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Items by Reuters
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G20 summit agrees on words but struggles on action
The Group of 20 major economies reached a hard-fought compromise over the war in Ukraine and papered over other key differences in a summit declaration at the weekend, presenting few concrete achievements in its core remit of responses to global financial issues. Diplomats and analysts said the surprise consensus...
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Iran: has anything changed a year after Mahsa Amini protests erupted?
Iran’s rulers have intensified a clampdown on dissent nearly one year since the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini sparked protests which spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Reuters has reported. Protests began soon after the 16 September death of Kurdish...
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Iran, US on verge of prisoner swap under Qatar-mediated deal
When $6 billion of unfrozen Iranian funds are wired to banks in Qatar as early as next week, it will trigger a carefully choreographed sequence that will see as many as five detained US dual nationals leave Iran and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the US...
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G20 summit wraps up in New Delhi; Modi calls for a virtual meet in November
The G20 summit in New Delhi ended on Sunday as India handed over the bloc presidency to Brazil, while both the US and Russia praised a consensus that did not condemn Moscow for the war in Ukraine but called on members to shun the use of force. Indian Prime...
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FACTBOX – Who is attending the G20 summit in New Delhi?
Leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) major economies kick off an annual summit meeting on Saturday to coordinate policy on food security, debt problems of vulnerable countries and climate action. Here is a list of those attending and some key leaders who are skipping the meeting in the Indian capital,...
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In Gaza, light gold coins help the poor to save
A Gaza dentist has developed ultra-lightweight gold coins to allow people without much money to access one of the most widely used savings methods across the Middle East. “The idea stemmed from the community’s need to own gold amid the difficult living conditions the people live in,” said Ahmed...
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FACTBOX – Wagner’s global operations: War, oil and gold
Russia’s most powerful mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday near Moscow with no survivors, Russian authorities said, two months to the day after he led an abortive mutiny against the army top brass. The June 23-24 revolt by Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group called into question the fate...
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BRICS welcomes new members in push to reshuffle world order
The BRICS bloc of developing nations agreed, on Thursday, to admit Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates in a move aimed at accelerating its push to reshuffle a world order it sees as outdated. The group’s leaders left the door open to future enlargement,...
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Lebanon Hezbollah rises from shadows into regional force
Hezbollah has risen from a shadowy group established during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war to a heavily armed force with big sway over the Lebanese State. Governments, including the United States, deem it a terrorist organisation. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards founded Hezbollah in 1982 to export its Islamic Revolution and fight...
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Beirut port blast: three years on, victims still await accountability
Lebanon, on Friday, marks the third anniversary of the Beirut port explosion which killed at least 220 people, wounded thousands and damaged swathes of the city. Despite the devastation, an investigation has brought no senior official to account. Here is a summary of what happened and how the investigation...
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Biden’s Israel dilemma: Few good options to counter Netanyahu’s defiance
President Joe Biden is in a political bind as he crafts a US response to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, defiantly pushing through the first part of a divisive judicial overhaul. Despite Washington’s long time status as Israel’s top ally and biggest weapons supplier, Biden appears to have few...
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Netanyahu judicial move spawns economic, political risks
A day after Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pressed ahead with contentious changes to the judiciary, an ad covered the front page of all Israel’s leading newspapers in black, reading at the bottom: “a black day for Israel’s democracy.” It was a paid ad by a group of high-tech companies protesting against...
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Israel enemies see opportunity in its crisis
The crisis sweeping Israel has become a focal point for its enemies across the Middle East, who have convened top-level meetings to weigh the turmoil and how they might capitalise on it, sources familiar with the discussions say, Reuters reports. Foes, including Lebanon’s Iran-backed, Hezbollah, have been crowing at...
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Iraq ancient sites, fragile stability spur new trickle of tourists
When Jacob Nemec’s family heard he was planning to go on holiday in Iraq, they pleaded with the 28-year-old American to reconsider. “I got a text from my grandma, for the first time in five years saying – being your grandmother and to respect me – I would appreciate...
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EXPLAINER – Israel disputed judicial overhaul is back, what’s new?
Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has relaunched his government’s quest to change Israel’s justice system, rekindling unprecedented nationwide protests. On Monday, the Knesset is scheduled to vote on a bill that limits Supreme Court powers, a first of three parliamentary readings. Protests are likely to intensify if it passes. Recap Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government...
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Syria brought Wagner Group fighters to heel as mutiny unfolded in Russia
As Wagner mercenaries advanced on Moscow in an attempted mutiny in late June, authorities in Syria and Russian military commanders there took a series of swift measures against local Wagner operatives to prevent the uprising spreading, according to six sources familiar with the matter. The previously unreported crackdown included...
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Families of missing in Greece migrant boat disaster plead for recovery of bodies
Since Matloob Hussain from Pakistan went missing during a deadly shipwreck off Greece last month, his brother, Adil, has left the door of his Athens home open in the hope he appears. It will stay open until his body is found. Matloob, 43, is among hundreds of migrants from...
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Abraham Accord Arab states seen sticking with Israel despite Jenin violence
Public fury is growing in the Arab world over one of Israel’s biggest military operations in the Occupied West Bank in years, yet Arab states which normalised ties with Israel are unlikely to turn their condemnation of the Israeli assault into action. Thousands of people were evacuated from the Jenin refugee...
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Survivors of Greece boat disaster say coastguard rope toppled boat
Survivors of a boat disaster that likely killed hundreds of migrants near Greece have given accounts of traffickers in North Africa cramming them into a clapped-out fishing trawler. They recounted hellish conditions above and below deck, with no food or water. Some also said the tragic end, when it...
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EXPLAINER – Turkiye keeps Sweden waiting on NATO membership as key summit nears
Sweden’s path to NATO membership remains blocked by Turkiye and Hungary ahead of a July summit in Vilnius, where it hopes to join Nordic neighbour, Finland, as a full member of the alliance. Finland, which applied together with Sweden, joined NATO in April, but Turkiye continues to block Swedish...
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Lebanon awaits foreign push out of political impasse
At loggerheads over who should fill a vacant presidency, Lebanon’s fractious politicians are waiting for foreign powers to resolve their crisis, leaving the country adrift as its failing state teeters on the brink of collapse. After parliament failed for the 12th time to elect a new president, many believe what happens...
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Battered by opposition, Kuwait Royal family seeks to project unity
The appointment of additional Royals to Kuwait’s new cabinet, including a convicted Defence Minister, looks like a push by the ruling family to show unity and reassert power as it wrestles with an opposition-controlled Parliament. Rivalries within the Royal family and feuding between government and the elected National Assembly have...
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Iraq enjoys respite from turmoil but risks still remain
Helped by buoyant oil prices and a period of political calm at home and in the region, Iraq appears more stable than at any time since the US-led invasion, although the government’s bid to cement gains with a budget splurge may prove a shaky foundation. In office since October,...
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Sudan war exacts deadly toll on dialysis patients, leaves bodies rotting
Kidney dialysis patients are dying and dead bodies have been left to decompose in a morgue and in city streets as Sudan’s war rages on, despite efforts by volunteers and aid workers to keep critical healthcare running. Sudan’s health sector was already on the edge of collapse due to...