Israel military officers dismissed over death of Palestinian-American at checkpoint

Antony Blinken pressed to investigate West Bank death of 78-year-old who was handcuffed, gagged and left by soldiers last month

Israel’s military has said it is dismissing two officers and would reprimand a battalion commander over the death of a Palestinian-American at a West Bank checkpoint after he was stopped by Israeli troops.

The death of Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, who had lived in Milwaukee before retiring to his native village of Jiljilya, resulted from “a moral failure and poor decision-making”, it added.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/01/israel-military-officers-dismissed-over-death-of-palestinian-american-at-checkpoint

Ping-pong tables and free transit: plan to bring Sydney’s CBD back from the dead

NSW government to consider ambitious revitalisation plan to make the city centre a safer and more appealing destination

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Free public transit within Sydney’s central business district to encourage commuters to explore the city is part of an ambitious CBD revitalisation plan the New South Wales government will consider.

Under the plan, Indigenous culture and history would be better integrated into the cityscape for both locals and tourists, with Aboriginal languages and stories embedded into street signs, and Indigenous art in public spaces.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/01/ping-pong-tables-and-free-transit-plan-to-bring-sydneys-cbd-back-from-the-dead

New York Times buys viral game Wordle for seven-figure sum

Creator Josh Wardle ‘thrilled’ that newspaper is taking over internet sensation

The New York Times has acquired the viral word game Wordle for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, the publisher announced on Monday.

Created by a Reddit engineer and launched in October, Wordle gives players just six guesses to determine a five-letter word that changes every day. The soothing daily puzzle has become a hit since its launch, quickly attracting hundreds of thousands, then millions, of players. Social media posts about its game of the day have become ubiquitous, along with screenshots of the game’s distinctive grid.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/31/wordle-new-york-times-buys

Gray finds ‘failure of leadership’ at No 10 as police investigate 300 photos

Angry Tories confront Boris Johnson as report finds many of 16 lockdown events ‘difficult to justify’

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Boris Johnson has been left desperately trying to shore up his premiership after the Sue Gray report as detectives were revealed to be investigating 300 photos and 12 events in Downing Street, including a party in the prime minister’s private flat.

Johnson faced a wall of anger from Conservative MPs in the House of Commons after Gray’s investigation concluded that many of the 16 parties were “difficult to justify” and condemned “failures of leadership and judgment” in No 10 and the Cabinet Office.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/31/gray-finds-a-failure-of-leadership-at-no-10-as-police-investigate-300-photos-boris-johnson

‘We only have a pen’: fury as fourth journalist killed in Mexico this year

Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen in a carpark in Zitácuaro, where he reported for a local news outlet

Journalists in Mexico have responded with fury and despair at the the murder of a fourth reporter in the country this year, cementing the country’s reputation as the world’s most murderous country for media workers.

Roberto Toledo was shot dead by three gunmen on Monday afternoon in a carpark in the city of Zitácuaro, where he reported for a local news outlet, Monitor Michoacán. Zitácuaro is best known for the nearby monarch butterfly reserves, but the region is rife with violence as drug cartels and criminal groups fight to control illegal logging.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/mexico-fourth-journalist-killed-roberto-toledo

Moscow warns Ukraine may ‘destroy itself’ as Russia and US clash at UN

At a UNSC meeting, Russian diplomat Vasily Nebenzya claimed Ukraine’s violation of the Minsk pact could end in ‘worst way’

Ukraine will be responsible for its own destruction if it undermines existing peace agreements, a senior Russian diplomat has warned at a UN security council debate on the crisis.

Vasily Nebenzya on Monday derided western claims of a planned Russian attack as “hysterics” and blamed Ukraine for not abiding by the Minsk agreements of 2014 and 2015, which were supposed to end the conflict between the Kyiv government and the Russian-backed separatists in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/31/russia-ukraine-united-nations-security-council

Australia news live updates: union rejects aged care bonus, elective surgery to resume in NSW, public school students return

Industry reacts to Scott Morrison’s aged care worker payments as NSW announces plans to resume elective surgery. Follow updates live

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O’Neil:

A pay rise that lasts up until the next election is a cynical political ploy, because we know this plan ... will not do anything more than hold this thing together by a thread.

The truth is that the aged-care sector – the average experience of a person in aged care today is one of neglect.

The truth is that we have a crisis in aged care that has been eight years in the making.

Scott Morrison has cut aged-care funding personally as treasurer twice. One of the first actions of the incoming government was to cut the wages of aged-care staff and now we are expected to believe that this is going to make a difference?

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source https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2022/feb/01/australia-news-live-updates-union-rejects-aged-care-bonus-elective-surgery-to-resume-in-nsw-public-school-students-return