https://planckstandard.com/world/ World news: wars, diplomacy, elections and the forces reshaping the globe. en-us Thu, 24 Sep 2026 07:04:28 GMT https://planckstandard.com/assets/logo-512.pnghttps://planckstandard.com/world/ https://planckstandard.com/article/irans-president-tells-the-un-his-country-will-fight-until-ou.html https://planckstandard.com/article/irans-president-tells-the-un-his-country-will-fight-until-ou.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 07:03:44 GMT World Masoud Pezeshkian held up photos of dead schoolchildren and called out Trump by name, a day after Trump told the same hall he might 'annihilate' the Islamic Republic. https://planckstandard.com/article/hurricane-polo-hits-category-5-off-mexico-among-the-stronges.html https://planckstandard.com/article/hurricane-polo-hits-category-5-off-mexico-among-the-stronges.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 07:03:42 GMT World Polo's winds peaked at 175 mph after what forecasters called a 'truly remarkable' burst of strengthening. It is expected to skirt the coast of Guerrero and Michoacán rather than make landfall. https://planckstandard.com/article/un-expert-says-us-boat-strikes-are-crimes-against-humanity.html https://planckstandard.com/article/un-expert-says-us-boat-strikes-are-crimes-against-humanity.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:27:38 GMT World Ben Saul's briefing note, released by the U.N. Human Rights Council Monday, calls the year-old campaign 'serial extrajudicial killings' and says drug cartels have not staged the armed attack that would trigger a right of self-defense. The White House has not responded. https://planckstandard.com/article/officer-shot-outside-ontario-synagogue-on-yom-kippur.html https://planckstandard.com/article/officer-shot-outside-ontario-synagogue-on-yom-kippur.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:27:36 GMT World The officer is in critical but stable condition and the 29-year-old gunman is in life-threatening condition. Nobody inside Sons of Jacob was hurt, services were canceled, and Ontario's police watchdog has not said whether the Jewish community was the target. https://planckstandard.com/article/north-korea-fired-two-short-range-ballistic-missiles-from-wo.html https://planckstandard.com/article/north-korea-fired-two-short-range-ballistic-missiles-from-wo.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 05:16:00 GMT World Kim Yo Jong called a six-nation 'Pacific Vanguard' naval exercise a 'frantic military move' and said there will be 'never ever change in the course of intensifying the nuclear war deterrence.' U.S. Pacific Command said the launches pose no immediate threat. https://planckstandard.com/article/haiti-put-18-suspects-in-the-2021-assassination-of-president.html https://planckstandard.com/article/haiti-put-18-suspects-in-the-2021-assassination-of-president.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 05:16:00 GMT World The transfer ends a five-year judicial stall in Port-au-Prince. Those still held in Haiti include more than a dozen former Colombian soldiers and a former government official. The former first lady, who was wounded in the attack, has accused ex-President Michel Martelly and ex-Prime Minister Ariel Henry of ties to the killing. https://planckstandard.com/article/putin-s-party-took-57-8-in-russia-s-first-wartime-parliament.html https://planckstandard.com/article/putin-s-party-took-57-8-in-russia-s-first-wartime-parliament.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 05:16:00 GMT World The Central Election Commission put turnout at 56.66% and reported more than 3,000 waves of DDoS attacks on election infrastructure. Voting was also held in occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which Kyiv called a 'farce.' Final results are not due before Sept. 25. https://planckstandard.com/article/the-afd-won-mecklenburg-western-pomerania-the-far-left-die-l.html https://planckstandard.com/article/the-afd-won-mecklenburg-western-pomerania-the-far-left-die-l.html Mon, 21 Sep 2026 01:14:07 GMT World Projections put the AfD at roughly 37% to 38% in the northeastern state and Die Linke at about 25% in the capital, where a Turkish-German lawyer named Elif Eralp declared that 'love and justice have triumphed over hatred.' The AfD's co-leader called Merz's response 'more than feeble' and demanded his resignation. https://planckstandard.com/article/iran-s-new-security-chief-says-tehran-has-sent-trump-its-pri.html https://planckstandard.com/article/iran-s-new-security-chief-says-tehran-has-sent-trump-its-pri.html Sun, 20 Sep 2026 01:22:24 GMT World Mohsen Rezaei, a month into the job as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, told Al Jazeera the conditions are with Qatari and Pakistani mediators and Iran is waiting on Washington. The list drops Tehran's earlier demand for reparations, which one U.S. analyst read as movement, though he said Washington would still hear it as 'surrender.' https://planckstandard.com/article/the-eu-wants-to-ban-social-media-for-everyone-under-13-cap-1.html