Author: Disha Mishra

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan has defended his decision to bring war crimes allegations against Israel’s prime minister, saying Israel had made “no real effort” to investigate the allegations itself. In an interview with Reuters, he stood by his decision over the arrest warrant despite a vote last week by the U.S. House of Representatives to sanction the ICC in protest, a move he described as “unwanted and unwelcome”. ICC judges issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli defence chief Yoav Gallant and Hamas leader Ibrahim Al-Masri last November for alleged war crimes and crimes…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian held talks in Moscow on Friday ahead of the signing of a strategic partnership treaty involving closer defence cooperation that is likely to worry the West. Pezeshkian, on his first Kremlin visit since winning the presidency last July, said he thought the two leaders might be able to finalise an agreement on building a nuclear power plant in Iran with Russian help. Putin greeted Pezeshkian in a grand Kremlin room as they sat down at an ornate table flanked by the two countries’ flags. “We will discuss all areas of…

The Israeli security cabinet has recommended approving the Gaza ceasefire and hostage return deal, ahead of a full cabinet meeting expected later on Friday, a statement from the prime minister’s office said. Cabinet is expected to meet at 3.30 p.m. (1330 GMT) to give final ratification to the agreement, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said is expected to take effect on Sunday, with the release of the first hostages. If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people, and displaced most of the enclave’s…

U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Friday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow looking set to log their biggest weekly advances since November, while investors awaited a wave of policy changes under the incoming Trump administration. At 7:21 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 164 points, or 0.38%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 21.5 points, or 0.36% and Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 93.25 points, or 0.44%. Better-than-expected earnings from major banks and signs that underlying inflation was cooling have prompted risk taking on Wall Street this week, putting the benchmark S&P 500 (.SPX), and the blue-chip Dow…

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it was opening a preliminary probe into 877,710 vehicles manufactured by General Motors (GM.N), after receiving reports alleging engine failure. The investigation covers certain Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade trucks and SUVs from model years 2019-2024, equipped with the L87 V8 engine. According to the auto safety regulator, complainants reported a bearing failure that might result in either engine seizure or breaching of the engine block by the connecting rod. Failure or malfunction of the engine could result in loss of motive…

Nvidia’s (NVDA.O), chief executive Jensen Huang said on Friday he will not be attending U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, but will instead be “on the road” celebrating the Lunar New Year with employees and their families. Asked by reporters outside Nvidia’s new year party in Taipei whether he had talked with the incoming Trump administration about the new artificial intelligence export control rules the outgoing Biden administration unveiled this week, Huang said, “not yet”. “But I’ll look forward to congratulating the Trump administration when they take office.” He also said he had met C.C. Wei, the chairman of Nvidia’s main…

The Group of Seven on Friday said the Kremlin had funded and directed covert efforts by state entities to undermine elected goverments around the world by using global disinformation and influence campaigns. The statement was issued by the G7’s Rapid Response Mechanism unit, which was set up to fight threats to democracy such as disinformation. “The G7 RRM regards any foreign information manipulation and interference with the utmost seriousness,” said a statement issued by Canada, which is this year’s G7 chair. The statement said Russia had used the Russia Today state media outlet and Social Design Agency marketing agency “to…

A Russian missile attack killed at least four people and partially destroyed an educational facility in the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern-central Ukraine on Friday, officials said. At least seven others were hurt, some of them seriously, Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. “Each such terrorist attack is another reminder of who we are dealing with. Russia will not stop on its own – it can only be stopped by joint pressure,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, said on Telegram. Several explosions reverberated through the city, witnesses said on social…

A Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years imprisonment on Friday in a land corruption case, a setback to nascent talks between his party and the government aimed at cooling political instability in the south Asian nation. The verdict in the case was delivered by an anti-graft court in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been jailed since August 2023. Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi was also found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison. She was out on bail but was taken into custody after the judgment was pronounced, Geo…

The Palestinian militant group Hamas is expected to release the first hostages under a Gaza ceasefire deal on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday, after 15 months of war that demolished the enclave. If successful, the ceasefire would halt fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces that has razed much of heavily urbanised Gaza, killed more than 46,000 people, and displaced most of the enclave’s pre-war population of 2.3 million several times over, according to local authorities. It could also ease hostilities in the Middle East, where the Gaza war spread to include Iran and its proxies…