Sofia Castellanos reads today’s events through the long arc of history, drawing the parallels others miss. Ambitious in scope, provocative on purpose, and rarely content with the obvious explanation.
A New York Times investigation found Israeli forces have pushed past agreed withdrawal lines since the October 2025 truce. Netanyahu has said Israel plans to seize more territory and will not pull back without what he calls genuine disarmament.
The Pope met seven survivors of abuse by French clergy during his visit to Lourdes, where 150,000 attended Mass. A 2021 inquiry found the Church had abused around 330,000 children in France over 70 years.
Seoul says Kyiv broke a confidentiality agreement when Zelenskyy told the UN that two North Korean soldiers captured in Russia had been transferred to South Korea. Ukraine has not explained why it made the transfer public.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has recorded 71,271 deaths since October 2023, but the figure excludes those buried under rubble, the missing, and others its system never captured. The ministry publishes no breakdown between civilians and combatants.
Three attackers opened fire on a gathering in KwaMakhutha township, killing a pregnant woman among the dead. The shooting comes as police separately investigate nine unsolved murders of women in Ekurhuleni.
Ursula von der Leyen announced the package in New York as the 81st UN General Assembly High-Level Week drew to a close. The EU said it would also boost emergency aid for people affected by conflict in the Middle East and Ukraine, though no disbursement timetable was given.
A Reuters study estimates 80% of idle terminal capacity could restart quickly once attacks stop. But three heavily damaged facilities, handling a fifth of Russia's regional export infrastructure, may need months of repairs.
Budapest says it was never consulted before Kyiv listed it as a founding member of the Carpathian Eight. The government has also blocked a deal between the two countries' energy firms on petroleum storage, citing security concerns.
A Russian military recruitment website lists a Minsk enlistment office and promises first-year payments of up to $205,000, plus death benefits and land grants. Belarusian officials deny any involvement, but whether they are helping, tolerating or simply unaware of the campaign remains unclear.
Tigrayan fighters took control of airports and attacked federal positions in two neighbouring regions. The fighting shatters the Pretoria Agreement, which ended a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands, and has held for four years.
Rashad al-Alimi said oil exports have been halted for 16 months and that higher shipping and insurance costs now threaten food supplies on a large scale. He also reaffirmed support for a Saudi-Omani peace road map, accusing the Houthis of responding to it with escalating Red Sea attacks.
The two countries co-hosted a high-level event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Italy pledged €50 million, and the campaign aims to reach at least 370 million children worldwide.
Satellite imagery obtained by CBC News shows IDF bulldozers removing debris from bombed sites, including areas being cleared for military outposts. Palestinian authorities estimate more than 10,000 people remain buried, and families say no one contacted them before the clearance began.
Tehran has set out a phased roadmap in Qatari-mediated talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Iran says the strait could open within seven days — but only if Washington lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Shehbaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly that any move to stop or redirect Pakistan's share of the Indus rivers would cross a red line. He was speaking weeks after an international court in The Hague ruled that India cannot legally suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty — a decision New Delhi has rejected.
President Edgars Rinkēvičs says Latvia expects to complete the purchase of Barracuda-500 missiles, which can reach 926 km — roughly three times the range of the ballistic missiles Latvia already has on order. Poland and the US Army have also backed the weapon.
The UN Population Fund found families marrying off daughters in exchange for food. Six women in displacement camps reported cases of girls given away in marriage for something to eat.
The Huthis have seized control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and declared a blockade of Saudi shipping, while Iran has partially closed the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has asked Trump directly for military intervention — and been turned down.
Saudi Arabia has called the talks to push for concrete action under a joint defence pact signed with both countries in August. No military deployments have been announced, and Turkey has said it will not intervene directly.
Tigrayan forces launched an offensive on September 23, seizing three airports and clashing in neighbouring Afar and Amhara. The TPLF has joined six other armed groups in an alliance seeking to remove the government in Addis Ababa.
