News without the noise
International relations and global affairs
50 articles
Four of Europe's most powerful nations — France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom — have jointly criticised Israel's proposed death penalty legislation, warning that the bill carries a "de facto discriminatory character" that would disproportionately affect Palestinian prisoners.
Israel's military posted two images purporting to show Ali Choeib, one of the journalists killed in a recent airstrike on southern Lebanon, wearing a Hezbollah uniform. The New York Times has confirmed that one of the images was digitally altered, raising serious questions about Israel's justification for targeting press members.
The Pentagon is actively considering a ground campaign in Iran lasting several weeks, according to multiple US media reports, marking a dramatic escalation that would make this the largest American ground operation in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Thousands of additional US troops have already arrived in the region as Iran issues increasingly stark warnings about the consequences of a land invasion.
Foreign ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt are meeting in Islamabad in the most significant diplomatic effort yet to prepare the ground for de-escalation in the Iran war, as the conflict enters its second month with no ceasefire in sight.
The war against Iran escalated sharply on Saturday as Iran-allied Houthi forces formally entered the conflict and Israel intensified its bombardment of Tehran, while separate airstrikes in Iraq killed three Popular Mobilization Forces fighters and two Iraqi police officers.
Ukraine has finalized air defense agreements with Qatar and Saudi Arabia during President Zelensky's visit to the Middle East, marking a strategic pivot as the country seeks to transform itself from a recipient of military aid into a supplier of defense technology.
Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched their first direct missile attack on Israel, marking a significant escalation as the Middle East war enters its second month. The Iran-backed group has also raised the spectre of disrupting a second crucial waterway, threatening further damage to an already strained global economy.
Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for a missile attack targeting Israel, opening yet another front in the rapidly expanding conflict engulfing the Middle East. The attack comes as US and Israeli forces continue their campaign against Iran's military and nuclear infrastructure.
A bipartisan group of US senators has arrived in Taiwan to urge the passage of a defence spending bill, in a show of support that comes as Chinese military pressure on the island continues to intensify.
A combined Iranian missile and drone attack struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, injuring at least 12 American troops and damaging two Air Force refueling aircraft in what officials described as one of the most serious breaches of US air defenses since the war with Iran began a month ago.
A new investigation has revealed that Israel's expanded invasion of southern Lebanon was at least 12 days in the making, with bridges systematically targeted to effectively cut off the south from the rest of the country.
The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran expanded dramatically on Friday with strikes hitting major steel plants and other vital industrial infrastructure, while rescue workers in south Tehran continued pulling survivors from buildings hit by earlier missile strikes.
While the world's attention remains fixed on the sprawling war in the Middle East, another conflict between nuclear-armed Pakistan and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is edging toward a dangerous threshold, with Afghanistan ranked number one on the global terrorism index.
The United States and Israel struck two Iranian nuclear facilities on Friday in a dramatic escalation of the war, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at a G7 meeting in France that Washington expects the operation to conclude in "weeks, not months" without ground troops.
President Trump has extended the deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz for a second time, pushing it to April 6, after another bruising day on Wall Street and wild swings in oil prices forced a recalculation.
Donald Trump has urged Iranian leaders to negotiate an end to the near-month-long war or face further assassinations of senior officials, as cracks in his own political coalition over the conflict became visible at the annual CPAC gathering. The threat came hours after Israel announced it had killed Revolutionary Guards naval commander Alireza Tangsiri in a strike on the port of Bandar Abbas.
Russian lawmakers have travelled to the United States for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, after the State Department lifted sanctions on the delegation at the invitation of a Kremlin-friendly member of Congress.
Israel announced on Thursday that it killed Alireza Tangsiri, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, in a targeted airstrike. Iran has not confirmed or commented on the claim.
The human cost of Iran's missile and drone attacks on Gulf states is falling disproportionately on South Asian migrant workers, with the majority of those killed in strikes on the UAE, Kuwait, and other Gulf nations coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal — sending shockwaves through families and economies thousands of kilometres away.
Diplomatic efforts to wind down the Iran war hit a wall on Wednesday as Tehran's foreign minister flatly denied any negotiations were taking place with the United States, even as Egypt signalled it was ready to host de-escalation talks and bipartisan anger erupted in Washington over the administration's decision to ease oil sanctions on both Russia and Iran.
Iran has severely damaged several American military bases in the Middle East, US officials have acknowledged, forcing troops at some installations to adopt remote working arrangements as facilities are rebuilt. The admission represents the most candid assessment yet of the physical toll the conflict has taken on US military infrastructure in the region.
Iran has dismissed the latest US proposal to end the war as maximalist and unreasonable, dealing a blow to diplomatic efforts even as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte faces growing criticism for openly supporting a conflict that does not directly involve European collective defence.
Estonia and Latvia have both reported drone incursions from Russian airspace, with Riga saying the drone that entered Latvian territory may have been Ukrainian in origin, adding a layer of complexity to what would otherwise be a straightforward provocation by Moscow.
Israel launched fresh strikes on Tehran on Wednesday as the Pentagon announced it was deploying 2,000 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to the Middle East, even as Pakistan offered to host US-Iran peace talks and Trump's envoys reportedly sent a 15-point ceasefire plan to Tehran.
A drone strike has ignited a fuel storage tank at Kuwait International Airport, marking a significant escalation as the Iran conflict spreads to civilian infrastructure in Gulf states that have so far tried to remain neutral.
