Angelina Jolie Opens up About her Divorce from Brad Pitt

In an interview with Vogue India the Mr. & Mrs. Smith star gave a rare look into the couple's 1016 divorce, telling the outlet that the decision to separate after two years of marriage was done with the wellbeing of their six children—Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and 11-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox—in mind.

"I separated for the wellbeing of my family," she said. "It was the right decision. I continue to focus on their healing."

She also addressed her silence following their separation, explaining how the speculation surrounding her and Pitt's relationship affected their children. 

"Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds," she added. "In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people."

Still on the topic of her kids, Jolie shared how she raised her adopted children, Maddox, Pax and Zahara, and embraced their different backgrounds.Each is a beautiful way of becoming family. What is important is to speak with openness about all of it and to share," she began. "‘Adoption' and ‘orphanage' are positive words in our home. With my adopted children, I can't speak of pregnancy, but I speak with much detail and love about the journey to find them and what it was like to look in their eyes for the first time."

"All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours," the Changeling star continued. "When they are from another race and foreign land, that mystery, that gift, is so full. For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not. Honor them. Learn from them."She added, "It's the most amazing journey to share. They are not entering your world, you are entering each other's worlds."

Noting that her children Maddox and Pax were adopted from Cambodia and Vietnam, respectively, and that the countries were once at war with each other, Jolie said that she's "grateful" to have both boys in her life. 
 
"I did originally think not to adopt from Vietnam because Mad was Cambodian and the two countries have a complex history," she recalled. "Then I was reading a book on human rights and found myself staring at an image of a Vietnamese fighter held captive by Americans. I thought of my own country and our involvement in south-east Asia."

Jolie continued, "I thought of focusing on a future where we were all family. I am very blessed to have been allowed to be their mom. I am grateful every day."

Queen honours Ghana veteran for Covid-19 fundraiser

Ghanaian World War Two veteran Private Joseph Hammond says he is "overwhelmed and filled with joy" by the news that the Queen has honoured his fundraising efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

He has been given the Commonwealth Points of Light award which recognises inspirational volunteers throughout the Commonwealth.

Now 95 years old, the veteran joined the Royal West African Frontier Force aged just 16.

Last month, he set himself a challenge of walking 3.2km (two miles) every day to raise $600,000 (£500,000) to buy protective gear for health workers and vulnerable veterans.

Private Hammond has so far raised $35,000.

He was inspired by British veteran, Captain Sir Tom Moore, who raised more than $35m for the UK's National Health Service.

The Queen's grandson, Prince Harry, wrote Private Hammond a letter of encouragement and support earlier this month.

BBC news

Nobel laureate dismisses fake news about Covid-19 role

A post has been circulating falsely claiming that 2018 Nobel laureate Dr Dénis Mukwege resigned from Covid-19 response teams in DR Congo because he had been ordered to declare illnesses and deaths to be coronavirus-related even when they were not.

He has resigned but not for the reasons being claimed.

The false post was published on Facebook on 16 June and was widely shared, with a screenshot being shared on WhatsApp too.

"I cannot in any case dirty my Nobel Peace Prize for money, we had been ordered to declare any illness to be coronavirus and any death,” the post claims he said.

Dr Mukwege has been serving in two teams set up to coordinate the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the South Kivu province in eastern DR Congo for the past two months.

He announced his resignation on 10 June saying lack of laboratories for testing for the virus had frustrated his work.

He also cited a lax attitude to social distancing or other measures among the population, porous borders, and the return of thousands of DR Congo citizens from neighbouring countries without having been quarantined. He said that decreased the effectiveness of the team’s’ strategy.

Dr Mukwege said he was resigning to devote himself to treating an influx of patients at the Panzi Hospital which is run by his foundation.

A spokesperson for Dr Mukwege told the BBC any statement not appearing on his official social media pages and websites is fake.

Nowhere in his resignation statement does Dr Mukwege mention having been forced to declare negative coronavirus cases to be positive.

bbc news

Ogun suspends reopening of worship centres

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Ogun Governor Dapo Abiodun has suspended the planned reopening of worship centres in the state, citing low compliance with guidelines and precautionary measures against the coronavirus by residents.

Abiodun, had in his last address to the state, planned to lift restriction on religious centres with effect from Friday, June 19.

Speaking to reporters at Oke – Mosan Governor’s Office, Abeokuta, he noted worship centres are the most veritable and potent ground to spread the deadly virus, saying he elected to take the painful decision to keep them locked to save lives

The Nation

Breonna Taylor: Louisville officer to be fired for deadly force use

A policeman involved in the killing of a black woman in the US state of Kentucky will be fired, city officials announced.

Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot as she slept when officers entered her flat in Louisville on 13 March during a drugs investigation.

Mayor Greg Fischer said Brett Hankison, one of three officers involved, will lose his badge.

Ms Taylor's name has become a rallying cry at global anti-racism protests.

The other officers have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation.

Mayor Fischer did not provide more details regarding the decision to fire Mr Hankison, citing a local law.

"Unfortunately, due to a provision in state law that I very much would like to see changed, both the Chief and I are precluded from talking about what brought us to this moment, or even the timing of this decision," he said.

BBCnews

Reality Check, Coronavirus: How a false rumour led to hate online

Researching viruses in farm animals is essential rather than glamorous work, and The Pirbright Institute in Surrey excels at it. But recently they've been getting some very unwanted attention.

For months they've been unwittingly drawn into the orbit of conspiracy theorists, including those who accuse Bill Gates of planning the coronavirus pandemic. It's led to hate mail and threatening phone calls.

"We'd never experienced anything quite like that. Some of the commentary was quite vicious. Calling us murderers, that type of thing", says Teresa Maughan, head of communications.

Teresa remembers one particular phone call. The person had rung up before, leaving a colleague in tears after shouting down the phone accusing them of creating coronavirus and using it as a bioweapon.

"He then called me pretending to be Mrs Doubtfire, so it was pretty obvious it was somebody putting on a voice. He said something sexually abusive to me and I obviously put the phone down."It all started in January with misleading social media posts about a patent.

Jordan Sather, a YouTuber who promotes the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy in the United States, posted a series of tweets linking The Pirbright Institute to a patent "for the coronavirus" granted in 2018.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses known to cause a range of illnesses in both animals and humans. The novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 only emerged at the end of 2019, so the suggestion being made was that the institute had identified this virus much earlier and lodged a "patent" for it.

The institute does hold a patent, but it's linked to research into a vaccine for a previously known coronavirus that affects chickensMr Sather also wrote that Bill and Melinda Gates were major funders of this Pirbright project, later speculating: "Was the release of this disease planned?"

The connection to Bill Gates has drawn the institute into a much bigger global conspiracy theory - tapping into the unfounded notion that sinister forces led by Mr Gates have orchestrated the whole pandemic to eventually make huge profits from a Covid-19 vaccine.

The Gates Foundation is one of the world's largest supporters of global health projects, and The Pirbright is quite open about its funding from there for research linked to vaccines. However, that funding isn't related to any work for which a patent has been taken out.

• How Bill Gates became 'voodoo doll' of Covid-19

At the end of March, long after the attacks began on social media, The Pirbright started working with Oxford University and Public Health England to test a potential Covid-19 vaccine on pigs, a necessary stage before a vaccine can be tested on humans.

We tried to contact Mr Sather about his comments but have been unable to get a response. In a later tweet he says he didn't claim The Pirbright patent was specifically for the "novel coronavirus" (the virus which causes Covid-19)..A search for The Pirbright Institute on CrowdTangle, a social media monitoring tool, returned 191,000 results between 16 January 2020 and 16 June. There were just 711 in the previous six months.

All manner of false accusations were levelled at them: that they had a patent for the virus or a vaccine for it; that they were actually based in Wuhan; that they were owned by Bill Gates.Online abuse was hurled at staff. An email to Dr Erica Bickerton, an expert in molecular virology, read:

"You know the composition of this Virus so you know how to destroy it...SO PLEASE I REQUEST YOU NOT LET MY FAMILY DIE AND TELL ME THE ANTIDOTE."

"Personally I found the misinformation spreading quite difficult", says Dr Bickerton,"because the work we're trying to do is to help livestock and other animals and understand this virus."

Someone even went to the trouble of setting up a fake "Pirbright" website offering to sell a coronavirus bioweapon.

BBCnews

Pandemic accelerating - World Health Organization chief

The World Health Organization has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic is entering a “new and dangerous” phase. Thursday saw the most cases in a single day reported to the WHO.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the day had seen 150,000 new cases with half of those coming from the Americas and large numbers also from the Middle East and South Asia.

He said the virus was still spreading fast and the pandemic accelerating.

He acknowledged people might be fed up with self-isolating and countries were eager to open their economies but he said that now was a time for extreme vigilance.

BBC news