Top World News

Sep 11, 2025 - World

The White House is reportedly “infuriated” following the surprise Israeli strike Tuesday on American-ally Qatar, an operation that the United States was given little advanced notice of and has put a key international alliance in jeopardy.According to Israeli officials, the strike on Doha, the capital of Qatar, was intended to eliminate Hamas leadership, specifically those actively involved in the ongoing ceasefire negotiations. The strike was immediately condemned by Trump, who said he was “very unhappy” with what he called an “unfortunate incident.”But behind the scenes, Trump was reportedly “infuriated,” and had a heated phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to insiders familiar with the matter who spoke with Axios in a report published Thursday.“It's unacceptable,” Trump told Netanyahu during a phone call Tuesday, according to “two sources with knowledge,” speaking with Axios. “I demand that you do not repeat it.”The strike has also jeopardized the United States’ relationship with Qatar, which for decades has remained a key ally in the Middle East, having even been designated a major non-NATO ally by the United States.A “source with direct knowledge” told Axios that Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani told Steve Witkoff, the United States’ special envoy to the Middle East, that the country would reevaluate its security partnership with the United States, and “maybe find some other partners.”Netanyahu’s response to Trump during their phone call Tuesday is unclear, but in the days since, he has defended the strikes as necessary to protect Israel’s security and to bring “terrorists to justice,” while also proclaiming that Israel would “continue to strike” as necessary.According to Axios, Trump was not notified of the impending attack until “missiles were in the air.” According to Axios, Al-Thani told the White House that it considered the attack a “betrayal” by the United States, and that Qatar was actively engaged in conversations with other Persian Gulf nations on how to respond.

Sep 11, 2025 - World

Lord Peter Mandelson has been removed as British ambassador to the U.S. over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer ordered his firing after a series of damaging revelations about his longtime friendship with the disgraced financier and convicted child sex abuser, reported The Telegraph, which had previously revealed emails showing Mandelson advised Epstein on how to respond to criminal charges over soliciting a minor in 2008."The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment," the Foreign Office said in a statement. “In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect.”Mandelson and Epstein had worked together on a $1.35 billion business deal after the late pedophile's conviction for child sex crimes, and while Mandelson was serving as a government minister.The former ambassador described Epstein as his "best pal" in notes written for a book on the financier's 50th birthday in 2003, but Starmer had stood by Mandelson until the emails leaked Wednesday.The move comes just days before U.S. President Donald Trump, who was also longtime friends with Epstein, is scheduled to arrive in the UK for his second state visit.

Sep 11, 2025 - World

Rights group also finds rise in openly gay, bisexual and transgender people running for office in 36 countriesPoliticians in at least 51 countries used homophobic or transphobic rhetoric during elections last year, from depicting LGBTQ+ identity as a foreign threat to condemning “gender ideology”, according to a new study of 60 countries and the EU.However, there were also gains for LGBTQ+ representation in some countries. Openly gay, bisexual and transgender people ran for office in at least 36 countries, including for the first time in Botswana, Namibia and Romania – albeit unsuccessfully – according to the report by Outright International. The number of LGBTQ+ elected officials doubled to at least 233 in Brazil. Continue reading...

Sep 10, 2025 - World

The International IDEA’s survey of democratic markers finds US is offering ‘encouragement’ to populist leadersPress freedom around the world has suffered its sharpest fall in 50 years as global democracy weakens dramatically, a landmark report has found.According to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), democracy has declined in 94 countries over the last five years and only a third have made progress. Continue reading...

Sep 10, 2025 - World

Death of anti-apartheid activist in 1977 after police beat him into a coma sparked outrage across the worldSouth African prosecutors will reopen an inquest into the death of the prominent anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, nearly 50 years after he died in police custody.Biko, the founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement, died in a prison cell in 1977 aged just 30, after being beaten into a coma by police who had arrested him nearly a month earlier. Continue reading...