World

The world's largest hornet, an invasive breed dubbed the "murder hornet," has been eradicated from the US, five years after being spotted for the first time in Washington state. According to CBS News , the Washington and US Departments of Agriculture on Wednesday announced that the northern giant hornets - the insects' official name - have not been detected in the US for three years. The 2-inch-long hornet is known to have a stinger longer than that of a typical wasp. Its powerful sting can kill a human. It can also spit venom, but the insect is largely dangerous to bees and other insects, not humans.  "By tackling this threat head-on, we protected not only pollinators and crops, but also the industries, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them," Dr Mark Davidson, deputy administrator at USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said in a news statement, per the outlet .  State, federal and international government agencies worked toget...

An Indian-origin professor In the UK has voiced concerns about the country's salary structure, particularly for contractual academic staff, warning that low wages are leading to a brain drain.  Anant Sudarshan, an Associate Professor at the University of Warwick's Department of Economics, took to X to highlight the issue, revealing that UK academic salaries have become so uncompetitive that he has lost potential hires to Indian universities. "UK salaries are becoming an absolute joke, especially for contractual staff. I have failed to hire people eligible for the UK's special high-potential individual visa because a government* university in India is willing to pay them slightly more in absolute terms than here," he wrote on X. Although the UK may appear attractive on paper due to purchasing power parity, Mr Sudarshan noted that the country is losing its appeal to top academic talent worldwide. "To be clear - there is no comparison in absolute terms on aver...

President-elect Donald Trump plans to launch a mass deportation operation targeting millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and with temporary protections once he takes office on Jan. 20, a challenging initiative that could split apart families and affect U.S. businesses. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with a temporary status at the start of 2022, a figure that some analysts say has increased to 13-14 million. Those with temporary protections are not immediately deportable and many live in "sanctuary" states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. WHERE DO IMMIGRANTS WITHOUT LEGAL STATUS LIVE? California was the state with the most immigrants in the U.S. illegally with some 2.2 million in 2022, according to estimates by the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a nonpartisan think tank. Texas was close behind with 1.8 million, followed by Florida (936,000), New York (672,000). New Jersey (495,000) and...

Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under increasing pressure to quit after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned over a policy clash on Monday, setting up one of the worst crises of his nine years in power. Here are some potential ways forward for Canada: CAN TRUDEAU BE FORCED OUT BY HIS LIBERAL PARTY? Unlike Britain, where party leaders are chosen by the parliamentary caucus and can be removed quickly, the Liberal leader is selected by a special convention of members. There is therefore no formal party mechanism to remove Trudeau if he wants to stay. That said, if members of his own cabinet and a large number of legislators call for him to go, he may conclude his position is untenable. CAN TRUDEAU BE FORCED OUT BY PARLIAMENT? Canadian governments must show they have the confidence of the House of Commons elected chamber. Votes on budgets and other spending are considered confidence measures and if a government loses one, it falls. In virtually all cases, an ...

A UK court on Tuesday handed life sentences to the father and stepmother of a murdered 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl who died after being subjected to a prolonged "campaign of torture" and "despicable abuse". Urfan Sharif, 43, and Beinash Batool, 30, will serve at least 40 and 33 years respectively for the killing of Sara Sharif, who had suffered years of horrific violence since the age of six. London's Old Bailey court heard her body was found covered in bites and bruises with broken bones and burns inflicted by an electric iron and boiling water. Passing sentence, judge John Cavanagh said Sara had been subjected to "acts of extreme cruelty" but that Sharif and Batool had not shown "a shred of remorse". They had treated Sara as "worthless" and as "a skivvy", because she was a girl. And because she was not Batool's natural child, the stepmother had failed to protect her, he said. "The stress, pain and tr...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that issues related to the livelihood of fishermen were discussed during his meeting with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and both sides agreed on the need for a humanitarian approach to address the issue. During a joint statement at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Monday, PM Modi expressed hope that the Sri Lankan government would meet the aspirations of the Tamil community. He emphasized the importance of implementing the Sri Lankan constitution in full and holding provincial council elections as committed. "We also discussed issues related to the livelihood of fishermen and agreed that we should move forward with a humanitarian approach in this matter. On reconstruction and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, President Dissanayake told me about his inclusive approach. We hope that the Government of Sri Lanka will meet the aspirations of the Tamilians, and fulfill its commitment to fully implement the Constitution of Sri Lanka and hold...

