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Swedish Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson will have a shot at becoming the Nordic country’s first female prime minister after the speaker picked her on Thursday to try and form a government from a fragmented parliament. Andersson was elected by the Social Democrat party to replace former Prime Minister Stefan Lofven …

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has formed a new transitional council, headed by himself, to lead the country following the military takeover late last month, state TV reported on Thursday. Burhan’s deputy will remain Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with both men …

Ethiopian staff working for the United Nations or African Union do not live “in space” and will be punished for any lawbreaking, the government said on Thursday, after the arrest of several U.N. employees for unspecified offences. Ethiopia declared a state of emergency on Nov. 2 after rebellious forces from …

The “stiff competition” between the United States and China in the Indo-Pacific does not have to turn into a new Cold War, U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on Thursday, describing the United States as “doubling down” on its presence in the region. Earlier on Thursday China’s President Xi …

Countries bordering Belarus on Thursday warned the migrant crisis on the European Union’s eastern borders could escalate into a military confrontation while Ukraine said it would deploy thousands more troops to reinforce its frontier. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia said Belarus posed serious threats to European security by deliberately escalating its …

How Israel keeps its foes and friends on the defensive. Israeli hyperbole is as old as the Israeli state. It is tautological, serving as the raison d’être and modus operandi of Israel, the garrison state. It is farcical, fantastical, and also dangerous in the way it surpasses mere rhetoric to …

British Brexit minister David Frost said on Wednesday that Brussels should stay calm and avoid embarking on “massive and disproportionate retaliation” if London follows through on its threat to escalate a post-Brexit trade dispute. Frost said he wasn’t yet ready to give up on talks aimed at finding a solution, …

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill calling for more sanctions and other punitive measures against the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who extended his grip on power in an election that Washington denounced as a sham. Biden, who has accused Ortega of orchestrating Sunday’s …

Turkey has reportedly released a Turkish-American man imprisoned for being the license holder of an encrypted messaging app allegedly used during the attempted coup in 2016, a Turkish opposition website said Wednesday. “The İstanbul 29th High Criminal Court ruled to release Alpaslan Demir, who changed his name to David Keynes …

Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign affairs chief has embarked on a visit to neighboring Pakistan as the Taliban rulers seek regional and global recognition. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that this week’s visit was a follow-up to a visit last month by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to …

The US annual inflation has hit a 30-year high amid the coronavirus pandemic as well as the glitch in the country’s supply chain. According to the latest statistics, the consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.2 percent in the US federal government’s fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. …

Ethiopian authorities have detained more than 70 drivers working with the United Nations, a U.N. spokesperson said, amid international alarm over reported widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans as the war in the country’s north escalates. The ethnicity of the 72 drivers was not clear. The U.N. spokesperson said the drivers …

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck southeast of Ryukyu Islands, Japan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said on Wednesday. The quake was at a depth of 2 km (1.24 miles) and was about 312 km south of Naha, Japan, EMSC said.

Snowstorms have wreaked havoc in northeast China this week, with record snowfall in some parts snarling traffic, disrupting train services, and raising concerns about power supplies as temperatures plunge, state media reported on Wednesday. Traffic in Liaoning province has been severely disrupted, with the majority of expressway toll stations shut …

The European Union’s foreign policy chief warned the bloc on Wednesday that it must agree an ambitious doctrine as the basis for joint military action abroad, including with a deployable crisis force. Josep Borrell told reporters his first draft of the “Strategic Compass” – the closest thing the EU could …

Heavy rains on Sri Lanka’s coast and in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have killed at least 25 people, destroyed thousands of homes and snarled traffic, authorities said. In Sri Lanka, 20 people have died in recent days, most from drowning, while five were hurt in landslides, officials …

Swedish centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven formally resigned on Wednesday, opening the way for Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson to become the country’s first woman premier if she can win parliament’s approval. Lofven, a former welder and union negotiator, has headed a minority coalition with the Greens since 2014 and said …

U.S. President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hold their first in-person meeting in Washington on Nov. 18, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. The meeting, which will be the first summit held by the three countries in five years, will …

China’s military said on Tuesday it conducted a combat readiness patrol in the direction of the Taiwan Strait after its defense ministry condemned a visit to Taiwan by a US Congressional delegation it said had arrived on a military aircraft. The patrol was aimed at the “seriously wrong” words and …

More than a dozen Ethiopian staffers working for the United Nations have been arrested in Addis Ababa in raids targeting ethnic Tigrayans under a state of emergency, UN and humanitarian sources told AFP Tuesday. “Some of them were taken from their homes,” one of the sources said, while a UN …