The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year broke another staggering record: Roughly the same number of people arrived in the month of October as in all of 2014, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR).
Just a little over a decade ago, scientists didn’t know the Omura’s whale even existed. Even after they used genetic samples to determine the animals are in fact their own species, the whale remained elusive–until now. An international team of biologists captured the stunning creatures on video off the coast of Madagascar.
European Union lawmakers voted today (Oct. 29) to urge member states to drop criminal charges against NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and to block his extradition to the United States. The resolution, part of a growing European backlash against US surveillance, was passed by a narrow margin, 285 to 281.
The long tentacles of the infamous Calabrian mafia are causing trouble in Canada. According to Italian prosecutors, the Toronto outposts of the ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate may be preparing for armed confrontation.
This post has been corrected.
Updated at 3:45pm ET.
US president Barack Obama hosted the World Cup-winning national women’s soccer team this week, and had this to say:
A series of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a hospital in northern Yemen, run by Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF) late Monday night, the organization says. About twelve people were in the building in Saada, and were able to evacuate in between strikes. One person was injured, and remains in stable condition.
A Reuters photographer has captured a moment of kindness amid the chaos of Europe’s migrant crisis. On Sunday, Oct. 25, in the Slovenian border village of Sentilj, one waiter delivered pizza to a group of migrants and refugees waiting behind a fence.
This weekend’s local elections in Ukraine were marred by electoral fraud, vote-buying, and one particularly disturbing incident: the arrest of a man wearing a Chewbacca costume.
Saudi Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz and four other Saudi citizens have been detained in one of Lebanon’s largest drug busts, according to local media and security sources cited by the Telegraph. Authorities at the Beirut airport seized 2.2 tons (2 metric tons) of an amphetamine called fenethylline, along with some cocaine, before the drugs were loaded onto the prince’s private jet.
Former comedian Jimmy Morales swept the vote in the second round of the Guatemalan presidential elections, riding a wave of disillusionment with a corrupt government.
In an Oct.22 interview with Marketplace, Charles Koch, industry titan and bigwig political donor to conservative causes, basically confirmed what all liberals have feared:
Ukraine’s move to dismantle symbols of its communist past has taken a turn to the dark side. The city of Odessa has transformed a statue of Vladimir Lenin into a monument to monument honoring “Star Wars” antihero Darth Vader:
A new advertisement from Mattel shows how children typically play with dolls: by using their imagination. It asks: ”What happens when girls are free to imagine they can be anything?”
Millions of American prison inmates and their loved ones will soon see an end to exorbitant phone fees, imposed by companies with monopolies on connecting inmates with the outside world.
The Czech Republic is locking up refugees and migrants in degrading conditions, according to a scathing criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released today (Oct. 22).
Refugees and migrants who are arriving in Europe en masse are not exactly pounding at Poland’s door. They are not even knocking: In fact, there is little to suggest they even want to settle in Central Europe’s largest country. No one in Poland is struggling with an influx of people from the Middle East and Africa—but the country has a refugee problem. And the problem is a horrifying display of xenophobia and historical amnesia, demonstrated in the country’s parliament, at dinner parties, on the streets, and, overwhelmingly, on the internet.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has stirred up a storm with comments apparently downplaying Hitler’s role in the deaths of six million Jews during the Holocaust.
According to the latest polling numbers, real-estate tycoon Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson are pulling way ahead of the career politicians in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
The FBI and the Secret Service are investigating a report that a hacker broke into the personal email accounts of CIA director John Brennan and secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, CNN reports.
Jacky Sutton, Iraq director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) was found dead this weekend at Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport, her organization confirmed.
Renovations at the University of Virginia have uncovered a nearly 200-year-old chemistry lab likely designed with the help of the university’s founder, and third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.
After merely two weeks without any pork on the menu of federal prisons in the United States, one dish with the meat is back, following a high-level intervention on Thursday, Oct. 15.