Britain's foreign minister said Sunday that London had established diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group in Syria, which led the offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad. They remain "a proscribed terrorist organisation, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact, as you would expect", said Foreign Secretary David Lammy. "We want to see a representative government, an inclusive government. We want to see chemical weapons stockpiles secured, and not used, and we want to ensure that there is not continuing violence," he added. "So, for all of those reasons, using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and of course intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to." (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.) from NDTV News-World-news https://ift.tt/I1KXGwH

An inquiry commission set up by the interim government in Bangladesh said in a provisional report that it has found ex-premier Sheikh Hasina's involvement in alleged incidents of enforced disappearance. The Commission for Inquiry on Enforced Disappearance estimated that the number of enforced disappearances would be over 3,500. "The commission has found evidence of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina's involvement as the instructor in the incidents of enforced disappearance," the press wing of the office of Chief Adviser (CA) of de facto Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus said in a statement on Saturday night. It said the deposed premier's defence adviser, Major General (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre and sacked Major General Ziaul Ahsan, and senior police officers Monirul Islam and Mohammad Harun-Or-Rashid and several other senior officials were found to be involved in those incidents. The ...

Harshita Brella, the 24-year-old Indian woman who was found dead in the boot of a car in London, allegedly told her mother that her husband "was going to kill her". Ms Brella was found dead on November 14. Her husband Pankaj Lamba, 23, is the prime suspect in her murder. According to The BBC , cops believe that the 24-year-old, who was born in Delhi and moved to the UK in April this year after marrying Lamba in August last year, was fatally strangled days before her body was found in the car's boot.  Now, in an interview with the BBC , Ms Brella's mother, Sudesh Kumari, said she spoke to her daughter just weeks before her death. "(Lamba) was making her life miserable," she told the outlet. "She said I will not go back to him. He will kill me," the mother added.  Ms Kumari said her daughter was "very simple, very innocent". "She did not fight with people," she added.  Ms Brella's family believe that Lamba is in India, but ...

Switzerland has taken a unilateral stand after the Supreme Court of India's ruling in the Nestle case. It has revoked the 'Most Favoured Nation' or MFN status accorded to India under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement or DTAA treaty. Switzerland's move marks a significant shift in bilateral treaty dynamics and will result in a big impact on Indian companies operating in Switzerland as well as on Swiss investments in India. In its official statement on December 11, the Swiss finance department named the Supreme Court of India and cited its 2023 ruling as the reason for its decision to remove India's MFN status. In its order, the Supreme Court had said that the MFN clause between two nations does not apply automatically when a country joins the OECD, especially if the Indian government already had a prior tax treaty with that country before joining the grouping. The OECD or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was established in 1961 and is h...

A teacher at a middle school in Georgia has resigned following an incident wherein he threw an 11-year-old student across the classroom after making inappropriate remarks about the boy's mother. According to WTOC, the incident occurred at DeRenne Middle School in Savannah, US, and involved the teacher and football coach BeTreylin Elder and a student identified as TJ. The student reportedly confronted Elder in the front of the classroom after the teacher allegedly made remarks about his mother, which the student found offensive. Che'Nelle Russell, TJ's mother, told WTOC , “I was told that he had a share of words that were inappropriate to TJ and that he had made some remarks about me and my son and he was unhappy with it. So my son then went to the front of the classroom to approach the teacher, letting him know, hey, stop talking about my mom. “The teacher then came closer to my son. My son again said, ‘Stop talking about my mom', and also wanted to call me. From that...

Ellen Greenberg, a vibrant 27-year-old teacher in the US, was found dead in 2011 with 20 stab wounds and at least 11 bruises. Her death was initially ruled a homicide. But investigators, following a meeting, would change their minds again and list her death as "suicide". Now, even after 13 years, her case remains shrouded in controversy. In a hearing on Wednesday, lawyers squared before a judge, arguing 13-year-old details surrounding Ms Greenberg's death, The Independent reported.  Dr Joshua Greenberg and his wife, Sandra "Sandee" Greenberg, are convinced that the investigation into their daughter's brutal 2011 stabbing death was botched, per the outlet . At the hearing, the Greenbergs' attorneys tried to convince a judge to let their case be heard by a jury. They alleged a deep-seated conspiracy, claiming the city's police department and medical examiner's office conspired to "hide" a homicide to effectively cover up a botched inves...

