World News

India's Gen Z protests dent Modi, as South Asia's youth revolts keep spreading →

A leaderless online movement forced a rare climbdown from Modi's government, and it fits a regional pattern where fear suddenly switches sides.

Lebanon and Israel pick who will watch the peace they both fear to start →

The two agree a shortlist of countries to verify Hezbollah's disarmament - a trusted referee, because neither will make the first move on trust alone.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan sign a defence pact as the Gulf braces for a wider war →

Three regional powers bound their armies together in Jeddah, a response to a dragging Iran war and a US security umbrella no one is sure they can count on.

China turns its supply-chain grip into a weapon as the US trade truce cracks →

Beijing answers new US sanctions and import bans by squeezing the drone parts, testing labs and tech chains that Washington runs through - a reminder that whoever sits at the chokepoint of a shared network can turn it into a lever.

The US steps back as the world's guarantor, and its allies rush to realign →

For the first time since 1949, Washington told Europe to take primary charge of its own defense - and the Gulf, Japan and Ukraine are all recalculating who they can count on.

The world arms itself around a rising China, and nobody has fired a shot →

A top US admiral warns that no single power will dominate the Indo-Pacific as Japan rearms, Washington rushes missile parts, and the fear of a shifting balance drives a global buildup.

China draws a line around the model that made it →

Beijing defended its factory-first growth model even as manufacturing slowed to a four-month low, choosing continuity over the consumer pivot the West and its own economists have long urged.

Trump threatens Iran's oil fields, then backs off as Tehran vows to hit the whole Gulf →

A US ultimatum to strike Iran's energy sites collided with Iran's threat to set the region's oil on fire. Trump blinked, cancelling the attack "subject to" a fast deal, as Gaza's ceasefire stayed on paper and Ukraine's drone war reached deeper into Russia.

A US Senate bill would slap 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil →

A sweeping sanctions package named for the late Senator Lindsey Graham cleared its first hurdle in the Senate, aimed at Russia but landing hardest on India and China. Meanwhile Russia pressed its advance in eastern Ukraine and struck Kyiv, killing three.

Thousands rush Spain's Ceuta as Europe hardens its migration line →

A border enclave is overwhelmed as Europe moves toward measures that were unthinkable a few years ago - deportations to Taliban Afghanistan, an EU centre in Libya, and a call to suspend Spain from open borders. Plus a Russian missile inside Poland, a claimed Gaza disarmament deal, and a heat toll now counted in the thousands.

Canada calls off its strongest trade weapon before it fires →

Ottawa rules out choking oil exports to the US even as Trump walks away from the free-trade deal, the Gulf war grinds into a second phase, and a drought quietly starves Uganda's north.

A face-saving formula to reopen the world's biggest oil chokepoint →

Oman and the Gulf states are pushing a 'voluntary fee' compromise for the Strait of Hormuz that lets Iran collect money without either side conceding who controls it. It is a careful piece of diplomatic theatre with the world's oil price riding on it.

The world quietly re-arms as one war pauses and another deepens →

North Korea moves to send Russia 30,000 more troops and build their first road link, while Ukraine, the US and Turkey all reach for new weapons - even as the Iran war holds its fire.

A two-week war pauses over the Gulf as trade blocs splinter →

The US and Iran hold their fire for a second day and oil drops sharply, while a fractured response to US tariffs shows how much harder small players bargain apart than together.

A protest wave topples a minister, and a Russian ally breaks ranks →

India's government bows to weeks of youth protests, a treaty ally tells Putin to end the Ukraine war, and US-Iran strikes pause after 13 days.

Economic weapons start landing at home as the world trades blows →

China, the EU and the US struck each other with sanctions and tariffs on Friday — and much of the cost circled back onto the side that fired. Oil climbed toward $100 and "stagflation" returned to the headlines, while the Iran war ground into a 13th night and wildfires drove more than 200,000 from their homes in France and Spain.

America opens two fronts at once — a new tariff wave on 80 countries, and a 13th night of strikes on Iran →

Washington replaced an expiring global tariff with fresh duties on more than 80 countries, while its air campaign against Iran entered a 13th night and Trump weighed a "massive attack." Oil crossed $100 for the first time since May.

A war neither side will stop, and an Ebola outbreak that is now the fastest killer on record →

US strikes on Iran reach a twelfth straight night with oil above $95 and no real negotiations; Ukraine changes its top general; and in Congo, an Ebola outbreak has killed nearly 1,000 people faster than any on record.

Ukraine sacks its top general as street protests force a wartime reversal →

Zelensky fires his army chief and moves to bring back a minister he dropped, after six days of protests — while the Iran war spreads to a second sea and oil chokepoints tighten.

Britain changes prime minister again as war widens on three fronts →

Andy Burnham becomes the UK's seventh leader in a decade after Keir Starmer resigns, while fighting spreads across Ukraine, Iran's Gulf, and Gaza — and the EU fines a Chinese retail giant a record sum.

