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Germany will return valuable artefacts looted during the Second World War to Poland, local media reported on Sunday. A meeting on Monday to discuss Polish-German cooperation will include the "historic return of cultural goods looted during World War II", according to local news website Onet.pl. The Polish side describes the return as having "groundbreaking character", according to the reports. The artefacts are said to include a sculpture of a saint's head stolen from Malbork castle, a royal residence in northern Poland. The items reportedly also include documents from the Teutonic Order — a Catholic brotherhood of crusading knights active in the Middle Ages. Warsaw had been asking for the return of the Teutonic Order archives since 1948. During the Second World War, countless Polish artefacts, including historical archives and works of art, were looted by Nazi Germany. The issue has long caused tensions between the two countries. Conservative-nationalist Polish...

Visiting Pope Leo XIV urged the Lebanese people on Sunday to embrace reconciliation and remain in their crisis-hit country, while calling on its leaders to put themselves fully at the service of their citizens. The pope, bearing what he described as a message of peace, had previously visited Turkey, where he kicked off his first overseas tour since being elected leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in May. Long hailed as a model of coexistence, multi-confessional Lebanon is nonetheless plagued by sectarian and political rifts, and has seen waves of emigration. Since 2019 it has been ravaged by successive crises, from an economic collapse widely blamed on official mismanagement and corruption, to a devastating Beirut port blast in 2020, to the recent war between militant group Hezbollah and Israel — which many Lebanese fear could return. Leo told officials, diplomats and civil society representatives in a speech at the presidential palace that "there are times when it is...

Armed men have kidnapped 26 people including a pastor and a bride in two separate raids in Nigeria, the latest in a string of mass abductions to rock the west African country. A gang of criminals abducted the clergyman along with 11 worshippers on Sunday after storming an out-of-the-way rural church in Ejiba, in central Nigeria's Kogi State, the state's information commissioner told AFP. And in Sokoto State in the northeast a bride and 10 of her bridesmaids were among the 14 abducted in the night of Saturday to Sunday from the village of Chacho, a resident said. In recent weeks, gangs have kidnapped hundreds of people for ransom across Nigeria, which has struggled to respond to the threat posed both by jihadist groups and criminals known locally as "bandits". The unrest has heaped pressure on the Nigerian government, with US President Donald Trump threatening military intervention in Africa's most populous country over what he calls the killing of Christians by ra...

Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia was being treated in intensive care on Saturday, prompting her family and party members to urge citizens to pray for her speedy recovery. Zia, 80, who was admitted to hospital on November 23 with symptoms of a lung infection, was in a "very critical" condition, a member of her political party said late on Friday. "Khaleda Zia is in intensive care and consultations with physicians are ongoing," Ahmed Azam Khan of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) told reporters outside the hospital in Dhaka on Saturday. An air ambulance had been kept on standby to take Zia abroad for advance treatment if her condition stabilises, Khan said. Several senior BNP leaders and anxious supporters visited the hospital to receive updates on her condition. English-language newspaper, The Daily Star, said Zia has "heart problems, liver and kidney issues, diabetes, lung problems, arthritis, and eye-related illnesses". She has a permanen...

An outpouring of grief swept Hong Kong on Saturday as thousands paid their respects and laid flowers for the 128 people killed in one of the city's deadliest fires, marking the start of an official, three-day mourning period. People from across the city flocked to a small park near the charred shell of Wang Fuk Court, the residential complex that burned for more than 40 hours, to place white and yellow flowers and leave handwritten messages of remembrance. The queue kept growing and by nightfall the area was filled with solemn mourners, many dressed in dark colours. A 69-year-old woman surnamed Wong, who lived in the estate for more than four decades, sat dazed nearby as she counted off a list of deceased neighbours and friends. "It was a grandmother with a 18-month-old baby... I was very close with them," Wong told AFP, adding that many of the elderly homeowners had a tight bond. "Yesterday it was confirmed they died." from Latest World News, International Ne...

Ukrainian naval drones hit two sanctioned tankers in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia's vast oil industry. The two oil tankers identified as the Kairos and Virat were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the Security Service of Ukraine told Reuters. Naval drones could be seen speeding towards hulking tankers followed by powerful explosions that caused fires on the vessels, video footage shared by the official showed. Also Read: Death toll from Gaza war surpasses 70,000: health ministry Reuters could not independently verify the identity of the tankers in the clips or the location and date of the footage. "Video shows that after being hit, both tankers sustained critical damage and were effectively taken out of service. This will deal a significant blow to Russian oil transportation," th...

