Author: Gulf News Week
Pop star Delta Goodrem has dramatically increased Australia’s odds of winning the Eurovision Song Contest, after a stunning performance of her power ballad, Eclipse, at Thursday’s semi-final.The singer and actress is now second favourite for the competition, and is rapidly closing in on Finland, who have long been tipped to lift the trophy.If she succeeds on Saturday, it would be a first for Australia – who joined the contest as a one-off wild card entry in 2015 but quickly became a permanent fixture.Eurovision is phenomenally successful in the country, despite its distance from Europe, with more than a million people…
The “Great British People” Facebook page, which purports to be from Yorkshire, has had 1.3 million views for its latest video of an elderly white British man crying about his pension. Other videos show reporters discussing “the overwhelming scale of mass immigration” and asking viewers if they miss “the Britain we used to know”.But it is not clear whether the creator of the videos knows the UK at all: the account is really run by someone based in Sri Lanka.It is one of dozens of interconnected Facebook and Instagram accounts identified by BBC Panorama and the Top Comment podcast, which…
It is the legal showdown that has pitted two of the biggest names in tech, Elon Musk and Sam Altman, against each other.At stake is the future of one of the world’s most valuable start-ups, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, along with the reputations of Altman – the company’s boss – and Musk, the man he founded it with.The central claim the jury has now retired to consider is Musk’s argument his former friend “stole a charity”, cheating him out of a fortune (albeit a tiny one, by Musk’s standards) along the way – something Altman strongly rejects.But there’s been much more to…
The Palestinian question never disappeared despite Israel’s best efforts and worst brutality.When European Jewish settlers embarked on brutal ethnic cleansing to establish Israel in 1948, they thought the Palestinian population would be the least of their problems. In fact, Zionist leaders like David Ben-Gurion believed that “the refugee problem would resolve itself”.There was deep-seated conviction among Zionists that the Palestinians lacked an identity, and they would just flee to neighbouring Arab countries and assimilate. They would not come back to claim their stolen land.But what happened was the exact opposite.Decade after decade, the Palestinian national cause grew stronger. Today, few…
Three weeks ago, many Republicans were feeling gloomy about their chances of keeping a majority in the US House of Representatives after the upcoming midterm congressional elections.Donald Trump’s approval ratings, particularly public perception of his handling of the economy and inflation, had declined in the two months since the start of the Iran War. And Republican attempts to gain partisan advantage by redrawing congressional district lines in Texas and a handful of other conservative-dominated states had been offset by Democratic responses in California and Virginia.”If the election were in May, Republicans would lose,” former Republican Speaker of the House Newt…
Warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault and rape, which some readers may find upsetting”Aria” was 13 years old when she was sexually assaulted by an imam, who told her he was “healing” her. A respected faith leader at a mosque in East London, Abdul Halim Khan would tell young girls and their parents they needed “curing” from “bad spirits”.”I genuinely believed he had supernatural powers,” says Aria, which is not her real name.She says Khan told her “something really bad would happen to me and my family” if she ever spoke about the abuse. And she wasn’t the…
Warning: Offensive languageKatya was about to blow out the candles on her 30th birthday cake when masked men burst into the nightclub hired for her party, and began physically and verbally attacking her friends.”They called us faggots and lesbians. I could hear violence from every corner,” she told a BBC World Service investigation. Her mother was told to get down on all fours, she says.The swoop was instigated by a vigilante group, called Russkaya Obshina, that wants to accelerate President Vladimir Putin’s agenda to stamp out what he describes as Western liberalism, and promote traditional family-oriented values.Nine months later she…
Andy Burnham will attempt to return to the Commons as an MP, after Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary, saying he had lost confidence in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he would ask to run for Labour in Makerfield after Labour MP Josh Simons said he would resign to make way for him.Any candidate in a Labour leadership contest to replace Sir Keir must be an MP. Streeting called for a broad debate about what comes next but did not say he would run for leader.Earlier on Thursday, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner,…
Five Italians have died in a scuba diving accident in the Maldives, the foreign ministry in Rome has said.”The divers are believed to have died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft),” the ministry said, adding that this happened in Vaavu Atoll.The Maldives’ military said one body had been found in a cave about 60 metres underwater, and the other four divers were believed to be also there.It said divers with special equipment had been sent to the area, describing a search operation as a very high risk.The five Italians entered the water on Thursday…
The Supreme Court has ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone can continue to be accessed by mail.Two manufacturers that make the pill had asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a lower court placed significant restrictions on access to mifepristone as part of an ongoing lawsuit. Thursday’s order from the high court blocks those limitations while litigation plays out. Access to the pill will likely remain until that lawsuit is decided, which could happen next year.Abortion pills are the most common method of terminating pregnancies in the US – especially in states where abortion is banned.The Supreme Court’s most conservative…