- The Guardian
- Issue #2065
UNITED NATIONS: Global prices for food commodities such as rice and vegetable oil have risen for the first time in months after Russia pulled out of a wartime agreement allowing Ukraine to ship grain to the world and India restricted some of its rice exports, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said. The FAO Food Price Index increased 1.3 per cent in July from the June level, driven by higher costs for rice and vegetable oil.
UNITED STATES: Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to trying to overturn the results of his 2020 election defeat, responding the first time to federal charges that he orchestrated an unsuccessful attempt to block the peaceful transfer of power. The former president appeared in Washington’s federal courthouse two days after being indicted by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith.
INDIA: The country’s top court temporarily halted the criminal defamation conviction of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi for mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname. His party said it would now seek to have Gandhi reinstated as a member of parliament after he was barred in March.
SOUTH AFRICA: Vehicles were set on fire in Cape Town last week after a dispute between taxi drivers and local authorities earlier in the week sparked days of disorder. Local media reported that the driver of a city bus had been shot and wounded in the unrest, although this was not confirmed by police. The drivers have been protesting all week against allegedly heavy-handed tactics by the police and city authorities.
RUSSIA: Apple and the Wikimedia Foundation have been fined for hosting “false information” about the war in Ukraine. A magistrates’ court fined Apple 400,000 roubles and Wikipedia’s host company 3 million roubles for retaining content that breaks a law passed last year against discrediting the military.
SUDAN: Both sides in Sudan’s civil war have committed war crimes including killing civilians and sexually assaulting women, Amnesty says in a new report. The human rights group published a 56-page study of the conflict that began in April between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese military. It found that women were being held in conditions “amounting to sexual slavery” by the RSF in Khartoum and Darfur.
SINGAPORE: The city state executed a third prisoner in a fortnight over drug-trafficking offences last week. Shalleh Abdul Latiff was convicted of trafficking 54 grams of heroin and hanged, though the court accepted he was only a courier. Rights campaigners say Singapore should stop hanging drug couriers who are often coerced by powerful gangs.
BRITAIN: A fifth of Afghan refugees in some parts of England who have been evicted from hotel accommodation have presented to councils as homeless, the Local Government Association (LGA) said. The organisation called on the government to pay to keep hotel places open for those struggling to find somewhere to live. Britain promised a safe haven for thousands of people who had to flee their home country as the Taliban swept back into power in August 2021 – with many living in hotels since arriving. Last month, Cabinet Office minister Johnny Mercer told Parliament that the government expects Afghan families to “help themselves.”
