( The Guardian )- The rush to Raqqa, Islamic State’s capital on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria, marks the beginning of a new and perilous phase in one of the world’s most dangerous battle zones. The capture of the capital of Isis’s self-declared caliphate would be partly symbolic –...

U.S.-backed forces are closing in on Islamic State in Raqqa, but local Syrians who have escaped the battlefield are worried about what comes after the fight. Dozens of them have volunteered to help rebuild the town once the militants have been defeated. The aim of organization they have...

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear program have failed, ratcheting up the rhetoric over the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang. Trump has held high hopes for greater cooperation from China to...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of work on a new settlement in the occupied West Bank Tuesday, as US envoys prepared to discuss a new peace push. The Amichai settlement will be the first new government-sanctioned Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories...