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Military commissars sprayed a gas canister at a young mother with a small child while her relative was being pushed into a car. The 'bounty hunters' are paid $200 a head for meat to send to the front. The average survival time is measured in days once on the front line.

Capping off UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s disastrous first full year in office, a poll from YouGov found that just over one in ten voters approve of his government’s performance. In its final approval survey for the year, YouGov found that only 12 per cent of the British voting public have a favourable opinion of the left-wing Labour Party government. In comparison, 68 per cent of voters disapprove of the government’s performance, while 20 per cent have no opinion. For context, the failed Tory government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also had a 12 per cent approval rating immediately...

Sitting underneath Ayyash’s menu with its hot, very hot and “pepper x” levels of spiciness, a slim, 30-something Palestinian American named Zyad is snacking on some of Ayyash’s specially seasoned french fries. This, he says, is one of his favorite options in Temple Terrace, a city on the northeast side of Tampa Bay and epicenter of its robust halal food scene. “There’s a Yemeni place down the road, several shawarma options, an Arab grocery store, a Turkish grocery store, bakeries, clothing stores, restaurants, food trucks. The list goes on,” he told New Lines. “Tampa,” Zyad said, “is like the new...

Japan is restarting the world's largest nuclear power plant, after a 15-year shutdown following the Fukushima disaster. Nuclear power used to account for over 30% of Japan's national electricity, so seeing these reactors come back online restores a key pillar of Japan's energy system. Japan's mountainous terrain forced each region to establish large, redundant energy systems; therefore, the return of nuclear power gives Japan surplus capacity and flexibility in an otherwise stagnant environment. With the global energy trade growing more unreliable by the day, Japan is now better positioned than most to weather the storm.

Iran has been gripped by demonstrations amid the country's economic crisis, with social discontent fueling open protest against the regime. Media and authorities have pinned the blame on foreign intelligence services. Thousands of people have protested in Iran in recent days against the dramatic devaluation of the currency, amid an economic crisis that has engulfed the country. What began as a strike by shopkeepers and bazaar merchants on Sunday has become an outcry of political anger, with some even chanting "Death to the dictator!" The spontaneous protests have already spread from Tehran to other cities, such as Isfahan and Mashhad.

Tuesday on MS NOW’s “All In,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said if he became governor in California, he would charge ICE agents and take away their driver’s licenses if they commit crimes. […] Swalwell said, “Well, you have immense powers as governor of California and your responsibility to protect the most vulnerable in the state. So if the president is going to send ICE agents to chase immigrants through the fields where they work, what I’m going to do is make sure that they take off their masks and show their faces, that they show their identification. And if they...

Welcome to the final edition of Foreign Policy’s China Brief for 2025. Compared with what lies further ahead, next year may be relatively quiet for China. The following year, 2027, marks both the end of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unprecedented third term and a frequently cited benchmark for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s ability to attack Taiwan. Though Beijing is keeping a lower profile amid global turbulence, there is plenty of trouble bubbling under the surface. What can we expect from China in the year ahead? Below, we offer our four best bets. A Turn on Women’s Rights China is...

Hundreds of thousands of Moscow residents are understood to be without power after Ukrainian drones attacked the city.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has been helping to form an Irish “national party” as he works “behind the scenes” on what he described as “the Irish situation”, he said in an interview. The Donald Trump ally, whose anti-EU rhetoric previously included an expressed desire “to drive a stake through the Brussels vampire”, told the Politico news website that there would soon be an “Irish Trump”. Mr. Bannon, who hosts the War Room podcast and retains influence in the grassroots of the MAGA (Make American Great Again) movement of Trump-supporting populists, is quoted as supporting the new US national...

KYIV, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Kyiv was discussing with Washington a possible presence of U.S. troops in Ukraine as part of security guarantees, and also raised what he called a faked attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin's residence. Zelenskiy told the media in a WhatsApp chat that Kyiv was committed to continuing talks on how to end the war triggered by Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion and he was ready to meet Putin in any format.U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he and Zelenskiy were "maybe very close" to an agreement to end...

While soon-to-be-former Georgia Republican Congresscritter Marjorie Taylor Greene continues her one-sided breakup from President Donald Trump, one of her favorite conspiracy theories just became reality in Israel. That's right: Jewish Space Lasers are real, everybody. Well, kind of. As of this week, there are lasers, and they are deployed for the defense of the Jewish homeland, but the Jewish lasers are not actually out in space. Although we're working on that as part of Trump's Golden Dome missile shield. More on that story soon, I hope. But you might recall that way back in 2018 — two years before her...

REUTERS—A federal judge on Tuesday blocked plans by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to end temporary protections from deportation that had been granted to hundreds of South Sudanese nationals living in the United States. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Boston granted an emergency request by several South Sudanese nationals and an immigrant rights group to prevent the Temporary Protected Status they had been granted from expiring as planned after Jan. 5. Kelley issued the order after four migrants from South Sudan, along with African Communities Together, a nonprofit group, sued. The lawsuit alleged that action by the U.S. Department...

Thousands are flooding Tehran, chanting for Reza Pahlavi as the crowd swells beyond control.

Three weeks after college, I flew to Senegal, West Africa, to run a community center in a rural town. Life was placid, with no danger, except to your health. That danger was considerable, because it was, in the words of the Peace Corps doctor, “a fecalized environment. “In plain English: s— is everywhere. People defecate on the open ground, and the feces is blown with the dust — onto you, your clothes, your food, the water. He warned us the first day of training: do not even touch water. Human feces carries parasites that bore through your skin and cause...

Israel has taken the controversial decision to recognise the breakaway state of Somaliland as an independent nation, sparking condemnation from many other countries. China is the latest to condemn the decision, with its foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian telling reporters: "No country should encourage or support other countries' internal separatist forces for its own selfish interests." China outlined its position ahead of the UN Security Council holding an emergency session to discuss Israel's decision. Israel on Friday became the first country in the world to acknowledge Somaliland as a standalone republic, more than 30 years after the region declared independence...

It’s hard to be optimistic about the future of Gaza. The cease-fire agreement brokered by the Trump administration is holding, but Israel continues to occupy more than half of the territory, and its forces have killed more than 350 Palestinians since the truce was reached on Oct. 10. Hamas, meanwhile, is resurging in Gaza—replacing key commanders killed in the two-year war with Israel; executing its Palestinian opponents; and hiding weapons and fighters in its tunnel system, more than half of which remains intact. So, where does that leave Palestinians and Israelis? And what does it mean for the rest of...

Somalia will assume the rotating presidency of the United Nations (UN) Security Council in January 2026, placing the Horn of Africa nation at the helm of the world’s top security body for one month. The presidency rotates among all 15 council members according to Rule 18 of the Security Council’s Provisional Rules of Procedure, according to the UN. The rule requires member nations to hold the position in English alphabetical order, with each serving for one calendar month. Somalia currently serves as a non-permanent member of the council. Its two-year term runs through Dec. 31, 2027. As president, Somalia will...

The left-wing Irish government has vowed to push for the European Union to prohibit the use of anonymous social media accounts in what may set the ground for another battle over free speech with the Trump administration in the United States. Ireland will take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union for a six month term starting in July and looks set to push for more restrictions on the internet, namely the imposition of ID-verification for social media accounts. The move would effectively end anonymity on social media, which critics have warned will hinder dissidents from...

Finland's prime minister apologised on Wednesday to citizens of Japan, China and South Korea after MPs sparked outrage by posting pictures of themselves making derogatory squinting gestures. The parliamentarians from the populist Finns Party, which is part of the right-wing coalition government, posted images on social media where they pulled back the corners of their eyes -- widely seen as a racist gesture targeting East Asian people. They claimed to have shared the pictures in support of the 2025 Miss Finland, Sarah Dzafce, who was stripped of her title last week for posting a similar picture on social media in...

An African-heritage lawmaker in France has sparked outrage by seemingly hailing the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ of the native people of the country by foreigners. Carlos Martens Bilongo, a member of the National Assembly for the far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI), in an appearance on the “African Bookstore” podcast, appeared to boast that minorities are outbreeding the native French people, Le Journal du Dimanche reported. Without explicitly stating the groups he was discussing, the Val-d’Oise MP, who was born in France to Congolese (DRC) and Angolan parents, urged people to “show them that we are more numerous and that...