A strike hit the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital Beirut on Saturday, AFPTV footage showed, shortly after the Israeli army issued a new call to evacuate the area. AFPTV video showed a plume of smoke rising over the buildings in the area. Shortly before the strike, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X…
China is willing to be partners and friends with the United States, China’s ambassador to Washington said, seeking to strengthen dialogue between the world’s two largest economies. China has no plan to surpass or replace the United States, Xie Feng said in a speech in Hong Kong on Friday, addressing Chinese officials and the US…
US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will meet for the last time Saturday, a day after both leaders warned of turbulent times ahead for the world as Donald Trump returns to the White House. Their final encounter, taking place on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru, has been overshadowed by…
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed “serious concerns” over the situation in the South China Sea to Chinese President Xi Jinping in their first in-person talks, Tokyo’s foreign ministry said Saturday. But the pair agreed to work to expand cultural exchanges and continue high-level dialogue on the economy, both Tokyo and Beijing said after the…
The usual suspects abstained from voting on a seemingly uncontroversial United Nations resolution that denounced violence against women and girls on Thursday — Iran, Russia, North Korea. But the country casting the sole vote against the nonbinding resolution, drafted by France and the Netherlands, took the world by surprise. It was Argentina, long considered one…
Some political analysts have expressed differing views regarding the visit of Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan to Pakistan.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan said in a statement that Kabulov met with Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister and the head of the Afghanistan and West Asia division, agreeing to remain committed to efforts for achieving a…
A Palestinian militant group allied with Hamas released a new clip Friday of Israeli hostage Sasha Trupanov, held in Gaza since the October 2023 attack, after releasing a first video earlier this week. Trupanov, identified by his relatives in the previous video released on Wednesday, appealed to Aryeh Deri, leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party…
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed the war in Ukraine by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in the first such conversation in two years, the German government said. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Scholz condemned “Russia’s war of aggression” against Ukraine during the call and called on Putin to end it by withdrawing…
A senior Hamas official said Friday that the group is “ready for a ceasefire” in Gaza and urged US President-elect Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war. “Hamas is ready to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if a ceasefire proposal is presented and on the condition that it is respected” by…
Syrian state-run media said Israel struck the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus on Friday, the second such attack in as many days to hit the neighborhood home to embassies, security headquarters and United Nations offices. “Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus,” the official SANA news agency said, after reporting a deadly Israeli strike on…
Iran will back any decision taken by Lebanon in talks to secure a ceasefire with Israel, a senior Iranian official said on Friday, signaling Tehran wants to see an end to a conflict that has dealt heavy blows to its Lebanese ally Hezbollah. Ali Larijani, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, spoke during a visit…
A military court in Moscow sentenced a 43-year-old woman to eight years in a penal colony on Thursday for posting anti-war comments online, including several calling for the assassination of President Vladimir Putin, Russian news agencies reported. Anastasia Berezhinskaya, a Moscow-based theater director and mother of two young children, was found guilty of two wartime…
Israel is closer to reaching an arrangement over fighting with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war, but it must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated, said an Israeli security cabinet minister. “I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement…
Russia said Thursday it captured another village in east Ukraine, closing in on the town of Kurakhove after months of steady advances. Russia has captured new villages in east Ukraine regularly since this summer, as its offensive drags on. The Russian defense ministry said its troops had taken the village of Voznesenka, north of Kurakhove…
More than Fifteen people were killed and 16 injured in Israeli attacks on a number of residential buildings in suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, state news agency SANA reported, citing a Syrian military source. The buildings are located in the suburbs of Mazzeh and Qudsaya, both west of the capital, the SANA…
