PATIENTS are being treated in “cupboards” as the NHS buckles under the “relentless strain” of winter bugs, top doctors say. Brits are being warned today is their “last chance to get protected” against the H3N2 superflu surge, which shows no sign of peaking ahead of Christmas. While most people who have the flu will recover…
Tens of thousands gathered across Bulgaria on Wednesday to demand Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov’s resignation, with protesters accusing the government of widespread corruption. The demonstrations come weeks before Bulgaria joins the eurozone on 1 January. Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov resigned on Thursday after tens of thousands of Bulgarians joined protests across the country the night…
France’s social security budget cleared a key hurdle in France’s National Assembly on Tuesday as lawmakers narrowly approved a draft bill aimed at staving off a huge gap in funding for welfare, pensions and healthcare, handing a victory to embattled Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. Lawmakers in the lower house of the French parliament approved the social security budget…
Australia on Wednesday became the first country to formally bar users under the age of 16 from accessing major social media platforms, a move expected to be closely monitored by global tech companies and policymakers around the world. Canberra’s ban, which came into effect from midnight local time, targets 10 major services, including Alphabet’s YouTube,…
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he was ready to hold new elections in Ukraine, and that he expected to send Washington within a day revised proposals on ending the nearly four-year war with Russia. US President Donald Trump is pressuring Kyiv to accept a deal formulated by Washington, the initial version of which was…
A magnitude-7.6 earthquake struck off northern Japan late Monday, injuring more than 20 people and triggering a tsunami of up to 70 centimetres in Pacific coast communities, according to the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA). Reuters reported that about 90,000 people were ordered to evacuate after the quake struck at 11:15pm local time on Monday. Japan…
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania’s government on Tuesday declared a national emergency over security risks posed by meteorological balloons sent from Russia-allied Belarus that have violated its airspace in recent weeks, while the Belarusian leader called for negotiations on border tensions and said his country “does not need war.” The balloons forced Lithuania to repeatedly…
MINNA/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s government on Monday rescued 100 schoolchildren abducted last month from a Catholic school in Niger state, in one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years. The students arrived at the government house in Niger’s capital Minna and were handed over to the state governor. President Bola…
The recent rabid, full-on attack on Elon Musk’s X by the European Commission represents a new chapter in Brussels’ attempts to purge the public square of inconvenient ideas. The Berlaymont has imposed a €120 million fine on X for, essentially, refusing to apply EU-mandated censorship under the Digital Services Act. Brussels’ rising authoritarianism is not…
Aid delivery remains extremely difficult in violence-ridden areas, where clashes continue between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudan is facing what the World Food Program has called “the humanitarian crisis of our time,” as tens of millions struggle through sieges, blockades and aid shortages that have pushed entire cities into famine….