Caracas shears five zeros from bolívar, which will be pegged to new cryptocurrency
Venezuela moved to shore up its crumbling economy on Monday, devaluing its currency and preparing to raise the minimum wage by more than 3,000% in what the country?€?s president, Nicolás Maduro, declared a visionary bid to tame rampant hyperinflation.
More than 500,000 Venezuelans have fled overseas this year amid chronic shortages of food and medicine, soaring crime and warnings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that inflation could hit 1m% this year.
Rising arctic temperatures mean we face a future of ?€?extreme extremes?€? where sunny days become heatwaves and rain becomes floods, study says
Summer weather patterns are increasingly likely to stall in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, according to a new climate study that explains why Arctic warming is making heatwaves elsewhere more persistent and dangerous.
Rising temperatures in the Arctic have slowed the circulation of the jet stream and other giant planetary winds, says the paper, which means high and low pressure fronts are getting stuck and weather is less able to moderate itself.
Emotional scenes as relatives take part in first cross-border reunions for three years
Siblings long assumed dead and parents who were separated from their children have come face to face for the first time in more than six decades as 89 families from the two Koreas were reunited in North Korea on Monday.
The reunions, the first in three years, are a symbol of the painful divisions that remain long after the end of the 1950-53 Korean war. Families embraced and many cried to the point of being unable to speak for several minutes.
177 ex-national security officials sign open letter accusing Trump of revoking Brennan?€?s clearance for political reasons
Donald Trump continued to attack the former CIA director John Brennan on Monday, seemingly in response to the release of a remarkable open letter criticizing the president?€?s decision last week to revoke Brennan?€?s security clearance.
Cruise ship passenger Kay Longstaff was rescued after going overboard on Saturday
A British cruise ship passenger rescued after spending 10 hours in the Adriatic Sea has credited singing and her fitness through yoga with helping her to survive her ordeal.
Kay Longstaff, 46, went overboard off the coast of Croatia as the Norwegian Star made its way to Venice. She remained at the naval hospital in Pula, Croatia, on Monday afternoon, although she spoke to a Croatian news channel after her rescue on Sunday and her condition is not believed to be serious.
Francis condemns culture of cover-ups and promises zero tolerance in letter to Catholics
Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged the failures of the Roman Catholic church in dealing with sexual abuse by priests, attacking a ?€?culture of death?€? and deferential ?€?clericalism?€? that helps perpetuate evil.
An unprecedented letter from ?€?His Holiness Pope Francis to the People of God?€? was issued after almost a week of mounting pressure following the publication of an excoriating report into abuse by priests in Pennsylvania.
?€?The worst is over?€? after eight very difficult years for the country, commissioner says
Greece has turned the page to become ?€?a normal?€? member of the single currency, European Union authorities in Brussels declared as the country finally exited its eight-year bailout programme.
Its three bailouts during the eurozone crisis totalled ?288.7bn (£258bn) - the world?€?s biggest-ever financial rescue. During that time, as the crisis threatened to lead to the nation?€?s ejection from the single currency - ?€?Grexit?€? - Greece has had four governments and endured one of the worst recessions in economic history.
The actor and #MeToo campaigner - who accused Harvey Weinstein of rape - reportedly paid $380,000 last year to former co-star Jimmy Bennett
One of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment recently settled a complaint filed against her by a young actor and musician who said she sexually assaulted him when he was 17, the New York Times reported.
Asia Argento, 42, settled the notice of intent to sue filed by Jimmy Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her, the Times reported.
Footage released by the Italian police shows cars driving along a road beneath the Genoa bridge before capturing the moment of collapse. A 200-metre section of the bridge gave way in busy traffic on Tuesday, leaving 43 people dead
Roots says he has previously shown Oliver how to make ?€?real deal?€? jerk cuisine
The chef and entrepreneur Levi Roots has described Jamie Oliver?€?s decision to launch a jerk rice dish as a mistake, as a row over cultural appropriation widened.
