Category: English

Saudi Arabia appears to be expanding its ballistic missile factory to build larger solid-fuel missiles that could fly farther or carry heavier payloads, according to two US researchers who analysed ​more than a year of commercial satellite images. More capable missiles could help Saudi Arabia to deter attacks by Iran and make its military more self-reliant, while possibly strengthening its position in a deadly ‌conflict with Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi fighters. But they risk fuelling a regional missile race and could deepen opposition in the US Congress to a US-Saudi civilian…

Read More

The US Defence Department has designated ​Chinese-funded cultural centres on university campuses known ‌as Confucius Institutes as a threat to US national security, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said ​on Friday. Washington has long accused Confucius ​Institutes of being Chinese propaganda tools and ⁠has taken steps to crack down ​on them. Hegseth, in a video posted on ​social media, alleged that Confucius Institutes were operating under disguise at US universities and that the Pentagon ​had added them to its list ​of institutions that threaten US national security. “It turns out ‌that…

Read More

Ukraine and Russia said on Friday they had agreed on a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian town of Oleshky, brokered through US First Lady Melania Trump. In contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr ​Zelensky said peace negotiators would meet next month for new talks. The two sides said the ceasefire would go into effect on October 27, allowing the delivery of aid and the evacuation of residents ‌through humanitarian corridors. Amid a US push to organise new talks aimed at ending the 4-1/2-year-old war, Zelenskiy said negotiators from Ukraine, Russia and the…

Read More

The United States could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, a US envoy has said amid mounting threats by both Washington and Israel. “Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely,” Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and point man on Syria who does not have a direct role on Iran, told podcast host Mario Nawfal on Friday. President Donald Trump “is very clear. He’s open and available and accessible to a deal, and we’ve been at the table for months and months and months,” Barrack said in…

Read More

A gunman killed one person and wounded ‌five others, including a 12-year-old girl, in a shooting in a Paris suburb that French President Emmanuel Macron described as a “terrorist and racist” attack. “What happened today is, I am telling you, a turning point, because it is the first ​time we have had a terrorist act that was planned to kill our compatriots, our ​children, based on the colour of their skin or their religion,” Macron told ⁠reporters. The shooting happened earlier on Friday when the gunman fired an automatic weapon…

Read More

Advances in artificial intelligence have uncovered a stream of new software vulnerabilities that are almost ​certain to trigger more disruption along the lines of the outages that percolated across global government websites this week, according to seven cybersecurity professionals who spoke to ‌Reuters. AI helped drive a doubling of the number of digital flaws discovered year-on-year, according to research due to be published in the coming days by VulnCheck, a Massachusetts-based threat intelligence firm. Matthew Prince, the chief executive of the digital infrastructure firm Cloudflare, told Reuters he was aware…

Read More

The Sindh government has begun implementing a judicial commission’s recommendations on the killing of young Karachi entrepreneur Mir Raza Ali, forming a joint investigation team (JIT) and ordering departmental action against police officers and personnel named in the report. The JIT will be headed by DIG Irfan Ali Baloch and include senior representatives of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), Pakistan Rangers Sindh and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA). The provincial government has written to the relevant institutions seeking nominations for the team. The Sindh Home Department…

Read More

The Saudi-led coalition intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi group towards the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Coalition spokesperson Turki Al Maliki announced the interception by air defences in a statement posted on X. He did not disclose further details about the missile’s launch point or its intended target. The incident comes amid escalating hostilities involving the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, with previous attacks targeting Saudi airports and energy infrastructure. Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthis since 2015.…

Read More

President Donald ​Trump has said the United States could end the war with Iran ​quickly, but questioned ​whether Washington should seek a ⁠swift conclusion or allow ​the conflict to gradually ​wind down. “We could end it very quickly,” Trump said. “Do we want ​to finish it off ​or just want to let it ‌wither?” Speaking ⁠to reporters on the White House South Lawn as he left on ​a ​trip ⁠to Florida on Friday, Trump said oil is ​getting out through the ​Strait ⁠of Hormuz. “We are getting everything we want,’…

Read More

Typhoon Champi swept past Taiwan on Saturday, killing 1 person and injuring more than 500, downing trees and severing power lines, as it continued to weaken and head north towards the Chinese coast, though it was not expected to make landfall there. At one point, a super typhoon and one ​of the strongest storms in the Pacific this year, Champi is weakening though still packing gusts of around ​126 kph near its centre, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration. The storm was about 170 ⁠km northeast of Taiwan, having glanced…

Read More