Author: Disha Mishra

(Forelines) – Emma Sinclair-Webb, Human Rights Watch Turkey Director condemned the detention of Ekrem Imamoglu, Istanbul Mayor and others from the Istanbul municipality on Wednesday, urging it a “flagrant abuse of the justice system”. Emma Sinclair-Webb described the detentions as part of a “pattern of politically motivated investigations” intended to weaken opposition activities, as per comments reported by Reuters. Sinclair-Webb urged for the instant release of Imamoglu and those arrested.

Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Tuesday to stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities temporarily but declined to endorse a full 30-day ceasefire that President Donald Trump hoped would be the first step toward a permanent peace deal. Ukraine said it would support the scaled-back agreement, which would require both countries to hold off firing on each other’s energy infrastructure for about a month. Experts said Putin avoided making significant concessions in what could be a play for time as Russian troops advance in eastern Ukraine. The White House said talks on a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea as well…

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday with a soft splashdown off Florida’s coast, nine months after their faulty Boeing (BA.N) Starliner craft upended what was to be a week-long stay on the International Space Station. Their return caps a protracted space mission that was fraught with uncertainty and technical troubles, turning a rare instance of NASA’s contingency planning – and the latest failures of Starliner – into a global and political spectacle. Wilmore and Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired U.S. Navy test pilots, had launched into space as…

U.S. President Donald Trump launched large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis on Saturday over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, killing at least 31 people at the start of a campaign expected to last many days. Trump also warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. He said if Iran threatened the United States, “America will hold you fully accountable and, we won’t be nice about it!” The top Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards reacted on Sunday by saying the Houthis are independent and take their own strategic and operational…

Israel lauched “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities amid the war in Gaza, and used sexual violence as a conflict strategy, on Thursday United Nations experts stated in a new report. Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva explained accusations in the report as unfounded, bias, and lack of credibility. “Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention,” stated by the United…

Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies meet in Canada on Thursday after seven weeks of rising tensions between U.S. allies and President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The Group of Seven ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, along with the EU, meet in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners will be getting a debriefing…

The United States agreed on Tuesday to resume military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said it was ready to support Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with Russia, the countries said in a joint statement. After more than eight hours of talks with Ukrainian officials in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would now take the offer to Russia, and the ball is in Moscow’s court. “Our hope is that the Russians will answer ‘yes’ as quickly as possible, so we can get to the second phase of this, which is…

(Forelines) – On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in London called Britain to pause “heightening antagonism” in reply to David Lammy’s foreign minister Monday comments about what he described as “dangerous and destabilising” activity in the South China Sea. “We urge the UK to stop heightening antagonism and sowing discord, and stop any words and deeds that undermine regional peace and stability,” stated by a Chinese embassy spokesperson in a written statement. The spokesperson stated the United Kingdom should “respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea”.

Israel said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold talks to demarcate its border with Lebanon, adding it would release five Lebanese detainees held by the Israeli military in what it called a “gesture to the Lebanese president”. A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed with Lebanon, the U.S. and France to establish working groups to discuss the demarcation line between the two countries. Lebanese media including the state news agency NNA reported that the released Lebanese hostages had arrived in a hospital in southern Lebanon’s Tyre. In a statement on X the same day,…

Militants have taken 35 passengers hostage after attacking a train in southwestern Pakistan, and nearly 350 other passengers are believed to be safe, local police said on Tuesday. The Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist militant group, said they had 182 hostages in total and threatened to kill them if security forces did not leave the area. The train was trapped in a tunnel and the driver was badly wounded, local authorities, police and railway officials said. “Around 350 passengers, including women and children are save and a relief train will be reaching the area where the train was attacked,” said…