Issues

Eight children among refugees found dead off the coast of Turkey

A handout photo made available by the Turkish Coast Guard shows a Turkish Coast Guard diver searching for refugees who were lost from a sunken boat on Cesme sea offshore…

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Penumbral lunar eclipse in Myanmar

The full moon pictured during the penumbral lunar eclipse on the evening of 11 January 2020 in Yangon, Myanmar. A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the moon becomes dipped in…

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Photo Story: Artistic exhibition in Mexico City against sexist violence

View of the 'Zapatos rojo' (red shoes) part of an exhibition by Mexican Artist Emilia Chauvet, at the Zocalo of Mexico City, Mexico. The artwork is part of a movement…

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UNHCR issues recommendations for EU to make 2020 year of change for refugee protection

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is calling on the European Union (EU) to make 2020 “the year of change for robust refugee protection”. On Thursday, the agency issued a set…

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Germans most worried about refugees, climate change

Asylum policy and climate change are the top concerns for Germans, according to the DeutschlandTrend poll published on Thursday. Nearly a third of all respondents said immigration was the most…

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Photo Story: Fears of climate change may go a long way back

A father and a son look at the Viking-era Rok runestone near the Lake Vattern and the town of Odeshog, Ostergotland, Sweden. The Rokstone, dated to the 9th century, is…

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UN warns of surge in terrorist attacks in Sahel and West Africa

The U.N. envoy for West Africa and the Sahel says the region has experienced "a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets" in recent months. Mohamed Ibn…

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Microsoft shares new technique to address online grooming of children for sexual purposes

Online child exploitation is a horrific crime that requires a whole-of-society approach. Microsoft has a long-standing commitment to child online protection. First and foremost, as a technology company, we have…

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2019 sets record for Europe’s hottest December – Copernicus

The European Union's climate change monitoring agency, Copernicus, has reported that temperatures across Europe in December 2019 were the hottest on record for that month. Data shows the average surface…

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British police on alert amid rising tensions

Anti-terror police are on alert for any fall-out from the Iran crisis, Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Commissioner, has disclosed. She said police were monitoring the crisis and were "extremely alert"…

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Irregular migration to EU at lowest level since 2013

Irregular migration into the European Union has fallen to its lowest annual level since 2013, the European border and coast guard agency has said, despite a significant increase in the…

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Norway to take 500 people evacuated to Rwanda from Libya’s detention centres

Norway has agreed to take in nearly 500 people evacuated to Rwanda from Libyan detention centres, Rwanda's foreign minister said on Wednesday, a sign some European nations are willing to…

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Panama Canal records 5th driest year in 7 decades

The Panama Canal’s watershed experienced its fifth driest year of the last seven decades in 2019, officials said this week, underscoring warnings that climate change poses a major challenge to…

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We are living in dangerous times – UN Secretary General

The New Year has begun with our world in turmoil. We are living in dangerous times”, said the UN chief, noting that turbulence is only escalating. Even nuclear non-proliferation can…

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NASA loses contact with important satellite

A miniature satellite tasked with searching for planets outside the solar system has gone dark, mission operators at Nasa have said. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said they were last…

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First British astronaut says aliens exist and could already be on earth

The first British astronaut to go into space has claimed aliens exist and it is possible they are living among us on earth. Speaking to the Observer Magazine, Dr Helen…

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Belgium tightens rules for asylum seekers

Belgian federal minister for asylum and migration Maggie De Block has announced a tightening of the rules on the reception given to asylum seekers who refuse to abide by existing…

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Greta Thunberg changes Twitter name to ‘Sharon’ after game show error

Greta Thunberg has changed her name to Sharon on Twitter, in honour of a game show contestant who appeared to have no idea who she was. While appearing on BBC's…

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Almost 1,300 migrants drowned in Mediterranean in 2019 – IOM

Almost 1,300 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 2019, the International Organization for Migration announced. The 1,282 drownings were 44% down on 2018, it said. The number of deaths since…

