Pope Leo said that the Catholic Church has an obligation to call for peace and respect of human life.ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT - Pope Leo on Sept 28 urged Russia and Ukraine to sit down and discuss how to end their four-year war, hours after he had urged European leaders seeking to end conflicts to make concessions to achieve peace.The first US pope also decried national leaders who he said are “beginning to speak about nuclear weapons and wars that are becoming ever more destructive,” addressing a press conference aboard his flight to Rome after a four-day trip to France.Leo said the Catholic Church has an obligation to call for peace and respect of human life.“The Church has a responsibility to promote these values, continually inviting leaders — from Russia and Ukraine, as well as other countries — to come together, sit down, engage in dialogue,” said the pope.He said leaders must “seek ways to solve problems without continuing these wars, which no longer make sense.”“This is not about being political or non-political, but there needs to be a voice that seeks to promote the values of human dignity, the importance of life, and the possibility of perhaps spending more on health and education and less on weapons,” said Leo.Earlier on Sept 28, the pope said Europe must be willing to sacrifice some positions to achieve peace in a speech in Metz, France, where he laid out his clearest vision yet for the future of the continent. REUTERS
Read briefing UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (left) discussed bilateral relations during a visit on Sept 27 by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.CAIRO - UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan discussed bilateral relations during a visit on Sept 27 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Gulf country, the Emirati state news agency WAM reported on Sept 28.
Read briefing Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes that tech firms would not keep pushing the technology forward if they did not believe the risks could be managed.SAN FRANCISCO - Nvidia on Sept 28 unveiled a system designed to stop autonomous AI programmes from straying beyond what they were instructed to do, after a wave of incidents raised alarm about the technology’s risks.AI “agents” are designed to act on their own – browsing the web, writing and running code or handling files – rather than simply answering questions like a chatbot.The technology has been hailed as the next stage of the AI revolution, but several leading companies have recently reported cases of agents breaking out of the test environments meant to contain them.According to ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, websites accessed by its agents include those of US federal agencies, an Australian government health statistics portal and Hugging Face, a repository of AI models.Amid the alarm, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang insisted that the problems can be solved.“I believe it’s an engineering problem ... and we all need to hope that’s an engineering problem,” Huang told CNBC on Sept 28.In Huang’s view, tech firms would not keep pushing the technology forward if they did not believe the risks could be managed.Nvidia has a lot riding on that bet: its graphics processing units, or GPUs, power much of the AI boom, and the company’s fortunes are closely tied to the revolution continuing at full speed.Huang likened the challenge to the early days of the internet, when websites could load programs onto people’s computers and spread viruses.The answer then, he said, was to turn the web browser into a “containment system” that limited access.Nvidia’s system similarly places each agent in a sealed-off digital space, or “sandbox,” and lets companies spell out exactly which files, networks and tools it may use.A separate monitor, running on Nvidia hardware beyond the agent’s reach, watches its behaviour and can cut it off if it goes astray.Nvidia said the system could have prevented the Hugging Face breach, in which the platform reported more than 17,000 agents attacking its infrastructure over days and weeks.More than 100 organisations are working with Nvidia’s platform at launch, the company said, including Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce and SAP.Anthropic has connected its Claude agents to the system and SpaceXAI is applying it to its Grok models. AFP
Read briefing Graffiti reading "no future" in Arabic is depicted on a concrete block at the closed vehicle barrier of a checkpoint at the northern entrance of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.TEL AVIV - Israel said on Sept 27 it was revoking the diplomatic status of Dutch diplomats who represent the Netherlands at the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, in response to Dutch sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.Israel earlier in September ordered the closure of the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, which is Britain’s representative with the Palestinian Authority, after London announced similar sanctions banning the import of goods from settlements.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on X that Dutch diplomats operating in Ramallah must return their Israeli-issued diplomatic documentation within seven days, when their diplomatic privileges and immunities are due to expire.“Any country that acts in a hostile and unilateral manner against Israel will lose influence and relevance in the region,” Saar said.The Dutch Foreign Ministry declined to comment. The Netherlands’ ban on imports of goods produced in settlements came into effect last week.Israel in August banned Dutch diplomats from a US-led coordination centre for Gaza that is based in Israel, over what the foreign minister described as “anti-Israel measures.”Many countries, including the Netherlands, have long had diplomats who represent their governments with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah while living in East Jerusalem.Israel has traditionally accredited those diplomats and granted them certain privileges under the Vienna Convention on treatment of diplomatic missions.France and Canada joined Britain this month in announcing a ban on goods from settlements, but Israel has not taken any action against those two countries.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government has found itself diplomatically isolated from many of its allies over its conduct in recent years in Gaza and the West Bank.Two prominent Israeli cabinet ministers have been sanctioned by several countries, while Spain, Ireland and others have also announced a ban on goods originating from settlements. REUTERS
