Tourists pose for photographs on Westminster Bridge in London, July 19, 2022. (FRANK AUGSTEIN / AP) LONDON – The heatwave which scorched Britain last week was made at least 10 times more likely because of climate change, scientists reported Thursday. On July 19, temperatures climbed above 40C at Heathrow Airport and records were broken at 46 local monitoring stations across the country. Emergency calls for …
Migrants flee suffocating people-smuggling trailer in Mexico
Migrants who where heading in a caravan to the US, travel in a truck in Nuevo Morelos, Jesus Carranza municipality, Veracruz state, Mexico, on Nov 17, 2021. (CLAUDIO CRUZ / AFP) ACAYUCAN, Mexico – Mexican authorities rescued nearly 100 migrants who escaped from a stifling trailer being driven by a people smuggler in the coastal state of Veracruz, officials said on Thursday. They (migrants) broke …
Detentions loom over Egypt’s political dialogue
A handout picture released by the Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service shows Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attending a meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister at the presidential palace in the capital Cairo on July 24, 2022. (RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY / AFP) CAIRO – After nine years of sweeping crackdowns on dissent, Egypt is set to launch a carefully choreographed political dialogue, but the main …
US daily COVID-19 cases remain close to 130,000
Masked patrons wait to order at a food stand inside Grand Central Market on July 13, 2022, in Los Angeles. (MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ / AP) WASHINGTON / LIMA – Newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the United States remain close to 130,000 daily, the highest level since February, MarketWatch reported on Wednesday. The number of cases is likely higher, given the number of people who are testing …
UN: Details for Ukraine grain shipments still being worked out
An employee of the Romanian grain handling operator Comvex oversees the unloading of Ukrainian cereals from a barge in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania, June 21, 2022. (VADIM GHIRDA / AP) UNITED NATIONS – UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday he was hopeful that the first shipment of grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place as early as …
Colombia and Venezuela to appoint new ambassadors, rebuild ties
Alvaro Leyca (center), the designated foreign minister of Colombia appointed by next president Gustavo Preto, delivers a speech next to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Carlos Faria (left) and Tachira Governor Freddy Bernal (right), after a meeting at the border city of San Cristobal, Venezuela, on July 28, 2022. (JOHNNY PARRA / AFP) SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela – Colombia's incoming government and Venezuela will appoint ambassadors to the …
UN says details for Ukraine grain shipments still being worked out
An employee of the Romanian grain handling operator Comvex oversees the unloading of Ukrainian cereals from a barge in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania, June 21, 2022. (VADIM GHIRDA / AP) UNITED NATIONS – UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday he was hopeful that the first shipment of grain from a Ukrainian Black Sea port could take place as early as …
US approves potential sale of F-35 fighters, munitions to Germany
In this Sept 19, 2019 photo, an F-35 fighter jet arrives at the Vermont Air National Guard base in South Burlington, Vermont. (WILSON RING / AP) WASHINGTON – The US State Department approved a possible foreign military sale to Germany of F-35 fighter jets, munitions and related equipment for an estimated cost of $8.4 billion, the Pentagon said on Thursday. The principle contractors for the …
Dead migrant seabirds wash up on Canada shore, avian flu suspected
Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata) nest on an islet across the bay of the summer resort town of Ancon, 35 kilometers north of Lima, as investigators from the Peruvian National Service of Natural Areas Protected by the State retrieve dead seabirds while assessing contamination levels and mortality rate of wildlife on the coast off Ancon on Jan 29, 2022. (CRIS BOURONCLE / AFP) TORONTO – The …
Brazil permits to pave highway thru heart of Amazon forest
Handout picture released by the Bahia State Government showing people trying to walk across a flooded stretch of the BR-415 highway that connect the cities of Ilheus and Itabuna, affected by heavy rains in the region, in Ilheus, south of Bahia State, Brazil, on December 27, 2021. (CAMILA SOUZA / BAHIA STATE GOVERNMENT / AFP) SAO PAULO – Brazil's environmental authority on Thursday granted an …
