BREAKINGBREAKING, Hassan Sayyad Khodayari was a member of the Quds Force, IRGC’s foreign arm, who served in Syria in the past years. Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says one of its members has been assassinated in the capital Tehran by gunmen riding on two motorcycles, according to the state news agency IRNA. Al … Read more
The outbreak of monkeypox in countries where the virus is not endemic is highly unusual, according to scientists. Israel and Switzerland have confirmed their first cases of monkeypox, joining several European and North American countries in detecting a disease that is endemic to parts of Africa. In recent weeks, more than 100 confirmed or suspected … Read more
Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here. Beirut, Lebanon CNN — When pundits called former US President George W. Bush’s gaffe about Ukraine and Iraq a “Freudian slip,” it reflected a deeper grievance about … Read more
MILAN (AP) — Edoardo Ronzoni inspects a construction site near Milan that he shut down in March as costs for materials skyrocketed. He can’t complete a half-built roundabout at an intersection known for fender-benders because asphalt, cast-iron pipes and concrete are too expensive — prices exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Public works projects in … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Hundreds more Ukrainian fighters who made their stand inside Mariupol’s bombed-out steel plant surrendered, bringing the total to over 1,700, Russia said Thursday, amid international fears about the fate of the prisoners in Moscow’s hands. The Red Cross worked to register the soldiers as prisoners of war in a step toward … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Russian military said Thursday that more Ukrainian fighters who were making a last stand in Mariupol have surrendered, bringing the total who have left their stronghold to 1,730, while the Red Cross said it had registered hundreds of them as prisoners of war. The International Committee of the Red Cross … Read more
Turkey has opposed NATO membership bids by Sweden and Finland, but US says concerns can be addressed. US President Joe Biden has said the bids by Sweden and Finland to join NATO would be successful, despite objections raised by Turkey to their applications. “I think we’re going to be OK,” Biden said on Wednesday in … Read more
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States struggled Wednesday to get clarity from Turkey over the severity of its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATOas Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took an increasingly tough line against their membership bids. In a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the United Nations, Turkish Foreign Minister … Read more
Kabul CNN — A senior Taliban official has repeated the group’s as-yet-unfulfilled pledge to allow girls back into high school, saying there would be “good news soon,” but suggested that women who protested the regime’s restrictions on women rights should stay home. Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister and the Taliban’s co-deputy leader since 2016, … Read more
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick went into Wednesday essentially tied in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Republican nomination for an open US Senate seat, expected to be among the nation’s most competitive races in the fall. The contest was within a couple thousand votes overnight, … Read more