QUICK READ
Ethiopia
THE UN said yeysterday that Ethiopia had detained 72 drivers working for the World Food Programme (WFP) in the country’s conflict-torn north. This was a day after the UN reported the arrests of 22 employees in Addis Ababa. The UN said the new detentions had occurred in the capital of Afar province, on the only functional road leading into faminethreatened Tigray. Lawyers say arbitrary detentions of ethnic Tigrayans have surged, ensnaring thousands, with the new measures allowing the authorities to hold anyone suspected of supporting “terrorist groups” without a warrant. | AFP
Pollution
ABOUT 8 million metric tons of pandemicrelated plastic waste have been created by 193 countries, about 26 000 tons of which are now in the world’s oceans, where they threaten to disrupt marine life and further pollute beaches, a study by researchers in China and the US found. As of July, there were 61 instances of animals being killed or disrupted by pandemic-linked plastic waste. Asia as was responsible for 72% of global plastic discharge. The leading contributor of plastic discharged into oceans was medical waste which made up 70% of such pollution. |
Belarus
MIGRANTS trapped in Belarus made multiple attempts to force their way into Poland, Warsaw said yesterday, adding that it had reinforced the border as the EU prepared to impose sanctions on Belarus over the crisis. The EU accuses President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging the migrants to illegally cross the frontier in revenge for earlier sanctions imposed on Minsk over human rights abuses. Lukashenko has denied this and yesterday won a fresh show of support from ally, Russia, which blamed the EU for the crisis and sent two strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace.| Reuters
THE UK Supreme Court has blocked a planned £3.2 billion British class action against Google over allegations the internet giant unlawfully tracked the personal information of millions of iPhone users. Britain’s top judges granted a Google appeal against the country’s first such data privacy case yesterday, a move that upsets a string of similar claims waiting in the wings against companies such as Facebook and TikTok. The case, led by Richard Lloyd, a consumer rights activist, sought to extend Britain’s class action regime to include compensation claims for alleged misuse of data, even if there is no obvious financial loss. |