Top World News

Sep 18, 2026 - World

Police fire teargas as protests break out in city of Minna after deaths of suspected illegal goldminers, many of whom were childrenSurvivors from a prison cell in Nigeria where 37 suspected illegal goldminers died while in the custody of a paramilitary group this week have recounted their panic and struggle for breath, as police on Friday fired teargas at people protesting against the deaths and imposed an overnight curfew in the city of Minna.The victims – many of whom were children – were found dead on Thursday in the cells of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which had raided suspected illegal goldmines and ⁠locked up dozens of miners in the city, the state capital of the mineral-rich state of Niger. Continue reading...

Sep 18, 2026 - World

Congressional investigators are scrambling to explain how F-35 jet parts loaded with classified stealth tech vanished into Hong Kong on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's watch.The parts have been missing since June, Politico reported on Friday. A shipment of F-35 components headed from Australia to the U.S. for repairs was mysteriously "rerouted mid-Pacific" and turned up in Hong Kong instead, three people familiar with the matter said. It's reportedly still not clear "who has possession of it now.""The shipment included one of the jet’s canopies, which covers the cockpit and contains stealth technology that only the U.S. and its allies have access to," sources told Politico. "An adversary could study the parts and potentially reverse-engineer the prized technology if it had one of the canopies."The mess triggered closed-door briefings for congressional staff starting in June, with more expected. The Pentagon's F-35 Joint Program Office would only confirm it is "aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components" and said it's working "to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence."Hong Kong is a Chinese special administrative region, and Beijing has a long, documented history of hacking its way to F-35 secrets, Politico reported. J.J. Gertler, a former House Armed Services Committee staffer, told Politico's Audrey Decker and Mark Satter, "It's no secret that China has been aggressively trying to get F-35 data through electronic espionage, among other means. But even if they already had specifications or other data about the part, possessing a real one can give them even more to go on and can verify or refine whatever they already had learned."Lockheed insisted it "handles every shipment with the utmost diligence," while the State Department declined comment and China's embassy claims "ignorance." The blunder lands amid mounting turmoil inside Hegseth's Pentagon, where whistleblowers describe chaos.

Sep 18, 2026 - World

Jagtar Singh Johal, from Scotland, was arrested after wedding in Punjab on alleged terrorism offencesJagtar Singh Johal, a British Sikh man who was arrested in India in 2017 in connection with alleged terrorism offences, has been granted bail by a Delhi court.Johal, from Scotland, was arrested for his alleged role in funding the Khalistan Liberation Force, which had carried out targeted killings in India’s Punjab region. Continue reading...

Sep 18, 2026 - World

A senior Iranian figure proclaimed Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until “criminal” President Donald Trump is removed from power — and a number of critics voiced support for the demand.Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr, a political adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said that the strait would remain closed until both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were removed from office, a demand that comes as traffic through the critical shipping waterway hit its “lowest level yet” and surging global oil prices break records.“Our fighters will not open the Strait of Hormuz until they bring the criminal Trump and the bloodthirsty Netanyahu down from the seat of power,” Zolqadr said, CBS News reported Thursday.With gas prices in the United States reaching unprecedented heights due to Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran — with “the worst still to come,” per The Washington Post — a number of Trump’s critics appeared to embrace Iran’s demands.“Honestly, I'm down with this. F--- it,” wrote Ian Smith, a former GOP congressional candidate from New Jersey and fitness entrepreneur, in a social media post on X.Dash Dobrofsky, a political commentator and writer, also embraced Iran’s terms for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, writing in a social media post on X to his nearly 200,000 followers: “Not gonna lie, this sounds like a great deal to me.”Others flagged how Iran’s new demand was directly at odds with Trump’s oft-repeated insistence that Iran was “begging” to make a deal with his administration.“Trump has said for (how many months now) that Iran is begging for a deal. Doesn't seem like it, by their actions, or their words,” wrote Chris Rossini, a senior fellow and media host at the Ron Paul Institute.And Laura Robinson, a religious podcaster and scholar, quipped that it was “kinda cool” that Iran "believed" in Americans enough to remove Trump from power to make such a demand.Iran just came out and said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until both Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are removed from power.Not gonna lie, this sounds like a great deal to mehttps://t.co/nyuc7GSa3e— Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) September 17, 2026

Sep 18, 2026 - World

Four of Nusrat Osman’s alleged abductors were killed during rescue after she was taken from outside her home last weekA British woman kidnapped in Malawi last week has been rescued by police after a shootout in which four of her alleged abductors were killed.Nusrat Osman was abducted outside her home in the southern city of Blantyre on 11 September at about 12.30pm. Police had offered a reward of 30m Malawi kwacha (£12,950) for information leading to her rescue and the arrest of the perpetrators. Continue reading...