Emmy, Grammy, and Tony award-winning, American actor Billy Porter and celebrated South African television presenter Bonang Matheba have been tapped to host the fourth annual Earthshot Prize Awards in South Africa on November 6.

The Earthshot Prize is an ambitious environmental initiative founded by Prince William back in 2020 that seeks to offer green solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Porter, who described co-hosting the evening as an “honor,” said in a statement: “I’m so inspired by the Earthshot community, and I can’t wait to be part of an evening that celebrates creativity, human ingenuity, and artistry in all its different forms.”

Matheba said she was “excited to celebrate these incredible innovators who are making a significant impact on our planet.”

The star-studded, eco awards ceremony – set to take place in Cape Town, South Africa in early November – will also include special performances and appearances from Nigerian singer-songwriter Davido, Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz, South African composer Lebo M alongside the Ndlovu Youth Choir and internationally acclaimed DJ and producer, Uncle Waffles.

The 15 Earthshot Prize finalists hail from six continents, with France, Ghana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Nepal all having teams in contention for the first time. The winners will be selected by the Prince of Wales and a panel of experts including José Andrés, Queen Rania of Jordan and David Attenborough. Each of the five winners will receive a prize of £1 million (about $1.3 million) to scale up their solutions.

Since the scheme launched, it has delivered more than £75 million (around $100 million) in direct funding and in-kind support, according to organizers. The competition has five categories: “Protect and Restore Nature,” “Clean Our Air,” “Revive Our Oceans,” “Build a Waste Free World,” and “Fix Our Climate.”

Supermodel and TV host Heidi Klum, actor and activist Nina Dobrev, Canadian model Winnie Harlow and performer Tobe Nwigwe will be on hand to announce the five category winners.

While celebrating the work of global environmental innovators, the event also intends to spotlight innovation from across the African continent.

The star-studded ceremony will be available to watch globally through a special partnership with YouTube. Earthshot Week runs November 4 to 7, culminating with the Earthshot Prize Awards on November 6.

After Israel’s attack on Iran Saturday, US officials were quick to caution both countries against perpetuating the cycle of violence, but analysts say lasting de-escalation is not a foregone conclusion.

The airstrikes “should be the end of this direct exchange of fire between Israel and Iran,” a senior US administration official said after the attacks.

After reports emerged of explosions heard in Tehran, Israel in a statement said it launched what it described as “precise strikes on military targets in Iran” early Saturday. The strikes were in response to Iran’s barrage of missiles fired at Israel on October 1, in retaliation to the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others.

Iran said Israel “attacked parts of military centers” on Saturday in the provinces of Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, causing “limited damage” in some areas.

Iran appeared to have downplayed the Israeli strike, Iranian experts said. State media broadcast images showing calm on the streets of Tehran, with traffic moving and people going about their daily business.

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it “clear violation” of international law. The ministry added that Iran “considers itself entitled and obligated to defend itself” after the Israeli strikes.

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, DC, said Iran’s downplayed response may be “more reflective of their desire to de-escalate than a true assessment of the damage Israel inflicted on Iran,” like Israel’s attempts to hide damage caused by Iran’s October 1 attack.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense for Democracies, also based in DC, said Iran’s downplayed response may be “a strategic move to save face and keep US constraint on Israel.”

After several hours of strikes Saturday, the Israeli military said it had targeted manufacturing sites used to produce missiles that Iran has fired at Israel over the past year. Israel also said it hit Iranian aerial defense systems early Saturday to allow its aircraft to attack the other targets.

Israel’s decision to strike early Saturday morning came after weeks of deliberations within its security cabinet about the nature and scope of such an attack, Israeli officials said.

American officials have been keen to show the extent to which Israel’s attack was retrained and precise, especially as the US pushed Israel not to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, for fear of igniting a broader conflict, a request Israel seems to have heeded, according to preliminary reports.

After Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran ended, National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said the White House urges “Iran to cease its attacks on Israel so that this cycle of fighting can end without further escalation.”

But Israel has not always met the demands of its American ally. Throughout the war, Israel has defied the US’ calls for restraint – on the Rafah operation in southern Gaza, and more recently on a ground war in southern Lebanon.

Disagreements between the two governments culminated in an October 13 letter from the US to Israel, demanding the Jewish state act to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza within the next 30 days or risk violating US laws governing foreign military assistance, suggesting US military aid could be in jeopardy.

Danny Citrinowicz, a research fellow with the Iran Program at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a retired Israel Defense Intelligence officer who specialized in Iran, said it was too early to predict how the coming hours and days will unfold. “But one thing is clear,” he said, “Israel and Iran came closer than ever last night to the brink of direct war.”

“The ball is now in the Iranian leadership’s court,” Citrinowicz said on X, adding that the Iranian regime likely faces a familiar dilemma: to strike back for reputational gains, or take Israel’s attack as an end to the direct conflict.

