A 12-month-old girl died in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras, allegedly after being raped in the custody of the Directorate for Children, Adolescents and Family (Dinaf), whose director, Lizeth Coello, said this Saturday that the incident is being investigated.

The little girl died in the last few hours at the Mario Catarino Rivas Hospital in San Pedro Sula, in the north of the country, allegedly as a result of the rape and injuries caused in a home associated with Dinaf, according to her relatives.

One of the girl's relatives told reporters that three months ago the minor was taken into Dinaf custody, allegedly due to severe malnutrition.

Apparently, the girl was transferred on Friday to the state hospital, where the doctors would have observed some signs that the little girl was raped, and hours later she died. The girl's family demanded that the authorities investigate what happened and justice so that no other child is a victim of rape.

The director of Dinaf indicated that the institution has launched an investigation into the incident and confirmed that the minor had been in state custody for three months.. “All the details of what happened in the home and the reasons why the minor entered the care center are being compiled,” Coello stressed.

He said that he has appointed a Dinaf team to carry out the corresponding inquiries to clarify what happened in the home, and commented that the girl was admitted to the hospital allegedly due to a pneumonia problem.

Between 2021 and 2022, Honduras registered around 3,112 complaints of child sexual abuse of minors between the ages of 8 and 15, and most of them remain unpunished, according to official figures.

This Sunday, June 23, new general elections are taking place, where citizens over the age of 18 with the right to vote will go to the polls to choose their candidates for Congress and the Senate for the next four years.

On this occasion, the electoral advance by the President of the Government and PSOE candidate, Pedro Sánchez, is marked by the dates on which the comics are held, since it coincides with one of the holiday periods where more citizens are away from their homes, which has caused some problems when it comes to balancing the calendars.

For many people, going to vote is an obligation and they do not want to ignore this new electoral date, since they consider that there are many things at stake and, for that same reason, they prefer to bring the end of the holidays forward rather than not go to the polls next Sunday.. “I had planned to spend a whole week in Barcelona, but I have brought the return back one day,” says a man from the Sants station in Barcelona.

Citizens who have not wanted to lose days of their vacations have opted for the method of voting by mail, which in these elections has broken a record, reaching more than 2.47 million votes, 94.2% of the applications admitted. “Voting by mail is the best way to enjoy the holidays,” says a young man as he waits for his flight.

In person or by mail, Spanish citizens are clear that voting this coming Sunday is important and, perhaps they never imagined that they would change their vacations to go to a polling station, but it seems that in the balance the vote matters more than one more day at the beach.

Dozens of brave women, including many hairdressers, recently demonstrated against the Taliban's decision to close hair salons; They protested with the slogans “Don't take our jobs” and “Bread, work, freedom and justice”, and were violently repressed by the Taliban security forces.

One of the women who attended, who did not want to be identified, sent a voice message to the journalists assuring that they were dispersed with sticks, electric shocks, tear gas and shots in the air, that they “beat the girls and took away their mobile phones”.

Another protester recounts that she denounced the arrest of some hairdressers who were protesting by the Taliban: “While we were running from alley to alley, they grabbed us and put them in cars. I don't know what will happen to them.” This is not the first time something like this has happened with women's demonstrations in Kabul.

Roya, one of the hairdressers who protested, worked with her mother and sister: “With this hairdresser we could at least cover our daily needs, but the Taliban government narrows the space in which women can move every day.”

The hair salon was an all-female place, but the stalls have still closed. Roya explains that most of the women are the breadwinners of their households and her husband is unemployed.. “I'm worried about what to do next. Who will feed me and my family?” she laments.

“This is an endless nightmare. By closing the hairdressers, the Taliban gave us their last blow to women,” says Zahra, another hairdresser, who says that this increases the economic and psychological problems of women.

“This was my only way to earn money, now I have no choice but to find a way to escape the country. I am really worried about the future of my children,” says Zahra.

Shakila, another hairdresser, points out that women have the right to work, like men, and to get a bite of halal bread with their businesses: “They shouldn't ban hairdressers entirely, I should think of a solution.”

