World Echo

The US Justice Department released FBI records on Thursday that summarise interviews of an unidentified woman in ‌which she made accusations against President Donald Trump related to an alleged sexual encounter. FBI agents interviewed the woman four times in 2019 as part of their investigation into accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The Justice Department had previously released a log confirming that the interviews took ​place but released a summary of only one of those four meetings, in which she accused Epstein of ​molesting her when she was a teenager. The newly disclosed records, which were posted on the department's website on ⁠Thursday, show she also claimed Trump attempted to force her to perform oral sex after Epstein introduced her to ​the future president in New York or New Jersey in the 1980s when she was between 13 and 15 years old. Read: Trump urges Zelensky to strike deal, says Putin ready The ​White House did not immediately respond to questions about the disclo...

Wary of getting directly involved in the US-Israeli war with Iran, European countries are nevertheless being drawn into the conflict following attacks on Cyprus and Western allies in the Gulf. While underlining their "defensive" aims, several European countries have now pledged military assistance to EU member Cyprus as the Middle East conflict intensifies and widens. Britain, Greece and Portugal have gone further by also allowing the US military to use their bases under certain conditions. Spain has ruled this out and Italy has said it has not received any such request. "We are not at war and we do not want to join the war," Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told RTL 102.5 radio on Thursday. Here are the main military assistance pledges from Europe so far: Britain An Iranian-made unmanned drone struck the runway at the British air force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus on Monday. Other drones, probably launched by Iran-backed military group Hezbollah from Lebanon, ha...

A second Iranian warship neared Sri Lankan waters on Thursday, a minister told parliament, a day after a US submarine destroyed an Iranian frigate, killing at least 84 sailors. Media minister Nalinda Jayatissa said the second Iranian navy vessel was just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters, but gave no further details. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake was meeting top officials on Thursday to discuss a response to an Iranian request to enter the safety of the island's waters, official sources said. Read More: At least 87 dead after US sinks Iranian warship They said the craft identified as IRIS Bushehr was carrying nearly 300 crew and cadets. It was feared that this vessel could be targeted the same way a sister vessel was sunk by a US submarine just off Sri Lanka's southern coast on Wednesday. The sinking of IRIS Dena came as the war sparked by a joint US-Israel attack on Iran continued to spread across the Middle East and beyond. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Arag...

On Wednesday, the Israeli military issued a displacement order for all residents in Lebanon south of the Litani River. A map showing the entire southern part of Lebanon shaded in red with two large arrows pointing north accompanied the order. #عاجل ‼️تحذير عاجل إلى سكان جنوب لبنان 🔸إنّ أنشطة حزب الله الإرهابي تُجبر جيش الدفاع على العمل ضده بالقوة. جيش الدفاع لا ينوي إلحاق الأذى بكم. 🔸حرصًا على سلامتكم، عليكم إخلاء منازلكم فورًا. كل من يتواجد بالقرب من عناصر حزب الله أو منشآته أو وسائله القتالية يعرّض حياته للخطر.… pic.twitter.com/4yVqByIonw — افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) March 4, 2026 Nearly 84,000 people have been displaced over the last 4 days, according to Lebanon’s state-run media outlet, the National News Agency. Israel had issued an evacuation warning to residents of about 50 towns and villages in Lebanon's south and east — both Hezbollah strongholds. "For your safety, evacuate your homes immediately and move at least 1,000 metres (0.6 miles) away from your village to...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday that the ongoing conflict in the Middle East was a "failure" of the international order, and the United States had not consulted its allies before striking Iran. US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran on Saturday after negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme stalled. The war has since spread beyond Iran's borders, with Iranian attacks hitting Gulf states including Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, as well as US embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, prompting Washington to close diplomatic missions across the region. Read: Iran war enters fourth day in 'smoke and blood' as global markets slide "The current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order, despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks," Carney said during a visit to A...

Ecuadorean and US forces launched joint operations to combat drug trafficking, the US Southern Command said on Tuesday, but neither side gave more details. The Southern Command, which is the US military's combatant command that encompasses 31 countries through South and Central America and the Caribbean, said in a statement on social media website X that the action was meant to combat illicit drug trafficking. Read: US strikes 2,000 targets in Iran as retaliation spreads across Gulf region Ecuador’s Defence Ministry said in a statement it was working with the US in an “offensive” operation and added that details were classified. The announcement came after President Daniel Noboa had said on Monday that his government would conduct joint operations with the US and other allies in March, framing the effort as “a new phase against narco-terrorism and illegal mining.” A new US-military-led task force specialising in intelligence collection on drug cartels played a role in the Mexican m...