World politics

World politics

A New York Times investigation reveals that when Witkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, began his new position as a diplomat in the Middle East, his son Alex took over his company, the Witkoff Group. Since then, not only has the Witkoff Group continued to ink major deals with investors in the Gulf Arab states, but the elder Witkoff has not even fully divested from the company.

A live stream from the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) had late on Thursday evening shown the Polish-flagged sailing boat Marinette still sailing strong towards Gaza after the Israeli government claimed to have halted the flotilla carrying about 500 parliamentarians, lawyers and activists including Greta Thunberg.

From Boko Haram to herderfarmer clashes, Nigeria's crises are complex. Simplistic genocide claims fuel propaganda. In recent days, coordinated attacks on Nigeria's nationhood have swept across social media, blogs and television outlets, alleging a so-called Christian genocide. These attacks, driven by foreign actors, mischaracterise Nigeria's domestic conflicts, ignore its complexities and manipulate longstanding ethnic and resource-based tensions to advance sectarian agendas.

For well over three decades, Yasin Malik has held the reputation of a top-ranked pro-freedom leader from Indian-administered Kashmir. A leader who became synonymous with the armed struggle that broke out in Kashmir seeking independence from India in the late 1980s, then turned to the advocacy of peaceful, nonviolent resistance, Malik is currently serving a life sentence in a New Delhi jail.

Taiwan has become the world's biggest importer of Russian naphtha, a petroleum derivative used to make chemicals needed for the semiconductor industry, despite the fact that it has joined other sanctions against Russia and considers itself an ally of Ukraine. In the first half of 2025, Taiwan imported $1.3bn worth of Russian naphtha, and average monthly imports reached a level nearly six times higher than the 2022 average, according to a report published on Wednesday.

The return of the controversial paid bonus, eliminated years ago due to civil society pressure, comes at a time when Rio has its lowest police lethality rates in a decade. The paid bonus was introduced in a bill reforming the career path of civil police officers, who focus mainly on investigations rather than street patrols. Under the law, officers could receive a bonus of 10% to 150% of their salary for seizing high-caliber or restricted-use weapons and neutralizing criminals, according to O Globo.

Research on polarization indicates that when people in one group talk to themselves a lot, their positions on issues become more extreme. 1 On the other hand, when people with opposing views speak in person with each other, their views tend to become less extreme. 2 Studies of individual and mass shooters have found that they are often on social media before committing their murders and that encouraging language is often exchanged among them. 3

While she could hear conversations in Tibetan everywhere, all of the signage was in Mandarin Chinese. Every shop and restaurant she passed appeared to be Chinese owned, not Tibetan. Every lamp-post was decorated with Chinese flags; an endless river of red flowing above them against a cloudy summer sky. It felt to her like Tibetan culture and identity was being erased.

During Trump's Howdy, Modi speech, he said, "You have never had a better friend as President than President Donald Trump, that I can tell you." There are more than five million people of Indian origin in the U.S., and in three Presidential elections Trump has steadily increased his vote share in that group, from under thirty per cent, in 2016, to nearly forty per cent last year, according to some estimates. (Modi is tremendously popular with the Indian diaspora.)

The former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila, was sentenced to death by a military court on Tuesday for treason and war crimes. Kabila, who was sentenced in absentia, was found guilty of charges that included murder, sexual assault, torture and insurrection. The military tribunal sentenced former President Joseph Kabila to death in absentiaImage: Samy Ntumba Shambuyi/AP Photo/picture alliance Military court imposes death penalty "In applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty," said Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the tribunal in Kinshasa.

China is willing to strengthen coordination and collaboration with North Korea on international and regional affairs, oppose all forms of hegemonism, and protect their shared interests and international fairness and justice, Wang told Choe, according to a readout by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Choe, in turn, told Wang that North Korea viewed China's concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, and its Global Governance Initiative, as important contributions to the promotion of a multipolar world, according to the ministry.

Everybody has come together to get a deal, but we still have to get it done,

The measure is part of a trio of regulations that Kim Ilhyuk, a North Korean defector, calls the three evil laws. They were implemented during the Covid pandemic lockdown and intended to impose even stricter control on the population of the country, which Kim Jong Un, North Korea's supreme leader, rules with an iron fist. The focus, to a large extent, was on young people and their interaction with foreign cultures.

