Your trusted source

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday said he will not run in his party's forthcoming leadership election, effectively ceding the premiership and opening the race to other candidates after a turbulent term of less than a year.

Source: cnn.com

Brad Pitt followed in the footsteps of his Hollywood friend and Nespresso star George Clooney on Thursday by becoming a brand ambassador for coffee machine maker De' Longhi.

Source: reuters.com

Poland declared a state of emergency in two regions bordering Belarus on Thursday following a surge of illegal migration that Warsaw has blamed on its neighbour. Poland and the European Union have accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of encouraging hundreds of migrants to cross into Polish territory to put pressure on the bloc over sanctions it has imposed on Minsk.

Source: reuters.com

Cristiano Ronaldo will wear the number seven shirt for Manchester United, the club has confirmed. The 36-year-old takes the number, which he wore in his first stint at Old Trafford, from Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani - who moves to number 21. Ronaldo will begin training with the Reds when he has completed five days isolation.

Source: bbc.com

Popular Indian TV and film actor Siddharth Shukla has died in Mumbai at the age of 40. A doctor from the Cooper hospital told the BBC that he was already dead when he was brought in on Thursday. He said the cause of his death was not clear, but the Indian press reported that he had died from a heart attack. Shukla's colleagues from TV and film industry have paid tributes and also expressed shock that he died at such a young age.

Source: bbc.com

Helsinki should consider declaring itself an English-language city, its mayor has suggested, arguing that too many highly skilled international workers are shunning the Finnish capital partly because of exacting language requirements. Finland’s two main official languages are Finnish, which has 15 grammatical cases and is notoriously difficult for foreigners to learn, and Swedish. Many companies require Finnish and public sector employees must master both.

Source: theguardian.com

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie says she hopes to empower children around the world with tools to "fight back" for their rights with a book she has written with Amnesty International. "Know Your Rights and Claim Them" - written with human rights lawyer Geraldine Van Bueren, one of the original drafters of the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child - aims to equip kids with the knowledge to safely challenge injustices.

Source: reuters.com

Sixty-five combatants have been killed in fighting after Yemen's Huthi rebels renewed an offensive on Marib, the last government stronghold in the country's oil-rich north, a military official said Thursday. The Iran-backed rebels attacked pro-government positions south of the strategic city, making progress despite losing dozens of fighters in coalition air strikes.

Source: france24.com

Even in the final days of Washington’s chaotic airlift in Afghanistan, Javed Habibi was getting phone calls from the U.S. government promising that the green card holder from Richmond, Virginia, his wife and their four daughters would not be left behind. He was told to stay home and not worry, that they would be evacuated. Late Monday, however, his heart sank as he heard that the final U.S. flights had left Kabul’s airport, followed by the blistering staccato sound of Taliban gunfire, celebrating what they saw as their victory over America. “They lied to us,” Habibi said of the U.S. government. He is among hundreds of American citizens and green card holders stranded in the Afghan capital.

Source: apnews.com

Paramount Pictures has postponed the release of Tom Cruise films "Top Gun: Maverick" until May 2022 and "Mission: Impossible 7" until September 2022, a spokesman for the ViacomCBS Inc (VIAC.O) studio said Wednesday, as COVID-19 infections rise.

Source: reuters.com

Abu Dhabi will remove the need to quarantine for all vaccinated travellers arriving from international destinations starting Sunday, said the Abu Dhabi government media office on Twitter on Thursday. A negative PCR test remains a requirement to travel to the United Arab Emirates' capital, it said.

Source: reuters.com

Gunmen abducted 73 students in yet another school attack in northwestern Nigeria on Wednesday, police said, prompting authorities to close all primary and secondary schools across Zamfara state. The new kidnappings came just days after three other groups of hostages were freed when large ransom payments were reportedly made, raising hopes that other captives might soon be freed, too.

Source: france24.com

Justin trudeau's position as Canadian Prime Minister is under massive threat with the latest polls showing his decision to call a snap election to secure a majority Government is backfiring - with some comparing his slump to Theresa May's disastrous gamble in 2017.

Source: express.co.uk

A branch of McDonald's in Oregon, US, is calling on 14 and 15 year olds to apply for jobs at the restaurant amid a shortage of fast food workers. The Biddle Road franchise in Medford put a banner outside its shop two weeks ago, urging younger workers to apply. According to reports, it has seen a spike in applications since making the offer, which complies with labour laws.

Source: bbc.com

An emotional Sarah Storey said she felt "overwhelmed" after becoming Britain's most successful Paralympian Thursday with her 17th gold medal, 29 years after her first. Storey won cycling's C4-5 women's road race for her third gold at Tokyo 2020, following victory in the individual pursuit at the velodrome last week and triumph in the C4-5 road time trial two days ago.

Source: france24.com

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued its first ever flash flood warning for the city of New York, as the remnants of Hurricane Ida brought heavy rain that flooded subway lines and streets in the Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. The storm killed one person in New Jersey, according to the Washington Post.

Source: theguardian.com

The 20-year-old woman gave birth to a girl with the rare "Benjamin Button" condition, also called Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome, that causes sufferers to age faster than usual. The South African family was left devastated after snaps of the infant were shared online and sick trolls commented that she looked like "an old woman". According to local media the young woman gave birth at her home on Monday in the small town of Libode. Children diagnosed with progeria tend to die of arteriosclerosis at an average age of just 14.5 years.

Source: thesun.co.uk

A spokesperson said the country had asked that the shots be relocated to harder hit nations in view of global vaccine shortages. The Chinese-made Sinovac shots were offered under the Covax programme which aims to help poorer nations obtain vaccines. North Korea is part of the scheme but is yet to receive any doses under it.

Source: bbc.com