Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Tuesday released American academic Dennis Coyle after holding him for over a year, with the foreign ministry saying the release came on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
President Donald Trump extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, saying Monday that the U.S. would hold off on threatened strikes against Iranian power plants for five days.
Heavy social media use contributes to a stark decline in well-being among young people, with the effects particularly worrying in teenage girls in English-speaking countries and Western Europe, according to the World Happiness Report 2026 published Thursday.
Stock markets fell sharply worldwide after another leap for oil prices hiked the pressure even higher on the global economy. Brent crude, the international standard, briefly rose above $119 per barrel Thursday morning before pulling back to $110, which is still 3.2% up from the prior day.
Officials in Cuba reported an island-wide blackout Monday in the country of some 11 million people as its energy and economic crises deepen and its power grid continues to crumble.
With no clear end in sight, the war with Iran is sending oil prices back to $100 per barrel and stocks sinking worldwide on Thursday.
Iran launched new attacks on Tuesday at Israel and Gulf Arab countries as it kept up pressure on the Middle East in a war started by Israel and the United States that has rattled world markets and shows no signs of a letup.
Iran named the hard-line Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as supreme leader on Monday, signaling no letup in the war launched by the United States and Israel. Oil prices surged as Iran attacked regional energy infrastructure and the U.S. and Israel bombed targets across Iran.
Azerbaijan on Thursday accused Iran of a drone attack on its territory that injured four civilians, and it vowed to retaliate in a sign that the war in the Middle East was spreading.
The largest U.S. diplomatic drawdown in the Middle East since the Iraq War began more than two decades ago is creating an apparently unplanned-for crisis for the Trump administration as the United States and Israel strike Iran in a widening conflict.
Iran expanded its targets Tuesday, striking the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia as Washington began to pull many staff out of the Middle East. The U.S. and Israel battered Iran with airstrikes in what President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a war that has severely disrupted the world’s supply of oil and gas, international shipping, and air travel.
Iran’s leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
