The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s recent summit in Ankara has produced a decision that demands scrutiny. NATO member states have committed to providing Ukraine with military assistance worth €70 billion for 2026. This is not an emergency measure. This is the institutionalization of a permane»»»

The winners of the 72nd National Film Awards were announced in New Delhi on Saturday, honouring the best of Indian cinema from 2024. Films certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) between January 1 and December 31, 2024, were eligible for this year’s awards. An 11-member jury hea»»»

PARIS: A hundred years ago, Paris erected a monumental mosque to honor Muslim soldiers from French colonies who fought in World War I. It’s now an integral part of the capital’s bustling Latin Quarter, and as it celebrates its centenary, worshippers are reflecting on being Muslim in today’s France.»»»

The 189th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle of Freedom, Vasil Levski, was marked in Sofia on Saturday with military honours and a wreath- and flower-laying ceremony at his bust monument. Wreaths and flowers were laid on behalf of the President, the National Assembly Chair, the Prime Minister,»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has said he would support lowering the country’s voting age from 18 to 16 as part of the government’s ongoing constitutional reform process, arguing that today’s teenagers are informed enough to participate in shaping the country’s future. The proposal was anno»»»

Anniqa Jamal Iqbal has been crowned Miss World Pakistan 2026 and is set to compete at the Miss World pageant after representing the Miss Pakistan World Organisation at several international beauty competitions. The 24-year-old master's student in Accounting & Auditing has previously competed at Mis»»»

RIYADH: Reforms across logistics, governance and business environment could see trade more than double between the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Caucasus and Central Asia regions. A report published by the International Monetary Fund, and supported by experts speaking to Arab News, set out that »»»

DUBAI: French guard Elie Okobo will play for Dubai Basketball after reaching an agreement with the team on a multi-year deal. The 28-year-old joins from AS Monaco, where he spent the past four seasons (2022-26), following a one-year stint with fellow French side LDLC ASVEL (2021-22). He becomes the»»»

ALMATY: The UAE Jiu-Jitsu National Team made a strong start to the 10th Jiu-Jitsu Asian Championship by winning nine medals in the men’s competition, including three gold, five silver and one bronze, on the opening day at Almaty Arena on Friday, where the championship continues until July 19. The a»»»

The Trump administration’s waiver of environmental laws to speed up border barrier construction in Texas’s Big Bend National Park has sparked an outcry from local residents and authorities. With sheer cliffs towering hundreds of metres above the waters of the Rio Grande, vast desert landscapes, and»»»

Vologda (Russia) (AFP) – Russian couple Yelena and Dmitry passed four petrol stations before finally finding one that actually had fuel as they returned to the city of Vologda, some 300 miles (480 kilometres) north of Moscow, from their country allotment plot. Like all but a few»»»

Opposition Fidesz is turning to the Constitutional Court in four cases, lawmaker and former Justice Minister Bence Tuzson said on Friday. Tuzson said on Facebook that they were challenging a law “which sacrifices Hungary’s sovereignty, cynically using ‘EU funds’ as an excuse”, the sixteenth amendme»»»

Doha, Qatar: Kuwait Airways has announced the rescheduling of most of its flights after Kuwait International Airport temporarily suspended takeoff and landing operations due to hostile missile and drone attacks launched from Iran on Saturday, July 18, 2026. In a statement, the airline urged passeng»»»

New Delhi, India: New Delhi police moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after a 20-day hunger strike in protest against India's examination system. Wangchuk, 59, has been fasting since June 28 to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan»»»

The government has made important decisions regarding, among other things, the taxation of large companies and polluting firms, the elimination of tax avoidance practices by trust asset managers, and the taxation practice that selectively penalises individual companies — the Prime Minister announce»»»

Colorado City: The families of two men who discovered through DNA tests that they were switched at birth 38 years ago are accusing a North Dakota hospital of robbing them of the lives they were supposed to lead. Kyle Bylin discovered his birth family after taking an at-home test he chose randomly d»»»

Protesters rallied for a second day in the Ukrainian capital on Friday, angered by President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to fire youthful defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, seen as an innovator who pioneered the country’s successful drone warfare but clashed with the traditional military establis»»»

