🇳🇴Norway's left clinches vote win as populist right surges into second place
Norway's Labour party under Jonas Gahr Støre has won a second term in general elections, ahead of a populist right-wing party that doubled its vote.
In a country used to minority governments, Labour has a chance of forming a narrow two-seat majority in the 169-seat Storting, if it secures the support of four smaller parties on the centre left.
Norway's four million voters came out in big numbers, and the turnout of 78.9% was the biggest for years.
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🇫🇷France in fresh political crisis after MPs oust prime minister
France has been plunged into a new political crisis with the defeat of Prime Minister François Bayrou at a confidence vote in the National Assembly.
The defeat – by 364 votes to 194 – means that Bayrou will on Tuesday present his government's resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, who must now decide how to replace him. Macron's office said this would happen "in the coming days".
The options include naming a new prime minister from the centre-right; pivoting to the left and finding a name compatible with the Socialist Party; and dissolving parliament so new elections are held.
Macron's bitter enemies in the far-left France Unbowed party are calling for him personally to resign, but few commentators think it likely.
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🇰🇷🇺🇸South Korean worker tells BBC of panic during US immigration raid at Hyundai plant
The man, who asked to remain anonymous, was at the factory which is jointly owned by Hyundai and LG Energy Solution when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 475 people, including 300 South Korean nationals, with some being led away in chains.
He said he first became aware of the Thursday morning raid when he and his colleagues received a deluge of phone calls from company bosses. "Multiple phone lines were ringing and the message was to shut down operations," he said.
As news spread of the raid, the largest of its kind since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the man said panicked family members tried to contact the workers.
"They were detained and they left all their cell phones in the office. They were getting calls, but we couldn't answer because [the office] was locked," he said.
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🇰🇷🇺🇸Seoul concludes US talks to release South Koreans detained in Hyundai raid
South Korea's government says it has concluded talks with the US to release its citizens detained in a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia.
The chief of staff of South Korea's president said a chartered plane would be sent to bring the detainees home if administration procedures were completed.
Kang Hoon-sik said the authorities were trying to improve the visa system to prevent such incidents in the future.
US officials detained 475 people - more than 300 of them South Korean nationals - who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.
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🇬🇾Guyana President Irfaan Ali claims victory in general election
Guyanese President Irfaan Ali has claimed a second five-year term in office, even as official final results from Monday's general election are yet to be published.
Ali's People's Progressive Party (PPP) secured at least 242,000 votes in the poll, claiming majorities in eight of the 10 districts in the South American country, according to Reuters news agency.
We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), a new political party founded just three months ago, came in second with around 109,000 votes.
Ali, 45, campaigned on a pledge to use the country's vast oil reserves, discovered in 2019, to improve infrastructure and reduce poverty, while navigating territorial tensions with neighbour Venezuela.
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🇬🇧Allies ready to support Ukraine before and after peace deal, says UK
The UK and its allies stand ready to support Ukraine before negotiations to end the war as well as to secure an eventual peace deal, the UK defence secretary says.
Ahead of a top-level meeting in Paris on Thursday, John Healey told the BBC in Kyiv that Ukraine's allies would "help make the skies safe, to make the seas safe, and to secure the land", once a peace deal had been struck.
About 30 leaders will take part in the Paris summit, in person or online, and French diplomats say "technical work" on providing security guarantees is now complete in the event of a ceasefire.
France's Emmanuel Macron said the question now was "the sincerity of Russia".
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🇷🇺🇰🇵Putin thanks Kim for North Koreans fighting in Ukraine
Russia's Vladimir Putin has thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for the courage of his soldiers who have been fighting in Ukraine on the Russian side.
Kim, in response, said he was willing to do "everything I can to assist" Russia.
The two leaders met on Wednesday in Beijing as China held one of its largest ever military parades, which marked 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Asia.
Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, said bilateral relations between Russia and North Korea are friendly and that Pyongyang's military helped to liberate the Kursk region.
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🇧🇫Burkina Faso's parliament votes to outlaw homosexual acts
Burkina Faso's unelected transitional parliament has passed a bill banning homosexual acts, a little over a year after a draft of an amended family code that criminalised homosexuality was adopted by the country's cabinet.
The new measure unanimously voted through on Monday imposes punishments of up to five years in jail, and has become part of a broader crackdown on same-sex relationships across the continent.
Justice Minister Edasso Rodrigue Bayala announced on state-run media that, "the law provides for a prison sentence of between two and five years as well as fines".
He added that foreign nationals caught breaking the law would also be deported.
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🇬🇧🇪🇬UK closes embassy in Cairo amid row over activist's arrest
The UK has temporarily closed its embassy in Cairo after Egyptian authorities removed security barriers outside the building, amid a diplomatic row over the arrest of an activist.
The UK Foreign Office said its main embassy building in the capital's Garden City district would remain shut "while the impact of these changes is reviewed", but added the embassy remained operational.
The decision follows growing calls in the country for a retaliatory response to the UK's handling of a protest in London, reports say.
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🇮🇪Eastwood rules himself out of Irish presidential race
Former Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood has ruled himself out of the Irish presidential election race.
BBC News NI understands the Foyle MP will not be seeking an nomination to enter the contest.
He had considered standing as an independent candidate after being approached to put his name forward.
Eastwood was hoping to secure support from a number of parties, but after consulting with colleagues over the summer he has decided that it is "not the right time for him".
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🇦🇷Argentina's Milei rushed to safety after convoy pelted with rocks
Argentine President Javier Milei was moved to safety after protesters threw rocks and bottles at his convoy while campaigning for mid-term elections.
Milei was standing in the back of a vehicle moving along the streets of Lomas de Zamora in Buenos Aires, when at least one rock hit the bonnet. Other items were seen being thrown over Milei's head before he was driven away.
Scuffles broke out between supporters and opponents of the president, with one of his supporters suffering from injured ribs, according to AFP news agency.
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🇫🇷French PM fights for survival as rivals refuse to support confidence vote
French opposition parties have said they will not back Prime Minister François Bayrou after he called a vote of confidence on 8 September on plans for deep budget cuts.
Bayrou, who has led a minority government since last December, called the vote on Monday, warning France was facing a "worrying and therefore decisive moment". "Yes, it's risky, but it's even riskier not to do anything", he said, in the face of France's mounting budget deficit.
From the National Rally on the right to the Socialists, Greens and France Unbowed on the left, opposition parties lined up to say they would vote against him.
Bayrou called the vote two days before protests have been called across France to "block everything".
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🇫🇷🇺🇸France summons US envoy over antisemitism claims
France says it will summon the US ambassador to Paris, Charles Kushner, over what it says are unacceptable allegations of failing to tackle a surge in antisemitism.
Kushner, who is Jewish and whose son is married to US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, made the comments in an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron in the Wall Street Journal.
Echoing Israel's criticism of France days earlier, Kushner said there had been an explosion of hatred towards Jews in France since the war in Gaza began.
"France firmly refutes these latest allegations" which are "unacceptable", said a foreign ministry statement, adding Kushner would be due to appear on Monday.
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🇮🇪Sinn Féin decision on Irish presidential race to be made in September
The Sinn Féin president says the party will announce in September whether it will run a candidate in the upcoming Irish presidential election.
Speaking to BBC News NI, Mary Lou McDonald insisted the party was not split in its decision on whether or not it will run a candidate or if it will support another candidate from outside the party.
McDonald once again would not confirm or deny whether she herself will be running, insisting that "all options are on the table".
The election for a new Irish president has to be held before 11 November.
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🇨🇦Canada to drop some of its retaliatory tariffs on the US
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Friday that his country will drop some of its billions of dollars in retaliatory tariffs on US goods, though it will keep levies on autos, steel and aluminium.
