Eleven American troops were treated for concussions after Iranian missiles struck two Iraqi bases where the servicemembers were stationed, the military said Thursday, contradicting earlier statements by President Trump that no Americans had been injured.

More from WPR: How Heightened U.S.-Iran Conflict Plays to Russia’s Advantage

The Senate approved a sweeping U.S. economic pact with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, delivering on President Trump’s promise of a new North American trade deal, just ahead of his impeachment trial.

More from WPR: Trump and Pelosi Both Claim Victory on the USMCA. Who Really Won?

The White House violated federal law when it withheld security aid to Ukraine last year, according to a decision by a congressional watchdog released Thursday.

Taliban and American negotiators are meeting in Qatar for what a Taliban spokesman called “fruitful discussions” that are expected to continue for “several days.”

A U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the island’s defense ministry said, less than a week after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won reelection by a landslide on a platform of standing up to China which claims the island.

More from WPR: Tsai’s Likely Reelection in Taiwan Will Lead to More Tensions With China

Police in Ukraine are investigating whether the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before the Trump administration recalled her from Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

More from WPR: What the Impeachment Inquiry Means for the U.S. Relationship With Ukraine

Federal prosecutors announced murder charges Thursday against a Malian man accused of playing a central role in two 2016 terror attacks in West Africa, including an al-Qaida shooting in Burkina Faso that killed an American missionary and 29 other people.

Iran’s supreme leader struck a defiant tone in a rare public sermon Friday, calling the United States an “arrogant power” and telling tens of thousands of chanting worshipers that God’s backing had allowed his country to “slap the face” of the United States.

More from WPR: Why Hitting the Pause Button Is the Best the U.S. and Iran Can Hope For

Its rivals and allies are both looking at other options.

More from WPR: How ‘Sanctions Overreach’ Could Undermine the U.S. Dollar’s Dominance

President Trump signed an initial trade deal with China on Wednesday, bringing the first chapter of a protracted and economically damaging fight with one of the world’s largest economies to a close.

More from WPR: Does the ‘Phase One’ U.S.-China Trade Deal Pit Farming Against Manufacturing?

The United States military resumed joint operations with Iraq on Wednesday, military officials said, ending a 10-day pause that began after an American airstrike killed a top Iranian military commander in Baghdad.

The United States will pump $1 billion into Guatemala’s private sector to spur investment and create jobs, the head of a U.S. government agency said Wednesday.

France’s armed forces minister said Wednesday she would travel to Washington in the coming days to discuss U.S. military support to French forces in the Sahel region, amid growing concern of a U.S. exit from the area.

More from WPR: How Would a Military Drawdown Affect U.S. Engagement in Africa?

A week before Germany, France and Britain formally accused Iran of breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, the Trump administration issued a private threat to the Europeans that shocked officials in all three countries.

Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi indicated he would leave a decision whether to expel U.S. forces from the country to his successor, potentially slowing a push that could trigger American military-aid cuts and sanctions.

More from WPR: How Soleimani’s Assassination Is Upending Iraq’s Foreign Policy

The Taliban have given the U.S. envoy a document outlining their offer for a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan that would last between seven and 10 days, Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations said Thursday.

How significant is the deal? Trump hyped it up, of course. “This is the biggest deal anybody has ever seen,” he said. Robert Lighthizer, the hawkish U.S. Trade Representative, who led the American negotiating team, has been more measured. In December, he said that the deal “achieves meaningful, fully enforceable structural changes and begins rebalancing the U.S.-China trade relationship.” But even that assessment may be too optimistic.

More from WPR: What Does the ‘Phase One’ U.S.-China Trade Deal Actually Accomplish?

Iran’s demonstration in last’s week strike at U.S. bases will have effects around the world.

More from WPR: Why Hitting the Pause Button Is the Best the U.S. and Iran Can Hope For

The Senate approved a sweeping U.S. economic pact with Canada and Mexico on Thursday, delivering on President Trump’s promise of a new North American trade deal, just ahead of his impeachment trial.

