newsmart – Latest News

arstechnica.com | just now NEW

They war-gamed dimming the Sun. It went even worse than you think.

Solar geoengineering simulation shows what happens when geopolitics takes over.

mirror.co.uk | 20 min. ago NEW

Iran 'threatens ground invasions of US-allied neighbours' if Donald Trump’s war continues

Iranian officials have reportedly threatened to launch ground invasions of neighbouring US allies as a retaliatory measure is Trump resumes attacks on Iran

warontherocks.com | 1 hrs. 1 min. ago

Doubts Grow Over the Terms of Ukraine’s European Union Accession

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each week, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.Western coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.

The perspectives gathered here are varied, candid, and often surprising, together forming a more complete picture of Ukraine as it really is.Frontline The post Doubts Grow Over the Terms of Ukraine’s European Union Accession appeared first on War on the Rocks.

theguardian.com | 1 hrs. 24 min. ago

Wes Streeting might be an unlikely defence secretary – but he’s still a better bet than Penny Mordaunt

For the first time in his life, Wes is enjoying keeping secrets – though he did admit he isn’t ‘keen on fighting a war’When Andy Burnham announced his first cabinet in July, few would have had Wes Streeting marked down as a likely defence secretary.

Not even Wes. And no one is more bullish about Wes’s life chances than Wes. It just didn’t seem a natural fit. Defence secretaries tend to be more the unsmiling types who operate in the shadows. Politicians like John Healey, with the pallor of someone who has spent too long in underground bunkers with military chief of staffs.

People who slide in and out of rooms without making a fuss.Wes has always been someone who likes to be noticed. Enjoys the theatre of Westminster. The first to arrive at a party and the last to leave. A natural gossip. “Psst – you’ll never guess what Zelenskyy just said to Trump.”

Continue reading...

nypost.com | 2 hrs. 9 min. ago

Iran war could bring price hikes to banana, America’s most consumed fruit

Gas price hikes and supply chain issues stemming from the Iran war are driving everyone bananas – including actual banana companies.

kyivindependent.com | 2 hrs. 10 min. ago

How the Russian army is learning from Ukraine and NATO

The Russian army entered its full-scale war against Ukraine with a reputation as one of the strongest in the world, but the first weeks of the invasion showed that this assessment was wrong. The reasons were sought in logistics, equipment, training, and motivation, but most of the failures stemmed from

euronews.com | 2 hrs. 36 min. ago

Qatar’s emir vows that country will emerge stronger as he outlines national strategies

Qatar's emir outlined in a speech to the nation how the Gulf nation has managed to overcome the consequences of the Iran war and will emerge stronger and better equipped to adapt to global changes by diversifying its economy and focusing on non-carbon industries in addition to existing LNG exports.

nytimes.com | 2 hrs. 41 min. ago

Trump Hands Victories to Putin, Who Offers More War in Return

Russia has reaped a diesel deal and an increase in U.S. pressure on Ukraine as President Trump’s political needs align with his longstanding inclinations toward Russia.

kyivindependent.com | 3 hrs. 15 min. ago

Last Seen in Crimea: Kyiv Independent documentary investigates Russia's secret detention system for Ukrainian civilians

The Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigations Unit has released Last Seen in Crimea, a new documentary investigating a system of detention in Russian-occupied Crimea where Ukrainian civilians have been held without contact with the outside world, often without formal charges, and subjected to torture and other forms of abuse.

theguardian.com | 3 hrs. 35 min. ago

Fewer Britons plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, says travel industry

Spain remains most popular destination as Britons book later in hope of better deals, Abta report findsBusiness live – latest updatesThe UK’s cost of living squeeze means fewer people plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, the travel industry has warned.Despite war, wildfires and EES border checks, the numbers of Britons taking holidays climbed back to pre-pandemic levels this year – but rising costs may mean the numbers have peaked, according to an annual travel industry report on Tuesday.

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euronews.com | 3 hrs. 42 min. ago

Russia funnels nearly half its budget into defence, cutting social spending

Russia’s 2027 draft budget allocates a record share to defence and security, as regions quietly divert funds for foster children and orphans to war payments and “coffin money” for soldiers’ families is cut by up to 95% in some areas.

ft.com | 4 hrs. 28 min. ago

[$] Submit your questions: Who’s winning the trade war with China — the EU or US?