Nine in ten working-age people are unemployed and GDP per person has fallen to $212 a year. The UN estimates rebuilding will take decades and cost $71.5 billion.
Thousands of families have been uprooted for a second or third time as clashes between Houthi fighters and government forces escalate. Many public health facilities are no longer functioning, and medical staff are going unpaid.
Tehran wants an end to the war, the lifting of the US naval blockade and the release of its frozen assets before traffic resumes. Iran and Oman are also negotiating a temporary shipping corridor as a stopgap.
The World Food Programme, which got nearly half its funding from the US last year, has lost support for programmes in 14 countries. In Sudan alone, its budget has collapsed from $645 million to $206 million, and it warns food aid for Sudanese refugees in Chad will be suspended next month.
President Macron said the mission was agreed with Saudi Arabia and would be strictly defensive. Saudi forces intercepted six Houthi ballistic missiles aimed at Yanbu on Thursday, and tanker loadings at the port have yet to resume after drone strikes shut the pipeline earlier this month.
Delcy Rodríguez told the UN General Assembly a vote would come as part of a transition to "full democracy". She gave no date, the opposition is pressing for 2027, and the country's most prominent opposition figure remains barred from the talks.
Israel's prime minister used his UN General Assembly address to defend the military campaign in Gaza and attack New York's mayor as an antisemite. A UN inquiry and genocide scholars have concluded Israel committed genocide; the International Court of Justice case is unresolved.
Qatari diplomats mediated the discussions in New York, the first major contact since June. A senior Iranian official said Tehran could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if Washington eases military and economic pressure.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front took control of airports including Mekelle's and launched offensives in Afar and Amhara. The group has also joined an alliance of seven armed factions seeking to remove the government in Addis Ababa, putting the 2022 Pretoria peace agreement under serious pressure.
Now downgraded to Category 4, the storm is not expected to hit Mexico's Pacific coast directly. But heavy rain is forecast for Guerrero state, where roads are already damaged and flooding and mudslides remain a serious risk.
One RAF Voyager based in Cyprus will support Saudi defensive flights in a time-limited arrangement, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced on Monday. The mission will not support Saudi strikes against the Houthis.
Airstrikes struck Kunar and Paktika provinces early Monday. Afghan Taliban officials said three members of one family were killed; Pakistan claimed it had hit suicide bomber training facilities and killed 28 fighters, a figure that could not be verified.
Landslides in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures caused the deaths as the storm brought winds of 144 kilometres per hour to the region. More than 270 flights were cancelled and some 9,000 households lost power before Dujuan moved northeast out to sea early Tuesday.
They will face trial in Florida, where four men were convicted in May. The case has produced 30 indictments, and prosecutors say they are not finished pursuing those who financed or supported the 2021 killing of Jovenel Moïse.
A new UN Human Rights Office report attributes 89 percent of verified cases to Russian forces, who used sexual violence to torture and coerce prisoners throughout captivity. The investigation could only operate in Ukrainian-held territory, meaning the true number of cases is likely far higher.
Poland's prime minister told parliament that Russian intelligence assessments pointed to hybrid drone and missile attacks on countries backing Ukraine. Moscow would frame any strike as accidental, he said, to undermine the will of NATO members to defend each other.
Washington has granted visas to President Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Araghchi for the General Assembly, with tight curbs on movement and purchases. The White House denied the same entry to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the second year running.
Isaac Herzog erased Elor Azaria's manslaughter conviction on the eve of Yom Kippur, citing the passage of time and regret expressed by the former soldier. Azaria had served two-thirds of an 18-month sentence for the 2016 shooting in Hebron.
The country recorded 2,016 new HIV diagnoses in 2025, up from 126 in 2019 — one of the sharpest rises anywhere in the world. Two in every 100 pregnant women are living with HIV, and 18 babies died from it before their first birthday this year.
