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Politics & Security

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 14: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) shake hands with Omar Seddik, Sudan's newly appointed foreign minister before their meeting during the China-CELAC Forum at Diaoyutai State Guest House on May 14, 2025 in Beijing, China. The summit includes China's key Latin American trade partners, and comes as Beijing and Washington work on defusing a trade war. (Photo by Florence Lo - Pool/Getty Images)

Explainer

China expands Sudan footprint through ports, debt relief, mining

Reports have emerged of a potential $300 million copper mining deal between the Sudanese government and a Chinese company.

A view of the B1 bridge is pictured, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, around 20miles (35kms) southwest of Tehran, April 3, 2026.

Analysis

Why Iran is making infrastructure next front in Mideast conflict

Tehran appears to be codifying a pattern that emerged during the recent conflict, increasingly floating attacks on economic infrastructure as an integral part of the conflict's equation.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) welcomes France's President Emmanuel Macron for a joint press conference in Damascus on July 7, 2026.

Explainer

How Macron seeks to carve out France's role in new Syria

French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to visit Syria since the fall of the Assad regime, showcasing Paris' support for Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa while seeking to secure a share of the country's emerging reconstruction market.

Latest News

Analysis

As US-Iran fighting resumes, Israel weighs 3 options with restraint winning, for now

Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Lebanese PM Salam in Turkey as Erdogan seeks wider regional role

Israel warns US of new Iran plot to assassinate Trump: What to know

US President Donald Trump walks to board Air Force One as he departs Bismarck Municipal Airport on July 01, 2026 in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Ezgi Akin

Associate Editor (Turkey)

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

Ben Caspit

Israel Columnist

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Jared Szuba

Defense and Security Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on defense, national security, military

A boy helps a vendor arrange his merchandise as he sets up before the rubble of a collapsed building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on April 23, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas.

Israeli security chiefs in Cairo to discuss possible Rafah invasion

In Egypt, IDF chief Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar reportedly discussed Israel's plan to enter Rafah as well as the possibility of restarting negotiations for a hostage deal.

US slams Smotrich’s ‘reckless’ reported effort to legalize West Bank outposts

US slams Smotrich's 'reckless' effort to legalize West Bank outposts

Israel's far-right finance minister is reportedly pushing to legalize 68 outposts during a time of rising settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Turkish Van cats play in an enclosure at the Van Cat Research Center on Feb. 8, 2018, in Van, Turkey.

Turkey's famed Van cats see birthrates surge

The exotic cats have been saved from extinction by a research and breeding center.

Carl Court/Getty Images

North Korean economic delegation makes rare visit to Iran

The visit comes amid growing US concerns about military cooperation between Iran and North Korea.

Humanitarian aid is dropped on the Gaza Strip, west of Gaza City, on March 25, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas, with the background showing Israel's Rutenberg power station near Ashkelon.

US says Israel boosted Gaza aid flow after convoy strike, but more is needed

US envoy David Satterfield said the volume of assistance reaching Gaza is "significantly greater" than it was, but issues remain with aid distribution.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and US President Joe Biden shake hands at the start of the first plenary session of the NATO summit at the Ifema congress centre in Madrid, on June 29, 2022.

Has Turkey’s Erdogan axed his Biden meeting because of Israel?

Despite rumors of a cancellation in Turkish media, several high-level US diplomats have traveled over the past few days to Ankara to lay the ground for the summit.

Retired Israeli general and Executive Director of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies Amos Yadlin attends a session at the Manama Dialogue security conference, Manama, Bahrain, Dec. 5, 2020.

Interview

Israel's ex-intel chief: Biden distrusts Netanyahu, Iran escalation unlikely

Former head of IDF intelligence Amos Yadlin believes Israel should take the time to estimate whether the additional sanctions announced by the US and the EU would indeed affect Iran’s decision-making on its regional aggression and nuclear program.

Amos Yadlin

Amos Yadlin

Former Head of Israeli Military Intelligence

Hezbollah members salute and raise the group's yellow flags during the funeral of their fallen comrades Ismail Baz and Mohamad Hussein Shohury, who were killed in an Israeli strike on their vehicles, in Shehabiya in south Lebanon on April 17, 2024. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah launches deepest attack into Israel, targets near Haifa

The attack is the deepest inside Israeli territory since the cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began last October.

A man walks past a stranded car on a flooded street in Dubai following heavy rains on April 18, 2024.

Dubai's record rainfall spotlights Gulf’s troubled relation with water

The Gulf’s longterm love–hate relationship with water lies behind a year and a half's worth of rain that fell on Dubai in 24 hours. It includes climate change-induced shifting rainfall patterns, groundwater extractions and unsustainable consumption.

United Arab Emirates

Heavy armor is displayed during a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Ramadi at Camp Pendleton, California, April 5, 2024. Veterans and gold star families of the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines gathered for the ceremony marking the anniversary of the battle of Ramadi, during which 34 Marines and sailors were killed in action in Iraq in the spring of 2004. (Photo by David SWANSON / AFP) (Photo by DAVID SWANSON/AFP via Getty Images)

New attacks near US bases in Iraq, Syria threaten uneasy detente

The Pentagon seemed to downplay the first new attacks on US troops in Syria and Iraq since February, as Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah militia distanced itself from responsibility.

This image was taken in January 2016 in Hara Marine Forests (Mangrove Jungle) in Qeshm Island.

Azerbaijan detains Iranian boat for alleged drug smuggling

The incident has added to tense ties between Iran and Azerbaijan, in part due to the Baku’s ties to Israel and Tehran's support to Armenia.

Protesters react as a man holds up a sign demanding that soldiers from the United States Army leave Niger without negotiation during a demonstration in Niamey, on April 13, 2024. Thousands of people demonstrated on April 13, 2024 in Niger's capital Niamey to demand the immediate departure of American soldiers based in northern Niger, after the military regime said it was withdrawing from a 2012 cooperation deal with Washington. (Photo by AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)

Pentagon confirms talks to withdraw US troops from Niger

Washington failed to reach a compromise with junta leaders in Niamey, as Russia continues to make gains across the Sahel.