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WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke Monday to his Russian counterpart about convening the leaders of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to mark the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, the State Department said. The department said Pompeo spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the possibility of a commemorative event “in the near future” that would involve President Donald Trump and the leaders of Britain, China, France and Russia. The U.N. had planned a series of celebrations to mark the occasion centered around the annual General Assembly session in September but has been forced to cancel or postpone many of them due to the coronavirus pandemic. No details of the proposed summit were provided in the brief, four-sentence statement, but such a meeting, either in person or by teleconference due to COVID-19, would come as the U.S. pushes ahead with efforts to extend a U.N. arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in Oct...

(JERUSALEM) — An Israeli cabinet minister on Sunday said the government approved plans to build a new settlement in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights named after President Donald Trump. Settlements Minister Tzipi Hotovely wrote on Facebook that her ministry will start preparations for Ramat Trump — Hebrew for “Trump Heights” — to house 300 families. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. Most of the international community considers the move, and Israeli settlements in the territory, illegal under international law. But Trump signed an executive order recognizing the strategic mountainous plateau as Israeli territory in March 2019. The move came during a visit to Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just weeks before Israeli elections. The decision, just one of several diplomatic moves benefiting Israel, was widely applauded there. The Israeli government’s approval of the plan, which according to ...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has concluded that retired FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished more than a decade ago, has died while in the custody of Iran, his family said Wednesday. The family said in a statement posted on Twitter that it had no information about how or when Levinson had died, but that it occurred before the recent coronavirus outbreak. The family said information U.S. officials had received led them to conclude that he is dead. “It is impossible to describe our pain,” the family’s statement said. “Our family will spend the rest of our lives without the most amazing man, a new reality that is inconceivable to us. His grandchildren will never meet him. They will know him only through the stories we tell them.’ Levinson disappeared on March 9, 2007, when he was scheduled to meet a source on the Iranian island of Kish. For years, U.S. officials would only say that Levinson was working independently on a private investigation. But a 2013 Associated ...

Italy all but put a halt to normal life, paring the economy down to just essential services in a desperate bid to stem the advance of the deadly coronavirus. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte ordered all shops in the country to close except for grocery stores and pharmacies until March 25. Public transportation as well as financial and postal services will continue, but the country’s normally vibrant restaurants, cafes and bars will be shut. Factories can continue operating, but only with “precautions,” the premier said in a televised address on Wednesday evening, adding that the government — which had extended a lockdown for Lombardy and other northern provinces to all of Italy this week — recommends non-critical units be halted. “Effects of those measures will be seen in couple of weeks, so cases can still increase in coming days,” he said, thanking Italians for their sacrifices. With more than 12,000 cases of the disease in the country and deaths jumping 31% to 827 on We...

(HANAU, Germany) — Piter Minnemann and his friends were eating when they heard shots fired outside the door of the snack bar in Hanau where they had gathered. Minnemann, 18, recalled that he had just got his pizza when the first shots were heard at the Arena Bar. It was the second site targeted in Wednesday night’s shooting of nine people by a German man who had posted an online rant calling for the “complete extermination” of many “races or cultures in our midst.” “We thought it was a blank gun or something. We thought nothing of it,” he said. “Then the man came in, he fired.” The gunman shot two people before coming into the bar, where “he aimed right at us — he shot the first one in the head,” Minnemann said. A pregnant woman jumped out of the window, he said. Michael Probst—AP Piter Minnemann poses for a photograph on Feb. 21, 2020, in front of the snack bar where several people were killed in Hanau, Germany. “He came, fired, emptied his magazine, then everythin...

