Nepali teenager hailed as hero after climbing world’s 8,000-metre peaks
Cheering crowds hailed an 18-year-old Nepali mountaineer as a hero as he returned home on Monday after he broke the record to become the youngest person to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre (26,500-foot) peaks. Nima Rinji Sherpa reached the summit of Tibet’s 8,027-metre (26,335-foot) Shishapangma on October 9, completing his mission to stand on the world’s highest peaks. On Monday, he returned from China to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, where scores of people waited to see him. “I am feeling very happy,” said the young mountaineer, draped in traditional Buddhist scarves and garlands of marigold flowers, as he emerged to loud cheers at the airport. “Thank you so much, everyone,” he said to his supporters, beaming a wide grin. Sherpa hugged his family while others rushed to offer him scarves and flowers. He later waved to the crowd out of a car sunroof, while proudly holding the national flag. Nepal’s climbing community also welcomed several others who returned after completing the summit of 14 peaks. Summiting all 14 “eight-thousanders” is considered the peak of mountaineering aspirations, with all the peaks located in the Himalayan and neighbouring Karakoram ranges, straddling Nepal, China, Pakistan, Tibet and India. Climbers cross “death zones” where there is not enough oxygen in the air to sustain human life for long periods. Italian climber Reinhold Messner first completed the feat in 1986, and only around 50 others have successfully followed in his footsteps. Many elite climbers have died in the pursuit. In the last few years, mountaineers have been expected to reach the “true summit” of every mountain, which many climbers of the previous generation had missed. Sherpa is no stranger to the mountains, hailing from a family of record-holding climbers, who also now run Nepal’s largest mountaineering expedition company. Raised in bustling Kathmandu, Sherpa initially preferred to play football or shoot videos. But two years ago, he put his camera down to pursue mountaineering. Sherpa, who already holds multiple records from his ascents of dozens of peaks, started high-altitude climbing at the age of 16, by climbing Mount Manaslu in August 2022. Nepali climbers – usually ethnic Sherpas from the valleys around Everest – are considered the backbone of the climbing industry in the Himalayas. They carry the majority of equipment and food, fixing ropes and repairing ladders. Long in the shadows as supporters of foreign climbers, they are slowly being recognised in their own right. “I want to show the younger generation of Sherpas that they can rise above the stereotype of being only support climbers and embrace their potential as top-tier athletes, adventurers, and creators,” Sherpa said in a statement soon after his final summit. “We are not just guides. We are trailblazers.” In recent years, climbers like Sherpa have set record after record, and are hopeful their feats will inspire the next generation of Nepali mountaineers. The record was previously held by another Nepali climber, Mingma Gyabu “David” Sherpa. He achieved it in 2019, at the age of 30. Adblock test (Why?)
France’s Marine Le Pen questioned in court at EU embezzlement trial
Marine Le Pen and her RN party have been accused of using European Parliament money to pay staff in France between 2004 and 2016. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has strongly denied committing any wrongdoing at a Paris court as she and her National Rally (RN) party stand trial over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds. The nine-week trial is a critical juncture for Le Pen, expected to be a strong contender in France’s next presidential election in 2027. A guilty verdict could significantly affect her political career and aspirations. Le Pen, 56, took to the stand on Monday in the first of three expected days of testimony in the trial, which comes almost a decade after initial investigations began. Le Pen, the RN itself, and 24 others – including party officials, employees, and former lawmakers – have all been accused of using European Parliament money to pay staff in France. The party leader and her co-defendants have denied the charges, saying the money was used legitimately. In court, Le Pen argued that she believed a European Parliament member’s role was as much to push their party’s politics in France as it was to work on legislation in Brussels. “I’m telling you very clearly: I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move,” she said. She detailed her vision of the role that MEPs play, including various examples such as meeting with voters and attending major events. “The aide works for his MEP and [therefore] can work for his MEP for the benefit of the party,” she explained. “I believe it’s a mistake from the European Parliament not to perceive it this way,” she added. The judge presiding over the case said she was unsatisfied with Le Pen’s answers. ‘Fake jobs’ The European Parliament has estimated the damage from the alleged crimes to be 3.5 million euros ($3.8m). The alleged fake jobs system that triggered the trial was first flagged in 2015 and covers parliamentary assistant contracts between 2004 and 2016. Prosecutors say the assistants worked solely for the party outside parliament. Many could not describe their day-to-day work, and some never met their supposed MEP boss. A bodyguard, a secretary, Le Pen’s chief of staff and a graphic designer were all allegedly hired under false pretences. If Le Pen and her co-defendants are found guilty, they could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to one million euros ($1.1m) each. A guilty verdict could also result in penalties including a loss of civil rights or ineligibility to run for office, which would affect Le Pen’s goal of becoming France’s president in the 2027 election. The trial is scheduled to last until November 27. Adblock test (Why?)
Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich breaks women’s marathon world record in Chicago
Chepngetich wins the Chicago Marathon in 2:09:56, dedicating the record to Kelvin Kiptum, who died in a car crash. Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich has put on a performance for the ages as she obliterated the women’s marathon world record in Chicago, taking nearly two minutes off the previous best to win in two hours, nine minutes and 56 seconds. Chepngetich ditched the competition by the halfway mark and ran through a chorus of cheers through the final straight as she claimed her third title in Chicago on Sunday. The 30-year-old, who became the first three-time women’s winner of the Chicago race, broke the previous world record of 2:11:53 set by Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa last year in Berlin. Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede crossed the line seven minutes and 36 seconds later while Kenyan Irine Cheptai (2:17:51) was third. “This is my dream that has come true,” Chepngetich said. Chepngetich, who also won in Chicago in 2021 and 2022, dedicated her latest victory to Kelvin Kiptum, who set the men’s world record at last year’s race just four months before he died in a car accident at the age of 24. “The world record has come back to Kenya, and I dedicate this world record to Kelvin Kiptum,” Chepngetich said. “I’ve fought a lot, thinking about the world record and I have fulfilled it.” Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya poses with the clock after setting a new world record at the Chicago Marathon [Michael Reaves/Getty Images via AFP] Runners remember Kiptum Runners observed a moment’s silence on the start line in honour of Kiptum. Organisers also handed out stickers displaying Kiptum’s record-breaking time of 2:00:35 for the 50,000 participants to put on their race bibs. In the absence of Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, the 2023 Chicago winner, Chepngetich set a blazing early pace and reached the halfway point in 1:04:16, the fifth-quickest time in history for a half marathon by a woman. “The weather was perfect and I was well-prepared. The world record was in my mind,” Chepngetich, who was runner-up to Hassan 12 months ago, told reporters after the race. Chepngetich ran the first 5km (3.1 miles) in 15 minutes flat and by the halfway mark she had built a 14-second cushion between herself and Kebede. Television commentators were astonished as she ground through the course, comparing her attempt at a sub-2:10 marathon to the moon landing, and she only seemed to gain momentum as she sprinted through the final 2 miles (3.2km). Chepngetich, the 2019 world champion, hunched over in utter exhaustion after breaking the tape but later said “Chicago is like home”. Her compatriot John Korir won on the men’s side in 2:02:44. The 27-year-old Korir finished ahead of Ethiopia’s Mohamed Esa (2:04:39) and another Kenyan, Amos Kipruto (2:04:50). Korir was part of a seven-man group at the head of the course 30km (18.6 miles) before he hit the accelerator and shed his rivals following a relatively conservative start. Four of the top five were Kenyans, with Vincent Ngetich and Daniel Ebenyo finishing off the podium. “It was really nice to run my PB and win in Chicago,” Korir said, adding that he too used the memory of Kiptum as a source of motivation. “Today I was thinking about Kiptum and I said, ‘Last year if he could run under 2:01, why not me?’ So I had to believe in myself and try to do my best.” Korir’s time was the second-fastest-ever run in Chicago. Adblock test (Why?)