Senior trade writer Alan Beattie and economics columnist Soumaya Keynes will answer reader questions in a live Q&A on Thursday October 15 at 1pm (BST)

thehill.com | 4 hrs. 36 min. ago

Boebert: Iran war 'detrimental on many levels'

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) spoke out against the Iran war when pressed during a Monday debate about whether the military conflict was worth its cost to the American public. “I never wanted us to be at war in Iran,” Boebert said. “This has been detrimental on many levels.

“I also will stand by and say...

theguardian.com | 5 hrs. 6 min. ago

The play that changed my life: ‘I was the badass queen in Titus Andronicus – we did it like A Nightmare on Elm Street’

Shakespeare’s bloody revenge-fest is full of horror and grotesquerie but the camaraderie of performing it with a youth theatre had an upbeat effectTitus Andronicus has to be among William Shakespeare’s worst plays. In fact TS Eliot called it “one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever written”.

Yet it holds a very special place in my heart. It’s a bloody revenge-fest in which each act of violence is more grotesque than the last. Titus Andronicus returns from war with “barbarous” Tamora, “Queen of the Goths”, as his prisoner. She stealthily proceeds to kill and destroy his family, and when he discovers this, he murders her sons and serves them up to her in a pie.

The play ends with gudgeons of fake blood and a sea of carnage. In Shakespeare’s day it was a huge hit, a kind of slasher film of the 16th century.Plays are very powerful things and I have spent my life watching them and writing them.

Some have been revelatory but none has affected me like Titus Andronicus. It was the first play, outside of school, that I was ever in – so I suppose this is about the transformative power of youth theatre. Continue reading...

ft.com | 6 hrs. 3 min. ago

[$] Ships in Hormuz strait hit by worst spate of attacks since start of war

Twenty-four tankers and other vessels targeted by Iran in two weeks, including six on Sunday alone

euronews.com | 6 hrs. 4 min. ago

Europe must switch to 'war-mode' defence production, Polish defence minister says

Polish Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Europe must accelerate the production of ammunition and weapons to match Russia’s pace, warning that failure to do so would negatively impact Europe.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com | 6 hrs. 9 min. ago

£15 charity shop ring linked to Princess Amelia sells for £5,500 at auction

In a remarkable find, a shopper in Leicester stumbled upon a gold mourning ring at a charity shop, purchasing it for just £15. Auction experts linked the ring to Princess Amelia, revealing its royal connection. The ring, crafted in her honor, fetched an impressive £5,500 at Hansons Auctioneers, igniting a fierce bidding war that exceeded estimates, underscoring its historical significance within the royal family's mourning traditions.

kyivpost.com | 6 hrs. 42 min. ago

‘Not Right’: Finland Seeks EU Ban on Russian Tourist Visas

Finland is urging the EU to stop issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens until Moscow ends its war against Ukraine. Helsinki is also seeking restrictions targeting Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, Russian athletes linked to the state, and any former combatants.

kyivpost.com | 6 hrs. 43 min. ago

EBRD Expands Ukraine War-Risk Insurance to $168M

The EBRD is raising the capacity of its war-risk insurance facility to $168 million. Two new insurers are set to join the scheme and will also cover gas-related assets and goods in temporary storage.

thehill.com | 6 hrs. 52 min. ago

Regime change in Iran is needed now more than ever

Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan taught the Greatest Generation in the 1930s and 1940s the painful lesson that pure evil does exist on a grand scale in the contemporary world. It took the global horrors and sacrifices of the Second World War to end the ravages of those depraved regimes.

