Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

The UN agency issued a stark warning on Friday, cautioning that nearly 13 million displaced people, including children, could be left without access to life-saving health services unless urgent funding gaps are addressed. “Without adequate resources, an estimated 12.8 million displaced people, including 6.3 million children, could be left without life-saving health interventions in 2025,” Allen Maina, UNHCR’s chief of public health, told a press briefing at the UN in Geneva, referring to the US foreign aid cuts. Maina said health and nutrition programs for refugees and their host communities are deteriorating rapidly, with reduced spending by host governments compounding…

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched a nuclear-powered submarine equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles capable of travelling at several times the speed of sound. Russian news agencies, referring to a video link from the Arctic port of Murmansk, said Putin launched the vessel, named Perm after a city in the Urals, with the order: “I hereby authorise!” The Russian agencies, quoting documents associated with the launch, said the Perm is the first nuclear-powered submarine to be equipped with Zircon missiles as a standard feature. Zircon missiles have a range of 900 km (560 miles) and their speed renders them very…

Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil will remain behind bars in Louisiana at least until a U.S. judge decides whether the Palestinian activist should challenge his imprisonment in a federal court there or in New Jersey. President Donald Trump’s administration argues that Khalil’s challenge should be heard in Louisiana where he is now detained and where any appeals would be heard by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative in the country. U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark, New Jersey, did not say on Friday when he would rule but said it was his hope that “judges…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had spoken with officials in Myanmar about the earthquake that hit the country and that his administration would be providing some form of assistance. “We’re going to be helping,” he told reporters at the White House.

Russia will station more military personnel in the Arctic, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. Putin said Russia would defend its interests in the region.

The United States will deploy biometric capabilities in partnership with Colombia to help manage migration and disrupt criminal activity, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in Bogota on Thursday. “Today we have signed a statement of intent for biometric cooperation and it will reaffirm our strong and our resilient and our enduring partnership,” Noem said in remarks alongside Colombia foreign minister Laura Sarabia. “We’re going to strengthen our regional security systems and make sure we’re disrupting the movement of threatening actors that perpetuate illegal activity and also facilitate illegal trafficking of migrants.”

Leaders who gathered in Paris on Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine talked about the United Nations playing a possible role in an eventual ceasefire deal with Russia, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said. “During the meeting, the leaders also discussed the importance of effective implementation and monitoring of the ceasefire, on which a possible U.N. role is emerging, in line with the Italian government’s position,” a statement said.

Denmark’s prime minister praised the people of Greenland on Thursday for showing resilience in the face of what she called great pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration for Washington to take control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory. Opinion polls have shown that nearly all Greenlanders oppose becoming part of the United States, and in recent weeks anti-American protesters have staged some of the largest demonstrations ever seen on the Arctic island. “The attention is overwhelming and the pressure is great, but it is in times like these that you show what you are made of,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen…

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Russian artillery had damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the front-line city of Kherson, two days after the U.S. announced that each side had agreed to a truce on energy strikes. “Two days ago, there was a night when there were no strikes on the energy sector, today energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson was damaged by Russian artillery,” Zelenskiy said in Paris. “I believe that the U.S. should respond with actions.” The United States announced separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow on Tuesday to pause attacks in the Black Sea and against each…

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned the United States and Europe on Wednesday against any temptation to “go it alone” on security, amid increased tensions over the future of the transatlantic alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump recently cast doubt on Washington’s willingness to defend NATO allies it deemed were not paying enough for their own defence, triggering alarm among European leaders about the future of the Atlantic alliance as they face up to a more assertive Russia. Speaking at the Warsaw School of Economics, Rutte said the U.S. needed European countries to “step up” on security and that the alliance must…