6-Year-Old Girl Among 7 Killed As Bus Overturns In Mississippi

Seven people, including a six-year-old and 16-year-old, were killed when a bus overturned east of Vicksburg, Mississippi, early Saturday, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said.

The two young victims were siblings, according to the coroner.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol said the incident took place around 12:40 a.m. on Interstate 20 near Bovina in Warren County when a 2018 Volvo commercial passenger bus traveling westbound left the roadway and overturned.

Thirty-seven passengers were transported to different hospitals with unknown injuries, the agency said. It said the co-driver was not transported.

"Anytime you have people injured or killed, it's tragic but when you have a situation like this where you have multiple fatalities and multiple injuries, it makes it even worse," Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace told an ABC affiliate.

Huskey said most of the passengers on the bus were Latin American.

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"Ship Tilted, We Were Thrown": Crew Member On UK Tycoon Mike Lynch Yacht

A crew member on Mike Lynch's yacht has spoken of being thrown into the water and efforts to rescue passengers as a storm sank the vessel off Sicily this month, in a disaster that killed the British tech tycoon and six other people.

Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch duty on the night of the tragedy, told investigators that the crew members did everything they could to save those on board the Bayesian, according to comments reported by Italian news agency Ansa.

Griffiths, the boat's captain James Cutfield, and ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton have been placed under investigation by the Italian authorities for potential manslaughter and shipwreck. Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.

"I woke up the captain when the wind was at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kph). He gave orders to wake everyone else," Ansa quoted Griffiths as saying.

"The ship tilted and we were thrown into the water. Then we managed to get back up and tried to rescue those we could," he added, describing the events of the early hours of Aug. 19, when the Bayesian had been anchored off the Sicilian port of Porticello.

"We were walking on the walls (of the boat). We saved who we could, Cutfield also saved the little girl and her mother," he said, referring to passenger Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter. In all there were 15 survivors of the wreck.

Cutfield exercised his right to remain silent when questioned by prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyers said, saying he was "worn out" and that they needed more time to build a defence case. Parker Eaton has not commented on the investigation.

Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said last week that the vessel was most likely hit by a "downburst", a very strong downward wind.

However, the sinking has puzzled naval marine experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm and, in any case, should not have sunk as quickly as it did.

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, have said their investigation will take time, with the wreck yet to be salvaged from the sea.

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Trump Backs Decriminalisation Of Marijuana To Save Taxpayer Dollars

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested his support for the decriminalization of marijuana, saying taxpayer dollars should not be wasted arresting people carrying "personal amounts."

"In Florida, like so many other states that have already given their approval, personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults with Amendment 3," Trump said about an effort in his home state to legalize the possession and purchase of up to 3 ounces for adults over the age of 21.

"Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the voters, so it should be done correctly."

Trump, who is the Republican nominee for president, said state lawmakers should create laws that ban use of marijuana in public spaces.

He added that someone should not be a criminal in one state when marijuana use is legal in others.

"We do not need to ruin lives and waste taxpayer dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana," Trump said.

Marijuana is legal in some form in nearly 40 states.
 

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Ukraine Air Force Commander Dismissed Day After F-16 Jet Crash

President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Ukraine's Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk on Friday, according to a presidential decree.

The dismissal was announced just a day after the Ukrainian military reported that an F-16 jet crashed and its pilot died while repelling a major Russian strike on Monday.

"I have decided to replace the commander of the Air Forces... I am eternally grateful to all our military pilots," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address.

He did not give a reason for dismissal but mentioned that personnel must be protected, and that there was a need to strengthen the command level.

Ukraine's General Staff said that General Lieutenant Anatoliy Kryvonozhka would temporarily perform the duties of commander.

The Ukrainian military did not provide a reason for Monday's crash but said the jet came down while it was approaching a Russian target. Oleshchuk said on Monday partners from the US were helping to investigate the incident.

A US defense official told Reuters that the crash did not appear to be the result of Russian fire, and possible causes from pilot error to mechanical failure were still being investigated.

The arrival of the first F-16 jets was a milestone for Ukraine in the fight against the full-scale invasion Russia launched 2-1/2 years ago.

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Two Days Of Israeli Raids Kill At Least 16 Palestinians In West Bank

Israel on Thursday pressed a large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed at least 16 Palestinians in two days, despite UN concerns it was "fuelling an already explosive situation".

The "counter-terrorism" operation underway across the northern West Bank since early Wednesday has killed 16 Palestinians, the Israeli military said. The Palestinian health ministry gave the same figure, after both revised earlier tolls.

The raids on several towns and refugee camps were launched as violence raged on in the war-battered Gaza Strip, the besieged Palestinian territory separated from the West Bank by Israel.

The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to at least three days of "humanitarian pauses" in parts of Gaza, starting Sunday, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the first case of once-eradicated polio had been confirmed in the territory.

Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday the measures were "not a ceasefire" in the nearly 11-month-old war triggered by Hamas's October 7 attack.

In the West Bank, columns of Israeli armoured vehicles backed by troops and aircraft were sent in before soldiers encircled refugee camps in Tubas and Tulkarem, as well as Jenin, and exchanged fire with Palestinian militants.

The army said it killed seven militants on Thursday, including five militants in the Tulkarem refugee camp.

A military statement said one of the five was Muhammad Jaber, also known as Abu Shujaa, who Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was its commander in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp.

Two other militants were killed in Jenin on Thursday, the army said.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called for an "immediate cessation of these operations", which were "fuelling an already explosive situation in the occupied West Bank".

- 'Continuation' of Gaza war -

The violence has caused significant destruction, especially in Tulkarem, whose governor Mustafa Taqatqa described the raids as "unprecedented" and a "dangerous signal".

The UN humanitarian office OCHA said "Israeli forces have repurposed homes as military positions" and were "effectively besieging" several medical facilities.

AFPTV footage showed bulldozers ripping up the asphalt from streets in the city. Widespread damage was reported to infrastructure.

Witnesses said the Israeli forces had withdrawn from Al-Farra refugee camp in Tubas where several Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, including two teenagers according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

AFP correspondents said clashes were ongoing in Jenin, where a drone was seen flying overhead and the streets were empty, and Israeli soldiers were operating in Tulkarem.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group said at least 45 people had been detained in the West Bank since Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesman said "10 wanted individuals were arrested".

Jordan's King Abdullah II appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza to stop the spread of violence and Iran's foreign ministry condemned the Israeli operation as a "continuation of the genocide in the Gaza Strip".

The United Nations on Wednesday said at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war erupted on October 7.

Nineteen Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, when it also seized the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew troops and settlers in 2005 but later imposed a crippling blockade followed by a siege shortly after the October 7 attack.

In Gaza, the Israeli military said it had "eliminated dozens" of militants in a day of combat and strikes.

The civil defence agency in the Hamas-ruled territory said Israeli shelling killed five displaced Palestinians in a tent east of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city.

- 'Lost everything' -

Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,602 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

The war has devastated Gaza, repeatedly displaced most of its 2.4 million people and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Palestinians militants on October 7 also seized 251 hostages, 103 of whom are still captive in Gaza including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

Increasingly desperate families of the hostages gathered at the border with Gaza on Thursday to deliver symbolic messages to their loved ones.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of the hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, yelled into a microphone: "I love you, stay strong, survive."

She later told AFP that the war had "gone on way too long" and there was "suffering on all sides... it has to stop".

In central Gaza, some Palestinians returned to parts of Deir al-Balah after the military had amended a previous evacuation order.

Mohamed Abu Thuria told AFP he had "found massive destruction everywhere".

Another displaced Gazans back in Deir al-Balah, Ibrahim al-Tabaan, said: "We lost everything."

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India Aims To Train 175 Civil Servants From Maldives This Year

India has targeted to train 175 civil servants from Maldives through tailor-made programmes in specific disciplines, according to an official statement issued today.

A bilateral meeting was held today between National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) Director General V Srinivas and Maldives Civil Service Commission President Mohamed Nasih to firm up the implementation modalities of the India-Maldives MoU for imparting training to the civil servants of Maldives over a period of five years 2024 -2029, it said.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed and renewed between the NCGG, government of India, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Republic of Maldives, for capacity building programs for 1,000 Maldivian civil servants on August 9 in Male, Maldives.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Maldives' Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer renewed the MoU for the period 2024-2029 as part of the development partnership discussions between both nations, said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

In view of the need of the CSC Maldives, the NCGG agreed to having customised programmes for middle level civil servants and senior civil servants of Maldives, it added.

