World

Japan’s weather agency said on Monday (Jan 6) that last year was the hottest since records began, mirroring other nations as ever-rising greenhouse gas emissions fuel climate change. Worldwide, 2024 was expected to have been the warmest recorded, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency said last week, capping a decade of unprecedented heat and other types…

The United States has released 11 Yemeni detainees from the controversial naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they had been held for over two decades without charge. The Pentagon said late on Monday that the 11 men had been transferred to Oman, as the Biden administration pushes to clear the facility of uncharged prisoners in its…

The top bidder at a fish market auction in Tokyo has paid more than one million pounds for a tuna. The 276kg bluefin tuna – around the size and weight of a motorbike – was bought for 207m yen (£1.05m) at Toyosu Fish Market. The winning bid was made by Michelin-starred sushi restaurateurs the Onodera Group and…

Emilia Perez and The Brutalist were the big film winners at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, with Shogun and Baby Reindeer leading the field for TV. Emilia Perez, an operatic musical which tells the story of a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, was named best comedy or musical, best non-English language film and also won best…

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial over allegations of having received millions from Libya’s former dictator Moammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy, who was president of France between 2007 and 2012, arrived at the court in Paris to face what is considered to be the biggest scandal to engulf the former…

PEOPLE will move into a top secret robotic utopia “living laboratory” later this year filled with futuristic tech. Toyota has been building its Woven City since 2021 which will serve as a test ground for driverless cars, smart homes and robotics. The site is just a few miles away from Mount Fuji, Japan and costs $10billion /…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday said he would step down in the coming months after nine years in power, bowing to pressure from lawmakers alarmed by his Liberal Party’s miserable showing in pre-election polls. A subdued Trudeau, among the most prominent progressive leaders in the world, told a press conference that he would stay on…

Saudi Arabia’s Mecca, the holiest city according to Islam, has been hit by extreme weather. Footage circulating on social media shows entire neighbourhoods partially submerged amid the heavy rainfall. Men were seen forming human chains to rescue children who had become trapped in the flooding in the Al-Awali neighbourhood, southeast of Mecca. In another video, a man…

In January, thousands of people flock to sign up to their nearest gym with the ‘new year, new me’ mantra in their heads and new memberships go through the roof. But if you’re hoping to join one New York gym then you better be prepared to be waitlisted for years … and fork out $10,000 a month.…

NOROVIRUS can linger on your clothes for up to a month, an expert has warned. Other fabric-lined items like chairs, pillows, and curtains can also hold onto the norovirus bug. Cases of the winter vomiting bug, which often triggers nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting, have surged by 40 per cent compared to previous years. The stomach illness spreads…

A new report once again raises the question of whether there is a link between fluoride in drinking water and lower IQ levels in children. The research, published in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, is a review of 74 other studies exploring how the mineral may affect children’s IQ levels. The analysis found a statistically significant association between…

Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders. The appointment marks a major step in Francis’ aim to give women more leadership roles in governing the church. While women have…

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Monday he found it “worrying” that a billionaire social media owner like Elon Musk is inserting himself into the politics of other countries. Musk, a key ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has been on a social media rampage over the holidays, endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party,…

A huge swath of the U.S. was blasted with ice, snow and wind on Monday as the polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip, making many roads treacherous, forcing school closures, and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations. Winter storm blamed for…

Elon Musk launched into a foul-mouthed X tirade directed at a student who called him out for allegedly spreading disinformation. “Elon Musk is rapidly becoming the largest spreader of disinformation in human history, hijacking political debates in the process,” wrote Joni Askola, a Finnish graduate student and activist for defense of Ukraine. “The EU must take action!”…

For months now, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been asked variations of the same question: “Will you step down?” But though he vowed to stay on as Liberal Party leader – despite deepening frustrations amongst voters and a political rival surging in the polls – even the self-described “fighter” could not withstand the growing chorus of…

The new year in politics starts with the bang of a billionaire with a bigger mouth than his bank balance. Elon Musk has been lobbing almost as many digital darts over the Atlantic as Luke Littler has the real things in the last couple of days. The world’s richest man has been sounding off in the strongest…

The body of an Indian journalist who had reported on alleged corruption in the country has been found in a septic tank in Chhattisgarh state. Mukesh Chandrakar, 32, went missing on New Year’s Day and his family registered a complaint with the police. His body was found on Friday in the compound of a road construction contractor…

“The Brutalist,” a historical epic that examines the post-war immigrant experience, and “Emilia Pérez,” a musical about a drug lord who undergoes gender-affirming surgery, won top honors at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. “Emilia Pérez,” named best musical or comedy, led all films with four wins, while “The Brutalist,” which received the prize for best drama,…

