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Food Industry Pushes Back on WHO Guidance for Products with Added Color, Sweeteners

Varieties Around 11 million deaths a year are linked to unhealthy diets, according to the agency, based on data from a global study. (Getty Images)

Food Industry Pushes Back on WHO Guidance for Products with Added Color, Sweeteners

Governments should consider regulating foods that include added colors, flavors or sweeteners designed to make the product more appealing to consumers,…

Varieties Dozens of Pakistani farmers are suing German firms RWE and Heidelberg Materials in a rare bid to make big polluters pay damages for climate impacts. Aamir QURESHI / AFP

Pakistan Farmers in Long Fight to Make German Firms Pay for Flood Damage

In a Pakistani village nestled in rice fields, Abdul Hafeez Khoso remembers the vast industrial zones he saw in Germany when he visited to file a pioneering…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties A tourist holds an umbrella to shelter from the sun while walking on a hot day in Tokyo on July 15, 2026. (AFP)

This Year Set to Be One of Four Hottest on Record, UN Report Says

This year is ‌on track to be one of the four hottest on record, driven by a powerful El Niño and perpetuating a warming streak of more than a decade, a UN…

Varieties A white-tailed eagle over the Isle of Mull in Scotland. (Natural Resources Wales)

Reintroduction of White-Tailed Eagles Puts Seabird Colonies at Risk of Wipeout

White-tailed eagles reintroduced into England and Wales imperil endangered seabird populations and risk wiping out some colonies, The Guardian reported quoting…

Varieties Residents extend a supply hose to fill a barrel with clean water from a tanker truck in Kavling Bakau Serip, amid local water shortages linked to data center developments in Batam. ANDARU / AFP

Can't Cook or Shower: Indonesians Take Aim at Data Centers

Cooking and bathing became difficult when taps ran dry in Batam, an Indonesian island where residents are protesting as data centers spring up to power the…

Asharq Al Awsat

Varieties As the drought spreads and forecasts for the El Nino phenomenon grow increasingly bleak, a fear of hunger grips the residents of the Indigenous village of Cunen in northern Guatemala. Johan ORDONEZ / AFP

Fears of Hunger Overwhelm Guatemalan Village as El Nino Approaches

While drought expands through Cunen as the specter of El Nino climate instability approaches, one fear has seized this indigenous Guatemalan village: death by…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties  Steampunk NZ Festival chair Lea Campbell, dressed as her steampunk persona Dusty Traveller, poses for a portrait during the annual event in Ōamaru, New Zealand, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP)

Steampunk Festival Creates an Unlikely Capital for Victorian Style and Sci-Fi Oddity in New Zealand

The woman in the pink frock coat announced herself as steam curled from a strange brass contraption on her back. “I am Lady Sarsaparilla Ovabyte, of the…

Varieties  A new female is currently undergoing quarantine before joining the herd later this year from Jordan - SPA

Saudi Arabia Marks First Birth of One of World’s Rarest Animals in over 100 Years

Wildlife conservation efforts have successfully recorded the birth of the first onager (Equus hemionus) on Saudi soil in more than 100 years at Prince Mohammed…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties Teenagers pose for a photo while holding smartphones in front of a TikTok logo in this illustration created on September 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Malaysia Enforces Ban on Social Media Accounts for Children Younger Than 16

Malaysia on Monday began enforcing rules barring millions of children younger than 16 from having social media accounts, joining a global effort to tighten…

Varieties Italian visual artist Maurizio Cattelan's conceptual work 'Comedian' has sold for millions. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP/File

French Museum Reports Theft of Arty Banana

A museum in eastern France on Sunday reported to police the theft of a banana that forms a core part of a multimillion-dollar artwork by Italian visual artist…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties  Patients with mental health conditions participate in a therapy session involving donkeys at a psychiatric hospital in Neuilly-sur-Marne, in the eastern suburbs of Paris, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP)

Patients Find Help with Therapy Donkeys at Psychiatric Hospital Near Paris

Therapy donkeys are helping patients with mental health conditions recover in a psychiatric hospital unit outside Paris that's unique to France. The 19th…

Varieties  A crested Ibis marked with painted wings flies as it was released into wild during an event in Hakui, Japan, Sunday, May 31, 2026. (Kazushi Kurihara/Kyodo News via AP)

8 Crested Ibises Released in Japan Decades After Extinction

Eight crested ibises were released into the wild in a north-central Japanese town, decades after the birds went extinct in the country. Eight of the…

Varieties As the machine printed their work on newsprint paper, five technicians in uniform quickly flipped through the pages to check the quality. Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP

'AI Simply Can't Replicate It': Japan Embraces Zine Trend

Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form --…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties A Johnson & Johnson banner is displayed on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, in New York City, US, December 5, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

J&J Prostate Cancer Drug Reduces Risk of Cancer Spread and Death in Late-stage Study

Johnson & Johnson's prostate cancer drug Erleada used with hormone-blocking therapy six months before and after prostate surgery improved the chances of…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Grand Canal, in Venice, Italy, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo

Venice’s Growing Flamingo Population Finds Refuge in Recovering Wetlands

Perhaps nothing better illustrates the flamingo’s status as a newcomer to the Venetian Lagoon than the fact that the local dialect has no word for them. …

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties This image taken from video shows a suspected meteor falling through the sky in the greater Pittsburgh, Pa., area on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Jared Rackley via AP)

Meteor Explodes over US with Blast Equivalent to 300 Tons of TNT

A meteor crashing toward Earth exploded over the northeastern United States on Saturday, NASA said, setting off booms that echoed over the region with a blast…

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Varieties In this photo taken on May 5, 2026, senior scientific specialist Kwaku Dad Abu Bonsrah pipettes nutrients onto neurons on Micro Electrode Array (MEA) chips at Cortical Labs' Physical Containment Level 2 (PC2) laboratory in Melbourne. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

Australian Researchers Teach Brain Cells to Play 'Doom'

Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the nineties shooter game "Doom" and say they are just scratching…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties 30 May 2026, Denmark, Anholt: The dead whale is being pulled ashore on the Danish island of Anholt. (dpa)

Dead Humpback Whale Brought to Shore in Denmark with Autopsy Set Next Week

The carcass of a humpback whale, whose life and death captivated Germans for months as the mammal became repeatedly stranded in the Baltic Sea, was dragged…

Varieties People demonstrate against transit traffic near the A13 Brenner Highway in the direction of Italy during the blockade of the Brenner Base Tunnel on May 30, 2026, on the Tyrolean Brenner Highway. (AFP)

Austrian Protesters Shut Vital Motorway Connecting Germany to Italy

Thousands of local residents shut down Austria's Brenner motorway on Saturday, a vital north-south corridor through the Alps between Germany and Italy, in…

Varieties Video of the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket explosion showed the spacecraft combusting into a massive fireball. JohnCn (@JConcilus) on X / UGC/AFP

Blue Origin Rocket Explosion is Bad News for Both Bezos and NASA

Space exploration is filled with setbacks, but the spectacular explosion of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket on Thursday night marked a significant blow to not…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties  Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - May 29, 2026 A spectator uses a tap outside the courts during the matches. (Reuters)

Half of France Hits New Monthly Records in Heatwave

Towns and villages in more than half of France have smashed temperature records for the month of May over the past week during an unusually early heatwave, a…

Varieties Palestinian girl Ilan, 4, feeds pigeons at the Flag Square in the coastal city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, 20 May 2026. (EPA)

Pigeons May Be Navigating with Their Liver, Study Suggests

A surprising gut feeling may help pigeons find their way home. Animals use various techniques to navigate including following the stars and remembering key…

Varieties This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers climbing a slope lined up during their ascent from the Hillary Step to summit Mount Everest in Nepal. (Furte Sherpa / AFP)

Legacy of Himalaya’s ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Lives on in Digital

In a crowded Kathmandu restaurant far from Nepal's famed icy peaks, Billi Bierling questions climbers about their ascents, preserving each triumph in the…

Varieties A general view of oysters on the roots of mangroves at Number Two River in Freetown on April 13, 2026. (AFP)

Mangrove Loss Threatens Sierra Leone’s Oyster Harvesters

For 20 years, Millicent Turay has supported her family by collecting mangrove oysters near Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, a common livelihood along the west…

Varieties Thomas Jefferson's desk, on which he drafted the Declaration of Independence, can be seen on display by The Smithsonian for its 'American Aspirations' exhibition. Mandel NGAN / AFP

Light, Flight, and Rights: 250 Years of US History in 30 Objects

How do you choose just 30 artifacts from millions to encapsulate 250 years of American history? That's the question the government-funded Smithsonian…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties Official data showed that the number of births in Japan fell for the 10th straight year in 2025. Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

Japan Population Sees Record Five-year Drop

Japan's population dropped by a record 2.5 percent in the span of five years, census data showed Friday, as the world's fourth-largest economy struggles to…

Asharq Al Awsat
Varieties Cairo Ranked Fourth Among the World’s Most Beautiful Cities (Egyptian Cabinet)

Cairo Ranked Among World’s Most Beautiful Historic and Tourist Cities

Egypt’s capital Cairo ranked fourth among the world’s 12 most beautiful cities in 2026, according to a classification by Civitatis magazine. The magazine…

Asharq Al Awsat (Cairo)
Varieties The commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) and of the United Nations Command (UNC) general Xavier Brunson pays his respects at the graves of two French veterans of the Korean War, Jacques Grisolet and Andre Datcharry, at the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK) in Busan, South Korea, on May 27, 2026. (AFP)

French Veterans Laid to Rest in South Korea, Decades After War

Two French veterans of the Korean War were laid to rest on Wednesday in South Korea, their ashes buried alongside fallen soldiers who had fought with them more…

Varieties  A woman uses a portable fan as she walks at Plaza Puerta del Sol during a spring heatwave in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2026. (Reuters)

Think It’s Hot Now? The Next Five Years Will Smash Records, UN Says

In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its…