Protests against Nepal’s social-media ban grow more violent as demonstrators set buildings on fire

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Protests against Nepal’s short-lived ban on social media grew increasingly violent Tuesday as demonstrators set government buildings and politicians’ homes on fire and attacked some leaders. The prime minister resigned amid widening criticism of the country’s political elite.

The resignation appeared to have little effect on the unrest. Tens of thousands of protesters remained on the streets late in the day, blocking roads and storming government facilities. Army helicopters ferried some ministers to safe places.

A day earlier, demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the capital, and police opened fire on the crowds, killing 19 people.

The ban was lifted Tuesday, but the protests continued, fueled by rage over the deaths and accusations of political corruption in the nation wedged between China and India.

Gaza as a twisted real estate opportunity

A motley band of greedy fantasists got together at the White House a week ago (Aug. 27) and came up with a cunning plan to bring peace to the Middle East while lining their own pockets at the same time. It was “leaked” within days, as it was clearly meant to be, and since then the sound of outraged clucking has been loud in the land.

It is “a Trumpian get-rich-quick scheme reliant on war crimes, AI and tourism,” wrote the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

“It’s a textbook case of international crimes on an unimaginable scale: forcible population transfer, demographic engineering and collective punishment,” said Duncan Grant, head of Swiss-based human rights group Trial International.

“It’s insane,” said H.A. Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute. They are right, so far as they go — but they only know the half of it. The other half is that this is an insane crime that could actually happen.

Carney calls for ‘maximum pressure’ on Russia as Putin issues threat to allies

OTTAWA - Canada and other allies need to maintain "maximum pressure" on Moscow, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to target foreign troops if they are deployed to Ukraine.

Putin "has not yet come to terms with the need for peace," the prime minister said in response to a question from a reporter at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont.

"Mr. Putin is the cause of this war, he's the reason for the killing," he said. "He is not going to dictate the terms of the peace."

Carney said allied pressure on Russia would include imposing new sanctions, ensuring Ukrainian forces are armed and that Ukraine is supported "when there is a cessation of hostility." He said the next round of sanctions is now being prepared by Ukraine's allies.

Norwegian police say pro-Russian hackers were likely behind suspected sabotage at a dam

Russian hackers are likely behind suspected sabotage at a dam in Norway in April that affected water flows, police officials told Norwegian media on Wednesday.

The director of the Norwegian Police Security Service, Beate Gangås, said cyberattacks are increasingly being carried out against Western nations to stoke fear and unrest.

The Associated Press has plotted more than 70 incidents on a map tracking a campaign of disruption across Europe blamed on Russia, which Western officials have described as “reckless.” Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents, ranging from vandalism to arson and attempted assassination.

Intelligence officials told the AP that the campaign is becoming more violent.

Georgia detains second opposition leader within days as ruling party faces more protests

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgian police on Friday detained a second opposition leader within days as protests continue in the South Caucasus country against the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Lawyers for Nika Melia, one of the figureheads for Georgia's pro-Western Coalition for Change, said his car was stopped by police on Thursday. Soon after, he was bundled away by a large group of people in civilian clothing.

According to Georgia’s interior ministry, Melia has been detained on charges of verbally insulting a law enforcement officer.

The arrest came a week after that of Zurab Japaridze, another leader of the pro-Western, liberal coalition of parties that support European Union integration and want a restoration of democratic standards.

Hamas says it is still reviewing a US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas said Friday it was still reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where 27 people were killed in new Israeli airstrikes, according to hospital officials.

The ceasefire plan, which has been approved by Israeli officials, won a cool initial reaction Thursday from the militant group. But President Donald Trump said Friday negotiators were nearing a deal.

“They’re very close to an agreement on Gaza, and we’ll let you know about it during the day or maybe tomorrow,” Trump told reporters in Washington. Late in the evening, asked if he was confident Hamas would approve the deal, he told reporters: “They’re in a big mess. I think they want to get out of it.”

U.S. negotiators have not publicized the terms of the proposal. But a Hamas official and an Egyptian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks, said Thursday that it called for a 60-day pause in fighting, guarantees of serious negotiations leading to a long-term truce and assurances that Israel will not resume hostilities after the release of hostages, as it did in March.

A Palestinian describes 15 minutes of terror trying to get food in the new Gaza distribution system

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Shehada Hijazi woke at dawn. It was his best chance, he thought, to get his hands on a package of food at a new distribution site run by a U.S.- and Israeli-backed foundation in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of others, equally desperate to feed their hungry families, had the same idea.

By the time Hijazi walked the 7 kilometers (4 miles) to the southern tip of the territory, a militarized zone that has been evacuated of its residents, it was chaos. People pushed and shoved for hours as they restlessly waited outside the site, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, earth berms and checkpoints. When it opened, the crowd charged, rushing toward hundreds of boxes left stacked on the ground on wooden pallets.