The huge pro-regime march came as the US-Iran war entered its seventh month with no resolution in sight. Trump is weighing further military action to break the deadlock, and told Americans that rising gas prices were 'a very inexpensive price to pay'.
The president is expected to sit down with Gulf Cooperation Council leaders or foreign ministers on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. The talks come after Gulf states suffered Iranian attacks and heavy economic losses from disrupted oil and gas exports during the seven-month conflict.
The men were arrested in Niger State earlier this week on suspicion of illegal mining. Officials suspect disease, but an intelligence report points to overcrowding and poor ventilation — and the true cause remains undetermined.
The announcement points to a possible shift from rotation to a permanent presence, in a country that already hosts almost 10,000 US troops. Key details — location, scale, cost and timetable — remain undisclosed.
Adjoining shafts gave way in sequence at the informal al-Zaraa mine near al-Nuhud, burying dozens of workers in loose, sandy soil. No specialised rescue teams have reached the site, and the death toll may rise.
Five people including a child were wounded in the Black Sea resort city, which closed its beaches because of continuing strike risk. Russian drones killed five on a passenger bus in Ukraine and three at a farm warehouse in Chernihiv.
The State Department cited Palestinian failures to reform and their use of international courts to press for statehood. Abbas will address the General Assembly by prerecorded video, after 142 countries endorsed Palestinian statehood at a conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
A 1,000-page report based on leaked state documents says orders went out to respond 'mercilessly' and 'go as far as causing death'. Amnesty has named 87 officials it says should face criminal investigation for crimes against humanity.
The multistorey block had sheltered displaced families after being hit in an Israeli strike early in the war. About 400 buildings across Gaza are said to be at risk of collapse, with roughly 2,000 damaged structures still inhabited.
The regulations, signed by Premier Li Qiang, allow open-ended travel bans on anyone judged a risk to China's industrial or technological security. Exit-ban records in the country's court database have risen from 89 in 2016 to nearly 189,000 last year.
Pipes and cables laid on tracks across the centre and north of the Netherlands caused widespread signalling failures during the morning rush hour. Police, prosecutors and the intelligence service have opened a criminal investigation; no suspects or motive have been identified.
Police searched gay bars, night clubs and the offices of six LGBTQ+ associations across 12 provinces. Authorities framed the crackdown as child protection; human rights groups called it state-led discrimination and an attack on civil society.
Baghdad confirmed the attack originated in Iraqi territory and dismissed the province's military commander and police chief. Saudi Arabia shut the pipeline but held back from retaliation, giving Iraq time to act.
All 206 passengers had been evacuated minutes before the strike at Yahodyn station. Boris Johnson, David Petraeus and other Western figures were passing through on diplomatic trains at the time, and Ukraine's state railway says the diplomatic train may have been the intended target.
The two leaders backed a "fair and mutually acceptable" resolution to their long-running border dispute but set no timetable. Trade imbalances and supply chains were also on the table, with no deal announced on either front.
The capture of Perim Island gives the group a position at the mouth of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the route Saudi Arabia has depended on since the Iran conflict closed Hormuz. Saudi crude output has already fallen to its lowest level in more than three decades.
Five people remain missing after the blaze broke out on the Ocean Melody, a bulk carrier docked at one of China's biggest shipyards. President Xi Jinping ordered an all-out rescue effort and an investigation into who was responsible.
The Revolutionary Guards called the $2.5m Anduril submersible a 'prize of war'. The Pentagon said the vehicle had malfunctioned and carried no classified equipment.
A delegation led by Culture Minister Olivia Grange will present the King with a petition seeking judicial clarity on whether enslavement was lawful and whether Britain has a legal duty to provide redress. Jamaica says it is the first Commonwealth country to pursue reparatory justice through this legal route.
Tehran says any vessel entering the zone with the intention of transiting the strait will be placed on its sanctions list. The announcement sets out no specific enforcement mechanism.
Four days of hearings in The Hague will examine whether Nicaragua's case over Germany's military support for Israel can proceed at all. A ruling on Germany's preliminary objections is expected within six months.
