Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

The United States said on Friday a ceasefire extension was desperately needed in Lebanon and that it was pleased the Israeli military has started withdrawing from central regions of the country. Israeli forces will remain in southern Lebanon beyond a 60-day deadline stipulated in a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah because its terms have not been fully implemented, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Friday. “All parties share the goal of ensuring Hezbollah does not have the ability to threaten the Lebanese people or their neighbors. To achieve these goals, a short, temporary ceasefire extension is urgently needed,” said Brian…

The International Criminal Court has taken measures to shield staff from possible U.S. sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braces for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, two sources said on Friday. The U.S. House of Representatives voted this month to punish the court for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister over Israel’s campaign in Gaza. The bill would impose sanctions on any foreigner who investigates, arrests, detains or prosecutes U.S. citizens, or those of allied countries that are not members of the court. That includes…

U.S. President Donald Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House. The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual “March for Life.”

Russia on Thursday reprimanded the head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF for not providing a “weighty argument for her refusal” to brief the Security Council on children in Gaza – a meeting requested by Russia. Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, an American, had briefed the 15-member council on children in Ukraine “at the drop of a hat” in December, during the U.S. presidency of the council. “So it would appear that for UNICEF children in Gaza are less important than children in Ukraine,” Nebenzia said. Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022 and…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated his call for OPEC to cut oil prices to hurt oil-rich Russia’s finances and help bring an end to the war in Ukraine. “One way to stop it quickly is for OPEC to stop making so much money and drop the price of oil…. That war will stop right away,” Trump said as he landed in North Carolina to view storm damage.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed pardons for 23 anti-abortion protesters on Thursday in the Oval Office of the White House. The pardons came a day before anti-abortion protesters were due to descend on Washington for the annual “March for Life.”

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he sees a very good relationship between the United States and China, and that he hopes China can help end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “They have a great deal of power over that situation,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, speaking remotely. “Hopefully, we can work together and get that stopped.”

A Russian man who tried to pass on classified information to the United States has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for “high treason”, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. Dmitry Shatresov, who was arrested in January 2024, “illegally obtained” state secrets and “intended to transfer them to an American intelligence representative” before he was caught by law enforcement, the RIA news agency reported. He was convicted of high treason and sentenced to 17 years in a high-security prison on Wednesday, Moscow’s court service said on Telegram. Russia has relentlessly pursued people it accuses of espionage and treason since…

Russia on Thursday rejected the idea of NATO countries sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire in the war with Russia, saying such a move would threaten to cause an “uncontrollable escalation”. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the idea was totally unacceptable to Russia. At a press briefing, she referred to recent statements by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius about the possibility their countries might contribute troops to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine. Pistorius said in a Jan. 18 newspaper interview that Germany, as the largest NATO partner in…

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday called for the U.S. to continue supplying Ukraine and said Europe would pay the bill. Speaking at an event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the NATO chief said the alliance must invest more in defence, ramp up defence industrial production and take on a bigger share of spending on help for Ukraine. “On Ukraine, we need U.S. also to stay involved,” Rutte said. “If this new Trump administration is willing to keep on supplying Ukraine from its defense industrial base, the bill will be paid by the Europeans, I’m absolutely convinced…