Category Archives: World News

Slow recovery from IT outage begins as experts warn of future risks

Posted on by

Fault in CrowdStrike caused airports, businesses and healthcare services to languish in ‘largest outage in history’

Services began to come back online on Friday evening after an IT failure that wreaked havoc worldwide. But full recovery could take weeks, experts have said, after airports, healthcare services and businesses were hit by the “largest outage in history”.

Flights and hospital appointments were cancelled, payroll systems seized up and TV channels went off air after a botched software upgrade hit Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

Continue reading...

European heatwave forecast to hit peak as health warnings issued

Posted on by

Tourists and residents swelter in heat as temperatures rise to 44C in Spain, with forest fires in Greece and Croatia

A fierce heatwave is continuing to roll across southern and central Europe, bringing temperatures of up to 44C (111.2F) to parts of Spain, sparking forest fires in Greece and Croatia, and prompting governments to urge people to take special care as the mercury rises.

In Spain, the state meteorological agency, Aemet, said temperatures on Friday could hit 40C across large parts of the country – and even 44C in areas of Andalucía – as the first heatwave of the summer hit. Aemet said the high temperatures, caused by a mass of “very hot, dry and dusty air” from North Africa, were expected to last until Saturday.

Continue reading...

Weather tracker: Heavy seasonal rain causes widespread flooding in China

Posted on by

Six people dead, thousands evacuated and transport disrupted after at least 20 floods in major rivers

China has been experiencing heavy and widespread rainfall since the start of the rainy season, which runs from May to September. It has resulted in at least 20 floods in major rivers across the country, with 31 rivers surpassing their flood warning levels.

Dianjiang county, in Chongqing, received 269.2mm in one day last week, a single-day record there. It led to six deaths, more than 10,000 evacuations, and 40,000 people being affected, as well as severe disruptions to rail services and transport caused by flooding.

Continue reading...

Gaza conflict could fuel IS and al-Qaida revival, security experts warn

Posted on by

Officials and analysts warn of evidence of increased Islamic State and al-Qaida militant activity across Middle East

Security services across the Middle East fear the conflict in Gaza will allow Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaida to rebuild across the region, leading to a wave of terrorist plots in coming months and years.

Officials and analysts say there is already evidence of increased Islamic militant extremism in many places, although multiple factors are combining to cause the surge.

Continue reading...

Zelenskiy to attend UK cabinet meeting in effort to disrupt Russian oil sales

Posted on by

Ukraine’s president will ask for more help to block Putin’s growing ‘shadow fleet’ of tankers carrying sanctioned crude to buyers

The Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelenskiy, will attend an extraordinary meeting of the British cabinet on Friday to bring fresh impetus to efforts to stop Russia evading sanctions on its oil exports.

Zelenskiy will be the first foreign leader to visit Downing Street since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister two weeks ago and the first foreign leader to address cabinet in person since the US president Bill Clinton in 1997.

Continue reading...

Macron ally wins surprise re-election as national assembly speaker

Posted on by

Vote for centrist MP Yaël Braun-Pivet marks first step out of governing limbo since snap elections left country divided

French lawmakers have re-elected a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist bloc as president of parliament’s lower house, a possible breakthrough in attempts to form a majority amid deadlock.

French politics have been in gridlock after a snap election this month left the country without any clear path to forming a new government as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games.

Continue reading...

Extremist Israeli minister makes provocative visit to al-Aqsa mosque

Posted on by

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who seeks to disrupt ceasefire talks, makes video at contested holy site in Jerusalem

Israel’s extremist national security minister has visited the holiest Muslim site in Jerusalem, recording a video saying he went to pray, in a provocative move as he seeks to disrupt ceasefire talks.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and champion of the settler movement, recorded footage at al-Aqsa mosque compound, also known as the Temple Mount, a site holy to Muslims and Jews.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer says he is open to processing asylum seekers offshore

Posted on by

PM wants to rethink UK’s immigration policies but did not make progress on returns deal at summit with EU leaders

Keir Starmer is looking into plans to process asylum seekers outside the UK as part of a rethink of the government’s immigration policies, even as a returns agreement with the EU appears more distant than ever.

The prime minister said on Thursday he was open to the idea of Britain processing claims offshore, after a day spent discussing illegal migration with fellow European leaders at Blenheim Palace. Those talks, as part of the European Political Community summit, included a meeting with Edi Rama, the Albanian prime minister, whose country processes asylum claims on behalf of Italy.

Continue reading...

Earthquake at same time as eruption could have caused Pompeii deaths – study

Posted on by

Research argues tremors occurred as Vesuvius erupted in AD79, causing buildings to collapse on to people

Victims who perished in Pompeii after the devastating AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have been killed by a simultaneous earthquake, research has suggested.

Scholars have debated for decades whether seismic activity occurred during the eruption of Vesuvius in southern Italy nearly 2,000 years ago, and not just before it, as reported by Pliny the Younger in his letters.

Continue reading...

Caribbean leaders call for ‘Marshall plan’ to help rebuild after Hurricane Beryl

Posted on by

Three prime ministers write to UK government saying islands cannot sustain debt from repeated rebuilding

Caribbean leaders struggling to raise hundreds of millions after Hurricane Beryl wiped out entire islands have asked the UK government to back a “Marshall plan” to rebuild their devastated countries.

The hurricane, which made landfall in the Caribbean on 1 July, killed at least 11 people, demolished more than 90% of buildings in parts of Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and left thousands homeless and without running water, electricity and food.

Continue reading...

‘Just missed’: German comedian loses job over Trump shooting joke

Posted on by

Sebastian Hotz, aka El Hotzo, was dropped from his radio show and provoked anger from Elon Musk after now-deleted posts on X

A 28-year-old German comedian has got into trouble with Donald Trump supporters and then Elon Musk after sending a series of tweets appearing to welcome the assassination attempt on the former US president.

Sebastian Hotz, who posts and performs as El Hotzo, lost his job with a public broadcaster this week for a series of tweets on X, Musk’s social media platform, after Trump narrowly escaped death, saying that the attempt had been like the last bus – “unfortunately, just missed”.

Continue reading...

Protesters attack Bangladeshi state broadcaster after PM’s call for calm

Posted on by

Incensed crowd facing riot police set BTV building on fire as students demand end to discriminatory job quotas

Bangladeshi students have set fire to the state broadcaster’s building a day after the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, appeared on the network seeking to calm escalating clashes that had killed at least 39 people.

Hundreds of protesters demanding reform of civil service hiring rules clashed with riot police who had shot at them with rubber bullets on Thursday, chasing the retreating officers to BTV’s headquarters in the capital, Dhaka.

Continue reading...

Colombia gives assurances over UN biodiversity summit after rebels’ threat

Posted on by

Organisers working to ensure safe environment for attenders in October after guerrillas’ warning of disruption

Colombian authorities have insisted it will be safe to attend a UN biodiversity summit in Cali later this year, after a dissident rebel group threatened to disrupt the event.

This week Central General Staff (EMC), a guerrilla faction that rejected the country’s 2016 peace agreement, said the UN nature summit Cop16 would “fail”, in a post on X addressed to the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

Continue reading...

Violence against women in Brazil reaches highest levels on record

Posted on by

Brazilian Forum on Public Safety finds every indicator of gender-based violence increased in 2023, including murder, harassment and stalking

Brazil has recorded unprecedented levels of rape and other forms of gender-based violence for the second year running, amid growing concerns over rightwing efforts to criminalize rape victims who have an abortion.

The data, released on Thursday in the annual report by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, showed that reported cases of rape rose by 6.5% from the previous year to a new historic high of 83,988 – or one every six minutes.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump to give RNC speech as Joe Biden faces ongoing pressure to stand aside – US politics live

Posted on by

Former president to address RNC after his running mate JD Vance gave populist-tinged speech on Wednesday

Sidney Blumenthal, former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has written a column for the Guardian, arguing that Trump’s near assassination transformed his theology, giving the decidedly earthly ex-president a powerful spiritual sheen.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has transformed the theology of Trump. He has long portrayed himself as an innocent lamb falsely accused, the target of slings and arrows to bear the suffering of believers. Now the bullet and the blood of Butler, Pennsylvania, have sanctified him for the faithful and brought forth a new gospel.

Continue reading...

Keir Starmer speaks after European Political Community summit – as it happened

Posted on by

Prime minister says summit has been ‘successful and productive’ as world leaders discuss Ukraine and European security

Some more of the arrivals pictured at Blenheim Palace for a summit for the European Political Community (EPC) today, courtesy of the newswires:

Here are some of the discussions that have taken place at previous EPC summits, according to the gov.uk website:

At the last meeting in Granada, the UK led discussions on AI and illegal migration. In Moldova, the focus was on supporting the host country in the face of Russian hybrid threats, as well building energy resilience. While at the first EPC meeting in Prague, talks centred around Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the need for Europe to stand united against his aggression.

Continue reading...

EU biometric checks for foreign travellers delayed again

Posted on by

Digital border system that will require fingerprint and facial scans postponed until November

The date for the introduction of the EU’s new entry-exit system has been pushed back again until November, allaying fears of long queues at the border during the October half-term holidays.

The launch of the new biometric checks for foreign travellers, including Britons, entering the EU, has been delayed from 6 October until at least 10 November, with many smaller airports yet to have facilities in place.

Continue reading...

Von der Leyen in anti-extremist pitch for second term as MEPs prepare to vote

Posted on by

Knife-edge vote set to result in another five-year mandate for commission’s first female leader or a crisis for EU

Ursula von der Leyen has spoken out against “the extreme polarisation of our societies” as she appealed to the European parliament to give her a second term as European Commission president.

MEPs will hold a knife-edge vote later on Thursday that will either result in another five-year mandate for the EU executive’s first female leader or tip the bloc into a summer crisis.

Continue reading...

Chip stocks fall further after Trump’s remarks on Taiwan defence

Posted on by

Semiconductor and related tech shares hit hard by former US president’s calls for Taipei to pay for US protection

The stocks of some of the world’s largest chipmakers have fallen further after comments by Donald Trump that Taiwan, which is central to the global industry, should pay for its own defences against China.

Shares in semiconductor and related tech companies had already plunged on Wednesday after the former president’s comments, as well as a report that suggested Joe Biden’s administration was considering the strictest controls on the trade of chips to China.

Continue reading...

Lammy says Christianity and class give him common ground with JD Vance

Posted on by

UK foreign secretary says he has talked to Trump running mate as he seeks to build bridges with senior Republicans

• UK politics live – latest updates

David Lammy has said he is already engaging with Donald Trump’s controversial running mate, JD Vance, and can identify with him because of their common working class and Christian backgrounds.

The British foreign secretary was speaking just hours after the possible future US vice-president reiterated his “America first” views, pledging to the Republican national convention (RNC) that he would not send US soldiers to war abroad unnecessarily.

Continue reading...