Middle East CrisisWith $20 Billion Weapons Deal, U.S. Aims to Help Israel and Deter Iran
The White House signals long-term support for Israel, hoping to avert a regional war.
For months, the Biden administration waited to formally approve $20 billion in future American weapons sales to Israel, including F-15s and medium-range missiles. The official notification to Congress was finally announced last week — right before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Israel in a bid to nail down a cease-fire agreement with Hamas.
Almost none of the arms — which also include tank ammunition, tactical vehicles and mortars — are expected to be delivered to Israel for several years at least. But the delay in approving them underscores the delicate balance the administration faces between supporting Israel in its war in Gaza and responding to the anger in the United States over massive civilian casualties in that war.
North Korea is reopening to tourists after almost five years, but will anyone go?
After the isolated country closed its borders to keep out Covid-19, tour companies are celebrating the resumption of travel
Fri 23 Aug 2024 06.24 BST
North Korea is to welcome back international tourists at the end of the year, according to travel agencies, but experts have warned that the long-awaited opening up could fall victim to political tensions and the country’s brutal winters.
The North sealed its borders and banned international visitors soon after the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020, fearing the virus could cripple its already fragile health services. The closure hit trade with China and denied the regime tourist dollars, while its leader, Kim Jong-un, reportedly sheltered at his coastal holiday home.
Has Palestinians' perception of Hamas changed?
Ten months into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, criticism on the street of the militant group Hamas appears to be growing. But gauging public opinion during a war is difficult.
Abeer, who asked to be identified only by her first name, is currently sheltering in the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Ten months into the war, with new cease-fire talks underway in Doha and Cairo, it is hard for Palestinians like her to know who or what to believe anymore.
"People are just very tired, exhausted and fed up with this reality. They are just hoping that the war will end and that they will announce a cease-fire," she said.
Qatari, Egyptian and US mediators are currently working on a three-phase cease-fire agreement that would include the release of some of the Israeli hostages.
Humanity, not sympathy: How Ukraine treats Russian POWs in its 'exchange fund'
Ukraine’s surprise attack on the Kursk region in Russia has allowed the country’s forces to take hundreds of enemy prisoners, who Kyiv hopes to exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) held in Russia. Our special correspondent was able to speak with several of these Russian POWs in the prison where they are being held in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls Russian soldiers captured in the lightning offensive into the Kursk region, Ukraine's "exchange fund".
He hopes the prisoners of war taken in the surprise push that caught Russia off guard can be quickly exchanged for some of the roughly 6,500 Ukrainian soldiers that Moscow says it holds.
The Ukrainian authorities have been granting international journalists, including FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg, access to the prisoners.
Questions mount over six hostages’ fate in Gaza after IDF finds gunshot wounds
Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.
Their tragic fate has raised fears that more Israeli hostages will not be retrieved alive either, said one protester. “We need to bring back those that we know were alive,” Daniel told CNN. Continuing war as negotiations for a ceasefire-hostage deal falter “will only bring more coffins to them and to us,” the 48-year-old added.
There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.
Taiwan jails spies 'seduced by money' to work for China
Joel Guinto
A court in Taipei has jailed eight Taiwanese soldiers for spying on behalf of China in exchange for money.
Retired military officers bribed active duty soldiers with as much as 700,000 Taiwan dollars ($21,900; £16,700) to join a spy network, the court found.
One of the men, who was believed to be key to recruiting soldiers, got a 13-year sentence, the longest in the group.
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