The interim government has announced that women are prohibited from working until further notice. Also in foreign institutions, such as United Nations offices, and non-governmental organizations.

This ban eliminates one of the few shelters for out-of-home women

Rina Amiri, the US State Department's special representative for the human rights of Afghan women and girls, has said this move will further isolate the Afghan Taliban. On July 5, she tweeted: “Taliban ban on beauty salons removes another important place for women to work to support their families.. This ban removes one of the few shelters for women out of the home and makes the country the most brutal and extremely isolated in the world.”

Following the new order of the Taliban leader, 12,000 hairdressing salons close and the activity of all beauty salons for women in Afghanistan is stopped. With the implementation of this plan, some 50,000 Afghan women will become unemployed.

Women's beauty salons in Kabul, the capital, and other cities in Afghanistan were also closed during the early period of Taliban rule; they were reactivated after their fall at the end of 2001 and jobs were created for a large number of women in the cities.

Many of these salons remained open after the group returned to power in August 2021, but in most cases, the photos on their signs were spray-painted to hide the women's faces and they were forced to cover the windows.

Women's freedom has been increasingly restricted in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power. They have banned girls and women from attending schools, universities, stadiums and amusement parks. They have also ordered that women dress so that only their eyes can be seen, and that if they travel more than 72 kilometers they must be accompanied by a male relative.

These bans have continued despite international condemnation and protests from institutions, countries, women and activists who speak on their behalf.. Despite widespread reactions domestically and internationally, the Taliban have not lifted any of their growing restrictions.

Same-sex unions were legalized in Italy in 2016, granting them many of the rights of married couples. However, that center-left government refrained from granting full adoption rights under the idea that it would encourage surrogate pregnancies (which are not legal in the country).. Today there are more than 13,000 such unions.

According to the 2022 ILGA-Europe rainbow map ranking, Italy is one of the Western European countries with the worst record on the rights of LGTBIQ+ people. It ranks 34th out of a list of 49 European countries. But things can always get worse.

Since October 2022, the extreme right has ruled in Italy (it won the September elections). But she's not alone. The Executive is made up of three parties: Matteo Salvini's League, Forza Italia (the party of the recently deceased Silvio Berlusconi) and Fratelli D'Italia (Brothers of Italy) the far-right party of Giorgia Meloni.

And so, the latter, already as prime minister, has given an order to annul double maternity in the case of lesbians. The Executive disapproves that these couples raise their children together and affirms that Italian laws do not allow children to have two mothers. “We want a nation in which—regardless of each person's legitimate choices and free inclinations—it is no longer a scandal to say that we are all born of one man and one woman,” Meloni recently declared.

In Italy, marriage is between a man and a woman.. Therefore, only the biological father is the father whose last name is recorded.”

“In Italy, marriage is only between a man and a woman, and therefore only the biological father is the father whose last name can be registered,” argued another member of the government, the Minister for Parliamentary Relations, Luca Ciriani.

What is the deletion of the non-pregnant mother?

Four months ago, the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, sent a document to local administrations to suspend the registration of newborns of homosexual couples. In the same way, a similar treatment was requested for cases of surrogacy.

According to the instruction, birth certificates indicating same-sex parents, as well as the acknowledgment of filiation by the same-sex parent of the surrogate mother, “are not allowed.”. According to the Interior, the transcription of birth certificates of children abroad from surrogacy is not allowed either.

Who applies the measure?

The measure to delete the non-pregnant mother from the registry in the case of lesbian couples has begun to be applied. Justice has begun to act accordingly. The Prosecutor's Office is formally requesting that the registry of these families formed by two mothers be modified and the name of the non-biological parent be canceled in the data of the children of both.

The most striking case these days is that of the Padua Prosecutor's Office, which has issued a list of 33 birth certificates of children born to lesbian couples since 2017, asking judges to completely remove from the records the names of mothers who did not give birth to the child.

This is the case of Elisa and Camilla, Italian lesbian mothers living in Barcelona. They denounce that the Prosecutor's Office will take them to trial to eliminate the surname of the non-biological mother from the birth certificate of their joint daughter. It will be in November when the court must decide if the children lose one of their parents for legal purposes.

