World news

World news

On Sunday, the CBS News program 60 Minutes was set to air a report by Sharyn Alfonsi about CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador that has housed migrants deported by the Trump administration. At the last moment, this segment was spiked by Bari Weiss, the editor in chief of CBS News. But the segment was mistakenly aired in Canada and is now widely circulating on social media.

Seventy years ago, a child phoned the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) looking for Santa Claus - and found him, or at least some kindly military personnel who were willing to play along by helping the youngster to track Santa's location as he zipped around the globe. As the story goes, a Sears Roebuck ad included a phone number for children to call, but that number was wrong. Instead of reaching the retailer's Christmas line, it included the unlisted number for NORAD command.

For more than four years now, General Mamady Doumbouya has been serving as Guinea's "transitional president," having led a coup d'etat against then-President Alpha Conde on September 5, 2021. Doumbouya had originally promised to return power to civilians, but it appears that he has changed his mind, as he is now running for the election scheduled for December 28. The country's new constitution, which was adopted in September, will allow the future president to serve a seven-year term.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been very clear that he is going to use the full power and full might of the United States to confront the drug cartels. Maduro is a fugitive from American justice, Waltz said at the beginning of his address. The reality of the situation is that sanctioned oil tankers operate as the primary economic lifeline for Maduro and his illegitimate regime. These sanctioned tankers also fund the narco-terrorist group Cartel de Los Soles.

Notably, the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 gives police powers to restrict public protests for up to three months following a terrorism declaration, while the public display of symbols of prohibited organisations will be banned. Once a declaration is made, no public assemblies can be authorised in designated areas, including by a court and police will be able to move people on if their behaviour or presence obstructs traffic or causes fear, harassment or intimidation, the NSW government said in a statement.

Threats and hate speech against Muslim Australians have surged in the wake of the Bondi beach attack, with one mosque receiving dozens of offensive phone calls and reports of people being targeted in the street. As Australia's Jewish community deals with trauma from the attack that killed 15 people at a Hanukah event, religious leaders say societal and political divisions has led to other groups being targeted by hatred.

China has accused two Taiwanese nationals of leading a smuggling operation involving a Chinese-crewed vessel that damaged subsea cables in February, in an incident that has stoked tensions between the countries. The public security bureau in Weihai, in China's eastern Shandong province, said on Wednesday that a probe into the incident showed that two Taiwanese men had been operating the ship involved the Togo-registered Hong Tai 58 as part of a longstanding operation smuggling frozen goods into China.

From 2010, New Zealand's second-largest city, Christchurch, became inextricably linked with crises. The city, which had been known for its gardens, gothic architecture and monochromatic culture was rocked by a decade of tragedy devastating and fatal earthquakes, wildfires and a terrorist attack on two mosques that killed more than 50 people. But in recent years, the city of crises has taken a surprising turn shrugging off its once-conservative reputation and rebuilding from tragedy to become one of New Zealand's most appealing cities.

Making the epic journey from London to Australia will soon be just that bit more bearable. Currently, if you're looking to fly Down Under from the capital, you can expect at least one layover and a close to 30-hour total journey. Airline Qantas is in the process of creating an ultra-long-range plane that can fly for up to 22 hours from London to Sydney without pausing.

Masashi "Jumbo" Ozaki, whose 113 worldwide victories are the most of any player from Japan, died Wednesday in his home country after a battle with colon cancer, the Japan Golf Tour said. He was 78. Ozaki was revered in Japan, a big hitter with a sense of style who won 94 times over 29 years on the Japan Golf Tour, the last one coming at the ANA Open when he was 55.

She was a mother of two, a grandmother, a woman whose first husband had been a leading trade unionist, and whose home had once been a hub of political activity. By 1967, she was living alone, twice widowed but still a well-known figure in her Easton neighbourhood. There were no witnesses to her murder, and the police investigation unearthed little to go on apart from a palm print on a rear window.

The Libyan army's chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, has been killed in a plane crash after leaving Turkey's capital Ankara. The prime minister of Libya's internationally recognised government confirmed on Tuesday evening that Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad had died and that four others were on the jet with him. This followed a tragic and painful incident while they were returning from an official trip from the Turkish city of Ankara.