More from WPR: Trump and Pelosi Both Claim Victory on the USMCA. Who Really Won?

Guatemala’s new President Alejandro Giammattei cut diplomatic ties with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday and ordered the closure of its embassy in Caracas.

Brazil has decided to suspend its participation in the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a leftist regional body established by Venezuela, due to its failure to protect democracy, Brazil’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise, who began ruling by decree this week, wants to use his new power to overhaul the constitution in an attempt to break a “decades-long cycle of political crises,” a planned presidential statement seen by Reuters shows.

Guatemala’s government said Thursday prosecutors carried out raids and arrested a former mayor accused of corruption as the U.S. embassy announced it had revoked visas for some ex-officials in the Central American country this year.

The United States will pump $1 billion into Guatemala’s private sector to spur investment and create jobs, the head of a U.S. government agency said Wednesday.

The tug of war over Venezuela's National Assembly intensified Wednesday as pro-government thugs attacked lawmakers allied with opposition leader Juan Guaido, preventing them from holding a session in the legislative palace.

More from WPR: For Trump, Venezuela Will Remain a Foreign Policy Priority Until Election Day

Hundreds of Hondurans, many with hopes of reaching the United States, streamed toward the Guatemalan border Wednesday in the kind of migrant caravan that, in 2018 and 2019, angered President Trump and posed a direct challenge to governments throughout the region.

A former economy minister in Guatemala appeared in court to face corruption allegations Wednesday, a day after leaving office amid a change of government and losing the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed as a Cabinet official.

With just days remaining before the mandate of a regional anti-corruption mission in Honduras is set to expire, backers fear the four-year-old effort could be in its death throes.

The world's fifth-most populous country is one of the main prizes in a global tech encounter between Beijing and Washington.

The White House violated federal law when it withheld security aid to Ukraine last year, according to a decision by a congressional watchdog released Thursday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted a letter of resignation Friday to President Voldymyr Zelensky after Honcharuk appeared to criticize Zelensky in leaked audio.

France will deploy the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its battle group from January to April to support French military operations in Middle East, Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

Police in Ukraine are investigating whether the U.S. ambassador came under illegal surveillance by an unknown party before the Trump administration recalled her from Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said Thursday.

More from WPR: What the Impeachment Inquiry Means for the U.S. Relationship With Ukraine

Vladimir Putin now has a Napoleonic-style referendum with which to mobilize the population and seek the public imprimatur of a new mandate for reshaping Russian politics for the 2020s.

More from WPR: What to Make of Putin’s Shake-Up in Russia

Boris Johnson is prime minister of what is still, for now, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland—and he would very much like to keep it that way. Mindful of his own place in history, he has no intention of agreeing to a new referendum on Scottish independence that would risk, even invite, the break-up of Britain.

More from WPR: Why Boris Johnson’s Election Victory Could Create More Instability for the U.K.

Russia’s ruling party Thursday unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin’s surprise choice for prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, a man with almost no political profile.

France’s armed forces minister said Wednesday she would travel to Washington in the coming days to discuss U.S. military support to French forces in the Sahel region, amid growing concern of a U.S. exit from the area.

More from WPR: How Would a Military Drawdown Affect U.S. Engagement in Africa?

A week before Germany, France and Britain formally accused Iran of breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, the Trump administration issued a private threat to the Europeans that shocked officials in all three countries.

French transport strikes continued for a 42nd day Wednesday, as a government compromise over the national retirement age failed to persuade certain trade unions to call off the disruptions that have rocked the country.

More from WPR: Will Protests in France Force Macron to Back Down on Reforms?

The details are murky, but his plan for constitutional change is unlikely to be an exit strategy.

Sudan’s transitional authorities Thursday appointed a new intelligence chief days after putting down an armed revolt by former agents linked to toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir, the sovereign council said.

