الكاتب: kafej

Iyer and Rahul tons help India to a 160-run win over the Netherlands, who finish at the bottom of the group standings.

Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul hit hundreds as Cricket World Cup hosts India geared up for the semifinals with a crushing 160-run victory over the Netherlands to keep their 100 percent record intact with nine group wins.

After their colleagues had departed following breezy fifties on a good M Chinnaswamy Stadium track, Iyer (128 not out) struck his fourth one-day international (ODI) ton before Rahul (102) exploded as the duo lit up the stage on the Hindu festival of Diwali to get India to 410-4 on Sunday.

Requiring a record World Cup chase to win, the bottom-placed Dutch side got good starts from Max O’Dowd (30), Colin Ackermann (35), Sybrand Engelbrecht (45) and Teja Nidamanuru (54), but they never threatened and were dismissed for 250 in 47.5 overs.

Mohammed Siraj (2-29) overcame a throat injury suffered in a dropped catch to dazzle alongside Kuldeep Yadav (2-41), Jasprit Bumrah (2-33) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-49) to secure victory for India, who face New Zealand in the semifinals on Wednesday.

Iyer reached his century in 84 balls and finished with 10 fours and five sixes while Rahul needed only 62 balls for his ton, getting there with two huge sixes in the last over that took India past 400.

The duo forged a 208-run partnership – the highest fourth-wicket stand in World Cups – as India scored 126 runs in their final 10 overs to post the third total above 400 in the event.

India put the Netherlands to the sword after winning the toss and opting to bat as skipper Rohit Sharma (61) and Shubman Gill (51) smashed boundaries at will to give them a superb platform with 91 runs in the powerplay.

Gill was severe on the bowlers with three fours and four sixes, but the world’s top-ranked batsman found the man in the deep while taking on a short one from Paul van Meekeren after reaching his 12th half-century.

The Netherlands chipped away and were rewarded when Bas de Leede had Rohit caught at wide long-on, but Virat Kohli (51) and Iyer took India past 200 runs in the 29th over with a 71-run stand.

Kohli delighted the crowd with a wide array of shots after a shaky start to his quest to reach 50 ODI tons and eclipse Sachin Tendulkar’s record, but Roelof van der Merwe briefly silenced fans by breaking his stumps with a flatter one.

Still, Kohli surpassed South Africa’s Quinton de Kock (591) as the leading batsman of the 2023 tournament with 594 runs.

In reply, the Dutch were never in the chase and kept losing regular wickets including Kohli striking with his gentle medium-pace to claim a first ODI wicket in nine years.

With the Dutch crawling in their reply, Rohit threw the ball to Kohli who sent back opposition captain Scott Edwards, caught behind in his second over off a ball drifting down the leg side.

It was only Kohli’s fifth career ODI wicket and first since 2014.

The innings folded in 47.5 overs with Rohit ending using his part-time off spin to send back Nidamanuru.

Rohit last picked an ODI wicket in 2012 and this was only his 10th career wicket.

Authorities have already evacuated Grindavik in the country’s southwest after a series of tremors.

Authorities in Iceland have completed the evacuation of some 3,700 residents of a fishing town experts believe could be destroyed by the eruption of a nearby volcano.

The town of Grindavik on the country’s southwestern coast was evacuated after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes in what was believed to be a precursor to an eruption.

“We are really concerned about all the houses and the infrastructure in the area,” Vidir Reynisson, head of Iceland’s Civil Protection and Emergency Management told the AFP news agency.

The town – around 40km (25 miles) southwest of Reykjavik – is located near the Svartsengi geothermal plant, the main supplier of electricity and water to 30,000 residents on the Reykjanes Peninsula, as well as a freshwater reservoir.

Grindavik is also near the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa resort, a popular tourist destination which closed as a precaution earlier this week.

“The magma is now at a very shallow depth, so we are expecting an eruption within a couple of hours at the shortest, but at least within a couple of days,” Reynisson said.

The most likely scenario would be a fissure opening in the ground near Grindavik.

“We have a fissure that’s about 15km [9.3 miles] long, and anywhere on that fissure we can see that an eruption could happen,” Reynisson said.

However, he did not rule out the possibility of an eruption on the ocean floor, which would likely cause a large ash cloud.

“It’s not the most likely scenario, but we can’t rule it out because the end of the… fissure goes into the sea,” he said.

The quakes and ground lift caused by the magma intrusion have already caused damage to roads and buildings in Grindavik and its surroundings.

A large crack also tore up the greens on the Grindavik golf course, an image widely shared on social media networks.

Iceland, which has 33 active volcanic systems, has declared a state of emergency and ordered the mandatory evacuation of Grindavik on Saturday.

Emergency shelters and help centres have opened in several nearby towns, but most Grindavik residents were staying with friends or relatives, media reported.

