California governor Gavin Newsom has appointed two senior scientists who recently left the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) following disputes with the Trump administration to key state roles. Dr Susan Monarez, the former CDC director, will take on a leading role in California’s new public health initiative, the Public Health Network Innovation Exchange (PHNIX). Monarez was dismissed by the Trump administration in August, less than a month…

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that proposals negotiated with United States officials on a possible peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine could be finalised within days. The Ukrainian president said that once the documents are completed, American envoys would present them to the Kremlin. After two days of talks in Berlin, US officials said on Monday that around 90 per cent of the contentious issues between Russia and Ukraine…

Nick Reiner has been arrested on suspicion of murder following the deaths of his parents, the actor-director Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, the Los Angeles Police Chief, Jim McDonnell, confirmed. The 32-year-old was taken into custody on Sunday evening. Initial jail records set his bail at $4 million, but he was later ordered to be held without bail. Early reports also mentioned accusations of “gang activity,” though no details…

Hong Kong’s last major opposition party has voted to disband, marking the end of an era for the city’s pro-democracy movement. The Democratic Party (DP), long regarded as the main liberal force in Hong Kong politics, announced its dissolution after an extraordinary general meeting on Sunday. The decision follows years of mounting pressure from Beijing, which has tightened its grip on the territory through sweeping national security laws and electoral…

Pelosi entered Congress in 1988 representing San Francisco and won re-election 20 times. She made history as the first woman to serve as speaker of the House, holding the post from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.

Louvre museum in Paris

This was Kast’s third presidential bid. He was previously defeated by Boric in the 2021 runoff election.

Bondi beach mass shooting

Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko has released 123 prisoners, including Nobel peace prize laureate Ales Bialiatski and opposition leader Maria Kalesnikava, following the United States’ decision to lift sanctions on Belarusian potash exports. The announcement came after two days of talks in Minsk with Donald Trump’s envoy, John Coale. It marks the largest prisoner release since diplomatic contacts between Washington and Lukashenko began. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, has long…

Two soldiers and an American civilian interpreter have been killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants in central Syria, the Pentagon confirmed. Several others were wounded in the attack near Palmyra, the first incident to cause US casualties since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad a year ago. President Donald Trump described the victims as “three great patriots” and said the wounded were “doing pretty well”. He vowed…

Chileans will vote on Sunday in a presidential runoff that pits ultra-conservative José Antonio Kast against former labour minister Jeannette Jara. The contest has been dominated by debate over migration and security, with Kast widely tipped as the favourite. Kast, 59, a former congressman, has pledged to expel tens of thousands of undocumented migrants and build fortified barriers along Chile’s borders. He is the son of a Nazi party member,…

Switzerland is heading towards a high-stakes referendum that could dramatically reshape its migration policy and its relationship with the European Union, as voters prepare to decide whether to freeze immigration once the country’s population reaches 10 million. The proposal, championed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), would legally oblige the government to halt net immigration when the threshold is reached — something demographic projections suggest could happen in the…