"The CSC Maldives requested for tailor made specialised programmes in specific disciplines for which NCGG will be designing need-based modules. Five (5) programmes will be held in the year 2024-25 targeting a total of 175 civil servants," the statement said.

In 2024, the NCGG had achieved the remarkable milestone by fulfilling the mandate of training a total of 1,000 civil servants, including Permanent Secretaries, Secretary Generals and high-level delegates from Maldives over a total of 32 capacity building programmes in field administration for the civil servants of Maldives, including programmes for Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and for Information Commission Office of Maldives (ICOM) under the MoU signed on June 8, 2019.

Recognising the success of this collaboration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives, had requested for the renewal of the MoU for another five years, the statement said.

This renewed partnership will continue to enhance the capabilities of Maldives civil servants in public policy, governance and field administration, further strengthening the ties between India and the Maldives, it added.

The NCGG is committed to fostering knowledge exchange and collaboration on public policy and governance across several countries.

Its mid-career capacity building programs emphasise citizen-centric governance, improving service delivery and promoting innovations in governance. These programs also showcase India's best practices in digital empowerment of citizens and digital transformation of institutions.
 

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TikTok Must Face Lawsuit Over 10-Year-Old Girl's Death: US Court

A US appeals court has revived a lawsuit against TikTok by the mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after taking part in a viral "blackout challenge" in which users of the social media platform were dared to choke themselves until they passed out.

While a federal law typically shields internet companies from lawsuits over content posted by users, the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled the law does not bar Nylah Anderson's mother from pursuing claims that TikTok's algorithm recommended the challenge to her daughter.

US Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz, writing for the three-judge panel, said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 only immunises information provided by third parties and not recommendations TikTok itself made via an algorithm underlying its platform.

She acknowledged the holding was a departure from past court rulings by her court and others holding that Section 230 immunises an online platform from liability for failing to prevent users from transmitting harmful messages to others.

But she said that reasoning no longer held after a US Supreme Court ruling in July on whether state laws designed to restrict the power of social media platforms to curb content they deem objectionable violate their free speech rights.

In those cases, the Supreme Court held a platform's algorithm reflects "editorial judgments" about "compiling the third-party speech it wants in the way it wants." Shwartz said under that logic, content curation using algorithms is speech by the company itself, which is not protected by Section 230.

"TikTok makes choices about the content recommended and promoted to specific users, and by doing so, is engaged in its own first-party speech," she wrote.

TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.

Tuesday's ruling reversed a lower-court judge's decision dismissing on Section 230 grounds the case filed by Tawainna Anderson against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.

She sued after her daughter Nylah died in 2021 after attempting the blackout challenge using a purse strap hung in her mother's closet.

"Big Tech just lost its 'get-out-of-jail-free card,'" Jeffrey Goodman, the mother's lawyer, said in a statement.

US Circuit Judge Paul Matey, in an opinion partially concurring with Tuesday's ruling, said TikTok in its "pursuit of profits above all other values" may choose to serve children content emphasising "the basest tastes" and "lowest virtues."

"But it cannot claim immunity that Congress did not provide," he wrote.

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Maldives Police Investigate Alleged Coup Plot To Overthrow Government

Police in the Maldives are investigating an alleged attempt to topple President Mohamed Muizzu by stirring anger over the Indian Ocean archipelago's worsening financial conditions.

Last week, the main commercial bank in the upmarket tourist destination drastically reduced the foreign exchange spending allowed for Maldivians, sparking widespread anger.

Muizzu has slammed the move as an "illegal attempt" to overthrow his government, by making him unpopular and encouraging street protests.

"An investigation has been launched into the alleged coup attempt," the police said in a statement late Monday.

There have been no demonstrations in the capital Male, but scathing criticism of the government has erupted online.

"Hundreds of 'bot' accounts have been used on social media to encourage people to take to the streets to overthrow the government and incite public unrest," police said.

The bank said the changes, which they have since rescinded, came "in response to the escalating usage of foreign currency spent on cards and the static sale of foreign currency to the Bank".

The international credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the Maldives in June and warned it could be headed for a sovereign default after its foreign currency reserves dropped to $492 million in May.

The downgrade came weeks after the IMF warned the Maldives against a looming "debt distress", as the small but strategically placed country eyes further borrowing from main creditor China.

Pivot to China

Official data showed the Maldives' foreign debt reaching $4.038 billion last year, about 118 percent of gross domestic product, an increase of nearly $250 million from 2022.

Fitch had noted the government's debt servicing obligations, amounting to $409 million this year, would add to severe stress.

The crisis escalated over the weekend, when the Bank of Maldives Limited (BML) stopped debit card transactions and allowed a maximum monthly credit card spend of $100 for online transactions.

Maldivians use their cards to pay for tuition and medical treatment abroad apart from online purchases.

Muizzu told supporters late Monday the bank decision was a plot to discredit him, and accused some BML directors of being loyal to the former government.

"There is room to believe that this (cap on spending) was an illegal attempt to overthrow a legitimate government," Muizzu said.

The bank on Sunday raised forex spending limits after the Maldives Monetary Authority intervened.

Political parties have called on the government to tax hotels in foreign currency.

Since winning office last year, Muizzu has reoriented his nation from traditional benefactor India and towards China.

As of June 2023, the Export-Import Bank of China owned 25.2 percent of the Maldives' external debt and was the country's biggest single lender, Male's finance ministry figures showed.

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Israel Still Faces Threat Of Attack By Iran, Proxies, Says Pentagon

The United States continues to assess that the threat of attack against Israel by Iran and its proxy groups still exists, the Pentagon said on Monday, after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel in retaliation for the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander.

"I would point you to some of the public comments that have been made by Iranian leaders and others... we continue to assess that there is a threat of attack," Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters.

Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier that Iran's aggressive activities towards Israel had never been higher, adding Israel and the U.S. must be prepared to prevent the Islamic Republic from gaining nuclear weapons.

Gallant was meeting with top U.S. military officer General C.Q. Brown, who is on a trip to the region aimed at preventing Israel's war with the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza from engulfing the region.

In one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare, Israel on Sunday struck Iran's Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah with around 100 jets in what it said was a pre-emptive strike aimed at thwarting a much larger attack.

Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also met with the Israeli military's Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi.

"We are very determined to continue degrading Hezbollah's capabilities, eliminating more commanders. We are not stopping. Our mission is to return the residents of the north to their homes in safety," Halevi told Brown.

With three deaths confirmed in Lebanon and one in Israel following Sunday's missile exchange, both sides indicated they were happy to avoid further escalation for now, but warned that there could be more strikes to come.

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There Can't Be Any Divisions Among People: Muhammad Yunus To Hindu Leaders

Bangladesh's interim government chief Muhammad Yunus on Monday met the country's Hindu community leaders and vowed to promote interfaith harmony as he hosted a reception for them coinciding with Janmashtami.

The minority Hindu population has faced vandalisation of their business and properties and devastation of Hindu temples in the students' violence that ensued for days following the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5.

During the meeting, Mr Yunus said he wants to build a Bangladesh where everyone can practice their faith without any fear and where no temple needs to be guarded.

"Our responsibility is to establish the rights of every citizen. Our job is to ensure justice for every citizen," he told a group of Hindu leaders at the State Guest Jamuna in the capital.

"There can't be any divisions among people in our country. We are equal citizens. The interim government is determined to protect the rights of every citizen of the country," Mr Yunus was quoted as saying by the official BSS news agency.

"Bangladesh is a large family where the responsibility of the government is to protect the rights of every citizen," his office quoted him as saying on X.

Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad president Bashudeb Dhar, Ramkrishna Mission of Dhaka's principal Swami Purnatmananda Maharaj, and Hindu community leaders including Kajol Debnath and Monindra Kumar Nath were present during the meeting.

"We spoke with Professor Yunus for almost an hour and he said all Bangladeshis are members of a single family. We will eliminate any sense of communalism," Dhar told PTI.

Mr Yunus greeted the country's Hindu community leaders and promised to promote interfaith harmony, the statement said.

The CA office statement said the Hindu leaders greeted Mr Yunus on the auspicious occasion, saying they sought blessings of the Lord Sri Krishna for the harmony and prosperity of the nation and the interim government.

"Hindu leaders praised the Chief Adviser's recent comments at the Dhakeshwari Mandir, a sacred temple in Old Dhaka, saying it would help build a non-communal society in the country and ensure religious harmony in the society," the statement read.

During the meeting, they raised the issue of "Hindu property grabbing, including the land of Hindu temples".

