The U.S. began reviewing future transfers of military assistance to Israel in April, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer to a Rafah operation despite the urging of Biden, other world leaders and humanitarian officials, the official said. No final decision had been made on whether to proceed with the weapons…
SEOUL — For the first time since leader Kim Jong Un took power in 2011, North Koreans were asked to take loyalty oaths on his birthday, a South Korean research institute said, amid other steps the country is taking to solidify his rule. The loyalty oaths, which Reuters could not independently verify, were administered on…
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will seek to press China’s Xi Jinping to use his influence to move Russia toward ending the war in Ukraine during a two-day state visit to France. Both leaders were also expected to discuss trade disputes over electric cars, cognac, and cosmetics. Macron’s office said talks about diplomatic efforts to…
PANAMA CITY — José Raúl Mulino said he was practically retired from politics just over six months ago. Now, he’ll be Panama’s president for the next five years. Standing before a pack of supporters Sunday night, Mulino said: “I never imagined this.” In a historic and tumultuous election, preliminary results put Mulino on top to…
BELGRADE, Serbia — Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to European ally Serbia on Tuesday falls on a symbolic date: the 25th anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s air war over Kosovo. U.S. jets dropped five bombs on the Chinese Embassy compound in the Serbian capital on May 7, 1999, setting it…
MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia has protested to Beijing through multiple channels that a Chinese fighter jet endangered an Australian navy helicopter with flares over international waters, the prime minister said Tuesday. The incident occurred Saturday as the Australian air warfare destroyer HMAS Hobart was enforcing U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea in international waters in the…
SAN PEDRO DE MACHA, Bolivia — In the high altitude Bolivian town of San Pedro de Macha, hundreds of Indigenous Quechua men and women take to the streets for a ritual dance and combat known as the “Tinku”, involving hand-to-hand combat between neighbors to settle disputes. The Tinku, a word that in Quechua means “encounter”…
SHENZHEN, China — On the long list of disputes between the United States and China, electric vehicles enjoy an increasingly prominent role. Growing stars of the auto world, EVs are also now the subject of intense commercial competition and national security concerns for the world’s two largest economies. And this metropolis known as China’s Silicon…
Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators have foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures, Ukraine’s state security service said Tuesday. Two colonels in the State Guard of Ukraine, which protects top officials, were detained on suspicion of enacting the plan drawn up by Russia’s Federal Security Service, a statement…
Russian state TV broadcast the hourlong ceremony live, accompanied by enthusiastic commentary, showing Putin walking out of his office in the Kremlin as he got into a car for a short drive to the ceremony as snow fell on Moscow. He then walked the red carpet of the Kremlin’s historic halls to the applause of…
