Author: Anadolu Agency

The EU on Tuesday condemned North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch of 2025, saying this violated multiple UN Security Council resolutions. The EU condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, which Pyongyang claims was equipped with a hypersonic warhead, said a statement from EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas’s office. The statement noted that this launch violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions and further raises tensions on the Korean Peninsula. On Monday, South Korea reported that Pyongyang had launched the missile, coinciding with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Seoul amid…

In the same way that Türkiye helped the Syrian people put their country back on track, a British Palestinian academic believes that a stronger Turkish role could bring peace to the Gaza Strip, where thousands have been killed in Israeli attacks for the past 15 months. Ibrahim Assalia, who hails from Jabalia in Gaza, expressed hope for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) ahead of an event by the British Palestinian Committee in London, where he was among the speakers, Assalia expressed hope, saying the…

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen gave the leader of the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO), Herbert Kickl, a mandate to form a new government with the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) after talks on Monday. In a press conference on Monday in Vienna, Van der Bellen said: “I did not take this step lightly.” “One of the most important tasks of the Federal President is to ensure that the country has a federal government,” he said. Last week, coalition talks between the OVP under the incumbent Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPO) and…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s planned visit to Poland on Jan. 9 has been postponed following her diagnosis with a severe case of pneumonia, the Commission’s chief spokesperson announced on Monday. Paula Pinho provided an update on von der Leyen’s health during a press briefing in Brussels, confirming that all of the president’s external engagements have been canceled until mid-January due to the illness. ” “If all goes well, she will return by mid-January,” Pinho said. The visit to Poland, which assumed the rotating European Union presidency on Jan. 1, will be rescheduled. However, a new date has…

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani held talks with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Monday to discuss developments in Gaza and Syria. The Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement that bin Abdulrahman discussed bilateral relations and regional developments, especially the situation in Gaza and Syria, during a phone call with Lammy. Qatar, along with Egypt and the US, has been mediating a cease-fire and prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas to end Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7,…

Illegal Israeli settlers blocked the convoy of Palestinian Local Government Minister Sami Hijjawi on Monday in Masafer Yatta, south of the West Bank city of Hebron. A statement by the Local Government Ministry said the minister’s vehicle was stopped by settlers dressed in military uniform. No further details were provided by the ministry. The incident followed calls by illegal settlers to launch attacks against Palestinians in retaliation to a shooting attack that left three settlers dead in the northern West Bank. According to media reports, illegal settlers blocked several roads between the cities of Nablus, Qalqilya, Tulkarem, and Jenin, attacking…

Stockholm University has been found guilty of discrimination after it rejected the internship application of a Turkish student, Fatma Zehra Solmaz, citing Türkiye’s objections to Sweden’s NATO membership, according to the Swedish Equality Ombudsman (DO). The rejection in 2022 drew significant attention and led to an official apology from the university. Solmaz, a third-year psychology student at that time at Istanbul’s Ibn Haldun University, applied for a summer internship at Stockholm University as part of the Erasmus+ program. On Nov. 23, 2022, she reached out to Professor Per Carlbring, who leads a clinical psychology research group at the university, expressing…

Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan held talks in Abu Dhabi on Monday with his Syrian counterpart Asaad al-Shaibani on bilateral relations and recent developments in Syria. Shaibani arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) early Monday on his first visit to the Gulf country since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime last month. The talks between the two sides took up ways to enhance relations between the two countries, the situation in Syria and latest regional developments, the state news agency WAM reported. Bin Zayed reaffirmed the UAE’s unwavering support for Syria’s independence and sovereignty…

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan discussed bilateral relations and regional developments with his US counterpart Antony Blinken over the phone on Monday. In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said the contact dwelt on regional developments and efforts made in this regard, without giving any further details. There was no immediate comment from the US Department of State on the report. The Middle East region has seen escalating developments in recent weeks following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and…

At least 32 dolphins have died from a fuel oil spill in Russia’s Black Sea since Dec. 15, a local animal rescue group reported Sunday. The Delfa Dolphin Rescue and Research Center said it had found 61 dead cetaceans since an emergency was declared, with 32 killed “likely due to the fuel oil spill” and the rest believed to be linked to older incidents. A regional emergency regime was declared in the region on Saturday. It said most deaths occurred within 10 days of the disaster, primarily affecting vulnerable Azov dolphins. “For this period of time (outside the release season)…