Category Archives: World News

Newlywed among four women chosen to run Antarctic outpost

Posted on by

British women beat 6,000 applicants to spend five months counting penguins and running post office on Goudier Island

It was one of the strangest of job alerts: a call to run the world’s most remote, coldest post office – on an island with no permanent residents – and count penguins in almost continuous daylight.

But bizarre or not, it struck a chord: 6,000 people applied for the four jobs on Goudier Island in Port Lockroy, and now the winners have been announced: a newlywed, who will leave her husband behind for what she is calling a “solo honeymoon” and three other British women, who are equally thrilled by the adventure ahead.

Continue reading...

Taiwan’s military recruitment pool shrinking due to low birthrate

Posted on by

Number of new conscripts at lowest level in a decade as country tries to build defences amid threat of Chinese invasion

The declining birthrate in Taiwan could cause “major challenges” to the island’s military recruitment capabilities, at a time when Taiwan is building its defences to ward off potential Chinese invasion, its government has been told.

Like much of east Asia, Taiwan is facing a demographic crisis, with fewer people having children each year as the population ages. The issue has social and economic effects on countries but in Taiwan there is also concern over its impact on military personnel levels.

Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron’s top adviser charged with conflict of interest

Posted on by

French president’s ‘right-hand man’ allegedly failed to reveal family ties to public investment agency

The top official in Emmanuel Macron’s office has been charged with a conflict of interest.

The move against Alexis Kohler, who holds one of France’s most powerful jobs as Élysée secretary general, came hours after another ally of the French president, the justice minister, Éric Dupond-Moretti, was ordered to stand trial in a separate case, also over a conflict of interest.

Continue reading...

Herschel Walker: anti-abortion Senate nominee denies media report he paid for abortion in 2009

Posted on by

Republican candidate for US Senate in Georgia who has vehemently opposed abortion rights denies a media report he paid for an abortion for an anonymous former girlfriend in 2009, describing it as ‘a flat out lie’

A Republican nominee for the US Senate, who strongly opposes abortion rights, has denied a Daily Beast report that he paid for an abortion for a former girlfriend in 2009. Herschel Walker, a former American football player who is running for the US Senate in Georgia, called the accusation a “flat-out lie” and says he will sue the news outlet for defamation.

The Daily Beast published claims from a woman who says Walker paid for her abortion when they were dating. The woman, who was not named, claimed the allegation was supported by a receipt showing a $575 payment for the procedure, along with a get-well card, purportedly from Walker.

Continue reading...

Ukraine ‘must revamp labour laws and step up privatisation to fix economy’

Posted on by

President’s economic adviser says country must speed up reform of industries after Russia’s invasion

Ukraine needs to revamp its labour laws and redouble efforts to privatise thousands of companies to repair its economy, its president’s economic adviser has said.

Alexander Rodnyansky, an adviser to the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the war-torn country needed to speed up efforts to reform industries as it looked to rebuild after Russia’s invasion.

Continue reading...

Pakistan’s PM says rival Imran Khan is ‘biggest liar on earth’

Posted on by

Exclusive: As economic turmoil continues, Shehbaz Sharif accuses predecessor of leaving the country in ruins

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, has accused the former premier Imran Khan of being the “the biggest liar on the face of the earth” and injecting poison into society to “dangerously polarise the electorate” after he was toppled from power earlier this year.

Speaking in his first interview from Pakistan since he took over as prime minister in April, Sharif, 70, spoke unsparingly of the “damage” that Khan, the former cricket superstar who ruled Pakistan from 2018, had done to the country in both domestic and foreign affairs.

Continue reading...

North Korea fires missile over Japan prompting warnings for residents to shelter

Posted on by

Launch is the first time the North has apparently sent a missile over Japanese territory since 2017

North Korea has launched a intermediate-range ballistic missile over northern Japan for the first time in five years, prompting the government to urge people to shelter from falling debris, in an apparent escalation of recent weapons tests by Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Japan’s government had activated its J-Alert system on Tuesday morning for residents in the northernmost main island of Hokkaido and the country’s north-eastern Aomori prefecture. Train services were temporarily halted in the region.

Continue reading...

Zelenskiy hits back as Elon Musk sets up Twitter poll on annexed areas of Ukraine

Posted on by

Outrage and condemnation over billionaire’s suggestions including formally making Crimea part of Russia

Elon Musk has prompted an online row with Ukraine’s president after he asked Twitter users to weigh in on his ideas to end Russia’s war.

In a tweet, Musk suggested UN-supervised elections in four occupied regions that Moscow has falsely annexed after what it called referendums. The votes were denounced by Kyiv and western governments as illegal and coercive. “Russia leaves if that is will of the people,” Musk wrote.

Continue reading...

Hurricane Orlene strikes Mexico’s Pacific coast with 80mph winds

Posted on by

Nearby ports are closed and emergency shelters open as 10in of rain and dangerous surf are expected

Hurricane Orlene has made landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast near the tourist town of Mazatlán, with winds of more than 80mph (130km/h).

Electrical cables swayed and sent off showers of sparks in the town of El Rosario, about 40 miles (65km) south of Mazatlán, close to where the hurricane hit.

Continue reading...

Brazilians shocked as Bolsonaro’s strong election showing defies expectations

Posted on by

Far-right president forces second round after closely trailing Lula, disappointing those who had hoped to turn a page on his influence

Tears filled Beatriz Simões’s eyes as she digested Jair Bolsonaro’s startlingly strong performance in Sunday’s Brazilian election.

