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The Kurdish-led militia that controls northeastern Syria agreed on Monday to merge with the country’s new government, marking a major breakthrough for Damascus in its efforts to unify a country still wrestling with violent turmoil. The agreement, announced by the office of Syria’s presidency and signed by both parties, stipulated that the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic … Read more
The bustle of Ramadan markets has been reduced to a trickle of somber shoppers. A heavy silence has replaced lively chatter. No lanterns glow in windows, and the strings of lights that crisscrossed alleyways, flickering above children playing in the streets, have gone dark. “Ramadan used to shine,” said Mahmoud Sukkar, a father of four … Read more
Ukraine unleashed one of its largest long-range drone bombardments of the war before dawn on Tuesday at targets across Russia, including dozens of strikes directed at the Moscow region, as both sides stepped up attacks ahead of talks intended to end three years of fighting. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have shot down … Read more
The South Korean singer-songwriter Wheesung, who popularized R&B music in the country but had documented struggles with drug abuse, was found dead in his home in Seoul on Monday evening, police said. He was 43. Fire department officials found the singer, whose birth name was Choi Whee-sung, in a state of cardiac arrest in his … Read more
Throughout China’s annual legislative meeting, the national leader Xi Jinping made clear that he wants nothing to hold back his plans for China to march past its rivals by becoming a technological superpower. Not the economic slowdown or heavy local government debt, nor a trade war with the United States. The meeting in Beijing, called … Read more
When Ukrainian and American officials sit down in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for their first high-level meeting since an Oval Office shouting match between their presidents last month, the goal will be finding a way to halt the bloodiest European war in generations. But the United States, Ukraine and Russia appear to have very different … Read more
Since an armed rebel group backed by Rwandan troops launched a major offensive in the Democratic Republic of Congo, professional cyclists have raced on lush Rwandan hills, John Legend performed a sold-out concert in the capital, Kigali, and entrepreneurs have gathered at a conference center for a financial technology convention. Rwanda’s role in the war … Read more
Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested on Tuesday in Manila, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity in his war on drugs in which, human rights groups say, tens of thousands of Filipinos were summarily executed. He was taken into custody at the airport … Read more
