Rights groups slam US move to send antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine

Human rights groups have slammed Joe Biden’s decision to send antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine, calling it a “reckless move” endangering innocent civilian lives.

The US president greenlighted providing antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine on Wednesday, two months before he is set to exit the White House.

Senior US officials backed the delivery to stall Russian progress on the Ukrainian battlefield where Russia’s troops are moving in smaller ground units along the frontline.

“They have asked for these, and so I think it’s a good idea,” defence secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Amnesty International described it as “a reckless decision and a deeply disappointing setback for a president who once agreed that landmines put more civilians at increased risk of harm”. “It is devastating, and frankly shocking, that president Biden made such a consequential and dangerous decision just before his public service legacy is sealed for the history books,” Ben Linden, advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia at Amnesty USA, said.

The antipersonnel mines that the US is sending reportedly have a limited capacity and can be offset over time. The “nonpersistent mines”, as they are called, are electrically fused and powered by batteries. They won’t detonate once the battery runs out, and can become inert in anywhere from four hours to two weeks.

But Amnesty said that even nonpersistent mines are a threat to civilians. “Antipersonnel landmines are inherently indiscriminate weapons that maim and kill civilians long after conflicts end and should not have a place in the arsenal of any country,” Mr Linden said.

Mr Biden’s decision has even drawn condemnation from Ukraine’s allies in Europe. Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide called it “very problematic” because Kyiv is a signatory to an international convention opposing the use of landmines.

The use of antipersonnel landmines, as ground ammunition, has been rejected by at least 164 countries, including all Nato members and Ukraine, under the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The agreement prohibits these countries from using, stockpiling, producing, and transferring antipersonnel mines.

The mines, placed underground, are known to explode indiscriminately upon coming in contact with any motion, making it difficult for rescue workers and emergency service personnel to carry out relief work.

The Mine Ban Treaty states that it is “determined to put an end to the suffering and casualties caused by antipersonnel mines that kill or maim hundreds of people every week, mostly innocent and defenceless civilians and especially children”.

The US has not used antipersonnel landmines since 1991, except for the use of a single munition in 2002. It has not exported them since 1992 and not produced them since 1997.

“President Biden’s decision to transfer antipersonnel landmines risks civilian lives and sets back international efforts to eradicate these indiscriminate weapons,” said Mary Wareham, deputy crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch.

“The US should reverse this reprehensible decision, which only increases the risk of civilian suffering in the short and long term.”

Woman accused of murdering 14 friends with cyanide sentenced to death

A woman in Thailand has been sentenced to death for the murder of her friend by poisoning her with cyanide.

Sararat Rangsiwuthaporn, 36, faces accusations of murdering 14 friends with cyanide, with this case marking the first conviction in the series.

Authorities discovered traces of the poison in 32-year-old Siriporn Khanwong’s body in April last year, and further investigation revealed similar deaths dating back to 2015.

A court in Bangkok convicted Sararat on Wednesday.

“The court’s decision is just,” Siriporn’s mother, Tongpin Kiatchanasiri said after the verdict. “I want to tell my daughter that I miss her deeply and justice has been done for her today.”

Sararat, a gambling addict, reportedly targeted friends she owed money to. In one instance, she extorted up to 300,000 baht (nearly £6,800) before murdering her victims and stealing their jewellery and mobile phones.

Deputy national police chief Surachate Hakparn said: “She asked people she knows for money because she has a lot of credit card debt … and if they asked her for their money back, she started killing them.”

Police allege she tricked 15 people, one of whom survived, into consuming poisoned “herb capsules”. Sararat is set to face 13 additional murder trials and has been charged with nearly 80 offences overall.

Sararat’s ex-husband Vitoon Rangsiwuthaporn, a former police lieutenant-colonel, was given 16 months in prison and her lawyer two years for complicity in Siriporn’s killing and for assisting her in evading prosecution.

Despite being divorced, the couple continued living together, according to the BBC.

Police suspect Vitoon was complicit in Sararat’s alleged murder of her ex-boyfriend, Suthisak Poonkwan. Authorities claim that after the killing, Vitoon assisted Sararat by picking her up in her car and helping her extort money from Suthisak’s friends.

The court ordered Sararat to pay Siriporn’s family compensation of 2 million baht (£45,446).

