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 …

Israeli military forces have shot and seriously injured a Palestinian teenage boy in occupied al-Quds over an alleged stabbing attempt, amid tensions in the occupied territories in recent days following the escape of six Palestinian prisoners from high-security Gilboa Prison last week. Israeli media outlets alleged that the 17-year-old Palestinian, …

Western Balkan states have a long way to go to achieve membership in the European Union but it is Germany’s goal that they do, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. At a joint news conference in Belgrade with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Merkel said it was in the geostrategic interest …

Iraq registered 54 mortalities and 4204 new cases, according to the daily COVID-19 report issued by the Ministry of Health today. The report said that 6702 patients have recovered from the virus in the past day. According to the Ministry’s stats, 1954969 citizens have tested positive for the virus since …

The Russian government announced resuming flights to Iraq, Spain, Kenya, and Slovakia as of September 21. An official Russian statement said that flights will be resumed to Turkey and Egypt from international airports in Pskov, Magadan, Murmansk, and Chita. For his part, the Iraqi ambassador to Russia, Abdul Rahman Hamid …

Oil rose on Monday, supported by concerns over shut output in the United States because of damage from Hurricane Ida, with analysts expecting prices to remain rangebound in a stable market over the coming months. Brent crude was up 62 cents, or 0.9%, to $73.54 a barrel at 1332 GMT …

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 …

The US government has been selling houses in federally-designated flood zones, mostly to unsuspecting first homeowners, without disclosing the potential costs and dangers of living in such properties, according to an investigation. The homes, being sold by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), are foreclosures, meaning the previous …

Light rain gave some breathing room to crews struggling Monday to battle a “monster” wildfire in southern Spain which killed a firefighter and forced the evacuation of around 2,600 people. Around 500 firefighters and 51 water-dropping planes have been tackling the blaze, which officials believe was started deliberately last Wednesday …

US President Joe Biden has approved a disaster declaration for California and will travel to Sacramento on Monday to survey the damage from recent wildfires, the White House said on Sunday. More than 6,800 wildfires large and small have blackened an estimated 1.7 million acres (689,000 hectares) within California alone …

An outbreak of dengue fever is suspected of killing dozens of people in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh since the start of September, and authorities have launched a campaign to destroy mosquito breeding grounds. Dinesh Kumar Premi, the chief medical officer in Firozabad, the most affected district in the …

Tropical Storm Nicholas headed toward the Texas coast Monday, threatening to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas of Texas, Mexico, and storm-battered Louisiana. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said a hurricane watch was issued for the central portion of the Texas coast with much of …

A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane carrying a handful of passengers touched down at Kabul airport Monday, the first international commercial flight to land since the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan on August 15. “There was hardly anyone on the plane, around 10 people… maybe more staff than passengers,” said …

A container ship said to be the largest in the world is on course for the Suez Canal, months after its sister ship Ever Given blocked Egypt’s crucial waterway, halting traffic for six days and disrupting global trade. The Ever Ace – currently docked in Suffolk, in the UK – …

New Zealand’s largest city Auckland will remain in lockdown to beat the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. Auckland will remain in the strict Alert level 4 lockdown until midnight on September 21, after which it will move to alert level …

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will attempt to patch up Britain’s frayed relationship with US President Joe Biden’s administration at a White House meeting between the two leaders this month, The Times newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources on both sides. Johnson is expected to hold talks with Biden during …