Top World News
Hong Kong unveils first 5-year plan to broaden the city's identity beyond finance
Sep 16, 2026 - World 
Hong Kong's leader has unveiled a five-year plan to broaden the city's identity beyond finance
Al-Qaida and IS-linked violence in Africa’s Sahel belt set to hit record levels this year
Sep 16, 2026 - World 
Twenty-five years after 9/11, figures compiled by conflict monitor underline how Sahel region has become centre of Islamist terrorIslamist extremist violence in Africa’s Sahel region is set to reach historic highs after a series of sweeping offensives by groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State, according to new figures compiled by the conflict monitor Acled.As the US marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks launched by al-Qaida against targets in Washington and New York, the statistics underline the continued expansion of the veteran organisation in parts of Africa – in stark contrast with its relative weakness elsewhere. Continue reading...
Slave-trade wealth was embedded in Britain’s financial system, research finds
Sep 16, 2026 - World 
Dozens of Bank of England directors and founding subscribers invested in trafficking of enslaved AfricansThe Bank of England and the British financial system were for centuries deeply involved in the enslavement and transatlantic trafficking of millions of African people, according to new research on Britain’s slavery history.Research by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has found that the scale of the financial system’s involvement in enslavement is greater than previously known or acknowledged. The Bank of England, the central bank owned by the government since nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s Labour administration in 1946, had dozens of financiers involved in its foundation who were also significant investors in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans. Continue reading...
People protecting nature and land set up self-defence units amid threat of murder
Sep 16, 2026 - World 
Defenders of forests and rivers killed at rate of one every three days in 2025, with 85% of deaths in Latin AmericaNature and land defenders were murdered at the rate of one every three days last year, prompting many communities to set up self-defence units, according to the latest annual death toll by the independent watchdog Global Witness.Organised crime groups or professional killers were implicated in more than a third of the 124 killings of defenders in 2025 as narco-trafficking activities overlapped with intrusions into indigenous territories and environmental crime, such as illegal logging and wildcat gold mining. Continue reading...
South Korean court orders North Korea to pay $32.5 million for blowing up joint liaison office
Sep 16, 2026 - World 
A South Korean court has ruled that North Korea should pay the South 44.6 billion won, or about $32.5 million, for blowing up a joint liaison office between the countries in 2020
