World

The threat of a renewed global nuclear arms race came a little closer to reality as the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expired at midnight GMT on Thursday. The New START pact and its predecessors had for decades imposed limits on the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. It lapsed at midnight GMT or 7 p.m. EST, according to the United Nations, without an agreement to extend it. The US and Russia, the world's two largest nuclear powers, will now no longer be bound by upper limits for their strategic nuclear arsenals. Russia, however, pledged to act responsibly while warning it would take "decisive" measures if its security were threatened, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said on Wednesday. Washington has not announced plans to adhere to t...

US Vice President JD Vance announced plans to establish a critical minerals trade bloc with allies and partners, proposing coordinated price floors as Washington escalates efforts to loosen China's grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing. The Trump administration intends to employ tariffs to maintain minimum prices and shore up supplies of critical minerals used to make semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced weapons. What did JD Vance say? Vance said the US-China trade war of the past year has exposed how dependent most countries are on critical minerals, the sale of which Beijing largely dominates. Therefore, collective action is needed to make the West self-reliant, he stressed. "We want members to form a trading bloc among allies and partners, one that guarantees...

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday that he'd instructed his foreign minister to "pursue fair and equitable negotiations" with the United States on some kind of nuclear accord to succeed the one President Donald Trump canceled in his first term.  Pezeshkian made no mention of the widespread unrest in Iran in recent weeks and his regime's sometimes violent crackdown, or the tensions with the US, which were further exemplified by small incidents at sea on later in the day.  The US, Arab states and Turkey have been pushing to arrange fresh talks with Iran amid the domestic protests.  Iranian Revolution: From Shah to MullahsTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video What Presidents Pezeshkian and Trump said ...

The partial shutdown of government operations ended in the United States on Tuesday with President Donald Trump signing a budget package into law. Earlier on Tuesday, the House of Representatives had approved the package in a close vote of 217-214. The upper chamber of the US Congress, the Senate, had already given its approval last week. "This bill is a great victory for the American people," Trump said of the legislation, which was held up by Democratic opposition to funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responsible for the controversial operations by federal agencies targeting migrants. The approval of the budget package secures funding for most of the government apparatus until the end of September, with the exception of the DHS. As a compromise solution, the package...

A Greek coast guard boat collided with a migrant speedboat off the island of Chios on Tuesday, leaving many people dead or injured. The Coast Guard said that the bodies of 14 people — 11 men and three women — were recovered from the sea. One of the injured women later died in hospital, bringing the death toll to at least 15. ERTNews, a Greek broadcaster, reported that 25 injured individuals, including 11 children and two coast guard officers, were taken to the island's hospital. A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter, and divers was underway to find potentially missing individuals, as the total number of people who had been on board the speedboat was not immediately clear. What do we know about the collision? According to the media reports, a boat carrying ...

US President Donald Trump has signed into law a one-year extension of a trade preference program with African countries restoring duty-free access to the US market until the end of the year, the US trade representative said on Tuesday. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) applies retroactively from September 30, 2025, when the program expired through December 31, 2026. Greer also said his office would work with Congress this year to modernize AGOA to align with Trump's America First trade policy. "AGOA for the 21st century must demand more from our trading partners and yield more market access for US businesses, farmers, and ranchers," Greer said. What is AGOA? First enacted in 2000, AGOA allows qualifying sub-Saharan...

South Sudan could be sliding toward a civil war . The country's senior military commander, Johnson Olony, reportedly urged troops recently to act decisively and "spare no lives," including civilians, as part of preparations for a government offensive against opposition forces in Jonglei state.  The United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and other human rights organizations have condemned Olony's remarks as encouragement for potential war cimes.  The country's political situation has worsened following the detention and trial of former Vice President Riek Machar. For Tim Glawion of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg, the situation is "really frightening. More than three quarters of the population are in extreme distress, threatened by hunger and exposed to...

France on Monday adopted a 2026 government budget, following months of negotiations and no-confidence motions in Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's minority government. "France finally has a budget," Lecornu wrote on X after the vote, hailing a "parliamentary compromise" which "curbs public spending" and "does not hike taxes for households and businesses." Lecornu survives challenges left and right Lecornu faced no-confidence votes from the hard-left and far-right but managed to weather those storms and got his budget through, using constitutional powers that circumvented having to put it through a parliamentary vote. Only 260 from the left-wing groups and 135 from the far-right in the National Assembly voted against Lecornu's centre-left Cabinet in the two votes, well short of the 28...

Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez met on Monday with US envoy Laura Dogu as the two countries move to restore diplomatic relations severed in 2019. "The governments of Venezuela and the United States have set out to advance on a roadmap to address matters of bilateral interest, through diplomatic dialogue and on the basis of mutual respect and international law," a Venezuelan government statement said. The meeting at the Miraflores presidential palace focused on a shared agenda including energy, trade and political and economic issues, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said. Gil also announced the appointment of former foreign minister Felix Plasencia as Venezuela's "diplomatic representative" in Washington. Venezuela undergoing major political changes Dogu later posted on X that ...

Immigration crackdowns ordered by US President Donald Trump have turned deadly, with a second US citizen killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents this month.  Cell phone videos from eyewitnesses in Minneapolisshow how several ICE agents tackle 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti to the ground and then shoot him. He had not drawn his gun, as initially stated by the Department of Homeland Security.Footage from different cell phone recordings shows his gun on a belt, which an ICE officer removes before Pretti is killed.  Earlier this month, ICE agents had shot 37-year-old Renee Goodas she was driving away in her car. Videos taken from multiple angles also discredit the official statementthat Good was trying to run over an officer, killing her point-blank by firing through he...