- Thursday, 23 October 2025
Reuters
Protecting 1.2% of Earth would prevent most extinctions, study says
Setting aside an additional 1.2% of the world's land as nature preserves would prevent the majority of predicted plant and animal extinctions and cost about $263 billion, according to a study published on Tuesday. The world is racing to meet a goal to protect 30% of the world by 2030 to protect wildlife that is being decimated by climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.
South Korea battery plant fire kills 22 people, most of them Chinese
A powerful explosion set on fire a lithium battery factory in South Korea on Monday, killing 22 workers, most of them Chinese nationals, local fire officials said.
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Indian heatwaves, floods kill 11, with four buried alive
India was battling on Wednesday extreme weather that caused severe heatwaves, landslides and floods, killing at least 11 people this week, among them a woman and her three daughters buried alive in a northeastern state, officials and media said. The capital, New Delhi, sweltered through its hottest night in six years on Tuesday, with hospitals in the city of 20 million reporting at least five deaths from heatstroke this week, the Times of India newspaper said.
Thailand passes landmark bill recognising marriage equality
Thailand's Senate passed the final reading of a marriage equality law on Tuesday, paving the way for the country to become the third territory in Asia to recognise same-sex couples after Nepal and Taiwan.
India's monsoon rains a fifth below normal so far
India's monsoon has delivered a fifth less rain than normal so far this season, the weather department said on Monday, in a worrying sign for the vital agricultural sector.
Sudan could soon have 10 million internally displaced people, UN agency says
The number of people internally displaced in Sudan due to conflict could soon exceed 10 million, the United Nations migration agency said on Friday, in the world's largest displacement crisis. Fighting broke out in the capital Khartoum in April 2023 and quickly spread across the country, reigniting ethnic bloodshed in the western Darfur region and forcing millions to flee.
India Modi's alliance unanimously elects him to lead as PM for third term
India's Narendra Modi was formally elected on Friday by lawmakers of his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to be prime minister for a historic third consecutive term, as the world's most populous nation returns to government by coalition.
Modi's appeal clouded in India election by prices, jobs, graft, survey says
Lack of jobs, high inflation and falling income in India led voters to rein in support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the general election where his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to win a majority, according to a survey.
Modi's alliance dominates early in India election vote count, but opposition also gains
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's alliance raced to a majority in early vote counting trends in the general election on Tuesday, but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls, TV channels showed. The early see-saw trends unnerved markets with stocks falling steeply. The NIFTY 50 (.NSEI), opens a new tab and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN), opens a new tab were both are down over 2% at 0500 GMT.
Modi leads in early vote counting in India
By Stephen Farrell, Anisha De, Rupam Jain and Sharique Nasim, June 4 (Reuters): NDA leads in 267 seats(BBC): Staying with the trends: The NDA is leading in 267 seats with the opposition alliance ahead in 189 seats.A party or an alliance needs 272 seats to form the government.
At least 15 dead in eastern India over 24 hours as temperatures soar
At least 15 people have died of suspected heatstroke in India's eastern states of Bihar and Odisha on Thursday, authorities said, with the region gripped in a debilitating heatwave expected to continue until Saturday. India has been experiencing a blisteringly hot summer and a part of the capital Delhi recorded the country's highest ever temperature at 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22°F) this week, though that may be revised with the weather department checking the sensors of the weather station that registered the reading.
Donald Trump becomes first US president convicted of a crime
Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to be convicted of a crime on Thursday when a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
WHO emergencies team faces funding crunch as health crises multiply
The World Health Organization's emergencies department is facing “existential threats” as multiplying health crises have left it so short of cash that it needed emergency funds to pay staff salaries at the end of last year, an independent report said.
South Africans vote in most competitive election since end of apartheid
South Africans began voting on Wednesday in the most competitive election since the end of apartheid, with opinion polls suggesting the African National Congress (ANC) will lose its parliamentary majority after 30 years in government. Polling stations opened at or shortly after 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), with voters queuing at some locations including Hitekani Primary School in the vast township of Soweto near Johannesburg, where President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to vote later.
More than 300 buried in Papua New Guinea landslide, local media says
More than 300 people and over 1,100 houses were buried by a massive landslide that levelled a remote village in northern Papua New Guinea, local media reported on Saturday.
