World

Gaza: Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 12 Palestinians
Gaza: Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 12 Palestinians

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes Monday across the territory killed at least 12 people, the majority displaced Palestinians taking shelter in a house in the north. More than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, the violence continued even as the United States expressed "cautious optimism" about the prospects of reaching a ...

First Flight Since Assad’s Fall Departs Damascus
First Flight Since Assad’s Fall Departs Damascus

The first flight since the ouster of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country's north, AFP journalists saw. Forty-three people including journalists were on board the Syrian Air Airbus plane. Assad fled Syria as a lightning rebel offensive launched on November 27 wrested from his ...

Cyclone Chido Ravages Mayotte, Rescue Efforts Intensify
Cyclone Chido Ravages Mayotte, Rescue Efforts Intensify

Rescuers searched desperately for survivors as they sought to assess the full scale of devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, which emerged on Wednesday from a first night spent under curfew. French President Emmanuel Macron "will be in Mayotte on Thursday", his office announced late on Tuesday, as ...

Zelensky and NATO Leaders Discuss Next Steps in Brussels
Zelensky and NATO Leaders Discuss Next Steps in Brussels

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets Wednesday with NATO chief Mark Rutte and key European leaders in Brussels to discuss "next steps" on Russia's war as Donald Trump prepares to take office in the United States. The gathering due in the evening was set to bring together German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish leader Donald Tusk, Italian ...

UN Warns Syria’s War Isn’t Over
UN Warns Syria’s War Isn’t Over

A UN envoy has warned that Syria's protracted conflict "has not ended yet", even as victorious Islamist-led rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah. The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday "there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, ...

US Sees 'Cautious Optimism' on Reaching Gaza Ceasefire
US Sees 'Cautious Optimism' on Reaching Gaza Ceasefire

The United States said Tuesday it felt "cautious optimism" on the prospects of reaching a ceasefire in the 14-month war in Gaza, although it acknowledged that similar hopes had been dashed before. Hamas on Tuesday said that talks mediated by Qatar were "serious and positive," a day after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the two ...

Syria Ex-Rebel Military Chief Says to Dissolve Armed Wing
Syria Ex-Rebel Military Chief Says to Dissolve Armed Wing

The military chief of Syria's victorious Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said on Tuesday it would be "the first" to dissolve its armed wing and integrate into the armed forces. "In any state, all military units must be integrated into this institution," Murhaf Abu Qasra, known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi, said in an interview ...

All (Diplomatic) Roads Lead to Damascus…
All (Diplomatic) Roads Lead to Damascus…

This influx appears oddly under the auspices of all the imaginable paradoxes that Syria embodies: international sanctions, foreign interferences (Turkish interventions, Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, etc.), and not least, the fact that talks are being held with the ruling coalition of rebels now in power, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham ...

Syria's New Rulers Step Up Engagement With The World
Syria's New Rulers Step Up Engagement With The World

Syria's new rulers stepped up engagement on Tuesday with countries that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah, with the French flag raised at the embassy for the first time in over a decade. Assad fled Syria just over a week ago, as his forces abandoned tanks and other equipment in the face of a lightning offensive spearheaded by the ...

Joy and Apprehension Among Syria’s Druze Community
Joy and Apprehension Among Syria’s Druze Community

Like everywhere else in Syria, the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s totalitarian regime was acclaimed with joy and celebrations in the predominantly Druze southern province of Sweida. While they have historically been close to the regime, the esoteric minority Druze community, making up some 3 to 4% of Syria’s ...