Lire la version en français

What exactly happened in Russia on Saturday?

Like just about everyone else on the planet, I’m trying to get my head around the short-lived insurrection of Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

There was a frenetic pace to events – Prigozhin’s taking of a key military command center in Rostov-on-Don, seven aircraft shot down, Prigozhin’s troops rushing up the highway toward Moscow, Putin loyalists digging up roads and taking other hasty defensive measures around the capital, Putin reportedly fleeing…

And then, just like that, it was all finished. There was apparently a deal. Prigozhin would go into exile in Belarus. That’s it, everyone, put the popcorn down. The show’s over.

This morning, analysts are still scratching their heads, suspecting the danger is not quite over yet. Speculation is rampant, and misinformation is rife worldwide.

China’s state-controlled media said divisions in Russian leadership are an “illusion,” which makes you recall George Orwell’s words in 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

My colleagues and I were following events closely on Saturday. We put together a statement expressing HRW’s concern for what the rapidly growing rift between Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group would mean for the general population in Russia. Neither side could, by any stretch of the imagination, be called “the good guys” in this fight.

This was the key point for us: both sides have committed recent atrocities. Russian forces in Ukraine and Syria, and Wagner forces in Ukraine, Mali, and the Central African Republic. Were we about to start seeing similar abuses in Russia, too?

That seems to be averted for now, but given how quickly events keep changing, it’s a concern that cannot be dismissed entirely. Nor can fears about even deeper repression in paranoid Putin’s Russia – which is horrible enough already – in the wake of the aborted insurrection.

Through all the confusion and rapid turnarounds of the weekend’s events, it seems only one thing has remained constant: Russian forces are still slaughtering people in Ukraine. A Russian missile attack on an apartment building in Kyiv on Saturday killed three people and injured eight.

A new report looking into last year’s heat waves in Spain shows how extreme heat and poor government response hit people hard.

Older people and people with disabilities suffered most. There were some 4,600 heat-related deaths in Spain between June and August 2022. More than 98 percent of them were people aged 65 and older. Half of all people with disabilities in the country are 65 and over.

The research focused on the cities of Seville and Córdoba, and nearby areas in Andalusia. People with disabilities described brain fog, difficulties breathing, low blood pressure, dizziness, weakness, sleep deprivation, infections, and loss of consciousness.

Most said the heatwaves affected their mental health too, with social isolation amplified during extreme heat, when they were compelled to stay at home for long periods. And with social isolation comes higher heat risks, including for mortality.

Andalusian authorities had a “Heatwave Action Plan,” but it failed to recognize the needs of people with disabilities and specify actions to assist them. It seems the plan was made without any input from people with disabilities or organizations representing them.

“I feel abandoned by the government,” said Laura Sanchez, a 41-year-old woman with a physical disability from Seville.

As heatwaves are only becoming more frequent and more intense with climate change, authorities need to go back to the drawing board with their “Action Plan.” Most importantly, they need to involve those most at risk to help reduce the dangers they face.

Last week saw another victory for transgender rights in the US.

A federal judge has permanently blocked a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender children in the US state of Arkansas .

The ban, enacted in 2021, was the first of its kind in the US and forbid health care interventions such as delaying the onset of puberty and hormone treatment. It also prohibited gender-affirming surgery, even though these surgeries are extremely rare for children.

Dozens of other US states, caught up in the widespread anti-trans hysteria across the country, copied Arkansas and introduced similar bills. As of 2023, twenty US states have banned at least some medical care for transgender children, rejecting medically accepted best practices.

But the tide may be turning.

The court called Arkansas’s ban unconstitutional because it discriminated against transgender children, violated parents’ rights to obtain medical care for them, and violated the free expression of medical professionals.

What’s more, the legal decision in Arkansas follows similar victories in Alabama, Florida, and Indiana, where federal judges also blocked bans on gender-affirming healthcare.

It’s a welcome trend.

(compiled by Lisa Maier)

• Istanbul: LGBTQ community tries to hold Pride amid arrests (DW) 
• Greek conservatives sweep back to power as far-right parties make comeback (Le Monde, English) 
• "The first thing they do is imprison you": Europe's new asylum policy (Der Spiegel, English) 
• UN: Create body on missing Syrians (HRW)