World News

We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered.

The change in Hungary’s government could help unlock €90bn for Ukraine and give a “new push” for it to join the European Union, the bloc’s expansion chief said Tuesday. Marta Kos, speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings, described the Hungarian election on Sunday – which saw long-ruling nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán defeated – as a “big win for Europe.”

The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to exclusive analysis for the Guardian. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom and ExxonMobil are among the biggest beneficiaries of the bonanza, meaning key opponents of climate action continue to prosper.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb says he exchanges messages with Prime Minister Mark Carney almost every day.

Jawad Younes, 11, and his cousins were playing soccer in the lot between their houses, as they often did. His little brother, four-year-old Mehdi, had joined them but grew tired, so Jawad took him home and handed him off to their mother before returning to the game. Minutes later, an Israeli strike came.

(at the new humanitarian)

Newly declassified Israeli files reveal pre-state Zionist militias contacted Nazi Germany officials for help in establishing a Jewish state in Palestine as World War II raged.

China is employing ships and a barrier to tighten control of the entrance to the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea amid roiling ​tension with the Philippines over the disputed feature, satellite imagery obtained by Reuters shows.

Iran secretly acquired a Chinese ‌spy satellite in late 2024 that has allowed it to target U.S. military bases across the Middle East during the current war, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, an account Beijing dismissed as untrue.

More than 200 Iranian sailors left stranded in Sri Lanka after a US torpedo attack are returning home after being stuck in the country for more than a month.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday China ​had been an unreliable global partner during the Middle East war by hoarding oil supplies and limiting exports ‌of some goods, mirroring its actions with medical goods during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With just under two months until the start of the 2026 World Cup, it seems that FIFA executives have finally looked up at the horizon, seen the looming shitstorm, and are now scrambling to head it off. The Athletic reported on Tuesday that top FIFA heads have sought to convince Gianni Infantino to make a “president-to-president” appeal to Donald Trump and ask if he can find it in his heart of hearts to give his ICE jackboots a summer vacation.

Polish far-right MP sparks outrage by displaying Israeli flag with Nazi swastika in parliament, accusing Israel of genocide in controversial statement.

How we get off fossil fuels looks very roughly like this: * Generate electricity without burning stuff (wind, solar, geothermal, storage, and maybe nuclear if it’s cheap enough) * Electrify everything we can (electric vehicles, elecrified mass transit, ebikes, heat pumps for home and district heat, nitrate fertilizer manufacturing, etc) * Stop doing the things we can’t (a few industrial processes)

Ukraine said it took a Russian position using just drones and ground robots.

Italy has suspended a defence agreement with Israel that involves the exchange of military equipment and technology research, according to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US last year after rekindling a 1960s romance is being detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centre in the state of Louisiana.

Swiss Ice Hockey coach Patrick Fischer has admitted he used a certificate falsely claiming he had been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get around China’s travel restrictions for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where he led his nation.

A prolonged disruption in the Strait of Hormuz could result in a global food “catastrophe”, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned, as shipments of critical agricultural inputs remain blocked in the key waterway due to the US-Israel war on Iran.

A former student opened fire at a high school in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding at least 16 people, before killing himself, an official said.

A Chinese-owned tanker under U.S. sanctions has passed the Strait of Hormuz despite the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports that began on Monday.

A French industrial company pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material support to terrorism by paying millions of dollars to ISIS in order to keep its cement plant in Syria operable.

A sweeping bill advancing through France’s parliament is set to criminalise wide areas of speech on Israel, with penalties of up to five years in prison.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Trump administration reports to him every day about the ongoing war in Iran.

Does the world need more billionaires? Guess we will soon find out, as they multiplying now, and not even naturally!

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is seeking to lunge and leg press his way to a historic fourth term, as the octogenarian politician uses a flurry of workout videos to convince voters he is fighting fit ahead of October’s crunch election.

Donald Trump has launched another attack on Keir Starmer as it emerged the UK will not be involved in his plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz.

April 12, 2026

Iran executed at least 1,639 people last year, the highest number recorded there since 1989, two non-governmental organisations say.

April 13, 2026

The accommodation reservation website Booking.com has suffered a data breach with “unauthorised parties” gaining access to customers’ details.

From the Syrian Government account:

Abraham Rodríguez stares at the corn furrows he must plough before the end of the day. It is not even noon in Artemisa, Cuba, but the sun beats down hard and he’s already tired: working the land is a tough job. He has done it for almost half his life, since he was 13 and his mother got a divorce. He is turning 26 this year.

The U.S. military’s 10 a.m. ET deadline to begin a blockade of ships entering and exiting Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz has passed, after talks this weekend failed to end the war.

Oil tankers are steering clear of the ​Strait of Hormuz ahead of a U.S. blockade later on Monday following failed peace talks ‌between the U.S. and Iran over the weekend, shipping data showed.

Captain Jackoff Turkey

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Supreme Court in the African kingdom of Eswatini has ruled that four men sent there by the United States last July under the Trump administration’s third-country deportation program can finally meet with a lawyer after they were denied in-person legal counsel for nine months while held at a maximum-security prison.

April 11, 2026

President Donald Trump on Sunday said the U.S. Navy would “immediately” begin a blockade of ships entering or leaving the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement or next diplomatic steps in sight.

Tisza lead widens as close to quarter of votes counted

Polls have closed in Hungary’s high-stakes election that sees nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán face down the strongest opposition leader of his 16-year tenure.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps warned on Sunday that any military ships approaching the Strait of Hormuz will be viewed as violating the two-week ceasefire and would be dealt with “harshly and decisively.”

President Lee Jae Myung shared a video on social media, Friday, alleging that Israeli soldiers abused a Palestinian child and then threw him off a rooftop.

President Donald Trump says the United States Navy will begin blockading the Strait of Hormuz “immediately” after peace talks between the US and Iran in Pakistan ended without an agreement.