Worldwide

Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, a senior figure in the ruling Taliban said earlier this week, a position which, if formally implemented, would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies, and beyond. Waheed Ullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban …

Russian President Vladimir Putin is self-isolating as a precaution after several members of his entourage fell ill with COVID-19, but is “absolutely” healthy and does not have the disease himself, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Putin, 68, will therefore not travel to Tajikistan this week for planned regional security meetings …

A human rights organization has expressed serious concern about the deliberate medical negligence against political opponents and opposition figures kept in detention centers across Saudi Arabia, saying it is in line with the Riyadh regime’s brutal crackdown against pro-democracy campaigners in the kingdom Sanad human rights organization, which defends political and …

Donors have pledged more than $1.1 billion in aid for Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger are spiraling as foreign grants have dried up since the Taliban’s takeover last month. The pledges were made at a UN conference in Geneva as the world body has warned of a looming humanitarian crisis …

The Gaza Health Ministry has held the illegal Zionist entity responsible for the expiry of 50,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine recently delivered to the besieged coastal enclave. In a statement carried by Arab48 news website on Monday night, the ministry said the vaccines had been kept in inappropriate conditions and …

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has paid a surprise visit to Moscow where Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that the presence of foreign forces without a UN mandate is hindering the West Asian country’s recovery. According to reports, a transcript of Monday’s meeting released by the Kremlin said Putin congratulated …

Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he has no “magic wand” to fix the country’s economic and financial crises, following more than a year of political deadlock over the formation of a government. Mikati made the remark in a statement on Monday, saying he has “no magic wand to …

The Syrian army has entered the town of al-Yadudah in the southern Province of Dara’a after 10 years following an agreement with local tribal elders brokered by Russia, reports said on Monday. Syrian military officials were accompanied by Russian forces as they made their way to the southern Syrian town …

Israeli forces have shot a Palestinian young man over an alleged stabbing attempt in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian man, identified as Muhammad Bilu, 27, sustained serious injuries after he was shot by Israeli forces near Gush Etzion Junction, on Monday morning. The Israeli military claimed that Bilu attempted …

Israeli regime officials have expressed alarm that the two Palestinian prisoners, who remain at large after the stunning jailbreak last week, could carry out an attack. Four of the six Palestinian prisoners who daringly escaped from the high-security Gilboa Prison in northern Occupied Palestine have been apprehended, while the remaining two are …

US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has expressed “deep concern” over the torture of a Saudi aid worker while in detention in the kingdom. “Deeply concerned with allegations of torture in detention of aid worker Abdulrahman al-Sadhan,” the Democratic congresswoman from California said in a statement on Twitter. …

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held talks with the Singaporean leader, foreign and deputy prime ministers in separate meetings on his two-day visit to Singapore. The visit is part of Wang’s six-day trip to four countries – Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and South Korea – in the region that started …

Colombia has increased its troop presence on the joint border with Venezuela after five Colombian soldiers were killed and several others wounded in an attack. According to reports, the soldiers were killed Saturday in clashes that Bogota claimed were planned on its neighbor’s soil by armed groups from Colombia’s last …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is defending US “legacy” in Afghanistan after American forces’ defeat in the country and the swift takeover of the Taliban. The US top diplomat appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to justify the Biden administration’s chaotic handling of withdrawal from the war-ravaged country. …

Dozens of students who were kidnapped from a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara earlier this month have been reportedly released after the army began a military crackdown on criminal gangs in the area. An unnamed spokesman for Zamfara State Governor Bello Matawalle told Reuters on Monday that …

US President Joe Biden will host a first in-person summit of leaders of the “Quad” countries – Australia, India, Japan, and the United States – which have been seeking to enhance cooperation to push back against alleged China’s growing assertiveness. The summit will be held at the White House on …

Donors have pledged more than a billion dollars to help Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger have spiraled since the Taliban took power, and foreign aid has dried up, raising the specter of a mass exodus. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was impossible to say how much of the money …

The US Capitol Police arrested a California man with multiple knives in his truck marked with white supremacist symbols near the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, police said on Monday. Around midnight, a Capitol Police officer was on patrol when he noticed a pickup truck with a bayonet and …

An Alabama man has died of heart failure after he was turned away by 43 hospitals, whose intensive care units were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients amid a surge of new cases. Emergency staff at a local hospital where Ray Martin DeMonia, 73, was admitted to reached out to 43 hospitals …

Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati says he has no “magic wand” to fix the country’s economic and financial crises, following more than a year of political deadlock over the formation of a government. Mikati made the remark in a statement on Monday, saying he has “no magic wand to …