World Top News

LONDON — Residents told not to venture outside. Salt trucks spraying sand on roads to stop them from melting. Doctors pausing surgeries. Rail authorities warning tracks could buckle. Experts saying hundreds or thousands could die in the heat. This is not the introduction to a dystopian sci-fi novel but present-day Britain. The country descended into a dangerous heat wave Monday, with forecasts of 105 degrees that would make it hotter than 98% of the planet's surface. Meanwhile, wildfires continued to rage across continental Europe, with authorities battling to control blazes across France, Greece, Italy and elsewhere. In Spain and Portugal, more than 1,000 deaths have been attributed to their brutal, weeklong heat wave. The Met Office, Britain's national weather service, issued ...

DAKAR — Ghana has officially confirmed two cases of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, its health service said on Sunday, after two people who later died tested positive for the virus earlier this month. Tests conducted in Ghana came back positive on July 10, but the results had to be verified by a laboratory in Senegal for the cases to be considered confirmed, according to the World Health Organization. “Further testing at the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal has corroborated the results,” Ghana Health Service (GHS) said in a statement. GHS is working to reduce any risk of the virus spreading, including the isolation of all identified contacts, none of whom have developed any symptoms so far, it said.This is only the second outbreak of Marburg in West A...

SANTIAGO, Mexico — Restaurant owner Leticia Rodríguez celebrated the construction late last year of a new lakeside boulevard in this northern Mexico town that she hoped would draw more people to her business. But now with La Boca reservoir nearly empty, tourists have stopped coming to boat, water ski or just eat a meal. Rodríguez had to let go most of her staff in April and now runs the restaurant with her husband and children. A deepening drought in northern Mexico is not only making everyday life challenging for residents, but also in some cases is threatening their livelihoods. “The only hope is that it rains,” Rodríguez said. “That even the tail of a hurricane arrives so that the reservoir can recover, because that is what is killing us the most.” Last week, Mexico’s National W...

On Monday, the deputy head of Zelenskyy’s office, Andrii Smirnov, said Bakanov and Venediktova had not been fired but instead were “temporarily removed from their positions” so as not to interfere in the ongoing investigations into their staffers. Zelenskyy needs parliament's approval to formally fire them. For the time being, both Bakanov and Venediktova have been replaced by their deputies. There was no immediate reaction from either official. NBC News reached out to both for comment. The firings come as Ukraine braces for Moscow to intensify its offensive in the eastern region of the Donbas after a brief battlefield pause during which the Russian command allowed its troops to rest and regroup. Zelenskyy used this relative lull to tackle the problem Oofos Outlet of collaborators with...

The nation's top general has ordered his staff to gather information about every interaction between the U.S. military and the Chinese military over the past five years to review the growing number of interactions with the Chinese military in the South China Sea and beyond, say three defense officials. The order from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came after a video teleconference call between Milley and his Chinese counterpart on July 7, the officials said. During the call, Gen. Li Zuocheng, the chief of the Joint Staff Department for the People’s Liberation Army of China, disputed the U.S. contention that there has been an uptick in aggressive behavior by Chinese military aircraft and ships against U.S. and allied military operating in international waters that...

After you've wiped away the tears and thanked your mum, you can expect to sell a lot more records. Even a global blockbuster like Adele's 21 saw a 207% sales increase after it won best album in 2012. Victory also gives you an advantage in the boardroom, says Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. "It impacts your ability to attract attention, thereby getting you better deals, better contracts," he told Billboard earlier this year. But the halo effect doesn't end there. A new study suggests that Grammy winners are more likely to try out new sounds and make stylistic innovations on their next record. "Think about Fleetwood Mac going from Rumours to Tusk," says sociology Professor Giacomo Negro, who co-authored the paper. "The songw...