A US-backed alliance led by Syrian Kurdish fighters has seized the eastern Syrian city of Deir Ezzor, three Syrian sources told Reuters on Friday, the third city to fall out of the government’s control in a week. Two security sources based in eastern Syria said the alliance, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, had taken…
A landmark defense pact between North Korea and Russia, signed by its leaders in June, has gone into effect after the two sides exchanged ratification documents, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Thursday. The formalization of the treaty comes as the United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than…
The top US military officer, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, spoke by phone with Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov last week, the US military said on Wednesday, the first time Brown spoke with his Russian counterpart. “The leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues to include the ongoing conflict in…
Donald Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy has traveled to Qatar and Israel to kick-start the US president-elect’s diplomatic push to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal before he takes office on Jan 20, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters. Steve Witkoff, the incoming envoy, met separately in late November with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
US President-elect Donald Trump nominated veteran Washington attorney Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a move cheered by the cryptocurrency industry as bitcoin broke the $100000 mark for the first time. Atkins, an SEC commissioner from 2002 to 2008, founded risk consultancy firm Patomak Global Partners in 2009, whose clients include…
A Syrian war monitor said Wednesday that government forces have launched a counteroffensive near Hama, pushing back against armed opposition groups seeking to advance on the key central city. Hama was a bastion of opposition to the government of President Bashar al-Assad early in the country’s civil war, which erupted in 2011. It was also the…
US President-elect Donald Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, will meet with Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer on Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. Waltz and Dermer are expected to discuss the efforts to reach a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal and the Iranian threat, a reporter for Axios, which earlier…
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and nominated his ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Choi Byung-hyuk, as new defence minister, Yonhap news reported on Thursday. Yoon’s office confirmed the nomination of Choi, a former army general, for the office. Yoon’s chief of staff, Chung Jin-suk, called Choi “a…
US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday reversed course and selected David Warrington as his top White House lawyer, reassigning his previous choice, William McGinley, to a role working with Elon Musk’s outside government efficiency group. Warrington, who has served as Trump’s personal counsel and a lawyer for his campaign, currently leads the political law unit at…
An Iranian fighter jet crashed in the south of the country Wednesday, killing the two pilots, state media reported. State television identified the pilots as Col. Hamid Reza Ranjbar and Col. Manouchehr Pirzadeh, saying they were on a test flight after the plane was overhauled. The crash took place near the town of Firouzabad, some…
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, pledged to deepen their investment relationship during a meeting on the final day of a Qatari state visit to Britain. The visit comes as Starmer seeks to deepen ties with Gulf states in search of investment to help fund his mission to…
The fall of France’s government on Wednesday and the failure to pass a budget could make it difficult for Paris to ramp up its support for Ukraine despite President Emmanuel Macron’s repeated promises to help Kyiv for as long as necessary. France in November completed the training of some 2,000 Ukrainians, including providing armored vehicles…
French opposition lawmakers brought the government down on Wednesday, throwing the European Union’s second-biggest economic power deeper into a political crisis that threatens its capacity to legislate and rein in a massive budget deficit. Far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined forces to back a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his government, with a…
Amnesty International accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in a report published on Thursday, an allegation Israeli leaders have repeatedly denied. The London-based human rights group said it reached the conclusion after months of analyzing incidents and statements of Israeli officials. Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime…
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, has divested from Israel’s Bezeq because it provides telecoms services to the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, it said late on Tuesday. The decision comes after the fund’s ethics watchdog adopted a new, tougher interpretation of ethics standards for businesses that aid Israel’s operations in the…
