Category Archives: World News

Discovery of new campsite shows fugitive Tom Phillips had ‘outside help,’ NZ police say

Posted on by

Phillips had spent nearly four years hiding in the wilderness with his three children before he was killed in an exchange of fire with police on Monday

Fugitive father Tom Phillips was receiving outside help during his years on the run before he was killed in a police shoot-out this week, New Zealand police said on Wednesday as they released images that show a newly discovered campsite.

Phillips had spent nearly four years hiding in the wilderness with his three children. He was killed in an exchange of fire with police after reports of a burglary in the remote town of Piopio, in the central North Island, on Monday.

Continue reading...

Junk food leads to more children being obese than underweight for first time

Posted on by

Cheap ultra-processed food behind rise in overweight children, with one in 10 now obese globally, says Unicef

More children around the world are obese than underweight for the first time, according to a UN report that warns ultra-processed junk food is overwhelming childhood diets.

There are 188 million teenagers and school-age children with obesity – one in 10 – Unicef said, affecting health and development and bringing a risk of life-threatening diseases.

Continue reading...

First two Brazilian judges vote to convict Jair Bolsonaro in coup plot trial

Posted on by

Three more supreme court justices to cast their votes in coming days, with verdict expected by Thursday

Jair Bolsonaro led a criminal organisation that sought to plunge Brazil back into dictatorship with a murderous power grab involving special forces assassins and a vast disinformation campaign, the supreme court judge presiding over the former president’s trial has claimed as he voted for Bolsonaro’s conviction.

Alexandre de Moraes was the first supreme court justice of five to announce his decision on Tuesday, as the trial of Bolsonaro and seven alleged co-conspirators – including four senior members of the military and the former head of Brazil’s answer to MI6 – entered its final stretch.

Continue reading...

Starmer condemns Israel’s airstrike on Qatar as No 10 denies prior knowledge of attack

Posted on by

‘Immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a huge surge in aid into Gaza’ only route to peace, says PM

Keir Starmer has condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar before a meeting with the Israeli president in London on Wednesday.

The UK prime minister said the military strike, which targeted Hamas leaders stationed in Doha, was a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and risked “further escalation across the region”.

Continue reading...

Canadian apiary store owner foils honey heist by marauding swarm of ‘robber bees’

Posted on by

Raids by rival hives aren’t rare after a dry, hot summer, but Christine McDonald was surprised to find her store besieged

A Canadian beekeeper has described fending off thousands of “robber bees” as they raided her shop in a brazen attempt to steal honey.

Christine McDonald, who owns Rushing River Apiaries in the British Columbia city of Terrace, said she entered her shop to find it overrun by the swarm.

Continue reading...

Ethiopia inaugurates Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam as Egypt rift deepens

Posted on by

Ethiopian PM says dam will electrify entire region but Egypt fears it could restrict water supply during droughts

Ethiopia has inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam, a project that could transform the country’s energy sector but may also aggravate tensions with neighbouring Egypt.

State media showed the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, touring the site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in Guba district with the Kenyan president, William Ruto, the Somali president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and the African Union chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.

Continue reading...

At least nine pigs’ heads found outside mosques in Paris region

Posted on by

Police do not rule out possibility of finding more as incidents raise alarm over increase of anti-Muslim hatred

At least nine pigs’ heads were found outside several mosques in the Paris region on Tuesday, the city’s police chief said, prompting alarm over rising anti-Muslim hatred.

“Pigs’ heads have been left in front of certain mosques ... Four in Paris and five in the inner suburbs,” Laurent Nuñez told a press conference, adding that officers were not “ruling out the possibility of finding more”.

Continue reading...

Spanish government moves to ban smoking on bar terraces

Posted on by

Tobacco law would also prohibit minors from using vapes and stop sale of single-use electronic cigarettes

The Spanish government has approved a draft tobacco law that would ban smoking and vaping on bar and restaurant terraces, prohibit minors from using vapes and related products, and end the sale of single-use electronic cigarettes.

The legislation, which was signed off by the cabinet on Tuesday morning, is intended to “reinforce protections on people’s health and to adapt the law to consumption patterns and to the tobacco-product market”, according to the health ministry.

Continue reading...

House committee releases image of ‘sickening’ birthday note reportedly from Trump to Epstein – US politics live

Posted on by

White House officials seek to discredit note and claim Donald Trump signature is false

Donald Trump now cannot claim presidential immunity to get off the hook from paying $83.3m in damages to the writer E Jean Carroll, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday, upholding a jury’s 2024 award against the president for defamation.

Trump’s lawyers had pointed to the supreme court’s ruling last year saying the president has immunity for official acts to argue that the damages should be overturned. A three-judge panel for the US court of appeals for the second circuit, rejected that argument.

Continue reading...

Flotilla boat carrying aid to Gaza struck by flaming object, video shows

Posted on by

Global Sumud Flotilla says one of its vessels was hit by drone at Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia, sustaining fire damage

A flotilla carrying aid for Gaza and pro-Palestinian activists has published a video showing one of its boats being struck by a flaming object at Sidi Bou Said port in Tunisia.

The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) said the boat had been hit by a drone and that it sustained fire damage to its main deck and below-deck storage, though all six passengers and crew were safe.

