Tag: World News

SAO PAULO (TIP): Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X to pay 8.1 million Brazilian reais ($1.4 million) in fines for failing to comply with judicial orders, according to a judicial ruling.
The ruling, signed on Feb 19 and made public by the court on Thursday, said the social media platform refused to provide registration data for a profile attributed to Allan dos Santos, an ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro accused of spreading falsehoods.
In July 2024, De Moraes ordered both X and Meta to block and ban the account and provide the data. X said it had blocked the account but could not deliver the requested information, arguing that its operators didn’t collect it and that the user had “no technical connection point with Brazil.”
De Moraes rejected the argument and, in early August, imposed a daily fine of 100,000 Brazilian reais ($17,500) if the social media platform failed to provide the data. By October, the total fine for noncompliance had reached 8.1 million Brazilian reais.
X appealed but later notified the court that it would pay the fine. In Wednesday’s ruling, the justice ordered the company to pay the full amount immediately. It is unclear from the decision reviewed by The Associated Press whether X provided the requested registration data.
The company didn’t immediately reply to AP’s request for comment.
Last year, De Moraes ordered X’s nationwide shutdown after the company said it was removing all remaining Brazil staff in the country, saying de Moraes had threatened its legal representative in the country with arrest. The country’s law requires foreign companies to have a local legal representative to receive notifications of court decisions and swiftly take any requisite action — particularly, in X’s case, the takedown of accounts.
The social media was reinstated a month later, after complying with orders to block certain accounts from the platform, name an official legal representative and pay fines imposed for not complying with earlier court orders.
Elon Musk, the social media owner, and De Moraes, a foe of former president Jair Bolsonaro, sparred for months over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation. Musk called the judge an enemy of free speech and a criminal. But de Moraes’ decisions have been repeatedly upheld by his peers — including his nationwide block of X. (AP)

JERUSALEM (TIP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge on Feb 21 for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement after a body that Hamas released as part of the deal was found to not be that of an Israeli mother of two young boys, as the militants had promised.
The incident has thrown the future of the fragile ceasefire into question. Six more living hostages are scheduled to be released Saturday as part of the tenuous ceasefire that has paused over 15 months of war.
Hamas militants turned over four bodies Thursday as part of the deal. They were supposed to have been those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, and of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack that started the war on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli authorities said that while the remains of the two boys and of Lifshitz were positively identified, the fourth body was found to not be that of Shiri Bibas, or of any other Israeli hostage held in Gaza.
“We will work with determination to bring Shiri home together with all our hostages — both living and dead — and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and malicious violation of the agreement,” Netanyahu said. “The sacred memory of Oded Lifshitz and Ariel and Kfir Bibas will be forever enshrined in the heart of the nation. May God avenge their blood. And so we will avenge.”
Netanyahu said the fourth body was that of a woman from Gaza. Hamas has not responded to Israel’s announcement about the identity of the remains.
The revelation of the body’s identity was a shocking twist in the saga surrounding the Bibas family, who have become global symbols of the plight of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
During the ceasefire, which began in January, Hamas has been releasing living hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails. Thursday’s release marked the first time the group has returned the remains of dead hostages.
The Israeli army said Thursday that the fourth body released by Hamas was an “anonymous, unidentified body.” It said the Bibas family had been notified, including Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and father of the two boys, who had been taken captive separately from his wife and children and was released early this month as part of the ceasefire deal.
Hamas has claimed Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas and her sons were killed in Israeli airstrikes. But Israel said the testing had found the two boys and Lifshitz were killed by their captors.
U.S. envoy Adam Boehler described the release of the wrong body as “horrific” and a “clear violation” of the ceasefire.
“If I were them, I’d release everybody or they are going to face total annihilation,” Boehler, who serves as the U.S. envoy for hostages, told CNN.
It was unclear how the incident might affect the next scheduled swap of hostages for prisoners, set for Saturday. Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. It is also unclear whether the truce will be extended beyond the end of the current phase, which expires in early March.
In another potential blow to the deal, a series of explosions struck three parked, empty buses in central Israel overnight.
There were no injuries and no claim of responsibility. But the Israeli military said in response it was beefing up its forces in the West Bank, raising the likelihood of further escalation in the area. Israel has been carrying out a broad military offensive in the occupied territory since the ceasefire took effect. (AP)

