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Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a meeting with campaigners to discuss historical forced adoption, at Downing Street in London Thursday. (AFP) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally apologised Thursday for the forced adoption of an estimated 185,000 babies born to unmarried mothers in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, calling it “a stain on our history”.The scandal saw the mothers, including many who were teenagers, coerced into giving up their children, with social, institutional and family pressures used to persuade them that adoption was their only option.”We are deeply and profoundly sorry to the mothers who were told they were unfit, who were prevented from caring for the children they desperately wanted … and who have carried this loss for decades,” Starmer told parliament.”The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours,” he insisted.The premier paid tribute to survivors who had campaigned for the apology and the “extraordinary courage with which they have shared their harrowing testimonies and fought for the truth time and time again”.The expression of regret comes four years after a parliamentary committee recommended an official apology.Australia’s government issued a landmark apology in 2013 for forced adoptions and Ireland’s did so in 2021.”What happened to them — and to tens of thousands of mothers, children and families — should never have happened,” Starmer told UK lawmakers after meeting a group of survivors at his Downing Street office.”It is a stain on our history. Mothers, many young, vulnerable and without support were coerced, bullied or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them.”He said the removal of the children had been systemic.The practice, he said, was “embedded within systems across local authorities, across voluntary and faith-based institutions, and in health and social care services”.’Punishment’ “The state bears responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised, which enabled these practices to occur… For this systemic failure, I am truly sorry,” he added.Ann Keen, a former Labour health minister, said her newborn son was abruptly taken away after she gave birth in Wales in 1966 when she was 17.”I went to see my baby on the eighth day because I was told I could have him for 10 (days) and they said: ‘Oh no, he’s gone now. You were getting far too close’,” she told BBC Radio.Speaking before Starmer’s announcement she said she looked forward to being “released from my shame” because “we have always been accused of giving up our babies and we didn’t give them up”.The parliamentary committee that investigated the scandal found mothers were abused in multiple ways.Painkillers would be deliberately denied as “punishment” in hospital during childbirth and afterwards, its report found.Babies were sometimes pulled from their sobbing mother’s arms to be taken away for adoption.”Have you learnt your lesson now?” one woman recalled a doctor telling her while she was in labour.Another told parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights: “A doctor told me that I should be sterilised as I must be a nymphomaniac”.Last month, the Church of England last month said sorry for its role in the forced adoptions.Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally apologised for the “pain, trauma and stigma” caused to those affected, saying there was deep shame it had happened to people “in the care of Christian communities”.Abortion was legalised in England, Scotland and Wales in 1967.But even after then, women faced practical barriers, such as objections by their doctors.Apologies were also made in 2023 by the devolved administrations in Cardiff and Edinburgh to people affected in Wales and Scotland.An apology is also expected in Northern Ireland but not until after a public inquiry has been carried out, following a recommendation from a 2021 report on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses. Related Story Source…
A robot arm serves coffee at an unmanned cafe in Seoul, South Korea. (Reuters) Unstaffed coffee shops, ramen eateries and flower outlets are spreading across Republic of Korea as owners turn to robots and self-service to overcome rising labour costs in a business model that relies on the widespread honesty of users.Such stores, usually open 24 hours, were estimated to number 9,000 nationwide by the end of 2024, the National Fire Agency said, while payments provider Samsung Card said their number probably grew four times by 2025 from 2020.”The population of baristas in their early twenties is drastically declining,” said Kim Dongjin, chief executive of Lounge X, where a robot arm named “Baris” serves paper cups of Americanos and matcha lattes to fill orders from on-site kiosks.His company runs eight such 24-hour coffee shops, entirely unstaffed, across Korea, most of them in Seoul, the capital, although human employees prepare coffee drinks in four more.Stores with no staff are not uncommon globally, with