More from WPR: Sudan Needs Much More Than Upgraded U.S. Ties to Rebuild Itself After Bashir

Lesotho’s prime minister has bowed to pressure to step down over evidence allegedly linking him to the murder of his estranged wife, the ruling party said Thursday.

Thousands of supporters of Gambia’s former leader Yahya Jammeh have demonstrated on the outskirts of the capital Banjul, demanding his return from self-exile.

More from WPR: Still Reeling From the Yahya Jammeh Years, Gambia Begins Its Journey to Justice

Federal prosecutors announced murder charges Thursday against a Malian man accused of playing a central role in two 2016 terror attacks in West Africa, including an al-Qaida shooting in Burkina Faso that killed an American missionary and 29 other people.

The ongoing socio-political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe requires an unprecedented national dialogue for transition—a “coming together” that appears to be as challenging as the country’s history of struggle is long.

More from WPR: Two Years After Mugabe’s Fall, Zimbabwe Returns to the Abyss

Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed Wednesday to reconvene in Washington later this month to finalize an agreement on a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Africa’s richest woman and Angola’s ex-first daughter Isabel dos Santos expressed interest Thursday in running for the presidency despite an asset freeze and accusations of diverting more than a billion dollars of state money.

Islamist militants released three aid workers and other civilians in northeast Nigeria who had been held hostage since late December, a United Nations official said Thursday.

Addis has in the past rejected mediation, but the U.S. has recently become involved.

More from WPR: Amid Revolutionary Change at Home, Ethiopia Is Remaking Its Middle East Ties

Eleven American troops were treated for concussions after Iranian missiles struck two Iraqi bases where the servicemembers were stationed, the military said Thursday, contradicting earlier statements by President Trump that no Americans had been injured.

More from WPR: How Heightened U.S.-Iran Conflict Plays to Russia’s Advantage

France will deploy the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier and its battle group from January to April to support French military operations in Middle East, Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

Iran’s supreme leader struck a defiant tone in a rare public sermon Friday, calling the United States an “arrogant power” and telling tens of thousands of chanting worshipers that God’s backing had allowed his country to “slap the face” of the United States.

More from WPR: Why Hitting the Pause Button Is the Best the U.S. and Iran Can Hope For

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet called Friday for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Syria’s opposition-held Idlib province, saying the latest cease-fire attempt had yet again failed to protect civilians.

More from WPR: What Is the Endgame in Idlib, Syria’s Largest Remaining Rebel Enclave?

As the fear of further conflict looms, Iran is in the midst of a decisive argument with itself.

America and Iran, Iran and Israel, Saudis and Houthis, Sunnis and Shiites—the ruler of Oman shuttled between them all.

More from WPR: In Oman, Sultan Qaboos Leaves a Legacy of Nonalignment. Can It Survive?

The United States military resumed joint operations with Iraq on Wednesday, military officials said, ending a 10-day pause that began after an American airstrike killed a top Iranian military commander in Baghdad.

Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed Wednesday to reconvene in Washington later this month to finalize an agreement on a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile that sparked a diplomatic crisis between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Turkey is beginning to send troops into Libya in support of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday, days before a summit in Berlin which will address the Libyan conflict.

More from WPR: All-Out Proxy War Looms in Libya as Turkey Mulls a Military Intervention

Smashing windows of banking institutions and blocking roads with bonfires, Lebanon's youths sent their country's ruling class a clear message this week: The protests are back.

More from WPR: Lebanon’s Protests Are a Popular Outcry Cutting Across Sectarian Lines

Iraq’s caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi indicated he would leave a decision whether to expel U.S. forces from the country to his successor, potentially slowing a push that could trigger American military-aid cuts and sanctions.

More from WPR: How Soleimani’s Assassination Is Upending Iraq’s Foreign Policy

The Turkish government lifted a two-and-a-half-year ban on Wikipedia on Wednesday, restoring access to the online encyclopedia a month after the country’s top court ruled that blocking it was unconstitutional.

