News

 U.S. actions pose a serious threat to stability in the Middle East, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the leaders of a China-led security bloc including Russia and India on Friday. The United States blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday that drove up oil prices and raised concern about a new U.S.-Iranian confrontation. Iran denied any connection with the attacks. Rouhani did not mention the attacks but focussed his criticism on U.S....

China's economy flashed more warning signs in May as the United States ramped up trade pressure, with industrial output growth unexpectedly slowing to a more than 17-year low and investment cooling, underlining a need for more stimulus. Despite a slew of support measures since last year, China's economy is still struggling to get back on firmer footing, and investors fear a longer and costlier trade war between the world's two largest economies could trigger a global recession. Industrial output grew...

An Australian man pleaded not guilty on Friday to 92 charges stemming from a massacre in two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch three months ago and will stand trial in May next year. A lone gunman armed with semi-automatic weapons attacked Muslims attending Friday prayers in Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island on March 15, killing 51 people in the country's worst peace-time mass shooting. The attacker broadcast the shooting live on Facebook. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern...

The European Union said online platforms must do more to combat disinformation, including sharing data on their efforts, after it tracked suspected Russian and domestic attempts to disrupt last month's European Parliament elections. In a review due to be published on Friday and seen by Reuters, the EU assesses efforts to safeguard the May vote for the EU's legislature by funding fact-checking organisations, building up an in-house unit to counter disinformation from Russia, and enlisting the help of Facebook, Google,...

Bill McKibben, a U.S. author and leading figure in global climate activism, has challenged adults to join a youth-led general strike in September, saying bold action may yet prevent civilisation being cut off "at the knees." Inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's success in mobilising hundreds of thousands of children to walk out of classrooms, veteran campaigner McKibben, 58, wants to light an equivalent fire under his own generation. "People have risen to crises before. It was our parents'...

Powerful messages have been beamed onto unsafe tower blocks across the country two years on from the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. On 14th June 2017 72 people were killed after flames were able to spread quickly through a tower block in West London due to cladding made from highly flammable aluminium composite material (ACM). In the aftermath it emerged that 433 other high-rise residential and publicly owned buildings had the same kind of cladding. Firefighters today warned that we risk...

Forensics professionals have expressed concerns that volunteers working at least 16 hours a month will not receive adequate emotional support

The House of Lords agreed to appoint a new special inquiry committee to investigate the impact of digital technologies on democracy. The Committee, which will be Chaired by Lord Puttnam, will look at how the growth in digital technology has changed the way politics functions and what this means for the future of plural, representative democracy, as political parties, campaigners and government increasingly focus on online and social media to communicate with the public. Commenting, Lord Puttnam said:“Digital technologies are changing every...

One-hour lunch breaks, working nine to five and a simple tea round are among the things office workers miss about the past, according to a study. The research of 2,000 office workers aged 40 and over revealed the extent to which things have changed over the years, with six in 10 saying work was ‘easier’ in previous decades. Being able to leave work on time without feeling guilty, wearing a suit or set uniform and shutting emails down at the...