World

Japan and Australia said they are not planning to send naval vessels to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump called on allies to help reopen the vital waterway amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Trump, arguing that countries dependent on Gulf oil have a responsibility to protect the corridor through which about 20 percent of the world’s energy flows, said his administration has contacted seven nations to form a maritime coalition. He did not identify them, though over the weekend…

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian couple and their two young children in the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said Saturday, as violence flared across the territory and in Gaza. The Palestinian health ministry said four members of one family — a 37-year-old man, a 35-year-old woman and two boys ages 5 and 7 — arrived at the Turkish Public Hospital in Tubas with gunshot wounds after troops opened fire on their vehicle. The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams recovered the…

Gas prices, that unforgiving economic billboard on every American street corner, have turned against the White House. Two weeks after President Donald Trump touted falling costs at the pump in his State of the Union address, the national average climbed to $3.60 per gallon — up 23% in a month — and his approval rating on the economy hit a new low. For a presidency built on the promise of putting more money in people’s pockets, the glow from those red digits is politically scorching. Few in Washington understand the power of…

Israel has carried out a “wide-scale” wave of strikes on Iran, according to a live update stating the action. The notice did not immediately provide further specifics. The initial line contained no details on the locations, timing or targets of the strikes, and did not include information on casualties or damage. It also did not cite sources, identify the nature of the assets involved, or describe whether the reported action was ongoing. Because the alert offered only the headline descriptor “wide-scale,” it was not possible…

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian drone and missile strikes across Ukraine killed six people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Kyiv reported damage to homes, schools, businesses and energy sites from a sweeping overnight barrage. Mykola Kalashnyk, head of the Kyiv regional military administration, said five people were killed in the region and four of the wounded were in critical condition after attacks that “targeted ordinary settlements in the region: residential buildings, educational institutions, businesses, and critical…

An explosion lightly damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam early today, an incident the city’s mayor called “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community” that will trigger tighter protection for synagogues and other Jewish institutions. The blast struck the school in an upscale residential neighborhood on the south side of the Dutch capital. It scorched an exterior wall and damaged a rainpipe, authorities said. No injuries were reported. Mayor Femke Halsema said the city is treating the incident with the utmost…

U.S. strikes hit Iran’s Kharg Island, hub for 90% of its oil exports, raising risk to global crude flows U.S. forces carried out large-scale precision strikes overnight on Kharg Island, the Gulf outpost that handles almost all of Iran’s crude exports, hitting more than 90 military targets, according to U.S. Central Command and President Donald Trump. Kharg, a 20-square-kilometer island about 30 kilometers off Iran’s mainland and roughly 500 kilometers northwest of the Strait of Hormuz, hosts the country’s largest oil…

President Donald Trump threatened further U.S. strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub and urged allies to deploy warships to secure the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran vowed to intensify its response and the war showed no sign of abating. Trump said U.S. strikes had “totally demolished” most of Kharg Island and warned “we may hit it a few more times just for fun,” in an interview with NBC News. He added that Iran appeared ready to make a deal to end the conflict, but said “the terms aren’t good enough yet.” The appeal to…

Kharg Island sits at the fulcrum of Middle East energy and security. Any clash that reaches its shores is not just a military episode; it is a shock to the arteries of global trade. Amid reports of U.S. strikes near Kharg and signals of Iranian retaliation, the stakes are worth laying out clearly: this is where geopolitics meets the lifeblood of the world economy, and miscalculation can travel far beyond the Persian Gulf. Kharg Island, roughly 25 miles off Iran’s coast in the northern Persian Gulf, is the hub through which…

At least 12 medical personnel were killed in an Israeli strike on a healthcare center in the southern Lebanese town of Borj Qalaouiya, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said, as cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah intensify and the wider region reels from a widening war. The ministry said Israeli strikes have killed 826 people in Lebanon since the fighting began, including 65 women and 106 children, and wounded 2,009 others. Thirty-one paramedics are among the dead, according to the statement. In a separate incident, four people…