Parsi of the Quincy Institute said that “if Iran chooses to exercise restraint… then this chapter may be closed, yet the conflict will remain very much alive.”

When Iran chose restraint after Israel’s retaliation in April, it emboldened the Jewish state to take out key Hezbollah leaders in Beirut, which triggered the next cycle of aggression.

Experts say that while Israel presses on with its wars in Gaza and Lebanon, any pause in direct fighting between Iran and Israel is likely to be short-lived.

As long as those regional wars persist, the overall trajectory of the Israel-Iran conflict will escalate. “While we may see some tactical de-escalation, the trajectory remains escalatory,” Parsi said, adding “a new exchange of fire between Israel and Iran will only be a question of time,” with the next round likely to be “more ferocious.”

Israel has long tried to push Iran and other Iranian proxies back into deterrence.  But experts say Israel’s strategy may not be entirely effective.

“It doesn’t de-escalate through escalation,” he said, “which is the most incredible thing I’ve heard.”

Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili has condemned “deeply troubling incidents of violence unfolding at various polling stations” as the country votes in a crucial parliamentary election.

Voting opened early Saturday in the election, seen as a stark choice between Russia and the West. The ruling Georgian Dream party, which has in recent years taken a sharp authoritarian turn and stalled the country’s progress toward potential European Union membership, is bidding for re-election.

Activist and monitoring groups shared footage that they said showed ballot stuffing at a polling station in Marneuli, southern Georgia.

Another video showed a man, identified in local media as Azad Karimov – head of the opposition United National Movement (UNM) party’s regional organization – being assaulted by several men outside the polling station in Marneuli’s 69th precinct. Photos showed Karimov with a bloody nose and cuts to his face.

In an emergency briefing, the head of the CEC called on Marneuli’s election officials to investigate the incident and take appropriate action.

“This is troubling information, and the election administration, if confirmed, will not allow such isolated, controlled, or manipulative incidents to undermine the many months of efforts we have put forth into the election day,” Giorgi Kalandarishvili said.

Zourabichvili, a pro-Western figure whose powers are largely ceremonial, said she had been unable to reach the minister of internal affairs and that “the official government lines are not working.” Before the election, Zourabichvili urged Georgians to vote against Georgian Dream.

Responding to the reports from Marneuli, Georgian Dream politician Givi Mikanadze said “anyone who hinders the election process” will be punished, but appeared to blame the opposition for the incident.

“The opposition has no tangible factor other than to stage provocations, because they know that they will lose the elections,” he said, according to Imedia Media, a Georgian outlet.

After casting his ballot early Saturday, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze told reporters that Georgian Dream will secure 60% of the vote and called on opposition parties to recognize these results. Government critics have questioned how Kobakhidze could know the results in advance.

The CEC reported voter turnout at 50.6% at 5 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET), which Zourabichvili said was “very high.”

At 10 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET), the CEC will announce preliminary results based on 90% of votes counted.

Commonwealth leaders, ending a week-long summit in Samoa, said on Saturday the time had come for a discussion on whether Britain should commit to reparations for its role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Slavery and the threat of climate change were major themes for representatives of the 56 countries in the group, most with roots in Britain’s empire, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that began in the Pacific Islands nation on Monday.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose country has long rejected calls for financial compensation for nations affected by slavery, said summit discussions were not “about money.”

On slavery, the leaders said in a joint statement they had “agreed that the time has come for a meaningful, truthful and respectful conversation towards forging a common future based on equity.”

The push for ex-colonial powers such as Britain to pay reparations or make other amends for slavery and its legacies has gained momentum worldwide, particularly among the Caribbean Community and the African Union.

The statement also made reference to “blackbirding”, a term for people from places including the Pacific Islands being deceived, coerced or kidnapped to work on plantations in Australia and elsewhere.

Those opposed to reparations say countries should not be held responsible for historical wrongs, while those in support say the legacy of slavery has led to vast and persistent racial inequality.

The joint statement did not mention what form reparations should take.

Starmer told a press conference the joint statement did two things: “It notes calls for discussion and it agrees that this is the time for a conversation.

“But I should be really clear here, in the two days we’ve been here, none of the discussions have been about money. Our position is very, very clear in relation to that,” he said.

Professor Kingsley Abbott, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London, said the statement was a sign of a potentially historic breakthrough on the issue.

“The commitment to conversations on reparatory justice wedges open the door for dialogue, and now the hard work really begins,” said Abbott, who attended the summit.

The joint statement also referred to concern about “the severe consequences of the climate crisis, including rising temperatures and sea levels.”

In a boost for Pacific Islands such as Tuvalu under threat from rising seas, they issued the Commonwealth’s first Oceans Declaration, affirming that a nation’s maritime boundaries should remain fixed even if climate change causes small island states to be submerged.

