With a flourish of warm rhetoric and hard-edged diplomacy, China's President Xi Jinping set off for North Korea praising what he called an "invincible friendship" with Pyongyang, embarking on his first trip abroad this year after hosting successive summits in Beijing. For decades, China — Washington's principal geopolitical rival — has remained by far North Korea's biggest trading partner, as well as a crucial source of diplomatic and economic backing for the sanctions-hit nation of about 26 million people. The visit marks…

As New York braced for a week in the global spotlight, violence erupted at the heart of the city’s transit network: six people were wounded in a stabbing at Penn Station, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said, just as the metropolitan area prepared to host the NBA Finals and football’s World Cup. Authorities detained a suspect after the attack, and all six victims were taken to a hospital, according to the New York Fire Department. One person suffered serious injuries. Fire officials had first said five people were hurt, but Mamdani…

On the war’s 100th day, the United States said it had shot down two Iranian drones posing a threat to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring how the conflict continues to widen with no clear end in sight. The symbolic marker came as Pakistan, acting as a mediator, delivered a message to Iran’s supreme leader after weeks of indirect talks marked by reciprocal threats and intermittent bursts of fighting. Attempts to transform a ceasefire into a durable political settlement have repeatedly faltered, even as the…

Two months after a ceasefire appeared to quiet the Middle East war, Israel and Iran traded attacks once more, shattering the pause despite a public appeal for restraint from US President Donald Trump. Israel launched its strikes after Iran fired at Israel in retaliation for an airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold backed by the Islamic republic. The renewed exchange came after weeks of stalled negotiations aimed at securing a lasting end to the regional conflict ignited by US and Israeli strikes on…

Gunfire erupted near a neighborhood festival in Toledo, Ohio, leaving at least 12 people wounded and prompting a sprawling police search for those responsible, authorities said. Investigators were canvassing the area for suspects, speaking with witnesses and reviewing mobile phone footage after what police believe was an exchange of shots involving at least two people near the Old West End Festival. "Twelve people were struck with bullets... two of them critical," Toledo Deputy Police Chief Joseph Heffernan told reporters,…

A visit rich in both diplomacy and family history is on the horizon, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney set to travel to Ireland next week. Mr Carney will begin in Dublin, where he is due to meet Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the first bilateral visit to Ireland by a Canadian Prime Minister in nearly a decade. He will then travel west to Co Mayo, where he is scheduled to meet President Catherine Connolly. The trip also carries a personal dimension for Mr Carney: two of his grandparents left Aughagower, near Westport, for…

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister has rebuked JD Vance for tying Henry Nowak's murder to immigration, telling the US Vice President he was wrong on the facts and warning that his social media intervention was "not helpful". David Lammy said he confronted Mr Vance in a "robust" phone call yesterday after the American politician suggested the killing was the product of a "mass invasion" of migrants into Europe. Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old student, was handcuffed by police as he lay dying, despite pleading that he had been…

A fragile calm in the Middle East fractured again overnight as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards cast a missile attack on Israel as a direct warning following Israel’s strike on Beirut, and signaled that any further escalation would trigger a far wider response. "Tonight's operation was a warning. If such aggressions are repeated, the responses will be broader and will cover all US-Zionist targets in the region," the force said. The Israeli military said it detected two waves of missiles launched from Iran toward Israel. The…

For years, Donald Trump has made wind power a personal foil — a hostility said to date back to the sight of turbines near his Scottish golf course — and his objections have become a familiar part of his political playbook. The president has long derided windmills, as he calls them, as "ugly," "noisy" and "expensive," while also insisting they are deadly to birds. "Want to see a bird graveyard?" he said. Wind turbines do kill birds, that much is true. But according to the American Bird Conservancy, the toll is far lower than…

A sweeping Ukrainian drone barrage reached deep into Russian territory on Saturday, prompting air-defence responses across multiple regions, disrupting flights and rattling cities including Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram that its anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed 339 Ukrainian drones over 13 hours, from 7am to 8pm local time, across 13 regions as well as above parts of the Black Sea. The ministry's list of affected areas stretched across central Russia and extended…