The Guardian, International
Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy.
In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl.
Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato – who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle, and who died in Athens around 348BC – retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests.
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BBC
The US secretary of state hopes Hamas will accept what he has called Israel's "extraordinarily generous" offer for a Gaza truce and hostage release deal.
Antony Blinken was speaking as a Hamas delegation discussed the new proposal with mediators from Egypt and Qatar.
A source close to the talks told the BBC they were cautiously optimistic.
The proposal includes a 40-day truce in return for the release of hostages and the prospect of displaced families being allowed back to northern Gaza.
It reportedly also involves new wording on restoring calm meant to satisfy Hamas's demand for a permanent ceasefire.
BBC
About 50 people have died in Kenya in a deluge following heavy rains and flooding, a Red Cross official has said.
People in villages near Mai Mahiu, about 60km (37 miles) from the capital, Nairobi, were swept away as they slept.
Rescue efforts are continuing to pull people out of the mud, with fears that the death toll could rise.
More than 100 people have been killed in floods that have devastated parts of Kenya in the last month.
A wide brown scar of mud, uprooted trees and crushed houses slices through the area of Mai Mahiu.
Deutsche Welle
A member of Germany's Bundeswehr went on trial in the western city of Düsseldorf on Monday, charged with espionage activities on behalf of Russia and leaking state secrets.
At the start of the trial, the defendant admitted that he had spied for Russia. He said his actions were driven by a fear of a nuclear escalation amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
The officer was arrested on August 9 last year and the charges against him were made public on March 19.
The defendant is accused of making repeated and unsolicited offers to cooperate, starting in May 2023, at both Russia's consulate in Bonn and its embassy in Berlin.
Deutsche Welle
Authorities in Burkina Faso have suspended Deutsche Welle (DW) and several other international media outlets for covering allegations of mass killings by the military.
The German public broadcaster's management called for the decision to be reversed immediately.
"The blocking of dw.com and other media in Burkina Faso means the people there are being deprived of the important right to independent information," said DW's Managing Director of Programming Nadja Scholz.
"Our coverage in and about Burkina Faso continually provides facts and balanced perspectives. We urge the regulatory authorities to unblock the website as quickly as possible," Scholz said.
DW on list of suspended websites.
Late on Sunday, Burkina Faso's regulatory authority, the Conseil Superieur de la Communication (CSC), announced that DW was among a number of media agencies to be suspended, including French newspaper Le Monde, broadcaster TV5 Monde and British daily The Guardian
Al Jazeera
Israeli officials are growing wary that they could face prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the war in Gaza.
After days of conjecture in Israeli media, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said late on Sunday that it has issued warnings to senior political and military officials that they could soon face arrest warrants.
The ministry said it has informed Israeli missions of “rumours” concerning prosecutions.
The ICC has given no indication that warrants are imminent and has made no comment on the claims.
Israeli officials have referred in recent days to an ICC probe launched three years ago into possible war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian fighters going back to the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The investigation is also charged with looking at Israel’s construction of settlements in occupied territory such as the West Bank.
The Guardian, UK
Humza Yousaf has quit as Scotland’s first minister to clear the way for a new leader capable of giving the Scottish National party stability after a series of damaging crises.
During a dramatic day largely orchestrated by party managers, Yousaf announced he would step down as first minister just as a veteran former leader, John Swinney, quickly emerged as the favourite to succeed him.
Various bookmakers said they had stopped taking bets on Swinney being the next first minister.
“I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the requests that have been made for me to do that, with many, many messages from many colleagues across the party,” Swinney told Sky News. “So I’m giving that issue very active consideration.”
The Guardian, International
The debris from a missile that landed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on 2 January was from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile, UN sanctions monitors told a security council committee in a report seen by Reuters.
In the 32-page report, the UN sanctions monitors concluded that “debris recovered from a missile that landed in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 2 January 2024 derives from a DPRK Hwasong-11 series missile” and is in violation of the arms embargo on North Korea.
Formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea has been under UN sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes since 2006, and those measures have been strengthened over the years.
The Guardian
Tommaso de’ Cavalieri was the light of the age, unique in the world – at least in the eyes of the man who loved him. That ardent lover was Michelangelo, who described Cavalieri in these glowing words in a letter from 1532. If only a portrait of Tommaso survived we could have seen his face, which the fiftysomething artist claimed in a poem was so beautiful it gave him a glimpse of paradise itself.
Michelangelo did not just announce his love for this young upper-class citizen of Rome – who knew the pope and prominent cardinals socially – in verse and prose. He also gave Cavalieri some of the greatest drawings ever created. Up until this time, the mighty sculptor, painter and architect had used drawing as a tool to develop ideas: but the so-called “Presentation Drawings” he did for Tommaso aspire to be completed works of art. They star in the British Museum’s new exhibition of Michelangelo’s later graphic works, and demand a close look, for these are perhaps the most sublime declarations of gay love in art.
NPR
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators continue to turn out at schools across the country despite the risk of detention and suspension, with nearly 300 more protesters arrested over the weekend.
At Columbia University, where a pro-Palestinian encampment has catalyzed dozens of similar demonstrations across the nation, student protesters face threats of punishment, including suspension.
On Monday morning, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik announced that negotiations between faculty leaders and student organizers over the encampment were not able to reach an agreement and urged demonstrators to voluntarily disperse.
The university gave students until 2 p.m. ET to disperse and abandon the encampments or else face suspension pending further investigation, according to flyers it distributed on campus.
NPR
Millions of CPAP sleep apnea machines made by the medical device maker Philips and a subsidiary were found to have a dangerous problem, triggering consumer lawsuits and a massive recall in 2021. Now, Philips has reached a $1.1 billion deal to settle claims from people who say they were injured. A portion of the funds will also go toward medical monitoring.
Some 15 million Philips CPAP and ventilator machines worldwide are affected by the Class I recall, a designation reflecting "a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, the products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Reuters
April 29 (Reuters) - Three law enforcement officers were killed and another four were shot and wounded in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a suspect was found dead, police said on Monday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department chief Johnny Jennings said at a press conference that the three officers who were killed were part of a U.S. Marshall's Task Force, comprised of officers from multiple agencies.
"Today is an absolute tragic day for the city of Charlotte and for the profession of law enforcement," Jennings said. "Today we lost some heroes who were out to just keep our community safe."
The officers who were killed were attempting to serve a warrant for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. They arrived at a residence where the suspect was located and he began firing on the officers, Jennings said. They returned fire, and the suspect was killed in the front yard.
Reuters
WASHINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States found five units of Israel's security forces responsible for gross violations of human rights, the first time Washington has reached such a conclusion about Israeli forces, the State Department said on Monday, though it has not barred any of the units from receiving U.S. military assistance.
Israel has conducted "remediation" in the cases of four of the units in compliance with U.S. law prohibiting military assistance to security force units that commit such abuses and have not been brought to justice, State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters.
The incidents in question took place outside of Gaza before conflict broke out between Israel and Hamas in October, Patel said.
Human rights groups say they have reported incidents involving Israeli units including extrajudicial killings, torture and physical abuse to the State Department, most of them committed against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Patel declined to offer specifics on the violations U.S. officials looked at, which units were involved or what remediation steps were taken.
CNN
Google and X, formerly Twitter, recently provided hundreds of files to Michigan prosecutors for their 2020 election subversion probe, complying with search warrants that investigators obtained after CNN revealed secret social media accounts belonging to pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who played a major role in the fake electors plot.
The previously unreported warrants gave prosecutors access to new Chesebro emails and his private direct messages on Twitter. The warrants make clear that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is still gathering new information in her probe, nine months after she charged the state’s fake electors with forgery and other crimes for signing certificates falsely claiming Donald Trump won the state in 2020.
A top member of her team testified last week that the investigation is ongoing and that Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, which is not expected to go to trial before the November election.
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