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Social Media

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  1. Bentley will end production of its "iconic" 12-cylinder petrol engine in April next year.

    More than 100,000 W12s have been built at the firm's factory in Crewe, Cheshire over the past 20 years.

     

    The British luxury car manufacturer announced on Wednesday it will halt production of the famed W12 engine, launched in 2003, as it moves towards an electric alternative.

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  2. LondonCNN — 

    Shamima Begum, who left the United Kingdom to join ISIS at the age of 15, has lost her appeal against the decision to revoke her British citizenship.

    Judge Robert Jay gave the decision on Wednesday following a five-day hearing in November. The ruling does not determine if Begum can return to the UK, but whether the removal of her citizenship was lawful.

    Begum, now aged 23, flew to Syria in 2015 with two school friends as a teenager join the ISIS terror group. In February 2019, she re-emerged and made international headlines as an “ISIS bride” after pleading with the UK government to return to her home country to give birth to her son.

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  3. A high school student has reportedly stabbed a Spanish teacher to death in a school in the French town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz.

    Local prosecutor Jerome Bourrier confirmed the attack to news agency AFP, with local media saying the incident took place in a class on Wednesday morning.

    Authorities have confirmed that police are on the scene with the local prosecutor.

    The student has been arrested.

    The teacher was in her fifties and died of cardiac arrest when emergency services arrived on the scene, local media said.

    French newspaper Sud Ouest said the attacker entered the classroom while the Spanish teacher was giving a class and attacked her.

     

    The French education minister, Pap Ndiaye said in a tweet that his thoughts were with the teacher's "family, colleagues and pupils".

    He said he was on his way to the school "straight away".

    Local media reported the student may have been suffering from mental health issues. They said at this at this stage of the investigation there was no suggestion the incident was terror related.

  4. In the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion, I would walk for hours in the central Moscow district of Zamoskvorechiye, where I had lived and worked in the BBC office for seven years.

    An unspoiled and peaceful part of the city, for me it embodies Russia's complex present and past.

    For centuries Muscovites have come here to build homes and businesses and get on quietly with their lives, leaving their rulers to pursue greater ambitions on a bigger stage where ordinary Russians have never had a part to play.

    It is bordered by the Moskva river and the Kremlin on one side, and on the other by imposing Stalinist apartment buildings and 21st Century skyscrapers on the noisy Sadovoye ring road.

    A maze of narrow streets echo the past, dotted with churches and aristocratic mansions from the 19th Century. Bolshaya Ordinka street takes its name from Tatar-Mongol rule, hundreds of years before, when emissaries would come to collect tributes from Moscow's princely leaders.

  5. North Korea is experiencing a critical food crisis, experts say.

    The country is no stranger to chronic food shortages, but border controls, poor weather and sanctions have worsened the situation in recent years.

    Top officials are expected to meet at the end of February to discuss a "fundamental change" to agriculture policy, state media has said.

    This is a "very important and urgent task" amid "pressing" farming issues, news aggregator KCNA Watch reported.

    The news comes as Pyongyang continues its displays of military might.

    South Korea's unification ministry has reportedly also sounded the alarm on the food shortages and asked the World Food Programme (WFP) for help.

     

    Satellite imagery from South Korean authorities shows that the North produced 180,000 tonnes less food in 2022 than in 2021.

    In June, the WFP raised concerns that extreme weather conditions like drought and flooding could reduce production of both winter and spring crops. State media also reported late last year that the country was experiencing its "second worst" drought on record.

  6. A daughter of murdered black civil rights activist Malcolm X says she is suing New York City Police Department and other agencies for his 1965 murder.

    Ilyasah Shabazz says US officials fraudulently concealed evidence that they "conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate" her father.

    She announced the planned legal action at the site where he was fatally shot in New York exactly 58 years ago.

    The FBI and CIA were also named in the legal filing, a lawyer said.

    Mrs Shabazz, 60, was two years old when she saw her father gunned down. Three armed men shot him 21 times as he was preparing to speak at a Harlem auditorium.

    "For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder," she said on Tuesday at the venue, which has since been converted into a memorial site, as she filed notices of claims, a precursor to a lawsuit.

  7. Two top Spanish transport officials have resigned over a botched order for new commuter trains that cost nearly €260m ($275m; £230m).

    The trains could not fit into non-standard tunnels in the northern regions of Asturias and Cantabria.

    The head of Spain's rail operator Renfe, Isaías Táboas, and the secretary of state for transport, Isabel Pardo de Vera, have now left their roles. 

    The design fault was made public earlier this month. 

