Monday, May 4

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100 Princes Street, Edinburgh review: a chic new addition to Scotland’s hotel scene
Life Style

100 Princes Street, Edinburgh review: a chic new addition to Scotland’s hotel scene

As this is a boutique city-centre hotel, there’s no spa, nor is there a fitness centre. There are, however, plenty of delicious things to eat and drink, and the impeccable staff are always on hand to provide any local tips and advice. Dressed in a chic uniform of blue silk dresses or sharp tartan suits, they’re friendly and knowledgeable without being overbearing, keen to make guests feel right at home. Source link
Videos lift veil on hidden horrors in Sudan after ‘100 villagers massacred’ | World News
Business

Videos lift veil on hidden horrors in Sudan after ‘100 villagers massacred’ | World News

Bodies wrapped in blankets are laid out in a front yard. Some on beds, others on the hard ground."These are the martyrs of Al Sireiha - more than 100," the man recording the video says, as mourners pray and walk around the corpses in the poorly lit evening darkness. Civilians were massacred in the farming village of Al Sireiha in the eastern parts of Sudan's Al Jazira state on Friday.The horror has emerged in a handful of videos uploaded to social media amid a telecommunications blackout."The number of deaths we've received so far is 124, though due to communication outages, we haven't been able to confirm this or if it has risen," says Mohamed Tarek. He is a member of the Madani Resistance Committee, the state capital's branch in a network of grassroots, frontline volunteer groups born ou...
65 pct Indian doctors call for safer tobacco alternatives to save lives: Study
Health

65 pct Indian doctors call for safer tobacco alternatives to save lives: Study

Amidst India`s escalating tobacco epidemic, where four out of 10 households grapple with smoking addiction, a new report on Friday revealed that 65 per cent of healthcare professionals in the country call for safer novel tobacco alternatives to save lives.  The report from the Doctors Against Addiction (DAAD) survey, in collaboration with Saizen Global Insights and Consulting, revealed a pivotal shift in the perspectives of healthcare professionals with 65 per cent of doctors supporting integrating safer cessation alternatives, such as nicotine replacement therapies and heat-not-burn products, into smoking cessation efforts. They emphasised the need for further efficacy research of these alternatives. The finding marks a significant moment in India’s ongoing battle against tobacco addict...
Canadian Indigenous leaders call Biden’s apology for U.S. residential schools ‘first step’ – National
Politics

Canadian Indigenous leaders call Biden’s apology for U.S. residential schools ‘first step’ – National

Canadian Indigenous leaders say U.S. President Joe Biden’s apology for his country’s residential school system is only the first step toward healing generations of harm. On Friday, Biden apologized for the U.S. boarding school system that for more than 150 years separated Indigenous children from their parents, calling it “one of the most consequential things” he’s done as president.The apology comes 16 years after former prime minister Stephen Harper apologized for Canada’s residential school system. It follows an investigation of boarding schools driven by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the country’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary, which was prompted by the discovery of 215 suspected unmarked graves at a residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.“The federal Indian boardi...
US president Joe Biden apologises to Native Americans for abusive government-funded boarding schools
World News

US president Joe Biden apologises to Native Americans for abusive government-funded boarding schools

By Michael Williams, CNN US President Joe Biden gestures as he apologises for Native American boarding school atrocities at the Gila River Crossing School in the Gila River Indian Community, in Laveen Village, near Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: AFP / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS President Joe Biden formally apologised to Native Americans for what he described as "one of the most horrific chapters in American history," government-funded boarding schools that abused indigenous children and forced them to assimilate over a 150-year period. "Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make," Biden said in Laveen, Arizona, after calling for a moment of silence to "remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma." At least 18,000 children were taken from t...
Israel-Gaza: UK could hand potential war crimes evidence to International Criminal Court collected by RAF spy planes | World News
Business

Israel-Gaza: UK could hand potential war crimes evidence to International Criminal Court collected by RAF spy planes | World News

Evidence of potential war crimes collected by British spy planes operating over Gaza could be handed to the International Criminal Court, the UK has confirmed.The Royal Air Force (RAF) is reported to have flown hundreds of missions over and near the war-torn territory since December, gathering intelligence to help in the hunt for hostages kidnapped from Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023.The Ministry of Defence (MOD) said the Shadow R1 surveillance aircraft - which also fly over Israel as well as international air space - are purely tasked with gathering information to assist Israel's operation to find its hostages.The spy planes are not involved in gathering intelligence for any other aspect of the war against Hamas, which has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Palestinians, inc...
Ecuador extends drought-induced power cuts to 14 hours a day
World News

Ecuador extends drought-induced power cuts to 14 hours a day

A view of the city during a national scheduled fourteen-hour blackout in Quito, Ecuador. Photo: RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP Ecuador has lengthened scheduled electricity rationing from eight to 14 hours per day due to the worst drought it has faced in six decades, the energy minister announced. "We have taken the painful but responsible decision to change the rationing plan, increasing it from eight to 14 hours a day," Energy and Mines Minister Ines Manzano said in a video posted on social networks at the crack of dawn on Friday (local time). Low water levels have caused the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants that cover 70 percent of national demand to fall to critical levels in recent months. In April Ecuador imposed electricity rationing of up to 13 hours a day. The outages have been adjusted ...
Cillian Murphy returns to the big screen in Irish Magdalene laundry drama | Ents & Arts News
Business

Cillian Murphy returns to the big screen in Irish Magdalene laundry drama | Ents & Arts News

Fresh off the back of becoming the first Irish-born winner of the best actor award at the Oscars, Cillian Murphy is busier than ever."It's my third film I've done since then so that was clearly my coping mechanism", he tells Sky News at the UK premiere of Small Things Like These. Set in 1985 Wexford, the film is based on Claire Keegan's Orwell prize-winning fictional novel of the same name that follows coalman Bill Furlong as he uncovers the treatment of the unmarried mothers sent to a Magdalene laundry in his town.Murphy, 48, first pitched the idea to Matt Damon, who produced the film under his production company Artist's Equity, on the set of Oppenheimer, calling it "a little bit Manchester By The Sea meets Doubt"."Claire's story was so perfect and magnificent in its brevity and what it ...
Commonwealth leaders say sinking nations should keep their maritime boundaries
World News

Commonwealth leaders say sinking nations should keep their maritime boundaries

By Kirsty Needham, Reuters Sixty percent of Tuvalu residents live on an atoll that scientists predict will be half submerged by tides by 2050. Photo: AFP In a boost for Pacific Islands such as Tuvalu under threat from rising seas, Commonwealth nations agreed on Saturday that a nation's maritime boundaries should remain fixed even if climate change causes small island states to be submerged. The 56 countries with roots in Britain's empire issued the Commonwealth's first Ocean Declaration at the end of a summit of the group in Samoa. The declaration says the Commonwealth leaders "affirm that members can maintain their maritime zones" under the law of the sea and that the rights that flow from them continue to apply, regardless of physical changes connected to climate change related sea...
Sir Keir Starmer plays down prominence of reparation talk among Commonwealth leaders | UK News
Business

Sir Keir Starmer plays down prominence of reparation talk among Commonwealth leaders | UK News

Sir Keir Starmer has downplayed the prominence of reparations for slavery being addressed at a Commonwealth summit, saying "none of the discussions have been about money".The prime minister, who is in Samoa for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm), has been facing mounting pressure from leaders of Caribbean nations who want the UK to consider paying reparations for the impact of the transatlantic slave trade. They are seeking a formal apology from the countries responsible for the historic slavery.Sir Keir had already rejected the calls ahead of the meeting, saying it would lead to "very long, endless discussions" about the past.The UK government has repeatedly ruled out offering reparations or an apology for the country's historical involvement in the trade. But after an e...