Focus on Africa Joshlin Smith: South Africa's human trafficking problem
A South African woman, Racquel "Kelly" Smith, her boyfriend Jacquen Appollis and their friend Steveno van Rhyn have been given life sentences after being convicted of trafficking her missing 6-year-old daughter, Joshlin Smith. The case has captivated and horrified audiences around the world. It has also highlighted the wider issue of human trafficking in South Africa. An anti-trafficking campaigner responds to the rulling and explains the extent of problem in the country.
Also, Kenya and Mayotte sign a trade deal to boost economic ties. What will be traded?
And a tribute to and an exploration of, Kenya's literary giant Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who has died at the age of 87.
Presenter: Richard Kagoe
Technical Producer: Jonathan Greer
Producers: Nyasha Michelle, Tom Kavanagh and Amie Liebowitz in London. Charles Gitonga in Nairobi
Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp
Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard
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Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Three boys aged 12 to 13 'who gang-raped Jewish girl while hurling anti-Semitic insults and condemning Israel' go on trial in France
Three boys aged 12 to 13 who 'gang-raped' a Jewish girl in an abandoned hanger in a Paris suburb while hurling anti-Semitic insults at her will go on trial. The trial is part of an investigation into 'gang rape, death threats, insults, and anti-Semitic violence.' It will take place behind closed doors inside a juvenile court. Last June, local prosecutors opened an investigation into the rape and the alleged perpetrators were identified as three boys aged 12, 13 and 14 from Rueil-Malmaison, in the Hauts-de-Seine suburb northwest of the French capital. The boys were charged with counts of aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault, attempted extortion, invasion of privacy, threat of death, violence and insults. With the latter two being aggravated due to them admitting the attack was related to the girl's religion. The 12-year-old girl from Courbevoie, also in Hauts-de-Seine reported the rape to police in June 2024. She said she went to the Henri Regnault square with her boyfriend when three teenagers grabbed her and took her to an abandoned hangar on the site of an old nursery nearby. The three boys allegedly beat the girl and insulted her religion before raping her. She told police that she had been called a 'dirty Jew' by her attackers, who had asked her questions about Israel. The boys appeared in front of the police and reportedly admitted to the rape. Afterwards rallies against anti-Semitism were organised across the country. According to the French Ministry of the Interior, in 2024, a total of 1,570 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in France.


The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Antarctica ‘too wild for humans to rule', says Shackleton medal winner
Cormac Cullinan has a dream. A dream, he says, that will 'change how humanity sees, understands and relates to Antarctica'. The vast frozen continent – home to emperor and Adélie penguins, leopard and Ross seals, and feeding grounds for orcas, beaked whales and albatrosses – should be recognised as an autonomous legal entity 'at least equivalent to a country', says the environmental lawyer. And this week that dream became one step closer to reality as judges awarded Cullinan the Shackleton medal for the protection of the polar regions. The prestigious prize, worth £10,000, shines a light on people who have shown 'courage, determination, ingenuity and leadership' in their work to protect the polar regions, indicating Cullinan's radical plan to adopt and implement an Antarctica Declaration is gaining momentum. Cullinan, who is based in South Africa and was once an anti-apartheid activist, achieved recognition for his work fighting, often successfully, for legal systems to recognise the rights of rivers, forests and things 'other than human beings' so they could be defended in court cases. The idea of giving species and places legal 'personhood', outlined in his 2002 book, Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice, became part of a wider global movement recognising rights of nature and animals. Cullinan is now arguing that Antarctica as a whole should have this legal personhood, preferably at state level. 'We have to shift how people relate to Antarctica,' he says. 'It's absolutely essential to protect it, not just for itself, which is obviously valid, but also for humanity.' Instead of being treated by the international community and law courts as a 'territory claimed by a number of countries that stuck flags in the ice a while ago … at best, a laboratory and at worst, a potential source of oil, gas, minerals and krill', he wants Antarctica to be legally protected as 'an astounding living community' and 'a being in its own right'. 'It should be obvious that Antarctica is far too wild and fierce for humans to rule,' he says. 'It should be seen as what it is: sovereign unto itself.' Antarctica is governed by the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), a framework created in 1959 and signed by 58 countries. This guarantees that the continent is used exclusively for peaceful purposes, such as science and conservation. It was a great achievement at the time, Cullinan says, when there were proposals to mine Antarctica and countries in conflict over their competing claims. Now the key challenges Antarctica faces arise from the climate crisis, something caused by activities far outside its geographical boundaries. At the same time, countries such as China and Russia have consistently blocked conservation measures such as the creation of new marine protected areas. 