March World News Highlights

It’s been six months now that oil prices have been reacting to OPEC, first to the possibility of an agreement, and then to the production cut deal itself, forged by OPEC to rebalance the market. The deal–initially aired as ‘an agreement to agree on a deal’ in September and signed at the end of November—will likely impact the market for at least the next six months.

Russia and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia have signed a bilateral agreement establishing a Russian military base in northwestern Syria, a YPG spokesman said Monday. The Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement, saying it had no plans for additional bases in Syria but that it had set up a “reconciliation center” in the area. The agreement,…

Olcay Kılavuz, president of the Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) youth wing the Grey Wolves (Ülkü Ocakları), said on Sunday that they don’t want tension in Turkey but that they can take up arms and fight the country’s local and external enemies if necessary.

President Donald Trump’s administration announced a $600 million bidding contest late Friday night to kick off construction of The Wall, a towering physical barrier between the United States and Mexico.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the recent air strikes by his country inside Syria targeted weapons bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and the same would be done again if necessary. Israeli warplanes struck several targets in Syria early on Friday, prompting retaliatory missile launches, in one of the most serious incidents between the two countries in…

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, has comfortably seen off right-wing populist Geert Wilders in an election that pitted the establishment against populists.

Just shortly before the Chinese President is set to visit President Donald Trump at his “Winter White House” Mar-A-Lago, Trump’s son-in-law is receiving a particularly generous deal from Chinese company Anbang Insurance Group. Jared Kushner’s family currently owes $250 million to China through Kushner Companies, a substantial sum. But rather than continuing to owe the large…

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the immediate removal and blocking of all online content deemed to be “blasphemous” to Islam from social media – and for those responsible to be prosecuted. Tuesday’s order came in the wake of ongoing hearings at the Islamabad High Court in a case seeking the blocking of all Internet…

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would demand a new Scottish independence referendum to be held in late 2018 or early 2019, after formal negotiations with the European Union have been concluded and the terms of Brexit have been laid out clearly.

The Trump administration’s plans for the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) are at last becoming clear. And it seems his still-young government has chosen which ally to put first: the Syrian Kurds.

North Korea has been trying to sell materials for nuclear weapons online, according to a United Nations report. Pyongyang is best at finding new ways to stir up trouble for the international community. When it’s not illegally testing ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons, it is actively contributing to the proliferation of dangerous weaponry. The U.N. reports…

The European Union approved a new military headquarters Monday despite concerns from members that it undermines NATO. The facility will employ 30 people to coordinate EU countries’ military structures. Several nations – including the United Kingdom, Hungary and Poland – have opposed the idea of a European army, but defense ministers from all 28 countries “unanimously”…

More refugees have died in the Mediterranean over the first nine weeks of this year compared with the same period in 2016, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). From January 1 to March 9, at least 521 people drowned while attempting to cross the treacherous sea compared with 471 in the same period a…

President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of “wire tapping” Trump Tower just before the presidential election last November. The allegations were made in a series of tweets early Saturday. “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!,” Trump tweeted.…