John Hayward - Page 8

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that President Donald Trump “engaged personally” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) command Mazloum Abdi to halt clashes between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led SDF in late January.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on Sunday that Canadian tourists and businesspeople will be allowed to travel to China without visas, for stays of up to 30 days, beginning this Tuesday and lasting through the end of 2026.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, fresh off an astounding victory in snap elections for the lower house of parliament last week, said on Monday she would like to reopen discussions about amending the Japanese Constitution through a national referendum.

U.S. Central Command announced it has “completed the orderly departure of U.S. forces from al-Tanf Garrison in Syria.”

Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych, 27, was banned from the 2026 Winter Olympics on Thursday, just minutes before his event was due to begin, because he insisted on wearing a helmet covered with images of athletes killed by Russia’s invasion of his country.

Chinese dictator Xi Jinping sent a video holiday greeting to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday. In the course of wishing his forces a happy Lunar New Year, he casually confirmed the existence of a Chinese cyberwarfare facility on Fiery Cross Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands of the South China Sea.

According to a U.S. official who spoke to media outlets on Tuesday, the Pentagon will send about 200 troops to Nigeria within the next few weeks to train the Nigerian military in counter-terrorism tactics.

The Iranian government held rallies on Wednesday to commemorate the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, in an obvious effort to demonstrate strength after massive protests threatened to topple the oppressive government last month. Controversy erupted when U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres allegedly wrote a letter to the president of Iran to congratulate him for the revolution that created the murderous regime in Tehran.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov complained on Wednesday that America is “discriminating” against other countries in its handling of Venezuela’s oil industry following the arrest of narco-terrorist socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Blacklisted basketball star Enes Kanter Freedom trashed Olympic skier Eileen Gu as a “traitor” for switching her allegiance to China.

Indonesian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Maruli Simanjuntak said on Tuesday that his country is prepared to commit 5,000 to 8,000 troops to the International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza.

China’s National Development and Reform Commission estimates that 9.5 billion trips will be made during the 40-day Lunar New Year travel rush.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it still hopes to create a “cross-border payment infrastructure” for the BRICS economic bloc — in other words, an alternative currency that would dethrone the American dollar as the favored medium of international trade.

Chinese state media is enchanted with gold medalist skier Eileen Gu, the American-born freestyle champion who turned her back on the United States to represent the genocidal Communist tyranny at the Olympics.

Haiti’s Transitional Presidential Council (TPC, or CPT using its French acronym) ended its tumultuous and unhappy two-year run on Saturday, stepping down with the country still in chaos and its final major effort — to unseat U.S.-backed Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime — completely ignored.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday that he viewed recent talks with the United States as “a step forward,” but his foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, insisted on the same day that Iran will never give up its uranium enrichment program.

Iran added 7.5 years to the prison sentence of activist Narges Momhammad as part of its crackdown against dissidents.

Pro-democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Hong Kong on Monday, effectively a life sentence given his age and reportedly poor health in detention.

A Greek Air Force officer was arrested on Thursday morning and charged with leaking “secret information” to China through an online intermediary.

Pakistani media reported a suicide bombing attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad on Thursday afternoon, with at least 31 fatalities and 169 injuries.

U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held their planned talks in Oman on Friday, despite some last-minute demands from Iran that threatened to derail the process.

Three Chinese lawmakers linked to the defense sector have been removed from their seats, the country’s state media reported Wednesday.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a designated terrorist organization, said on Thursday that it seized two vessels in the Persian Gulf that were allegedly carrying smuggled fuel. Later that day, a former Iranian official threatened to turn the Strait of Hormuz into a “place of massacre and hell” if there is a conflict with the United States.

Iran claims the drone shot down by the USS Abraham Lincoln was conducting a “routine and lawful mission over international waters.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Thursday said Beijing will resist growing international pressure to join discussions with the United States and Russia for a trilateral nuclear arms pact to replace the expiring New START treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae took a gamble by holding early parliamentary elections as a referendum on her agenda, but the gamble looks like it will pay off as her enormous personal popularity is set to sweep more members of her governing coalition into the Diet.

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said on Tuesday that a small number of American military officers have been deployed to Nigeria to assist with counter-terrorism efforts.

The Iranian regime seems to be doing everything possible to derail Friday’s scheduled talks between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, including last-minute demands for a change of venue from Turkey to Oman.

Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the 53-year-old son and onetime heir apparent to former Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi, was murdered by a squad of masked gunmen in his hometown of Zintan, according to statements from his office, his political allies, and local media on Tuesday.

Chinese state media reported on Wednesday morning dictator Xi Jinping held a phone call with President Donald Trump, their first direct conversation since November.

Police in Iran’s desert province of Yazd said on Tuesday that 139 foreign nationals have been arrested to date for participating in protests against the Iranian regime that began in December.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that India has not indicated it will stop buying Russian oil, as claimed by President Donald Trump on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that his government has followed the United States and European Union (EU) in designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln on Tuesday launched one of its F-35C fighters to shoot down an unmanned Iranian aircraft that “aggressively approached” with “unclear intent.”