https://planckstandard.com/article/the-eu-wants-to-ban-social-media-for-everyone-under-13-cap-1.html Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:03:30 GMT World Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the plan in her State of the Union speech and the Commission published the bill the next day. All 27 member states still have to agree, which could take years and sets up a fresh fight with Washington and Big Tech. https://planckstandard.com/article/south-korea-s-president-said-on-live-tv-there-will-be-no-dep.html https://planckstandard.com/article/south-korea-s-president-said-on-live-tv-there-will-be-no-dep.html Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:43:48 GMT World Lee Jae Myung said Seoul will instead consider expanding its anti-piracy naval unit off Somalia and may offer patrol aircraft, mine-disposal teams and supply ships. He also said he will not seek a second term and that the $350 billion U.S. investment deal is close to done. https://planckstandard.com/article/sweden-s-prime-minister-resigned-after-the-final-count-gave.html https://planckstandard.com/article/sweden-s-prime-minister-resigned-after-the-final-count-gave.html Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:43:48 GMT World Ulf Kristersson asked to be relieved of office so the speaker can start building a new government. Magdalena Andersson's Social Democrats are the largest party with 99 seats, but her four-party bloc disagrees on taxes, nuclear power and who gets a cabinet seat. https://planckstandard.com/article/iran-brought-down-two-us-mq-1-drones-cbo-24-reapers-lost.html https://planckstandard.com/article/iran-brought-down-two-us-mq-1-drones-cbo-24-reapers-lost.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:19:06 GMT World Nobody will say where the aircraft went down or which variant they were. Central Command declined to comment. https://planckstandard.com/article/carney-standing-ovation-strasbourg-trump-hostile-act-eu-tari.html https://planckstandard.com/article/carney-standing-ovation-strasbourg-trump-hostile-act-eu-tari.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 17:19:06 GMT World Canada sends 70% of its exports to the U.S. Carney told lawmakers in Strasbourg that when countries negotiate alone with a dominant power, 'we negotiate from weakness.' https://planckstandard.com/article/washington-denied-mahmoud-abbas-a-visa-for-the-u-n-general-a.html https://planckstandard.com/article/washington-denied-mahmoud-abbas-a-visa-for-the-u-n-general-a.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:12:44 GMT World A U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is nearly a year old and Israeli strikes are still killing people there. The Palestinian president will again have to address world leaders by video from Ramallah. https://planckstandard.com/article/at-least-82-people-are-dead-after-a-gold-mine-collapsed-in-s.html https://planckstandard.com/article/at-least-82-people-are-dead-after-a-gold-mine-collapsed-in-s.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 05:12:43 GMT World The al-Zara mine is in territory held by the Rapid Support Forces, which smuggle Sudan's gold abroad to fund their war. Dozens of miners are still missing. https://planckstandard.com/article/rubio-visa-restrictions-south-africa-officials-land-seizures.html https://planckstandard.com/article/rubio-visa-restrictions-south-africa-officials-land-seizures.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 01:19:09 GMT World The State Department has already admitted more than 7,700 white Afrikaners as refugees while shutting the program to almost everyone else. South Africa's foreign minister blamed 'fringe groups' for misrepresenting the country's laws to Washington. https://planckstandard.com/article/gaza-city-building-collapse-kills-20-hundred-trapped.html https://planckstandard.com/article/gaza-city-building-collapse-kills-20-hundred-trapped.html Thu, 17 Sep 2026 01:19:09 GMT World The UN says about 400 of the roughly 2,000 damaged buildings that displaced families are living in across Gaza are at risk of falling down. Egypt sent heavy machinery; Gaza's civil defense director said 'we are still hearing voices from under the rubble.' https://planckstandard.com/article/belarus-freed-25-political-prisoners-wednesday-including-the.html https://planckstandard.com/article/belarus-freed-25-political-prisoners-wednesday-including-the.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:15:04 GMT World John Coale's deals with Alexander Lukashenko have now produced about 500 releases since last year. Viasna counts 912 political prisoners still behind bars, and opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya says new arrests continue as fast as the old ones are freed. https://planckstandard.com/article/the-trump-administration-is-preparing-its-largest-ever-sale.html https://planckstandard.com/article/the-trump-administration-is-preparing-its-largest-ever-sale.