GOVERNMENT

A grim situation in Afghanistan is getting worse.

The nation's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation amid worries that it remains too dangerous to be trusted.

The State Department is ordering the families of all American personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to leave the country and allowing non-essential staff to leave Ukraine.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lost control of his Chinese-owned social media platform WeChat account and a lawmaker has accused China’s leaders of political interference.

New coronavirus infections in Russia have reached an all-time high, the third consecutive daily record as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads through the country.

Some conservatives are taking aim at policies that allow doctors to consider race as a risk factor when allocating scarce COVID-19 treatments, saying the protocols discriminate against white people.

President Joe Biden often cites the critical role that South Carolina played when he won the Democratic nomination in 2020.

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been undergoing a series of medical examinations in a Milan hospital.

Police in Brussels have fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse violent demonstrations against COVID-19 vaccinations and restrictions.

The porn star who catapulted Michael Avenatti to fame four years ago will get a starring role in a New York courtroom when prosecutors try to prove the California lawyer cheated her of $300,000 in book proceeds.

U.S. taxpayers, brace yourselves because tax filing season starts Monday and you can expect the task to be more cumbersome than usual this year.

France says one of its soldiers has been killed in a mortar attack on a base in Mali.

Farmers, cattle-breeders, hunters and opposition supporters have descended on Spain's capital of Madrid to protest environmental and economic policies by Spain’s left-of-center government that they say are hurting rural communities.

Pope Francis has expressed his concern over “rising tensions” in Ukraine that threaten peace, and called for political talks that put at the center "human brotherhood instead of partisan interests."

Residents in Burkina Faso's capital say gunfire has erupted in the same area as embattled President Roch Marc Christian Kabore’s home.

The lawyer of a well-known Turkish journalist says she has been remanded in custody pending a trial for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Russia's Foreign Ministry has rejected a British claim that Russia is seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration and that former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate.

Hungary's nationalist leader is keen to use the threat of migrants at his country's southern border to give him an advantage in the upcoming general election.

The U.K. government made the claim based on an intelligence assessment, without providing evidence to back it up.

Former premier Silvio Berlusconi has bowed out of Italy’s presidential election set for next week.

When officials in Chester, Georgia, heard that the 2020 census had pegged their small town at 525 people, their jaws dropped.

Thousands of people have gathered in European capitals to protest vaccine passports and other requirements their governments have imposed in hopes of ending the coronavirus pandemic.

State-by-state battles over the future of abortion are setting up around the U.S. Republican lawmakers are proposing new restrictions based on laws in Texas and Mississippi and some Democratic-led states are working to preserve access.

Food banks are experiencing a critical shortage of volunteers as the omicron variant frightens people away from group activities.

The British government on Saturday accused Russia of seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration, and said former Ukrainian lawmaker Yevheniy Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate.

A British politician who accuses the government of blackmailing opponents of Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will take his allegations to the police.

On a warm spring day in Ukraine 26 years ago, three men smiled for cameras as they planted symbolic sunflower seedlings in freshly tilled earth where Soviet nuclear missiles had once stood ready.

Leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party have voted to censure Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Vice President Kamala Harris returned to her home state during challenging times for the White House to highlight funding for federal wildfire programs.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says the criticism he received over a comment made about African American voters is outrageous and offensive.

The National Archives and Records Administration has provided a House committee with more than 700 pages of presidential documents after the Supreme Court rejected a bid by former President Donald Trump to block the release.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey is suing the Biden administration over its demand that the state stop sending millions in federal COVID-19 relief money to schools if they don’t have mask requirements or close due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

General Motors is poised to announce next week major electric vehicle investments in Michigan.

Even some Republicans who have supported the “stand your ground law” in Kansas want to revisit it following the death of a Black teenager who was restrained at a juvenile intake center in Wichita last September.

Facing a bleak national picture, President Joe Biden is embracing the old adage about politics being local.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider limiting a recent decision about Native American land in Oklahoma that the state says has produced chaos in its courts.

Democrats know they may lose control of Congress in November's midterm elections.

Colorado, the U.S. government and a gold mining company have agreed to resolve a longstanding dispute over who’s responsible for cleanup at a Superfund site that was established after a massive 2015 spill of hazardous mine waste.

California’s unemployment rate dipped a half-percentage point in December as the most populous state added 50,700 nonfarm jobs.

A U.S. judge in Texas has issued a nationwide injunction barring the federal government from enforcing President Joe Biden’s requirement that federal workers without qualifying medical or religious exemptions be vaccinated for COVID-19.

A Florida man who helped Rudy Giuliani seek damaging information against Joe Biden in Ukraine has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison and fined $10,000 in an unrelated campaign finance case.

Congress has taken a new step toward reining in the market dominance of Big Tech. Bipartisan legislation advanced by a Senate panel would bar the dominant online platforms from favoring their own goods and services over those of rivals on the platforms.

Government and business leaders have urged global cooperation on climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic recovery at the World Economic Forum’s virtual gathering this week.

In Costa Rica, election officials are encouraging those infected with the coronavirus to skip voting in upcoming national elections.

Daily new coronavirus infections in Russia have reached an all-time high and authorities are blaming the highly contagious omicron variant, which they expect to soon dominate the country’s outbreak.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is making another trip to drum up support among abortion opponents in the early-voting state of South Carolina.

The Biden administration has announced policy changes to attract international students specializing in science, technology, engineering and math.

Chipmaker Intel says it will invest $20 billion to build a factory in central Ohio in an attempt to help alleviate a global shortage of chips that power everything from phones to cars to home appliances.

Ministers from European Union nations under pressure from unauthorized migration are asking for more action to strengthen and protect the bloc’s external borders as well as for regulations to return migrants to their homelands.

