BAGHDAD / Reuters Iraqi forces backed by Shi’ite paramilitaries began fighting house-by-house in the one town left to take from IS before they can declare complete victory over the group’s former stronghold of Tal Afar, military commanders said. Hundreds of battle-hardened IS militants are defending al-Ayadiya, a small town outside Tal Afar which itself is about 80 km (50 miles) ...

The Trump administration is exploring new approaches for easing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that build on talks with a budding Sunni Arab coalition of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan. Jared Kushner, the White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law, visited the leaders of all four countries during his Middle East trip this week. He was accompanied by ...

Will Donald Trump’s new approach to South Asia work? Its success depends on whether India is convinced that Trump’s America is a partner to be trusted—and whether India itself is willing to step up its engagement with Afghanistan as the US president has suggested. Let’s be clear: the Afghanistan strategy Trump has laid out looks more sensible than what Barack ...

Two companies that make solar panels are asking the government to protect them from foreign competition. They want the government to put taxes and a price floor on imports. Other companies are warning that these policies would raise prices and shrink the market, eliminating jobs for solar-panel installers, manufacturers of mounting equipment, and other parts of the larger solar industry. ...

President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan is a reminder that, for far too long, Congress has shirked its constitutional responsibility to declare war. With the US also involved in fighting in Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, the legislative branch needs give the executive branch the legal authority it needs to conduct the ...

History was made in a Seoul court on Friday when Jay Y. Lee, scion of the family that founded the giant Samsung conglomerate, was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges and sentenced to five years in prison. In theory, the verdict should send a stark signal to the country’s politicians and business leaders that the corrupt shenanigans that have so ...

The debt ceiling is attracting a lot more attention, especially after President Donald Trump labeled it a “mess” amid growing tensions within the Republican Party. We should expect the rhetoric to get even more heated in the days and weeks ahead. It is unlikely, however, that this will lead to a technical default by the US or a repeat of ...

We’ve had a long run on the current economic expansion, but eventually, another recession will come. A lot of people will lose their jobs, maybe including you. So ask yourself a question: When the time comes, would you rather take a guaranteed 10 percent wage cut, or have a 10 percent chance of becoming unemployed? While they are both just ...

Bloomberg A price battle between United Airlines and heavy discounters is spreading to other US carriers, threatening to derail the industry’s nascent recovery in pricing power. Competition that heated up this summer in United’s hub cities of Houston, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey, has extended to American Airlines in Dallas and to other carriers, airline executives said. Passenger revenue for ...

Bloomberg Bird Group, an aviation and hospitality company, said it is interested in bidding for the ground handling division of Air India Ltd., the state-owned flag carrier the government is planning to sell in full or part. The New Delhi-based group has written to the Ministry of Civil Aviation asking the government to consider selling Air India’s subsidiaries separately, a ...