The Guantanamo prison camp has come to symbolise the brutality of the US’s so-called ‘war on terror’.Prisoners who have been held for years by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility are showing signs of “accelerated ageing”, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said. Patrick Hamilton, the ICRC’s head of delegation for the US and Canada, said on Friday that the “physical and mental health needs are growing and becoming increasingly challenging” for those still imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay. “We’re calling on the US administration and Congress to work together to…
Author: National Tone
The United States Supreme Court has ruled to block lower-court decisions that would have placed restrictions on mifepristone, one of the pills used in half of the abortions in the country, while litigation proceeds. The brief paragraph-long order grants a stay on any restrictions, handing a victory to the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden and mifepristone’s manufacturer Danco Laboratories, which had appealed the lower courts’ rulings. In response to Friday’s decision, Biden issued a statement calling on voters to take the issue of abortion access to the polls. “The stakes could not be higher for women across America,” he…
The Brazilian leader’s remarks, implying both Russia and Ukraine are at fault for their ongoing war, have stoked anger.Waving flags and holding photographs that depict war atrocities, Ukrainians have gathered outside the Brazilian embassy in Lisbon to protest Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent remarks about Russia’s war on their country. The Brazilian president, who arrived in Portugal earlier on Friday for a five-day official visit, has angered many in the West for suggesting both Kyiv and Moscow were to blame for the war in Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022. Lula…
Heavy fighting continues in the Sudanese capital even after Sudan’s army declared a truce, residents told Al Jazeera, dealing a blow to international efforts to end almost a week of fighting between the military and a rival paramilitary group. The army said on Friday evening it agreed to a three-day truce to enable people to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Its adversary, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), said earlier in the day it had agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire, also to mark Eid. “The armed forces hope that the rebels will abide by all the requirements of the…
Victor Wembanyama has officially declared for the 2023 NBA draft. The top prospect and likely No. 1 pick made the announcement Friday on ESPN’s NBA Today. .acf-block-preview .instagram-twitter-container width: 340px; margin: 0 auto; “I hope it’s big news,” he said with a smile. “Obviously it’s big news for me, I hope it’s big news for you.” The 19-year-old forward/centre from Le Chesnay, France, played with Paris-based Metropolitans 92 this season and averaged 21.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. “A position-less player who stands 7-foot-5, taller than anyone in the NBA right now, but with the ball-handling and shooting skills…
DHS head says migration, artificial intelligence, China, and climate change are top priorities for the 20-year-old department.United States Homeland Security head Alejandro Mayorkas has laid out a vision for the department and how it will address “evolved” threats as it moves into its third decade of existence. Migration, artificial intelligence, China, climate change and domestic extremism were among the top menaces facing the US in the years ahead, Mayorkas said on Friday in an address to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, absorbing into…
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced to the semifinals of the Barcelona Open after beating fellow Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Friday. Alcaraz broke Fokina’s serve for the second time in the final game to clinch the victory on the Rafa Nadal center court. Alcaraz had lost three straight games toward the end of the first set before prevailing in the tiebreaker. The second-ranked Alcaraz has a semifinal against 12th-seeded Daniel Evans or 15th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo. Second-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced to the last four with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alex de Minaur for…
Democrats approve of the job the president is doing and would back him, but they have concerns about his age, poll shows.As Joe Biden prepares to launch a re-election bid, a new poll shows that about half of Democrats want him to run again, but more than 80 percent said they would still back the US president against a Republican rival in the general elections in 2024. The poll released on Friday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that 26 percent of Americans overall – including 47 percent of Democrats – want to see Biden seek…
Take a swing at a price is the advice of At The Races expert Declan Rix on the latest Weekend Winners episode ahead of the Scottish Grand National. Recent winners of Scotland’s biggest race include Takingrisks at 25/1 in 2019 and Joe Farrell in 2018, although last year the well-fancied Win My Wings proved too good at 13/2 for Christian Williams. And that has convinced At The Races pundit Declan Rix to dig down into the market for the Ayr feature and pick out one at a big price. “Don’t be afraid to have a go at a big price…
Sea level rises double, and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a record, World Meteorological Organization warns.Record levels of greenhouse gases have caused “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere”, a UN agency says in a report that shows the past eight years were the hottest ever recorded on Earth. Global sea levels are rising at more than double the pace they did in the first decade of measurements from 1993 to 2002 and touched a new record high last year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday in its State of Global Climate…