Top World News

Sep 3, 2025 - World

Byron Waller, accompanied by instructor but doing all the flying, stops off in England on way round back to AustraliaAt 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can’t order a pint and has never driven a car, but on Wednesday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport in Brighton, on England’s south coast. It was the 16th or so stop (he can’t quite remember) of a remarkable airborne odyssey that he hopes will make him the youngest supported pilot to fly around the world.The adventure began at his home in Brisbane, Australia, four weeks ago and has taken the teenager across the Indian Ocean and through the Middle East to Europe, from where he will venture around the other half of the globe back home. Though he is accompanied by an instructor – global aviation rules not easily permitting children to fly around the world on their own – Byron does all the flying of their tiny single-engined Sling TSi aircraft. Continue reading...

Sep 3, 2025 - World

More than a billion people around the world -- around one in every seven -- were living with mental health conditions in 2021, with anxiety and depressive disorders accounting for over two-thirds of all cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said

Sep 3, 2025 - World

Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian FoundationSenior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”. Continue reading...

Sep 3, 2025 - World

At Tianjin, what was evident with India was an ambidextrous policy of engaging with friend and foe alike, using the one to balance out the other. That's all very well. But it just scratches the surface.

Sep 3, 2025 - World

US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South AmericaTrump’s Venezuela gunboat diplomacy: sabre-rattling or prelude to invasion?The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers. Continue reading...