- Santorini in state of emergency after strongest quake in days of tremors CNN
- 'No Need to Panic': Israel Assesses Tsunami Risk as Nearby Santorini Earthquakes Intensify Haaretz
- Surge in earthquake activity prompts state of emergency on Greek island of Santorini The Associated Press
- Santorini: State of emergency declared as tremors continue DW (English)
- Amid Santorini earthquakes, National Security Council orders preparation for tsunami The Times of Israel
Palestinians share images of pre-war Gaza after Trump’s ‘riviera’ plan
Palestinians have been sharing images of Gaza before Israel’s war and its US-funded bombs, after President Trump's plan.
‘Degrading’: India opposition MPs protest US deportees’ return in shackles
India's foreign minister tells Parliament that New Delhi is engaging with US to ensure deportees are not mistreated.
S Korea orders airports to install bird detection cameras after air crash
Ministry of Land aims to install at least one camera in each of 15 domestic airports after deadly air crash in December.
Marcelo, ex-Real Madrid and Brazil captain, retires from football
Marcelo, who played at Real Madrid for 15 seasons, announced his departure from professional football at the age of 36.
Israel minister tells army to plan for Palestinians leaving Gaza
It comes after President Trump proposed for Gazans to relocate, drawing widespread condemnation.
Trump’s plan to colonise Gaza is rooted in an old white fantasy
The US president's imagined entitlement to other people’s land is very familiar to Africans.
Which countries have banned DeepSeek and why?
DeepSeek is banned on government devices in South Korea, Australia and Taiwan. More countries might follow suit.
Makeup artist tried to remove Adrien Brody’s nose by mistake on set of The Brutalist
Actor says nose mistaken for prosthetic by new makeup artists: ‘I said, ‘That doesn’t come off!’
A makeup artist on The Brutalist tried to remove Adrien Brody’s nose believing it to be a prosthetic, the actor has revealed.
Speaking to Jimmy Fallon earlier this week, Brody said that a new makeup artist began “busily working away with a solvent on my nose”.
Continue reading...Make first-time, low-level offenders go to rehab instead of court, Bar Council suggests
Exclusive: Barristers also say offenders could pay compensation to victims, in effort to tackle court backlog
First-time offenders in low-level crimes should be diverted from trials by paying compensation to victims or enrolling in rehabilitation to solve the courts crisis, the Bar Council has said.
The government has proposed abandoning jury trials in some cases to tackle the backlog in crown court cases, but the body representing barristers in England and Wales said this was “not a principled response” and would not work.
Continue reading...Mandelson says he will treat Trump with ‘respect and understanding’ in new job as ambassador to US – UK politics live
New UK ambassador to US says is hoping to persuade Trump administration to maintain isecurity guarantee for Europe and boost growth
During PMQs yesterday Keir Starmer implied there were national security factors not in the public domain that explained why the government was so committed to transferring sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
Alex Wickham from Bloomberg says he has cracked the secret. It is all to do with the International Telecommunication Union, apparently. He explains this in a post on social media. Here is an extract.
The US and UK currently have full and unrestricted access to the electromagnetic spectrum at the Diego Garcia military base, allowing them to securely control American and British military and diplomatic communications in the region, as well as monitor hostile activity from foreign states, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity discussing sensitive information …
The US and UK are members of the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency based in Geneva, Switzerland which coordinates the electromagnetic spectrum and global satellite communications. If an international court was to rule in future that the US and UK were using Diego Garcia to run satellite communications in breach of international law, that would have consequences for the base and defense and technology companies involved in supply chains used there, the people said, highlighting the need to secure its legal status.
There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians, nor any reduction in the territory of the Gaza Strip. Palestinian civilians should be able to return to and rebuild their homes and their lives. That is a right, guaranteed under international law.
The UK is clear that we must see a negotiated two state solution, with a sovereign Palestinian state, which includes the West Bank and Gaza, alongside a safe and secure Israel with Jerusalem as the shared capital that has been the framework for peace for decades.
Continue reading...Violent storm destroys tents of displaced people in Gaza
A powerful storm has swept through Gaza, worsening conditions for displaced people.
Thieves steal 100,000 eggs from trailer in Pennsylvania as prices spike
Police search for culprit in Antrim township heist as US egg prices continue to rise amid bird flu outbreak
Police in Pennsylvania are hunting for thieves who stole 100,000 eggs from the back of a trailer, amid a US-wide spike in the price of eggs that has triggered panic-buying in some shops.
