Experts say they established convincing evidence that ISIL committed genocide ‘against the Yazidi as a religious group’. A United Nations team investigating atrocities in Iraq found “clear and compelling evidence” that ISIL (ISIS) “committed” genocide against the Yazidi minority in 2014, its head has said, adding that the armed group …

At least seven children and one teacher killed in attack in Kazan, Tatarstan’s capital city. At least seven children and a teacher were killed in a shooting at a Russian school in the southwestern city of Kazan, local officials said. Rustam Minnikhanov, governor of the Tatarstan republic, of which Kazan …

IOC President Thomas Bach has canceled a trip to Japan because of surging cases of COVID-19 in the country, the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Monday in a statement. Bach was to visit Hiroshima next Monday and meet the torch relay and then probably travel to Tokyo. Organizing committee president …

Health officials in the Brazilian Amazon, still reeling from health system collapse, fear a third wave is on the way. When Rosa Dos Anjos was admitted to a COVID-19 intensive care unit in the Amazonian capital of Manaus for 15 days in January, she thought her fortunes could not possibly …

America’s biggest gasoline pipeline is unlikely to resume significant operations for several days due to a ransomware cyberattack that Washington on Monday blamed on a shadowy criminal network called DarkSide. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline between Houston and New Jersey, which provides nearly half the fuel to the U.S. …

In 2010 scientists from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) sailed into the South Pacific Gyre, a marine desert more barren than all but the most arid places on Earth. Near the center of the gyre is the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility—best known by fans of H. P. Lovecraft as …

The Taliban militant group has declared a three-day ceasefire across Afghanistan in observance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, two days after 50 people, mostly young girls, were killed in bomb blasts outside a school in Kabul. A statement released by the Taliban on Monday said the group had instructed its …

Corona & the Anti-Vaxxers By | Rick McKee

Police target drug traffickers in Rio, migrants on the Rio Grande, protests against the government in Colombia, and the enduring impact of Covid-19: the most striking images from around the world this week.  

The office of Iraq’s leading cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, offered condolences to the victims of the terrorist attack that killed at least 85 schoolgirls in the Afghani capital, Kabul. A statement of Ayatollah al-Sistani condemned the “horrendous crime” that “wrenches the heart of any free conscientious human.” “In spite …

American political language does not have the capacity to address Palestine because it is disabled by white supremacy. Over the past few weeks, as the Israeli colonial forces escalated their brutal violence against the Palestinians of occupied Jerusalem, many hoped for some kind of a sharp reaction from the new …

Smoke rose above Alquds’s Temple Mount as a tree outside the Al Aqsa Mosque went up in flames on Monday. Meanwhile, Israeli police used flash-bangs to disperse a crowd of Palestinian worshippers on a major night of Ramadan. The pillar of fire and a large plume of smoke were clearly …

As the country emerges from its third partial lockdown, authorities in Cyprus have introduced a coronavirus “safety pass” system to afford at least some semblance of freedom of movement to its (vaccinated) citizens. Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou described the initiative as “a step towards returning to a more normal pace …

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said issues raised by young demonstrators would be included in national discussions meant to curb nearly two weeks of anti-government protests, as he made a brief visit to Cali, the scene of violence over the weekend. Duque will meet later on Monday with strike leaders in …

A female peacekeeper from Malawi was killed in an attack by an Islamist militia in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province on Monday morning, the U.N. and the Malawian government said. A local civil rights group said separately that fighters with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group with …

Nika Melia’s release is seen as a significant step in an EU-backed plan to help end a prolonged political crisis. Jailed Georgian opposition leader Nika Melia has been freed from prison after a court-ordered his release on bail – a significant step in a European Union-backed plan to help end …

A wildfire in eastern Kazakhstan that has burned an area of 310 hectares (766 acres) has killed at least one person and injured two others on Monday, the local emergencies department said. More than 200 firefighters were at the scene, aided by two helicopters, the department said in a statement, …

Iraq has formally asked to buy U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil’s share in one of Iraq’s biggest oilfields, West Qurna 1, the head of the state-run oil operating company said on Monday. Iraq said last month that Exxon was seeking to sell its 32.7% stake in West Qurna 1 and that …

The Palestinian health ministry says nine killed in air raids in northern Gaza after Hamas launched rockets at Jerusalem. Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Monday morning, firing rubber-coated bullets, tear gas, and sound bombs at Palestinian worshippers, wounding hundreds. The latest violence came as occupied East Jerusalem …

Genetically modified mosquitoes have been released for the first time in the United States, taking flight in the Florida Keys in a pilot program intended to reduce the spread of deadly diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, and Zika virus. After an odyssey spanning more than a decade to secure …