WASHINGTON: The US Defense Department has designated Chinese-funded cultural centers on university campuses known as Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday. Washington has long accused Confucius Institutes of being Chinese propaganda »»»

UNITED NATIONS: The head of the UN nuclear agency said Friday that he expects the use of nuclear power could more than triple by 2060. Rafael Grossi said in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s annual report to the UN General Assembly that this will be driven by electrification, data centers po»»»

WASHINGTON, United States: President Donald Trump’s administration lifted some tariffs on Canadian imports Friday, two weeks ahead of midterm elections, after a vulnerable Republican candidate said she’d lobbied for the change. The easing of tariffs will apply to products including “plywood sheets,»»»

Paris, France: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said on Friday it overturned a four-year doping ban imposed on Japanese Tokyo Olympics silver medallist race walker Koki Ikeda. Ikeda was banned in 2025 after abnormalities were found in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) that indicated blo»»»

PARIS: Algeria has instructed urea producers to stop exporting the fertilizer to France in an intensification of trade curbs that have followed a diplomatic rift between Algeria and its former colonial ruler, according to diplomats and industry sources. Ties between Paris and Algiers, which have be»»»

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a blockade of the occupied West Bank in the aftermath of a deadly shootout between IDF troops and two suspected Palestinian gunmen at a security checkpoint. The incident unfolded on Friday in the southern West Bank at the temporary checkpoint at»»»

FORT MYERS, Florida: President Donald Trump on Friday told a rally for candidates in South Florida that US warships returning from the Middle East could stop over in Cuba on their way back from the Iran war, his latest suggestion of taking an interventionist approach to the nearby country. Trump fi»»»

DOHA Qatar has provided 15 buses and a consignment of security equipment to the Republic of Senegal to support preparations for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games, which run from October 31 to November 13 and mark the first time an Olympic event hasbeen held on African soil. The initiative reflects»»»

ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s top diplomat said Friday the time had come to reunify Libya’s rival eastern and western administrations, hinting at an announcement on the issue in the near future. Turkiye strongly backed the UN-recognized government in Tripoli during Libya’s years of conflict, but ties with au»»»

Kinshasa: Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo administered the first vaccine doses on Friday in a major clinical trial aimed at halting the country's largest recorded outbreak of the Bundibugyo Ebola virus strain. The Phase 2/3 trial, known as Tumaini, was launched in Bunia, »»»

ISTANBUL: Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt and Pakistan on Friday described the Israeli occupation as “the main source of instability in the Middle East and beyond.” They called for the urgent implementation of a two-state solution to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, and the intensificat»»»

DOHA The Years of Culture initiative announced Qatar's cultural partners through 2030. Building on the previously announced partnerships with Egypt and Greece for 2027, upcoming Years of Culture will be celebrated with Italy (2028), the Netherlands and Switzerland (2029), and Portugal and Spain (20»»»

New York state woman charged with voting illegally says she recently learned she wasn’t a citizen A Syracuse, New York, woman who says she only recently learned she wasn’t born in the US has been charged with voting illegally, one of the latest arrests touted by the Trump administration as it hunts»»»

Moscow and Kiev have agreed to a temporary ceasefire in the frontline town of Alyoshki in Russia’s Kherson Region to allow humanitarian aid deliveries and civilian evacuations following mediation co-ordinate by US First Lady Melania Trump, the Kremlin has confirmed. Located near the front line in K»»»

South African police are investigating the murder of a foreign national after violent protests by anti-immigrant groups swept through the central business district in Durban. The latest death follows months of violent rallies in which at least 10 foreigners were killed and several other countries o»»»

US troops have been warned against using inside information to bet on prediction markets, the Associated Press has reported, citing a directive issued by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who said such wagers could expose military plans and influence operational decisions. The memo, dated Tuesday a»»»

Thursday's incident involving Parliament Chair Mihaela Dotsova's security detail and a journalist from the PIK news agency led the chief of the National Service for Protection (NSP), Emil Tonev, to tender his resignation on Friday. Political parties insisted on more resignations. The calls followed»»»

