Global affairs, diplomacy, and international news from every corner of the world.
Taiwan deliberately slowed mobile internet speeds across Taipei and other cities this week, the first time such a communications blackout has been built into its annual military exercises. The drill responds to growing concern that China could sever the undersea cables that connect the island to the world.
Kevin Rideout, an American missionary abducted outside his home in Niamey last October, has been released to US officials, his organisation says. No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
A shallow earthquake struck off Indonesia's Flores Island early Saturday, collapsing buildings and triggering a brief tsunami warning. Rescue teams are still trying to reach the hardest-hit area near the epicentre.
Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to the Kuril Islands for the first time on Thursday, prompting Japan to lodge a formal protest over territory both countries claim.
A Polish court sentenced Igor Rogov, once a coordinator for the exiled opposition group Open Russia, to seven years for spying for Russia's FSB. His wife received three years for helping him.
Settlers have surrounded and cut off utilities to Palestinian homes in Qusra, near Nablus, since Sunday, in what residents call an attempt to seize their land. Israeli troops have so far failed to remove them.
New coal mining proposals worldwide rose 11% last year, with India accounting for almost all of the increase as it seeks to secure electricity supply. The rise comes even as global demand for the fossil fuel is expected to plateau.
Söderåsen national park in Skåne protects one of northern Europe's largest continuous stretches of broadleaf woodland, land that was still being logged until 1989. Twelve years later it became a national park, and the beech forest has since regrown into a major hiking and wild swimming destination.
A total solar eclipse crossed northern Spain on Wednesday evening, drawing crowds of eclipse chasers, astronomers and tourists to towns along its path. It was the first total eclipse visible from mainland Europe since 1999.
Forecasters warned Beijing could receive more than a third of its average annual rainfall within 24 hours, as the remnants of the year's most powerful typhoon to hit China pushed floodwaters and landslide risk into the capital.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered a freeze on new firearm licences after a 14-year-old boy killed his grandparents and six others before taking his own life. The bodies of the shooter and his grandparents were cremated this week as the government pledged tougher gun laws.
Smoke from wildfires across Sumatra and Borneo has forced school closures in Indonesia and triggered air quality alerts in neighbouring Malaysia. Authorities have deployed dozens of aircraft, including cloud-seeding planes, as an El Nino-driven dry season worsens.
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the African Union's public health agency say they are investigating whether the Bundibugyo Ebola virus is mutating, as the country's outbreak becomes its largest on record and confirmed cases pass 4,000.
Record-low water levels on the Danube have uncovered wartime German warships, unexploded ordnance and a military motorcycle. The drought is also disrupting shipping and power generation across the Balkans.
A counter-disinformation group found accounts tied to the Russian military helped spread far-right narratives during the mass migrant crossings into the Spanish enclave, reaching hundreds of thousands of people within hours.
A divided federal appeals panel has ruled that President Trump's demolition and rebuilding of the White House East Wing exceeded his authority, setting up a likely Supreme Court appeal.
Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, has formally dropped a proposal for a fund reported at up to $1.8bn (around €1.6bn) that could have compensated people the Trump administration says were wrongly targeted by federal investigators, including some prosecuted over the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.
Jay Clayton, Trump's nominee to lead America's 18 intelligence agencies, is on course for Senate confirmation, as a pause in US-Iran fighting and Oman-brokered talks over the Strait of Hormuz briefly send oil prices sharply lower.
US intelligence analysts are examining whether Russia helped Iran target CIA facilities in the Gulf with data or upgraded drones, Reuters reports. No firm conclusion has been reached.
A brutal sequence of heatwaves has turned much of southern Europe into a tinderbox, driving mass evacuations across France, Spain, Portugal and Greece and killing thousands through heat alone. The European Commission has deployed firefighters from 14 countries.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to Beijing in January 2026, the first by a Canadian leader in nearly a decade, marked a decisive turn in relations between Ottawa and Beijing. The two countries have since moved to lower trade barriers and unlock billions in new export orders.