A unique and historic tinselled garland presented to Mahatma Gandhi during the iconic Dandi March in 1930 failed to meet its guide price at a recent UK auction. The garland, which was worn by Gandhi during the Salt March, was expected to fetch between GBP 20-30,000 but remains open for bids. "I am very surprised that the 'Gandhi Garland' did not find a home on the day of the auction," said Kristina Sanne, Head of Sale at the auction house specialising in fine arts and antiques. "That said, we have had quite a lot of interest since the sale and hope to sell it to the highest bidder. It deserves a great home," she said. The garland is a significant piece of Indian history, composed of a large teardrop-shaped medallion of pink cloth backed on card, applied with silver and gold thread and sequins. It is edged with gold tinsel and features four smaller rectangular medallions and two triangular medallions similarly decorated. The garland was presented to Gandh...

Meta Platforms's social media offerings Instagram, Threads and Facebook, and messaging app WhatsApp were down for thousands of users across the globe on Wednesday, according to Downdetector.com. Facebook was down for more than 50,000 users while Instagram was down for more than 23,000 users, according to the outage tracking website. Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outage could have affected a larger number of users. Several users thronged Twitter to post about the outage. While some had genuine queries about the outage, many gave it a hilarious spin by posting memes. everyone running to twitter to check if instagram is down #Metadown pic.twitter.com/Qbt3Wb5odv — बिलार ? (@chad_dad0) December 11, 2024 Me checking Twitter to confirm if instagram, facebook and whatsapp are down #instagramdown #facebookdown #whatsappdown #metadown pic.twitter.com/SbGp4uouPv — ? ?‍? (@Iamu...

A proposed bill to ban marriages between first cousins has sparked a heated debate in the UK Parliament. The bill, introduced by Conservative MP Richard Holden, aims to prohibit first-cousin marriages due to the increased risk of birth defects in children. Holden argued that certain diaspora communities, such as Irish Travellers and British Pakistanis, have high rates of first-cousin marriages, with 20-40% of marriages occurring between first cousins. "There is a worrying trend, as this rate has increased significantly from that of their grandparents' age group. Although there have been some reports of the rate falling within the last decade as young people push back against the system, there remains an extraordinarily strong link," he said. He cited research from the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, which states that cousin marriage is practiced by about 10% of the world and is most prevalent in the Middle East, West Asia, and North Africa. However, not everyone i...

Brazil's 79-year-old President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is recovering from emergency surgery after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage, has a long history of health problems and mishaps. But just as in politics, the hyperactive leftist -- who is half-way through his third term -- has bounced back from every misfortune. - Lost a finger - In 1964, when he was a metalworker in a car parts factory, Lula lost the little finger on his left hand in a workplace accident. Lula, who was 19 at the time, said that a press broke and, when he tried to fix it, his finger was crushed. He went on to become a trade union leader before entering politics. - Hypertension scare - Lula was forced to cancel a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2010 after being admitted to hospital with alarmingly high blood pressure. He was 64 years old at the time and nearing the end of his second term. Doctors said he was suffering from stress and fatigue after a bout of flu. He was di...

Eight people were killed and three more injured when a six-storey residential building collapsed in central Cairo on Tuesday, Egypt's health ministry said. Nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene as rescuers worked to "lift rubble and search for any wounded or bodies", health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said in a statement. "I woke up to a sound of a huge explosion," Waleed Mohamed, 38, told AFP near the site of the rubble. He said he and fellow neighbours ran "towards the building and saw it collapsed, the gas pipe exploded and everything was destroyed," he said. A restoration order had been issued in 1993 for the building, which was constructed in the 1960s in Cairo's lower-middle income Al-Waili neighbourhood, according to district head Ahmed Awad, state newspaper Al-Ahram reported. But "the building's residents had appealed the order and it was not executed," the official said. Neighbouring buildings were ev...

Just over 75 percent of the world's land has been left "permanently drier" over the previous three decades, a UN-backed report coinciding with COP16 talks on desertification in Saudi Arabia said on Monday. Dry land now covers around 40 percent of the Earth's land mass, excluding Antarctica, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) study found, cautioning the shift could affect up to five billion people by 2100. "Some 77.6 percent of Earth's land experienced drier conditions during the three decades leading up to 2020 compared to the previous 30-year period," the report said. It indicates an "existential threat" posed by the seemingly irreversible trends and showed that dry land -- regions where agriculture is difficult -- increased by 4.3 million square kilometres (1.7 million square miles) between 1990 and 2020, an area a third the size of India. The warning comes during a 12-day meeting in Riyadh, which began last w...