Russia's largest missile salvo hits Kyiv as Europe's sanctions bloc frays →

Forty-one ballistic missiles and 125 drones struck the Ukrainian capital overnight — the biggest such attack of the war — while EU support for a new sanctions package crumbles. Meanwhile the US strikes Iran for a ninth straight night, Delhi braces for a banned protest march, and Netanyahu's party hands him the power to cancel its own primary.

Venezuela's earthquake toll passes 5,000 as its own rescue is found to have stalled →

The death count from June's twin quakes crosses 5,000 and the IMF releases $346m — as a new investigation finds Venezuela's first days of rescue were crippled by delayed orders and tangled chains of command. Elsewhere, the US–Iran war grinds into a second week, Ukraine strikes deep inside Russia while protests swell at home, and Cuba's grid fails for a third time in ten days.

A handful of chip stocks drag the whole market down →

A selloff in a few AI and chip giants pulled global markets into their worst week since spring, while US strikes on Iran entered a seventh night and Israel struck a Gaza funeral.

US strikes reach Tehran as Iran hits Gulf neighbours and moves to choke Hormuz →

A collapsed ceasefire has become a sixth day of open war between the US and Iran. The fighting is now reaching oil tankers, bystander Gulf states, and prices far from the Gulf.

China's economy posts a record-low 4.3% as shoppers stop spending →

China's growth hit one of its weakest rates ever while consumers default in record numbers; Venezuela's US-installed government opens talks with the opposition; and the US strikes Iran again.

Europe moves to choke Sudan's war by banning its gold →

The EU cut off Sudanese gold to starve a two-year war of money, as Ukraine opens a new naval front, US inflation falls for the first time since 2020, and DR Congo's Ebola toll is likely far worse than the official count.

China expels a third top leader as Xi's purge climbs into the ruling elite →

Beijing removes a former Politburo member for corruption — the third since 2025 — while Trump's threatened 20% toll on the Strait of Hormuz drives oil to a one-month high, and nine European nations agree to build a missile shield around Ukraine.

Europe's deadly summer: wildfires rage as heat quietly kills thousands →

Fires burn across Spain and France while new data shows heat killed 2,700 in the UK and 10,000 across Europe. Plus: US and Iran trade fresh strikes and oil jumps, Venezuela's quake toll passes 4,490, and Ukraine shuts Russian shipping in the Sea of Azov.

Nigeria frees all 44 schoolchildren and teachers held captive for two months →

A Nigerian army operation brought home every pupil and teacher seized from three rural schools in May — a rare clean win against a wave of mass kidnappings, and the freshest good news in a heavy week.

China catches a rocket coming home — and America's cheap-space monopoly gets a rival →

China recovered an orbital rocket booster for the first time, narrowing the one lead the US held alone in cheap space access. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve leaned toward raising interest rates, Ukraine's drones cut deep into Russia's fuel supply, and Congo faced the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.

Ukrainians turn on their own draft as the war enters its fifth year →

A crowd in Lviv overturned a conscription officer's car and tore off his uniform — the sharpest sign yet that Ukraine's deepest shortage is not weapons but willing soldiers. Plus Europe moves to arm itself, war costs reach Japan's factory prices, and a breakthrough in the Darfur atrocity case.

Trump orders a cutoff of all US trade with Spain — but the power to do it may not be his →

At a NATO summit in Turkey, the US president told his own treasury secretary to end trade with Spain over its defence spending. The catch: Spain doesn't run its own trade — the EU does. Plus divided Fed minutes, a gloomier IMF, and an ICC breakthrough on Sudan.

A ceasefire with Iran unravels as the US and Tehran trade strikes across the Gulf →

Three tankers hit in the Strait of Hormuz triggered fresh US strikes on more than 80 targets in Iran; Tehran fired back at US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait, and each side now accuses the other of breaking the truce first.

Hamas gives up its government on paper — but keeps its guns, and the war grinds on →

Hamas dissolved its Gaza governing body to make room for a UN-backed technocratic committee, but refused to disarm, so real control hasn't moved. Turkey jailed comedians and banned protests before hosting a tense NATO summit, half a million people are trapped in a besieged Sudanese city, and China told the world not to "over-interpret" a Pacific missile test.

Israel's government says it won't obey its own top court — a first, and a warning →

Netanyahu's cabinet formally declared it will ignore a High Court ruling, crossing a line no Israeli government has crossed before. Plus OPEC opens the taps as Hormuz reopens, Trump works the phones on Ukraine, and Venezuela's quake toll climbs past 3,300.

Two enemies who hate each other attack Mali together — and its army is running out of ground →

A Tuareg separatist group and an al-Qaeda affiliate, whose goals are opposite, struck Mali's army in five towns on the same morning. Plus a besieged Sudanese city under drone fire, Ukraine's strikes deep inside Russia, and a Peru election settled by 50,000 votes.