Britain's Conservative government has unveiled a $19 billion package to ease a severe cost-of-living squeeze. Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said Thursday that the government would introduce a temporary windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas firms. The tax is expected to raise around 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) over the next year and fund cash payments to help millions of people cope with sharply rising energy bills. Sunak says about 8 million of the country's lowest-income households will receive a one-time government payment of 650 pounds ($818). The announcement came a day after Prime

The U.S. Geological Survey said a magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook southern Peru on Thursday, though there were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The 7:02 a.m. (1202 GMT) quake was centered 13.1 kilometers (8.1 miles) east-southeast of Azangaro, but was fairly deep — 217.8 kilometers (135.3 miles) beneath the surface.

Former Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey has stepped down from the Twitter board of directors. The announcement came on Wednesday --the same day that Twitter held its annual shareholder meeting, TechCrunch reported. Dorsey's exit from the Twitter board marks his full exit from the microblogging site. The plan for Dorsey to leave the board has been in place since he stepped down as CEO in November 2021 and handed over the role to India's Parag Agrawal. At that time, the company noted that Dorsey would stay on the board "until his term expires at the 2022 meeting of stockholders." News of Dor

The gunman who massacred 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas warned in online messages sent minutes before the attack that he had shot his grandmother. Salvador Ramos, who was 18, used an AR 15 style semi-automatic rifle in the bloodshed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. It ended when police stormed a classroom and killed him. Investigators have shed no light on the motive for the attack, which also left at least 17 people wounded.

An official says an 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a classroom, ``shooting anyone that was in his way.'' Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told NBC's ``Today'' that police and others responding to Tuesday's attack broke windows at the school in an effort to allow students and teachers inside to escape. Olivarez told CNN that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School. Eventually law enforcement officers broke into the classroom and killed him.

A series of explosions shook Afghanistan on Wednesday, the Taliban said, including a blast inside a mosque in the capital of Kabul that killed at least five worshippers and three bombings of minivans in the country's north that killed nine passengers. The Kabul Emergency Hospital said it received 22 victims of the mosque bombing, including five dead. There were no further details on the blast that struck the Hazrat Zakaria Mosque in the city’s central Police District 4, according to Khalid Zadran, a Taliban police spokesman in Kabul. “The blast took place while people were inside the mosqu

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday took responsibility for drinking parties at Downing Street during the COVID-19 lockdown. Earlier in the day, the prime minister's office released a new report on the results of an internal investigation into lockdown parties, led cabinet official Sue Gray. The document confirmed the findings of the January 31 report, in particular, that some of the gatherings in Downing Street violated the lockdown rules and should not have been held. "I want to begin today by renewing my apology to the House [the parliament], to the whole country, for the short lu

A Russian soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a Ukrainian civilian was sentenced to life in prison. The sentencing Monday comes amid signs the Kremlin may hold trials of its own, particularly against the captured Ukrainian fighters who held out at Mariupol's steel plant. Meanwhile, in a rare public expression of opposition to the war from the ranks of the Russian elite, a veteran diplomat resigned and sent a letter to foreign colleagues in which he said he had never been so ashamed of his country as he was on the day Moscow invaded. “For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen d

Denmark is providing Ukraine with a Harpoon launcher and missiles to defend its coasts amid Russia's special military operation, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday. "Grateful to Denmark, which announced today that it will provide a harpoon launcher and missiles to help Ukraine defend its coast," Austin said during a press conference after the second meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. Harpoon missiles – one of the most widespread anti-ship cruise missiles in the world.