Top World News

Apr 23, 2026 - World

Proposal at heart of offer made during a 30-country two-day meeting jointly organised by FranceMiddle East crisis – live updatesBritain is prepared to deploy a squadron of RAF Typhoons based in Qatar to patrol over the strait of Hormuz as part of a multinational mission to keep open the strategic waterway once the Iran war comes to an end.The UK military also offered to deploy mine-hunting drones and specialist divers to help clear the strait mined by Iran – but no decision has been made on whether HMS Dragon or another warship would also be deployed. Continue reading...

Apr 23, 2026 - World

Ursula von der Leyen hails ‘good news’ after Hungary’s lifting of vetoes allows leaders to sign off on agreementsEU leaders have welcomed the end of diplomatic deadlock over a long-awaited €90bn (£78bn) loan for Ukraine, after the bloc completed the agreement along with a 20th sanctions package against Russia.After weeks of delay, the EU signed off on the loan on Thursday, in time for a summit in Cyprus that began in the evening and will include talks over a dinner with the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Continue reading...

Apr 23, 2026 - World

More than 200,000 have signed petitions urging the government to break contracts amid concerns about the company’s ‘supervillain’ manifestoMore than 200,000 people have called on ministers to break contracts with Palantir in an apparent groundswell of public concern about the US tech company’s role in the NHS, police, military and councils.Two petitions have attracted 229,000 signatures, one calling for the government to end all public contracts with the company, the software of which is used by Donald Trump’s ICE immigration enforcement programme and the Israeli military, and another urging the health secretary, Wes Streeting, to cancel its £330m patient data contract with the NHS. Continue reading...

Apr 23, 2026 - World

Prosecutors say 43 people indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion and drug traffickingMore than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown in southern California, federal authorities said on Thursday.The FBI and other federal and local agencies executed search and arrest warrants at locations mostly in Orange county, south of Los Angeles, according to the US attorney’s office. Continue reading...

Apr 23, 2026 - World

Forecasting service raises alarm over data from Paris airport used to settle Polymarket wagers on temperatureFrench police are investigating alleged tampering with national weather forecasting service equipment after a series of unusual temperature readings coincided with suspicious winning bets made on Polymarket.Data from a Météo-France weather station at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport was used to settle bets between online gamblers on what the temperature would be in Paris for March and the first weeks of April. Continue reading...