The southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa was engulfed in flames late Thursday after being struck by a large-scale Russian drone attack, hours after US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about ending the war and as peace talks are set to resume on Monday. Trump – who recently held separate phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s leader ...

China is practicing “dogfighting” satellites as part of its expanding capabilities in space, according to the United States Space Force, which warned that Washington’s key rivals are closing the technology gap as space becomes increasingly critical to security on Earth. The Space Force observed “five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and ...

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa wants foreign armies to help crack down on gang violence in the country. In an interview with the BBC published Tuesday night, Noboa said he wants US, European and Brazilian armies to join his “war” on gangs, telling the broadcaster that his country needs more armed forces to fight against criminal groups. The Ecuadorean leader previously ...

Mexico City’s local congress on Tuesday passed a measure aiming to make bullfights much less harmful to bulls and matadors, a move applauded by animal rights activists but sharply criticized by fans of the centuries-old tradition. The measure, among other things, will not allow bullfighters to use spades and swords to attack the animal, which in turn will have its ...

Turkish police have detained the strongest rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a move that experts say is aimed at removing all possible contenders ahead of the next presidential election and further stretching his rule. The Istanbul Mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was detained as part of corruption and terror investigations in a move the opposition condemned as politically motivated. Some 100 ...

Canada said on Wednesday that China had executed four Canadian citizens on drugs smuggling charges earlier this year, and strongly condemned Beijing’s use of the death penalty. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters that all four had been dual citizens and said Ottawa would ask for leniency for other Canadians facing the same fate. “There are four Canadians that have ...

The Israeli military said it intercepted a missile launched from Yemen early Thursday morning, the second to target Israel since the Gaza ceasefire ended on Tuesday. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for what the Iran-backed group said was a ballistic missile fired in support of Palestinians and in response to Israel’s renewed bombardment of Gaza. The missile was intercepted before ...

Indonesia’s parliament on Thursday passed contentious revisions to the country’s military law, which will allocate more civilian posts for military officers, and street protests against the changes are expected to take place. The revisions have been criticized by civil society groups, who say it could take the world’s third-biggest democracy back to the draconian “New Order” era of former strongman ...

In the rural town of Petersham, Massachusetts, 78-year-old Peter George keeps 1,000 fish in his basement. “Baseball, sex, fish,” he says, listing his life’s great loves. “My single greatest attribute is that I am passionate about things. That sort of defines me.” All of George’s fish are endangered Rift Lake cichlids: colorful, freshwater fish native to the Great Lakes of ...

Jihad Suleiman Al-Sawafta, 46, has lived on his farm in the occupied West Bank village of Bardala his entire life. But when Israeli settlers showed up in December, Al-Sawafta said his land, and his livelihood, shrank to a fraction of its former self. “They crowded the area. They took thousands of dunams (1,000 square meters) from Bardala and its grazing ...