North Korea and Russia expand relationship with tourism drive

North Korea and Russia have reached a new agreement for expanding economic cooperation, including more holidays between the two countries.

The news follows high-level talks in Pyongyang this week.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency didn’t elaborate on the details of the agreement signed on Wednesday between its senior trade officials and a Russian delegation led by Alexandr Kozlov, the country’s minister of natural resources and ecology. The Russian news agency Tass on Tuesday said officials following an earlier round of talks agreed to increase the number of charter flights between the countries to promote tourism.

Kozlov, who arrived in North Korea on Sunday, met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top economic official, Premier Kim Tok Hun, before returning home on Wednesday, KCNA said. During Kozlov’s visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gifted Pyongyang’s Central Zoo with more than 70 animals, including lions, bears and several species of birds, according to Tass, in another display of the countries’ growing ties.

Kim Jong Un in recent months has prioritized relations with Moscow as he attempts to break out of international isolation and strengthen his footing, actively supporting Putin’s war on Ukraine while portraying the North as a player in a united front against Washington.

Kim has yet to directly acknowledge that he has been providing military equipment and troops to Russia to support its fighting against Ukraine. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Wednesday that an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers in late October were moved to Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized parts of its territory this year, following their training in Russia’s northeast.

The spy agency believes the North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s marine and airborne forces units and some of them have already begun fighting alongside the Russians on the frontlines, said Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the meeting. U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian officials have claimed that the North has also been supplying Russia with artillery systems, missiles and other equipment.

North Korea would be possibly getting anywhere between $320 million to $1.3 billion annually from Russia for sending its troops to Ukraine, considering the scale of the dispatch and the level of payments Russia has been providing to foreign mercenaries, according to a recent study by Lim Soo-ho, a South Korean analyst at an NIS-run think tank.

While that would be meaningful income for North Korea’s crippled and heavily sanctioned economy, it could be lower than the money the North earns from illicit coal exports or supplying military equipment to Russia, Lim said. This suggests that North Korea’s troop dispatch is less about money than acquiring key Russian technologies to further advance its nuclear weapons and missile program, which is a major concern in Seoul, Lim said.

Amid the stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations with Washington, Kim has been dialing up pressure on South Korea, abandoning his country’s long-standing goal of inter-Korean reconciliation and verbally threatening to attack the South with nukes if provoked. He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the development of his nuclear-armed military, which now has various nuclear-capable systems targeting South Korea and intercontinental ballistic missiles that can potentially reach the U.S. mainland.

Kohli’s decline leaves India facing unthinkable question

There is a famous portrait of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein the Younger, painted as part of the Whitehall Mural in the mid-1530s. By the time of its creation, the Tudor royal was in his forties and already dealing with some of the health issues that would come to riddle his final years, while also overcoming the serious injuries suffered in a jousting accident at Greenwich Palace.

Yet Holbein paints the picture of a potentate in his prime. Henry stands tall and broad, legs spread in a power pose, showing no signs of physical decline. It is a piece of propaganda that has endured even after the destruction of the mural in 1698, a great many copies and cartoons shaping the perception of the ruler across centuries.

Perhaps India’s own ageing monarch requires such a flattering portrayal. Virat Kohli begins this week’s series against Australia as a faded force; a king who once ruled with bravado and brilliance, now seemingly in terminal decline. Statistically, the figures are stark: since the start of 2020, Kohli has averaged 31.68 in Test cricket. While glimpses of his genius are still sighted in white-ball cricket, this is no dip, blip or loss of form, but the sort of sustained slide that is rarely reversed.

His past oeuvre has meant Kohli has dodged more serious questions about his place in the side, but with one of cricket’s biggest series about to begin, a perhaps overdue narrative is starting to stir. “He’s only scored two Test hundreds in the last five years,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said on the ICC Review podcast as the two sides prepare to contest the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. “That’s a concern. There wouldn’t be anyone else probably even playing international cricket as a top-order batsman that’s only scored two Test match hundreds in five years.”

If there is a certain sadness to a figure who once exerted total command at the crease no longer having full use of his batting faculties, factors beyond his control have also played a part. During his golden age, India largely played on friendly and flat decks at home, with the hosts able to rely on the voracity for runs in their batting line-up and two world-class spinners in Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to win Test matches. Of late, the strategy has shifted. Generally, result pitches that have offered turn or seam movement from early in Test matches have been favoured, with deteriorating surfaces proving problematic for both home and visiting batters.

