Author: Gulf News Week
LIVEAndy Burnham to become Labour leader and will promise to ‘fix things politics has neglected’The Makerfield MP is due to speak later when he is appointed at a special conference in central London. He will then become prime minister on Monday.
Getty ImagesPrincess Aiko, the only child of the current emperor, is still not eligible to succeed the throneThe Japanese parliament has approved a bill to relax imperial succession rules, amid concerns over the dwindling size of the imperial family. The bill, passed by the upper house on Friday, allows the imperial family to adopt distant male relatives over the age of 15 and lets women keep their royal status after marrying outside the family.But it does not change the law barring women from ascending the throne despite wide public support for a female emperor, meaning Princess Aiko, the only child…
Uganda Police Force/XThe bus was carrying pupils on a field trip when the accident occurred At least 20 schoolchildren and one adult have been killed after a bus carrying pupils on a study trip crashed in eastern Uganda, local officials say, in one of the country’s deadliest road accidents involving children in recent years. Dozens of others, including school staff, were injured in the crash in Kapchorwa area on Thursday evening.Preliminary investigations show the bus suffered a mechanical fault before the driver lost control on Chekwatit Hill, a stretch of road that has been the site of several serious crashes,…
Getty ImagesAt the centre of tensions between Manila and Beijing are the Spratly Islands and Scarborough ShoalThe Philippines has condemned the “dehumanising and racist” portrayal of the country as a timid monkey strong-armed by the US and Japan to take Beijing on over the South China Sea.Last week, China Daily posted an AI-generated video featuring a monkey in a Filipino shirt. It screams as arms bearing the Japanese and US flags shove it onto a rickety karaoke stage set up in a boat.After it gets scolded for singing the wrong song, it pulls out a sheet reading “South China Sea…
EPAUS President Donald Trump has delivered a primetime address in which he accused China of interfering in the 2020 election and alleged “shocking vulnerabilities” in American voting systems.Trump, who spoke from the White House on Thursday, has repeatedly made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud and foreign meddling in the 2020 election which he lost to Joe Biden.In the half-hour speech, delivered three months before the midterm elections, he said he had declassified hundreds of intelligence files which supported his claims that Beijing had tried to sway the election in Biden’s favour.The US intelligence community has previously concluded China did not…
SpaceX’s mega Starship rocket came within a second or so from blasting off on a test flight Thursday, but some of the engines failed to ignite, triggering a launch abort amid billowing clouds of smoke and vapor.Elon Musk, the company’s founder and CEO, said two engines will be replaced “to be confident of a good flight” before sending Starship from Texas on a space-skimming journey halfway around the world. It will be the 13th flight for Starship, which at 407 feet (124 meters) tall with 33 main engines is the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket.SpaceX’s launch webcast showed the…
This week, Sir Keir Starmer took part in his last Prime Minister’s Questions as he prepared to hand over the keys to 10 Downing Street, the US and Iran continued to trade both barbs and bombs, and film critics went wild for The Odyssey.But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days?Quiz collated by Ben Fell.Fancy some more? Try last week’s quiz, or have a go at something from the archives.
WASHINGTON (news agencies) — Officials under President Donald Trump want to make it easier for men to get a prescription for testosterone, the latest shift in a decades-long debate over the benefits and risks of replacing the hormone that affects sex drive, mood and other health factors.The move, backed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other top officials, aligns with the advice of many online influencers and podcasters, including men’s health gurus who tout the hormone as a way to boost muscle and energy. On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military would begin screening for low…
Cole Burston/ AFP/Getty ImagesWildfire smoke is expected to continue affecting air quality in Toronto and US cities throughout the weekCities across north-eastern Canada and the US are suffering from intense smoke brought on by wildfires burning across Ontario and Minnesota.Residents in New York, Boston and Toronto have been encouraged to avoid “strenuous activity” over potential health impacts caused by the pollution.Canada wildfires leave train ‘encased in flames’ as smoke drifts towards USWhere are the wildfires and how did they start?Along the northern edge of Minnesota there are 17 fires that are still burning and an emergency declaration is in place…
NetflixKit Connor (left) and Joe Locke (right) have played Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring in Heartstopper since 2022Heartstopper has been described as “a lifeline for many” young LGBTQ+ viewers and something that has “changed countless lives” through its heartwarming depiction of the secondary school romance between Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring.Based on Alice Oseman’s book series, the Netflix adaptation is now coming to an end in the form of a film, to complete three TV series that have pulled some of the streamer’s highest viewing figures to date.Heartstopper Forever follows the young male couple as they prepare for a huge…