Easter

BoM and other agencies expect transition to the first El Niño since spring 2023 sometime during winterFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesSign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter hereAustralia should prepare for an imminent El Niño, with the Bureau of Meteorology and other agencies forecasting that the weather phenomenon is likely to develop in the coming months.“The models are really aligning now,” Felicity Gamble, a senior BoM climatologist, said. “We are expecting a transition to El Niño sometime during winter.” Continue reading...

Attack comes after Friday’s strike that killed three men as well, pushing death toll to more than 200 since last yearThe US military said on Saturday it had carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific killing three men, the second strike in as many days.Officials with the US Southern Command said in a post on X that intelligence had confirmed that the vessel was transiting along “narco-trafficking” routes in the eastern Pacific and engaged in “narco-trafficking” operations. Continue reading...

• WHO chief visited Bunia in eastern Congo on May 30, 2026, to address a current Ebola outbreak at its epicentre. • During the visit, the WHO leader urged international communities to reconsider imposing travel bans against the affected region. • This intervention is critical to ensure that essential medical supplies and personnel can reach the outbreak zone without disruption.

Kingfisher, owner of the DIY chain, is top FTSE 100 riser after it says it will stick to full-year profit outlookBusiness live – latest updatesA wet and cold Easter hit sales of barbecues and garden products at the home improvement chain B&Q, but it hopes to make up lost ground during the current heatwave.B&Q owner Kingfisher, which also owns Screwfix in the UK, as well as Castorama and Brico Dépôt across six European countries, said like-for-like sales (at outlets open at least a year) in the UK and Ireland dipped 0.9% between February and April, its first quarter. Within that, B&Q sales fell 4.1% while Screwfix revenue climbed 4.1%. Continue reading...

Residents of Ituri province fear spread of disease and economic impact of outbreak six years after the last“On public transport, in bars and at mass gatherings, everyone is talking about Ebola,” said Gloire Mumbesa, 38, a resident of Mongbwalu, a mining town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He said cases of the disease had been reported locally and panic was engulfing the area because of the lack of a vaccine for the Bundibudyo strain. “The fear is that this disease may spread to many other areas.”Residents of Ituri province in eastern DRC, where the World Health Organization announced an outbreak of Ebola last week, are living in growing fear of the possible continued spread of the disease and its deadly impacts, nearly six years after the last outbreak in the region ended. Continue reading...

Concerns raised that cases were caused by a new strain of the virus as African health officials race to coordinate and contain the infectionAn outbreak of Ebola has killed 65 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to African health officials.There have been 246 suspected cases of the deadly haemorrhagic fever reported so far in Ituri province, which shares borders with Uganda and South Sudan. Continue reading...

More than 190 people have been killed in such strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and PacificThe US military on Friday said it struck a vessel in the eastern Pacific, killing two people and leaving one survivor in the latest attack on boats suspected of transporting narcotics. This brings the death toll from strikes on such vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific to more than 190 people since September.A video posted by the US Southern Command shows the vessel traveling through the water being hit by what appears to be a missile. The screen momentarily goes black and then shows the boat engulfed in flames. Continue reading...