Delhi police forcibly moved activist Sonam Wangchuk to a hospital on Saturday over health concerns after 20 days of his hunger strike to protest against India's examination system. Wangchuk, 59, has been fasting since June 28 to demand the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over a»»»

Sharjah: A Sharjah court has sentenced a man to six months in prison after convicting him of defrauding an Arab buyer of Dh692,000 in a fake wholesale iPhone transaction, ruling that he used deception and false commercial claims to obtain the money without supplying the promised devices. The verdic»»»

Police in Poland have recorded a sharp rise in hate crime complaints from Ukrainians, according to national newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Ukrainians have increasingly reported physical assaults, verbal abuse, and online harassment, the outlet said. Ukrainians filed 180 hate crime complaints in the firs»»»

DAMASCUS: A Damascus criminal court has heard testimony from prosecution witnesses during the second session of the trial of Ahmad Hassoun, Syria’s former grand mufti, who faces charges including inciting violence and justifying killings during the rule of the ousted Assad regime. The Fourth Crimin»»»

WASHINGTON: A 28-year prison sentence is too lenient for a Libyan militant who was convicted of terrorism-related charges in the 2012 attacks on US compounds in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. A three-judge panel»»»

Tunis, July 17, 2026 (TAP) - An appeal hearing is scheduled for July 21, before the Tunis Court of Appeal to examine the objection filed by the defence of journalist Hamza Belloumi and Insaf Boughdiri, editor-in-chief of the programme "Al Youm...»»»

Smoke from wildfires in Canada creates a haze on the city of Pittsburgh's skyline. Photo by Archie Carpenter/UPI | License Photo July 17 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to impose tariffs on Canadian imports over wildfire smoke pouring into the United States, accusing the countr»»»

In a week that’s seen rare wartime demonstrations in Ukraine protesting the ousting of Defence Minister Mykhailo (Misha) Fedorov after six months in a job in which he’s been credited with making a difference on the battlefield and in an anti-corruption drive. But he had reportedly clashed with Ukra»»»

Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., right, won his court case to stay on the primary ballot in Florida. File Pool photo by Justin Lane/UPI | License Photo July 17 (UPI) -- Republican Congressman Cory Mills won the first round of his bid to stay on the primary ballot in Florida. Mills was sued June 19 by prima»»»

TAIF: Round two of the 2026 Saudi Toyota Championship Hill Climb got underway on Friday at Aqabat Al-Muhammadiyah in Al-Shafa, Taif, with 54 competitors taking part in the opening day of action. Organized by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation, and managed by Bakhashab Motorsport in part»»»

Andy Burnham speaks after being confirmed as the Labour Party's new leader and the country's next prime minister, during Labour's Special Conference in central London Friday. Burnham is expected to offcially become Britain's prime minister on Monday. Pool Photo by Henry Nicholls/EPA July 17 (UPI) -»»»

JEDDAH: A rare 19th-century Quranic calligraphy panel is on display at the Red Sea Museum in Historic Jeddah. Created around 1859–1860 CE by Ghouth Mahboob Ghalib in Mysore, India, the single-page artwork features the entire text of the Holy Quran arranged within a detailed illustration of the Gran»»»

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium: Series leader Kimi Antonelli hailed his Mercedes team on Friday after bouncing back to top the times in second free practice ahead of this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. The 19-year-old Italian, who also gesticulated at Carlos Sainz for what he said was “a dangerous momen»»»

London: The mother of a British Sikh man imprisoned for fatally stabbing a white student was jailed by a court Friday for trying to hide the ceremonial knife used in the killing. Henry Nowak was handcuffed by police in December as he lay dying, after his attacker, Vickrum Digwa, falsely claimed tha»»»

Fernando Jorge (L) and Serguey Torres of Cuba, and teams of Russia and Poland compete during semifinal men's canoe double (C2) 1000m semifinal at the Lagoa Stadium during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August 2016. File Photo by Orlando Barria/EPA July 17 (UPI) -- Nine mem»»»

The new Hungarian government “has engaged in intense reforms to restore the rule of law”, the European Commission said in its 2026 rule of law report published on Friday. “Following continued dialogue with the Commission under the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the general regime of conditionalit»»»

