Top World News

Starting December 10, Australia will ban under-16s from a raft of the world's most popular social media platforms and websites, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Indian scientists have discovered an ancient and massive galaxy called Alaknanda. It looks similar to our Milky Way galaxy and is special because it has clear spiral arms, even though it formed when the universe was only 1.5 billion years old.

Wong's plight - arms raised in anguish and weeping as he stands against the backdrop of what became Hong Kong's deadliest fire since 1948 - was captured in a Reuters photograph.

Crucial for making smartphones, fighter jets and electric cars, "rare earth" metals have become a strategic bargaining chip since main producer China this year introduced restrictions on their exports.

Reform UK leader says report of an election deal with Conservatives is ‘false’, but suggests only under their current leadershipThis is from Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, on Nigel Farage’s denial of the FT story. (See 9.33am.)A handy reminder that in 2019 Farage did a deal to put Boris Johnson in No10 and push through his disastrous Brexit deal.But instead of taking responsibility, of course Farage plays the victim. Continue reading...

The family of a Colombian fisherman has filed a formal complaint accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of murder.Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina was killed Sept. 15 in a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean, and the 42-year-old fisherman's wife and four children filed the complaint Tuesday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) alleging the United States committed human rights violations in an “extra-judicial killing," reported The Guardian.“From numerous news reports, we know that Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of Defense, was responsible for ordering the bombing of boats like those of Alejandro Carranza Medina and the murder of all those on such boats," reads the filing. "Secretary Hegseth has admitted that he gave such orders despite the fact that he did not know the identity of those being targeted for these bombings and extra-judicial killings.""U.S. President Donald Trump has ratified the conduct of Secretary Hegseth described herein," the filing adds.The family's lawyer, Daniel Kovalik, told the Washington Post that the man's wife and children had been left without their breadwinner and were also facing threats after speaking out about his killing.“Their world has been turned upside down,” Kovalik said.Carranza was killed in the second missile strike of the Trump administration's bombing campaign against alleged drug smuggling boats, but his family said he was a fisherman who trolled the water for marlin and tuna.“This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility," Trump posted on Truth Social the day Carranza was killed.The president claimed the crew of that boat was from Venezuela, but the Colombian government soon identified them as Colombian.“We think this is a viable way to challenge the killing of Alejandro," Kovalik said. "We are going to seek redress for the family. We want the US to be ordered to stop doing these boat attacks. It may be a first step but we think it it’s a good first step.”Carranza's family is seeking compensation, although their attorney acknowledged the IACHR doesn't have the authority to enforce its recommendations.“They also want the killings to stop,” Kovalik said. “We hope that this can be at least part of the process of getting that to happen.”Hegseth is facing scrutiny over his verbal directive that led to the killing of two survivors of the first boat strike, on Sept. 2, and the Carranza family's IACHR complaint cited Washington Post reporting on that incident.

Exclusive: Analyst claims UK officials deleted alert to threat of genocidal violence by paramilitaries to protect UAEWarnings of a possible “genocide” in Sudan were removed from a UK risk assessment by Foreign Office officials, according to a whistleblower whose testimony raises fresh concern over British failures to act on the atrocities unfolding in the war-ravaged country.The threat analyst said they were prevented from warning that genocide could occur in Darfur by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) officials in a humanitarian risk assessment collated days after Sudan’s brutal civil war erupted in April 2023. Continue reading...

President yesterday also halted immigration for people from 19 nations including Somalia, Afghanistan and Yemen Trump had threatened the dramatic crackdown on immigration from the 19 already-targeted countries, following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers by an Afghan suspect last week.He said he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.” Continue reading...