Testing to see if the MBFC bot now correctly recognizes bbc.co.uk. It's been a problem before.

BEIRUT (AP) — An early morning Israeli airstrike killed three journalists as they slept at a guesthouse in southeast Lebanon on Friday, one of the deadliest attacks on the media since hostilities broke out across the border a year ago.

It was a rare airstrike on an area that has been used by the media as a base for covering the war.

https://apnews.com/article/journalists-killed-lebanon-israel-c89cf1109daaf3e6e7b766584710234d

An international group of health experts concluded that existing regulations globally are insufficient to protect the public from the potential harms of widely accessible gambling.

The rise of online betting has led the commercial gambling industry to balloon worldwide, posing a significant threat to public health, according to a new report.

The report, published Thursday, comes from a public health commission on gambling convened by the medical journal The Lancet. The commission's 22 members

academic experts from a dozen countries --- reviewed existing studies and surveys on gambling's prevalence, impacts and harms and determined that on a global scale, current regulations do not go far enough to protect the public and need to be strengthened.

"We're not talking about people playing a game with cards around the table anymore," said the commission's epidemiology lead, Louisa Degenhardt, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. "Many people might be really experiencing harms from gambling

we think that it's probably around 72 million people globally. That number is likely to increase, as we are seeing the increase in commercial organizations targeting people to gamble more."

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who is now central to Donald Trump’s election campaign, has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin for the past two years, according to a report in the US.

The Wall Street Journal, citing several in-post and former US, European and Russian officials, reported that the conversations between the two men ranged from the personal to the geopolitical and included a request from the Russian leader not to activate his Starlink ​​satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favour to the Chinese leader and Putin ally, Xi Jinping.

Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by two percentage points to a record-high 21% in an effort to stem growing inflation as massive government spending on the military amid the fighting in Ukraine strains the economy’s capacity to produce goods and services and drives up workers’ wages.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/4105084

Another piece on topic: Liberal Senator James Paterson rejects 'lectures' from Chinese Communist Party on human rights after Beijing's shock claim

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected accusations from Beijing that his country is “plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in renewing concerns about human rights violations in China.

“When it comes to China, we’ve said we’ll cooperate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must, and we’ll engage in our national interest, and we’ve raised issues of human rights with China,” Albanese told reporters on Thursday as he arrived in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa for a Commonwealth leaders’ summit.

A day earlier, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian had denounced a statement made by 15 nations to the United Nations General Assembly this week — presented by a top Australian envoy — underscoring “ongoing concerns” about “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang and Tibet.

James Larsen, Australia’s ambassador to the U.N., urged China to “uphold the international human rights obligations that it has voluntarily assumed” by releasing “all individuals arbitrarily detained in both Xinjiang and Tibet, and urgently clarifying the fate and whereabouts of missing family members.”

[...]

Singling out Australia for rebuke, Jian said the country was “long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes” and should resolve its own affairs rather than criticizing China’s.

[...]

The Chinese government launched in 2017 a campaign of assimilation in the northwestern Xinjiang region — home to 11 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities — that has included mass detentions, alleged political indoctrination, alleged family separations and alleged forced labor among other methods.

More than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other ethnic minorities are estimated to have been held in extralegal internment camps. The Chinese government at the time described the camps as ” vocational training centers.”

The U.N. Human Rights Office in 2022 found accusations of rights violations in Xinjiang “credible” and said China may have committed crimes against humanity in the region.

Larson in his statement also cited “credible” reports of China subjecting Tibetans to coercive labor, separation of children from their families, erosion of cultural and religious freedoms, and detention for peaceful political protests.

He urged “unfettered and meaningful access” to Xinjiang and Tibet for independent observers.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/45752271

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21774418

Dalia Hatuqa
October 20 2024, 6:00 a.m.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/45751974

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that it was Russia's business whether or not it decided to use North Korean troops and said that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO then Moscow could do what it wanted to ensure its own security.

The United States said on Wednesday that it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that the West is casting as a significant escalation of the Ukraine war.

Ukraine's military intelligence service said that the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces took a chunk of Russian land in August.

China has long been North Korea’s main ally, but its influence over the reclusive nuclear-armed state is being eroded by leader Kim Jong Un’s growing ties with Moscow.

North Korean troops will begin fighting alongside Russian forces as soon as this weekend, Ukraine said Friday — adding new urgency to a stunning turn in the war that has alarmed the Kremlin’s foes but may also be causing a headache for its friends. 

Reports confirmed by Washington this week that North Korea is sending soldiers to Russia to possible battle Ukraine have raised serious concern among the U.S. and its allies, who say their involvement marks a major escalation in the grinding conflict and could deepen security risks for North Korea’s neighbors.

It is also likely to be unwelcome news in China, which has long been North Korea’s main ally but whose influence over the reclusive nuclear-armed state is being eroded by leader Kim Jong Un’s growing relationship with President Vladimir Putin.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/21772522

Indonesia has started the process of becoming part of the BRICS in a sign of growing influence for the group that’s positioned itself as an alternative to the US-led global order.

Southeast Asia’s largest economy expressed its interest in joining the bloc at the BRICS Plus Summit in Kazan, Russia on Thursday, according to newly-appointed Indonesia Foreign Minister Sugiono.

BRICS, led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is the “right vehicle” to advance the interests of the Global South, Sugiono said in a statement. The bloc also backs new Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto’s priorities, including food and energy security, poverty eradication and improving human capital, he added.

“Joining BRICS is a manifestation of Indonesia’s free and active foreign policy,” said Sugiono who goes by one name.

The starting the process to join BRICS marks the first foreign policy move by the Prabowo government. It would be a major win for BRICS should Indonesia join its ranks. Within Southeast Asia alone, Thailand — a US treaty ally — and Malaysia have also expressed interest to join.

In his speech at the BRICS Plus Summit in Kazan, Sugiono underlined Indonesia’s solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon, and reiterated calls for a ceasefire. “Indonesia cannot remain silent while these atrocities continue without anyone being held accountable,” he said.

The worsening conflict in the Middle East continues to be a major issue for Indonesia, home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations.

Still, Indonesia has said it would continue to engage with other multilateral groups. Prabowo is set to attend the Group of 20 Summit in Brazil in November. The country is also going through the accession process for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“It does not mean that we join a certain camp, but we actively participate in all forums,” Sugiono said.

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Most who seek surrogacy overseas, which is now punishable by jail terms and fines, are heterosexual couples

Strapped into the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour, three NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut returned to Earth early Friday, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico to close out an extended 235-day expedition to the International Space Station.

After a high-speed re-entry above Central America and a steep descent to the Gulf, Crew 8 commander Matthew Dominick, co-pilot Michael Barratt, astronaut Jeanette Epps and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin settled to a gentle, on-target splashdown south of Pensacola, Florida, at 3:29 a.m. EDT.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te made the comments during an event on the Kinmen islands off China’s coast, which Taiwan controls. China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has labeled Lai a "dangerous separatist."

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te on Friday said that Taiwan would not give up an inch of its territory as he visited the Kinmen islands off the coast of China.

Lai was speaking at an event marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over communist forces in the Battle of Guningtou that saw the Kinmen and the Matsu islands fall under the control of Taiwan.