World News

French authorities said Tuesday that crown jewels stolen in a daring daylight heist at the Louvre Museum over the weekend are worth an estimated 88 million euros ($102 million) — excluding their immense historical value to France.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims that American airstrikes had wiped out Iran’s nuclear industry, telling the president to “keep dreaming.”

Concerns mounted Monday over the fate of a bishop and 12 clergymen of the Armenian Apostolic Church who were detained amid a deepening standoff between church leaders and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government — a dispute unfolding as Christians in the region face growing pressure.

Ukraine and its key European allies have declared that any negotiations to end the war with Russia must be based on the current line of contact, rejecting Moscow’s territorial demands, as doubts grow over a planned summit between U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have confirmed the signing of an $8.5 billion agreement to strengthen cooperation on rare earths and other critical minerals, aiming to reduce global dependence on China’s supply chain dominance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he would be ready to attend a planned summit in Budapest between U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin if formally invited.

European Union energy ministers have agreed to phase out Russian oil and gas imports by January 2028, despite opposition from heavily dependent nations such as Slovakia and Hungary.

The European Union’s foreign-policy chief has voiced disapproval of Hungary’s decision to host Russian President Vladimir Putin despite his international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Austria has agreed to support the European Union’s latest sanctions package against Russia, reversing its earlier opposition and removing a key obstacle ahead of a crucial meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday.

U.S. forces carried out a deadly strike on a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in international waters Friday, killing three men believed to be affiliated with Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), officials confirmed Sunday.

Some 24 hours after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, U.S. President Donald J. Trump appeared to back down on his pledge to provide Ukraine with powerful Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep inside Russia.

Christian aid workers have raised the alarm over the suffering of Christian communities in Vietnam after at least 51 people were confirmed dead in the country and 20 more in the Philippines as Typhoon Bualoi and its aftermath brought devastating floods and landslides to Southeast Asia.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced Friday that he had already discussed details of the planned U.S.–Russia summit in Budapest with U.S. President Donald Trump, adding that he would also speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the meeting.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad secretly moved thousands of bodies from a massive grave near the capital, Damascus, to a hidden desert site as part of a two-year effort to conceal evidence of war crimes and improve the regime’s image, investigators say.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump said he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to discuss possible steps toward ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa held his first official talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Wednesday, signaling a new phase in relations between Moscow and Damascus less than a year after Sharaa’s rebel forces ousted former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad — a longtime ally of Russia.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally assured him that India will stop buying Russian oil — a move that, if confirmed, would mark a significant shift in global energy alliances and strengthen Trump’s efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela and said he is considering land-based attacks on the South American country as part of his expanding campaign against drug cartels.

France, the European Union’s second-largest economy, narrowly avoided deeper political turmoil Thursday as Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived two no-confidence votes in Parliament that could have forced President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections.

The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, was set to unveil a sweeping new counter-drone initiative Thursday, following a string of suspected Russian drone violations in the airspace of several EU nations.