Hijazi described what he called 15 minutes of terror Thursday at the center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the private contractor that Israel says will replace the U.N. in feeding Gaza's more than 2 million people.

Israeli soldiers opened fire in an attempt to control the crowd, he and other witnesses said. His 23-year-old cousin was shot in the foot. They quickly abandoned hope of getting any food and ran for their lives.

Nova Scotia NDP says province too secretive, must release environmental racism report

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia’s Opposition NDP called on Premier Tim Houston's government Friday to release a report about the province's long history of environmental racism, saying it’s a matter of accountability.

An eight-member panel was expected to submit its report to Houston's government in December 2023.

Justice Minister Becky Druhan, who is also responsible for the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, did not answer Thursday when pressed by reporters to explain why the government is sitting on the report.

Druhan also wouldn’t answer when asked whether she had seen the panel’s recommendations, saying its work predated her appointment as minister.

Supreme Court lets Trump end legal protections for 500,000 migrants, exposing more to deportation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.

The justices lifted a lower-court order that kept humanitarian parole protections in place for more than 500,000 migrants from four countries: Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The decision comes after the court allowed the administration to revoke temporary legal status from about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants in another case.

The court did not explain its reasoning in the brief order, as is typical on its emergency docket. Two justices publicly dissented.

The administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court after a federal judge in Boston blocked the administration’s push to end the program. The Justice Department argues that the protections for people fleeing turmoil in their home countries were always meant to be temporary, and the Department of Homeland Security has the power to revoke them without court interference.

Mother of jailed Egyptian democracy activist hospitalized after resuming hunger strike

LONDON (AP) — The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a hunger strike aimed at pressing for her son’s release, her family said Friday.

Laila Soueif was admitted to St Thomas’s Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood sugar levels.

“A couple of hours ago I thought we were going to lose her,” her daughter, Sanaa Souief, said outside the hospital. “The bottom line is, we’re losing her.”

She added: “(Prime Minister) Keir Starmer needs to act now. Not tomorrow, not Monday, but right now.”

Live updates: Hamas considers Gaza ceasefire proposal as Israeli strikes kill at least 27

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 27 people in the Gaza Strip, hospital officials said Friday, while Hamas was reviewing a new Israeli-approved ceasefire proposal after giving it an initial cool response.

President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy had expressed optimism this week about brokering an agreement that could halt the Israel-Hamas war, allow more aid into Gaza, and return more of the 58 hostages still held by Hamas, around a third of whom are alive.

Experts say a nearly three-month Israeli blockade of Gaza — slightly eased in recent days — has pushed the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians to the brink of famine.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally. The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which left around 1,200 dead.

South Africa police minister says Trump ‘twisted’ facts to push baseless genocide claims

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s top law enforcement official said Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump wrongly claimed that a video he showed in the Oval Office was of burial sites for more than 1,000 white farmers and he “twisted” the facts to push a false narrative about mass killings of white people in his country.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu was talking about a video clip that was played during the meeting between Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday that showed an aerial view of a rural road with lines of white crosses erected on either side.

“Now this is very bad,” Trump said as he referred to the clip that was part of a longer video that was played in the meeting. “These are burial sites, right here. Burial sites, over a thousand, of white farmers, and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning."

Mchunu said the crosses did not mark graves or burial sites, but were a temporary memorial put up in 2020 to protest the killings of all farmers across South Africa. They were put up during a funeral procession for a white couple who were killed in a robbery on their farm, Mchunu said.

Venezuelan workers at Disney put on leave from jobs after losing protective status

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Almost four dozen Venezuelan workers who had temporary protected status have been put on leave by Disney after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip them of legal protections.

The move was made to make sure that the employees were not in violation of the law, Disney said in a statement Friday.

The 45 workers across the company who were put on leave will continue to get benefits.

“We are committed to protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees who may be navigating changing immigration policies and how they could impact them or their families,” the statement said.

Kashmir tourism bears the brunt after tourist massacre and India-Pakistan military strikes

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — There are hardly any tourists in the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir. Most of the hotels and ornate pinewood houseboats are empty. Resorts in the snowclad mountains have fallen silent. Hundreds of cabs are parked and idle.

It’s the fallout of last month’s gun massacre that left 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-controlled Kashmir followed by tit-for-tat military strikes by India and Pakistan, bringing the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of their third war over the region.

“There might be some tourist arrivals, but it counts almost negligible. It is almost a zero footfall right now,” said Yaseen Tuman, who operates multiple houseboats in the region’s main city of Srinagar. “There is a haunting silence now.”

Tens of thousands of panicked tourists left Kashmir within days after the rare killings of tourists on April 22 at a picture-perfect meadow in southern resort town of Pahalgam. Following the attack, authorities temporarily closed dozens of tourist resorts in the region, adding to fear and causing occupancy rates to plummet.

