At least four killed, including three rescuers, in Russian overnight attack in Kharkiv

 

At least four people have been killed, including three rescuers, and five others have been injured in an attack carried out overnight by the Russian armed forces in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

The mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, has reported the death toll, after indicating that several residential buildings had been attacked with kamikaze drones. In addition, the emergency service equipment has been damaged.

"Power outages are possible in some areas of Kharkiv. Emergency services and volunteers are working in the places (attacked)," he added through his Telegram channel.

The governor of Kharkiv, Oleg Sinegubov, has specified that in addition to the three rescuers who have died "in the repeated attacks of the occupiers" in the city, they have found the lifeless body of a civilian woman. Of the injured, three have been hospitalized and one of them is in serious condition.

This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again reminded his partners of the need to continue delivering air defense systems to them, after a particularly intense day in the city of Dnipro, where about twenty people were injured by Russian bombings.

Sunak hints that London could leave the European Human Rights Convention if it blocks the deportations plan

4 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) -The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, has hinted on Wednesday that he is ready to request the country's withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the event that the Strasbourg Court blocks the draft law of the migration agreement signed with Rwanda that has as its star measure the deportation of asylum seekers.

"I think all the plans comply with our international obligations, including the ECHR, but I think border security and making sure we can control illegal migration is more important than being a member of a foreign court, because it is fundamental to our sovereignty as a country," he said during an interview picked up by British media.

Several Conservative MPs have previously pushed for the UK to leave the convention, fearing that its provisions would prevent the deportation of asylum seekers, while Sunak has resisted defying the court's orders. Other more moderate MPs have warned against abandoning the document, in force since 1953.

Also, Sunak has insisted that the government has "plans underway" to implement the Rwanda policy as soon as the project manages to overcome the opposition of the House of Lords, denying reports that there are no airlines willing to take asylum seekers to the African country.

The British head of government has defended his approach to dealing with the boats crossing the English Channel, while this year there have been a record number of crossings by small boats, figures for which he has blamed "the good weather".

The shadow minister for Migration, Labour's Stephen Kinnonck, has stated that "boat arrivals have increased this year and the Conservatives are stumbling around trying to blame someone other than themselves", questioning "when they will take responsibility and admit that they are failing on an astonishing scale", as the newspaper 'The Independent' has collected.

"Sunak must think we're stupid to tell us his plan on the skates is working when we've just seen a record number of Channel crossings over the Easter bank holiday weekend. (...) This is just another desperate attempt by the prime minister to appease factions of his own party and prevent an attack by right-wing Conservative MPs," he has stated.

The initiative, which is being processed in Parliament, dates from the time of Boris Johnson in Downing Street, but has not been launched after an 'in extremis' paralysis ordered in June by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and an already firm rejection by the British Supreme in mid-November. The conservative government of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has tried to solve the legal misgivings by signing a new treaty with Rwanda.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned that the British government's plan to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda is a violation of "vital human rights protections" and is "contrary to the basic principles of the rule of law."

The US shows its concern about the endorsement of the Ugandan Constitutional to the anti-LGBTI law

4 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) -The Secretary of the US Department of State, Antony Blinken, has expressed his concern on Wednesday about the endorsement of the Ugandan Constitutional Court to the anti-LGBTI law, which was adopted in 2023 and provides for the death penalty for cases of "aggravated homosexuality", an ambiguous term that covers relationships with minors or disabled people, those carried out under duress or with an unconscious person.

"The United States remains deeply concerned about reports of human rights violations in Uganda, including those committed against the LGBTI community. The announcement that the Constitutional Court has eliminated some provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Law is a small and insufficient step to safeguard human rights," he said in a statement.

In that sense, he explained that the rest of the law continues to present "serious threats" for Ugandans belonging to the LGTBI community and their supporters and that it poses a risk to public health, a restriction on civic spaces and damage to the country's international reputation, which "harms" efforts to increase foreign investment. "Uganda must respect the human dignity of all people and protect them equally under the law," Blinken added.

The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, enacted the controversial law in May 2023, and although he assured that the authorities of the African country would not persecute anyone for their sexual orientation, human rights organizations and numerous governments of the international community condemned what they considered a drastic setback for the LGBTI community.

The promulgation of the rule has already led to a review of the funds by the World Bank, while the US government adopted sanctions against senior Ugandan officials.