Scandal-hit Olympics look to mend battered image
Battered by scandal on the eve of the opening ceremony, Tokyo 2020 organisers have the chance to patch up the Games’ image when they reveal who will carry the Olympic flame ...
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ECB pledges low rates for longer as Delta variant threatens recovery
The European Central Bank pledged on Thursday to keep interest rates at record lows for even longer to boost sluggish inflation and warned that the rapidly spreading Delta variant of ...
Belgium raises flood death toll to 37, further six missing
Belgian authorities raised the death toll on Thursday from last week’s burst rivers and flash floods to 37, with a further six people missing.
Belgium‘s crisis centre, which is ...
Websites of airlines, banks, tech companies back online after brief global outage
Several airlines, banks and technology websites were coming back online on Thursday afternoon after a brief outage, the third such widespread incident noted in just a span of two months, ...
Mercedes-Benz hits accelerator in e-car race with Tesla
Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler plans to invest more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) by 2030 to be ready to take on Tesla in an all-electric car market, but warned the shift in technology ...
Italian fashion boss offers vaccine holdouts 6 months paid leave
Italian luxury boss Brunello Cucinelli is offering six months of paid leave to a handful of employees who have refused to vaccinate in order to protect workers who have taken ...
Britain unveils plan to return NatWest to majority private control
Britain’s government on Thursday unveiled a blueprint for returning NatWest (NWG.L) to majority private ownership within a year, more than a decade since bailing out the lender at ...
France, Argentina suffer shock defeats, Brazil win
France’s Olympic men’s football campaign got off to a dreadful start when they were thrashed 4-1 by Mexico while Argentina suffered a shock 2-0 loss to Australia as ...
Anger over Covid rules gives new impetus to France’s Yellow Vests
Working from his one-room apartment near Paris airport, Jerome Rodrigues has been trying to re-invigorate a Yellow Vest protest movement that two years ago challenged President Emmanuel Macron’s rule ...
Parliamentary inquiry urges UK-wide minimum standard protocol for head injuries
The British government has been urged to mandate a minimum standard protocol for concussions across sports in a bid to reduce the risk of brain injuries among athletes, according to ...
South Korean toilet turns excrement into power and digital currency
Using a toilet can pay for your coffee or buy you bananas at a university in South Korea, where human waste is being used to help power a building.
Cho ...
China rejects WHO plan for study of Covid-19 origin
China rejected on Thursday a World Health Organization (WHO) plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which includes the hypothesis it could have ...
Israel eyes spyware export curbs; Macron, Merkel troubled by abuse reports
An Israeli parliamentary panel may seek changes to defence export policy over reports that software sold by Israel’s NSO Group was used to spy on journalists, officials and rights ...
Murray faces tough first hurdle in bid for Olympic hat-trick
Andy Murray has overcome career-threatening hip surgery to give himself a shot at completing a hat-trick of Olympic tennis titles, but the Briton will have to hit the ground running ...
Ivermectin is safe, but ‘not a viable option’ to treat Covid-19 study shows
Ivermectin, an existing drug against parasites including head lice, has had a chequered history when it comes to treating COVID-19.
The bulk of studies so far show there’s not ...
‘Pingdemic’ grips Britain as fears of food shortages grow
Britain’s supermarkets, wholesalers and hauliers were struggling on Thursday to ensure stable food and fuel supplies after an official health app told hundreds of thousands of workers to isolate ...
Opening ceremony director fired over Holocaust joke on Games eve
On the eve of the Tokyo Games, organisers fired the director of the opening ceremony over a joke he made about the Holocaust, while media reported former Prime Minister Shinzo ...
Syrian air defences intercept Israeli attack over Homs
Syria’s air defences intercepted an Israeli attack on the al Qusair area in Homs early on Thursday, Syrian state media reported.
A Syrian military source said in a statement ...
Tens of thousands evacuated as China storms spread northwards
Tens of thousands of people were being evacuated from flood-hit regions of central China on Thursday as officials raised the death toll from heavy rains that have deluged Henan province ...
Musk says Tesla ‘most likely’ to accept bitcoin again
“I might pump, but I don’t dump,” said Elon Musk on Wednesday. “I definitely do not believe in getting the price high and selling … I would like to see ...
Half of all Afghan district centres under Taliban control – US general
Taliban insurgents control about half of Afghanistan’s district centres, the senior US general said on Wednesday, indicating a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Insecurity has been growing in Afghanistan in ...
Athletes to suffer alongside Tokyoites as Japan heat soars
Many of the world’s top athletes will suffer along with Tokyoites in the “ridiculous” heat of Japan’s high summer, as the Olympic Games start this week in sweltering ...
UK citizen arrested in Spain for role in 2020 Twitter hack
A 22-year-old British citizen was arrested in Spain on Wednesday in connection with a July 2020 Twitter hack which compromised the accounts of high-profile politicians and celebrities, the U.S. Justice ...
India reports first human death from bird flu
An 11-year-old boy has died in India from a bird flu virus of the H5N1 strain, the first such fatality in the country, highlighting a potential new risk for ...