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Kevin Durant says he helped hash out end to NBA pot ban
Getty Images By Sam Cabral BBC News Basketball star Kevin Durant has said the NBA commissioner could smell cannabis on him as he lobbied to end the league’s ban on the drug. “He smelled it when I walked in, so I didn’t really have to say much, you know what I’m saying?” Durant said in…
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Sweden’s Quran burnings put freedom of expression law to test
Getty Images By Ilgin Karlidag In Sweden A spate of Quran burnings in Sweden has badly affected the country’s image abroad and led to a deterioration of the security situation at home, security service Sapo has warned. Many Muslim-majority countries have expressed outrage. Last week protesters set fire to Sweden’s embassy in Iraq after learning…
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Climate change: July set to be world’s warmest month on record
EPA By Matt McGrath & Mark Poynting BBC News Climate & Science Amid blistering heatwaves, July is “virtually certain” to be the world’s warmest month on record, say scientists. So hot has the month been to date that researchers are confident the 2019 record will be broken, even with several days to go. Some experts…
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Iran protests: Return of morality police met by defiance
Reuters By Mehrzad Kohanrouz BBC World Service As the lights dimmed at a cultural festival in the Iranian capital, Tehran, earlier this month, women in the audience were defiantly dancing, singing and clapping along to the music at the landmark Milad Tower. They were also waving their hijabs (headscarves) in the air and that, according…
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Ukraine war: Russians stage plasticine protests to oppose war
@malenkiy_piket/Instagram By Yulia James BBC Russian On the day Russia invaded Ukraine, Yevgeny went to an anti-war rally in St Petersburg. There he watched as demonstrators were brutally beaten and arrested, and knew that overt dissent was all but impossible. As the war intensified, the artist found another way to make his objections heard: a…
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Why Sinéad O’Connor refused to be silenced
With an almost supernatural voice that could swing from a whisper to a scream, Sinéad O’Connor spoke out throughout her life – and often faced a backlash in response. It’s time to reconsider the singer’s legacy, writes Allyson McCabe. When Sinéad O’Connor published her 2021 memoir Rememberings, I had the chance to interview her for…
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Girl missing for nearly four years walks into police station
Glendale Police Department By Sam Cabral BBC News An Arizona girl who disappeared nearly four years ago has turned up at a police station in Montana. Thousands of tips have come in to the FBI and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children since Alicia Navarro allegedly ran away in 2019. On Tuesday, police in…
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Niger coup: Captive President Bazoum defiant after takeover
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. By Tchima Illa Issoufou & Lucy Fleming BBC News, Niamey & London Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum has issued a defiant message on Twitter after soldiers announced a coup overnight in the West African nation. Trouble began early…
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Bawaal: Jewish group criticises Holocaust scenes in India film
Spice PR By Geeta Pandey and Cherylann Mollan BBC News A Jewish organisation has written to Amazon Prime asking the streaming service to remove Bollywood film Bawaal from its platform for its “insensitive portrayal” of the Holocaust. The Simon Wiesenthal Center says the film trivialises the “suffering and systematic murder of millions”. Many in India…
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Sinéad O’Connor’s death treated as not suspicious, police say
Getty Images Police say the death of Sinéad O’Connor is not being treated as suspicious following the discovery of her body on Wednesday. The singer and activist, best known for the song Nothing Compares 2 U, died age 56 at her home in London. Police say she was found “unresponsive” and “pronounced dead at the…