It has been two days since Fung lost contact with his mother-in-law, when the Hong Kong housing estate where the elderly woman lived went up in flames — but he has not given up on bringing her home. The raging fire at Wang Fuk Court claimed at least 128 lives in what was the world's deadliest residential building fire since 1980, and authorities said Friday the status of around 200 people remained "unclear". Fung is among those engaged in an increasingly desperate search for missing loved ones, which took him to a victim identification station where he and his wife sifted through photos of the dead. "It is very tormenting as I have to look at... things I do not want to see," Fung told AFP. After two fruitless visits to the station, the couple went to the Prince of Wales Hospital on Friday only to learn that no public hospital had admitted the elderly woman. Fung last spoke to her at noon on the day of the fire, but another phone call three hours later went unans...

Thirteen people were killed in an Israeli raid in southern Syria on Friday, Syrian state media reported, with Damascus denouncing a “criminal attack” in a village where Israel said its forces came under fire during an operation to arrest militants. The Israeli military said six soldiers were wounded – three seriously – after coming under militant fire during the raid in the village of Beit Jinn. The casualty toll points to one of the deadliest Israeli operations since President Bashar al-Assad was toppled a year ago. Israel frequently bombed Syria under Assad and escalated its military activities after his removal, saying its goals included keeping militants away from the frontier. Read More: Israel launches strikes in Lebanon The Israeli military said troops had launched an operation to detain suspects from Jama'a Islamiya, a Lebanese Sunni Islamist group that fired rockets from Lebanon into Israel during the Gaza war, accusing them of involvement in “terrorist plots”. The raid wa...

Hard-right British lawmaker Nigel Farage faced growing scrutiny Thursday over allegations he made racist and antisemitic comments while a youngster at an elite English school. The leader of the anti-immigrant Reform UK party, currently tipped by polls to become Britain's next prime minister, has offered different defences to the claims since they resurfaced last week. He noted Wednesday that a former pupil who said Farage had verbally abused him had "different political views to me", but added that he was "genuinely sorry" if the man felt "hurt". Film director Peter Ettedgui, who is Jewish, told The Guardian newspaper that Farage engaged in offensive behaviour while a pupil at Dulwich College, a private school in south London, in the 1970s. He said the future politician would "sidle up to me and growl: 'Hitler was right,' or 'gas them', sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers". Brexit champion Far...

NASA has confirmed that it will contribute to Europe’s Martian rover Rosalind Franklin, which is scheduled to launch in 2028 after repeated delays, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday. The rover aims to be the first on the red planet capable of drilling up to two metres (6.5 feet) below the surface to search for extraterrestrial life. However, the mission relies on several elements from NASA, which US President Donald Trump has targeted with steep budget cuts since returning to the White House in January. ESA director general Josef Aschbacher said he had received “a letter from the NASA administration to confirm the contributions” of the US space agency to the mission. “That is good news,” Aschbacher said on the sidelines of the ESA’s ministerial council meeting being held this week in the German city of Bremen. The mission was originally intended to launch in 2020, but suffered several setbacks. In 2022, it was suspended after the ESA ended cooperation with Russia — the ag...

Two members of the National Guard were shot on Wednesday in a busy area near the White House in downtown Washington, officials said, putting the building into lockdown with President Donald Trump away in Florida. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey initially said in a post on X that both victims were members of his state's National Guard and had died from their injuries, but he soon posted a second statement citing "conflicting reports" about their condition. It is with great sorrow that we can confirm both members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot earlier today in Washington, DC have passed away from their injuries. These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service of their country. We are in ongoing contact… — Governor Patrick Morrisey (@wvgovernor) November 26, 2025 Trump administration official said the suspected shooter had been transported to a hospital with gunshot wounds. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. Trump is...

A huge fire that engulfed a Hong Kong residential estate has killed at least 36 people and left more than 200 unaccounted for in the city's worst blaze in decades. The fire, which started on Wednesday afternoon and was still burning in the early hours of Thursday, shocked the Chinese financial hub, which has some of the world's most densely populated and tallest apartment blocks. Huge flames first took hold on bamboo scaffolding on several apartment blocks of Wang Fuk Court, which contains nearly 2,000 flats in eight towers in the northern district of Tai Po and was reportedly undergoing estate-wide maintenance. City leader John Lee on Thursday updated the death toll to 36 and said that 279 people were unaccounted for. Fresh Footage captured just minutes ago shows a major fire that broke out earlier this afternoon at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China. The de@th toll has risen from 4 to 30 And it may goes up till 100 by morning Many are still trapped inside pic.twitter....