cashier-free grocers in countries such as Britain and the United States, but the concept has spread wider in Korea to encompass even pet supply stores and clothing boutiques.Owners of such stores cite difficulties in finding suitable staff and rising wage costs as reasons for adopting the model, particularly as rates of petty crime are low in Korea, where customers are generally rule-abiding.Korea has a rapidly ageing population, with one of the world’s lowest birth rates leading to a labour crunch. The government expects the population of 51.8 million to shrink by almost a third to 36.2 million by 2072.Hiring expert baristas has become increasingly harder, said Kim, a 20-year-veteran of the coffee industry who joined Lounge X’s parent, Korean XYZ Robotics, seven years ago to launch the unstaffed coffee shops in 2024.They first tested the waters with a hybrid model employing one or two baristas in each store. Now each requires just one hour-long morning visit by a human worker to top up inventory such as coffee beans and bakery goods, and run clean-ups.While sales at a human-staffed coffee shop still tend to be higher, Kim said, the savings on labour boost the profitability of each unstaffed store to more than 40%, from roughly 10% to 15% at the conventional equivalent.”Although there has been an incident of theft, the vast majority of customers use the store conscientiously,” said Hyun Sun-Joo, who took over an unstaffed ramen eatery last year to bring in some income after years spent as a stay-at-home mother.Hyung said the self-service format, in which customers pick their choice of instant ramen off wall shelves to add hot water and preferred toppings, lets her juggle her children’s schedules and housework, freeing her up from managing staff.One customer, student Kim Hee-yeon, said she ate there at least once a week, as the operating hours suited her irregular eating habits.”I like to eat quietly while looking at my phone, so I do feel psychologically more comfortable when there isn’t anyone around,” she said, adding that a hiccup with the shop systems she once faced had taken just minutes to resolve.”It is slightly inconvenient that they aren’t right next to me when I have a problem,” she said. “But last time… they came and resolved it within about three minutes, so I don’t think that was a major inconvenience.” Related Story Source link
Philippines’ Alexandra Eala serves to Australia’s Maya Joint during their second round tennis match on the fourth day of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships at The All…
Jurgen Klopp is set to replace the under-pressure Julian Nagelsmann as the head coach of Germany. (AFP) Julian Nagelsmann is reportedly set to be sacked as Germany coach, tabloid Bild reported Thursday, with former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp the favourite to take over in the dugout.Nagelsmann, 38, has been under fire since Germany’s last 32 exit from the World Cup after a shock loss to Paraguay.Showing pictures of Nagelsmann at German FA (DFB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Bild reported Thursday the coach had been offered a severance package of seven million euros ($8 million) to leave the position in a three-hour meeting.Last renewed in January 2025, Nagelsmann’s contract is set to run until 2028.Figures on his annual salary have not been made public, although German media reports he earns roughly seven million euros per year.Germany’s loss on penalties to Paraguay marked the third straight early World Cup exit for the four-time champions, after group stage eliminations in Russia and Qatar.Monday’s defeat was Germany’s first knockout match since winning the World Cup in Brazil in 2014.On Tuesday, DFB president Bernd Neuendorf announced an immediate investigation into the World Cup failure.A decision on Nagelsmann is expected “by the beginning of next week at the latest”, AFP sports subsidiary SID reported Thursday.Several German media outlets, including Sky and Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, have said Klopp is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Nagelsmann.Klopp stepped away from management after leaving Liverpool in 2024 and has since been engaged as the head of global football for energy drink brand Red Bull, over-seeing a multi-club network which includes clubs in Austria, Germany, Brazil, the United States and Japan. Related Story Source link
The silhouette of a fisherman is seen with the Morro lighthouse in the background during a power outage at dawn in Havana on June 29, 2026.…
