(BBC News) A US government shutdown could be two days away after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a cross-party funding bill.
Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a streamlined bill. His intervention followed heavy criticism of the bill by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.
The short-term funding bill will need...
(BBC News) A high-ranking general in the Russian armed forces and his assistant have been killed in Moscow by Ukraine's security service, a Ukrainian source has told the BBC.
Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, head of the Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Defence Forces (NBC), was outside a residential block early on Tuesday when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely, Russia's Investigative Committee (SK) said.
A source in Ukraine's SBU security service claimed Kirillov was "a legitimate...
(BBC News) Iran's National Security Council has paused the implementation of the controversial "hijab and chastity law", which had been due to come into force on Friday.
President Massoud Pezeshkian called the legislation "ambiguous and in need of reform," signalling his intention to reassess its measures.
The proposed new law – which would introduce harsher punishments for women and girls for exposing their hair, forearms or lower legs – had been heavily criticized by rights activists.
The strict...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has lost a confidence vote in parliament, triggering snap elections seven months ahead of schedule.
The vote on Monday came after Scholz’s fragile coalition collapsed, sparking a political crisis in the European Union’s largest economy.
Scholz won the support of 207 lawmakers in the 733-seat lower house, or Bundestag, while 394 members voted against him and 116 abstained. That left him far short of the majority of 367...
(BBC News) The search for survivors in Mayotte, a French island territory in the Indian Ocean, continued on Sunday after it was hit by a powerful cyclone.
Entire settlements were flattened when Cyclone Chido brought wind speeds of more than 225 km/h, with the poorest living in makeshift shelters particularly hard hit.
Some of Mayotte's population of 320,000 have said they are struggling with severe shortages of food, water and shelter.
Mayotte's impoverished communities, including undocumented migrants...
(BBC News) Israel's government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a "new front" had opened up on Israel's border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance.
Netanyahu said he wanted to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally...
(Al Jazeera Media Network) France’s new Prime Minister Francois Bayrou says he is well aware of the scale of France’s financial and political problems, comparing the country’s budget deficit to the Himalayan mountain range.
“No one knows better than me the difficulty of the situation,” Bayrou said at a handover ceremony with former Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Friday.
“I am fully aware of the Himalayas that loom ahead of us,” he said of the budget...
(BBC News) Time Magazine has named Donald Trump as its Person of the Year for the second time. He also won the honour after winning the presidential election in 2016.
In his letter to readers, Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs credited Trump with "marshalling a comeback of historic proportions" and "driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment" that had reshaped the American presidency and altered the US's role in the world.
The Republican president-elect rang the opening bell at...
(BBC News) US President Joe Biden has issued presidential pardons to 39 Americans convicted of non-violent crimes, and commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 other people.
The White House described it as the most acts of presidential clemency issued in a single day. It comes after Biden made the decision to pardon his own son, Hunter Biden.
The US Constitution decrees that a president has the broad "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the...
(BBC News) Israel has confirmed it carried out attacks on Syria's naval fleet, as part of its efforts to neutralize military assets in the country after the fall of the Assad regime.
In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its ships struck the ports at Al-Bayda and Latakia on Monday night, where 15 vessels were docked.
The BBC has verified videos showing blasts at the port of Latakia, with footage appearing to show extensive...
