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1269 articles · page 10 of 27
Ethiopian forces and allied fighters have expanded their control across the northern Tigray region and entered the historic city of Aksum, while a pro-government militia claims Eritrean forces have suffered heavy losses and retreated toward the border, allegations Eritrea has rejected as false.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck the presidential palace complex in the Yemeni port city of Aden on Thursday, hitting a command centre used by the Saudi-led coalition and killing at least four people, according to government military sources. It was the first attack on the palace area since Yemen's civil war flared back to life in July, and marked an escalation in the rebels' campaign against Saudi targets.
· 4 sourcesFrance has dropped its opposition to the UK being included in the EU's 'Made in Europe' legislation, provided the British government aligns with the bloc's tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, according to a joint Franco-German paper seen by The Guardian. The development marks a significant shift in EU-UK trade relations and could safeguard billions of pounds in automotive supply chains.
An ABC investigation has identified an alleged Chinese espionage network that used fake LinkedIn personas to target thousands of people worldwide, including at least seven Australians approached under the cover of a security consultancy supposedly run by retired Australian police officers.
British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting urged the United States to stand by Ukraine during a visit to Washington on Tuesday, seeking to cool tensions after the US government limited Ukraine's military access to Starlink satellite services. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies before a meeting with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Streeting acknowledged the row over Starlink and argued that supporting Ukraine was in Washington's long-term interests and a business opportunity.
· 2 sourcesThe UK has threatened to ban Eritrean nationals from entering the country after the east African state refused to accept the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminals. The diplomatic row has cast a spotlight on Eritrea, which is widely described as one of the world's most secretive and repressive regimes, with compulsory military conscription and a president who has not held elections since independence.
Azerbaijan's education ministry has begun enforcing a ban on hijabs in state schools, triggering rare public protests in Baku and southern districts and a diplomatic dispute with close ally Turkey. The interior ministry said it had detained 37 people for trying to obstruct the rules.
· 2 sourcesA global scramble is underway to break China's near-total stranglehold on rare earth elements, with the radioactive ore monazite emerging as a potential game-changer. Hundreds of mining companies, government agencies, and industrial facilities across North America, Australasia, and Europe are racing to establish alternative supply chains, but analysts warn the path is fraught with instability, risk, and geopolitical intrigue.
The chief adviser to Argentina's President Javier Milei has claimed that the election of a Muslim MP to the UK parliament is evidence of the 'Islamisation' of Britain and further reason for Argentina to take sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Santiago Caputo posted on social media that sovereignty was necessary to prevent the 'interference of an Islamic state' in the South Atlantic, a post shared by Milei himself.
· 2 sourcesSpain has openly broken with the Trump White House over NATO defence spending and the use of Spanish military bases in the war with Iran, a policy of "frank disagreement" that will be tested when the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faces November elections.
Restrictions on Ukraine’s military satellite connections remained in place despite President Donald Trump’s claim on Thursday that service had been restored, according to a senior European official cited by France 24. The official said a speed cap of about 160km/h continued to apply, prolonging disruption to drone operations and fuelling demands in Washington for an investigation.
· 5 sourcesYemen’s Houthi rebels struck Saudi Arabia’s largest airport and an Aramco facility this week, sending crude oil above US$107 a barrel and triggering a wave of selling across global markets. President Donald Trump accused Iran’s leadership of directing the attacks to inflate oil prices before next month’s US midterm elections.
· 4 sourcesSeven sailors are missing after two chemical tankers caught fire overnight inside Romanian territorial waters in the Black Sea, as a wave of drone strikes on civilian shipping continues to threaten global grain supplies. Romanian authorities have not directly linked the blazes to Russian drones but the incidents follow attacks on at least five other cargo ships near Romania and Bulgaria over the past 10 days, which left at least 23 sailors lost.
· 3 sourcesRomanian authorities have revised down the number of missing crew from the drone-struck chemical tanker Wine Trader to seven, as rescue teams continue battling rough seas to reach four confirmed survivors. The San Marino-flagged vessel was hit by drones on Thursday morning about 13 nautical miles east of the Danube River mouth at Sulina.
