Tens of thousands of women have marched in cities across Brazil, denouncing femicide and gender-based violence, after a series of high-profile cases that shocked the country.
Women of all ages and some men took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and other cities on Sunday, calling for an end to femicide, rape and misogyny.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
In Rio, the protesters put out dozens of black crosses, while others bore stickers with messages such as “machismo kills”. And in Sao Paulo, the demonstrators chanted, “Stop killing us”, and held placards that read, “Enough of femicide”.
The protesters in Rio’s Copacabana included Alline de Souza Pedrotti, whose sister was killed on November 28 by a male colleague. Pedrotti said the person who killed her sister, an administrative employee at a school, did not accept having female bosses.
“I’m devastated,” she told The Associated Press news agency. “But I’m fighting through the pain, and I won’t stop. I want changes in the legislation and new protocols to prevent this kind of crime from happening again.”
The protesters also denounced other shocking cases that took place last month in Sao Paulo and in the southern city of Florianopolis. In Sao Paulo on November 28, Taynara Souza Santos was run over by her ex-boyfriend and trapped by the car, which dragged her over concrete for one kilometre (0.6 mile).
The 31-year-old’s injuries were so severe, her legs were amputated.
Video footage of the incident went viral.
And in Florianopolis on November 21, English teacher Catarina Kasten was raped and strangled to death on a trail next to a beach on her way to a swimming lesson.
These recent cases were “the final straw”, said Isabela Pontes, who was on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue. “I have suffered many forms of abuses, and today, I am here to show our voice.”
A decade ago, Brazil passed a law recognising the crime of femicide, defined as the death of a woman in the domestic sphere or as resulting from contempt for women.
Last year, 1,492 women were victims of femicide, the highest number since the law was introduced in 2015, according to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.
“We’re seeing an increase in numbers, but also in the intensity and cruelty of violence,” said Juliana Martins, an expert in gender-based violence and institutional relations manager at the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.
More women are speaking out against violence targeting them, and have gained visibility in the public sphere, Martins said.
“Social transformations seeking equality of rights and representation generate violent responses aimed at reaffirming women’s subordination,” she said.
In Rio, Lizete de Paula, 79, said men who hate women had felt empowered during the term of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who dismantled public policies aimed at strengthening women’s rights.
“Women are increasingly entering new spaces and macho men can’t stand this,” the former architect said.
Joao Pedro Cordao, a 45-year-old father of three daughters, said men have a duty to stand with women by calling out misogyny, not only at protests but in day-to-day life.
Exactly 10 years since he blasted into space, Tim Peake reveals the lessons he learned in orbit – and what the future holds for public space travel
View 6 Images
Astronaut, Major Tim Peake(Image: Mike Marsland/Getty Images for G)
Performing a clumsy but weightless backwards somersault, astronaut Major Tim Peake declared with undisguised glee that life in orbit was “absolutely spectacular.” The first Brit to visit the International Space Station and complete a spacewalk, through him we could all vicariously live out our dreams of becoming astronauts. A decade later, now 53, he’s lost none of the boyish enthusiasm that won our hearts, telling The Mirror: “The extraordinary view of the planet earth is probably by far the most special thing about being in space. It’s awe inspiring, seeing the Milky Way rise – 200 billion stars of our own galaxy that’s incredibly special as well.”
Next Monday at 11.03am – marking the exact moment 10 years ago on December 15 2015 that Tim blasted into space – a mass paper rocket launch will be staged at London’s Science Museum. Schools across the UK will also be invited to join in a lesson with Tim, broadcast live from the museum, following a day of free activities hosted there by the astronaut on Sunday.
READ MORE: NASA astronaut’s wife claimed to be ‘first crime in space’ victim – but she lied
Tim says: “There will be explosive live shows and kids can learn how to send a rocket up into space.” The first astronaut to run the equivalent of the London Marathon in space, Tim recalls blasting off from the launch site in Kazakhstan as if it was yesterday. Waving to the throngs of people who had gathered for the launch, he walked side by side with Russian commander Yuri Malenchko and American NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, before they stepped inside the Soyuz rocket.
But, as the hatch door closed, they were plunged into silence. “There was a real switch going from all that buzz and activity to going up inside the rocket,” says Tim. “Inside the capsule, when the hatch closes – that’s the moment when everything shifts. It’s just three people crammed in like sardines in a tin waiting for the blue touchpaper to light. That’s the time when you shut everything else out and you just focus on what you’ve been training for, for so many years.”
Inside the Soyuz there’s the descent module for launch and re-entry, and the orbital module – a cramped, bell-shaped capsule, providing tightly seated living space for the crew. It took six hours for the 7 tonne Soyuz to reach the 400 tonne Space Station, arriving at 5.33pm.
But the astronauts didn’t open the hatch until 7.58pm. Only once they were sure the connection between the two crafts was airtight, did they enter the Space Station, which would become Tim’s home for the next six months. Orbiting the earth presented Tim – who lives in Chichester with his wife Rebecca, 51, and their sons Thomas, 16, and Oliver, 14 – with a treasure chest of unearthly delights.
His most memorable was undoubtedly the space walk. “I’ll never forget it,” he says. “It’s one thing to dock in space, which is like a moment out of Moonraker, but it’s another to put on a space suit and go outside. The feeling of danger is palpable. You’re in this environment you’re not supposed to be in – but it’s also incredibly beautiful, peaceful and tranquil being surrounded by the universe. To be out there floating around in space is the most special experience ever. Being in space taught me that this planet is the most beautiful planet I’ve ever seen, and set in the backdrop of the infinite universe it makes you realise we need to look after it.”
Taking part in more than 250 scientific experiments during his mission, he also engaged 2 million schoolchildren across Europe in at least 30 projects. Now retired, but still an ambassador for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) he is passionate about inspiring the next generation of explorers, engineers and scientists.
Running the London Marathon strapped to the Space Station’s treadmill by a bungee cord attached to a harness, so he didn’t float away, was another intergalactic feat. He completed the virtual course – in support of The Prince’s Trust (now The King’s Trust) – in 3 hours, 35 minutes and 21 seconds, while watching fellow runners pound the London streets below him via video link.
Low gravity meant Tim’s legs only had to carry 80% of his actual weight. “You could say we’re cheating in a way, but the reality is that if you have all that weight on your collarbone it forces you into this forward position,” he explains. “The treadmill was incredibly narrow, which meant I couldn’t run with my normal gait. It’s a bit like when models walk down the catwalk and they have to put one foot in front of the other – you have to run a bit like that.
“For three and a half hours your blood circulation is cut off by wearing this ridiculous harness and you have to really focus on every foot you place being accurate, so you don’t trip up. After about an hour, I was desperate to get off, so I got faster and faster, because I wanted to finish it as soon as possible. I’d say it is harder to run a marathon in space, but being able to watch the live London marathon at the same time really inspired me.”
His muscles also recovered quicker, because he floated off the treadmill without putting his full body weight on his tired legs. But he failed to beat his earthly time. When he ran the London Marathon in 1999 he finished in 3 hours and 18 minutes. Waxing lyrical about wonders he saw from space – including the Sahara desert, the Amazon rainforest and the Himalayas – Tim says the juxtaposition between the awesome views and the everyday was mindblowing.
Tim, who joined the Army at 19, becoming a pilot in the Army Air Corps and then joining the European Space Agency astronaut corps in 2009, says: “There’s almost this disconnect between normality and awe and wonder. On the one hand you’re working really hard and the next you pass by the window and suddenly see Earth beneath you. “You see this magnificent view of the Aurora at night, or a thunderstorm – and it blows your mind.”
Orbiting around 250 miles above Earth, Tim loved looking down at the planet from the space station’s Cupola – a unique observation deck with seven windows – and shared his images and thoughts on social media. “When you see the Aurora and the small strip of atmosphere that protects us from space, it gives you an appreciation of just what our planet is doing to protect us from a harsh environment.”
