Iraq’s water reserves lowest in 80 years after a dry rainy season
Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's water reserves are at their lowest in 80 years after a dry rainy season, a government...
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Iran-US nuclear talks: key points of contention hampering progress
Tehran, Iran - Long-time adversaries Iran and the United States held a fifth round of Oman-mediated nuclear talks on Friday...
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Israel deepens Gaza offensive, shuts key routes, and orders evacuations amid heavy civilian casualties
US President Donald Trump "fully supports" Israel's renewed Gaza operations, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters when asked...
- The offensive has drawn widespread condemnation and shattered a relative calm in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory where a ceasefire began on January 19
- Israel earlier said it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as part of expanding ground operations that resumed on Wednesday
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Russia to hold talks with US in Riyadh Monday: Kremlin
Donald Trump spoke to both Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky this week and the US is also due...
- "From the Russian side, they will be attended by Grigory Karasin, chairman of the Senate's committee on international affairs, and Sergei Beseda, advisor to the head of FSB.
- Ushakov said he had confirmed this after talks with US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Both agreed to send "expert groups" for the talks, he added.
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Israel announces ground operations, issues ‘last warning’ to Gazans to remove Hamas from power
Israeli forces this week conducted the deadliest wave of air strikes since the start of a truce in January, killing...
- The military said it had "begun targeted ground operations in the central and southern Gaza Strip to expand the security perimeter
- Families with young children fled northern Gaza for areas further south, fearing for their lives after Israel urged civilians to leave
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Putin has upper hand in Trump talks on elusive Ukraine peace: analysts
Paris, France - Vladimir Putin scored a coup by discussing with Donald Trump in highly anticipated phone talks everything from improving...
- During the call on Tuesday, Putin refused a full ceasefire agreement proposed by Washington
- The Kremlin said Trump had also backed Putin's proposal to hold ice hockey matches between American and Russian players
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Deepfakes can clone your voice in 5 seconds, tech firms mount defense
Las Vegas, United States -- Tech firms are fighting the scourge of deepfakes, those deceptively realistic voices or videos used...
- Hong Kong police recently revealed that a multinational firm employee was tricked into wiring $26m to crooks who staged a videoconference with AI avatars of his colleagues.
- A recent study by identification start-up iBoom found that a scant tenth of one percent of Americans and Britons were able to correctly tell when a picture or video was a deepfake.
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Netanyahu says Gaza strikes ‘only the beginning’, future negotiations ‘only under fire’
Hamas has not responded militarily so far, and in a statement urged friendly countries to "pressure" the United States to...
- The strikes, by far the largest since a truce took effect in January, killed more than 400 people across the Gaza Strip
- Netanyahu said in a video statement on Tuesday evening "Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours
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Trump, Putin agree halt to Ukraine energy attacks but no ceasefire
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday on a halt in Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy targets -- but fell...
- The US and Russian leaders spoke for more than an hour and a half and both expressed hopes for repairing relations between the countries
- However, there was no agreement from the Russian president for Washington's proposed full 30-day ceasefire in Russia's invasion of its pro-Western neighbor
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Israel pounds Gaza in strikes that rescuers say killed 220, Hamas says Netanyahu torpedoing ceasefire
In a statement, Hamas said "Netanyahu and his extremist government have decided to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing the prisoners...
- An Israeli official told AFP that the operation "will continue as long as necessary, and will expand beyond air strikes."
- Hamas said Israel had decided "to overturn the ceasefire agreement, exposing the prisoners in Gaza to an unknown fate."
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Mediators push for Gaza ceasefire as Israel, Hamas remain stuck on hostage, withdrawal demands
Hamas has consistently demanded negotiations for the second phase, which would include a permanent end to the war, a complete...
- During the first phase of the truce agreement, Hamas released 33 hostages, including 8 deceased, and Israel released 1,800 Palestinians
- Since then, Hamas has consistently demanded negotiations for the second phase, which would include a permanent end to the war
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Trump, Putin to discuss Ukraine ceasefire this week
US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are expected to speak this week, officials said on Sunday, as...
- The United States this week proposed a halt in fighting in the war after talks in Saudi Arabia, with Kyiv accepting the proposal
- Putin however has given no clear answer, instead listing a string of conditions and raising "serious questions" over the proposition
Iraq’s water reserves lowest in 80 years after a dry rainy season
Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's water reserves are at their lowest in 80 years after a dry rainy season, a government...
Geostrategy
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Trump eyes Erdogan’s help to end Ukraine war
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Jordan hospital treats war casualties across Middle East
The hospital was established in 2006 to treat victims of the sectarian violence that erupted in Iraq in the aftermath...
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4th round of Iran, US talks amid enrichment concerns
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said ahead of Sunday's meeting that "the negotiations are progressing and, naturally, the further we...
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India and Pakistan agree to ceasefire after days of attacks
Pakistan and India agreed Saturday to a full and immediate ceasefire after days of deadly jet fighter, missile, drone and...
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Hamas releases video of two Israeli hostages alive in Gaza
Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of...
- Israeli media identified the pair in the undated video as Elkana Bohbot and Yosef Haim Ohana, who were kidnapped during Hamas's October 7, 2023
- Since the ceasefire collapsed, Hamas has released several videos of hostages, including of the two appearing in Saturday's video.
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Rubio urges India, Pakistan to communicate to ‘avoid miscalculation’
Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged India and Pakistan to restore direct communication to "avoid...
- Rubio placed telephone calls to the rivals' top diplomats and, for the first known time since the conflict erupted, also spoke with Pakistan's army chief
- The stepped-up diplomacy came as the conflict intensified between the nuclear-armed neighbors, with Pakistan launching counterattacks after India struck three of its air bases
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Israel not part of Gaza food aid plan: envoy
Israel would not be involved in food distribution under a US-led plan for the Gaza Strip but would provide "necessary military...
- Despite imposing a now two-month-long blockade of aid on Gaza, Israel has asserted there is no humanitarian crisis in the territory.
- The US-led initiative has been met with international criticism as it appears to sideline the United Nations and existing aid organisations