Briefly

IRAN

Khamenei to free 10,000 more inmates

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 10,000 prisoners including political ones in honor of the Iranian new year on Friday, state TV reported. "Those who will be pardoned will not return to jail... almost half of those security-related prisoners will be pardoned as well," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told state TV on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Esmaili said Iran had temporarily freed about 85,000 people from jail in response to the epidemic."The unprecedented point is that the pardon also includes the security-related prisoners with less than five-year jail sentences," he said.

UNITED STATES

SpaceX launches 60 satellites into space

US private space company SpaceX launched its sixth batch of 60 Starlink satellites into space on Wednesday, in an effort to build at minimum a 12,000-strong satellite network capable of providing broadband internet services. The Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the satellites, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:16 am Eastern Standard Time. The launch was the second time SpaceX has re-flown a full payload fairing. After landing in the water, both fairing halves were quickly recovered, according to SpaceX. However, an attempt to land the Falcon 9's first stage in the Atlantic Ocean on SpaceX's drone ship Of Course I Still Love You was not successful.

NEW ZEALAND

Law treats abortion as health issue

New Zealand has passed a landmark bill that treats abortion as a health issue rather than a crime, a major reform in laws that have been unchanged for more than four decades. The reform passed through Parliament late on Wednesday by a vote of 68 to 51. The legislation modernizes abortion laws in place since 1977 and proposes that a woman should have access to abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy, with advice from her doctor.

GERMANY

Anti-Semitic group banned, homes raided

Authorities conducted raids in 10 German states on Thursday at premises linked to a group accused of pursuing a mix of anti-government and racist ideology. Germany's top security official, Horst Seehofer, issued a ban on the United German Peoples and Tribes, the first time a group associated with the so-called Reichsbuerger movement has been proscribed. Reichsbuerger, or Reich citizens, have similarities to the sovereign citizens movements in the United States and elsewhere. They reject the authority of the modern German state and promote the notion of "natural rights", often mixing this ideology with far-right politics and esoteric conspiracy theories.