President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the long disputed Golan Heights, delivering a valuable election-eve gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but jettisoning decades of American policy in the Middle East.

The United States on Thursday threatened to pull out of the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank in China next week if Beijing refuses to allow a representative of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to attend.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks with Lebanese leaders on Friday amid strong regional condemnation of President Donald Trump's declaration that it's time the U.S. recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to meet with five Caribbean leaders on Friday who have sided with the United States and most Western countries in backing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as head of state.

Two U.S. troops were killed in Afghanistan on Friday while carrying out an operation, the U.S.-led NATO coalition said.

The Trump administration took its first steps to tighten economic sanctions on North Korea since last month’s summit meeting in Vietnam on Thursday by listing two Chinese shipping companies as sanctions violators.

More from WPR: There Are Still No Easy Answers to North Korea’s Nukes

With the U.S. and China preparing for a fresh round of face-to-face negotiations, President Trump said the U.S. expected to keep tariffs on Chinese goods in place for a “substantial period of time,” even after a deal.

More from WPR: A U.S.-China Trade Deal Is Coming, but How Big Will It Be?

President Trump said on Wednesday that the last territory in Syria held by the Islamic State would be “gone by tonight,” despite reports of continuing fighting between the extremist group and American-backed local forces in Syria.

More from WPR: Trump Is Wrong, ISIS Isn’t Defeated. But It Poses a Limited Threat

The Defense Department’s inspector general said on Wednesday that it was investigating complaints that the acting defense secretary, Patrick M. Shanahan, had been promoting his former employer, Boeing, and disparaging its military contractor competitors.

Long a global leader in efforts to reduce nuclear-weapons stockpiles and limit nuclear proliferation, the United States is now fostering the conditions for a new global arms race.

President Trump on Tuesday said he intended to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally, a move that would deepen the U.S.’s military ties to the country, following a meeting with its new leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

Negotiators for the U.S. and China have scheduled a new round of high-level trade talks in Beijing and Washington, aiming to close a deal by late April to end the yearlong dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

As regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration reviewed designs for Boeing’s newest passenger jet, they paid extra attention to several features, including the lithium batteries, the pressure fueling system and the inflatable safety slides. One feature that did not receive exceptional scrutiny: a new software system intended to prevent stalls.

Brazilian law enforcement officials on Thursday arrested former President Michel Temer as part of a bribery investigation, opening a significant new chapter in the yearslong corruption scandal that has roiled the country’s politics.

El Salvador’s Supreme Court on Thursday approved a request by the country’s attorney general that former President Mauricio Funes be extradited home from Nicaragua to face corruption charges.

More from WPR: Big Victory Comes With Big Expectations for El Salvador’s Young New President

At the end of his first state visit to Washington this week, Jair Bolsonaro hailed his meeting with Donald Trump as a “historic moment,” claiming he was returning home with a sensation of “mission accomplished.” Today, Brazil’s far-right leader begins his second official trip—to Chile, where he is poised to receive a much less warm welcome.

More from WPR: Brazil’s Bolsonaro Stumbles Out of the Gate

At least nine people were killed and four injured in an unexplained explosion on Thursday in an indigenous area in Colombia’s mountainous southwest, local authorities said.

A judge in Chile on Thursday convicted 11 former members of the country’s army for the 1986 murder of Rodrigo Rojas, a United States-based Chilean photographer who was burned alive during protests against Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990.

Brazil’s government sent lawmakers a plan to save a net 10.45 billion reais ($2.8 billion) over 10 years with tougher retirement rules for the country’s military.

More from WPR: Brazil’s Bolsonaro Stumbles Out of the Gate

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Thursday intelligence agents had arrested his chief of staff following a pre-dawn raid, signaling that President Nicolas Maduro may be cracking down on the opposition’s challenge to his rule.

More from WPR: Venezuela’s Crisis Is Drawing New Ideological Lines in Latin America

In a fresh blow to the embattled government of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a legislator quit his ruling Liberal Party to sit as an independent on Wednesday after defending a former minister at the center of a political scandal.