Soraida Torrealba’s family has spent days desperately searching for her among the rubble of their building.Other relatives scour hospitals and morgues after the two earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 left more than 1,700 dead and tens of thousands more still missing.Soraida’s 44-year-old sister, Rosanna Luna, says not knowing what happened her sister is excruciating.”I feel like my hands are tied because I can’t find her,” she laments.Like Luna, thousands of people are searching for one or more family members with growing desperation six days after the disaster.Social media is flooded with photos of children, the elderly, and couples, along with their names and descriptions, as well as a contact number for their families.The initiative “venezuelatebusca.com,” a database launched to help find friends and relatives lost since the earthquakes, reports more than 46,000 missing. The name means “Venezuela is looking for you.”The UN estimates that the number could be as high as 50,000 but Venezuela’s government has avoided putting a number on how many people are still unaccounted for.On Sunday, Luna thought she recognized her sister among the photos of the dead at the main Caracas morgue.One of the faces looked very similar, but when she looked more closely, the toenail polish didn’t match.The next day, she returned and found another face that resembled Soraida’s in a new batch of photographs.But the person’s features were so swollen that she couldn’t be sure it was her.Other relatives have been searching for her among the ruins of the apartment where Soraida lived with her dog Princesa in La Guaira, on Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, the region worst hit by the earthquakes.But on Monday, as they were returning to the site, a strong aftershock forced them to abandon their search.”It’s harder not knowing, because you ask yourself, ‘What do I do? Where do I look for her?” Luna cried.”I look for her here and she’s not there, I went to the hospital and she’s not there. Where is she?'”Her anguish is shared outside morgues as well as in hospitals, where photos of missing persons are plastered on walls and utility poles, written on handwritten pieces of paper.Robert Campos, who lost contact with several family members, says that information gathered from websites isn’t always accurate.His nephew was marked “deceased” on one site on Friday, but when he arrived at the hospital to which the page directed him, there was no record of his relative.He continues to tour hospitals and morgues, following possible leads sent to him from other family members, who continue to dig through rubble.Nearly a week after the earthquake, the 54-year-old just wants closure.”If they are alive, all the better, but what I want is to find them,” he said.The pungent smell of death emanates from the Caracas morgue, an odour that thousands of liters of donated chlorine cannot mask.An employee who asked to remain anonymous said that the institution has received “a great many” bodies since the day of the two earthquakes, magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, and is overwhelmed.Many have not been identified, partly due to the advanced state of decomposition of the bodies.”Not knowing anything,” says Campos, is the hard part.”Being told that the person died gives you the peace of mind that you don’t have to keep searching. You can help others, but you’ve already overcome that barrier that has been holding you back,” he said.Rosanna Luna, who is looking for her sister, is still hoping for a miracle.”I’ve asked God that she turns up safe and sound,” she said. “But if that’s not the case, at least let us find her.” Related Story Source link
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (left) shakes hands with Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun before their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul Tuesday. (AFP) Republic of Korea and Ukraine held “constructive” talks on Tuesday about the fate of two North Korean soldiers captured while fighting in Russia, Seoul said Tuesday.Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga discussed the matter during talks in Seoul.The soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces in January last year while fighting for Russia in the Kursk region.North Korea and Russia have demanded the repatriation of the pair, but rights groups and experts have warned they could face severe punishment if returned to Pyongyang.The soldiers have asked to be sent to Korea, which would in effect amount to defection.Seoul is seeking their transfer on the grounds that they are citizens of a single Republic of Korea envisaged in its constitution.North Korea and Republic of Korea remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.The nations are separated by a demilitarised zone, but Seoul considers the entire Korean peninsula as one country.The ministers “engaged in constructive discussions” on the soldiers’ future yesterday, a Korean foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.They agreed to be guided by “international law and humanitarian principles”.”The government will continue to make diplomatic efforts to advance and resolve the issue of the North Korean prisoners of war,” the spokesman said.Writing on X, Sybiga said he and Cho discussed the matter “in detail”.It has been reported that North Korean authorities instructed troops to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured while fighting for Russia.One of the two held by Ukraine told Korean broadcaster MBC earlier this year: “If I am not brought to Korea, I