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20-05-2026 TAIPEI: Taiwan has insisted it is a sovereign, independent nation, after US President Donald Trump cautioned it against formally declaring independence from China. Trump’s remarks came after a two-day summit in Beijing, after which he said he had “made no commitment either way” about the self-governing island which China …

20-05-2026 JERUSALEM: Hezbollah has increased its use of small first-person view (FPV) drones to attack Israel including systems controlled by fiber-optic cables to evade sophisticated defences. BBC Verify has geo-located 35 videos shared by the Lebanese armed group since 26 March which show strikes on Israeli soldiers, armored vehicles and …

19-05-2026 KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia was seeking to draw Belarus deeper into its war in Ukraine and was weighing plans to attack Ukraine’s north or a NATO country from Belarusian ‌territory. “We continue to document Russia’s attempts to draw Belarus deeper into the war against Ukraine,” Zelenskiy …

19-05-2026 BAGHDAD/ LONDON: Iraq exported 10 million barrels of oil via the Strait of Hormuz in April, down from about 93 million barrels monthly before the Iran war, the country’s new oil minister, Basim Mohammed, ‌said at a press conference on Saturday. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due …

19-05-2026 ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has confirmed the killing of a senior Islamic State (IS) leader in a joint-operation with the US. “Our determined Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the …

19-05-2026 GAZA STRIP: Top leaders of the main Palestinian political faction, Fatah, are electing its highest decision-making body, at its first major conference in a decade. The 90-year-old Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas who rules by decree was re-elected as head of Fatah on Wednesday. Leading figures are promising unity and …

19-05-2026 BRAZZAVILLE: Africa’s top health agency has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern Ituri province. Around 246 cases and 80 deaths have been reported, mainly in the gold-mining towns of Mongwalu and Rwampara, said the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Ugandan …

19-05-2026 WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has cautioned Taiwan against formally declaring independence from China. “I’m not looking to have somebody go independent,” the US president told Fox News on Friday, at the end of his two-day summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te …

19-05-2026 RAMMUN/ WEST BANK: Fresh off the seventh forced displacement of his central West Bank Bedouin community since 1948, Abu Najjeh was not in a contemplative mood leading up to Nakba Day. He said he was in a rush, too busy reacting to the crises of the day, the continuing …

18-05-2026 TEHRAN: Iran has submitted a response to the latest United States proposal to end the war via mediator Pakistan as a fragile truce comes under growing strain. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei told a press briefing on Monday that Tehran’s response to the latest US proposal had been …