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☆ Restaurant Collapse Kills at Least 4 and Injures More Than 20 in Majorca
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Richard Pérez-Peña | More About Richard Pérez-Peña | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A beachfront restaurant on the Spanish island of Majorca partly collapsed on Thursday, killing at least four people and injuring more than 20, officials said, with others feared trapped in the wreckage. Photos predating the accident showed that the restaurant, Medusa Beach Club, had three levels, with large terraces on the middle and upper floors that were supported by pillars. Video from the state-owned broadcaster RTVE and images from other news outlets appeared to show that at least parts of the terraces had collapsed down to the ground floor, and rescue workers in hard hats and reflective vests were picking through the debris to pull victims out. It was not clear if any of the structure behind the terraces also fell in the collapse, which occurred about 8 p.m. local time.

Organizations: Medusa Locations: Majorca

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, denouncing Russia’s “unprovoked aggression,” told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that if it did not break the grip of Russian veto power, it would be powerless to resolve conflicts around the world, adding his voice to the rising calls to reform how the body works. “Ukrainian soldiers are doing with their blood what the U.N. Security Council should do by its voting,” Mr. Zelensky said on Wednesday, arguing that “veto power in the hands of the aggressor is what has pushed the U.N. into deadlock.”Mr. Zelensky’s appearance before the council helped make it the highest-level direct confrontation over the invasion of Ukraine, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia and his American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, taking the seats normally occupied by their ambassadors and stating their countries’ cases. Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Zelensky did not cross paths — the Russian did not enter the hall until after the Ukrainian had spoken and left — in a bit of choreography that reflected a session in which the two talked past each other.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia’s, ”, ” Mr, Zelensky, Mr, Sergey Lavrov, Russia, Antony J, Blinken, Lavrov Organizations: . Security Locations: Ukraine

The entire world has a vested interest in helping defeat the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, casting his appeal for more allies and aid as a matter of security — even survival — for many other nations. Delivering one of the most anticipated speeches of the annual gathering of world leaders, Mr. Zelensky painted Russia as a habitual aggressor, citing Moscow’s military interventions in Moldova, Georgia and Syria, its increased control over Belarus and its threats against the Baltic States. “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources, into a weapon against you, against the international rules-based order,” he said. Almost 19 months into a war with no end in sight, U.N. leaders had signaled that they wanted this year’s General Assembly, which began on Tuesday, to center on global warming and the sustainable development of poorer countries. They were hoping for less of a focus on Ukraine than last year, when Mr. Zelensky addressed the gathering by video.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, “, ” Organizations: General, Assembly Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Georgia, Syria, Belarus, Baltic States

Elon Musk foiled an attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet last year by refusing to let Ukraine use his satellite network to guide its drones, Mr. Musk has acknowledged, provoking a furious response from a top official in Kyiv and renewing questions about the global power wielded by a multibillionaire businessman. But Mr. Musk would not allow the network to be used for an attack last September with maritime drones on the Russian naval base at Sevastopol in Crimea, the Ukrainian territory that Russia illegally seized in 2014 and then annexed. At the time of the attempted attack, Mr. Musk spoke with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly I. Antonov, who had told him an attack on Crimea “could lead to a nuclear response,” according to a biography of Mr. Musk by the historian and journalist Walter Isaacson. The account was included in an excerpt from the book published on Thursday by The Washington Post. Mr. Musk confirmed elements of the story, writing on his social network X, formerly Twitter, “If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation.”