The meeting between Mr Yunus and the Hindu leaders came as tens of thousands of Hindus celebrated Janmashtami by rallying at the famous Dhakeshwari Temple and other temples and Hindu monasteries by singing Vedic hymns, kirtans and bhajans.

Janmashtami is a public holiday in Bangladesh to mark the birth celebration of Lord Krishna.

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102-Year-Old Woman Becomes UK's Oldest Skydiver

A British woman on Sunday celebrated her 102nd birthday by skydiving out of a plane and said she hoped her daredevil antics might inspire other elderly people to stay active.

Manette Baillie said it was "a bit scary", adding "I must admit I shut my eyes very firmly."

Baillie told BBC radio she just wanted "other people who are getting towards 80 and 90 not to give up anything. Just keep going".

It's not the first time the centenarian from the village of Benhall Green in eastern England has taken on a daredevil challenge.

She drove around the Silverstone motor racing circuit in a Ferrari at 210 kilometres per hour (130 miles per hour) to mark her 100th birthday two years ago.

The skydive at Beccles Airfield involved Baillie jumping from a height of more than 2,100 metres (6,900 feet), with an assistant strapped into the harness with her.

Baillie said earlier she had been spurred into action after hearing about a friend's 85-year-old father who had done a skydive.

"If an 85-year-old man can do it, so can I," she said.

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Attacker Goes On Stabbing Spree In Australia, 4 Injured: Police

Four people including a police officer were injured in a stabbing attack in Sydney early on Sunday, police said, the latest in a series of knife assaults in Australia's biggest city this year.

A man who ran from the scene has been taken into custody, police said in a statement. There is no ongoing threat to people in Sydney, said New South Wales state Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

Police said no one was killed in the attack, which came after a "domestic-related" incident in a car that collided with another vehicle in the southern suburb of Engadine.

The attacker "was armed with what we believe to be a boxcutter," police superintendent Donald Faulds said in a televised press conference.

Aerial footage of the scene by the Australian Broadcasting Corp showed two crashed cars cordoned off with police tape.

Sydney, a city of 5 million, has seen a spate of knife attacks this year, prompting the New South Wales government to toughen its knife laws. The state parliament passed laws in June giving police electronic metal-detecting scanners to check people without a warrant at shopping centres, sporting venues and public transport stations.

In April, six people were killed and 12 injured in a knife attack at a mall in Sydney's Bondi area.

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US Rapper Macklemore Cancels Dubai Show Over UAE Role In Sudan War

US rapper Macklemore has announced he is cancelling an upcoming show in Dubai over the UAE's involvement in the conflict in Sudan, charges the Gulf state has denied. 

The rapper best known for hits like 2012's "Thrift Shop" made the announcement in a post on social media on Saturday.

"I have decided to cancel my upcoming show in Dubai this October," he said.

"Over the last several months I've had a number of people reach out to me, sharing resources and asking me to cancel the show in solidarity with the people of Sudan," he said.

"Until the UAE stops arming and funding the RSF I will not perform there," Macklemore added, referring to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that have been battling the Sundanese army.

War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army, under the country's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, which is commanded by Burhan's former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

For months, the army has accused the UAE of supporting the RSF.

In June, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations Al-Harith Idriss al-Harith Mohamed called Abu Dhabi's financial and military support for the RSF the "main reason behind this protracted war".

The UAE has denied allegations of RSF support as "disinformation", saying that it's efforts are focused exclusively towards de-escalation and alleviating Sudan's humanitarian suffering.

Macklemore has released socially aware music in the past, supporting LGBTQ+ rights while also criticising ills including poverty and consumerism.

In his latest track released in May, Macklemore voices support for Palestinians and also praises students across the United States protesting against Israel's war in Gaza.

The song, "Hind's Hall", is named after a building at Columbia University that students recently occupied and renamed after Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza.

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Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore, In Space For 80 Days, To Return Next Year

Two NASA astronauts who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard Boeing's faulty Starliner capsule will need to return to Earth on a SpaceX vehicle early next year, NASA said on Saturday, deeming issues with Starliner's propulsion system too risky to carry its first crew home.

The agency's decision, tapping Boeing's top space rival to return the astronauts, is one of NASA's most consequential in years. Boeing had hoped the test mission would redeem the Starliner program after years of development problems and over $1.6 billion in budget overruns since 2016.

Boeing is also struggling with quality issues on production of commercial planes, its most important products.

Veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, both former military test pilots, became the first crew to ride Starliner on June 5 when they were launched to the ISS for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission.

But Starliner's propulsion system suffered a series of glitches beginning in the first 24 hours of its flight to the ISS, triggering months of cascading delays. Five of its 28 thrusters failed and it sprang several leaks of helium, which is used to pressurize the thrusters.

In a rare reshuffling of NASA's astronaut operations, the two astronauts are now expected to return in February 2025 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft due to launch next month as part of a routine astronaut rotation mission. Two of the Crew Dragon's four astronaut seats will be kept empty for Wilmore and Williams. 

Starliner will undock from the ISS without a crew and attempt to return to Earth as it would have with astronauts aboard. 

Boeing struggled for years to develop Starliner, a gumdrop-shaped capsule designed to compete with Crew Dragon as a second U.S. option for sending astronaut crews to and from Earth's orbit.

Starliner failed a 2019 test to launch to the ISS uncrewed, but mostly succeeded in a 2022 do-over attempt where it also encountered thruster problems. Its June mission with its first crew was required before NASA can certify the capsule for routine flights, but now Starliner's crew certification path has been upended.

Since Starliner docked to the ISS in June, Boeing has scrambled to investigate what caused its thruster mishaps and helium leaks. The company arranged tests and simulations on Earth to gather data that it has used to try and convince NASA officials that Starliner is safe to fly the crew back home.

But results from that testing raised more difficult engineering questions and ultimately failed to quell NASA officials' concerns about Starliner's ability to make its crewed return trip - the most daunting and complex part of the test mission.

NASA's decision, and Starliner's now-uncertain path to certification, will add to the crises faced by new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who started this month with the goal to rebuild the planemaker's reputation after a door panel dramatically blew off a 737 MAX passenger jet in midair in January.

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No Access To Food: Indian Migrants Stuck For Weeks At Brazilian Airport

Hundreds of migrants from India, Nepal and Vietnam have been stuck in Sao Paulo's international airport for weeks in alarming conditions, sleeping on the floor as they wait to enter Brazil, according to the Public Defender's Office and documents seen by Reuters on Friday.

A spokesman for the office said a 39-year-old migrant from Ghana died two weeks ago of unknown causes. It was not clear whether he died while retained at the airport or on the way to hospital.

At least 666 migrants without visas were waiting to enter Brazil at Guarulhos airport, the official said, with the added uncertainty that the government plans to tighten entry rules on Monday to stem a flow of foreigners using Brazil as a stopover to get to the United States and Canada.

The migrants are held in a restricted area where there is no access to a shower and their movements are limited, making it hard for them to obtain food and water, while children and adolescents are enduring winter cold with no blankets, the official said.

The Public Defender's Office found that the migrants' human rights were being violated with their health deteriorating.

The agency said conditions for the migrants need to be urgently improved while their status is being resolved, and urged authorities in a statement to comply with Brazil's legislation based on the humanitarian principle of accepting refugees and not returning them to their country of origin.

Starting on Monday, foreign travellers without a Brazilian visa who are headed for another country must travel straight on to their destination or return to their home country, Brazil's public security ministry told Reuters on Wednesday.

Brazil has seen a boom in foreign travellers, particularly from Asia, landing in the country for a supposed layover en route to North America, the ministry said in statement.

To enter Brazil, they ask for refugee status, alleging persecution and threats in their home countries, but a majority travel north when they can, according to two reports from authorities seen by Reuters and a senior police source.

Now, those passengers arriving in Sao Paulo without a visa will not be allowed to stay in Brazil, the ministry said.

It was not clear whether the new rules will apply to migrants already at the Sao Paulo airport or apply only to those arriving after the rules go into effect.

Immigration experts are concerned that the proposed rules counter the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, to which Brazil is a party and which calls on countries to take in those at risk in their home country, even if they are undocumented.

The head of Brazil's refugee committee, Jean Uema, told Reuters the rules would apply specifically to Sao Paulo airport and there would be no change to Brazil's policy on asylum seekers.

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South Africa To Bomb Island With Pesticides To Kill Albatross-Eating Mice

Conservationists said Saturday that they plan to bomb a remote South African island with tonnes of pesticide-laced pellets to kill mice that are eating albatrosses and other seabirds alive.

