Category: World

Calls are growing to move the United Nations General Assembly session from New York to Geneva after the United States denied visas to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his delegation, according to media reports. The session is expected to feature key decisions on the recognition of Palestine, with high-level debates scheduled from September 23 to 27 before concluding on September 29. The Trump administration has refused visas to around 80 Palestinian officials. The US also barred PLO leader Yasser Arafat from travelling to New York in 1988. This is the…

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PARIS: France’s parliament on Monday voted to oust the prime minister in a no-confidence move over debt-control plans, plunging President Emmanuel Macron into fresh political uncertainty. Francois Bayrou, 74, took office as prime minister only nine months ago. He must now tender his resignation, leaving Macron to face a narrowing set of options, with financial markets signalling worry at France’s political and fiscal crisis. Bayrou had called the vote unexpectedly to try to win parliamentary support for his strategy to lower a deficit that stands at nearly double the European…

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VATICAN CITY: A British-born Italian boy who died of leukaemia in 2006 will become the first Catholic saint of the millennial generation on Sunday (Today), in a ceremony led by Pope Leo in St Peter’s Square that is expected to attract tens of thousands of worshippers. Carlo Acutis, who died aged 15, learned computer code to build websites to spread his faith. His story has drawn wide attention from Catholic youth, and he will now be elevated to the same level as Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi. Sunday’s ceremony…

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday New Delhi and Washington still shared “very positive” ties, after US President Donald Trump reaffirmed their personal friendship and downplayed his earlier remarks about “losing India” to China. The exchange comes amid strains after Washington imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Indian imports, accusing New Delhi of fuelling Moscow’s deadly attacks on Ukraine by purchasing Russian oil. But Trump and Modi, both right-wing populists, have shared a strong bond since the US president’s first term. “Deeply appreciate and fully reciprocate President Trump’s…

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A US appeals court on Friday upheld a ruling that bars President Donald Trump’s administration from unilaterally cutting billions in foreign aid, ordering the government to move swiftly to spend the funds approved by Congress. The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision just days after a lower court directed the administration to disburse about $11 billion for authorised foreign aid projects before the allocations expire in September. The appeals court did not explain its decision, saying only that the Trump administration had not “satisfied the stringent…

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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has signed an order on Friday and hailed the return of the War Department name as a bold “message of victory” to the rest of the world. Flanked by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth at a signing ceremony in the White House, the US president said the change showed strength to the world and moved away from what he mocked as the Pentagon’s “too defensive” image. He said that the current name, in place for more than 70 years, was too “wokey.” “I think it sends a message…

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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer overhauled his ministerial team on Friday in a bid to reset his embattled government after deputy premier Angela Rayner resigned for underpaying a property tax. Rayner, a figurehead among Labour’s left-wing base, quit after an investigation found she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England. Her departure prompted Starmer to carry out the first major cabinet reshuffle of his stuttering 14-month-old premiership, during which the hard-right Reform UK party has overtaken Labour in popularity. Starmer replaced Rayner as…

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Thursday that international recognition of a Palestinian state would create further complications, urging countries to hold back from such a move. “We told all these countries, we told them all, we said if you guys do this recognition stuff, it’s all fake, it’s not even real, if you do it, you’re going to create problems,” Rubio said from Quito, where he met with President Daniel Noboa and his Ecuadorean counterpart. “There’s going to be a response, it’s going to make it harder…

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Diplomatic ties between Iran and Australia have been experiencing a rift since a week after Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador, alleging that the country directed two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. “According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia’s action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the level of Australia’s diplomatic presence in Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said, adding that Canberra’s ambassador had left Iran. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week that operations at Australia’s embassy in Tehran were suspended and all…

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After Kim Jong Un met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, North Korean staffers carefully wiped off items touched by the country’s supreme leader, in what analysts say is part of a suite of security measures to counter foreign spies. Even with the appearance of a budding friendship between Kim and Putin, footage showed the reclusive state’s extraordinary measures to conceal any clues about Kim’s health. In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared video of Kim’s two staff members carefully cleaning the room in the Chinese…

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