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Russia’s decision to formally recognize the Taliban government has been seen as an opening for a stronger economy by some Afghans, while others were skeptical that it would improve their lot. Russia became the first country to acknowledge the Taliban authorities on Thursday, after a gradual building of ties
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Germany is in talks on buying Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine to help it counter some of the heaviest Russian attacks since the war began in 2022, a government spokesperson said on Friday. The US has paused shipments of certain critical weapons to Ukraine including 30 Patriot air defense
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Syria said on Friday it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces. In a statement following a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Asaad Al-Shaibani expressed Syria’s
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The US Supreme Court again sided with President Donald Trump’s administration in a legal fight over deporting migrants to countries other than their own, lifting on Thursday limits a judge had imposed to protect eight men who the government sought to send to politically unstable South Sudan. The court
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Civilians in the Darfur region of Sudan face mass atrocities and ethnic violence in the civil war between the regular army and its paramilitary rivals, the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned on Thursday. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to consolidate their power in Darfur since losing control of
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More than 130 retired diplomats and other former senior US officials issued an open letter on Thursday criticizing a planned overhaul of the State Department that could see thousands of employees laid off. “We strongly condemn Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announced decision to implement sweeping staff reductions and
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Ethiopia moved on Thursday to reassure Egypt about its water supply after completing work on a controversial giant $4 billion dam on the Blue Nile. “To our neighbors downstream, our message is clear: the dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said. “The energy
Middle East
The US imposed sanctions on Thursday against a network that smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, and on a Hezbollah-controlled financial institution, the Treasury Department said. A network of companies run by Iraqi-British national Salim Ahmed Said has been buying and shipping billions of dollars worth of Iranian oil
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US President Donald Trump said on Friday it would probably be known in 24 hours whether the Palestinian militant group Hamas has agreed to accept what he has called a “final proposal” for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza. The president also said he had spoken to Saudi Arabia about expanding
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An explosive drone was shot down near Irbil airport in northern Iraq on Thursday, the Iraqi Kurdistan’s counter-terrorism service said in a statement. There were no casualties reported, according to two security sources. The “Flight operations at the airport continued normally and the airport was not affected by any
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The Israeli military is preparing an enforcement plan to “ensure that Iran cannot return to threaten Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told senior military officials. He said the military must be prepared, both in intelligence and operations, to ensure Israel has air superiority and to prevent Tehran from reestablishing
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A wildfire killed a second person in Türkiye’s western Izmir province on Tuesday as blazes raged for a seventh day across several regions, while a little-known group claiming ties to Kurdish militants said it was behind dozens of arson attacks. The latest casualty was a backhoe operator, Ibrahim Demir,
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President Donald Trump told reporters early on Friday he is disappointed in Russian President Vladimir Putin and does not think Putin will stop the war in Ukraine. Trump also said he will speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. Earlier on Thursday, Trump said that a phone call Putin
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Waves of drone and missile attacks targeted Kyiv overnight into Friday in the largest aerial attack since Russia’s war in Ukraine began, injuring 23 people and inflicting damage across multiple districts of the capital. Russia launched 550 drones and missiles across Ukraine overnight, the country’s air force said.
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Pakistan’s army said Friday it had killed 30 militants attempting to cross the border from Afghanistan over the last three days, after 16 soldiers died in a suicide attack in the same frontier region last week. The militants belonged to the Pakistan Taliban or its affiliated groups, the military
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A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Türkiye announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband