Public figures call for release of Tori Towey, 28, who says attempt was response to alleged domestic violence attack
A 28-year-old woman from Ireland has been charged with “attempting suicide” by a court in Dubai, with politicians and campaigners calling for her release.
Tori Towey, who works in the United Arab Emirates as an airline cabin crew member, was allegedly attacked and left with severe bruising and other injuries in a violent incident.
Continue reading...Conservationists say it’s a ‘slap in the face’ to those who are trying to save the threatened species
The Canadian province of Alberta has quietly reversed a two-decade ban on hunting grizzly bears, in what conservations described as a “slap in the face” amid continuing debate over the future of the threatened species.
Alberta first banned the hunting of grizzly bears in 2006 after the population of the species, which once reached as many as 9,0000 bears, collapsed due to generations of overhunting, agriculture development and urbanization.
Continue reading...Authorities refused to grant access for judge and legal teams to visit island, where dozens of Tamil asylum seekers are stranded
The US government has blocked the UK from holding a court hearing in one of its own territories, it emerged on Tuesday.
The hearing was due to take place on the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to consider the fate of dozens of Tamil asylum seekers stranded there for more than 1,000 days who claim they are being unlawfully detained.
Continue reading...Nato official warns there could be further Russian strikes on Ukraine this week to try to draw attention away from event
World leaders flew into Washington DC on Tuesday for a two-day Nato summit where they are expected to agree enhanced military support for Ukraine against a backdrop of questions about Joe Biden’s mental sharpness.
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, were among those arriving at the US capital amid a warning that Russia could step up missile strikes on Ukraine this week, repeating a barrage that killed at least 38 on Monday.
Continue reading...Teenagers each given a year’s probation after creating and spreading faked images of female classmates in south-west Spain
A court in south-west Spain has sentenced 15 schoolchildren to a year’s probation for creating and spreading AI-generated images of their female peers in a case that prompted a debate on the harmful and abusive uses of deepfake technology.
Police began investigating the matter last year after parents in the Extremaduran town of Almendralejo reported that faked naked pictures of their daughters were being circulated on WhatsApp groups.
Continue reading...William Stampfl was trying to climb Mount Huascarán in 2002 with two friends, one who was found and one who is still missing
Police have found the well-preserved body of an American mountaineer who was buried by an avalanche 22 years ago as he tried to climb one of the highest peaks in the Andes.
Police in the Ancash region found the body of William Stampfl on Friday near a camp 5,200 meters (17,060 feet) above sea level. The 58-year-old Stampfl had been trying to climb the 6,768-meter Mount Huascarán.
Continue reading...New wave of displacement as airstrikes hit northern and central Gaza and IDF says forces engaged in ‘close-quarter combat’
Northern and central Gaza were hit by a second day of heavy Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday, attacks Hamas said threatened to derail new international efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Residents of Gaza City reported helicopter strikes, explosions and gun battles as Israel expanded its two-week-old offensive in Shuja’iya, an eastern neighbourhood, moving tanks into areas of the city where Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters have regrouped.
Continue reading...Rescue efforts continue after strikes that killed 38 people, as Ukraine president renews call for more air defences
Rescuers have continued to dig through the rubble of a children’s hospital in Kyiv after a wave of devastating Russian missile strikes across the country on Monday that killed 38 people, including four children.
On the eve of a Nato summit in Washington, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, renewed his call for more air defences and said the world had the “necessary strength” to stop what he called “Russian terror”. The US president, Joe Biden, who is expected to meet Zelenskiy, described the strike as a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality”.
Continue reading...Mayor describes transport minister’s decision to honour former prime minister, who died last year, as ‘crazy’
A backlash is growing in Italy against a decision to rename Milan’s main airport after the controversial late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, with the city’s mayor describing the decision as “crazy”.
More than 35,000 people have signed a petition calling on Giorgia Meloni’s government to stop the plan after the transport minister, Matteo Salvini, said he would give the final go-ahead to a decision by Enac, the Italian civil aviation authority, to rename Malpensa airport “in memory of my friend Silvio”.
Continue reading...Indian prime minister travelled to Moscow for two-day summit and ‘chit-chat’ amid diplomatic complexities
As India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, landed in Moscow on Monday, it was straight into the warm embrace of Vladimir Putin. Modi said the visit – his first since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – was to cement the “bonds of friendship” between the two countries, and later effusively described Russia as India’s “all-weather friend and trusted ally”.
The India-Russia relationship runs deep, dating back to the cold war, and Russia has long been the largest supplier of arms to India. Since he was elected in 2014, Modi has built up a much-publicised rapport with Putin, the two leaders having had more than 20 meetings.
