Global News

By Associated Press | Posted by TOE U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer resigned on Monday, paving the way for Britain to have its seventh prime minister in just over a decade. He said he was stepping down as leader of the governing Labour Party but will remain caretaker prime minister until a new Labour leader is chosen by the party. Andy Burnham, who won a special parliamentary election last week, is the front-runner to replace Starmer as Labour leader. Starmer won a landslide victory at a general election in 2024, but a series of missteps badly damaged his credibility. Here’s the latest: EU leader praises Starmer European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised Starmer’s legacy after news of his resignation in a post online on Monday. “It can take many leaders years to grow into the statesman you became in just two years,” she said on X. “European and Ukrainian security is stronger because of you. Thank you, dear K...

By Humeyra Pamuk, Dave Graham and Tala Ramadan Reuters and Posted by TOE U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived for peace talks with Iran at a Swiss mountaintop resort on Sunday as foreseen in a tentative peace deal, but the diplomacy was overshadowed by Iran’s announcement that it had reimposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A memorandum of understanding on a path to end the ‌war, agreed a week ago, calls for the Strait to be reopened and a halt to all hostilities, including in Lebanon, which Washington’s ally Israel invaded in March. But with little sign of an end to ‌fighting there, Iran said on Saturday it had shut the Strait again. U.S. officials have disputed that the Strait is closed and said 55 merchant ships had crossed it on Saturday. But on Sunday Iran’s Fars news agency cited a military source as saying no new permits were being ​issued for ships to cross until further notice. OIL PRICES TUMBLED AFTER AGREEMENT ANNOUNCED As oft...

By José Arturo Cárdenas AFP | Posted by TOE Bolivia’s president declared a state of emergency on Saturday and deployed soldiers and bulldozers to raze anti-government roadblocks that have paralyzed the Andean nation. For more than six weeks, unions, Indigenous groups and coca farmers have marched through cities and blocked roads across the country with rubble, logs and debris in protest against the conservative government. Major cities have suffered acute shortages of fuel, food and medicine, the economy has lost billions of dollars, and the protests have threatened to topple Bolivia’s first non-socialist government in two decades. President Rodrigo Paz appeared in a predawn televised address on Saturday to warn protesters they would face “the full force of the law” as he moved to end the crisis.  He declared a 90-day state of emergency, which curbs the right to protest and allows the military to be deployed domestically. Hours after...

By Claire DOYEN AFP | Posted by TOE Ebola is spreading again in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where conflict, mistrust and the lack of a vaccine have made the outbreak hard to contain.  The virus, transmitted through close contact and bodily fluids, can cause a fatal haemorrhagic fever and has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa over the past 50 years.  Here is a look back at developments during the latest outbreak: – How did it begin? – The DRC’s 17th Ebola outbreak was officially declared on May 15 but is believed to have been spreading under the radar for weeks.  The World Health Organization had already been alerted on May 5 to a mysterious and deadly illness in the mining town of Mongbwalu, where four health workers died within days. In northeastern Ituri province, locals told AFP of unexplained deaths that had been fuelling rumours of a “mystical illness” as far back as March.  Heal...

By Pierre DONADIEU AFP | Posted by TOE A group linked to Al-Qaeda claimed Thursday’s attack on the airport of Niger’s capital, Niamey that killed at least 11 soldiers and two civilians, six months after other jihadists staged a large assault on the sensitive site. Twenty-two attackers were also killed as security forces repelled the raid on the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger’s defence ministry said. Gunfire erupted early in the morning and rang out for hours near the airport, where a large military presence was later deployed, residents said. In the evening, a brief statement from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM using its Arabic acronym, said it had carried out “a suicide attack” on the airport and on a neighbouring military base. The group is Al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch. Niger has been ruled for three years by a military junta, which has struggled to contain jihadist violence that has rock...

By Reuters and Posted by TOE Explosions and sustained gunfire were heard early on Thursday morning at the airport and military airbase ‌in Niger’s capital Niamey, witnesses said, in what a ‌security source described as an apparent attack on the facility. There was no immediate claim ​of responsibility for an attack. A Niger government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Islamic State affiliate in the region claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport in January. At ‌the time, the group ⁠said it had targeted air command headquarters and drone assets and claimed to have “delivered a direct blow” to ⁠the Sahel country’s counterinsurgency operations. Niger, like its Sahel neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, has struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups linked to al ​Qaeda and ​Islamic State that have killed ​thousands and displaced millions across ‌the three countries. On Thursday morning, the firs...