Explosions rocked two tankers sanctioned for carrying Russian oil, the latest in a spate of blasts on such vessels, sparking a rescue operation off Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
The 900-foot Kairos was en route from Egypt to Russia when it suffered a blast and caught fire, according to Turkish authorities. Emergency response vessels managed to evacuate its 25 crew members. Meanwhile, the 820-foot Virat began spewing heavy smoke from its engine room after being hit at a point farther east along the coast. The 20 personnel on board were in good condition, authorities said.
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Georgi Kantchev
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Taiwan is making the most of the U.S.’s policy of “strategic ambiguity,” even as President Trump’s stance raises concern for some in Taipei.
Joyu Wang
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Iran has sent the Lebanese militia Hezbollah hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year via money exchanges and other businesses in Dubai, as Tehran seeks new ways to funnel money to its ally, people familiar with the matter said.
Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, is in desperate need of funds to rebuild and rearm its militia and pay other costs stemming from its bruising fight with Israel last year, the people said. Its smuggling routes through Syria were disrupted by the fall of the Iran-aligned Assad regime a year ago, and Lebanese authorities have made strides cracking down on couriers bringing suitcases of cash through the Beirut airport.
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Dov Lieber
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The fire spread at an astonishing pace.
It started Wednesday afternoon. When Ho Wai-ho and his fellow firefighters arrived at the scene about 10 minutes later, the blaze was already racing up the green netting and bamboo scaffolding covering the 31-story high rise.
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Yang Jie
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U.S. adversaries are using President Trump’s eagerness to strike deals as a chance to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its allies and undermine the Washington-led security order that has for years held them in check.
In Europe, Russia is seeking to exploit Trump’s desire to halt the war in Ukraine and strike business deals with Moscow by shaping a peace plan that meets many of its strategic objectives, including winning chunks of Ukrainian territory and closing off any hope Kyiv had of joining NATO.
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Jason Douglas
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ISTANBUL—After a low-profile start to his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV is stepping into the limelight.
The first American pope begins his first foreign trip on Thursday, touring Turkey and Lebanon. It is a chance for him to set out his spiritual and geopolitical vision after six months as pontiff, notable for its relative quiet after years of turbulence in the Catholic Church.
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Margherita Stancati
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Chinese leader Xi Jinping was angry, and President Trump was listening.
Days after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi outraged China by suggesting a Chinese attack on Taiwan could mobilize a Tokyo military response, Xi spent half of an hourlong phone call with Trump, people briefed on the matter said, hammering home China’s historic claim to the democratic self-governing island as well as Washington and Beijing’s joint responsibility to manage the world order.
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[ad_2] Lingling WeiPolice in Hong Kong said three people have been arrested in connection with a fire that engulfed a housing complex and killed at least 36 people.
The three men were arrested for alleged manslaughter, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Police Force said.
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Joseph Pisani
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Sanctions can strike the often-radical Islamist network a piece at a time.
The Editorial Board
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Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday, a sign that talks to end the war in Ukraine have hit a new phase involving direct negotiations with the Russians.
Driscoll, fresh off peace talks in Kyiv and Geneva with Ukrainian officials, landed in Abu Dhabi on Monday to meet with the Russians, according to U.S. officials. After holding initial meetings, he planned to conduct more substantive engagements with the delegation on Tuesday, the officials said.
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Lara Seligman
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The Colombian military said Monday it had opened an investigation into allegations that senior army and intelligence officials advised the leader of an armed drug-trafficking group about how to secretly buy weapons and evade military scrutiny.
The revelations, reported by the major Colombian media outlet, Caracol, have stoked fears that former guerrilla fighters who now smuggle cocaine have infiltrated high levels of the security forces under President Gustavo Petro, a former member of a leftist guerrilla organization. Petro has feuded with President Trump over U.S. airstrikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean and overseen fraying relations with the U.S. over soaring drug-crop cultivation and cocaine trafficking.
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Kejal Vyas
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In an unusual diplomatic move, Chinese leader Xi Jinping initiated a phone call with President Trump on Monday, discussing Taiwan and Ukraine as Washington, Kyiv and Moscow try to hammer out a plan to end the war.
China has provided crucial diplomatic and economic support to Russia since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Now as Trump pushes to make a decisive move to end the war, Beijing is seeking to play a more visible role.
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[ad_2] Lingling WeiWorkaholic Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is riding high despite the perils of a fight with Beijing.
Jason Douglas
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The Brazilian president is in a stronger position to win in elections next year following his defiant stance on President Trump’s tariffs.
Samantha Pearson
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One of the biggest questions in global affairs is whether President Trump is chasing a grand bargain with Beijing’s Xi Jinping—and at what cost to the United States. So it’s good news that the Administration is showing that America won’t be bullied from defending its Pacific interests, with an arms sale to our friends in Taiwan.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has notified Congress of a $330 million potential arms sale for the island democracy. Items include spare parts for fighter jets and transport aircraft, as well as U.S. technical and logistics support. But more important than the details is that this marks the Administration’s first sale to Taiwan in Mr. Trump’s second term. Rumors had spread this year that Mr. Trump was withholding arms for Taiwan as he wooed Mr. Xi on a trade deal.
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The Editorial Board
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