If the extension of the period without an Indian series defeat on home soil to 12 years suggested that the new formula was working, last month their comeuppance came. With India’s batters out of nick, a New Zealand side missing their own batting great in Kane Williamson and possessing a vastly inferior spin attack nonetheless dominated. The first Blackcaps Test win in India since 1988 was followed by two more; India had been whitewashed, with Kohli’s contributing four single-figure scores across six innings.

It is a defeat that has piled the pressure on an Indian side that should have travelled to Australia with real confidence. They have, of course, won on their last two trips to the country, the history-making achievements of a team led by Kohli in 2018/19 followed up by an almost second-string side securing a most remarkable series victory in Brisbane in January 2021.

But the nature of their defeats to New Zealand has meant that uncomfortable, almost unconscionable questions are beginning to be asked. It is not just Kohli in the spotlight, but Ashwin and Jadeja, too, plus captain Rohit Sharma, who will miss the opening Test in Perth after the recent arrival of his second child.

“I have got no concerns whatever over Virat and Rohit,” India head coach Gautam Gambhir replied dismissively in October when pressed on the pair’s future. “I think they are incredibly tough men.

“They’ve achieved a lot for Indian cricket, and they will continue to achieve a lot in future as well. I think for me, the most important thing is that they still working really hard, they are still passionate, they still want to achieve a lot more and that is something which is very important. The hunger in that dressing room is incredibly important for me and for the entire group as well. I feel there’s a lot of hunger, especially after what has happened in the last series.”

Sharma’s absence and an untimely thumb injury to Shubman Gill will necessitate a top-order reshuffle for India at the fast and firm Optus Stadium, a venue at which the hosts are yet to lose. The versatile KL Rahul is likely to return to open alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal, while the lanky left-hander Devdutt Padikkal has seemingly been deemed better equipped to handle the pace and bounce than the uncapped Abhimanyu Easwaran. Under such circumstances, Kohli – who averages 54 in Australia – recapturing past glories would be most welcome.

India’s tumult has rather eased the scrutiny on the continuing questions and alternative answers in Australia’s batting line-up. The ambitious vaulting of Steve Smith up the order after David Warner’s retirement appears to have been abandoned for good, with Cameron Green’s back surgery allowing Smith to slide back to his preferred number four slot. The selfless, watchful Nathan McSweeney is relatively untested as an opener but is well-liked as a leader, and showed just enough in a recent Australia A fixture against the tourists to earn the selectors’ faith as Usman Khawaja’s partner.

If Jasprit Bumrah – who will stand in for Sharma as India’s skipper – and the rest of the visiting attack will give McSweeney’s technique and ticker a serious examination, a pre-Test net session on a spicy Perth surface against Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc served as perfect preparation for the 25-year-old.

“It was a good challenge. I got through it unscathed,” said McSweeney earlier this week. “I didn’t put much pressure on them but they bowled really well and great preparation to face those guys who are quality bowlers.

“I think everyone is going to have their opinion [about my selection]. I try and not read too much into it. I think for me I know what works and I feel very capable [of going] and [doing] the job. I feel I’m batting the best I ever have. Hopefully I can go out there and execute that on Friday.”

Australia v India begins on 22 November on TNT Sports and discovery+ at 02:15

Australian teen among four dead in Laos alcohol poisoning incident

A teenager has died after drinking tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng, Laos.

Australia’s prime minister confirmed the news about one of its residents on Thursday The US State Department confirmed an American also died in the same party town, bringing the death toll to four in the poisoning incident.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese told parliament that 19-year-old Bianca Jones had died after being evacuated from Laos for treatment in a Thai hospital.

Her friend, also 19, remains in hospital in Thailand.

They were on a backpacking gap year in Laos when they became ill in the tourist town of Vang Vieng. They were staying at The Nana Backpacker Hostel.

A map of Vang Vieng:

Talking before the death, Ms Jones’ family described her as their ‘angel’.

‘Our beautiful Bianca was on a dream getaway with her best friend Holly,’ they told the Herald Sun.

‘They were filled with joy and had such incredible adventures ahead of them, travelling through Asia.

‘We are here by Bianca’s bedside praying for her.’

Meantime, the State Department confirmed that an American tourist had also died, but said it had no further comment out of respect to the families.

