World News

The waste, which came in 10 large containers, was declared as mixed metal scrap but turned out to be circuit boards mixed in a huge pile of metal scrap, said Theeraj Athanavanich, director-general of the Customs Department.

The waste was found on Tuesday after the containers became the subject of a routine random inspection, officials said.

A U.N. report last year said electronic waste is piling up worldwide. Some 62 million tons of electronic waste was generated in 2022 and that figure is on track to reach 82 million tons by 2030, the report said. It said only 22% of the waste was properly collected and recycled in 2022 and that quantity is expected to fall to 20% by the end of the decade due to higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, and inadequate management infrastructure.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44037922

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canadians "weren't impressed" when the U.K. decided to offer U.S. President Donald Trump an unprecedented second state visit while he was threatening Canada's sovereignty.

"To be frank, they weren't impressed by that gesture, quite simply, given the circumstance," Carney told British news channel Sky News in an interview posted online Wednesday.

Mexico’s security chief confirmed Tuesday that 17 family members of cartel leaders crossed into the U.S. last week as part of a deal between a son of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Trump administration.

Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed a report by independent journalist Luis Chaparro that family members of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who was extradited to the United States in 2023, had entered the U.S.

Guzmán Lopez is one of the brothers left running a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel after notorious capo Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was imprisoned in the U.S. Video showed the family members walking across the border from Tijuana with their suitcases to waiting U.S. agents.

Rumors had circulated last week that the younger Guzmán would plead guilty to avoid trial for several drug trafficking charges in the U.S. after being extradited in 2023.

In the U.S., drug prices are shaped by complex negotiations involving pharmacy benefit managers that act as middlemen between drugmakers and employer clients and health insurers and have been criticised for inflating costs. In Europe, countries generally have public health systems that negotiate directly with manufacturers and keep costs down.

/.../

Trump said if drugmakers do not cut prices they could be hit with tariffs.

Class action from more than 3,000 group members argues vast majority of strip-searches at music festivals between 2018 and 2022 were unlawful

The New South Wales police force knew drug detection dogs only have a “30% hit-rate” but continued to use them as the primary justification to strip-search people at music festivals, a court has heard.

The revelation came amid closing arguments for a class action in the NSW supreme court, where lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued the vast majority of strip-searches conducted by state police between 2018 and 2022 at music festivals were unlawful.

The class action was brought by Slater and Gordon Lawyers and the Redfern Legal Centre against the state of NSW over allegedly unlawful strip-searches conducted by police, including of children.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs, made a staggering admission during a recent public address: "We supply half of the bombs falling on Gaza." This direct acknowledgment of Europe's complicity in Israel's military campaign has been met with no official denial or clarification – a silence that speaks louder than any press release ever could.

So far, no EU institution or member state has challenged Borrell's assertion. This absence of denial:

• Confirms Europe's direct role in arming Israel's devastating war

• Highlights the hypocrisy of expressing "concern" about civilian casualties while supplying the weapons causing them

• Raises urgent questions about EU violations of international arms trade treaties

English translation:

"[...] The horror of October 7th does not justify the horror of Israel's response. Europe has the capacity and means not only to protest but to influence [Israel's] conduct and it fails to do so. We supply half of the bombs falling on Gaza. If we truly believe there are too many deaths, the natural response would be to supply fewer weapons and use the leverage of our association agreement to demand compliance with international humanitarian law, not merely lament its violation.

In this destabilizing conflict, Europeans face a new and unwelcome reality: we have entrusted everything to law and trade. Now we must also place our trust in force and capability, the capability to influence, which means having defensive capacities we lack because we've delegated them to the United States. And Trump is right when he tells us we should pay more for our security. This is the task for the generation of Europeans now taking up our torch. [...]"

Original Spanish text:

"[...] El horror de jamás no justifica el horror de la respuesta de Israel. Y Europa tiene capacidad y medios para no solamente protestar, sino para influir la conducta y no lo hace. Suministramos la mitad de las bombas que caen sobre Gaza. Y si de verdad creemos que hay demasiados muertos, la respuesta natural sería suministrar menos armas y utilizar la palanca del acuerdo de asociación para exigir que se respete el derecho internacional humanitario y no solamente lamentar que tal cosa no se haga. Y en este contexto de conflictos que nos desestabilizan, los europeos tenemos que hacer frente a una situación nueva para nosotros que no nos gusta, porque lo hemos confiado todo al derecho y al comercio. Y ahora lo tenemos que confiar también a la fuerza y a la capacidad, a la capacidad de influir y eso quiere decir tener capacidades defensivas que no tenemos porque las hemos delegado en los Estados Unidos y tiene razón Trump cuando nos dice que deberíamos pagar más por nuestra seguridad. [...]"

Source:

RTVE Noticias Youtube Channe

https://www.youtube.com/live/RDk1gR7Jb8w?t=4573

~~Edit: added "PREMIO EUROPEO CARLOS V: El REY FELIPE VI preside el ACTO de ENTREGA a JOSEP BORRELL | RTVE" in the URL field.~~

Edit: added link to initial article which caught my attention for this post

German prosecutors have said three Ukrainian men acting as "foreign agents" for Russia were arrested on suspicion of planning to plant explosive devices in transported goods.

