Ivan van Chittenden and Brendan Wall were competing in event that Triathlon Ireland did not sanction owing to bad weather
An Ironman swimming race in which two competitors died was not sanctioned by the governing body for triathlons in Ireland due to concerns about “adverse conditions”.
Triathlon Ireland said it had not sanctioned the Ironman Cork event in Youghal because of the weather.
Continue reading...Experts say India concerned about expansion and any overt anti-west turn as leaders fly into South Africa
Leaders from developing countries representing almost half the world’s population including China and Russia are meeting in South Africa for a key summit aimed at reinforcing their alliance as a counterweight to the west.
The Brics grouping summit in Johannesburg is being hosted by the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and brings together the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, as well the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Continue reading...Several others missing after water levels in Russian capital’s sewers rose quickly after downpour
Three people were found dead and several others were missing after taking part in a guided tour of Moscow’s sewer system that was hit by heavy rain, state-run media said.
“The body of an unidentified woman has been found in the Moskva River, making her the third person to die after a tour of the underground sewers,” a source in the emergency services was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency.
Continue reading...A profit warning from housebuilder Crest Nicholson has compounded fears of a housing market slowdown, as Rightmove data reveals a further drop in asking prices
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said that while weak house price data (as was “hardly a surprise”, Crest Nicholson’s profit warning has “laid bare the the scale of the impact of a housing slowdown on the housebuilding sector.”
Sales of new homes have plunged alarmingly and, while not all developers in the space are created equal, the news, allied to Rightmove’s latest reading on the property market, has had a knock-on effect on share prices in the rest of the sector this morning.
The £7,000 drop in the average asking price observed by Rightmove in the last month, allied to a big drop in transaction volumes, is the kind of statistic to make estate agents distinctly uneasy.
Continue reading...Kyriakos Mitsotakis steps up criticism of Russia as he meets Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Athens
At least two people were injured on Monday when parts of a Ukrainian drone destroyed by Russian air defences fell on a house in the Moscow region, Reuters has cited the regional governor as saying.
As mentioned in an earlier post, nearly 50 plane flights in and out of the capital were disrupted after Russia said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district, west of the capital, and destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby.
Continue reading...Arrangement angers many Pheu Thai supporters and could coincide with former PM’s return from exile
The party associated with Thailand’s former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has struck a deal with its former military rivals, a move that could coincide with his return after more than 15 years in exile.
The deal announced on Monday has angered many Pheu Thai supporters, as well as those of the reformist Move Forward party that won the most votes and seats in the May general election but whose leader was blocked from taking office.
Continue reading...Referendum result protecting Yasuní reserve will benefit huge range of species as well as ‘uncontacted’ Indigenous peoples
Ecuadorians have voted in a historic referendum to halt the development of all new oilwells in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.
Voters opted to safeguard the unique biosphere by a margin of nearly 20% with more than 90% of the ballot counted – with more than 58% in favour and 41% against, according to Ecuador’s National Electoral Comission. Voting took place in the first round of presidential elections on Sunday.
Continue reading...Bernado Arévalo’s surprise victory comes at time of growing concern for state of democracy in Central America
Central America’s democratic downswing has received a powerful correction after the centrist anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arévalo was elected president of Guatemala – a result almost inconceivable just a few weeks ago.
Alongside El Salvador and Nicaragua, Guatemala was one of several Central American countries to have suffered a troubling authoritarian slide in recent years with judges and prosecutors forced into exile and a leading journalist thrown in jail.
Continue reading...Weather ballon climbs to 5,300 metres before temperature falls to 0C amid late summer heatwave
A Swiss weather balloon had to climb to an unprecedented 5,300 metres (17,400ft) before the temperature fell to 0C (32F), meteorologists have said, as a late summer heatwave and wildfires continue to pummel swathes of continental Europe.
A man was found dead in a blaze raging north of Athens on Monday as the Greek government warned of an “extreme” risk of fire across the country, while more than half of mainland France was placed under an amber heat alert.
Continue reading...Chandrayaan-3 moves into prelanding orbit amid failure of Russian mission
As it was announced that Russia’s first lunar mission in 47 years had crashed on to the moon, India’s own mission, the Chandrayaan-3 lander, moved into prelanding orbit.
News on Sunday of the Russian failure was met with excitement and nervousness in India: excitement that India was now poised to win the race to become the first country to land a craft on the moon’s south pole; nervousness that its mission could also go horribly wrong at the last moment.
Continue reading...Maria Bernadete Pacífico, whose son was shot dead in 2017, killed by gunmen at her home in Bahia
Human rights organisations in Brazil are clamouring for justice following the murder of a Black community activist who had been receiving threats.
Maria Bernadete Pacífico, a community and religious leader in the Pitanga dos Palmares quilombo – an Afro-Brazilian settlement of descendants of escaped slaves in the north-east state of Bahia – was killed on Thursday evening.
