Top Stories Today – May 24, 2019
Top Stories Today – May 24, 2019
Theresa May announces her resignation
Theresa May has said she will quit as Conservative leader on 7 June, paving the way for a contest to decide a new prime minister. In an emotional statement, she said she had done her best to deliver Brexit and it was a matter of “deep regret” that she had been unable to do so. Being prime minister had been the “honor of my life”, she said.
May said she would continue to serve as PM while a Conservative leadership contest takes place. It means she will still be prime minister when US President Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK at the start of June. May announced she would step down as Tory leader on 7 June and had agreed with the chairman of Tory backbenchers that a leadership contest should begin the following week. BBC
First same-sex couples marry in Taiwan
Same-sex couples tied the knot in emotional scenes in Taiwan on Friday, the first legal marriages in Asia hailed by activists as a social revolution for the region. Taiwan’s parliament passed a bill last week that endorsed same-sex marriage. More than 160 same-sex couples married Friday, according to government data, after years of heated debate over marriage equality that has divided the self-ruled and democratic island.
Twenty couples queued to tie the knot at a marriage registration office in downtown Taipei, where rainbow flags were on display alongside stacks of government-issued, rainbow-themed registration forms. The Voice of America
Trump gives Barr power over Russia probe
President Trump has granted Attorney General William P. Barr “full and complete authority” to declassify government secrets, issuing a memorandum late Thursday that orders US intelligence agencies to cooperate promptly with Barr’s audit of the investigation into Russia’s election interference in 2016.
The president’s move gives Barr broad powers to unveil carefully guarded intelligence secrets about the Russia investigation, which the attorney general requested to allow him to quickly carry out his review, according to the memo. The Washington Post
Harvey Weinstein reaches 44 million deal with accusers
Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women, has reached a tentative $44 million settlement with the women, creditors, and the New York attorney general, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Weinstein Co. filed for bankruptcy last year, and lawyers told a bankruptcy court judge on Thursday that a deal has been reached in which the alleged victims, former Weinstein Co. employees, and studio creditors would receive $30 million, with an additional $14 million going toward legal fees. The money would reportedly come from various insurance policies. Weinstein is set to go on trial in September on rape and other sexual assault charges. He denies ever engaging in nonconsensual sex. The Wall Street Journal via The Week
Seven climbers die in a week on mount Everest
Three more climbers have died on Mount Everest, expedition organizers and officials said Friday, taking the toll from a deadly week on the overcrowded world’s highest peak to seven. Kalpana Das, 52, reached the summit but died Thursday afternoon while descending, as a huge number of climbers queued near the top of Mount Everest. Another Indian climber, 27-year-old Nihal Bagwan, also died on his way back from the summit. An Austrian climber died on the northern Tibet side of the mountain, his expedition organizer said. The 65-year-old died close to the summit on his descent.
Mountaineering in Nepal has become a lucrative business since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Everest in 1953. The Himalayan nation has issued a record 381 permits costing $11,000 each for this year’s spring climbing season, triggering bottlenecks en route to the summit after poor weather cut down the number of climbing days. The Voice of america
SpaceX puts up 60 internet satellites
The SpaceX company has begun the roll-out of its orbiting broadband system. A Falcon-9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida late on Thursday, packed with 60 satellites capable of giving users on the ground high-speed connections to the internet. Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s firm aims eventually to loft nearly 12,000 spacecraft for its “Starlink” network.
SpaceX is one of several commercial outfits with permission to fly an internet mega-constellation. Others include the UK-based start-up OneWeb, which began its roll-out in February with six operational spacecraft. Online retailer Amazon also has ambitions in this market. It’s working on a 3,200-satellite proposal known as Project Kuiper. All the concepts envisage flying spacecraft in a low-Earth orbit less than 2,000km above the planet. This will minimize the delay, or latency, in the internet connections. BBC