Chinese military video shows major drill around Taiwan
NewsFeed The Chinese military has released video showing its forces conducting a mock operation against Taiwan. The war games around the island are taking place days after Taiwan’s president promised to “resist annexation” by China. Published On 14 Oct 202414 Oct 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
‘Burned and charred bodies’ as Israel hits tents at central Gaza hospital
An Israeli air attack on tents for displaced Palestinians inside a hospital complex in Gaza has killed at least four people and wounded at least 70, many of them critically, as Israel’s genocide in the besieged enclave continues for a second year. The attack at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah city in the early hours of Monday hit tents where many displaced Palestinians had been sheltering. Videos showed rescuers scrambling to save people as they struggled to contain a major fire. The death toll is expected to rise further. “What happened was that we woke up to smoke, flames, fire and burning pieces falling on the tents from every direction. The explosions terrified us in our tents and outside where we live behind Al-Aqsa Hospital,” Om Ahmad Radi, a survivor at the scene, told Al Jazeera. “The fire trucks couldn’t get here. There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place. The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights.” A rescuer works at the site of an Israeli attack on tents sheltering displaced people at a hospital in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza [Ramadan Abed/Reuters] Gaza’s Media Office said it was the seventh time this year that Israel has hit the grounds of Al-Aqsa Hospital and the third in the past couple of weeks, killing Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes. Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said “some 20 to 30 tents were completely destroyed and completely burned down. “There were many people inside the tents as the fire spread, who could not be saved,” he said. “We are looking at a large number [of deaths] as these tents are close to each other, back-to-back and set up in a small space inside the hospital courtyard.” Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed the Israeli air force conducted the attack, claiming, without evidence, that the hospital complex was used as a “command and control centre” by Palestinian group Hamas to carry out attacks against Israel. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked medical facilities in Gaza since the assault began more than a year ago, with the enclave’s health sector already overwhelmed and infrastructure destroyed. Last week, a United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) released a report which found Israel perpetrating “a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system”. Palestinians survey the damage at the site of the Israeli attack on tents at the hospital [Ramadan Abed/Reuters] Meanwhile, at least 22 more Palestinians were confirmed dead and 80 others wounded on Sunday when Israeli tanks shelled a school sheltering the displaced in Nuseirat, also in central Gaza. Israel’s genocide has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, many of them multiple times. In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have laid a siege on Jabalia for days, claiming the Hamas fighters have regrouped there. Over the past year, Israeli troops have repeatedly returned to the refugee camp in Jabalia, which dates to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. The attack on Jabalia follows Israeli orders to fully evacuate northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 Palestinians remain in the north. The UN says no food has entered northern Gaza since October 1. The military confirmed that hospitals were also included in its evacuation orders, adding that it had not set a timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate patient transfers. But Fares Abu Hamza, an official with Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, told The Associated Press news agency that bodies of a “large number of martyrs” remain uncollected from the streets and under the rubble in the north. “We are unable to reach them,” he said, asserting that dogs were eating some remains. Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. More than 42,200 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and about 98,400 injured, according to local health authorities. Adblock test (Why?)