Rupert’s Land inhabitants blindsided by Canada’s purchase of their homeland in 1869

When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) reached an agreement to sell Rupert’s Land to Canada in the spring of 1869, it came as a complete surprise to the people living in what is today Western Canada. They were neither consulted on the proposed annexation nor given any details about how it would affect their lives.

36 jours en mer : récit des naufragés qui ont survécu aux hallucinations, à la soif et au désespoir

FASS BOYE, Senegal (AP) — Un mois s’est écoulé lorsque les quatre premiers hommes ont décidé de sauter.

D’innombrables cargos sont passés à côté d’eux, pourtant personne n’est venu à leur secours. Ils n’avaient plus de carburant. La faim et la soif étaient insoutenables. Des dizaines de personnes sont déjà mortes, dont le capitaine.

Le voyage de Fass Boye, petit village de pêche sénégalaise en difficulté économique, jusqu’aux îles Canaries en Espagne, porte d’entrée de l’Union européenne où ils espéraient trouver du travail, était censé durer une semaine. Mais plus d’un mois plus tard, le bateau en bois transportant 101 hommes et garçons s’éloignait de plus en plus de la destination prévue.

Aucune terre n’est en vue. Pourtant, les quatre hommes croient, ou hallucinent, qu’ils peuvent nager jusqu’au rivage. Rester sur le bateau «maudit», pensaient-ils, était une condamnation à mort. Ils ont ramassé des récipients d’eau vides et des planches de bois, tout ce qui pouvait les aider à flotter.

Claims of Indigenous ancestry by non-Indigenous Canadians on the rise

Writing about identity politics is fraught with political landmines. People tend to be highly sensitive to any challenge to how they identify themselves. It’s personal.

It is therefore intriguing that author Darryl Leroux has walked purposely right into the minefield. It’s political.

In Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity, Leroux describes the obsessive search by some heretofore non-Indigenous Canadians for long-ago Indigenous ancestors who can justify them identifying as Métis. According to Leroux, an associate professor of social justice and community studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, the popularity of genealogical websites and online forums has created communities where race-shifters can organize. The motive, he warns, is not benign.

Leroux makes it clear that he is not talking about people who are seeking to reunite with their kin after being forcibly disconnected from their Indigenous identity through Indian residential schools, the Sixties Scoop or Indian Act policies.

Justice system unfairly punishes and rewards

Almost half of the people in Manitoba agree there is a problem with the Canadian justice system when it comes to treatment of Indigenous peoples, according to a recent report in the Winnipeg Free Press (”Manitobans divided on justice system,” April 16, 2018). Like many problems, it’s complex and the way to resolution starts with understanding the many issues.

Here at the John Howard Society, we work with men in conflict with the law, and the vast majority of the people we work with are Indigenous. We see first-hand that the system doesn’t treat everyone fairly for at least three reasons: economic, cultural and prejudicial.

High rates of unemployment and an inability to secure stable housing lead to greater rates of incarceration for those awaiting trial. When a person is charged with a crime, they are often released on their own recognizance. But, if they can’t provide an address for where they will live, they are more likely to be taken into custody. And once someone is in custody, it’s much harder to get out.

By this point, you need a lawyer to represent you at a bail hearing, you still need an address where you will live and there is a legal principle that the accused has to be able to assist in their own defence. I have seen a homeless individual held in custody for almost three weeks for shoplifting less than five dollars’ worth of merchandise, unable to get bail or go to trial because he could not properly instruct his lawyer due to addictions and mental-health issues.

Témoignage de survivantes de l’Holocauste à l’USB

Le père Patrick Desbois, un prêtre catholique français réputé pour son travail de recherche sur l’Holocauste, en est convaincu: “Les génocides ne commencent pas avec les chambres de gaz. Ils commencent plutôt par des petits manquements de respect.” Des petites indignités comme celle qui restera gravée à jamais dans la mémoire de Régine Rubinfeld Frankel.

On est en 1942. La jeune Régine, âgée d’une dizaine d’années, est partie de la maison où sa famille se cachait, avec un carnet de rations, chercher des vivres dans la ville la plus proche. Au lieu de retourner à pied avec ses sacs — un trajet de huit kilomètres — elle a décidé de prendre le bus. Mais le chauffeur, une connaissance, exige qu’elle descende plusieurs kilomètres avant son arrêt, alors que la nuit tombe.

“Même maintenant quand j’en parle, j’ai envie de pleurer, parce que je me demande toujours pourquoi il n’y avait pas une seule personne dans ce bus qui a dit: ‘Laisse-la!’ ”

Régine Rubinfeld Frankel et sa sœur, Rachel Rubinfeld Fink, ont raconté leurs souvenirs lors d’une conférence intitulée “Plus Jamais”, présentée à l’Université de Saint-Boniface le 9 novembre.