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The animal had 7kg of rubbish in its stomach including coffee grounds, noodle packaging and towels A deer has been found dead in Thailand after swallowing 7kg (15lb) of plastic bags and other rubbish, raising the alarm on littering in the country’s waters and forests. The south-east Asian country is one of the world’s largest consumers of plastic, with Thais using up to 3,000 single-use plastic bags each per year, whether for wrapping street food, takeaway coffee or packing groceries. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2XQ5916

Plays combine plots from blockbuster franchise and feature Ichikawa Ebizo XI, foremost star of the traditional acting form The Star Wars franchise is about to breach the artistic final frontier with a one-off performance of a kabuki adaptation starring one of Japan’s most revered stage actors. The classical Japanese theatre, which combines highly stylised movement and unusual vocalisation, will swap samurai swords for lightsabers and replace feudal warriors with the forces of light and darkness. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OTFz7A

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that a cache of leaked documents proves that Chinese authorities are engaged in massive and systemic repression of Muslims and other minorities in western China, as a number of foreign governments expressed serious concern about the scale of the campaign. Pompeo said the documents underscored “an overwhelming and growing body of evidence” that China’s leaders are responsible for gross human rights violations in the Xinjiang region. “They detail the Chinese party’s brutal detention and systematic repression of Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang,” Pompeo told reporters at a State Department news conference. “We call on the Chinese government to immediately release all those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorized its own citizens in Xinjiang.” Pompeo’s comments come at a delicate time in U.S.-Chinese relations amid ongoing negotiations to...

Sixteen of the 39 deceased flown to Hanoi, with the rest to be repatriated later, say officials and media The first 16 bodies of 39 Vietnamese people found dead in the back of a refrigerated lorry in Britain have been repatriated to Vietnam, according to a local official and Vietnamese media. “Sixteen bodies including five from Nghe An province have arrived in Vietnam,” said a senior official of the province. The bodies arrived at Noi Bai airport in Hanoi early on Wednesday, online newspaper VnExpress reported, and would be taken by ambulances to homes in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces. The remaining bodies would be repatriated later, VnExpress said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/35NeppN

Most front pages focus on the Labour leader resisting calls to apologise for alleged antisemitism in the party Jeremy Corbyn’s resistance to issuing an apology amid allegations of antisemitism in the Labour party leads most of the front pages on Wednesday. Corbyn, who was questioned about the long-running issue by the BBC’s Andrew Neil, declined to apologise and rejected claims that antisemitism had risen in the party under his leadership. The Times’ splash headline is “Corbyn refuses to apologise”, while the Telegraph’s is only slightly different: “Corbyn refuses to apologise to Jews”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/35BPRQk

RAMALLAH, West Bank) — Thousands of Palestinian protesters took part in a “day of rage” across the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, with some groups clashing with Israeli forces to protest the U.S. announcement that it no longer believes Israeli settlements violate international law. Around 2,000 people gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah by midday, where they set ablaze posters of U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Israeli and American flags. Schools, universities and government offices were closed and rallies were being held in other West Bank cities. “The biased American policy toward Israel, and the American support of the Israeli settlements and the Israeli occupation, leaves us with only one option: To go back to resistance,” Mahmoud Aloul, an official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, told the crowd in Ramallah. Demonstrators held signs reading: “Trump to impeachment, (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to jail, the occupat...

Rachel Humphreys heads to Uxbridge, where the 25-year old Labour candidate Ali Milani is campaigning to unseat Boris Johnson. And: Jonathan Freedland on antisemitism in the Labour party Ali Milani is campaigning to become the Labour MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. His rival in this election is the most famous politician in the country: Boris Johnson. It is going to be a close race. Boris Johnson has a majority of just 5,000 – and it was thought Johnson might not even stand here after the Conservative party marked this seat as “at risk”. Rachel Humphreys joins Milani on the campaign trail, where he is fighting on what he believes are three keys issues: housing, health and Heathrow. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2rsjHbi