World News

LONDON (AP) — New measures to combat the new omicron variant of coronavirus took effect in England on Tuesday, with face coverings again compulsory in shops and on public transportation, as the government said it would offer all adults a booster dose of vaccine within two months to bolster the nation's immunity.

PARIS (AP) — A far-right former TV pundit with multiple hate-speech convictions officially entered the race for France's presidency on Tuesday and warned his supporters that they will likely be called racists for backing his anti-immigration and anti-Islam views that have already shaken up the election campaign.

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Myanmar postponed its verdict on Tuesday in the trial of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to allow testimony from an additional witness, a senior member of her political party.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Barbados stopped pledging allegiance to Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday as it shed another vestige of its colonial past and became a republic for the first time in history.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland said Tuesday that consumer prices have risen 7.7% over the past year, evidence that inflation is accelerating even faster than had been expected in the largest central European economy in the European Union.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Residents in Greece over 60 years old will have to undergo mandatory vaccinations against coronavirus or face monthly 100-euro ($114) fines beginning next year, the prime minister announced Tuesday, declaring the country's first general inoculation mandate.

LONDON (AP) — China, which is increasingly flexing its muscles around the world, is one of the biggest threats to Britain and its allies, and a “miscalculation" by Beijing could lead to war, the head of the U.K.'s foreign intelligence agency said Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union said Tuesday that it wants China to release “verifiable proof" that tennis player Peng Shuai is safe and to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into her sexual assault allegations.

LESBOS, Greece (AP) — When Pope Francis visited the Greek island of Lesbos in 2016, he was so moved by the stories he heard from families fleeing war in Iraq and Syria that he wept and brought a dozen refugees home with him.

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic's outgoing and incoming prime ministers put aside their differences on Tuesday to support an initiative to administer 1 million COVID-19 booster shots in a week.

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom's antitrust watchdog has blocked Facebook's acquisition of Giphy and ordered the social network to sell off the GIF-sharing platform, saying the deal hurts social media users and advertisers by stifling competition for animated images.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran struck a hard line Tuesday after just one day of restarted talks in Vienna over its tattered nuclear deal, suggesting everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could be renegotiated.

LONDON (AP) — The emergence of the new omicron variant and the world's desperate and likely futile attempts to keep it at bay are reminders of what scientists have warned for months: The coronavirus will thrive as long as vast parts of the world lack vaccines.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's conservative opposition party chose former businessman and political novice Christopher Luxon as its new leader on Tuesday, as it tries to rebuild from a huge election loss last year and continued infighting.

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese health authorities on Monday identified 13 cases of the omicron coronavirus variant among members of a professional soccer club and were investigating whether it was one of the first reported cases of local transmission of the virus outside of southern Africa.