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UK’s upper house votes to delay plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda
The United Kingdom’s upper house of parliament has voted to delay Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The vote by the unelected House of Lords on Monday came despite Sunak urging its members to back his plan, which he has characterised as the will of the people.
The upper house voted 214 to 171 to delay the ratification of a related treaty London signed with Kigali until the government can demonstrate that Rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers to be sent to.
The chamber does not have the power to block the so-called Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill indefinitely, but could delay the legislation for up to a year.
The move comes after the more powerful House of Commons on Wednesday narrowly passed the bill after some Conservative MPs threatened to vote against the government on the grounds the legislation was not robust enough to survive legal challenges.
Sunak has made the controversial immigration plan a key plank of his bid to return to power in an expected general election this year that the centre-left Labour Party is strongly tipped to win.
Sunak introduced the legislation after the UK Supreme Court last year ruled that the safety of asylum seekers deported to Rwanda could not be guaranteed.
The bill would make it harder for courts to challenge the Rwanda policy by allowing the government to set aside certain provisions of human rights law and asking the House of Commons to declare by majority vote that the African country is safe for asylum seekers.
Sunak has said he wants deportations to begin within months to meet his pledge to “stop the boats” carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel.
Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson first announced the Rwanda plan in 2022 to deny people arriving by “irregular means” the opportunity to apply for asylum in the UK.
The first Rwanda-bound flight from the UK was halted in June of that year after a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which ruled that one of the asylum seekers on board was at “real risk of irreversible harm” in the East African nation.
(Aljazeera)
South Africa won their first away T20I series under Shukri Conrad, and second successive bilateral series, with a convincing performance over New Zealand in Christchurch. Put in to bat, they posted the highest total of the series of 187 for 4- and defended it with a six-player attack to seal the series 3-2.
After poor batting performances in the second and third T20Is,2 South Africa went from good to better in the next two. Three of South Africa’s four highest partnerships of the series came in this match, and they have unearthed a potential future star in Connor Esterhuizen. He scored back-to-back fifties in matches four and five and anchored their efforts in the decider. While Zak Foulkes and Josh Clarkson were economical, the rest of their attack conceded at over nine runs an over. Offspinner Cole McConchie’s 0 for 48 was the most expensive.
New Zealand were without their first choice top five and also had to do without Tom Latham, who was due to lead them but fractured his thumb in the third T20I. They were never really in the chase against a disciplined South African effort. None of their batters scored more than Bevan Jacobs’ 36 and they only had one partnership which threatened: 52 between Jimmy Neesham and Jacobs for the fifth wicket.
Overall it was a messy affair on both sides, with nine dropped catches in the game, the most for any men’s T20I as per ESPNCricinfo’s ball-by-ball data logs since June 2018
Rubin Hermann has been involved in half of South Africa’s top stands and looked set for a big one today. Early in his innings, Hermann took down Ben Sears no matter what length he bowled and took 14 runs off four balls. Later, he showed his strength against spin when he joined Esterhuizen in targeting McConchie. But then Hermann did not hit a boundary for 12 balls and needed to take it on. When Sears went hard length, Hermann pulled but got his timing wrong and skied the ball towards mid-off. Nick Kelly ran from mid-on, made his ground and then stuck out one hand to take a superman catch, flying low to the ground. Hermann was out for 39, and the second-wicket partnership was broken on 59.
While Hermann’s promise only peeped through, Esterhuizen went from excellent to exceptional and topped up his maiden international half-century from game four with a new career-best: 75 off 33 balls in the finale. His on-side dominance was on display, as he scored 52 runs in that half of the ground, including five of his six sixes. The biggest ones came off McConchie who he hit back over his head, then over midwicket and over square leg. In total, Esterhuizen scored 21 runs off 8 balls but wasn’t shy to show what he could do against the quicks either. In the last two overs, he took 25 runs off Kyle Jamieson and Sears. His innings ended when he tried to send a Sears full toss to Neesham with two balls to go and he ended the series with a total of 200 runs, 100 more than his nearest competitor, Devon Conway.
