The man who killed Robert F Kennedy was granted parole on Friday after two of the former attorney general, senator and presidential hopeful’s sons spoke in favor of release and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars.
Related: 'Something died in America': John Lewis on Robert Kennedy's legacy
Continue reading...A satellite tag which unexpectedly kept working for a year has followed one whale’s 15,000km journey across three oceans
A loud bang shatters the winter calm of Port Ross, in New Zealand’s remote Auckland Islands, and the small inflatable boat is rocked by the swirl of a 40-ton whale being swallowed up by the cold, dark water.
When it resurfaces, the team of scientists are happy to see their US$3,200 satellite tag securely fixed to his side. The whale, whom they have nicknamed “Bill”, slips away into the ocean, the tag transmitting his movements. A few days later, researchers watch as he starts heading west towards Australia.
Continue reading...The Mauritius government has suspended financial support to local clubs and given the country’s Football Assocation until November to resolve its “governance issues” over the handling of voyeurism allegations at its headquarters.
Administrative secretary, Mila Sinnasamy, has claimed that a mobile phone in recording mode was discovered on 30 July was concealed in a blue basket placed in the water tank of the women’s toilet at the MFA’s headquarters in Trianon, 15 km from the capital, Port Louis. Police have confirmed that a file on the allegations of voyeurism will be submitted to the office of the director of public prosecutions, with Bindou Kistnairain, who works as a cleaner at the MFA, claiming that she also saw a phone in the toilets during her shift in May and did not report it due to fears of “being fired and any retaliation”.
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s options are limited in short-term as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan in days
American spies and special forces will be able to hunt down those behind Thursday’s suicide bombing in Kabul, although the effort may take years, experts and former CIA officials believe.
Joe Biden vowed on Thursday to avenge the 13 US service members who died in a suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport, declaring to the extremists responsible: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Continue reading...Cambodia to send inspectors to see if site is too similar to 12th-century complex that is a national symbol
A temple complex being constructed in the north-east of Thailand has become mired in controversy, after it was claimed the design was an attempt to replicate Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument.
The Cambodian government reportedly plans to send archaeologists and temple architects to inspect whether the site is too similar to Angkor Wat, the national symbol depicted on the country’s flag.
Continue reading...More than a dozen independent media sign open letter calling for halt to ‘foreign agent’ designations
Russia’s leading independent media have appealed to Vladimir Putin and other top government officials to halt a crackdown on journalists under which some of the countries’ top outlets have been declared foreign agents or banned outright over the last year.
More than a dozen media, including Meduza, TV Rain and Novaya Gazeta have signed an open letter to the government calling on it to remove individual journalists and their outlets from its blacklists and repeal laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations” altogether.
Continue reading...Analysis: Les Républicains face complex battle to find 2022 presidential candidate to rival Macron and Marine Le Pen
This week’s declaration by Michel Barnier, the former EU chief negotiator on Brexit, that he aims to run for French president has added to the uncertainty of a crowded field of candidates competing to represent the traditional right in next spring’s election.
The rightwing Les Républicains, the party of the former president Nicolas Sarkozy, is facing an increasingly complex battle to identify a 2022 presidential candidate to rival the centrist Emmanuel Macron and the far-right Marine Le Pen, who, polls currently show, could once again face one another in the final.
Continue reading...Health ministry says high level of vaccination means virus ‘no longer a critical threat to society’
Denmark is to lift all its remaining Covid-19 restrictions by 10 September after the health ministry declared the virus “no longer a critical threat to society” because of the country’s high level of vaccination.
“The epidemic is under control, we have record vaccination levels,” the health minister, Magnus Heunicke, said in a statement on Friday. “That is why we can drop the special rules we had to introduce in the fight against Covid-19.”
Continue reading...City aims to reopen parts of Senne but centuries-held view of it as toxic sewer remains surprisingly strong
While Paris’s winding Seine has been an inspiration for some of the greatest works of romantic art and literature, the unloved Senne running through Brussels has been buried away under concrete for the last 150 years, condemned by locals as little more than a sewer and cause of disease and unhappiness.
As a constant flood risk and source of cholera, it was vaulted in, built over and hidden from sight. Now, however, Belgium’s capital is preparing to stage an inauguration ceremony that officials hope will help force a rethink among Bruxellois about their centuries-held prejudices against the waterway.
Continue reading...WHO to ship 100m doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm by the end of next month, while the number of coronavirus patients in US hospitals has breached the 100,000 mark again
Two government advisers have told i news that prime minister Boris Johnson has privately accepted that there could be at least 30,000 further Covid-related deaths in the UK over the next year.
Johnson would reportedly “only consider imposing further restrictions if that figure looked like it could rise above 50,000”, with the government adopting a cost-benefit analysis on whether to impose restrictions which takes into account the economic impact and controversially put the level of acceptable cost to save a life at up to £30,000.
