World News

As U.S. troops complete their pullout, the Islamic militant Taliban group rapidly expanded its control in Afghanistan Sunday, increasingly isolating the Western-backed government.

Lyubov Sobol, a prominent ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, has left Russia days, Russian media reported late Sunday.

Thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities Saturday for a fourth consecutive week of protests against the COVID-19 health passes that everyone in the country will need shortly to enter cafes, trains and other venues.

New coronavirus variants could be named after star constellations once letters of the Greek alphabet are exhausted, a senior World Health Organization official has suggested.

Iran is ready to resume talks reviving the nuclear deal with world powers under new President Ebrahim Raisi, and meetings could take place in Vienna from early September, an EU official said on Saturday.

Both the United States and Britain issued advisories Saturday to their citizens, urging them to leave Afghanistan immediately using commercial flight options.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has condemned U.S. President Joe Biden for calling him an “authoritarian tug.”

Greece is among the worst affected countries by deadly wildfires raging through the Balkans, Italy, and the southeastern Mediterranean. Fires rampaged through some of Greece’s last remaining forests for yet another day Saturday, after thousands fled by land and by sea.

A Belarusian athlete who refused orders to fly home early from the Olympics in Tokyo has arrived in Poland and is “happy to be in safety.”

A prominent Iranian official warned Israel not to conduct a military operation against Iran, as the rival Middle Eastern powers trade threats following an attack on an Israeli-managed oil tanker.

The United States urged new Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday to “quickly” resume negotiations on the suspended talks in Vienna regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s new hardline president Ebrahim Raisi, who has been tied to mass executions and crackdowns of political opponents, was sworn in on Thursday as dissidents urged international leaders not to play ball with the regime.

The World Health Organization is calling for a halt on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September, its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, as the gap between vaccinations in wealthy and poor countries widens.

Accusing the Iranian regime of attacking an Israeli-managed oil tanker off the coast of Oman last week, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has called on the United Nations Security Council to respond to what he described as Iran’s “destabilizing actions,” Ynet News reports.

The US is intensifying counter-terrorism airstrikes against al-Qaeda affiliates who have increased their attacks in Somalia since the withdrawal of hundreds of American troops this year, Bloomberg News reports. The US Africa Command has confirmed that airstrikes were carried out on July 20 and 23 and on Aug. 1.

The Cuban Observatory for Human Rights (OCDH) has reported that since the July 11 outbreak of nationwide protests in Cuba, the communist government has carried out at least 1,745 repressive actions against protestors, of which 1,103 were some type of arbitrary detention. The OCDH said the published figures are not definitive as the collection of data has been hindered by repressive government actions.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Italy, France, and Greece over the weekend to protest against mandatory vaccination policies and overall COVID-19 restrictions, DW reports.

The head of a group helping people fleeing Belarus has been found dead near his home in neighboring Ukraine, officials said Monday. Vitaly Shishov’s body was found hanged in a park in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv a day after he failed to return from a jog, according to police.

Iranian-backed forces have taken control of a tanker in the Gulf of Oman, reports said late Tuesday in an incident British authorities described as “a potential hijack.”

The Afghan air force on Monday pounded the Taliban with repeated airstrikes in an effort to keep insurgent fighters from capturing key cities in southern and western Afghanistan, officials said, as the battle for the country’s future moves from the rural countryside toward major population centers.