· 2 sourcesBBC Verify has identified 254 incidents in which the Israeli military has been accused of killing or injuring people in Gaza, Lebanon, the occupied West Bank and Israel that it said it was investigating, but have no public outcome. Using AI tools to comb through over 60,000 news reports, the BBC found 300 cases the IDF said it was looking into, of which only 28 had outcomes published on the IDF website.
Tehran will keep fighting until Washington accepts its demands, Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said, as two vessels sank near the Strait of Hormuz in the latest escalation between Iran and the United States.
China and North Korea have opened the long-delayed New Yalu River Bridge, a new road link between the Chinese city of Dandong and the North Korean border city of Sinuiju, as the neighbours deepen ties while Pyongyang seeks to ease its economic isolation.
· 2 sourcesUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that allies had not provided intelligence from NATO early-warning satellites, reducing warning time against Russian ballistic missiles, as strikes this week killed at least 15 people. US President Donald Trump denied stopping intelligence sharing but announced an 'energy ceasefire' between Ukraine and Russia.
China will keep approving rare earth export licences for Europe even if the US-China trade truce is not extended beyond January, the country's commerce ministry said on Thursday, signalling Beijing intends to separate its European trade relationship from tensions with Washington.
The Balkan states have failed to form a unified position on Israel’s war in Gaza, with each country's stance shaped by domestic politics, unresolved ethnic divisions and transactional diplomacy rather than a shared regional outlook, analysts say.
Ukraine struck an oil refinery in Ryazan, about 180 kilometres south of Moscow, on Thursday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was 'done' with a US-orchestrated ceasefire on energy targets that Russia had ignored. The attack comes as relations between Kyiv and Washington deteriorate sharply, with President Donald Trump lifting sanctions on Russian diesel, calling for Zelenskyy's replacement, and restricting Ukraine's access to Starshield, the military-grade Starlink system used to pilot drones.
· 3 sourcesThe U.S. military has drawn up options for renewed strikes on Iran that include the potential use of one of the largest non-nuclear bombs in its arsenal, CNN reported Thursday, as Tehran vowed to fight on for its demands.
A first-person essay published by War on the Rocks describes a Sudanese writer's return to Khartoum in June 2026, his first visit since the civil war broke out in April 2023, and warns that the spread of drone warfare over the country threatens the hopes of Sudanese coming home.
China has quietly opened what it calls a 'joint support and training center' at an airport in Ban Keun, Laos, its first publicly acknowledged overseas military facility centered on airpower, according to an announcement from the Chinese Ministry of Defense on September 29. Satellite imagery has since revealed the presence of eight light attack aircraft at the site, deepening concerns about Beijing's expanding military footprint in Southeast Asia.
A new analysis published in War on the Rocks argues that the proposed Golden Dome missile defense system is both technologically and financially infeasible, highlighting the long history of disappointments in efforts to build a reliable shield against intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Elon Musk has suggested that the US government, rather than SpaceX, was behind the recent slowdown of Starlink internet speeds in Ukraine, as European leaders met in Brussels with few ready alternatives to the US-controlled satellite network. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he felt 'betrayed' by the US after the restrictions, which Ukraine says hamper its ability to use defensive weapons.
· 3 sourcesUS President Donald Trump has branded Ukraine's resumption of strikes on Russian oil refineries “a disgrace,” as Moscow accused Kyiv of launching a large-scale attack on a refinery south of Moscow, deepening the rift between Washington and Kyiv after an “energy ceasefire” collapsed within days.
· 6 sourcesAs Israelis prepare to vote on October 27, African governments are assessing how the outcome might reshape their foreign policies, with the war in Gaza exposing sharp divisions across the continent between vocal critics of Israel and those maintaining or deepening ties.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has accused Israel's ambassador of insulting the family of aid worker Zomi Frankcom after the Israeli military ruled out releasing audio from the drone strike that killed her, as the Albanese government considers its response to the decision not to charge officers involved.
Elon Musk says the US government, not SpaceX, decides any restrictions on Ukraine's military-grade Starshield satellite service, after Ukrainian officials complained that new speed limits disrupted military operations during Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.
North Korea has test-fired two types of submarine-launched strategic cruise missiles in the sea off its east coast, state media KCNA reported on Thursday, the latest in a series of weapons tests as tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang escalate.
