Author: France 24

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Colombia’s main cities on Sunday against the left-wing government of Gustavo Petro, whose popularity is at an all-time low after more than 18 months in power.  Issued on: 21/04/2024 – 22:12 1 min Demonstrators chanted against reforms he is trying to implement, including to nationalize health services, and violence that continues to mark the troubled peace talks with armed guerrilla groups. “I voted for change, for Petro, but we’re still in the same situation. I’m demonstrating because I think Colombia still has hope and because I love my country,” Martha Estrada, a 64-year-old pensioner…

Tadej Pogacar won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege bike race on Sunday thanks to a solo break 30km from home launched on a steep climb and sustained to the finish line. Source link

Israel continues to carry out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere, vowing to expand its ground offensive to the city. “Israel still believes it needs to go into Rafah and confront Hamas’s last four brigades there,” ABC Correspondent Jordana Miller told FRANCE 24. Israel also seeks to control a corridor with many tunnels located on the border with Egypt which it believes is used by Hamas to acquire weapons, Miller said. Source link

Since the start of the war in Gaza over six months ago, Israeli soldiers have filmed and posted hundreds of videos of destruction in Gaza online. In the videos, Palestinians are mocked, destruction is a celebration and launching artillery is an opportunity to have a laugh. The Israel Defence Forces said they have called their soldiers to order and have sanctioned some of them without saying how many. Source link

Issued on: 21/04/2024 – 14:49Modified: 21/04/2024 – 14:58 06:44 2024-04-21 14:05 US ‘risks complicity’ in approving military aid for Israel, Oxfam says © FRANCE 24 The US House of Representatives Saturday approved $13 billion in new Israeli military aid amid mounting global criticism over the death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “To continue arming Israel after an ICJ decision that finds that there is a possible risk of genocide and a United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate, sustained ceasefire … from our opinion, risks complicity,” said Bushra Khalidi, West Bank policy lead for Oxfam.…

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro is set to rally supporters in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday in defense of freedom of expression, which he says is under threat in the country, as tech tycoon Elon Musk faces a legal showdown there over claims of censorship and disinformation. Issued on: 21/04/2024 – 13:30 2 min The rally is planned for 10:00 am (1300 GMT) Sunday at Rio’s famed Copacabana beach.“The whole world is aware of how threatened our freedom of expression is,” the 69-year-old far-right leader said in a video posted Thursday on his social media accounts.“Let’s do our peaceful act,…

The Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service said it has recovered a total of 14 bodies from an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp in the West Bank that began late Thursday. At least 469 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Most have been killed during Israeli military arrest raids, which often trigger gunbattles, or in violent protests. Source link

Voting got under way in the Maldives Sunday in a parliamentary election likely to test President Mohamed Muizzu’s tilt towards China and away from India, the luxury tourism hotspot’s traditional benefactor. Issued on: 21/04/2024 – 10:17 2 min Among the first to vote was Muizzu, 45, who cast his ballot at the Tajuddin school in the capital Male.Election chief Fuad Thaufeeq urged the 284,663 eligible voters to cast their ballots early. Polling stations across the archipelago will be open for nine and a half hours.Primarily known as one of the most expensive holiday destinations in South Asia, with pristine white…

The US House of Representatives on Saturday passed billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel which continues to prosecute its war against Hamas, despite growing international concern for the fate of civilians in Gaza. The news came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Palestinians to ‘act with unity’ amid Israel’s war in Gaza following hours-long talks with Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, his office said. Read our blog to see how the day’s events in the Middle East unfolded.  Source link

After a year’s worth of rain hammered the UAE in a single day, bringing the country to a standstill, speculation soared that cloud seeding  – a process that involves small planes flying through clouds while dispersing substances to induce precipitation  – was to blame for the severity of the deluge. Though the UAE does conduct cloud seeding to address water shortages, experts point to climate change as a more likely factor. Vedika Bahl explains why the theories are false in this episode of Truth or Fake. Source link