World

Blinken Heads to Middle East to Push for Gaza Truce

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 22:15 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Antony Blinken Middle East Benjamin Netanyahu US Secretary of State

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken left for the Middle East Monday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel's killing of Hamas's leader. It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to ...

Two Killed in Israeli Strike on Damascus's Mazzeh Area

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 18:00 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Syria Mazzeh Neighborhood Damascus SOHR explosion

Syria's defense ministry said two civilians were killed in an Israeli strike that targeted a vehicle earlier on Monday. "At approximately 17:05 pm (1417 GMT), the Israeli enemy launched an air strike targeting a civilian car in the residential neighbourhood of Mazzeh in Damascus, killing two civilians and injuring three," ...

$Macron Tells Netanyahu UN Must Play \$

Macron Tells Netanyahu UN Must Play "Full Role" in Southern Lebanon

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 17:19 - Reading : less than a minute

Emmanuel Macron Benjamin Netanyahu South Lebanon United Nations

French President Emmanuel Macron said in a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that the UN must play “its full role” in southern Lebanon to enable the return of civilian populations, the Elysée Palace announced. The United Nations must “play its full role in southern Lebanon, to enable the return ...

Israeli Police Detain Seven Suspected of Spying for Iran

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 15:25 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

Iran Israel Army Espionnage

Israeli police on Monday said they had arrested a spy network of seven Israeli citizens who were gathering information on Israel's military bases and energy infrastructure for Iranian intelligence. The internal security agency and police "successfully dismantled a spy network involving seven Israeli citizens who were operating on behalf of ...

Blinken Back in Middle East to Push for Ceasefire Deal

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 13:25 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Antony Blinken Ceasefire Hamas Middle East

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads back to the Middle East Monday on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire two weeks before US elections, seeing a new opportunity from Israel's killing of Hamas's leader. It will be the 11th trip to the Middle East by the top US diplomat since war broke out a year ago, with Blinken on his last visit to ...

US Defense Chief Visits Ukraine in Show of Solidarity

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 10:35 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

Donald Trump Kyiv Ukraine USA Volodymyr Zelensky

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv Monday morning in a show of support weeks before the US election. Austin's visit came at a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging Western allies to lift restrictions on the the use of long-range weapons and calling for an immediate invitation to join NATO. But Ukraine fears ...

France Welcomes Russian Soldiers Deserting in Ukraine

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 10:05 - Reading : 5 minute(s)

Europe European Union Ukraine USA Vladimir Putin

Six Russian soldiers who fled the fighting in Ukraine have found refuge in France and hope to receive asylum, in a landmark case of Russian deserters being welcomed in an EU country as a group. The deserters, all of whom had reached France via Kazakhstan, told AFP in a series of interviews they hoped their actions would encourage other Russian ...

Moldova's EU Membership Vote is Too Close to Call

This is Beirut 2024-10-21 09:50 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Banks Europe European Union Ukraine Washington

A referendum on Moldova joining the EU was too close to call early Monday with almost all votes counted, as pro-EU President Maia Sandu blamed "criminal groups working together with foreign forces" -- a veiled reference to Russia -- for the outcome. The close vote is a setback for Sandu, who managed to top the first round of ...

AnalysisThe Dynamics of a Changing Middle East

2024-10-21 09:00 - Reading : 4 minute(s)

Middle East Iran Lebanon

The Israeli counter-offensive is going far beyond the immediate national security concerns and setting the path for a new geostrategic configuration. The progressive destruction of the geopolitical platforms of Iranian regional expansionism is the inevitable outcome of a renewed political vision and its incidence on military strategizing and ...

PoliticsWHO Certifies Egypt as Malaria-Free

This is Beirut 2024-10-20 20:40 - Reading : 2 minute(s)

WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Malaria

Egypt was certified as malaria-free on Sunday, with the World Health Organization calling the achievement "truly historic" and the culmination of nearly a century of work to stamp out the disease. "Malaria is as old as Egyptian civilisation itself, but the disease that plagued pharaohs now belongs to its history and not its future," WHO chief ...

PoliticsIran Protests EU Support for UAE Over Disputed Islands

This is Beirut 2024-10-20 19:55 - Reading : 1 minute(s)

European Union Gulf Tehran United Arab Emirates

Iran summoned the ambassador of Hungary, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, to protest a joint EU-Gulf Cooperation Council statement on islands controlled by Iran but claimed by the UAE, state media reported on Sunday. The statement, published after the first summit between the two regional blocs on Wednesday, said, "We ...

ChronicleCanonization of the Massabki Brothers: A Triumph of Blood Ecumenism

Fady Noun 2024-10-20 19:00 - Reading : 6 minute(s)

Bechara Rai Damascus Pope Francis Church canonization Maronite

Today, October 20, the universal Church has been graced with the addition of 14 new figures of holiness, including eleven martyrs: eight Franciscan religious and three Maronite laymen, the brothers Francis, Abdel Mohti, and Raphael Massabki. All were brutally killed in Damascus during the night of July 9 to 10, 1860, for their refusal to ...