Three eruptions have taken place on the Reykjanes peninsula in recent years near the Fagradalsfjall volcano: in March 2021, August 2022 and July 2023 — all far from any infrastructure or populated areas.

The Earth’s crust has been fractured “so much over the past three years” by those eruptions, “helping magmatic fluids in finding their path faster”, said Icelandic Met Office’s (IMO) volcanic hazards coordinator Sara Barsotti.

Prior to the March 2021 eruption, the Reykjanes peninsula had been dormant for eight centuries.

Volcanologists believe the new cycle of increased activity could last for several decades or centuries.

Situated in the North Atlantic, Iceland straddles the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a crack in the ocean floor separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

A massive eruption in April 2010 at another Iceland volcano – Eyjafjallajokull, in the south of the island – forced the cancellation of some 100,000 flights, leaving more than 10 million travellers stranded.

Weather warnings are in place for Ireland and the UK as the newly-named Storm Debi is set to bring heavy rain and strong winds.

The storm was officially named by the Irish weather service, Met Eireann, on Sunday morning and the agency has warned that there’s a risk of “severe and damaging gusts” of wind from Sunday night.

A yellow wind and rain warning is in place for the entire country for Monday, with Met Eireann warning that it will be “very windy or stormy” amid heavy rain and possible thunderstorms and hail.

The warning comes into effect from midnight and finishes at 3pm on Monday 13 November.

A more severe orange wind warning is in place for 16 Irish counties and covers the period between 2am and midday on Monday.

Met Eireann has also issued a red warning for just off the coast of the counties of Clare, Limerick and Kerry ahead of “violent” storm force 11 winds – just one grade below hurricane force. This covers 2am to 5am on Monday.

What’s the weather forecast in your area?

An orange warning is in place from 1am to 5pm for the Irish Sea, where southwesterly winds will reach storm force 10.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has issued a yellow wind and rain warning for the whole of Northern Ireland for Monday, advising that Storm Debi may cause travel disruption as well as the flooding of homes and businesses.

They’re also urging people to be wary of possible fast-flowing or deep floodwater and flying debris, which could cause a danger to life. The storm may also cause power cuts.

The weather warning for Northern Ireland comes into effect at 3am on Monday and finishes at 2pm.

Yellow warnings for rain and wind have also been issued for the north of England, the Midlands, North Wales and the northeast of Scotland.

Storm Debi’s arrival comes after parts of Ireland and the UK were devastated by floods during the preceding storms, Babet and Ciaran.

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The record-breaking Storm Ciaran battered the Channel Islands with hurricane-strength gusts of 104mph just weeks ago, leaving flights to them cancelled.

Areas of Ireland and England also suffered damage, with 10,000 homes in Cornwall being left without power while hundreds of schools were forced to close.

A menu for first-class passengers travelling on the Titanic has sold for more than £80,000 at auction.

The “remarkable” relic fetched £84,000 at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on Saturday.

The menu, which shows signs of water damage, boasts a menu of oysters, beef, spring lamb and mallard duck.

It was served on the evening of 11 April 1912 after the liner left Queenstown in Ireland.

The Titanic struck an iceberg three days later – on the evening of 14 April – and sank the following day.

The menu measures 6.25ins by 4.25ins and bears an embossed red White Star Line flag.

It would have originally had gilt lettering with the initials OSNC (Ocean Steamship Navigation Company) alongside the lettering RMS Titanic.

‘Remarkable survivor’

Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said: “The latter shows signs of water immersion having been partially erased, the reverse of the menu also clearly displays further evidence of this.

“This would point to the menu having been subjected to the icy North Atlantic waters on the morning of 15 April, either having left the ship with a survivor who was exposed to those cold sea waters or recovered on the person of one of those lost.

“Having spoken to the leading collectors of Titanic memorabilia globally and consulted with numerous museums with Titanic collections, we can find no other surviving examples of a first-class 11 April dinner menu.

“The menu is a remarkable survivor from the most famous ocean liner of all time.”

Found in a photo album

The menu was found in a photo album from the 1960s by the daughter and son-in-law of late historian Len Stephenson.

He was an expert on his hometown Dominion in Nova Scotia and collected and preserved many records.

Read more:
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Rare footage shows ‘haunting’ dives to Titanic wreck

More than 1,500 of the 2,208 passengers and crew on board the Titanic were killed when the liner sank.

The ship was on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

First-class passengers included multi-millionaire John Jacob Astor, millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon and socialite Molly Brown.

David McBride, a former army lawyer who revealed information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan, could be facing a “life sentence” if found guilty in a trial that starts on Monday.

While Australia has established an independent special investigator into alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan, supporters of McBride point out he is facing a criminal trial before any of the perpetrators of the alleged wrongdoing he helped reveal.

