Results for World

Former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzō’s assassination at an election campaign event in Nara, Japan, is both shocking and puzzling. It is shocking because Japan has known almost no political violence for at least a half-century, and because gun ownership in the country is tightly controlled. It is puzzling because Abe, having stepped down as prime minister in 2020, had no formal government role; yet the killing was plainly a political act. By Bill Emmott.

New York Times reporting: Goro, is the largest nickel mine on a tiny French territory suspended between Australia and Fiji that may hold up to one-quarter of the world’s nickel reserves. It also poses a critical test for Tesla, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker, which wants to take control of its supply chain and ensure that the minerals used for its car batteries are mined in an environmentally and socially responsible fashion. Because of its nickel industry, New Caledonia is one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita. And mining, which began soon after New Caledonia was colonized in 1853, is intimately linked to the exploitation of its Indigenous Kanak people. The legacy of more than a century of stolen land and crushed traditions has left Goro’s nickel output at the mercy of frequent labour strikes and political protests.

New York Times reporting: An early study of coronavirus test results in South Africa suggests that, so far, patients infected with the omicron variant may be hospitalized less often than patients infected with earlier versions of the virus. The study — which was released Tuesday and is based on only three weeks of data — also shows that vaccines are not as effective against the variant, which poses a higher risk of breakthrough infections. Booster shots increased the Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy against infection.

New York Times Reporting by Natasha Frost. New Zealand plans to allow most fully vaccinated travelers into the country by the end of April without a mandatory hotel quarantine, as it slowly emerges from what has been one of the world’s longest lockdowns.

New York Times reporting: When it comes to records of human history, do not overlook Earth’s only uninhabited continent. Researchers recently found soot preserved in Antarctic ice that they have linked to fires set in New Zealand by Māori settlers, the islands’ first human inhabitants. Finding evidence of conflagrations thousands of miles away is a dramatic example of early humanity’s environmental impact, the team suggests. These results were published Wednesday in ‘Nature’.

New York Times Reporting: President Joe Biden’s announcement of a deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines has strained the Western alliance, infuriating France and foreshadowing how the conflicting U.S. and European responses to confrontation with China may redraw the global strategic map. The Biden administration appears to be upping the ante with Beijing by providing a Pacific ally with submarines that are much harder to detect than conventional ones.

New York Times reporting: A man who wounded seven people in a West Auckland supermarket and was shot dead by police had been under surveillance for months. The New Zealand government had been trying to expedite counterterrorism legislation in Parliament to give law enforcement officials a legal way to take him back into custody.

New York Times News Analysis: An era that began two decades ago with the shock of hijacked planes flying into American skyscrapers drew to a close this week with desperate Afghans clinging to American planes as they tried to escape the chaos of Kabul. Some fell; one was found dead in the landing gear. A colossal bipartisan investment of U.S. force, treasure and diplomacy to defeat a hostile ideology bent on the creation of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has failed. Over four presidencies, two Republican and two Democratic, more than 2,400 Americans gave their lives, and more than $1 trillion was spent, for shifting Afghan goals, many of which proved unattainable.

New York Times reporting: World records are bound to fall at every Olympics, when the world’s greatest athletes compete on one stage and are pushed further and faster by advances in technology. Yet many also wondered whether the impact of a year’s delay would hinder the expected monumental performances. But athletes persevered and world records were shattered in a smattering of sports.