The strip of atmosphere, while remarkably thin, technically extends thousands of miles – blending into space and gradually fading. “Back in the Apollo era – they said we came all this way to see what’s on the moon – but what we really discovered was planet Earth,” says Tim, who landed back on terra firma on June 18 2016.
Twenty five this year, the International Space Station will be deorbited in 2031. Advanced technology and high maintenance costs mean it will be replaced by multiple commercial space stations. Tim says: “Space tourists have been spending 10 to 12 days on the ISS for the last 10 years. As it gets easier and cheaper to get to space, we’re seeing more and more people doing it.”
But while singer Katy Perry joined an all female crew to go into space in April this year, it will still be a while before ordinary people can fly to the moon and back, as it currently costs more than £40m. In the meantime, there are still serious space missions in the offing. Artemis II is a NASA-led crewed mission that will send four astronauts on a 10-day flight around the Moon and back, with a launch targeted for early 2026. The lunar flyby will be to test systems for future landings. China also has its own space station now.
Tim continues: “I’m a fan of using space for science and space for the benefit of everybody. I don’t think there’s a huge public appetite for just watching people with high net worth having a quick six minutes of weightlessness in space. Having said that, back in the 1920s and 30s, it was only very wealthy people flying across the Atlantic.
“Today it’s affordable for a much larger percentage of the population. In 100 years time we could be seeing a transportation system that would get you from London to Sydney in 45 minutes [via space] and it could be affordable for a large percentage of people. We might look back at rich people and celebrities going to space and think it was just the start.”
Article continues below
Find out more about how to join in with Tim Peake’s activities at The Science Museum on Sunday 14th and Monday 15th December here
READ MORE: ‘I spent three months living on ISS and discovered space has a distinct smell’
Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 children who were among hundreds kidnapped from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria last month, officials and local media have reported.
The 100 children arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger State on Monday, an unnamed United Nations source told the AFP news agency.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
“They are going to be handed over to Niger State government tomorrow,” the source told the AFP news agency.
Nigeria’s The Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday that the rescued children were receiving medical evaluations and would be reunited with their families after a debriefing.
Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare also confirmed reports to the AFP that 100 children were being freed.
Armed gunmen kidnapped 303 students and 12 teachers from St Mary’s School in the Papiri community of Niger State’s Agwara district on November 21.
They included both male and female students aged between 10 to 18 years, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Fifty of the students escaped captivity in the days after they were kidnapped, returning home to their families. Following the release of 100 students on Sunday, 153 students and 12 teachers are believed to remain in captivity.
Days earlier, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the neighbouring Kebbi State’s Maga town,170km (106 miles) away.
“We have been praying and waiting for their return. If it is true, then it is a cheering news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school.
“However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.”
The latest abductions are the worst seen in Nigeria since more than 270 girls from Chibok town were snatched from their school in 2014.
In total, more than 1,400 Nigerian students have been kidnapped since 2014, in almost a dozen separate incidents.
The most recent kidnappings came soon after United States President Donald Trump said that Nigeria’s Christians are facing genocide, a claim that has been questioned by local officials and Christian groups, who say that people from different faiths have been caught up in ongoing violence in parts of the country.
Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera last month that people of all faiths have been affected by the ongoing violence.
“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed,” Ebienfa said.
“The majority is not the Christian population.”
Trump has threatened military intervention in Nigeria, alleging that the country is failing to protect Christians from persecution. He has also threatened to cut aid to Nigeria.
Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.
According to Pew Research Center estimates, Muslims make up 56 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Christians make up just more than 43 percent.
Lawmakers in the United States have urged the release of a video of a controversial double-tap strike on a vessel in the Caribbean amid growing scrutiny of the legality of Washington’s militarised anti-drug trafficking campaign.
