More than half of all European adults are now fully vaccinated, the EU said, as countries across Europe and Asia battled fresh outbreaks blamed on the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Russia managed to disconnect itself from the global internet during tests in June and July, the RBC daily reported on Thursday, citing documents from the working group tasked with improving Russia’s internet security.

We will probably have another variant arrive during the winter. … The big challenge for the next couple of years will be how are we going to co-exist, with two worlds: countries that are vaccinated and those that are not.

French President Emmanuel Macron has changed his phone and phone number in light of the Pegasus spyware case, a presidency official said on Thursday, in one of the first concrete actions announced in relation to the scandal.

Russia said yesterday it had carried out another successful test of its Zircon hypersonic cruise missile, a new addition to an arsenal of weapons called “invincible” by President Vladimir Putin.

The death toll from Germany’s worst floods in living memory rose to 165 yesterday as emergency services continued to comb through decimated towns in search of dozens of people still missing.

“This has to be verified, but if it is the case, it is completely unacceptable.... Free press is one of the core values of the European Union.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel described the flooding that has devastated parts of Europe as “terrifying” on Sunday after the death toll across the region rose to 188 and a district of Bavaria was battered by the extreme weather.

The death toll in devastating flooding in western Germany and Belgium rose to at least 170 on Saturday after burst rivers and flash floods this week collapsed houses and ripped up roads and power lines.

Rescue workers scrambled yesterday to find survivors and victims of the devastation wreaked by the worst floods to hit western Europe in living memory, which have already left more than 150 people dead and dozens more missing. 

The “mini earthquakes” that elephants make by both walking and vocalising are not only a way to communicate with each other but can be used to track their movements, according to a study.  

Rescue workers searched flood-ravaged parts of Germany and Belgium for survivors on Saturday after burst rivers and flash floods this week collapsed houses and claimed at least 157 lives.

The death toll from devastating floods in Europe soared to at least 126 yesterday, most in western Germany where emergency responders were frantically searching for missing people.   

The Eiffel Tower reopened on Friday after an eight-month shutdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its longest closure since World War Two.

The number of people who lost their lives in the heavy floods in the western part of Germany increased to at least 81 on Friday, according to German broadcaster ARD, in what is Germany's worst mass loss of life in years.

Nations most vulnerable to the impacts of global warming yesterday called for rich countries to live up to their promise to finance the fight against climate change, ahead of a crunch UN summit.

Amnesty International yesterday said that migrants held in Libyan detention camps are subject to horrific sexual violence at the hands of guards, including being forced to barter sex for clean water, food and access to sanitation. 

Climate change and deforestation have flipped a large swathe of the Amazon basin from absorbing to emitting planet-warming CO2, a transformation that could turn humanity’s greatest natural ally in the fight against global warming into a foe, researchers reported on Wednesday. 

A Mexican court has sentenced a man to 208 years in prison for the criminal homicides of 26 people, most of them children, who died when a school collapsed during a powerful earthquake that struck Mexico City in 2017, authorities said on Wednesday. 

Nearly 23 million children missed out on routine vaccinations last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the highest number in more than a decade, fuelling outbreaks of measles, polio and other preventable diseases, UN agencies said yesterday.