World News

Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz has urged Chinese president Xi Jinping to back efforts to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine amid concerns about China’s cooperation with Russia.

Russia and Ukraine have begun one of the largest prisoner exchanges in their three-year war after the first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv delegates in more than three years.

Some 80 people have been arrested across various European nations in a major international police operation against illegal art trade, officials said Friday.

The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group executed what officials are calling the “largest airstrike in the history of the world” launched from an aircraft carrier, dropping 125,000 pounds of munitions in recent operations over Somalia, according to Adm. James Kilby, the Navy’s acting chief of operations.

German archaeologists from Heidelberg University have made a landmark discovery in Iraq that is reshaping our understanding of the ancient Assyrian Empire. While excavating the ruins of Nineveh—once the empire’s capital and famously the setting of the biblical story of Jonah—a team uncovered a monumental relief depicting King Assurbanipal flanked by the major deities Assur and Ištar.

Romania’s Constitutional Court has “unanimously” rejected an application by George Simion, the defeated nationalist candidate in Sunday’s presidential election rerun, to declare the vote invalid on the grounds of “foreign interference.”

U.S. President Donald J. Trump told South African president Cyril Ramaphosa that “thousands” of white people want to come to the United States because they fear for their lives in South Africa.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he has signed an agreement handing over the sovereignty of one of the last remnants of the British Empire, the Chagos Islands, to Mauritius.

The Netherlands on Wednesday plunged into mourning as police confirmed that a three-day search for two missing children ended when their bodies, along with that of their father, were recovered from a car submerged in a remote canal.

The war in Ukraine was brought to the streets of Spain on Wednesday as unidentified gunmen shot and killed a high-profile former Ukrainian politician.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned lawmakers Tuesday that Syria may be just weeks away from collapsing into a new civil war, citing fears that the fledgling transitional government in Damascus could soon fall apart without urgent international support.

Romania faced more political turmoil Wednesday as a nationalist presidential candidate said he would contest Sunday’s election’s declared outcome.

Iran’s parliament on Wednesday ratified a sweeping 20-year strategic partnership with Russia, signaling a significant deepening of ties between the two heavily sanctioned nations.

Oman’s foreign minister announced that a fifth round of indirect talks between Iran and the United States is set for Friday in Rome, continuing Oman’s quiet role as a mediator between the two rivals. The announcement, made on X, has yet to be confirmed by either Tehran or Washington.

Legislators of the European Union prepared for an urgent debate on Hungary’s proposed new transparency law that they fear will lead to a Russia-style crackdown on critics by the “increasingly authoritarian” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Hungary’s parliament approved legislation Tuesday to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court (ICC) after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán condemned the institute’s alleged bias toward Israel.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday formally adopted a historic Pandemic Agreement aimed at improving global readiness and response to future pandemics, following the devastating COVID-19 outbreak that claimed thousands of lives between 2020 and 2022.

A historic water spring that has supplied Damascus for thousands of years is now reduced to a trickle, following the driest winter Syria has seen in decades, raising alarms over worsening water shortages across the capital.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress on Tuesday that there is no military solution to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The European Union and Britain have introduced new sanctions against Russia without waiting for the United States to join them, after the U.S. and Russian presidents talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war were inconclusive.