Biden, McCarthy reach tentative US debt ceiling deal
Washington DC, USReuters US President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy reached a tentative deal to suspend the federal government’s $US31.4 trillion debt ceiling on Saturday evening, ending a months-long stalemate. However, the deal was announced without any celebration, in terms that reflected the bitter tenor of the negotiations and the difficult path […]
Saudi Arabia, US say Sudan factions posturing for escalation
Dubai, United Arab EmiratesReuters Saudi Arabia and the United States called on Sunday for the extension of a ceasefire deal that has brought some let-up in a six-week war between military factions, but said both sides had impeded aid efforts and were posturing for further escalation. Clashes could be heard overnight and on Sunday in […]
Turkey’s Erdogan prevails in election test of his 20-year rule
Istanbul, TurkeyReuters President Tayyip Erdogan extended his two decades in power in elections on Sunday, winning a mandate to pursue increasingly authoritarian policies which have polarised Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power. His challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, called it “the most unfair election in years” but did not dispute the outcome. Turkish […]
Russia unleashes largest drone attack on Ukrainian capital ahead of Kyiv Day
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Russia unleashed waves of air strikes on Kyiv overnight in what officials said appeared to be the largest drone attack on the city since the start of the war, as the Ukrainian capital prepared to celebrate the anniversary of its founding on Sunday. Ukraine’s Air Force said it downed 52 out of the […]
Russian Orthodox Church fires archpriest for “obstruction” of icon transfer
Reuters Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday dismissed his expert on art and restoration for obstructing the transfer of a historic 15th-century Trinity icon to the church from a Moscow museum. Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided that the icon be handed over to the church from Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery because […]
Ukraine war: pensioner sweeps fields for mines to put her cow out to pasture
Stepova Dolyna, UkraineReuters Hanna Plishchynska, a pensioner, has been using a metal detector to comb her fields for mines and war detritus in the ruins of her village in south-westen Ukraine, so she can put her cow out to pasture and plant vegetables. The 67-year-old returned several weeks ago to her home in Stepova Dolyna, […]
NATO urges Kosovo to de-escalate tension with Serbia
Brussels, Belgium Reuters NATO on Saturday urged Kosovo to dial down tensions with Serbia, a day after its government forcibly accessed municipal buildings to install mayors in ethnic Serb areas in the north of the country. The resulting clashes on Friday between Kosovan police and protesters opposed to the ethnic Albanian mayors prompted Serbia to […]
US politics: Trump or DeSantis?- Neither, say Ukrainian-American voters angry at war stance
GRAM SLATTERY, of Reuters, reports from Pennsylvania…
Explainer – Turkey election 2023: What’s at stake in the runoff?
Reuters Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan aims to extend his rule into a third decade in an election on Sunday, with the momentum seen in his favour in the runoff vote after a first round showed him ahead of his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Already buoyed by a parliamentary majority won by his Islamist-rooted AK Party and […]
Pope taps successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, again says he might finally return home to visit
Vatican CityAP Pope Francis has tapped an Argentine bishop with years of ministry in the country’s prisons as his successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires. Bishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, the 55-year-old bishop of Rio Gallegos, will replace the retiring Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli, who turned 75 last year, the Vatican said. Pope Francis, flanked […]