British lawmaker David Amess died on Friday after he was stabbed multiple times while meeting his constituents in Essex, police confirmed.

Amess, 69, who was from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party, was attacked by a man who walked into his constituency meeting, according to reports.

"We were called to an address in Eastwood Road North shortly after 12.05pm today," Essex police said in a statement.

"We attended and found a man injured."

Amess was treated by emergency services but died at the scene, the statement added.

It said a 25-year-old man was "quickly arrested after officers arrived at the scene on suspicion of murder and a knife was recovered."

Amess had been an MP since 1983 for Basildon and Southend West constituencies./agencies

Fully vaccinated foreign travelers will be eligible to enter the US beginning Nov. 8, the White House announced on Friday.

Spokesman Kevin Munoz said the mandate will apply to both international land and air travel, adding on Twitter that the "policy is guided by public health," and is "stringent, and consistent."

The decision to bring the regulation into force for all travelers worldwide replaces what had been a confusing patchwork of policies that will now be dropped in preference for a uniform approach for all international travel.

The Biden administration announced on Sept. 20 it would lift COVID-19 travel bans initially imposed by former President Donald Trump starting in early November for fully vaccinated travelers, but did not specify an exact date.

Travel bans were originally imposed by the Trump administration in March 2020 when the pandemic entered full swing in the US. The regulations curtailed travel from some European countries and China before being expanded to include other nations, including South Africa and Brazil.

In addition to being fully vaccinated, foreign travelers will also have to show a negative test result taken within three days prior to their departure, the White House said last month.

Friday's announcement sent airline stocks soaring with American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines all posting gains of over 1%./aa

The 75-year-old Italian flag carrier Alitalia ceased its operations with the Cagliari-Rome flight on late Thursday.

After the Airbus 320 type aircraft landed at the Rome Fiumicino Airport at 11.22 pm (2122GMT), the airline's operations ended.

The firm was established in 1946 and made its first flight in 1947.

During the last 30 years, the firm has been facing financial difficulties and receiving support from the Italian government.

Even the EU decided to stop providing financial supports to the firm, the Italian governments have so far provided "emergency loans" to the firm worth €13 billion ($15 billion).

The pandemic's negative effect on the aviation sector was the death blow for the firm.

Italia Trasporto Aereo

After the bankruptcy of Alitalia, the government-funded new airline Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) will be the new flag carrier.

The new airline, established with an investment of €720 million, will make its first flight on Saturday.

Around a quarter of Alitalia's personnel will be employed by ITA./aa

Britain’s Cambridge University has suspended a record £400 million deal with the United Arab Emirates over the latter’s alleged use of Pegasus spyware, The Guardian reported Thursday.

The decision was made public by Stephen Toope, the university’s outgoing vice-chancellor.

As recently as July, the proposed deal was praised as a potential “strategic partnership” aimed at helping resolve “some of the greatest challenges facing our planet.” A donation of over £310 million over a decade would have also been included. It would have been the biggest donation of its kind to the university.

This has now been undone by the UAE’s alleged use of Pegasus phone hacking spyware developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group. The Guardian claims that many of the UK phone numbers targeted by the spyware were at the apparent behest of the UAE. NSO Group has previously denied any wrongdoing.

In an interview with the student newspaper Varsity, Toole said: “There were further revelations about Pegasus that really caused us to decide that it’s not the right time to be pursuing these kinds of really ambitious plans with the UAE.”

“No one’s going to be rushing into this,” he added. “There will be no secret arrangements being made. I think we’re going to have to have a robust discussion at some point in the future. Or we may determine that it’s not worth raising again. I honestly don’t know.

“There are existing relationships across the university on a departmental and individual academic level, but there are no conversations about a big project,” he continued. “We’re aware of the risks in dealing with many states around the world, but we think it’s worth having the conversation,” he added.

The Guardian reported that according to documents it had seen, the proposed collaboration would have seen joint UAE and Cambridge University branding and new institutions being based in the UAE. It also reported that there were concerns over closer ties with the UAE due to its human rights record.

Varsity meanwhile reported that the deal was intended to upgrade the education system in the UAE and work on questions of climate and energy transition, adding it would have also focused on the exchange of Islamic and Western cultures.

A university spokesperson was quoted by the Guardian as saying: “The University of Cambridge has numerous partnerships with governments and organizations around the world. It approached the UAE as it does all potential partnerships: with an open mind, and rigorously weighing the opportunities to contribute to society – through collaborative research, education and innovation – against any challenges.”

“We will be reflecting over the next few months before further evaluating our long- term options with our partners and with the university community,” he added./agencies

The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) in South Africa marched to the Constitutional Court on Thursday to oppose "mandatory" coronavirus vaccinations.

Although vacations are not mandatory, the party believes it will soon and wants citizens to choose whether to be inoculated.

“ACDP is fighting for your freedom to choose what goes into your body. We are saying that freedom should not be taken by anybody,’’ ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe said in an address to hundreds of supporters in Johannesburg.

Meshoe told crowds they were giving the government 14 days to give a satisfactory explanation on whether it was heading toward mandatory vaccination.

He said President Cyril Ramaphosa had said in a speech in February that no one will be forced to take the jab against their will but some institutions of higher learning are now planning to shut gates on unvaccinated persons.