Read briefing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, on Sept 24.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Abu Dhabi and met with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Sept 27, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu’s office and the UAE’s foreign ministry.The visit comes after Israeli newspaper Haaretz earlier in September reported that Sheikh Mohamed had warned Netanyahu a week and a half before Oct 7, 2023 that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel. The warning was not passed to Israeli intelligence agencies or the military, Haaretz reported.Netanyahu, who has denied the report and threatened legal action against the newspaper, is facing a tough reelection campaign. Opposition leaders have accused the prime minister of bearing responsibility for security failures that preceded Hamas’ Oct 7 attack.The UAE has declined to comment on the Haaretz report but has said that UAE and Israel have maintained “open and direct lines of communication” since establishing diplomatic relations in 2020.A UAE source previously told Reuters that the UAE discusses security matters with countries through the “relevant entities,” but not “at the level of national leaders.”Earlier in 2026, the UAE denied that President Sheikh Mohamed met with Netanyahu after the Israeli prime minister’s office said in May that Netanyahu had “secretly visited” the Gulf country and met with the president.A source familiar with the meeting said at the time that Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed met in Al-Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi along the country’s border with Oman, on March 26.Since coming under attack during the Iran war, the UAE has strengthened its relationships with the United States and Israel, with which it opened ties as a result of the 2020 Abraham Accords.The relationship with Israel gives UAE a lever for regional influence and a unique channel to Washington. REUTERS
Read briefing Pope Leo leads the prayer of the Holy Rosary on the day of a candlelight procession on Sept 27, at the Grotto of the Apparitions at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, in Lourdes, France.LOURDES, France - Pope Leo reaffirmed his commitment to ending abuse of children by Catholic priests in a meeting with French abuse survivors on Sept 27, the Vatican said, hours after the pontiff urged the Church to admit its own failings and heal its “deep wounds.”In a two-hour meeting with seven survivors in France, where Leo is on a three-city weekend visit, the pope met privately with each of the victims and heard proposals for how to improve the Church’s safeguarding measures, said a Vatican statement.“He thanked them for their painful testimony and reaffirmed his commitment to ensuring that the harm they experienced is not repeated for others,” it said.The survivors said after the meeting that it was emotional and touching. They said they felt listened to by the pontiff, and they were impressed by his compassion and his knowledge of their individual cases, but they also hoped that the words would be accompanied by action.“He certainly believes that the Church has done a great deal in France, but he also believes that the Church in France still has a tremendous amount left to do,” Jerome Guillement said.Leo is on a whirlwind four-day visit to France. Local Church leaders are hoping he will help repair the Church’s standing after a 2021 report found that some 330,000 French children had been abused by Catholic clergy and lay leaders over seven decades.The pope told an estimated 150,000 people gathered for a Mass in a field near the famed Catholic shrine in Lourdes that the Church must have the courage to face its past.“In order to heal the deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors that have occurred within (the Church), we must humbly place ourselves under the Lord’s purifying gaze,” the first US pope said.Veronique Garnier, one of the survivors in the meeting with the pope, said she had found the Mass, in which Leo referred to abuse without directly apologising for it, troubling and wondered why she had attended.“I do indeed believe there is hope – hope that there can be change and truly listening to us at a deep level, rather than just superficially with beautiful words that are never followed by any real action,” she said.Leo also spoke about the abuse scandals in a closed-door meeting with French bishops on Sept 27, according to a Vatican-provided text.The pope thanked the bishops for the “courageous measures” he said they had taken to confront the scandals and urged them to buttress their safeguarding efforts and “continue on the path undertaken, maintaining the greatest vigilance.”Leo has drawn large crowds on his visit to France. Around 800,000 people came for an outdoor Mass on the Champs-Elysees with the pope in Paris on Sept 26. He has also again urged the world to reconsider the development of artificial intelligence.Leo has previously apologised directly for abuse scandals that have damaged the Church’s credibility across the world. On a trip to Spain in June, he told bishops there that they must listen to survivors and offer them reparations.Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo, the spokesperson for the French bishops, said the pope’s desire to have the meeting “shows that we cannot ignore this issue and that it must always remain among our concerns”.The pope’s itinerary in France included six events in Lourdes, a town in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains that attracts some 3 million pilgrims a year for visits to a shrine to the Virgin Mary and purported healing spring waters.The site is also connected to a scandal that has dogged the Vatican in recent years. The shrine’s facade has a series of mosaics by Rev Marko Rupnik, a prominent religious artist with Vatican ties, who has been accused of sexual abuse.Rupnik, accused by more than 20 women, is not known to have commented publicly on the accusations. Five of his alleged victims wrote an open letter to the pope on Sept 24, sharply criticising an ongoing Vatican trial of the cleric.Workers cover a mosaic made by Slovenian priest, Marko Rupnik, displayed on the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire Basilica in the Sanctuary of Lourdes in Lourdes.The mosaics, stories tall, have been covered for the pope’s visit with large, muted yellow tarps. Arriving for the Mass on Sept 27, Leo was driven in his open-top popemobile near the facade of the shrine and the covered mosaics.The pope, who on Sept 25 sharply reiterated Catholic opposition to assisted dying initiatives two months after France created a legal right to die for those with incurable illnesses, again mentioned the Church’s pro-life stance in Lourdes.Meeting with volunteers who help sick pilgrims hoping to find a miracle in the shrine’s waters, Leo urged them to remember the “profound meaning” of healthcare work.“That is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” said the pope. “Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!” REUTERS
Read briefing PARIS, Sept 27 - French far-right leaders said their party, the National Rally, and its right-wing allies won enough seats in Sunday's indirect election of senators to form their own caucus.It was the first time the party had cleared the 10-seat threshold for a Senate caucus, as it prepares for a 2027 presidential race in which opinion polls show it in the lead for the first round.• "The results have exceeded our expectations," Marine Le Pen, the party's leader and presidential candidate, said in a post on X.• Le Pen is seeking to win the presidency in the two-round election in the spring, but previous attempts by the far right to reach the country's highest elected office have repeatedly been blocked.• Of the 348 seats in the upper chamber, 178 were up for grabs in Sunday's election. The party did not say how many seats it had won.• Senators are elected by lawmakers in the National Assembly and local elected representatives.
