World News

By Olivia Willis of ABC Mpox virus particles. Photo: SERGII IAREMENKO/SCIENCE PHOTO L The rapid surge of mpox in multiple African countries has prompted the World Health Organization to sound its highest level of alert. On Wednesday, the UN agency declared a global health emergency in response to a severe outbreak of the viral disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has spread to at least four neighbouring countries where it has not been reported before. The WHO announcement follows a decision earlier this week by the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to also declare mpox a public health emergency. More than 15,600 mpox cases and 537 deaths have been detected in the DRC this year, a situation the WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Gebrselassie...

Photo: Beata Zawrzel / NurPhoto via AFP Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Testa chief executive, has been invited to attend the Pacific region's premier political leaders gathering later this month. RNZ Pacific understands that Musk, who also owns the social media platform X, has been invited by the Tongan government to the 53rd Pacific Island Leaders Meeting from 26-30 August. RNZ Pacific has contacted the Tongan Prime Minister, Hu'akavameiliku Siaosi Sovaleni, for comment. Following the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Haapai eruption and tsunami in February 2022, Musk came to the aid of the island nation, donating internet terminals through the SpaceX and Starlink Emergency Satellite Service. The Kingdom is currently in the midst of an internet crisis after its underwater...

US Marine Force Base Camp Blaz. Photo: RNZ Pacific / Eleisha Foon The United States' plans to expand and bolster its military prowess in Guam has gripped the undivided attention of geopolitical observers, as the leader of the Western world tries to solidify its defences against perceived hostility from its enemies. But for ordinary people living in the US territory - which locals tongue in cheek call a "military recruiters paradise" - geopolitics is the least of their concerns. For Guamanians, and the indigenous Chamorro people, who are landowners and veterans, news the US is forging ahead with proposed missile testing on the island to boost its military capability only "raises suspicion…because things just aren't adding up". The federal government is spending $8.7 billion dollars on th...

By Max Matza BBC Gena Rowlands at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Photo: FREDERIC HUGON / AFP American actress Gena Rowlands, who is known for roles including in The Notebook and Another Woman, has died at the age of 94. Rowlands, who was nominated for an Oscar for 1974's A Woman Under the Influence and 1980's Gloria, died at her home in Indian Wells, California. No cause of death was given, but she had been suffering from Alzheimer's, according to reports. She quit acting in 2015 after winning four Emmys, two Golden Globes, and earning two Oscar nominations, according to Deadline. Both A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria were collaborations with her former husband John Cassavetes. Her Emmys were for The Betty Ford Story, Face of a Stranger, Hysterical Blindness, and The Incredible...

By Ana Faguy for BBC News Priscilla Chan poses alongside the new statue in her likeness. Photo: Instagram/ Mark Zuckerberg Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg turned heads on Wednesday when he posted an image of his wife, Priscilla Chan, standing next to a large silver and blue statue sculpted in her likeness. The statue - which stands about 2.1m tall - was commissioned by the chief executive of Facebook's parent company in an effort to honour "the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife", Zuckerberg wrote on Instagram. New York-based artist Daniel Arsham crafted the sculpture, which was placed under a tree in what appears to be a residential garden. The figure's striking colour and towering size sent the internet buzzing with comparisons to the Avatar characters and jokes about Zuck...

Blake Wilson, 23, died after 'misappropriating' a helicopter from his employer's hangar about 2am on Monday. Photo: Facebook A former colleague of the pilot who died in a helicopter crash in Cairns on Monday said he was not reckless, and had his "head screwed on" 23-year-old Blake Wilson died after he took a helicopter, flew into a no-fly-zone, and crashed into a hotel roof The former colleague said Wilson "lived his dream" of becoming a pilot and made a great life for himself A former colleague of the pilot killed in a helicopter crash in Cairns says he wasn't reckless, and the circumstances don't make sense. Blake Wilson, 23, died after 'misappropriating' a helicopter from his employer's hangar about 2am on Monday and flying into a no-fly zone over the central city before crashin...

By Nikhil Inamdar, business correspondent for BBC News It took more than 20 years for the Indian railways to finish the bridge over the Chenab river in part because of its remote location. Photo: AFP The world's highest single-arch rail bridge is set to connect Indian-administered Kashmir with the rest of the country by train for the first time. It took more than 20 years for the Indian railways to finish the bridge - over the Chenab river - which ascends high over a deep ravine in the Reasi district of Jammu. The showpiece infrastructure project is 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower and the first train on the bridge is set to run soon between Bakkal and Kauri areas. The bridge is part of a 272km all-weather railway line that will pass through Jammu, ultimately going all the way ...

Katy Perry filmed the music video for her single Lifetimes in the Balearic Islands. Photo: Katy Perry / Instagram By Bonnie McLaren, BBC culture reporter Officials in Spain are investigating singer Katy Perry, for allegedly filming a music video in ecologically-sensitive sand dunes in the Balearic Islands without permission. The video for her latest single 'Lifetimes' shows the singer enjoying beaches and partying in clubs on the islands of Ibiza and Formentera. But scenes believed to have been filmed in the middle of the protected dunes on the isle of S'Espalmador in Formentera have raised concern. A statement from the Spanish government alleged that the production company responsible for the video had not sought permission. Katy Perry has not commented. Officials stressed that Katy Pe...

Photo: SERGII IAREMENKO/SCIENCE PHOTO L / SIA / Science Photo Library via AFP The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak of the viral infection in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to neighbouring countries. Mpox can spread through close contact. Usually mild, it is fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. Determining a disease outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern" or PHEIC, the WHO's highest level of alert, can accelerate research, funding and international public health measures and co-operation to contain a disease. The outbreak in Congo began with the spread of an endemic strain, known as clade I. ...

By Tim Kelly and Sakura Murakami for Reuters Fumio Kishida has been prime minister for three years. Photo: AFP / Yomiuri Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he will step down in September, ending a three-year term marred by political scandals and paving the way for a new premier to address the impact of rising prices. "Politics cannot function without public trust," Kishida said in a press conference on Wednesday to announce his decision not to seek re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader. "I will now focus on supporting the newly elected LDP leader as a rank-and-file member of the party," he said. His decision to quit triggers a contest to replace him as president of the party, and by extension as the leader of the world's fourth-biggest economy. Kishida's pu...