World Echo

The Kremlin said on Monday that Britain's decision to hand Ukraine classified information on British-made components used to make SCALP long-range cruise missiles would "add fuel to the fire" and was regarded by Moscow extremely negatively. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham arrived in Kyiv on Monday on his first overseas trip since taking office and was due to announce British support to help Kyiv improve its domestic production of long-range missiles. Asked about the visit and the support, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Britain of doing everything it could to prevent any progress towards an eventual peace deal. "Britain is involved in this war on the side of the Kyiv regime. Britain methodically and regularly adds fuel to the fire and methodically and regularly hatches schemes to prevent even the slightest progress in the peaceful settlement process," Peskov told reporters. Peskov said that the Russian military was already systematically gat...

India's Coast Guard and Navy continued search-and-rescue operations off ​the eastern coast on Sunday after a Panama-flagged ‌cargo vessel carrying 24 crew sank, with two Chinese nationals rescued, a senior official said. The two rescued Chinese seafarers said ​the vessel developed a list on Friday and ​sank within eight minutes, forcing the crew to abandon ⁠the ship, Shyam Jagannathan, director general of India's Maritime Administration, ​told Reuters. Jagannathan said the chances of finding survivors generally fall ​sharply after 12 hours, but rescuers were continuing the search. Twenty-two crew members remain missing from the Ocean Winner, including 18 Chinese ​nationals, three Myanmar nationals and one Bangladeshi, according to ​the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian Navy is closely coordinating with the ‌Coast ⁠Guard to locate the remaining crew, the Navy said in a post on X. Read: 115 vessels, 2,500 seafarers evacuated from Strait of Hormuz: UN agency ...

The Israeli army on Sunday arrested 13 Palestinians, including a child, during raids in the occupied West Bank, amid attacks by occupiers that included the burning of property and the destruction of agricultural land. Occupiers burned a residential room belonging to a Palestinian in the northern part of the town of Osarin, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, local sources told Anadolu. They also set fire to a vehicle, partially burning it, and spray-painted racist slogans at the site, the sources added. In Bethlehem, Israeli occupiers attacked the Khala'il al-Louz area east of the city, damaging irrigation pipes used for crops, cutting down trees, and damaging Palestinian property and agricultural land. Read: ME powers condemn Israeli settlements Occupiers also uprooted olive and grape trees from Palestinian-owned land in the village of al-Minya, east of Bethlehem, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained two Pa...

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday for a two-day visit set to range from esports to the war in the Middle East. Several agreements on health, transport and energy will be signed on the second day of the visit on Monday, according to a French presidential official, underlining the strength of the Paris-Riyadh relationship. But the visit will kick off in a different style on Sunday evening from 1800 GMT with Macron hosting the Saudi strongman - known as MBS - at the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup hosted by Paris. Read: Middle East's new security paradigm The event, which brings together the leading performers in esports ranging from computer games to chess and has been eagerly backed by MBS, is being held outside Saudi Arabia for the first time. The French presidential official declined to comment on whether the agreements could touch on a vast theme park known as Dragons Ball, backed ...

With the Iran war now at a costly standoff and crises from Ukraine to Gaza still unresolved, President Donald Trump's ambitious foreign policy agenda appears stuck as he heads into November's midterm elections. The setbacks are striking for a president who returned to office last year promising to be a "peacemaker" and made resolving international conflicts a centerpiece of his second-term agenda. Trump has grown impatient with reporters' questions and even United States allies. This week, he lashed out at reporters pressing him on foreign policy issues and renewed his threat to bomb Oman, a US ally negotiating with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Labour Day, on September 7 this year, is traditionally when election campaigns kick into high gear, and Republicans face the prospect that unresolved conflicts abroad and their economic fallout at home could cost the party its hold on Congress. Iran stal...

The US imposed 50% tariffs on some ‌Canadian goods on Saturday after the two longstanding allies failed to reach a trade deal, with each side accusing the other of derailing days of talks. The tariffs that came into effect just after midnight (0900 PKT) on some $20 billion of Canadian goods - things like wooden ice hockey sticks that are rarely used anymore - are far ​from an economic game-changer for the largest US trading partner after Mexico. That represents just over 5% of Canada's exports to ​the US. But the new tariffs mark an increase in tensions between US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Mark Carney, ⁠and will likely make broader talks to renew the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement more difficult. Carney said he had suspended trade negotiations and ​Canada would retaliate "dollar for dollar" on the new tariffs. "I have decided to suspend trade negotiations with the US and have directed Canada’s negotiators to ​return to Ottawa...