In contrast to President Zelenskyy’s controversial law, the Ukrainian Parliament has voted to reinstate the independence of two important anti-corruption organizations. Following widespread demonstrations and EU pressure over fears it might obstruct investigations into political allies, the decision was taken.
Despite concerns that the implanted defibrillator could lead to a botched execution, a court in the state of Tennessee in southern the US has ruled that the state of Tennessee can proceed with the execution of a man.
Byron Black, who was found guilty of a triple murder in 1988, is currently on death row in the Tennessee Supreme Court’s case on Thursday.
Although Black’s execution has been postponed numerous times, a lethal injection date was set for August 5th.
However, his defense team claimed in July that Black’s defibrillator should be deactivated in order for the execution to continue because it would shock his heart as he passed away, leading to a painful and drawn-out execution.
Prior to his execution, Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Russell Perkins had previously decided that Black’s defibrillator must be taken out.
The Tennessee Supreme Court overturned that ruling, contending that removing the defibrillator in advance would be considered a “stay of execution.”
The lower court’s decision, according to the state justices, was invalid because it had overstepped its bounds.
One of Black’s attorneys, Kelley Henry, stated that she is reviewing the opinion before deciding what to do next.
The state’s attorneys claimed on Wednesday that healthcare professionals were hesitant to help with the defibrillator’s removal because many of them saw participation in the execution process as a violation of medical ethics.
The court did not address concerns about whether Black’s constitutional right to avoid cruel and unusual punishment might be violated by the device’s complications during the execution. Additionally, it made the possibility that Black could still receive a pardon for his execution open.
In the US, one of the few Western nations still using the death penalty, botched executions have been a source of debate for years.
Lethal injection and electrocution are frequently error-prone methods of capital punishment, which can sometimes lead to painful, drawn-out prisoner deaths.
According to a report released in 2022 by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), “seven out of 22 attempted executions in the US” were “visibly problematic” and included “executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols, or defects in the protocols themselves.”
The US executed 24 people in 2023, which is the third-highest number of confirmed executions in the world, after Iran and Saudi Arabia, according to Amnesty International. After China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia, the US received the fifth-highest number of death sentences.
One of the top cyber-espionage units in the Russian government has been accused by Microsoft of using local internet service providers to spread malware to Russian embassies and diplomatic organizations.
The FSB, or Federal Security Service, has been conducting its activities since at least 2024, according to Microsoft Threat Intelligence in a blog post on Thursday.
The initiative “poses a high risk to foreign embassies, diplomatic organizations, and other sensitive organizations operating in Moscow, particularly those that rely on local internet providers,” according to Microsoft.
According to Microsoft’s findings, the analysis establishes for the first time that the FSB is engaging in cyber-espionage at the ISP level.
The blog post states that “diplomatic personnel using local ISP or telecommunications services in Russia are highly likely targets of the campaign] within those services.”
An alleged FSB cyber-espionage operation that targeted unnamed foreign embassies in Moscow was tracked by Microsoft.
According to Microsoft, the FSB activity makes it easier to install custom backdoors on targeted computers, which can be used to install additional malware and steal data.
The findings come as Washington is increasingly compelled to support a ceasefire in its conflict with Ukraine, and NATO allies have pledged to raise defense spending in response to their own concerns about Russia.
Which embassies were the targets of the FSB campaign, according to Microsoft?
Russian diplomats and the US Department of State did not respond to Reuters news agency’s requests for comment.
Russia has disputed that it engages in cyber-espionage. Moscow’s response to Microsoft’s report on Thursday was unaffected by its delay.
Virginia Giuffre’s family, a woman who accused financier Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking and assault, is shocked by recent statements from Donald Trump, who claims Epstein “stole” her from his spa.
The family requested more details about the Epstein case in a statement released late on Wednesday.
According to the family’s statement, “It was shocking to hear President Trump mention our sister and claim that he knew Virginia had been “stolen” from Mar-a-Lago.”
Survivors deserve this, according to the statement “we and the public are asking for answers.”
In recent weeks, the president has been plagued by questions regarding his relationship with Epstein, with some calling for his release of additional documents.
Trump has contributed to the controversy, most recently as he returned from a trip to Scotland this week.
Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, was brought up by Trump as he flew on Air Force One.
Giuffre, a farmer in western Australia, committed suicide in April. She had previously worked as a spa attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as a teenager, where her father also performed maintenance work.
Trump charged Epstein, a convicted sex offender, with poaching businesspeople like Giuffre.
“He hired people out of the spa,” he said. In other words, Trump has been “gone.” When I learned about it, I told him, “We don’t want you taking our people,” I said.
He continued, “Not too long after that, he did it again, and he caused a rupture in their relationship.” And I responded, “Get out of here.”
His statements sparked a flurry of coverage in the media. Since then, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended Trump’s actions.
She claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was axed out of his club by President Trump because he allegedly treated his female employees badly.
However, scrutiny has continued. A reporter questioned Trump on Thursday about Epstein’s possible removal of young female employees from his resort at a fitness-themed event.
Trump blasted the reporter for bringing up the matter, and he responded, “I don’t know really why, but I said, if he’s hiring or whatever he is doing, I didn’t like it.” And we expelled him. We declared, “We don’t want him at the location.”
Trump and his supporters pledged to release government records relating to significant cases, including the assassinations of US President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Numerous conspiracy theories have been made about many of the files in question.
In the case of Epstein, there are rumor swirling about Epstein’s possible influence over powerful acquaintances and the circumstances surrounding his 2019 jailhouse death.
Former FBI director Kash Patel and his deputy director Dan Bongino, both of whom are members of Trump’s current administration, openly speculated whether Epstein used a “black book” or “client list” to coerce government and business leaders.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who appeared on Fox News in February, said a list like that was “sitting on my desk right now,” adding to those rumors.
The Trump administration’s document releases have so far failed to reveal significant details about the Epstein scandal.
No client lists or proof that Epstein had blackmailed power figures were found in a joint statement from the FBI and the Department of Justice in July, according to a joint statement released in that same month.
However, that review did little to dampen rumors among those who had been closely watching the Epstein conspiracy theories, including those who were supporters of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base.
Democrats have attempted to stifle the controversy by claiming that the Justice Department informed Trump about his name appearing in the Epstein files.
Despite experts claiming that the full scope of the Epstein case’s evidence is unlikely to be contained, Trump has urged the release of federal grand jury records.
Additionally, Justice Department representatives had a meeting with former Epstein girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking and accused of grooming victims on his behalf, last week.
Some Epstein documents, according to Attorney General Bondi, cannot be made public because they contain sensitive details about the victims.
In exchange for a pardon, Maxwell has also requested to testify before Congress, and she has filed a petition for the Supreme Court to review her case. She is a federal prisoner who has served a 20-year sentence.
Giuffre’s family urged the government to not pardon Maxwell for her crimes in Wednesday’s message.
The RSF’s recent creation of parallel government has received a lot of negative feedback.
Sudan has endured a devastating conflict for more than two years.
It now faces yet another problem.
A parallel government to the one led by the army chief has been announced by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The army has criticized the move as a desperate attempt by the RSF to hold onto power, while the African Union has rejected it.
However, according to analysts, the decision poses a real risk and could cause even more division in a nation that is already fractious.
How will this new conflict of power affect both Sudan and the world at large?
And how might it impact the region under RSF control of Darfur?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Hafiz Mohamed, Director of the advocacy and research institute Justice Africa Sudan,
Kholood Khair, the founder of Confluence Advisory, a think-tank that was founded in Khartoum, is a political analyst from Sudan.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed non-profit organization established in Gaza earlier this year, is a US-backed organization. Following a protracted halt in supply deliveries to the enclave, aid distribution began in May. However, more than 1, 000 Palestinians have died while trying to access food at GHF aid centers, according to the UN.
Palestinians in Gaza, who are starving and in agony, must walk a few miles to collect the city’s four militarized hubs to collect the desperately needed food packages. According to Palestinian medics and civilians, GHF and Israeli troops frequently fire on aid seekers, killing dozens at once.
