International

11-10-2025 BEIJING: China tightened export controls for critical rare-earth metals on Thursday. The new restrictions were announced by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and come ahead of an expected meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and United States President Donald Trump’s later this month. The world’s two largest economies have …

10-10-2025 Bureau Report + Agencies NEW DELHI/ KABUL: Afghanistan’s United Nations-sanctioned foreign minister has arrived in India, the first visit by a top Taliban leader since they returned to power in 2021, following the withdrawal of United States-led forces and the fall of Kabul. Amir Khan Muttaqi’s trip on Thursday …

10-10-2025 CAIRO: Top US envoys and prominent regional figures have joined the third day of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt on President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza. Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Sharm el-Sheikh along with Qatar’s prime minister …

10-10-2025 PARIS: After eight years in office, Emmanuel Macron’s position as president is coming under increasing pressure as France’s political crisis escalates. Macron once called himself maître des horologes, master of the clocks but his command of timing is not what it was. For the third time in a year …

10-10-2025 JERUSALEM: Two years into its war on Gaza, having killed more than 67,000 people, forced a famine upon countless others and attacked its neighbors repeatedly, Israel stands isolated on the world stage and divided at home, analysts say. Taking the podium at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in …

10-10-2025 NEW DELHI/ KISHA NGAN, KATIHAR: More than a decade ago, when Mukhtar Alam studied at a government school in Kishanganj, the only Muslim-majority district in eastern India’s Bihar state, he had Hindu friends. Alam was especially close to one of them. The two would do their studies and school …

10-10-2025 DAMASCUS: Syria recently held complex parliamentary elections that are designed to give the country a new parliament. These elections were expected to be held over the last months as the country transitions to a new system of government after fifty years of dictatorship that ended in December 2024. In …

10-10-2025 JERUSALEM: The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) says the Israeli military attacked its convoy of boats and intercepted several vessels as they were sailing towards Gaza. The FFC said the military had attacked The Conscience, a boat carrying 93 journalists, doctors and activists before it attacked and intercepted three smaller …

09-10-2025 CAIRO: Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a peace plan, paving the way for a possible end to the conflict in Gaza. Under the plan, Hamas will release the 20 living hostages it is still holding, while Israel will withdraw its troops to an agreed …

09-10-2025 PARIS: Emmanuel Macron should name a Prime Minister to push through a budget and then call early presidential elections to solve France’s political crisis, his first prime minister has said. Edouard Philippe’s comments come after France’s third prime minister in a year, Sebastien Lecornu, resigned on Monday after his …