What children does it affect?

The decision affects not only babies registered in recent months (since the Italian Ministry of the Interior ordered mayors to stop registering the children of gay couples), but also children who were born and registered from 2017 to the present.

And what about surrogacy?

Brothers of Italy, Prime Minister Meloni's party, has presented a bill for surrogacy to be considered a “universal crime”. If this idea takes the form of law, Italian couples who go to another country to gestate could be persecuted and sentenced to up to two years in jail.

Why did the municipalities register them?

As in other cities in the country and taking advantage of a legal loophole, the mayor of Padua, Sergio Giordani, has been registering the children of homosexual couples in the city's Civil Registry. “Since 2017 I register the birth certificates of girls and boys children of two mothers. It is an act of responsibility towards the little ones because I do not accept that they are discriminated against,” Giordani told the media.

Since 2017 I register the birth certificates of girls and boys children of two mothers. It is an act of responsibility towards the little ones because I do not accept that they are discriminated against”

Also the mayors of other cities, Milan and Rome stand out, have disobeyed the guidelines of the Ministry of the Interior. Roberto Gualtieri, councilor of the capital, maintains that registering the children of a lesbian couple, born abroad, is a “legitimate act.”

The Minister of the Family, Eugenia Roccella, does not think the same, as she assures that the problem has been caused by those disobedient mayors. However, it recognizes that a solution is needed for the children born and registered so far. In this sense, he has been in favor of a “moratorium”.

What do LGBT groups say?

The Famiglie Arcobaleno (Rainbow Families) association considers that what is happening to these children is “a shameful and unworthy act in a civilized country.”. In a statement, its members affirm that in the past years no certificate had been challenged, but that “the Government, since it took office, has acted systematically to erase the rights of children” of LGTBIQ+ families.

It is a cruel and inhuman decision.”

“These children are being orphaned by decree,” says Alessandro Zan, a left-wing politician and defender of LGTBIQ+ rights. Para él se trata de “a cruel and inhuman decision”.

If it's health, what do the doctors say?

But also medical professionals censor the way of acting of the Government and Justice. The Turin College of Physicians has sent a letter to the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and to the Prime Minister expressing their concern, reports Corriere della Sera.

The lack of recognition of the children of homogeneous couples puts them at risk and exposes them to the danger of discrimination”

“Our appeal wants above all to call attention to the need to protect the children involved, who for no reason should become sacrificial victims or of alleged failures of the institutions or of political logic far from their reality,” the text reads.. “The lack of recognition of the children of homogeneous couples puts them at risk and exposes them to the danger of discrimination,” says the collegiate body of Turin doctors.

Does the whole right agree?

Even Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian fascist dictator, has criticized the decision of the Padua Prosecutor's Office. “It's like dropping a bomb on a family that hits only the children,” said the MEP. On his Twitter account, Mussolini considered that “he is attempting to break a chain of affections that is consolidated”.

Thousands of tourists have been evacuated this Saturday on the Greek island of Rhodes due to a large out-of-control forest fire and have been transferred by boats to other safe places on the island.

So far, more than 2,500 tourists have been evacuated with boats from Kiotari and Lardos beach, on the island's eastern coast, Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexíu told private SKAI television.

Due to the fire, at least seven towns in the center and the eastern coast have had to be evacuated, since the fire has a front of at least 25 kilometers.

In total, at least 30,000 people have had to be displaced and, when the evacuation order was given this Saturday afternoon, some 8,000 tourists were in the area.

The flames have caused damage to at least three hotels and have already reached the town of Laerma, in the center of the island, where houses have been burned, local media report.

In images released by the Greek media, you can see how tourists are transferred in vehicles to the evacuation points on the beach.

Videos posted on social networks show lines of several kilometers of tourists who, suitcases in hand, walk to nearby beaches to be evacuated.

All flights from Rhodes are full, so thousands of tourists cannot leave the island by plane, News247 reports.