More from WPR: Why the SNC-Lavalin Scandal Is Such a Blow for Canada’s Trudeau

The Kremlin has employed various strategies to advance its objectives despite limited resources in Latin America.

Still full of Chavista paraphernalia, the Venezuelan consulate in New York is now in the hands of the head of the opposition-controlled Parliament, Juan Guaido, and his supporters, who are promising to reopen the facility as soon as possible so that their countrymen can “begin to return home.”

President Trump on Tuesday said he intended to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally, a move that would deepen the U.S.’s military ties to the country, following a meeting with its new leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

European Union leaders on Thursday agreed to extend the deadline for Britain’s looming exit from the bloc in order to give Prime Minister Theresa May and the British Parliament more time to get their act together.

More from WPR: Brexiteers Sold a Vision of Britain That Wasn’t Rooted in Economic Reality

Assailants suspected of belonging to a left-wing militant group threw a hand grenade at the Russian Consulate in Athens on Friday, causing minor damage and no injuries, Greek authorities said.

A political rift has emerged in Berlin over whether Germany should put its financial muscle behind a merger of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, politicians and officials said, complicating a bid to create Europe’s third-largest bank and fund it.

Macron’s ideology prevents him from grasping an important truth: Sometimes there are no “win-win” solutions.

Top officials of the European Union tossed Prime Minister Theresa May a lifeline on Wednesday, saying they would allow Britain to push back its departure date from the bloc, but only if Parliament endorsed her withdrawal plan.

More from WPR: Can Theresa May Pull Off a Brexit Breakthrough in a Divided Britain?

Fidesz, the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, was suspended from the European Union’s most powerful political coalition on Wednesday, endangering an alliance that has shielded him from serious repercussions as he has dismantled or co-opted nearly every check on his power.

More from WPR: Amid Protests, Can Hungary’s Opposition Finally Unite Against Orban?

A United Nations court on Wednesday increased the sentence of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, from 40 years to life in prison for his role in the Bosnian war of the 1990s, reaffirming his conviction on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The far-right League is pushing to slash critical elements, including data-sharing, to mollify EU and U.S. critics.

Several thousand opposition protesters tried to enter Albania’s parliament building Thursday calling for the government’s resignation and an early election.

An upstart populist party shocked the Dutch political establishment by winning the most votes in provincial elections after a preliminary count in the early hours of Thursday, boosted by a possible terrorist attack this week in the city of Utrecht.

Italy’s governing parties are debating the wisdom of signing onto Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, but it is already too late for Italy to change course.

European authorities on Wednesday fined Google 1.5 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising market, continuing its efforts to rein in the world’s biggest technology companies.

Italian authorities have ordered the seizure of a charity rescue ship after it defied the government’s order not to bring refugees and migrants to Italy.

Voting in provincial elections began in the Netherlands on Wednesday, just two days after a Turkish-born man was arrested over a shooting attack in the city of Utrecht, boosting Dutch populist parties.

The former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will hear the final judgment on his role in the bloody conflict that tore his country apart a quarter of a century ago.

Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of a French cardinal, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, despite the cardinal’s conviction this month for covering up decades-old allegations of sexual abuse by a priest in his diocese.

Boko Haram militants killed at least 23 Chadian soldiers overnight, Chadian security sources said on Friday, in what appeared to be the deadliest such attack inside Chad by the Islamist insurgents.

The situation in the port city of Beira in Mozambique was “boiling” as residents suffered shortages of food, water and other essentials one week after a devastating cyclone, the head of a South African rescue operation said on Friday.

Sudan has summoned Egypt's ambassador to protest his country's announcement of an international tender in a disputed border area between the two nations.

Nearly a week after southern Africa was hit by one of the worst natural disasters in decades, it was all rescue workers could do to try to reach the victims, let alone count them.

South Sudan’s committee overseeing the fragile transition from civil war has approved almost $185 million in spending on vehicles, food and home renovations while the country’s peace deal suffers from an alleged lack of funds, according to internal documents seen by The Associated Press.

