Russian chess player accused of poison plot during championship
(LONDON) — A Russian chess player has been suspended from participating in all competitions after being accused of trying to poison her opponent’s pieces, officials have announced.
Amina Abakarova is now under investigation by the Russian Chess Federation regarding her alleged plot against a rival during the Dagestan Republic Championship in Makhachkala; the capital of Russia’s Dagestan republic.
Andrey Filatov, the president of the Russian Chess Federation, said the organization is temporarily suspending Abakarova — who is from Dagestan — from all of its competitions until law enforcement agencies conclude their probe. Punishment could include a lifetime disqualification, Filatov said. Abakarova may even face criminal charges.
Dagestan Sports Minister Sazhid Sazhidov said in a statement that Abakarova had “treated the table at which she was sitting with an unknown substance, which later turned out to be mercury compounds.” Her opponent was fellow Dagestani Umaiganat Osmanov, Sazhidov said.
Sazhidov added that he was “perplexed by what happened, and the motives that guided such an experienced athlete as Amina Abakarova are also incomprehensible to me.”
“The actions she committed could have led to the saddest outcome; they threatened the lives of everyone who was in the chess house, including herself. Now she will have to answer for what she did before the law,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A violent protest broke out in the United Kingdom on Tuesday in the wake of a vigil for the victims of a deadly stabbing spree, resulting in nearly two dozen officers injured and cars set on fire, police said.
Twenty-two officers were injured, eight seriously, following “violent disorder” in Southport, a seaside town about 20 miles north of Liverpool, according to Merseyside police.
The protest broke out Tuesday evening after a large group of people started throwing bricks at a mosque in Southport, police said. The protesters are believed to be supporters of the far-right English Defence League, police said.
Cars were set on fire and a local convenience store was also damaged, police said.
The protest followed a peaceful vigil for the victims of a deadly stabbing that occurred a day prior in the town.
Three children were killed and nine others injured in the stabbing incident, police said. Two adults were also injured while trying to protect the children, police said.
Merseyside police said the children were attending a Taylor Swift-themed event at a dance school at the time.
A 17-year-old boy from Banks, a coastal village in Lancashire, just outside Southport, was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, police said. The suspect, whose name was not released, was born in Cardiff, Wales, police said.
The motive remains unclear, police said.
Tuesday’s protests were apparently fueled by “speculation” over the unidentified suspect, Merseyside Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss said.
“There has been much speculation and hypothesis around the status of a 17-year-old male who is currently in police custody and some individuals are using this to bring violence and disorder to our streets,” Goss said in a statement. “We have already said that the person arrested was born in the UK and speculation helps nobody at this time.”
Goss said protesters used bricks to attack officers and damaged cars parked in the mosque parking lot. Officers sustained injuries including fractures, cuts, head injuries and a concussion, police said.
“This is no way to treat a community, least of all a community that is still reeling from the events of Monday,” Goss said.
U.K. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper also decried the violence, calling the attacks on police and the mosque “appalling.”
“The community of Southport are reeling from a horrifying ordeal and families are grieving,” Cooper said in a statement. “This violent thuggery, which has overshadowed a peaceful vigil for three little girls, is an insult to the community and to all those who need the space to process what has happened and to heal.”
Earlier Tuesday, hundreds of people attended a vigil for the stabbing victims in the center of Southport.
Three girls — 6-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar — were killed in the stabbing.
Five children and two adults injured in the stabbing remained in critical condition on Tuesday, police said.
(LONDON) — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is the latest government minister to tender a resignation amid what could become a major shake-up of top officials under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a lawmaker.
Ruslan Stefanchuk — the chairman of the Ukrainian Rada parliament — said in a statement posted to Facebook that Kuleba had submitted his resignation to the body, uploading a photograph of a letter that appeared to be signed by the foreign minister, who has been in his post since 2020.
Stefanchuk said Kuleba’s resignation would be “considered at one of the upcoming plenary meetings,” though did not offer a specific date.
Kuleba is the latest in a slew of top ministers to offer their resignations in what appears to be a significant government shake-up.
