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7606 articles · page 52 of 159 · The World front page
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.
A proposal by the Jammu and Kashmir Waqf Board to introduce uniform Friday sermons across mosques in Indian-administered Kashmir has sparked widespread opposition from politicians and religious scholars, who accuse authorities of interfering in Muslim religious affairs. The board, headed by Darakshan Andrabi, a BJP-aligned leader, announced the plan last weekend, prompting top Islamic scholars to denounce it as an irresponsible intrusion.
The Charity Commission is set to criticise the intimidation of charities working with asylum seekers, after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for groups that help them to be prosecuted. The charity commissioner will use a speech to draw a distinction between legitimate heated discussion and harassment or abuse, The Guardian reports.
Western Australian police have charged a 43-year-old woman after she allegedly contaminated a colleague's curry with snail pellets containing the poisonous substance metaldehyde, leaving the victim with a numb tongue.
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.
US 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.
A new report from Human Rights Watch documents a sharp escalation in the arrest and prosecution of LGBTQ+ people in Senegal, following amendments to the penal code in March that doubled the maximum prison sentence for consensual same-sex relations to 10 years and introduced penalties for promoting or supporting LGBTQ+ rights.
The Waitākere Ranges local board has voted to reopen the Piha Campground for the 2026/27 summer, against the recommendations of Auckland Council, which closed the site in June while it investigated flood risks.
Victoria's net debt has reached $160.6 billion, according to the state's consolidated accounts tabled in parliament, prompting calls from business and community leaders for the major parties to confront the fiscal challenge head-on in the lead-up to the November 28 state election.
President Donald Trump is taking his midterm campaign to western states, aiming to boost Republican candidates and energize voters ahead of the November elections.
A thick orange smog has descended on the Indonesian city of Palangka Raya in Kalimantan, sending the air pollution index above 1,200, four times the level classed as hazardous, as wildfires continue to burn nearby.
The death toll from a roof collapse at a private school in Peshawar, Pakistan, has risen to at least 34 children and a teacher, authorities said on Thursday, as police arrested the school's owner and launched an investigation into what they described as an overloaded, substandard building.
The parents of Chloe Moffat, a 26-year-old Treasury personal assistant who took her own life after a disciplinary meeting, are set to demand that staff found to have contributed to their daughter's death be held to account. The Treasury has acknowledged its role in the tragedy and committed to safeguards, but the family wants individual managers and HR staff to face consequences.
Forty years after regaining independence from Soviet-dominated rule, Poland has converged with western living standards faster than any other country of its kind, and the Warsaw skyline now tells that story: the new Varso tower, the tallest building in the European Union, rises visibly above the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science.
Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Matt Buckley has ordered a 100 per cent audit of bathrooms across the Royal Australian Navy fleet after a recording device was found in the women's bathroom of HMAS Leeuwin, an incident he labelled a "despicable betrayal of trust" and an act of sexual violence.
An Australian citizen was wrongfully jailed in immigration detention for 945 days – more than two and a half years – due to repeated errors by the Department of Home Affairs, according to a Commonwealth Ombudsman report that found the person was one of 30 people unlawfully held last financial year.
As 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.
Doctors who warned that Elizabeth Struhs was at "extremely high risk" in her mother's care were excluded from inter-agency safety meetings before she died, a Brisbane inquest has heard. The exclusion came despite a paediatrician's warning that the girl could be close to death again if her insulin was withheld.
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors are gathering in Bangkok for meetings held alongside the annual gatherings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, with the global economic outlook overshadowed by the US-Israel war on Iran. The US Treasury Secretary will be notably absent.
A Perth councillor has called on the Western Australian government to adopt the Model Defamation Amendment Provisions 2020, arguing the state's outdated laws are silencing elected officials afraid of being sued. City of Melville councillor Scott Green, who has faced defamation proceedings himself, has put forward a motion seeking support from the WA Local Government Association to amend the Defamation Act 2005 (WA). Attorney General Tony Buti confirmed that work on the first two stages of reforms is underway.
The Sydney Morning Herald has dominated nominations for the Walkley Awards, Australia's premier journalism honours, as two of its photographers claimed top Nikon prizes on Thursday.
Hugh Weibgen has emerged as a shock contender for Australia's 2027 ODI World Cup squad after scoring back-to-back centuries for Queensland, with the 21-year-old citing Matthew Renshaw's influence as a key factor in his development. As Renshaw spearheaded Australia to a 214-run Test victory in South Africa, Weibgen pushed his credentials in the unfamiliar role of opener, anchoring the Bulls to a 15-run win with an innings of 261.
