Category: World

Paris Saint-Germain began their Champions League title defence with a 6-1 victory over Slovan Bratislava at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday, powered by a Ferran Torres hat-trick and two goals from Ousmane Dembélé. The French side, seeking a third successive European crown, took control before the interval and never allowed the Slovak champions to settle. Dembélé struck twice inside six first-half minutes before Torres scored his first of the night, giving PSG a 3-0 lead by half-time. Torres added two more

Iraq plans to lift pipeline oil exports through Syria and Türkiye’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan to more than one million barrels a day, as Baghdad accelerates efforts to diversify crude shipments away from vulnerable Gulf routes. Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said Iraq was exporting about three million barrels per day in September and remained within its OPEC production ceiling, with current production capacity not exceeding 4.2 million barrels per day. He said the government’s future plan was to raise pipeline

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board has reported Iran to the UN Security Council over nuclear safeguards failures, marking the first such referral in two decades and widening the diplomatic confrontation between Tehran and Western governments. The 35-member Board of Governors adopted the resolution on Wednesday by 23 votes to three, with eight abstentions. China, Russia and Niger voted against the measure, while one member did not vote because it was in arrears. The United States, Britain, France and Germany put

President Donald Trump warned Iran on Wednesday that the United States could strike Pickaxe Mountain after Washington detected activity at the deeply buried site near the damaged Natanz uranium enrichment complex. “We notice there’s a little activity at Pickaxe. I would advise Iran not to get cute because we will have to hit them very hard,” Trump told a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, sharpening warnings he has issued since July about the fortified installation. Trump did not describe the activity detected

DP World and GulfCap Africa have formalised their joint venture to develop the 222-hectare Mombasa Industrial Park, advancing a major special economic zone project intended to expand manufacturing and logistics capacity on Kenya’s coast. The companies signed a Shareholders Agreement at State House in Nairobi in the presence of President William Ruto, building on a partnership announced in August. The agreement establishes the ownership framework behind the project and moves the planned development towards implementation. The first phase will cover 40 hectares,

US Treasury yields climbed on Wednesday as oil prices pushed above $100 a barrel, intensifying concern that higher energy costs could keep inflation elevated and persuade the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its September 15-16 meeting. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield moved above 4.8%, touching its highest level since late 2023, while longer-dated yields remained under pressure as investors reassessed the inflation outlook and the likely path of monetary policy. Bond prices move inversely to yields. Brent crude rose past

North Korea’s newly appointed defence minister has warned that Pyongyang will take strong countermeasures if the United States and its allies provoke a new military confrontation, as Washington, Seoul and Tokyo conduct their five-day Freedom Edge exercise. Kim Song-gi, appointed defence minister late last month, issued the warning in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Monday. He said the US-led exercises were creating a serious security threat and pushing instability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond the

Nepal has asked the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage for emergency financing after the August 26 Bhote Koshi disaster, putting the fledgling global climate-aid mechanism under pressure before it has made its first funding awards. The government’s request, signed by Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Agriculture, Forests and Environment Minister Gita Chaudhary, says the scale of destruction exceeds Nepal’s domestic resources and immediate response capacity. Kathmandu wants rapid support to protect affected communities, restore essential services and begin recovery. The

Rescuers in Nepal pulled a Chinese worker and a Nepali woman alive from separate sites on Saturday, 10 days after catastrophic floods swept through Himalayan valleys and left thousands of people missing. The Chinese national, identified as Lu Haitao, was brought out from a tunnel at the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project in Rasuwa district by a joint rescue team involving Nepal's army and South Korean disaster specialists. He was evacuated by helicopter for medical treatment after being found with mild hypothermia

U. S. forces struck three Iranian crude oil tankers on Saturday after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fired ballistic missiles towards two American Navy warships, escalating a renewed exchange of attacks around the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz. U. S. Central Command said an American aircraft carrier and a guided-missile destroyer evaded multiple Iranian attacks while patrolling regional waters. No American personnel were harmed, it said. The command did not identify the warships or specify where the Iranian missiles were launched

More than 1,600 migrant children have been registered in Ceuta as Spain struggles to move minors from streets and makeshift camps into adequate care more than a month after the mass crossing from Morocco. Spain’s Ministry of Youth and Children said 1,612 minors were registered in the North African enclave by September 1, including 1,129 identified after the July 30-31 influx. Officials acknowledge that the true number may be higher because an unknown number of children have yet to complete registration. The

The World Meteorological Organization has warned that the developing El Niño could become the strongest observed in decades, sharply increasing risks of extreme heat, droughts and floods into 2027. The UN weather agency said El Niño is now firmly established across the tropical Pacific and is expected to strengthen into a very strong event before peaking towards the end of 2026. Forecasts from WMO global prediction centres show a nearly 100 per cent likelihood that the climate pattern will persist through