Oliver was called out on the product by the shadow equalities minister, Dawn Butler, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who questioned whether the chef knew what jerk was.
Director of Bram Stoker?€?s Dracula says 1992 film starring the pair included a real wedding ceremony
Francis Ford Coppola has backed a theory by Winona Ryder that she and Keanu Reeves might be married.
The director of the 1992 film Bram Stoker?€?s Dracula, which starred Ryder and Reeves, corroborated Ryder?€?s story that a wedding scene involving the pair could be legally binding.
A road project has taken the homes of 2,000 families without compensation - yet over half of Kenyans travel on foot
Early on Sunday morning on the outskirts of Nairobi, hundreds of people gathered amid the rubble where their church once stood. Pastors preached atop bare foundations. Worshippers, dressed in their Sunday best, sat on shattered bricks and broken concrete. Pamphlets, family photos and school papers littered the ground.
Days before, they had watched as bulldozers tore through their neighbourhood, mowing down churches, schools and businesses, to make way for a highway extension that aims to ease Nairobi?€?s notoriously bad traffic congestion. The new road will pass through the heart of Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Africa, where many of the homes are built from mud bricks and corrugated metal, and house some of the capital?€?s poorest people.
Visitors are promised a taste of the newly reunited city?€?s 1990s underground music scene
If you can remember it, you probably weren?€?t there, as the old adage goes. What was true of the summer of love generation applies also to Berlin?€?s 1990s techno scene, the subject of the city?€?s latest blockbuster exhibition.
The brainchild of the team behind Berlin?€?s nostalgia-drenched DDR Museum, Nineties Berlin promises thrill-seeking tourists a taste of the fabled parties of the 20th century?€?s last decade.
Playground oases could benefit students and city alike, but will making them public prove too controversial in a city on high alert?
It?€?s only 10am but the heat is already radiating off the asphalt at the École Riblette, a primary school on the outskirts of Paris. Sébastien Maire, the city?€?s chief resilience officer, points to the school?€?s lower courtyard, a classic heat trap: surrounded by concrete walls that reflect sunlight inside. Last June, the courtyard hit 55C (131F).
?€?For three days, school activities stopped,?€? Maire says. ?€?It was not possible for the children to study, nor to go into the schoolyard. We would forbid them because it?€?s 55 degrees - you can fry an egg on the ground.?€?
Reports warn it could run out of groundwater by 2020. Has Delhi run out of time to reverse years of mismanagement and unchecked urbanisation?
It?€?s about 4pm on a muggy monsoon day in Wazirpur, a low-income urban village in Delhi. A group of 30 women are lined up in the 34C heat (93F) behind an assortment of empty coolers, buckets, petrol containers - anything they can store water in once the government tanker arrives.
?€?We?€?ve been here since 10am,?€? says 55-year-old Gudi. ?€?You never know if the tanker will come or not - we come here every day and wait.?€?
Large-scale cemetery in Africa points to shared workload without social hierarchy
Herders in east Africa 5,000 years ago lived in peaceful communities that shunned social hierarchies, communicated intensively and worked together to build massive cemeteries, new research by archaeologists has revealed.
Work by a team of US-based experts on a remote site near Lake Turkana in Kenya contradicts longstanding beliefs about the origins of the first civilisations. It suggests that early communities did not inevitably develop powerful elites or compete violently for scarce resources, but may have worked together to overcome challenges instead.
Torran MacDonald was born 426 metres above Penzance on the Cornish coast
A woman has thanked medical staff and aircrew who helped in the birth of her son, who was born inside a helicopter almost half a kilometre above the Cornish coast.
Torran MacDonald was born in a coastguard helicopter over Penzance on Saturday night, weighing 3.4kg (7lb 8oz), after his mother, Alicia MacDonald, went into labour while visiting the Isles of Scilly.
Pope Francis has demanded his church repent and change after the latest scandals. Will it? Can it?