The moment he stepped through the gates, he sensed something was wrong. Kabul, in his mind, was untouchable. I didn't think it would reach Kabul, he said in an interview by phone from his apartment in Boise, Idaho, recently. It referred to the resurgence of the Taliban. The Guardian is using a pseudonym for Ali's safety and that of his family. He said: The US had its embassy there. There were so many Americans. But the scene at the base that morning looked nothing like the one he knew. Pilots sprinted between hangars, stuffing bags and shouting orders. Routines that once gave structure to their days had collapsed.

Israeli forces have begun demolishing shops in the vicinity of the Qalandiya refugee camp, north of occupied East Jerusalem, as part of a wider military incursion across several Palestinian neighbourhoods, witnesses and medical officials say. The raids, which began early on Tuesday, have extended into the nearby town of Kafr Aqab, where Israeli troops deployed in large numbers, carried out house searches and forcibly evicted residents from their homes, according to local media reports.

A small Mexican Navy plane transporting a young medical patient and seven others crashed Monday near Galveston, killing at least five people and setting off a search in waters along the Texas coast, officials said. Four of the people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexico's Navy said in a statement to The Associated Press. Two of the passengers were from a nonprofit that provides aid to Mexican children with severe burns, including transports to a Galveston hospital.

I recently spoke with Stephan Tanda, CEO of AptarGroup, a $3.7 billion-a-year manufacturer of specialized packaging and delivery systems for pharma, beauty, and consumer companies, based in Crystal Lake, Illinois. He points out that China remains a key manufacturing hub with longstanding infrastructure and relationships that are central to the company's regional supply chain. What's more, he says the speed to market is an advantage that's hard to replicate in their other innovation centers around the world.

The Israeli parliament has approved an extension of a law which allows the shutdown of foreign media outlets over national security grounds for an additional two years. The bill, which replaces temporary legislation passed last April, includes several amendments aimed at eliminating judicial oversight. It can now be applied even if Israel is not under a state of emergency. In May 2024, Israel shut down Al Jazeera operations in the country, weeks after the law was passed by the Knesset.

On December 14th, the ultraconservative politician José Antonio Kast won a runoff election to become Chile's next President. With his victory, the growing club of right-wing leaders in Latin America acquired a new member. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian autocrat, sent Kast effusive congratulations. So did Elon Musk, who has fought a running battle with left-wing politicians in the region. President Donald Trump took credit for his win, adding, "I hear he's a very good person."

The first thing he told us was that we would never see the light of day or night again. He said, Welcome to hell,' recalled Luis Munoz Pinto, a Venezuelan college student now living in Colombia, who speaks in the segment. He had traveled to the US seeking asylum and was arrested in 2024 at his appointment with US Customs and Border Protection in California. They just looked at me and told me I was a danger to society, Pinto recalled. He told correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi he had no criminal record. I never even had a traffic ticket.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

Andreina Crepsac, 29, had been counting down the days for weeks. She had bought her ticket in early October: departure on December 17, return on January 7. This was not just another trip. Since arriving in Madrid almost six years ago, she has only returned to Venezuela once, at Christmas. This would be the second time, and it had special meaning: for the first time in years, her whole family was going to be together. Her parents would travel from Venezuela,

The war in Ukraine has made one thing unmistakably clear: drones are no longer a support weapon on the battlefield. They are central to how modern wars will be fought. From reconnaissance and targeting to direct strikes, low-cost, fast-moving drones with powerful payloads are causing massive destruction and racking up kills against traditional armed forces. And that mastery of drone warfare is allowing a smaller country like Ukraine to hold its own on the front lines

Many of the most decisive advantages in modern warfare aren't loud or dramatic. They're deliberate, disciplined, and precise. Precision firearms allowed U.S. forces to shape the battlefield before an enemy ever realized they were engaged, forcing movement, hesitation, and withdrawal. These weapons have totally changed the modern battlefield by shifting the emphasis from massed firepower to accuracy, discrimination, and controlled effects.