Moscow

The Russian Investigative Committee released footage of a plane landing while on fire. The incident, which resulted in 41 deaths, occurred in May 2019.

An unidentified gunman opened fire Thursday outside the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s top security agency, killing one officer and wounding five others, officials said.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff interrupted the impeachment hearing Friday morning to give the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine a chance to answer President Donald Trump’s real-time attacks on her on Twitter. Schiff took over the questioning to read aloud Trump’s broadside against the former ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, as she was testifying. “Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad,” Trump tweeted...

Former U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch asked whether it was necessary for President Donald Trump to smear her reputation, following questioning from Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio.

Twitter says its new ban on political ads will cover appeals for votes, solicitations for campaign contributions and any political content. Twitter is defining political content to include any ad that references a candidate, political party, government official, ballot measure, or legislative or judicial outcome. The ban also applies to all ads — even non-political ones — from candidates, political...

Washington’s Afghan peace envoy remained in Pakistan on Tuesday as part of efforts to find a negotiated end to Afghanistan’s 18-year war, even though President Donald Trump hasn’t expressed any interest in resuming talks with the Taliban. The envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday and was expected to hold talks with the country’s powerful...

President Donald Trump said he’s directed the lifting of economic sanctions on Turkey after the country informed the U.S. it will make “permanent” a five-day cease-fire in Syria. Claiming success at the U.S.-brokered effort, Trump said Wednesday, “this was an outcome created by us.” The cease-fire required Kurdish forces formerly allied with the U.S. against the Islamic State group to...

U.S troops withdrawing from northeastern Syria to Iraq are “transiting” and will leave the country within four weeks, Iraq’s defense minister said Wednesday. Najah al-Shammari made the remarks to The Associated Press following a meeting in Baghdad with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who arrived as Iraqi leaders chafed over reports the U.S. may want to increase the number...

The results of a congressional probe into the National Rifle Association’s ties to Russia paints a picture of NRA officials providing Russian officials access to American elected officials in exchange for lucrative business opportunities, NBC News reports. The investigation, conducted by Senate Finance Committee Democrats who released a report on their findings Friday, found that top officials at the NRA...

The Afghan government will only consider making a “legitimate” peace with insurgents after national elections are held this month, an official told reporters on Saturday, despite the atmosphere of political uncertainty following the sudden halt in U.S.-Taliban peace talks. President Donald Trump abruptly called off talks to end American’s longest war last week. The Afghan government was largely shut out...

A negotiating team from the Taliban arrived Friday in Russia, a representative told The Associated Press, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump declared dead a deal with the insurgent group in Afghanistan. Russian state news agency Tass cited the Taliban’s Qatar-based spokesman Suhail Shaheen as saying the delegation had held consultations with Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for...

Bart Myers wants us to reasonably and rationally debate politics online.

President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military on Friday to work out a quid pro quo response after the test of a new U.S. missile banned under a now-defunct arms treaty. In Sunday’s test, a modified ground-launched version of a U.S. Navy Tomahawk cruise missile accurately struck its target more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) away. The test came after...

The U.S. military has conducted a flight test of a type of missile banned for more than 30 years by a treaty that both the United States and Russia abandoned this month, the Pentagon said. The test off the coast of California on Sunday marked the resumption of an arms competition that some analysts worry could increase U.S.-Russian tensions. The...

A passenger jet made an emergency landing in a field outside of one of Moscow’s airports Thursday after colliding with a flock of birds, injuring at least 23 people, Russian officials said. The Ural Airlines A321 carrying 226 passengers and a crew of seven hit the birds as it took off Thursday from Moscow’s Zhukovsky airport en route for Simferopol,...

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he wants to deploy an intermediate range conventional missile in the Pacific region within months, now that the Trump administration has formally pulled out of a Cold War-era arms control treaty with Russia. Esper, however, added that it will likely take some time to develop the more advanced land-based missile capabilities. The move is...

Two South Koreans and 15 Russians have been held in North Korea for a week after their boat drifted into North Korean waters, Seoul officials said Wednesday. The crew members were aboard a Russia-flagged fishing boat when it was detained by North Korea on July 17, the Unification Ministry said in a statement. North Korea hasn’t responded to South Korea’s...

A fresh round of talks between the U.S. and the Taliban began in Qatar on Saturday, just days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is hoping for an Afghan peace agreement before Sept. 1. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to The Associated Press that negotiations had begun. Originally scheduled to begin in the morning, the two sides...

A fresh round of talks between the U.S. and the Taliban began in Qatar on Saturday, just days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington is hoping for an Afghan peace agreement before Sept. 1. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed to The Associated Press that negotiations had begun. Originally scheduled to begin in the morning, the two sides...

If China has panda diplomacy, India has yoga. Prime Minister Narendra Modi successfully lobbied the United Nations to designate June 21 International Yoga Day in his first year in power in 2014. Since then, just as China under President Xi Jinping has given countries pandas for their zoos in a show of goodwill, Modi has used one of India’s most...