Worldwide

The European Union must stand with Lithuania against Chinese pressure and not give in to trade threats, Slovenia’s prime minister said in a letter to fellow EU leaders, according to a copy seen by Reuters. China’s decision to withdraw its ambassador to Lithuania over a dispute about Taiwan was “reprehensible” …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pushed for a slower drawdown to encourage negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, according to “Peril.” President Joe Biden’s top cabinet members unsuccessfully tried to dissuade him from pulling all US troops from Afghanistan, hoping he would …

Germany warned Mali on Wednesday that a deal with Russian private security group Wagner would “call into question” its deployment in the West African country as part of United Nations and European Union missions. “If Mali’s government makes such a deal with Russia, then it goes against everything that Germany, …

The key defendant in the 2015 Paris attacks trial said Wednesday that the ISIS network which struck the city was attacking France and that the deaths of 130 people were “nothing personal.” Wearing all black and declining to remove his black mask, Salah Abdeslam was the last of the 14 …

Two wildfires in the US state of California are threatening some of the world’s largest and oldest trees in the area, according to the US National Park Service (NPS). Sequoia National Park in California, home to giant sequoia trees – the world’s largest, was forced to shut down due to …

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday vowed to boost humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as she pledged the 27-nation bloc stands “by the Afghan people”. “We must do everything to avert the real risk that is out there of a major famine and humanitarian disaster. And we will do …

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will reshuffle his team of ministers on Wednesday to put in place a “strong and united team” to deliver on his 2019 election promise to tackle regional inequality, a source in his office said. “The Prime Minister will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a …

The European Union is to donate another 200 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to low-income countries, more than doubling its present pledge, the bloc’s chief said on Wednesday. The extra doses announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen come on top of 250 million shots the EU has already …

The Intelligence agency deputy director noted that intelligence agencies were already noticing activities by al-Qaeda to re-establish a presence in Afghanistan. US intelligence officials warned Tuesday that the terrorist group al-Qaeda could re-establish itself in Afghanistan within the next one to two years. President Joe Biden ordered the complete withdrawal …

A Turkish drone base in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus could increase safety risks for thousands of commercial flights that cross the airspace around the eastern Mediterranean island, a flight safety group warned Tuesday. FSF-Med, an NGO affiliated with the Washington, D.C.-based International Flight Safety Foundation, said the …

The Saudi-led coalition has rejected the findings of a report by the UN Human Rights Council that strongly condemns the egregious violations committed by the foreign forces in Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Abdul Aziz Al-Wasel, said the coalition “does not accept the report,” calling …

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that the presence of police officers and gendarmes on the ground will be doubled in ten years – despite repeated allegations of brutality and racism in the force. Speaking at the National Police School in northern France, Macron said the budget of the interior …

US House Democrats have staged a plan to fund trillions of dollars by raising taxes on the rich and on profitable corporations. US media reported on Monday that the House Ways and Means Committee was as always focused on raising income tax to pay for the party’s $3.5 trillion social …

The EU’s prosecutor’s office, launched with fanfare three months ago, is already probing various suspected frauds against the bloc’s funds, amounting to 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion), it said on Tuesday. That sum is a total from some 300 investigations that have been opened since the independent body started work …

Senior diplomats from Japan, the United States, and South Korea urged North Korea on Tuesday to return to talks over its missile and nuclear development, a day after it announced it successfully tested new long-range cruise missiles, indicating an advancement of its military capabilities. The three-way meeting in Tokyo was …

Haiti’s chief public prosecutor has asked the judge overseeing the investigation into the assassination of President Jovenel Moise to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry as a suspect and ordered migration services not to let him leave the country. In a letter to Judge Garry Orelien, prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude said phone …

Germany’s federal election is too close to call as the number of still undecided voters hit a record high less than two weeks before the poll, in which center-right Chancellor Angela Merkel is not seeking a fifth term, a survey showed on Tuesday. The survey by the Allensbach research institute …

A total of 114 of the 266 inmates who escaped from a Nigerian prison on Sunday have been recaptured, the prison service said on Tuesday. Heavily armed gunmen raided the medium-security jail at Kabba in south-central Nigeria late on Sunday, blowing up the perimeter fence and freeing almost everyone, but …

US President Joe Biden’s administration decided it will hold back $130 million in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, Politico reported. Egypt receives $1.3 billion in military aid annually, out of that amount Congress put human-rights-related conditions on $300 million. The Secretary of State has the power to …

“A full accounting of the US response to this crisis is not complete without the Pentagon, especially when it comes to understanding the complete collapse of the US-trained and funded Afghan military,” Menendez said. The top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday blasted the Biden administration over its …