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Climate crisis fuels year of record temperatures in UK

A series of high temperature records were broken in the UK in 2019 as a consequence of the climate crisis, the Met Office has said. The hottest temperature ever recorded…

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Fourfold rise in migrants rescued in English Channel

The number of migrants risking their lives by attempting to cross the English Channel by sea has increased four-fold over the last year. French officials intercepted around 2,358 migrants…

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Photo Story: The bright city lights of Long Island, New York City and New Jersey

A handout photo made available by NASA shows an image taken from the International Space Station (ISS) of the bright city lights of Long Island, New York City and…

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UNICEF: 2019 ends ‘deadly decade’ for children in conflict zones

Millions of children across the world are entering a new decade facing the devastating consequences of violence in conflict zones, UNICEF said on Monday. The United Nations' children's agency has documented 170,000 grave…

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Photo Story: A Celestial Pairing of Moon and Venus

For a few hours Saturday evening, the crescent moon and Venus paired up for a celestial treat. In the photos, the view of the conjunction of the Moon and Venus,…

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The Alan Kurdi in Pozzallo, first reports of Libyans fleeing their country by sea

On board there are 32 migrants, rescued on Christmas night by the ship of the NGO Sea Eye, off the Libyan coast. Reports indicate that the majority are Libyan nationals.…

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Satellite image of the fires in Australia’s southeastern states

A handout photo made available by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of a satellite image showing part of mainland Australia, where historic bushfires still rage in the southeastern…

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Italian Interior Ministry says migrant landings halved in 2019

The landings of migrants in Italy halved in 2019. The data of the Interior Ministry revealed this, according to which 11,439 migrants arrived this year, 50.72% less than in 2018,…

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Seven dead as migrants’ boat sinks in Turkey’s Lake Van

Seven people died and 64 were rescued when a boat carrying migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan sank on Thursday in eastern Turkey’s Lake Van, the governor’s office in Bitlis…

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Spain’s coastguard saves 200 migrants on Christmas Day

The Spanish coastguard said it had rescued about 200 migrants on Christmas Day, plucking them from the makeshift boats in the Mediterranean Sea. It said they were saved in a…

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Photo Story: Solar eclipse in Asia

A solar eclipse is visible through cloud cover in Mysore, India, 26 December 2019. During the celestial annular solar eclipse, the moon covers the Sun's centre, leaving the Sun's visible rim to…

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Philippines counts cost of deadly typhoon

At least 10 people have died after a powerful typhoon hit the central Philippines on Christmas Day, with the death toll likely to rise. Typhoon Phanfone, also known as Ursula,…

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Majority of Germans support ditching Christmas lights

A majority of Germans say they would consider scaling down their Christmas lights to protect the climate, a survey released on Sunday said. A total of 57% of those surveyed…

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Nine terror attacks prevented in Germany since Berlin Christmas market killings

Since the 2016 terrorist attack in Berlin's Breitscheidplatz, German authorities have prevented a further nine attacks of a similar nature, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said. Last month alone, two acts…

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Flights cancelled as Storm Fabien batters southern France and Corsica

Heavy rain and winds from Storm Fabien brought the island of Corsica to a standstill on Sunday with flight cancellations days before the Christmas holiday. The airport in Ajaccio remained…

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Boeing’s capsule lands after incomplete space mission

The Boeing company has cut short the demonstration flight with no crew on board of its new astronaut capsule. The Starliner launched successfully on its Atlas rocket from Florida, but…

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Storms Elsa and Fabian leave nine dead across southern Europe

The death toll from fierce back-to-back storms pummelling Spain, Portugal and France has risen to nine as the region reels from more powerful winds and flooding. The death of a fisherman in Catalonia, who…

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Erdogan warns Europe, says Turkey cannot handle new migrant wave from Syria

Turkey cannot handle a fresh wave of migrants from Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, warning that European countries will feel the impact of such an influx if violence…

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Trump officially launches US military ‘Space Force’

