Top World News

Sep 8, 2026 - World

Exclusive: London mayor accuses council of ‘breathtaking arrogance’ in ‘ignoring’ responses to a consultationSadiq Khan has criticised the “breathtaking arrogance” of Westminster council, which has kept restrictions on vertical drinking in Soho and an effective ban on new bars and pubs in the area.The mayor of London has accused the Conservative-led council of “ignoring” the responses to a consultation into its new licensing policy. The vast majority of respondents, 81%, disagreed with the council’s “cumulative impact zone” which decrees that applications for bars and pubs in the West End of London, one of Europe’s most famous nightlife districts, will be refused unless in exceptional circumstances. Eighty-four per cent said the licensing policy would be bad for business. Continue reading...

Sep 8, 2026 - World

Alarm that Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may fall next after party’s Saxony-Anhalt election victory‘It breaks my heart’: victory sparks dismay Europe live – latest updatesThousands of Germans have staged protests against the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) after the party’s watershed victory in a state election, warning it posed a danger in two more polls this month.Demonstrators at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate held a peaceful pro-democracy rally denouncing the anti-immigrant, pro-Russian AfD, which has called for mass deportations of asylum seekers and a rollback of state support for renewable energy and public broadcasting. Continue reading...

Sep 8, 2026 - World

Israeli opposition leaders demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's removal from office Tuesday over a bombshell report that the United Arab Emirates had warned him of an impending Hamas attack roughly a week and a half before the Oct. 7, 2023, assault.The report, excerpted from a forthcoming book by Haaretz journalists Shlomi Eldarand and Ruth Yuval, said UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had personally warned Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing a major operation.According to the newspaper's mostly anonymous sourcing, the warning originated with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who told a former Palestinian official the group was planning what he called an "earthquake." That message was passed to an Emirati adviser, then to the UAE leader, who relayed it to Netanyahu."The emir hoped that despite his reserved response, Netanyahu would take the message seriously and take action," said an adviser to the UAE leader.However, Haaretz reported that Netanyahu responded calmly to the warning and did not notify the heads of the defense establishment – Shin Bet, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.Netanyahu's office denied the account entirely, calling it "an absolute lie" and disputing that any such call with the Emirati leader took place.The report landed weeks before Israel's Oct. 27 elections and drew immediate condemnation from Netanyahu's rivals.Gadi Eisenkot, a former military chief who has become Netanyahu's leading electoral challenger, wrote on social media that Netanyahu "received dozens of warnings for Oct. 7 and ignored them all," calling him "unfit" for office and dismissing his past explanations, including that he was not woken promptly the morning of the attack, as "pathetic."Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, also a candidate in the upcoming vote, went further, saying Netanyahu "bears personal and direct responsibility" for the deaths on Oct. 7 and "cannot continue to serve in his position for even one more minute."The UAE established diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020 under the Abraham Accords, brokered during President Donald Trump's first term, and Netanyahu has long touted the relationship as a signature achievement of his tenure.The Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas fighters crossed into Israel and killed people at a music festival and nearby communities, left 1,221 dead, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures, and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage into Gaza.Israel's subsequent military campaign has killed 73,658 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose casualty figures the United Nations considers reliable, and left much of the territory destroyed.The competing accounts are likely to intensify scrutiny of Netanyahu's security record as Israelis head toward the polls in seven weeks.

Sep 8, 2026 - World

Moscow’s foreign minister issues warning to ‘Russophobic lobby in Budapest’ after diplomats expelled for ‘unacceptable’ activitiesBut the tone coming from Moscow is very different, as Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia was very confident that victory in its war against Ukraine is “very near.”“Yes, we are ​confident, and we ⁠are ​sure that ​victory ​is very near,” ​Peskov ‌said in comments reported by Reuters. Continue reading...

Sep 8, 2026 - World

In strongest condemnation ever by UK government, Ed Miliband announces sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlementsUK politics live – latest updatesIsraeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has said as he announced sweeping sanctions, alongside France and Canada, on trade with Israeli settlements.In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.”An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements.A ban on the advertising in the UK of illegal settlement properties.Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence.A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”. Continue reading...