Romania and Bulgaria will as of Jan. 1 become full members of the Schengen free-travel zone, EU interior ministers agreed Thursday. The green light follows Austria’s decision on Monday to drop its veto against both countries’ accession. The countries were supposed to join the Schengen zone in 2023 along with Croatia, but that deal unraveled … Read more
The United Nations has also criticized Israel for violating the 1974 agreement. On Sunday, as Damascus fell to rebel groups and Syrian dictator President Bashar Assad fled to Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that troops from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had crossed into a buffer zone between Israel and Syria near the … Read more
The port city of Latakia on the Mediterranean Sea came under heavy attack, the BBC reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that “Israeli warplanes” had damaged or sunk about 10 Syrian naval vessels and levelled “the Barzeh scientific research center” in the town. That same facility was hit in 2018 by Western countries, … Read more
HTS emerged from a former al-Qaida affiliate, and while Jolani has distanced himself from the terrorist group and projects modernity, Israel remains on high alert for threats to its security emerging from the chaos in Syria. On Saturday, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi, said on a visit … Read more
As the offensive unfolded others agreed with al-Jolani, who has seemingly now dropped his nom de guerre and is using his birth name Ahmed al-Sharaa. They noted how fragile the regime appeared. “The Syrian Arab Army is a hollowed-out shell, far weaker than its ostensible numbers and weapons would indicate,” said former U.S. diplomat Alberto … Read more
On Friday, the Syrian army confirmed it had lost control of the strategic city of Hama to the rebels, an al Qaeda breakaway called Tahrir al-Sham. The rebels seized Syria’s largest city of Aleppo late last month in an effective offensive, forcing government forces to withdraw. Statues of Assad’s father and brother were toppled in … Read more
“That’s what we need to do first, and then Ukraine can get back the other parts of its territory in a diplomatic way,” the Ukrainian leader said. Zelenskyy suggested that such an arrangement could be the basis for a cease-fire deal with Moscow. But he stressed that NATO membership needs to be offered to the … Read more
And unlike others in Trump’s MAGA circle, Kellogg welcomed President Joe Biden’s decision to approve Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia, saying it has given Trump “more leverage” and adding that “it gives President Trump more ability to pivot from that.” Contrast that with the howls of protest over the … Read more
On Sunday, Romanians vote in crucial parliamentary elections, with polls showing hard-right parties on track to bag a third of the ballots, riding on the momentum created by Georgescu who surged in the polls out of nowhere last Sunday to secure a shock win. The stakes are high. An outright victory for the far-right presidential … Read more
Von der Leyen has made Draghi’s suggestions the center of her second term as Commission president, incorporating their main conclusions ― apart from joint EU borrowing ― in the political program she asked the European Parliament to support over the summer. Presenting her new team before the Parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen announced the … Read more