German investigators on Wednesday said that three men have been arrested on suspicion of acting as "agents" for "sabotage" on behalf of Russia.

Officials said the three, all Ukrainian nationals, were prepared to commit acts of arson and planned to ship packages containing explosive devices, and had conveyed this to individuals "believed to be acting on behalf of Russian state authorities."

The suspects allegedly intended to target goods transports headed to Ukraine, which would "ignite during transport," federal prosecutors said.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/63912534

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has criticised Britain’s invitation to Mr Donald Trump for a second state visit, saying it undermined his government’s effort to project a united front against the US President’s talk of annexing Canada.

Mr Starmer, who is trying to improve trading ties with the US after Britain left the European Union, has sought to play to its strengths when dealing with Mr Trump, talking up its security expertise, pledging higher defence spending, and offering the pomp and pageantry that comes with a state visit.

Haiti has no president or elected officials. Instead, an expensive nine-member presidential council holds power without oversight or accountability.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30081122

As India and Pakistan traded missile strikes over the weekend, and the world watched with horror as the two nuclear-armed neighbours erupted into open conflict, military analysts spotted something curious. Pakistan, it seemed, had used Chinese jets to shoot down India’s planes.

Last week, India launched missiles at Pakistan, in retaliation for a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April that killed 26 people. The conflict escalated with mutual strikes and drone attacks.

Pakistan claimed to have shot down several Indian air force fighter jets with Chinese-made missiles fired from Chinese-made J10-C jets. The Pakistani foreign minister Ishaq Dar told parliament the Pakistani-flown fighters had taken down India’s French-made Rafales. Dar said he had informed the Chinese and they were pleased. China’s social media celebrated.

The use of J-10Cs by Pakistan would mark the first time the Chinese planes – and the PL-15 missiles they were carrying – have been used in combat anywhere in the world, giving military analysts a rare glimpse of their capabilities, and China’s military, the PLA, a crucial test case.

Nine Israeli missiles have slammed into and around the courtyard of the European Gaza Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least 16 people and wounding 70, the enclave’s Ministry of Health says.

The fate of several other people remained unclear on Tuesday as rescue operations were ongoing, a civil emergency official said.

No evidence has been seen that a genocide is occurring in Gaza or that women and children were targeted by the IDF, UK government lawyers have claimed, as a high court case opened into the handling of arms exports controls to Israel.

They also suggested there was no obligation placed on the UK to make other states comply with international humanitarian law but only to ensure that no breach occured within its jurisdiction.

The government is seeking to defend itself in a judicial review brought over allegations that it acted unlawfully in continuing to sell F-35 parts and components to a global pool, even though some of those components might be used by Israel in Gaza in a way that the government regards as a breach of international law.

Much of the case will turn on the extent to which international law places obligations in domestic law.

• UK government lawyers stated there is no evidence of genocide in Gaza or that the IDF specifically targets women and children, as they defended arms exports to Israel in a high court case.
• The government seeks to uphold its arms sales, including F-35 components, citing international peace and security needs, while campaigners argue this violates domestic and international law obligations.
• Al-Haq and other organizations assert severe humanitarian crises in Gaza, including mass displacement and significant civilian casualties, contesting the government's position regarding compliance with humanitarian law.

Almost 300 people were killed when the Malaysian Airlines flight was shot down over Ukraine in 2014. The UN aviation council has ruled that Russian-backed separatists were to blame.

The United Nations' aviation council on Monday, ruled that Russia was responsible for downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine, which killed all of the nearly 300 people on board in 2014.

This number included 196 Dutch citizens and 28 Australian citizens, their governments said in separate statements.

The case was launched in 2022 by Australia and the Netherlands.

Saudi Arabia is home to nearly 4 million domestic workers, including 1.2 million women and 2.7 million men from Africa and Asia who play an essential role in enabling the country's economic development and supporting family life. Yet, the experiences of Kenyan women outlined in this report illustrate how many of these workers endure gruelling, abusive and discriminatory working conditions, often amounting to forced labour and human trafficking.

Abusive recruiters sold the women interviewed for this report a dream before plunging them into an isolated, segregated reality of severe abuses being perpetrated in private households. They exploited the pressures shaping the lives of women and restricting their choices – soaring unemployment, few opportunities at home in Kenya and children to feed and educate. Once in Saudi Arabia they routinely withstood working days of 16 hours and more, with little rest and often not a single day off for months or even years. Some could never leave the house, and many were almost entirely cut off from the outside world. In their workplace, which was also their home, there was no escape from verbal abuse, demeaning treatment, racism, discrimination and extreme exploitation. In many cases, they were physically or sexually assaulted. Some were raped by their male employers and their sons. Many endured delayed or non- payment of their meagre wages. Almost all had their passports confiscated on arrival, making it virtually impossible for them to flee abusive employers, none of whom were held to account.

The UK’s largest Pride organisers have suspended political party participation in their events in “unequivocal solidarity” with the transgender community.

In a joint statement, the organisers of Pride events in Birmingham, Brighton, London and Manchester said the move was a “direct call for accountability and a refusal to platform those who have not protected our rights” after the UK supreme court ruling last month.

The highest court in the UK ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex. Five judges ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman in the act did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.