SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea’s prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign en masse on Thursday, media reports said, after their conservative ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections. The results of Wednesday’s election posed a huge political blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, setting back his domestic agenda and … Read more
KYIV — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wants the West’s extra, idle Patriot air defense batteries. And he’s not asking nicely anymore. “Nice and quiet diplomacy didn’t work,” Kuleba, Kyiv’s top diplomat, told The Washington Post in an interview this week. Patriot, a U.S.-designed air defense system that costs more than $1 billion per battery, … Read more
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The creation of a transitional council responsible for choosing Haiti’s next leaders is imminent, a U.S. diplomat said Wednesday during a heated forum about Haiti’s spiraling crisis. The nine-member council could be formally established in Haiti as early as this week, Brian A. Nichols, U.S. assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere … Read more
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was just 6 years old in 1963 when he and his family moved from Tokyo to New York, an entire hemisphere and endless cultural differences away. The boy from ethnically homogenous Japan was struck by the diversity and generosity of his classmates while attending public school in Queens … Read more
Newly-declared Fine Gael leader Simon Harris speaking at a convention in Athlone, central Ireland on March 24, 2024, after becoming de facto prime minister-in-waiting. Harris took over following the shock resignation of predecessor Leo Varadkar. Paul Faith | Afp | Getty Images The Irish Parliament on Tuesday confirmed Simon Harris as the country’s new prime … Read more
DAMASCUS, Syria — Iran’s foreign minister Monday accused the United States of giving Israel the “green light” for a strike on its consulate building in Syria that killed seven Iranian military officials including two generals. Hossein Amirabdollahian reiterated Tehran’s vows that it will respond to the attack, widely blamed on Israel, that appeared to signify … Read more
(Reuters) – Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov arrived in China, the Russian foreign ministry said on Monday, for what Moscow had said was talks on the war in Ukraine, bilateral ties and the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. The Russian foreign minister will talk with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on a series of “hot … Read more
WARSAW, Poland — An exit poll released after Poland’s local and regional elections on Sunday showed Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU party slightly trailing the conservative opposition party that governed Poland for eight years until December. But the socially liberal mayor of Warsaw, a Tusk ally, easily won another term in the capital. Sunday’s election … Read more
BERLIN — Germany’s defense minister on Thursday announced a plan to streamline and reorganize the country’s military command as part of efforts to make the armed forces of NATO’s most populous European member “war-capable.” Chancellor Olaf Scholz set in motion a big increase in military spending shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early … Read more
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s defense minister warned his French counterpart against deploying troops to Ukraine in a rare phone call Wednesday and noted that Moscow is ready to take part in talks to end the conflict. Sergei Shoigu told French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu that if Paris follows up on its statements about the possibility … Read more