Foreign ministers from across the globe have gathered in Manila for the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, with the Iran conflict, Myanmar's civil war, and South China Sea territorial disputes dominating the agenda.
Twin earthquakes that killed nearly 5,000 people last month have given Venezuela's acting government a new reason to delay presidential elections, deepening frustration among an opposition that was already struggling to rebuild after years of authoritarian repression.
Seven armed gunmen have hijacked the MT Asana in the Gulf of Aden, the second such seizure off the Yemeni coast since May and part of a sharply accelerating wave of Somali piracy that security analysts say naval forces are struggling to contain.
The European Commission has issued two binding directives requiring Google to give competing AI assistants equal access to Android and share search data with rival platforms. The decisions, issued on 16 July 2026, are the most significant test yet of the EU's Digital Markets Act.
President Donald Trump has signed executive orders cutting Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah by roughly 90 percent each, undoing protections that Joe Biden had reinstated in 2021.
A wildfire that broke out on Sunday in the historic Fontainebleau forest, 60 kilometres southeast of Paris, has consumed more than 2,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of around 1,000 people. Two people are in custody on suspicion of arson as France endures its third heatwave of the summer.
Typhoon Bavi made landfall in China's Zhejiang province on Saturday night before weakening to a severe tropical storm, leaving a trail of injuries across Taiwan and triggering the evacuation of nearly two million people across eastern China.
Workers in Samsung's smartphone, television and home appliance division plan to stage a protest on 16 July over a bonus deal that could give semiconductor colleagues up to 100 times more than they receive.
Argentina's President Javier Milei has proposed legislation to create a new corporate category for AI-run businesses, but the actual bill demands human administrators remain in charge. The proposal, a world first, has ignited a global debate about accountability, innovation, and limits of autonomy.
Taiwan's defence ministry has reinstated ideological education for military academy graduates after a 25-year pause, citing growing military pressure and infiltration threats from China.
The European Court of Justice has permanently confirmed a record antitrust penalty against Google for using its Android operating system to shut out mobile rivals. The ruling ends eight years of litigation and leaves the company with no further right of appeal.
Peru's electoral court has officially declared right-wing politician Keiko Fujimori president-elect, ending a weeks-long count that exposed the country's deep political fault lines. She will take office on 28 July as Peru's ninth head of state in a decade.
US President Donald Trump's annual financial disclosure shows digital assets have become by far his largest income source, raising fresh questions about conflicts of interest as he shapes crypto policy.
A first-of-its-kind European Commission study finds that companies seeking industrial permits across the EU must navigate up to ten separate authorities and multiple disconnected digital platforms, with delays costing hundreds of thousands of euros per project.
A record-breaking heatwave has pushed Germany to a new national temperature high of 41.5°C, with the heat system now advancing into Poland, where forecasters warn the country's 105-year-old record could fall within days.
The United States has launched a second round of strikes against Iranian military targets in two days after an Iranian drone hit a Panama-flagged oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening a fragile interim peace agreement signed earlier this month.
Israeli forces dropped leaflets over the southern Lebanese town of Mansouri on 26 June, ordering residents to leave in the first such order since the latest ceasefire took effect. The move came on the same day Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington
A cargo vessel was struck by a projectile near Oman on Thursday, halting a UN maritime evacuation program just as oil prices had fallen to pre-war levels for the first time since the US-Israel strikes on Iran in February. The incident has cast fresh doubt on the US–Iran peace framework.
Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela's northern coast within 40 seconds of each other on Wednesday evening, killing at least 32 people, injuring around 700, and collapsing buildings across the capital, Caracas. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez has declared a national state of emergency
South Korea's SK Hynix has announced plans to raise up to $29.4 billion through an American Depositary Receipt listing on the Nasdaq, targeting a July 10 debut. The deal would be the largest ADR offering in history, overtaking Alibaba's $21.8 billion New York listing in 2014.
US Vice-President JD Vance has cancelled his trip to Switzerland to meet Iranian negotiators, a day after both sides digitally signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding intended to end months of war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.