    The Spanish government says the mistake was spotted early enough to avoid financial loss. However the region of Cantabria has demanded compensation. 

    Renfe ordered the trains in 2020 but the following year manufacturer CAF realised that the dimensions it had been given for the trains were inaccurate and stopped construction.  

     

    The rail network in northern Spain was built in the 19th Century and has tunnels under the mountainous landscape that do not match standard modern tunnel dimensions. 

  8. Weeks of no rain and low tides in Italy have left the famous canals of Venice so low that gondolas and water taxis are unable to navigate some of the waterways.

    A lack of rain, a high-pressure system, a full moon and sea currents are being blamed for the low tides that have left the "floating city" marooned.

    Ambulances reliant on the canals in this road-less city are being forced to proceed on foot to incidents, Paolo Rossi, the head of emergency health services said.

    Venice officials blamed the low tides for the dry canals but weeks of dry winter weather have raised concerns Italy is facing another drought after last summer’s emergency.

  9. India's capital Delhi has banned motorbike taxis from its roads, dealing a blow to companies such as Uber, Ola and Rapido.

    A government notice says that using private two-wheelers to carry passengers for hire violates Indian law.

    The notice adds that "digital providers... facilitating such operations" could be fined up to 100,000 rupees ($1,208; £1,005).

    The companies have not commented yet.

    Thousands of Indians use affordable motorbike taxis every day to zip through slow-moving traffic. They also provide employment to hundreds and thousands of people, many of whom use their private motorbikes to transport passengers.

    But according to the Motor Vehicles Act, private vehicles cannot be used for commercial operations in India.

     

    The Indian Express newspaper spoke to some drivers affected by the ban in Delhi, who said they would find it hard to make ends meet without the extra income.

  10. A South Korean court has for the first time recognised the rights of a same-sex couple in the country.

    In a landmark ruling, the Seoul High Court found a government health insurer did owe coverage to the spouse of a customer after the firm withdrew it when it found out the pair were gay.

    The men had held a wedding ceremony in 2019, but same-sex marriage is not recognised in South Korea.

    Activists say the ruling is a leap forward for LGBT rights in the country.

    However, the case will be challenged in the Supreme Court.

    The plaintiff, So Seong-wook said he welcomed the ruling and "recognition of a very obvious right that has not been given".

     

    In 2021, he sued the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) after being denied coverage on his partner Kim Yongmin's plan.

    The couple had been granted coverage at first, but this was then revoked as the NHIS said they had made a mistake in granting it to the same-sex couple.

    Celebrating the ruling, Mr So praised the court for seeing "the principle of equality as an important issue".

  11. Banking giant HSBC says its quarterly profit has almost doubled, boosted by rising interest rates around the world.

    The London-based firm reported profit before tax of $5.2bn (£4.3bn) for the last three months of 2022, up more than 90% from the same time a year earlier.

    However, pre-tax profit for the year as a whole fell by $1.4bn to $17.5bn, as it absorbs the cost of selling its French retail banking operations.

    HSBC is also in the process of selling its business in Canada.

    The bank said it planned to use the money raised from that sale to make payouts to shareholders once the deal is completed.

    "2022 was another good year for HSBC," chief executive Noel Quinn said. "We are on track to deliver higher returns in 2023," he added.

  12. King Charles III may be attempting to smooth things over with his brother, but royal experts suspect it’s part of a bigger plan.

    A source recently told The Telegraph that the king will not leave his younger sibling "homeless or penniless," despite forcing the Duke of York out of Royal Lodge, the queen mother’s former home.

    According to the outlet, Andrew’s annual allowance of nearly $300,000 is reportedly being cut in April, which friends claimed will make it difficult for the 63-year-old to maintain the 98-acre Windsor property. His main source of income is his Navy pension, as well as a "substantial inheritance" from his late parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

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  13. Two years ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ambitious plans to make India a green energy colossus.

    He pledged cutting emissions to net zero or becoming carbon neutral, meaning not adding to the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere by 2070. (Although its demand for power and emissions are lower than Western countries', India is the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses.) Mr Modi also promised for India to get half of its energy from renewable resources by 2030, and by the same year to slash projected carbon emissions by a billion tonnes.

    One businessman who's key to Mr Modi's green energy plans is Gautam Adani, one of Asia's richest men who runs a sprawling port-to-energy conglomerate with seven publicly traded companies, including a renewable energy firm called Adani Green Energy. Mr Adani, already one of the world's largest solar players, plans to spend $70bn (£58bn) in green energy and become a global renewable player by 2030. This money is expected to be spent on boosting solar generation, making batteries and using wind energy and green hydrogen.

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