The lead singer of the Italian band who won the Eurovision Song Contest has denied taking drugs, following online speculation over competition footage showing him leaning over a table. Måneskin’s Damiano David rejected the idea that he had been taking cocaine. “I don’t use drugs. Please, guys. Don’t say that really, no cocaine,” he said at a press conference. In a statement, Eurovision said the singer would “take a voluntary drug test after arriving home”. Måneskin, who had been favourites to win the contest, took the top prize with their song Zitti e buoni. People at home speculated as to what the singer was doing when he appeared to bend his face towards a table as the band celebrated their victory during the live broadcast.(BBC)…[+]

Thousands of people fled their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the night after a large volcano erupted. As the sky turned red and rivers of lava streamed from Mount Nyiragongo, there were concerns that its past deadly tragedies would be repeated. A mass evacuation was launched in the city of Goma, which has a population of about two million people. However, the city was largely spared and some residents are now returning. The volcano, located 10km (six miles) from Goma, last erupted in 2002, killing 250 people and making 120,000 homeless. There has been no official report of casualties during the latest eruption and it is unclear how many homes have been damaged. On Sunday morning, Communications Minister Patrick Muyay tweeted to say the intensity of the lava flow had slowed and an assessment of the humanitarian situation was ongoing.(BBC)…[+]

A Ryanair plane flying from Greece to Lithuania has been diverted to Minsk, with Belarusian opposition figures saying it was done so a dissident journalist on board could be arrested. The opposition Nexta channel on Telegram said its ex-editor Roman Protasevich had been detained.  Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda accused Belarus of an “abhorrent action” and demanded his release.

Belarus state media said the plane had been diverted because of a bomb scare. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was beaten by Alexander Lukashenko last year in presidential polls widely denounced as rigged, also demanded Mr Protasevich’s release. Since August’s election the 66-year-old Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the country since 1994, has cracked down on dissenting voices. Many opposition figures have been arrested or, like Ms Tikhanovskaya, fled into exile.(BBC)…[+]

The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives has voted, with Republican support, for a commission to investigate the Capitol riot. Thirty-five Republicans defied their party leaders and former President Donald Trump in siding with Democrats by 252-175 to establish the inquiry. Mr Trump had urged Republicans to vote against the “Democrat trap”. The bill looks unlikely to pass the upper chamber. Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell called it “slanted”. The inquiry would be modelled on the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington. It would establish a 10-member body, evenly split between the two main parties, that would make recommendations by the end of the year on how to prevent any repeat of the Capitol invasion.(BBC)…[+]

Thousands of women who were victims of the PIP breast implant scandal should receive compensation, a French appeal court has decided. Women involved in the case say they are elated and exhausted after 10 years of fighting for justice. The court also upheld an earlier judgement finding German safety body TUV Rheinland negligent. TUV said it had acted “diligently”, and that women must prove they had a PIP implant to be entitled to compensation. It awarded safety certificates for faulty breast implants made by French company Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP). The court decision could have far-reaching implications for thousands of other victims around the world.(BBC)…[+]

Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of France, is going on trial for illegally funding his 2012 re-election campaign. Mr Sarkozy, who denies the charges, stands accused with 13 other defendants over their role in the so-called “Bygmalion” scandal. They allegedly overspent by tens of millions of euros on the campaign, and hired a PR firm to cover it up. It is the ex-president’s latest legal fight, after being convicted of corruption earlier this year. The trial was supposed to start in March, but had to be postponed because a lawyer fell ill with Covid-19.

Special Belgian police units are searching for a heavily armed soldier who disappeared after reportedly making violent threats. The suspect has been named as Jurgen Conings, a military shooting instructor who took weapons from a barracks.  He is said to have made threats in the past against virologist Marc Van Ranst, who led Belgium’s public health response to coronavirus. Mr Van Ranst and his family have been taken to a safe place. Police appealed to the public not to approach the suspect but to get in touch if he was spotted.  They searched a forest near Dilsen-Stokkem in the Limburg province of northern Belgium, after a car said to belong to the soldier was spotted containing heavy weapons. Police are said to have found four rocket-launchers but the suspect is still thought to have several other firearms with him as well as a bulletproof vest.(BBC)…[+]

Health authorities in Malawi have incinerated 19,610 expired doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, saying it will reassure the public that any vaccines they do get are safe. It is the first African country to publicly do this. The World Health Organization initially urged countries not to destroy expired doses but has now changed its advice. Uptake of the vaccine in Malawi has been low and health workers hope the move will increase public confidence. Out of a population of about 18 million people, the country has recorded 34,232 confirmed coronavirus cases and 1,153 deaths.Malawi received 102,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine it acquired from the African Union on 26 March and used almost 80% of them.(BBC)…[+]

When an Israeli strike hit al-Wihda street in central Gaza City early on Sunday, at least 13 members of the extended al-Kawalek family are believed to have been killed, buried in the rubble of their own home. Many of the victims were children, with one said to be as young as six months. “We saw nothing but smoke,” one of the surviving members of the family, Sanaa al-Kawalek, told Felesteen Online. “I couldn’t see my son next to me and I was hugging him, but I could see nothing.” The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the bombing as “abnormal” and said the civilian casualties were unintended. A spokesman said air strikes had caused a tunnel to collapse, bringing houses down with it. Among those killed were sisters Yara, 9, and Rula, 5. Both had been receiving treatment for trauma from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). The al-Kawaleks were polite girls who always did their homework on time, one of their teachers, who did not want be named, told the BBC. A picture circulating online is said to show 10-year-old Aziz al-Kawalek, the only surviving member of his direct family, sitting by his mother’s body.(BBC)…[+]

Just 20 companies are the source of more than half of all the single-use plastic items thrown away globally. That’s the conclusion of analysis of the corporate network behind plastic production. The study looked at approximately 1,000 factories that make the raw materials needed for single-use products. Plastic bottles, food packages and bags are among billions of items that are used once and then thrown away, often ending up in the oceans. The research – carried out by a consortium including the London School of Economics – looked at which companies are at the base of the plastic supply chain and make polymers, the building blocks of all plastics. It names 20 petrochemical companies which it says are the source of 55 per cent of the world’s single-use plastic waste. The companies include ExxonMobil, Dow and Sinopec.(BBC)…[+]