The US has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, officials in Kabul said Sunday. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including US…
Houthi media in Yemen accused the United States Saturday of attacking the airport in Hodeida, the latest such claim since Washington announced heavy strikes against the militant group one week ago. Al-Masirah TV, blaming “American aggression,” said three attacks had targeted the airport in Hodeida on the Red Sea coast. Between Wednesday and Friday the…
The US is still hoping a broad ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine can be reached within weeks, even as the warring sides continue attacks and there are signs ahead of talks scheduled for the coming days that the Kremlin is in no hurry to reach a deal. The White House aims for a truce agreement by…
Prince William this week visited British troops in Estonia, which borders Russia, and drew the scorn of several people in the Kremlin who made threats against the heir to the throne A crony of Vladimir Putin who heads a specialist military drone unit has made a veiled threat against Prince William after he took a ride in a tank as he…
Meanwhile, the US leader also effectively indicated that it is premature to discuss tightening Washington’s sanctions against Moscow US President Donald Trump firmly dismissed claims that Russia has rejected US proposals for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US leader also effectively indicated that it is premature to discuss tightening Washington’s sanctions against Moscow. Russian…
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official in Pyongyang, North Korean state media said Saturday. Friday’s meeting between Kim and Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Security Council secretary, followed a South Korean intelligence assessment in late February that North Korea had likely…
U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff makes a number of eyebrow-raising statements in an in-depth interview with Tucker Carlson The genocidal Palestinian jihadists of Hamas are not as intractable “as they’re often portrayed,” U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said in an in-depth interview published on Friday. “We need to understand what Hamas wants and…
The idea that Moscow would attack NATO is “preposterous,” Steve Witkoff has said Russia has no desire to invade other European countries, US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff has said, dismissing such fears as “preposterous.” He made the remarks in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson on Friday. Asked to comment on…
Yemeni group warns all airlines that ‘Ben Gurion Airport is no longer safe for air traffic and will remain so until aggression on Gaza stops’ The Yemeni Houthi group reported on Saturday that it had targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport with a hypersonic missile for the third time in 48 hours. In a statement, the…
The head of the US Social Security Administration has backed down from “shutting down the agency” after a federal judge rebuked him for misinterpreting a court ruling that limited billionaire Elon Musk’s access to agency information. The agency’s leader, Leland Dudek, who has been cooperating with a Musk-led group tasked with reducing government waste, said in a statement…
Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer agent who helped change the course of the Cold War by covertly passing secrets to Britain, has died. He was 86. Gordievsky died March 4 in England, where he had lived since defecting in 1985. Police said Saturday that they are not treating his death as suspicious. Historians consider…
China on Saturday announced measures to simplify the marriage registration process and lessen the financial burden on couples, the latest initiative by Beijing to boost births. Couples having children outside of marriage is rare in China, where there is social stigma and fewer protections for such families. Measures have already been taken to tackle the decline…
Lebanon’s Hezbollah denied in a statement that it had “any link” to rocket launches from southern Lebanon on Saturday and reiterated its commitment to a US-backed ceasefire. Israeli artillery and airstrikes hit southern Lebanon after Israel said it had intercepted rockets fired from across the border, endangering the shaky truce that ended a year-long war…
Houthi media in Yemen reported strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis’ homeland of Saada on Friday, blaming “American aggression.” The group’s Al-Masirah TV cited their correspondent in Saada, in Yemen’s north, for their latest claim of strikes since the United States on Saturday said it carried out air strikes that killed several Houthi leaders, after the…
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement called on its rivals Hamas on Saturday to relinquish power in order to safeguard the “existence” of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “Hamas must show compassion for Gaza, its children, women and men,” Fatah spokesman Monther al-Hayek said in a message sent to AFP from Gaza. He called on…
