Author: Justin M. Larson

Steve RosenbergRussia Editor in St PetersburgBBCTens of thousands of Stalin’s victims are buried in this wood outside St PetersburgIn a wood on the edge of St Petersburg they’re reading out a list of names.Each name is a victim of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s Great Terror.In this part of Russia there are thousands of names to be read. Thousands of lives to remember on Russia’s annual Remembrance Day for Victims of Political Repression.Buried in the Levashovo Wasteland are believed to be at least 20,000 people – possibly as many as 45,000 – who were denounced, shot and disposed of in…

Watch: Moment Spain’s Sagrada Familia crowned world’s tallest churchThe Sagrada Família has become the tallest church in the world, after workers placed the first part of a cross at the top of its central tower. Now measuring 162.91 metres tall, the Spanish basilica has officially pipped the record from the Ulm Minster in Germany, which has held the crown since 1890.Designed by acclaimed architect Antoni Gaudí, the place of worship has been under construction in the centre of Barcelona for more than a century, with the main building due to be completed next year. The central Tower of Jesus Christ…

Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the keynote address at the Nvidia GTC (GPU Technology Conference) in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesKorean semiconductor giant Samsung said on Thursday that it plans to buy and deploy a cluster of 50,000 Nvidia graphic processing units to improve its chip manufacturing for mobile devices and robots.The 50,000 Nvidia GPUs will be used to create a facility Samsung is calling an “AI Megafactory.” Samsung didn’t provide details about when the facility would be built.It’s the latest splashy partnership for Nvidia, whose…

new video loaded: How the Trump-Xi Meeting Eased a Major Trade WarPresident Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping just had a highly anticipated meeting in South Korea. David Pierson, a New York Times foreign correspondent covering China, breaks down what they accomplished and how they de-escalated a major trade war.By David Pierson, Christina Thornell and Nikolay NikolovOctober 31, 2025 Source link

Hurricane Melissa was made four times more likely by climate change, according to a study.The category 5 hurricane that struck Jamaica on Tuesday, tore through the Caribbean with winds of up to 185mph and also hit Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, leaving dozens dead and widespread destruction.In Jamaica, AccuWeather estimated Melissa could cost $22bn in damages and economic loss and that rebuilding could take a decade or more. Image: Hurricane Melissa hit Montego Bay in Jamaica. Pic: Reuters Researchers at Imperial College London estimated that in a world without climate change, a weaker hurricane would have been about 12%…

TikTok is being accused of “backtracking” on its safety commitments, as it puts hundreds of moderator jobs at risk in its London office. In August, the company announced that hundreds of jobs were at risk in its Trust and Safety offices. In an open letter to MPs, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said on Thursday that TikTok is “looking to replace skilled UK workers with unproven AI-driven content moderation and with workers in places like Kenya or the Philippines who are subject to gruelling conditions, poverty pay”.Sky News understands that a number of the 400+ moderators losing their jobs will be…

The leaders of Canada and China will meet for the first time in eight years to try to reset relations after years of acrimony. Source link

Tech giants Apple and Amazon have defied industry predictions with better-than-expected financial results.Apple’s success is largely thanks to record-breaking iPhone sales, while Amazon’s is down to cloud computing arm Amazon Web Services (AWS), in spite of last week’s outage which knocked out thousands of websites. AWS revenue accelerated 20.2% to $33bn (almost £25bn), which CEO Andy Jassy said was a pace it hadn’t seen since 2022. AWS accounts for 60% of Amazon’s total operating income.Cloud growth has been a key focus for the company in the face of ever-growing pressure from rivals Google and Microsoft, which also reported revenue leaps…

Yet, amid this rapid transformation, one question rises above all: how can innovation truly serve the people, as more and more of them migrate to cities?That question lies at the heart of this year’s World Cities Day, which will be celebrated in Bogotá, Colombia, under the theme People-Centred Smart Cities.Organized by the UN’s urban agency, UN-Habitat, the event brings together mayors, experts on city life and community leaders from around the world to explore how data, design, and digital tools can build communities that are not only smarter, but also fairer, greener, and more inclusive.By 2050, nearly 70 per cent…

The hurricane caused widespread damage to homes, infrastructure and crops, leaving thousands displaced.However, extensive storm preparation by governments, assisted by UN agencies and other NGOs, appears to have helped lessen the impact and saved lives in many areas. In Cuba, the hurricane struck the province of Santiago de Cuba with winds exceeding 200 km/h per hour and six hours of torrential rain. “Melissa is one of the three most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in Cuba and the strongest worldwide this year,” said Francisco Pichon, UN Resident Coordinator for Cuba, during a press briefing via videoconference in New York. “More than three…

