World News

Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was to meet former U.S. President Donald J. Trump, who he views as a close ally in his battle against Western criticism over his perceived authoritarian style.

Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO on Thursday in a historic move that will see the military alliance increase its presence in the Nordic territory near Russia as a new Cold War re-emerges.

As China struggles to manage an economic downturn that includes slow growth and high youth unemployment, the ruling Chinese Communist Party announced Tuesday that it is increasing its defense budget by 7.2 percent, the Associated Press reports. 

Recently, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command reported to Congress that China is creating a new class of mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles, signifying a substantial expansion of its nuclear weapon arsenal, the Washington Times reported.

The United States demanded Wednesday that Iran is diluting all of its enriched uranium to up to “60 percent purity” after warnings from United Nations experts that the Islamic Republic could enrich towards having nuclear weapons.

A new report on Iran’s use of the death penalty shows that the Islamic regime in Tehran executed a “staggering” 834 people last year, a 43% increase from 2022. Published on Mar. 5, the report was jointly compiled by the Iran Human Rights group (IHRNGO) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty organization (ECPM).

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday he “fully stood behind” his remarks about sending Western ground troops to war-ravaged Ukraine and urged allies not to be “cowards.”

Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok has signed a bill allowing Sweden’s entry into NATO, but Budapest declined to endorse Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the next chief of the military alliance.

The government of Nicaragua has been engaged in human rights abuses against civilians that are “tantamount to crimes against humanity,” a panel of UN-backed human rights experts warned on Thursday. Commissioned by the Human Rights Council, the experts made their findings during an investigation into President Daniel Ortega’s violent crackdown on political dissidents, the Associated Press reports.

he UN’s nuclear watchdog has admitted it no longer knows how much uranium ore concentrate Iran has accumulated or how many centrifuges and other inventory required for multiple nuclear bombs it has now produced, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The NATO military alliance launched a massive exercise Monday to defend its expanded Nordic territory as concern mounted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would escalate into a broader world conflict.

Suspected Iran-backed Houthis cut four Red Sea underwater cables providing internet and telecommunications worldwide in a further escalation of the crisis in the Middle East sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, officials said Monday.

France became the world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in its constitution on Monday, despite appeals from church leaders to reconsider the move.

The government of Haiti on Sunday declared a “renewable” 72-hour state of emergency after armed gangs stormed three police stations and two prisons , freeing 3,700 prisoners and leading to the deaths of 12 people. The government added that the gangs’ acts of “disobedience” were a threat to national security.

Moscow claims that Ukraine launched a massive drone strike on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula on Sunday, prompting Turkey to call for a ceasefire. Sunday’s strike came as Ukrainian authorities said the bodies of a mother and baby found in the rubble of an apartment block hit by a Russian attack in the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Odesa brought the death toll from a Russian drone attack to 10.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged Saturday to investigate a Russian leak of a secret German military meeting where officers discussed giving wartorn Ukraine long-range missiles – and possible targets.

Ghana’s legislators were hoping the lights would stay on Friday after the state-run Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) briefly cut power supplies to the parliament over a debt of 23 million Ghanaian cedi ($1.8 million).

Canada was mourning Friday after its former prime minister Brian Mulroney, seen as a giant of Canadian politics, died at age 84.

Voting was underway Friday in Iran’s first elections since the 2022 anti-government protests threatened its Islamic leadership.

Russia’s late opposition leader Alexei Navalny was buried at a cemetery on the outskirts of Moscow following a funeral service in a church and a love-filled message from his widow.