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BBC News with Roisin Hastie.
The U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has confirmed that he's dropping a plan to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they were victims of unfair political prosecution. It comes after a revolt among Republicans in Congress who saw the fund as an ethical and political disaster. "There was a fund, and remember the fund wasn't set up yet. There were no commissioners named, there was no claims made yet, so yes, we're not moving forward with the fund. I'm not sure what that means to sign documents reversing. There's nothing to reverse. We're not moving forward with the fund." However, Mr. Blanche said a related measure banning federal tax investigators from pursuing President Trump, his family or companies would remain in place. Critics of the "anti-weaponization fund" said it could be used to reward Trump loyalists. The tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran has been tested again with a further exchange of fire between the two sides. The U.S. military says two Iranian missiles failed to hit their targets in Kuwait and three of the missiles launched by Tehran at Bahrain were intercepted. The exact sequence of events is unclear as Sanjay Dasgupta reports. The U.S. Central Command said it had defeated a series of Iranian missile and drone attacks. A statement said two Iranian missiles failed to hit targets in Kuwait, three others launched against Bahrain were intercepted and that its forces had struck targets at Iran's radar and drone control sites on Qashm Island. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard said its communication tower in Qashm Island had come under attack and that it had targeted the headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet in retaliation. There's been an angry protest in the English city of Southampton over the police treatment of Henry Nowak who was murdered last year. A Sikh man falsely accused Nowak of racism. The case has shocked the country, with right-wing parties saying it's revealed a two-tier approach to policing based on race. The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, spoke to the BBC about the response to Henry's death. "What we don't need is rage because what rage will do is cause someone else's child to get hurt. We need resilience, we need courage. I think that we should try and de-politicize this and look at what's going wrong in our society, how we can make it better, rather than trying to whip up anger. Rage should not be coming into it." Microsoft has unveiled a new quantum computing chip, Majorana 2, is a thousand times more reliable than its predecessor. It will help create commercially useful quantum machines by 2029. Microsoft is in a race to develop quantum technology which has the potential to solve problems too big for conventional computers like removing microplastics or developing new fertilizers. Microsoft found that using lead rather than aluminium in the chips achieved a huge improvement in performance. World news from the BBC. Voters in California are casting their ballots in a primary election that will determine who will run for governor in November to replace Gavin Newsom who cannot run again. The leading candidates are the former U.S. health secretary, a billionaire who favors taxing the rich and a Republican backed by President Trump. The U.N. Refugee Agency has warned that a fall in humanitarian funding could significantly worsen conditions for more than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. A spokesman said generous support had been critical in meeting the basic needs of the refugees who fled violence from neighboring Myanmar over the years. Anbarasan Ethirajan reports. Agencies say life in the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar area remains bleak. Overcrowded and fragile, the settlements face constant threats from extreme weather, disease and insecurity. Last month the U.N. launched an appeal for $710 million to fund food, shelter, health care, education and protection services for the displaced Rohingya population this year. However, the appeal still remains only about 60 percent funded. Scientists in Italy studying the frozen body of a man who lived more than 5,000 years ago have obtained details of the ancient bugs that are both on and inside him. They believe some of the microbes might still be alive. The researchers say studying these will help explain how so-called "friendly bacteria" have evolved. The man called Ötzi was discovered in 1991 and has been kept frozen in northern Italy ever since. A study has found that doing from 90 minutes to two hours of strength training weekly can greatly reduce the risk of an early death. Researchers found that regular weights or resistance training reduced the risk of death from any cause by 13 percent. That's the latest BBC News. |