World News

According to a new Right-to-Privacy Index (RPI), Asia has become the world’s worst region for mass surveillance privacy violations, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. Published by British-based risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, the RPI cites Pakistan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, India and the Philippines as among the worst offenders.

The European Union’s executive has rejected a demand by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to dismiss its top rule of law official for comments about Hungary’s ‘ailing democracy.’

The UN’s nuclear watchdog says it has gained access to a second site in Iran where nuclear activities are suspected to have taken place in the past, as agreed with Tehran last month.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on the phone with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisalbin Farhan Sunday, discussing the Abraham peace accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Israel National News reports. Following the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 15, President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia to also normalize ties with Israel “when the time comes.”

Unprecedented flooding in South Sudan has devastated the lives of around 700,000 people, causing a hunger crisis amid the destruction of jobs and harvests, VOA News reports. The World Food Program (WFP) has sounded the alarm about a disaster that is exacerbated by ongoing violence and the COVID-19 economic crisis in the country. WFP is calling for $58 million for the next six months to rebuild South Sudanese infrastructure and to support those in need.

The World Health Organization announced nearly $1 billion in new pledges on Wednesday for the effort to battle the coronavirus pandemic and make sure that poor countries get treatments and vaccines against COVID-19.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the United Nations General Assembly that Iran will have enough nuclear material to produce two bombs in just a matter of months.

Authorities say the world’s coronavirus death toll crosses one million, causing grief worldwide.

The Trump administration may close its embassy in Iraq if the government does not take steps to protect it from attacks by Iranian-backed militants.

There is mounting concern about the plight of persecuted Christian refugees in Hungary despite government pledges to help them.

Russian troops deployed to Belarus for military exercises last week have not yet left, potentially challenging the security of NATO countries in the Baltic region.

Saudi Arabia on Monday said it broke up a terrorist cell that had received training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, arresting 10 people and seizing weapons and explosives.

Authorities in Belarus have admitted detaining hundreds of people in a weekend of massive protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko across the country.

China’s recent takeover of Hong Kong is raising fears Taiwan is the next target in Beijing’s aggressive push for regional control, said White House National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien.

China’s network of detention centers in Xinjiang, where Muslim minorities are allegedly being subjected to acts of repression, appears to be expanding — and a greater number of the facilities are resembling prisons, an Australian think tank says.

African nations came out swinging on the third day of the United Nations annual gathering of world leaders Thursday, calling for dramatic fiscal measures to help economies survive the coronavirus pandemic — which one leader called the “fifth horseman of the apocalypse.”

A first-of-its-kind survey reveals significant shifts in Iranians’ attitudes toward religious beliefs and their authoritarian government.

Two people were stabbed and seriously injured in a suspected terrorist attack in Paris outside the former offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, French authorities said Friday.

China is using the prospect of access to technology related to a nuclear weapons program to lure American allies into Beijing’s geopolitical orbit, U.S. officials and lawmakers fear.

The European Union said Thursday it doesn’t recognize Alexander Lukashenko as the President of Belarus after being sworn in for a sixth term during a secret ceremony.