World

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) – Elusive British street artist Banksy has highlighted the issue of rough sleeping in a seasonal mural showing two flying reindeer pulling a homeless man on a street-bench sleigh.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government has sparked a holiday controversy by hanging Christmas lights in major cities, which many say have no place in a country suffering chronic blackouts.

(SciDev.Net) – Lower-income countries are increasingly facing a double blow from the impact of both undernutrition and obesity, which often coexist within the same community – and are even found within the same families or individuals.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong residents have been gathering across the city on weekends and in lunch breaks to write Christmas cards to injured protesters and those in detention as anti-government demonstrations grind on through the holiday season.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian teenage Scrabble protégé Tengku Ariff Shah can spell more English words than most adults in the Western world, but he doesn’t always know what they mean.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Author J.K. Rowling became the latest person to be “canceled” on Friday in a row over transgender rights after the action signifying online outrage took off in 2019, along with terms such as “girly swot” and “eco-anxiety”.

LONDON (Reuters) – “Cats” star Jason Derulo has hit back at critics who have slammed the film adaptation of the hit stage musical, calling the movie “an incredible, brave piece of art”.

MADRID (Reuters) – Forget Black Friday, twinkling lights or any other Christmas tradition; Spain’s Christmas season doesn’t properly kick off until today, when El Gordo, the world’s richest lottery, hands out prizes totaling 2.38 billion euros (US$2.62 billion).

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Along the ancient walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, a man dressed as Santa Claus tries to raise holiday cheer from atop a camel by offering free Christmas trees to residents.

PARIS (Reuters) – In a change of scene, Santa Claus is donning flippers and a diving mask along with his traditional red-and-white outfit to scuba dive in a Paris aquarium as he teaches kids about global warming and climate issues during the festive season.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested across India in the past 10 days, officials said, as police try to quell sometimes violent demonstrations against a citizenship law that critics say undermines the country’s secular constitution.

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW,  (Reuters) – Six people died and dozens were injured yesterday as Indian police clashed with thousands of protesters who again took to the streets in several parts of the country to oppose a new law they say discriminates against Muslims.

THE HAGUE,  (Reuters) – The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said yesterday she would launch a full investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian Territories as soon as the court’s jurisdiction had been established.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers who control the fate of President Donald Trump left Washington for a holiday break yesterday with no agreement over how they will handle the Senate trial to consider his impeachment charges in January.

‘MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Two Carnival Corp cruise ships collided yesterday in the port of Mexico’s Caribbean resort of Cozumel, the luxury cruise operator said, crushing the stern of a 952-foot-long (290-meter) vessel and leaving passengers stunned at the loud impact.

BEIJING,  (Reuters) – An Earth observation satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil was launched into space yesterday under a bilateral programme seen as a template for broader cooperation among BRICS nations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., (Reuters) – Boeing Co’s new astronaut capsule failed after liftoff yesterday to climb high enough in orbit to reach the International Space Station, cutting short a critical unmanned test mission in the embattled aerospace giant’s race to send humans to the orbital outpost.

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday defended his son from accusations of corruption and attacked the Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors leading an investigation of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s alleged money laundering and misuse of public funds.

PARIS,  (Reuters) – French telecoms group Orange and its former CEO Didier Lombard were guilty of “moral harassment” that prompted a spate of suicides during a restructuring at the company in the late 2000s, a Paris court ruled today.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. Democrats yesterday pressed the Republican-controlled Senate to call Donald Trump’s top lieutenants to testify in its trial of the impeached president, as they sought to focus attention on the trial ahead of the 2020 presidential election.