The World section brings together news from across the globe, covering conflicts, politics, diplomacy and daily life in countries far and near. Expect reporting on wars and ceasefires, elections and government decisions, migration and humanitarian crises, natural disasters and accidents, plus the diplomatic exchanges that shape international relations.
Coverage spans every region, from long-running crises to sudden breaking events, offering context on how global developments affect communities, governments and ordinary people trying to navigate them.
Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki called off a visit to Africa in mid-flight, as riot police deployed around the country’s constitutional court on Friday following the suspension of its chief justice in a battle between the centrist government and the nationalist right. Dozens of police guarded the entrance to the court as followers of the opposition right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS) protested against the ousting of constitutional court president Bogdan Swieczkowski. The court’s official...
Marco Rubio pulls plug on traditional photo op at meeting of foreign ministers after about one-third of countries threaten boycott The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign minister’s meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings. Continue reading...
Alliance for the Future, unveiled at Montreal summit and open to other countries, conceived for world ‘shaken by new storms’ Canada and Europe have announced a new alliance of like-minded nations to serve as both a “protective canopy under which our citizens can thrive” and a powerful hedge against the unpredictable nature of geopolitics, while welcoming other countries to join. Speaking to reporters on Friday from Montreal, the prime minister, Mark Carney, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, called the new partnership the Alliance for the Future and said the “deepest possible partnership between Canada and the 27-member bloc had the potential to offer unprecedented stability and opportunity”. Continue reading...
Pakistan’s armed forces targeted and destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts and military positions in areas adjacent to South Waziristan and Parachinar, state media reported on Friday, citing security sources. According to state-run Radio Pakistan, the army “gave a befitting reply to unprovoked firing by the Afghan Taliban along the Pak-Afghan border in the Angoor Adda area” on Tuesday. “Using heavy weaponry, the Pakistan Army forced Afghan Taliban personnel to abandon their posts and flee,” the report said. Citing reports, it added that several Afghan Taliban regime personnel were also killed during the operation. “Security forces remain committed to the defence of the country and the protection of its people and there will be no compromise on national security,” the report said. On Tuesday, Afghan security forces opened unprovoked fire on Pakistan Army border posts and residential areas in the Angoor Adda border area, which claimed the life of one local and injured a family of five. According to officials, the firing originated from posts located inside Afghan territory and targeted Pakistani border posts with sniper, small and heavy weapons. Sources said that Pakistani forces launched an immediate and effective retaliatory action, engaging multiple Afghan Taliban border posts, mortar positions and defensive bunkers with small and heavy arms, including artillery. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi had condemned the firing, asserting that Pakistan would “never tolerate” attacks on its people or violations of its sovereignty. Meanwhile, Pakistan had also dismissed a statement by Afghanistan’s defence ministry regarding the incident that claimed that Pakistan was the aggressor, terming it a “fabrication of lies”. The border at Angoor Adda is one of the most important and sensitive crossings along the Pak-Afghan border, serving as a key trade route and one of the main points of public movement between the two countries. Pak-Afghan tensions Islamabad has repeatedly urged the Taliban administration in Kabul to dismantle terrorist sanctuaries on Afghan soil, particularly those linked to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, that are used for attacks in Pakistan. Officials say those appeals have gone unheeded. September witnessed another bout of conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On Sept 21, in response to recent major terrorist attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan conducted “calibrated” airstrikes in the border region with Afghanistan against terrorist hideouts, with the government saying more than 28 terrorists were killed. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar described the action as part of Operation Ghazab lil Haq, which was launched on the night of Feb 26 in response to unprovoked cross-border firing by the Afghan Taliban. Days later, Pakistan shot down eight drones launched from across the border that had entered Pakistani airspace near the Torkham border and Kohat. It was also reported that the Afghan Taliban engaged in unprovoked firing the night before near Kurram as security forces foiled an attempt by terrorists to cross into Pakistan. In retaliation for the drone incursion, Pakistan conducted “precision aerial and drone strikes” in 10 locations across Afghanistan. A demarche was also delivered to the Afghan side on Sept 26 on account of the Sept 23 airspace violation by drones, the Foreign Office said. On Oct 1, Pakistan again carried out “well-planned and calibrated” airstrikes against terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, the information ministry said, adding that the strikes resulted in the deaths of “multiple terrorists”. Around mid-October, the state media reported that security forces had again responded to unprovoked firing by Afghan Taliban forces along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in KP’s Upper Kurram. It quoted security sources as saying that several personnel of the Afghan Taliban were “reportedly killed during the Pakistan Army’s retaliatory action along the Ghuzgarhi border”. The sources further said that in the Upper Kurram sector, the army targeted the Afghan Taliban’s Topsar post and Shipola base camp with artillery fire, reportedly completely destroying the latter. The border skirmishes came a day after the Foreign Office said that talks with Afghanistan could not be unconditional, but also rejected suggestions that Islamabad was unwilling to engage with its neighbour and said it would welcome sincere efforts by friendly countries to help resolve the dispute.
