The United States must move on from the “trauma” of two decades of war and step up counterterrorism efforts to face growing threats from Afghanistan and Pakistan, a study said on Tuesday. The group, led by former senior US policymakers, made clear it was not advocating a return to America’s longest war which ended when President Joe Biden pulled troops …

MOUNTAIN VIEW: Google said on Tuesday it would introduce AI-generated answers to online queries made by users in the United States, in one of the biggest updates to its search engine in 25 years. “I’m excited to announce that we will begin launching this fully revamped experience, `AI overviews,’ to everyone in the US this week,” Google chief executive Sundar …

ROUEN: Gunmen attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France on Tuesday, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week. President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack and hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed for a manhunt to …

BUTOVC: A hovering drone drops linden and pine seeds wrapped in soil onto a barren hillside outside Kosovo’s capital Pristina, part of an effort to reforest thousands of hectares lost to illegal logging and wildfires. Environmentalists say deforestation, also driven by demand for popular wood-fired stoves, is endangering wild animals such as brown bears, lynx, wild goats and roe deer …

PARIS: Last year’s northern hemisphere summer was the hottest in 2,000 years, according to a new study published on Tuesday. Scientists say 2023 was the hottest year globally since records began in 1850, but the study in the journal Nature indicates human-caused climate change pushed northern summer highs well beyond anything seen in two millennia. “We shouldn’t be surprised,” the …

DOHA: Israel’s military operation in Rafah has set truce negotiations with Hamas “backward”, mediator Qatar said on Tuesday, adding that talks have reached “almost a stalemate”. “Especially in the past few weeks, we have seen some momentum building but unfortunately things didn’t move in the right direction and right now we are on a status of almost a stalemate,” Prime …

NEAR HAIFA: Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians marched in northern Israel on Tuesday to commemorate the flight and forced flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, and to demand the right of refugees to return. Many of the about 3,000 people also called for an end to the conflict in Gaza as they took part in the march …

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Beijing’s “genuine desire” to help resolve the Ukraine crisis, in an interview with Chinese state media published ahead of a two-day visit to the country. Putin arrives in Beijing on Thursday to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping, seeking to win greater support from China for his war effort in Ukraine and isolated economy. The visit, where …

KURRAM / SOUTH WAZIRI­STAN: Four security personnel were injured in a cross-border attack on checkpoints in Kurram district on Monday, sources said, adding that 12 alleged attackers were reportedly killed in retaliation. The checkpoints in the Teri Mangal area of Kurram, which borders Afghanistan’s Khost, Paktia and Nangarhar provinces, were fired upon from across the border. The attack, launched with …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday invited Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, a former ally, to again join the ruling alliance. The prime minister offered the JUI-F to join the coalition government when its three leaders, including secretary general Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, called on PM Shehbaz at the Prime Minister’s House. “All political forces should work together to meet challenges confronting the …