Author: Anadolu Agency

Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf held discussions Thursday with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot about key issues on the agenda of bilateral relations as part of preparations for the latter’s upcoming official visit to the Arab country. The phone call between Attaf and Barrot came “following a phone conversation that took place on March 31 between President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron,” according to a statement from Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry said Barrot is scheduled to pay an official visit to Algeria on April 6 at the invitation of his Algerian counterpart. The statement…

Australian superannuation funds have been targeted by cyberattacks, disrupting access for members of some of the nation’s largest retirement funds. Many members have experienced difficulty accessing their accounts, with some accounts incorrectly displaying a zero balance. AustralianSuper, the country’s largest superannuation fund with at least 3.5 million members and billions of dollars in investments, has been the target of 600 cyberattacks in the last month, ABC News reported on Friday. “This week, we identified that cybercriminals may have used up to 600 members’ stolen passwords to log into their accounts in attempts to commit fraud,” the fund said in a…

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will engage in discussions with international leaders this weekend to address the growing concerns surrounding the US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Downing Street said on Friday. The talks are set to focus on how nations should collectively respond to the trade measures introduced by Trump. During a morning lobby briefing, a spokesperson revealed that while specific details regarding the identities of the leaders Starmer would be consulting with were not disclosed, the need for these conversations had been driven by the necessity of working “even more closely” with global allies in light of the economic…

Joining an anxious global chorus, the IMF managing director has raised fresh concerns over the potential global fallout from the latest tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. In a Thursday statement, Kristalina Georgieva warned the new tariffs could deepen uncertainty and threaten an already fragile global economy. “We are still assessing the macroeconomic implications of the announced tariff measures, but they clearly represent a significant risk to the global outlook at a time of sluggish growth,” she said. Georgieva urged caution and called on the US and its trade partners to cooperate amid rising trade tensions, saying: “It is…

Russian President Vladimir Putin supports a ceasefire in Ukraine, but numerous factors must be addressed before taking this step, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. In a press briefing in Moscow, Peskov talked about media reports, claiming that advisers to US President Donald Trump advised him not to call Putin until Moscow agreed to a complete ceasefire. Peskov dismissed the reports, saying: “A lot of different fakes, rumors, conjectures, and outright lies are being published in the media.” “President Putin supported the idea of a ceasefire. At the same time, he noted that many nuances must be understood before…

US President Donald Trump has voiced support for controversial right-wing French politician Marine Le Pen after she was convicted of embezzlement and prohibited from seeking political office. On social media, Trump branded Le Pen’s case a “Witch Hunt”-the same phrase he used to condemn numerous investigations and court cases against him-and wrote: “FREE MARINE LE PEN.” “It is all so bad for France, and the Great French People, no matter what side they are on,” he wrote. He added: “It is the same ‘playbook’ that was used against me by a group of Lunatics.” A Paris court on Monday barred…

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that there is “a lot that has to happen” in the coming weeks to reach a cease-fire in Ukraine and that negotiations will not continue forever. “We’re closer to peace simply because we’re talking to both sides, but we’re not closer to peace because we have a deal on our hands to end this conflict, but we’re going to know soon enough,” Marco Rubio said at a news conference in Brussels. When asked about his timeline to see progress on a ceasefire, he said: “We’re talking weeks.” “There is a…

Arms support to Ukraine will bring more destruction, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said on Friday. Arguing that many European leaders are wrong to think that pouring more weapons to Ukraine would force peace through strength, he said: “It is clear that this will not happen, and that it will lead to more destruction, more casualties, more distancing from peace and the loss of even more territory by Ukraine,” during in his address at the meeting of Aqaba Process for the Balkans Forum in Sofia, according to state-run BTA news agency. Radev warned that regional conflicts can swiftly escalate to global…

NATO is an essential part of the European defense, the EU foreign policy chief reiterated on Friday. “Of course the EU and NATO are natural partners as a majority of the EU members are also (in) NATO. So our collective defense (is) based on NATO,” Kaja Kallas said in doorstep remarks on day two of a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. Citing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Thursday remarks that the US remains committed to NATO but its European members should spend more on defense, she stressed that the EU’s White Paper on defense, presented last month, is…

India’s main opposition Congress party said Friday it will challenge in the Supreme Court the recently passed Waqf Amendment Bill, which overhauls laws governing Muslim religious endowments and has been hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a major milestone for reform and transparency. The controversial bill, which applies to waqf — land or property donated by Muslims for religious, educational, or charitable purposes — passed both houses of Parliament despite sharp resistance from opposition parties and Muslim organizations. Early Friday, the bill cleared the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, after it was introduced by the Modi-led government amid mounting…