Posts

Original title: Watch: BBC analyses the warmth and hand-holding at Xi, Modi and Putin’s summit Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were among a group of more than 20 world leaders attending a regional security summit in China over the weekend. This year’s gathering of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation was the largest since it was founded. It was created by China, Russia and four Central Asian countries in 2001, as a countermeasure to limit the influence of Western alliances such as Nato. Watch as BBC world news correspondent Joe Inwood unpicks the messages Xi, Putin and Modi gave by coming together. Video by Inaya Mohmood ...

Original title: ‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Daylight reveals scale of Afghanistan quake’s devastation ‘Covered in dust and too shocked to speak’: Daylight reveals scale of Afghanistan quake’s devastation 35 minutes ago Share Save Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Share Save Matiullah Shahab Matiullah Shahab helped dig graves in the village of Andarlachak Tangi, which was among those hit by Sunday’s earthquake Just before midnight on Sunday, Matiullah Shahab woke up to find his house in Afghanistan’s remote Kunar province shaking. An earthquake measuring 6.0 magnitude had struck eastern Afghanistan, leaving at least 800 people dead, according to the UN. Even though the epicentre of the quake was 16km away, the whole of Shahab’s village of Asadabad trembled. The 23 family members who live with him ran out of their bedrooms as they feared the walls would fall in on them, and stayed awake all night in their garden. “We were all afraid,” he says. The areas worst hit by the quake were Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, but it was felt as far away as Kabul and in neighbouring Pakistan’s capital Islamabad ...

Original title: Box Office: ‘Weapons’ Wins Quiet Labor Day With $12.8M, ‘Jaws’ Beats ‘Caught Stealing,’ ‘The Roses’ A half a century later, Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws still has plenty of bite as the troubled 2025 summer season comes to a close. The original summer blockbuster, celebrating its 50th anniversary, opened in second place at the four-day Labor Day box office behind Zach Cregger‘s August sleeper hit Weapons, which remains in first place for the fourth weekend in a row with an estimated four-day gross of $12.8 million and $10.5 million for the three-day weekend proper. The horror pic, yet another win for Warner Bros. and New Line, expects finish Monday with a global tally of $235.2 million, according to updated Monday estimates (final for the holiday numbers won’t be tallied until Tuesday). While it isn’t worst the Labor Day on record, it was definitely quiet. Booked in 3,200 cinemas, Jaws bit off a four-day haul of $9.9 million, including $8.1 million for the three days. That was enough to swim past Darren Aronofsky‘s new movie starring Austin Butler and Zoë Kravitz, as well as Searchlight’s ...

Original title: EU Nations Seek to Close Off Loopholes for Russian Gas Flows European Union countries are looking to ways to plug any remaining loopholes to ensure that Russian gas won’t be furtively mixed into the bloc’s supplies once a ban takes effect by the end of 2027. Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating Presidency, has proposed changes that would require importers to provide national authorities with evidence to prove that the gas hasn’t been produced in Russia, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. The document highlights particular concerns with gas flows coming through TurkStream, a major gas pipeline running between Russia and South East Europe. ...

Original title: The Verge’s favorite gifts for book lovers PopSocket grips might be closely associated with smartphones, but they work surprisingly well with most e-readers. That’s because they let you prop up or securely hold any big-screen device with just one hand, making them a handy tool for those looking for a little more convenience. The fact that they come in an array of fun styles is just a plus. ...

Original title: Summer 2025 confirmed as UK’s hottest on record The Met Office has confirmed that summer 2025 is officially the hottest on record for the United Kingdom. Provisional statistics show that the mean temperature across the country - which includes overnight lows as well as daytime highs - was 16.10C (60.98F). This is 1.51C (2.72F) above the long-term average and well ahead of 2018, the previous warmest summer, which had a mean temperature of 15.76C (60.37F). It is in line with evidence that summers are getting hotter and drier because of climate change. Met Office climate scientists have found that a summer as hot or hotter than 2025 is now 70 times more likely than it would have been in a “natural” climate, with no human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. 2025 has pushed the famous summer of 1976 out of the UK top-five, meaning the five hottest summers have all occurred since 2000. ...

Original title: More than 800 killed after strong quake hits Afghanistan More than 800 killed after strong quake hits Afghanistan 2 hours ago Share Save Yama Bariz BBC Afghan Service correspondent, Heading for quake-hit areas and Paulin Kola BBC News Share Save EPA Hospitals - already under strain - are reported to be overwhelmed More than 800 people have been killed - and nearly 3,000 injured - after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan just before midnight on Sunday, the United Nations’ humanitarian agency has said. Most of the deaths occurred in Kunar province, officials say, warning that the death toll may rise significantly as entire villages have been destroyed. The epicentre was in a remote mountainous area, making it difficult for rescue operations to be carried out. “The scale of devastation is unimaginable,” a Taliban official said. The disaster comes as Afghanistan reels from a severe drought, aid cuts and what the World Food Programme describes as an unprecedented hunger crisis. Watch: Helicopters are a ‘key lifeline’ for those ...

Original title: Trouble Brews Among Family Heirs in ‘House of Guinness’ Trailer Raise a pint to another sibling brawl after Succession, as the four adult children of patriarch Sir Benjamin Guinness battle for their place in the family dynasty after the brewery mogul’s death in 1868. The teaser for the historical Netflix drama set in 19th-century New York and Dublin and from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight sees the moneyed family heirs — Arthur, Edward, Anne and Ben — left doubly grief-stricken by the impact of their father’s will. Benjamin Guinness, played by Fionn O’Shea, and sister Anne Plunket Guinness (Emily Fairn) are denied an inheritance. That ushers in a toxic family feud as the two eldest sons — Anthony Boyle, who plays Arthur Guinness, and Louis Partridge as Edward Guinness — are given stewardship of the Irish brewery and its black gold. “The death of your father has served to poke a stick in a hornet’s nest,” Arthur Guinness is told at one point in the trailer as the family drama plays out against the backdrop of the fight for Irish independence an ...

Original title: Amanda Seyfried in Tears During ‘Testament of Ann Lee’ World Premiere at Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival hosted a world premiere on Monday afternoon for Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, delivering something close to a religious experience. The audience responded to the film, which stars Amanda Seyfried as founder of the radical religious sect the Shakers, with TK. The cult-like group, which formed as an offshoot of Quakerism in Manchester, England in 1747, got its name from worship practices that included trembling, dancing and speaking in tongues. Lee espoused gender and social equality while believing herself to be the female incarnation of Christ, and its members practiced celibacy. The Shakers ended up fleeing to America to escape persecution, ultimately settling near Albany, New York to build their utopia. The Testament of Ann Lee, which Fastvold directed from a script she co-wrote with her The Brutalist partner Brady Corbet, also stars Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, J ...

Original title: Gold and Silver Jump as Rate-Cut Wagers Reignite Bull Run Silver surged above $40 an ounce for the first time since 2011 and gold approached an all-time high as the prospect of Federal Reserve rate cuts gave fresh impetus to the multiyear bull run in precious metal markets. Spot silver rose as much as 2.6% to $40.7599 an ounce — taking gains this year to about 40% — while gold jumped as much as 1.2% to just below its April record above $3,500 an ounce. Gold hit a record Monday in a London Bullion Market Association auction. ...