Global events and international developments affecting markets.
Reporting on international affairs, geopolitical developments, and global economic trends. This category connects world events to their potential impact on financial markets, trade flows, and investor risk perception.
3,089 total articles
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the United States, European allies and regional partners to begin planning a post-crisis approach for Iran and the wider Middle East following U.S. and Israeli strikes that killed Iran's supreme leader. While endorsing U.S. aims to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Merz warned of escalation risks and outlined f…
U.S. President Donald Trump told the Atlantic that Iran’s new leadership has expressed a desire to negotiate and that he has agreed to speak with them. He did not name who he would talk to or provide timing. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said a temporary leadership council has taken on the supreme leader’s duties following Ayatollah Ali Khamen…
Early on Saturday, coordinated cyber-enabled operations coincided with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on targets across Iran. Multiple news sites were defaced and the widely used religious calendar app BadeSaba, with more than 5 million downloads, was hacked to display messages urging a reckoning and calling for members of the armed forces to lay down …
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas described the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a defining moment, saying it opens a possible path for the people of Iran to shape their future. Kallas said she is coordinating with partners - including countries facing the effects of Iran's military actions - to pursue practica…
North Korea's foreign ministry denounced recent Israeli attacks on Iran and a U.S. military operation as illegal violations of sovereignty, calling the U.S. action predictable and blaming perceived U.S. hegemonic behavior. Pyongyang urged regional states and like-minded actors to act to restore peace and stability amid reports of strikes in Tehran …
State media in Iran confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes attributed to the United States and Israel as a new round of attacks struck the country on Sunday. Reactions from international figures and bodies ranged from sharp condemnation to sober warnings about the potential for increased violence in the region.
Iran has been sharply divided following the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. State media said he was killed in a U.S.-Israeli attack, prompting scenes of grief at large public funerary gatherings and, elsewhere, jubilant celebrations and the toppling of monuments. The reaction reveals deep fault lines in Iranian society afte…
Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey declined to explicitly endorse strikes by the United States and Israel that Iran says killed its Supreme Leader, saying the United States should set out the legal rationale for the action. Healey said the UK had no role in the strikes but supported the objective that Iran should not acquire a nuclear weapon. …
Following reports that U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pro-Iranian demonstrators in Pakistan and Iraq staged large protests outside U.S. diplomatic missions. In Karachi, crowds breached the outer wall of the U.S. consulate before being repelled by security forces using tear gas; footage from the scene showed b…
Following an air strike that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff Abdolrahim Mousavi, veteran politician Ali Larijani has emerged as a key figure in Iran’s security architecture. Appointed last August as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Larijani has overseen a wide array of re…
Widespread airspace closures across the Gulf have left passengers, crews and aircraft stranded after a fresh round of U.S., Israeli and Iranian strikes. Major transfer hubs including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have been shut or heavily restricted, producing cascading schedule disruptions and forcing airlines worldwide to reroute or cancel services.
Explosions and gunfire broke out across Kabul as Afghan authorities reported air defence strikes against Pakistani aircraft over the capital. The violence follows a week of Pakistani strikes inside Afghanistan, accusations over militant safe havens, and growing diplomatic efforts to de-escalate a confrontation that has intensified along the 2,600-k…
A recently published book by two veteran Vatican correspondents recounts a startling security lapse during the closed conclave of May 7-8 that elected Pope Leo. As cardinals gathered to cast their first ballots in the Sistine Chapel, which had been fitted with equipment intended to block outside communications, security personnel detected an active…
Israel and the United States mounted additional strikes on Iran following an earlier combined operation that Iranian state media said killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The attacks have prompted Iranian counterstrikes, damage to Gulf airports and infrastructure, threats to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, and international alarm at…
The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced by Iranian state media after Israeli and U.S. air strikes devastated his central Tehran compound, ends a 36-year rule defined by an uncompromising stance toward the United States and Israel, the expansion of Iranian influence across the Middle East, and repeated internal crackdowns on dissent. A once-u…
The United States and Israel executed what leaders described as a major military operation against Iran on Saturday that resulted in the reported death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking briefly in the run-up to the strikes and in a subsequent video message, outlined several objectives - preventing Iran …
U.S. and Israeli forces carried out air and naval strikes on Iran timed to coincide with a meeting attended by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and senior advisers, U.S. sources said. Iran confirmed retaliatory attacks have followed, and U.S. intelligence assessed that hardline IRGC figures could fill a leadership gap if Khamenei is dead.
Iran’s political system concentrates ultimate authority in the office of the supreme leader under the doctrine of vilayat-e faqih. Reports that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes on Saturday attributed to the U.S. and Israel - if verified - would test institutions built to preserve clerical control, including the Assembly o…
A senior Ukrainian official said Russia told negotiators in Geneva it would accept the security guarantees proposed by the United States for Ukraine after the war. Despite that acknowledgment, recent talks ended without a breakthrough and Russia has not agreed to a proposed summit between Ukrainian and Russian presidents.
A Bolivian Air Force Hercules transport plane plunged into the crowded city of El Alto, killing 22 people and injuring 30. In the hours after the crash, thousands of residents converged on the scene to retrieve banknotes spilled from the aircraft; security forces detained dozens, used tear gas and authorities publicly burned the collected notes, sa…
U.S. intelligence assessments prepared in the two weeks before U.S. and Israeli strikes concluded that even the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would probably lead to succession by hardline commanders from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to sources familiar with the intelligence. The reports examined po…
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was among the prime targets in recent U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that struck his Tehran compound. Sources said Khamenei had been moved to a secure location prior to the attack, while satellite imagery indicated substantial damage to his headquarters. The strikes come amid the sharpest internal unrest …
Senior U.S. officials told the president that a planned strike campaign against Iran carried the prospect of significant American casualties but also the potential to reshape regional dynamics in favor of U.S. interests. The operation, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the Pentagon, set off retaliatory strikes by Iran against Israel and nearby Gulf Ara…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed decisive U.S. strikes in Iran, saying American resolve weakens global criminals. He cautioned that such actions must not trigger a broader war, and reiterated concerns about Iran's support for Russia, including supplying thousands of Shahed drones used against Ukraine.
Moscow sharply criticised strikes carried out by the United States and Israel against Iran that targeted Iranian leadership, saying the actions risk plunging the Middle East into a humanitarian, economic, and possibly radiological catastrophe. Russian officials, including the foreign ministry and Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Cou…
