Patrick Stewart, who rose from poverty in England to become an accomplished Shakespearean stage actor and then achieved global stardom as the erudite Captain Jean-Luc Picard in ⁠television’s Star Trek: The Next Generation and the telepathic Professor Charles ⁠Xavier in the X-Men films, has died at the age of 86. Stewart, knighted in 2010 by ⁠Queen Elizabeth for his contributions to drama, died at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on his social media account. “We announce with...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday the EU and Canada continue to explore Canada becoming the union’s first “associate member”, a term so divisive among member countries that it does not appear in a joint declaration. The European Union and Canada aim to deepen cooperation on AI, climate, energy and security, von der Leyen said in a speech at a Canada-EU summit in Montreal. The ‌associate member term, which Germany and several other EU countries oppose, has no...

The US economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter as resilient consumer spending and AI-driven business investment more than offset the impact of higher oil prices stemming from the conflict in the Middle East. Gross domestic product increased at a ‌3.4 per cent annualised rate last quarter, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said in its advance estimate of third-quarter GDP on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast GDP advancing at a 3.2 per cent...

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde resigned on Thursday, ending months of speculation about her future just as Europe enters a period of rising economic volatility and divisive electoral politics, particularly in her native France. Lagarde will step down on February 7, giving current European Union leaders time to pick her successor before a French presidential election that polls show far-right candidate Marine Le Pen is favoured to win. The move comes as the ECB battles...

Voters in 10 US states will decide on election day whether to curb data centre development in their communities, as the rapid buildout needed to power the AI boom stirs local opposition. Resistance is especially visible in Ohio, one of the country’s fastest-growing data centre markets. No state has more data ‌centre-related ballot measures, with voters in more than a dozen jurisdictions set to consider 21 proposals alongside Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to the non-partisan research...

A South Korean court on Thursday rejected a lawsuit by dozens of Tesla owners ‌seeking full refunds for money paid for Full Self-Driving (FSD) driver-assistance software, ruling that the carmaker had not breached its contractual obligations. The Seoul Central District Court ruled against the 88 plaintiffs, finding that the FSD option did not promise fully autonomous driving without human intervention and that Tesla had already provided some of the functions included in the package. The court...

Benjamin Netanyahu looked set to ⁠remain Israel’s caretaker prime minister after unexpectedly strong backing among Jewish voters left his opponents little apparent prospect of unseating him, despite his right-wing bloc losing its parliamentary majority. With nearly 86 per cent of votes tallied on Wednesday, Israel’s three main broadcasters projected Netanyahu’s bloc of right-wing, far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties would win 53 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, well ahead of the 48 for rival Gadi...

President Vladimir Putin told African leaders on Wednesday that Russia was their best partner, accusing what he cast as a colonial West of still trying to exploit the continent’s resources and using debt to hold back development. The Kremlin chief was speaking at the third Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow, a two-day event attended by ‌African leaders and government delegations from 48 countries, during which he will hold one-on-one talks with many of the 22 individual African leaders attending on...

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro declared himself Brazil’s rightful leader on Wednesday after arriving in the United States, alleging he was the victim of an electoral coup by the country’s Supreme Court and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who won the vote by over 4 million votes. Bolsonaro arrived in Miami after leaving Brazil, where he refused to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. He thanked ‌Argentine leader Javier Milei for helping him make the journey and US...

Hundreds of people permanently living aboard a touring cruise ship were forced to disembark in Cambodia this week after the vessel’s operator said fuel price increases from the Iran war had made operations prohibitively expensive. The Villa Vie Odyssey had been cruising the world for at least ‌755 days as one of only a handful of ships that offered passengers the opportunity to rent or buy long-term or even permanent residences on board. On Tuesday, the ship’s owner, Villa Vie Residences,...

The Philippines is in talks with Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States to store oil in the fuel-import-dependent nation, in a bid to hedge against fuel price spikes driven by the Iran war. The Southeast Asian nation, which imports nearly all ‌its energy needs, also planned to increase diesel and gas-fired power output to make up for an estimated 60 per cent decline in hydropower and 20 per cent fall in solar output in the first half of 2027 due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, Energy...

Malaysian customs said on Wednesday ⁠that it ⁠had seized about 49.5 ⁠million ringgit (US$12 million) worth of advanced artificial intelligence chips this month, as authorities close in on a syndicate suspected of smuggling high-performance semiconductors through the country’s main airport. Malaysia imposed export controls last year on the movement of advanced AI chips of US origin, following pressure from the United States to stem their flow into China. On October 15, authorities found 30 server...

El Salvador has sent about 1,000 troops to Haiti after four Salvadorean members of a UN-backed security mission went missing in a gang ambush on the outskirts of the capital on October 18, a security official in Haiti told Reuters on Tuesday. The troops’ arrival aboard flights in recent days dramatically expands the Central American nation’s role in Haiti’s long-standing gang conflict. Yet it remains unclear who will command the new Salvadorean contingent, how long ‌it will stay in Haiti or...

Pope Leo’s lung cancer diagnosis and surgery has affected how Catholics view his health and papacy, the Vatican’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, in an unusual acknowledgement by one of the Church’s most senior officials. “It’s a bit of ‌a game changer,” Archbishop Paul Gallagher told journalists at an event in Rome. Leo, 71, had part of one lung removed in surgery on October 13. His doctors have said the cancer was localised and had not spread, and the pope will not require further...

Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has left the country ⁠for the United States after losing Sunday’s ⁠presidential election, three sources said on Tuesday, with the ⁠US State Department due to grant him and his family entry visas. Bolsonaro, who has yet to concede to leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left Brazil after refusing to comply with a Supreme Court order to surrender his passports. The ruling relates to a money-laundering probe in which he denies wrongdoing. The location of...

Israel continued to commit genocide in Gaza after last ⁠October’s US-brokered ceasefire in the enclave, a ⁠UN commission said in a report published on Monday ⁠that Israel dismissed as part of a “misinformation campaign”. The report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, examined violations against Palestinian civilians, including children, since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October...

⁠Two men were charged ⁠on Tuesday under Britain’s National Security Act ⁠following last month’s security incident at the RAF Fairford military base, with prosecutors accusing one of them of trying to assist Iranian intelligence operations in Britain. RAF Fairford had been used by US bombers to carry out strikes on Iran, but they were withdrawn ‌on security grounds shortly after five British men were arrested outside the base in southwest England in the early hours of September 27. The...

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on Tuesday said it ⁠would refer Jordan ⁠Football Association president Prince ⁠Ali bin Hussein to its judicial bodies, after he accused Fifa president Gianni Infantino of hijacking the AFC Congress for political purposes. At the AFC’s extraordinary Congress in Tokyo on Friday, ‌its president, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, endorsed Infantino’s bid for re-election as head of football’s governing body. Only three months after the confederation accused...

Indonesia and Singapore are looking to set up a joint task force to deal with haze from Indonesia’s wildfires, the countries’ foreign ministers said on Tuesday, as they met to reaffirm their ties after weeks of simmering tensions. The visit to Jakarta by Singapore Foreign Minister ‌Vivian Balakrishnan came amid mounting frustrations in the city state over the transboundary haze generated by Indonesia’s most intense forest fires in 11 years. After a two-hour meeting, Singapore and Indonesia’s top...