Japan's Princess Mako weds, then goes on TV to defend the marriage
CBSN
Tokyo — In what was called the most anticipated live TV appearance of the year, 30-year-old Princess Mako defended her controversial decision to marry a man some here branded unworthy of her status. Mako's decision had drawn widespread sympathy, as well as outrage from a small but noisy band of hardcore traditionalists.
Flanked by her brand new husband during a ten-minute afternoon address broadcast on all major networks from a Tokyo hotel, the former princess, now officially Mako Komuro, called husband Kei Komuro "irreplaceable."
Still suffering from stress-related illness amid the firestorm of criticism of the marriage, she said it was "a necessary choice."
London — As authorities clamp down on fentanyl distribution and the amount of heroin produced in Afghanistan decreases under the Taliban, criminal enterprises have turned to a deadly alternative. Some health agencies in Europe are reporting a rise in deaths and overdoses from a type of synthetic opioid that can reportedly be hundreds of times stronger than heroin and up to forty times stronger than fentanyl.
Vaughan Gething was elected as the new first minister of Wales on Wednesday, becoming the first Black leader of a government in the U.K. Gething was elected to lead the government by members of the Welsh parliament in Cardiff, four days after winning the contest to be leader of Wales' governing Labour Party. He secured 27 of 51 votes in the legislature, the Senedd, where Labour is the biggest party.
Errekunda, Gambia — Lawmakers in Gambia will vote Monday on legislation that seeks to repeal a ban on female genital mutilation, or FGM, which would make the West African nation the first country anywhere to make that reversal. The procedure, which also has been called female genital cutting, includes the partial or full removal of external genitalia, often by traditional community practitioners with tools such as razor blades or at times by health workers.