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Anatoly I, Antonov, Walter Isaacson Organizations: Mr, SpaceX, Russian, The New York Times, The Washington Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Russia, Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukrainian, Russian, United States

☆ U.N. Accuses Taliban of Rights Violations Despite a Blanket Amnesty
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Richard Pérez-Peña | More About Richard Pérez-Peña | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, hundreds of members of the U.S.-backed former government have been detained, tortured or killed under the new government, despite Taliban leaders’ declaration of amnesty for actions during the long civil war, the United Nations reported on Tuesday. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a new report that it had documented “at least 218 extrajudicial killings of former government officials,” primarily police officers and soldiers, committed by members of the new government, though the pace had slowed greatly since the first months after the takeover. “In most instances, individuals were detained by de facto security forces, often briefly, before being killed,” it said. “Some were taken to detention facilities and killed while in custody, others were taken to unknown locations and killed, their bodies either dumped or handed over to family members.”The killings were among some 800 documented human rights violations against members of the former government from the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15, 2021, until June 30, 2023, the U.N. mission said. The majority took place before the end of 2021, the report said.

Persons: ” Organizations: United Nations, United Nations Assistance, “ Locations: Afghanistan, U.S

Battles raged in southern Ukraine on Thursday, as Kyiv’s stepped-up offensive against the Russian occupation made small gains, according to Russian, Ukrainian and Western analysts and officials, but the scope of the assaults and their toll remained unclear. A day after U.S. officials said the main thrust of Ukraine’s counteroffensive appeared to have begun, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said, “We confirm that hostilities have intensified and in a significant way.”But there was minimal, and sometimes contradictory, information about how many troops and armored vehicles Ukraine had committed so far to its attempt to punch holes through Russia’s daunting defensive network. Crucially, it was also unclear what kind of losses either side was suffering, in soldiers and weaponry. What is clear is that Ukraine has significantly ratcheted up its seven-week-old counteroffensive, along two southward thrusts apparently aimed at cities in the Zaporizhzhia region: Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov, and Berdiansk, to the east, on the Azov coast. In both cases, the Ukrainians have advanced only a few miles so far and have dozens of miles to go.

Persons: Kyiv’s, Vladimir V, Putin, “ Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Azov

On a day of turbulence in the streets and in the halls of power alike, Israeli lawmakers on Monday enacted a major change in law to weaken the judiciary, capping a monthslong campaign by the right-wing governing coalition that is pitting Israelis against one another with rare ferocity. Throngs of protesters outside the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, and opposition lawmakers inside shouted that the change was a grievous blow to the rule of law, to the rights of citizens and to democracy itself. Coalition members countered that it was the judiciary that posed a threat to democracy, and said that they planned to take further steps to curb it. The measure strips Israel’s Supreme Court of the power to overturn government actions and appointments it deems “unreasonable,” a practice that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing governing coalition says has effectively given the court veto power over the will of the majority. Still on the coalition’s agenda are plans to give the government more power over the selection of Supreme Court justices, among other changes.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s Organizations: Coalition Locations: Israel

Russia barraged Ukrainian ports for the fourth night in a row on Friday, striking granaries in Odesa and mounting a show of naval force on the Black Sea in a deepening showdown that imperils a vital part of the global food supply. The Kremlin this week withdrew from a year-old agreement that allows ships carrying food from Ukrainian ports to bypass a Russian blockade, and began a concentrated bombardment of facilities used to ship grain and cooking oil across the Black Sea. The Russian military warned that any vessels attempting to reach Ukraine would be treated as hostile, and their nations “will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime.”On Friday, Russia conducted naval exercises in the northwestern Black Sea — the part near the coastline Ukraine still holds — backing up the suggestion that it could seize or destroy cargo ships of noncombatant nations. Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that a missile boat fired anti-ship cruise missiles and destroyed a “mock target” vessel, while ships and planes of the Black Sea Fleet “practiced isolating an area temporarily closed to navigation” and conducted a drill “to apprehend a mock intruder ship.”Missile strikes around dawn destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley at the port in Odesa, according to Oleg Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. That came two days after an attack on a port just outside Odesa destroyed 60,000 tons of grain to be loaded onto ships, the government said — enough to feed more than 270,000 people for a year, according to the World Food Program.

Persons: ”, Oleg Kiper Organizations: Russia’s Defense Ministry, Black, ”, World Food Locations: Russia, Odesa, Russian, Ukraine, Kyiv, Black

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