Top World News

Sep 19, 2026 - World

Fed chair presided over unanimous decision to raise interest rates despite intense campaign from White HouseIn the end, Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve acquitted itself well. For all the uncertainty he had sparked at the previous meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, when he refused to provide any indication of what he was prepared to do to tame stubborn inflation, the chair on Wednesday presided over a unanimous decision to raise interest rates for the first time in three years.“Today’s action starts to show that we’re serious about this,” he said at the press conference after the meeting, with “this” meaning inflation in excess of the Fed’s 2% target for over five years. Welcome though it was, his embrace of economic orthodoxy nonetheless did little to dispel the Keystone Cops quality of governance in Donald Trump’s US. Continue reading...

Sep 19, 2026 - World

The revelation ‘left experts scratching their heads at exactly what Donald Trump has in his cosmic arsenal’In Hollywood at least, space weapons are a relatively simple concept. The good guys, from Captain Kirk and his crew in Star Trek, to Luke Skywalker’s rebel alliance in Star Wars, battle intergalactic villains with an array of colorful lasers and particle-beam cannons, then the bad guys get dispatched in a spectacular, explosive finale.The messaging coming out of the White House on the subject, by contrast, could not be more vague. Continue reading...

Sep 19, 2026 - World

As villagers take stock following symbolic vote, some fear far-right weaponisation of asylum dispute and influx of ‘masked people like in Dover’The first significant event in the newly independent principality of Piddington was a decision to select the newt as the national animal, reflecting optimism that the amphibian’s endangered status might help block plans to open a centre for 1,250 asylum seekers on neighbouring land.The choice was announced on Thursday morning, the day after Piddington announced that villagers had voted overwhelmingly to leave the UK. Parish councillors were also thinking about asking local children to design a flag and considering whether the new principality’s national sport should be cricket or football. Continue reading...

Sep 19, 2026 - World

Co-owner of Manchester United says Britain is in decline because of high taxes and immigrationThe co-owner of Manchester United Sir Jim Ratcliffe has described the UK as being a country “on the slide” from the days when it had “the greatest empire in the world”.Ratcliffe, who founded petrochemicals giant Ineos, and has resided in Monaco, which has a relaxed tax regime, since 2020, said Britain is in decline because of high taxes and immigration. Continue reading...

Sep 19, 2026 - World

About 280 people taken to safety from the Grand Burstin in Folkestone after blaze thought to have started in basementHundreds of people have been evacuated from a hotel in Folkestone after a large fire broke out overnight.Emergency services were called just after 1am on Saturday to the Grand Burstin hotel in Folkestone, where a fire is believed to have started in the basement, Kent fire and rescue service said. Continue reading...