It’s been a tough few months for Jason Smith. He only played one game at the T20 World Cup, despite being a first-choice pick in the squad and has not managed to get one score over 20 in five innings on this tour. And then things seemed to become tougher. Smith was at extra cover when Dane Cleaver, on 1, backed away from a Gerald Coetzee ball and smashed it to him. It was hit hard and could have taken some holding onto but Smith let it burst through his hands. Luckily for him, three overs later, the chance to do better came. Ottneil Baartman drew a leading edge from a Cleaver and the ball looped to him at point. He made no mistake and Cleaver was dismissed for 22. New Zealand were 46 for 2 after the powerplay and well behind the chase.
Contrastingly, Coetzee has had a wonderful 10 days after missing out on T20 World Cup selection and recovering from a torn pec muscle. He finished as the joint leading wicket taker, and the one with the lowest economy rate in the series. In today’s match, he didn’t concede a boundary until the final ball he bowled, and by then New Zealand were out of the game. Coetzee bowled two overs with the new ball, for 11 runs, and should have Cleaver’s wicket and then returned for the 17th and 19th overs. His penultimate over was a mix of quick short balls with the odd change of pace and cost two runs. Reward came in his last over, when he had Josh Clarkson caught off a leading edge at cover and McConchie caught at long-on trying to clear the ropes off a cross seam ball. Coetzee finished with 2 for 21 in four overs.
Brief scores:
South Africa 187 for 4 in 20 overs (Tony de Zorzi 12, Wiaan Mulder 31, Rubin Hermann 39, Connor Esterhuizen 75, Dian Foresster 21*; Zak Foulkes 1-22, Ben Sears 2-37, Josh Clarkson 1-14) beat New Zealand 154 for 8 in 20 overs (Tim Robinson 25, Dane Cleaver 22 , Nick Kelley 14, Bevan Jacobs 36, James Neesham 24, Josh Clarkson 13; Gerald Coetzee 2-21, Wiaan Mulder 2-28, Ottneil Baartman 2-33, Keshav Maharaj 1-35)by 33 runs
(Cricinfo)
Russia has launched the largest aerial attack on Ukraine over a 24-hour period since the war began, hitting cities across the country with 948 drones.
Ukraine’s Air Force said 556 drones had been fired since 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday, in an unusual daytime attack which killed at least three people and injured dozens.
In the western city of Lviv, the 16th century Bernardine monastery – part of a Unesco World Heritage site in the city centre – was damaged, local officials said.
In the neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk region, a maternity hospital was hit.
Those strikes came after an overnight Russian attack left five people dead. Ukraine said 392 drones and 34 missiles were fired.
In his video address on Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the scale of the latest attacks “clearly shows that Russia has no intention of really ending this war”.
Russia’s military has not publicly commented on the attacks.
A video posted earlier on Tuesday by Lviv authorities showed a fire burning through the roof of a residential building near the Bernardine monastery.
Separate footage posted on social media showed a drone flying lower over the city and hitting the residential building.
Lviv regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said 32 people were injured in the Russian attack.
In the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, two people were killed and another four – including a six-year-old child – were injured, local officials said.
Various buildings – including a maternity hospital – were damaged in the regional capital.
Ternopil – another western Ukrainian city – was also targeted on Tuesday. A number of direct hits were reported by regional authorities, but no casualties.
In the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, one person was killed and 13 injured, regional head Nataliya Zabolotna said.
In the overnight Russian attacks, five people were killed when Russia targeted 11 Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it had managed to shoot down most of the Russian drones and missiles – but admitted that there were multiple direct hits across the country.
Yurii Ihnat, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, said late on Tuesday that a “large number of drones” had entered Ukrainian airspace from the north of the country, “effectively moving in columns”.
“The geography of the strikes during the daytime was broader than at night… It can be said this was one of the largest attacks within a 24-hour period,” he said.
While more than four years of war have left virtually no corner of Ukraine untouched, the west of the country has been hit comparatively less intensely and frequently than other areas nearer the Russian border in the east.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the war continues unabated, with Moscow launching near-daily attacks on cities across the country.
Also on Tuesday, the governor of Russia’s western Kursk region said one man was killed and 13 people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on an agricultural enterprise.
Talks brokered by the US and aimed at reaching at a peace settlement have stalled since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran in late February.
“Amid the news the world is drowning in every day, we will not let Ukrainian grief get lost, become just another statistic, a headline that will be casually skipped over,” wrote Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska on social media.
(BBC)
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