Fixing maritime boundaries means atoll nations can continue to reap the economic benefit of vast fishing grounds, even if populations must migrate as dry land area is significantly reduced. The declaration bolsters momentum for international law to recognise the perpetual statehood of sinking island states.

More than half of the Commonwealth’s members are small nations, many of them low-lying islands at risk from rising sea levels caused by climate change.

Georgia’s most powerful man claimed victory in an election on Saturday but the opposition called on the ruling party to admit defeat, setting the stage for a confrontation over the future of the South Caucasus country.

Georgian Dream’s billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, the opposition, and foreign diplomats had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to the West or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

Early official results with 70% of precincts counted, showed the ruling party had won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said, but the deeply divided pro-Western opposition parties said that they had collectively clinched a majority.

Rival exit polls gave sharply different projections for the election. The Georgian Dream-supporting Imedi TV channel showed the ruling party winning 56%. Exit polls by the pro-opposition channels showed major gains for the opposition parties.

Ivanishvili, the ruling party’s reclusive billionaire founder and onetime prime minister, claimed victory and praised the Georgian people. But the opposition also celebrated victory and said Ivanishvili should concede.

Tina Bokuchava, leader of the United National Movement party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili, told Reuters that the opposition had won by a good margin of 10%.

“Against that backdrop most people will be taking Bidzina Ivanishvili’s claims of a government majority with a large bucket of salt,” Bokuchava said.

“We believe the Georgian public has voted clearly for a future at the heart of Europe and no amount of posturing will change that.”

Crucial vote

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili – a one-time ally of the ruling party turned fierce critic whose powers are mostly ceremonial – and independent domestic election monitors had alleged Georgian Dream was engaged in widespread vote-buying and other forms of electoral abuse in the lead-up to the vote.

Georgian Dream did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s, came to power in 2012 advocating pro-Western views, alongside a pragmatic policy towards Russia.

He has since soured on the West, accusing a “Global War Party” of seeking to drag Georgia into war with Russia, even as he insists Georgia is on course to join the EU.

Some Georgians told Reuters that they wanted change.

“I voted for freedom and for the European choice,” said voter Irakli Andronikashvili in Tbilisi on Saturday, adding that he wanted a government which was “more progressive, less corrupt and more common-sense.”

Georgia was once one of the most pro-Western states to emerge from the chaotic aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse. The road leading from Tbilisi’s airport is named after former US President George W. Bush.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Tbilisi’s relations with the West have taken a sharp downward turn. Unlike many Western allies, Georgia declined to impose sanctions on Moscow, while Georgian Dream’s rhetoric has become increasingly pro-Russian.

Georgian Dream has drawn the ire of its Western allies for what they cast as its increasingly authoritarian bent. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban congratulated Georgian Dream for an “overwhelming victory.”

The pro-opposition Formula exit poll said that the ruling party would be the single largest party but that the four main opposition parties combined would have 83 seats.

Georgia’s four main opposition blocs are deeply divided, and it is unclear if they will be able to work together if they deprive Georgian Dream of its majority.

Sandro Dvalishvili, a 23-year-old Georgian Dream activist, told Reuters last week that Georgia would face “danger” if his party of choice was defeated at the polls.

“If it turns out that we don’t win, for me that’ll be very bad. Because I don’t see another force that will bring peace and stability to our country,” he said.

The number of dead and missing in massive flooding and landslides wrought by Tropical Storm Trami in the Philippines has reached nearly 130 and the president said Saturday that many areas remained isolated with people in need of rescue.

Trami blew away from the northwestern Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 85 people dead and 41 others missing in in one of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster-response agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.

Dozens of police, firefighters and other emergency personnel, backed by three backhoes and sniffer dogs, dug up one of the last two missing villagers in the lakeside town of Talisay in Batangas province Saturday.

A father, who was waiting for word on his missing 14-year-old daughter, wept as rescuers placed the remains in a black body bag. Distraught, he followed police officers, who carried the body bag down a mud-strewn village alley to a police van when one weeping resident approaching him to express her sympathies.

The man said he was sure it was his daughter, but authorities needed to do checks to confirm the identity of the villager dug up in the mound.

In a nearby basketball gym at the town center, more than a dozen white coffins were laid side by side, bearing the remains of those found in the heaps of mud, boulders and trees that cascaded Thursday afternoon down the steep slope of a wooded ridge in Talisay’s Sampaloc village.

President Ferdinand Marcos, who inspected another hard-hit region southeast of Manila Saturday, said the unusually large volume of rainfall dumped by the storm — including in some areas that saw one to two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours — overwhelmed flood controls in provinces lashed by Trami.

“The water was just too much,” Marcos told reporters.