The killings have sparked international outcry, including condemnations from heads of state, UN agencies, and human rights groups, and have been supported by video evidence, whistleblowers, Israeli soldiers, and other harrowing accounts.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which records atrocities committed against Palestinians, mercenaries employed by the GHF are principal targets.
Additionally, Euro-Med claims that Israeli forces have made it possible for Palestinian gangs to loot aid convoys and terrorize people.
Formerly employed by the GHF, retired US special forces officer Anthony Aguilar recently made public some of the brutal treatment Palestinians receive at aid sites.
Without a doubt, I witnessed the Israeli military commit war crimes,” Aguilar told the BBC in an exclusive interview.
Israeli doctors and survivors claim that Israel frequently directs Palestinian aid seekers with snipers.
In the al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, Dr. Fadel Naeem claimed that he sees most gunshot wounds in the “head, chest, and abdomen” and that he frequently treats patients there.
He noted that Israel occasionally fires tear gas, explosives, or artillery shells at large crowds, but also appears to fire indiscriminately at hungry Palestinians. As well as flesh and shrapnel wounds, these attacks frequently result in severe burns.
“Many] of the injured end up with amputated limbs because there is frequently severe tissue tearing,” said Dr. Naeem.
Other Palestinians are frequently stricken in the hysteria to flee Israeli gunfire or get a bag of food aid because of their sustained fractures and broken bones.
Many of the injuries, according to Dr. Hassan al-Shaer, who works at al-Shifa Hospital, are serious.
He told Al Jazeera, “Many of the injured] victims who come to us also have life-threatening wounds, and they are taken to the operating room right away.”
Israel consistently refutes Israeli claims that its troops only shoot “warning shots” outside GHF distribution centers to stop overcrowding and officially denies firing at Palestinians.
Additionally, the Israeli army claims that “chaos” at the locations pose an “immediate threat” to army soldiers.
However, Israel’s troops pose the real threat, according to a news report that was released by the Israeli daily Haaretz on June 27.
Many soldiers who served in Gaza acknowledged that their superiors had “ordered to shoot” directly at Palestinian aid recipients.
Between one and five people were killed daily in the area where I was stationed. They are treated like a hostile force, with no crowd-control or tear gas, just live fire from anything that can be used, including heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars, according to a soldier.
He continued, “It’s a killing field.”
Both Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Katz refute the accusations and assert that they are “blood libel” against Israel, making it false and anti-Semitic to accuse Jews of killing Christians with their blood in religious rituals.
No, the claims made by doctors in Gaza’s hospitals and clinics do not support Israel’s assertion.
When the GHF began providing aid in the middle of May, according to Dr. Shaer of al-Shifa, many of the injured people began visiting the hospital.
In Gaza, illnesses and weak immune systems are frequently the cause of injuries that are frequently compounded by illness and starvation.
Hakeem Yahiya Mansour, a 30-year-old emergency medical professional from Gaza, continued that “death always occurs” at GHF sites.
He told Al Jazeera, “The majority of the calls we receive come from the distribution zones’ environs.”
According to Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French name MSF, footage of the sites shows thousands of starving Palestinians crammed onto a strip of land roughly the size of a football field.
Aid seekers are frequently forced to fight for food parcels that are tossed to hungry crowds at poorly organized and chaotic distribution points because they are surrounded by guard towers.
Aid seekers can often hear the terrifying drones buzzing above them because tanks are frequently stationed nearby.
Palestinians have little room to maneuver or get assistance, according to satellite imagery obtained by Al Jazeera’s verification unit, Sanad.
Palestinians have the choice between dying from gunfire or starvation despite the dangers. In order to provide food for their families and young children, many people chose to accept the risk and apply for aid.
Mohanad Shaaban said he had to go to the GHF site on July 30 because he had been unable to eat for three days. He recalls seeing two tanks at the location, one on the right and the left.
He eloquently recalls how “the Israelites then opened fire on us.”
Shaaban pleaded with the world to “tell this famine to end.”
Some of Israel’s allies have been forced to issue stern condemnations and ultimatums due to the harrowing images and images of Palestinians dying from hunger and being killed at GHF aid sites.
Israel should increase life-saving aid, according to a statement released by France, Germany, and the UK.