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Hello, I'm Neil Nunes with the BBC News.
The Trump administration has suspended construction of all large-scale offshore wind farms. It paused the leases of five major projects off the East Coast of the United States, citing national security concerns. We get more details from Jacob Evans. Donald Trump has long loathed renewable energy and wind power has often faced the brunt of his criticism. This latest announcement from the Department of the Interior said government reports had found that the blades and towers of wind turbines could create radar interference. Critics fear the attack will cost thousands of jobs and endanger billions of dollars that have already been invested. Energy prices and security could also be hit. President Trump has announced the U.S. Navy will build a new class of battleship named after himself. He told reporters plans had been approved for at least two vessels. Mr. Trump said they would form part of what he called a "Golden Fleet" and serve as symbols of American power. The term battleship historically refers to large, heavily armored vessels. Their role diminished after the Second World War in favor of aircraft carriers and long-range missiles. The Nigerian government has designated kidnappers and violent armed groups as terrorists, signaling a shift in its security policy. The Information Minister Mohammed Idris made the announcement after a series of mass abductions in northern Nigeria. He said the new designation will strengthen intelligence sharing and co-ordination among security agencies. Here's Richard Kogoe. Previously, acts such as kidnapping were widely regarded as just ordinary criminal acts. But now this now signals the intention by the government to address this problem which has been described by analysts as one of the things that do pose an existential threat to the country. So President Bola Tinubu last week said that, you know, these measures were sort of like resetting, you know, the country's security architecture. A court in Ecuador has given prison sentences of more than 30 years each to 11 soldiers convicted over the forced disappearance of four boys last December. The boys, aged between 11 and 15, were returning home from a football game in the country's largest city Guayaquil when they were picked up by other soldiers. ??? is an expert in forced disappearances. "This is a sentence that helps us set a precedent as a country, that helps us to clarify that the children were not criminals. The children were playing, they were walking around and unfortunately there was a forced disappearance by state members. They did not guarantee the care and protection of the children. They did not keep them safe. And sadly this resulted in the death of the children." BBC News. Ukrainian officials say Russia has struck the Black Sea port of Odessa for the second time in 24 hours. The governor of Odessa said port infrastructure and a civilian ship were damaged. He said there was no information on casualties. The upper house of parliament in the Australian state of New South Wales is debating tougher gun laws. In response to the Bondi Beach shooting at a Jewish festival last week which killed 15 people, the proposed legislation, which is expected to be approved, limits the number of guns a person can own and reduces how long a license can last. One of the co-creators of the video game "Call of Duty" has been killed in a car crash. Vince Zampella was driving a Ferrari which crashed on a road north of Los Angeles. The Call of Duty games were launched in 2003 and have sold more than 500 million copies. Mr. Zampella [went on to] went to helm at series of other best selling titles including "Titanfall," "Apex Legends" and the "Star Wars Jedi" games. Keza MacDonald is a video games journalist who interviewed him. "He was always someone you looked forward to interviewing at games industry events and someone you looked forward to speaking to because he spoke very energetically and with a great deal of excitement around video games and around what, you know, they mean to people and what they can do for people. He was well liked. He really cared about the player experience. He cared about making games. He cared about how people felt when they played and that really came across whenever he spoke to them." In football, Egypt have avoided a shock loss to Zimbabwe at the Africa Cup of Nations. Egypt star player Mohamed Salah scored an injury time winner to secure a 2-1 victory. In the day's other results, South Africa beat Angola 2-1 and Zambia drew 1-1 with Mali. That's the latest BBC World News. |