World
Bodies of Eight Women Found Near Johannesburg Airport Fuel Anger Over South Africa Femicide Crisis
The discovery of the bodies of eight women around Johannesburg's OR Tambo international airport, five of them in a single week, has unleashed fear and fury across South Africa and forced the government to confront a femicide crisis it declared a national emergency last year. Police confirmed four bodies found since 15 July in Kempton Park, all half-naked with visible bruising, before four more discoveries in nearby towns. South African women are killed at a rate of 12.2 per 100,000 people, nearly six times the global average, according to UN figures. Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia added another case to the investigation on Wednesday, while President Cyril Ramaphosa has directed police to prioritise the murder investigations.
World
United States Denies Visas to Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly for Second Year
The US state department has again denied entry visas to Palestinian officials ahead of next week's United Nations general assembly in New York, barring the Palestinian delegation from attending in person for the second consecutive year. In a statement, the department said the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization had failed to live up to their commitments, accusing them of working to internationalize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the international courts and of glorifying terrorism. The Palestinian foreign ministry rejected the allegations as an unjustified measure that undermines peace efforts. Among those barred is Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whom the general assembly voted on Thursday to allow to address the gathering by video when the general debate begins on 22 September.
World
RFK Jr Tells Anti-Vaccine Activists They Have a Friend at the White House Amid Measles Outbreak
US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr told anti-vaccine activists in Washington DC that they have a strong and steadfast friend at the White House, speaking for nearly an hour and a half at the conference of Children's Health Defense, the organization he led for almost two decades. The pledge came as the death toll from the worst measles outbreak in decades rose to four in Pennsylvania, following three deaths in Texas and Arizona last year. Kennedy urged patience, saying he would have made sweeping changes on day one but had to follow the law to make permanent change. Recent polling suggests one quarter of Americans now doubt the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, while a majority disapprove of the administration's handling of the outbreak.
World
Buckingham Palace Rebuffs Earl Spencer Claim That King Charles Said We'll Forget Diana Soon Enough
Buckingham Palace has issued an unusually swift rebuttal to claims in a forthcoming memoir by Earl Spencer that King Charles, then Prince of Wales, told him days after Diana's death: rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough. Charles Spencer's book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, due worldwide next Tuesday from Penguin Michael Joseph, alleges the remark came during a heated argument over whether the princess's sons should walk in her 1997 funeral procession. The Palace, which does not comment on books as a matter of principle, responded that His Majesty is mindful the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason and colour memory. Diana died aged 36 in a Paris car crash in 1997, and next year marks the 30th anniversary of her death.
World
Seoul Michelin Restaurant Fined Over Ant Dessert in Landmark South Korean Food Safety Case
A South Korean court has fined the operator of Evett, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Seoul's Gangnam district, and its chief executive for serving a dessert topped with ants that are not approved for consumption under the country's food safety law. The company was fined 10 million won and chief executive Ginny Kim 15 million won, far below the one-year prison term and 20 million won fine prosecutors had sought. Judge Lee Se-chang of Seoul's western district court said the offence was by no means light, citing heavy metals found above permitted levels in the ants, but noted the restaurant appeared not to have realised ants were prohibited. Prosecutors said the restaurant imported dried ants from the United States and Thailand and served them to roughly 12,000 customers over nearly four years.
World
Three Wild Dog Brothers Complete Africa's Longest Recorded Mammal Journey Across Zambia
Three endangered African wild dog brothers have completed the longest-ever recorded single journey of any mammal on the African continent, travelling more than 2,500 miles (4,100km) over eight months across Zambia in search of new territory, scientists report in the journal Ecology. The brothers set out from Kafue national park in western Zambia and finished in the Luangwa valley in the east, covering a record 340 miles point-to-point. Researchers from the Zambian Carnivore Programme tracked 19 groups of wild dogs with GPS collars and found the species can still survive in human-dominated landscapes, though two sisters of the travelling brothers died, probably in bushmeat snares, during their own less successful dispersal. Only around 6,600 adults remain across 39 populations of a species classified as endangered on the IUCN red list, and scientists say the findings reinforce the case for investing in connected landscapes rather than relying solely on fenced protected areas.