Immediately after the...

mirror.co.uk | 7 hrs. 25 min. ago

WW1 soldier's tragic love story told over 100 years later after bloodstained diary found in rubbish tip

WWI soldier Corporal Claude Nuttall documented his time at war during a pivotal moment of the conflict - which he entered just a few months after marrying in the UK

ft.com | 7 hrs. 29 min. ago

[$] South Africa’s stalled recovery tests Ramaphosa

US-Iran war has hit economies worldwide but country’s first quarterly GDP decline since 2024 exposes longstanding weaknesses

theguardian.com | 8 hrs. 2 min. ago

UK asks Interpol to reject Argentina’s ‘politically motivated’ requests for Falklands oil arrests

Exclusive: Caution urged over Javier Milei government’s ‘red notice’ requests for arrest of individuals linked to oil projectBritain has appealed to Interpol to reject Argentina’s requests for the arrest of individuals involved in a large oil project off the Falkland Islands.With tensions over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory reaching levels not seen since the war with Argentina in 1982, UK officials have sought urgent assurances from the international organisation.

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al-monitor.com | 8 hrs. 15 min. ago

Hezbollah outlines financial aid plan for Lebanese with destroyed homes

By Maya Gebeily and Laila BassamOct 13 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah will provide up to $14,000 in financial assistance to families whose primary homes have been destroyed or rendered uninhabitable during this year's war with Israel, the chairman of the group's Executive Council said on Tuesday.Reuters reported last week that Hezbollah had received $200 million from Iran to help displaced Lebanese families, citing two people with direct knowledge of the transfer, though the US disputed Tehran's ability to provide such financial assistance.

thehill.com | 8 hrs. 18 min. ago

Hinson, Turek set to clash in second Iowa Senate debate

Iowa Senate candidate Josh Turek (D) and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) are set to clash in their second debate on Tuesday as they fight to succeed retiring Sen. Joni Ernest (R-Iowa). The debate will offer the candidates a chance to reiterate their stances on the Iran war and fuel prices, which proved to be a...

theguardian.com | 8 hrs. 43 min. ago

Tyson review – deeply icky … and that’s before Trump shows up

This peculiar – some would say truly irresponsible – hagiography of boxing superstar Mike Tyson veers from psychedelics and sobbing to the inadvisable face tattoo via a cameo from the US presidentNetflix’s new four-parter on Mike Tyson is one of the strangest sports documentaries it has ever released, or maybe just one of its strangest documentaries full stop.

The streamer has form in sporting hagiographies – tales told with questionable distance from their subjects, and all the objectivity of cold war agitprop. Tyson is different, though: not only is it lopsided, but it also feels deeply icky. And that’s before Donald Trump arrives to defend its subject – a great catch for the programme-makers but a wholly baffling cameo that makes you wish he would stick with geopolitical meddling and golf.It ends – spoiler alert – with the former boxing champion taking the hallucinogenic drug DMT (or as he calls it, “the toad”, after the animal that produces it), while sobbing and inviting the show’s director to join him.

Its episodes are peculiar, sometimes compelling, and – as many viewers will surely feel – truly irresponsible. Continue reading...

ft.com | 8 hrs. 53 min. ago

[$] ‘I think a lot of people are waking up’: Trump’s Latino vote starts to unravel

Inflation, war and the crackdown on immigrant communities draw the crucial swing voters back to the Democrats ahead of the midterms

timesofindia.indiatimes.com | 10 hrs. 14 min. ago

104-year-old woman receives brother’s World War II dog tags 83 years after his death

A 104-year-old Massachusetts woman has received her brother's World War II dog tags 83 years after he died in a 1943 plane crash off Florida. The tags were discovered among old military records, and a 1972 headstone application helped officials trace his sister, Dorothy Stewart.

She received them at an emotional ceremony on September 29, 2026.

globalnews.ca | 10 hrs. 16 min. ago

Founder of Canada-China relations group, Liberal donor faces deportation for ‘war crimes’

The Canada Border Services Agency has alleged that Rong Xiang Yuan committed war crimes while serving in the PLA.

warontherocks.com | 10 hrs. 46 min. ago

Building an Arsenal That Survives the Tenth Salvo

America faces a well-defined industrial base problem. Whether it’s a hypothetical Taiwan invasion wargame run two dozen times, the current Iranian conflict, or the Russo-Ukrainian War, the same result repeats: Magazines of key weapons such as cruise missile systems and interceptors empty within days, weeks, or months, and the current industrial base takes years to replenish them.

