Special Edition: How the “Islamic NATO” Shifts Global Geopolitics - Geopolitical Futures

• Pakistan has historically utilized mediation as a core pillar of its foreign policy to manage conflicts between neighboring adversaries. • Unlike global superpowers driven by ideology, Pakistan's mediation efforts are motivated by the direct security threats posed by regional instability.

• Human rights campaigners are expressing growing concern that increasing global diplomatic ties with the Taliban are undermining pressure for human rights improvements in Afghanistan. • Fereshta Abbasi of Human Rights Watch highlighted the tension between the necessity of engagement for aid agencies to mitigate the humanitarian crisis and the ambiguity of the long-term goals of these contacts.

• Reports reveal the CIA conducted drone strikes, torture, and forced disappearances near the coast of Ecuador, while the DHS is accused of targeting left-leaning groups in Minnesota via mass surveillance. • In the Middle East, rights groups claim Israel is destroying evidence of war crimes during Gaza rubble clearance, and Lebanon has condemned Israeli home demolitions as violations of international law.

Figures disclosed by 33 NHS trusts show temperatures on wards during July rose above 28C limit set by NHS EnglandHospitals in England have recorded temperatures of almost 42C this summer, with surgeries being cancelled because operating theatres’ cooling units stopped working in the intense heat.The Northern Care Alliance NHS foundation trust, which runs four hospitals in Greater Manchester, recorded a temperature of 41.8C during last month’s heatwave – 14C above the recommended safe maximum.Some patients are also cancelling their own surgery because it is too hot for them to travel.Hospitals and GP surgeries are offering frail elderly patients appointments at the start and end of the day, when it is less hot, to make it easier for them to attend.Ambulance services are struggling to keep some medications at the right temperature because it gets so hot in the back of their vehicles.NHS ambulance trusts have relaxed their usual dress code rules to help crews stay cooler, for example by wearing shorts rather than trousers Continue reading...

Authorities confirm first Australian death of species found with virus near where it attracts crowds to a ‘penguin parade’Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia’s first case of the deadly H5 bird flu in a little penguin has been confirmed on Victoria’s Phillip Island, only days after the state government announced it would begin vaccinating the species.Confirmation of the virus in the little penguin will spark a race to vaccinate thousands of birds, with the government announcing on Saturday it would begin the roll out on Monday. Continue reading...

Users need discretionary income of nearly £100,000 a year to make savings on their grocery spend after paying £1,200 for GLP-1s, analysis findsThe high cost of weight-loss medication is a “regressive tax on being thin” because the outlay outweighs any saving on food costs for all but the highest earners.Someone needs to have discretionary income of nearly £100,000 a year to actually save money after covering the £1,200 annual cost of GLP-1 medication, according to an analysis by the consultancy Baringa. Continue reading...

Conservative authority says site is not safe for vulnerable people charity serves or general publicWestminster council is making it “impossible” for soup kitchens to operate by complaining about the “crowds of vulnerable people” who turn up to be fed, a charity has said.Steven Stuart, who founded Friends of Essex & London Homeless (FOELH) with his wife, Cheryl, a decade ago, said constant complaints from the council could force the soup kitchen to shut down. Continue reading...

Corporation was told of claims by Christopher Berry-Dee that he had clothing, which was lost while in its possessionThe BBC was warned by two whistleblowers that a British true crime author was claiming to have obtained the missing clothes of a child murder victim that the broadcaster had lost.The Guardian has established that the office of the former head of the BBC and the corporation’s whistleblowing unit were both informed that Christopher Berry-Dee, the UK’s most successful true crime author, had told people he had obtained the clothes of Karen Hadaway, who was murdered in 1986. Continue reading...

The New York congresswoman’s power is in the spotlight as people wonder if the stars are finally aligning for her to run for US president in 2028“They assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.”The words were delivered slowly, deliberately and with some steeliness by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her audience, crammed into the pews of Rockefeller Memorial chapel at the University of Chicago, burst into spontaneous applause. That was in May. In the three months since, the speculation around Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitions – for herself and for America – has only grown louder. Continue reading...

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...

Hundreds gathered with flashes of pink to farewell the five-year-old girl, who was allegedly murdered in AprilWarning: This story contains references to Indigenous Australians who have diedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA sombre funeral service for Kumanjayi Little Baby has been attended by hundreds of people from the Alice Springs community and surrounds.Wearing pink and some dressed in T-shirts bearing the face of the five-year-old girl, the crowd gathered under grey skies in the red centre capital on Saturday. Continue reading...