US President-elect Donald Trump aims to deport all immigrants in the US illegally over his four-year term but wants a deal to protect so-called "Dreamer" immigrants, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press with Kristen Welker." Trump also said he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which confers citizenship on anyone born in the US regardless of their parents' immigration status.  Trump, a Republican who won a second term in the White House promising mass deportations, is expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he takes office on Jan. 20 and draw on resources from across the federal government to support a wide-ranging crackdown. The US Department of Homeland Security estimated some 11 million immigrants were in the US illegally as of January 2022, although the figure is likely higher today. In the NBC News interview, Welker asked Trump ...

Celebrations erupted around Syria and crowds ransacked President Bashar al-Assad's luxurious home on Sunday after Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus and declared he had fled the country, in a spectacular end to five decades of Baath party rule. Assad's whereabouts were not immediately clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria. Residents in the capital were seen cheering in the streets as the rebel factions heralded the departure of "tyrant" Assad, saying: "We declare the city of Damascus free." AFPTV footage showed a column of smoke rising from central Damascus, and AFP correspondents in the city saw dozens of men, women and children wandering through Assad's luxurious home after it had been looted. The rooms of the residence had been left completely empty, save some furniture and a portrait of Assad discarded on the floor, while an entrance hall at the presidential palace not far away had been torc...

Protesters brought down the statue of the late father of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a main square in Jermana suburb, nearly ten kilometers from the centre of Damascus, a witness and activists told Reuters. The protesters in the mainly Druze inhabited suburb, who called for the downfall of Assad, also headed to government buildings in the heavily policed area of the capital where several security branches are located, they said. The protesters headed to security offices to demand they evacuate from their area, activist Ryan Marouf, editor of Suwayda 24, a website that covers the province, told Reuters. The authorities have tolerated most protests by the country's Druze minority, unlike in other government-held areas where demonstrators are fired on by security forces. In a rare act of defiance in areas under Assad's rule, protesters also tore down posters of Assad, where the party has promoted a personality cult around him and his late father, former president Hafez...

US President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said that the world was "a little crazy" as he met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris ahead of the re-opening of Notre Dame cathedral on his first international trip since his re-election. The two men embraced and shook hands several times on the steps of the French presidential palace, with Trump given a full guard of honour. "It seems like the world is going a little crazy right now and we will be talking about that," Trump told reporters as he prepared to sit down for talks with Macron which started around 45 minutes later than scheduled. Despite tensions between the two men during his first term, Trump hailed his ties with the centrist French leader, saying: "We had a great relationship as everyone knows. We accomplished a lot." Macron told Trump it was "a great honour for French people to welcome you" for the re-opening ceremony at Notre Dame, which was devastated by a blaze in 2019 during Trum...

More than 13 years since Bashar al-Assad's security forces opened fire on protesters demanding democratic reforms, the Syrian president's grip on power may finally be weakening. The 59-year-old son and heir of late dictator Hafez al-Assad has faced several setbacks during the long civil war triggered by his brutal crackdown in March 2011, but has so far managed to cling on to power. Now, with his Lebanese ally Hezbollah reeling from an Israeli onslaught and his great power backer Russia distracted by its invasion of Ukraine, Assad is running short of friends on the battlefield. Key cities in the north, including Aleppo and Hama have fallen to opposition fighters in just a matter of days. And on Saturday the rebels said they are now encircling the capital where Assad has ruled since the death of his father in 2000. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the rebel advance; Israel is reinforcing its forces in the occupied Golan; and Syria's southern neig...

 Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan has issued a warning of a civil disobedience movement following massive protests led by his party that were forcibly dispersed by the police. In a post on X on Thursday, the 72-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief announced a five-member committee to address political prisoners' release and push for a judicial probe into the May 9 violence and the alleged killings of his party workers during the November 26 protest. He said the negotiation committee will include Leader of the Opposition Umar Ayub Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur. "If these two demands are not accepted, civil disobedience movement will be started from December 14. The government will be responsible for the results of this movement," Khan said. In a post on Friday, he said that in case of a failure to meet the demands, "civil disobedience, reduction of remittances and boycott movement will be initiated." On ...

