World News

Hungary’s former ruling Fidesz party suffered a legal setback Friday after the Constitutional Court rejected its challenge to the dismantling of controversial foundations holding vast amounts of state assets, while separate scrutiny intensified over billions of forints in public money spent on former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s social-media operation.

The United States is rapidly approaching another historic fiscal milestone, with the national debt now nearing $40 trillion as Washington continues running massive annual deficits and interest costs consume a growing share of federal spending.

France’s Constitutional Council has upheld the core provisions of a sweeping new law establishing a legal right to assisted dying, clearing one of the final major obstacles to euthanasia and assisted suicide in a nation long shaped by Catholic tradition.

Scores of people have been killed after a powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Flores Island early Saturday, authorities said, as rescuers struggled to reach some of the hardest-hit areas, while a less powerful tremor was reported in North Sumatra province.

Romania and neighboring Hungary are facing an energy crisis linked to a record heat wave and the related low level of the Danube River, with Romania forced to shut down its last operating nuclear reactor while Hungary struggles to keep the only one of its four Paks reactors still operating online.

The World Health Organization is warning that the rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo could surpass the devastating 2014–2016 West Africa epidemic and become the worst Ebola outbreak ever recorded.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has cast doubt on a controversial Russian-led expansion of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant after record-low levels of the Danube River nearly forced its existing reactors into a complete shutdown.

The United States is preparing to send the USS George Washington aircraft carrier to the Middle East, replacing the USS Abraham Lincoln after an exceptionally long deployment supporting American military operations against Iran, according to an exclusive report by The Wall Street Journal.

Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are moving to deepen military cooperation under a new mutual-defense pact that Israeli analysts say could reshape the Middle East’s security architecture while reducing dependence on the United States and bypassing Israel.

Millions across Europe watched Wednesday as a rare total solar eclipse swept across the northern Atlantic and portions of the continent, an extraordinary celestial event unfolding just hours before the biblical calendar entered Elul — the month traditionally associated with repentance, spiritual preparation and the approach of the King.

Switzerland’s government has rejected a campaign to enshrine a stricter interpretation of the Alpine nation’s centuries-old neutrality in the constitution, ahead of a nationwide referendum next month.

An Indonesian and three Pakistani crew members were among six people killed in an attack by Iran-backed Houthi forces on a cargo ship in the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen, officials said Wednesday.

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday, as Kyiv accused Moscow of using North Korean ballistic missiles in its escalating air campaign.

Hungary’s Parliament elected former Supreme Court President András Baka as the nation’s new president Tuesday, marking a dramatic political comeback for a judge removed from office under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Five years after the Taliban returned to power, an estimated 2.4 million Afghan girls remain barred from secondary education, marking one of the most sweeping reversals of women’s rights anywhere in the world.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to remove nuclear material from a clandestine site in Syria under a secret agreement brokered by the Trump administration between Israel and Syria, according to reports Monday.

Syria and Russia have reached an agreement that will strip Moscow of exclusive control over two strategic military bases on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, marking a major shift in Russia’s Middle East military presence following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government.

A Syrian court on Tuesday sentenced ousted President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, marking the first criminal conviction against the former dictator since his government collapsed in December 2024.

Russian authorities say at least 13 people were killed and 39 others wounded Monday in Ukrainian drone attacks on an industrial city about 900 kilometers, or 600 miles, east of Moscow. The latest strikes signaled a further escalation of Ukraine’s campaign of air attacks deep inside Russia.

A powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia Monday, collapsing buildings, trapping residents beneath rubble, disrupting airports and sending tremors across much of the country and into neighboring Venezuela.