Continue reading...Officials say 43-year-old man left his vehicle to take pictures of a breeding herd at Pilanesberg national park
A Spanish tourist has been trampled to death by elephants in a South African national park after apparently trying to take pictures of a breeding herd that included three calves.
The 43-year-old man was killed on Sunday morning at Pilanesberg national park about 130 miles (210km) north-west of Johannesburg.
Continue reading...Leading Democrat Adam Smith called on Biden to end presidential bid. Plus, one of the heaviest Israeli strikes on Gaza City since 7 October
Good morning.
Joe Biden’s position among congressional Democrats eroded further on Monday when Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee in the House of Representatives, lent his voice to calls for Biden to end his presidential campaign.
What are the polls saying? A New York Times/Siena College poll last week found 74% of voters thought Biden was too old to be effective, including 59% of Democrats. Biden v Trump polls have widened slightly since the debate, with Trump averaging 42% and Biden 39.7%.
Who are the alternatives? Vice-president Kamala Harris is touted by some Democrats, including Smith. The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, said she would not run for the Democratic nomination even if Biden walked away.
What happens next? Today is the official start of a three-day Nato summit in Washington, and the Biden campaign signalled he would also increase public appearances, with a press conference on Thursday and more events next week, to try to allay voter concerns.
What is the humanitarian impact of Israel’s assault on Gaza? After the invasion was sparked when Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 hostage on 7 October, more than 38,500 people have died in Gaza as Israeli attacks have decimated infrastructure and housing, displaced 90% of the population, and brought widespread malnutrition and famine to the coastal strip.
Continue reading...Johnston, 54, faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to felony count of civil disorder from January 6 riot
Jay Johnston, an actor best known for his role on the animated comedy show Bob’s Burgers, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021.
Johnston, 54, faces a maximum of five years in prison and pleaded guilty to a felony count of civil disorder. He was released on a $25,000 bond in June 2023 after an initial court appearance in California.
Continue reading...US firm’s move, amid Beijing-Washington tensions, sparks rush to lure users to homegrown models
At the World AI Conference in Shanghai last week, one of China’s leading artificial intelligence companies, SenseTime, unveiled its latest model, SenseNova 5.5.
The model showed off its ability to identify and describe a stuffed toy puppy (wearing a SenseTime cap), offered feedback on a drawing of a rabbit, and instantly read and summarised a page of text. According to SenseTime, SenseNova 5.5 is comparable with GPT-4o, the flagship artificial intelligence model of the Microsoft-backed US company OpenAI.
Continue reading...Man, 53, and woman, 74, killed by fallen trees and third person drowns amid howling winds and torrential rain
Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall in south-east Texas on Monday with howling winds and torrential rains, causing the deaths of at least three people, closing oil ports, and knocking out power to more than 2.5 million homes and businesses.
Before making landfall in Texas, the storm had already carved a path through the Caribbean as a category 5 hurricane, where it killed 11 people. It continued on to Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula as a category 2, temporarily dropped in intensity to a tropical storm but again strengthened to a hurricane over the weekend.
Continue reading...Ranking Democrat on armed services committee says debate was ‘alarming’ and urges president to stand aside
Joe Biden’s position among congressional Democrats eroded further on Monday when an influential House committee member lent his voice to calls for him to end his presidential campaign following last month’s spectacular debate failure.
Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee in the House of Representatives, issued the plea just hours after the president emphatically rejected calls for him to step aside in a letter to the party’s congressional contingent.
Continue reading...US president to host bilateral talks with UK leader travelling to Washington for major Nato summit
Keir Starmer is to meet Joe Biden this week for the first time at the White House as he travels to Washington for a major Nato summit of world leaders.
The US president’s press secretary confirmed he would host bilateral talks on Wednesday as the new prime minister seeks to underline the strength of the special relationship despite the change in the UK government.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed. For more on this story, you can see full coverage here.
Joe Biden is not alone in believing that all the talk of him dropping out is hurting the re-election efforts of Democrats nationwide.
Ritchie Torres, a Democratic congressman from New York, said much of the same earlier today:
Continue reading...Yevgeniya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk’s charges were based on play about women marrying jihadists in Syria
A Russian military court has sentenced a playwright and a theatre director to six years in prison on charges of “justifying terrorism” in a play about women marrying jihadists in Syria.
The judge sentenced director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk after moving their trial behind closed doors.
Continue reading...Museum has been plagued by numerous delays and has seen off almost 40 Italian governments
More than half a century and 39 Italian governments after it was first envisioned, a new museum will open later this year to house modern art from Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera gallery.
The Brera Modern, just a few doors from the main gallery, has been plagued by numerous delays, most recently the discovery of asbestos and problems with the conditioning system.
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