“It seems strange that when clearly so many things went wrong in the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq, that I am the first person to [face trial]”, McBride told Al Jazeera in an interview before his trial began. “It’s extremely likely that I will be facing prison and not just short term but for quite a long time,” the defence whistleblower added.

McBride is open about the fact he leaked documents to the ABC, Australia’s public broadcaster, leading to a series of articles called the Afghan Files.

“I’ve been charged with leaking documents,” McBride said. “I’ve never made a secret of that.”

Instead, he wants the conversation to be about whether it was right to speak out.

“What I want to be discussed is whether or not I was justified in doing so,” the whistleblower says.

Although McBride, a former lawyer for the Australian and British armies, sees the information he revealed as being in the public interest, his ability to claim a whistleblowing defence has been limited by claims of national security.

He is going on trial “without the benefit of being able to rely” on a whistleblower defence, Kieran Pender a lawyer with the Human Rights Law Centre, an Australian organisation based in Melbourne, told Al Jazeera.

McBride’s trial will be heard by both a judge and jury and will begin in the Australian Capital Territory’s Supreme Court at 10am Canberra time on Monday (23:00 GMT on Sunday).

‘Wrongs of the past’

McBride has not been the first or only person to reveal information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

Dramatically, an Australian judge found earlier this year that journalists had not defamed one of Australia’s most highly decorated soldiers Ben Roberts-Smith by saying he was “complicit in and responsible for the murder” of three Afghan men.

That case was a notable moment that came more than seven years after the Australian government established an inquiry, led by Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton, into allegations that Australian troops had committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

In 2020, Brereton handed down findings that there was credible evidence to support allegations war crimes had been committed. As a result, the Australian government established a new Office of the Special Investigator, as an independent executive agency within the attorney general’s portfolio.

“We should be proud that Australia set up this process as a meaningful way to address these allegations,” Rawan Arraf, the executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, told Al Jazeera.

But while Arraf notes that McBride’s trial is separate from other processes related to justice for alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, she questions what it says about the Australian government’s priorities that his trial is proceeding first.

“Where is their priority in this?” Arraf asked. “Prosecuting a whistleblower or prosecuting those alleged crimes?”

Although one former soldier was charged earlier this year, McBride is still the first to stand trial.

Arraf adds that the Australian government has been “slow” to implement a recommendation to provide “compensation, or as we would say, reparations to Afghan victims and their families impacted” by alleged Australian crimes.

“Australia still has a long way to go to adequately address the legacy of its military involvement in Afghanistan,” Kobra Moradi, from the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organisation, told Al Jazeera, adding that “while some progress has been made” the trial of McBride was a setback.

“People should not be punished for telling the truth,” Moradi said.

For McBride, despite the trial going ahead, he still thinks revealing the information he did was important.

“It’s important for me to show that there are people in the West, especially people in the Western war machine who do get [that] we are not above the law,” he told Al Jazeera.

“We cannot have this kind of colonial mindset where we’re always right without ever having some sort of insight into our own actions and accountability for those activities we carry out overseas, especially involving violence and imprisonment,” McBride said. He wants people to know “there are people who are working to right the wrongs of the past,” he added.

Despite acknowledging he is concerned about his trial going ahead, McBride says he has people contacting him from Afghanistan and around the world “and that always lifts my spirits”.

Journalists and whistleblowers

McBride’s case is just one of several examples of whistleblowers and journalists in Australia facing consequences for speaking out.

In June 2019 the Australian Federal Police raided the offices of the ABC, with a warrant to search reporters’ notes, emails and story drafts in relation to the so-called Afghan Files. Police later dropped the investigation in 2020.

McBride is also not the only whistleblower currently, or recently, facing prosecution in Australia.

But he is going on trial “without the benefit of being able to rely” on a whistleblower defence, Pender, his lawyer, says.

“David McBride tried to argue that he was protected under whistleblowing law,” says Pender, “The government made a last-minute national security claim in relation to that argument that ultimately meant it was never decided by the court.”

Instead, supporters of McBride have been calling for the Australian attorney general to intervene in his case.

In 2022, Attorney General Mark Dreyfus did intervene in the prosecution of another Australian lawyer, Bernard Collaery, leading to the case against him being dropped.

Collaery had been charged with conspiring to release classified information about alleged Australian spying on the then newly formed nation of East Timor during negotiations over oil and gas boundaries in the Timor Sea.

Asked about whether the attorney general would consider a similar intervention in the case of McBride, a spokesperson told Al Jazeera: “The attorney general’s power to discontinue proceedings is reserved for very unusual and exceptional circumstances.”

The spokesperson also said that the Australian government is currently planning to pursue further whistleblower reforms, though it seems unlikely these will be applicable to McBride’s trial this week.