President Donald Trump has officially funded a Pentagon force focused on warfare in space - the US Space Force. It is not intended to put troops into orbit, but will…

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Genoa battered by violent storm, 7 meter waves recorded along Liguria coast

A wave of bad weather in the last few hours has hit the far west of Liguria, with intensity in the Sanremo area. Along the coast waves of 4 meters…

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Boeing fails key test to reach space station

Boeing Co’s new astronaut capsule failed after liftoff on Friday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in…

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Five dead as storm wreaks havoc in Spain and Portugal

A storm sweeping across Spain and Portugal has killed at least five people, damaged buildings, cut power lines and forced authorities to shut roads hit by flooding and fallen trees,…

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Germany’s Sea-Watch rescue boat to resume migrant missions in the Mediterranean

German charity Sea-Watch EV announced it would return as soon as it could to the area north of the Libyan coast to help migrants at sea after winning an Italian…

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Floods in Spain

Photos made available by Reinosa's City Council in Spain show flooded roasd in Reinosa, northern Spain, 20 December 2019. Heavy rains caused the overflow of three rivers flooding the town.…

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Gas halo observed in space by European Southern Observatory

A handout photo made available by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on 19 December 2019 shows one of the gas halos newly observed with the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very…

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Erdogan says 50,000 people migrating from Syria’s Idlib to Turkey

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that 50,000 people were migrating from Syria’s north western region of Idlib to Turkey and slammed Muslim nations for not supporting his plans…

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The UNICEF Photos of the Year 2019

Photos made available by UNICEF showing prize photos of the UNICEF Photo of the Year 2019 which was won by the photo (see above) titled 'Philippines: Garbage, the Children and…

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Microsoft cooperated with three British schoolgirls to create a tool to tackle bullying and loneliness

Three schoolgirls from the UK have worked with Microsoft to create an app that tackles bullying and loneliness. Twelve-year-old Kaja and 13-year-olds Eylem and Wiktoria, from Gladesmore Community School in…

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Greece expects 100,000 more migrants in 2020

Greece is predicting up to 100,000 asylum-seekers to arrive on its islands from Turkey in 2020, placing a further strain on its already bursting migrant camps. "The crisis is happening now,…

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European Southern Observatory issues photo of the Milky Way’s central region

A handout photo made available by the European Southern Observatory, ESO, on 16 December 2019, taken with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert,…

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UN calls for new approach to ‘refugee crises’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday urged governments to rise to the task of protecting refugees across the globe amid a growing number of people fleeing their homes for safety.…

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Australia endures hottest day on record

Australia has experienced its hottest day on record with the national average temperature reaching a high of 40.9C (105.6F), meteorologists say. The Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) said "extensive" heat on…

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Barack Obama states he believes women make better leaders than men, speaks about leaders stepping aside

If women ran every country in the world there would be a general improvement in living standards and outcomes, former US President Barack Obama has said. Speaking in Singapore, he…

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Thousands of serious offences related to marine pollution exposed in global operation

A global law enforcement operation involving 61 countries has identified thousands of illicit activities behind severe marine pollution as well as hundreds of violations and exposed serious cases of contamination…

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Photo Story: Ecuador Air Force graduates its first two female combat pilots

Lieutenants Maria Cueva (L) and Jazmin Perez (R) pose during the graduation ceremony as combat pilots in Ecuador. Lieutenants Maria Cueva and Jazmin Perez have made history in Ecuador by…

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Longest UN climate talks end with no deal on carbon markets

Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday with negotiators postponing until next year a key decision on how to regulate global carbon markets. After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on…

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Wind up to 100 km per hour causes damages in Sicily

Gusts of wind up to 100 kilometres per hour have caused damage in the province of Palermo during the night between Saturday and Sunday. Numerous fire brigade interventions were needed…

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UN climate conference talks deadlocked in Madrid

The COP 25 UN climate conference in Madrid remained deadlocked on Sunday, more than 24 hours after the two-week talks had been scheduled to end. The Chilean official leading UN…

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