World News

Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists began a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine on Monday as part of efforts to end their six-year conflict.

Iran has moved a mock aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the US, satellite photographs released Monday show, likely signaling the Islamic Republic soon plans to use it for live-fire drills.

A German court has convicted a 93-year-old former Nazi SS concentration camp guard for complicity in the murder of thousands of prisoners. Bruno Dey was among the last World War Two-era Nazi suspects to face trial in Germany.

Some 80 journalists have resigned from Hungary’s leading news website Index.hu amid mounting government pressure on independent and critical media.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone Thursday and discussed arms control and economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Washington Times reports. Although this is the first time the two leaders have talked since allegations emerged that Russia had offered bounties for Afghan militants to kill US soldiers, neither the White House nor the Kremlin made mention of this issue in their statements about the call.

Spain and several other European nations are taking new measures to halt an increase in reported coronavirus cases. The decisions come amid fresh warnings by authorities of a widespread “second wave” of infections.

China on Friday ordered the United States to close its consulate in the western city of Chengdu, in retaliation for the closure of China’s Houston consulate earlier this week.

China was among a range of topics discussed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London Tuesday, VOA News reports. Pompeo arrived for talks only days after Johnson finally decided to exclude Chinese tech giant Huawei from developing the UK’s 5G phone network, a move Washington has been exhorting for some time.

Because of the number of COVID-19 cases in the US, American and Canadian officials have agreed to keep the border between the two nations closed to all except commercial and essential traffic for another month. Two recent surveys have shown that a large majority of Canadians support the continued closure of the border, VOA News reported Tuesday.

President Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday about arms control and recovering their economies from the coronavirus pandemic.

The leaders of four German states wrote to Congress asking for a halt to Washington’s troop withdrawal plan from the country, Reuters reported Sunday.

A hostage crisis in western Ukraine has ended after the country’s president met a bizarre demand that he post on the internet a link to an internationally acclaimed movie on animal abuse. Security forces could free all 13 hostages unharmed from a bus in the western city of Lutsk, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Kiev, the capital.

The U.S. ordered the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas, shut down because of the persistent problem of Bejing’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.

Ethiopia’s controversial Nile River mega-dam project has hit its first-year filling target, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said Wednesday.

Ethiopia’s prime minister said Tuesday his country, Egypt and Sudan have reached a “major common understanding which paves the way for a breakthrough agreement” on a massive dam project that has led to sharp regional tensions and led some to fear military conflict.

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday indicted two Chinese nationals over their role in what the agency called a decade-long cyber espionage campaign that targeted defense contractors, COVID researchers and hundreds of other victims worldwide.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkish forces, which have carried out several incursions into northern Syria since 2016, would remain in the country until Syrians can live in freedom and safety.

Iran will strike a reciprocal blow against the US for the killing of top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday in a meeting with Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, according to Khamenei’s official website.

Herd immunity to COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP virus, could be achieved with fewer people being infected than previously estimated, new research suggests.

Leaders of the European Union have agreed on an unprecedented 1.82 trillion euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and coronavirus recovery fund after tense negotiations that included table banging and meeting walkouts.