“We’re not done yet with our rescue work,” he said. “Our problem here, there are still many areas that remained flooded and could not be accessed even big trucks.”

His administration, Marcos said, would plan to start work on a major flood control project that can meet the unprecedented threats posed by climate change.

More than 5 million people were in the path of the storm, including nearly half a million who mostly fled to more than 6,300 emergency shelters in several provinces, the government agency said.

In an emergency Cabinet meeting, Marcos raised concerns over reports by government forecasters that the storm — the 11th to hit the Philippines this year — could make a U-turn next week as it is pushed back by high-pressure winds in the South China Sea.

The storm was forecast to batter Vietnam over the weekend if it would not veer off course.

The Philippine government shut down schools and government offices for the third day on Friday to keep millions of people safe on the main northern island of Luzon. Inter-island ferry services were also suspended, stranding thousands.

Weather has cleared in many areas on Saturday, allowing cleanup work in most areas.

Each year, about 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines, a Southeast Asian archipelago which lies between the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and flattened entire villages.

Nineteen people died and six others were injured when a bus crashed on a highway in Mexico’s central state of Zacatecas on Saturday, local authorities said.

The accident occurred in the early morning hours when the bus carrying the victims collided with the back of a tractor-trailer carrying corn, which had come loose.

Zacatecas Governor David Monreal earlier on Saturday had initially reported a preliminary death toll of 24 people, but the state attorney general’s office later revised the tally in a statement.

The attorney general’s office said it was “carrying out investigations to arrest the driver” of the tractor-trailer.

Efforts were ongoing on Saturday morning to recover some of the bodies that had fallen into a ravine, a local government official who asked not to be named told Reuters.

Video footage showed rescue teams and security forces, including military personnel, securing the area while rescuers worked to recover the bodies.

The bus was headed for Ciudad Juarez, a city on the US-Mexico border in the state of Chihuahua. The victims did not include migrants, according to the attorney general’s office.

Polls opened Sunday in Japan’s general election, in a test for new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as he seeks voter support for his scandal-hit party just weeks after taking the role.

Ishiba, the former defense minister, called a snap election immediately after winning the leadership contest of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a conservative political machine that has ruled Japan almost continuously since the party’s founding in 1955.

By calling an election, Ishiba, 67, is seeking a public mandate for the ruling LDP amid falling approval ratings and public anger over one of the country’s biggest political scandals in decades.

The funding scandal involved millions of dollars in undocumented political funds, and lawmakers allegedly lining their own pockets with kickbacks or failing to properly declare their income.

Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tried to contain the damage by replacing several cabinet ministers and dissolving LDP factions, essentially coalitions within the party. But he faced calls to resign and announced in August that he would not run for a second term.

His successor, Ishiba, also faces public discontent over increasing living costs, which have been exacerbated by the weak yen, a sluggish economy and high inflation.

The political veteran has pledged financial help to low-income households, a higher minimum wage, and regional revitalization, according to Reuters. He has also promised a “full exit” from Japan’s high inflation rates, vowing to achieve “growth in real wages.”

Ishiba has made strengthening Japan’s relations with the United States a priority and seeks deeper ties with allies amid growing security challenges in Asia, including an increasingly assertive China and belligerent North Korea.

Partnership with Japan has long been central to US strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, and Ishiba’s predecessor Kishida this year expanded Japan’s defense cooperation with its key ally. Ishiba has called for a more balanced relationship, including having greater oversight of US military bases in Japan, Reuters reports.

As defense minister, Ishiba was strong on deterrence as a security issue. He even proposed an Asian version of the NATO security bloc, an idea he has apparently dropped after it was rebuffed by the US.

Ishiba also supports legislation that could allow married women to keep their maiden names, and has said Japan should reduce its dependence on nuclear energy in favor of renewables.

In a political culture that prizes conformity, Ishiba has long been something of an outlier, willing to criticize and go against his own party. That willingness to speak out has made him powerful enemies within the LDP but endeared him to more grassroots members and the public.

He sits on the more progressive wing of the conservative party. His political acumen and experience in domestic and foreign policy likely allowed him to secure the top job.

Voters on Sunday will choose who fills the 465-seat House of Representatives, Japan’s lower house of parliament.

Parties are vying to win a majority of 233 seats, but there are several other significant tallies they can achieve.

A so-called “absolute stable majority” of 261 seats means the winning party or coalition has a committee chair in all of the standing committees plus a majority of committee members. This enables smoother governance and policy-making for the ruling party.

Winning 244 seats would mean the party has the same number of committee members as the opposition.

The number of seats needed for a two-thirds majority to propose constitutional amendments is 310.

Ishiba’s LDP and the New Komeito Party have again agreed to form a coalition and, before parliament was dissolved ahead of Sunday’s election, the two parties controlled the chamber with a 279-seat majority.