Read briefing Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City, US, September 23, 2026. REUTERS/Eduardo MunozBELGRADE, Sept 27 - Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic announced his resignation on Sunday, ending his second and final five-year term and paving the way for early presidential elections.Vucic's resignation, seven months before his term ends, comes amid campaigning for Serbia's October 25 snap parliamentary vote and allows him to be appointed prime minister if his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) forms the new government.Hundreds of Vucic's supporters cheered him in front of the Presidency building in Belgrade's city centre."This is the last evening for me in this building," he told the flag-waving crowd minutes before resigning."I have faithfully served you and my fatherland, Serbia, ... I am proud of what we have done together," he said.Under Serbia's constitution, outgoing parliament Speaker Ana Brnabic will serve as interim president until a new one is elected. The presidential election must be completed within 90 days, with the campaign lasting between 30 and 60 days."By the end of December ... we will have the first round of presidential elections," said Vucic, who had announced his intention to resign as president earlier in the summer.The snap parliamentary election next month pits Vucic's SNS and its allies against Students Win, a student-led anti-corruption movement, and European Serbia, an alliance of pro-Western opposition parties.Students Win, European Serbia and other parties still have to nominate their presidential candidates. REUTERS
Read briefing It was not immediately clear how many Boeing planes are operating with the flawed software, according to the report.WASHINGTON - Boeing has identified a previously undisclosed 737 Max software glitch that could cause an automated navigation feature to fail during landing, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sept 26, citing company documents.The issue emerged from a cockpit software update and can occur when flight crews alter their planned flight path after a missed approach, the report said.When reached for comment, Boeing said it informed all 737 operators in August about the software issue under which pilots may not have access to automated flight guidance during a specific landing scenario.“We shared information with operators that reinforced existing pilot procedures for safely handling such cases. Our engineers are working on a software update to permanently address the issue,” Boeing said in an emailed statement to Reuters.The Federal Aviation Administration said it was aware of a potential issue in a software update for the flight computers on certain Boeing 737 Max planes and was working closely with Boeing and the airlines.“The FAA will convene a Corrective Action Review Board and will take immediate action if it identifies a safety concern,” the FAA said in a statement.Boeing has been under intense regulatory and safety scrutiny in recent years following two fatal 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that led to a worldwide grounding of the aircraft, and after a mid-air cabin panel blowout on a nearly new Alaska Airlines Max 9.Southwest Airlines and United Airlines have asked Boeing not to deliver new 737 Max aircraft equipped with the affected software and instead requested an earlier version, according to WSJ.It was not immediately clear how many aircraft are operating with the flawed software, the report said. Boeing, airlines and regulators are assessing the issue and whether it poses a flight-safety concern, it added. REUTERS
Read briefing Pope Leo XIV touches the rock at the Grotto of Massabielle, in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, during a prayer with worshippers on Sept 26.LOURDES, France - Pope Leo XIV prayed for France on Sept 26 at its holy shrine in Lourdes, after riding along the Champs Elysees in the popemobile and holding an emotional open-air mass in front of hundreds of thousands of worshippers in Paris.The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics is on a four-day trip to France, a secular country with deep Catholic roots, on the first official papal visit there in nearly two decades.In the southwestern pilgrimage town the US pontiff prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, where Catholic tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858 to a peasant girl, later Saint Bernadette.Months of ahead of a presidential election with the far-right surging and immigration high on the agenda, he prayed to the Virgin Mary to “obtain for France wise and generous leaders... eager to serve the common good”.“May they make her (France’s) voice heard in promoting the defence of fundamental human rights and peace in the world, rejecting the mentality of war once and for all.”AFP reporters saw him perform the rituals observed by the many pilgrims to the cave: touching the rock, lighting a candle and drinking spring water.On Sept 27, Leo will meet privately with seven victims of clerical sex abuse. A 2021 inquiry found that clergy or lay members of the Church had abused about 330,000 people as minors in France, over seven decades.In an earlier highlight of the visit’s second day, the 71-year-old pope led enthusiastic worshippers in a mass at Paris’ Place de la Concorde, where a giant white canopy had been erected to serve as a makeshift altar.His prayers were accompanied by choral and organ music as the sun broke through the grey skies.“It is truly good and pleasant when brothers and sisters come together and glorify the greatness of God,” said Pope Leo, dressed in white liturgical vestments.Some 800,000 people had gathered all the way beyond the Arc de Triomphe, the Vatican said.“It’s one time in history to see the pope,” said Aline Riziki, 41, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived in France for 11 years.“I dropped everything to come here and see him, to pray for peace in the east” of her homeland, wracked by conflict for decades, she said.Jeanne de Montagnac, 29, came with her husband and two-year-old girl, who was perched on his shoulders.“We’re happy that, even if she won’t remember it, we’re sharing this with her,” she said, a small golden cross dangling over her jumper.“It’s an important moment for us to be surrounded by other people who also have faith.”The first US pontiff was visiting France seven months before voters choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.A number of presidential hopefuls were present, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen and centrist Edouard Philippe.Macron did not attend the mass but was represented by his wife Brigitte. The president said in a message on X that France was “proud to welcome Pope Leo XIV and this monumental mass in the heart of Paris”.Earlier in the day, the pope met migrants at Maison Bakhita, an association supporting refugees. Leo said it was “possible to encounter one another and to live together in dignity and peace”.He also stressed the “fundamental role of women in building a civilisation of love”.The association said the pope’s visit sent a “message” ahead of the April-May election.Leo was the third pope to visit Lourdes after Benedict XVI in 2008 and Jean-Paul II in 1983 and 2004.The sanctuary, one of the most important Catholic holy sites in the world, receives some three million pilgrims each year. Catholics credit it with miraculous healings. AFP
Read briefing Demonstrators hold a banner that reads: "Not one Maricarmen more", during a Sept 26 protest in Madrid, Spain, over the forced eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the home she had lived in for decades. A real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 per cent.MADRID - Thousands of people marched through Madrid on Sept 26 to protest the eviction earlier this week of an 87-year-old woman from her lifelong home, calling for greater protection for tenants.Images of Maricarmen Abascal being carried from her Madrid flat on a stretcher on Sept 23 after police broke down her door have thrust Spain’s housing crisis back into the spotlight ahead of a general election due in 2027.Protesters chanted slogans and held banners calling for measures to curb rising housing costs and make evictions more difficult as they marched through central Madrid.Abascal, who has become a symbol of Spain’s housing crisis, urged Spaniards to join the fight in a video message posted online just hours before the protest.“I want what has happened to me to serve so that it does not happen to other people,” she said from hospital, where she has been treated for exhaustion since her eviction.“I want it to encourage people to fight and to help change the laws that have allowed me to be evicted,” she added in the video, posted by Spain’s main tenants’ union.Maricarmen Abascal, 87, is transported on a stretcher to an ambulance, after she was evicted from the Madrid home where she had lived for more than 70 years.Abascal was forced to leave the apartment where she had lived for 70 years after a real estate firm acquired the property and raised the rent by 275 per cent to €2,650 (S$3,850), according to the union.Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who in 2025 pledged to make housing a government priority, is under growing pressure to act. There have been regular protests across Spain since Abascal’s eviction.His government is expected to approve a package of measures dubbed the “Maricarmen decree” at its next Cabinet meeting, including the automatic renewal of rental contracts and further restrictions on evictions.But it is unclear whether the package will be approved by parliament, where Sanchez’s government lacks a majority.While a similar Bill was defeated earlier this year, Abascal’s case has increased pressure on political parties to act. AFP
Read briefing US President Donald Trump speaking to members of the media as he leaves the White House to board Marine One on Sept 26.WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS/CAIRO - US President Donald Trump said on Sept 26 he had rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the Middle East.Iran raised the initiative at the UN General Assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted to the Americans via Qatari mediators and that it could reopen the strategic waterway and put an end to hostilities in the region within seven days.But in comments to reporters at the White House, Trump said: “I reject their proposal... I rejected their deal.”“They want to make a deal to open the Hormuz Strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” he said, before leaving for Tennessee.“We’re winning tremendously. They want to make a deal and I think that’s fine, I like making a deal too. What they want to do is immediately open the Hormuz Strait... because they have no money coming in, because they get their money from the Hormuz Strait,” Trump said.The US has imposed an economic blockade on Iran to put pressure on Tehran to lift its blockade of Hormuz, which has drastically reduced shipping through the strait, even though Trump again asserted that the US had control of the waterway.The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had rejected the Iranian proposal, citing unnamed US officials.It said Trump was privately sceptical that Iran would meet his demands and had told his staff that he sees a renewed bombing campaign as likely after the November US midterm elections to Congress.A US official had said earlier that discussions with Iran through mediators were “positive and constructive”.The Iranians also engaged their Saudi rivals regarding the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the stakes of a seven-month-old conflict that has disrupted oil flows through a critical shipping lane and taken a toll on the global economy.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters at the United Nations on Sept 25 the proposed deal would trigger a seven-day countdown to reopening the strait and a pause in regional fighting.“If there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared,” Araqchi said. If the US were to agree, the warring parties could start wider talks “on mutually agreed subjects.”That could potentially include discussions of Iran’s nuclear programme. Trump has said Tehran must never acquire a nuclear bomb, while a senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran would show no flexibility over its nuclear programme even if the US accepted its peace deal.Iran would grant no concessions over its rights, including enriching uranium or shipping its highly enriched uranium out of the country, the official said.Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an interview with the CBS show Face The Nation, said Tehran was ready for talks on its nuclear programme and other issues, but would not accept “bullying or coercion”.“Iran is not seeking war, but will defend itself against pressure, threats and attacks,” Pezeshkian said, adding that it had already agreed that “we’re not supposed to develop nuclear weapons.”Previous attempts at diplomacy have failed to end the war, which began on Feb 28 with US and Israeli attacks.Since then the war has alternated between pauses and renewed strikes, killing thousands while degrading Iran’s conventional forces and damaging Iran’s already ailing economy.Iran and its allies have retaliated by extending the conflict throughout the region. Iran has struck US allies in the Gulf with drones and missiles while its Houthi allies in Yemen have targeted Saudi interests. REUTERS
Read briefing UNITED NATIONS, Sept 26 - Russia and Germany's foreign ministers met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, officials from both sides said, in the first such talks since before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Russia's Sergei Lavrov and Germany's Johann Wadephul discussed bilateral relations and the war in Ukraine, the Russian foreign ministry said.Wadephul urged Russia to do "everything possible to reach an agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea", a German delegation source said.Russian and Ukrainian exports via the Black Sea have been sharply curtailed in recent months as Kyiv and Moscow targeted each other's port infrastructure and vessels. Ukraine and its allies are now pushing to secure a limited ceasefire in the Black Sea and on strikes on energy infrastructure.Russia has not given any clear indication publicly that it supports these initiatives.Wadephul told Lavrov, "Time is of the essence: given the food shortages in many countries — particularly in the Global South — all parties must be willing to engage constructively," the German delegation source said.The German minister also told Lavrov that "a pragmatic solution could pave the way for further concrete steps", the source said.Relations between Moscow and Berlin, a close ally of Ukraine, have been in deep freeze since the Russian invasion, and tensions escalated further after a drone incident at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany in August.The German government said this month it had concluded that Russia was responsible for that attempted drone attack. It ordered a series of measures in response, including the closure of a consulate and a Russian cultural centre in Berlin.The Russian embassy in Berlin has dismissed these allegations as "fabricated provocation" and as "a new wave of anti-Russian hysteria in Germany".Wadephul used the talks to call on Russia "to abandon the dangerous path of escalation vis-à-vis Germany, Europe, and NATO", according to the delegation source.Wadephul said incidents such as the attempted attack in Leipzig or further hybrid attacks would not shake Germany’s resolve to support Ukraine, according to delegation sources. REUTERS
Read briefing FILE PHOTO: A tour bus drives past the FBI headquarters in Washington, U.S., February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Sept 25 - FBI personnel data recently stolen by the ShinyHunters hackers includes sensitive psychiatric and medical evaluation records, according to the hackers and documents reviewed by Reuters.The group, one of the world's most notorious and attention-seeking hacking crews, first said they had breached the FBI on Tuesday. In the hack, they obtained granular details about bureau employees and their assignments, Reuters previously reported, including sensitive work against Chinese spies, Russian intelligence, drug cartels and others.The breach has already rattled the bureau, but now risks turning into a serious counterintelligence risk, said Eric O'Neill, the former FBI operative who founded the cybersecurity consultancy Nexasure AI.O'Neill said the presence of medical data was a sign that the hack was approaching the same kind of magnitude as the 2015 intrusion into the Office of Personnel Management, which exposed millions of Americans' sensitive clearance information, allegedly to Chinese intelligence."I would be shocked if Russian intelligence isn't knocking on their door and saying, 'We want that stuff, hand it over.'"The FBI declined to comment on the records. In a statement issued Thursday, the bureau said it was "aggressively investigating" the reported breach.ShinyHunters circulated the medical files to a small circle of reporters earlier this week after announcing it had broken into the FBIjobs.gov site and stolen what it claimed was 2 to 3 terabytes of data.The BBC earlier on Friday reported that a blood and urine test document was among the sample, but the presence of other sensitive files, including a mental health evaluation and other records, has not previously been reported. REUTERS
Read briefing US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will remain in his current role, President Donald Trump said on social media on Sept 25.WASHINGTON - Scott Bessent will not be Donald Trump’s AI czar, the Republican president said on Sept 25, adding that he wants his US Treasury secretary to remain in his current role.“Scott Bessent will not be going to be Super Intelligence (SI) Czar. Number One, he doesn’t want to. Number Two, he’s doing such a great job at Treasury, and that’s where I want to keep him! Why would I ever make such a change?” Trump said, in a social media post, using his preferred term for artificial intelligence.Last week, Trump said he plans to appoint an artificial intelligence adviser, known as an “AI czar,” and create an “AI force,” though he gave no details about either initiative or how they would be implemented.Some had seen Bessent as a frontrunner for the role. On Sept 20, he had led talks heavily focused on AI with Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng in New York, ahead of this week’s summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington.Bessent told reporters after the talks that the US side had proposed an AI safety notification mechanism and bilateral dialogue on the issue, with a particular emphasis on national security concerns.The White House did not immediately provide details on who might be tapped for its AI czar.Trump has repeatedly downplayed concerns about AI and argued that additional regulation is unnecessary even as fears grow among lawmakers in Washington and globally about risks posed by the technology.Top AI researchers have warned that people building AI believe it could kill humans within a decade, following cases of AI agents going rogue to hack external systems.Several Democratic and Republican lawmakers have responded with alarm and calls for more action. REUTERS
Read briefing BOGOTA, Sept 25 - Colombia has extradited an alleged drug-trafficking leader from a dissident faction of the former FARC rebel group to the United States, three police sources told Reuters on Friday.The transfer marks the first extradition of a senior commander from an illegal armed group under President Abelardo De La Espriella, who took office in August.Geovany Andres Rojas, better known as "Spider," is accused of leading the Border Commands faction of the National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB), one of several groups formed by ex-FARC fighters who rejected or abandoned a 2016 peace deal with the government.Under heavy security at a Colombian National Police air base in Bogota, Rojas was handed over to U.S. officials, the sources said.US prosecutors accuse Rojas of drug trafficking and criminal conspiracy tied to alleged operations in Colombia and Ecuador dating back to 2017.De La Espriella, a 49-year-old right-wing lawyer, reversed the negotiation strategy of his predecessor, Gustavo Petro. Since taking office he scrapped peace talks with illegal armed groups, including some FARC dissident factions, and launched a military offensive to retake remote mountain and jungle territory.Authorities say those groups finance themselves through cocaine trafficking, illegal mining and extortion. REUTERS
Read briefing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a bilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 22.NEW YORK – President Donald Trump this week again encouraged Volodymyr Zelensky to travel to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin, despite repeated past refusals, as the US looks to reignite Ukraine-Russia peace talks. Zelensky declined the appeal made in his meeting with the US leader at the United Nations, and people familiar with the Ukrainian president’s position said Trump raising the issue upset him.When asked by reporters when he would visit Moscow, Zelensky replied: “On a missile,” followed by an expletive. Zelensky and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov each held separate meetings with Trump administration officials in New York this week. The US has pushed both sides to agree to a truce on attacking each other’s energy assets as global diesel prices surge, but neither has accepted.Zelensky said on Sept 25 that technical peace negotiations with Ukraine and Russia will likely take place in the United Arab Emirates, though the US has not yet proposed a date. European officials say Trump and his team were receptive to their lobbying efforts on support for Ukraine before winter sets in. They also said Trump’s meeting with Zelensky was largely positive. Trump has not decided whether he will send Ukraine more air defence supplies this winter, as the US grapples with its own shortages due to the Iran war, but has agreed to grant Ukraine licences to produce Patriot missiles. Zelensky said on Sept 25 that Trump told him he’d made the final decision this week, though did not elaborate on the timing of deliveries. Production is not expected to start for at least a year, so will not address Ukraine’s more urgent need to protect its critical infrastructure assets against Russian attack over the colder months. Trump’s suggestion of a Russia meeting came the same week Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the US has invited Putin to attend the Group of 20 summit in Florida in December, a statement met with criticism in Europe. The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told CNN that the announcement “was very hard to hear.”People close to the Kremlin have suggested that Putin is likely to skip the G-20 anyway and attend a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November. Europe is also growing worried about a push by some Republican lawmakers to ban US diesel exports. Trump this week said he supports the idea, with wars in Iran and Ukraine driving the fuel’s price to record levels.A pause in exports would force Europe and Latin America to search for hard-to-find alternatives, adding to inflationary pressures around the globe. Trump is under pressure to address the high cost of diesel in the US before the November midterm elections. BLOOMBERG
