2019

The North Korean authorities have reportedly stepped up a crackdown on “non-socialist” behaviour, including unapproved hairstyles, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the country’s founding in September.  Youth groups affiliated with the regime are said to have been deployed across the country to warn or detain citizens found sporting banned fashions or hairstyles, North Korean sources told…

With their heads bowed and wearing orange robes, the members of the boys’ soccer team rescued from almost three weeks trapped in a cave in northern Thailand on Saturday completed their time as novice Buddhist monks. About 300 people gathered for the ceremony on a rainy morning that saw the boys leave temple life to…

Assassin’s Creed is a series all about history – well, that and stabbing people in the neck. So, for the release of Origins, we thought we’d celebrate by delving into the history of the series. It’s a lot less messy than doing the stabbing in the neck thing ourselves. Below, find our absolutely official definitive…

Greece has opened a criminal investigation into the deadly wildfires that devastated a coastal resort near Athens this week, as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras said he assumed "political responsibility" for the tragedy.  At a cabinet meeting broadcast by Greek media, Mr Tsipras said he wanted first of all "to assume completely before the great Greek…

Japanese immigration officials have been accused of forcibly removing a crying five-year-old boy from the lap of his Vietnamese mother before she was deported from the country. The mother was among 46 Vietnamese deported by immigration officials in February for staying illegally in Japan, with members of 12 families reportedly separated as a result. Nguyen…

South Africa’s government accused Donald Trump of hysteria on Thursday after he questioned its plans to seize white-owned agricultural land and asserted that white farmers were being murdered on a “large scale”. Stirred into action after watching a television programme on land reform in South Africa, the US president instructed his secretary of state, Mike…

A weekly show glorifying Vladimir Putin’s political acumen, physical fitness and love of children has made its debut on Russian state television, raising concerns of a Stalinesque “personality cult”. The hour-long show, titled “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.,” comes after the president’s popularity took a hit over an widely loathed plan to raise the pension age. Hosted…

Nintendo Switch has supported video recording for a few weeks now (simply hold down that capture button). It was introduced just in time for the launch of Super Mario Odyssey but only a handful of Nintendo’s own games have supported it. That all changes today with the release of Skyrim, developed and published by Betheseda….

More than 60,000 cars are set to be banned from the streets of Frankfurt next year in Germany’s toughest diesel ban yet. The German financial capital has been ordered to prohibit all but the newest diesel vehicles from its streets despite opposition from the city authorities, following a court ruling this week. More than two-thirds…