The eggs were lifted from the back of Pete & Gerry’s Organics’ distribution trailer on Saturday at about 8.40pm in Antrim township, according to police. There have been no arrests yet.
Continue reading...Racial gap widened in deaths among US mothers around childbirth in 2023
Black women died at rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women, CDC data shows
Black women in the US died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth in 2023, as maternal mortality fell below pre-pandemic levels overall but racial gaps widened, according to federal health data released Wednesday.
In 2021 and 2022, the maternal death rate for Black women was about 2.6 times higher than white women.
The maternal death rate for white women dropped from 19 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2022 to 14.5 per 100,000 in 2023.
The rate for Black women went from 49.5 to a little above 50, though the report says that increase was not statistically significant.
The rate for Hispanic women dropped from about 17 to about 12.
The rate for Asian Americans fell from about 13 to about 11.
Continue reading...US supreme court may revive doctrine that would curb federal agencies’ power
Case on nondelegation doctrine comes after conservative court substantially curbed regulatory power in recent years
The US supreme court may soon revive an obscure, pro-big business legal doctrine that could make it virtually impossible for the US government to develop new laws and regulatory rules that protect Americans.
The theory, called the “nondelegation doctrine”, could also potentially invalidate large pieces of bedrock American laws and protections put in place since the first Congress.
Continue reading...BBC and ITV slash big-budget TV spend as US streamers pour money into UK
Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky also among UK broadcasters making cuts as Netflix, Disney and Amazon pile on pressure
UK broadcasters slashed their spending on big-budget TV shows to the lowest level in almost a decade last year, even as their US rivals Netflix, Disney and Amazon ploughed hundreds of millions more into British-made premium content.
In a sign of the increasing competitive pressures of the streaming era, the amount spent on high-end TV shows costing more than £1m an hour to make by domestic operators such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, plunged by a quarter last year to £598m.
Continue reading...The Alabama museum grappling with the ‘Gulf of America’ – BBC.com
- The Alabama museum grappling with the 'Gulf of America' BBC.com
- Who owns the Gulf of Mexico and can Trump rename it? The Independent
- EPA Renames Its Gulf Division to Honor the Gulf of America U.S. EPA.gov
- E&E News: EPA renames water quality program to ‘Gulf of America’ POLITICO Pro
- 'Gulf of America' Name Change May Not Last Past Trump's Presidency, Expert Says CNET
Low growth and rising prices – it’s looking gloomy for the UK – BBC.com
- Low growth and rising prices - it's looking gloomy for the UK BBC.com
- Bank of England Cuts Rates While Warning of Inflation and Trade War Risks The New York Times
- Friday briefing: The Bank of England interest rate cut suggests there are more gloomy times ahead The Guardian
- Traders Boost BOE Easing Bets, Favor Three More Cuts in 2025 Bloomberg
- Bank of England signals further easing after rate cut, slashes growth outlook CNBC
Unambiguously bleak Bank of England forecasts pave way for spending cuts
Weak jobs market and above-target inflation will dent Reeves’s growth plans and may wipe out fiscal headroom
- Bank cuts interest rates to 4.5% and halves UK growth forecast
- What does the rate cut mean for mortgages and savings?
- Business live – latest updates
With the public finances tight and Rachel Reeves having pledged to balance the books, interest rate cuts are one of the few levers that could boost the UK’s economic growth in the short term, and the chancellor will be glad of the Bank of England’s quarter-point reduction on Thursday – and the clear signal that it is now in cutting mode.
Seven of the monetary policy committee’s (MPC) nine members backed the quarter-point drop, taking the Bank’s policy rate to 4.5%, while two wanted to be more “activist”, proposing a half-point cut. The Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, said the MPC would be “taking a gradual and careful approach to reducing rates further”.
Continue reading...Grenfell Tower demolition would risk fire being forgotten, some survivors say
Grenfell United says voices of bereaved have been ignored and they fear disaster could be ‘put out of mind’
The demolition of Grenfell Tower could mean that the injustice of the fatal fire is “put out of sight and out of mind” and forgotten, some survivors have said.
The deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, told a meeting on Wednesday that the 24-storey block in which 72 people were killed in June 2017 would be dismantled to ground level. The decision has prompted anger and claims that the government has failed to listen to the views of the bereaved and survivors.
Continue reading...