Read briefing UNITED NATIONS, Sept 25 - Health authorities battling the Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo have identified only about 30,000 people who may have been exposed to the virus, a fraction of the more than 400,000 expected through contact tracing, a senior African health official told Reuters.Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said the shortfall showed the outbreak remained entrenched in communities despite signs of progress.More than 80% of new confirmed cases were being detected among people who were not already on contact lists, suggesting transmission is still occurring beyond the reach of surveillance efforts.For every confirmed Ebola case, health authorities would expect to identify about 60 people who had direct or indirect contact with the infected person, Kaseya told Reuters on Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.With roughly 7,000 confirmed cases, that would translate into about 420,000 contacts. "But currently, we have just 30,000 people in the contact list," Kaseya said."When the outbreak is at community level, we cannot talk about control," he added.The Ebola outbreak was detected in May and is already the second largest on record, behind one in West Africa from 2014 to 2016.The World Health Organization said on Friday the outbreak had spread to two additional health zones, Bulu in Sud Ubangi province and Dungu in Haut-Uele province near the South Sudan border, bringing the number of affected health zones to 63 across seven provinces.Last week, United Nations and Congolese government officials said there were signs transmission was slowing in some of the worst-affected parts of Ituri, the epicenter of the outbreak.Congolese Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka described the outbreak on Wednesday as a major test for the country and said the response had begun producing tangible results.Even if Congo were still recording 50, 60 or 70 new cases a day, Kaseya said he would be less concerned if they were people already identified and monitored as contacts because it would mean health authorities knew where transmission was occurring.Kaseya declined to predict when the outbreak would be brought under control, saying he wanted to see substantially better surveillance and other improvements before putting a timetable on the response."If there is a game I didn't want to play since we declared this outbreak, it was to predict when we can bring this outbreak under control," he said.Kaseya said if new confirmed cases were identified through contact lists, zero deaths were occurring in communities and there were no new infections among healthcare workers, he could be in a position to forecast whether the outbreak could be fully controlled within four weeks.But for now, he said, the high proportion of cases being discovered outside contact lists remained evidence of uncontrolled community transmission.Africa CDC said nearly $2.9 billion was pledged for the Ebola response at a US-convened meeting in New York on Thursday, including $886 million from the United States. REUTERS
Read briefing BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela, Sept 24 - The last time Wilber Rafael Garces Perez's mother heard his voice was on Sunday afternoon, moments after he had been shot by a federal immigration agent in his car in Austin, Texas, she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday."They crashed into my car and shot me," Flor Perez recalled her son telling her over a video call as she tried to calm him down from her home in Venezuela. Then she saw an officer pulling her son out of the vehicle by his arm.Four days later, Garces Perez, 28, remains in detention with a bullet still in his back and his mother said she has not been able to speak with him.Federal immigration agents have shot at least 20 people since Republican President Donald Trump returned to office, 7 fatally, sparking protests across the US. Critics contend that Trump's push to ramp up deportations has led to an increasing number of violent confrontations, and accuse the administration of resisting accountability for the agents involved.Garces Perez, who is from Venezuela, said he was working as a food delivery driver on Sunday when his car was sideswiped by agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He said they did not identify themselves or turn on their emergency lights until after the collision.ICE has not offered its own version of events or explained why Garces Perez was shot while sitting in his car. Its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a Tuesday statement that Garces Perez was the subject of a "targeted vehicle stop" and that "resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public."Videos of the incident do not show the shooting, but do show Garces Perez injured in the car. The federal officer who shot him was not wearing a body camera, according to a person familiar with the incident. The officer, who has not been identified, was hired by ICE last year and had formerly worked for US Customs and Border Protection, the person said.After the fatal shootings of two men six days apart during July traffic stops in Texas and Maine, US border czar Tom Homan said ICE agents would be required to record vehicle stops with at least one body-worn camera. ICE's acting director vowed to equip each officer with a body-worn camera by the end of August.Asked for comment about the officer involved and the account of Garces Perez's mother, DHS sent an information sheet that did not address Reuters' questions.Speaking from her home in Barquisimeto in northwestern Venezuela, Flor Perez, 51, said she was sleepless worrying about her son, hoping he would be allowed to see a doctor to remove the bullet and relieve his pain."What matters to me is that they take him to a hospital and treat him," she said.Garces Perez's wound is currently stuffed with gauze that fills with blood and has to be changed two or three times a day, causing him "intense pain," Democratic US Representative Greg Casar of Texas said at a press conference on Wednesday night, hours after visiting him at an ICE detention facility."If you saw Wilber, just like if you saw anybody that had been shot three days ago, you would say this person needs a doctor, not a deportation or a detention center," said Casar.Video released by Austin police on Tuesday from a body camera worn by one of its officers who responded to the incident shows Garces Perez inside his car with two ICE agents standing nearby. Garces Perez tells them his shoulder hurts, whereupon he is told to exit the vehicle and placed in handcuffs. A police officer then uses shears to cut away his shirt, revealing a gunshot wound to his upper back.In its information sheet, DHS said ICE "does not and would not advise, nor be the authority on, a medical procedure" and said Garces Perez was "receiving medical care around the clock."Perez said her son entered the United States from Mexico in December 2023 using CBP One, an app used by former President Joe Biden's administration to allow migrants to lawfully cross the border by scheduling an appointment with CBP.DHS has said Garces Perez's work permit expired in 2025, making him eligible for deportation.Garces Perez's "dream" in the US was to earn money to support his 7-year-old son, who was born with cerebral palsy and requires costly treatment in Venezuela. The family has not yet told him about what happened to his father.“We’re going to have to tell the boy little by little," Perez said, "because he asks to talk to his dad every day."Garces Perez's attorneys have filed a legal petition asking that he be released from custody so he can participate in the investigation into the shooting and pursue legal status.His first hearing before a federal immigration judge in Texas is set for next Wednesday. REUTERS
