Kyoto Animation fire: Thirteen dead after suspected arson attack
At least 13 people are dead and dozens injured after a suspected arson attack at an animation studio in Kyoto, Japan, local emergency officials have said.
Local media quoted police as saying a man broke into the Kyoto Animation Co studio on Thursday morning and sprayed an unidentified liquid around.
Some 30 people still remain unaccounted for, broadcaster NHK reported.
The suspect, an unidentified man, has been detained and was taken to hospital with injuries.
How did the incident unfold?
The fire broke out at the three-storey building at around 10:30 local time (01:35 GMT) on Thursday. Rescue operations are still ongoing.
Trump rally crowd chants ‘send her back’ after president attacks Ilhan Omar
Chant follows Trump’s racist tweets targeting Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen of color
Goaded on by the president, a crowd at a Donald Trump rally on Wednesday night chanted “send her back! send her back!” in reference to Ilhan Omar, a US congresswoman who arrived almost 30 years ago as a child refugee in the United States.
Trump used the 2020 campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, to attack Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – calling them “hate-filled extremists”. The group, which calls itself “the Squad”, has been the focus of racist attacks by the president this week, kickstarted by tweets posted Sunday in which he said the lawmakers, all women of color, should “go back” to other countries.
Latin America confronts anti-Semitism, 25 years after deadly terrorist attack
Twenty-five years ago, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association fell victim to a gruesome terror attack in Buenos Aires. Today, Jewish communities are concerned about growing anti-Semitism on the internet.
July 18 marks the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Buenos Aires Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building. A van loaded with explosives was detonated, killing 87 individuals and injuring over 100. It was the deadliest terror attack Argentina ever witnessed. To this day, the real perpetrators have not been identified, and it took almost 21 years until Argentina’s parliament voted to compensate the victims and their relatives.
The anniversary has revived public debate on intolerance, discrimination and anti-Semitism in Latin America. “Latin America has not seen the physically violent anti-Semitism that other parts of the world have experienced through terrorist attacks,” says Ariel Seidler of the World Jewish Congress Latin American branch. “There are anti-Semitic incidents, but in general Jewish communities can freely practice their faith.”
WHO declares DR Congo’s Ebola epidemic a ‘public health emergency of international concern’
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a “public health emergency of international concern,” a rare designation only used for the gravest epidemics.
The Ebola epidemic in DR Congo, the second deadliest on record, has largely been contained to remote areas, but this week saw a patient diagnosed with the virus in the eastern city of Goma, the first case in a major urban hub.
“It is time for the world to take notice,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement, as he accepted the advice of his advisory board to invoke the emergency provision (PHEIC), activated by the UN health agency four times previously.
Privacy concerns over viral photo apps are totally valid. But they’re also often overblown.
The panic about FaceApp’s old-person filter isn’t wrong, exactly. It’s just tinged with xenophobia and devoid of context.
By
If you’ve been on Twitter or Instagram recently, you may have noticed that every person you know is suddenly 80 years old. There’s been a huge spike in use of the Russian photo-editing application FaceApp, which allows a user to submit a photo of their face and be shown an elderly version of themselves.
Of course, there is a moment in every fad where someone loudly points out that the fad is bad, and that moment has come for FaceApp this week because of a heated conversation around the app’s terms of service and privacy policy.
Thousands protest at mass rally in San Juan, demanding Puerto Rico governor’s resignation
“If he does not leave now, this is going to get worse,” said reggaeton star Residente ahead of the massive protest.
By Nicole Acevedo
With chants of “Ricky, renuncia!” (“Ricky, resign!”) thousands of Puerto Ricans marched and rallied in Old San Juan on Wednesday in a massive protest calling for the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló.
Puerto Ricans from across the island gathered in the U.S. commonwealth’s capital, joined by high-profile stars such as Ricky Martin, reggaeton stars Bad Bunny and Residente, award-winning actor Benicio Del Toro and beloved island celebrities like Tommy Torres, Karla Monroig and PJ Sin Suela, who rallied the crowd amid a sea of Puerto Rican flags, bullhorns and signs.
Late Wednesday, protesters threw items, including bricks, glass and fireworks, at police. Police responded by firing tear gas in an attempt to clear the streets. They also shot rubber bullets into the crowd.