will end up dying.”North Korean leader Kim Jong-un praised North Korean troops killed in Ukraine in April for taking part in “death-defying hand-to-hand fights and heroic suicidal explosions… without hesitation”, according to the Korean Central News Agency.Kyiv had assured Seoul the two soldiers would not be repatriated to North Korea against their will, Cho said in March.Analysts say North Korea has received financial assistance, military technology, food and energy from Russia in exchange for missiles, munitions and thousands of troops for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.The two countries had signed a mutual defence treaty in 2024, obliging each to provide military assistance “without delay” if either comes under attack.More than 7,000 North Korean troops were killed or wounded while fighting alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region during the 2024-2025 campaign, the Kyiv Independent quoted Ukraine’s military intelligence agency as saying this week.Sybiga said he and Cho also discussed “shared challenges stemming from the deepening cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang”. …
There are destinations that impress visitors with their landmarks, and there are destinations that leave a lasting impression through their stories, people and experiences. Georgia, nestled at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, belongs firmly in the latter category.During a recent familiarisation trip organised by the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA), I discovered a country where ancient traditions coexist with modern ambitions, every winding street tells a story, and hospitality is not merely a cultural value but a way of life. The soul of Old Tbilisi The charming streets of Old Tbilisi showcase the city’s unique blend of history, culture and architectural heritage. Our journey began in Old Tbilisi, the historic heart of Georgia’s capital. Wandering through its narrow cobblestone streets quickly became one of the most memorable experiences of the trip.The district presents a fascinating blend of cultures and faiths. Ancient churches stand alongside mosques and synagogues, while colourful wooden balconies overlook bustling streets filled with art galleries, cafés and local shops.As we explored the city, our guide Kartlos enthusiastically shared stories about Tbilisi’s rich past.”Tbilisi has always been a meeting point of cultures, religions and civilisations,” he explained. “Its architecture reflects centuries of influences from Europe, Persia, the Middle East and the Caucasus.”Pointing to the various places of worship scattered across the old quarter, he highlighted the city’s long tradition of coexistence.”This diversity is what makes Tbilisi unique,” he said. “Different cultures and communities have lived side by side here for centuries.”From the famous sulfur baths of Abanotubani to the ancient churches of Betlemi and the commanding views from Narikala Fortress, every stop offered another glimpse into the city’s layered history.The evening brought a more contemporary experience. A stroll through the city led us to Kvarts Coffee, where a long queue outside signalled its popularity. The wait proved worthwhile. The café’s talented artist transformed ordinary coffee cups into personalised works of art, sketching portraits of customers on the outer surface of the cups. Watching fellow journalists eagerly await their customised creations became an attraction in itself.Kakheti: History, culture and rural traditions Perched above the Alazani Valley, Sighnaghi is…
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the funeral of the late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei this week, the South Asian nation’s foreign ministry said on Thursday.”The Prime Minister, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, will go to Iran and Turkey from 3-5 July… he will go to Iran first for (the) supreme leader’s funeral,” ministry spokesman Tahir Andrabi told reporters.Pakistan has been mediating between the United States and Iran to end the regional war which began in February with US-Israeli strikes that killed the 86-year-old Iranian supreme leader in Tehran.Andrabi reiterated earlier statements from Pakistan and fellow mediator Qatar that US-Iranian indirect talks in Doha this week had made progress and another meeting could take place after Khamenei’s funeral.The public funeral will begin on Saturday, with his body lying in state at the colossal complex in central Tehran that hosts major Friday prayers, official ceremonies and religious gatherings.Pakistan shares deep historic ties with Iran. The two share a 900-kilometre (560-mile) border and cultural links, with Sunni-majority Pakistan home to the world’s second-largest Shia population after Iran.Sharif’s trip to Turkey would involve meetings with Turkish leadership and businesspeople, Andrabi said. Related Story Source link
Argentina’s forward Lionel Messi takes part in a training session ahead of their World Cup round of 32 match against Cape Verde at Sporting KC Training…