Israeli forces – and not Palestinian militants – shot dead a high-profile Al Jazeera journalist, the UN’s human rights office has concluded. A spokeswoman said the findings were the result of “independent monitoring” of the incident on 11 May. The killing of Shireen Abu Aqla, who was reporting on an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank, caused widespread outrage. Palestinians have blamed Israel. Israel says blame cannot yet be determined. The 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist was one of the region’s most experienced and admired correspondents. Abu Aqla, who was wearing a protective vest with the word “Press” on it as well as a helmet, was shot in a road near where a gun-battle had taken place between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. The Israeli military said its forces had gone into Jenin to apprehend “terrorist suspects” following a wave of deadly attacks against Israelis by Palestinians, two of whom came from the Jenin district.(BBC)…[+]

For many, after-work drinks are a common way of relaxing after a busy week. But one worker in Japan could be nursing a protracted hangover after he lost a USB memory stick following a night out with colleagues. Why? It contained the personal details of nearly half a million people. The unnamed man placed the memory stick in his bag before an evening of drinking in the city of Amagasaki, north-west of Osaka. He spent several hours drinking in a local restaurant before eventually passing out on the the street, local media reported. When he eventually came around, he realised that both his bag and the memory stick were missing.  The Japanese broadcaster NHK reports that the man, said to be in his 40s, works for a company tasked with providing benefits to tax-exempt households. He had transferred the personal information of the entire city’s residents onto the drive on Tuesday evening before meeting colleagues for a night on the town. City officials said the memory stick included the names, birth dates, and addresses of all the city’s residents. It also included more sensitive information, including tax details, bank account numbers and information on families receiving social security.(BBC)…[+]

US government lawyers threatened to quit en masse as then-President Donald Trump hounded them almost daily to help overturn his 2020 election defeat, a congressional inquiry has heard. Justice department officials said they told Mr Trump there was zero evidence for his claims of mass voter fraud. The attorneys also testified that the president’s plan to reverse his loss in key states was “a murder-suicide pact”. The panel is investigating last year’s US Capitol riot as an attempted coup. The House of Representatives select committee is seeking to build a case that Mr Trump’s efforts to stay in power in the lead-up to the violent raid by a horde of his supporters on Congress on 6 January 2021 amounted to illegal conduct. Mr Trump, a Republican, has described the inquiry as a “kangaroo court” designed to distract Americans from the “disaster” of Democratic-led governance and spiralling inflation ahead of November’s mid-term elections.(BBC)…[+]