National Security

Both Jerusalem and Washington warned Russia on Monday evening against its declared intention to provide the Syrian military with advanced surface-to-air missiles within two weeks, saying the move would further destabilize the region and increase already high tensions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a telephone conversation on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which he blamed the Syrians for last week’s downing of a Russian spy plane after an IAF strike in Latakia, despite Russia’s conclusions that Israel bears responsibility for the incident.

TEHRAN, Iran — A semi-official news agency in Iran believed to be close to the country’s hard-line Revolutionary Guard has published a video threatening the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates with missile attacks.

A newspaper handed out at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool carries a front page story likening the Jewish state of Israel to Nazi Germany.

Russia has announced that it has radar data proving that Israeli jets hid behind the Il-20 to shield them from Syrian anti-aircraft missiles last week.

About 70 percent of girls in Yemen are forced to marry before they reach the age of 18 as “a coping strategy” against the “worsening” humanitarian crisis in the country driven by hunger and disease, a United Nations official declared on Monday.

“From day one I promised the American people that I would renegotiate our trade deals to ensure that our agreements were fair and reciprocal,” Trump said during his remarks.

The German progressive weekly Der Spiegel has ended its love affair with the pope, declaring that the Church’s sex abuse crisis is “increasingly about Pope Francis.”

Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels over the weekend said they would cooperate with Turkey’s efforts to avert clashes in Syria’s Idlib province between opposition forces and troops loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad, but stressed that they would not surrender their weapons or territory.

Lawmakers in Taiwan are considering whether to offer students and skilled workers from Southeast Asia citizenship, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived in New York on Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly and hold a bilateral summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Moon is eager to set up a second meeting between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. President Trump indicated on Monday such a meeting could occur “quite soon.”

China’s state-run Global Times lamented the “hysterical” state of U.S. scientific cooperation with China on Monday, dismissing concerns that China has systematically stolen intellectual property from America and claiming that “science belongs to all human beings.”

Critics of a new accord between China and the Vatican on the naming of bishop are nothing but a “loud minority” trying to cause trouble, a top Vatican bishop told the Global Times. 

The Afghan Taliban cautioned U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration over the weekend against engaging in negotiations to end the 17-year-old war with “fake” insurgent delegations, stressing that such meetings could derail “any possible genuine process of dialogue.”

The U.S. government should bar Palestinian Authority Chairman and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Mahmoud Abbas from entering the United States on Wednesday for the opening of the United Nations.

The Islamic State is circulating a video that claims to show the perpetrators of the Saturday attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, Iran, that killed 25 military personnel and civilians. Iran does not seem to believe ISIS was behind the attack, instead blaming Arab separatists it claims were funded, trained, and equipped by the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with Lester Holt of NBC Nightly News to be aired on Monday night, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani predicted U.S. sanctions would be unable to paralyze Iran’s oil industry or inflict enough economic damage to jeopardize the survival of his government.

China’s Hunan City University expelled engineering student Wang Dong last week after posting “unpatriotic” comments on social media, the Communist Party Committee Propaganda Department said in a statement on Sunday.

Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) urged social media giants to acknowledge their political biases in an op-ed for USA Today this week.

Antitrust regulators in Singapore fined both Uber and Singapore ride-hailing app Grab $9.5 million over a merger of the two companies that resulted in 10 to 15 percent fare increases.

U.S. President Donald Trump, while speaking at the United Nations Monday, attributed hardline conservative Iván Duque’s recent presidential election victory over his leftist opponent in Colombia to his aggressive anti-drugs policy at a time when the country is reportedly producing more cocaine than ever.

A month of fighting between two of the many heavily-armed gangs fighting for control of Libya killed at least 115 people and wounded 383 more, according to a statement from the Libyan Health Ministry on Sunday. Thousands of families have been displaced, children are at risk, and the conflict threatens to spiral even further out of control.

Pope Francis has continued pushing his pro-immigration message in his trip to the Baltic states, urging his hearers to “receive” the stranger even when he threatens our security and well-being.

National Security Advisor John Bolton warned of China’s “very dangerous, very aggressive” moves in the South China Sea in a television interview Sunday, citing concerns that China is colonizing the sovereign territory of other nations as high on the list of concerns President Donald Trump will bring to the United Nations this week.

The Hong Kong National Party (HKNP) was formally outlawed on Monday, marking the first time a political organization has been banned outright since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese control in 1997. The British Foreign Ministry pronounced itself “concerned by the decision,” while stressing the U.K. does not support the Hong Kong independence movement.

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich has removed a priest from his parish for publicly burning an LGBT rainbow flag.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, visiting New York on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly meeting, told reporters on Sunday that his dinner with U.S. President Donald Trump that night was “very constructive” and ranged from sharing opinions about North Korea to securing mutually beneficial trade agreements.

MOSCOW – The Kremlin on Monday accused Israeli pilots of “premeditated actions” over the downing of a Russian plane in Syria last week, warning it will harm relations between the two countries.

Contents: Maldives in crisis as China-backed incumbent president Yameen loses election; Yameen’s defeat is also a defeat for China’s ‘debt trap diplomacy’

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s oil minister says the United States will not succeed in its plans to halt Iranian crude exports even as he acknowledged that South Korea has stopped buying oil from Tehran.

MOSCOW — Russia’s defense minister says Moscow will send more modern S-300 missile defense systems to Syria following last week’s downing of a Russian plane.

KUWAIT CITY – In 2014, the Kuwaiti press hailed Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a literary “giant”. But since his death, the Colombian writer and a slew of others have been banned as censorship takes root in the Gulf state.

Israeli and U.S. leaders can expect a “devastating” response from Iran in the wake of the attack that killed 25 in the southern city of Ahvaz,  the deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami warned Sunday.

Seven fires broke out in southern Israel on Sunday sparked by incendiary balloons launched over the border from the Gaza Strip, Israeli fire and rescue services said.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers said on Sunday that their indirect negotiations to reach a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel have halted and vowed to step up the violent protests along the border.