Three years after the signing of the Abraham Accords, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on a mission to steady Washington’s relationship with Riyadh after Biden’s insulting 2021 election statements, ongoing oil disagreements, and disputes on Iran policy.
Kyiv pleaded for international help on Wednesday as tens of thousands of people were at risk of drowning following the collapse of a gigantic dam in a Russian-occupied region of southern Ukraine.
French protesters angry about President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms stormed the Paris 2024 Olympic Games headquarters as part of Tuesday’s demonstrations and strikes disrupting France.
Prompting outrage from Israel and the United States, Iran was last week elected to two leadership roles in the United Nations, including as rapporteur to the committee responsible for disarmament and international security, Algemeiner reports. The second position to which Iran was elected on Thursday last week is that of a Vice President of the UN General Assembly.
Ukraine has accused Russia of blowing up a massive dam on the Dnipro River, forcing thousands of people to flee catastrophic flooding. Moscow denies responsibility for the disaster in the Russian-occupied Kherson area in southern Ukraine, but Kyiv wants the United Nations to intervene.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who critics have condemned for his perceived authoritarian style, has reappointed an internationally respected former banker as finance minister to help tackle a massive economic crisis.
Moscow claimed Monday that it prevented a Ukrainian counter-offensive by killing 250 Ukrainian troops amid concerns in the West that its weapons were used against Russia.
Iran is set to reopen its embassy in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, after seven years of severed diplomatic ties between the two Middle Eastern powers, i24 News reports. Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016, after its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad were attacked by demonstrators protesting Riyadh’s execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Serbia has begun soul searching after two shootings killed 18 people, half of them children, prompting massive protests over the weekend.
Hungary and Poland have condemned the European Parliament for adopting a resolution questioning Hungary’s ability to hold the European Union presidency next year due to concerns about its perceived crackdown on democratic values.
Ukraine says a toddler has been killed and 22 injured after a Russian air strike in a residential area of the Ukrainian central city of Dnipro. But there were growing indications Sunday that the war in Ukraine was further escalating beyond its borders, with Russian authorities accusing Kyiv of attacking targets inside Russian territory.
At least 233 people were killed and about 900 injured Friday in a multiple train collision in India’s eastern state of Odisha, officials said.
Russia accused neighboring Ukraine on Friday of attacking Russia’s Belgorod region, killing at least two people and injuring two others.
The Biden administration is retaliating for Russia’s suspension of the New START nuclear treaty, announcing Thursday it is revoking the visas of Russian nuclear inspectors, denying pending applications for new monitors and canceling standard clearances for Russian aircraft to enter U.S. airspace.
The European Union and the United States said Wednesday that they would soon release a voluntary code of conduct on artificial intelligence, hoping to develop common standards among democracies as China makes rapid gains.
A Chinese warship came within 150 yards of hitting the USS Chung-Hoon on Saturday before crossing its bow a second time at closer to 2,000 yards while the U.S. destroyer was conducting joint exercises with Canada in the Taiwan Strait, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) confirmed.
Saudi Arabia will reportedly be cutting back on the amount of oil it exports to the world economy, in an effort to support the sagging price of crude after two earlier supply cuts by major oil-producing nations in the OPEC+ alliance failed to do so.
Chinese scientists have begun drilling a 10,000-meter (32,808 feet) hole into the Earth’s crust, as the world’s second largest economy explores new frontiers above and below the planet’s surface.
The U.S. dollar’s domination in world trade was further challenged Thursday as BRICS nations asked the bloc’s bank to investigate how a gold-backed shared currency might work.
Preparations continued Friday for “the largest military exercise” over European skies in the 74-year history of the Western NATO military alliance, U.S. sources said, after indications that the war in Ukraine may escalate into a broader armed conflict.