More from WPR: Is Time Already Running Out for South Sudan’s New Peace Deal?

Aid organisations play an unintended but crucial role in South Sudan’s repeating cycles of violence. How can they break out of it?

An air strike near the Somali town of Afgoye killed four people, a relative of one of the victims said on Tuesday.

Rescue workers struggled Tuesday to reach areas devastated by a huge cyclone in Mozambique, as heavy rains swelled rivers and further isolated flooded communities in what aid agencies called the worst natural disaster in southern Africa in two decades.

A new evangelical Christian political party with a “righteous calling to politics” and another representing security guards contributed to a record number of political players who are contesting the upcoming 2019 general election.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has tried to smooth over his diplomatic row with New Zealand by saying Jacinda Ardern’s empathy after the deadly mosque attacks in Christchurch was an example to the world. Erdogan has been accused of exploiting the attack in his local election campaign by screening video footage of the assault at his rallies, and claiming the killings were not the work of a single gunman.

Iraqi residents of the northern city of Mosul, angry over the sinking of a ferry in the Tigris River that killed 95 people, blocked a road where Iraq's presidential convoy was passing on Friday, chanting "no to corruption" and pelting the provincial governor's car with stones in protest.

The Istanbul chief prosecutor said on Friday it had ordered the detention of 126 suspects employed in the judicial system with alleged links to the network of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey says orchestrated a July 2016 coup attempt.

The United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday condemned Israel’s “apparent intentional use of unlawful lethal and other excessive force” against civilian protesters in Gaza, and called for perpetrators of violations in the strip to face justice.

Sudan has summoned Egypt's ambassador to protest his country's announcement of an international tender in a disputed border area between the two nations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed the United States to recognize Israeli governance of most of the Golan Heights during a visit by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday. His efforts underscored the growing possibility that the Trump administration may change the American stance on the territory.

The U.S. ambassador to Yemen on Thursday urged Iran-backed rebels in the war-torn country to show “political maturity” and live up to their responsibilities under a U.N.-negotiated peace deal for the port city of Hodeida, Yemen's key gateway for international aid.

More from WPR: Peace in Yemen Requires Far More Than What’s on the Table in Fragile Talks

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on the country’s political factions to end infighting and unite against foreign enemies in a new year speech broadcast on state TV on Thursday.

President Trump said on Wednesday that the last territory in Syria held by the Islamic State would be “gone by tonight,” despite reports of continuing fighting between the extremist group and American-backed local forces in Syria.

More from WPR: Trump Is Wrong, ISIS Isn’t Defeated. But It Poses a Limited Threat

Ignoring widespread criticism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday again showed excerpts of a video taken by the attacker who killed 50 people in mosques in New Zealand, to denounce what he called rising hatred and prejudice against Islam.

Hamas is facing the biggest demonstrations yet against its 12-year rule of the Gaza Strip, with hundreds of Palestinians taking to the streets in recent days to protest the dire living conditions in the blockaded territory.

More from WPR: The ‘Political Paralysis’ Behind the Collapse of the Palestinian Unity Government

Algeria’s army chief declared that the public has expressed “noble aims” during weeks of demonstrations against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, his strongest signal yet that the military is distancing itself from the long-serving ruler.

More from WPR: Bouteflika May Have Stepped Aside, but the Generals Really Running Algeria Won’t

Tunisian special forces killed three suspected Islamic State militants on Tuesday after clashes in mountains near the Algerian border, a security official told Reuters.

For the last half-century the politics of the Middle East has been shaped by five key pillars, but all five are now crumbling. A new Middle East is aborning — but not necessarily the flourishing one that people imagined in the 1990s.

President Donald Trump’s White House apparently has yet another terrible idea about the Middle East: recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria on the last day of the 1967 war.

North Korea has withdrawn from a liaison office it shared with the South near the demilitarized zone since September, an abrupt diplomatic pullback following Pyongyang’s recent threats to suspend nuclear talks with the U.S.

More from WPR: Is the Time Finally Right for Economic Engagement Between North and South Korea?