BARCELONA: Almost two decades ago, photographer Joan Monfort didn’t think much of his photo shoot of a teenage Lionel Messi bathing a cute baby boy in a plastic bathtub. Not until the remarkable twist of fate became clear years later, when that infant blossomed into Lamine Yamal. Now those images o»»»

The Guadalupe River rises to the top of a bridge near Boerne, Texas, Thursday. Severe flooding affected parts of south-central Texas and the Texas Hill Country, with a dangerous flood wave moving down the Guadalupe River. Photo by Dustin Safranek/EPA July 17 (UPI) -- Two people are dead in flooding»»»

Sharjah Police have released dramatic surveillance footage of a serious road accident caused by a sudden lane change, warning motorists that a split-second decision behind the wheel can have devastating consequences. The video, captured by the force's advanced traffic monitoring system, shows a sil»»»

DUBAI: More airlines are restoring flights to parts ‌of the Middle East after the conflict that followed US and Israeli strikes on Iran, but some carriers have kept suspensions in place. Below is an update on the status of airlines’ flights, in alphabetical order: AEGEAN AIRLINES Greece’s largest c»»»

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Aerospace Force Brigadier General Majid Mousavi vowed that Iran’s precision strikes against the enemy would continue until security is restored to southern Iran. “In our strategic calculus, land is land; from Tehran to the south, all of Iran is one i»»»

US President Donald Trump’s veteran teleprompter operator Gabriel Perez is under investigation over an alleged insider betting scheme tied to the president’s speeches. The aide is believed to have earned thousands of dollars by placing bets on the contents of Trump’s remarks on prediction market Ka»»»

The UK will be getting a new prime minister on July 20. And many challenges await Andy Burnham. He will be faced with a tepid economy, high government borrowing costs, and irregular migrants arriving in small boats that have fuelled support for Reform. In his address to the Labour party, he has vow»»»

ANKARA: Turkish authorities on Friday detained 17 soccer club officials as part of a widening investigation into alleged illegal betting and match-fixing that has tainted Turkish soccer, officials and reports said. In the latest wave of detentions, suspects were taken into custody in simultaneous r»»»

KYIV: Just when Ukraine appeared to be gaining momentum on the battlefield, President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered a surprise government reshuffle that included the dismissal of his defense minister, triggering rare protests across the country. Parliament has approved a new prime minister — former he»»»

LONDON: West Ham United ‌captain Jarrod Bowen has pledged his future to the club as they prepare for life in the second-tier Championship following relegation from the Premier League, the England forward said in an interview published on Friday on the team’s website. The 29-year-old was part of the»»»

Ukraine’s lawmakers approved chairman of the national gas company Naftogaz’s board, Serhii Koretskyi as the new Ukrainian Prime Minister on July 16 in anticipation of intense winter attacks by Russia. Zelenskiy announced a surprise government reshuffle at the weekend, after asking Ukraine’s Prime M»»»

Nvidia slipped below Apple early Friday as the world's most valuable publicly traded company due to the latest selloff in semiconductor shares. Shares of Nvidia were down more than four percent as worries about the valuation of artificial intelligence equities dogged the market, giving the company »»»

François Picard is pleased to welcome Daria Kaleniuk, Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center. Ukraine's latest defense leadership shake-up, as interpreted by Kaleniuk, is not as a routine personnel change but rather a struggle over the future direction of wartime governance. H»»»

The Labour party in the UK has a new leader. Andy Burnham is succeeding to outgoing prime minister Keir Starmer, and will be officially confirmed as prime minister on July 20. In his speech to Labour members at a special conference, he vowed to bring hope back to the UK. He is seen as the party's m»»»

Abu Dhabi: The UAE marks Union Pledge Day on 18th July each year, commemorating the historic signing of the Declaration of the Union and the UAE Constitution by the Founding Fathers in 1971, marking the beginning of a 55-year journey of development, progress and global leadership. Union Pledge Day,»»»

From 18 August 2026, digital service providers within the European Union will face new obligations regarding electronic evidence in criminal proceedings. The new rules will change the way in which companies respond to requests from judicial authorities concerning the disclosure or preservation of d»»»

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces raided multiple militant hideouts in the country’s northwest region, killing Pakistani Taliban and seizing a cache of weapons, the military and local officials said. The military said Friday it used intelligence sources to target militants in operations carried »»»