cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7171262

Twin boys aged one and a two-year-old girl were killed in the attack late Tuesday night on the family's house in the city of Bogodukhiv, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Russia.

It triggered an outpouring of anger and grief.

"This is deliberate terror against civilians, against families, against children. Russia is consciously killing our future," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

...

"As a result of the strike, the house was completely destroyed and caught fire, and the family was trapped under the rubble," prosecutors said. ...

The children's mother, who is eight months pregnant, survived, but sustained "a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns", prosecutors said.

...

Their grandmother was also wounded in the attack and had been hospitalised, Bogodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Biely said in a statement.

...

Amnesty International reports of brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, [citing testimonies](brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure).

Many residents have relied on camping and kerosene stoves to heat bricks and water bottles. Some have resorted to dangerous coping mechanisms, such as setting up camping tents inside their bedrooms and lighting candles within them to fight the cold.

Svitlana, a pensioner from Kyiv, said that during blackouts: “I warm some water in a cup on a kerosene stove, fill up two bottles, one [goes] under my feet, the other in my hands, so as not to freeze. And we all sleep dressed… Dressed under duvets, all that we have, we put on.”

There are many people, including older persons and people with disabilities, who are isolated and confined to their apartments, without any means of communication, whose circumstances are likely much worse than those documented in this research and who may not live through this winter to tell their story ... Its strategy and tactics, including continued use of indiscriminate weapons and deliberate targeting of civilians, have caused widespread human suffering and seriously impacted Ukraine’s most vulnerable people, including children and older people.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7171262

Twin boys aged one and a two-year-old girl were killed in the attack late Tuesday night on the family's house in the city of Bogodukhiv, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with Russia.

It triggered an outpouring of anger and grief.

"This is deliberate terror against civilians, against families, against children. Russia is consciously killing our future," said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.

...

"As a result of the strike, the house was completely destroyed and caught fire, and the family was trapped under the rubble," prosecutors said. ...

The children's mother, who is eight months pregnant, survived, but sustained "a traumatic brain injury, acoustic barotrauma, and thermal burns", prosecutors said.

...

Their grandmother was also wounded in the attack and had been hospitalised, Bogodukhiv mayor Volodymyr Biely said in a statement.

...

Amnesty International reports of brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, [citing testimonies](brutal conditions for civilians amid Russian attacks on energy infrastructure).

Many residents have relied on camping and kerosene stoves to heat bricks and water bottles. Some have resorted to dangerous coping mechanisms, such as setting up camping tents inside their bedrooms and lighting candles within them to fight the cold.

Svitlana, a pensioner from Kyiv, said that during blackouts: “I warm some water in a cup on a kerosene stove, fill up two bottles, one [goes] under my feet, the other in my hands, so as not to freeze. And we all sleep dressed… Dressed under duvets, all that we have, we put on.”

There are many people, including older persons and people with disabilities, who are isolated and confined to their apartments, without any means of communication, whose circumstances are likely much worse than those documented in this research and who may not live through this winter to tell their story ... Its strategy and tactics, including continued use of indiscriminate weapons and deliberate targeting of civilians, have caused widespread human suffering and seriously impacted Ukraine’s most vulnerable people, including children and older people.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7170825

In a statement released on Wednesday, Europol said the operation targeted criminal networks distributing fake currency through postal services, with 90% of the seizures linked to consignments sent from China to Europe.

According to Europol, Romanian authorities intercepted more than 4.8 million euro banknotes with altered designs and dismantled a warehouse containing over 223,000 counterfeit notes shipped from China. In addition, three separate seizures in Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States uncovered more than 220,000 counterfeit coins in euros, pounds sterling and US dollars.

Europol added that between June and November 2025, law enforcement and customs authorities seized 379 parcels containing counterfeit currency.

The seizures led to the launch of a further 70 investigations into criminal networks. In total, more than seven million counterfeit items were identified, including 4.8 million euro banknotes and coins, 2.3 million US dollar notes, 23,302 pounds sterling and 4,800 Swiss francs.

Besides Portugal, the operation involved authorities from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7170825

In a statement released on Wednesday, Europol said the operation targeted criminal networks distributing fake currency through postal services, with 90% of the seizures linked to consignments sent from China to Europe.

According to Europol, Romanian authorities intercepted more than 4.8 million euro banknotes with altered designs and dismantled a warehouse containing over 223,000 counterfeit notes shipped from China. In addition, three separate seizures in Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States uncovered more than 220,000 counterfeit coins in euros, pounds sterling and US dollars.

Europol added that between June and November 2025, law enforcement and customs authorities seized 379 parcels containing counterfeit currency.

The seizures led to the launch of a further 70 investigations into criminal networks. In total, more than seven million counterfeit items were identified, including 4.8 million euro banknotes and coins, 2.3 million US dollar notes, 23,302 pounds sterling and 4,800 Swiss francs.

