Short news
More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine, U.N. agencies said on Friday, and a further 2 million have been driven from their homes within the country since the start of a Russian invasion on Feb. 24. The United Nations has been planning its humanitarian needs on the assumption that some 4 million Ukrainian refugees would seek safety abroad.
Source: reuters.com
More than 18 million people - three times higher than official records suggest - have probably died because of Covid, say researchers. Their report comes two years to the day from when the World Health Organization first declared the pandemic. The Covid-19 excess mortality team at the US's Washington University studied 191 countries and territories for what they call the true global death figure.
Source: bbc.com
North Korea has tested parts of its biggest intercontinental ballistic missile in two recent launches, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said, a suggestion it is likely to fire that weapon soon to put a spy satellite into orbit in what would be its most significant provocation in years.
Source: apnews.com
Saudi Arabia says it has rescued two young American women from Yemen in a joint special operations mission with the United States. The women, both Yemeni-American teenagers, were being held by the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s capital Sanaa after having been taken captive while visiting their grandmother, the Saudi defence ministry said on Thursday.
Source: aljazeera.com
The Bolivian soldier who pulled the trigger to execute the famed revolutionary guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara has died at the age of 80. Mario Terán “simply complied with his duty as a sergeant of the army,” said retired general Gary Prado, who led the group that captured Guevara in 1967 after a months-long pursuit. Speaking to Radio Compañera, he said Terán had died after a long illness. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Source: theguardian.com
Australia said Friday it is buying extra vaccines to fight the potentially deadly, mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus, which has spread down the flood-hit east coast for the first time. More extreme rainfall events have brought greater numbers of mosquitos to eastern Australia, one scientist said, as the country battles higher temperatures blamed on climate change that mean the atmosphere holds more moisture.
Source: france24.com
A federal appeals court on Thursday said the pop superstar Katy Perry and her team were not liable to a hip-hop artist who claimed they copied her No. 1 hit "Dark Horse" from his Christian rap song. In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Flame, whose given name is Marcus Gray, did not deserve damages for copyright infringement over a musical pattern he said Perry, 37, borrowed from his song "Joyful Noise."
Source: reuters.com
Actor and singer Emilio Delgado, the warm and familiar presence in children’s lives for 45 years as fix-it shop owner Luis on Sesame Street, has died. His wife, Carol Delgado, said he died from the blood cancer multiple myeloma at their home in New York. He was 81.
Source: theguardian.com
The owner of Facebook and Instagram will allow users in some countries to call for violence against Vladimir Putin and Russian soldiers. Meta says it has temporarily made allowances for some violent speech, like "death to the Russian invaders," that would usually break its rules. However, it says it won't permit calls for violence against Russian civilians.
Source: bbc.com
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and the musician Grimes have had a second child, a girl they named Exa Dark Sideræl Musk -- although the parents will mostly call her Y. The 33-year-old Grimes revealed the existence of the child, who was born in December, in an interview published Thursday by Vanity Fair. Due to fears that she would have complications, which Grimes said she endured during her first pregnancy, the parents decided this time to use a surrogate.
Source: france24.com
The Islamic State (IS) group has named a new leader after confirming the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi. An audio message posted online said Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi was now "caliph", without providing any further details about his identity. The message did not mention how, where or when Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi died.
Source: bbc.com
A French court on Thursday rejected a bid by star actor Gérard Depardieu to have rape charges against him dropped, the chief prosecutor in the case said. The actor, 73, was last year charged with raping and sexually assaulting young French actress Charlotte Arnould at his home in Paris three years earlier, an accusation he has called "baseless". The case will now go back to the prosecuting magistrate who is to resume her work on the case, Paris chief prosecutor Remy Heitz said.
Source: france24.com
North Korea will launch a number of reconnaissance satellites in coming years to provide real-time information on military actions by the United States and its allies, state media on Thursday reported leader Kim Jong Un as saying. While inspecting North Korea's National Aerospace Development Administration, Kim said "a lot" of military reconnaissance satellites would be put into sun-synchronous polar orbit in the period of a five-year plan announced last year, state news agency KCNA reported.
Source: reuters.com
Leonardo DiCaprio has donated to humanitarian organizations supporting Ukraine, though an earlier widely circulated report was inaccurate. In recent days, reports have circulated online that DiCaprio donated $10 million to an organization to benefit Ukraine, which those reports said was his grandmother’s native country. Neither the donation nor DiCaprio’s heritage was accurate, a person close to the actor said on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Source: apnews.com
Roman Abramovich’s hopes of selling Chelsea have been put on hold after the Russian oligarch was sanctioned by the UK government. The club have been given given licence to carry on with football-related activities.
Source: theguardian.com
Ryan Coogler was detained by police in January after being mistaken for a bank robber. The "Black Panther" director was in Atlanta, attempting to withdraw $12,000 from his account with Bank of America. The teller received an alert on his account, according to the police report obtained by CNN, because the amount was more than $10,000. The teller notified her superior that she thought Coogler was trying to rob the bank and 911 was called.
Britain said on Thursday it had imposed asset freezes on Russian businessmen Roman Abramovich, Igor Sechin, Oleg Deripaska and Dmitri Lebedev after they were added to the country’s sanctions list.
Source: reuters.com
Far beneath the waves surrounding the Maldives, there's a living rainbow in the ocean's "twilight zone," a colorful species of fish that's new to science. The fish, which bears the scientific name Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa, was found living at depths ranging from 131 to 229 feet (40 to 70 meters) beneath the ocean's surface. The name honors the fish's stunning pink hues, as well as the pink rose, the national flower of the Maldives. "Finifenmaa" means "rose" in the local Dhivehi language.
Source: cnn.com
Newsfeed
Videos
Artur Vanetsyan: I think you'll see me more often at various events in future