Hours earlier the 34-year-old publicist had been convinced a hope-filled dawn was coming with the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as Brazil’s next leader.

Continue reading...

Cop27 host Egypt warns UK not to backtrack from climate agenda

Posted on by

Unusual diplomatic intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero

The Egyptian government, host of the next UN climate summit, has warned the UK against “backtracking from the global climate agenda”, in a significant intervention prompted by fears over Liz Truss’s commitment to net zero.

The warning before the Cop27 conference, which will take place in just over a month in Sharm el-Sheikh, to the host of Cop26, which took place in Glasgow last November, is highly unusual in diplomatic terms. The hosts of successive Cops are responsible for a smooth handover of the talks.

Continue reading...

Burkina Faso coup fuels fears of growing Russian mercenary presence in Sahel

Posted on by

North Africa analysts believe new leader Ibrahim Traoré may seek help from Moscow in fight against Islamic extremists

Russian mercenaries may be poised for further expansion in Africa’s strategically important Sahel region after the latest coup d’etat in the region, western officials and analysts fear.

Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso on Friday, overthrowing Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, whom he accused of failing to effectively counter rising violence by Islamic extremists in the unstable and poverty-stricken country.

Continue reading...

Why did the Brazil election pollsters get Bolsonaro’s vote so wrong?

Posted on by

One expert says many surveys overrepresented poor voters, and far-right supporters may just not respond

Not for the first time, the pollsters got it wrong. Far from being a sweeping win for the left, the first round of Brazil’s presidential elections was much closer than expected, with the country’s far-right president significantly outperforming predictions.

With almost all votes counted on Monday, Jair Bolsonaro’s veteran leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had secured 48.3%, while the populist incumbent was just five percentage points behind on 43.3%, a much narrower margin than most pre-election estimates.

Continue reading...

Brazilian left celebrates election wins for trans and Indigenous candidates

Posted on by

Successes in congress as progressive standard bearer Lula is favourite to defeat Bolsonaro in second round of presidential vote

Brazil’s election result was a disappointment for those hoping to see a first-round win for the presidential challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva but there were still some reasons to be cheerful for the country’s left.

Not only is Lula favourite to win the 30 October runoff – he need only increase his vote share from 48.4% to 50+1 – but diversity got a boost in a few key parliamentary races.

Continue reading...

Russian woman behind on-air war protest reportedly escapes house arrest

Posted on by

Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova gained international attention after holding up ‘no war’ poster on live TV

Russia has put Marina Ovsyannikova, the former state TV editor who interrupted a news broadcast to protest against the Ukraine war, on a wanted list after she reportedly escaped house arrest.

The Ukrainian-born Ovsyannikova, 44, gained international attention in March after bursting into a studio of Channel One, her then employer, to denounce the Ukraine war during a live news bulletin, holding a poster reading “no war”. At the time she was fined 30,000 roubles (£460) for shunning protest laws.

Continue reading...

Biden pledges support to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico: ‘All of America is with you’ – as it happened

Posted on by

As Puerto Rico prepares for Joe Biden’s visit this afternoon, a grassroots collective known as Queremos Sol (we want sun) has published an open letter (in Spanish) in the La Perla online daily urging the president to not waste federal taxpayer dollars on rebuilding the storm vulnerable fossil fuel dependent grid.

“As you know, the absence of electricity after Hurricane Maria caused thousands of deaths. Now, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona, several deaths related to the lack of electricity have been documented. To a large extent, these deaths could have been prevented.

Continue reading...

Russia no longer has full control of any of four ‘annexed’ Ukrainian provinces

Posted on by

Kyiv’s troops advanced in southern Kherson province and made additional gains in east

Russia no longer has full control of any of the four provinces of Ukraine it says it annexed last week after Ukrainian troops advanced dozens of kilometres in Kherson province in the south of the country and made additional gains in the east.

On Monday, the Russian military acknowledged that Kyiv’s forces had broken through in the Kherson region. It said the Ukrainian army and its “superior tank units” had managed to “penetrate the depths of our defence” around the villages of Zoltaya Balka and Alexsandrovka.

Continue reading...

‘Ordinary’ Chinese vase sells for almost €8m after ferocious bidding war

Posted on by

Tianqiuping-style porcelain sells for nearly 4,000 times its estimated value after buyers are convinced it is a rare artefact

An “ordinary” Chinese vase put up for auction in France and valued at €2,000 (£1,745) has sold for almost €8m after a ferocious bidding war among buyers convinced it was a rare 18th-century artefact.

At the sale in Fontainebleau near Paris, auctioneers were astonished as the offers from about 30 mainly Chinese bidders kept on coming. When the hammer fell the vase had been sold for €7.7m – almost 4,000 times its estimated value. With the seller’s fees, the final purchase price was €9.12m.

Continue reading...

Iranian students defy security forces after violence at university

Posted on by

Rights groups ‘extremely concerned’ about violent repression of demonstrations in Tehran and Isfahan

Iranian students have stepped up their protests in defiance of a crackdown by security forces, who allegedly cornered and shot 12 students at a prestigious university in Tehran on Sunday night.

Anti-government protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody in mid-September have spread around the country at various levels of intensity, revealing a cultural chasm between the country’s educated youth and an elderly male religious establishment.

Continue reading...

Swedish geneticist wins Nobel prize for Neanderthal research

Posted on by

Svante Pääbo receives 2022 award in physiology or medicine for genome discoveries including Neanderthals

A Swedish geneticist has been awarded the 2022 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine.

Svante Pääbo won the 10m Swedish kronor (£867,000) prize announced on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

Continue reading...