Sharplift News

2021-06-16 13:00:02 Saudi Arabia executed a man from the minority Shiite community on Tuesday who was convicted on charges related to an anti-government protest when he was a teenager, in what campaigners called a "deeply flawed" trial.

Mustafa al-Darwish was executed in the eastern city of Dammam for launching an "armed revolt" against Saudi Arabia's ruler and "destabilising security" in the kingdom, the official Saudi Press Agency reported. Darwish was arrested in May 2015 over his alleged participation in protests during the Arab Spring uprisings between 2011 and 2012, said campaign groups including Amnesty International, which added that he was 17 or 18 at the time.

Story. France 24
16-June-2021

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2021-06-16 10:45:05 Twenty-eight Chinese military planes flew into Taiwan's Air Defense Identified Zones (ADIZ) Tuesday - the largest incursion since the self-ruled island began regularly reporting such actions last year, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Defense .

Tuesday's flights - which included fighter jets, bombers, and anti-submarine and early warning aircraft - surpassed the previous peak of 25 planes reported on April 12. Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, even though the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.

Story. CNN
16-June-2021

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2021-06-16 08:30:07 Peruvian socialist candidate Pedro Castillo claimed victory in the presidential election on Tuesday after clinging on to a narrow lead as the lengthy vote count ended, although his right-wing rival pledged to fight the result and has yet to concede.

Castillo ended the count 44,058 votes ahead of Keiko Fujimori, who has made allegations of fraud with little proof and has tried to get some votes annulled. The result of the June 6 ballot has not been formally announced by electoral authorities, but Castillo hailed the win on Twitter.

Story. France 24
16-June-2021

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2021-06-16 06:45:02 The Israeli air force launched air raids on the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday after Palestinians in the besieged enclave sent incendiary balloons into southern Israel, Israel’s military and witnesses in Gaza said.

In a statement, the Israeli army said it attacked Hamas compounds and that it was “ready for all scenarios, including renewed fighting in the face of continued terrorist acts emanating from Gaza”. It added that the raids were a response to the launching of the balloons, which the Israeli fire brigade reported caused 20 fires in open fields in communities near the Gaza border.

Story. Aljazeera
16-June-2021

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2021-06-15 22:30:07 International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said on Monday the global tribunal's relationship with the US is now undergoing a "reset" under the new US administration of President Joe Biden. Previously, it had been plunged into a deep freeze by Former President Donald Trump when he hit Bensouda with sanctions for investigating alleged war crimes.
 
"In the first instance, I do believe that it was wrong, really a red line has been crossed to sanction, not Fatou Bensouda personally, but to sanction the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court when she is trying to do her work that she's mandated to do. So for me, that shouldn't happen. That should not have happened," said ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

Story. African News
15-June-2021

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2021-06-15 20:00:04 Just three weeks after commissioning the USS Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy admitted it was canceling ammunition specially developed for the ship's high-tech gun systems because the rounds are too expensive. The guns, tailor made for the destroyer, will be unable to fire until the Navy chooses a cheaper replacement round.

The guns were designed to fire the advanced Long Range Land Attack Projectile, a GPS guided shell with a range of 60 miles. The result would have been a destroyer that could rain shells down on enemy targets incredible accuracy.

According to Defense News, the LRLAP round costs $800,000—or more—each, making the rounds prohibitively expensive leaving the nearly $4 billion dollar destroyer's guns high and dry. For context, the smaller Mk. 45 5-inch gun, standard on Navy destroyers and cruisers, fires an unguided round with a range of 21 miles. Each round costs between $1,600 and $2,200.


Story. Popular Mechanica
15-June-2021

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2021-06-15 17:00:03 China on Tuesday accused NATO of "creating confrontations" after the alliance's members pledged to cooperate to counter "systemic challenges" posed by Beijing's policies. NATO leaders had branded China a security risk to the alliance and criticized its "opaque" weapons development programs.

In a statement, the Chinese Mission to the European Union called for NATO to "view China's development rationally, stop exaggerating various forms of 'China threat theory' and not to use China's legitimate interests and legal rights as excuses for manipulating group politics [while] artificially creating confrontations."

Story. DW
15-June-2021

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2021-06-15 15:00:06 A French court on Tuesday ordered IKEA to pay a 1 million euro fine for spying on its French staff, after the world’s biggest furniture retailer was found guilty of improperly gathering and storing data on its employees.

The French branch of the Swedish company was accused of snooping on its workers over several years, and breaching their privacy by reviewing records of their bank accounts and sometimes using fake employees to write up reports on staff. Prosecutors had been pushing for a 2 million euro fine against the firm, which is owned by the Ingka Group.

Story. France 24
15-June-2021

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2021-06-15 13:01:41 Russian mercenaries, supported by at least one combat helicopter, attacked the neighborhood as they hunted for rebels known as the Seleka. But according to multiple witnesses, they opened fire indiscriminately against civilians, many of them hiding at the al Taqwa mosque.

Despite a pervasive climate of fear, dozens of people in the Central African Republic have spoken of summary killings, instances of rape and torture, and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the burning of homes.

Story. CNN
15-June-2021

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2021-06-15 11:00:07 Nato leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels have warned of the military threat posed by China, saying its behaviour is a "systemic challenge".  China, they said, was rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, was "opaque" about its military modernisation and was co-operating militarily with Russia. Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned China was "coming closer" to Nato in military and technological terms.

But he stressed the alliance did not want a new Cold War with China. Nato is a powerful political and military alliance between 30 European and North American countries. It was established after World War Two in response to the threat of communist expansion.

Story. BBC
15-June-2021

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