Friday, June 25, 2021

US evacuation of Afghan translators and their relatives could reach 50,000 people, and Oscars to honour Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May, Danny Glover *) US to evacuate Afghan interpreters before military withdrawal complete The United States is planning to evacuate vulnerable Afghan interpreters before the US military completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan. The evacuation will include their family members for a total of as many as 50,000 people, said a senior Republican congressman. The decision by Biden's administration risks creating a sense of crisis in Afghanistan, just a day before Biden meets Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. *) UN urges Israel to halt building of settlements immediately The United Nations has said Israel is flagrantly violating international law by expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. UN chief Antonio Guterres and Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland reported on implementation of a 2016 Security Council resolution that declared settlements have “no legal validity.” Meanwhile, Israel’s new government advanced plans for 31 West Bank settlement construction projects days after coming into power. *) More than 750 unmarked graves found at Indigenous school in Canada A First Nation in Canada's Saskatchewan province has found the unmarked graves of 751 people at a now-defunct residential school, just weeks after a similar discovery in British Columbia rocked the country. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada needed to acknowledge its history of racism against Indigenous peoples in order to "build a better future.” From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. *) Many feared dead in Miami residential building collapse Many people are feared dead after a wing of a 12-storey beachfront condo building collapsed in a town outside the US city of Miami, Florida. At least one person was confirmed dead while dozens of residents got trapped