The bipartisan calls on Sunday came amid mounting controversy over revelations that military officials ordered a follow-up strike in the September 2 operation targeting a suspected drug-smuggling vessel, killing two survivors of the initial attack.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Democratic and Republican lawmakers watched footage of the strikes last week in a closed-door briefing with military officials, but emerged from the screening with substantially different accounts of what happened.
Reactions to the footage split along partisan lines, with Democrats expressing deep concerns about the legality of the strikes and Republicans insisting they were justified.
Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives’s armed services committee, said the targeted vessel had been “clearly incapacitated” in the initial strike, and the survivors were unarmed and without any means of communication.
“They ought to release the video. If they release the video, then everything that the Republicans are saying will clearly be portrayed to be completely false, and people will get a look at it, and they will see,” Smith said in an interview with the ABC News programme This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
“It seems pretty clear they don’t want to release this video because they don’t want people to see it because it’s very, very difficult to justify,” Smith added.
Jim Himes, who leads the Democrats on the House’s intelligence committee, said the American public should have the chance to judge the video for themselves.
“Look, there’s a certain amount of sympathy out there for going after drug runners, but I think it’s really important that people see what it looks like when the full force the United States military is turned on two guys who are clinging to a piece of wood and about to go under just so that they have sort of a visceral feel for what it is that we’re doing,” Himes told CBS News’s Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.
Several Republicans said they would support the release of the video, even as they defended the strikes.
Senator Tom Cotton, whose account of the survivors trying to “flip” the boat and continue their voyage has been disputed by Democrats, said he would not object to the video’s release, but would defer to the judgement of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon.
“I didn’t find it distressing or disturbing. It looks like any number of dozens of strikes we’ve seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years,” Cotton, who chairs the intelligence committee in the Senate, told NBC News’s Meet the Press.
John Curtis, a Republican senator from Utah, also suggested that he would support the video’s release, saying officials should “err on the side of transparency”.
“The American people, they like to make decisions too based on facts, not just on what we tell them,” Curtis told CNN’s State of the Union.
President Donald Trump, whose administration has carried out at least 22 strikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific, said last week he would have “no problem” with releasing the footage.
Hegseth on Saturday struck a more cautious note during an appearance at a defence forum in California, telling a Q&A that officials were reviewing the possibility, but needed to make a “responsible” decision.
Scrutiny of the strikes has mounted since The Washington Post reported last month that US military officials carried out a second attack on two people clinging to the vessel’s wreckage after Hegseth directed commanders to leave no survivors.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied the report, which cited two unnamed sources, labelling it “fake news”, “fabricated” and “inflammatory”.
Legal scholars have argued that both the double-tap strike and the Trump administration’s military campaign against suspected drug traffickers more generally are illegal.
“The United States is not currently operating in a context of armed conflict in its strikes in the Caribbean. For that reason, this is not a context in which war crimes apply,” Tom Dannenbaum, an expert in the laws of war at Stanford University, told Al Jazeera.
“Instead, all of the strikes qualify as murder in violation of domestic criminal law, and extrajudicial killings in violation of international human rights law.”
At least 87 people have been killed in the strikes, which the Trump administration began in September.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has confirmed deploying fighter jets and ground troops to neighbouring Benin to help foil a coup attempt by a group of Beninese soldiers.
In a statement on Sunday, Tinubu’s office said Nigeria’s military intervened in Benin after President Patrice Talon’s government issued two requests for help, including for “immediate Nigerian air support”.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Tinubu first ordered Nigerian fighter jets to enter Benin and “take over the airspace to help dislodge the coup plotters from the National TV and a military camp where they had regrouped”, the statement said.
Nigeria’s military sent in ground troops later, after Benin’s government asked for their support in “the protection of constitutional institutions and the containment of armed groups”, it said.
Tinubu praised his troops and said they had helped “stabilise a neighbouring country”.
The Nigerian statement came shortly after Talon, the president of Benin, appeared on national television and said his security forces had successfully blocked the attempt to overthrow his government.
