Newsaholic

Syrian government forces have captured one of the most critical towns which were previously under control of radical groups in the nation's northwest, the Syrian military and resistance activists announced on Wednesday, some portion of a Russian-led military attack that has dislodged a vast number of people fleeing to more secure regions. The town of Maaret Al Numan in Idlib area, which had been in rebel control since 2012, is situated on the highway connecting Damascus with Aleppo and is viewed as crucial to President Bashar Al Assad's regime. The town is currently vacant because of the recent intense bombing. Its recovery is the most recent in the progression of military triumphs for Al Assad. His forces have regained retaken control of the vast majority of the nation from rebels, to a great extent, due to the Russian air support, which helped them succeed. Syria's about nine-year battle left more than 400,000 people dead and uprooted half of Syria's pop...

By Victoria Hudson. Demonstrators in Iraq reinstalled their tents that were burned across the country to continue their protests, amid fears of an escalation following a missile attack on the American embassy in Baghdad. The attack, which resulted in the injury of at least one person, was a serious change in the series of attacks that have affected US interests in recent months, according to Agence France-Presse. No one has claimed responsibility, but the Washington accused armed factions loyal to Iran, raising fears that the country will become an arena for settling scores between Tehran and Washington. Anti-government activists state that a similar conflict will end their protest movement, which has been the largest in Iraq for decades, as they call early elections under a new electoral law, an independent Prime Minister and accountability for corrupt officials and those who have ordered the use of violence against demonstrators. Earlier on Monday, a protester was s...

The government has announced it will launch a “global talent visa” on 20 February to encourage scientists, researchers and mathematicians to come to the UK, with no limit on how many people can be accepted. In addition, Boris Johnson said he was making available a £300m package for research into advanced mathematics. It will double funding for new PhDs and boost the number of maths fellowships and research projects. With Brexit day approaching on 31 January, the prime minister said: “As we leave the EU I want to send a message that the UK is open to the most talented minds in the world, and stand ready to support them to turn their ideas into reality.” The fast-track visa is a replacement of the old tier-one “exceptional talent” visa route that allowed applicants to be endorsed by the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Academy, Tech Nation or Arts Council England. Applications were previously capped at 2,000 per...

Lahore Federal Investigation Agency (LFIA) has stopped Jaleela Haider President Women Democratic Forum Baluchistan and human rights activist from going abroad at Lahore airport due to her name in the watch list. Jaleela Haider was leaving for London when she was reportedly taken into custody at Lahore airport for 9 hours and her passport was taken by the FIA. Official say that she was stopped at the airport due to allegations of her involvement in the anti-state activities. Later, after her statement was recorded by the FIA she was allowed to go back home. Pakistani authorities refused to let a top human rights lawyer leave the country, citing her "anti-state activities", she told AFP on Monday, in what appeared to be the latest example of an ongoing rights crackdown. Jalila Haider, who last year featured on a BBC list of 100 inspiring and influential women for her work defending women's rights in Pakistan was briefly detained by immigrati...

The smoke from the Australian bushfires is so severe it is expected to complete a circuit of the Earth, returning to the country's skies from the west. The smoke has billowed into the lower stratosphere, reaching 17.7 kilometres above sea level, US space agency NASA said this week. It comes as major Australian cities are still struggling with low air quality from bushfire smoke. Wangaratta on Tuesday morning was the third-worst city in the world for air quality, bumping the Melbourne suburb of Doncaster from fifth to sixth place. The Indian city of Singrauli was the worst, according to the World Air Quality Index project. Overnight, Melbourne's air quality was the the poorest across the globe, Victoria's Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, said. He expected it would improve during the day on Tuesday. "The smoke is expected to make at least one full circuit around the globe, returning once again to the skies over Aust...

Google researchers discovered multiple security flaws in Apple's Safari web browser that let users' browsing habits be tracked despite Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature. Google plans to publish details on the security flaws in the near future and a preview of Google's discovery was seen by Financial Times, with the publication sharing information on the vulnerabilities this morning. The security flaws were first found by Google in the summer of 2019, and were disclosed to Apple in August. There were five types of potential attacks that could allow third parties to learn "sensitive private information about the user's browsing habits." Apple’s privacy focus branches off in a variety of ways, including reducing the way websites can track individuals. That’s due in part to its Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature baked into its web browser, Safari. However, it’s been discovered by Google rese...

The UN has warned that climate change will lead to major migration crises impacting millions of people – unless urgent action is taken now. Last year alone, around 17 million people were forced to flee their homes worldwide because of natural disasters – and that is without counting migration between countries, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) says. Longer-term, experts believe that number could increase dramatically, with global warming set to worsen issues which force people to migrate inside and outside of borders – like conflict, scarce resources and rising seas levels. Speaking exclusively to Metro.co.uk as a major conference on the environmental crisis continues in Madrid, one delegate warned that the problem is set to ‘stress the economic, social, and political systems that underpin each state’. Andrew Harper, the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) incoming Special Advisor on Climate Action, explained: ‘The impacts of climat...

While the Senate mulls his fate, the president plans to speak to world economic leaders every bit as impeachable as him. President Donald Trump's legal team will go into his Senate trial on Tuesday arguing that he should never have been impeached because his conduct over Ukraine does not amount to a criminal offense. First details of the President's counter-argument is emerging from a document the White House sent to Capitol Hill on Saturday night and in television interviews of one of his new legal advisers. Senate Republicans, who will serve as jurors, are quickly buying into his new defense. Trump was impeached by the House last month on charges of abuse of power and obstructing Congress over his scheme to pressure Ukraine for political favors -- including the announcement of a probe into Joe Biden, a possible 2020 election opponent. Harvard Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, who has just joined Trump's legal brain trust,...

Several US service members were injured during last week's Iranian missile attack on Al-Asad airbase in Iraq despite the Pentagon initially said that no casualties had taken place. "While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attacks on Al Asad Airbase, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," the US-led military coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria said in a statement Thursday. "Out of an abundance of caution, service members were transported from Al Asad Air Base, Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for follow-on screening. When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq following the screening," the statement added. A US military official told CNN that 11 service members had been injured in the attack, which was launched in retaliation for the US airstrikes that had killed Iranian Gen. QasemSol...

The heightened tension in the Middle East has become a key early test for the 2020 Saudi-hosted G20, with Riyadh urging de-escalation. Yet this year’s G20, the first-ever hosted by an Arab state, has the potential to be memorable for a quite different reason: A breakthrough on the climate agenda. One of the key themes of the Saudi presidency of the G20, in the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris climate change agreement, is safeguarding the planet by fostering collective efforts. Tackling global warming is central to this agenda and the G20 leadership meeting in November starts immediately after the annual UN Climate Summit finishes in Glasgow, at which there is already significant pressure to make major progress on implementing the Paris commitments. Indeed, the two-week summit in Glasgow is being billed as the most important climate gathering since 2015, with some 200 world leaders attending. The event held just after the US presidential...