World News

The United Nations observed the annual World Press Freedom Day amid warnings that press freedom is under attack globally after the deadliest year for journalists on record.

The U.S.-led coalition carried out a drone strike Wednesday in northwestern Syria targeting a senior al-Qaida leader, the U.S. military said.

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.

The foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria met in Amman on Monday to discuss Syria’s reentry into the Arab League. The talks, which include the discussion of obligations that Syria must fulfill in order to reenter, are part of an initiative led by Jordan.

In the latest of a series of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels since 2019, Iran on Wednesday morning seized control of a second oil tanker in Gulf waters in a week, Reuters reports.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus on Monday, marking the first time an Iranian president has visited Syria since the civil war took over the country in 2011, the Associated Press reports. Raisi’s meeting with Assad was part of a two-day visit to boost economic and political cooperation between Iran and Syria.

Serbian police say they have detained a 14-year boy who was allegedly involved in killing at least eight students and a security guard at a primary school in Belgrade.

The French interior minister said Tuesday that Labor Day rioters seeking to “kill a police officer” had injured at least 406 police personnel in violent protests across France.

Moscow on Tuesday rejected a U.S. assessment of massive Russian military casualties in Ukraine but declined to give its own estimates. The United States said Monday that Russia’s military had sustained 100,000 casualties in the past five months, including tens of thousands of dead. Many soldiers are killed and injured in the battle for Bakhmut, Ukraine’s devastated eastern city that has become of symbolic importance for both sides of so far Europe’s bloodiest conflict in the 21st century.

The mother of detained American freelance journalist Austin Tice says assurances about efforts to bring him home from Syria have “lost their strength.”

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, and Iran are among 19 nations seeking to join the BRICS group, which may outpace the global role of leading Western economies within five years, officials confirmed.

Authorities say dozens of people have been injured in a series of Russian missile strikes at Ukrainian cities ahead of an expected counteroffensive by Ukraine’s military. The most devastating attacks hit the eastern Ukrainian town of Pavlohrad, wounding 34 people, including five children, officials said. Two women were said to be in intensive care.

Violent demonstrators took to the streets of Paris Monday and across France to protest against French President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, joining workers across Europe in May Day rallies.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that Turkish forces have killed Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi, the suspected leader of Islamic State in neighboring Syria, the New York Post reports. Turkey currently controls sections of territory in northern Syria since being allowed to carry out land incursions against Kurdish groups it claims are terrorists.

Pope Francis said Sunday that the Vatican is involved in a peace mission for wartorn Ukraine as the bloodiest weekend for civilians in more than a month killed dozens of people.

World leaders gather this year at the United Nations in New York to speed up the global “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” amid frustration over a lack of progress, organizers say.

The U.S. military says it is arming aircraft sent to the Middle East with “bunker-busting” bombs due to “increasing aggression” from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which may soon have nuclear weapons.

Iran has denied delivering over 300,000 artillery shells and about a million rounds of ammunition to Russia for use in Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has increased its submarine presence in the Atlantic at a higher level than ever in recent years, the top U.S. officer overseeing operations in Europe said Wednesday, citing one of several examples contradicting conclusions that the military loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been severely degraded by his war in Ukraine.

Iran’s naval forces on Thursday seized an oil tanker bound for Texas in the Gulf of Oman, a move that drew condemnation from the U.S. military at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington.