How Israel keeps its foes and friends on the defensive. Israeli hyperbole is as old as the Israeli state. It is tautological, serving as the raison d’être and modus operandi of Israel, the garrison state. It is farcical, fantastical, and also dangerous in the way it surpasses mere rhetoric to …

British Brexit minister David Frost said on Wednesday that Brussels should stay calm and avoid embarking on “massive and disproportionate retaliation” if London follows through on its threat to escalate a post-Brexit trade dispute. Frost said he wasn’t yet ready to give up on talks aimed at finding a solution, …

Iraq’s Security Media Cell announced that the military advisor in the so-called “Nineveh State” in ISIS was arrested. In a statement, the Cell said, “the National Security Service detachments arrested the military advisor for the so-called Nineveh State after he entered Iraq coming from a neighboring country.” The statement added, …

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill calling for more sanctions and other punitive measures against the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who extended his grip on power in an election that Washington denounced as a sham. Biden, who has accused Ortega of orchestrating Sunday’s …

Iraq recorded 915 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Thursday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 16 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 1621 patients have achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in …

Turkey has reportedly released a Turkish-American man imprisoned for being the license holder of an encrypted messaging app allegedly used during the attempted coup in 2016, a Turkish opposition website said Wednesday. “The İstanbul 29th High Criminal Court ruled to release Alpaslan Demir, who changed his name to David Keynes …

Afghanistan’s Taliban-appointed foreign affairs chief has embarked on a visit to neighboring Pakistan as the Taliban rulers seek regional and global recognition. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that this week’s visit was a follow-up to a visit last month by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to …

The US annual inflation has hit a 30-year high amid the coronavirus pandemic as well as the glitch in the country’s supply chain. According to the latest statistics, the consumer price index (CPI) rose 6.2 percent in the US federal government’s fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. …

Ethiopian authorities have detained more than 70 drivers working with the United Nations, a U.N. spokesperson said, amid international alarm over reported widespread arrests of ethnic Tigrayans as the war in the country’s north escalates. The ethnicity of the 72 drivers was not clear. The U.N. spokesperson said the drivers …

The leader of the Al-Fateh Alliance Hadi al-Amiri received on Wednesday the delegation of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan headed by Khaled Shwani in the capital, Baghdad, where they expressed their great rejection of manipulating the election results, while al-Amiri hinted at the possibility of resorting to boycotting the entire …

The Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq will refer all election appeals to the judiciary tomorrow. An official source in the commission told Al-Ghadeer News, “The Electoral Commission will send all the appeals it has received to the judiciary to address them,” noting, “whatever decision issued by the judicial body …

An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 struck southeast of Ryukyu Islands, Japan, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said on Wednesday. The quake was at a depth of 2 km (1.24 miles) and was about 312 km south of Naha, Japan, EMSC said.

British researchers said on Wednesday they had identified proteins in the coronavirus that are recognised by T-cells of people who are exposed to the virus but resist infection, possibly providing a new target for vaccine developers. Immunity against COVID-19 is a complex picture, and while there is evidence of waning …

Snowstorms have wreaked havoc in northeast China this week, with record snowfall in some parts snarling traffic, disrupting train services, and raising concerns about power supplies as temperatures plunge, state media reported on Wednesday. Traffic in Liaoning province has been severely disrupted, with the majority of expressway toll stations shut …

The European Union’s foreign policy chief warned the bloc on Wednesday that it must agree an ambitious doctrine as the basis for joint military action abroad, including with a deployable crisis force. Josep Borrell told reporters his first draft of the “Strategic Compass” – the closest thing the EU could …

NASA on Tuesday delayed putting astronauts back on the moon until 2025 at the earliest, missing the deadline set by the Trump administration. The space agency had been aiming for 2024 for the first moon landing by astronauts in a half-century. In announcing the delay, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said …

Heavy rains on Sri Lanka’s coast and in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu have killed at least 25 people, destroyed thousands of homes and snarled traffic, authorities said. In Sri Lanka, 20 people have died in recent days, most from drowning, while five were hurt in landslides, officials …

Russia took the rare step of dispatching two nuclear-capable strategic bombers to patrol Belarusian airspace on Wednesday in a show of support to close ally Belarus at a time when it is locked in a migrant standoff with the European Union. Moscow’s decision to up the ante came as the …

Swedish centre-left Prime Minister Stefan Lofven formally resigned on Wednesday, opening the way for Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson to become the country’s first woman premier if she can win parliament’s approval. Lofven, a former welder and union negotiator, has headed a minority coalition with the Greens since 2014 and said …

U.S. President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will hold their first in-person meeting in Washington on Nov. 18, Mexico’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. The meeting, which will be the first summit held by the three countries in five years, will …