NAIROBI: For Awad Usham Al-Amin and thousands of others, Abyei provides shelter and an opportunity to eke out a living as war rages back home. This week, Sudan’s conflict caught up with them there too. A drone strike believed to be targeting a fuel depot used by the paramilitary Rapid Support Force»»»

BusinessUnited States of AmericaTrump eases Canada tariffs ahead of US midtermsThe move comes as Trump's Republican Party scrambles to maintain control of the US Congress, with a Republican candidate in a key Senate race saying she had lobbied to lift the tariffs on Canadian products. https://p.dw.»»»

ISTANBUL: Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt and Pakistan on Friday described the Israeli “occupation as the main source of instability in the Middle East and beyond”, calling for an urgent implementation of the two-state solution in Palestine and diplomatic efforts to end the Israel-US war with Iran. In»»»

NAIROBI: Kenya has recorded a second Ebola death, the health ministry said late on Friday, adding that the 65-year-old woman had developed symptoms during quarantine and was a close relative of a Kenyan man who died of Ebola earlier this month. The outbreak, which started in the Democratic Republic»»»

Maros Pangkep, Indonesia: The world’s oldest known cave paintings on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi are facing a growing threat from severe wildfires sweeping across the region, with researchers warning that intense heat and smoke could risk accelerating the damage to the prehistoric treasures, »»»

LONDON/CHICAGO: The annual olive harvest is a time when Palestinian farmers return to their groves, often working land that has sustained their families for generations. But across the occupied West Bank, the harvest has increasingly brought the threat of settler violence and, this year, renewed in»»»

By Staff, Agencies Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has urged protesters in Western countries to remain focused on accountability and resist efforts to divide them along identity lines, linking the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, Gaza, the war on Iran and corruption to what he described a»»»

The Sofia Military Court ruled on Friday that no pre-trial restraint measure is necessary for Lieutenant Martin Varadinov, a guard with the National Service for Protection (NSP) who is accused of causing bodily injury to journalist Sonya Koltuklieva in an incident on Thursday. The ruling was implem»»»

The French government announced that 70,000 police officers will be deployed across the country on Saturday in a bid to avoid a repeat of the violence and looting that plagued last weekend's demonstrations. After meeting with President Emmanuel Macron Friday, high school student groups that sparked»»»

DOHA: The State of Qatar has strongly condemned the attack on a church in Karak Governorate in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which resulted in deaths and injuries. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the State of Qatar's firm rejection of violence, terrorism, and criminal »»»

Netanyahu pushes for Iran regime change as US envoy Tom Barrack signals possible strike Jerusalem: The United States could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, a US envoy said Friday, after mounting threats by both Washington and Israel. "Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely," Tom Barra»»»

Estonia's counterintelligence service has recently warned that sabotage operations orchestrated by Russian special services have reached a new and dangerous phase in Europe, with targets no longer being purely symbolic. Talking Europe sits down with the country's foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, t»»»

WASHINGTON: First lady Melania Trump has brokered a coming ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the ravaged, Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday. The localized ceasefire is set to begin Thur»»»

TUNIS, Oct. 23, 2026 (TAP) - A delegation of five French companies specialising in plastics and composite materials undertook an economic mission to Tunisia on October 19-22, 2026, aimed at consolidating the industrial partnership between the two...»»»

GENEVA: Time is running out to get aid into Taiz, besieged by pro-Iran Houthi fighters who are preventing supplies from reaching Yemen’s third-largest city, the United Nations said Friday. Houthi fighters have encircled Taiz since early October, blocking the road that links it to Aden, interim capi»»»

European governments should stop worrying about their growing dependence on American AI, US tech giant Palantir’s top executive for the UK and Europe has said. Instead, they should focus on the advantages the products offer, particularly against Russia, Palantir UK CEO Louis Mosley believes. The Eu»»»