Pope Francis?€?s letter to his church on the scandals of sexual abuse is full of anger and remorse, but empty of specific policies beyond a call to prayer and fasting. This can be defended. A change of heart must come before the actions which will express it. But it is also horrifyingly late and grimly familiar. Not only have successive popes and prelates been expressing their anguish and their shame at child abuse all this century, but the scandals themselves have continued with numbing regularity. It?€?s almost as if the culture of the church ran deeper than the wishes of any pope.
This year opened particularly badly with Francis himself defending with angry scorn a Chilean bishop credibly accused of abuse. This did huge damage to the church?€?s reputation there; to his credit, he realised this and later took the accusations seriously. Since then he has sacked the bishop in question and four others, among them the man who was in charge of dealing with abuse reports, although the affair still festers: a priest involved in the reporting of abusers is now in criminal custody, but though he had confessed his crimes to his superiors in January, they somehow overlooked the possibility of reporting him to the civil authorities for six months while the scandal raged all around them.
Fears UK export deal signals it will become normal to lower standards to secure trade deals
Senior politicians and animal welfare groups have condemned the government over a deal that allows meat from lambs slaughtered without being stunned to be exported to Saudi Arabia.
They say the deal, estimated by the government to be worth £25m over the next five years, shows a shameful disregard for animal welfare and signals that after Brexit it will become acceptable to lower standards to secure trade deals.
Witnesses said the woman was pulled under the water by an 8ft alligator but the dog did not appear to have been hurt
A woman trying to protect her dog was killed by an alligator which pulled her into a lagoon at a private South Carolina resort, authorities said on Monday.
A free-market approach won?€?t rescue the world from climate change, argue Richard Vernon and Dave Hunter, while Nicholas Falk says the UK can learn from China. Philip Steadman offers ideas for keeping cities cool
Larry Elliott rightly directs our attention to the impending perils of climate change and to some of the impediments to their avoidance (Capitalism can crack climate change. But it must take risks, 16 August). His suggested solution ?€?that the world needs to wage war against climate change?€? misses the most important component. Climate change is driven by climate changers: you and me and 7.6 billion fellow humans, increasing by 83 million a year and with effects on much more than climate change.
Benign and non-coercive means to reverse that growth, to achieve something like the 2.5 to 3 billion that experts estimate the planet could sustainably support, are well known. They include the much wider and free provision of reproductive health services, including family planning, to all who need them, and of both general and health education especially to the large number of the world?€?s girls currently denied them. Richard Vernon Oxford
Tuesday?€?s meeting is expected to be dominated by the PM?€?s attempts to head off a full-blown leadership crisis
Malcolm Turnbull will face the verdict of his colleagues in a tense party room meeting on Tuesday, after effectively abandoning the government?€?s signature energy policy in what could be a fruitless attempt to stay ahead of a full blown leadership crisis.
The British tourist was rescued after falling from a cruise ship into the Adriatic
If you are going to fall from a cruise ship into open water, there are worse places to do so than the Adriatic Sea at the height of summer. The temperature of the stretch of water that separates Italy from the Balkan peninsula is above 20C (68F) in August and minimal wind means that the sea tends to be calm.
Kay Longstaff said she fell from an aft deck on the Venice-bound Norwegian Star around midnight on Saturday and spent 10 hours in the water before she was found and pulled to safety. Had it been another time of year, or a different body of water, the story may have ended very differently. ?€?The two big factors with falling into water are the temperature and the sea state, and they compound each other,?€? said Prof Mike Tipton, an expert in sea survival at the University of Portsmouth.
New analysis warns food loss is set to increase by a third by 2030 unless urgent action is taken
The amount of food that is wasted each year will rise by a third by 2030, when 2.1bn tonnes will either be lost or thrown away, equivalent to 66 tonnes per second, according to new analysis.
The report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) warns that the global response to food waste is fragmented and inadequate, and that the problem is growing at an alarming rate.