Access to healthy environment now a universal human right
Members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus and volunteers perform an environmental clean-up in the UN-enforced buffer zone separating the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-occupied northern part of the island, near Troulli about 17 kilometers north of Larnaca, on Nov 12, 2021. (ETIENNE TORBEY / AFP) UNITED NATIONS – The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution declaring access to clean, …
Former Republicans, Democrats form new 3rd US political party
People pass by US national flags in Washington, DC on Jan 9, 2021. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) LOS ANGELES – Dozens of former Republican and Democratic officials announced on Wednesday a new national political third party to appeal to millions of voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America's dysfunctional two-party system. The new party called Forward is being formed by a merger …
Russia daily COVID-19 cases hit highest since April
A view of a COVID-19 vaccination center in Gostinny Dvor, a huge exhibition place in Moscow, Russia on July 12, 2021. (PAVEL GOLOVKIN / AP) WASHINGTON – Russia reported 11,515 new daily coronavirus cases on Thursday, authorities said, the highest such figure since April 13. Forty-one people in Russia died of coronavirus over the last day, the country's anti-COVID-19 taskforce said in an update. Russia …
Debt shadow may hang over Kenya’s next president
Kenya's President, Uhuru Kenyatta delivers a speech during the 39th IGAD extraordinary summit in Nairobi on July 5, 2022. (TONY KARUMBA / AFP) NAIROBI – Kenya's economic output has more than doubled during President Uhuru Kenyatta's 10 years in office, but a debt binge that fueled growth and investment could cramp his successor's ability to tackle growing hunger and soaring prices. Some 22 million voters …
Italy’s conservatives strike deal over candidate for PM
Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi addresses senators on the government crisis following his resignations last week, at the Senate in Rome on July 20, 2022. (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP) ROME- The party with the most votes in Italy's centre-right coalition will choose the prime minister if the bloc wins the coming election, the alliance said on Wednesday, putting far-right leader Giorgia Meloni in pole position …
Former Republicans, Democrats form new third US political party
People pass by US national flags in Washington, DC on Jan 9, 2021. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) LOS ANGELES – Dozens of former Republican and Democratic officials announced on Wednesday a new national political third party to appeal to millions of voters they say are dismayed with what they see as America's dysfunctional two-party system. The new party called Forward is being formed by a merger …
Nigerian opposition Senators urge to peach Buhari over security
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari arrives for day six of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at the Intare Conference centre in Kigali on June 25, 2022. (DAN KITWOOD / POOL / AFP) ABUJA – Nigerian opposition Senators pushed for President Muhammadu Buhari to face impeachment, 10-months before the end of his second term in office, over the country's spreading security problems, the Senate minority leader …
Gas through Nord Stream 1 flows at reduced 20% capacity
This file photo taken on Nov 8, 2011 shows a view of the gas pipeline prior to an inaugural ceremony for the first of Nord Stream's twin 1,224 kilometre gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea, in Lubmin, northeastern Germany. (JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP) BERLIN / MOSCOW – Natural gas deliveries from Russia to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline were further reduced on Wednesday to …
EU court upholds ban on Russia’s RT France
In this Jan 9, 2018 photo, Xenia Fedorova, chief executive of RT France, attends an interview with the Associated Press in Paris. (FRANCOIS MORI / AP) BRUSSELS – The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Wednesday rejected a request by Russian state news network RT (Russia Today) France to lift a broadcasting ban it is subjected to under the sanctions imposed by the European Union …
WHO: Monkeypox hits Europe, Americas hardest
Empty vials of vaccines against Monkeypox lie on a table after being used to vaccinate people at a medical center in Barcelona, Spain on July 26, 2022. (FRANCISCO SECO / AP PHOTO) GENEVA – Europe and the Americas have been affected the most by the monkeypox outbreak, Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists here on Wednesday. The WHO has …