BRITAIN
Philip to stop royal duties
Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, will retire from royal duties this fall, Buckingham Palace said yesterday. Philip, 95, made the decision himself with the full support of the queen, the palace said in a statement. Philip, known as the Duke of Edinburgh, has had heart disease and other ailments in recent years, but has nonetheless maintained a vigorous public schedule. He seemed to be in good health on Wednesday at an appearance at Lord’s. He joked about being the world’s most experienced person when it comes to unveiling plaques. Officials said the queen, who turned 91 last month, would keep carrying out royal engagements with the support of the royal family. The palace said Philip will continue heading numerous charitable organizations, but will not play an active role attending engagements. The palace did not offer any new details about his health and there were no indications of any new problems. The statement indicated Philip will carry out previously scheduled engagements between now and August.
CUBA
Succession line-up teased
One of the highest-profile members of the ruling family said the country could be surprised by the person who succeeds her father as president. Mariela Castro’s uncle, Fidel, led the nation for a half century before he was succeeded by her father, Raul Castro. Raul Castro has said he plans to step down in February next year. International and domestic observers widely expect him to be succeeded by 57-year-old First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel. When asked on Wednesday about the succession process, Mariela Castro said: “Sometimes you’re going in one direction and suddenly you look over here and go: ‘Wow, how interesting, I hadn’t focused on this person.’” She said that “there are always surprises.”
UNITED STATES
Google shuts down spam
Google said it shut down an e-mail spam campaign that impersonated its online file service, Google Docs. According to online reports — in particular, a detailed user thread on Reddit — clicking on an e-mailed share link, purportedly from a known source, was taking users to a site that asked permission for a fake app calling itself “Google Docs” to access their accounts. If they agreed, the app would then send additional copies of the original e-mail to the users’ contacts. Earlier reports suggested the attack was a phishing scam potentially aimed at harvesting personal information and maybe even Google login credentials. However, in a statement late on Wednesday, Google said that while the campaign accessed and used contact information, no other data was apparently exposed. Google said it was able to stop the campaign in about an hour.
UNITED STATES
Exam exploit thwarted
Police said two University of Kentucky students crawled through an air duct to steal a statistics exam from their professor’s office, but were caught because he was working late. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that university police cited Henry Lynch II and Troy Kiphuth, both 21, for third-degree burglary and referred the case to Fayette County Circuit Court. University spokesman Jay Blanton told the newspaper the instructor left his office at about midnight on Tuesday to get something to eat. When he returned, two men ran from the office. One of them later returned and confessed. Police said Lynch told officers he tried stealing the exam earlier in the night, but could not find it.
AFGHAN CHILD: A court battle is ongoing over if the toddler can stay with Joshua Mast and his wife, who wanted ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ for her Major Joshua Mast, a US Marine whose adoption of an Afghan war orphan has spurred a years-long legal battle, is to remain on active duty after a three-member panel of Marines on Tuesday found that while he acted in a way unbecoming of an officer to bring home the baby girl, it did not warrant his separation from the military. Lawyers for the Marine Corps argued that Mast abused his position, disregarded orders of his superiors, mishandled classified information and improperly used a government computer in his fight over the child who was found orphaned on the battlefield in rural Afghanistan
Millions of dollars have poured into bets on who will win the US presidential election after a last-minute court ruling opened up gambling on the vote, upping the stakes on a too-close-to-call race between US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump that has already put voters on edge. Contracts for a Harris victory were trading between 48 and 50 percent in favor of the Democrat on Friday on Interactive Brokers, a firm that has taken advantage of a legal opening created earlier this month in the country’s long running regulatory battle over election markets. With just a month
EYEING THE US ELECTION: Analysts say that Pyongyang would likely leverage its enlarged nuclear arsenal for concessions after a new US administration is inaugurated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un warned again that he could use nuclear weapons in potential conflicts with South Korea and the US, as he accused them of provoking North Korea and raising animosities on the Korean Peninsula, state media reported yesterday. Kim has issued threats to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively numerous times, but his latest warning came as experts said that North Korea could ramp up hostilities ahead of next month’s US presidential election. In a Monday speech at a university named after him, the Kim Jong-un National Defense University, he said that North Korea “will without hesitation use all its attack
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and fit for the presidency, according to a medical report published by the White House on Saturday as she challenged her rival, former US president Donald Trump, to publish his own health records. “Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,” her physician Joshua Simmons said in the report, adding that she “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a trip to North Carolina, Harris called Trump’s unwillingness to publish his records “a further example
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