“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Mr Albanese told lawmakers, adding “we also take this moment to say that we’re thinking of Bianca’s friend Holly Bowles who is fighting for her life”.

The two Australian women fell ill on 13 November after a night out drinking with a group. They are believed to have consumed drinks tainted with methanol, which sometimes used as the alcohol in mixed drinks at disreputable bars and can cause severe poisoning or death.

New Zealand’s foreign ministry said on Thursday one of its citizens was also unwell in Laos and could be a victim of methanol poisoning. Denmark’s foreign ministry, when asked about the poisoning incident, said on Wednesday that two of its citizens had died in Laos but would not provide further details.

“We have updated our travel advisory for Laos to note that there have been several cases of suspected methanol poisoning after consuming alcoholic drinks,” New Zealand’s foreign ministry said. “Travelers are advised to be cautious about consuming alcoholic beverages, particularly cocktails and drinks made with spirits that may have been adulterated with harmful substances.”

Missing British tourist, 37, found dead in Thai storm drain

A British tourist who vanished from his family holiday on a party hotspot in Thailand has been found dead in a storm drain.

Fraser Wright, 37, from Swindon was pulled from the open sewer on Wednesday morning, hours after reportedly going out to drink alone on the island of Phuket.

His family sparked a missing person’s search when he didn’t return to the Seaview Hotel after leaving at 10pm on Tuesday.

His body wasn’t discovered until 9.30am the next morning when emergency services were called to the scene outside Tawan Bike Shop in Patong.

Local media reports suggest that Mr Wright was caught on CCTV peering into the drain, which carries rainwater from storms into the sea, before climbing over the one-metre-high barrier and falling in.

He is believed to have been dead for five or six hours before he was found.

According to local news outlet Khasod, an autopsy carried out at Vachira Phuket Hospital didn’t identify any further wounds and there is no suggestion of any foul play.

The UK Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Thailand and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Mr Wright is the latest in a string of tragic cases involving Britons dying in Thailand.

In April, Ryan Ralph, 24, fell from an overnight train as he backpacked through the country with his girlfriend, Shona Morgan, 22.

The tragedy happened when Mr Ralph went to have a cigarette, leaving Ms Morgan asleep.

It’s believed that as he stood between carriages, he lost his footing and fell onto the tracks. A major hunt for him was carried out before his body was found.

More than 28 million foreign tourists visited Thailand last year, spending 1.2 trillion baht ($33.71 billion) in the country, where other key sectors of the economy have been slow in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Putin gifts dozens of animals to North Korea zoo

Vladimir Putin has gifted dozens of animals – including a lion and two bears – to a zoo in North Korea, the latest in a series of exchanges as Russia relies on Pyongyang’s artillery and troops to bolster its invasion of Ukraine.

More than 70 animals, including an African lion and two brown bears, were sent by plane with veterinarians from Moscow’s zoo to be transferred to a zoo in Pyongyang.

The animals were “a gift from Vladimir Putin to the Korean people”, the Russian government said.

Local officials treated Russian natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov, who oversaw the exchange, to a tour of the Korean zoo.

It is not the first time Russia has given animals to North Korea, as the two most heavily sanctioned and isolated governments have forged closer ties in recent months.

In April, the eastern European country donated birds, including eagles, cranes and parrots, to the Pyongyang Central Zoo.

For his part, Putin received a pair of local Pungsan dogs from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a trip to the Asian country in June, when the two leaders signed a landmark defence treaty. The pair took turns driving each other around in a Russian-made Aurus limousine.

Earlier this month, North Korea followed Russia in ratifying the treaty, which experts see as a step towards formalising their military cooperation.

The deal calls to “immediately provide military and other assistance using all available means” if either side is in a state of war.

Thousands of North Korean troops are already training in Russia to help fight the war in Ukraine, which is also being supported by Korean arms – prompting concern from Western capitals.

Reports suggest that many of the troops have already started actively fighting, a historic first for North Korea which has never before sent soldiers into international battlefields.

North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries, with 1.2 million soldiers. Its deployment of troops in Russia could increase from 11,000 to as many as 100,000, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed this week.

Defiant Jimmy Lai denies foreign collusion at Hong Kong trial

Prominent pro-democracy advocate and media tycoon Jimmy Lai testified for the first time in a national security trial that could see him jailed for life – as part of a China-led crackdown on dissent.

