Category Archives: World News

Can Mark Thompson revive CNN’s struggling fortunes?

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The former BBC and New York Times chief has been tasked with revitalizing a news network that seems to have lost its way

In late summer, CNN found itself in crisis. Under the disastrous tenure of chief executive Chris Licht, the news channel had seen top anchors leave and ratings plunge.

Behind the scenes, CNN staff were grumbling about an apparent attempt to move the network’s political coverage to a rapidly disappearing center – an effort typified by the widely criticized decision to host a town hall with Donald Trump in May.

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‘We can’t take any of this for granted’: Gaza’s fight to keep its treasures safe at home

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Local archaeologists dedicate their lives to protect priceless artefacts from smugglers, Hamas and Israeli attacks in a land at history’s crossroads

There is considerable debate over the origin of the name Gaza. Some etymologists trace it back to azaz, which means “strong” in Semitic languages; other accounts believe it derives from the Persian word ganj, which means “treasure”.

It’s true that you almost can’t move for ancient treasures in the tiny blockaded strip. Fishers, farmers and construction workers regularly uncover elements of Gaza’s 5,000-year-old past in the course of a day’s work.

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‘Then the black rain fell’: survivor’s recollections of Hiroshima inspire new film

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The 230-page unpublished memoir will reflect the horrors suffered by ordinary Japanese citizens in a feature-length drama

A major feature film on Hiroshima is going into production, inspired in part by an unpublished memoir of a Japanese man who witnessed the devastation of the city after the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945.

Scriptwriter Elisabeth Bentley was taken aback by the personal recollections of Kiyoshi Tanimoto in a 230-page memoir that she unearthed in a US archive.

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More than 40 people injured as Typhoon Haikui sweeps across Taiwan

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Tens of thousands of homes left without power and more than 7,000 people evacuated after storm makes landfall

Typhoon Haikui moved across Taiwan on Sunday, unleashing torrential downpours, accelerating winds and plunging thousands of households into darkness after the first big storm to hit the island directly in four years made landfall.

More than 7,000 people were evacuated from high-risk areas, while hundreds of flights were cancelled and businesses closed in preparation for the storm.

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‘Everything is ahead of us’: Ukraine breaks Russian stronghold’s first line of defence

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In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough near Zaporizhzhia

Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has said.

Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.

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Thousands rally in Niger seeking withdrawal of French troops

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Demonstrators gather near base housing French soldiers as military junta accuses Paris of interference

Thousands of protesters rallied in Niger’s capital Niamey to call for the withdrawal of French troops, as demanded by a junta that seized power in June.

The demonstrators gathered near a base housing French soldiers on Saturday, after a call by several civic organisations hostile to the French military presence in the west African country.

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Moroccan jetski tourist describes being shot at by Algerian coastguard

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Mohamed Kissi says forces approached and began fatal shooting after group strayed into Algerian waters

A Moroccan man has described how Algerian coastguard forces drew level with him and a group of holidaymakers who had accidentally strayed into the nation’s waters on jetskis before opening fire.

Mohamed Kissi said the incident took place at sunset on Tuesday when the four men travelling on two jetskis got lost after taking a wrong turn off the beach resort of Saïdia on Morocco’s north-east tip. The group was almost out of fuel when they unknowingly crossed the border into Algeria.

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Makeup artist who created prosthetic nose for Bradley Cooper film apologises

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Kazu Hiro says he was surprised by ‘Jewface’ criticism over actor’s portrayal of composer Leonard Bernstein in biopic Maestro

The makeup artist who worked on Bradley Cooper’s movie Maestro has apologised to anyone who felt hurt by the use of a prosthetic nose, which has been criticised by some as an example of “Jewface”.

Speaking at a press conference at the Venice film festival – where Maestro, a biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, will premiere – Kazu Hiro said he was surprised by the backlash.

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Guards and police released after being held hostage in Ecuadorian prisons

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Fifty-seven law enforcement officers held in six prisons amid sharp rise in gang violence ahead of election

Fifty guards and seven police officers have been released, Ecuadorian authorities said, after being held hostage in several prisons for more than a day.

The country’s corrections system, the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty, said in a statement that the 57 law enforcement officers, who were held in six different prisons, were safe, but did not offer details about how they were released.

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Gabon reopens borders three days after military coup

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Officers seized power on Wednesday, placing the president, Ali Bongo, under house arrest

Gabon has reopened its borders, an army spokesperson said, three days after closing them during a military coup in which the president, Ali Bongo, was ousted.

Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power on Wednesday, placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family’s 56-year hold on power.

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Nobel Foundation reverses decision to invite Russian ambassador to awards

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Foundation backtracks on earlier announcement that representatives from Russia, Belarus and Iran would be invited

The Nobel Foundation has reversed its decision to invite ambassadors from Russia and Belarus to this year’s Nobel awards ceremony in Stockholm after the invitation sparked anger.

In 2022, the Nobel Foundation, which organises the annual Nobel prize ceremony and banquet in Stockholm, decided not to invite the Russian and Belarusian ambassadors to the awards event because of the war in Ukraine.

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Moscow risks dividing its forces to stop Ukrainian breakthrough, says UK – as it happened

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Update from UK Ministry of Defence comes as Kyiv claims some small gains in the south

Russian bloggers have been cashing in on their social media coverage of the Ukraine war with paid ads in their feeds worth more than a month’s average wage.

The BBC reports that pro-war influencers known in Russia as “Z-bloggers” share ads, mostly on Telegram – the platform du jour in Russia after the banning of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – on everything from cryptocurrency to fashion.

The Ministry of Defence often listens to us, and we have a direct channel to privately communicate information to them. It’s all behind the scenes, and I do that.

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Eritrean asylum seekers and police injured in clashes in Israel

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Violence broke out as Eritreans protested at event held by the country’s embassy in Tel Aviv

A dozen Eritrean asylum seekers have been injured by Israeli police gunfire in Tel Aviv after a demonstration against an Eritrean government event turned violent, police and medical sources said.

Clashes began on Saturday outside a venue in south Tel Aviv that was to host an event organised by the Eritrean embassy in Israel.

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Biden student-debt plan hailed as ‘big step forward’ for millions of borrowers

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Advocates say proposals that cut debt to zero for some borrowers and reduce monthly interest payments are good news

Joe Biden’s new student-loan plan is an important and large step forward on student debt forgiveness in the US even after a previous debt reduction program was controversially struck down by the supreme court, advocates say.

When the justices ruled against Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans per borrower in June, 40 million debt-burdened Americans were left with questions – especially as monthly payments would resume in October after being paused for over three years because of the Covid pandemic.

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Typhoon Saola makes landfall in southern China as nearly 900,000 evacuated

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Storm hit overnight as business, transport and schools suspended in Hong Kong and Guangdong

Typhoon Saola has made landfall in southern China after nearly 900,000 people were moved to safety and most of Hong Kong and other parts of coastal southern China suspended business, transport and schools.

Guangdong province’s meteorological bureau said the powerful storm churned into an outlying district of the city of Zhuhai, just south of Hong Kong at 3.30am local time. It was forecast to move in a south-westerly direction along the Guangdong coast at a speed of about 10mph (17km/h), gradually weakening before heading out to sea.

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New York plan to monitor Labor Day parties with drones prompts outcry

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Police accused of playing ‘fast and loose’ with New Yorkers’ rights to due process and to freely hold peaceful gatherings

New York City police plan to monitor large gatherings and noise complaints over Labor Day weekend with surveillance drones, officials have announced, prompting outcry from privacy advocates.

Police said Thursday that the remote-controlled aircrafts would be deployed to keep tabs on large gatherings, including private events, as New Yorkers prepared to celebrate the weekend heading into Monday’s holiday.

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‘Astonishingly cruel’: Alabama seeks to test execution method on death row ‘guinea pig’

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Nine months after Kenneth Smith’s botched lethal injection, state attorney general has asked for approval to kill him with nitrogen

Kenneth Smith is one of two living Americans who can describe what it is like to survive an execution, having endured an aborted lethal injection last November during which he was subjected to excruciating pain tantamount, his lawyers claim, to torture.

Nine months later Smith has been singled out for another undesirable distinction. If the state of Alabama has its way, he will become the test dummy for an execution method that has never before been used in judicial killings and which veterinarians consider unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for animals – death by nitrogen gas.

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Possibility of arrest grows for Bolsonaro over jewellery scandal

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Friends and foes of Brazil’s former president believe it is only a matter of time before he is detained

Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, has never shown much sympathy for prisoners.

“Why should we give those dirtbags a good life? … They should just get fucked, full-fucking-stop. That’s what I reckon,” he once ranted.

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