Talon promises punishment
Talon said forces loyal to him “stood firm, recaptured our positions, and cleared the last pockets of resistance held by the mutineers”.
“This commitment and mobilisation enabled us to defeat these adventurers and to prevent the worst for our country,” he said. “This treachery will not go unpunished.”
The Benin president added that his thoughts were with the victims of the coup attempt as well as with a number of people who have been held by the fleeing mutineers.
He did not give details.
The unrest was the latest threat to democratic governance in the region, where militaries have in recent years seized power in Benin’s neighbours Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as in Mali, Guinea and, only last month, Guinea-Bissau. But it was an unexpected development in Benin, where the last successful coup took place in 1972.
A government spokesperson, Wilfried Leandre Houngbedji, said that 14 people had been arrested in connection with the coup attempt as of Sunday afternoon, without providing details.
One security source told the AFP news agency that all the detainees were soldiers in active service, except one who was ex-military. It was not clear if Lieutenant Colonel Pascal Tigri, the coup leader, had been apprehended.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Olushegun Adjadi Bakari told the Reuters news agency that the soldiers had only managed to briefly take control of the state TV network.
While gunfire had been heard in some locations of the country’s commercial hub, Cotonou, during the coup attempt, the city has been relatively calm since early afternoon, according to residents.
ECOWAS to send troops
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc and the African Union also condemned the coup attempt.
In a statement later on Sunday, ECOWAS said it had ordered the immediate deployment of elements of its standby force to Benin, including troops from Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
It said the troops would help the Beninese government and army “preserve constitutional order and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Benin”.
The coup attempt came as Benin prepares for a presidential election in April, which is expected to mark the end of Talon’s tenure.
Last month, Benin adopted a new constitution, creating a Senate and extending the presidential mandate from five to seven years. Critics have described the reforms as a power grab by the governing coalition, which has chosen Minister of Economy and Finance Romuald Wadagni as its candidate.
The opposition Democrats party, founded by Talon’s predecessor, Thomas Boni Yayi, has meanwhile seen its proposed candidate rejected because of what a court ruled was insufficient backing from lawmakers.
Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy director of the Sahel Project at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that the coup bids in Benin and other African countries have been partly driven by governments rejecting their democratic responsibilities.
“In recent days and recent months, we have all been holding our breath about what could happen in many countries that are either facing security situations that are bad, or are coming to an election, where there is no clarity on whether the rulers will be respecting the rules of the democratic game,” Yahaya said.
The Royal Thai Army has announced launching air attacks along its disputed border with Cambodia, after accusing Cambodian forces of firing at its troops and killing at least one soldier.
In a statement on Monday, spokesman Major-General Winthai Suvari said the Thai Army deployed aircraft after the deadly clashes in the Chong Bok area of Nam Yuen District in Ubon Ratchathani province.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Suvari said at least four other soldiers were also wounded.
He added that the Thai Army was “expediting support for the evacuation of civilians in border areas”.
Cambodia also confirmed the attacks.
Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence spokeswoman Maly Socheata told the AFP news agency that Thai forces launched an attack on Cambodian troops in the border provinces of Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey early on Monday morning.
She added that Cambodia had not retaliated.
The attacks are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours after a ceasefire ended five days of deadly clashes in July.
At least 48 people were killed and an estimated 300,000 temporarily displaced during the clashes, with the two neighbours exchanging rockets and heavy artillery fire.
The ceasefire that ended the hostilities was brokered by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and United States President Trump, who also witnessed the signing of an expanded peace agreement between the two countries in Kuala Lumpur in October.
Tensions have continued to flare, however.
Following a landmine blast last month that maimed one of its soldiers, Thailand said it was halting the implementation of the ceasefire pact with Cambodia. Phnom Penh denied responsibility for the landmine explosion, saying the device was a remnant from past conflicts.
Thailand and Cambodia have for more than a century contested sovereignty at undemarcated points along their 817-km (508-mile) land border, first mapped in 1907 by France when it ruled Cambodia as a colony.
