World News

The United States and six Gulf countries on Wednesday imposed sanctions on six targets Washington has accused of supporting Islamic State operations, including by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to leaders of the group in Iraq and Syria.

An explosion was reported Sunday at a power station in the central Iranian province of Isfahan, the latest in a mysterious series of blasts and blazes that have occurred throughout the country.

European Union negotiations on an unprecedented nearly two trillion euro budget and coronavirus recovery fund entered the third day amid warnings the summit could end without an agreement.

Western security services say Russian spies try to steal coronavirus research in several Western nations. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned Friday that Russian hackers “almost certainly” operated as “part of Russian intelligence services.”

Fresh fighting erupted Thursday on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, dashing hopes of an end to the worst clashes between the neighbors in years. 

A pro-Western party in North Macedonia is trying to form a coalition government after it claimed victory in somewhat historic but troubled elections. The Balkan nation’s first national vote under a new state name faced a suspected hacking attack impacting the publishing of results. 

New images captured in the last week by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite suggest that Ethiopia may have started filling its massive Nile River dam, as tensions over the project continue.

India and the European Union have vowed to deepen trade ties on Wednesday, with the two sides agreeing to set up a high-level ministerial dialogue on trade and investment.

President Trump signed legislation Tuesday sanctioning Chinese officials and entities for China’s “repressive actions” against the people of Hong Kong, and issued an executive order ending the territory’s preferential treatment by the U.S.

The Trump administration is planning to extend restrictions barring non-essential travel across the Mexican and Canadian borders until at least late August as coronavirus cases and deaths continue to spike in the U.S. and Mexico, according to three people familiar with the plans.

Iran saw two further explosions at sensitive sites Sunday, with fire at a petrochemical plant in the Khuzestan province and a blast in a building believed to hold gas cylinders in Tehran, Fox News reported. These incidents were the latest in a series of sometimes deadly, mysterious explosions that have been taking place at military or infrastructural sites since June 26.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said a further summit of European Union member states may be required if Friday’s planned meeting fails to produce agreement on an economic stimulus package to help the bloc recover financially from COVID-19, the Washington Times reports.

The French government and unions have signed an agreement to give over eight billion euros in pay rises for the nation’s troubled health workers. France’s recently appointed Prime Minister Jean Castex said the move was overdue amid the devastating coronavirus pandemic in the European Union member state.

The Saudi-led coalition said on Monday it intercepted and destroyed four ballistic rockets and seven drones laden with explosives launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis towards the kingdom.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he isn’t thinking about a possible next stage of the U.S. trade deal with China, adding that the relationship between the two nations has been “severely damaged” by the coronavirus pandemic.

Hong Kong scientist Dr. Li-Meng Yan was stepping into uncharted territory. Hours before she boarded an April 28 Cathay Pacific flight to the United States, the respected doctor who specialized in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong School of Public Health had plotted her escape, packing her bag and sneaking past the censors and video cameras on campus.

The gender field will soon no longer appear in the Identification cards (IDs) of citizens, the government of the Netherlands has announced.

Poland’s incumbent conservative President Andrzej Duda has narrowly beaten his liberal challenger Rafal Trzaskowski in Sunday’s razor-blade tight presidential election. The National Electoral Commission said Duda won with 51.2 percent of the vote.

Thousands of protestors took to the streets of Sofia and at least 10 other Bulgarian towns for the fourth day Sunday in demonstrations against government corruption, VOA reports. During a march to Parliament in Sofia, more than 3,000 protestors called for the conservative government to resign with shouts of “Mafia!” The protests were triggered in support of socialist President Rumen Radev’s, after prosecutors and heavily armed police raided presidential offices on Thursday, VOA reported.

Further explosions were reported Thursday night at yet another sensitive site in Iran, the Jerusalem Post reports. The latest in a series of blasts at industrial and infrastructural areas in Iran, Thursday’s explosions reportedly took place at an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRG) missile depot west of Tehran.