Continue reading...

Emmanuel Macron appoints his third prime minister in a year

Posted on by

Sébastien Lecornu, a presidential ally, is tasked with bringing France’s divided parties together to pass a budget

Sébastien Lecornu, a close ally of Emmanuel Macron, has been appointed prime minister, tasked with consulting France’s divided political parties to try to find a consensus on the budget.

The 39-year-old began his political career in the traditional rightwing party of Nicolas Sarkozy before moving to Macron’s centre in 2017 and is seen as fiercely loyal to the president.

Continue reading...

Majority in EU’s biggest states believes bloc ‘sold out’ in US tariff deal, poll finds

Posted on by

Average of 77% of respondents across five countries thought agreement would benefit US economy above all

A majority of people across the EU’s five biggest member states believe the European Commission sold citizens out when negotiating a “humiliating” tariff deal with Donald Trump that “benefits the US” far more than Europe, a survey has shown.

The poll, by Cluster17 for the European affairs debate platform Le Grand Continent, found 77% of respondents – ranging from 89% in France to 50% in Poland – thought the deal would benefit above all the US economy, with only 2% believing it would benefit Europe’s.

Continue reading...

Norway’s Labour party wins election after seeing off populist surge

Posted on by

Success for party of the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, despite increased support for rightwing Progress party

The Norwegian Labour party has secured four more years in government after seeing off a surge of support for the populist right in a polarised election.

Soon after the polls closed, the centre left was projected to win with 89 seats with the centre right taking 80 seats. A minimum of 85 seats are needed for a majority.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson was paid £240,000 after Maduro meeting, invoice shows

Posted on by

Johnson’s office sent invoice to hedge fund manager, which was paid, weeks after meeting Venezuelan leader last year

From a private jet somewhere over the Caribbean Sea in February last year, Boris Johnson called his old political adversary David Cameron, then the foreign secretary, to notify him of a visit.

Johnson had taken a day out from a family holiday in the Dominican Republic for an unlikely meeting with the leftwing president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, a man whom Johnson, when in office, had likened to a “dictator of an evil regime”.

Continue reading...

US visa refusal for Palestinian delegation prompts calls to move UN meeting to Geneva

Posted on by

General assembly session about two-state solution for Palestine and Israel due to start in New York on Tuesday

The US’s refusal to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation to the UN general assembly has led to calls for a one-day conference on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel to be moved from the UN’s headquarters in New York to its other main site in Geneva.

Donald Trump’s White House has already refused to grant a visa to the Palestinian Authority (PA) president, Mahmoud Abbas, and 80 other Palestinian officials for the general assembly session, which begins on Tuesday.

Continue reading...

EU and US officials meet as Trump says he is ready to impose further sanctions on Russia

Posted on by

Europe and US consider further actions to weaken Russia after largest-ever air attack on Ukraine over the weekend

The EU’s most senior sanctions envoy is holding talks in Washington with US officials after Donald Trump said he was ready to take further action against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

David O’Sullivan, the EU sanctions envoy, is meeting US counterparts on Monday, as Europe and the US look for tougher measures to weaken Vladimir Putin’s war machine after Russia launched its largest-ever air attack on Ukraine over the weekend.

Continue reading...

Palestinian gunmen kill six people at Jerusalem bus stop

Posted on by

At least 12 others injured in attack at Ramot intersection during morning rush hour

Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a crowded bus stop in the northern outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday, killing six people and injuring 12 others before being shot dead by an off-duty soldier and a civilian at the scene.

The victims included a 79-year-old former cardiologist, a 43-year-old rabbi and a 25-year-old who had recently emigrated from Spain. Twenty-six others suffered injuries, including six who were left in a serious condition with gunshot wounds.

Continue reading...

Bayrou’s fall and a divided parliament hardly offer the stability Macron needs

Posted on by

The French president will have to choose a new prime minister after resistance to austerity budget unites left and far-right in opposition

As the French president, Emmanuel Macron, faces a crucial moment on the international stage this month, with the recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN assembly and diplomacy over Gaza and Ukraine, he has once again been shaken by a damaging political crisis at home.

The centrist prime minister, François Bayrou, was toppled on Monday night in a parliamentary confidence vote, leaving Macron scrambling to appoint his third prime minister in a year, and the fifth since his second term as president began in 2022.

Continue reading...

Disposable face masks used during Covid have left chemical timebomb, research suggests

Posted on by

An estimated 129bn were being used every month around the world at height of pandemic, with no recycling stream

The surge in the use of disposable face masks during the Covid pandemic has left a chemical timebomb that could harm humans, animals and the environment, research suggests.

Billions of tonnes of plastic face masks created to protect people from the spread of the virus are now breaking down, releasing microplastics and chemical additives including endocrine disruptors, the research found.

Continue reading...

At least 19 killed in ‘gen Z’ protests against Nepal’s social media ban

Posted on by

Many demonstrators say they are also on the streets over corruption and nepotism they allege is rampant

At least 19 people have been killed during protests in Nepal over a government ban on dozens of online platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and X.

The government has faced mounting criticism after imposing a ban on 26 prominent social media platforms and messaging apps last week because they had missed a deadline to register under new regulations.

Continue reading...