World News

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.16-051824/https://www.ft.com/content/49fe2291-1d1e-4a3d-ae04-7348e3258874

Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 50 suspects for crimes including prostitution and begging after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the creation of a unit to police “immoral acts”, following years of loosening the kingdom’s hardline social restrictions.

The Ministry of Interior — set up to address “community security and human trafficking” — has arrested 11 women for prostitution, the first time Saudi authorities have publicly acknowledged the existence of the practice in more than a decade.

It has also rounded up dozens of foreigners for “immoral acts” in massage parlours and for forcing women and children to work as street beggars.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.15-194044/https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-launches-military-strikes-in-yemen-3e9d1d4b

President Trump said he had ordered U.S. strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels after the group vowed to resume attacks on commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, saying that “hell will rain down” until the strikes stop. 

“Our brave Warfighters are right now carrying out aerial attacks on the terrorists’ bases, leaders, and missile defenses to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom,” Trump posted Saturday on his Truth Social platform. “No terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.”

The U.S. will hold the Houthis “fully accountable,” the president said.

The Houthis are among the combatants in Yemen’s long-running civil war.

Updates to follow as news develops.

Archive: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/ZOTAu

The US and Israel have approached countries in east Africa about taking in Palestinians from Gaza, as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to evict residents from the war-torn enclave and build a “Riviera of the Middle East”, said three people familiar with the matter.

Israeli officials led by strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer have sounded out the governments of Somalia and Sudan, countries wracked by civil war, while US diplomats have been in contact with the breakaway province of Somaliland, the people said.

One said Israel was “in conversations” with countries around the world, including in Africa, about taking in Gazans, although they cautioned that the talks “are not that advanced at the moment”.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.14-232113/https://www.ft.com/content/214ff57c-ed99-4faa-8c66-b6c7365c8a70

The US has imposed visa restrictions on current and former Thai officials who were involved in the forced repatriation of Uyghur Muslims, as part of a new policy to support groups subject to torture in China.

The policy will target foreign officials who are complicit in efforts to forcibly return ethnic or religious minorities at risk of persecution to China.

Greenland's centre-right opposition has won a surprise general election victory - in a vote dominated by independence and US President Donald Trump's pledge to take over the semi-autonomous territory.

The Democratic party, which favours a gradual approach to independence from Denmark - achieved around 30% of the vote, near-complete results show.

"Greenland needs us to stand together in a time of great interest from outside," party leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen told local media. "There is a need for unity, so we will enter into negotiations with everyone."

His party will now have to negotiate with other parties in order to form a coalition.

Between January 10 and January 12, after being warned that an EV rebate program was running out of funds, Tesla dealerships in Canada managed to claim 8,669 individual iZEV EV rebates, or about $43 million CAD in incentives.

Meanwhile, 200 other auto dealerships across Canada are left holding the bag for millions worth of rebates that Transport Canada may not be able reimburse after the funds ran out, according to excellent reporting in the Toronto Star.

At least the Canadian government is paying attention. Transport Minister Anita Anand is personally looking into it. She stated:

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“I am disappointed. This report is unacceptable and I am asking the department that is responsible for administering this program to provide me with detailed and complete information.”

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So what happened here? And how did the iZEV program run out of funds so quickly?

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested Tuesday, March 11, in Manila by police acting on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant citing crimes against humanity tied to his deadly war on drugs.

The 79-year-old faces a charge of "the crime against humanity of murder," according to the ICC, for a crackdown in which rights groups estimate tens of thousands of mostly poor men were killed by officers and vigilantes, often without proof they were linked to drugs.

romania-insider.com/calin-geor…

British Columbia Premier David Eby says his province is "all in" on a united Team Canada approach to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's on and off tariffs on Canadians imports, including blocking or taxing electricity from his province headed south.

"I think that it's absolutely vital that the federal government work with premiers and bring us all along, if possible, but at the end of the day, we've got to send a strong message to the Americans," Eby told CTV's Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday.

"I'll never put another premier's resources on the table, but I can speak for British Columbia," he also said, when asked for his stance on the issue, factoring that Saskatchewan and Alberta are staunchly opposed to the idea of using energy and natural resources as a bargaining tool.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.03.10-000625/https://apnews.com/article/myanmar-thailand-scam-centers-trapped-humanitarian-c1cab4785e14f07859ed59c821a72bd2

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) — Thousands of sick, exhausted and terrified young men and women, from countries all over the world squat in rows, packed shoulder to shoulder, surgical masks covering their mouths and eyes. 

Their nightmare was supposed to be over.

Last month, a dramatic and highly publicized operation by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities led to the release of more than 7,000 people from locked compounds in Myanmar where they were forced to trick Americans and others out of their life savings. But survivors have found themselves trapped once again, this time in overcrowded facilities with no medical care, limited food and no idea when they’ll be sent home.

“For the working class, these policies have made ownership of housing” next to impossible “as every cruel cycle of interest rate hikes brutally strips them of houses, cars and other assets they are forced to sell.” In the absence of an emergency public housing program, masses of the working class are crammed into slums, sheltering in shacks built of easily inflammable materials. Lacking electricity supply, candle lamps are often used for lighting in these settlements.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) has operated surveillance flights near Gaza on all five days of the ceasefire that Hamas released hostages, Declassified has found. No spy planes were sent towards the strip on the other 20 days of the ceasefire. The latest flight, by a Shadow R1 spy plane, occurred on 8 February when three Israeli men – Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami – became free from captivity. Evidence found by Declassified suggests the spy plane was in the air at the same time.

The University of Cambridge has lost its legal bid to stop pro-Palestine, anti-genocide protests on certain parts of its campus.