World News

By Angela Ferguson, Lesley Hitchen, Callum May & PA Media, BBC News Smoke billows from a fire started by protesters as riot police stand guard after disturbances near the Southport Islamic Society Mosque in Southport, northwest England, on July 30, 2024, a day after a deadly child knife attack. Photo: AFP / ROLAND LLOYD PARRY Several officers have been injured and a police van set on fire during a protest just hours after a vigil took place to remember the victims of a knife attack in which three children were killed. The protest, which police said was believed to involve English Defence League supporters, began only a few streets away from the vigil location, near to a mosque on St Luke's Road in Southport. Merseyside Police said a number of officers had been injured, police veh...

Hadid, who is half Palestinian, said: "I am shocked, I am upset, and I am disappointed in the lack of sensitivity that went into this campaign." Photo: AFP / CHRISTOPHE SIMON By Emma Saunders of the BBC US model Bella Hadid has spoken out after starring in an Adidas campaign which was criticised for what the brand called "unintentional" connections to the 1972 Munich Olympics. Hadid, who is half Palestinian, said: "I am shocked, I am upset, and I am disappointed in the lack of sensitivity that went into this campaign." The advertising campaign for the retro trainers - the SL72s - referenced the 1972 Munich Olympics, which saw 11 Israeli athletes and a German police officer killed in the attack by a Palestinian group called Black September. Adidas subsequently apologised and said it woul...

Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Bebe King died after the attack. Photo: AFP PHOTO / Merseyside Police By Ewan Gawne, Laura O'Neill, Chris Long, Monica Rimmer and Angela Ferguson, BBC News The three girls who were killed in a "ferocious" knife attack at a children's dance workshop in Britain have been named by police. Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, died after the attack at a Taylor Swift-themed event on Hart Street, Southport, on Monday. Five children and two adults who were also injured remain in a critical condition. Bebe's family said "no words" could describe the "devastation that has hit our family", while Alice's parents said she would always be "our princess and no-one would change that". Merseyside Police said a 17-year-ol...

Debris covers a damaged vehicle following an Israeli military strike on Beirut's southern suburbs on 30 July, 2024. Photo: ANWAR AMRO / AFP The head of Hezbollah's operations centre has reportedly survived an Israeli strike targeting him. Two security sources have told Reuters that Mushin Shukr was not killed in the attack on Beirut's southern suburbs, a stronghold of the militant group. At least one person has been confirmed as being killed. Israel's military claimed responsibility for the strike, saying they were targeting the person responsible for a rocket attack on the Golan Heights at the weekend, which killed 12 young people. A loud blast was heard and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the southern suburbs - a stronghold of the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah...

Nine-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar (L), seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, and six-year-old Bebe King died following the stabbing in Southport. Photo: AFP PHOTO / Merseyside Police By Stewart Whittingham, Laura O'Neill and Chris Long, BBC News Singer Taylor Swift has said the knife attack at a dance workshop themed around her music which left three children dead and nine more injured has left her "completely in shock". Children and adults were attacked at the event on Hart Street, Southport, on Monday. Posting on Instagram, the star said she was "at a complete loss" for how to convey her sympathies. A statement, posted on Instagram, by US Singer-Songwriter Taylor Swift. Photo: HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP Her fans have raised more than £180,000 (NZ$391,000) for the families of the victim...

Arno Michaelis Photo: Supplied By the age of 16 Arno Michaelis was a full-blown alcoholic and a violent racist covered in swastika tattoos. Michaelis spent seven years active in the US's mid-west white suprermacy movement and was the lead singer in a hate-metal band. It was when he became a single parent, at 24, that he began to distance himself from his racist beliefs. He stopped drinking, and in 2007 he wrote a memoir Life After Hate. Today, he is a speaker, author, and works with Serve2Unite, an organisation that engages young people of all backgrounds as peacemakers. There was something in his personality that drew him to white nationalism as a child, he told Nine to Noon. "I've always been very rebellious and questioning authority and a bit antisocial and combining that with trauma...

Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation into the assassination attempt at his rally earlier this month. Photo: AFP / Brendan Smialowski By Tom Geoghegan, BBC News Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation into the assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month. In a call with reporters on Monday, the FBI did not give a date for the interview, but said it would be "a standard victim interview we do for any other victim of crime". "We want to get his perspective on what he observed," FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek said. Despite pouring over mountains of evidence, investigators are yet to determine a motive to explain why Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on 13 July. Newly released text ...

Carlos Sainz. Photo: photosport Ferrari's Carlos Sainz will race for Williams next season after signing a multi-year deal, the Formula One team said in a major coup for a team currently ninth in the championship. The Spaniard, who will be teammate to Alex Albon in place of U.S. racer Logan Sargeant, is leaving Ferrari at the end of the year to make way for Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton. Former champions Williams said the 29-year-old winner of three races had signed a two-year agreement with options to extend. "It is no secret that this year's driver market has been exceptionally complex for various reasons and that it has taken me some time to announce my decision," said Sainz in a statement. "However, I am fully confident that Williams is the right place for me to...

Police officers and forensic personnel stand behind a cordon on Hart Street in Southport, northwest England, following a knife attack. Photo: Darren Staples / AFP By Gemma Sherlock, Monica Rimmer, Lauren Potts, and Kara O'Neill, BBC News, Merseyside Two children have died and nine were injured, six of them critically, in a "ferocious" knife attack at a children's dance workshop. Two adults are also in a critical condition after being stabbed as they tried to protect children at the Taylor Swift-themed event on Hart Street in Southport, Merseyside Police said. A 17-year-old boy, from Banks in Lancashire, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder. Police said the motivation for the attack was "unclear" but it was not being treated as terror-related. One witness describ...

By Tessa Flemming, ABC News An undated photo from the late 1980's shows Sinead O'Connor performing in Vancouver, Canada. Photo: AFP / MANDEL NGAN Sinéad O'Connor's death last year was caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma, an Irish newspaper is reporting. Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the Irish singer's death at age 56. The 'Nothing Compares 2 U' star was found unresponsive at a home in south-east London. Police at the time deemed her death non-suspicious. In January, the Southwark Coroner's Court further confirmed O'Connor died of natural causes. Now, The Irish Independent reports O'Connor's death certificate shows she died from an "exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchial asthma together with low grade lower r...