World oil prices on Thursday breached $100 for the first time in more than seven years, this time on supply fears after major producer Russia attacked Ukraine. European benchmark Brent North Sea crude surged more than eight percent to $105.79 per barrel — the highest level since 2014. US contract West Texas Intermediate reached $100.54 per barrel, also a peak last seen more than seven years ago. That capped a meteoric rise over almost two […]
Tag: history
Controversy as UK pushes ‘anti-woke’ schools guidance
by Jitendra JOSHI Agence France-Presse LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Britain’s government on Thursday stoked controversy by issuing new schools guidance that urges teachers to avoid “contested” areas in history, anti-racism and climate change. The guidance, which singles out the activist group Black Lives Matter, comes with Prime Minister Boris Johnson fighting for his political survival and accused of trying to distract voters’ attention by pushing an “anti-woke” agenda. Citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the […]
Japan proposes controversial mine in World Heritage bid
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – Japan will seek UNESCO World Heritage recognition for a centuries-old network of mines on Tuesday, the government said, risking renewed diplomatic tensions with South Korea over forced wartime labour. The controversial gold and silver mine complex on central Japan’s Sado Island dates back 400 years and was once one of the largest of its kind in the world, according to authorities in the coastal region where it is located. But more […]
California governor denies parole for Bobby Kennedy’s assassin
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The man convicted of shooting dead Robert Kennedy in 1968 will not be released from prison, after California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday denied his request for parole. Sirhan Sirhan, now 77, has been behind bars for five decades — despite doubts that he fired the shots that likely changed the course of US politics. Kennedy, the younger brother of slain president John F. Kennedy, was campaigning for the […]
Poet Maya Angelou becomes first Black woman to appear on US coin
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – Poet and activist Maya Angelou has become the first Black woman to appear on the US quarter, in a new version of the coin unveiled by the US Mint on Monday. Angelou, author of “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” will also be the first figure commemorated through the American Women Quarters Program, which was signed into law in January 2021. The US Mint “has begun shipping the […]
Herd the moos? Latvia’s symbolic blue cow back from the brink
by Imants Liepinsh Agence France-Presse KALVENE, Latvia (AFP) – Once a rarity, cows with light blue or dark ultramarine hides may again be glimpsed grazing on the Latvian countryside among the regular brown, black or white spotted cattle. The unique and hardy breed, driven to near extinction during the Soviet era, has made a comeback over the last few decades as an unlikely symbol of Latvian national identity. “Their worst days are over,” said Arnis […]
Spoils of war: Taliban put victory over US on display
by Elise BLANCHARD Agence France-Presse GHANZI, Afghanistan (AFP) – In the governor’s compound of Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, a new historical exhibit is unveiled before a rapt audience of Taliban fighters — sections of blast walls from a former US military base. One concrete slab is inscribed with the names and regiments of US troops who served in the province during America’s longest war. Like soldiers throughout history, US troops regularly daubed their names on the […]
Time capsule from Confederate statue reveals US Civil War artifacts
by Chris Lefkow WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A time capsule buried 130 years ago in the base of a statue of a Confederate general revealed its secrets on Tuesday — bullets, buttons and currency from the 1861-65 US Civil War along with other artifacts. The copper box was found Monday embedded in the stone pedestal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the bloody conflict […]
130-year-old time capsule found in base of statue of Confederate general
WASHINGTON, D.C., United States (AFP) – Workers dismantling the pedestal of a statue of a Confederate general discovered a copper box on Monday believed to have been buried 130 years ago, the second apparent time capsule unearthed at the site. “They found it!” tweeted Virginia Governor Ralph Northam along with pictures of the box. “This is likely the time capsule everyone was looking for.” They found it! This is likely the time capsule everyone was […]
Sealand: the ‘micronation’ defying the UK and Covid
by Anna MALPAS Agence France-Presse SEALAND (AFP) – It’s a hulking metal-and-concrete platform in the North Sea that has been run as an independent micronation in defiance of the UK government for the last 54 years. But even on Sealand, some seven miles (11 kilometres) off the coast of southeast England, visitors have to show a negative Covid-19 test before being winched up onto the deck. “We have zero Covid cases,” Liam Bates, one of […]
Lowering the queen’s flag — Barbados becomes a republic
by Kareem Smith Agence France-Presse BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AFP) – The Caribbean island nation of Barbados will on Monday night sever centuries-old ties to the British monarchy, ditching Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and declaring itself the world’s newest republic. The Royal Standard flag that represents the queen will be lowered in the capital Bridgetown and — at midnight (0400 GMT) — the current governor-general, Dame Sandra Mason, will be inaugurated as the first president. […]
Wikipedia editor ‘warriors’ fight lies, bigotry and even Nazis
by Joshua MELVIN WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — False Covid death reports, a vast gender gap, Nazi “fan fiction”: These are some of the perils an international crowd of volunteers battle across Wikipedia’s tens of millions of online entries. The world’s largest internet encyclopedia is often the first result to pop up when users ask the internet a question — and thus a massively influential source of free information but which also reflects humanity’s faults. […]





