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Jul 12, 2025 - World

Thomas Wenski says ‘it would be more financially sensible and more morally acceptable to expand legal pathways’. This blog is now closed.The US state department is firing more than 1,300 employees in line with the Trump administration’s reorganization plan initiated earlier this year. The department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the US, a senior state department official told the Associated Press. Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by the AP. For most affected civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said. “In connection with the departmental reorganization … the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice says. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.” The cuts have been criticized by current and former diplomats who say it will weaken US influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.The Trump administration has killed nearly $15m in research into Pfas contamination of US farmland, bringing to a close studies that public health advocates say are essential for understanding a worrying source of widespread food contamination. Continue reading...

Jul 12, 2025 - World

A US appeals court on Friday scrapped 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plea agreement that would have taken the death penalty off the table and helped conclude the long-running legal saga surrounding his case.

Jul 12, 2025 - World

Early investigation into accident in Ahmedabad in June also contains details of pilots discussing the switchesFuel to both engines of the Air India plane that crashed and killed 260 people last month appears to have been cut off seconds after the flight took off, a preliminary report has found.Air India flight AI171, bound for London, crashed into a densely populated residential area in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on 12 June, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 others on the ground. It was India’s deadliest air crash in almost three decades. Continue reading...

Jul 12, 2025 - World

17-year-old dazzles in under-23 200m at Diamond League meetBol fourth in fast 800m final that sees world record fallThe remarkable Gout Gout story speeds on with the Australian producing another blistering performance to further his European track education in Monaco.Guesting in an invitational 200 metres at the prestigious Diamond League meeting at the Stade Louis II in the principality during his school holidays on Friday, the teenage phenomenon raced away to another striking win in 20.10 seconds into a headwind. Continue reading...

Jul 12, 2025 - World

Barkat's daughter revealed the circumstances of his arrest, stating that more than 20 policemen showed up at his doorstep and arrested him.