World · past 14 days
The significant world news that fits no single desk: elections, institutions, disasters, and the slow-moving stories that later become market narratives.
World
Nepal and Tibet Flood Toll Passes 460 With More Than 1,400 Missing as a New Lake Threatens Rescuers
The Red Cross has appealed for $31 million, and China has sent hundreds of military personnel to the Gyirong border crossing, one of the main trade routes between the two countries.
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US Memo Restricts Internship Work Permits for International Students and Threatens University Certification
The 24 August notice tells colleges they can lose the right to enrol foreign students, and some universities have already suspended processing while visa interviews are separately on hold.
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Indonesians March on Parliament Over Corruption as the Government Promises a Credible 2027 Budget
Police deployed about 18,000 personnel around the Jakarta complex on the anniversary of last year's deadly protests, with President Prabowo Subianto's approval rating reported at 38 percent.
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Nigerian Kidnapping Victims Paid 7.78 Billion Naira in Ransom Over a Year, Research Group Says
SBM Intelligence counted 7,825 people abducted and estimates that Boko Haram received more than 90 percent of the money.
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Glacial Collapse on the Nepal-Tibet Border Kills at Least 165 and Leaves More Than 1,000 Missing
The United States Geological Survey concluded that the seismic signal recorded during the disaster came from the ice collapse and debris flow itself, not from an earthquake.
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Anwar Ibrahim Considers Delaying Malaysia's General Election to Late 2027 After State Poll Defeats
The reported delay comes as former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is charged with concealing assets, following the seizure of nearly $40 million linked to him.
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More Than 150 Wildfires Burn Across Northeastern Algeria in a Single Day, Killing at Least Twelve
The fires reached several provinces of a country that supplies a significant share of Europe's pipeline gas, while flood water receded across 28 sites in Russia's Sverdlovsk region.
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The State Department Weighs Revoking Up to 200,000 Visas From Asylum Seekers
Japan raises residency fees for foreign nationals from October, as advanced economies tighten migration at a time of shrinking working-age populations.
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Kazakhstan's New Ruling Party Wins Roughly Seven in Ten Votes in the First Single-Chamber Election
Exit polls put Adilet between 70.7 and 72.3 percent on turnout of 74.19 percent, with four smaller parties clearing the threshold for seats in the 145-member Kurultai.
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Heat, Fire and Quake Losses Land on Public Budgets From Nevada to Sumatra
A German climate-policy analyst told Russian state media that southern and western European Union economies could produce 7 percent less output by 2030 because of heat waves, as up to 90,000 people are urged to evacuate a fast-growing, uncontained wildfire near Reno.
World
Magnitude 5.9 Earthquake Under Ibaraki Shakes Tokyo and Injures Dozens
The quake struck at 2 a.m. local time at a depth of 70 kilometres, delayed express trains to Narita Airport and cut power to about 460 homes, with no tsunami warning issued.
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Bulk Carrier With 24 Crew Sinks Off India's East Coast, Two Rescued
The Panama-flagged vessel carried 20 Chinese, three Myanmar and one Bangladeshi crew member when the Indian Coast Guard lost contact off Odisha.
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At Least 13 Tunisians Missing After a Boat Bound for Italy Capsized
Days earlier a migrant vessel reached a crowded beach near Cartagena in Spain without being intercepted, prompting regional officials to demand an explanation.
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Tropical Storm Narra Approaches Guangdong as Philippine Flood Money Comes Under Scrutiny
Hong Kong's forecaster will decide next week whether to issue a typhoon warning, while Pakistan's meteorological service warned of fresh flooding with the Tarbela reservoir already at full capacity.
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Pentagon Dismisses Stars and Stripes Editor and Publisher Over Reporting on a Carrier
The editor-in-chief said he was fired for insubordination after objecting to what he described as editorial interference following coverage of conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
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Hong Kong Court Convicts Two Tiananmen Vigil Organizers of Inciting Subversion
Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan face up to ten years in prison, and the court has not yet published its reasons.
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North Korea's Economy Is Growing on the Proceeds of Supplying Russia's War
Kim Jong Un's support for Moscow has funded a construction boom and luxury imports, while Russian industry lobbies to consolidate its own state subsidies.
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Pakistan Returns Imran Khan to Prison as Its Army Chief Blames Foreign Proxies for Balochistan Unrest
Doctors declared the former prime minister medically fit after a Supreme Court-ordered examination, and Field Marshal Asim Munir said hostile states are working to separate Balochistan's population from the government.
