Lawmakers from both parties said on Sunday they support congressional reviews of US military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a September 2 attack. The lawmakers said they did not know whether last week’s Washington Post report was true – and some Republicans were sceptical – but they said attacking...

Eight more wild boar with suspected cases of African swine fever were discovered near Barcelona, La Vanguardia newspaper reported on Sunday, as Spain struggles to limit the damage to a pork export industry worth billions of euros a year. The newspaper cited sources close to the Catalan agriculture ministry. Two cases have been confirmed, and 12 others have shown signs they may also have the disease but are undergoing tests to confirm this. If confirmed, it would bring the number of infected...

US and Ukrainian officials sat down in Florida on Sunday to discuss outlines of a peace deal with Russia, talks that Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expected to yield progress towards ending the more than three-year war. “It’s about creating a pathway forward that leaves Ukraine sovereign, independent and prosperous, and so we expect to make even more progress today,” Rubio said in Hallandale Beach, Florida, where the meeting took place. “The process is not easy, because the search for...

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid on Sunday to protest against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, accusing his left-wing government of corruption and demanding his resignation and early elections. The demonstration was organised by the conservative People’s Party (PP) under opposition leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo. The rally in central Madrid carried the slogan “Mafia or democracy?” Participants waved Spanish flags and carried signs reading “Resign now!” and “Sanchez, go...

British finance minister Rachel Reeves on Sunday denied she misled the public over official forecasts ahead of this month’s budget, saying she had been honest about the need to build up a bigger financial buffer. In a speech on November 4, Reeves appeared to lay the groundwork to break the Labour Party’s promise to voters before the 2024 election and raise income tax rates, citing a “weaker than previously thought” productivity performance. In a letter published on Friday, the head of Britain’s...

Thousands of mourners poured into Tai Po on Sunday, forming a solemn river of remembrance for the 146 lives lost in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in more than seven decades, while Beijing called for unity and healing as a massive rescue and recovery operation continued amid the charred ruins. The scale of the calamity was evident, as the Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) discovered 18 more bodies in the wreckage of Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po following Wednesday’s blaze. They have completed...

A Filipino domestic worker who fled Hong Kong’s deadly inferno with her employers’ three-year-old daughter in her arms has expressed regret that she was unable to persuade a neighbour who perished in the blaze to also try to escape. Reinalyn Niere, who arrived in the city last year, said she was asleep with the child in the family’s third-floor flat in Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court when disaster struck at the housing estate on Wednesday afternoon. The child’s parents were at work at the...