Russia killed opposition leader Alexei Navalny using dart frog toxin, UK says

Russia killed opposition leader Alexei Navalny using dart frog toxin, UK says7 hours agoShareSaveAdam GoldsmithandTom McArthurShareSaveGetty ImagesRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was killed using a poison developed from a dart frog toxin, the UK and European allies have said.
Two years on from the death of Navalny at a Siberian penal colony, Britain and its allies have blamed the Kremlin following analysis of material samples found on his body.
Speaking from the Munich Security Conference, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said “only the Russian government had the means, motive and opportunity” to use the poison while Navalny was imprisoned in Russia.
According to Tass news agency Moscow has dismissed the finding as “an information campaign”, but Cooper said there is no explanation for the toxin, called epibatidine, being found.
While Cooper announced the findings, a joint statement was issued by the UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Cooper met with Navalny's..

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US won’t be ‘caretakers’ of West’s ‘managed decline’, Rubio warns in Munich speech – latest

CloseRubio: ‘America has no interest in being caretakers of the west’s managed decline'US secretary of state Marco Rubio told the Munich Security Conference that the US has “no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline.”
The US Secretary of State hit out at a “dangerous delusion” that every country has followed the international rules-based order and freed trade since the end of the Cold War, and criticised the “overused” phrase “the end of history”.
He said: “We want allies who can defend themselves, so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.
“This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame.”
Mr Rubio acknowledged that “we made these mistakes together, and now together, we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild”.
European leaders have also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss efforts to end the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as the fou..

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Gisele Pelicot ‘overwhelmed’ after personal letter of support from Queen

French rape survivor Gisele Pelicot has expressed being “overwhelmed” after receiving a personal letter of support from Queen Camilla, following her ex-husband’s conviction. The Queen, a long-time campaigner against domestic violence and sexual abuse, commended Ms Pelicot’s “extraordinary dignity and courage” in the correspondence.
Ms Pelicot’s former husband, Dominique Pelicot, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her, and for allowing other men to assault her while she was unconscious. This horrific abuse spanned nearly a decade.
He had recruited other men in an online chatroom to rape her while she was unconscious; 47 of them were found guilty of rape, two found guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault. They were jailed for a total of 428 years.
Extracts of her book, A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides, written with journalist Judith Perrignon, and published by French newspaper Le Monde, explain how her then-husband had been summoned by..

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Police activity under way near Nancy Guthrie’s home

Police activity under way near Nancy Guthrie's home55 minutes agoShareSaveAlexander Ledermanin Tucson, ArizonaShareSaveReutersPolice activity connected to the search for Nancy Guthrie, the missing mother of US news anchor Savannah Guthrie, is under way at a residence about two miles from her home.
Armed police teams have been seen coming in and going from the area, with a sheriff's vehicle blocking the road.
It comes after local officials said investigators had found DNA at Guthrie's address which does not belong to her or anyone close to her.
The 84-year-old disappeared in the middle of night from her home in Tucson, Arizona, nearly two weeks ago. Authorities believe she was taken against her will.
In a social media post, the sheriff's department said “law enforcement activity” was ongoing “related to the Guthrie case” without providing further details.
More than a dozen law enforcement vehicles, both marked and unmarked, have been seen in the area by BBC News, inc..

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Gisèle Pelicot tells BBC: I felt crushed by horror – but I don’t feel anger

Gisèle Pelicot tells BBC: I felt crushed by horror – but I don't feel anger3 hours agoShareSaveVictoria Derbyshire,BBC NewsnightandLaura GozziShareSaveBBCGisèle Pelicot, the woman at the centre of France's largest rape trial, has told BBC Newsnight she was “crushed by horror” on discovering that, for years, her husband had repeatedly drugged her unconscious and invited dozens of men to rape her.
“Something exploded inside me,” says Ms Pelicot, 73, of the moment she realised the scale of her husband's crimes. “It was like a tsunami.”
In an extensive interview ahead of the publication of her memoir, A Hymn To Life, she describes how phoning her three children with the news of what she had discovered about their father was possibly the toughest experience of her life.
'Descent into hell'She recalls the moment she decided to waive her legal right to anonymity, and how she has never regretted that decision. She also reveals she still has unanswered questions she wan..

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Sheriff accused of blocking FBI access to evidence in Nancy Guthrie abduction

A local sheriff is impeding FBI access to key evidence in the Nancy Guthrie abduction probe, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case says.
Guthrie, the mother of TV journalist Savannah Guthrie, went missing on February 1 from her residence in Arizona’s Catalina Foothills.
The official says the FBI asked Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos for physical evidence, including a glove and DNA from the home, to be processed at the FBI's national crime laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
However, Nanos has instead insisted on using a private Florida lab, effectively denying the FBI access to crucial evidence, the official said.
A spokesperson for the sheriff did not immediately respond to an email request for comment.
In a daily press update released earlier in the day, the sheriff's department said investigators had “recovered several items of evidence, including gloves,” adding that all viable evidence is submitted for analysis.
open image in galleryPima County Sheriff Chr..

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‘A beautiful, kind innocent soul’: Teacher and six children among Canada shooting victims in close-knit community

Eight people, including six children, were killed on Tuesday in a deadly mass shooting that rocked Tumbler Ridge, a small, close-knit community located in British Columbia.
The suspected shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who police say killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at a nearby home before opening fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, was also found dead with a “self-inflicted injury.”
Police said the teenager was born biologically male but had been transitioning to female over the past six years. She was not a student at the school, and it was not immediately clear if she had previously studied at Tumbler Ridge Secondary.
Two victims with “significant injuries” were airlifted to the hospital.
Paige Hoekstra, who was taken to Vancouver for treatment, is now on the road to recovery, according to her family.
open image in galleryEight people, including six children, were killed in a deadly mass shooting that rocked Tumbler Ridge in northwestern Bri..

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Analysis: Trump takes victory lap after biggest climate rollback yet

Analysis: Trump takes victory lap after biggest climate rollback yet10 hours agoShareSaveDaniel BushWashington correspondentShareSaveReutersThe Trump administration lauded the move as an assault on overbearing regulationUS President Donald Trump framed his sweeping rollback of federal climate change policy on Thursday as a political win over the Democratic Party's “radical” environmental agenda, reprising a message Republicans have used in past elections and could turn to once again ahead of November's crucial midterms.
His announcement at the White House was one of the most significant moves of his second term in office. The president said he was revoking an Obama-era “endangerment finding” from 2009 which held that pollution harms public health and the environment.
For almost 17 years, the US has used that scientific finding as the legal basis to establish policies to reduce emissions from cars, power plants and other sources of planet-warming gases.
“This radical rule beca..

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Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health

Trump revokes landmark ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health12 hours agoShareSaveMatt McGrathEnvironment correspondentShareSaveTrump announces rollback of Obama-era greenhouse gas rulingUS President Donald Trump has reversed a key Obama-era scientific ruling that underpins all federal actions on curbing planet-warming gases.
The so-called 2009 “endangerment finding” concluded that a range of greenhouse gases were a threat to public health. It's become the legal bedrock of federal efforts to rein in emissions, especially in vehicles.
The White House called the reversal the “largest deregulation in American history”, saying it would make cars cheaper, bringing down costs for automakers by $2,400 per vehicle.
Environmental groups say the move is by far the most significant rollback on climate change yet attempted and are set to challenge it in the courts.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said the 2009 ruling was “a disastrous Obama era policy that severely..

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Canadian teen who killed eight, including six kids, had ‘mental health issues’ and guns had previously been confiscated from home: police

Canadian police identified an 18-year-old as the perpetrator who fatally shot six people at the Tumbler Ridge Secondary School and two others at a private residence Tuesday in what is one of Canada’s deadliest mass shootings.
Officials said Jesse Van Rootselaar killed her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old stepbrother at their home before opening fire at the high school. Three 12-year-old female students, two male students ages 12 and 13, and one 39-year-old female educator were killed.
Police said the teenager was born biologically male but had been transitioning to female over the past six years. She was not a student at the school but it was not immediately clear if she had previously studied at Tumbler Ridge Secondary.
A motive for the shooting is unclear, but police said they had made multiple visits to the suspected shooter’s home over the last several years for concerns about mental health issues.
open image in gallerySix of the victims were fatally shot at Tumbler Ridge Seconda..

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