Myanmar’s human rights situation is “catastrophic”, the UN independent expert on the country warned at a press briefing Thursday, as the war spirals with no end in sight.
The main stories around the world as of Friday 30 October 2026, in our own words from UN News reporting: the Dnipro rail station strike, Sudan, Haiti's hunger crisis, Afghanistan's opium rebound, Myanmar and the vote on the Cuba embargo.
The Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is the country's largest ever. We explain the numbers, the spread to Kenya and the vaccine trial that has just begun.
Record heat deaths, record greenhouse gases and a weakening ocean carbon sink. A plain-English guide to three new reports released ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya.
“For the relatives of people in prison, as well as for national and international human rights organizations and agencies, the information provided by the Prison Agenda publication can be vital.”
Although no ghouls, goblins, or trick-or-treaters come knocking at the International Space Station’s front hatch, crew members aboard the orbiting laboratory still like to get in the Halloween spirit. Whether individually or as an entire crew, they dress up in…
When a rose-colored meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2022, no one knew how old it was or where it came from. Not until NASA-funded scientists age-dated its minerals did they realize the nearly 2-pound (800-gram) rock was…
"Four years later, after witnessing so many painful stories, I have learned that telling other people’s stories also requires learning how to care for myself."
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman has named Troy Asher director of the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Asher, a veteran test pilot and aerospace engineer with decades of experience in flight research and operations, has served as the…
The Quantum-Enabled Predictive Preclinical NAMs for Toxicity and Safety (QuSAFE) Challenge, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA, advances quantum-enabled sensing for in vitro NAMs, such as organoids and microphysiological systems (MPS), to improve drug safety…
British fashion has always been shaped by creative exchange: forged inside melting pots, authored by radical style communities – and often fuelled by class and migration. Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed the distinct emergence of a new genre centred…
Stenko Vlad/Shutterstock A few years ago, the singer Billie Eilish opened up on the Howard Stern Show about how she began watching porn around age 11. “I’m so angry that porn is so loved, and I’m so angry at myself…
SuxxesPhoto / shutterstock The UK government has announced that standing charges will be removed from gas bills and that it intends to also remove them from electricity bills. Standing charges are a fixed fee paid by every household, regardless of…
When people view sexualised images of women, they tend to remember them less well than sexualised images of men; a quirk of memory that psychologists link to objectification. But in our new study, my colleagues and I found an unlikely…
Sometimes our brain plays tricks on us. MAYA LAB/ Shutterstock It’s three in the morning. You’ve woken from a dead sleep because you’ve heard a thud in the darkness or a floorboard creaking downstairs. Or perhaps you’ve woken because you…
Their phones and creativity are enough when they have a clear purpose and guidance.
Long before modern medicine could name the invisible terrors ravaging Victorian Britain, the public found a face for contagion: the vampire. A new exhibition at the University of Leeds’s Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, Quite Shameless: Cultural Reflections on the…
What does a haunted castle look like? Perhaps you imagine a ramshackle or imposing structure with towers, pinnacles and undefined spaces hidden in the shadows; some of its “prickly” gothic details picked out by moonlight. Threateningly ill-defined buildings, enough for…
Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Suez Canal is a vital waterway for global trade. Viktor Hladchenko/Shutterstock Months after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran, the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed. The UK chose not…
When voters enter polling booths across the United States next week to cast their ballots in the midterm elections, very few will be thinking explicitly about foreign policy. In a recent survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, many…
For Muslims, Sharia refers to the divinely guided principles of living a moral life. sean zheng lim/iStock via Getty Images Plus At a campaign rally, in Port Huron, Michigan, on Oct. 25, 2026, President Donald Trump accused U.S. Senate candidate…
Young people are increasingly likely to get political content from social media influencers and popular culture sources. Illustration JDawnInk/Getty Images Plus Research on political polarization points to how people’s preferred news outlets and social media use create information silos, environments…
A volunteer walks along the U.S.-Mexico border near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., on June 5, 2025. AP Photo/Gregory Bull In a 2025 investigation, The New York Times reported that officials in President Joe Biden’s administration, in the wake of Biden’s…
Studying organisms that survive in extreme heat, like in geothermal springs, helps scientists learn about how life adapts. Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision via Getty Images Organisms are products of the environments they live and evolve in. While the physical world is governed…
Storm Austen and Storm Boelo swept across the UK in quick succession. Rain lashed windows, river levels rose and the clocks went back. It feels like winter has arrived all at once. Yet most of England and Wales are still…
It was a “breathing space” budget from Chancellor John Healey. In the absence of big surprises or bold change, Healey’s trade-off appears to be small reliefs now in exchange for “fresh hope” in the future. Here’s what our experts made…
Kmpzzz/Shutterstock Research consistently shows that autistic people face higher risks of mental health difficulties and are more likely to think about or attempt suicide than the general population. For example, a 2014 study found that up to 66% of those…
Opium production in Afghanistan has risen fivefold in a year. According to a UN survey released on Thursday, it’s the first significant increase since the Taliban banned poppy cultivation in 2022.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday called for the 34th time for an end to the US economic, commercial and financial embargo on Cuba – but with the weakest backing for the resolution in two decades.
