Europe
Belgium, which currently heads the rotating EU Council presidency, reportedly seeks to gather support for new trade sanctions against Israel from other European Union member states.
The Western European nation is Israel’s fourth largest European trading partner, with an extensive focus on the diamond trade. Belgium has also been one of Israel's harshest critics in the European Union for years.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that the military would hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons — the first time such an exercise has been publicly announced by Moscow.
A look at tactical nuclear weapons and the part they play in the Kremlin’s political messaging.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that Turkey has decided to officially join South Africa's lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. The lawsuit accuses Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“We presented the results of our assessments today to our president, and in accordance with the political decision that was made, I would like to announce for the first time that we have decided to intervene in the case filed by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice,” Fidan said at a press conference, alongside the Indonesian foreign minister.
(April 30, 2024 / JNS) At least five European Union countries will unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state by the end of May, the E.U.’s top diplomat revealed on Monday.
Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Slovenia and Malta are expected to make the move, Josep Borrell said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported.
The wealthy Gulf State of Qatar has hosted the Hamas terror organization's top political leadership for years, including Khaled Mashaal and Ismail Haniyeh, and has also been a major financial supporter of Hamas and its acts of terrorism.
Despite these close ties, Hamas leaders are now considering leaving Qatar and looking for an alternative residence, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
Numerous world leaders warned against an escalation of the situation in the Middle East on Friday, after Israel struck an Iranian military site in the city of Isfahan earlier in the morning.
Fears of a regional escalation caused oil prices to surge by several percent following reports of the Israeli strike, while several markets in Asia dropped, and European stock exchanges like the German DAX started trade with significant drops on Friday.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL — Prior to October 7, the future seemed so bright for Israel.
We had just signed our sixth Arab-Israeli peace and normalization agreement.
We seemed to be on track to sign a seventh agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Our economy was booming, tourism was hitting record levels, and Israel was building increasingly close and warm ties with nations and governments all over the globe.
The Palestinians’ long-dormant application for full United Nations membership will be given a fresh look on Monday.
The United Nations Security Council is set to meet, first in closed consultations, then in an open format, to consider the 2011 application—a move officially requested in a letter from Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Mansour last Wednesday.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation", the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday.
NATO's successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the alliance from coming closer to Russia's borders. Instead, the war has galvanised NATO, which has expanded again with the entry of Finland and Sweden.
Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several reports published on Tuesday in Spanish media.
State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia cited Sanchez as making the informal remarks to the traveling press corps late on Monday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of visits to Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The polar vortex circling the Arctic is swirling in the wrong direction after surprise warming in the upper atmosphere triggered a major reversal event earlier this month. It is one of the most extreme atmospheric U-turns seen in recent memory.
In the past, disruptions to the polar vortex — a rotating mass of cold air that circles the Arctic — have triggered extremely cold weather and storms across large parts of the U.S.
"We plan to create two joint armies, 14 divisions, and 16 brigades,\" Sergei Shoigu announced, outlining Russia's military expansion plans. While the generals present simply nodded, Western experts view this move as highly dangerous. Despite potential equipment shortages, Russia's indifference towards human casualties heightens concerns.
"Alarms are sounding... Vladimir Putin is boosting war economy spending, possibly aiming to confront NATO by 2026 or 2027,\" Andrzej Duda recently cautioned. Jacek Siewiera of the National Security Bureau stressed that NATO's eastern members should brace themselves within a three-year timeframe.