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 21:15:02 GMT World The package of 20,000 Mk-84s and 20,000 BLU-117s has been informally notified to Congress and would dwarf last year's $2.04 billion deal. It comes with a fragile ceasefire in Gaza still nominally in place and Israeli strikes continuing. https://planckstandard.com/article/friedrich-merz-canceled-his-trip-to-the-u-n-because-his-pres.html https://planckstandard.com/article/friedrich-merz-canceled-his-trip-to-the-u-n-because-his-pres.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 18:54:15 GMT World Ten days after the AfD took 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt, the chancellor's party is polling at 7% in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and 78% of Germans say he is the wrong man for the job. Two more state votes come Sunday. https://planckstandard.com/article/saudi-arabia-says-it-shot-down-a-houthi-drone-heading-for-me.html https://planckstandard.com/article/saudi-arabia-says-it-shot-down-a-houthi-drone-heading-for-me.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:45:20 GMT World Air-raid alerts sounded in Islam's holiest city for the first time in the war. Brent crude is above $100, a key Saudi pipeline has reportedly been shut for weeks, and the U.S. told Americans to reconsider travel to the kingdom. https://planckstandard.com/article/a-hague-court-gave-kosovo-s-founding-president-25-years-for.html https://planckstandard.com/article/a-hague-court-gave-kosovo-s-founding-president-25-years-for.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:45:19 GMT World The Kosovo Specialist Chambers held Thaci and three other KLA commanders responsible for 96 murders during the 1998-99 war but acquitted them of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors had asked for 45 years. https://planckstandard.com/article/von-der-leyen-offered-canada-the-first-ever-associate-member.html https://planckstandard.com/article/von-der-leyen-offered-canada-the-first-ever-associate-member.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 15:45:18 GMT World Seventy percent of Canadian exports still go to the United States. Ottawa is exploring visa-free living and working rights in Europe and an 'Alliance for the Future' covering defense, minerals, AI and the Arctic. https://planckstandard.com/article/a-russian-frigate-fired-two-flares-at-a-danish-helicopter-of.html https://planckstandard.com/article/a-russian-frigate-fired-two-flares-at-a-danish-helicopter-of.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 05:58:55 GMT World Denmark summoned Moscow's ambassador and called the Admiral Kasatonov's action 'reckless.' Hours later, an Italian NATO jet shot down a drone over Lithuania that likely came from Belarus. https://planckstandard.com/article/alex-saab-pleads-guilty-forfeits-195-million.html https://planckstandard.com/article/alex-saab-pleads-guilty-forfeits-195-million.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 03:25:33 GMT World The Colombian businessman admitted skimming at least $195 million from six Venezuelan food-import contracts with 'the approval, participation and protection' of top officials. Maduro himself is awaiting trial in Manhattan after his capture in January. https://planckstandard.com/article/dutch-rail-sabotage-pipes-on-tracks-prinsjesdag.html https://planckstandard.com/article/dutch-rail-sabotage-pipes-on-tracks-prinsjesdag.html Wed, 16 Sep 2026 03:25:32 GMT World ProRail called it 'sabotage of the railway infrastructure' after safety systems failed at more than 30 locations and a train struck one of the pipes at Steenwijk. By afternoon, hay bales were burning on three motorways, a tactic linked to farmer protests. https://planckstandard.com/article/eswatini-soldiers-shot-two-u-s-government-workers-at-a-milit.html https://planckstandard.com/article/eswatini-soldiers-shot-two-u-s-government-workers-at-a-milit.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 22:20:48 GMT World The shooting happened Friday night in the Maphiveni area near the Mozambique border, during an anti-smuggling operation by Africa's last absolute monarchy. Both Americans had 'minor injuries,' the government said, and an investigation is underway. https://planckstandard.com/article/for-the-first-time-scotland-wales-and-northern-ireland-all-h.html https://planckstandard.com/article/for-the-first-time-scotland-wales-and-northern-ireland-all-h.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 18:20:17 GMT World The SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin agreed that 'no Westminster government has the right to block democracy.' Prime Minister Andy Burnham says referendums on Scotland and Northern Ireland are 'off the table.' https://planckstandard.com/article/a-russian-drone-blew-up-a-kyiv-warsaw-locomotive-two-kilomet.html https://planckstandard.com/article/a-russian-drone-blew-up-a-kyiv-warsaw-locomotive-two-kilomet.html Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:33:36 GMT World Ukraine's rail operator says it is 'highly probable' the intended target was the diplomatic train carrying Johnson, Carl Bildt and EU security advisers home from a Kyiv conference. Nobody was hurt. The strike came inside a 453-drone overnight barrage that killed six people across Ukraine.