Russia has said Ukraine has launched another “counterattack” in the western border of Kursk – a region that has become a key battleground for the two ides in the war. Moscow has apparently sent its top general to the region in a clear indication of how seriously the Kremlin is taking the situation. In August, Kyiv’s forces…

Elon Musk has caused outrage in Germany by publicly backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The Tesla billionaire called the AfD the country’s “last vestige of hope” and invited its leader Alice Weidel to a live chat on X ahead of the general election in February. His comments have sparked backlash, with critics accusing him…

A 22-year-old Spanish tourist has died after being attacked by an elephant she was bathing in Thailand. Student Blanca Ojanguren Garcia had been visiting the island of Yao Yai in southwestern Thailand with her boyfriend when the attack took place, according to local media reports. The couple had been bathing one of the elephants when Ms Garcia…

The Vivienne has died aged 32 it has been announced. The star born James Lee Williams became a household name thanks to their charm and humour. The devastating news comes just a week after The Vivienne appeared on stage in the theatre production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The Vivienne had also been active on social media…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce he intends to step down, though he has not made a final decision, a source familiar with Trudeau’s thinking said on Sunday. The source spoke to Reuters after the Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau was expected to announce as early as Monday that he would quit…

Motorists entering Manhattan’s busiest neighborhoods will now have to pay up to $9 in congestion charges, as New York City’s first-in-the-nation Congestion Relief Zone officially launched Sunday. New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that the zone opened at 12:00:01 a.m. on Sunday morning and “is fully operational.” The scheme aims to ease New York’s infamous traffic problems…

A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist has resigned from the Washington Post after the newspaper refused to publish a cartoon satirical of its billionaire owner Jeff Bezos. Ann Telnaes, a long-time Washington Post cartoonist, created a cartoon of Mr Bezos and other tycoons kneeling before a statue of President-elect Donald Trump. She said the paper’s refusal to run the…

Tens of millions of Americans are bracing for a huge winter storm that could bring the heaviest snowfall and coldest temperatures in over a decade. The storm, which started in the middle of the US, will move east in the next couple of days, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. A state of emergency has been declared…

Sixty-year-old Chinese grandmother Su Min had no intention of becoming a feminist icon. She was only trying to escape her abusive husband when she hit the road in 2020 in her white Volkswagen hatchback with a rooftop tent and her pension. “I felt like I could finally catch my breath,” she says, recalling the moment she drove…

Americans have been gathering to remember Jimmy Carter as a nearly week-long state funeral gets under way for the 39th US president. Saturday’s procession from Carter’s home in Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta marked the beginning of the six-day public goodbye for the statesman, who passed away last month aged 100. Carter will be flown to Washington DC…

What accusations have been made? On December 28, former elite gymnast Tabea Alt used her Instagram account to go public about abuse she said she experienced at the national gymnastics center in Stuttgart and “in German women’s gymnastics in general.” The 24-year-old wrote that she was even made to perform and compete in Stuttgart while suffering from…

After months of opposition, US President Joe Biden on Friday blocked the proposed buyout of the United States Steel Corporation, or US Steel, by Japan’s Nippon Steel. The second-largest US steelmaker had previously approved the $14.9-billion (€14.5-billion) takeover bid, saying it would help protect the ailing firm from intense competition from abroad, including China. Nippon Steel had…

The United States intends to sell $8 billion (€7.7 billion) in arms to Israel, sources familiar with the plan said on Saturday. President Joe Biden’s administration has informally told the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the US Congress, which need to approve the sale, of the plan on Friday. The arms package…

Drive an hour outside China’s commercial capital Shanghai, and you’ll reach Elon Musk’s Tesla gigafactory. It manufactures almost one million Tesla cars a year and produces more than half of all its cars worldwide. But with US president-elect Donald Trump preparing to move into the White House, the relationship between his new buddy Elon Musk and the…

A specialist team in Bristol says more research is needed into flat head syndrome, a condition which is thought to affect up to 40% of babies. Southmead Hospital runs the only NHS clinic offering helmet therapy for infants with flattened heads. The advice to lie babies on their backs to prevent cot deaths is one of the…

Outside it is the bleak midwinter. We are smack bang in the middle of some of the country’s best agricultural land. But inside the cavernous warehouse where we’ve come, you wouldn’t have a clue about any of that: there is no daylight; it feels like it could be any time of the day, any season of the…

