Tests on Maria Branyas Morera, who was world’s oldest person before she died last year aged 117, gave doctors a trove of discoveries
The nonagenarian actor Dame Joan Collins may have been on to something when she declared “age is just a number”.
The deepest dive yet into the biology of a supercentenarian has revealed that even extreme old age can be reached without the brain necessarily faltering or the usual illnesses mounting up.
Continue reading...Millions of Italian workers expected to get day off every 4 October in honour of Saint Francis of Assisi
Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government in Italy has revived a national holiday in honour of the country’s popular patron saint, Francis of Assisi, in a nod to “the very core of our nation’s identity”.
Millions of Italian workers are expected to get a day off each 4 October, the feast day of Saint Francis, after the lower house of parliament approved overwhelmingly a bill making it a public holiday. The measure will pass to the senate for the final nod.
Continue reading...Ralph Regenvanu, minister of climate change for the Pacific island nation, says step taken on ‘behalf of everybody’
Vanuatu is working on securing a UN vote to turn a landmark ruling on the climate crisis by the international court of justice (ICJ) into concrete political action that will fight the influence of the fossil-fuel industry and protect the globe from environmental catastrophe.
In an effort spearheaded by the tiny Pacific island nation, the ICJ issued a rare unanimous advisory opinion in July, which clarified that all states are required under international law to protect the climate, prevent further harms and have a duty to cooperate.
Continue reading...Viewers outraged after same-sex wedding scene changed in Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie
An Australian horror film featuring a scene with a same-sex wedding was reportedly digitally altered for release in mainland China, transforming the gay couple into a heterosexual one, provoking outrage from viewers who spotted the change.
The critically acclaimed film Together, starring Dave Franco and Alison Brie, was released in selected cinemas in China on 12 September. It follows the journey of a young couple who move to the countryside and encounter mysterious and grotesque changes to their bodies.
Continue reading...Chinese businesses and schools shut and residents in high-rises ordered to evacuate as storm makes landfall on Guangdong coast
Fierce winds, pounding rain and high seas battered Hong Kong as Super Typhoon Ragasa headed into southern China after causing a lake to burst in Taiwan, killing at least 17 people.
Hong Kong experienced widespread damage on Wednesday, including fallen trees and flooding in many areas, with the storm surge smashing the glass doors of an upmarket hotel and flooding its lobby, according to footage circulating online.
Continue reading...‘Not enough of anything’, says surgeon, as Israel’s assault forces injured, sick and hungry people to leave Gaza City
The few remaining hospitals and clinics in central and southern Gaza are being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of injured and sick patients fleeing a new Israeli offensive in the north of the devastated territory, medics say.
At both Nasser medical complex, in the southern city of Khan Younis, and field hospitals in al-Muwasi, the coastal “humanitarian zone” designated by Israel, staff are struggling to cope with large numbers of new arrivals forced out of Gaza City in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.
Continue reading...At UN, Gustavo Petro says ‘poor young people’ died in US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats off Caribbean coast
Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro addressed the UN general assembly Tuesday to call for a “criminal process” to be opened against counterpart Donald Trump for US strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean.
Petro said unarmed “poor young people” died in the strikes that Washington said were part of a US anti-drug operation off the coast of Venezuela, whose president Washington accuses of running a cartel.
Continue reading...US president claims Russia is in ‘big economic trouble’ as he calls for Nato countries to stop imports of Russian oil
Donald Trump has said he believes Ukraine can regain all the land that it has lost since the 2022 Russian invasion in one of the strongest statements of support he has given Kyiv.
The US president delivered his upbeat assessment by claiming Russia was in big economic trouble in a post on Truth Social after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in New York.
Continue reading...Sudden boldness of Kremlin is new territory for Nato, which is enhancing air policing over eastern Europe with extra fighter jets
It is disturbingly easy to shut down a commercial airport, as last night’s events in Copenhagen show. Three large drones, Danish authorities said, flew close enough to the runway to force the airport to close for four hours in an incident that inevitably raises wider questions about the security of the skies above Nato countries at a time when Russia has already shown it is willing to test the integrity of alliance airspace.
Videos published by local media show what appears to be relatively large but unidentified craft with green lights near the Danish capital. The drones came in from multiple directions and left in a similar fashion, suggesting, Danish police said, they were operated by a “capable actor”, one with an understanding of how to pilot drones in such a way as to maximise nuisance and cause alarm.
