Top World News

Apr 28, 2026 - World

US president makes unverified claims in Truth Social post, saying Tehran had told Washington it was ‘in a state of collapse’US is being ‘humiliated’ by Iran’s leadership, says Friedrich MerzSaudi Arabia is to host a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council in Jeddah later today, in what will be first in-person meeting of Gulf leaders since their states became dragged into the war.A Gulf official told the Reuters news agency that the meeting aimed to craft a response to the thousands of Iranian missile and drone attacks Gulf states have faced since the US and Israel launched the war on Iran on 28 February. Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

Though solar was initially incorrectly blamed for crisis, renewables have helped insulate Spain from gas price rises caused by war in Middle EastOne year ago today, all of Spain, and much of Portugal, suffered through a blackout of unprecedented scale and duration. In mere seconds, a cascading sequence of events burst through the grid and created Europe’s first “system black” event in recent memory.Traffic signals failed, mobile networks stopped working entirely, petrol stations could not pump fuel and supermarkets couldn’t process payments. Madrid’s metro came to a halt and people had to be pulled out of carriages. “People were stunned because this had never happened in Spain,” Carlos Condori, a 19-year-old construction sector worker, told AFP at the time. “There’s no [phone] coverage, I can’t call my family, my parents, nothing: I can’t even go to work.” Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

Starmer’s former chief of staff says he asked people to act quickly but not to skip steps in vetting process• UK politics live – latest updatesMorgan McSweeney has admitted that Foreign Office officials came under intense pressure to expedite Peter Mandelson’s posting as UK ambassador to Washington, but denied they were forced to “skip steps” in security vetting to do so.Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, who resigned earlier this year over the scandal, acknowledged that he had asked the then top official at the department, Philip Barton, to conduct the process “at pace” but not to do anything “improper”. Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

US president has accused organisation of ‘ripping off the rest of the world’ by inflating oil pricesBusiness live – latest updatesThe United Arab Emirates has quit the Opec oil cartel in a heavy blow to the group and its de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, amid the global energy shock caused by the Iran war.The stunning loss of the UAE, a longstanding Opec member, could create disarray and weaken the group, which has usually sought to show a united front despite internal disagreements over a range of issues from geopolitics to production quotas. Continue reading...

Apr 28, 2026 - World

High fuel prices and passenger delays caused by EU’s EES entry-exit system causing problems, says trade bodyBusiness live – latest updatesEurope’s smaller airports may not survive if jet fuel shortages triggered by the Middle East crisis lead to widespread route cancellations, the industry’s trade body has warned.Although airlines insist there are currently no supply problems within the normal four- to six-week horizon, the US-Israel war on Iran and the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz have doubled the price of jet fuel, prompting some carriers to cancel flights. Continue reading...