World News

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has said he would “welcome a permanent Russian military presence” in his country and supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At least 300 people have been detained across France as police in Paris and elsewhere clashed with protesters after the French government decided to force pension reforms without a vote in parliament. The protests and strikes escalated across the country.

United Nations investigators say Russia’s “forced deportation” of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounts to a war crime after Christian missionaries expressed concerns about the plight of orphans.

Around 2.5 tons of natural uranium have disappeared from a location in Libya and, as they are no longer under the Libyan government’s control, present radiological risks and nuclear security concerns, the UN nuclear watchdog told member states on Wednesday.

U.S. rivals China, Russia, and Iran are conducting joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman this week off the southern coast of Iran, China’s Defense Ministry announced, as East-West tensions rise.

A new farmers’ party whose leader was once ridiculed for arriving by tractor at Parliament won the most votes in Dutch local elections, which will impact the composition of the Senate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions were carried out on a “state level,” dismissing recent reports that a pro-Ukrainian group had carried out the blasts.

Credit Suisse announced it will be borrowing up to 50 billion Swiss francs ($53.68 billion) from the Swiss National Bank under a covered loan facility and a short-term liquidity facility.

Thousands of students, teachers, and other critics have rallied in Budapest against Hungary’s perceived autocratic government to demand more freedom and educational reforms.

U.S. rivals China, Russia, and Iran are conducting joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman this week off the southern coast of Iran, China’s Defense Ministry announced, as East-West tensions rise.

The commander of the US Space Force warned this week that China’s military has deployed hundreds of satellites with which it could attack American satellites in future, the Washington Times reports.

A court in heavily Catholic Poland on Tuesday found a self-declared women’s rights activist guilty of aiding an abortion by providing pills, the first such conviction in a nation with the European continent’s strictest abortion laws.

Dutch voters began voting Wednesday in local elections that will impact the national legislature when the country’s longtime prime minister faces the worst social turmoil in years.

Leaders of the European Union’s parliament committee investigating espionage have accused Hungary’s government of “grossly abusing” Israeli spyware to intimidate hundreds of perceived domestic opponents.

Moscow says it won’t cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) after new allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Tuesday’s announcement came as recent fighting was reported in eastern Ukraine, where authorities said among civilians, at least one person was killed and three injured in shelling of the city of Kramatorsk and a 55-year-old woman whose car was hit in Vovchansk city.

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, the US military’s European Command said.

The US-based Genocide Watch NGO has declared a “Genocide Watch” for the Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq as Turkey is not only continuing its bombing campaign against them but is also blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to Kurdish victims of the recent devastating earthquake.

Iran pledged to support Belarus in overcoming Western sanctions as they signed a cooperation agreement during a state visit by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to Tehran.

Belarusian authorities have ended “unlimited, free of charge rental agreements” with at least four Catholic churches as part of a larger Belarus government crackdown, investigators say.

North Korea announced Monday that it test-fired two cruise missiles from a submarine on Sunday, just one day before South Korea was set to begin an extensive joint military drill with the United States, AFP reports.