World News

Protesters in Hong Kong once again defied a police ban Sunday to march through the territory’s downtown districts in their push for greater political freedom, but what began as a peaceful demonstration quickly turned violent.

Egypt on Sunday said negotiations over an upstream Nile dam being built by Ethiopia have not led to any ‘breakthrough.’

Turkey’s defense ministry said on Sunday that the delivery of a second battery of Russian S-400 missile defense systems has been completed as of Sunday, and added that the systems would become active in April 2020.

President Trump on Sunday suggested U.S. investigators had ‘reason to believe’ they knew who launched crippling attacks against a key Saudi oil facility, and vowed that America was ‘locked and loaded depending on verification.’

Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day targeting the world’s biggest oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the ‘unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.’

Drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility in Saudi Arabia and another major oil field Saturday, sparking huge fires at a vulnerable chokepoint for global energy supplies.

Oil prices surged on Monday, with Brent crude posting its biggest intra-day percentage gain since the Gulf War in 1991, after an attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities on Saturday shut over 5% of global supply.

Saudi oil sites attacked on Saturday — in a drone assault linked to Iran — were seen to have sustained damage after satellite images released Sunday captured char marks and smoke billowing from the world’s largest oil processing facility.

China urged the United States on Thursday to adopt an approach more conducive to dialogue in response to North Korea’s goodwill in wanting to resume denuclearization talks, and again suggested United Nations sanctions relief be considered for Pyongyang.

Working-level talks expected to take place between the United States and North Korea late this month are part of a process to draft an agreement to be signed at the countries’ next summit, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said Thursday.

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he preferred a comprehensive trade deal with China but did not rule out the possibility of an interim pact, even as he said an ‘easy’ agreement would not be possible.

President’s Trump’s split with former national security adviser John Bolton could foreshadow an effort to revive the Taliban peace talks that delivered the final blow to the pair’s strained relationship.

The European Central Bank on Thursday announced a sweeping round of stimulus for the continent’s slowing economy, cutting interest rates to their lowest ever level and introducing a round of quantitative easing.

A US-led coalition of warplanes conducted an airstrike against an Islamic State stronghold in Iraq on Tuesday, dropping 40 tons of bombs on an island in the Tigris River in order to deny the terror group a safe haven, according to Operation Inherent Resolve.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has accused the US of interference in the wave of protests that have swept through the Special Administrative Region of China since June.

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri called Wednesday on Muslims to attack US, European, Israeli and Russian targets in a speech on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Iran has denounced a ‘U.S.-Israeli plot’ to put pressure on the United Nations nuclear watchdog, after the IAEA called in recent days for more cooperation from Tehran following what diplomats say was the detection of uranium particles at an undeclared site.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States will postpone a planned 5 percent tariff increase on Chinese goods.

Scientists for the first time have detected water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet orbiting a distant star, evidence that a key ingredient for life exists beyond our solar system, according to a study published on Wednesday.

Pro-ISIS and pro-Al-Qaeda channels on the Telegram messaging app have been inundated with posts relating to 9/11, including threats and calls for Muslims in the U.S. to carry out new terrorist attacks, according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).