Comedian Nikki Glaser is warning us ahead of time: tomorrow night’s Golden Globes show on CBS will be toothless. Glaser tells Yahoo Entertainment that she won’t be making jokes about Donald Trump. She’ll avoid the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni scandal. She’s just not going to offend anyone. “I’m not gonna go so hard that anyone’s gonna be offended,”…

Jeff Baena, a screenwriter and director whose credits include the offbeat comedies “The Little Hours” and “Life After Beth,” has died. He was 47. A spokesperson for Baena confirmed his death. His body was discovered on Friday at a Los Angeles residence, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office. A cause of death was not immediately…

In Donald Trump’s first term, governments around the world braced for his morning social media posts. What policy would be reversed, what insult thrown? Four years on, diplomats are once more getting twitchy when the sun rises on America’s east coast. Back then, they learned to take Trump – as the adage had it – “seriously but…

A British woman and her South African fiance have been found dead in a holiday villa in Vietnam, local police have said. Greta Marie Otteson, 33, was discovered by staff dead on a bed in a first-floor room in Hoi An, a coastal city in the central region of the south-east Asian nation, at around 11:18 local…

Playwright Banna Desta has brought to life an often-overlooked ancient African civilisation in her latest work – a compelling audio drama about an increasingly tyrannical queen and her scheming twin sons. “As well as wanting the audience to be entertained – because the play is good fun – I wanted to add another dimension to people’s understanding…

Republican Mike Johnson survived a razor-thin vote to remain House Speaker in a drama-filled, highly-anticipated vote that marked the start of complete Republican control in Washington. Johnson could only afford to lose two votes because of the tight margin of control Republicans have in Congress. While he came close to losing re-election, he survived the vote after…

Nicki Minaj is being sued by her alleged former manager for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, TMZ reports. According to a lawsuit obtained by the outlet Friday, a man named Brandon Garrett claimed the “Starships” hitmaker berated and physically assaulted him backstage at a Detroit concert at Little Caesars Arena in April 2024 after…

The number of patients in hospital with flu has quadrupled in the last month, according to new NHS England data. There were 5,074 patients with flu in hospital on Sunday 29 December, up from 1,190 at the end of November. The new figures mean flu cases in hospital have quadrupled in a month. On the week commencing…

A judge has ordered US president-elect Donald Trump to be sentenced next week in his New York hush money case – but has suggested he will not jail him. In a surprise move, the sentencing has been set for 10 January, just 10 days before the presidential inauguration. Trump’s spokesperson called the case “lawless” and a “witch…

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to New Delhi from Jan. 5-6 is expected to include discussions with Indian counterparts about the impact of Chinese dams, a senior U.S. official said late on Friday. Washington and its Western allies have long viewed India as a counter to China’s rising influence in Asia and beyond. “We’ve certainly…

South Korea’s presidential guards and military troops prevented authorities from arresting impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday in a tense six-hour stand-off inside Yoon’s compound in the heart of Seoul. Yoon is under criminal investigation for insurrection over his Dec. 3 martial law bid that stunned South Korea and led to the first arrest warrant to…

Nikki Glaser isn’t known for pulling her punches, but there’s at least one very hot topic she doesn’t plan on tackling during her debut as host of the Golden Globes on Sunday. The stand-up comedian and scathing roast comic says she’s going to avoid joking about the Justin Baldoni–Blake Lively scandal — even though the controversy has…

Friday’s warning from the US surgeon general that alcohol is a “well-established, preventable cause of cancer” is perhaps a wakeup call for millions of Americans, but it’s the worst-case scenario that many beer and spirits companies have been preparing for over the years. Major brewers, including Molson Coors and Anheuser-Busch InBev, and spirit giants such as Diageo…

Elon Musk has continued his criticism of the Government, calling on the King to step in and dissolve Parliament. The world’s richest man, who purchased the social media site Twitter and renamed it X in 2022, has shared and reacted to tweets critical of the Government and the Prime Minister after Labour rejected a call for an…

Apple CEO Tim Cook is the next tech exec to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration committee, according to Axios. Cook’s donation follows similar commitments from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos through Amazon, and Meta as Big Tech companies and executives work to curry favor with the incoming administration. Cook famously built…

Bryan Johnson, the biohacking centimillionaire who made a fortune selling payment apps, knows what his biggest online skeptics have been saying about him ever since he went viral in January 2023. Critics seized on the way he spends his days eating sludge and a jumble of vitamins and minerals (more than 50 a day) while wired up…

The most senior doctor in the US is calling for alcoholic drinks to carry cancer warnings. Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has today published an advisory on alcohol and cancer risk, citing studies linking alcohol to at least seven different cancers. His advisory outlines the direct link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk, including breast cancer.…