Ankara (TIP): Thirty-three people have died in Ankara after drinking bootleg alcohol and another 20 are in intensive care, the regional governor’s office told AFP Friday.
Such poisonings are relatively common in Turkey, where clandestine production is widespread and bootleg alcohol is often tainted with methanol, a toxic substance that can cause blindness, liver damage and death.
Police had seized 102 tonnes of tainted alcohol and arrested 13 people on suspicion of selling it, Ankara governor Vasip Sahin told reporters on Friday.
Although the governor did not give a timeline, his office’s X account had on Tuesday referred to a “an increase in counterfeit alcohol deaths in recent days”.
A spokesman for the governor’s office told AFP he believed the figure was “from the beginning of the year”. Last month, 38 people died in the space of four days in Istanbul after drinking counterfeit alcohol in a surge of cases that by January 17, had left another 26 people in intensive care.
Since then, there has been no official statement on whether the number of victims increased, nor on the condition of those in intensive care.
Asked by AFP for an update on Friday, a spokesman for the Istanbul governor’s office said: “We are not going to make a statement on that.”
Although Turkey is a nominally secular country, alcohol taxes have risen sharply under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Muslim who vociferously opposes drinking.
A litre bottle of raki, Turkey’s aniseed-flavoured national liquor, bought at a supermarket currently costs around 1,300 lira ($37.20) in a country where the minimum wage only recently hit $600.
Critics say such prices are fuelling the production of moonshine. (AFP)

DEIR AL-BALAH: Hamas-led militants are set to free three more hostages, all Israeli civilian men, on Saturday, and Israel will release dozens of Palestinian prisoners as part of a fragile agreement that has paused the war in the Gaza Strip.
President Donald Trump’s stunning proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza, welcomed by Israel but vehemently rejected by the Palestinians and most of the international community, does not appear to have affected the current phase of the truce, which runs until early March.
But it could complicate talks over the second and more difficult phase, when Hamas is to release dozens more hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire. Hamas may be reluctant to free more captives — and lose its main bargaining chip — if it believes the U.S. and Israel are serious about depopulating the territory, which rights groups say would violate international law.
The hostages to be released on Saturday, according to Hamas and Israel, are: Eli Sharabi, 52; Ohad Ben Ami, 56; and Or Levy, 34. All were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war.
Dozens of masked and armed Hamas fighters, some driving white pickup trucks with guns mounted on them, gathered Saturday morning at the location of the exchange, near the territory’s main north-south highway in Central Gaza.
It will be the fifth swap of hostages for prisoners since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19. Eighteen hostages and more than 550 Palestinian prisoners have already been freed in that time.
The first phase of the ceasefire calls for the release of 33 hostages and nearly 2,000 prisoners, the return of Palestinians to northern Gaza and an increase in humanitarian aid to the devastated territory. Last week, wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza for Egypt for the first time since May.
Sharabi and Ben Ami were both taken hostage from Kibbutz Beeri, one of the hardest-hit farming communities in the Hamas attack. Levy was abducted from the Nova music festival, where he was taking shelter in a saferoom when the militants arrived.
Sharabi’s wife and two teeanage daughters were killed during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, while his brother Yossi was also abducted and died in captivity. Levy’s wife was also killed during the attack. His now 3-year-old son has been cared for by relatives for the past 16 months.
The 183 Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel on Saturday include 18 people serving life sentences for committing deadly attacks, 54 serving long-term sentences and 111 Palestinians from Gaza who were detained after the Oct. 7 attack. All are men, ranging in age from 20 to 61. (AP)

LEBANON (TIP): On January 26, Israeli forces opened fire on protesters in southern Lebanon demanding their withdrawal in accordance with a ceasefire agreement, killing at least 22 people and injuring 124, according to Lebanese health officials.
Later that day, the White House announced an extension of the deadline for Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon to February 18, 2025.
This decision followed Israel’s request for more time beyond the original 60-day deadline established in a ceasefire agreement ending the Israel-Hezbollah war in late November.
Israel stated that it needed the extension because the Lebanese army had not fully deployed in southern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah’s resurgence. However, the Lebanese army claimed it could not deploy until Israeli forces had withdrawn.
U.S. and Lebanese Reactions
The White House stated that “the arrangement between Lebanon and Israel, monitored by the United States, will continue to be in effect until February 18, 2025,” and announced plans for negotiations on the return of Lebanese prisoners captured after October 7, 2023. Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed the extension.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun assured the people of southern Lebanon that the country’s sovereignty was “non-negotiable” and urged restraint, while Speaker Nabih Berri called for international pressure on Israel to complete its withdrawal.
Clashes on the Ground
Protests erupted in multiple villages as demonstrators, some carrying Hezbollah flags, confronted Israeli forces. The clashes resulted in the deaths of six women and a Lebanese soldier. Protesters were wounded in nearly 20 villages, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The Israeli army accused Hezbollah of instigating the protests, claiming it fired warning shots to “remove threats” from individuals approaching its positions. The U.N. peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, expressed concern over the escalating violence, warning it could destabilize the fragile ceasefire.
Ongoing Displacement and Damage
In the border village of Aita al-Shaab, displaced families searched the rubble of their homes. Hussein Bajouk, a returning resident, vowed resilience, saying, “These are our houses. However much they destroy, we will rebuild.”
On the Israeli side, residents of the kibbutz of Manara reflected on the conflict’s toll. Orna Weinberg, a local, lamented, “Unfortunately, we have no way of defending our own children without harming their children. It’s a tragedy for all sides.”
Humanitarian Concerns
Approximately 112,000 Lebanese remain displaced out of the over 1 million who fled during the war. The U.N. has called for Israel’s complete withdrawal, the removal of unauthorized weapons in southern Lebanon, and the safe return of displaced civilians on both sides of the Blue Line. (AP)

