World

Russia, US Diplomats Meet in Istanbul for Embassy Talks

This is Beirut 27/02 12:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

USA Donald Trump US Secretary of State Kyiv Turkey

Russian and US officials met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks on resolving embassy issues as the two countries aimed to restore ties, Russian news agencies reported. The talks are being held at the US consul general's residence and come after this month's first high-level meeting between the two nuclear powers since the start of Russia's Ukraine ...

Pope, Whose Health is Improving, 'Slept Well'

This is Beirut 27/02 11:15 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Pope Francis

Pope Francis, battling pneumonia in both lungs, slept well and is resting, the Vatican said Thursday, after revealing the 88-year-old's condition was slightly improving. The pontiff, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has suffered increasing health problems in recent years. He was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on ...

Starmer Pushes Trump for Ukraine Guarantees Against Putin

This is Beirut 27/02 09:55 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Donald Trump Emmanuel Macron Starmer

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Donald Trump on Thursday to plead for a US backstop to any Ukraine ceasefire, insisting it would be the only way to stop Russia's Vladimir Putin from invading again. Starmer arrived in Washington late Wednesday to build on a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron, amid growing concerns in Europe ...

Texas Child Dies in Measles Outbreak, First US Fatality in Years

This is Beirut 27/02 09:45 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

USA New York Measles

An unvaccinated child in Texas has died from measles, authorities said Wednesday, marking the first US fatality from the highly contagious disease in nearly a decade as health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. downplayed a growing outbreak. The death comes as immunization rates decline nationwide, with the latest cases concentrated in a Mennonite ...

US Cuts Overseas Development Program Budgets by More than 90%

This is Beirut 27/02 09:35 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

USA Donald Trump US Supreme Court Aid

The United States has dramatically cut the budgets of overseas development and aid programs, with multi-year contracts pared down by 92 percent, or $54 billion, the State Department said Wednesday. On his first day in office, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order demanding a freeze on all US foreign aid for 90 days. The pause aimed ...

Turkey's Pro-Kurd Party Teases 'Historic' news from PKK Leader

This is Beirut 27/02 09:30 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Turkey PKK

Turkey's leading pro-Kurd party said it was expecting a "historic declaration" Thursday from the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, amid efforts to end a decades-long conflict with Ankara. The pro-Kurdish DEM party will send a delegation Thursday to meet Ocalan at his prison on an island off Istanbul, it said in ...

Israel Frees Hundreds of Palestinian Prisoners after Body Handover

This is Beirut 27/02 09:10 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Hamas Gaza Palestine Israel

Israel freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on Thursday, shortly after saying Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over coffins believed to contain the bodies of four hostages. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had received the coffins of "four fallen hostages", and a process to formally identify them had ...

Op-edAmerica’s New Doctrine

Salam El Zaatari 27/02 09:05 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

USA NATO Donald Trump China

There’s an old rule in business: if you keep doing favors for people, they’ll come to expect it, and stop doing the work themselves. That, in a nutshell, is what America’s foreign policy shift under President Donald Trump looks like. For decades, US allies in Europe and the Middle East have operated under a comfortable assumption: when ...

Yalta 2.0: The New Masters of the World

Marc Saikali 27/02 08:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)

Volodymyr Zelensky Donald Trump USA Uktaine EU Russia

Since Donald Trump’s rise to power, everything has accelerated. Geopolitical time has sped up. The Middle East, Ukraine... all fronts are moving rapidly. As if by magic, Donald Trump managed to make the Slavic enemies utter the words “ceasefire” to halt the senseless slaughter after three years of unprecedented violence, reminiscent of the ...

Trump Rules Out Security Guarantees for Ukraine and Rejects NATO Membership

This is Beirut 26/02 22:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Donald Trump Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky Emmanuel Macron USA

President Donald Trump on Wednesday ruled out offering US security guarantees or NATO membership for Ukraine as his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky prepared to visit to seal a deal on handing over natural resources. Trump, who has upended US policy by reaching out to Russia and seeking a quick end to the three-year war, said that European allies ...

Israel's Strategic Push to Redefine the Balance of Power in Southern Syria

Natasha Metni Torbey 26/02 21:15 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Israel Ahmad al-Sharaa Benjamin Netanyahou Syria Suweida Quneitra Daraa

Israel has taken a firm stance on its plan for the “total demilitarization” of southern Damascus. “We will not allow forces from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (the group behind the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on December 8, 2024) or the new Syrian army to enter the area south of Damascus,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ...

Syria: 12 SDF Members Killed in Airstrikes Attributed to Turkey

This is Beirut 26/02 20:45 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Damascus Turkey USA

Kurdish-led forces that control large areas of northern and northeastern Syria said 12 people were killed Wednesday in air strikes it blamed on Turkey. "Turkish occupation warplanes and UCAVs (drones) targeted a military position belonging to our forces" as well as civilian homes and a vehicle in the Al-Shaddadi area, the Syrian Democratic Forces ...