The US said it would consider revoking its recent designation of Yemen’s Houthis as terrorists if the Iran-backed militants cease their shipping attacks in and around the Red Sea. “My hope is that we can find diplomatic off-ramps,” Tim Lenderking, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for Yemen, told reporters in an online press briefing on … Read more
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is proposing to establish a fund of allied contributions worth $100 billion over five years for Ukraine as part of a package for alliance leaders to sign off when they gather in Washington in July. Allies are still discussing Stoltenberg’s proposal and any mechanics of the accounting, including whether to … Read more
Macron now hopes to step in as a mediator with a new U.N. draft resolution, which he said would be prepared with “several regional partners, in particular in the Arab world,” which will help lift the Chinese and Russian vetoes. “It’s with this procedure that we hope to advance this text,” he said. Meanwhile, Israeli … Read more
The US proposed to its Group of Seven allies that they create a special purpose vehicle to issue at least $50 billion of bonds backed by the profits generated by frozen Russian sovereign assets and use the proceeds to support Ukraine, according to people familiar with the plan. The proposal would pool the $280 billion … Read more
Sign up for our Middle East newsletter and follow us @middleeast for news on the region. The Yemen-based Houthis have told China and Russia their ships can sail through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden without being attacked, according to several people with knowledge of the militant group’s discussions. Source link
Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion has entered a new phase, pitting homegrown drone technology against a 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile) swathe of largely Soviet-era oil facilities. At least nine major refineries have been successfully attacked this year, currently taking offline 11% of the country’s total capacity by some estimates. As the conflict at the front … Read more
China’s defense spending will grow by 7.2% in 2024 — the most in five years — an increase that comes amid signs corruption is undermining a military revamp. Military expenditure by the central government is expected to rise to 1.67 trillion yuan ($231 billion) this year, according to a Finance Ministry report released on Tuesday. … Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested on Sunday that plans for Kyiv’s long-awaited counteroffensive last year had been leaked to Russia ahead of time. Issued on: 25/02/2024 – 18:27 1 min Ukraine’s counteroffensive in 2023, powered by billions of dollars in Western arms, largely fell flat, failing to break through multiple lines of Russian defences and … Read more
President Joe Biden sought to show his determination to stand up to Russia in announcing fresh sanctions on Friday, but his resolve only went so far over concerns that the toughest measures left in the US arsenal risk roiling the global economy. A 200-page list of targets based in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, China … Read more
After attending school in Finland and later the U.S., Belgium and the U.K., Stubb entered politics in 2004 as a member of the European Parliament. He hit the Finnish big time in 2008 when — to his own surprise — he was named foreign minister. Praised by allies for his high-energy approach to politics, he was … Read more