World

Trump, Canada and Mexico meet at World Cup draw to pledge further work on CUSMA amid tensions WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump met with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada's Mark Carney on the sidelines of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw in Washington on Thursday, a 45-minute encounter officials said was partly aimed at the future of the North American free trade arrangement. "The three leaders met for approximately 45 minutes," Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Carney, said in an email. "They've agreed…

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that the second phase of a U.S. plan to end the war in Gaza is close, but several critical details remain unresolved — most notably whether a multinational security force will be deployed to the strip. Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Netanyahu said he would raise the outstanding questions with U.S. President Donald Trump when the two meet at the White House at the end of the month. The prime minister’s office…

Benin's government said its armed forces had foiled an attempted coup Sunday after a small group of soldiers briefly seized control of state television and announced they had taken power. At least eight soldiers, several wearing helmets, appeared on national TV in the early hours to say a military committee led by Colonel Tigri Pascal had dissolved national institutions, suspended the constitution and closed the country's air, land and maritime borders. "The army solemnly commits to give the Beninese people the hope of a…

WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said Sunday that a negotiated end to the nearly four-year war in Ukraine was “really, really close,” but that Moscow and Washington remained divided over two core issues: territorial settlement, primarily the future of the Donbas, and the status of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Kellogg, who is due to step down in January, told the Reagan National Defense Forum that talks were in “the last 10 metres,” a phase he said is always the hardest. “If we get those two…

A paramilitary drone attack on the army-held town of Kalogi in Sudan's South Kordofan state struck a kindergarten and a hospital on Thursday, killing dozens of civilians, a local official and aid agencies said. Essam al-Din al-Sayed, head of the Kalogi administrative unit, told AFP via a Starlink connection that three strikes hit the town "— first a kindergarten, then a hospital and a third time as people tried to rescue the children." He blamed the assault on the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their ally, the Sudan…

"One thing that stands out in the new National Military Strategy is that it is 10X more critical of Europe than Russia," Representative Don Bacon said, capturing the bluntness of a document that lands like a geopolitical hammer on transatlantic relations. The U.S. National Security Strategy released this week reframes Europe not primarily as a continental partner to be cultivated through institutions and trade, but as a civilisational project in need of rescue. The 60-some page blueprint — three of which are devoted to…

Wildfires swept through thousands of hectares of bushland in Australia’s most-populous state on Tuesday, prompting highest-level evacuation alerts for communities on the central coast of New South Wales as a severe heatwave worsened conditions. The alert covered the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy area, about 45 kilometers north of Sydney, a region that forms part of a coastal population catchment of more than 350,000 people. Authorities urged residents to leave immediately where a safe path was available. "Leave now if the path…

PRETORIA, South Africa — Gunmen stormed an illegal drinking venue in a township west of Pretoria on Saturday evening, killing 12 people — including a three-year-old boy — and wounding many others in one of a string of recent mass shootings that have shaken the country, police said. Police spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe said 25 people were shot in the attack at a shebeen in Saulsville township, about 18 kilometres west of Pretoria. Ten victims died at the scene and two more died after being taken to hospital; 14 people were…

Seventeen migrants were found dead Saturday after their vessel was discovered drifting off the Greek island of Crete, Greek coast guard officials and state media said. "Two survivors in critical condition have been hospitalized," a coast guard spokeswoman said, adding that autopsies must be carried out because the circumstances of the sinking are not yet known. State broadcaster ERT reported that the bodies were found inside a partially deflated rubber boat that was taking on water. "The vessel the migrants were on was…

Nicolas Sarkozy’s three weeks behind bars were marked by “greyness and solitude,” the former French president writes in excerpts from a prison memoir due next month — a personal chronicle that recounts prayer, confinement and the small routines that became a lifeline after his conviction in a Libya-related campaign financing case. The 216-page book, titled "Diary of a Prisoner" and scheduled for release Dec. 10, offers the first extended account of Sarkozy’s time at La Santé prison after his October conviction for allowing…