A defiant Mr Lai, a British citizen and the founder of pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, denied the charges of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and publishing seditious materials.

The 76-year-old is among the most high-profile figures targeted under the Beijing-imposed national security law, which came into force in 2020. Apple Daily was forced to close in 2021.

Mr Lai’s testimony came just a day after Hong Kong jailed 45 pro-democracy activists for up to 10 years in a separate national security case. Both cases have been roundly condemned by Western nations as being politically motivated.

Speaking at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court, Mr Lai described how his principles, centred on the rule of law and freedoms of speech, religion, and assembly, shaped the newspaper’s mission.

“We were always in support of movements for freedom,” Mr Lai said, addressing a packed courtroom while dressed in a grey blazer.

Mr Lai’s son, Sebastien Lai, speaking toThe Independent, praised his father’s resilience. “Mentally, he seemed to be doing well. He’s still very sharp; he gave a very strong testimony. And in the end, I think you could see his commitment to journalism and to the importance of journalism in Hong Kong.”

Wednesday’s hearing drew diplomats from the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Switzerland, and Ireland, underscoring the case’s international significance. The US government has condemned Mr Lai’s prosecution, calling for his immediate release. Around 100 people queued in the pouring rain huddled beneath umbrellas to secure a place in the courtroom, with hundreds of police deployed around the building.

Mr Lai faces two counts of conspiracy to collude under Hong Kong’s controversial national security law, alongside a separate charge of conspiracy to produce seditious publications.

The trial, which began last December, has already seen six co-defendants, including senior staff from Apple Daily and its parent company Next Digital, plead guilty. They admitted to working with Mr Lai to request foreign nations or organisations to impose sanctions or take hostile actions against Hong Kong and Beijing.

During his trial, it was alleged that Mr Lai and others had requested a foreign country or organisation – especially the US – “to impose sanctions or blockade, or engage in other hostile activities” against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

Asked if he used his overseas contacts, including former Taiwan president and top US officials, to influence Hong Kong policy, Mr Lai replied, “Never”, reported the BBC.

One example of Mr Lai‘s alleged collusion were meetings in July 2019 with then US vice-president Mike Pence and secretary of state Mike Pompeo to discuss the political crisis in Hong Kong as mass pro-democracy and anti-China protests intensified.

Under oath in court on Wednesday, Mr Lai denied asking anything specific of Mr Pence.

“I would not dare to ask the vice-president to do anything. I would just relay to him what happened in Hong Kong when he asked me,” Mr Lai told the court.

Mr Lai said he had asked Mr Pompeo and the US “not to do something but to say something. To voice out its support for Hong Kong.”

On Taiwan, Mr Lai said he had sought to connect former US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz and retired US general Jack Keane to an interlocutor for former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen.

“Tsai and myself are friends, so we always talk about US policy,” he told the court, explaining he had sought to connect both sides to create an unofficial channel between then US president Donald Trump and the Tsai administration to bolster mutual understanding.

Supporters have rallied around Mr Lai, viewing him as a symbol of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. “Apple Daily was the voice of many Hong Kongers,” said William Wong, 64, a retiree who attended the trial. “It’s my political expression to let him know I support him. He’s done a lot for Hong Kong.”

Mr Lai’s son dismissed the proceedings as a “show trial,” arguing his father “should not have been arrested”. He added: “I mean, it shouldn’t even be happening in the first place, so it in on itself is already a very negative outcome.”

He cited a recent statement by the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which called for the trial to be halted and for Mr Lai’s immediate release. “The trial shouldn’t be happening, he shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place. And it should be stopped and he should be released immediately,” he said.

Mr Lai has been in pre-trial detention for over 1,400 days and is already serving a five-year, nine-month sentence for a separate fraud case related to a lease dispute involving Apple Daily.

The charges stem from Beijing’s imposition of the national security law following months of pro-democracy protests that rocked the city in 2019. Critics argue the law has been used to stifle dissent and target press freedom in the former British colony.

Simon Cheng, a former UK Hong Kong consulate employee detained in China in 2019 before later being granted asylum in the UK, told The Independent: “It is a show trial… It is meant as a warning to other Hong Kongers: if you speak out against us, you will be caught and put in prison.

“[The authorities] will show Jimmy Lai’s conviction to the world and pretend it is the rule of law. But it is not”.

Additional reporting by agencies