BEIJING (TIP): China said on January 27 it was “extremely unlikely” Covid-19 came from a laboratory, after the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) said it believed the virus had more likely come from a lab rather than natural transmission.
“The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by the China-WHO joint expert team based on field visits to relevant laboratories in Wuhan,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said. “This has been widely recognised by the international community and the scientific community,” she added. The CIA said Saturday the virus was “more likely” leaked from a Chinese lab than transmitted by animals.
The new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed last week as the CIA director under the second White House administration of Donald Trump.
“CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting,” a CIA spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.
The agency had not previously made any determination on whether Covid had been unleashed by a laboratory mishap or spilled over from animals. Beijing on Monday urged the United States to “stop politicising and instrumentalising the issue of origin-tracing”.
Mao said Washington should “stop smearing and shifting the blame to other countries (and) should respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community as soon as possible”. (AFP)

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES (TIP): Thousands of displaced Palestinians were returning to the north of war-ravaged Gaza after Israel and Hamas reached a deal for the release of another six hostages. The Israeli government said on January 27 that eight of the hostages held in Gaza who were due for release in the truce’s first phase are dead.
The fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas is intended to bring an end to more than 15 months of war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel had prevented Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of violating the terms of the truce, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said late Sunday they would be allowed to pass after a new agreement was reached.
Hamas had said blocking the returns amounted to a truce violation.
Large crowds of people moved through the now-open Netzarim Corridor into the north, watched over by Israeli tanks. Some pulled carts weighed down with mattresses and other essentials. Others carried what belongings they could.
Late Monday, the Hamas government in Gaza said “more than 300,000 displaced” had returned during the day “to the governorates of the north”, an area of Gaza severely battered by the war.
After reaching the area, men embraced each other.
“Welcome to Gaza,” read a newly erected banner hanging above a dirt road in front of a collapsed building in Gaza City.
“This is the happiest day of my life,” said Lamees al-Iwady, a 22-year-old who returned to Gaza City after being displaced several times.
“I feel as though my soul and life have returned to me,” she said. “We will rebuild our homes, even if it’s with mud and sand.”
With the joy of return came shock at the extent of destruction wrought by more than a year of war. According to the Hamas-run government’s media office, 135,000 tents and caravans are needed in Gaza City and the north to shelter returning families.
Still, Hamas called the return “a victory” for Palestinians that “signals the failure and defeat of the plans for occupation and displacement”.
The comments came after US President Donald Trump floated an idea to “clean out” Gaza and resettle Palestinians in Jordan and Egypt, drawing condemnation from regional leaders.
President Mahmud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, issued a “strong rejection and condemnation of any projects” aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, his office said. (AFP)

VIENNA (TIP): Online privacy campaigners said Thursday they had filed complaints in several European countries against six Chinese companies including TikTok, accusing them of “unlawfully” sending Europeans’ personal data to China.
Prominent Austria-based privacy campaign group NOYB (None of Your Business) said it has lodged six complaints against TikTok, AliExpress, Shein, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi—in its first such action against Chinese companies. The complaints were filed in Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.
Noyb has launched several legal cases against US technology giants such as Meta and Google, often prompting action from regulatory authorities over violations of the EU’s landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR aims to make it easier for people to control how companies use their personal information.
“Given that China is an authoritarian surveillance state, it is crystal clear that China doesn’t offer the same level of data protection as the EU,” said NOYB data protection lawyer Kleanthi Sardeli.
“Transferring Europeans’ personal data is clearly unlawful –- and must be terminated immediately,” Sardeli said according to a statement.
According to the privacy group, AliExpress, Shein, TikTok and Xiaomi “transfer data to China”, while Temu and WeChat mention transfers to “third countries.”
“As none of the companies responded adequately to the complainants’ access requests, we have to assume that this includes China,” the statement added. Noyb believes that “the rise of Chinese apps opens (up) a new front” for EU data protection law.
A spokesperson for Xiaomi said in a statement that the company was “aware” of the complaint and is “investigating the allegations made therein.”
“By complying with applicable local laws and regulations in the markets where Xiaomi operates, user data is stored and processed in accordance with local laws,” the statement added.
“In the event that a national data protection authority approaches Xiaomi in the future due to this complaint, we will fully cooperate with the authority to resolve the issue.”
TikTok declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
Noyb said it is seeking administrative fines of up to four percent of the companies’ global sales, which could amount to 1.35 billion euros ($1.39 billion) for Temu. (AFP)