Global News

[ad_1] KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty Images One month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the country's capital and surrounding regions in recent days, and violence has also spread to the long-embattled Darfur region in the west. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Monday that more than 600 people had been killed and over 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting. The real toll is expected to be far higher. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries . Meanwhile, those who have stayed put often have no access to essentials despite a ...

[ad_1] G-7 leaders stand together after the family photo. Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Japan on Saturday to attend the Group of Seven (G-7) summit, giving him a rare chance to both drum up support from the world's rich democracies and sound out "Global South" leaders with long ties to Russia. The Ukrainian president's attendance at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, the first city to suffer a nuclear attack, also put in sharp relief western concerns over the nuclear threat posed by Moscow. G-7 members — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada — are grappling with the immense challenges posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and tensions with China, notably over Taiwan and economic security. Worried by the outsized role China now plays in supply chains in everything from semiconductors to critical minerals, the G-7 issued a communique that set out a common strategy tow...

[ad_1] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) walks with China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) ahead of a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on June 18, 2023. Leah Millis | Afp | Getty Images U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to cool U.S.-China tensions that have overshadowed geopolitics in recent months. The trip by Blinken makes him the highest-level American official to visit China since Joe Biden became U.S. president and the first U.S. secretary of state to make the trip in nearly five years. Blinken had "candid, substantive, and constructive talks" with Qin, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement Sunday . He raised concerns as well as "opportunities to explore cooperation," and he emphasized the importance of open communication, according to the statement. "The Secretary made clear that the United States w...

[ad_1] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen looks on during a press conference. John Thys | Afp | Getty Images An increasingly isolated Russia is now dependent on China for both its military and economic ends, the European Commission's president said Tuesday. Ursula von der Leyen said Russia was leaning more heavily on its eastern ally as it fails to achieve its objectives. "Russia is failing on strategic goals," von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum  in Davos, Switzerland. "It is first and foremost a military failure," she said, noting that Ukraine had thus far retained its "freedom and independence" in its almost two-year war with Moscow. "Russia's failure is also economic," she continued, highlighting the impact sanctions have had in isolating the country from trade with Western allies. "Russia is now dependent on China," von der Leyen added. Ukraine, meanwhile, is "closer than ever" to j...

[ad_1] Drone warfare in Bakhmut An Ukrainian serviceman attaches a hand grenade to use in an attack, near Bachmut, in the region of Donbas. An Ukrainian serviceman attaches a hand grenade on a drone to use in an attack, near Bachmut, in the region of Donbas, on March 15, 2023.  Aris Messinis | AFP | Getty Images An Ukrainian serviceman attaches a hand grenade on a drone to use in an attack, near Bachmut, in the region of Donbas, on March 15, 2023.  Aris Messinis | AFP | Getty Images — Aris Messinis | AFP | Getty Images Russia ambassador says Moscow will "no longer allow anyone to break into its waters" Russia's Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov appeared to blame the U.S. for the downing of a U.S. drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday that the U.S. military blamed on the "reckless" and "unsafe" behavior of Russian fighter jets. Mark Wilson | Getty Images News | Getty Images Russia's Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said that Moscow will "no l...

[ad_1] Moscow's combat position in the war in Ukraine will not be impacted by the loss of troops belonging to Russian paramilitary group Wagner, according to a senior Russian defense official. Wagner forces were integral to Moscow's advance in Kyiv before the group staged an attempted insurrection at the end of last month, damaging relations with the Kremlin's top military brass irreconcilably. The failed rebellion propelled Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile in Belarus and the militia group said it has now suspended recruitment as it relocates to the country. Members of Wagner group looks from a military vehicle in Rostov-on-Don late on June 24, 2023.  Roman Romokhov | AFP | Getty Images Elsewhere, a new center for the prosecution of aggression in Ukraine opens on Monday, bolstering the capabilities of the Dutch-based International Criminal Court, which is limited in its mandate to pursue crimes of aggression. The ICC already has open warrants for Russian Pres...

[ad_1] The container ship, Safeen Pride, with a destination of 'HODEIDAH (ARMED GUARDS)' seen at sea on January 17, 2024 in Djibouti, Djibouti.  Luke Dray | Getty Images Commanders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters. Iran — which has armed, trained and funded the Houthis — stepped up its weapons supplies to the militia in the wake of the war in Gaza, which erupted after Iranian-backed militants Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the four regional sources said. Tehran has provided advanced drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles to the Houthis, who started targeting commercial vessels in November in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the sources said. IRGC commanders and advisers are also providing know-how, data and in...

[ad_1] Eric Adams, mayor of New York, speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images New York City banned TikTok on government-owned devices Wednesday, pointing to security concerns that have made the app a target of bipartisan scrutiny across the country. Congress already voted to ban TikTok on federal devices last year and several states have taken similar steps. The concern generally stems from TikTok's ownership by China-based tech company ByteDance, since many policymakers fear that structure could make U.S. users' information vulnerable to being accessed by the Chinese government, if forced to hand over information to comply with Chinese law . An NYC City Hall Spokesperson told WNBC in a statement that the ban was a result of the city's Cyber Command's conclusion that TikTok "posed a security threat to the city's technical networks." City agencies h...

[ad_1] Next phase of Israeli campaign could be 'something different' from ground incursion: IDF The Israel Defense Forces is advancing its campaign to eliminate the military abilities of Palestinian militant group Hamas, a spokesperson said, but the next step may not be a long-anticipated ground incursion. "We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven't said what they will be. Everybody's talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different," the IDF's Lt Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters, according to Reuters. Expectations have mounted that Israel will launch a ground offensive into the besieged Gaza Strip, which it has sealed off from its electricity, fuel, food and water supplies. Israeli troops have amassed at the border, with the IDF on Friday last week instructing the residents of Gaza City to evacuate south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. But there has been no ground offensive as yet amid widespread warnings from human rig...