The Rhodes Port Authority decided to requisition all tourist boats in the area to help in the evacuation operation, while a Navy ship has also been deployed in the area.

Eight people with mild respiratory problems had to be treated in ambulances. According to Civil Protection, tourists are being evacuated complying with the necessary security measures and so far no injuries have been reported.

The fire has burned thousands of hectares of virgin forest and this Saturday it spread from the center of the island to the eastern coast.

Greece is experiencing a wave of extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 44 degrees today in central Greece, while tomorrow, Sunday, thermometers are expected to reach 45 degrees.

At least four people have died this Saturday in a Moscow shopping center due to the explosion of a hot water pipe that has also caused burns to several people.

The incident occurred this Saturday in the Moscow shopping center of Vremena Goda and has affected some 20 people, according to estimates by the Emergency services collected by the Russian agency Interfax.

“Condolences to family and friends. The rescuers are still working,” the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, has announced on his Telegram channel.

Investigators from the Moscow Investigative Committee are currently examining the scene of the incident to establish its exact circumstances.

Likewise, the Russian Prosecutor's Office has opened a criminal case for possible negligence in the security of the center, according to spokeswoman Yulia Ivanova.

The Moroccan Police have arrested a Spanish citizen in the port of Tangier who was transporting 209 kilograms of cannabis resin in a car when he was trying to board a ferry bound for Spain.

The arrest took place last Wednesday night, according to sources from the security forces quoted by the Moroccan news portal le360.ma. The drugs were packaged and carefully hidden in the body of the vehicle, with a Spanish license plate, with which he intended to reach Tarifa.

The detainee is already being investigated by the Moroccan Public Ministry, which seeks to clarify the circumstances of this case and unravel the national and international ramifications of the attempted drug trafficking, according to the sources.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine estimated this Saturday at about 5,000 mercenaries from the Russian paramilitary company Wagner deployed in Belarus. “At first, when the mercenary groups began to enter Belarus, their number was estimated at hundreds.. But now, given the available information about representatives of private military companies, their number is, of course, different and may be as high as 5,000,” Ukrainian border guard spokesman Andri Demchenko said.

Speaking to the Ukrinform agency, he added that this figure does not represent an immediate threat to Ukraine, although the agents stop any scenario and the situation on the border is fully controlled. In addition, he stressed that the State Border Guard Service continues to monitor the situation regarding the arrival of Russian mercenaries in Belarus.

“Ukraine is doing everything necessary to understand the real risk and ensure reliable security due to the presence of mercenaries in a neighboring country.. We react accordingly,” the spokesman said.. At the same time, he emphasized that the Ukrainian border is being strengthened along its entire length and reinforced by all necessary means.

Its objective is to “exert psychological pressure”

The commander of the Joint Forces, Lieutenant General Serki Nayev, previously stated that the actions of the Wagner Group in Belarus are aimed at “exerting psychological pressure” and intimidating the Ukrainian population.

“We must not be intimidated because we know what we have to do and we are doing everything possible to ensure that the enemy's reconnaissance and sabotage forces cannot successfully operate on the territory of Ukraine, in particular in the direction of Kiev in the Chernobyl zone,” he said, according to a statement from the Joint Forces.

The commander, who made the remarks while attending military training at a critical infrastructure facility in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, specified that “to prevent enemy actions,” five sections of highway leading to the state border with Belarus were destroyed last week. In addition, more than sixty obstacles were created with forest debris and more than 2,500 anti-tank mines were placed, in addition to weekly military exercises.

The Portuguese health authorities have detected a new outbreak of the mpox virus, formerly known as monkeypox, which has totaled 37 cases in the last month, all of them residing in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region.

The country went three months without reporting any cases of mpox, but during the month of June it detected 12 infections and another 25 between July 1 and 20, the Portuguese General Directorate of Health (DGS) reported today in a statement.

All the new cases are male, the majority aged between 20 and 40 years.

Since the first case was registered in May 2022, Portugal has accumulated 990 laboratory-confirmed virus infections and one death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the end of the international public health emergency for mpox last May.