'There's impasse within the system, Cullinan says, while from an ecological perspective, the situation is deteriorating very fast and scientists are saying we have to take urgent, decisive action.' The purpose of declaring Antarctica a legal entity and setting out its rights is to create corresponding obligations for other countries – and international organisations such as the UN – to respect those rights. 'An iceberg doesn't really care whether you think it has rights or not. The issue is: are there human duties to respect the integrity of the ice-sheet fields?' If the Antarctic ice sheet melted entirely, it would raise global sea levels by about 58 metres. In 2020, an article in the journal Nature estimated that even a 1-metre rise would put '48% of the world's land area, 52% of the global population and 46% of global assets' at risk of flooding. 'It can't be left to a small group of countries to make decisions about Antarctica,' says Cullinan, who helped to draft the 2010 Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth and co-founded the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. 'If human beings lived there, who were indigenous to Antarctica, they would have a government who could represent them in climate change negotiations or biodiversity conventions. And that government would be a powerful voice, because Antarctica and the Southern Ocean covers a 10th of the surface of the planet.' But Antarctica has no voice, he says. 'It's not represented in these decision-making bodies – and the countries that govern it under the ATS still argue from a national perspective, and take decision-making positions for their own national interests, while scientists and other people who really love Antarctica and are deeply committed to protecting it get blocked.' The Antarctica Declaration would, by contrast, recognise that all Antarctic beings have rights that humanity must respect and protect. People around the world are being invited to support it and declare a new legal status of 'personhood' for Antarctica. 'It could then be represented,' says Cullinan. 'It could have a seat at the table, it could initiate lawsuits or join lawsuits around the world to prevent further greenhouse emissions.' The award will help raise much-needed awareness about the Antarctica Declaration, he adds. 'It will bring this initiative to the attention of people in a way that would have otherwise taken us years to achieve, and connect us to a network of polar explorers and Antarctic experts we can perhaps persuade to join us. 'We've got a very strong core group, but we need to build a global movement around this – we need to show that Antarctica is everybody's concern.'


BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador brought back to US to face charges
A man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been returned to the United States to face criminal charges. Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces charges related to what US President Donald Trump's government said was a large human smuggling operation that brought immigrants into the country illegally. Advertisement His abrupt release from El Salvador is the latest twist in a saga that sparked a months-long standoff between Trump administration officials and the courts over a deportation that officials initially acknowledged was done in error but then continued to stand behind in apparent defiance of orders by judges to facilitate his return to the US. The development occurred after US officials presented El Salvador President Nayib Bukele with an arrest warrant for federal charges in Tennessee accusing Abrego Garcia of playing a key role in smuggling immigrants into the country for money. He is expected to be prosecuted in the US and, if convicted, will be returned to his home country of El Salvador at the conclusion of the case, officials said. 'This is what American justice looks like,' US attorney general Pam Bondi said in announcing Abrego Garcia's return and the unsealing of a grand jury indictment. The indictment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia that charges him with transporting people who were in the United States illegally (AP Photo/Jon Elswick) Abrego Garcia's lawyers called the case 'baseless'. Advertisement 'There's no way a jury is going to see the evidence and agree that this sheet metal worker is the leader of an international MS-13 smuggling conspiracy,' lawyer Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. Federal magistrate judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville, Tennessee, determined that Abrego Garcia will be held in custody until at least next Friday, when there will be an arraignment and detention hearing. Abrego Garcia appeared in court wearing a short-sleeved, white, buttoned shirt. When asked if he understood the charges, he told the judge through an interpreter: 'Yes. I understand.' Democrats and immigrant rights groups had pressed for Abrego Garcia's release, with several politicians – including senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia had lived for years – even travelling to El Salvador to visit him. A federal judge had ordered him to be returned in April and the US Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal by directing the government to work to bring him back. Advertisement But the news that Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation to his native country over fears he would face persecution from local gangs, was being brought back for the purpose of prosecution was greeted with dismay by his lawyers. The case also prompted the resignation of a top supervisor in the US attorney's office in Nashville, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Ben Schrader, who was chief of the office's criminal division, did not explain the reason for his resignation but posted to social media around the time the indictment was being handed down, saying: 'It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I've ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.' He declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Friday. Advertisement