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Manila's Flood-Control Corruption Scandal Returns With the Monsoon
Anger over allegedly fraudulent drainage contracts has resurfaced after fresh flooding in Luzon, while Indonesia airlifts relief to an earthquake zone and Mount Semeru erupts again.
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A Thawing Alpine Slope and a Third Heat Wave Show Europe's Climate Costs Arriving as Infrastructure Bills
Scientists monitoring the Spitze Stei rock formation above the Swiss village of Kandersteg say melting permafrost is destabilizing the slope, and climatologists warn that hot nights carry the largest health toll.
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Singapore Survey Finds Many Residents Choose Not to Have Children Because Work Leaves No Time
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will address family strain at Sunday's National Day Rally, and new research on Western labor markets suggests the male breadwinner model ended for economic rather than cultural reasons.
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European Heat Pushes Farmers and Governments Toward Climate-Resilient Crops
The debate has moved from whether high-intensity agriculture can survive repeated heat to what it costs to redesign it, at a moment when Israel's forecasters expect another week of unusual heat.
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United States Unions Sue Over Visa Caps as Liberia Agrees to Accept 1,200 Deportees
A new rule limits student and exchange visas to four years and most journalist visas to 240 days, while the idea of mass expulsions spreads to European politics.
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France Trucks Drinking Water to Households as Indonesia Prepares for El Niño Fires
Regions of France that normally have abundant supply are now served by tankers, while Jakarta expands its fire response ahead of a dry season.
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Zambia's Hichilema Wins a Second Term With About 60 Percent Amid Fraud Allegations
The vote decides who oversees a plan to lift copper output to three million tonnes a year by 2031 in a country that defaulted on its debt in 2020.
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Congo's Ebola Outbreak Becomes the Country's Deadliest With More Than 2,300 Dead
The Bundibugyo strain has no approved vaccine or treatment, and the World Health Organization recorded 579 cases and 304 deaths in a single week.
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Japan and Indonesia Write Emergency Budgets for Two Separate Earthquakes
Tokyo will finish a Kumamoto aid package by the end of August that includes measures to revive cancelled Kyushu hotel bookings, while Jakarta runs military airlifts into East Nusa Tenggara.
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Moody's Puts Last Summer's European Heat Losses at €43 Billion Against €500 Million of Insured Payouts
Only 17 percent of European companies hold cover for business interruption without physical damage, and a Belgian wildfire has burned 3,000 hectares as it moves toward the German border.
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Congo's Ebola Outbreak Becomes the Country's Deadliest With 2,325 Reported Deaths
Confirmed cases have reached 4,945 and the share of cases ending in death has risen from about 20 percent in early June to 46 percent, in an outbreak caused by a virus species with no approved vaccine.
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Most American Voters Say They Are Worse Off, Financial Times Poll Finds
Democrats now lead Republicans on economic management months before the midterm elections, and separate surveys show 77 percent of Americans rating the economy poorly.
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Belgium Fights Its Largest Recorded Wildfire as European Companies Tally Heat Costs
Around 3,000 hectares have burned in the High Fens reserve and the fire remains uncontained, while European earnings calls increasingly cited heat, drought and fire as cost factors this summer.
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Colombia's Earthquake Death Toll Passes 280 With 140 Still Missing
The magnitude 7.4 quake destroyed more than 12,000 homes and damaged over 74,000 in the country's western coffee and industrial belt.
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Magnitude 7.7 Earthquake Kills at Least Five in Eastern Indonesia and Triggers a Small Tsunami
The quake struck off Nagekeo district in East Nusa Tenggara, collapsed buildings across Flores and was felt strongly on Lombok, several hundred kilometres away.
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Venezuela's Interim Government Says It Freed 131 Political Prisoners as Rights Groups Verify Far Fewer
Vente Venezuela confirmed 43 releases and Foro Penal at least 40, against the 391 political detainees the rights group counted on 10 August.
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Record rain near Tokyo kills four and strands about 7,000 travellers at Narita airport
More than 360 millimetres fell in 24 hours in parts of Chiba prefecture, and forecasters issued the region's highest-level rain warning for the first time.
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Prabowo claims self-sufficiency in eight food commodities as his approval ratings fall
The Indonesian president told the annual parliamentary session his government had enacted 121 policies in 21 months and saved $6.2 billion through audit recommendations.