Read briefing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting senior Wall Street executives on Sept 23, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.NEW YORK - Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has met with senior Wall Street executives as Kyiv seeks to attract investments to help finance the country’s rebuilding efforts.The meeting, which took place on Sept 23 on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York City, focused mainly around areas such as helping Ukraine get through the winter and supporting its economy, the Ukrainian government said.Ukraine faces a brutal winter as stepped-up Russian strikes on its infrastructure and key export industries deepen the country’s budget crisis.The daily cost of the war grew to about US$190 million (S$240 million) this year.The meeting, attended by more than two dozen US companies, was facilitated by US banking giant Citigroup and the US Chamber of Commerce.Participants also discussed setting up a sovereign wealth fund and strengthening Ukraine’s economy with support from members of the International Advisory Group, the Ukrainian government said.“The private sector will play an essential role in the country’s reconstruction,” Citi chief executive officer Jane Fraser said in a statement.Citi, which has been in Ukraine for more than 25 years, said it was looking to help mobilise investment and support Ukrainian companies.Other attendees included executives from BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Lazard, Macquarie, State Street, Jane Street, Fairfax and McKinsey & Company.Representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce, US International Development Finance Corporation, World Bank, European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also participated. REUTERS
Read briefing Governor of California Gavin Newsom is pictured during a recorded interview with AFP in the Manhattan borough of New York City on Sept 23. Newsom is widely seen as a leading contender for the Democrats’ 2028 presidential nomination.NEW YORK - California Governor Gavin Newsom has a prediction for November: Democrats retake the House, and Donald Trump’s presidency “as we know it” is over.“We’re going to take back the House of Representatives. It’s a day of reckoning, a new day coming,” Newsom told AFP and two other outlets, after a UN climate summit in New York.“Trump’s presidency, as we know it, ends in November,” said the 58-year-old outgoing Democratic leader of the nation’s most populous state, widely seen as a leading contender for his party’s 2028 presidential nomination.Newsom, who spoke in an interview on Sept 23 as part of a journalism initiative called Covering Climate Now, did not give details on how he thinks a Democratic win would in essence end the Trump presidency.But if Trump’s Republicans lose control of one or both houses of Congress, Democrats can in fact curb the president’s expansive agenda – though the executive still wields considerable power.Newsom also insisted climate was winning politics – if framed not as a “green” issue but as one tied to everything from grocery prices to home insurance to national security.“People say ‘why the hell are you talking about that, you should be talking about the kitchen table,’ I said ‘I am!’”He pointed to the price of beef and coffee, and the challenges of insuring a home or getting a mortgage amid growing climate risks from more extreme wildfires to coastal erosion supercharged by El Nino.Other politicians shy away from the subject, he said, “because they don’t know how to talk about it, and those that have talked about in the past have been accused of being soft, weak, effete, green, hyperbolic.”He conceded that “some of our language did get a little apocalyptic.” The key, he said, is hammering home that “it’s not about electric power; it’s about economic power. It’s about statecraft.”At the summit, he pitched California as proof that climate action and growth go hand in hand, saying the state – the world’s fourth-largest economy, whose GDP has grown 40 per cent since 2019 – had run on 100 per cent clean energy for at least part of the day on 90 per cent of days this year.His administration has battled Trump and congressional Republicans over efforts to undo California’s green rules – from scrapping its planned phase-out of gasoline cars to paying companies to abandon offshore wind projects.“Donald Trump wants to recreate the 19th century,” said Newsom. “He’s doubling down on stupid. He’s putting America in reverse.”“Whoever the nominee is of the Democratic Party is going to be the next president of the United States,” he said.Any of the Democratic hopefuls, he added, would be “exponentially better than a Rubio or Vance that have countenanced this corruption, this grift, this graft, this destruction of truth and trust and institutions,” referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice-President J.D. Vance.They are seen as the likely Republican front-runners, though neither has declared.Vice-President J.D. Vance (left) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are seen as the likely Republican front-runners for the 2028 presidential election, though neither has declared.Left-wing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) made waves this week when she told the New York Times she was weighing a run, musing about whether a Latina could win in a country that rejected female nominees in 2016 and 2024.AOC, Newsom and Jon Ossoff, a charismatic Jewish senator from Georgia, are among the favourites on betting markets.“She absolutely could become the nominee of the party. That’s my assessment of electability. This notion that a woman can’t win is insulting,” Newsom said, blaming “punditry” for perpetuating the trope.“I’m done with people talking like that. Or that if you’re from California or you’re Jewish or you’re old or you’re too young – give me a damn break. Our politics is completely scrambled post-Trump. The old rules, they do not apply.”Though he called Ocasio-Cortez a “generational talent,” he pointedly did not rule out running against her – having told CNN emphatically last week that he would not challenge Kamala Harris, the 2024 nominee, with whom he shares a history in California that predates politics.“It’s a different framework,” he said. “I don’t have a relationship that goes back to before we were both in politics. I don’t have a relationship in the context of our base overlaying in remarkable ways.Whether Newsom runs, he said, depends on whether he can “look them and you in the eye and say I have something unique they don’t... voice, experience, perspective, capacity that is unique and distinctive.” AFP
Read briefing Iran-backed Houthi militants taking part in a funeral procession in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sept 24, carrying portraits and coffins of fellow fighters killed in action.RIYADH - Saudi Arabia intercepted Houthi ballistic missiles on Sept 24 after issuing warnings for several regions including Mecca, as France vowed to send “military means” to help shield the key Saudi oil terminal of Yanbu.The attacks were reported as fighting raged in Yemen between the Houthis and Riyadh-backed government forces, killing dozens of people on both sides, according to a tally from seven sources who spoke to AFP.The missiles were the latest in a series of escalating Houthi attacks since July, when renewed hostilities shattered a years-long truce and embroiled Yemen in the wider Middle East war.Since then, the Houthis have imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, hitting its tankers and territory and seizing swathes of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, which is vital for Saudi oil exports.Their gains cement the hold of Iran and its allies on the two waterways that the wider Gulf, including top crude exporter Saudi Arabia, relies on to ship out its oil and other fuel products.The Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government since 2015 against the Houthis said six ballistic missiles had been intercepted, thwarting attacks on Taif and Yanbu.