Top World News

Sep 10, 2026 - World

Following six years of talks, Pitt Rivers Museum will return body parts collected by British colonial administrators to north-east IndiaAnthropologists and community leaders from Nagaland, a remote state in north-eastern India bordering Myanmar, have expressed joy and relief that human remains belonging to their ancestors that had been on display in a British museum for nearly a century are finally being returned.On Monday, the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford announced that 39 pieces of human remains – including parts of skulls, a finger and a piece of skin with hair – belonging to the Naga tribes, will be returned to Nagaland after six years of negotiation between the community and the museum. Continue reading...

Sep 10, 2026 - World

White House advisers have privately warned President Donald Trump that the Iran conflict could last through the end of his term.According to a Wednesday article by The Wall Street Journal, the message cuts sharply against the swift victory Trump has promised the public. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, The Journal reported that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others have told the president in the Oval Office and Situation Room that Tehran may keep resisting the American pressure campaign well past Inauguration Day in January 2029.Trump has offered a far rosier timeline. He told reporters this week that the war would end "immediately" after November's midterm elections "because they can't hold out any longer," The Journal noted.The conflict is in its seventh month and has killed 18 service members, The Journal added. Rather than escalate major combat, Trump has leaned on a naval blockade and sanctions meant to force Tehran to abandon its nuclear program, a strategy the Trump administration has dubbed "Operation Economic Outcast."When asked about the war's trajectory, White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales defended the approach and played down any fixed timeline. "Only President Trump knows what he will do and when," she said, per The Journal.Vance likewise declined to set an end date. It would be "irresponsible" to write out a strategy and timeline for an adversary that keeps targeting commercial ships, he told reporters.Analysts told The Journal that a drawn-out siege looks increasingly likely and increasingly costly. Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution said the blockade is "unlikely to produce a decisive outcome in the near or even medium term."Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group framed the standoff as a grinding stalemate that punishes both sides without breaking either."Everyone pays," he said. "But neither leadership is yet paying enough to accept the other side's terms."Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has already pushed some Middle East troop deployments into 2027, signaling Washington is bracing for a longer fight, The Journal reported.

Sep 10, 2026 - World

Rubio visits Ecuador and welcomes cooperation after campaign of unilateral strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorists’The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, gave new clarity on the approach toward combating drug trafficking in Latin American waters, saying the Trump administration was focused on working with allied countries and aligning with their laws but insisted the military would “still blow up ships if need be”.The public acknowledgment of a shift in US strategy comes a year after Washington began a campaign of unilateral deadly strikes against those it calls “narco-terrorists” operating boats in international waters. Continue reading...

Sep 9, 2026 - World

Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics traffickingThe US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Sep 9, 2026 - World

Even Europe's most Trump-friendly governments are lining up behind Canada in its escalating trade fight with the United States, in a striking snub to a president who's spent months courting the continent's right-wing leaders.European Union ambassadors from all 27 member states met in Brussels Wednesday to discuss deepening ties with Canada, just hours after Washington moved to block a range of Canadian goods, including dairy products, alcohol and motorbikes, from entering the U.S. market, Politico reported. According to two officials granted anonymity to describe the confidential talks, not a single country objected to the plan, despite the obvious risk of appearing to side against Washington.A third diplomat familiar with the preparations said support for the outreach runs deep, even among governments typically wary of provoking Trump's orbit."There's very strong support for [Commission President] von der Leyen making that outreach and for closer cooperation," the diplomat said, naming Italy's Giorgia Meloni, Czech leader Andrej Babiš, and Slovakia's Robert Fico as examples of Trump-aligned leaders backing the move.The European Commission and Council jointly laid out plans for a major summit with Canada set for October 29-30, with both sides eyeing a broader alliance spanning tech innovation, joint research, and access to rare earth minerals, while also working to knock down existing trade obstacles between them. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will personally address the European Parliament next week, part of a broader push to reduce Canada's economic dependence on the U.S. and build a coalition of pro-free-trade democracies.A senior EU official said the trip is meant to send a clear signal that both sides want to upgrade the relationship. Officials are floating ideas ranging from Canadian participation in the EU's Erasmus student exchange program to joint Arctic security initiatives and military-industrial cooperation, though nothing formal has been agreed and talks remain in early stages.The Arctic in particular looks like fertile ground for cooperation, with the Commission preparing an updated Arctic strategy for October and von der Leyen recently signaling Europe wants a bigger presence in the region after a trip to Greenland. One EU official suggested any Canada-related content in von der Leyen's upcoming State of the Union speech would likely center on security."Security and defense is always her happy place," the official said.Officials also pointed to shared interests beyond defense, including critical raw materials, subsea cables, Arctic-capable icebreakers, and cleaner shipping standards — an area where Brussels and Ottawa align but where the U.S. has actively lobbied against decarbonization efforts.Trump has grown more and more belligerent against Canada in recent weeks, passing an order to rename Lake Ontario and posting a cartoon image of himself standing over Carney with a hockey stick.