Israeli intelligence services are suspected of using social media to gather information and recruit informants in Lebanon and Iran, with security experts and Lebanese officials pointing to a verified Instagram account posing as Mossad that publishes Arabic-language recruitment appeals.
President Xi Jinping's September visit to Washington yielded no major breakthrough on trade or artificial intelligence safety, and a significant discrepancy has now emerged over whether the two sides agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding on strengthening crisis communication between their militaries. China's official readout states the two sides agreed to sign an MoU 'as soon as possible,' but the White House fact sheet did not mention the commitment, and a U.S. official reportedly denied that such a discussion took place.
A Comoros-flagged tanker anchored in Romania's territorial waters caught fire on Wednesday and its crew was evacuated, Romanian authorities said, as a wave of drone attacks on merchant shipping in the Black Sea raises fears of hybrid warfare.
Algeria is aggressively reasserting its influence in the Sahel, seeking to reclaim its traditional role as security mediator just as Mali's military and its Russian allies retake the strategic city of Kidal from Tuareg separatists. The recapture comes amid a resumption of bilateral ties, with Algiers reopening its airspace to Bamako in July after a 15-month rift.
Denmark has pushed back against President Donald Trump’s claims that oil, gas and mineral extraction will soon begin in Greenland, insisting that a recent agreement between the two countries and the island does not give US investors special rights over other NATO or EU nations.
Suspected Russian drone attacks sank a cargo ship and forced the evacuation of another vessel within two dozen miles of Bulgaria's Black Sea coast on October 13, prompting requests for NATO to redeploy counter-drone systems to protect shipping in the region.
Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has formed a coalition with M23 fighters in eastern DRC, a move observers say could escalate the region's long-running conflict. Kabila will lead the political-military alliance, which opposes the government in Kinshasa.
The United States Treasury has removed sanctions on Jorge Rodriguez, president of Venezuela's National Assembly and brother of interim President Delcy Rodriguez, in a move that follows major US-Venezuela energy pacts and signals Washington's growing diplomatic recognition of the interim government.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he feels personally betrayed by US President Donald Trump after Ukraine's military found its access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite communications system had been restricted, rendering drones and air defense systems inoperable. In an interview with Piers Morgan, Zelenskyy warned that the decision would bring 'a lot of human losses.'
· 6 sourcesRonen Bar, the former head of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security agency, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of making false claims about the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. The 134-page court document, filed ahead of Israel's October 27 election, seeks three million shekels (about $968,500) in damages.
Ukraine’s military reported that some Starlink satellite internet services were being restored on Wednesday after an abrupt slowdown forced Kyiv to cancel missions overnight. President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Elon Musk’s SpaceX of deliberately throttling the service and warned the decision would lead to civilian deaths. Musk responded that any speed restrictions on Starshield, the military-grade version of Starlink, are set by the US Department of Defense, not his company.
· 9 sourcesAn ABC investigation has revealed that two LinkedIn accounts connected to suspected Chinese spies amassed thousands of connections worldwide and approached more than 100 Australians over nearly a decade, including former Queensland premier and now opposition leader Steven Miles and an Australian Federal Police commander.
In a new analysis, Harvard professor and Foreign Policy columnist Stephen M. Walt warns that Europe's rush to rearm in response to Russian aggression may create a paradoxical cycle, where today's militarization demands even more military buildup down the line.
Countries sanctioning Russian oil have for the first time enforced boarding and inspection rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), using Article 110 to disrupt the shadow fleet that carries Russian crude to market, experts say.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told Volodymyr Zelensky that Britain's support for Ukraine "will not change", hosting the Ukrainian president at Downing Street days after Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" that Kyiv said was "news to me" and that Russia answered with fresh strikes on Ukrainian power plants.
· 4 sourcesThe UK is expanding its sanctions powers to freeze assets and target entities and individuals who enable illegal Israeli settlements, obstruct humanitarian aid or unlawfully hold prisoners, with the new regime due to come into force this week. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is pushing the measures through at speed ahead of a disputed West Bank settlement tender.
· 2 sourcesThe UK's approach to China is 'beset by incoherence' and hampered by a shortage of senior expertise, according to a report by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) published on Wednesday. The audit warns that past engagement has exposed the UK to risks of interference without delivering the opportunities promised, and calls for clearly defined red lines on critical infrastructure, frontier technologies and human rights.
· 2 sources