Wimbledon has started without the bulk of its usual spectator fans this year. Attribute that to the Covid pandemic. The way most people watch Wimbledon has also been infected — by bugs in the BBC’s computer system. Or in its technology, at least. On the second day of The Championships, as they are somewhat arrogantly […]
An Iranian academic argues: In picking a mass murderer as his potential successor, Iran’s supreme leader hopes to make the United States a willing partner in the repression of his country’s people. By Mariam Memarsadeghi, Senior Fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. As the Biden administration gives every indication of removing most sanctions on the world’s […]
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Scientists have found recordings of their unique song, dating back almost 20 years. Scientists have discovered an entirely new population of pygmy blue whales in the Indian Ocean, which have managed to evade detection for decades despite their enormous size. Researchers uncovered the secretive cetaceans by analyzing acoustic data collected by an underwater nuclear bomb detection array, […]
There’s an easy and efficient way, say scientists, to treat the extremely rare cases of serious blood-clots that develop from AstraZeneca’s vaccine against Covid. Three patients in Canada developed what is called “vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia”, or VITT, after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine. That produces blood clots — a symptom that led to panic across […]
Judoka Saeid Mollaei, who left Iran after being forced to forfeit a match in order to avoid going head-to-head with an athlete from Israel, finally competed against an Israeli on Wednesday — and won. Mollaei, now competing for Mongolia, was due to face Israeli judoka Din Yaacov Gemer in the under 81-kilogram category at the World Judo […]
Hardline interpretations of Islam are preventing economic progress and threatening Saudi Arabia’s ability to develop a modern economy, the country’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman declared. Saudi Arabia’s rulers have had a pact for decades with hardline Islamists who follow a strict form of Islam called Wahabism. But in an interview broadcast […]
By Paul Martin. Robin Page, who presented the BBC sheepdog trials programme One Man and His Dog, has been sacked from the Countryside Restoration Trust, a UK charity he founded. Trustees accused him of failing to observe standards of governance and damaging the charity’s reputation. Page has hit back on his twitter account, calling the trustees ”a band of […]
Three senior leaders at Amnesty International UK have stepped down with immediate effect because they no longer felt able to continue in their roles. The charity’s leadership has been under fire since the publication of an internal review in April that found incidents of overt racism at its international secretariat, a separate body that is also based in the […]
Of all the war criminals and mass murderers I have encountered in 40 years of reporting in conflict zones, Ratko Mladic was the most chilling. The United Nations ex-Yugoslavia Tribunal’s final verdict — life imprisonment for genocide — brings back memories that even a hard-bitten war reporter finds hard to erase. ** Dead children’s graves […]
United Nations judges have sentenced Ratko Mladic, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia”, to life in prison for genocide and other war crimes. As this is in a final judgment, there can be no further appeal. Mladic, now 78, sat without a mask in the war crime tribunal’s dock behind a sheet of glass. He […]
Here’s a story about how I found and ‘bought’ a Weapon of Minor Destruction — a missile — in the heart of Baghdad. Going fast in Iraq: the £300 rocket grenade launchers that can bring down a helicopter Paul Martin, Baghdad… which Alameen bought the RPG underlines the problems American forces face in restoring order […]
A sign on the desert road south of Baghdad, curiously in English not Arabic, pointed to what it described as an “Engineering Factory”. It was the only hint that there was something unusual to be found just off the beaten track. Until days before, this “Engineering factory” had been nothing less than Saddam Hussein’s project […]