Continue reading...Air Koryo flight from Pyongyang cancelled two hours after its scheduled arrival in Beijing
North Korea’s national airline’s first commercial flight since it largely closed itself off from the world in early 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic has been abruptly cancelled.
Journalists gathered on Monday at Beijing’s Capital international airport to await Air Koryo flight JS151 from Pyongyang, due to arrive at 9.50am.
Continue reading...Storm Hilary expected to cause severe flooding, as other parts of US and Mexico put under extreme heat warnings
For the first time in 84 years, a tropical storm has made landfall in California. Tropical Storm Hilary, with maximum sustained wind gusts of 130mph (210km/h) and a central air pressure of 943mb, advanced towards the Baja California peninsula this weekend as a category 4 hurricane, before arriving as a tropical storm in southern California late on Sunday. The last time a tropical storm made landfall in southern California was in 1939, when it flooded Los Angeles and killed nearly 100 people.
Hilary triggered California’s first ever tropical storm warning, extending from the Mexican border to just north of Los Angeles amid rainfall totals estimated to have reached 70-150mm (3-6in) across southern California. This amount of rainfall is expected to cause life-threatening flooding, and would amount to more than a year’s worth of rain across parts of California and Nevada.
Continue reading...Central bank reduces one-year loan prime rate but surprises analysts by leaving five-year rate unchanged
China’s central bank has cut one of its key lending rates but left another unchanged, surprising economists who had expected more forceful action to support economic growth amid widespread concerns over its path.
The world’s second-largest economy is in the midst of a slowdown, and has slipped into deflation with prices falling year on year as slowing domestic spending weighs on the country’s post-Covid economic recovery.
Continue reading...Luisa González, who has pledged to revive Rafael Correa’s social programmes, to run against Daniel Noboa in October
A protege of Ecuador’s former leftist president Rafael Correa will face the son of one of the country’s richest men in a runoff presidential vote in October, after first-round voting on Sunday failed to produce an outright winner.
With more than three-quarters of ballots counted, Luisa González, who has promised to revive Correa’s social programmes, was tallying just over 33% support, while Daniel Noboa, the son of the prominent banana businessman and former presidential candidate Álavaro Noboa, was on 24%.
Continue reading...Most of the 1,325 cases in the self-defence forces were not reported because victims feared retribution, say experts
Japan’s military has covered up cases of sexual and other forms of harassment among members of the self-defence forces (SDF) and refused to take allegations seriously, according to a report that sheds light on widespread abuse in the armed forces.
A panel of experts formed in response to a high-profile case in 2022 said it was aware of 1,325 cases of harassment targeting women and men, adding that more than 60% of victims had not reported them.
Continue reading...Report by Human Rights Watch details alleged attacks using explosive weapons and small arms on Saudi Arabia-Yemen border
Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopians using small arms and explosive weapons in a targeted campaign that rights advocates suggest may amount to a crime against humanity.
The shocking claims are made in a detailed investigation by Human Rights Watch, which interviewed dozens of Ethiopian people who said they were attacked by border guards while they tried to cross into Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
Continue reading...Pledge comes a few days after US approved the possible delivery of the fighter jets
Former Kherson region residents struggling for money are taking advantage of a Russian scheme offering free housing, the Kyiv Post reports.
A scheme set up by the Kremlin last autumn provides housing vouchers to Ukrainians in occupied territories who are willing to accept Russian passports.
Russia’s Kursk and Rostov regions, both of which border Ukraine, reported drone strikes while Russia’s defence ministry said it had jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, forcing it to crash in an unpopulated area.
Russia’s aviation watchdog said it had briefly halted flights to the city’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports in response.
Continue reading...Danish PM says country will provide 19 in stages when pilot training is completed as Dutch counterpart pledges up to 42 planes
The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets between them to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited both countries after months of entreaties to bolster the Ukrainian air force.
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said her country would provide 19 jets – “hopefully” six around new year, eight more next year and the remaining five in 2025. “Please take this donation as a token of Denmark’s unwavering support for your country’s fight for freedom,” Frederiksen said.
Continue reading...Jubilation at victory over England will take a while to sink in – and there are hopes it will bring lasting change
By mid-afternoon on Sunday, the August-quiet, sun-fried streets around Madrid’s WiZink Center had begun to fill with red strips, dazed and happy faces, and the inevitable chorus of horns from the capital’s jubilant motorists. Spain had done it. But the fact they had done it was going to take a while to sink in.
Among the hundreds of people milling about outside the sporting arena and concert venue – where giant screens had shown the World Cup triumph of the Spanish women’s team to 6,000 people – were Laura Luengo, her wife, Tamara Rodríguez, and their young son, Álvaro.
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