French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to name a new prime minister in the "coming days" to replace Michel Barnier, who was toppled by a no confidence vote after just three months in office. Macron did not announce a name in an address to the nation late on Thursday and the appointment is no longer expected before Monday, multiple sources told AFP. Barnier was Macron's fifth prime minister since coming to power in 2017. Each successive premier has served for a shorter period than their predecessor and given the composition of the National Assembly, there is no guarantee that Barnier's successor will last any longer than he did. Here, AFP looks at the four names seen as the most likely contenders. All the possible candidates so far are men and all were already in the running in September when Barnier was eventually appointed. But it is far from ruled out that another candidate could emerge, with Barnier himself only coming into contention at the last moment ba...

Russia could deploy its newly developed hypersonic Oreshnik missiles in Belarus next year as it begins to ramp up their production, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. Putin unveiled the nuclear-capable weapon last month after using it to strike the city of Dnipro in central Ukraine, sharply escalating tensions in the almost three-year-long conflict. "As for the possibility of deploying, to put it bluntly, such formidable weapons as Oreshnik on Belarusian territory... it will become possible, I think, in the second half of next year," Putin said in a televised meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk. He said this would happen as "serial production" of the missile is "ramped up in Russia". Russia had already deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in 2023. Experts believe the new missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and may be able to strike targets up to 5,500 kilometres (3,400 miles) away. Moscow is Belarus...

427 years after William Shakespeare wrote it for the first time in the great "tragedy" Romeo & Juliet, England is asking the quintessential question - "What's in a name?" - And this time wondering what significance that question might hold in another 42.7 years. The Department of Statistics in the United Kingdom has revealed in its latest dataset that Muhammad is officially the most popular name for a newborn boy in England and Wales. More than 4,600 babies were registered with that name in 2023 - the highest for a boy. Muhammad was the second-most popular name in 2022 as well. Noah, once the most popular name in UK, came a distant second this year, according to the Office for National Statistics or ONS. But the staff at Great Britain's statistical office has in-fact been observing the trend for a while now. Jotting down the most popular names in the UK, besides other important statistics, it revealed that Muhammad has been among the top 10 names for ...

India slammed developed countries for causing the climate crisis during a landmark hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Thursday, saying they exploited the global carbon budget, failed to honour climate-finance promises and are now demanding that developing countries restrict their resource use. The court is examining what legal obligations countries have to address climate change and the consequences if they fail. Making submissions on behalf of India, Luther M Rangreji, joint secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said, "If the contribution to degradation is unequal, the responsibility must also be unequal." India said developing nations are the hardest hit by climate change, despite contributing the least to it. "The developed world, which historically contributed the most, is ironically the best equipped with the technological and economic means to address this challenge," Rangreji said. He criticised rich countries for enjoy...

US President-elect Donald Trump has had a positive political view of India and it is in a much more advantageous position than many other countries to build "deeper" relations with his administration and take forward the bilateral ties, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday. In an interactive session at industry chamber ASSOCHAM, Mr Jaishankar at the same time noted that like many other countries, India may also have some issues and it will deal with them. The External Affairs Minister said there are countries which are looking at Trump 2.0 as a political challenge but for India, that is not the case. "We'll have to work out a political equation with America and that is one area where we score because we've always had a positive political relationship with Trump. I would say Trump has always had a positive political view of India," he said. "Like everybody else, we may also have some issues. We will deal with those issues, but I wo...

Apple CEO Tim Cook has finally addressed the question on everyone's mind: how long will he continue to lead the tech giant? In a recent interview with Wired , Mr Cook shared his thoughts on his future at Apple. The 64-year-old, who took over as CEO in August 2011, said he will continue to lead the company until he feels it's time to move on. He expressed his deep affection for Apple, calling it a "privilege of a lifetime" to be there. When asked about his plans, he didn't give a definitive answer. Instead, he said, "I get asked that question now more than I used to...I love this place. It's a privilege of a lifetime to be here. And I'll do it until the voice in my head says, “It's time,” and then I'll go and focus on what the next chapter looks like." Tim Cook reminisced about his nearly three-decade-long journey with Apple, confessing that the company has become an integral part of his life. He acknowledged that Apple has been the corn...