On Wednesday, the ACDP’s legal team wrote to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to question the school’s proposed mandatory vaccination framework.

The university sent a communique that said stating from Oct. 11 everyone accessing the institution should have been vaccinated or carry a negative PCR test result.

Some companies in South Africa have been demanding employees take the vaccine or face dismissal.

Meshoe demanded that the government should come out and tell South Africans what is in the vaccines before forcing people to take the jabs.

“Everyone has the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experiments without their consent,” said Meshoe, who is also a Member of Parliament.

Health Minister Joe Phaahla launched a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate last week that can be used for travel, attend sporting events, recreation events and music festivals.

South Africa has administered more than 29 million vaccine doses, with 10.2 million people fully vaccinated -- about 17.2 % of the nation’s 60 million people.

There are over 2.9 million COVID-19 cases and an excess of 88,466 related deaths./agencies

The delta variant of the coronavirus and supply bottlenecks are casting a shadow over the near-term growth prospects for the global economy, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said Thursday.

"Inflation has increased markedly since the beginning of this year and we expect it to rise further this autumn," she said at a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee.

Lagarde said the ECB continues to view high inflation as temporary, mostly driven by the strong recovery in oil prices from their steep decline in the spring of 2020 during the early months of the pandemic.

"The impact of these factors should fade out of annual rates of price changes in the course of next year, dampening annual inflation," she said.

Lagarde noted that inflation could become weaker than expected if a renewed tightening of pandemic-related restrictions were to affect economic activity.

She warned, however, that price pressures could become more persistent if supply bottlenecks last or wages rise more than anticipated.

The ECB head noted the pace of economic recovery remains uneven across sectors and countries./aa

The US officially returned to United Nations Human Rights Council on Thursday after former President Donald Trump pulled Washington from the body in June 2018.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield thanked the international body for the "overwhelming support" from member states.

"Pleased to announce the U.S. has been elected to the @UN_HRC. With @POTUS' pledge fulfilled, we will work to ensure the Council lives up to the principle that 'all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.'" she tweeted.

The US will serve on the Council for the next three-year term, beginning in 2022.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, said the US "will work hard to ensure the Council upholds its highest aspirations and better supports those fighting against injustice and tyranny around the world".

"The Council plays a meaningful role in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms by documenting atrocities in order to hold wrongdoers accountable," he said in a statement.

"Together, we must push back against attempts to subvert the ideals upon which the Human Rights Council was founded, including that each person is endowed with human rights and that states are obliged to protect those rights," Blinken added.

The former administration left because the 47-member Geneva-based body is “not worthy of its name,” citing alleged “chronic bias” against Israel and inclusion of human rights abusers as council members./aa

A number of American banks saw their earnings increase during the third quarter, according to data released Thursday.

Bank of America's net income rose to $7.7 billion in the July-September period, up 57% from $4.9 billion during the same period last year.

Revenue increased to $22.8 billion -- up 12.3% from $20.3 billion year-over-year, according to its financial results statement.

Chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan noted that strong results reflect improvement in the American economy.

Citigroup's income came in at $4.6 billion, rising 48.8% from $3.1 billion.

Its revenue fell slightly to $17.2 billion, from $17.3 billion.

Citi CEO Jane Fraser said the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continues to drive corporate and consumer confidence.

Wells Fargo's net income increased 59% to $ 5.1 billion from $3.2 billion.

But revenue fell to $18.8 billion from $19.3 billion -- a 2.6% decline

About the rise in earnings, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf pointed to benefits the bank experienced from the economic recovery.

US-based global financial services corporation Morgan Stanley saw its net income reach $3.7 billion -- up 37% from $2.7 billion.

Revenue rose to $14.8 billion, from $11.7 billion a year ago -- a 26.5% increase year-over-year./aa

A ruling by the Paris Administrative Court ordered France on Thursday to fix climate deterioration that occurred in four years of neglect.

The ruling is in response to commitments made by France on goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions between 2015 and 2018, according to French newspaper Le Monde.

The state was emitting 62 million extra tons of carbon dioxide in that period, though it since has lowered emissions to 15 million tons.

The state has until Dec. 31, 2022, to clean up its act.

A request that the government pay a €78 million fine per semester for any delays was rejected by the court, who said it was up to the prime minister and the government to find the correct ways to solve the emissions problem.

A request that the government pay a €78 million fine per semester for any delays was rejected by the court, who instead said it was

The massive drop in emissions since 2018 is a result of the coronavirus pandemic with lockdowns seriously reducing the use of fuel and electricity to power everything from cars to buildings to factories, according to the court.

The judge’s instructions were to “take all necessary measures to repair ecological damage and prevent further damage.”

The legal move comes after a petition was put forth in March 2019 by several environmental groups, including Greenpeace, Notre affaires a tous, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and Oxfam, citing France’s “climate inaction” and “culpable failure.” The petition contained 2.3 million signatures.

In recent hearings, public rapporteur, Amelie Fort-Besnard said: “It is not a question of dictating to the government what its climate policy should be but of telling it that its commitments must be respected. “

A ruling in February first decreed France’s responsibility to fix the ecological damage to the country.

France has the lofty goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to Radio France Internationale, with an initial goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030./agencies