Skip to content
REALNEWS HUB

Latest newsPage 9 of 60

Every story we publish, newest first.

World· Verified

ANC vote drops sharply in South African municipal elections

Former liberation movement’s share of national vote almost 14 percentage points below 2021 result The African National Congress is on course to suffer a bruising defeat in South Africa’s local elections, with the once dominant party of Nelson Mandela falling to under a third of the vote nationally with more than 80% of ballots counted. Wednesday’s fragmented vote marks another stage in the decline of the ANC, which has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 1994. High unemployment, crime, corruption and poor local service delivery have all contributed to voters turning away from the party. Continue reading...

Technology· Verified

TikTok accused by EU regulators of exposing users to harmful content loops

Regulator’s initial ruling says algorithm ‘can be harmful’ and led young and vulnerable viewers ‘down rabbit holes they can’t easily escape’ Business live – latest updates TikTok has been charged by the European Commission with failing to protect users’ mental health by exposing them to a relentless stream of content that risks worsening eating disorders and anxiety in a case that strikes at its business model. Issuing a preliminary ruling on Friday, the EU regulator said TikTok’s algorithm “can be harmful” and was leading young and vulnerable users “down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from”. Continue reading...

Politics· Verified

‘I didn’t expect to be a main character’: Abdul El-Sayed heads to the Senate with a mandate – and a spotlight

The successful Democratic contender for a Michigan Senate seat parried the many insinuations lobbed by Republicans Abdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be “a main character of this midterms”, but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party. By October he told the Associated Press he was “not shying away” from those rightwing fixations. “What are you implying?” El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange. Continue reading...

World· Verified

Kenya cult leader Paul Mackenzie gets 200-year prison sentence for 191 deaths

The leader of a Kenyan doomsday cult linked to the deaths of more than 400 people was sentenced on Friday to 200 years in prison for the murders of 191 people. The High Court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa issued the sentence for Pastor Paul Mackenzie. He was convicted of murdering 190 children and one adult after he ordered his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus. Justice Diana Kavedza said that Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, bore the “primary...

Politics· Developing

Democrats make major rural midterm gains by targeting economic issues

Democrats won over rural voters from Maga in the midterms by focusing more on working people and less on culture wars Long before Jamie Ager entered politics, he was making a name for himself in a very different place: the meat counter of a grocery store in Boone, North Carolina. It was the early 2000s, and Ager owned and operated Hickory Nut Gap, a regenerative farm near Asheville. Over the next 20 years, he helped build a regional food system that delivered healthier food to thousands of people, improved land stewardship and made farming a bit more profitable. Continue reading...

Politics· Verified

Donald Trump designates redesigned Oval Office as protected national monument

Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday that he says will prevent future administrations from changing his design of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room, spaces he declared to be national monuments that should be preserved. Since returning to office, the US president has transformed the Oval Office with gold accents and statuettes, portraits of famous Americans pulled from storage and a copy of the Declaration of Independence that hangs on the wall. The redesign has drawn criticism, including from the former president Barack Obama, who recently joked that 'he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.' Trump signs proclamation to try to prevent changes to gold-covered Oval Office Continue reading...

Politics· Developing

Kansas elects Democrat Adam Hamilton to Senate in historic upset

Bills have soared in rural state buffeted by tariffs and war in Iran – and Democrat Adam Hamilton’s stunning upset shows how deep economic frustrations run Linda Olson always does her homework before voting – a trait she inherited from a family invested, and interested, in politics. Her father was a photographer who took portraits of political leaders in Washington, while her grandparents were farmers who cared deeply about their industry. In 2024, Olson’s research led her to Donald Trump. She trusted that the then-former president would improve their economic realities in Junction City, Kansas – where she was born and raised – if he returned to the White House. Continue reading...

World· Verified

Turkey ratifies trilateral security accord with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

The Turkish parliament on Thursday approved a bill ratifying the Makkah Agreement on Joint Defence with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, paving the way for the trilateral security pact to come into force. Lawmakers endorsed the measure by 279 votes to 119, with 398 of the chamber’s 592 members taking part in the ballot. The measure, formally titled the Bill on the Approval of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between the Republic of Turkiye, Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, passed after a lengthy debate among parties. During the debate, ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmaker Ziya Altunyaldiz stressed that the agreement aims to expand security cooperation in the region. He emphasised that it contains no approach against any third country and that its main goal is to prevent conflicts rather than escalate them. Opposition speakers raised reservations about the pact’s scope and oversight. Mehmet Guzelmansur of the Republican People’s Party said clear rules are needed so the agreement does not contradict Turkiye’s other international obligations. Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement at a trilateral summit in Makkah on Aug 7, pledging to strengthen collective security, deepen defence cooperation and promote peace and stability in the region and beyond. The pact provides a framework for collective assistance in the event of external armed aggression against any of the three countries, with the nature and extent of assistance to be determined collectively in light of the circumstances. Last month, the Foreign Office in Islamabad said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had completed the ratification of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, as the three participating countries progressed on the implementation of the pact amid escalating tensions over attacks on Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement. “Pakistan and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have already completed their ratification processes, while Turkiye is undertaking the requisite procedures in accordance with its domestic legal framework,” Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan had said at the ministry’s weekly media briefing. The pact moved towards implementation after an Oct 5 meeting of the alliance’s Strategic, Political and Defence Committee in Riyadh called for the immediate implementation of collective defence commitments and the rapid deployment in Saudi Arabia of military forces and capabilities already agreed upon, subject to the national legislation of the parties.

World· Verified

Iran delivers nuclear offer to Washington through Qatari mediators

DUBAI, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Iran has sent the United States a nuclear proposal via Qatar, to be discussed only after Washington meets Tehran’s seven demands, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the US was reviewing the proposal but declined to provide further details.

World· Verified

Macau sentences former lawmaker Au Kam-san to 12.5 years in prison

Former Macau lawmaker Au Kam-san has been convicted on five out of seven charges in the city’s first national security trial, with the court handing him a 12½-year prison sentence. The Court of First Instance in Macau on Friday found the 69-year-old guilty on four counts under the city’s national security law – subversion of state power and establishing links with foreign groups or individuals to commit activities endangering national security – as well as a fifth count of violation of...

Politics· Verified

Nithya Raman defeats Karen Bass to become mayor of Los Angeles

Urban planner and outsider who bested Karen Bass has close ties to Hollywood progressives – and a complicated relationship with the DSA Nithya Raman on Thursday unseated Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass after a neck-and-neck race for the leadership for the US’s second largest city. The young progressive’s victory means that the two largest cities in the US, as well the nation’s capital, Washington DC, have now all elected democratic socialist mayors. Continue reading...

Load more