World News

By Michael Williams, CNN US President Joe Biden gestures as he apologises for Native American boarding school atrocities at the Gila River Crossing School in the Gila River Indian Community, in Laveen Village, near Phoenix, Arizona. Photo: AFP / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS President Joe Biden formally apologised to Native Americans for what he described as "one of the most horrific chapters in American history," government-funded boarding schools that abused indigenous children and forced them to assimilate over a 150-year period. "Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make," Biden said in Laveen, Arizona, after calling for a moment of silence to "remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma." At least 18,000 children were taken from t...

A view of the city during a national scheduled fourteen-hour blackout in Quito, Ecuador. Photo: RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP Ecuador has lengthened scheduled electricity rationing from eight to 14 hours per day due to the worst drought it has faced in six decades, the energy minister announced. "We have taken the painful but responsible decision to change the rationing plan, increasing it from eight to 14 hours a day," Energy and Mines Minister Ines Manzano said in a video posted on social networks at the crack of dawn on Friday (local time). Low water levels have caused the reservoirs of hydroelectric plants that cover 70 percent of national demand to fall to critical levels in recent months. In April Ecuador imposed electricity rationing of up to 13 hours a day. The outages have been adjusted ...

By Kirsty Needham, Reuters Sixty percent of Tuvalu residents live on an atoll that scientists predict will be half submerged by tides by 2050. Photo: AFP In a boost for Pacific Islands such as Tuvalu under threat from rising seas, Commonwealth nations agreed on Saturday that a nation's maritime boundaries should remain fixed even if climate change causes small island states to be submerged. The 56 countries with roots in Britain's empire issued the Commonwealth's first Ocean Declaration at the end of a summit of the group in Samoa. The declaration says the Commonwealth leaders "affirm that members can maintain their maritime zones" under the law of the sea and that the rights that flow from them continue to apply, regardless of physical changes connected to climate change related sea...

Etania Schools founder Dr Kathryn Rivai with teacher Norsiya Amil and some of their students. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Mythen "Education is so important for every single child," says a New Zealand woman who calls Malaysia home. "No exceptions." For the last 15 years, Dr Kathryn Rivai has been on a mission to ensure all children in Malaysia can access basic education. Because in Malaysia, there are exceptions. "Our government only supports Malaysian ethnicity or Malaysian children that have documents," said Rivai, who lives in Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia. Those who are undocumented or stateless are not allowed to attend school. "It's different from other countries like New Zealand," Rivai said. "If you live in New Zealand, you have to go to school. But not here." Under international law, a...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has shared some friendly rugby banter with Australian and Pacific colleagues at an event highlighting the Pacific Policing Initiative. New Zealand sent the largest police contingent in support of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa, with Luxon saying nearly 120 officers - mostly of Samoan heritage - have been providing security and safety. Other Pacific countries also provided police in support of CHOGM, including Australia, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and Fiji. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, left, next to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Samoan Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa, right. Photo: RNZ / Russel Palmer Reverend Siaosi Salesulu opened the event with a prayer - noting his nephew Patrick Tuipulotu is set to lea...

By Ulysse Bellier, AFP Photo: RNZ The US political world was stunned in 2016 when Donald Trump won despite pre-election polls showing him behind, and in 2020 Joe Biden's winning margin wound up slimmer than polling suggested. Have pollsters learned enough from their mistakes to be more accurate this year? With just days to go, Democrat Kamala Harris and Trump seem locked neck-and-neck. But if polls are once again underestimating the Republican vote, the ex-president could well be ahead. The heart of the problem hasn't changed since Trump's dramatic 2016 upset, experts said, with a chunk of his electorate refusing to respond to polls. "We haven't found a silver bullet," Courtney Kennedy, vice president of methods and innovation at the Pew Research Center, told AFP. In the meantime, e...

By Hadas Gold and Brian Stelter, CNN Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. Photo: AFP For the first time in decades, the Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in this year's presidential election, the newspaper's publisher announced Friday, a decision that sparked widespread outrage among the paper's staffers. "The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election," Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. "We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates." The Post reported the decision not to endorse was made by the newspaper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, citing two sources briefed on the matter. The Post's editorial page staffers had drafted an end...

(File photo) Photo: 123rf/ Andrey Moisseyev Three men are dead after two light planes collided midair before crashing into bushland in Sydney's south-west. Emergency crews rushed to the scene at Belimbla Park, near Oakdale, at about midday after residents witnessed the crash. At least five ambulance crews along with police and fire crews are parked nearby, with first responders making their way to the two wreckage sites on foot. The two crash sites are in close proximity and one plane burst into flames on impact. Police said three men had been found dead at the scene. - ABC Source link

By Daniel Trotta for Reuters Lil Durk performs during iHeart Powerhouse 105.1 at Prudential Center on 28 October 2023 in Newark, New Jersey. Photo: MICHAEL LOCCISANO / AFP Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk has been arrested on suspicion of ordering the murder of a rival in 2022 from his position as leader of the Chicago-based rap collective Only the Family, federal prosecutors said. The arrest took place on Thursday local time near an airport where Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Devontay Banks, was booked on a flight leaving the United States, according to a criminal complaint. A defense attorney representing the artist did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for a statement in his defence. Lil Durk made his initial appearance in federal court in the Southern District of Flo...

By Waylon Cunningham, Reuters Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images via AFP Moves by major US fast-food chains to temporarily pull fresh onions off their menus on Thursday, after the vegetable was named as the likely source of an E. coli outbreak at McDonald's, laid bare the recurring nightmare for restaurants: Produce is a bigger problem for restaurants to keep free of contamination than beef. Onions are likely the culprit in the McDonald's E. coli outbreak across the Midwest and some Western states that has sickened and killed one. McDonald's pulled the Quarter Pounder off its menu at one-fifth of its 14,000 US restaurants. Of the 61 people on whom information was available, 22 were hospitalised, and two developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that can cause kidney fai...