International

Rio police tear down memorial for favela raid victims

AFP

Police in Rio de Janeiro have torn down a small memorial to the 28 people killed last year in an anti-drug trafficking operation in the slum of Jacarezinho, the bloodiest raid in the Brazilian city’s history.

Residents and rights activists had erected the memorial last week to mark the anniversary of the violence on May 6, 2021, when 27 alleged suspects and one officer were killed in an operation that turned the impoverished “favela” neighborhood into a war zone.

The memorial — a small blue wall in a public square — had four rows of plaques bearing the victims’ names.

Police pounded and pried the plaques off the wall with hammers and a crowbar Wednesday, then tied it to an armored vehicle and pulled it down. Video showed the memorial shattering into pieces when it fell.

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Police said in a statement sent to AFP the memorial was “unauthorized” and “illegal.”

It was removed for “defending drug trafficking, given that the 27 dead had police records and demonstrated involvement in criminal activities,” it said.

The family of the policeman killed in the operation had not given permission for his name to appear “alongside those of the drug traffickers,” it added.

Residents and rights groups say the police killed people indiscriminately during the raid, executing some of the victims in cold blood.

Despite an international outcry and a UN call for an independent investigation, just four police and two alleged drug traffickers face charges over the violence that day.

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Most cases were closed for lack of evidence.

“It’s absurd to tear down this tribute,” said Guilherme Pimentel, the ombudsman for the Rio public defender’s office.

“It was not a defense of drug trafficking, it was a memorial to console victims’ families,” he told AFP.

International

Iran Reports 201 Dead, 747 Injured After U.S. and Israeli Strikes

The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported Sunday night (local time) that at least 201 people were killed and 747 injured following attacks carried out by Israel and the United States against the Islamic Republic.

A spokesperson for the humanitarian organization said more than 220 rescue teams have been deployed across affected areas and that relief operations are continuing without interruption. The official highlighted the difficulty of treating the large number of wounded and the urgent need for additional resources in impacted provinces.

Out of Iran’s 31 provinces, 24 have reported damage, according to a statement carried by the Isna news agency. This marks the first overall casualty toll released by Iranian state-affiliated media since the launch of the offensive.

Among the dead are 85 schoolgirls from a school in the southern city of Minab, according to the country’s judiciary. “The number of martyrs at the Minab girls’ school has risen to 85,” the local prosecutor’s office said, as quoted by the judiciary’s website, Mizan Online.

Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian described the attack as a “savagery” that “constitutes a new black page in the record of countless crimes committed by the aggressors.”

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Meanwhile, the international community continues to monitor the situation closely amid concerns about possible further reprisals and the broader impact on Middle East stability, energy markets, and global security.

AFP noted that it was unable to independently verify the casualty figures or the circumstances surrounding the events.

International

Pope Leo XIV Urges End to ‘Spiral of Violence’ in Middle East

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence” in the Middle East, following military strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran and subsequent retaliatory bombardments in the region.

“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I urge the parties involved to assume their moral responsibility and stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” the pontiff told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

Speaking during the Angelus prayer, the U.S.-born pope said stability and peace cannot be achieved through threats or weapons. “Stability and peace are not built with reciprocal threats or with arms that sow destruction, suffering and death, but only through reasonable, sincere and responsible dialogue,” he declared.

The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics also called for diplomacy to “regain its role” amid escalating tensions.

In addition, the pope urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to urgently resume dialogue after several days of clashes between the two countries.

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International

Security Council to Hold Emergency Meeting on Middle East Crisis

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday condemned the “military escalation in the Middle East” following attacks by the United States and Israel against Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes, just hours before an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I call for the immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” Guterres said in a statement.

The Security Council is scheduled to meet on Saturday at 21:00 GMT (4:00 p.m. in New York) to address “the situation in the Middle East,” the United Nations announced.

The meeting, during which Guterres will deliver remarks, was convened at the request of France, Bahrain, Colombia, Russia and China, according to a diplomatic source.