World News

France’s president lashed out at a U.S.-led free world on Sunday, saying Europe must reduce its dependence on the United States.

Fears grew Sunday about a possible military confrontation between China and Taiwan as tens of warships from both sides were involved in a stand-off near the Taiwan Strait’s sensitive median line, several sources confirmed.

Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov struggled to form a government after results confirmed his center-right party’s victory in the fifth inconclusive poll in two years.

The United States was rushing Saturday to limit the damage of a security breach after classified documents detailing American national security secrets from Ukraine to the Middle East to China surfaced on social media.

Ukraine has admitted that Russia is concentrating all its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut by Easter. The announcement came as Moscow announced that any peace talks on ending its invasion of Ukraine should focus on creating a “new world order.”

Kyiv says Russia has launched massive attacks on provinces that Moscow annexed but not yet fully controls, killing at least four people and injuring seven, including at least two children. The strikes came before Easter after authorities warned Christians not to gather in large groups.

Long-time Mideast rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia took another significant step toward reconciliation Thursday, formally restoring diplomatic ties after a seven-year rift, affirming the need for regional stability and agreeing to pursue economic cooperation.

The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday approved a resolution condemning the increasing number of executions being carried out by the Islamic regime in Iran, including in relation to nationwide protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini last year, the Times of Israel (TOI) reports.

The people in Ukraine are preparing for a sad Easter as there are no signs of a ceasefire. However, as Christian residents in Ukraine prepared to celebrate the Biblical victory over death in the resurrection of Christ on Sunday, there was a reminder that war is never far away.

China sent an anti-submarine helicopter and three warships disturbingly close to Taiwan, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defence said in a statement Thursday, Reuters/AFP report. Successive Chinese regimes have considered the independent island nation of Taiwan to be part of China, and the US-supported Taiwanese have long lived under the threat of invasion by their giant neighbor.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned China not to “push at changing the status quo” as Beijing threatens to retaliate over Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken down one of the world’s biggest online criminal marketplaces where it was possible to clone the computer identities of millions of people for a small fee.

American journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested and charged with espionage in Russia last week, met his lawyers for the first time on Tuesday. The meeting was confirmed by The Wall Street Journal newspaper, for which Gershkovich has been reporting from Russia.

A double-decker train carrying about 50 passengers derailed in the southern Netherlands early Tuesday, killing one person and injuring 30 others, in what officials called “a black day for the Dutch railway.”

Finland became the 31st member of the Western NATO military alliance Tuesday in a historic move that Russia had tried to prevent.

Lawyers for a U.S. journalist arrested in Russia on espionage charges have appealed against the decision to hold him in pre-trial detention. The detention of Evan Gershkovich has raised Western concerns, including from the NATO military alliance.

The U.S. military said Tuesday that a drone strike carried out by the American-led coalition in northwestern Syria has killed a senior member of the Islamic State group who was in charge of planning attacks in Europe.

The U.S. will send Ukraine about $500 million in ammunition and equipment and will spend more than $2 billion to buy an array of munitions, radar and other weapons in the future, U.S. officials said, as the Ukrainian troops prepare for a spring offensive against Russian forces.

The war crimes trial of former Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi and three former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began Monday at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Human Rights Watch reports.

The highly influential Arab governments of Saudi Arabia and Egypt have taken steps toward renewing diplomatic relations with Syrian dictator President Bashar Assad, in what has been described as a “victory for Russia and Iran,” CNS News reports. Assad is strongly supported by, and allied with, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Islamic terrorism-sponsoring regime.