Prepping for the worst: Election workers anticipate threats in US vote
Across the country, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Tina Barton had her own brush with election-related violence. For more than three decades, Barton, a Republican, served in government, eventually landing the role of city clerk. That office required her to administer elections and maintain voter files, among other duties. But over the years, she had seen tensions rise. There were early signs of discord in the 2000 election between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W Bush, a race decided by a few thousand votes in Florida. Barton also noticed election denialism years later, in 2016. At the time, Green Party candidate Jill Stein pushed for long-shot recounts in three battleground states, including Michigan, after she finished fourth in the presidential race. As that effort fizzled, Stein decried, “We do not have a voting system we can trust.” In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams was also defiant after her 2018 gubernatorial loss to Brian Kemp, accusing Republicans of “rigging” the system in their favour, though she acknowledged they were acting within the laws in place at the time. But those nascent signs of increased scepticism turned into something different following the 2020 vote, Barton said. “Up to that point, the attack had been more on the process and the doubts on the process and how we do elections in our country,” she told Al Jazeera. “We really hadn’t had the attention on us individually.” For Barton, that newfound spotlight on election workers came with threats. After Trump’s defeat in 2020, much of the scrutiny fell on battleground states that Republicans narrowly lost, including Michigan. Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel referred to Barton by name when she falsely claimed that 2,000 votes had been wrongfully diverted to Democrat Joe Biden. In reality, Barton and her team had discovered a clerical error in the vote tally, correcting it to ensure accurate results as part of normal election procedures. But the damage had been done. Hearing Barton’s name falsely associated with election fraud sparked an onslaught of scrutiny and threats. One caller — citing Trump’s false claims about the election — even left death threats on her voicemail just a few days after the race. “I did not expect to go to my office and pick up my own phone, my own voicemail, and have someone call me by name and say: ‘When you least expect it, we will kill you,’” Barton said. Barton lost her race for city clerk that year and has since focused on training other election officials. But she has a message for powerful political figures. “When you’re an individual with a platform and who has followers … you have to take responsibility for the words that you’re saying,” Barton said. Members of the public, she underscored, “may take those words as directives to take action”. Adblock test (Why?)
US deploying THAAD missile defence system, troops to Israel
US says move underscores ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel’s defence against ‘further missile attacks by Iran’. The United States is sending an advanced anti-missile system to Israel, the Pentagon has announced, as President Joe Biden’s administration continues to provide “ironclad” support for one of its top allies amid mounting tensions with Iran. The US Department of Defense said on Sunday that Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin had authorised the deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) “battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel” to help boost the country’s air defences. “The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system. This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran,” the Pentagon said in a statement. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and an Iranian general. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have vowed to retaliate — spurring fears that the Middle East could be dragged into an all-out regional war. Earlier this month, Biden suggested that Israel should refrain from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities or oilfields, but the Israeli government has repeatedly defied the US president’s public warnings in the past. It is unclear when exactly the US’s THAAD system will be deployed to Israel. An unnamed US official told CBS News that “around 100 troops” will go to the country. Earlier on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that Washington was “putting [the] lives of its troops at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel”. “While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araghchi wrote on social media. While the US has said it favours diplomacy and a de-escalation in the region, critics have noted that Washington offers Israel unwavering military and diplomatic support. The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and the Biden administration has authorised $14bn in further assistance to its ally since the Israeli military began its war on the Gaza Strip in October of last year. Israel also recently expanded its bombing campaign in Lebanon, after exchanging fire with Lebanese group Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border for months. As tensions continue to mount, the Biden administration has rebuffed calls to suspend weapons transfers to Israel to pressure the country to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. [Al Jazeera] Israel already uses three integrated missile defence systems to intercept incoming rockets and missiles fired towards the country. But the THAAD system that the US will deploy to Israel has a greater range than other systems and marks a “step up”, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna reported from Washington, DC, on Sunday. “The important point, too, is that the [THAAD] systems are so complex that it requires a crew of 94 to operate — a trained crew of 94 — and these will be US soldiers,” Hanna said. “This is a system being put in place and it is a significant step up of the US support for Israel as this crisis continues.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, military analyst Elijah Magnier said he believed the THAAD system announcement meant that the expected Israeli attack on Iran is “not imminent”, as the Israelis would want the missile defence system to be in place before any attack, which will likely be followed by another Iranian attack on Israel. The US previously deployed a THAAD battery to Israel in 2019 for training and an air defence exercise, the Pentagon said on Sunday. Biden also directed the military to send one to the Middle East “to defend American troops and interests in the region” after last year’s October 7 attacks by Hamas on southern Israel. Adblock test (Why?)
More than 60 wounded in Hezbollah drone attack on Israeli military site
Hezbollah says it launched a ‘swarm of drones’ at an Israeli military camp in Binyamina, northern Israel. At least 67 people have been wounded in a drone attack in northern Israel, according to Israeli emergency services and local media, as the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it had targeted an Israeli military camp with a “swarm” of drones. Israeli Army Radio reported that at least four people were critically wounded in the attack on Sunday in the town of Binyamina, south of Haifa. According to Israel’s Channel 12, no warning sirens were heard before the attack. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the strike. In a statement, the Iran-aligned group said it launched a “swarm of drones” at a Golani Brigade camp. The Golani Brigade is one of the five infantry brigades of the regular Israeli army and regarded as an elite unit. Members of Israel’s security forces secure the site of a drone strike near the northern Israeli town of Binyamina [Oren Ziv/AFP] In a separate statement, Hezbollah said it also targeted the Israeli Tsnobar logistics base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights with a missile. The Hezbollah drone strike comes on the same day that the United States announced it would send a new air-defence system to Israel to help bolster its protection against missile attacks. At the direction of US President Joe Biden, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “authorised the deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of US military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following Iran’s unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1”, Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder said in a statement. Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said that though the Israeli air defence system is very sophisticated and multi-layered, drones are hard to detect. “Usually, the sirens go off when something is heading towards a location so civilians and residents of that area are told to seek shelter. That’s why there have been a very small number of injuries throughout the past year from those attacks,” she said. “But the drones are harder to detect, and because they fly at lower altitudes, they are much more difficult to intercept. Effectively intercepting them would put a lot of people in danger,” Odeh said. Sunday’s attack comes as Israel intensifies its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah escalated a year ago when the Lebanese group began firing rockets at northern Israel the day after Israel launched its assault on Gaza. Israel has sharply escalated the fighting in recent weeks, carrying out air raids across Lebanon and sending ground troops into the south of the country. More than 2,100 people in Lebanon have been killed since last October, the majority in the last few weeks since Israel intensified its attacks, and more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, according to Lebanese authorities. The Hezbollah attack in Binyamina shows that attacking Lebanon carries a heavy price for Israelis too, according to Gideon Levy, Israeli political analyst. “Nothing less was expected. We are at the beginning of the war in Lebanon, not at the end of it. And everyone so enthusiastic about this war should know that it will carry a very heavy price,” he told Al Jazeera. Hezbollah has said it will continue attacking Israel in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their “valiant and honorable resistance”, and in “defence of Lebanon and its people”. Adblock test (Why?)
Choosing to be child-free in an ‘apocalyptic’ South Asia
Zuha Siddiqui is currently designing her new house in Karachi, creating a blueprint for her future life in Pakistan’s largest metropolis. Her parents will live in the downstairs portion of this house, “because they’re growing old, and they don’t want to climb stairs”, she says. She will live in a separate portion upstairs, with furniture she likes. Siddiqui feels this is important because she recently celebrated her 30th birthday and wants a place she can finally call her own, she tells Al Jazeera over a phone call. Siddiqui has worked as a journalist reporting on topics including technology, climate change and labour in South Asia for the past five years. She now works remotely, freelancing for local and international publications. Despite all her plans for a family home of her own, Zuha is one of a growing number of young people in South Asia for whom the future does not involve having children. A demographic challenge is looming over South Asia. As is the case in much of the rest of the world, birth rates are on the decline. While a declining birth rate has been mostly associated with the West and Far East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, countries in South Asia where birth rates have generally remained high are finally showing signs of following the same path. Generally, to replace and maintain current populations, a birth rate of 2.1 children per woman is required, Ayo Wahlberg, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of Copenhagen, told Al Jazeera. According to a 2024 US Central Intelligence Agency publication comparing fertility rates around the world, in India, the 1950 birth rate of 6.2 has plummeted to just above 2; it is projected to fall to 1.29 by 2050 and just 1.04 by 2100. The fertility rate in Nepal is now just 1.85; in Bangladesh, 2.07. Declining economic conditions In Pakistan, the birth rate remains above the replacement rate at 3.32 for now but it is clear that young people there are not immune to the pressures of modern life. “My decision to not have children is purely monetary,” says Siddiqui. Siddiqui’s childhood was marked by financial insecurity, she says. “Growing up, my parents didn’t really do any financial planning for their children.” This was the case for several of her friends, women in their 30s who are also deciding not to have children, she adds. While her parents sent their children to good schools, the costs of an undergraduate or graduate education were not accounted for and it is not common for parents in Pakistan to set aside funds for a college education, she says. While Siddiqui is single, she says her decision not to have children would stand even if she was attached. She made her decision soon after she became financially independent in her mid-20s. “I don’t think our generation will be as financially stable as our parents’ generation,” she says. High inflation, rising living costs, trade deficits and debt have destabilised Pakistan’s economy in recent years. On September 25, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $7bn loan programme for the country. Like many young people in Pakistan, Siddiqui is deeply worried about the future and whether she will be able to afford a decent standard of living. Even though inflation has fallen, living costs continue to rise in the South Asian country, albeit at a slower rate than before. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.4 percent in August after a 2.1 percent increase in July, local media reported. Work-life (im)balance Pakistan is not alone. Most countries in South Asia are grappling with slow economic growth, rising inflation, job shortages and foreign debt. Meanwhile, as the global cost of living crisis continues, couples find they have to work more hours than before, leaving limited room for a personal life or to dedicate to children. Sociologist Sharmila Rudrappa conducted a study among IT workers in India’s Hyderabad, published in 2022, on “unintended infertility”, which examined how individuals might not experience infertility early in their lives but might make decisions that lead them to infertility later on due to circumstances. Her study participants told her that they “lacked time to exercise; they lacked time to cook for themselves; and mostly, they lacked time for their relationships. Work left them exhausted, with little time for social or sexual intimacy.” Mehreen*, 33, who is from Karachi, identifies strongly with this. She lives with her husband as well as his parents and elderly grandparents. Both she and her husband work full-time and say they are “on the fence” about having children. Emotionally, they say, they do want to have children. Rationally, it’s a different story. “I think work is a big part of our lives,” Mehreen, who works in a corporate job at a multinational company, told Al Jazeera. They are “almost sure” they will not have children, citing the expense of doing so as one of the reasons. “It’s ridiculous how expensive the entire activity has become,” says Mehreen. “I feel like the generation before us saw it [the cost of raising children] as an investment in the kid. I personally don’t look at it that way,” she says, explaining that many from the older generations saw having children as a way of providing themselves with financial security in the future – children would be expected to provide for their parents in old age. That won’t work for her generation, she says – not with the economic decline the country is undergoing. Then there is the gender divide – another major issue where the younger generation differs from their parents. Mehreen says she is keenly aware that there is a societal expectation for her to take the front seat in parenting, rather than her husband, despite the fact that both of them are earning money for the household. “It is a natural understanding that even though he would want to be an equal parent, he’s just not wired in this society to understand as
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 961
As the war enters its 961st day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Sunday, October 13, 2024. Fighting Kyiv said Russian attacks killed two people in the eastern Donetsk region: a 19-year-old travelling in a civilian car and an 84-year-old pensioner. One person was killed when a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian village of Ustinka in the Belgorod region close to the border with Ukraine, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement. Russia’s air defence units destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight over three regions bordering Ukraine, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said. Six drones each were downed over the Belgorod and Kursk regions, while one drone was destroyed over the Bryansk region, it said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow had attempted to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian Kursk region but that Kyiv was “holding the line”. Zelenskyy also acknowledged that the situation for Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donetsk region and southern Zaporizhia region was “very difficult”. The Ukrainian military said its forces hit a fuel depot in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region on Saturday. The facility was used to store oil and oil products for the Russian army, it said on Telegram. Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance with the compulsory military service, media and witnesses reported. Observers said it is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine’s dire need for recruits. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country. Lithuanians vote on Sunday in elections likely to deliver a change of government but keep much else the same, including the NATO and European Union member’s strong support for Ukraine and moves to bolster defence policy. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he planned to partially suspend asylum rights for irregular migrants, accusing human traffickers and countries such as Russia and Belarus of abusing the system amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Adblock test (Why?)