Continue reading...US president accuses European countries specifically of ‘destroying your heritage’ by allowing migration
Donald Trump took the stage at the United Nations general assembly hall for the first time in six years to launch a full-on assault on the world body, which he described as a feckless, corrupt and pernicious global force that should follow the example of his own leadership.
In an inflammatory speech on the 80th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Trump called for countries to close their borders and expel foreigners, accused the UN of leading a “globalist migration agenda”, and told national leaders that the world body was “funding an assault on your countries”.
Continue reading...South American leftist Lula takes indirect swipes at Trump in speech and warns that global threat of ‘anti-democratic forces’ persists
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, has launched an impassioned defence of his country’s democracy, claiming the recent conviction of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, had shown the world how “would-be autocrats” could be brought to heel.
Speaking at the opening of the United Nations general assembly in New York, Lula hailed Brazil’s successful effort to repel “an unprecedented attack” from Bolsonaro’s extreme right movement. On 11 September, the former paratrooper was sentenced to 27 years in jail for trying to stage a military coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula.
Continue reading...Police opened fire within seconds after responding to a report of masked teens, according to a resident
The head of Quebec’s police watchdog said it will investigate the death of a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead by officers, revealing that the only weapon recovered from the scene of the fatal shooting belonged to the police.
At a rare news conference on Tuesday, Brigitte Bishop, director of the province’s office of independent investigations, said her unit would conduct an “impartial” investigation into the death of Nooran Rezayi.
Continue reading...Bemused French president forced to take unscheduled 30-minute trek through the streets of New York
Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.
Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.
Continue reading...Men were sent on from Ghana despite ‘risk of torture, persecution or inhumane treatment’
A lawyer for 11 west Africans deported by the US to Ghana said they had been returned to their home countries despite many fearing for their safety.
Under Donald Trump’s drive to ramp up expulsions, the US has sent migrants to third countries, including Rwanda, Uganda and El Salvador, prompting accusations that deportee rights have been violated.
Continue reading...US president to address UN general assembly in New York after UK, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia and Portugal recognised a Palestinian state
The UN investigators cited examples of the scale of the Israeli killings, aid blockages, forced displacement and the destruction of a fertility clinic to back up its genocide finding.
The 1948 UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. To count as genocide, at least one of five acts must have occurred.
Continue reading...Alfredo Juarez Zeferino spent a harrowing few months in Ice jail – and, under threat of deportation, chose to leave
Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez Zeferino spends much of his days outdoors, harvesting bananas and hiking vast, bramble-laden trails. But for more than a quarter of 2025, he barely saw the sun. After being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in March, the farm-worker activist was placed in a detention center in Washington state, where he remained until he agreed to voluntarily leave the US.
“I probably would say five times, in the three months and a half I was in there, they offered me to go outside,” he explained on a Zoom call from his family farm in Guerrero, Mexico, where he has been for over a month.
Continue reading...Writer, who has served six years for sharing a Facebook post, was given a presidential pardon
The British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been released from jail after serving six years for sharing a Facebook post.
Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, granted him his freedom after intensive lobbying by the UK government and pressure from Egypt’s national human rights council.
Continue reading...The bodies of Hakyung Lee’s children were discovered inside suitcases bought at a storage unit auction in Auckland in August 2022
A mother accused of murdering her children and hiding their bodies in suitcases, in a case that has become known as New Zealand’s “suitcase murders”, has been found guilty by an Auckland court.
The bodies of Yuna Jo and Minu Jo, aged eight and six at the time of their deaths, were discovered inside suitcases bought at a storage unit auction in Auckland in August 2022. Authorities believed they had been dead for three to four years by the time their bodies were found.
Continue reading...Three charges against Duterte stem from his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands
International criminal court prosecutors have charged the former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity over bloody campaigns carried out during his “war on drugs”.
A charge sheet, dated 4 July but made public on Monday, laid out accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, who has been in ICC detention in The Hague since March.
Continue reading...Minister for economic growth said visas for skilled and experienced migrants could help plug gaps in the workforce
New Zealand is making it easier for migrant workers to come and live in the country, in its latest attempt to bolster the workforce and economy.
Announcing two new residency pathways, the minister for economic growth, Nicola Willis, on Tuesday said skilled and experienced migrants could help plug gaps in the workforce.
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