Hordes of mice are devouring the eggs of some of the world's most important seabirds that nest on Marion Island, about 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) southeast of Cape Town, and have started eating live birds, leading conservationist Mark Anderson said.

This includes the iconic Wandering Albatross, with a quarter of the world's population nesting on the Indian Ocean island.

"The mice have now, for the first time last year, been found to be feeding on adult Wandering Albatrosses," Anderson told a meeting of BirdLife South Africa, the country's leading bird conservation organisation.

Gruesome images presented at the meeting showed bloodied birds, some with flesh chewed off their heads. 

Of the 29 species of seabirds that breed on the island, 19 are threatened with local extinction, the Mouse-Free Marion Project said.  

Mouse attacks have escalated in recent years but the birds do not know how to respond because they evolved without terrestrial predators, said Anderson, a leader of the project and CEO of BirdLife South Africa. 

"Mice just climb onto them and just slowly eat them until they succumb," he told AFP. It can take days for a bird to die. "We are losing hundreds of thousands of seabirds every year through the mice." 

Extreme conditions

Billed as one of the world's most important bird conservation efforts, the Mouse-Free Marion Project has raised about a quarter of the $29 million it needs to send a squad of helicopters to drop 600 tonnes of rodenticide-laced pellets onto the rugged island.

It wants to strike in 2027 in winter, when the mice are most hungry and the summer-breeding birds are largely absent.

The pilots will have to fly in extreme conditions and reach every part of the island, which is about 25 kilometres long and 17 kilometres wide. 

"We have to get rid of every last mouse," Anderson said. "If there was a male and female remaining, they could breed and eventually get back to where we are now."

The mice are proliferating because warmer temperatures due to climate change means they are breeding more frequently over a longer period, Anderson said. After eating through plants and invertebrates, the mice turned to the birds.

House mice were introduced to the island in the early 1800s. Five cats were brought in around 1948 to control their numbers. But the cat numbers grew to about 2,000 and they were killing about 450,000 birds a year. An eradication project removed the last cat in 1991.

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Beekeepers In France See "Catastrophic" Year As Honey Production Falls

Beekeepers across France say it has been a disastrous year for honey, with bees starving to death and production plummeting by up to 80 percent.

Mickael Isambert, a beekeeper in Saint-Ours-les-Roches in central France, lost 70 percent of his honey and had to feed his colonies sugar to help them survive after a cold, rainy spring.

"It has been a catastrophic year," said Isambert, 44, who looks after 450 hives.

A beehive typically produces 15 kilos (33 pounds) of honey a year, but this time, Isambert said his farm had only produced between five and seven kilos.

When it rains, bees "don't fly, they don't go out, so they eat their own honey reserves," said his co-manager and fellow beekeeper Marie Mior.

Low temperatures and heavy rainfall have prevented bees from gathering enough pollen, and flowers from producing nectar -- which the insects collect to make honey.

'Some died of hunger'

Bad weather has affected honey producers countrywide, with spring production dropping by 80 percent in some regions -- figures that summer harvests will struggle to offset, said the French national beekeeping union (Unaf).

Rainfall rose by 45 percent on the yearly average, Unaf said in a letter to its local branches.

"With weather conditions that have been catastrophic in many regions with abundant rain... and low temperatures until late, many beekeepers' viability is under threat," said Unaf.

Temperatures stagnated below 18 degrees Celsius (64 Fahrenheit), the minimum temperature needed for flowers to produce nectar, said Jean-Luc Hascoet, a beekeeper in Brittany in western France who lost about 15 colonies.

"For some of my colleagues it was worse," he said.

"In June, the bee population increases and the needs of the colonies grow but as nothing was coming in, some died of hunger," said Hascoet.

'Black year'

French beekeepers had already been reeling from dealing with several seasons of scorching heat and delayed frosts, according to Unaf president Christian Pons, making this "black year" even worse.

"Ten years ago, I made one and a half to two tons of honey per site, compared to 100 kilos today," said Pons, a beekeeper in the southern Herault region.

Honeymakers earlier this year protested against "unfair competition" by foreign producers, which led to the government releasing five million euros ($5.6 million) in aid.

French consumers eat on average 45,000 tons of honey per year, about 20,000 tons of which is produced in France, according to the left-wing Peasants Confederation union.

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Robert Kennedy Jr Suspends US Presidential Campaign, Endorses Trump

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said on Friday he would suspend his campaign, and endorsed Republican Donald Trump, likely ending a presidential bid that he began as a Democrat trading on one of the most famous names in American politics.

His campaign indicated that he feared staying in the race would siphon support from former President Trump, who is locked in a tight contest with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

An environmental lawyer, anti-vaccine activist and son and nephew of two titans of Democratic politics who were assassinated during the turbulent 1960s, Kennedy entered the race in April 2023 as a challenger to President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

With voters at the time turned off by both the aging Biden and the legally embattled Trump, interest in Kennedy soared. He shifted his plans and decided to run as an independent, and a November 2023 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Kennedy drawing the support of 20% of Americans in a three-way race with Biden and Trump.

He ran a high-profile advertisement during the February 2024 Super Bowl that invoked his father, U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and uncle, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and drew outrage from much of his high-profile family, who condemned his campaign.

For a time, both the Biden and Trump campaigns showed signs they were worried that Kennedy could draw enough support to change the election outcome. He faced an uphill battle in winning spots on the ballot as an independent but secured key positions including in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina -- half of the competitive swing states expected to determine the election's outcome.

But as the race changed quickly in the last two months -- with Trump surviving an assassination attempt and the 81-year-old Biden bowing to pressure from his own party and passing the campaign torch to Harris -- voter interest in Kennedy, 70, waned.

An Ipsos poll early this month showed his national support had fallen to 4%, a tiny number, but one that could still be meaningful in a tight race such as the current Trump-Harris matchup.

His campaign had signaled over the past few days that a change was coming, as Kennedy set his Phoenix address. His running mate Nicole Shanahan said in an interview earlier that if the pair stayed in the race as independents, they could ultimate boost Harris' chances.

In exchange for endorsing Trump, Kennedy was hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a super PAC supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday. He also wanted Trump to allow his political movement to continue in some fashion, which could include staying on the ballot in some states.

Kennedy painted himself as a political outsider. He told Reuters in an interview in March that if elected president he would not restrict abortion, would repeal many provisions of Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act and would seek to close down the southern border to immigrants entering the U.S. illegally. He also offered staunch support for Israel.

Trump mega-donor Timothy Mellon, an 82-year-old banking heir, has given millions of dollars this election cycle in support of Kennedy, and given $75 million in support of Trump, according to Federal Election Commission filings through July 31.

Shanahan has donated over $15 million to the Kennedy campaign, FEC filings showed.

In a video of a phone call posted online last month, Trump suggested to Kennedy that the independent candidate could do something to support the Trump campaign. Soon after, both candidates spoke a day apart from each other at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, trying to court votes.

BEAR, BRAIN WORMS  

Kennedy said this month in a video posted online that he dumped a dead bear in New York City's Central Park a decade ago and staged it to look like a bike had hit it. He proclaimed he had "so many skeletons in my closet" after a former family babysitter accused him of sexual assault. He denied that a picture of him posing with the barbecued carcass of a large animal belonged to a canine.

And then there was the brain worm. Kennedy had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has since fully recovered, a fact unearthed by the New York Times and confirmed by the campaign.

Those stories prompted ridicule from late-night talk show hosts.

The Democratic Party especially has been ruthless in their opposition to Kennedy's candidacy including waging legal challenges against his ballot access, as concern grew that Kennedy could hurt the party's chances in November.

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China's Rocket Debris May Stay In Orbit For Decades, Experts Warn

After accomplishing a noteworthy milestone of launching 18 Qianfan satellites, China's Long March 6A rocket broke apart on August 6, producing almost 300 pieces of trackable debris in low Earth orbit.

The first wave of these satellites was supposed to form China's "own version of Elon Musk's Starlink," the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband network. The rocket was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, located in the Shanxi Province of North China.

A report by The Wall Street Journal states that the breakup of the rocket generated a new concern over Beijing's attitude towards space junk.

Also Read | China Rocket Ends Up As 300-Piece Space Junk After Satellite Constellation Launch

The report quoted LeoLabs, a US space-tracking firm, as saying the event might create at least 700 fragments floating some 500 miles above earth, making it one of the largest rocket breakups in history. Starlink said the debris didn't pose significant immediate risks to its fleet, but the fragments are “likely to remain in space for decades due to the incident occurring at a high altitude."

