Hello, I'm Jerry Smit with the BBC News.
The Greek government has submitted new proposals to secure a third bailout from its international creditors. The Head of the Eurozone's Group of Finance Ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said the plans would now be assessed in detail. The proposals include tax rises, pension reforms, spending cuts and promises of privatisation. Tim Willcox in Athens says this may cause problems for the Greek government.
“They think, the source I've been speaking to, that the E.U. will take this, but it's going to be very difficult for Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, internally here in Greece, following that referendum last weekend with that massive vote, a NO vote against any more austerity measures.”
International negotiators striving for a deal on Iran's nuclear programme say they are prepared to work beyond another looming deadline, but the time is not unlimited. The U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the negotiations would not be rushed, but could not wait forever. Barbara Plett Usher is at the talks in Vienna.
“Diplomats have been hoping to reach an agreement by the end of the day. Because otherwise, the U.S. Congress will get twice as long to review any deal, sixty days instead of thirty. But Mr. Kerry told the press that negotiators would not rush because the clock strikes at midnight. He said they were focused on achieving an agreement that stood the test of time and despite progress, some difficult issues still remained. However, he said President Obama had made it clear the process was not open-ended, and he was prepared to call an end to it, if tough decisions were not taken.”
The United Nations has announced that an unconditional humanitarian truce in Yemen will start on Friday night and last until the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan. It called on all parties in the conflict to respect the ceasefire and allow aid to reach all vulnerable Yemenis. The U.N. has warned that millions are at risk of famine.
The former Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, has died, just months after he was replaced after forty years in the post. He was seventy-five. As the world's longest-serving foreign minister, Prince Saud became a well-known figure on the international stage, navigating through decades of turbulence in the Middle East.
The Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley, has signed into law the bill to remove the Confederate Flag from the State Capital grounds. The Flag, used by the slave-owning states during the Civil War, had always been controversial. The demands for it to be taken down became stronger after the killing of nine black church-goers in Charleston by a gunman who had posed with Confederate Flags. Governor Haley said the Flag will be removed on Friday.
“Tomorrow morning, at ten a.m., we'll see the Confederate Flag come down. We are a state that believes in tradition. We are a state that believes in history. We are a state that believes in respect. So we will bring it down with dignity, and we will make sure that it's put in a rightful place.”
World news from the BBC.
The U.S. Office for Personnel Management has concluded that the social security numbers of more than twenty million people were stolen in a recent data breach. It had already announced that data on four point two million current and former federal government employees had been taken. Those who now known to have been affected by the hack include people who had applied for a government job, federal contractors, as well as over a million of their partners.
An American general in line for the U.S. military's top job has told his confirmation hearing that Russia poses the greatest threat to U.S. security. Marine General Joseph Dunford called Russia's recent actions in Ukraine nothing short of alarming. Tom Bateman reports from Washington.
“General Joseph Dunford appeared before the Senate Arms Services Committee, ahead of his expected confirmation as Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. He described Russia as a nation that could pose an existential threat to the U.S., saying its behaviour was nothing short of alarming and that it poses the greatest threat to America's national security. Asked if the U.S. should provide lethal arms to Ukraine, he said it would be reasonable from a military standpoint. The White House said the comments did not reflect the view of President Obama's National Security Team.”
Pope Francis chose to change in a fast food restaurant in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, before leading an open-air mass before an audience of hundreds of thousands. The famously unpretentious Pope used his address to encourage Bolivian Catholics to reject consumerism.
New research suggests that climate change has played a major part in the decline of bumblebees in recent decades. Scientists say global warming has shrunk the ranges of the insects in both North America and Europe. They found that bumblebees have left the warmest, more southernly parts of their ranges, but haven't been able to move to cooler areas further north.