Federal immigration arrests in New York City have surged by more than 70% since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to a city audit that points to a sharp rise in enforcement activity across the five boroughs. Commissioned by Mayor Zohran Mamdani shortly after he entered office this year, the audit found that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 5,567 people in the New York City area from 20 January, 2025, when Mr Trump, a Republican, was sworn in for a new term, through 10 March, 2026. The report…

Europe is heating up faster than any other continent, according to the European State of the Climate Report for 2025, which describes a region being reshaped by accelerating change. Across the Mediterranean, the Alps and up to the Arctic Circle, the shifts are no longer faint, slow-moving or far off on the horizon. The fallout is rippling through Europe’s environment, its economy and the ecosystems that support both. Hotter air, warming seas, vanishing ice, parched soils and ecosystems under strain are sending unmistakable…

Warnings about a teenager who would go on to kill three young girls in Southport were plain long before the attack, and the atrocity at a children’s dance class “could and should have been prevented”, a public inquiry in the UK has concluded. Nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, six-year-old Bebe King and seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe were killed when Axel Rudakubana entered the Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop at The Hart Space in Southport carrying a knife on 29 July 2024. Rudakubana, who was sentenced to a minimum…

An estimated 259,000 people die from meningitis each year worldwide, according to a large new study released after the disease sparked fresh concern in the UK. The research found that children made up roughly a third of those deaths, with many occurring in Africa—an outcome the authors described as the most extensive global assessment of meningitis to date. The new findings arrive after meningitis was thrust into the spotlight following an outbreak in southeast England believed to have spread through a nightclub earlier this…

Elon Musk was found by a federal jury in California to have misled Twitter shareholders, a verdict that jurors say caused the social media company's stock to tumble while he was attempting a $44 billion takeover. The decision in the class-action securities suit could expose the billionaire to a multi-billion-dollar judgment: jurors’ damage calculations were reported to be roughly $2.6 billion. Shortly after the verdict, lawyers for Mr. Musk told AFP their client plans to appeal, calling the outcome a "setback." Following a…

Kenya’s spy agency says a trafficking pipeline aided by rogue officials has funneled up to 1,000 Kenyans into Russia’s war in Ukraine, with at least one death and dozens injured or missing, according to a report presented to parliament. The National Intelligence Service report, tabled Wednesday by National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah, details alleged collusion by airport staff, immigration officers, investigators and labor officials to recruit and move Kenyans into Russia under false pretenses. It says 89…

A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet estimates that more than 75,000 people were killed in Gaza during the first 16 months of Israeli attacks, a toll researchers say is significantly higher than the figure announced by authorities there. The analysis covers October 2023 through January 2025 and concludes Gaza’s health ministry is not inflating its numbers — if anything, it is undercounting the dead. “We can conclude with great confidence that the ministry of health for Gaza is not inflating the death toll and in…

US plan to expand social media screening for foreign visitors could strip as much as $15.7 billion from tourism spending this year, the World Travel and Tourism Council warned, as prospective travelers say the policy would make the country less welcoming. In a survey of people in visa-exempt countries considering trips to the United States, 34% said they would be somewhat or much less likely to visit in the next two to three years if the measures take effect, according to the council. Based on that sentiment, the group…

Confidence among Irish chief executives has fallen to a five-year low as geopolitical tensions and the struggle to convert artificial intelligence investment into growth weigh on sentiment, according to PwC’s annual Global CEO Survey unveiled at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Just over a quarter of Irish CEOs say they are confident about their own revenue growth in 2026, with optimism more than halving since 2022. Globally, 30% of CEOs expect annual growth, the survey shows. Despite muted confidence at the company level,…

Current evidence does not link paracetamol use in pregnancy to autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or intellectual disabilities, according to a wide-ranging review published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health. The findings, from an international team of researchers, support existing guidance that paracetamol — known as Tylenol in the United States — remains safe to use during pregnancy when taken as directed. The review comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said in September there…