Addis has in the past rejected mediation, but the U.S. has recently become involved.

More from WPR: Amid Revolutionary Change at Home, Ethiopia Is Remaking Its Middle East Ties

A vibrant protest movement is visible in Iran and across the Middle East—but it isn’t calling for Islamic revolution, much less the tired misrule of the mullahs. It’s a bottom-up rebellion against the corrupt elites who rule Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and other countries.

More from WPR: Why Iran May Be Locked Into a Future of More Protests

Iran’s demonstration in last’s week strike at U.S. bases will have effects around the world.

More from WPR: Why Hitting the Pause Button Is the Best the U.S. and Iran Can Hope For

Taliban and American negotiators are meeting in Qatar for what a Taliban spokesman called “fruitful discussions” that are expected to continue for “several days.”

A U.S. warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, the island’s defense ministry said, less than a week after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won reelection by a landslide on a platform of standing up to China which claims the island.

More from WPR: Tsai’s Likely Reelection in Taiwan Will Lead to More Tensions With China

As the leader of China, Xi Jinping, touched down in Myanmar on Friday, his two-day visit is designed to celebrate Beijing’s expanding presence in the region, both as an economic and political role model.

Thailand and Japan each reported new cases of a coronavirus that has left two people dead and at least 40 sick in China, adding to concerns about the spread of the virus beyond Chinese borders ahead of a major holiday.

The number of babies born in China last year fell to a nearly six-decade low, exacerbating a looming demographic crisis that is set to reshape the world’s most populous nation and threaten its economic vitality.

A newly sealed trade truce with the U.S. reduced a key source of anxiety for Chinese policymakers but leaves them with another challenge: a need to boost consumer and business confidence as the country faces more downward pressure on its massive economy.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s persecution of the Rohingya paved the way for Modi.

More from WPR: Aung San Suu Kyi Will Go to the Mat for Myanmar’s Military in The Hague

President Trump signed an initial trade deal with China on Wednesday, bringing the first chapter of a protracted and economically damaging fight with one of the world’s largest economies to a close.

More from WPR: Does the ‘Phase One’ U.S.-China Trade Deal Pit Farming Against Manufacturing?

The Taliban have given the U.S. envoy a document outlining their offer for a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan that would last between seven and 10 days, Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations said Thursday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Myanmar on Friday to ink massive infrastructure deals and extend influence in a neighbor whose ties with the West were frayed by accusations that it conducted genocidal policies against ethnic Rohingya Muslims.

Japan on Thursday reported its first case of a new coronavirus that has sickened at least 41 people in China, adding to concerns about the spread of the virus beyond China’s borders ahead of a major holiday.

How significant is the deal? Trump hyped it up, of course. “This is the biggest deal anybody has ever seen,” he said. Robert Lighthizer, the hawkish U.S. Trade Representative, who led the American negotiating team, has been more measured. In December, he said that the deal “achieves meaningful, fully enforceable structural changes and begins rebalancing the U.S.-China trade relationship.” But even that assessment may be too optimistic.

More from WPR: What Does the ‘Phase One’ U.S.-China Trade Deal Actually Accomplish?

The world's fifth-most populous country is one of the main prizes in a global tech encounter between Beijing and Washington.

Aung San Suu Kyi has publicly flung open the floodgates of militant nationalism—a version as virulent as the anti-British nationalism of her father’s formative era in the 1930s and 1940s. This resistance to foreign rule often led to communal violence, since some ethnic nationalists viewed other groups as the beneficiaries of colonization.

More from WPR: Aung San Suu Kyi Will Go to the Mat for Myanmar’s Military in The Hague

Time is on Taiwan’s side. There is a steady increase in the majority of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people who self-identify as Taiwanese rather than Chinese. In last Saturday’s legislative elections, the average age of candidates from Tsai’s party (38) was almost 25 years younger than those of the principal opposition party.

More from WPR: Tsai’s Likely Reelection in Taiwan Will Lead to More Tensions With China