World News

Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi – who was arrested during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that swept Iran in 2022 – was sentenced to death, Salehi’s lawyer, Amir Raesian, said Wednesday.

The United States and European allies are imposing new sanctions on Iranian military leaders and weapon makers to punish Iran for its April 14 missile and drone attack on Israel, but they urge the Jewish nation not to retaliate strongly amid fears of a broader war.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Deutsche Welle that Iran is “weeks rather than months” away from having enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear bomb.

On Tuesday, the U.K. Prime Minister announced that the nation will increase its defense spending to 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade. Additionally, he pledged $620 million in military aid to Ukraine, including long-range missiles and four million rounds of ammunition.

Five people, including one child, have died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France, just hours after Britain’s Parliament approved a law to deport migrants to Rwanda.

Massive floods in south China’s Guangdong province have killed at least four people since the region began to be battered by record levels of rainfall last week, ITV News reports.

Troops at a U.S. military base in northeastern Syria are reeling from missiles fired from Iraq in the first such attack against American forces in months, security officials said Monday.

Finland’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear a years-long case brought by the country’s Prosecutor General against Dr. Päivi Räsänen, a Christian member of parliament who was charged – and acquitted – of hate speech after publicly expressing her opposition to homosexuality, CBN News reports. Asserting her protected rights to freedom of speech and religion, Räsänen has indicated she will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights should the Finnish Supreme Court rule against her.

Ukrainian and Western leaders have welcomed a desperately needed military aid package for Ukraine passed by the U.S. House of Representatives after mounting concerns the country may lose the war against Russia. In addition to the 61 billion dollars worth of military assistance for Ukraine, the House approved part of a broader foreign aid package that included about $34 billion for Israel and other allies, despite Moscow’s warning the aid package would further escalate the armed conflict.

As millions of Americans braced for a new round of storms across the United States on Saturday, news emerged of potential “weather wars” between countries if cloud seeding gets out of hand.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern about the mounting death toll among children in Ukraine after the war against Russia entered its third year. UNICEF announced at least eight people, including children, were killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro by a suspected Russian air strike.

Dubai was among areas wrestling with the aftermath of deadly torrential rains Thursday that flooded the desert city, with people recalling spending the night in their cars and air passengers enduring chaotic scenes at airports.

The death toll from unseasonable heavy rains in Pakistan and Afghanistan was approaching 140 across both countries amid concerns about many children without adequate shelter in the region.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the US and China should each ensure they start borrowing less as their respective debt levels may have a “profound” effect on interest rates paid by other countries and on the economy worldwide, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Hungary’s pro-Russia prime minister says Ukraine has become “a protectorate of the West,” which would not exist without the West’s supply of weapons and financial support.

The pro-Western ruling conservative HDZ party won most seats in Croatia’s parliamentary elections but faced tough talks to secure a majority in parliament and form a governing coalition, results released Thursday showed.

Thousands were told Thursday to leave their homes after an Indonesian mountain erupted, sending ash thousands of feet high and prompting authorities to issue a tsunami alert.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration says it will help 50 countries to identify and respond to infectious diseases to prevent “pandemics” like the COVID-19 outbreak that paralyzed life in much of the world.

At least 14 people were killed and scores injured when Russian missiles hit an eight-floor apartment building in the heart of the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, authorities said.

Hungary’s recently elected President, Tamás Sulyok, has urged his nation to “respectfully and honestly” remember the victims of the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, in which some 600,000 Hungarian Jews died.