They are joined by Hardy Merriman, an expert on the history and practice of civil resistance, to discuss what kinds of coördinated actions-protests, boycotts, "buycotts," strikes, and other nonviolent approaches-are most effective in a fight against democratic backsliding. "Acts of non-coöperation are very powerful," Merriman, the former president of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, says. "Non-coöperation is very much about numbers. You don't necessarily need people doing things that are high-risk. You just need large numbers of people doing them."

Recent events have demonstrated a dangerous convergence of heated political rhetoric and the easy availability of powerful weaponry. The targeted assassination of political figures and commentators is rising. The impact of such acts on society's sense of safety and democratic norms is profound. As fear and fury increasingly mix with firearms, it's critical to examine how we got here and how we can respond.

I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It's not going to happen, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding There's been enough. It's time to stop now. Trump made the comments as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was arriving in New York to deliver an address to the United Nations on Friday.

The United Nations, led by the so-called European 3 -- Britain, France, and Germany -- appears set to reimpose wide-ranging "snapback" sanctions on Iran after the Security Council rejected a last-minute bid by Russia and China to delay the action. Absent an extraordinary 11th-hour deal, the UN will at 8 p.m. Eastern time on September 27 reintroduce a series of measures against Iran. These include a conventional arms embargo, restrictions on activities related to ballistic missiles, a ban on reprocessing and enrichment of uranium, a global asset freeze, and travel bans on Iranian individuals and entities.

For Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, this week's speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York marked a milestone in his career and in the recognition of the country. "Syria is reclaiming its rightful place among the nations of the world," al-Sharaa said in New York. It was the first time a Syrian head of state had attended the United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, since 1967.

How do you even promote that? From the folks that brought you 9/11. Two weeks of laughter in the desert, don't miss it!

101 East investigates whether China is using alleged criminals to win over Taiwan's sole South American ally, Paraguay. Paraguay is one of just 12 countries that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan, not China. But is Beijing using unofficial channels to extend its influence into the South American nation? In our three-year undercover investigation, we meet a shadowy Chinese businessman who says he is a proxy for Beijing, a claim that China denies.

For several years, Pakistan's primary strategic value to the United States was its role as a security partner, first during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and then during the so-called war on terror. list of 4 itemsend of list That relationship slowly collapsed amid accusations from growing sections of the US strategic community and Trump himself that Islamabad was duplicitous and couldn't be trusted, especially after American forces found Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

At the United Nations, President Trump repeated long-debunked claims about ending wars, renewable energy, climate science, and even the UN's own renovation costs. Trump's address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday was riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations. He recycled familiar talking points about climate change, renewable energy, immigration, and his own diplomatic record, alongside fresh distortions about the UN's New York headquarters. While a full fact-check of every statement goes beyond this article's scope, DW Fact check examined several of his key remarks.

We have in our heads specific images of authoritarianism that come from the 20th century: uniformed men goose-stepping in jackboots, masses of people chanting party slogans, streets lined with giant portraits of the leader, secret opposition meetings in basements, interrogations under naked light bulbs, executions by firing squad. Similar things still happen-in China, North Korea, Iran. But I'd be surprised if this essay got me hauled off to prison in America.

Speeches by national leaders at the opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) have multiple goals and various audiences. Leaders of small countries hope to raise concerns with large countries in a setting where they can be the center of attention, if only for 15 minutes. Leaders of ostracized countries often seek to justify the behavior that got them ostracized in the first place.

United States Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that the agreement would see Israel stopping its attacks on its neighbour, while Syria will agree to not move any machinery or heavy equipment near the Israeli border. list of 3 itemsend of list Barrack said that both sides were negotiating in good faith on the agreement, which had been slated for completion this week, but had been slowed down by the Rosh Hashana holiday the Jewish New Year this week.

Hamas who I have condemned over and over, I have never been equivocal on it, They were elected by the people the last time there was an election. They are part of the civil society. [Hamas] are reliant on them for figures in relation to the deaths. They are proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Israel is acting as a terrorist state.

In Indonesia, it was hung outside homes, on motorbikes, cars and trucks, in a sign of discontent with the government that boiled over into deadly protests railing against lavish perks enjoyed by politicians. In Nepal, it was draped on the golden gates of the palace that houses parliament, as young people toppled their government. In the Philippines, it was raised at rallies by protesters furious at alleged government corruption.