Here's What Taliban Leadership Looks Like In 2021

Igor Girkin predicted a "power struggle with unpredictable consequences" if Vladimir Putin died or stepped down as the Russian president.

"Hard power is a reality," US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said in January. "If the other guy shows up with a tank, you better have a tank."

The US Government ordered the Pentagon to destroy the alleged Chinese spy balloon. The US Air Force shot down the balloon with a single missile as it drifted over the Atlantic Ocean. China hit back at the decision, threatening a strong retaliation. YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Over the last few days,...

Vladimir Putin’s forces are starving in Ukraine and are forced to survive on only potatoes, onions and instant noodles cooked using the back ends of rockets, RadarOnline.com has learned.In a surprising development to come as Russia’s death toll recently surpassed 500,000, one Russian soldier spoke out to reveal the Russian military’s food situation has not changed even 12 months after first invading Ukraine in February 2022.Even more shocking was recently released footage of a Russian battlefield kitchen that indicated Putin’s soldiers are struggling to survive as their options for food and nutrients are severely limited.That is the revelation shared by...

China claims the balloon was a civilian weather balloon

The sheer scale of the devastation of the earthquake and its aftershocks can be seen in social media photos and videos posted by people in Turkey and Syria. Eyewitnesses have also been speaking about what happened. BBC News has been pulling together and verifying information. The tremors of the main...

China and the US were supposed to hold diplomatic talks over the weekend. Instead they sparred over a Chinese balloon that entered American airspace before it was shot down. Where do relations between Washington and Beijing go from here?. This wasn't the first time a Chinese surveillance balloon flew into...

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly gets a look inside Iran since popular protests rocked the sanction-ridden nation last September. The economy has tanked, with prices doubling or even tripling. Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

Given the hullabaloo over the Chinese surveillance balloon, you'd think something like this never happened before. But it has. At least four other times in recent years. According to U.S. officials, Chinese balloons crossed over the U.S. at least three times during the Trump administration and at least one other time earlier in the Biden administration.

BEIRUT — Search-and-rescue efforts were underway as the death toll soared from a powerful earthquake that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday. The quake and its aftershocks have triggered a new humanitarian crisis in a region already shaken by more than a decade of civil war in Syria.

Sometime soon, the U.S. military may tell us what they found aboard a Chinese balloon. What the U.S. called a surveillance craft over U.S. territory and China called an errant weather balloon went down over the weekend. A U.S. fighter jet punctured it with a missile, and it fell into the Atlantic. Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Dennis Blair served as director of national intelligence during the Obama administration, and he's on the line. Admiral, welcome back.

The first year of Russia's war in Ukraine revealed a lot about the invaders military. It exposed many Russian shortcomings, from logistics to leadership to training. It also exposed a supposedly private company that has advanced Russian interests around the world. Andras Racz studies the Wagner Group. ANDRAS RACZ: Even...

NPR's Michel Martin talks with former US Ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White, about what options are available to Haiti to qwell the country's recent unrest. We're going to seek additional perspective on this story now from a former U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White. She served there from 2012 to 2015. She's been arguing for some time now that Haiti needs an international force to quell the violence and help bring back stability. Ambassador White, welcome back to the program. Thanks for joining us once again.

We're going to start with the dramatic confrontation between the U.S. and China over that giant balloon discovered floating at high altitude over the U.S. last week. If you recall, China says it was just a weather balloon inadvertently blown off course. The Biden administration says China was using it for surveillance and shot it down yesterday. And the administration canceled - or rather postponed - a planned visit to Beijing by the U.S. secretary of state. Earlier today, Beijing criticized the shootdown, calling it an overreaction. And the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing, quote, "reserves the right to make further responses if necessary," unquote. We're going to hear now from Senator Michael Bennet, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He's a Democrat from Colorado, and he's with us now. Senator Bennet, thanks so much for joining us.

Europe is taking another step to prevent Russia from getting money to pay for its war in Ukraine. The EU has already stopped buying Russian crude. Now it's going to stop buying Russian oil products, like diesel fuel. That's key to European transportation. NPR international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam has been covering the economic penalties the West is imposing on Russia, and she joins us now. Good morning, Jackie.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic). Afterward, people felt multiple aftershocks, including one that nearly equaled the force of the original quake. Across southern Turkey and northern Syria, the reported death toll has climbed above 1,000. MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Ruth Sherlock joins us now from Lebanon. Ruth, did you feel those earthquakes where...

Follow our digital live coverage for the latest earthquake updates. Monday's earthquake all but destroyed a 2,000-year-old castle in southeastern Turkey, according to state and local reports. Gaziantep Castle — located in the heart of the city closest to the quake's epicenter — began as an observation point during the...

A devastating earthquake has struck southern Turkey and Northern Syria. It's a seismically active part of the world known for big quakes. Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a...

The earthquake that hit southeast Turkey last night had a magnitude of 7.8. It struck while many were sleeping. And the devastation spread to nearby Syria. Videos showed people running in darkness and rain surrounded by flattened buildings. (CROSSTALK) STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:. Now that it's daylight in the Middle East,...