World News

The Trump administration has approved more than $1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan in a move likely to further ratchet up tensions between Beijing and Washington.

China is preparing for a possible military invasion of Taiwan, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Sunday. The Chinese government considers Taiwan to be a break-away part of China and is determined to bring it under Beijing’s control.

Environmental groups have reacted furiously to reports that the Japanese government is set to approve plans to dump more than 1 million tons of highly radioactive water stored at the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean, with their concerns shared by the governments of neighboring countries and people living in northeastern Japan.

The Nigerian state of Lagos has imposed a 24-hour curfew on Tuesday in response to nationwide protests over police brutality. The curfew would apply to all parts of the state, including the metropolis of Lagos, authorities said.

The United States and Russia moved closer Tuesday to reaching a deal on nuclear arms control that would freeze both nations’ nuclear warheads.

A representative from the White House went to Damascus for secret meetings with the Syrian government earlier this year, in an effort to secure the release of at least two US citizens believed to be held hostage there, Reuters reported Monday.

An exiled Iranian dissident group says Iran has developed a new nuclear bomb-making facility, the Washington Times reports. The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French- and Albanian-based group working to overthrow the Iranian regime, said Friday it has learned that there is a new facility in Sorkheh-Hesar in northeast Iran.

The chief Brexit negotiator for the European Union stressed Monday the bloc was prepared to “intensify” trade talks with Britain after holding a call with British dealmaker David Frost.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in a conflict that has killed hundreds in recent weeks. The clashes are rapidly escalating into an all-out war, with civilians caught in the middle.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says he was wrong in allowing the royal family to vacation in Greece while discouraging “unnecessary travel” for others due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The United States says Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend the New START nuclear disarmament treaty without freezing nuclear warheads is a “nonstarter.”

NATO-member Turkey has tested its Russian-made advanced air defense missile system, Turkish media reports said Friday, raising the specter of a new standoff with the United States.

The founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF) has said there must be a “Great Reset” of economies, politics, and societies in light of the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In an article published Monday, WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab wrote: “We will need to reconsider our collective commitment to ‘capitalism’ as we have known it.”

France is mourning a middle school teacher who was beheaded in a Paris suburb Friday, after showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Authorities said French police killed the knife-wielding teenager and detained several people.

During Friday’s session, Prime Minister Sadyr Zhaparov also became interim president of the Central Asian nation of 6.5 million, closely allied with Russia.

Oxford University scientists announced Thursday that they have developed a test that can detect COVID-19 in less than five minutes, the Daily Caller reports. According to the university, the test is highly accurate and is able to differentiate the COVID-19 virus from “negative clinical samples” and “common respiratory pathogens.”

Islamic terrorist organization Al-Qaeda condemned the normalization of ties between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain Tuesday and issued a call for Muslims to mobilize and overthrow what it called the “toadies of the West,” the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports.

Germany has agreed to give $662 million in aid to some 240,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the group involved in the talks said.

A stunning new poll conducted by an Arab-American pollster has found that the people of Saudi Arabia are increasingly receptive to “normalization” of relations with Israel.

The U.S. military carried out a drone strike Thursday, killing two senior Al Qaeda operatives in northwest Syria.