Author: Worldman

U.S. President Donald Trump is about to embark on his first foreign trip, a nine day journey that takes him to the seats of the world’s three great Abrahamic (monotheistic) religions and signals a 180-degree shift from his predecessor’s approach toward the Middle East. “The most useful way to look at President Trump’s strategy is …

Read more “Trump Signals Shift in Middle East Strategy With Symbolic First Stop in Saudi Arabia”

Tajikistan’s foreign minister has defended his country’s Roghun hydroelectric station project, which has been questioned by neighboring Uzbekistan for years. …

While elections in Iran look like slug-it-out campaigns, with many of the trappings of competition — government critics, disagreement on high-profile issues, and televised public debates — they are kept tightly in check by unelected officials under the country’s clerically dominated system. …

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has withdrawn from Iran’s presidential race to back hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi. …

An RFE/RL reporter has been attacked for the second time in two months while investigating potential vote buying. …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives defeated their center-left rivals in a key state election Sunday in the country’s most populous region. Exit polls showed Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union with a strong surge of support in North Rhine-Westphalia, the home state and traditional stronghold of her chief rival, Social Democrat Martin Schulz, who is challenging the …

Read more “Merkel’s Conservatives Win German State Election”

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says it is clear that Russia meddled in last year’s presidential election, and that Washington and Moscow will not be able to restart with “a clean slate.” …

A look at the best news photos from around the world. …

The United States has condemned Iran’s imprisonment of leaders of the Baha’i religious minority and called on Tehran to release them and other prisoners of conscience. …

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to rally against a bill to tear down Soviet-era low-rise apartment buildings. Protesters, mostly young and middle couples, gathered on a central street to rally against arguably Russia’s largest redevelopment project to pull down entire neighborhoods of Soviet-era prefabricated buildings. City Hall has insisted …

Read more “Thousands March Against Moscow Government’s Demolition Plans”

The Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was the scene of the final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the annual europop song fest that was expected to garner a television audience of some 200 million. …

Here is a look at some of the places hit by the global cyberattack. European Union — Europol’s European Cybercrime Center, known as EC3, said the attack “is at an unprecedented level and will require a complex international investigation to identify the culprits.” Britain — Britain’s home secretary said the “ransomware” attack hit one in …

Read more “Where Global Cyberattack Has Hit Hardest”

Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with a gentle romantic ballad that challenged the event’s decades-long reputation for cheesy, glittery excess. Sobral sang his Amar Pelos Dois (Love For Both) in a high, clear tenor accompanied by quiet strings and a piano. Unlike the 25 other competitors who performed on a …

Read more “Portugal’s Sobral Wins Eurovision Contest With Tender Ballad”

An international manhunt is under way to find those responsible for a massive global cyberattack that hit as many as 100 countries. …

An international monitor group and Kurdish media are reporting that Syrian Kurdish-led forces are closing in on the city of Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Syria. …