Saudi Arabia sentences five to death for murder of Jamal Khashoggi
Former royal adviser Saud al-Qahtani was investigated but released without being charged
Five men have been sentenced to death and another three face a total of 24 years in prison for their roles in the gruesome murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year, the Saudi public prosecutor’s office has said.
Eight of the 11 people on trial were found guilty of the killing, which triggered the kingdom’s biggest diplomatic crisis since the 9/11 attacks as world leaders and business executives sought to distance themselves from Riyadh.
However, the investigation concluded “the killing was not premeditated …. The decision was taken at the spur of the moment,” deputy public prosecutor and spokesperson Shalaan bin Rajih Shalaan said, reading the verdict in the Saudi capital on Monday.
Ability of re-grown Amazon forest to combat climate change ‘vastly overestimated’, study suggests
Scientists call for long-term research to bolster secondary forests
The capacity of re-grown areas of the Amazon rainforest to draw carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and combat climate change may have been “vastly overestimated”, scientists fear.
The forest is a gigantic carbon sink, drawing the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Cleared areas that are re-planted are known as secondary forest, and have been seen as key to fighting climate change, researchers at Lancaster University said.
But a new study has found that those areas held just 40 per cent as much carbon dioxide as sequestered by parts of the Amazon untouched by humans, casting doubt on their ability to aid in mitigating the crisis.
Hong Kong protesters rally against China's Uighur crackdown
Many Hong Kongers are watching the scale of China's crackdown in Xinjiang with fear. A protest in support of the Uighurs was violently put down by riot police.
Hong Kong riot police on Sunday forcefully broke up a rally of pro-democracy protesters showing solidarity with China's oppressed Uighur minority.
Around 1,000 people gathered peacefully near Hong Kong's Harbourfront, waving Uighur flags and posters in the latest in nearly seven months of protests against China in the semi-autonomous city.
Gov't proposes Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant water release into sea or air
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Japan's economy and industry ministry has proposed gradually releasing or allowing to evaporate massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
The proposal made Monday to a body of experts is the first time the ministry has narrowed down the options available to just releasing the water. It is meant to tackle a huge headache for the plant's operator as storage space runs out, despite fears of a backlash from the public.
Nearly nine years after the 2011 triple meltdowns at the plant, the radioactive water is still accumulating as the water is needed to keep the cores cooled and minimize leaks from the damaged reactors.
American democracy’s Senate problem, explained
A huge — and growing — source of bias in the political system.
By
Democrats have a Senate problem, and not just in the sense that Republicans currently hold the majority or that the prospect of that changing in 2020 is relatively slim. The problem is that the odds of ever changing it are slimmer than is generally realized.
Data for Progress, a progressive think tank and advocacy organization, is trying to raise alarm bells about the issue. In a new memo, co-founder Colin McAuliffe writes that “the Senate is an irredeemable institution” that’s biased 3 percentage points in the GOP’s favor and systematically underweights the interests of nonwhite Americans.
Isis in Iraq: Militants 'getting stronger again'
There are growing indications that the Islamic State (IS) group is re-organising in Iraq, two years after losing the last of its territory in the country.
Kurdish and Western intelligence officials have told the BBC that the IS presence in Iraq is a sophisticated insurgency, and IS attacks are increasing.
The militants are now more skilled and more dangerous than al-Qaeda, according to Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official.
"They have better techniques, better tactics and a lot more money at their disposal," he said. "They are able to buy vehicles, weapons, food supplies and equipment. Technologically they're more savvy. It's more difficult to flush them out. So, they are like al-Qaeda on steroids."
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