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US honors conservative titan Cheney, with Trump off guest list

Dick Cheney, celebrated as a master Republican strategist but defined by the darkest chapters of America's "War on Terror," was honored Thursday in a funeral attended by Washington's elite that pointedly left out President Donald Trump.

Cheney's career reads like a catalogue of American statecraft, even as his long shadow over foreign policy -- as defense secretary during the Gulf War and the 46th vice president under George W. Bush -- still divides the country.

Dick Cheney, pictured delivering a lecture to the Federalist Society in 2006, loomed over US politics for half a century

Lebanese army feeling US, Israeli heat over Hezbollah disarmament

Israeli and US pressure on Lebanon's army to speedily disarm militant group Hezbollah is intensifying, with the army chief cancelling a visit to Washington after officials snubbed him, a military official told AFP.

Lebanon's army has been beefing up its presence in south Lebanon near the Israeli border since a US-brokered ceasefire last November sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group.

(FILES) Lebanese soldiers deploy as supporters of the militant group Hezbollah take to the streets to protest the government's endorsement of a plan to disarm the group, in Beirut's southern suburb

UN nuclear watchdog demands Iran open up bombed nuclear sites

The International Atomic Energy Agency board on Thursday passed a resolution demanding that Iran provide "full and prompt" cooperation including access to sensitive nuclear sites, but Tehran immediately rejected the measure.

Long-simmering tensions with the UN nuclear watchdog flared anew after Israeli and US strikes on Iranian sites in June. UN inspectors have not had access to any of the damaged complex.

US strikes in June left craters at Iran's Fordo uranium enrichment site after

Edgy Iran seeks Saudi leverage to revive stalled nuclear talks with US

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has asked Saudi Arabia to persuade the U.S. to revive stalled nuclear talks, underlining Tehran's anxiety over a possible repeat of Israeli airstrikes and its deepening economic woes, two regional sources with knowledge of the matter said.

A day before Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to the White House earlier this week, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sent a letter to the de facto Saudi leader, Iranian and Saudi media reported on Monday.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian prepares ahead of addressing the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., September 24, 2025. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Syrian on trial over knife attack at Berlin Holocaust memorial

A 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin on Thursday over a knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital's Holocaust memorial days before February's general election.

The suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of being a supporter of the Islamic State group who intended to "target a person of the Jewish faith", according to the court.

Police apprehended the suspect after the stabbing near the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin on February 21, 2025

Youth activist turning trauma into treatment in Lebanon

Marina El Khawand was 18 when she saw her home town of Beirut shattered by the giant 2020 port explosion and decided she needed to help.

Today, at 24, she is among five laureates at Thursday's Young Activists Summit awards at the UN in Geneva, and described how the trauma of that day spawned a movement that has helped provide free medication and consultation to thousands in need.

"I needed to do something," said Khawand, who was starting her second year of law school when the explosion ripped through large parts of Beirut.

Marina is among five laureates at Thursday's Young Activists Summit awards at the UN in Geneva

IAEA board passes resolution demanding answers and access from Iran

VIENNA (Reuters) -The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution on Thursday saying Iran must inform the watchdog "without delay" of the status of its enriched uranium stock and bombed atomic sites, diplomats at the closed-door meeting said.

The resolution's purpose was primarily to renew and adjust the International Atomic Energy Agency's mandate to report on aspects of Iran's nuclear programme but it also stated Iran must quickly provide the IAEA with the answers and access it wants, five months after military strikes by Israel and the U.S.

People arrive for the quarterly board of governors meeting at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria, November 19, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl

Israel launches fresh strikes on Gaza as Qatar fears for truce

Gaza health authorities said fresh Israeli air strikes killed five people on Thursday, as ceasefire mediator Qatar warned the renewed attacks threatened to undermine the fragile weeks-long truce between Israel and Hamas.

The new strikes came the morning after one of the deadliest days in the Gaza Strip since the truce began on October 10, and after Israel launched a series of attacks targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon despite the nearly year-long ceasefire there.

Qatar said Israel's strikes on the Gaza Strip were a 'dangerous escalation'

Syria condemns Netanyahu's visit to its Israeli-occupied south

(Reuters) -Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Israeli troops deployed in southern Syria, drawing strong condemnation from the government in Damascus, which denounced the trip as a violation of sovereignty.

Israel expanded its military presence in southern Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad last December, seizing positions east of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syrian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the plenum of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, November 10, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

Israeli fire kills four in Gaza, casting further doubt on ceasefire

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes killed four people and wounded 18 others in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, local health authorities said, as Hamas and Israel accused each other of violating a near six-week-old, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Medics said that one strike on a house in Bani Suhaila town east of Khan Younis killed three people, including a baby girl, and wounded 15 others, while another killed a man and wounded three others in the nearby Abassan town.

Palestinians inspect the site of Wednesday's Israeli strike on a tents in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed