Politics
Tunisia’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday it won’t take part in the North African country’s upcoming presidential election unless President Kais Saied’s political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored. More than 20 political opponents have been charged or imprisoned since Saied consolidated power in
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Sunday announced she would run as her ruling party Brothers of Italy’s lead candidate in the European election in June. “I’ve decided to step into the field to lead the lists of Brothers of Italy in all constituencies,” Meloni said at a
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At least 5 million people in Sudan are “one step away from famine,” the head of office at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan said on Friday. Justin Brady told a media briefing that an added 18 million people across the country were facing acute
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The leaders of Japan and the Philippines head to Washington this week for a first trilateral summit aimed at boosting defense ties, hot on the heels of four-way military drills in the South China Sea that riled Beijing. A major upgrade of military command structures between the United States and
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President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Taiwan, artificial intelligence and security issues Tuesday in a call meant to demonstrate a return to regular leader-to-leader dialogue between the two powers. The call, described by the White House as “candid and constructive,” was the leaders’ first conversation since their
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Somalia’s parliament has unanimously approved proposals to overhaul the country’s electoral system to reintroduce universal suffrage, a plan that has been criticized by some leading politicians. Last March, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud pledged to end the complex clan-based indirect voting system in place for more than half a
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One of the Israeli hostages kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack has been killed and his body is being held in Gaza, two groups representing hostage families said Tuesday. Uriel Baruch, 35, a father of two, was taken from the Supernova music festival, where 364 people were killed by
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A pro-EU former Slovak foreign minister scored a surprise victory in the first round of a presidential election on Saturday, setting up a run-off vote with a key ally of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico. Slovakia’s presidential election is a chance for Fico, whose views on Ukraine have angered
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Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Monday that a direct conflict between Russia and the US-led NATO military alliance would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three but said hardly anyone wanted such a scenario. The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in
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Kremlin critic and chess legend Garry Kasparov on Tuesday called for a stronger Western response to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and said Russian dissident voices must be included in efforts to stand up to Vladimir Putin. In an interview with AFP, the former world chess champion who last week
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President Joe Biden declared democracy under threat at home and abroad and called former President Donald Trump’s position on NATO unacceptable on Thursday in a State of the Union speech designed to contrast visions with his 2024 Republican opponent. Biden, speaking before a joint session of the House of
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Turnout for Iran’s parliamentary election, seen as a test of the clerical establishment’s legitimacy, appears to have hit a historic low of around 40 percent, according to unofficial reports in Iranian media on Saturday. Heavyweight moderates and conservatives stayed away from Friday’s election and reformists called it
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President Vladimir Putin told Western countries on Thursday they risked provoking a nuclear war if they sent troops to fight in Ukraine, warning that Moscow had the weapons to strike targets in the West. The war in Ukraine has triggered the worst crisis in Moscow’s relations with the West
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Iran is holding parliamentary elections this Friday, yet the real question may not be who gets elected but how many people actually turn out to vote. Widespread discontent over the cratering economy, years of mass protests rocking the country, and tensions with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program and
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US President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed to halt military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Hamas studied a draft proposal for a truce which includes a pause in fighting and a prisoner-hostage exchange. The draft proposal, which a senior source close to truce
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In the Iranian shrine city of Qom, huge street banners remind voters to head to the polls in Friday’s parliamentary elections, held as the Gaza war stokes Middle East tensions. Voters in the Islamic republic will pick a new parliament for another four years, as well as members of