened to spiral into another all-out war but ended up being contained because Gaza's ruling Hamas group stayed on the sidelines, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control over the coastal strip.

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since the group overran the territory in 2007.

Barely a week after floodwaters swept downtown and left a foot of mud and twisted, gutted buildings along Main Street, an incongruous sight appeared: A flashing sign declaring JR’s Barber Shop “OPEN.”

As National Guard troops patrolled outside and volunteers on backhoes mounded up debris, J.R. Collins stood behind his barber chair, giving a touchup to one of his regulars. Like most in Fleming-Neon, Collins comes from a family built on mining — both his grandfathers worked in coal — and he has stayed in the close-knit town even as the industry shrank and others fled. Those who remain are determined to prove their community is about more than coal.

And they’ve come together to make sure Collins’ barber shop and other businesses reopen amid the devastating floods that have killed more than three dozen in eastern Kentucky.

“They were there with shovels and squeegees and water, and people packing, and kids helping,” Collins said above the din of air conditioning and a dehumidifier in his shop. “It’s good, hard-working people that like to help people out and got each other’s back.”

Fleming-Neon was once two towns: Fleming, a company town founded in the early 1900s by the Elkhorn Coal Corp. for the sole purpose of mining, and Neon, a former logging camp.

Fleming was run by Elkhorn and named for one of its executives. The company issued its own money, and workers used it for rent on company-owned homes and goods at the company store or local businesses. Neon was independent, a free town where U.S. government greenbacks, not company scrip, was legal tender — but it thrived off the glow of coal nearby.

Fleming and Neon prospered along with the company and industry. Dates still seen today on brick storefronts chronicle the boom years.

“We had department stores, we had grocery stores, we had restaurants, we had dry cleaners. We had a theater,” said Susan Polis, Fleming-Neon’s 73-year-old mayor. “You did not have to leave here to have, to get anything.”

 

But as the mines mechanized, the population shrank in Fleming as well as Neon. In the late 1970s, the former rival towns merged under one government in an effort to pool resources, but the bleeding continued.

Today, only about 500 people remain. And on July 28, the waters of Wright Fork rose, threatening further devastation for this valley of people who long extracted riches from the earth. But there’s a spark in Fleming-Neon that, so far, has refused to be extinguished.

A multipurpose center was set to open in a former car dealership about two weeks after the storm hit. Jeff Hawkins, a longtime educator who’s lived here since he was a teenager, said the project, dubbed Neon Lights, would include a performing arts studio, an internet cafe, event space, and an innovation incubator.

Israel launched its operation with a strike Friday on a leader of the Islamic Jihad, saying there were “concrete threats” of an anti-tank missile attack against Israelis in response to the arrest last week of another senior Islamic Jihad member in the West Bank. That arrest came after months of Israeli raids in the West Bank to round up suspects following a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israel.

It killed another Islamic Jihad leader in a strike on Saturday.

“Over these last 72-hours, the United States has worked with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, and others throughout the region to encourage a swift resolution to the conflict,” he said in a statement Sunday.

The U.N. Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting Monday on the violence. China, which holds the council presidency this month, scheduled the session in response to a request from the United Arab Emirates, which represents Arab nations on the council, as well as China, France, Ireland and Norway.

The exercises would include anti-submarine drills, apparently targeting U.S. support for Taiwan in the event of a potential Chinese invasion, according to social media posts from the eastern leadership of China’s ruling Communist Party’s military arm, the People’s Liberation Army.

The military has said the exercises involving missile strikes, warplanes and ship movements crossing the midline of the Taiwan Strait dividing the sides were a response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-ruled island last week.

China has ignored calls to calm the tensions, and there was no immediate indication when it would end what amounts to a blockade.

Taiwan’s defense ministry said Sunday it detected a total of 66 aircraft and 14 warships conducting the naval and air exercises. The island has responded by putting its military on alert and deploying ships, planes and other assets to monitor Chinese aircraft, ships and drones that are “simulating attacks on the island of Taiwan and our ships at sea.”

Arbery’s killing on Feb. 23, 2020, became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed Black people including George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Those two cases also resulted in the Justice Department bringing federal charges.

When they return to court Monday in Georgia, McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan face possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to commit a violent crime.

Whatever punishments they receive in federal court could ultimately prove more symbolic than anything. A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery’s murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole.

All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of U.S. marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.

Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have them turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.

In a court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prison, saying they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system that’s the subject of a U.S. Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.

 

 

CTG vidence shows how Kohinur military planned the Rohingya With India adjust 2022

 The discussions are captured in official records seen by Reuters. At one meeting, commanders repeatedly used a racial slur for the Rohingya suggesting they are foreign interlopers: The "Bengalis," one said, had become "too daring." In another meeting, an officer said the Rohingya had grown too numerous.

The commanders agreed to carefully coordinate communications so the army could move "instantly during the crucial time." It was critical, they said, that operations be "unnoticeable" to protect the military's image in the

Net earnings at Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant and media owner, dropped by 50% to $3.40 billion (RMB22.7 billion) in the three months between April and June, the first quarter of its current financial year. Revenues were unchanged at $30.7 billion (RMB206 billion).

Using Alibaba’s preferred non-GAAP methodology for calculating profitability, the quarter’s net earnings still dropped by 30%, from RMB45.1 billion to RMB30.2 or $4.52 billion.

The figures, while not as awful as some analysts had predicted, added to a turbulent and uncomfortable period for an iconic company that was once one of China’s most widely admired enterprises.