#USSPACECOM statement on the break-up of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket: pic.twitter.com/Kf5cz0iZky

— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) August 8, 2024

China and other countries are pressing ahead with plans to increase rocket launches, raising risks for humans and satellites in orbit. Yet there is little global policing of unsustainable practices.

“Who can enforce anything in space? It's a bit like the Wild West at times," Quentin Parker, director of the Laboratory for Space Research at the University of Hong Kong, told WSJ.

Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow at LeoLabs, said China's recent record on generating debris related to Long March 6 launches was worrisome. “I hope it's a wake-up call for them, and they'll be part of the international dialogue," he said.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian, said last week that China “attaches great importance to space debris mitigation" and “has taken active efforts to fulfill relevant international obligations." Without giving details, he said China took necessary measures after the recent rocket breakup.

It also said in the report that the Chinese activities in space are pointing toward a worrisome tendency in the direction of space junk. In 2022, a rocket stage from China had an uncontrolled re-entry into the Sulu Sea, wherein NASA criticised it for less-than-adequate data provision. Major pieces of junk have been created by Chinese rocket launches, including Long March 6A missions, which are notorious for their bad history. While other countries did better, Chinese behavior was largely responsible for space debris that affects low-Earth orbit environments.

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Biden Asked Netanyahu To Pull Israeli Troops From Egypt-Gaza Border: Report

U.S. President Joe Biden asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move Israeli troops back from Gaza's border with Egypt as part of an initial phase of a ceasefire deal so that talks could continue, Axios reported on Friday.

Netanyahu partially accepted Biden's request made in their call on Wednesday and agreed to give up an Israeli troop position along one part of the Egypt-Gaza border, three Israeli officials told Axios.

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Who Is Miles Routledge, The Controversial British YouTuber

British YouTuber Miles Routledge is in the eye of a storm following his racist comments about India and a joke that he would launch nuclear bombs on the country, should he become the UK Prime Minister. Routledge, who gained attention after being stranded in Afghanistan during the Taliban's takeover, made the controversial remarks in a recent video. 

In the video, Routledge stated that when he becomes Prime Minister of England, he will use nuclear weapons as a warning to any foreign power that interferes with British interests. He then added a comment saying, “Hell, I might just launch at India just for the sake of it.” The comment was later deleted, following backlash. 

Who is Miles Routledge?

1. Miles Routledge was raised as an only child in Falcon Lodge, Birmingham. His father was a sperm donor, and he was conceived through in vitro fertilisation.
2. He attended Hollyfield School and completed his sixth form at Plantsbrook School in 2018. While in school, he worked part-time as a hairdresser and later pursued higher education at Loughborough University, studying physics and then banking and finance. However, he left the university due to controversies, including concerns over his book on Afghanistan.
3. In 2021, Routledge, known as “Lord Miles”, gained notoriety as a “dangerous tourist” during the Fall of Kabul. He planned a trip to Afghanistan to witness life under the Taliban's offensive, arriving in Kabul on August 13, just days before the city fell on August 15. Despite warnings from the British government, he travelled to the country, documenting his experience on platforms like 4chan, Facebook and Twitch. When the Taliban took over, he found himself stranded, seeking refuge in a safe house and eventually being evacuated by the British Army on August 17 in the guise of a woman in a burkha.
4. Following his escape from Afghanistan, Routledge returned to the now Taliban-ruled country in April 2022, preparing by putting his belongings in storage and making backup plans. He travelled through various countries to avoid detention and gave interviews while in Afghanistan. He also signed a book deal with Antelope Hill, publishing his account of the Fall of Afghanistan in December 2022. Routledge continued to travel to dangerous locations, including Kazakhstan, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, Ukraine and Brazil, facing various challenges, such as false imprisonment and illegal border crossings. 
5. In February 2023, Routledge embarked on a third trip to Afghanistan, where he was apprehended by the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence on March 2, along with other British citizens. He was detained for several months until his release in October 2023. During his imprisonment, he claimed to have been treated well, staying in a luxurious guest house, and described his detention as a “holiday”, where he enjoyed privileges like buying an Xbox and eating pizza.

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How A Waterspout May Have Sunk UK Tech Tycoon's Yacht

The marine weather phenomenon blamed for sinking a British tech tycoon's yacht off Sicily, known as a waterspout, may have been strengthened by unusually warm waters in the Mediterranean, experts said.

The 56-metre (183-foot) "Bayesian", being used by Mike Lynch and his wealthy guests to celebrate a court victory, disappeared into the sea within minutes of being hit by the tornado-like storm off the Sicilian town of Porticello.

One body has been found and Lynch, his daughter, and Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, are among six people missing since the disaster at 4:00 am on Monday.

The British-flagged vessel was anchored some 700 metres from the port with 10 crew and 12 passengers on board when the waterspout struck, according to witnesses.

Karsten Borner, the skipper of a yacht anchored nearby, described a "very strong hurricane gust" that hit. He was battling to keep his vessel steady when suddenly "we noticed that the ship behind us was gone".

"First came the wind, then the water -- it was a tornado," said local fisherman Giovanni Lococco, describing the waterspout.

Tornado power

Investigators and experts have been poring over the weather conditions and the design of the "Bayesian", whose 75-metre mast was the world's tallest made from aluminium, according to the Charter World website.

"A waterspout is a narrow column of rotating air below a thunderstorm that occurs over water" and is "part of the same weather 'family' as tornadoes", said Peter Inness, a meteorologist at the University of Reading in Britain, in comments released by the UK's Science Media Centre.

Like tornadoes, they suck up air in a rotating motion, usually causing less damage than tornadoes over land, however.

"Changes in wind direction with height are also needed to set up the rotation of air within the waterspout," said Inness.

While many waterspouts are "fairly inconsequential", lasting just a few seconds, some can pack winds of more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) per hour, said Inness.

"Winds of this strength coinciding with the location of a boat are capable of causing damage or capsize, especially because the wind direction varies very rapidly," he said.

The Mediterranean could be the world's most likely place for waterspouts, due to a warm water surface and a vulnerability to thunderstorms in the summer and autumn, he said.

The Mediterranean this year reached its highest temperature on record, with a daily median of 28.90 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit), according to Spain's leading institute of marine sciences.

Experts say the temperature has often hit 30 degrees Celsius or more, about three degrees above average.

"We could have had a superposition of air and water suction with shearing winds that ultimately created something that lifted up," said Jean-Marie Dumon, a former naval officer now with the GICAN, the French maritime industry association.

The conditions with winds of 100kph or more can "create completely anarchic sea conditions which can cause capsizing," said Dumon.

The tall mast may have had an "amplifier effect" in taking the yacht to its "tipping point", he explained.

Dumon said the "Bayesian" was certainly designed by naval architects to cope with extreme winds and heavy seas.

"Here we have wind shear which can cause instability."

"The fact that the vessel itself was not damaged... suggests that it was laid on its side", said the expert.

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Gaza Engineer Uses Sunlight To Make Saltwater Drinkable

In war-ravaged Gaza, every drop of water counts, making Inas al-Ghul's makeshift sun-powered water filter a vital asset for parched Palestinians surviving endless bombardment under the territory's scorching heat.

Using wood from the few pallets of aid that make it into Gaza, and window panes salvaged from buildings that have largely been abandoned in 10 months of war, the 50-year-old agricultural engineer built a glass-covered trough.

She lets saltwater evaporate from the trough, heated by the greenhouse effect created by the glass panes, allowing the water to distil and leaving behind the salt.

From there, a long black hose carries the evaporated water to other containers filled with activated charcoal to further filter out impurities.

"It is a very simple device, it's very simple to use and to build," Ghul told AFP after taking a long gulp from a glass of filtered water in her house in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Abundant energy

Ghul's device "doesn't require electricity, filters, or solar panels, it operates solely on solar energy", which Gaza has in abundance, with 14 hours of sunshine per day in the summer, and eight hours in the winter.

This has proven particularly useful at a time when Gaza's only power plant is down and electricity supplies from Israel have been cut for months.

With fuel also in short supply, Gaza's desalination plants that haven't been damaged in the fighting have been working at a drastically reduced capacity.

Mohammad Abu Daoud, a displaced Gazan sweating in the midday sun, said Ghul's invention "comes exactly at the right time".

"For about two months, we have relied on it entirely," he told AFPTV.

This brings crucial help to those who benefit from it, as the available water for Gazans currently averages 4.74 litres per day, "under a third of the recommended minimum in emergencies", Oxfam reported in July.