GENEVA, Switzerland: The UN said on Friday it had documented more than 300 deaths from drone attacks in Sudan this month as it condemned the deadly escalation. It called for the international community to bear down on the influx of drones into Sudan’s civil war, particularly those causing civilian »»»

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia strongly condemned a "cowardly" terrorist attack on a church in southern Jordan on Friday that killed seven people and injured dozens.The Kingdom rejects “all terrorist acts that attempt to undermine the security and stability of Jordan,” a foreign ministry statement said.Saudi»»»

Additional naval assets and troops add to concerns over a possible new offensive Washington: The United States appears to be preparing to resume large-scale strikes against Iran, but there is unlikely to be a military solution for either side in the devastating conflict, experts say. Washington and»»»

JERUSALEM: The United States could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, a US envoy said Friday, after mounting threats by both Washington and Israel. “Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely,” Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and point man on Syria who does not have a direct role »»»

By Staff, Agencies Canadian diplomats stationed in the United States have reportedly been instructed to avoid contact with candidates in the upcoming midterm elections, in a move aimed at preventing accusations of interference from the Trump administration, The Hill reported, citing multiple accoun»»»

A Bulgarian-Greek meeting at the new Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing between the two countries on Friday marked the completion of the project to build the road and its associated infrastructure. The event was organized by the Managing Authority of the Greece-Bulgaria INTERREG Cross-border Cooperatio»»»

The olive harvest officially began in the West Bank on October 15, 2026, and it has coincided with an uptick in violence towards Palestinians carried out by both Israeli settlers and soldiers. Meanwhile, the settlers and soldiers have been using social media to promote an aesthetic, Instagram-frien»»»

Riyadh: GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi strongly condemned the terrorist attack targeting a church in Jordan's Karak Governorate. In a statement Friday, he said the attack is a criminal act that violates human values and ethical principles, reaffirming the GCC's full solidarity with J»»»

Trappes, France: A gunman firing from a car killed one person and wounded five others—including a 12-year-old girl who was shot eight times—in the Paris suburb of Trappes on Friday, in an assault the French presidency condemned as a "racist terrorist attack." French President Emmanuel Macron visite»»»

Washington: Microsoft researchers have developed an AI system that diagnoses medical conditions step by step, achieving 83 percent accuracy on complex cases, compared with 36 percent for general physicians using reference materials. Published in Science, the study tested the system on 304 complex c»»»

Russia-US negotiations on Ukraine are shifting towards revising the European security architecture, Lorenzo Maria Pacini, associate professor of political philosophy and geopolitics at UniDolomiti in Italy's Belluno, tells Sputnik. "It is no coincidence that the Kremlin has identified the establish»»»

DUBAI: Hundreds of people gather, pushing toward the front with their arms outstretched, holding empty plates and containers in the hope of securing a meagre meal that may be all they eat that day. They wait for food parcels that have become part of daily life, with no guarantee of when the next di»»»

By Staff, Agencies Senator Bernie Sanders has donated $1 million to Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed after learning that the pro-“Israel” lobbying group AIPAC was preparing to spend up to $9 million against him, The New York Times reported. Sanders transferred the funds on Wednesda»»»

By Staff, Agencies Anger over Washington’s Middle East policies and growing financial pressures are eroding Republican support among Arab Americans, giving Democrats a substantial advantage ahead of November’s congressional elections, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll. The survey fou»»»

Martin Varadinov, a guard with the National Service for Protection (NSP) who is accused of causing medium bodily injury to journalist Sonya Koltuklieva, told the Sofia Military Court on Friday that he believes he lawfully performed his duties during Thursday's incident and asked the court to impose»»»

You can usually tell how many countries a company employs in by how it talks about compliance. With one country, people talk about it as a state: we are compliant, we had an audit, it went fine. With six, that language stops working. Somebody asks whether you are compliant in a particular market an»»»

JERUSALEM: An Israeli human rights group on Friday urged pressure to stop Israel from forcibly displacing Palestinians in response to a deadly attack on Israeli troops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, days before elections, warned of a massive response to Friday’s attack near Hebron incl»»»