Following the signing of Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement, more than 13,000 former FARC combatants laid down their arms within a year, surrendering nearly 9,000 weapons, 38,000 tons of explosives, and millions of rounds of ammunition.Mr. Jenča noted that despite ongoing challenges, the implementation of the agreement has significantly improved security and trust among communities. Around 11,000 former combatants are now engaged in development projects and other implementation activities.“They’re building a new, peaceful, and productive future — constructing durable homes, solving problems together, and moving forward,” he told UN News.He also highlighted the Special Jurisdiction for Peace’s first convictions for crimes…

Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur monitoring human rights in Afghanistan – who serves independently under a mandate of the Human Rights Council and is not a UN staff member – told the General Assembly the human rights situation in the country “continues to deteriorate with few grounds for optimism.”He warned of intensifying gender persecution, a rise in corporal punishment, enforced disappearances and attacks against former officials despite a declared amnesty.There are also increasing restrictions on media freedom and civil society, and discrimination against ethnic and religious minorities, including forced evictions affecting Hazara communities.Restrictions on women and girls continueHe noted that…

Chinese-made automobiles and construction machinery are assembled and shipped for export at Yantai Port in Yantai City, Shandong Province, China, on October 21, 2025. Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesChina’s manufacturing activity in October contracted more than expected, shrinking to its lowest since April, an official survey showed on Friday, as trade tensions with Washington reignited during the month.The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 49.0, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed, missing economists’ expectations for 49.6 in a Reuters poll. A reading above the 50 benchmark indicates growth while one below that suggests contraction.The latest…

All of Jamaica’s financial defenses — insurance, bonds and credit lines — could be deployed to recover from Hurricane Melissa. Will it be enough? Source link

An electronic board shows Shanghai and Shenzhen stock indices as people walk on a pedestrian bridge at the Lujiazui financial district in Shanghai, China April 3, 2025. Go Nakamura | ReutersAsia-Pacific markets were set for a mixed open on Friday as investors weighed the state of the economy after the truce between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.Both parties reached a trade truce during a high-stakes meeting in South Korea on Thursday, de-escalating a dispute over rare earth elements that had threatened to push the world’s two largest economies into a full-blown trade war.”Both sides appear to…

A Texas woman stranded in Jamaica with her family described what it was like to experience the catastrophic storm while sheltering at a Sandals resort. Source link

Evidence of atrocities emerging from the city of El Fasher stoked fears that the Sudanese region of Darfur is plunging, once again, into a cycle of genocidal violence. Source link

new video loaded: Who Is Driving U.S. Attacks in the Caribbean?What’s the main goal of the U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean, and who in the Trump administration is behind it? Anatoly Kurmanaev, a New York Times reporter who covered Venezuela, discusses with Katrin Bennhold what we know and don’t know.By Katrin Bennhold, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Leila Medina, Christina Thornell, Jon Hazell and Stephanie SwartOctober 30, 2025 Source link

President Trump explained the order by saying other, unnamed nations were testing their own nuclear weapons, even though no country has tested since 2017. Source link

Some analysts say Beijing won a major victory in its trade talks: Getting the U.S. to withdraw a national security measure that previously was not under discussion. Source link

President Trump explained the order by saying other, unnamed nations were testing their own nuclear weapons, even though no country has tested since 2017. Source link

Packed with protein, fiber, and other nutrients, almonds are a great addition to your diet any time of day. But could they also help you get a better night’s sleep? Almonds contain both magnesium and melatonin—micronutrients that “help your body relax and drift off more easily,” Karman Meyer, RDN, LDN, registered dietitian nutritionist, author, and co-founder of the NourishWell Network, told Health. That means “a small handful of almonds before bed may give your sleep a gentle boost,” she explained. However, the actual science behind almonds and better sleep is a bit more complicated—here’s what to know. Based on their…

Nearly 128,000 pounds of microwavable pulled pork sandwiches were recalled because they may pose a dangerous choking hazard. E.A. Sween Company, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., alerted customers that their Deli Express BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich could contain pieces of plastic. The contamination likely came from gallon plastic barbecue bottles that were used in the production process. The recall was first posted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 27. No injuries have been reported so far. However, the recall has been given a Class I risk level by the USDA,…

In December 2024, the Bashar Al-Assad regime was toppled by a coalition of opposition groups, led by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militia, leading to a widespread outpouring of relief that the civil war, lasting over decade, had come to an end – signalling the return of over a million Syrian refugees.After being shut out of the country during the Assad years, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria – appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011 to investigate and document human rights violations and abuses committed during the conflict – was granted full access to the country by…