Month: July 2019

Thousands of people rallied to the support of a German captain of a migrant rescue ship who was arrested after she defied orders to stay out of Italian waters. Carola Rackete remained under house arrest Sunday after her ship, the Sea-Watch 3, rammed the Italian border police motorboat that was blocking the entry to the port at Italy’s Lampedusa island. The Sea-Watch 3 picked up the migrants adrift in the Mediterranean Sea off Libya on June 12 and had remained on open waters after being denied entry by several European countries. On Wednesday, Rackete ignored Italian warnings and headed to …

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A Sudanese doctors group says five people have been killed and several seriously wounded in a day of demonstrations against continued military rule in Sudan. Tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the country Sunday calling for a civilian government nearly three months after the army forced out the long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir. Marchers demand the generals who took over power from al-Bashir make way for civilians. The protesters, some of them waving Sudanese flags, chanted “Civilian rule! Civilian rule!” and “Burhan’s council, just fall,” targeting General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the head of the military council. Security forces fired tear gas …

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Five Japanese whaling ships are set on Monday to begin the first commercial whale hunt in more than 30 years. Japan stopped commercial whaling in 1988 after the International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a moratorium on killing the giant mammals. But despite the global ban, Japan continued to hunt whales for what it claimed was scientific research. Critics have long disputed that claim, calling it commercial whaling in disguise. In the 2017-2018 whaling season, Japanese sailors killed 333 minke whales in Antarctic waters. More than 120 were pregnant females. In December, Japan announced it was leaving the IWC on June …

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