The General Assembly opened its annual debate on the US economic embargo against Cuba on Tuesday. On Wednesday, 28 October, Member States will vote for the 34th time on a resolution calling for it to end.
An estimated 66.5 million domestic workers – representing more than four out of five domestic workers worldwide – were informally employed in 2025, a new report by the UN’s labour organisation has found.
Pixels Hunter / Shutterstock The UK government wants to grow the country’s native AI industry to reduce its dependence on systems made by foreign companies. In the Budget on October 28, Chancellor John Healey announced more money – £60 million…
These ghost-like glass frogs live in Central and South America. Lukas Gogh/Shutterstock Around this time of year, elaborate decorations featuring ghosts, vampires, zombies, witches and werewolves adorn front doors, gardens and shop windows across the country. But you may be…
When scientists study exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, they often lack three-dimensional information. For example, general mathematical relationships are used to estimate a planet’s radius, even though that distance may be different depending on where it is…
Drones are starting to be used help experts predict winter storms more accurately. 1000 words/Shutterstock Weather drones are being tested to help update forecasts of extreme weather more quickly, and could help us prepare earlier for upcoming winter storms. With…
Read this release in English here. Puede que nunca llegues a surcar los cielos bajo las nubes o sobre las arenas orgánicas de la luna Titán de Saturno, ¡pero tu nombre sí puede hacerlo! La NASA invita al público a…
You may never soar under the clouds or over the organic sands of Saturn’s moon Titan, but your name can. NASA is inviting the public to send their names aboard the agency’s Dragonfly rotorcraft and be part of the first…
When companies began approaching NASA’s Langley Research Center, asking to be included in the In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (ISAM) State of Play for access to competitive intelligence, the team knew they had crossed an inflection point. “We’ve had some…
A sweeping barred galaxy takes center stage in this Oct. 22, 2026, image, but the gravitational lensing at bottom right is the real target. This observation is one of many gravitational lensing images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in…
An MRI scan can show changes in the brain's structure, but the findings don't always explain a person's symptoms. Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock In 2007, researchers in the Netherlands scanned the brains of 2,000 people aged 45 and over who were going about…
Daria 'Bastet' Felis/Shutterstock.com The shape of your bottom cannot tell you anything about your hormones, whatever recent social media posts claim. The only way to find out your levels of cortisol, oestrogen or anything else is a blood test. A…
buritora/ Shutterstock As a GP, I know that chest pain is one symptom that makes people worry. The immediate concern is that it’s a sign there’s something seriously wrong – such as a problem with their heart or lungs. But…
As Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) surpass the 10,000 mark, the World Health Organization (WHO) has underlined the need for continued efforts to contain spread of the disease.
This autumn marks the 20th anniversary of Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s elaborate and deeply sorrowful film about a young girl caught between two dangerous worlds in rural Spain in 1944. The film tells the story of Ofelia (Ivana Baquero),…
Fantasy accounts for only about 28 minutes of Pan’s Labyrinth’s 119-minute running time, yet these supernatural scenes are what many viewers remember most about Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film. A rewatch 20 years on makes it easy to see why.…
Chay Tee/Shutterstock Fashion is currently trapped in a hyper-accelerated trend loop. Every week there’s a new “core” or “maxxing” style to contend with – such as balletcore or whimsymaxxing. They zoom in and out of our cultural consciousness with alarming…
Director Lance Oppenheim creates a grim and grubby world in Primetime, steeped in the sweat and compromised ambitions of its characters. But below the film’s grimy surface is a sharp examination of the personal and professional concessions people make in…
Civilians in Sudan’s El Obeid live in constant fear of drone attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and of a wave of arbitrary arrests by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), UN-appointed independent investigators said on Wednesday.
Twenty people associated with Kenya’s first case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease have been reunited with their families after being released from quarantine following completion of a mandatory 21-day monitoring period.
...oil and gas contributed FCFA 774.51 billion (USD 1.3 million) to the budget. However, these oil rigs threaten biodiversity and compromise the well-being of coastal and Indigenous communities.
Bangladesh’s proposed cyber law targets AI-generated fakes, but critics warn broad provisions on rumours, defamation and disinformation could revive censorship and threaten online free expression, even as victims need protection.
A report by the Australian think tank ASPI warns that Venezuela could integrate Chinese artificial intelligence into its surveillance system and expand its digital control capabilities.
On 29 October 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed into New York City, unleashing a devastating storm surge that flooded homes, subways and tunnels, knocked out power and sparked deadly fires.