The prime minister is minded to implement another lockdown or new restrictions only if the figure of annual deaths looks like it’s going to go above 50,000. That means deaths from Covid of 137 a day, or just under 1,000 a week.
However, it won’t be an immediate reaction. A sustained rate of death of around a 1,000 a week for two or three weeks will, though, lead to discussion on restrictions being reimposed. Unfortunately, prime ministers have to weigh up the cost of saving lives to the impact on the economy. No one wants to talk about that’s how it works.
Decisions about how much to intervene to improve public health are always difficult for governments. Measures such as vaccinating children against meningitis or imposing speed limits on roads reduce death and disease, but also cost money and limit freedoms.
Finding the balance is one of the hardest decisions for governments, but is essentially what we vote politicians to do. In normal times, it is possible to use calculations of, say, cost per life saved, to provide some framework to guide decisions. In the UK, if an intervention costs less than £30,000 per year of life saved, then it is usually accepted in terms of healthcare.
That’s it from me today. Time to hand over to my colleague, Mattha Busby.
Here’s a brief roundup of what’s been happening over the past 24 hours:
Continue reading...The Australian photojournalist has been working in the Afghan capital as troops from the US, UK and Australia withdraw. A period culminating in two suicide bombings, which tore through crowds trying to enter Hamid Karzai international airport
Continue reading...People in need of water, food and shelter are fending for themselves as aid response complicated by heavy rain, gangs and distrust of international agencies
On the morning a catastrophic earthquake struck southern Haiti, Jackson Mason, a barber, was picking up water and other shopping from Cavaillon’s bustling market.
“The earth below me started to shake – people were thrown into the air, others yelled, praying to Jesus to save them,” Mason, 35, says. “Everything flew in the air, even the wallets in people’s hands.”
Continue reading...Authorities increase regulation of fame and fan culture that they say will tackle online bullying and protect children
Chinese authorities have banned online lists ranking celebrities by popularity, as regulators continue a drive to “clean up” fame and fandom culture.
According to regulations published in state media, all existing lists that rank Chinese stars must also be removed from the internet.
Continue reading...Reports of forced labour and severe punishments for detainees add to growing evidence of abuses worsening during the pandemic
Detainees in North Korea are forced into gruelling manual labour and beaten so severely it may be a form of torture, the UN has said, as it warned that Covid-19 had exacerbated human rights concerns in the notoriously oppressive country.
In a report to be presented at the UN general assembly in September, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said fresh accounts given to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) had added to “a growing body of information confirming consistent patterns of human rights violations”.
Continue reading...Auckland and the neighbouring region of Northland are likely to stay in level 4 lockdown for another two weeks
New Zealand will remain in a full lockdown until midnight on Tuesday, with regions south of Auckland moving to level 3 after then, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has announced.
The update came after 70 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the community, bringing the total number in New Zealand’s outbreak to 347.
Continue reading...La Barraca de Cine has spent the past year roving its way around dozens of communities across the country
Stretching six metres and painted turquoise, the trailer has trundled across Spain, making its way to mountaintop villages, cobblestone plazas and medieval historical centres. No matter the location, the process starts much in the same way: with the unfurling of a giant screen.
“Our motto is cinema for everyone and anywhere,” said Patricia de Luna, one of the co-founders of La Barraca de Cine, a roving cinema that has made its way to dozens of villages across Spain in the past year. “Those evenings of cinema with family, friends and that shared experience with those around you – that’s the magic we want to create.”
Continue reading...An Instagram account had called on people to get involved in the Queen Street demonstration
A one-person anti-lockdown protest in central Auckland has been shut down, after the police were alerted to discussions of a potential gathering on social media.
New Zealand police said officers were on Queen Street on Friday after hearing a protest was being planned, but only one person arrived with the intention of protesting, Newshub reported.
Continue reading...Joe Biden left with no good options after deadliest day for US troops in Afghanistan in more than a decade
The tempting comparison between the withdrawals of US forces from Kabul in 2021 and Saigon in 1975 has offered diminishing returns over the past 12 days.
Whereas about 7,000 people were evacuated from Vietnam (5,500 Vietnamese civilians and about 1,500 Americans), more than 95,000 people have left Afghanistan in a historic airlift since 14 August, the day before the capital fell to the Taliban.
Continue reading...The president said the US would 'hunt down' those responsible for the attack on the international airport in Kabul in which more than 60 people were killed, including 12 US military personnel.
Biden said the evacuation of Americans and others from Afghanistan would continue after two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans near the airport on Thursday
Continue reading...Gen Kenneth F McKenzie confirmed the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) had taken responsibility for the suicide bomb attacks at Kabul's airport and the US would take action against those behind it.
Two suicide bombs exploded near the main entrances to the airport hours after western intelligence agencies warned of an imminent and 'very credible' terrorist threat; the Pentagon confirmed that they expect attacks to continue
Continue reading...