President Donald Trump has called off plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, saying in a post on Truth Social that Hasan "will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed".
NSW's unemployment rate has climbed to a five-year high of 4.7 per cent, with 223,000 people out of work, as rising interest rates, elevated petrol prices and falling house prices sap demand for labour across the state, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show.
Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Thursday for historic child sex offences against two girls, in a case a judge said marked a 'catastrophic descent into disgrace.' The 63-year-old, convicted in June of 18 offences including rape, will serve 11 years for crimes against one victim and four years for offences against the other, to run consecutively.
Victorian police have charged CFMEU delegate James Hluschko with allegedly trafficking drugs, possessing prohibited weapons and dealing with proceeds of crime, with police alleging the union's state headquarters was used in an attempt to trade drugs for weapons. The charges come as investigators widen a bribery inquiry targeting a senior serving Victorian CFMEU organiser and former union boss John Perkovic.
Kimberly Guilfoyle's forced resignation as US ambassador to Greece, announced on live television during the first briefing by the new White House press secretary, follows a pattern in Donald Trump's second term: the prominent figures who have left the administration, voluntarily or involuntarily, are overwhelmingly women.
The Northern Territory Labor opposition has reversed its position and now supports a moratorium on hyper-scale data centres, weeks after arguing one was not needed. The change came during debate on Wednesday on a motion by independent MLA Justine Davis, who had tabled two petitions with a combined 15,000 signatures the day before.
Adelaide University will offer early retirement packages to eligible staff and has not ruled out voluntary redundancies, as it responds to a projected revenue shortfall of about $90 million caused by international student enrolments running 40 per cent below target.
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.
New satellite imagery from NASA shows thick smoke blanketing the Amazon rainforest near the cities of Manaus and Santarém, as a drought accompanying El Niño has left the region primed to burn this fire season.
A 14-year-old boy has died in Istanbul after torrential rain triggered widespread flooding in Turkiye's largest city, with authorities suspending classes, banning motorcycles and urging residents to stay indoors.
Victoria will become the first state in Australia to make abortion care free, after the state opposition matched Labor's election promise within hours, ensuring bipartisan support for the policy. Liberal Nationals leader Jess Wilson confirmed on Thursday that a Coalition government would cover out-of-pocket costs for abortion care up to 16 weeks' gestation, including GP and specialist consultations, scans, tests and medication.
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia acknowledged this week that she failed the California bar exam after graduating from law school, as a watchdog group filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association over her claims to be a lawyer. Zacharia also said that her comment about passing the bar "when I moved to China" was a misunderstanding caused by background noise.
Brazil’s congress has approved a constitutional amendment shortening the maximum working week to 40 hours, a measure expected to affect more than 30 million workers and a political win for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva less than two weeks before the presidential runoff.
Indonesia is testing a new method to battle its worst fire season in over a decade: dropping dry ice onto fires in South Sumatra in an attempt to trigger rain and clear the toxic haze that has drawn complaints from neighbouring countries.
Israeli forces have detained more than 2,000 Palestinian children since October 2023, according to a report released Wednesday by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society. The rights group said at least 350 children currently face what it described as harsh conditions in Israeli prisons, including detention without charge and denial of healthcare.
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.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham had two hospitality dinners with Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak while he was mayor of Greater Manchester, deleted records show, adding to pressure over his dealings with a club later found to have systematically broken Premier League rules.
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.
Defence officials behind Australia's flagship missile program committed at least $15.6 million in financial and procurement blunders, including paying out $13.3 million before securing basic legal sign-off, freedom of information documents show. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy has acknowledged the errors, telling the ABC: "We agree the rot has to stop."
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie has introduced a sweeping overhaul of Queensland's industrial relations laws, including a provision granting the minister the power to terminate protected industrial action. The bill, introduced on Wednesday night, drew immediate fire from the opposition and unions, with Opposition Leader Steven Miles accusing the Crisafulli LNP of misleading voters by not taking the changes to the 2024 election.
Residents in Yass, Murrumbateman and Sutton could face a 76 per cent increase in council rates, after Yass Valley Council voted 5-4 at an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to take the proposal to public consultation. Independent consultants found the council would need to generate an extra $8.3 million from operations each year by 2027-28 to maintain its financial and infrastructure position.