The Trump administration took its first steps to tighten economic sanctions on North Korea since last month’s summit meeting in Vietnam on Thursday by listing two Chinese shipping companies as sanctions violators.

More from WPR: There Are Still No Easy Answers to North Korea’s Nukes

Indonesia’s national airline Garuda Indonesia is moving to cancel an order for 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jets following the deadly crashes involving two of the aircraft, a spokesman for the company said Friday.

Vietnam has lodged an official protest with China following the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat which was being chased by a Chinese maritime surveillance vessel in the disputed South China Sea, Vietnam said late on Thursday.

Thai political parties geared up on Friday for their largest rallies yet, two days ahead of the country’s first election since a military coup nearly five years ago, but one that critics say will deny power to the most popular party.

More from WPR: Thailand’s Junta Is Finally Promising Elections—On Its Terms

A court in Vietnam jailed two former officials of a Vietnam-Russia oil joint venture on Friday, after convicting them of abusing their power to appropriate property, state media said.

More from WPR: Continuity Reigns as Trong Consolidates Power in Vietnam

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has tried to smooth over his diplomatic row with New Zealand by saying Jacinda Ardern’s empathy after the deadly mosque attacks in Christchurch was an example to the world. Erdogan has been accused of exploiting the attack in his local election campaign by screening video footage of the assault at his rallies, and claiming the killings were not the work of a single gunman.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand on Thursday announced a national ban on all military-style semiautomatic weapons, all high-capacity ammunition magazines and all parts that allow weapons to be modified into the kinds of guns used to kill 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch last week.

Kazakh police detained about 20 people on Thursday who protested against the renaming of the Central Asian country’s capital city after ex-president Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first decision taken by his successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

More from WPR: Is Kazakhstan Preparing for a Post-Nazarbayev Era?

In Urumqi, an old Silk Road city in western China, a state security campaign involving the detention of vast numbers of people has moved to its next stage: demolishing their neighborhoods and purging their culture.

More from WPR: China’s Uighur Crackdown Is Turning Xinjiang Into a Police State

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court sentenced two men, including a local government official, to life in prison on Thursday for their role in the brutal campus lynching two years ago of a university student accused of blasphemy.

More from WPR: Pakistan’s Blasphemy Protests Are the Latest Sign of Islamist Hard-Liners’ Ascendance

With the U.S. and China preparing for a fresh round of face-to-face negotiations, President Trump said the U.S. expected to keep tariffs on Chinese goods in place for a “substantial period of time,” even after a deal.

More from WPR: A U.S.-China Trade Deal Is Coming, but How Big Will It Be?

A managed succession may be a hard promise to keep.

Negotiators for the U.S. and China have scheduled a new round of high-level trade talks in Beijing and Washington, aiming to close a deal by late April to end the yearlong dispute between the world’s two largest economies.

Ignoring widespread criticism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday again showed excerpts of a video taken by the attacker who killed 50 people in mosques in New Zealand, to denounce what he called rising hatred and prejudice against Islam.

After 30 years in power, the aging president of Kazakhstan jolted the oil-rich former Soviet republic and the region at large on Tuesday with the surprise announcement that he was resigning.

More from WPR: Is Kazakhstan Preparing for a Post-Nazarbayev Era?

Kazakhstan’s new president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev handed the key post of senate speaker on Wednesday to a daughter of his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who unexpectedly resigned a day earlier after three decades in power.

Australia on Wednesday cut its annual intake of immigrants by nearly 15 percent, and barred some new arrivals from living in its largest cities for three years, in a bid to ease urban congestion.

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, will travel to the South Pacific on Thursday to shore up ties with three island nations that still recognize Taiwan as a country, in an effort to offset China’s expanding influence in the region.

More from WPR: Will More Latin American Countries Follow El Salvador and Recognize China Over Taiwan?

China will invite Beijing-based European diplomats to visit its far western region of Xinjiang, the foreign ministry told Reuters, furthering its outreach to fend off criticism about a de-radicalization program.