The warrant covers three counts of grave threat, each carrying bail of 120,000 pesos ($1,900). A conviction in her separate Senate impeachment trial could bar her from the presidency in 2028.
The drone struck the SBU's central building on Volodymyrska Street, near Saint Sophia Cathedral. President Zelensky said the intended target was the office of the acting intelligence chief, who was not there at the time.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at two US bases in Jordan in retaliation for US strikes on Larak Island. Crude oil prices rose more than four per cent as fighting spread, with US and Saudi forces also striking Iran-backed militants in Iraq.
The minimum wage now stands at around $88 a month, less than half the estimated cost of keeping an average household fed and housed. Teachers and retail workers face the same shortfall, and Washington has yet to announce its threatened new round of sanctions.
Waters swept through communities on both sides of the Himalayas on Wednesday, halting travel across Nepal. India has put two states on high alert and deployed disaster response teams as rescuers work through debris-strewn terrain.
More than 60% of vessels transiting the strait switched off their tracking transponders in August, with energy carriers faring worse — over 80% went dark. Daily crossings have collapsed from around 138 before the war to as few as five.
Repeated large-scale missile and drone strikes from late July through late August have killed dozens of civilians and disrupted industry across Ukraine. Companies are pulling back from the Odesa region as Russia deliberately stockpiles weapons to overwhelm air defences.
The six-month US conflict with Iran burned through roughly 65% of America's Patriot interceptors, officials say. US forces in Europe now have 'very limited' ability to stop even a single Russian ballistic missile strike.
A chunk of glacier roughly 2,000 feet wide broke away at 17,000 feet and fell into a Bhote Koshi tributary, triggering a surge that wiped out villages, bridges and roads across three districts. Hundreds remain missing, and authorities warn a second surge is possible if an upstream blockage gives way.
Sources close to the Kremlin say Putin now sees diplomacy as a dead end and is weighing major ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv and Ukrainian infrastructure. Some Russian officials have raised the prospect of tactical nuclear weapons in internal discussions, though Bloomberg found no signs of active preparation.
The order — the first to physically remove Khan from Adiala Jail since his imprisonment in 2023 — came after doctors diagnosed him with a serious eye condition. The government challenged it the next day, and the court refused to act on the appeal.
Denmark's foreign minister delivered the joint statement at the United Nations, backed by all EU members and allies including Japan, Australia and Canada. The signatories represent about a quarter of UN member states — a reminder of how far international consensus on the war remains from unanimous.
His most celebrated work, Camel of Hardship, showed an elderly porter carrying Jerusalem on his back. It became one of the most recognised images in Palestinian art, reproduced on walls and in publications for decades.
American envoy Tom Barrack says Israel gave neither the US nor Turkey advance notice of strikes on a Syrian airbase near the Turkish border. Israel insists it shared intelligence beforehand — but US agencies had reviewed that same intelligence and concluded the threat wasn't real.
An 18-year-old man attacked students at Brinell High School in Fagersta, central Sweden, on Friday afternoon. One person was killed and two teenage boys seriously wounded — for some, it was their first day back after the summer break.
Zelensky signed four decrees targeting Russian arms makers, aluminum suppliers and a children's animation studio. The move shines fresh light on an EU loophole that has allowed an Irish refinery to send hundreds of thousands of tonnes of alumina to Russian smelters linked to weapons production.
All seven on board died when the aircraft went down near Mount Ololokwe in Samburu County. Among the dead is Jose Alberto Suarez, a senior NBCUniversal executive, and Michele Sensi-Contugi, Ecuador's national intelligence director, who was travelling with his wife.
The regime survived US-Israeli strikes by rallying around an external enemy. Its generals and security chiefs now appear to believe that a negotiated end to the war would expose them to the one threat they can't suppress: their own people.
The Emirates says two ballistic missiles fired from Iranian territory landed in the sea, one inside UAE waters. Iran denies firing them, and no independent body has confirmed the launches.
