Category: World

A Russian frigate fired warning shots near a UK-registered civilian yacht in the English Channel, causing no injuries or damage but intensifying concern over Moscow’s naval activity close to Britain.The incident took place at about 11.40am on Tuesday, around 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight and outside UK territorial waters. The vessel involved was the 40ft sailing yacht Bright Future, carrying retired couple Jane and Alan Kelvey on a passage from the south coast of England towards

Oil prices fell to three-month lows as a US-Iran framework to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and place Tehran’s enriched uranium stockpile under international control moved towards a planned June 19 signing in Geneva, easing fears of a deeper Gulf energy shock.Brent crude slipped to about $83 a barrel on Tuesday after a sharper fall at the start of the week, while West Texas Intermediate traded near $81. The decline followed confirmation that Washington and Tehran had approved a memorandum

Iran twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with New Zealand in their 2026 FIFA World Cup opener, taking one point from a turbulent Group G match shaped as much by the protests outside the Los Angeles venue as by the exchanges on the pitch.The match at Los Angeles Stadium in Inglewood gave both teams a foothold in a group that also includes Belgium and Egypt, whose 1-1 draw left all four sides level after the opening round. For Iran,

Abdullah Ibrahim, the South African pianist and composer whose spare, meditative sound carried Cape Town’s musical memory into the global jazz canon, has died in Germany at the age of 91 after a short illness.The musician, born Adolph Johannes Brand in Cape Town in 1934 and known early in his career as Dollar Brand, became one of the defining cultural figures of the anti-apartheid era. His family said he died peacefully, surrounded by loved ones. His partner, Dr Marina Umari,

The World Bank Group has raised $509 million through a second loan-backed bond deal, taking its emerging-market securitisation programme past $1 billion as it seeks to draw more private capital into businesses that can expand employment across developing economies.The transaction, closed through the International Finance Corporation, packages 62 IFC-originated loans from different sectors into a collateralised loan obligation, or CLO. It follows a $510 million debut deal in September 2025 and shows the lender wants securitisation to become a regular

Africa’s top disease control agency has warned that the true scale of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo cannot be established because response teams have not located thousands of people exposed to confirmed patients.The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said contact tracing in Ituri, the outbreak’s epicentre, remains far below the level needed to break chains of transmission. Dr Jean Kaseya, the agency’s director general, said only a small fraction of likely contacts had been

Refined fuel exports from the Persian Gulf have climbed this month as more tankers crossed the Strait of Hormuz, easing pressure on diesel, jet fuel, gasoline and naphtha markets starved of supply since the waterway was disrupted by the Iran war.The rebound marks a break from the squeeze that followed the closure of the world’s most important energy chokepoint after the February 28 attack on Iran by the United States and Israel. Tanker movements remain far below normal, but the

El Niño has formed across the tropical Pacific, setting the stage for a potentially powerful climate event that could intensify heat, drought, floods and storms across several regions through the end of the year and into early 2027.Forecasters have issued an El Niño advisory after ocean and atmospheric indicators aligned over the past month, confirming that the coupled climate system has shifted into the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Sea surface temperatures have risen above normal across the

Elon Musk is on the brink of becoming the world’s first trillionaire as SpaceX prepares to open trading on Nasdaq after pricing the largest initial public offering on record, a deal that places one of the most strategically important technology companies at the centre of a debate over wealth, markets and power.Space Exploration Technologies Corp. priced 555,555,555 Class A shares at $135 each, raising about $75bn and giving the company an implied valuation of roughly $1.77tn. The shares are due

Wall Street’s AI trade came under pressure as investors reassessed stretched technology valuations before SpaceX’s planned market debut, with Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta Platforms and Oracle losing more than $200 billion in combined market value during the session.The sell-off hit some of the largest companies tied to artificial intelligence spending, cloud infrastructure and data-centre expansion. Alphabet fell about 2.5 per cent, Microsoft lost nearly 2.7 per cent, Meta slipped close to 1.9 per cent and Oracle dropped more than 11 per

Egypt’s Suez Canal recorded its strongest monthly revenue since early 2024 as oil tankers turned increasingly to the Red Sea route after the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz disrupted Gulf energy flows.Revenue from the waterway reached about $419 million in April, up 27 per cent from a year earlier, supported by a sharp rise in tanker crossings and higher net tonnage. The canal handled 1,182 vessels during the month, a 13.9 per cent increase from April 2025, while

Somali football supporters have reacted with fury after World Cup referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan was denied entry to the United States despite holding a valid visa, turning what had been celebrated as a landmark moment for Somali sport into a wider dispute over immigration policy and football’s global reach.Artan, regarded as one of Africa’s leading match officials, had been due to take part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. His selection carried

Chinese investors shut out of SpaceX’s planned blockbuster share sale are turning to indirect routes, fuelling speculative demand for offshore vehicles, supplier stocks and domestic space-sector names as Elon Musk’s rocket company prepares for one of the largest market debuts on record.Underwriters handling the offering have been told not to accept orders from investors in mainland China and Hong Kong, with the restriction linked to US controls on sensitive aerospace and defence technology. Access to SpaceX’s website and IPO marketing

Iran’s football federation says its World Cup ticket allocation has been withdrawn days before the 2026 tournament opens, leaving supporters who had begun arranging travel unable to buy seats through the official national federation channel.The Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran said it had already started the ticket sales process for group-stage matches when access to its quota was removed. The federation said the move meant it could no longer provide tickets to fans for Iran’s fixtures in the United

Iran and Israel moved back from direct confrontation on Monday after a sharp exchange of missile and air attacks threatened to rupture fragile diplomacy across the Middle East, with both sides saying they had halted strikes for now after a public appeal by U. S. President Donald Trump.Tehran said its offensive operations against Israel had stopped, but warned that attacks would resume if Israel continued to target Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel, while signalling a pause in direct action against Iran,