In the early summer of 2016, for a single minute every night the facade of the tallest building in Hong Kong, the International Commerce Centre (ICC), transformed into a giant digital timer. Second by second, the clock counted down to 1 July 2047, the expiration date of the ‘one country, two systems’ framework that guarantees Hong Kong’s semi- autonomy. The light installation was the handiwork of two young local artists who wanted to express their anxiety over the looming deadline and Beijing’s tightening grip on the city. Once the building’s management realised the subversive message, the ICC cancelled the light show and distanced itself from the artwork. But the artists had already achieved their goal: images of the so-called ‘countdown machine’ had been plastered across social media and in newspapers the world over. There is the colonial-era cliché that Hong Kong is a borrowed place on borrowed time. Like all clichés, this one contains a measure of truth. Before the Ha...

Airlines in Europe, Asia and North America are cancelling flights to and from China as the novel coronavirus , which originated in the C hinese city of Wuhan , has infected at least a few thousand people in China and dozens beyond its borders. Although all 171 deaths from the disease have been limited to China, at least 82 people across 18 different countries have tested positive for the mysterious illness, prompting governments around the world to issue travel advisories and start evacuating their citizens from Wuhan. Chinese authorities have shut down travel in and out of Wuhan and enacted similar, strict transportation restrictions in a number of other cities. The majority of cases outside China are associated with travel to China and of those, the vast majority involve travel to Wuhan, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Which airlines have cancelled flights? British Airways cancelled all flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai until at least Frida...

The world’s most famous shipwreck, the RMS Titanic, will be more rigorously protected under an international agreement, the U.K.’s Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani confirmed during a Tuesday visit to Belfast, where the ship was built. The U.K. and the U.S. will now be responsible for granting permits to those wishing to visit the wreck and remove artefacts. The agreement, which was signed by the United Kingdom in 2003, was ratified by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last year. The agreement will further protect the wreck, which became a UNESCO cultural heritage site in 2012. The U.K. will take a leading role in protecting the wreck, encouraging other North Atlantic countries like France and Canada to sign the agreement. “Lying two and a half miles below the ocean surface, the RMS Titanic is the subject of the most documented maritime tragedy in history,” Ghani said in a press release. “This momentous agreement with the United States to preserve the wreck means it will...

(TECUN UMAN, Guatemala) — More than 200 mostly Honduran migrants rested on a bridge at the Guatemala-Mexico border waiting for the arrival of others and hoping sheer numbers will improve their chances of entering Mexico and continuing their journey north. Across the river from Tecun Uman, in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Hidalgo, National Guard troops with riot shields trucked in throughout Friday afternoon in anticipation of the migrants’ next move. Mexico’s government has said migrants entering the country without registering will not be allowed to pass from the border area. But those seeking asylum or other protections will be allowed to apply and legalize their status. Guatemalan officials had counted more than 3,000 migrants who registered at border crossings to enter that country in recent days and there were additional migrants who did not register. Sonia Eloina Hernández, the Ciudad Hidalgo mayor, said officials were expecting a large number of migrants. “W...

A majority of people surveyed in 32 countries across the world, from Argentina to Australia and Canada to the Czech Republic, have “largely negative views” of President Donald Trump, and do not trust him “to do the right thing” when making decisions on international affairs, according to a new survey from the non-partisan Pew Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Furthermore, more respondents viewed Trump with “no confidence” than they did Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Inversely, Trump received a vote of confidence from 29% of respondents to Xi’s 28%.) The survey, published on Jan. 8, was conducted from May to October of 2019. It found that more than two-thirds of the respondents said they don’t trust Trump when it comes to world affairs, in contrast to the 64% who expressed confidence in former President Barack Obama in a survey published in June 2017 . “In nearly all nations where trends are available, Trump receives...

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran says it has launched “tens” of surface-to-surface missiles at Iraq’s Ain Assad air base housing U.S. troops over America’s killing of a top Iranian general. State TV described it early Wednesday as Tehran’s revenge operation over the killing of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard then warned the U.S. and its regional allies against retaliating over the missile attack in Iraq. The Guard issued the warning via a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. “We are warning all American allies, who gave their bases to its terrorist army, that any territory that is the starting point of aggressive acts against Iran will be targeted,” The Guard said. It also threatened Israel. U.S. forces could not be immediately reached for comment. White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said the White House is aware of the reports. “The President has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with...

