A club of Eurasian countries spearheaded by China and Russia to advance their leaders’ vision of an alternative world order is set to expand again this week – this time adding a staunch Russian ally that has openly supported Moscow’s war on Ukraine. The expected admission of Belarus to the Shanghai…

Sierra Leone officially banned child marriage on Tuesday with President Julius Maada Bio signing into law a bill to end the practice that remains widespread. Advocates hope the new legislation will better protect girls in Sierra Leone, around a third of whom are married before they turn 18, increasing the…

The Chinese coast guard detained a Taiwanese fishing vessel in waters off China’s southeast coast on Tuesday night, in the latest flare-up of tensions around a group of frontline islands controlled by Taipei. In a statement, Taiwan’s coast guard said the fishing boat, Tachinman 88, was intercepted by two Chinese coast…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the idea of starting a ceasefire in Gaza while Hamas remains in power, after The New York Times published an article citing six current and former security officials who said a truce would give Israeli troops time to prepare for a potential land war with…

As French citizens get set to vote in runoff parliamentary elections on Sunday hundreds of contenders have bowed out in an effort to block the far-right party from the gates of power. Over 200 candidates from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and the left-wing alliance have stepped down in a…

Voters in Britain are primed to end a 14-year era of Conservative rule, in a momentous general election that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is almost universally expected to lose. Sunak took the biggest gamble of his troubled premiership by calling the early vote, but he has struggled to turn around…

Allegations of sexual abuse against a child by a Syrian man in Kayseri, Turkey, have sparked overnight riots that targeted Syrian businesses and cars in the city. According to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, a Syrian man was arrested on allegations that he sexually abused his seven-year-old female cousin, who…

More than a hundred people were killed in a crush at a religious gathering in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, according to local police and administration officials. The incident happened at a prayer meeting, known as a satsang, in the Mughal Garhi village in the Hathras district…