At least 10 people were killed and more than 60 injured after an explosion tore through a military barracks in Viacha, west of Bolivia’s capital La Paz, on Friday, authorities said. The blast occurred at about 2.30pm local time at the Centro General de Mantenimiento of the RAM-2 “Bolívar” artillery unit, where pyrotechnic material belonging to the Defence Ministry was stored. Officials said the precise cause had not been established and an investigation was under way. Viacha health director Rita Nebraska said

AstraZeneca’s oral breast cancer drug Etcamah has secured accelerated approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a defined group of patients with advanced disease, despite an earlier negative vote by the regulator’s oncology advisory panel. The FDA authorised Etcamah, or camizestrant, with a CDK4/6 inhibitor for adults with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer when an ESR1 mutation is detected during treatment with an aromatase inhibitor and a CDK4/6 inhibitor. The mutation must be identified using

French health insurance start-up Alan has acquired Dakar-based digital health company Tanel, giving the Paris-based group its first foothold in Africa and adding operations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. The transaction, announced on September 2, brings Tanel’s approximately 70,000 covered lives and more than 400 corporate customers into Alan’s international network. Financial terms were not disclosed. Alan said Tanel’s existing team would remain in place while the two companies integrate products and expand healthcare services. Tanel co-founders Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop

A strengthening El Niño is raising the risk of extreme heat, drought and veld fires across South Africa, increasing the likelihood of heavier weather-related losses for insurers during the 2026/27 summer season. The South African Weather Service has warned that the Pacific warming event is already strong and could intensify further, with sea-surface temperature anomalies in the east-central tropical Pacific exceeding the threshold used to classify a very strong El Niño. Its seasonal outlook points to below-normal rainfall across many parts

Nepal’s catastrophic Himalayan flood has exposed a severe monitoring gap after scientists concluded that the rock-and-ice collapse that triggered the disaster developed in terrain where conventional forecasting offered little practical warning. The August 26 collapse high in the Lhende Khola catchment sent ice, rock and sediment plunging from the Lirung massif, temporarily blocked the river and then released a debris-charged torrent through Rasuwagadhi and the Bhote Koshi-Trishuli system. By Thursday, Nepal’s confirmed death toll had reached at least 1,204, while more

Chevron will invest more than $7 billion through its Venezuelan joint ventures over five years, aiming to more than double production to about 600,000 barrels a day as it enlarges its position in the country’s oil sector. The Houston-based company said agreements reached with Venezuela provide updated fiscal, commercial and legal terms intended to support long-term investment, project development and higher production. Chevron was also assigned additional acreage in the Orinoco Belt, one of the world’s largest concentrations of heavy crude. The

Augsburg’s main railway station reopened on Wednesday after an overnight explosion nearby injured two people and a later suspicious-object alert forced police to halt train services and evacuate the transport hub. Police said an unidentified object exploded at about 3.15am in a passageway of a building close to the station in the southern German city, causing minor injuries to a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man. Both were Ukrainian citizens, according to Bavarian police. The two suffered blast-related hearing injuries, while windows

A dispute over the term “non-market” lay at the centre of the breakdown between China and the United States at this week’s Group of 20 finance meeting, where Beijing withheld support for a consensus statement backed by the other members. The disagreement emerged during negotiations in Asheville, North Carolina, over language addressing global economic imbalances. People familiar with the talks said the sharpest argument focused on whether the G20 should describe certain policies and practices as “non-market”, wording Washington regarded as

Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Bishkek on Tuesday, opening bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit as Tehran confronts renewed military tensions with the United States. The Kremlin confirmed that Putin was holding a meeting with Pezeshkian during the gathering in Kyrgyzstan, where leaders of the 10-member SCO assembled for the organisation’s 25th anniversary summit. The talks brought the Russian and Iranian presidents together for their sixth meeting, according to Iran’s ambassador

US lawmakers renewed demands for President Donald Trump to end the war with Iran as the conflict passed its six-month mark, while the White House shifted emphasis towards economic pressure and Trump signalled no urgency to restart negotiations. Republican Representative Thomas Massie and senior Democrats used Friday’s milestone to challenge a war that began on February 28 with coordinated US and Israeli strikes. Massie said the conflict had exceeded the time limits he argues are imposed by the War Powers Act

Greece and Israel are preparing to sign a €3.1 billion agreement on Monday for a nationwide multilayered air and missile defence network, moving Athens’ Achilles’ Shield programme from approval into implementation. The agreements are scheduled to be signed in Tel Aviv on August 31 between Greece’s General Directorate for Defence Investments and Armaments and SIBAT, the international defence cooperation directorate of Israel’s Ministry of Defence, alongside participating companies. As of Sunday, official accounts described the signing as forthcoming rather than

Nepal could need $4 billion to $5 billion to rebuild after catastrophic Himalayan floods, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle has said, putting the preliminary bill at nearly a tenth of the country’s economy. Wagle said the estimate remained provisional while authorities conduct a detailed assessment of losses from the August 26 disaster, which devastated settlements and infrastructure along river systems descending from the Nepal-Tibet border. He said the eventual requirement should be lower than the roughly $9 billion needed after Nepal’s 2015