US President Donald Trump has announced that he has accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit Beijing in April, adding that he has invited Xi to the United States for a state visit later next year, according to the Associated Press. The development followed a phone call between the two leaders nearly a month after their in-person meeting in Busan, South Korea, during which they discussed Taiwan, Ukraine, and ongoing trade negotiations. Trump revealed the exchange in a Truth Social post, writing: “Our relationship with China is extremely strong! Now we can set our sights on the big picture. To that end, President Xi invited me to visit Beijing in April, which I accepted, and I reciprocated where he will be my guest for a state visit in the US later in the year.”  He added that the call touched on the Russia-Ukraine war, fentanyl and US agricultural exports, including soybeans. CNBC quoted White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt as saying that the call — ...

The Afghan Taliban regime accused Pakistan on Tuesday of launching air strikes in Afghan territory overnight.  In a post on X, Afghan Taliban Spokesperson wrote Pakistan had “bombed” Afghanistan's Khost province and carried out air strikes in Kunar and Paktika. Islamabad has not yet officially responded to this statement.  پاکستانی فوج کی جانب سے ایک بار پھر افغانستان کی فضائی حدود کی خلاف ورزی پر ردعمل گزشتہ شب پاکستانی فوج کی جانب سے افغانستان کے صوبہ پکتیکا، خوست اور کنڑ میں کیے گئے فضائی حملے نہ صرف افغانستان کی خودمختاری اور فضائی حدود کی صریح خلاف ورزی ہیں، ۴/۱ — Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) November 25, 2025 The aforementioned strikes were reportedly carried out on the same day Federal Constabulary (FC) soldiers repelled multiple attackers, including a suicide bomber, who attempted to storm their headquarters in Peshawar. At least three paramilitary personnel were martyred and 11 others were injured in the attack. Pak-Afghan tens...

Chinese President Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump during a phone call on Monday that Taiwan's "return to China" is a key part of the post-war international order, state news agency Xinhua reported. "China and the United States once fought side by side against fascism and militarism, and should now work together to safeguard the outcomes of World War Two," Xi was quoted as saying by Xinhua. A White House official confirmed Trump and Xi had spoken by phone but gave no details. Read More: Zelensky thanks Trump as US leader blasts at Kyiv China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to take control of it, though the island's government rejects Beijing's claim and says only Taiwan's people can decide their future. China is locked in its biggest diplomatic crisis for years with Japan, after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said this month a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically governed Taiwan...

A delegation from a Turkish parliamentary commission overseeing the disarmament of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group paid their first visit to its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan on Monday, the parliamentary speaker's office said. In their meeting in a prison on the island of Imrali off Istanbul, the delegation asked Ocalan about the PKK's dissolution and disarmament as well as the implementation of an agreement with the Syrian government and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a statement said. Fighters with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) walk to a disarmament ceremony marking a significant step toward ending the decades-long conflict between Turkey and the outlawed group, in the Qandil mountains, Iraq October 26, 2025.PHOTO:  REUTERS According to Daily Sabah, the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday welcomed a parliamentary committee’s decision to visit PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in prison, calling it a step that could “accelerate an...

Alphabet closed in on a $4 trillion valuation on Monday, set to become only the fourth company to enter the exclusive club, as the Google parent rides an artificial intelligence-driven rally. Shares of the company rose more than 5% to hit a record high of $315.9, giving it a market capitalization of $3.82 trillion. The stock has climbed nearly 70% so far this year, far outperforming AI rivals Microsoft, and Amazon.com. Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple, have previously hit a $4 trillion valuation. Only Nvidia and Apple remain on the list. The surge reflects a striking reversal in sentiment toward Alphabet after some investors feared the company had lost its AI edge to OpenAI after the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, even though it invented much of the underlying technology behind generative AI. Read More: AI in Action: Aga Khan University Explores the Future of Work and Human-AI Synergy Alphabet has regained momentum this year by turning its cloud business, once an also-ran, into a key growth drive...

Polling stations closed on Sunday in Bosnia’s Serb-majority entity after elections to replace its banned firebrand president, Milorad Dodik, who was removed for defying Bosnia’s international peace envoy. Dodik was ejected from office in August following his conviction for ignoring rulings by the international appointee who oversees a peace deal which has held Bosnia together since the end of its 1990s inter-ethnic war. The conflict left the country split into two semi-autonomous halves — the Serb-run Republika Srpska (RS) and a Bosniak-Croat federation — linked by weak central institutions. “These elections were organised by Bosnian Muslims and (top envoy Christian) Schmidt,” Dodik said on Sunday after voting in his hometown, Laktasi. “They wanted to defeat us in Republika Srpska, and now the people have a chance to defeat them,” he told reporters, stressing that Republika Srpska is “above all”. Sunday’s early vote means the winner will serve for less than a year before the g...

The Constitution of Pakistan rests upon a delicate balance between its three organs: the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. This balance is not ornamental. It is the very mechanism through which fundamental rights are protected, state power is limited, and democratic continuity is maintained. It is within this context that the introduction of the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments must be examined, for their combined effect represents not procedural refinement but a structural shift in the character of the State. The 26th Amendment fundamentally changed the manner of appointment, confirmation and tenure of judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. The amendment's primary impact fell on the architecture designed under Article 175A, which had created the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) and the Parliamentary Committee. Under the earlier model, the Chief Justice of Pakistan and senior members of the judiciary retained a decisive role in recommending judicia...

Bangladesh reported 778 new dengue cases and eight new deaths on Sunday, taking the tally to 90,264 and the death toll to 364 so far this year, the Ministry of Health said. According to the data, 20,402 dengue cases were recorded so far in November, after 22,520 in October. Dengue fever, typically a monsoon-season illness in Bangladesh, is now spreading beyond its usual June-September period.  According to the Bangladeshi outlet New Age, three of the newly reported deaths occurred in the Mymensingh division, two in the Dhaka South City Corporation area, and one each in the Barishal, Dhaka and Chattogram divisions. Read More: Cold weather brings engue season to an endd This year, 37.7% of dengue patients have been female and 62.3% male, the report said. Among the fatalities, 51.9% were men and 48.1% were women. In 2024, dengue claimed 575 lives, while 101,214 cases and 100,040 recoveries were recorded during the same period. from Latest World News, International News | Breaki...

Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro was taken from house arrest into detention on Saturday after the Supreme Court accused him of trying to break his ankle bracelet and plot an escape. The far-right firebrand was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections -- a ruling he is still appealing. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro's detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out, as he is a "high flight risk." Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, was placed under house arrest in August and has been confined to an upscale condominium in the capital Brasilia. In his ruling, Moraes said that a planned vigil outside the condominium called by the former leader's eldest son Flavio Bolsonaro on Saturday could cause turmoil that would "create an environment conducive to his escape." from Latest World News, International News | B...

World governments agreed on Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the COP30 conference in Brazil that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but omit any mention of the fossil fuels driving it. In securing the accord, countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world's biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation. But the agreement, which landed in overtime after two weeks of contentious negotiations in the Amazon city of Belem, also exposed rifts between wealthy and developing nations, as well as between those governments with opposing views on oil, gas and coal. After gaveling the deal through, COP30 President Andre Correa do Lago acknowledged the talks had been tough. Also Read: ‘2°C rise will be catastrophic’ "We know some of you had greater ambitions for some of the issues at hand," he said. The European Union had been the main holdout for langu...

Air cargo services between India and Afghanistan will be launched soon, an Indian foreign ministry official said on Friday, as the two countries seek to reset ties amid soured relations with common neighbour Pakistan. The announcement came during a visit to New Delhi by Afghanistan’s Taliban Trade Minister Nooruddin Azizi, who has urged India to boost trade and open cargo hubs as Kabul seeks access to grains, medicines and industrial goods following the closure of its border with Pakistan after military clashes. Kabul’s air freight corridors with Delhi and the northern Indian city of Amritsar have been “activated”, and cargo flights will operate on the sectors “very soon”, said Anand Prakash, a joint secretary in the Indian foreign ministry. “All formalities from our side are over. We are waiting for all the papers from their (Afghan) side ... Once they complete them, the cargo flights will start,” Prakash told Reuters on the sidelines of an India-Afghanistan business conference.  ...