Top U.S. and Russian diplomats agreed to keep talking in the standoff over Ukraine, even though their meeting produced no movement in the crisis that has seen Moscow mass tens of thousands of troops at the border and the West ramp up supplies of weapons to Kyiv.

For Boris Johnson, facts have always been flexible.

The top U.S. diplomat will also hold discussions in Berlin and Geneva as the Biden administration warns of “massive consequences” should Moscow launch a renewed invasion of Ukraine.

Campaigners hope the outcome of review into the pre-2000 ban will entitle them to compensation.

The Austrian government on Sunday presented revised plans for its proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which it said will now apply to all residents age 18 and over, rather than 14 as originally intended. The government announced nearly two months ago that it would implement a general vaccine mandate early this year, becoming the first European country to do so. Chancellor Karl Nehammer said there had been concern about teenagers being punished, hence the change in the lower age limit.

Conservationists and veterinarians are warning that plastic waste in an open landfill in eastern Sri Lanka is killing elephants, after two more were found dead over the weekend

The White House said Thursday it “strongly opposes” the measure, which it argued “would only serve to undermine unity amongst our European allies at a crucial moment” as Russia threatens Ukraine.

Some people are paying many hundreds of pounds more for domestic energy ahead of widespread price rises.

Frontline workers and vulnerable adults will get booster jabs as the country battles a spike in cases.

Three suspected pirates detained on a Danish military vessel after a fatal gunfight in November off West Africa have been released because preliminary charges of attempted murder against them have been dropped

The Czech government has decided to cut isolation restrictions for those testing positive for COVID-19 from 14 to five days, and also similarly shortened quarantine time for close contacts of infected people

The move brings Scotland into line with the rest of the UK by cutting the isolation period from 10 days to seven.

Colombian officials say at least 16 people were killed in Colombia this weekend and dozens had to flee their homes, as fighting between rebel groups intensified in the eastern state of Arauca

Phil Thomas has even thought about which way to run "if something starts pouring down the hill".

China has opened an embassy in Nicaragua for the first time since 1990, acting just over three weeks after President Daniel Ortega’s government broke off relations with Taiwan

Remote working will become compulsory from 3 January but there will be no New Year's Eve curfew.

Germany’s health minister says the government has reached its goal of 30 million additional immunizations against COVID-19 by year’s end

France recorded more than 100,000 virus infections in a single day for the first time since the pandemic struck and COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled over the past month

Ministers will rule nothing out as Omicron cases continue to surge ahead of Christmas, the PM says.

Models suggest a peak in Scotland in late January or early February, according to Prof Jason Leitch.

With the omicron variant surging in the U.S., requiring shots for workers will save lives.

Sudan’s pro-democracy movement has planned mass protests against a military takeover and a subsequent deal that reinstated Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok but sidelined the movement

The flat expanse of crop fields dotted with towns is now fully under the control of Amhara militias. Tigrayans say they're the targets of a campaign of revenge.

Music venues, cinemas, comedy clubs and more feel the effects of concerns about the Omicron variant.

Far-right anti-vaccination activists are suspected of plotting to kill Saxony leader Michael Kretschmer.

The first minister is expected to give new advice on how many other people or households you should meet in a day.

Canadian political and military leaders have apologized to victims of military sexual misconduct

Some employers are not happy about new work from home guidance which came into force on Monday.

The move comes as experts say the UK faces a substantial wave of Omicron without further restrictions.

Julian Assange closer to being extradited from UK to US, after US government wins extradition case in London.

Brazil will require international travelers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 to quarantine for five days in their city of destination after arriving by plane

The PCR testing market is a "rip off jungle", says former chairman of the Consumer and Markets Authority.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin announces a number of new restrictions in a televised address.

The number of cases in Scotland increases to 29, including six linked to a Steps concert in Glasgow.

Human Rights Watch says the killing of at least 65 protesters in Myanmar’s biggest city on March 14 this year was planned and premeditated

President Biden will provide an update on the U.S. response to the latest COVID-19 variant Omicron as cases continue to spread around the world. This comes amid a crucial few weeks for the president as he tries to pass his social spending plan and a government shutdown looms. Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

Here's the latest for Monday November 29th: COVID-19 omicron variant found in more countries; Flooding in Washington state; Major abortion rights case goes to Supreme Court; Jewish festival of Hannukah begins.

Arbaz Mullah's love story began, as romances often do, when he first laid eyes on the woman of his dreams, Shweta Kumbhar. The romance so angered relatives of Kumbhar, a Hindu, that they allegedly hired members of a hardline Hindu nationalist group to kill the 24-year-old Mullah, who was Muslim. (Nov. 29)

An industry expert believes the Grenfell cladding was among products to fail fire tests 13 years earlier.

The government backs Lissie Harper's campaign to jail those who kill on-duty police and 999 workers for life.

Protests have also erupted in the overseas territory of Martinique.

The health organisation's regional director warns of half a million deaths by March without action.

The companies were chosen to supply protective equipment in the early stages of the pandemic.

Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Thursday morning.

Nicola Sturgeon was keen to remind people that Scotland is a semiautonomous nation — and would like to be independent.

Michael Gove is in charge of delivering Boris Johnson's flagship policy - here is what he plans to do.

A report has suggested the carbon footprint of the Glasgow summit is more than double that of COP25.

The drug trafficking case has sparked a rare disquiet in Singapore where the death penalty is largely uncontroversial.

Three Muslim men sued the FBI in 2011, arguing the federal government targeted them and their Southern California community based on their religion.

In western Mexico a small squad of soldiers with about a half-dozen trucks and sandbag emplacements stands guard on a rural highway

A growing number of near-starving children are brought every day to the main children’s hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul