The James Webb space telescope has discovered the oldest black hole ever detected, which was thriving so soon after the Big Bang that it challenges our understanding of how these celestial behemoths form, astronomers said Wednesday.

The number of study permits Canada issued to Indian students fell sharply late last year after India ejected Canadian diplomats who would process the permits and fewer Indian students applied due to a diplomatic dispute over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader in Canada, a top Canadian official told Reuters.

Around 40 Tunisian migrants attempting to reach Italy by sea have been missing for five days, the Tunisian National Guard said.

Births in France fell last year to their lowest annual number since World War II, the national statistics bureau said yesterday. Around 678,000 babies were born in 2023, INSEE said, a drop of 6.6 percent from the previous year and the lowest number for any year since 1946.

The first refugee to be elected to New Zealand’s parliament resigned yesterday over alleged shoplifting, which she said was related to personal stress and trauma.

The number of adult tobacco users has dropped steadily in recent years, the World Health Organization said yesterday but it warned Big Tobacco was working hard to reverse that trend.

Britain yesterday declared global Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir as a proscribed terrorist group, making it a criminal offence to belong to what it described as an antisemitic organisation.

Ukraine said yesterday it had destroyed a Russian Beriev A-50 spy plane and an Ilyushin Il-22 airborne command post in the Sea of Azov area, dealing a blow to Russian military operations in occupied southern Ukraine.

Five migrants trying to cross the Channel to Britain died in French waters in the early hours of yesterday, French local authorities said.

New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Ardern married her longtime partner Clarke Gayford in a private ceremony on Saturday, finally tying the knot after cancelling ceremonies during strict Covid-19 controls she imposed on the country.

Archaeologists have discovered the largest and oldest network of pre-Hispanic cities ever found in the Amazon rainforest, revealing a 2,500-year-old lost civilisation of farmers.

Papua New Guinea’s prime minister declared a state of emergency yesterday, suspending government and police officials after 16 people were killed in rioting in the Pacific island nation.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday that a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine would not lead to political dialogue, and would only benefit Moscow.

US and UK forces have shot down more than 20 drones and missiles over the Red Sea launched by Yemen’s Houthis, in what London branded yesterday the “largest attack” yet by Iran-backed rebels.

At least 6,618 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2023, when record numbers headed for the Canary Islands, a migrants rights group said yesterday.

Last year was the planet’s hottest on record by a substantial margin and likely the world’s warmest in the last 100,000 years, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said yesterday.

French leader Emmanuel Macron yesterday picked Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming France’s youngest and first openly gay head of government.

Italian prosecutors said yesterday they were investigating a junior culture minister over allegations a painting he owned and exhibited had been stolen and modified to hide its origins -- claims he denies.

French leader Emmanuel Macron today picked Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming France's youngest and first openly gay head of government

France is set to build eight new nuclear plants on top of six already announced, the energy minister has said, arguing more reactors are needed to hit carbon reduction targets.