Part of that shortfall results from the analog way in which missile structures are designed, tooled, and sourced, which locks the entire supply chain into rigid, design-specific schedules.The first salvo depends on platforms, positioning, and doctrine, all things controllable by militaries. But the The post Building an Arsenal That Survives the Tenth Salvo appeared first on War on the Rocks.

theguardian.com | 11 hrs. 7 min. ago

Generation Maybe by Camilla Cavendish review – what’s really behind the fertility gap?

An evidenced-based account of the difficult choices facing couples across the world – from America to Iran‘Don’t be weird about this,” representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez laughed into the camera as she prepared to jab a hormone-filled needle into her midsection, adding that she knew full well that, yes, people were definitely going to be weird about it.

At 36, the congresswoman had begun freezing her eggs, and was making a point of bringing her online audience along with her as she did, stepping directly into the fraught question of how an ambitious woman should manage her fertility.It’s a live concern: around the world, birthrates are falling sharply.

“Only the Black Death in the 14th century is comparable to what is happening now,” Financial Times journalist Camilla Cavendish notes in a new book examining why. Setting aside the most toxic gender-war narratives, “the standard explanation is that as women get educated, they choose freedom and autonomy over family”.

As Cavendish explains, however, that is “not the whole story”. Continue reading...

warontherocks.com | 11 hrs. 18 min. ago

How Taiwan Activates Beijing’s Chosen Fear

The standard explanations for why Taiwan is so important to the Chinese Communist Party are familiar: territorial integrity, credibility of deterrence commitments, great power competition with the United States, the strategic value of the first island chain, and the semiconductor industry concentrated in TSMC’s fabrication facilities.

These explanations work, but they don’t tell the whole story. Rational strategic calculation does not produce a posture in which a nuclear-armed state with the world’s second-largest economy treats a democratic island of 23 million people as a permanent, non-negotiable crisis. But what is rational depends largely on how history has defined you and The post How Taiwan Activates Beijing’s Chosen Fear appeared first on War on the Rocks.

euromaidanpress.com | 11 hrs. 23 min. ago

Ukraine’s largest steelworks begins cold shutdown after extensive damage from Russian strikes, saying safe operation is impossible while war continues

The plant will spend two months shutting down safely before mothballing its industrial assets, with any restart dependent on conditions after the war.

dailymail.com | 11 hrs. 49 min. ago

Doomsday prepper with 'extreme' home bunker reveals war essentials you should start stockpiling now - including £5,000 in cash

Estate agent Rowan MacKenzie, from Missouri, US, said the money would buy one month's supply of food, water, and supplies, plus a portable emergency kit or bug-out bag.

thehindu.com | 12 hrs. 42 min. ago

No choice: IMF says developing countries must cut spending despite war shock

"Unfortunately, after years of the global economy being hit by shock after shock, debt levels have increased quite a lot, and at the same time, inflation has become a problem," says IMF deputy director of research

al-monitor.com | 13 hrs. 12 min. ago

AI investment props up global growth, but war and debt threaten outlook, IMF says

By David LawderBANGKOK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The global economy will still manage to top 3% real GDP growth this year as strong AI investment offsets the energy shock from the war in the Middle East, but downside risks are mounting and more countries are being left behind and vulnerable to rising debt loads, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.Despite a more protracted conflict that has kept oil prices above $100 a barrel, the IMF is forecasting 2026 global growth at 3.1%, a slight uptick from the 3.0% it predicted in July.

bbc.co.uk | 13 hrs. 45 min. ago

Russia's offensive ability is broken, Kyiv's former top general tells BBC

In his first interview since being forced from his post, Gen Syrskyi speaks about Ukraine's future in the war.

ft.com | 14 hrs. 37 min. ago

[$] Informa’s trade show bet has a vulnerability — geopolitics

The FTSE 100 company has grown rapidly after focusing on live events under Stephen Carter but is being affected by the Iran war

nytimes.com | 15 hrs. 10 min. ago

[$] This Copper Mine Led to a Civil War. Can Reopening It Fund a New Nation?

Rising demand for copper has fueled interest in Bougainville’s Panguna mine, which has been shut for four decades. Yet some fear a rush to reopen risks return to violence.

ft.com | 16 hrs. 54 min. ago

[$] Pakistan’s hard choice on Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen

Defence pacts and financial reliance on Riyadh give Islamabad little leeway to avoid Houthi conflict