This represents "less than a single toilet flush", the aid group warned in a report, which estimates that available water per person per day in the Gaza Strip plummeted by 94 percent since the beginning of the war.

Water was already scarce before the conflict erupted, and most of it was undrinkable. The 2.4 million population relies primarily on an increasingly polluted and depleted aquifer, humanitarian agencies say.

'Water as a weapon of war'

The war broke out with Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed at least 40,173 people, according to the territory's health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.

In the school-turned-shelter where Abu Daoud lives, close to Ghul's house, other displaced families have come to rely on the water filtration system to fill up their bottles.

The 250-litre tank that stores the clean water quickly empties.

Oxfam accuses Israel of using "water as a weapon of war", and has warned of "a deadly health catastrophe" for Gazans, almost all of whom have been displaced at least once.

The aid group calculated that "Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war".

The lack of clean water has had drastic effects on the population, with "26 percent of Gaza's population falling severely ill from easily preventable diseases", it said.

Conscious of the pressing need for her device and of the ubiquitous danger of air strikes, Ghul regularly climbs up to her terrace to watch over her creation, and to open or close her precious taps.

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Who Are The 6 Missing In Luxury Yacht Disaster Off Sicily?

An intense storm sank a luxury yacht off Sicily's coast on Monday, killing one man and leaving six missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter. Fifteen people escaped before the yacht sank.

Here are details about the missing passengers.

MIKE LYNCH AND DAUGHTER HANNAH

Tech entrepreneur Lynch built Britain's biggest software company, Autonomy. Often dubbed Britain's Bill Gates, the 59-year-old was lauded by shareholders, scientists and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

But in late 2012, HP said it had found a massive accounting scandal at the business, and wrote off $8.8 billion of its value. Lynch spent the next 12 years trying to clear his name and was acquitted on all criminal charges just weeks ago in the United States.

After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch founded Invoke Capital, a technology venture capital fund.

Lynch's daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing. A Sunday Times profile of Lynch last month said Hannah was preparing to study English literature at the University of Oxford.

His wife, Angela Bacares, who owns the vessel, was also aboard it but was rescued.

JONATHAN BLOOMER AND WIFE JUDY BLOOMER

Jonathan Bloomer appeared as a character witness in Lynch's legal case earlier this year. Bloomer has been non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International since 2016, and is the chair of international specialist insurer, Hiscox.

He was also chief executive of insurance and investment company Prudential from 2000 to 2005.

He studied physics at London's Imperial College in the 1970s, according to his LinkedIn profile.

One of Bloomer's former employees wrote on LinkedIn he was "always a friendly, approachable and engaging man".

Hiscox Chief Executive Aki Hussain said in a statement on Tuesday they were deeply shocked and saddened and their thoughts were with all those affected, in particular Bloomer and his wife Judy, who was also aboard the yacht.

Judy, who studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge, has worked as a psychotherapist for nearly 30 years, specialising in anxiety and stress. She started her career as a teacher.

CHRISTOPHER MORVILLO AND WIFE NEDA MORVILLO

American Christopher Morvillo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance in New York City, was part of Lynch's defence team, fighting a long legal battle to acquit his client. His first ever post on LinkedIn was around two months ago to celebrate the court victory.

"None of this would have been possible without your love and support," Morvillo wrote to his family in the post, including his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo worked as a principal at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, providing advice on white collar criminal defence and regulatory matters.

Morvillo, who studied law at Fordham University, also worked as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1999 and 2005, assisting in the criminal investigation arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks.

David Oscar Markus, a criminal defence lawyer and podcast host, interviewed Morvillo last week. He wrote a blog describing him as a "superstar lawyer".

"Chris dedicated over a decade of his career to obtaining justice for Mike Lynch," Markus wrote. "He got it and then for this to happen.... it's tough to find the right words."

Morvillo's wife, Neda, is the owner of a luxury jewellery line under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. According to the company's website, she has been designing and hand-crafting jewellery in New York for over two decades.

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Hamas, Islamic Jihad Claim Responsibility For Bomb Blast In Tel Aviv

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility on Monday for a bomb blast near a synagogue in Tel Aviv that Israeli police and the Shin Bet intelligence agency described as a terrorist attack.

A man who was carrying the bomb was killed and a passerby was injured in the incident late on Sunday, according to police at the scene in Israel's commercial capital.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said the man was carrying a backpack loaded with explosives that detonated "before he managed to reach a more heavily populated area".

In a joint statement, the two Palestinian groups said their "martyrdom operations" inside Israel would return to the forefront as long as the "occupation's massacres and assassination policy continue". This was an allusion to Israel's offensive in Gaza and the July 31 killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Israel has neither claimed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh's death in the Iranian capital.

The war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 last year when Hamas gunmen entered across the border into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign has since levelled wide swathes of the Gaza Strip and killed at least 40,000 people, according to the enclave's health authorities.

Sunday's explosion in Tel Aviv came about an hour after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv to push for a ceasefire in Gaza to end the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas.

There has been increased urgency to reach a ceasefire deal amid fears of an escalation across the wider region. Iran has threatened to retaliate against Israel after the assassination of Haniyeh.

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Blinken Says Israel "Accepts" Gaza Truce Proposal, Ball Now In Hamas' Court

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to accept a US bridging proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal after what he said was a "very constructive" meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He had earlier said the latest push for a deal was probably the best and possibly last opportunity, urging both sides towards agreement.

Talks in Qatar last week paused without a breakthrough, but the negotiations are expected to resume this week based on the US proposal to bridge the gaps between Israel and Hamas.

However, with the Palestinian Islamist group announcing a resumption of suicide bombing inside Israel after many years, and medics saying Israeli military strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, there are few signs of conciliation on the ground.

"In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal - that he supports it," Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.

"It's now incumbent on Hamas to do the same, and then the parties, with the help of the mediators - the United States, Egypt and Qatar - have to come together and complete the process of reaching clear understandings about how they'll implement the commitments that they've made under this agreement."

Despite US expressions of optimism and Netanyahu's office describing the meeting as positive, both Israel and Hamas have signalled that any deal will be difficult.

Hamas accused Netanyahu on Sunday of "thwarting the mediators' efforts" and Turkey said Hamas envoys had told it that US officials were "painting an overly optimistic picture".

Months of on-off talks have circled the same issues, with Israel saying the war can only end with the destruction of Hamas as a military and political force and Hamas saying it will only accept a permanent, and not a temporary, ceasefire.

There are disagreements over Israel's continued military presence inside Gaza, particularly along the border with Egypt, over the free movement of Palestinians inside the territory, and over the identity and number of prisoners to be freed in a swap.

The current war in Gaza began on October 7 last year when Hamas gunmen rushed across the border into Israeli communities, killing around 1,200 people and abducting about 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military campaign has since levelled swathes of Gaza, driving nearly all of its 2.3 million people from their homes, giving rise to deadly hunger and disease and killing at least 40,000 people according to Palestinian health authorities.

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95-Year-Old Groom, 90-Year-old Bride And A Six-Decade Love Story

A 95-year-old Kenyan man married his 90-year-old long-time sweetheart at the weekend, six decades after they first met, local media reported on Monday.

Ibrahim Mbogo walked down the aisle with Tabitha Wangui at a white wedding at a church on Sunday, private media outlet Citizen Digital reported.

"We met and fell in love in 1960, do you hear?" Mbogo was quoted as saying outside the church in Mukurweini, a town about a three-hour drive northeast of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

"We deliberated together and decided it would be great if we did a white wedding, we know in our Kikuyu custom that we are legally married, but since we are also Christians, we decided to do a church wedding."

The groom wore a smart grey suit and silver tie for their special day, while his new bride was dressed in a white hat with a cream brocade jacket over a white outfit.

Asked about their secret, Wangui told Citizen Digital: "Women, you must respect your husbands, if you do that, then you will live as we have."

"Don't do any wrong, and when you do, just apologise and seek forgiveness."

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Donald Trump Shows Doctored Pictures Showing Taylor Swift's Support

Donald Trump has shared doctored images on social media showing Taylor Swift and her fans supporting his presidential campaign, in an apparent effort to tap into the pop singer's mega star power in the US election.

Ms Swift has not yet publicly thrown her weight behind any presidential candidate in the November 5 election, but she backed President Joe Biden in 2020 and has previously been critical of Trump.

On Sunday, Trump shared screenshots of posts with manipulated images -- including some that an expert said appeared to be AI-generated -- suggesting that the pop star and her fans, popularly known as Swifties, support his campaign.

