Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on BRICS countries if they create their own currency, said on Monday that any U.S. attempt to compel countries to use the dollar would backfire. Peskov said the dollar was losing its appeal as a reserve currency for many countries, and the trend was gathering pace. Trump on Saturday demanded that BRICS member countries commit to not creating a new currency or supporting another currency that would replace the United States dollar, saying they would otherwise face 100% tariffs.

A group of Bulgarian nationals accused of spying for Russia targeted an investigative journalist with the Bellingcat news outlet and tried to lure him into a “honey trap” via Facebook, prosecutors told a London court on Monday. Katrin Ivanova, 33, Vanya Gaberova, 30, and Tihomir Ivanchev, 39, are accused of being part of a highly sophisticated spying network, run by a Russian agent named as Jan Marsalek, which targeted people including dissidents. Prosecutors say the trio – along with two men, Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, who have admitted being part of a spying conspiracy – also carried out surveillance…

Palestinian resistance group Hamas said on Monday that 33 hostages had been killed during the almost 14-month-old war with Israel in Gaza, without clarifying their nationalities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has discussed the escalating situation in Syria with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian by phone, the Kremlin said on Monday. “The focus was on the escalating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,” the Kremlin statement said. “Unconditional support was expressed for the actions of the legitimate authorities of Syria to restore constitutional order and to restore the political, economic and social stability of the Syrian state.” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was ready for any cooperation with Russia to control the regional situation and help resolve the crisis in Syria, according to the Iranian government’s…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would respond “strongly” after the Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, citing repeated Israeli ceasefire violations, carried out a strike on an Israeli military position.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said there would be “hell to pay” in the Middle East if hostages held in the Gaza Strip were not released prior to his Jan. 20 inauguration. “Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America,” Trump said in a post on social media.

The ceasefire in Lebanon has been broadly successful, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, adding the United States and France will look at reports of potential violations in the coming days. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at a regular news briefing that Washington and Paris would engage with the Israeli and Lebanese militaries to look at reports of violations and deal with them through channels in the mechanism set up in the agreement.

Syrian opposition forces began preparations to seize Aleppo a year ago but the assault was delayed by war in Gaza and ultimately launched last week when a ceasefire took hold in Lebanon, the head of Syria’s main opposition abroad told Reuters. The insurgents were able to seize the city and other areas so quickly in part because Hezbollah and other Iran-backed fighters who support Syria’s president were still distracted by their conflict with Israel, Hadi al-Bahra said on Monday. The Turkish military, which is allied with some of the insurgents and has bases across its southern border in Syria, had…

The United States will provide Ukraine with a $725 million weapons package, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, as President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration seeks to bolster the government in Kyiv in its war with Russian invaders before leaving office in January. The assistance will include Stinger missiles, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), drones and land mines, among other items, Blinken said in a statement. Reuters had reported last week that the Biden administration planned to provide the equipment, much of it anti-tank weapons to ward off Russia’s attacking troops. “The United States and more…

Apple has been accused in a new lawsuit of illegally monitoring its workers’ personal devices and iCloud accounts while also barring them from discussing their pay and working conditions. The complaint filed in California state court on Sunday by Amar Bhakta, who works in digital advertising for Apple, claims the company requires employees to install software on personal devices that they use for work allowing Apple to access their email, photo libraries, health and “smart home” data and other personal information. At the same time, the lawsuit alleges, Apple imposes confidentiality policies that prohibit employees from discussing working conditions, including…