World News

A formerly-secret National Security Council strategy document publicly confirms that the CIA and other US agencies have increased their intelligence and spying activity against China in an effort to counter Beijing’s global network of spying operations, the Washington Times (WT) reports.

The European Union has warned Iran that its decision to increase uranium enrichment could undermine efforts to keep a nuclear deal alive. The warning comes amid diplomatic efforts to bring the United States back on board under a new administration.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused Iran of harboring al-Qaeda, saying the country has become a “home base” for the terror group.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the Kremlin Monday, to discuss the reopening of transportation routes that were shut down amid the decades-long regional conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, the Associated Press reports. The meeting follows the November 10, 2020 peace deal brokered by Russia which ended 44 days of renewed hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Facebook has closed the accounts of a network connected to Uganda’s Ministry of Information on the grounds that the network has been using fake accounts to promote Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) ahead of the country’s December 14 presidential elections, Voice of America (VOA) reports.

A World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts will fly from Singapore to Wuhan, China on Thursday in order to try and investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reports. This mission has been relaunched following a setback last month when China denied entry to two investigators who were then forced to return home.

The United Nations’ atomic watchdog chief stressed urgency Monday in reviving an Obama-era nuclear deal aimed at thwarting Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, a report says.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to use newly declassified U.S. intelligence on Tuesday to publicly accuse Iran of ties to al Qaeda, two people familiar with the matter said, as part of his last-minute offensive against Tehran before handing over to the incoming Biden administration.

The outgoing Trump administration, in one of its last foreign policy acts, is putting Cuba back on the official list of state sponsors of terrorism, reversing an Obama-era decision that aimed to normalize diplomatic relations between the U.S. and the communist island.

Indonesia was dealing with the aftermath of two significant disasters, including a plane crash and two landslides in which at least nearly 80 people perished.

The United Nations says thousands of migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty urgently need proper shelter and care in Bosnia-Herzegovina after weeks outdoors in the freezing cold. With authorities declining to open more adequate facilities, many are now sleeping in unheated tents or rough near the northern town of Bihac.

Iran warned Thursday that the country could ramp up its uranium enrichment to 90 percent — just around the weapons-grade level.

A passenger plane carrying dozens of passengers plunged into the Java Sea after leaving the Indonesian capital, investigators suggested.

China has amended a defense law to give increased control for its military to the Central Military Commission (CMC) which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and is chaired by President Xi Jinping, Anti-War reports. The Chinese military can now deploy much more quickly if it wants to challenge US warships that frequently patrol near the Chinese coast.

A new report by Buzzfeed News reveals that among hundreds of detention camps recently built by China in Xinjiang, at least 135 compounds hold factories where prisoners can be forced to produce goods for export into major supply chains around the world. The report is based on government records, interviews, and hundreds of satellite images, Buzzfeed News said.

In a controversial move, the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged countries to do more to curb the new COVID-19 variant. The WHO has expressed concern about the rapidly spreading mutation new of the novel coronavirus.

Washington may sanction those involved in the arrest of over 50 people in Hong Kong and will send the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to visit Taiwan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday, drawing anger and the threat of retaliation from Beijing.

The U.S. government said January 5 that Russia was “likely” behind a massive hack of government and private company networks discovered last month and the intrusion was an “intelligence-gathering effort.”

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that he is “very disappointed” China has not authorized a team of international experts to enter the country and investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.

Having just announced it plans to enrich uranium at a level far above that allowed by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Iranian regime said Tuesday that it is installing 1,000 additional centrifuges and increasing its supply of yellowcake, a uranium concentrate powder used for enrichment.