It comes a day after he and President Donald Trump spoke over the phone for the first time since the two countries missed a self-imposed deadline to reach a trade agreement.
Canada had placed a 25% levy on about C$30bn (£16bn; $21.7bn) worth of US goods on an array of products, including orange juice and washing machines.
The tax hike was in retaliation to US tariffs on Canada, which as of August are valued at 35% on all goods not compliant with the countries' existing free trade deal.
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🇹🇭Thai court rules ex-PM Thaksin must serve one year in jail
Thailand's top court has ruled that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra must serve a year in jail, in yet another blow to the influential political dynasty.
The decision relates to a previous case where he was sentenced to years in prison for corruption, but ended up spending less than a day in a jail cell as he was moved to a hospital.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that this transfer was unlawful - and that the 76-year-old would have to serve his sentence in prison.
Thaksin and his family have dominated Thai politics since he was first elected PM in 2001. His daughter Paetongtarn previously served as leader but was removed from office last month over a leaked phone call.
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🇮🇪Mary Lou McDonald rules herself out of Irish presidential election
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has ruled herself out of running in the Irish presidential election.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said her name is "no longer in the mix" and that she needs to "lead from the front" while in opposition.
She refused to rule out Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill as a potential candidate, but added that "we have options" and "everything is still in play".
People in the Republic of Ireland are set to go to the polls on Friday 24 October to vote in the Irish presidential election.
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🇯🇵Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba resigns after election defeats
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has announced he is stepping down after less than a year in the role, following two major election losses.
The move comes a day before his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was expected to vote on whether to hold an internal leadership vote that could have forced him out.
The LDP has governed Japan for most of the past seven decades, but under Ishiba it lost its majority in the lower house for the first time in 15 years and then lost its majority in the upper house in July.
Japan, the world's fourth-largest economy and a key US ally, now faces a period of political uncertainty as tensions rise with China and regional insecurity mounts.
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🇳🇴Tight vote in Norway to decide whether to stick with Labour or turn right
Norwegians go to the polls on Sunday and Monday in a tight race to decide whether to continue with a Labour-led government or turn to the centre right.
There are only four million voters in this founding member of Nato, which shares an Artic border with Russia and is part of the EU's single market but not a member state.
Despite its small population, Norway has long punched above its weight on the international stage, and the wars in Gaza and Ukraine - as well as US trade tariffs - have played a significant part in the election campaign.
Nevertheless, in the final stretch of the race, the focus has switched to the increasing cost of living and inequality.
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🇺🇸Trump appeals to US Supreme Court to rule on legality of tariffs
President Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision that found many of his sweeping tariffs were illegal.
In a petition filed late on Wednesday, the administration asked the justices to quickly intervene to rule that the president has the power to impose such import taxes on foreign nations.
A divided US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week ruled 7-4 that the tariffs Trump brought in through an emergency economic powers act did not fall within the president's mandate and that setting levies was "a core Congressional power".
The case could upend Trump's economic and foreign policy agenda and force the US to refund billions in tariffs.
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🇦🇪UAE warns Israel that annexing West Bank would cross 'red line'
The United Arab Emirates has warned Israel that annexing the occupied West Bank would cross a "red line" and undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords that normalised relations between the two countries.
A senior Emirati official, Lana Nusseibeh, said such a move would be the death knell of the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian Authority's foreign ministry said it welcomed the UAE's position.
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🇺🇸🇻🇪Trump says 11 killed in US strike on drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela
President Donald Trump says the US has carried out a strike against a drug-carrying vessel in the southern Caribbean, killing 11 "Narcoterrorists".
He posted on social media that Tuesday's US military operation had targeted members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Trump said the vessel was in international waters and was transporting illegal narcotics bound for the US.
The Trump administration has ratcheted up military and political pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in recent weeks, including through a $50m (£37m) reward for information leading to his arrest on drug-trafficking charges. Maduro has vowed Venezuela would fight any attempted US military intervention.
