World news in brief
Glee star’s son ‘saw her disappear beneath the water’
Naya Rivera’s four-year-old son, Josey Hollis Dorsey, has told police that he saw his mother disappear beneath the water at a lake in California. The Glee star is feared to have drowned after going missing during a boat trip to Lake Piru, California, on Wednesday. Josey was found asleep on the boat.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Kevin Donoghue said there is no evidence to suggest the 33-yearold left the lake. “Our first day was a rescue effort, it was a life-saving effort,” he said. “We searched with people on the ground, on the shoreline. We were looking not just for her physically, we were looking for any clues, any evidence that suggested she made it to shore. We didn’t find any clues, any evidence that suggested she made it to shore. The most conclusive piece of evidence we’re really holding on to right now is the statements from her son, the only witness.”
Sgt Donoghue said he was confident that Rivera is “in the water and that at some point in time we will
recover her from the lake”.
Five killed in South African church siege
Four people were shot and burnt to death in a car yesterday during a siege at a church in South Africa that also left a security guard dead. Police said men, women and children were taken hostage inside the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, west of Johannesburg, before being freed.
Security forces arrested around 40 suspects, including members of the police and the defence forces, and seized dozens of guns in their response to the shooting and hostage situation. It is thought that a feud between different factions at the church could be a motive.
Local media reported that a shoot-out took place at the church in 2018, two years after the death of its leader, Glayton Modise. In the aftermath of yesterday’s attack, national police commissioner Khehla John Sitole said that the South African security forces had “averted what could have been a more severe bloodbath”.
Virus drugs shouldn’t go to highest bidder, says Gates
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates yesterday said that coronavirus drugs and a vaccine should go to those in need and not those with the most cash. “If we just let drugs and vaccines go to the highest bidder, instead of to the people and the places where they are most needed, we’ll have a longer, more unjust, deadlier pandemic,” Mr Gates said, during a virtual conference organised by the International Aids Society. “We need leaders to make these hard decisions about distributing based on equity, not just on marketdriven factors.”
With hundreds of coronavirus vaccine projects under way, and governments in Europe and the US investing billions of dollars in research, trials and manufacturing, there is concern that richer nations could scoop up promising medicines, leaving developing countries empty-handed.
The European Commission and the World Health Organisation have warned of an unhealthy competition in the scramble for a vaccine. Some officials in Washington have indicated they would seek to prioritise US residents. During the video call, Mr Gates said that the handling of the HIV/Aids crisis should serve as a model for battling Covid-19, where countries came together to research drugs and make them available across most of the world. Reuters
Twitter suspends dozens of white nationalist accounts
Dozens of white nationalist Twitter accounts have been suspended for spreading a conspiracy theory that inspired the Christchurch shooter and other terrorists. Key figures in the Generation Identity youth network saw their profiles shut down alongside others in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Denmark.
The pan-European group calls for a “remigration” of Muslims from Europe and spreads a conspiracy theory claiming that white people are being eradicated.
The theory’s name – the “great replacement” – was the title of a manifesto posted by killer Brenton Tarrant before the 2019 Christchurch shooting, which itself inspired several other terror attacks.
TV network NBC said more than 50 white nationalist accounts had been removed but Twitter would not publicly confirm the figure. “The accounts in question were suspended for violating our policies in relation to violent extremism,” a spokesperson said.