International

August 17, 2026

Venezuela frees 131 prisoners amid post-Maduro transition talks

CARACAS — Venezuela on Friday freed another 131 people considered to be political prisoners, in a sign of progress in talks to reconcile the nation following Nicolas Maduro’s removal by US forces. The 131 people had been granted “alternative measures from incarceration,” under the “Program for Peace and Democratic Coexistence,” the country’s interim government said. Outside the El Rodeo I…
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August 17, 2026

South Korea president proposes talks with North to formally end Korean War

SEOUL — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung proposed talks with North Korea to formally end the long-running Korean War, as Pyongyang deepens ties with Russia while asserting its status as an “irreversible” nuclear state. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict, triggered by a North Korean attack, ended with an armistice rather than a peace…
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August 17, 2026

Italian airport reopens as volcanic eruption dies down

ROME — Catania airport in Sicily re-opened on Saturday after suspending flights for a week because of a volcanic eruption at nearby Mount Etna that spewed ash into the sky. The airport said on its website that flights had resumed at 2:00pm (1200 GMT) following “the downgrade of the volcanic activity alert status from red to orange”. The suspension of…
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August 17, 2026

Earthquake rocks Spain’s tourist jewel Granada

MADRID — Spain’s cherished tourist hotspot of Granada was in shock on Saturday after a rare 5.0-magnitude earthquake woke residents in the middle of the night and damaged buildings. But officials confirmed no casualties or serious damage, notably to the southern city’s Alhambra palace, a UNESCO-listed jewel of medieval Islamic architecture and the seat of Spain’s last Muslim kingdom. The…
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August 17, 2026

Europe wildfires: latest developments

PARIS, France — Countries across Europe were battling a wave of new wildfires Friday as blistering temperatures and tinder-dry landscapes made for dangerous conditions, with thousands evacuated and even some medieval sites threatened. A historically hot summer on the planet’s fastest-warming continent has contributed to the deaths of thousands of people — and increased the risk of wildfires, with blazes…
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August 17, 2026

easyJet strike sees 100 French flights cancelled

PARIS, France — British budget carrier easyJet has called off about 100 flights out of French airports on Saturday and Sunday because of a strike by cabin crew furious over repeated changes to their schedules. Unions said about half of the company’s 900 French-based cabin crew would join the strike, which would affect about half of the flights out of…
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August 17, 2026

Fast-growing Belgium wildfire burns at least 1,600 hectares

EUPEN, Belgium — Belgian firefighters backed by water bombers and helicopters were battling a rapidly spreading wildfire Saturday at a natural park near the German border that ravaged at least 16 square kilometres in 24 hours. Reinforcements have been called in from across the country to help tackle the blaze at the Hautes Fagnes park, in the country’s far east,…
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August 17, 2026

Trump says will ‘soon’ declare Hormuz strait US territory

GARDEN CITY, United States — President Donald Trump said Friday he would “finish defeating” Iran and “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz part of US territory. Trump has repeatedly said that the key energy waterway, which Tehran effectively closed at the start of the Middle East war, is under US control , an assertion the Islamic republic denies. “After we…
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August 17, 2026

Thousands await aid after deadly Indonesian quake

RUTENG, Indonesia — Help started arriving Sunday for thousands of evacuees on Indonesia’s Flores island after a powerful earthquake killed 48 people, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of houses and buildings. Some 5,000 people fled their homes as the 7.7-magnitude quake hit the island early Saturday, followed by at lesat 341 aftershocks in the hours that followed, a spokesman for…
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August 17, 2026

Belgium races to tame huge wildfire creeping towards Germany

BAELEN, Belgium — Water-bombing aircraft and farmers’ tractors joined forces Sunday to help firefighters tame Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire, which has scorched vast swathes of a hard-to-reach nature reserve near the German border. The blaze has mushroomed to 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) two days after breaking out in the High Fens park, an area of boggy peatlands and pine forests…
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