Top World News

Apr 15, 2026 - World

Ukraine is ramping up its assaults on oil-rich Russia's energy infrastructure in a bid to dampen the windfall Vladimir Putin stands to gain as prices and demand skyrocket in the wake of the U.S. blockade of the Persian Gulf.

Apr 15, 2026 - World

President Trump has not agreed to a formal extension of the ceasefire with Iran, but the U.S. is engaging with Pakistani mediators and is open to a second round of talks in Islamabad, the White House said Wednesday.

Apr 15, 2026 - World

Péter Magyar’s stunning victory in Hungary is a boost for liberal democracy. But don’t bank on similar upsets in upcoming European elections• Don’t get This Is Europe delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereWhen future historians come to write about the stunning electoral overthrow of Viktor Orbán on 12 April 2026, let’s hope they devote at least footnotes to zebras and golden toilet brushes. The zebras were spotted by drones on the sprawling grounds of a countryside palace belonging to Orbán’s extended family. The 72 gilded toilet brushes were said to have been bought at a cost of almost €10,000, for a lavish renovation of Hungary’s central bank. For Orbán’s opponents, such excesses became symbols of the rampant corruption among cronies of Orbán’s ruling party Fidesz, which drained Hungary’s economy and earned its ranking as the most crooked country in the EU, as Ashifa Kassam and Flora Garamvolgyi reported.In the end, it was disgust with corruption and how that corruption affected people’s livelihoods that were the main factors behind Sunday’s election rout. But the landslide achieved by Peter Magyar’s Tisza party – despite an electoral system designed to favour Fidesz – suggests that these eye-popping details were merely the last straws for a population desperate to reclaim their country as a functioning democracy. Continue reading...

Apr 15, 2026 - World

More than 2,200 ants were found in Zhang Kequn’s luggage at Nairobi airport, with baggage destined for ChinaA Chinese national has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined by a Nairobi court for attempting to smuggle thousands of ants out of Kenya, a lucrative trade in east Africa that was exposed last year.The insects are mostly destined for China, the US and Europe, where they become pets and can be worth about $100 each. Continue reading...

Apr 15, 2026 - World

The U.S. Navy is imposing a sea blockade against Iran - the latest escalation in the war that has seen the flow of key energy supplies choked off at the Strait of Hormuz.