Washington DC, US Reuters Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukr ..read more

London, UK Reuters Russians living in flood-hit areas have taken to social media to complain that local officials are doing too little to compensate them for lost property nearly three weeks after many fled their homes. Russia’s Urals region and northern Kazakhstan are suffering the worst flooding in living memory, as fast-melting snow and heavy rain have swollen several large rivers in Europe and Asia. A drone view shows a residential area divided from the flood waters by an earthen wall built by residents, in the settlement of Perovsky in Orenburg region, Russia, in this picture obtained by ..read more

In an article first published on The Conversation, VIRGINIA RAGUIN looks at the history and significance of the window now in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art… A stained-glass window, donated in 1877 to a church in Rhode Island, shows Jesus as a dark-skinned man. Most Western depictions portrayed him as a European, with light skin and sometimes even with blue eyes. A Black Jesus at this time was unknown. A stained-glass window that was part of a church shows a dark-skinned Jesus, which was unusual at the time. PICTURE: Michel M Raguin Now in the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the wi ..read more

Washington DC, US Reuters North Korean animators may have helped create popular television cartoons for big Western firms, including Amazon and HBO Max, despite international sanctions on North Korea, a research report has found. Researchers discovered files on a North Korean internet server that included animations, written instructions and comments that appear to relate to projects under production for the foreign studios, the report from the Washington-based 38 North project released on Monday said. Soldiers march with the portrait of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung during a military para ..read more

Jakarta, Indonesia Reuters An Indonesian court on Monday rejected challenges from both losing candidates seeking a re-run of February’s presidential election and the disqualification of winner Prabowo Subianto and his running mate, bringing an end to all election disputes. The Constitutional Court ruled that there was no evidence of systematic fraud and presidential “meddling”, nor that state bodies, regional officials and social assistance had been mobilised to sway polls in the world’s third-largest democracy. Judges deliver the verdict on two challenges to the outcome of February’s preside ..read more

Bamako, Mali Reuters The Malian Supreme Court should annul the ruling junta’s order to suspend political activities, a group of Malian political parties and civil society organisations said in an appeal on Monday. The West African country has been under military rule since a coup in 2020. Tensions have risen in recent weeks over the authorities’ failure to organise promised elections and their subsequent decree that limits political life in the name of maintaining public order.  Mali’s President Assimi Goita attends a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin following the Russia-Af ..read more

United Nations/Beirut, Lebanon Reuters Israel has yet to provide evidence for its accusations that hundreds of staff with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) are members of terrorist groups, according to a review of the agency’s neutrality released on Monday that could prompt some donor countries to review funding freezes. The United Nations appointed former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna to lead the UNRWA review of UNRWA’s ability to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of breaches in February after Israel accused 12 UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas-led 7th Oct ..read more

I’ve now lived long enough to notice a biological pattern to life – if things go to script. GRAPHIC: leremy/iStockphoto The first part of life, your parents nurture you, hopefully helping you become a well-adjusted adult. Then you nurture your own children, hopefully realising just how important this is before they’ve left home. Then there comes a point where you begin to nurture your own parents, to the end of their lives. And finally, your children nurture you back towards home. Whatever else we do in life, providence has put a pattern in place that seems to haunt us when it is absent. Seei ..read more

Washington DC, US Reuters The US State Department’s annual human rights assessment found “significant” abuses in India’s north-eastern Manipur state last year and attacks on minorities, journalists and dissenting voices in the rest of the country. Manipur has seen fierce fighting between its tribal Kuki-Zo and majority Meitei populations after a court order a year ago suggested the Kuki’s minority privileges be extended to the Meitei. More than 200 people have been killed. A riot police officer fires a tear smoke shell to disperse demonstrators protesting against the killing of two Meitei stu ..read more

DAVID FELIBA, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports that NGOs fear a controversial facial recognition system – dubbed Buenos Aires’ Big Brother – could be revived, threatening rights… Buenos Aires, Argentina Thomson Reuters Foundation After a relaxing weekend away, Guillermo Ibarrola was walking out of a train station in Argentina’s capital when police arrested him and accused him of a robbery committed hundreds of miles away in a place he had never visited. “It was a nightmare,” Ibarrola told local media after the 2019 incident, which rights campaigners say highlights the risks of using&nbs ..read more