The U.S. will impose new air travel restrictions in response to the Omicron variant, a new COVID-19 strain first detected in South Africa, President Biden announced Friday.
The big picture: Air travel from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi will be restricted starting on Monday.
Countries across Europe and Asia are rushing through new travel restrictions in response to a new COVID variant identified by scientists in South Africa.
The big picture: Israel, Japan, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Singapore are moving to restrict entry from countries in the south of Africa, AP reports. Many are also adding quarantines for their own citizens upon return from the region.
Ukraine has uncovered a group of Russians and Ukrainians plotting an attempted coup for next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters Friday, the Washington Post reported.
Driving the news: Zelensky didn't accuse the Russian government of involvement in the purposed coup, and Kremlin denied any role, Reuters reported.
The leader of a U.S. congressional delegation to Taiwan declared during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday that the self-governing island was a "force for good," per Reuters.
Why it matters: The group arrived in Taipei on Thursday despite pressure from Beijing to call off the visit, according to two of the five lawmakers on the trip. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) tweeted that the message she received from the Chinese Embassy was "blunt."
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Friday "foreign powers" were to blame for days of unrest in the South Pacific nation.
Why it matters: His government's decision to change alliances from Taiwan to China sparked a wave of anger and massive protests and riots in the capital, Honiara, this week — which resulted in Sogavare declaring a lockdown and calling in Australian police, who swept in to take control of the city Friday, per Reuters.
A methane gas leak and explosion at a Siberian coal mine killed at least 52 people on Thursday, including six rescuers, Russian officials said.
The big picture: Russia's worst mining disaster in more than a decade occurred at the Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo region after gas filled a ventilation shaft, suffocating workers there, per the New York Times.
Sharbat Gula, who became known internationally as "Afghan girl" after she was featured on a 1985 cover of National Geographic, has arrived in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi's office said on Thursday.
Driving the news: Gula, who was pictured in National Geographic when she was 12 years old, was evacuated after appealing for help to leave the country following the Taliban's takeover in August, Draghi's office said.
The British and French governments have pledged to increase joint efforts to stop migrant crossings after at least 27 migrants died when their U.K.-bound inflatable boat capsized in the English Channel Wednesday, per Euronews.
The big picture: French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told reporters five women and a girl were among the dead in what's one of the worst migrant boat tragedies to occur on the busy shipping route between the U.K. and France. Four people were missing, presumed drowned.