World
Aoun Joins Macron and Jordan's King in Paris to Plan Lebanon's Post-UNIFIL Security
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and Jordan's King Abdullah II at Les Invalides in Paris on Thursday, ahead of a preparatory session for an international conference backing Lebanon's army and security forces as the UN peacekeeping mandate in southern Lebanon approaches its expiry. The three leaders reviewed a new round of the Aqaba Process meetings focused on strengthening the Lebanese Armed Forces and Internal Security Forces, discussed regional de-escalation, and addressed developments in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. In a separate meeting at the Elysee Palace, Aoun and Macron discussed efforts to end Israeli attacks on Lebanon within a US-sponsored framework providing for phased Israeli withdrawal in exchange for Lebanese army deployment. Israeli attacks since March 2 have killed at least 4,381 people, injured 12,402 and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities, and UNIFIL's mandate expires at the end of the year, with France and Italy having proposed a European force to assist the Lebanese army along the border.
World
Lawsuit Demands Epstein Estate Identify Survivors Depicted in Seized Abuse Material
Two women have filed a lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein's estate alleging the financier possessed child sexual abuse material of them, and asking a federal judge to order a program to identify and notify every individual whose images were in Epstein's collection. The complaint, filed this week in the US district court for the southern district of New York against co-executors Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, claims Epstein spent more than two decades possessing, producing and distributing material depicting countless children, including a modeling book of sexualized images kept in a locked safe in his New York home beginning in the 1990s. One plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, says she was around 12 years old when Epstein stole partly nude photographs of her, and that despite contemporaneous reports to law enforcement no one investigated. The suit argues many depicted in the collection have never been identified through the national victim-identification program, with one lawyer citing a report finding 15 or more hits of known series and stating that to their knowledge none of those victims have ever received notice.
World
EU Unveils KIDS Act Banning Under-13s From Social Media With 6% Revenue Penalties
The European Commission has formally unveiled the EU KIDS Act, a proposed regulation that would impose a blanket ban on children under 13 creating social media accounts, a day after President Ursula von der Leyen teased the plan in her State of the Union address to the European Parliament. Under the proposal, 13 and 14-year-olds could hold only limited accounts accessible through a parent's own account, with full accounts permitted from age 15. Very large online platforms would have to prove their services are safe by design, ban addictive design features, profiling-based recommender feeds, infinite scrolling and push notifications during sleeping hours, and implement privacy-preserving age assurance — with investigations fast-tracked to conclude within 90 days and penalties up to 6 percent of global annual revenue. Von der Leyen said the act reverses the burden of proof so platforms must show they are safe, but consumer and industry critics warned that age verification at scale raises serious privacy risks of its own.
World
Asian Games Open in Nagoya Under Housing Crisis as Athletes Call Huts Worst Ever
The Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games open this weekend under the shadow of an accommodation crisis, after Japan's decision to skip a dedicated athletes village for the 17,000 competitors and officials left national teams scattering between a cruise liner, shipping container-style wooden huts and hotel rooms. South Korean officials have slammed the container huts as the worst-ever Games housing, with the Korea Basketball Association's vice president saying athletes over two metres tall cannot stretch their legs on the beds, while a player posted video of a leaking sink and a soaked floor with the plea: please help us. Chief organiser Hideaki Omura says everything is being improved as issues arise, and Japan's deputy Chef de Mission Hisashi Mizutori revealed that room assignments have put coaches with athletes and men with women because numbers were matched on paper. The Italian cruise ship Costa Serena, 290 metres long, arrived Tuesday to host 4,000 people, with 2,000 more assigned to the huts, and Tropical Storm Dujuan now threatens further disruption toward a possible September 21 approach.
World
Ethiopia Plants Toward 50 Billion Trees as Citizens Lead a Green Revival Against Deforestation
Ethiopia is pressing ahead with its bid to plant 50 billion trees by 2030, as ordinary citizens like Oromia farmer Halima Kedir transform degraded land into thriving groves under the government's Green Legacy Initiative. The country lost 560,000 hectares of tree cover between 2000 and 2025, but official figures show the annual deforestation rate fell from 92,000 hectares to 27,703 between 2013 and 2023, while forest cover rose from 15.5 percent to 23.6 percent. Scientists caution that survival rates, not planting totals, will decide success, and Ethiopia's selection to host the COP32 climate summit in Addis Ababa in November 2027 puts its record under global scrutiny.
World
UN Finds Grounds to Believe US Committed War Crimes in Iran School Strike That Killed 120 Children
A UN fact-finding mission has determined there are reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed war crimes when it struck an Iranian primary school and a sports complex in February, killing 156 civilians including 120 children. The independent mission, reporting to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, found the Tomahawk strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab was indiscriminate and reckless, with failed intelligence verification amounting to more than negligence. The report also accuses Iranian authorities of crimes against humanity in a protest crackdown that officially left 3,038 dead, as the Pentagon's own inquiry remains unpublished months after it concluded.