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Alexei Navalny braces for new verdict as Kremlin clamps down
Getty Images By Steve Rosenberg Russia Editor, Moscow To describe Alexei Navalny’s trial as “behind closed doors” is an understatement. It is being held in a high-security prison. Penal Colony No 6 is 240km (150 miles) east of Moscow. Navalny, the Kremlin’s most vocal critic, is already serving a nine-year term there for parole violations,…
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Forced to wait by the judge, Trump is out of his comfort zone in court
Reuters By Sam Cabral from the courthouse in Washington DC Donald Trump is not a man used to waiting. But at a court hearing in the nation’s capital, the former US president found himself fidgeting in his seat while he waited 20 minutes for the judge to arrive. In the meantime, he also stole furtive…
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Devastating wildfires spur new detection systems
BC WILDFIRE SERVICE By David Silverberg Business reporter, Toronto On a Friday night in early July, Nikki Skuce heard from a neighbour the news she had been dreading: her small community of Smithers, British Columbia was on an evacuation alert due to an encroaching fire that was only 4km (2.4 miles) away. “My daughter quickly…
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Fringe performers ‘ready to be discovered’ as festival begins
PETER DIBDIN By Pauline McLean BBC Scotland arts correspondent The Edinburgh Fringe was the sort of last-minute decision which could easily have fizzled out before it even began. Eight companies, mainly Scottish, turned up uninvited to the first Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. They set up wherever they could find a space, and hoped their…
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James Webb telescope captures end stages of dying star’s life
PA Media By Ece Goksedef BBC News Mesmerising images of the end stages of a distant star’s life have been captured by the James Webb space telescope (JWST). They show an unprecedented level of detail of a doughnut-like structure of glowing gas known as the Ring Nebula. Some 2,600 light-years from Earth, the nebula was…
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Cheetahs in Kuno: Is India’s effort to reintroduce the big cat facing a crisis?
Vincent van der Merwe By Soutik Biswas India correspondent Is India’s ambitious project to reintroduce cheetahs, more than 70 years after they were declared extinct, facing a crisis? Consider this. Twenty cheetahs were relocated from South Africa and Namibia to the 74,200-hectare Kuno national park in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in September…
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In Pictures: The protectors of a 7,000-year-old faith
Lalish is a tiny mountain village in Kurdistan with a population of just 25. It is to the Yazidis what Mecca is to Muslims. Located 125km north-east of Erbil (the capital of Kurdistan, an autonomous region of northern Iraq), lies the hamlet-sized shrine complex of Lalish, the holiest site of Yazidism, an ancient religion with…
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A bar crawl around Wellington with Fat Freddy’s Drop
From craft beer at Parrotdog to cocktails at Hawthorn Lounge, members of the internationally acclaimed band give their picks of the city’s most thirst-quenching spots. Backed by steep hills and teetering on a harbour at the bottom of New Zealand’s North Island, Wellington is home to New Zealand’s parliament and is also the country’s capital…
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Two US Navy sailors charged with spying for China
Getty Images By Mike Wendling BBC News Two US Navy sailors in California have been arrested on charges of providing sensitive military information to China, authorities said Thursday. Jinchao Wei, 22, a naturalised US citizen, is accused of conspiring to send national defence information to a Chinese agent. A second sailor, Wenheng Zhao, 26, was…
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Lizzo needs to be held accountable, say dancers
Three of Lizzo’s former dancers say the US pop star “needs to be held accountable”. Crystal Williams, Arianna Davis and Noelle Rodriguez have filed a lawsuit against the singer, which includes claims of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. Lizzo has released a statement on social media denying the claims, saying they are…