Russia's state defence conglomerate has begun serial production of mobile power substations designed to restore electricity within hours of a grid attack. Rostec says two to four units per region would cover any emergency — though no production volumes or delivery timelines have been disclosed.
The UN recorded nearly 1,400 civilians killed in Ukraine in the first half of 2026 alone. Ukraine has also struck deep inside Russia, hitting a Black Sea beach crowded with holidaymakers and launching the largest drone assault of the year on Moscow.
Two fires broke out within twenty minutes of each other on Sunday, as beaches were packed for the August holiday. One is thought to have claimed a couple caught near the shore at Peristeria.
Moroccan security forces moved in after spotting social media calls for a repeat of the July 30 surge, which killed up to 100 people. Spain also sent reinforcements, bringing the total security presence in the city to more than 1,500 officers.
The Category 1 storm is bearing down on the Big Island, with forecasters warning of up to 25 inches of rain on higher ground. A direct hit on the island's southern tip could be the first hurricane landfall in Hawaii since 1992.
The worst day came on 13 August, when simultaneous blazes across the West Midlands destroyed houses, closed the M6 and sent three firefighters to hospital. The outbreak has been building since July, exposing how unprepared Britain is for the kind of summer it is now having.
Only teams from four right-leaning countries — the US, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel — were formally invited in after a 7.4-magnitude quake killed more than 260 people. Mexico says its army specialists, with experience in 98 countries, were blocked on invented certification grounds.
US safety investigators have confirmed a fractured fan blade sent fragments through a cabin window on the Ryanair jet that partially sucked a Serbian passenger from his seat on 10 July. Bird feathers were also found inside the damaged engine, though investigators have not yet established whether a bird strike caused the blade to break.
An air strike on a tuk-tuk in northern Gaza on 12 August broke more than a week of quiet. Israel says it targeted a Hamas commander; Gaza's civil defence says the man killed was part of a municipal water repair crew.
More than 28,000 women have been widowed since October 2023, with pre-war registrations pushing the total past 50,000. Many widows have yet to be counted, and those who are carry near-total responsibility for tens of thousands of orphaned children in makeshift shelters.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed the handover on 11 August but did not disclose what the proposals contain. Three-way talks with Russia have been suspended since the US-Israel-Iran conflict pulled Washington's attention elsewhere earlier this year.
A magnitude-7.4 quake struck the Pacific coast region of Chocó on Monday morning, bringing down dozens of buildings in Cali, Pereira and beyond. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers search the rubble.
Two aircraft carriers, over 120 warplanes and 14 navy ships have been deployed to the Arabian Sea since January 2026. The buildup followed a Trump ultimatum over Iran's nuclear programme — a deadline that came and went without a deal.
NASA thermal readings and independent satellite imagery corroborate a Ukrainian attack on the 15th Arsenal in the Leningrad Region, which Kyiv says stores missiles for Baltic Sea operations. Russia has not acknowledged any damage.
A tsunami advisory was lifted within two hours and no fatalities were confirmed, but rail and airport closures across Kyushu continued as authorities warned of aftershocks over the coming days.
Colombo needs new markets badly — around $1bn in exports are exposed to US levies — but Beijing's demand to open 90% of tariff lines remains a threshold Sri Lanka has so far refused to cross.
More than 330,000 people have been evacuated across both countries as temperatures above 40°C forecast from Wednesday threaten to undo fragile overnight progress — and France has already burned more hectares in 2026 than in the whole of last year.
A blaze ignited near Cap Ferret on 23 July has forced more than 220,000 evacuations across the Gironde region — with a further 30,000 displaced in Landes and 60,000 in Spain, pushing the southern European total past 250,000.
Oman is mediating on Strait of Hormuz transit arrangements after 13 nights of US airstrikes, with a compromise taking shape — though Washington has kept strikes on the table and Tehran still refuses to call the talks direct.
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