The world is mired in $315 trillion of debt, according to a report from the Institute of International Finance. This global debt wave has been the biggest, fastest and most wide-ranging rise in debt since World War II, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic. “This increase marks the second consecutive quarterly rise and was primarily driven by emerging markets, where debt surged to an ...

Cancer is often regarded as a disease of the modern age. However, medical texts from ancient Egypt indicate that healers of the time were aware of the condition. Now, new evidence from a skull more than 4,000 years old has revealed that ancient Egyptian physicians may have tried to treat certain cancers with surgery. The skull belonged to a man who ...

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been indicted on lese majeste charges, authorities said Wednesday, the latest twist in a decades-long political saga in the Southeast Asian kingdom. The case, filed by police, alleged Thaksin violated Thailand’s notoriously harsh royal insult law during an interview he gave in 2015 to the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. “The attorney general has decided ...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is increasingly resorting to overtly Islamophobic language during his election campaign, critics and observers say, as he seeks a third straight term governing the world’s most populous nation. As turnout in the polls so far shows a slight dip from five years ago, the popular leader – and overwhelming favorite – has embraced negative campaigning, ...

American Tyler Wenrich was sentenced to three weeks in jail and fined Tuesday after he had pleaded guilty earlier this month to possession of ammunition while traveling to Turks and Caicos. The Virginia resident was fined $9,000, Kimo Tynes, the director of communications for the Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, said in a news statement. Since he had ...

Pope Francis allegedly told Italian bishops to not permit gay men to train for the priesthood, with two Italian newspapers claiming that the 87-year-old pontiff made a homophobic slur in a closed-door meeting last week. Citing sources from inside the meeting, the Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica newspapers reported Monday that the Pope had made the comments while meeting ...

Hong Kong police have made their first arrests under a newly passed local national security law over social media posts deemed “seditious” by authorities, just days ahead of the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The city’s national security police on Tuesday arrested six people on suspicion of committing acts with seditious intent, according to a police statement. Security ...

Ancient Egyptians appear to have carried out surgery on people with cancerous cells, a study has found. Scientists already knew from their texts that ancient Egyptians were exceptionally skilled with medicine – and could treat diseases, traumatic injuries, build prostheses, and put in dental fillings. But an international team of researchers studied two human skulls, each thousands of years old, ...

If you’re on Instagram, it’s an image you will likely have seen: orderly lines of tents stretching into the distance on dusty ground, white structures in the centre spelling out the words “All eyes on Rafah”.  On Instagram, a call to action to share the image also clocks the number of people who have added it to their stories: more ...

Crowds gathered in New York on Tuesday evening as onlookers tried to catch a glimpse of ‘Manhattanhenge’. The solar event that brings New Yorkers to the streets twice a year will continue tonight before disappearing from the skies once again. So what is ‘Manhattanhenge’? New York City is built on a grid. It’s a practical way of city planning, but ...