In his Truth Social post, which includes a poster of Swift clad in an Uncle Sam outfit and instructing her fans to vote for Trump, the former president wrote: "I accept!"

That poster is either "AI generated or just classically manipulated," Hany Farid, a digital forensics expert at the University of California, Berkeley, told AFP.

The post also includes photos of women wearing shirts with the slogan "Swifties for Trump," some of which Farid said had the "tell-tale signs of being AI-generated."

What makes the mash-up "particularly devious" is that is a combination of real and fake imagery, with at least one photo of a woman wearing such a shirt looking legitimate, Farid said.

There was no immediate comment from Swift about the post by Trump, who separately shared on Truth Social a video of a supporter voicing the dubious claim that "Swifties were rallying for Trump."

Swift's soaring popularity and sway over her fans could make her support valuable in the upcoming presidential election.

Both Republicans and Democrats have long wanted to count on her support, but the megastar has been largely reticent about her political leanings.

In a demonstration of her star power, when Swift encouraged her fans to register to vote last fall, directing them to the nonpartisan nonprofit Vote.org, her plea had an immediate impact.

Following her message, the institution said it recorded more than 35,000 new registrations, 23 per cent more than last year and the most since 2020.

Swift's feelers into politics have been heavily scrutinized, making her a ripe target for political misinformation and right-wing conspiracy theories.

Her reserve led many critics to speculate Swift was a closet Republican, until 2018, when she broke both her silence and the internet by endorsing the Democratic opponent of far-right US Senator Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee.

She has since spoken out in particular for the legal right to an abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.

In recent weeks, intense speculation has swirled on social media that Swift will endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the November election.

The megastar has not commented publicly, but that has not stopped legions of fans from forming a group called "Swifties for Kamala," attracting tens of thousands of followers on platforms such as Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.

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5.1 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Japan, Tremors Felt In Central Tokyo

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck off the Japanese prefecture of Ibaraki, just northeast of Tokyo, the country's weather agency said.

The temblor occurred on Monday at 0:50 a.m. local time, measuring lower 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7, said the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The epicentre was located at a depth of 10 km at a latitude of 36.7 degrees north and a longitude of 140.6 degrees east, Xinhua news agency reported.

Tremors were also felt in central Tokyo, with no tsunami warning issued following the quake.

Japan had recently issued a warning about a potential "megaquake", however, a week later, it lifted the advisory. The alert followed a magnitude 7.1 quake that struck the southern part of the country on August 8.

It advised people to be alert but not evacuate, saying the probability of a major earthquake was higher than usual but it was not imminent.
 

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Amazon Rainforest Tribe's Secret To Healthy Life And Slow Ageing Revealed

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a semi-nomadic indigenous community is thriving. This community defies conventional norms on ageing and health. The Tsimanes, consisting of 16,000 people, live a fully subsistence lifestyle, relying on hunting, foraging and farming to survive. Scientists have been studying this unique group for two decades, and have uncovered remarkable findings till now.

Martina Canchi Nate, an 84-year-old Tsimanes woman, digs up yucca trees, cuts down plantain trees and carries heavy loads with ease, faster than her younger companions, as per a BBC report. This level of physical activity is not unusual among Tsimanes of her age. Researchers have discovered that this group has the healthiest arteries ever studied and brains that age more slowly than those in North America, Europe and elsewhere.

The Tsimanes' secret lies in their active lifestyle, with an average of 16,000 to 17,000 steps per day. They spend less than 10 percent of daylight hours in sedentary activities, compared to 54 percent in industrial populations. Hunting and gathering require over eight hours of physical activity, covering 18km. Their diet is high in fibre, with minimal processed foods, alcohol and cigarettes.

Their diet consists of 72 percent of calories from carbohydrates, 14 percent from fat and maximum protein sources from hunted animals, such as birds, monkeys and fish. They do not eat fried food. This combination of physical activity and nutrient-dense food contributes to their remarkable health.

A 2017 Lancet study showed that the Tsimanes have the healthiest arteries ever studied, with 65 percent of those over 75 showing no signs of clogged blood vessels. This is in stark contrast to Americans of the same age, where 80 percent have signs of clogged arteries.

Research has also shown that the Tsimanes have up to 70 percent less brain atrophy than people of the same age in industrialised countries. And there are zero cases of Alzheimer's among the entire adult population.

Figuring out the Tsimanes' ages is tricky. Some struggle with counting, so they use other methods like mission records or how long they have known each other. Scientists estimate ages based on children's ages. For example, a woman, Hilda, is recorded as 81, but she thinks she is 100.

Despite their age, Tsimanes like Juan (78) and Martina (84) remain active. Juan goes hunting, while Martina weaves roofs from jungle plants. However, they admit it is getting harder. 

Many Tsimanes don't reach old age. When the study began, their average life expectancy was just 45 years. Now it is 50. Researchers noted that those who reach 80 have survived childhood diseases and infections. Researchers believe early infections might contribute to the Tsimanes' healthy ageing. They have found high levels of pathogens and inflammation, which suggest constant battles with infections.

The Tsimanes' lifestyle is changing. Forest fires have reduced hunting opportunities, and Juan has started raising livestock. They now have boats with motors to make markets more accessible and introduce new foods like sugar and oil. 

The Tsimanes' lifestyle is changing, and so is their health. They are rowing less, which means less physical activity. Twenty years ago, there were hardly any cases of diabetes, but now they are starting to appear. Cholesterol levels are also rising in younger Tsimanes.

Despite the changes, Hilda, 81 (or 100, as she claims), has a carefree attitude towards ageing. “I'm not afraid of dying,” she told the BBC. “They're going to bury me and I'm going to stay there… very still.”

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Putin Arrives In Azerbaijan After 6 Years For 2-Day State Visit: Report

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on Sunday for a two-day state visit, Russian news agencies reported.

Russian television broadcast images of the Russian president's plane as it arrived in Baku in the evening.

His visit to the Caucasus country, a close partner of both Moscow and Turkey but also a major energy supplier to Western countries, comes against the backdrop of an unprecedented Ukrainian military offensive on Russian soil.

Putin is due to hold talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on bilateral relations and "international and regional problems", the Kremlin said.

The two leaders are dining Sunday evening at the Azerbaijani president's official residence, local official news agency Asertac said.

On Monday, Aliyev and Putin will sign joint documents and make statements to the press, said Russian agency Ria Novosti.

Putin will also lay a wreath on the tomb of Heydar Aliyev, father of the current leader, who was president from 1993 to 2003.

Earlier, the Kremlin said they would also discuss "the question of settling (the conflict) between Azerbaijan and Armenia".

Azerbaijan reconquered the mountainous enclave in September 2023 from the Armenian separatists who had held it for three decades.

Armenia accused Russia of inadequate support in its conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Since then, Armenia has sought to deepen its ties with Western countries, especially the United States, much to the annoyance of Moscow, which considers both former Soviet republics to be in its sphere of influence.

Azerbaijan is a major producer of natural gas, to whom many European countries turned to make up for the sharp reduction in Russian deliveries after the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.

It is also hosting the COP29 climate conference in November.

Putin's last visit to Azerbaijan was in September 2018.

Putin has been under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court since March 2023 for the "deportation" of Ukrainian children to Russia, an accusation the Kremlin denies.

While the threat of arrest has limited Putin's travels abroad, Azerbaijan is not a signatory to the Rome Statute treaty that established the ICC.

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Trump, Kamala Harris To Fight For Pennsylvania Votes With Rally, Bus Tour

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris will hold dueling campaign events this weekend in Pennsylvania, the political battleground that could be the most critical state in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Trump, the former president, will hold a rally on Saturday in Wilkes-Barre in the northeastern part of the state. Vice President Harris will conduct a bus tour of western Pennsylvania starting in Pittsburgh on Sunday, ahead of the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago.

Pennsylvania was one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped power Trump's upset victory in the 2016 election. President Joe Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, flipped the trio back to the Democrats in 2020.

The three states are true bellwethers - the only U.S. states to have voted for the eventual winner of the presidential race in every cycle since 2008.

With 19 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to secure the White House, compared with 15 in Michigan and 10 in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania may be the biggest prize in this year's election. 

A statistical model created by Nate Silver, an election forecaster, estimates that Pennsylvania is more than twice as likely as any other to be the "tipping point" state - the one whose electoral votes push either Harris or Trump over the top.

Harris' entry into the race after Biden ended his reelection bid last month has upended the contest, erasing the lead Trump built during the final weeks of Biden's shaky campaign. Harris is leading Trump by more than two percentage points in Pennsylvania, according to the poll tracking website FiveThirtyEight.

