Top World News

May 18, 2026 - World

A court case in New York has highlighted how Iran is using technology to recruit agents who may not even be regime supportersWhen on Friday a 32-year-old Iraqi was brought before a court in New York to be charged with planning to attack Jewish community sites in the US, a curtain was suddenly lifted on a corner of a shadowy world.The detention of Mohammed Saad Baqer al-Saadi in Turkey last week revealed rare details of Iran’s efforts to use terrorism to sow discord among communities in Europe, the UK and the US – but also the outlines of an uncertain and threatening future. Continue reading...

May 18, 2026 - World

Donald Trump says plans for a US military attack on Iran have been paused because ‘serious negotiations are now taking place’Middle East crisis – live updatesIran has made a new proposal for a deal to definitively end the war in the Middle East, officials in the region said on Monday, though there was no sign of any immediate breakthrough in the stalled peace negotiations.A ceasefire has paused most violence after six weeks of US-Israeli airstrikes and Iranian retaliation, but there has been little progress since Donald Trump said the ceasefire was “on life support”, and reports in Israeli media suggest a resumption of hostilities is imminent. Continue reading...

May 18, 2026 - World

The incident is believed to be the deadliest single diving accident in the Maldives, a country known globally for its coral islands and luxury diving tourism.

May 18, 2026 - World

Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum denies any links between her Morena party and organized crimePressure is mounting on Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, after two former top officials from the country’s Sinaloa state – both members of her Morena party – gave themselves up to US authorities over alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel.The state’s former security minister Gerardo Mérida Sánchez crossed the border into Arizona last week and was taken into custody by US marshals, Mexico’s security ministry said. Sinaloa’s former finance minister, Enrique Díaz Vega, was taken into custody in New York. Continue reading...

May 18, 2026 - World

‘Tank Day’ event causes outrage with ‘malicious mockery’ of deadly crackdown during dictatorship eraThe chief executive of Starbucks in South Korea has been fired after the company ran a promotional event using slogans that evoked a massacre of pro-democracy protesters during the country’s dictatorship era, sparking outrage and boycott calls.The coffee chain launched a “Tank Day” campaign on 18 May for its “Tank” tumbler series. The date coincides with one of the most politically sensitive days in South Korea’s calendar, when citizens commemorate the 1980 democratisation movement in Gwangju, 167 miles (270km) south-west of Seoul. Continue reading...