Latest Middle East News
A look at how settlements have grown in the West Bank over the years
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement homes, according to Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement monitoring group. They are the latest steps by Israel’s hard-line...
7 Palestinians killed in West Bank by an Israeli raid and airstrike in the Jenin area
JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian authorities say seven people were killed Friday during an Israeli military operation in the area of the West Bank city of Jenin, where the Israeli military said it had been carrying out “counterterrorism activity” that included an airstrike. The...
Israel approves plans for nearly 5,300 new homes in West Bank settlements
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli government has approved plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a monitoring group said Thursday, the latest in a campaign to accelerate settlement expansion, aimed at cementing Israeli control over the territory and preventing...
Biden at 81: Often sharp and focused but sometimes confused and forgetful
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's conduct behind closed doors, in the Oval Office, on Air Force One and in meetings around the world is described in the same dual way by those who regularly see him in action. He is often sharp and focused. But he also has moments,...
Egypt swears in a new Cabinet as mounting economic challenges fuel public discontent
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s new Cabinet was sworn in Wednesday with major changes in the defense, foreign ministry and economy portfolios as the country faces mounting public discontent and conflicts in neighboring nations. Years of economic mismanagement, the coronavirus pandemic and...
US military heightens the security alert at European bases due to a combination of threats
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has raised the security protection measures it is taking at its bases throughout Europe, asking service members to be more vigilant and keep a lower profile due to a combination of threats it is seeing across the region. U.S. European Command...
France is facing an election like no other. Here's how it works and what comes next
PARIS (AP) — French voters are being called to the polls on Sunday for an exceptional moment in their political history: the first round of snap parliamentary elections that could see the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation — or no majority emerging at...
US and Europe warn Lebanon's Hezbollah to ease strikes on Israel and back off from wider Mideast war
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S., European and Arab mediators are pressing to keep stepped-up cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants from spiraling into a wider Middle East war that the world has feared for months. Iran and Israel traded threats Saturday of what...
Polls close in Iran presidential election held after hard-liner's death and as Mideast tensions rise
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians voted on Friday in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race's sole reformist candidate vowing to seek “friendly relations” with the West in an effort to energize supporters in a vote beset by apathy. ...
US shifts assault ship to the Mediterranean to deter an escalation of the Israel-Lebanon conflict
WASHINGTON (AP) — The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea this week as the U.S. positions warships to try to keep fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon from escalating into a wider war in the Middle East. While the Wasp has the...