“During the past quarter, we actively adapted to changes in the macro environment and remained focused on our long-term strategy by continuing to strengthen our capability for customer value creation,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chairman and CEO in a statement on Thursday.

international community.

Images of Toru Kubota, a Japanese journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a protest, are displayed at the Japan Press Club in Tokyo, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Friends of Kubota gathered at the

BANGKOK -- A Japanese video journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a brief pro-democracy march has been charged with violating a law against spreading false or alarming news, the Southeast Asian country’s military government announced Thursday.

Toru Kubota, a Tokyo-based documentary filmmaker, was arrested Saturday by plainclothes police after taking images of the protest.

The Bank of England has warned that the UK will be plunged into a long recession as it unveiled its biggest interest rate in 27 years.

The central bank said Britain will tumble into recession in the fourth quarter of year, with the downturn lasting through next year. 

GDP is forecast to drop 2.1pc – that's the biggest contraction since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

It came as the Monetary Policy Committee raised  interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75pc, marking its sixth consecutive increase and the biggest since 1995.

The Bank also revised its forecasts for inflation to peak above 13pc later this year, with prices remaining elevated throughout 2023. That's an increase from previous forecasts of 11pc.

Here's a more detailed rundown of what's happened from our economics editor Szu Ping Chan, who's reporting now from the Bank of England:

British families face the longest recession since the financial crisis and soaring prices, the Bank of England has warned, as a surge in energy bills will leave households poorer and the economy smaller.

Policymakers raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points on Thursday to 1.75pc to try to keep a lid on inflation, which is now forecast to climb above 13pc this Autumn.

The Bank's sixth rate rise in a row is the biggest in 27 years, and comes as it warned that price rises were likely to remain in double-digits for the best part of 12 months.

Its latest forecasts showed the UK is expected to start contracting at the end of this year and keep shrinking until the end of 2023.

TWO CHRISES WALK INTO A ROOM — To hear Chris Sununu tell it, the New Hampshire governor endorsed Chris Doughty for Massachusetts governor out of his own “self-interest.”

Sununu wants a Republican to remain in control of Massachusetts so that New Hampshire can keep benefiting from the region’s economic driver. And he definitely doesn’t want the “socialism” he claims Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey would bring to the Bay State.

“All that matters is winning in November,” Sununu told a few dozen Doughty supporters at a fundraiser in Peabody last night. “People say, ‘Well, I’m going to vote for [Geoff] Diehl because, you know, he’s the more, he’s the ultra-conservative and I agree with him on this point.’ Well what’s the frickin’ point if you’re not gonna win in November? Because that guy’s not gonna win.”

Sununu and his team insist that his support for Doughty has nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump, with whom the New Hampshire governor has a complicated relationship, endorsed Diehl. Or that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who called for Sununu’s ouster, is advising Diehl’s campaign.

But by picking Doughty over Diehl, Sununu is making clear what he thinks the direction of the GOP should be at a time when the party is warring over whether Trumpism is its past or its future — and as a shrinking cast of Sununu-like characters try to keep the old flame of New England's moderate Republicans alive. The battle continues next week, when South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to come to town to fundraise with Diehl.

This would represent the longest recession – defined as two or more straight quarters of economic decline - since the 2008 financial crisis. It is expected to leave the economy 2.1pc smaller

The moves come as Governor Andrew Bailey grapples with the highest inflation in 40 years – with soaring energy bills sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine compounding the problem – as well as a looming economic slowdown.

He is the latest of about 140 journalists arrested since the military seized power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than half have been released, but the media remains under tight restrictions.

A military information office, the Tatmadaw True News Information Team, said in a statement that Kubota was charged with incitement, specifically causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating against a government employee. It carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Most of Myanmar’s imprisoned journalists were charged under the same law.

Kubota is also charged with violating visa regulations The statement said Kubota arrived in Yangon from Thailand on July 1 with a tourist visa.

Weeks later, the Myanmar military began a brutal crackdown that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. Ever since, the military has insisted the operation was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign sparked by attacks by Muslim militants, not a planned program of ethnic cleansing. The country's civilian leader at the time, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, dismissed much of the criticism of the military, saying refugees may have exaggerated abuses and condemnations of the security forces were based on "unsubstantiated narratives."

But official records from the period ahead of and during the expulsion of the Rohingya, like the ones in 2017, paint a different picture.

The records are part of a cache of documents, collected by war crimes investigators and reviewed by Reuters, that reveal discussions and planning around the purges of the Rohingya population and efforts to hide military operations from the international community. The documents show how the military systematically demonized the Muslim minority, created militias that would ultimately take part in operations against the Rohingya, and coordinated their actions with ultranationalist Buddhist monks.

For the past four years, these war crimes investigators have been working secretly to compile evidence they hope can be used to secure convictions in an international criminal court. Documents spanning the period 2013 to 2018 give unprecedented insight into the persecution and purge of the Rohingya from the perspective of the Burmese authorities, especially two "clearance operations" in 2016 and 2017 that expelled about 800,000 people.

The documents were collected by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. Beginning work in 2018, CIJA amassed some 25,000 pages of official documents, many related to the expulsion of the Rohingya, who since fleeing their homes have been languishing in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh with little hope of returning. Some of the documents relate to military actions against other ethnic groups in Myanmar's borderlands. The group's work has been funded by Western governments.

CIJA allowed Reuters to review many of the documents, which include internal military memos, chain-of-command lists, training manuals, policy papers and audiovisual materials. Some documents contained redactions, which the group said were necessary to protect sources. The organization also asked Reuters not to disclose the location of its office for security reasons.