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Hello, I'm Eileen McHugh with the BBC News.
At least 15 people have been killed after a funicular tram derailed and crashed in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. A number of others have been injured. The bright yellow car, which can hold around 40 passengers, was all but destroyed as it descended one of the city's steep streets. John Sudworth reports. Eyewitnesses described the carriage, which can hold up to 40 passengers, as being out of control and, as it rounded a bend, toppling over and crashing into a building at speed. Some people were trapped inside, although all are reported to have now been freed, with some of those injured said to be in a serious condition. The funicular is popular with tourists and the authorities say there are some foreign nationals among the dead. A day of national mourning will be observed tomorrow and Portugal's prime minister has issued a statement saying the tragic accident has brought "dismay to the country." At least 29 people have died in Nigeria after a boat capsized in the north-central Niger state. Officials say the vessel was carrying about 90 passengers, including children, when it struck a tree stump on the river Niger and capsized due to suspected overloading. The state's emergency agency says recovery operations are continuing. A U.S. federal judge has overturned the Trump administration's decision to cut more than $2 billion in research grants to Harvard University. Judge Allison Burroghs ruled the move was unlawful retaliation after Harvard resisted White House demands to overhaul its governance, admission and teaching. Arunade Mukherjee reports from Washington. The judge wrote that the defendants used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities. The decision comes as the country's oldest and richest university looks to strike a deal with the White House. In July, Columbia University, facing similar pressure, settled by agreeing to pay $200 million to the Trump administration. These are among several universities that have been pursued by Mr. Trump over protests against Israel's offensive in Gaza and other issues. Education and medical groups have criticized plans by Florida's top health official to end all vaccine mandates, including those required for children to attend schools. The main schoolteachers' organization has condemned the motion. Florida's Surgeon General Joseph Ladepo said people had a right to opt out of vaccinations. "Who am I as a government or anyone else or who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body? It's wrong. It's immoral. They do not have the right to tell you what you put in your body. They don't have the right to tell you what your kids have to put in your body. They do not have the right. Do not give it to them. Take it away from them." This is the world news from the BBC. The incumbent president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, and his party have both been returned to power in elections. Mr. Ali gets a second five-year term. His People's Progressive Party won more than twice as many votes as its nearest rival. But the second-place party is seen as having done well, having been founded just three months ago by a business magnate. The U.S. secretary of state [say] said Washington will keep attacking drug traffickers at sea, a day after the White House said it destroyed a boat belonging to a Venezuelan cartel. Marco Rubio was speaking on a visit to Mexico City. Our correspondent Will Grant says security was likely to be the main topic of discussion. Security will be a reference to the crackdown on fentanyl trafficking and undocumented immigration north. Marco Rubio called the security relationship the strongest it has ever been. Mexico has sent dozens of cartel members to the U.S. to face trial, including kingpins like Rafael Caro Quintero. And both sides expressed a hope that that cooperation can continue. A court in Morocco is reported to have sentenced a feminist activist to 30 months in prison for insulting Islam. Ibtissam "Betty" Lachgar was arrested last month after posting a picture of herself on social media wearing a T-shirt reading "Allah is a lesbian." A harrowing new film about a young Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza last year has received a standing ovation lasting more than 20 minutes at the Venice Film Festival. "The Voice of Hind Rajab" reconstructs the final phone call of the five-year-old who was trapped in a car in Gaza City last January after the Israeli fire killed her relatives. Hind pleaded for help from the Palestinian Red Crescent before she and two medics sent to rescue her were also killed. That's the latest BBC News. |