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🇩🇪Germany's far-right AfD suffers series of candidate deaths ahead of local vote
As many as six candidates for Germany's far-right AfD have died in recent weeks ahead of local elections in the big western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Police have made clear there is no evidence of foul play in the deaths, but it means that new ballots will have to be printed and some postal voters will have to recast their ballots.
North Rhine-Westphalia has a population of 18 million and a reported 20,000 candidates will run for office in its 14 September local elections.
The number of deaths has nevertheless raised questions on social media. The state's interior ministry has pointed out that candidates from other parties, including the Greens and Social Democrats, have also died.
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🇮🇱Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida killed in Gaza, Israel says
Abu Obeida, the spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, has been killed in an aerial attack in Gaza City, Israel has said.
Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz congratulated the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israel's security agency, Shin Bet, for the "flawless execution" in a post on X.
Hamas has not confirmed his death. The Palestinian armed group earlier said dozens of civilians were killed and injured in the Israeli air strikes on a residential building in the district.
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🇰🇵🇨🇳North Korea's Kim Jong Un to join Putin at China military parade
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade in Beijing next week alongside Russia's Vladimir Putin, China has said, in what will be a landmark visit.
This is Kim's first multilateral international meeting, making the event a diplomatic win for China's Xi Jinping who has been pushing for a new Beijing-led world order.
It allows Xi to signal his influence – although limited – on both Putin and Kim at a time when Washington is attempting to make a deal with Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
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🇩🇰 apologises to Greenland's forced contraception victims
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has issued a long-awaited apology to the Greenlandic women and their families affected by what she called "systematic discrimination" during a contraceptive campaign.
During the 1960s and 70s thousands of Inuit women and girls as young as 12 were fitted with contraceptive devices, as part of a birth-control programme administered by Danish doctors.
"We cannot change what has happened. But we can take responsibility," Frederiksen said of the scandal.
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🇧🇼Botswana declares national public health emergency
Botswana has declared a public health emergency as it faces a shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment.
President Duma Boko made the announcement in a televised address on Monday, setting out a multimillion-dollar plan to rectify the supply chain involving military oversight.
Managing the shortages would be "highly price sensitive due to our limited coffers", he told the nation.
The economy of Botswana, which has a population of 2.5 million, has been hit by a downturn in the international diamond market, as it is one of the world's leading diamond producers. This strain, further fuelled by US aid cuts, has seen high levels of unemployment and poverty, according to media reports.
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🇨🇳Chinese property giant Evergrande delisted after spectacular fall
Chinese property giant Evergrande's shares were taken off the Hong Kong stock market on Monday after more than a decade and a half of trading.
It marks a grim milestone for what was once China's biggest real estate firm, with a stock market valuation of more than $50bn (£37.1bn). That was before its spectacular collapse under the weight of the huge debts that had powered its meteoric rise.
Experts say the delisting was both inevitable and final.
"Once delisted, there is no coming back," says Dan Wang, China director at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
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🇰🇷🇰🇵South Korea fires warning shots at North Korean troops crossing border
South Korea has confirmed it fired warning shots earlier in the week at North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the heavily-fortified border between the two countries.
North Korean state media called the shots a "deliberate provocation" and Pyongyang has accused Seoul of risking "uncontrollable" tensions.
The incident was made public as new South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed Seoul on Saturday for a visit to Tokyo and Washington.
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🇨🇳Beijing opposes 'bully' US for 50% tariffs on India
Chinese ambassador to India Xu Feihong has said that Beijing "firmly opposes" Washington's steep tariffs on Delhi and called for greater co-operation between India and China.
Xu likened the US to a "bully", saying that it had long benefitted from free trade but was now using tariffs as a "bargaining chip" to demand "exorbitant prices" from other nations.
"US has imposed tariffs of up to 50% on India and even threatened for more. China firmly opposes it. Silence only emboldens the bully," Xu said on Thursday.
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