“Escalations and violations by the terrorist Houthi militia will be dealt with firmly,” said coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki on X.Earlier, the Saudi Civil Defence had issued a brief series of alerts including one for Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest sites, with separate warnings for the Red Sea governorate of Yanbu as well as the Taif, Jeddah and Tabuk regions.The alerts were lifted a few minutes later. In recent weeks, alerts have often preceded attacks by the Houthis.With pressure mounting on Saudi Arabia, French President Emmanuel Macron said France planned to “send military assets, meaning soldiers, radars and defence systems to protect” Yanbu.The infrastructure in and around Yanbu forms a key node in Saudi Arabia’s vast network of energy installations.Yanbu serves as the kingdom’s primary crude export terminal on the Red Sea and is connected to its oil-producing regions near the Gulf coast by the East-West pipeline, also known as Petroline.Yanbu is also home to major oil storage and refining facilities, while its location on the Red Sea provides Saudi Arabia with an alternative route for sending crude and petroleum products towards European markets.People who fled fighting between the Houthis and government forces in Red Sea coastal areas, queue for food vouchers at a camp for internally displaced people near Aden, Yemen, on Sept 23.Last week, Riyadh accused the group of targeting Mecca for the first time since 2017 with a drone that was downed, an accusation the Houthis denied.A few days later, the group attacked the Saudi capital Riyadh - the first in years, marking a new escalation in the conflict.As the Houthi attacks targeted Saudi Arabia on Sept 24, battles raged on the ground in Yemen.At least 150 Houthi fighters and government forces members have been killed in the past 24 hours, sources from both sides told AFP, including in clashes over hilltops overlooking the Bab al-Mandab strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.At least 98 soldiers and government forces members were killed, according to an AFP tally compiled from five military sources.Most were killed in Houthi ballistic missile and drone attacks, with dozens of Yemeni troops killed.The Houthis later claimed launching a complex barrage involving ballistic missiles and drones to target command centres and weapons depots in southern Saudi Arabia, with the group saying Yemeni and Sudanese fighters were killed and injured in the attack along with Saudi personnel.The group also claimed late on Sept 24 to have launched attacks across the border that targeted Aramco infrastructure in Yanbu and an unnamed site in Riyadh.At least 52 Houthi fighters were killed in other clashes, two sources from the group said.Many on both sides were also killed in clashes in the Kahboub Mountains and in areas between the Lahj and Taiz regions, as the Houthis seek to dominate the highlands overlooking Bab al-Mandab to protect newly seized territory.In July, a fragile 2022 truce between the Houthis and Yemen’s government fell apart after the group allowed an Iranian plane to land in Sanaa in defiance of Riyadh’s control over Yemeni airspace, setting off a spate of attacks. REUTERS
Read briefing CNN White House correspondent Betsy Klein working near the White House on Sept 24, as reporters remained barred despite a judge's order calling for access to be restored.WASHINGTON - CNN, MS NOW and Politico were allowed back into the White House on Sept 24, six days after being banned by President Donald Trump, after a federal judge ordered that the journalists have their access restored.District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled overnight that revoking the White House press credentials of the three media outlets “likely violated their constitutional due process rights.”Reporters for CNN, MS NOW and Politico who attempted to return to the White House early on Sept 24 ahead of a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping were initially turned away by the Secret Service but were allowed in later around midday.Journalists from other outlets surrounded CNN’s tent on the White House driveway and filmed reporter Betsy Klein as she reported live following her return.CNN, MS NOW and Politico had requested an urgent court hearing on Sept 24 after their reporters were initially barred from the White House despite the judge’s order.In his ruling, Kelly took issue with how the White House went about expelling the three news organisations.“The ‘general rule’ is that ‘individuals must receive notice and an opportunity to be heard before the Government deprives them’ of a constitutionally protected interest,” the judge said.Trump has long attacked media that have aired critical coverage of him, repeatedly blasting the press as the “enemy of the people.”The Republican president barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House on Sept 18 for distributing what he called “fake news” and “fiction and lies.”They filed a joint lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order against the ban on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which upholds the right to a free press.Ahead of the ruling, the Department of Justice had argued that Trump can “control reporters’ access to restricted presidential areas, such as the Oval Office.”The White House Press Office accused CNN in a letter to the cable news outlet of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information,” with similar accusations leveled against MS NOW and Politico.The letter to CNN cited several stories about the US-Iran war and a story on Trump’s plans to build a military bunker below the planned East Wing ballroom which allegedly “disclosed ‘top-secret’ construction details.”“The Court is sceptical – at least on this record – that Defendants’ interest in safeguarding national security is the actual motivation for, or is even advanced by, the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” the judge said.In a rare move, the top five US broadcasters said that they were halting pool coverage of the White House – where a broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day – in solidarity with CNN.“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting,” ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC said. AFP
Read briefing CAIRO, Sept 23 - Turkey and Iraq agreed on Wednesday for Turkish forces to hand over a military camp in northern Iraq to the Iraqi government gradually, they said after talks in New York, adding they also agreed to end the presence of "outlawed armed elements" in northern Iraq.After Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the sides said in a joint statement they had agreed to deepen security cooperation."Within this framework, they reached an agreement on fully establishing state authority in Sinjar and ending the presence of outlawed foreign armed elements," they said, referring to Kurdish militants, some of whom are based in the mountainous Sinjar area of northern Iraq.Turkey is continuing a peace process that it hopes will result in the disarmament of those militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and end a decades-old conflict.The statement on Wednesday added that "in accordance with the agreed-upon mechanism and timeline" and security measures taken by Iraq, Turkish forces would gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zelikan base, a military installation in northern Iraq near Mosul, to the Iraqi government.An Iraqi military commander familiar with the talks said the phased withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Bashiqa camp and another small base near Mosul was expected to be completed by the end of this year. There was no immediate comment from Turkey on the timeline.Ankara deployed troops near Mosul in 2015, saying they were there to train and protect Iraqi forces and local Sunni Arab, Turkmen and Kurdish fighters preparing to fight Islamic State, which seized Mosul in 2014.The deployment sparked a dispute with Baghdad, which demanded the troops’ withdrawal, while Ankara said they were supporting the anti-Islamic State training mission. Turkey still has several bases in the region, which it says are there to protect Turkey's national security.The joint statement said the two leaders also discussed bilateral ties and trade, stressing the need to urgently implement previously signed agreements and speed up "strategic projects." REUTERS
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