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The U.N. General Assembly unanimously elected Antonio Guterres to a second term as secretary-general on Friday, giving him another five years at the helm of the 193-member organization at a time a deeply divided world faces numerous conflicts, the growing impact of climate change, and a pandemic still circling the globe.
Source: france24.com
An art gallery in the Chinese city of Shanghai has apologised for promoting an exhibit that ranked images of women from "prettiest to ugliest". The video artwork "Uglier and Uglier", by male artist Song Ta, featured about 5,000 images and videos of women in real life on a university campus. The artist then ranked them according to how attractive he found them. After an outcry on social media, the OCAT Shanghai gallery said it had removed the exhibit.
Source: bbc.com
As Brazil hurtles toward an official COVID-19 death toll of 500,000 — second-highest in the world — science is on trial inside the country and the truth is up for grabs. With the milestone likely to be reached this weekend, Brazil’s Senate is publicly investigating how the toll got so high, focusing on why President Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right government ignored opportunities to buy vaccines for months while it relentlessly pushed hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that rigorous studies have shown to be ineffective in treating COVID-19.
Source: apnews.com
A Sydney man who posted extremist rhetoric and possessed recipes for explosives has been arrested for allegedly being a member of the Islamic State group, Australian police said on Saturday. "The man has been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, namely Islamic State," after a seven-month investigation, the Australian Federal Police and the New South Wales police said in a joint statement. They did not name the 24-year-old, who was arrested on Friday, a typical practice in Australia unless the police deem the identification of the suspect in the interest of the victim's family or the public.
Source: reuters.com
A British Airways plane was damaged when it tipped on to its nose at Heathrow Airport. It happened while the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was parked on tarmac at the west London airport earlier. The airline said it was a freight aircraft and there were no passengers on board. Images on social media showed more than a dozen emergency service vehicles in attendance.
Source: bbc.com
Warner Music Group (WMG.O) said on Thursday it would buy celebrated French DJ David Guetta's recorded-music catalogue from the last two decades, and sign a new deal with him for future recordings. The move will add Guetta's body of work to the world's third-largest recording label that is home to artists including Cardi B, Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars. Known for his collaborations with artists such as Akon, Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi, Guetta has 50 million record sales and more than 14 billion streams to his name to date.
Source: reuters.com
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said his country needs to prepare for both "dialogue and confrontation" with the US, and "especially to get fully prepared for confrontation". This marks the first time Mr Kim has directly commented on President Joe Biden's administration.
Source: bbc.com
Gunmen killed a police officer and kidnapped at least 80 students and five teachers from a school in the Nigerian state of Kebbi, police, residents and a teacher said. The attack is the third mass kidnapping in three weeks in northwest Nigeria, which have authorities have attributed to armed bandits seeking ransom payments.
Source: reuters.com
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been locked in a battle over custody of their children since their divorce was finalized in 2019, and a newly uncovered document shows the fight could have been even more complicated. Lawyers for the Maleficent star, 46, filed a document in December 2020 claiming that three of her six children with Pitt, 57, wanted to testify against him during the proceedings. The former couple share Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 15, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12.
Source: usmagazine.com
The 39-year-old Duchess of Sussex recently published a children's book called "The Bench," which depicts the special relationship between father and son, including that between her husband Prince Harry and their son, Archie. 'The Bench' topped the New York Times' bestsellers list for children's picture books.
Source: foxnews.com
Hong Kong pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily increased its print run more than fivefold to 500,000 copies as residents lined up Friday to buy the paper in a show of support for beleaguered press freedoms, a day after police arrested five top editors and executives.
Source: apnews.com
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris signed a bill into law on Thursday to make June 19 a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans, as the White House pushes to address the country's historical injustices.
Source: france24.com
Ashley Young has rejoined Aston Villa on a free from Internazionale. The versatile 35-year-old, who scored 38 goals in 190 appearances for Villa between 2007 and 2011, has signed a one-year contract.
Source: theguardian.com
Iran's president appealed to voters to set aside their grievances and take part in a presidential election on Friday that record numbers of people are expected to boycott due to economic hardship and frustration with hardline rule. Hardline judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and moderate former Central Bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati are the main contenders after the hardline Guardian Council disqualified several prominent candidates from running and others quit.
Source: france24.com
The Grand Slam winner's representatives said she was skipping Wimbledon for "some personal time with friends and family" ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
Source: nbcnews.com
Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s founding president and one of Africa’s last surviving liberation leaders, has died at a military hospital in Lusaka, where he was being treated for pneumonia. He was 97. Kaunda ruled the southern African nation from 1964, when it won independence from Britain, until 1991, and is respected across the continent as one of the generation who fought to free their nations from colonial rule. He was admitted to Maina Soko hospital on Monday with pneumonia.
Source: theguardian.com
A Swiss baker has invented a so-called “Peace Cake” to mark the Biden-Putin presidential summit, inspired by U.S. and Russian culinary traditions. Scrawled on top in navy blue frosting are the words "Peace of Cake" next to flags and symbols from the two countries: a doll and samovar for Russia and a Coca-Cola and marshmallows for the United States. Inside, the cake is half honey-flavoured, according to the Russian tradition, and half red-velvet, which is popular in the United States.
Source: reuters.com
Researchers in the misty mountains of the Ecuadorian Andes have discovered a new species of terrestrial frog and named it after the pioneering British rock band Led Zeppelin. Pristimantis ledzeppelin, known in English as Led Zeppelin’s Rain Frog, was found by the scientists David Brito-Zapata and Carolina Reyes-Puig in the Cordillera del Cóndor, which straddles south-east Ecuador and north-east Peru. The small frog, which has coppery-red eyes and a mottled, yellow, brown, black and orange skin, is a member of the huge and rapidly expanding Pristimantis genus.
Source: theguardian.com
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