WASHINGTON — Iraq’s outgoing prime minister said Tuesday that the United States has no alternative and must pull its troops out of the country, or else face an impending crisis. But President Donald Trump countered that it’s not the right time for a pullout and that it would be the worst thing that could happen to Iraq. Trump said a U.S. pullout would allow Iran to gain a stronger foothold in Iraq. “The people of Iraq do not want to see Iran running the country, that I can tell you,” Trump said from the White House. Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who resigned in November amid mass anti-government protests, said Iraq wants a U.S. troop withdrawal to avoid further escalation as tensions soar between American and Iran. His comments came just days after a U.S. airstrike killed Iran’s top general at Baghdad’s international airport. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, senior Iraqi commander of an Iran-backed militia, was also killed in Friday’s strike. His remains were brought back to Iraq from Iran t...

(Baghdad) — At least three Katyusha rockets were fired at Baghdad International Airport Friday, killing four people and setting cars on fire, Iraqi security officials said. Iraq’s Security Media Cell, which releases information regarding Iraqi security, said the rockets landed near the airport’s cargo hall. It reported several casualties and said two cars were on fire. An Iraqi security official told The Associated Press that four people were killed in the attack. It was not immediately clear who had fired the rockets or who was targeted. The attack came amid tensions with the United States after a New Year’s Eve attack by Iran-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The two-day embassy attack which ended Wednesday prompted President Donald Trump to order about 750 U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East. The breach at the embassy followed U.S. airstrikes on Sunday that killed 25 fighters of the Iran-backed militia in Iraq, the Kataeb Hezbollah. The U.S. military s...

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be planning to give him “a nice present” such as a “beautiful vase” for Christmas rather than a missile launch. The president was asked what he will do if North Korea does conduct a long-range missile test. The North has threatened to take unspecified action if sanctions are not eased by the end of the year, and speculation has centered on the possibility of a new missile test, possibly of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. The North has said that its “Christmas gift” to the United States will depend on Washington’s actions. Trump, who is in Florida for the holidays, had just finished thanking service members from each branch of the military via satellite when he was asked about North Korea. He opted for a wait-and-see approach. “Maybe it’s a present where he sends me a beautiful vase as opposed to a missile test,” Trump said. “I m...

The Royal Family is recruiting a new social media maven to run the family’s accounts, according to a new job description. Haven’t you always wanted to persuade the Queen to film a TikTok dance challenge , crown and all? “It’s knowing your content will be viewed by millions. We are recruiting a Head of Digital Engagement to be based at Buckingham Palace. Apply here,” says a LinkedIn ad which has already prompted more than 200 people to apply. From $60,000 to $66,700 a year — depending on experience — the new head of digital engagement will oversee the royal family’s social media accounts, develop digital strategies and manage a small team of digital media specialists. Other benefits include free lunch and 33 vacation days. The queen famously sent her first tweet in 2014 while visiting a British museum, having been invited by the director of London’s Science Museum to share the opening of an exhibit on social media. But that doesn’t mean she has time to keep her Facebook...

Ukraine is at the center of today’s east-west geopolitical battle, but it’s feeling increasingly alone and abandoned by its U.S. backers amid the impeachment drama unfolding in Washington. The U.S. ambassador — who was pushed out earlier this year and testified Friday in Congress — hasn’t been replaced. Neither has the influential U.S. envoy tasked with helping Ukraine quell its Russia-backed separatist insurgency. The lower-level U.S. officials remaining in Kyiv are keeping an unusually low profile. The erosion of Washington’s readiness to protect its Eastern European ally leaves Ukraine vulnerable to mounting Russian pressure, just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky heads into high-stakes talks next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine. Read more: Trump Ignored Consensus U.S. Intelligence Report in Pressuring Ukraine Ukrainians increasingly feel the U.S. impeachment inquiry is making their country t...