Spain’s transport minister on Friday rejected calls for his resignation over the second train accident on his watch to cause mass casualties this year, as authorities worked to identify the victims from a crash that left at least 69 dead. Lawmakers from across the political spectrum this week condemned Transport Minister Oscar Puente for attributing Wednesday’s crash to a break in protocol by control centre operators rather than accepting responsibility, with rail workers’ unions calling for his immediate dismissal. The crash, which happened near the town of Urda in central Spain, followed another accident involving the same rail companies on the same line that left 46 dead in January. It has reopened a debate about safety and maintenance on Spain’s high-speed rail network, the most extensive in Europe, as the country prepares for an election that left-leaning Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has called for November 29. “My duty now is not to focus on discussing whether I will remain in office, but on solving the problem, determining exactly what happened and providing clear explanations,” Puente said at a press conference on Friday. The train that smashed into a second stationary one was travelling at a speed between 160 and 200 kph when the collision occurred, according to a preliminary report released on Thursday by the Independent Authority for the Technical Investigation of Accidents and Incidents (AITAT). “The sequence of malfunctions, instructions, and actions eventually led to the collision, in the absence of the necessary mitigating barriers,” AITAT said in the report. AITAT said it would not be able to confirm the exact speed of the train until it extracted information from the train’s black box. At the scene of the crash, large cranes were lifting the mangled wreckage as the Civil Guard listed 64 people as missing in what is already Spain’s deadliest train accident since 2013. Authorities have carried out 49 autopsies so far and formally identified five people — three women and two men — Esther Padilla, spokesperson for the Castilla-La Mancha regional government, said on state television network TVE. “Testing is proceeding slowly, although families will be contacted throughout the day so that they can come and collect their results,” Padilla said on Friday. It was unclear if all those missing were accounted for in the death toll. Authorities can’t rule out more fatalities No additional bodies were found when rescue teams overturned a train carriage on Thursday, Castilla-La Mancha regional leader Emiliano Garcia-Page said on TVE. Identifying the bodies was proving difficult because many were in pieces, he said. On Thursday, rescue teams had placed partial remains in 31 bags. “The truth is that we cannot rule out the possibility that there may be more fatalities,” Garcia-Page said. As identification of the dead continued, the debate about who was at fault intensified, with unions saying it was unfair to lay the blame on human error. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday vowed to find out what caused the accident. “It is unacceptable for a country like Spain, with such a strong high-speed rail system, to suffer two accidents of this nature and magnitude in a single year,” he said. The collision occurred after several trains were automatically stopped due to the failure of a signalling system, after which the central control centre in Madrid took over. A train operated by state-owned Renfe was authorised to proceed, even though there was a stationary Iryo-operated train ahead, according to Puente. Audio of communications between the control centre and the train drivers obtained by El Pais showed how a controller authorised the Renfe train to continue on its journey at a normal speed, which Puente said disregarded a protocol to travel at no more than 40 kph in such circumstances. The audio also showed the controller authorised the Renfe train, carrying 379 passengers and seven crew, to resume its journey even though the Iryo train, carrying 147 passengers and five crew, should have proceeded first according to protocol. Spanish Transport Minister Oscar Puente speaks during a press conference to provide details on the deadly train crash near Toledo, in Madrid, Spain, on October 30, 2026. — Reuters Controllers say focus should be on failed signal system Raquel Ayllón, a union leader for state-owned infrastructure operator Adif, said controllers were having to operate under difficult working conditions. “Human error is being criticised and questioned very quickly, while people are not really focusing on the central issue: the failure of the safety system,” Ayllón said on TVE. The LZB system which failed, triggering the sequence of events that led to Wednesday’s crash, was behind schedule for an upgrade, public documents show. In September 2021, Adif awarded a contract to Thales Espana, the Spanish arm of the French equipment maker, to complete the installation of a new, standardised European system called ERTMS by early 2026 for 93.8 million euros ($105m), according to press releases on the tender. The system has been installed across most of Spanish high-speed rail, according to a factsheet by European rail association UNIFE, which developed the new ERTMS standard. But the Madrid-Seville line, site of two fatal crashes, had fallen behind, according to the tender contract. The contract was passed to Hitachi Rail in 2024, according to Thales, which declined to provide comment on the delay of the rollout.
WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump, speaking ahead of November 3 midterm congressional elections, said on Friday he believed the war with Iran will end soon, but did not say how that would happen. "It's going to get wrapped up soon," Trump said in an interview with Kansas City radio stationKCMO. "We need a guarantee there'll never be a nuclear weapon." Trump has said the US would not strike Iran before the elections. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Michelle Nichols)
Saudi Arabia said on Friday it intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels near Islam’s holiest city, a claim the Houthis denied. A coalition spokesman, Major General Turki al-Malki, said the drone was intercepted in the region surrounding Mecca, Islam’s holiest city and a destination for millions of Muslim pilgrims each year. In a statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree denied carrying out any operations targeting Mecca, saying the group’s military...
Oct 29 (Reuters) - Ukraine's military has paused its strikes on Russian oil refineries after pressure from US President Donald Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the operations.
Oct 29 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Wednesday for a global maritime truce aftera drone attack sank a Greek container ship off Bulgaria, the latest of a series of strikeson ships in the western Black Sea this month. Speaking at a high-level debate of the Greek presidency of the UN Security Council on maritime security, Mitsotakis said commercial vessels must be able to navigate safely and freely even during times of conflict.
