News from WN Network

Trump's influence spreads through state capitols in both substance and symbolism 2025-01-18
Traverse City Record-Eagle

President-elect Donald Trump has yet to take...

photo: AP / Ross D. Franklin

Israel's Cabinet approves a deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of dozens ... 2025-01-18
Independent Online

Israel's Cabinet approved a deal early Saturday for a ceasefire in Gaza that would release dozens of hostages held there and pause the 15-month war with Hamas, bringing the sides a step closer to ending their deadliest and most destructive fighting ever. The government announced the approval after 1...

photo: AP / Abir Sultan/Pool Photo

US Treasury to launch measures Tuesday to avoid debt limit breach 2025-01-18
Beijing News

WASHINGTON - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the government would reach its statutory borrowing limit on Tuesday and begin employing 'extraordinary measures' to keep from breaching the cap and risking a potential catastrophic default. Yellen, in a letter on Friday to congressional...

photo: AP / Charles Rex Arbogast

"Made sweeping upgrades to posture in Indo-Pacific": US Defence Secy Lloyd Austin 2025-01-18
Beijing News

Washington DC [US], January 18 (ANI): Outgoing US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin highlighted the strides made by the US under the Biden administration, during his farewell speech delivered on Friday. He noted that the US made sweeping upgrades to its position in the Indo-Pacific, intensely focussed...

photo: AP / Kevin Wolf

Taiwan carries out first execution in five years 2025-01-18
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Taiwan carried out its first execution in five years and the first under President Lai Ching-te, upsetting rights groups and the European Union . ......

photo: WN / RTayco

Syria's New Regime Seizes Cargo of Iranian Weapons in Tartus 2025-01-18
The Maritime Executive

Under the administration of former dictator Bashar al-Assad, Syria's government gave Iran a logistics pipeline to supply Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, the most powerful member of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" in the Mideast. Assad was ousted in December after 13 years of civil war, and...

photo: AP / Omar Albam

S. Korea opens embassy in Cuba 1 year after establishing diplomatic relations 2025-01-18
Korea Times

South Korea opened its embassy in Cuba this week, the foreign ministry said Saturday, nearly a year after the two countries forged the diplomatic relations that took the world by surprise, including Cuba's Cold War-era ally, North Korea. An opening ceremony took place at the embassy in the...

photo: WN / RTayco

Russia, Iran deepen military ties with 20-year accord 2025-01-18
Dawn

MOSCOW: Russia and Iran signed a treaty on Friday underpinning their economic and military cooperation, in what both sides cast as a major milestone in their relations. Moscow has looked to Tehran as a strategic ally since sending troops into Ukraine in Feb 2022, worrying Western officials who see...

photo: AP / Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo

Blinken tells AP he's worried Trump administration may abandon key Biden foreign policy initiatives 2025-01-18
Springfield News-Sun

WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The Associated Press that he hopes the incoming Trump administration will press forward with key points in President Joe Biden's foreign policy, including on the Middle East and Ukraine. But in an wide-ranging interview Friday on his...

photo: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

Russia expects no major change in US sanctions policy under Trump 2025-01-18
Press TV

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has ruled out significant changes in the US policy of sanctions against Russia under the incoming administration of Donald Trump. "It is no secret that, despite expressing some political willingness for dialogue, the US administration is unlikely to alter its stance...

photo: Creative Commons / Kremlin.ru