Besides Portugal, the operation involved authorities from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

BBC News Persian has verified the identities of more than 200 of the thousands of people killed during Iran's brutal crackdown on the recent widespread protests.

...

Pictures of and information about victims identified by BBC News Persian can be seen in this page on the BBC News Persian site (text in Persian).

...

Among those killed were Mansoureh Heydari and her husband, Behrouz Mansouri. A family friend told BBC News Persian that the couple had joined the protests in Bushehr, in south-west Iran, when both were shot dead by security forces on 8 January.

The security forces had opened fire on protesters gathered outside a mosque, they said. Behrouz was struck in the head and fatally wounded. Mansoureh, who had initially been running away, returned to her husband but was later shot as well.

The couple died side by side in the street, leaving behind two children aged eight and 10.

...

Many of the faces featured in the project are young men and women, mostly in their late teens to early 30s.

One 17-year-old art student, Ghazal Damarcheli, was shot outside her family home in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on 9 January.

A source close to the family told BBC News Persian that even after her death, the family faced pressure, as security forces refused to allow them to bury her nearby. Her remains were instead interred in a remote cemetery, far from the family home.

...

In a related report, an Iranian photojournalist shares unseen images of Tehran protests.

For days, Iranian photographer Yalda Moaiery tried in vain to reconnect to the internet. It was only on January 23 that she succeeded, thanks to a VPN. She was then able to send around 40 photographs taken during the major demonstration on January 8 in Tehran, as well as the funeral of a 39-year-old man killed by regime forces in the city of Karaj on January 9. These images are among the very few visual accounts, provided by a professional, of this crackdown carried out behind closed doors. - (archived version)

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092847

Another group of children aged 3 months to 17 years was returned from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including two children who witnessed their mother being tortured and two others who were trapped in their home after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092847

Another group of children aged 3 months to 17 years was returned from the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region, including two children who witnessed their mother being tortured and two others who were trapped in their home after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station.

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092396

Archived version

China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing.

...

Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived after the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians – Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.

Then in January 2019 a court in north-east China retried Schellenberg – who was 36 at the time – sentencing him to death while declaring that his 15-year prison term for drug trafficking had been too lenient.

...

The court said he had been a central player in a scheme to ship narcotics to Australia, in a one-day retrial that Amnesty International called “a flagrant violation of international law”.

Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092396

Archived version

China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing.

...

Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived after the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians – Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.

Then in January 2019 a court in north-east China retried Schellenberg – who was 36 at the time – sentencing him to death while declaring that his 15-year prison term for drug trafficking had been too lenient.

...

The court said he had been a central player in a scheme to ship narcotics to Australia, in a one-day retrial that Amnesty International called “a flagrant violation of international law”.

Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing.

...

Archived version

China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing.

...

Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived after the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou.

That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians – Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig – on espionage charges that Ottawa condemned as retaliatory.

Then in January 2019 a court in north-east China retried Schellenberg – who was 36 at the time – sentencing him to death while declaring that his 15-year prison term for drug trafficking had been too lenient.

...

The court said he had been a central player in a scheme to ship narcotics to Australia, in a one-day retrial that Amnesty International called “a flagrant violation of international law”.

Schellenberg has denied wrongdoing.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7092090

Archived version

Labour [UK's ruling party] should halt public contracts with the US tech company Palantir, opposition politicians have said, amid growing concern at the lack of government transparency over dealings with the company and Peter Mandelson.

Since 2023, Palantir has secured more than £500m in contracts with the NHS and the Ministry of Defence (MoD), while it employed Global Counsel, the lobbying firm founded by Mandelson. Emails released by the US Department of Justice show Mandelson sought help from Jeffrey Epstein to find “rich individuals” as clients.

The government has for months blocked attempts by MPs and campaigners to scrutinise Palantir’s deals. Requests for information about meetings between the company’s leadership with Keir Starmer and the former prime minister Boris Johnson were among those that have been refused.

With Palantir now expanding its AI-powered technology into British policing, the government is facing calls to freeze its involvement with the Denver-based company, which was co-founded by the Donald Trump-backing billionaire Peter Thiel, who also had a relationship with Epstein. It also provides its military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and to Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/7091186

Archived version

Moldovan President Maia Sandu rejected a proposal to nominate her for the Nobel Peace Prize on Feb. 5, saying the honor belongs to Ukrainian prisoners of war and others who risk or give their lives for peace.

...

Sandu said that the true heroes are those who sacrifice their lives or put themselves in danger for peace in their own countries, adding that she hopes peace will come to the region as soon as possible.

Since taking office, Sandu has positioned Moldova firmly on a pro-European course, advocating closer ties with the European Union while pushing back against Russian influence. She has repeatedly condemned Russian attacks on Ukraine and voiced support for Kyiv.

...