Two years ago, the state branded him a terrorist. Now, after years in exile, activist Jawar Mohammed is back - and determined to see democracy in his country
Jawar Mohammed never travels alone. When the US-based Ethiopian activist returned to his home country on 5 August, he was treated like royalty. A posse of sharply suited young men hovered by him at all times. Jeeps carrying security guards patrolled his hotel in central Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. Supporters from the provinces arrived in droves to pay their respects. Over the course of a two-week visit he held about 25 to 30 meetings a day, according to an exhausted aide.
After meeting with the Guardian in his hotel suite he rushed off to give a lecture at the capital?€?s main university, entourage in tow.
Dom Phillips and Gary Calton joined an expedition to track the whereabouts of an uncontacted tribe, who threaten the safety of Brazil?€?s Marubo people
US law ignores the violence routinely suffered by women in prostitution, and actively criminalises victims. Here, after a Guardian investigation revealed the exploitation cycle in US prisons, two activists say enough is enough
Every day on the streets of the US, women are being raped, viciously attacked and left for dead. When women do die, their killings almost never make the local news and the perpetrators who commit these horrendous acts of violence do so with almost total impunity.
Under the country?€?s laws, these women are victims. But their lives are deemed worthless by the public and the state. They hold no political agency or economic power and, while they are incarcerated time and time again, the perpetrators - the people who hurt them - are never jailed.
Rajasthan moves to tackle above average infant mortality rate by promoting natural feeding in first hour of life
The Rajasthan government has launched a campaign to promote breastfeeding, particularly in the first hour after birth, in a bid to improve the state?€?s infant mortality rate.
There were 41 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births in the north-east Indian state in 2016, compared with the national average of 34.
Nicolás Maduro?€?s emergency package to tackle the problem looks doomed to fail
Countries suffering from an inflationary problem fall into three categories: the ones that have a sharply rising cost of living; the ones gripped by hyperinflation; and the ones where things are so bad comparisons are made with Germany in 1923. With the International Monetary Fund predicting that inflation will hit 1,000,000% by the end of the year, Venezuela falls into the third category.
It wasn?€?t always this way. Venezuela has the highest oil reserves in the world and could once boast of being one of the richest countries in Latin America. Poverty levels were more than halved under the former president, Hugo Chávez, and there was bountiful public investment in health and education.
The strategy of austerity will have long-term consequences throughout Europe
After eight years, Greece will on Monday be deemed strong enough to stand on its own feet. The international bailout programme that has provided Athens with emergency financial support will come to an end. Aside from the tough budget rules in place for the next decade or more, Greeks can wave goodbye to the troika - the officials from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union - that has in effect been running the country since 2010.
Beware the hype that trumpets this as a great success story, a tribute to solidarity and a commonsense approach that has restored economic stability and prevented Greece from being the first country to leave the euro. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The president?€?s decision to revoke the former CIA director John Brennan?€?s security clearance turned his feud with his intelligence agencies into an all-out war, uniting former officials against him
For two years, Donald Trump has attacked the US intelligence community as a whole and individually on topics as various as the Iraq war, Hillary Clinton, Michael Flynn, the so-called Steele dossier and, most of all, the Russia investigation.
As secretary general of the UN, he dared to ruffle feathers as he defended the body and its work
Kofi Annan?€?s decade-long tenure as UN secretary general was memorable for the multiple international crises on his watch and the extraordinary calm he exuded while trying to deal with their consequences - both for the world and a body that rarely managed to perform as well as its founding fathers had intended.
Like previous and subsequent UN chiefs, the mild-mannered Ghanaian quickly discovered that the tasks he had to carry out felt simultaneously unachievable and thankless because of the constant squabbling and conflicting interests of member states, especially the five veto-wielding permanent members of the security council.
Donald Trump's lawyer, the former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, has made several gaffes while serving his client, ranging from spilling the beans on how Michael Cohen bought Stormy Daniels's silence to confusing tales about the alleged meeting with Russian operatives in Trump Tower. So far, Giuliani has managed to keep his job. But how much longer will the president tolerate the slip-ups?