The war in Sudan is increasingly being fought on the battlefield of social media, where competing factions trade fake news, doctored videos and triumphalist propaganda, hardening divisions in a country already fractured by years of conflict, analysts warn. Since April 2023, a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has thrust the country into what the United Nations describes as one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Beam Reports, a Sudanese digital verification outlet, said it had published roughly 40 fact-checking investigations between May and July, more than half debunking claims related to the war. Many involve “harmful narratives that appeared aimed at escalating tensions and prolonging the conflict”, said researcher Nihal Abdellatif. The war has already killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world’s largest displacement...

A fire that forced the evacuation of the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belem on Thursday was brought under control, officials said, although it remained unclear whether delegates would immediately return to continue negotiations. Brazil’s tourism minister told reporters at the venue that the fire was under control and no one was injured, but he did not know whether delegates would be able to return today or Friday to the part of the venue where the summit negotiations were taking place. Summit organizers confirmed the fire was under control and noted that Brazilian fire officials had ordered the evacuation of the summit’s entire premises.     The summit in the Amazon city was initially scheduled to wrap up on Friday but had already missed a self-imposed Wednesday deadline to secure agreement among nearly 200 countries on issues including climate finance and the transition away from fossil fuels. The fire scare occurred amid an already intense period of activity...

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social on Wednesday night that he had just signed a bill that requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release files related to late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump's statement came just one day after the US House voted overwhelmingly to approve the bill. On Tuesday night, just a few hours after the House passage, the upper chamber unanimously agreed to immediately pass the bill once it was sent from the House. The Senate passed the bill on Wednesday. The bill was introduced in the House in mid-July, but Republican leaders, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, delayed the process for months. Read More: House set to force release of Epstein files after trump ends opposition Democratic Representative Ro Khanna and Republican Representative Thomas Massie have led a discharge petition, which would force a vote once the petition reaches the 218-signature threshold. On Nov. 12 -- the day the House reconvened for the first time after a 54-day r...

A Russian strike in western Ukraine on Wednesday killed at least 25 people including three children, ripping the top floors off a block of flats, as an attempt by President Volodymyr Zelensky to revive the peace process with talks in Turkey fell flat. US President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff did not travel to Turkey and Zelensky walked away from talks he had hoped would "reinvigorate" diplomacy with little to show. The attack on the city of Ternopil was the deadliest for weeks and the worst in the west of the country — far from the front line — since Moscow invaded in 2022. AFP saw dozens of rescuers searching through rubble after cruise missiles slammed into apartment blocks, using cranes to get to the destroyed building. Thick grey smoke engulfed the streets just after explosions were heard at 7:00 am. Ternopil officials reported the fires had caused chlorine levels in the air to spike to six times the norm, and called on the city's 200,000 residents to stay ...

The head of the UN nuclear agency on Wednesday renewed his call for Iran to allow inspections at key nuclear sites attacked by Israel and the United States in June. Tensions between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly flared in recent years and were further inflamed after a 12-day war in June that saw Israeli and US strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities. Since the war, agency inspectors have not been granted access to sites such as Fordo and Natanz, which were hit in the strikes, but they have been able to visit other sites. "We have performed a number of inspections, but we have not been able to go to the attack sites. I hope we will be able. Indeed, we have to go because this is part of Iran's commitments," IAEA head Rafael Grossi told reporters after opening the regular board meeting of the Vienna-based agency. from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/FvyuJo7 via IFTTT

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Tuesday to help Europe catch up in the AI race and unshackle the continent from a heavy reliance on US tech titans. Speaking at a Berlin summit attended by regional tech firms and investors, the leaders of Europe's biggest economies also backed the EU's expected rollback of digital rules that many firms complain are holding them back. European companies pledged more than 12 billion euros ($13.9 billion euros) investment in the digital sector at the event, according to Merz, as the continent seeks to catch up with the United States and China in the AI race. "Europe doesn't want to be the client of the big entrepreneurs or the big solutions being provided either from the US or from China, we clearly want to design our own solutions," Macron said, adding that this stance represented "a refusal of being a vassal". Merz called for Europe to "join forces and forge its own digital ...

President Donald Trump's approval rating fell to 38%, the lowest since his return to power, with Americans unhappy about his handling of the cost of living and the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. The four-day poll, which concluded on Monday, comes as Trump's grip on his Republican Party shows signs of weakening. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday is voting on a measure to force the release of Justice Department files on Epstein -- a move that Trump opposed for months and which has seen one of his onetime closest supporters in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, turn critic. Trump reversed his position on Sunday as lawmakers prepared to move forward without him. The survey showed Trump's overall approval sliding two percentage points since a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in early November.  from Latest World News, International News | Breaking World News https://ift.tt/85...

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on forcing the release of investigative files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with passage seen as all but guaranteed after President Donald Trump dropped his long-standing opposition. Trump's reversal late on Sunday came days after a House petition gathered enough support to force a vote, a rare instance of House Republicans defying the president's wishes. Until the weekend, Trump and his staff had lobbied hard to prevent any further release of files from the criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into Epstein, a wealthy New York financier who was, for a time, friends with Trump. "House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide," the Republican president wrote late on Sunday on social media, calling the matter a "hoax" perpetuated by Democrats. Democrats, and even some of Trump's supporters, say there is noth...

"A billion more babies have been born since the Paris Climate Agreement," remarked Tzeporah Berman, founder of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, during a side event at the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30). Her statement captured a sense of urgency that many feel is missing from the main negotiating halls. The treaty is modelled after the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which, despite serious shortcomings, has held for the most part. Countries that have endorsed the treaty include Pakistan, the Marshal Islands, Vanuatu and many other island nations and countries severely impacted by climate change. Many participants at COP expect more from "side events" than from mainstream high-level talks between countries. There is a general sense that the fossil fuel lobby has captured the processes. "The UNFCCC process is already undermined…because it's controlled by the fossil fuel lobby," says Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu's Minister for Climate...

The UK government announced sweeping changes to its asylum system on Monday, including drastically cutting protections for refugees and threatening visa bans for countries that refuse to take back irregular immigrants. The plans have been dubbed by the government as the "most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times". - Refugee protections - Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood hopes the reforms, modelled on Denmark's strict asylum system, will discourage migrants from crossing the Channel from France on small boats. Refugee status will become temporary and reviewed every 30 months. Refugees will be forced to return to their home countries once those are deemed safe. They will also need to wait for 20 years, instead of the current five, before they can apply for permanent residency. "We are obliged to offer sanctuary to those who would be in danger if they returned to their country of origin. However, should the regime change in their home country, our ...

A Bangladesh court sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to be hanged for crimes against humanity on Monday, with cheers breaking out in the packed court as the judge read out the verdict. Hasina, 78, defied court orders that she return from India to attend her trial about whether she ordered a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her. The highly anticipated ruling, which was broadcast live on national television, came less than three months before the first polls in the South Asian country of 170 million people since her overthrow in August 2024. "All the... elements constituting crimes against humanity have been fulfilled," judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka. The former leader was found guilty on three counts: incitement, order to kill, and inaction to prevent the atrocities, the judge said. "We have decided to inflict her with only one sentence -- that is, sentence of death." Crowds waved th...

Indian authorities said on Sunday that a deadly car blast in New Delhi earlier this week was an attack carried out by a "suicide bomber", announcing the arrest of an accomplice. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the country's counter-terrorism law enforcement body, said the alleged attacker and the second suspect were both from Indian-administered Kashmir, where police have carried out sweeping raids in recent days. Announcing "a breakthrough" in the investigation, the NIA said in a statement it had arrested Amir Rashid Ali, "in whose name the car involved in the attack was registered". He had "conspired with the alleged suicide bomber, Umar Un Nabi, to unleash the terror attack", it added, without specifying any possible motive. Nabi, a resident of Kashmir, was an assistant professor in general medicine at a university in the northern state of Haryana, according to the counter-terrorism agency, which said it had seized a vehicle belon...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel remained opposed to a Palestinian state after protests by far-right coalition allies over a US-backed statement indicating support for a pathway to Palestinian independence. Netanyahu spoke two days after Israel's key ally the United States and many Muslim-majority nations endorsed a draft UN resolution backing President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, saying the process offered a route to Palestinian statehood. The 15-member UN Security Council began negotiations on Nov. 7 on the draft, which would mandate Trump's proposal for a "Board of Peace" transitional administration in Gaza to address issues including post-war reconstruction and economic recovery. Read More: Israel shuts Ibrahimi Mosque, imposes curfew on Palestinians in Hebron Trump's 20-point plan includes a clause saying that if there were reforms within the Palestinian Authority, "the conditions may finally be in place for a credible path...