Blanketing Airwaves With Ads

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by about 44,000 votes, a margin of less than one percentage point, while Biden prevailed by just over 80,000 votes in 2020, a 1.2% margin.

Both campaigns have made the state a top priority, blanketing the airwaves with advertisements. Of the more than $110 million spent on advertising in seven battleground states since Biden dropped out in late July, roughly $42 million was spent in Pennsylvania, more than twice any other state, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing data from the tracking site AdImpact.

Democratic and Republican groups have already reserved $114 million in ad time in Pennsylvania from late August through the election, more than twice as much as the $55 million reserved in Arizona, the next highest total, according to AdImpact.

The Harris campaign said on Saturday it planned to spend at least $370 million on digital and television ads nationwide between the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 2 and Election Day.

The battleground states - seen as critical for winning the election - also include Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia.

New polls published on Saturday by the New York Times found Harris leading Trump among likely voters in Arizona, 50% to 45%, and in North Carolina, 49% to 47%, and narrowing the former president's leads in Nevada, 47% to 49%, and in Georgia, 46% to 50%. A pollster from the Trump campaign said the poll results underestimated the Republican candidate's support.

Trump and Harris have visited Pennsylvania more than half a dozen times each this year. Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt at his rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.

He has said he will return to Butler in October, and also announced he will give remarks on the economy at a campaign event in York, Pennsylvania, on Monday. Trump's running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance, will deliver remarks in Philadelphia that day as well.

Trump's trip on Saturday to Wilkes-Barre in Luzerne County is aimed at solidifying support among the white, non-college-educated voters who lifted him to victory in 2016. The blue-collar county voted Democratic for decades before swinging heavily toward Trump in 2016, mirroring other similar regions around the country.

Trump won Luzerne in 2020 by 14.4 percentage points, a smaller margin than his 19.4 point win in 2016. With Biden out of the picture, Trump likely sees room for gains in this area of the state, said Chris Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College.

"This is the type of place where Trump has lots of strengths," Borick said, referring to the state's northeast region. "Marginal gains in a region like this certainly could have some impact on his ability to take back Pennsylvania."

Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will make multiple stops across Allegheny and Beaver counties on Sunday, the campaign said. The tour is the first time Harris, Walz and their spouses have campaigned together since their first rally as a presidential ticket in Philadelphia earlier this month.

Pennsylvania was at the heart of Biden's victorious 2020 strategy across the Rust Belt states: limiting Trump's margins among working-class white voters while building majorities among suburban voters and driving higher turnout in urban areas with large Black populations.

The Harris campaign is pursuing a similar "win big, lose small" strategy, aiming for large margins in the cities and suburbs of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while limiting losses in smaller counties like Beaver County, where Trump won 58% of the vote in 2020.

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Hundreds Evacuated Amid Raging Forest Fire In Turkey: Report

Firefighters were battling a strong forest fire in Turkey's Aegean city of Izmir for a third day on Saturday, AFP reporters said, with hundreds more people evacuated overnight.

In the northern suburb of Ornekkoy, AFP journalists saw the charred remains of several buildings and vehicles in an industrial zone while grey smoke billowed into the sky.

"We don't know what to do. Our workplace is located in the middle of the fire. We have lost our livelihood," said 48-year-old Hanife Erbil, who earns a living collecting paper and plastic waste.

The pine trees that once crowned the surrounding hills were also burned.

"It was such a beautiful route, it smelled of pine trees everywhere. It makes me want to cry," said taxi driver Ayhan.

A witness who wished to remain anonymous told AFP by telephone that the smell of smoke was hanging over the city, the third most-populated in Turkey.

Firefighters from other Turkish cities have been sent as reinforcements and the army has been mobilised.

"Everyone is working hard. I'm on my 36th hour of service. We can say the fire is partially under control," said Izmir firefighter Arjin Erol.

The fire started on Thursday and was quickly spread to residential areas by winds blowing at 50 kilometres (30 miles) an hour.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 900 residents in five affected districts were evacuated overnight in Izmir.

The fire damaged 16 buildings and affected 78 people, with 29 of them admitted to hospital, the Turkish health ministry said.

Wild animals, cats and dogs died in the fire but no human victim has yet been reported.

"Currently, two planes and eleven helicopters are continuing to intervene," said Agriculture and Forestry Ministry Ibrahim Yumakli, after the strong winds had earlier grounded the helicopters and water bombers.

Residents of the city should not be "worried", he added.

Around 1,600 hectares (3,900 acres) have been affected, the minister said, adding that the challenging geography was making it difficult to put out the fire at its origin.

Six other fires continue to rage in forest areas in other cities in Turkey, including northwestern Bolu and Aydin in the west.

In June, a fire that broke out in Mardin in southeastern Turkey claimed the lives of 15 people.

Scientists say climate change makes extreme weather events including heatwaves more likely, longer lasting and more intense, increasing the risk of wildfires.

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UK Police Charge 2 Teens With Right-Wing Terror Offences

Two teenagers suspected of alleged extreme right-wing terror offences will appear in court in London on Friday, with police saying they both face "extremely serious charges".

Metropolitan Police said that an 18-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were charged on Thursday following a "proactive investigation" by its Counter Terrorism Command unit.

Rex William Henry Clark of Ilford, east London, was charged with the preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to the 2006 Terrorism Act.

Police charged Sofija Vinogradova of Cheshunt, north of London, with preparation of terrorist acts and two counts of collection of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Both are in custody and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Police said the investigation "is related to suspected extreme right-wing terrorism activity."

"These are extremely serious charges, but I would urge the public not to speculate any further about this case at this time and allow the criminal justice process to run its course unimpeded," said Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.

"I want to reassure the public that at this time we do not believe that there is any wider threat related to this investigation, although our investigation very much continues," he added.

Far-right riots recently broke out across England and Northern Ireland following the stabbing to death of three girls at a dance class in Southport, northwest England.

Murphy said that the investigation had not come about "as a consequence of the disorder across the country which occurred following the terrible events in Southport."

Police initially arrested the woman on August 4 on suspicion of being in possession of a firearm.

She was bailed but arrested again on August 10. The 18-year-old man was also arrested at the same address and both were taken to a London police station.

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"Took Advantage Of His Addiction": 5 Charged Over Matthew Perry's Death

US prosecutors said Thursday they have charged five people, including two doctors, over the death of "Friends" star Matthew Perry, who died at his Los Angeles home last year after years of struggling with addiction.

"These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr Perry, but they did it anyway," said US Attorney Martin Estrada.

The five include two doctors and the actor's assistant.

"In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being."

One of the doctors, Salvador Plasencia, faces up to 120 years in federal prison, Estrada said.

Matthew Perry, who played the character Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom from 1994-2004, was found unresponsive in his swimming pool in October last year at the age of 54, sparking a global outpouring of grief from fans and colleagues.

An autopsy found the cause of his death was "the acute effects of ketamine," a controlled drug which the recovering addict was understood to be taking as part of supervised therapy.

While only small amounts were found in his stomach, a high level was detected in his bloodstream.

Just how the actor -- who had reportedly not had a supervised infusion session for several days -- obtained the drug became the subject of a legal investigation, with Los Angeles police confirming in May that they were probing the death.

Doctors and veterinarians often employ ketamine as an anesthetic, and researchers have explored its use as a treatment for depression. Underground users take it illicitly for its hallucinogenic effects.

"Friends," which followed the lives of six New Yorkers navigating adulthood, dating and careers, drew a massive global following and made megastars of previously unknown actors who became a fixture in the lives of millions of viewers.

One of the biggest draws was Matthew Perry's Chandler character, a sarcastic 20-something-year-old who resisted growing up.

Matthew Perry's comic talent brought him fabulous wealth, but hid a darkness that left him struggling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol.

In 2018 he suffered a burst colon, related to drug usage, and underwent multiple surgeries.

In his memoir "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," published in 2022, Matthew Perry described going through detox dozens of times. He dedicated the book to "all of the sufferers out there," and wrote in the prologue: "I should be dead."

"I have mostly been sober since 2001," he wrote, "save for about sixty or seventy little mishaps over the years."

His sudden death last year drew shocked reactions from Hollywood A-listers, his costars, and "Friends" fans worldwide.

"Oh boy this one has cut deep," said Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel on the show.

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Sweden Confirms 1st Case Of "More Grave" Type Of Monkey Pox Virus

Sweden said on Thursday it had confirmed a first case of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact.

Earlier on Thursday, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to other countries.

"We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I," Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed told a news conference.

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