Among them — according to Stefanchuk’s updates — are Strategic Industries Minister Alexander Kamyshin, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska, Ecology Minister Ruslan Strilets, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna and Deputy Prime Minister and Reintegration Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
David Arakhamia, the leader of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People Party group in the Rada, wrote on Telegram on Tuesday that “a major reboot of the government can already be expected this week,” affecting as many as half of all government staff.
“Tomorrow is the day of layoffs, and the day after tomorrow is the day of appointments,” he added.
Oleksandr Merezhko — another member of parliament representing Zelenskyy’s party, and the chair of the Rada’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News that the reshuffle is intended to “fill several vacancies in the government.”
The move is also “partly because the government needs to get prepared for the challenges lying ahead,” he added, “especially during winter.” Replacements will be appointed this week, Merezhko said.
(LONDON) — Gazing into a mirror framed by a vase of bright flowers, Taiba Sulaimani begins to sing. The lyrics, in Farsi, offer a message of hope — I will fly one day, I will be free one day.
Sulaimani is one of hundreds of Afghan women and allies around the world uploading videos of themselves singing on social media platforms. The videos are meant to protest a law passed by the Taliban last week banning women’s voices in public and mandating that they cover their entire bodies.
Women in Afghanistan are not allowed to show any skin, including their eyes. Before this law was passed, however, it was put forth as a recommendation — not enforced — and many women would show the upper half of their faces in public.
The new law “effectively [attempts] to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows,” a spokesperson for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner said on Tuesday.
In response, women like Sulaimani are demonstrating that they refuse to be silenced.
“I recorded the video because I wanted to tell the Taliban, you can’t tell me what to do,” she told ABC News.
Sulaimani, who fled from Afghanistan to Canada three years ago after the Taliban regained power in 2021, didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her family. But, even though she currently lives more than 10,000 miles away, the Taliban still tried to intimidate her, warning her by phone that they can’t do anything to her, but that she also shouldn’t forget her family is still in Afghanistan.
But, in defiance, this only motivated Sulaimani further.
“It makes me sure that I have to go ahead with power, even more than ever,” she told ABC News.
Elsewhere, an Afghan woman now living in Norway, Hoda Khamosh, echoed the sentiment.
“We came to the conclusion that every voice can become thousands, showing that we women are not just a few individuals who can be erased,” she said.
Khamosh, who founded the Afghan Women’s Justice Movement, posted a video of herself singing a revolutionary poem saying that if you close your doors on us, we will use the windows to make her voices heard.
“We do not go to the field with a gun, but our voice, our image,” she said. “Protest is a war and a struggle.”
Even women inside Afghanistan are now recording videos of themselves singing, sometimes solo and sometimes in pairs or small groups, yet always wearing burqas that conceal their identities.
Zahra, a journalist in Afghanistan who asked only to be identified by her first name for her safety, said the situation on the ground is rapidly changing. Last week, there were many women outside, but since the passage of the law mandating women to veil their bodies, as well as their voices, she said the streets have emptied of women.
The new law now considers a woman’s voice intimate and they are forbidden to sing, recite or read anything in public. This comes in addition to other regulations forbidding women to leave their houses alone or allowing them to look or speak to men who they’re not related to by blood or marriage.
The combination of these restrictions makes leaving the home impractical at best, and even impossible in some cases. If a person violates the rules, they can be punished with a warning or be arrested, with a Taliban spokesperson saying the new law would “be of great help in the promotion of virtue and the elimination of vice.”
Now, many male family members often instruct their female relatives to stay at home since they don’t want trouble, Zahra said.
“Sometimes we have nightmares that [the Taliban] will come and arrest us,” she said, citing common anecdotes of rape and torture in prisons.
Although hope alone may not seem meaningful to many Afghan women, some now feel empowered by the outpouring of global support in response to the videos of women singing. Now — they hope — the international community will step in and tangibly do something to help protect Afghan women.
“Please don’t leave us alone with the Taliban,” Sulaimani said. “We all need your support.”