World News

By Julio-Cesar Chavez, Reuters Donald Trump during the recent debate. Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images via AFP The government of Springfield, Ohio, evacuated its city hall on Thursday due to a bomb threat, two days after Donald Trump repeated a false claim that put the city at the centre of a national debate over immigration. "Due to a bomb threat that was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield today, City Hall is closed today," the city government said on social media. Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told local media the threat came from someone who claimed to be a local resident and mentioned frustration with immigration. Several police cars were stationed outside the city hall, which otherwise showed no signs of disruption. The small city of 62,000 has been in the nationa...

Dame Diana Johnson, Britain's crime minister, had her handbag stolen while attending a police association conference. Photo: UK Parliament By Andrew MacAskill, Reuters Britain's police and crime minister had her bag stolen at a conference for senior and midranking police officers where she spoke about the growing problem of theft and shoplifting, a government official said on Thursday. The incident occurred when Diana Johnson attended the Police Superintendents' Association conference in central England where one senior officer told her in a speech that the criminal justice system was broken. The official said Johnson had her bag stolen at the conference, but no security risk had been identified. In her speech, Johnson said Britain had been "gripped by an epidemic of anti-social behavio...

Britain's King Charles III poses for a photograph with members of New Zealand's Black Ferns rugby team at Buckingham Palace, 2024. Photo: AFP Asking the King for a hug might be not be everyone's first move when meeting royalty, but for Black Ferns wing Ayesha Leti-I'iga, it's completely normal. The World Cup winner is back in the Black Ferns side for the first time since a standout performance in the World Cup final at Eden Park in November 2022. She has recovered from a serious knee injury that kept her sidelined last year and has been named to start against England in Sunday morning's one-off test at Twickenham. Britain's King Charles III reacts as he is hugged by members of New Zealand's Black Ferns rugby team at Buckingham Palace, 2024. Photo: AFP On Wednesday she found herse...

By Jack Queen and Luc Cohen, Reuters Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Centre in Los Angeles, California, on 4 October 2022. Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP Harvey Weinstein has been hit with new criminal charges in New York, a prosecutor said in court on Thursday (local time), as the Manhattan district attorney's office prepares to retry the former movie mogul following the reversal of his rape conviction. Jurors in Manhattan found Weinstein, 72, guilty on rape charges in 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, finding Weinstein did not get a fair trial because a judge improperly allowed testimony by accusers he was not formally charged with assaulting. Manhattan prosecutors said in J...

By Joey Roulette and Gerry Doyle, Reuters Jared Isaacman emerges from a hatch structure called 'Skywalker' during the first-ever spacewalk by non-professional astronauts. Photo: Supplied / SpaceX Two crew members leave craft on tethers Mission was riskiest yet for Elon Musk's SpaceX Spacewalk tested a new line of spacesuits Two astronauts from a SpaceX capsule in Earth's orbit carried out the world's first private spacewalk on Thursday, tethered to the Crew Dragon spacecraft in the vacuum of space while two others watched from inside, hundreds of miles from Earth. Billionaire Jared Isaacman, 41, exited first around 6.46am Eastern Time, followed by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, 30, becoming the first two non-government individuals to conduct such an excursion in space. All their ...

By Andrea Shalal and Nandita Bose, Reuters US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, US President Joe Biden, former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and US Senator from Ohio and Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance attend a remembrance ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the September 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center at Ground Zero, in New York City on 11 September 2024. Photo: AFP / ADAM GRAY President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump made a rare joint appearance on Wednesday at the New York City site that marks the 11 September plane attacks in 2001 that killed nearly 3000 people. Harris, the Democratic presidential no...

Inspector-General Brendan Horsley. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson A group of lawyers is calling for a first-of-its-kind inquiry into whether New Zealand spy agencies are helping Israel's war in Gaza. In a letter to the inspector-general of intelligence and security (IGIS) on Thursday, they said the country was in danger of aiding international crimes. Inspector-General Brendan Horsley confirmed he was considering the request. Horsley has previously said he would look into conflict-related spying this year. One of the three lawyers who made the call, University of Auckland associate professor Treasa Dunworth, said the IGIS was thorough and she thought he would appreciate their argument that Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) intel...

By Byron Kaye for Reuters Apps for social media services including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Threads, Telegram and others. Photo: Victor Okhrimets / 123RF Australia said it will fine internet platforms up to 5 percent of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation online, joining a worldwide push to rein in borderless tech giants but angering free speech advocates. The government said it would make tech platforms set codes of conduct governing how they stop dangerous falsehoods spreading, to be approved by a regulator. The regulator would set its own standard if a platform failed to do so, then fine companies for non-compliance. The legislation, to be introduced in parliament on Thursday, targets false content that hurts election integrit...

By Mawunyo Gbogbo, ABC Eminem performs on stage during the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 11, 2024 in Elmont, New York. Photo: Michael Loccisano / Getty Images for MTV / AFP It was déjà vu when Eminem opened the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) with a bunch of look-alikes in blonde wigs, Eminem wearing one too before switching to a baseball cap. It was a call back to his performance at the 2000 VMAs when he walked in with scores of "Slim Shady" characters dressed like him. It wasn't the only throwback with host Megan Thee Stallion dressing up like Britney Spears during her 2001 VMA performance of 'Slave 4 U' during which she carried a live snake. It didn't take long for Megan Thee Stallion to discard her reptile friend. VMA iconic moments that shaped the earl...

By Joey Roulette, Reuters Polaris Dawn astronauts Anna Menon (L), Scott "Kidd" Poteet (2L), Jared Isaacman (2R) and Sarah Gillis (R). Photo: SpaceX/AFP A group of private astronauts is set to carry out the first private spacewalk in orbit on Thursday from a SpaceX capsule, testing a new line of spacesuits in the company's riskiest mission yet. A billionaire entrepreneur, a retired military fighter pilot and two SpaceX employees have been orbiting Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon since their pre-dawn launch from Florida on Tuesday for the Polaris Dawn mission, the Elon Musk-led company's latest and riskiest bid to push the boundaries of commercial spaceflight. The spacewalk is slated to begin at 2:23am ET (0623 GMT / 6.23pm NZT) at 700km in altitude, with two astronauts venturing out...