Top World News

Nov 18, 2025 - World

Kingdom’s de facto ruler to arrive on first White House trip since killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy.The crown prince’s arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined Khashoggi’s murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation. Continue reading...

Nov 18, 2025 - World

It is one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks, but this tropical rainforest is losing out when it comes to climate policy and fundingIn October 2023, leaders, scientists and policymakers from three of the world’s great rainforest regions – the Amazon, the Congo, and the Borneo-Mekong basins – assembled in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo. They were there to discuss one urgent question: how to save the planet’s last great tropical forests from accelerating destruction.For those present, the question was existential. But to their dismay, almost no one noticed. “There was very little acknowledgment that this was happening, outside of the Congo basin region,” says Prof Simon Lewis, a lecturer at the University of Leeds and University College London, and co-chair of the Congo Basin Science Initiative (CBSI). Continue reading...

Nov 18, 2025 - World

Chinese airlines offer free cancellations and film releases postponed after Japanese PM’s comments on TaiwanChinese travellers are estimated to have cancelled hundreds of thousands of tickets to fly to Japan amid reports of suspended visa processing and cultural exchanges as a diplomatic dispute over Japan’s stance on Taiwan continues.Under pressure from business groups, Japan has sent a senior diplomat to Beijing in an attempt to calm tensions after Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, said her country could get involved militarily if China attempted to invade Taiwan. Her comments prompted fury from China’s government, which issued warnings against Chinese travellers and students going to Japan. Continue reading...

Nov 18, 2025 - World

The hazy UN resolution dictates that Trump’s ‘board of peace’ will supervise an International Stabilisation Force, whose membership is as yet undeterminedThe resolution passed by the UN security council on Tuesday evening, aimed at turning the precarious Gaza ceasefire into a real peace plan, is one of the oddest in United Nations history.It puts Donald Trump in supreme control of Gaza, perhaps with Tony Blair as his immediate subordinate in a “board of peace”, which will oversee multinational peacekeeping troops, a committee of Palestinian technocrats and a local police force, for a period of two years. Continue reading...

Nov 18, 2025 - World

Communications undersecretary Claire Castro says claims from the president’s sister may be an attempt to distract from investigations into a corruption scandal Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr has denied accusations made by his estranged sister that he is longtime drug addict, whose alleged cocaine dependence has led to governance issues, including corruption, a spokesperson for the president has said.Communications undersecretary Claire Castro described the comments by the president’s sister, senator Imee Marcos’, as baseless, and suggested they may have been a desperate attempt to distract ongoing investigations into a corruption scandal involving flood control projects that may implicate her allies in the Senate. Continue reading...