Eighty-nine North and South Korean families were temporarily reunited on Monday in a tearful meeting on Mount Kumgang, a North Korean tourist resort. Many families we separated after the Korean war in 1953. Reunions are permitted only occasionally by North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, but now an ageing generation means the numbers at the meetings are set to decline
Muslims from around the world have started the yearly ritual in Saudi Arabia, performing rites in and around the holy city of Mecca. Hajj is a religious duty that must be carried out by those adults who are able to at least once in their lifetime
A 6.3-magnitude earthquake has rocked the Indonesian island of Lombok, sending people fleeing into the streets just two weeks after a quake that killed more than 460 people. The quake on Sunday was centred west-south-west of Belanting town in East Lombok, the US Geological Survey said, at a relatively shallow depth of about 4.5 miles (7km). The tremor was also felt in the island?€?s capital Mataram and on the neighbouring resort island of Bali
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi flew over the worst floods in a century to hit Kerala, surveying the damage that has killed 164 people and forced 200,000 into relief camps. The Indian Air Force dropped aid packets for flood-hit victims in the southern state. Further heavy rainfall has been forecast and authorities plan to implement controlled releases of water from dams to manage flows and minimise damage.
The archbishop of Genoa, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, led a state funeral service on Saturday for the victims of the Morandi Bridge collapse, as rescue workers continued to search for people still unaccounted for. Italy's president, Sergio Mattarella, the prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, and deputy prime ministers Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini attended the ceremony.
The former UN secretary general faced tough times during his tenure at the organisation - the war in Iraq, which he opposed, lingering questions on scandals, deteriorating ties with the George W Bush administration and US rightwingers calling for his head. His worst moments, Annan said, included not being able to stop the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region and in the Iraq war
Democratic Underground, eller DU for kort, er nettets heftigste sted om du er interessert i amerikansk liberalistisk politikk. Med mer enn hundre tusen registrerte brukere og over 30 millioner postinger er det et av de mest populære forum på det amerikanske kontinent, og debatten holder høy kvalitet ettersom snittalderen på medlemmene er over 35 år. DU Wiki
Informed Comment - Juan Cole Juan Cole er professor i historie og leder for Global Americana Institute. Han kommenterer hendelsene i Midt-Østen i sin blogg, som har blitt et vanningshull for newsjunkies over hele verden.
Bradblog - Brad Friedman Brad Firedman blogger om valgfusk og overgrep mot borgerrettighetene i USA. En skarp og gravende blogger det er verdt å få med seg.
Eschaton (Atrios) - Duncan Bowen Black Atrios er en av de mest kjente bloggerne 'over there', og har mer enn 100.000 daglige treff. Han er tidligere kommentator på Air America radio, og er tilknyttet Media Matters Institute siden 2005.
Rigorous Intuition - Jeff Wells Jeff Wells er av få som kan skrive intelligent om temaer som UFOs, HAARP og andre 'konspirasjonsteorier' uten å ha det konspiratoriske verdensbilde som utgangspunkt. Han graver uansett tema, og kommer med mange kloke betraktninger. Han poster på DU under nick Minstrel Boy.
Wake Up Call Krigsveteraner fra østkysten i USA driver denne bloggen, som inneholder tanker om krig og USAs rolle i verdenspolitikken. Flere av disse er med i den ambulerende fredskampanjen Eyes Wide Open.
Lukery Lukery blogger mest om Sibel Edmonds, og er en person i kretsen rundt henne. Bloggen er vel verdt å ta en kikk på.
Organized Rage Organized Rage er en EU-relatert anglo-irsk blogg som skriver om livet fra arbeiderklassens perspektiv.
(Alt stoff fra NIFS kan fritt siteres, men det er fint om du tar med en link til oss)
Juan Cole er professor i historie og leder for Global Americana Institute.
Hun driver nyhetsstedet 