SUSPECTED Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger was dumped by his wife just days before the deadly Trump hotel blast, claim police sources. The 37-year-old active soldier shot himself in the head before his Tesla full of explosives burst into flames just hours after a separate terror attack in New Orleans. A handgun was found at the feet of…

The ecological disaster involving two aging Russian tankers off Crimea is escalating, with the oil spill spreading to the beach, Russian authorities have confirmed. Russian officials warned on Thursday that an oil leak from two damaged tankers had reached the beaches of the annexed Crimea peninsula. The two aging tankers, named Volgoneft-212 and the Volgoneft-239, were carrying…

A Holocaust survivor and the oldest living Olympic medal winner has died at the age of 103. Agnes Keleti died on Thursday morning in Budapest after she was hospitalised with pneumonia on Christmas Day, the Hungarian state news agency reported. Regarded as one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes, Ms Keleti won 10 medals in gymnastics,…

Luke Littler has beaten Stephen Bunting to book his place in the final of the World Darts Championship. The 17-year-old was favourite to progress into the final for a second year running and swept 39-year-old Bunting aside to win by 6 sets to 1 at Alexandra Palace in London. He will face three-time champion Michael van Gerwen…

Italian designer Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the eponymous fashion house known for its bright and patterned styles, has died at the age of 93, the family-owned company said on Thursday. A Missoni statement said Rosita “passed away peacefully on January 1, 2025,” calling her “a visionary figure in the Italian and international fashion world”. She had launched…

A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before turning his gun on himself early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the Balkan nation’s worst mass killings. The attacker, named by police as 45-year-old Aco Martinovic, initially shot dead four people at a restaurant in Cetinje on Wednesday afternoon…

Nine out of ten new cars sold in Norway last year were powered by battery only, registration data showed on Thursday, placing the country within reach of its target of only adding cars that are electric on the road by 2025. Fully electric vehicles accounted for 88.9% of new cars sold in 2024, up from 82.4% in…

Officials on Thursday positively identified the person found dead inside the Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas as a U.S. Army soldier from Colorado, while the FBI said it was not yet clear if the blast was an act of terrorism. The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link…

South Korean authorities failed to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday over his martial law declaration, after evading a crowd of protesters outside his compound but coming to a standoff with presidential security forces inside. Yoon supporters gathered in the pre-dawn hours near the presidential residence, with the numbers swelling into the hundreds as they…

NEW AI cameras that can catch drunk drivers in the act have been rolled out, with footage revealing the exact moment they were installed. The state-of-the-art tech, developed by Acusensus, works by scanning passing cars for tell tale signs of impaired driving. New footage spots officers carefully placing the cameras at strategic roadside locations in Devon and…

Upscale Enclaves Americans’ incomes are on the rise though geographic disparities remain, figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show. Overall, the nation’s median household income was $80,610 in 2023, up from $77,540 the year prior, a report from the bureau says. Some communities in the U.S. have comfortably exceeded those numbers in recent years, other census data…

The terrorist behind the New Orleans massacre and the Special Forces soldier who detonated a Cybertruck full of explosives outside the Trump International Las Vevas hotel on Wednesday both served on the same North Carolina Army base, the Post has learned. Military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who killed 15 people when he rammed his truck through New Year’s…

Meghan Markle has made her Instagram return. The Duchess of Sussex launched her account on the social media platform on New Year’s Day with a carefree video taken at a beach near her Montecito, Calif., home. In the footage shot by her husband, Prince Harry, Markle, 43, kept her back to the camera while running barefoot on…

Two children are among 10 people killed after a gunman opened fire in western Montenegro following a bar brawl, police and a government official said. Montenegro’s interior minister Danilo Saranovic said four people were wounded in the attack in the town of Cetinje. Police identified the suspect as 45-year-old Aleksandar Martinovic and released a mugshot of him…

The suspect in the New Orleans truck attack has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The FBI said he was a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas. Talking about himself in a promotional video, Jabbar said he was born and raised in the state. At least 15 people were killed in the suspected terror attack which also injured dozens…

Smokers in Italy’s financial and fashion capital of Milan risk being fined for lighting up on city streets or crowded public areas, after the country’s toughest ban comes into effect Wednesday. Those who defy the new prohibition in the polluted northern Italian city could be fined between 40 to 240 euros ($41 to $249), a punishment that…

A POISONING attempt has been made on ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad, it has been claimed. The toppled Syrian tyrant has been under Vladimir Putin’s protection in Moscow since December 8 last year. But online account General SVR — supposedly run by a former top spy in Russia — says he was taken ill on Sunday. It claims…

Coastal properties worldwide are sinking, including some of Miami’s pricey waterfront high-rises. In a study published in the journal Earth and Space Science in December, researchers found that 35 buildings along the coasts of Miami’s barrier islands have sunk into the ground by 2 to 8 centimeters between 2016 and 2023. This sinking phenomenon, called subsidence, is…

COPS are probing a possible link between the New Orleans rampage and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas, Joe Biden has revealed. At least 15 people were killed early on New Year’s Day in Louisiana when an attacker ploughed his white pickup into revellers on the famed Bourbon Street before opening fire. He was gunned down…

A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is set to be released in January 2025, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to democratically governed Taiwan in recent years, including massing naval forces…

Tourists in Barcelona’s historic centre were enjoying the last days of gas-powered patio heaters before their use is banned in 2025 because of their carbon emissions. The ban will come into force on Jan. 1 and is the culmination of a years-long battle between the city council and restaurateurs who fear a loss of business from customers…

Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines running through Ukraine came to a halt on New Year’s Day, marking the end of decades of Moscow’s dominance over Europe’s energy markets. The gas had kept flowing despite nearly three years of war, but Russia’s gas firm Gazprom said it had stopped at 0500 GMT after Ukraine refused to renew…

The Fiji government on Thursday said police were investigating incidents involving two crew members of Australian airline Virgin Australia (IPO-VIR.AX),  who were allegedly victims of rape and theft in Nadi in the early hours of New Year’s Day. The crew members were in the popular tourist destination on a layover before they were supposed to fly off…

A Congolese military tribunal has sentenced 13 soldiers to death on charges including murder, looting, and cowardice in what military authorities said was a drive to improve army discipline after territorial losses due to soldiers fleeing. The soldiers were sentenced on Tuesday in the town of Lubero in Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern North Kivu province, where…

A U.S. Army veteran flying an ISIS flag from his truck swerved around makeshift barriers and plowed into New Orleans’ crowded French Quarter on New Year’s Day, killing 15 people in an attack officials said may have been carried out with the help of others. The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas…

Arguably the modern era’s biggest A-list couple, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were married for two years – but it has taken eight years since announcing their divorce to finally reach a deal. Why did it take four times as long as the marriage itself to settle? One part of the answer is that it’s a particularly…

Japanese toilets – equipped with music players, automatic flushes, and heated seats – are clearly not afraid of making a splash with their innovative designs. But these cutting edge seats have an unlikely nemesis: toilet paper. Toto, a top Japanese toilet bowl maker, said last week that users should refrain from wiping their seats with toilet paper,…

From fun viral videos and celebration of Indian sporting glory to moments that made us shake our heads in wonder – the year 2024 had all of this and more to offer on Indian social media. Here are some of the most memorable moments that we have picked for you. The months-long Ambani wedding Indian billionaire Mukesh…

Brad Pitt’s girlfriend Ines de Ramon encouraged him to settle his nearly decade-long divorce battle with Angelina Jolie so that they could move on with their life together, sources tell Page Six. “He was influenced by Ines to finally settle,” says the insider. “Ines wants to have a life together — with possibly children in the future…

“The Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative,” claims the lawsuit Justin Baldoni; Blake Lively James Devaney/GC Images; Gareth Cattermole/Getty ImagesJustin Baldoni is suing the New York Times after it published a story about Blake Lively‘s sexual harassment and smear campaign allegations against him. On Tuesday, Baldoni — and nine other plaintiffs, including…

The 18-year-old male victim was stabbed to death on Rose Avenue Law enforcement is requesting CCTV, dashcam and doorbell footage that captures the moments of a fatal stabbing that took place in the United Kingdom. The Derbyshire police arrested seven people — four 17-year-old boys; a 52-year-old man; and two girls, ages 15 and 16-years-old, on “suspicion…

More than 1.3 million power customers in the U.S. territory lost power on New Year’s Eve Most of the island of Puerto Rico was hit by a power outage early on Tuesday. More than 1.3 million people are in the dark. Luma Energy said that it suffered a system-side blackout at around 5:30 a.m. It said that…

Jakarta has banned sales of the iPhone16 and Google Pixel under regulations that require phones to use local components. Apple iPhones displayed at an Apple Store in New York City on October 16, 2024 [Kent J. Edwards/Reuters]Winston, a medical doctor who lives and works in the capital of North Sumatra Province, is a self-proclaimed Apple fan. Currently…

Jolie filed for divorce in 2016 claiming Pitt had been abusive towards her and their children on a private jet flight from Europe. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt together in 2007. Pic: APAngelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have reached a settlement after eight years in one of the longest and most bitter divorces in Hollywood history. In…