Israel's defence minister has announced plans for the country's military to take control of southern Lebanon, from the Israeli border known as the Blue Line to the Litani River. The announcement comes as Lebanon's foreign ministry declared the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, citing breaches of diplomatic protocol by Tehran.
Half of all Britons polled in a recent YouGov survey believe a third world war is likely within the next five to ten years, reflecting a dramatic shift in public sentiment as conflicts rage simultaneously across multiple continents. The finding comes as Donald Trump temporarily stepped back from deepening the US war with Iran, but with little sign the fighting is near an end.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has delivered a lengthy address to his country's rubber-stamp parliament, using the Iran war as vindication for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme and declaring that his nuclear arsenal will shield North Korea from American hostility.
Iran has launched what analysts say is the longest-range ballistic missile ever fired in combat, targeting a US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean and demonstrating the ability to strike targets up to 4,000 kilometres away — a range that puts European cities within reach.
Pentagon officials are actively weighing the deployment of airborne combat troops to the Iran theatre, with discussions centring on a brigade of approximately 3000 soldiers capable of deploying anywhere in the world within 18 hours.
Pakistan's military chief Asim Munir is positioning himself as a key mediator in the US-Iran conflict, leveraging the country's ties to Tehran and Munir's warm personal relationship with President Trump to push for a diplomatic resolution.
The Trump administration is considering inviting Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to the White House, according to the Financial Times, in what would represent a dramatic diplomatic thaw with one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies. Lukashenko has been subject to Western sanctions since his disputed 2020 re-election and subsequent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he had ordered the US military to postpone planned strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure for five days, saying the two countries had held "very good and productive conversations" about resolving hostilities in the Middle East. The announcement came after days of escalating threats, with Trump previously giving Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face obliteration of its power grid.
The head of the International Energy Agency has declared the Iran conflict has created an energy crisis worse than anything seen since the 1970s, as Asian stock markets slid sharply on Monday in response to escalating threats between Washington and Tehran.
Iran has warned it will irreversibly destroy essential infrastructure across the Middle East if the United States attacks its energy sites, dramatically raising the stakes hours after Donald Trump threatened to obliterate Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened within two days.
Former CIA director and defence secretary Leon Panetta has accused Donald Trump of being solely responsible for the escalating Iran crisis, telling the Guardian that the president is stuck between a rock and a hard place after three weeks of war with no exit strategy beyond wishful thinking.
China's Premier Li Qiang has used a major business gathering in Beijing to position the country as a "harbour of stability" for global commerce, drawing a pointed contrast with the United States as President Trump's Iran war continues to destabilise markets and supply chains.
President Trump has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran demanding the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, threatening to "obliterate" the country's power plants if Tehran does not comply. The deadline comes as Iran's representative to the UN maritime agency maintained the vital waterway remains open to all vessels except those linked to "Iran's enemies."
Saudi Arabia has expelled Iran's military attaché and four other embassy staff members in a sharp diplomatic escalation following an Iranian attack on the Red Sea port of Yanbu, the kingdom's primary oil export outlet. The move signals a deepening rift between the two regional powers after years of cautious rapprochement.
Iranian ballistic missile barrages struck the southern Israeli cities of Arad and Dimona on Saturday, wounding approximately 100 people after air defence systems failed to intercept at least two projectiles. Among the injured were a 12-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl, both reported to be in serious condition. Dimona is widely believed to house Israel's nuclear weapons program.
G7 foreign ministers have issued a joint condemnation of Iran's attacks on global energy infrastructure, stressing the urgent need to keep critical shipping routes including the Strait of Hormuz secure, while the European Union has separately urged member states to begin stockpiling natural gas ahead of next winter as war-driven price volatility threatens storage projections.
Japan has expressed unease after President Trump cited the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor to defend the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran, a comparison that has strained relations between the two allies and put Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in a difficult position.
A 34-year-old Iranian man and a 31-year-old woman have been charged after allegedly attempting to enter HM Naval Base Clyde in Scotland — better known as Faslane — which houses the core of the UK's submarine fleet and its Trident nuclear weapons system.
A drone strike near the headquarters of the Iraqi National Intelligence Service in Baghdad has killed a police officer, in an attack attributed to what Iraqi authorities describe as outlaw groups.
Donald Trump has said he is now considering winding back US military efforts in the Middle East, a significant shift in rhetoric as the war enters its fourth week.
The United States has temporarily paused sanctions on some Iranian oil exports in an effort to increase global crude supply, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent estimating the move could add approximately 140 million barrels to the market.
The United Kingdom has authorised the United States to use British military bases to strike Iranian missile launchers threatening shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, even as cabinet ministers express growing alarm about the war's potential economic consequences. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted the position is essentially defensive, but Trump has branded the UK and other NATO allies "cowards" for not doing more.
Denmark brought blood supplies, explosives and live ammunition to Greenland as part of contingency plans in case President Trump acted on his repeated threats to seize the island, the New York Times reports. The plans included the destruction of airfields to deny landing capabilities to any invading force.
Hungary's Viktor Orbán has been accused of disloyalty and blackmail by EU partners after vetoing a Ukraine loan package, demanding that a pipeline carrying Russian oil through Ukraine to Hungary be repaired before any funds are released. The standoff deepens divisions within the EU over how to handle its most obstinate member.
Iran has warned it will show "zero restraint" if its energy infrastructure is attacked again, as the economic fallout from the conflict continues to ripple across the globe. American farmers are reporting that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a key fertilizer production and transportation route — is pushing costs to unsustainable levels.