Israel's support of Kurdish autonomy in Syria is not always welcomed — at least publicly — by Syria's Kurds.

Turkish and Saudi leaders look to Trump to prevent relations with the United States from going bad to worse.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper told an audience at a New York think tank he was worried that Turkey is “spinning out” of the NATO orbit.

Benjamin Netanyahu's endless fight to keep the premiership has prompted calls for change from Israelis exhausted from three elections in one year.

The US Treasury Department today sanctioned one Democratic Republic of Congo-based and two Lebanon-based individuals accused of financing Hezbollah: Saleh Assi, Nazem Said Ahmad and Tony Saab.

Due to the paralysis of successive transitional governments in Israel, millions of shekels allocated to the Welfare Ministry to help sex workers get out of the business have gone unused and might therefore be returned to the Finance Ministry.

Leaked documents from Iranian intelligence seem to back up Iraqi protestors' angry contention that Iran has corrupted top-level Iraqi politicians, though the politicians themselves offer rebuttals.

Despite claims that the Russian foreign minister's visit to Washington was genial and productive, by the time Sergey Lavrov landed back in Moscow, some of the areas of potential cooperation had already grown more snarled.

If convicted, Benjamin Netanyahu would become the second Israeli prime minister to serve jail time.

In the aftermath of massive protests that saw hundreds killed in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is still casting blame for the violence outward and warning Western and "hostile regional countries" against provoking unrest in the nation.

Live updates from Saturday’s 3pm GMT kick-offsAnd feel free to email John or tweet him here 2.49pm GMT The team news below on Chelsea omitted to mention that Willy Caballero will the back-up goalkeeper. 2.47pm GMT Looks like Leicester fans have been given some free mince pies.Festive Foxes #LeiNor pic.twitter.com/L0SNTjH2WBEnjoy! #LeiNor pic.twitter.com/gmej9XfzKJ Continue reading...

All the day’s politics news, as Boris Johnson begins tour of formerly safe Labour seats taken by Tories in electionJohnson visits new Tory seatsMcDonnell: ‘I won’t return to shadow cabinet’Clashing egos and ‘policy incontinence’: inside Labour’s campaign 2.46pm GMT Members of Labour’s NEC saying on Twitter they haven’t been told about a possible meeting next […]

Mo Salah scored two classy goals to give Liverpool another victory, but they had to ride their luck against bottom-placed Watford in a strange match at Anfield 2.27pm GMT Post-match reactionJames Milner 2.23pm GMT Related: Leicester City v Norwich City, Chelsea v Bournemouth: clockwatch – live! Continue reading...

Muslim victims of Myanmar ‘clearances’ voice outrage as peace prize winner dismisses atrocity chargesWhen Aung San Suu Kyi rose to denounce genocide charges against her country at the “world court” last week, three victims of Myanmar’s ethnic violence were sitting close behind the Nobel peace prize winner – disbelieving and seething with anger.Hamida Khatun, Yousuf […]

Songs by the Broadway composer and lyricist are popping up in films and TV shows from Joker to Marriage StoryHe is an 89-year old reclusive New Yorker who has been working on his new show for the last decade. Yet pop culture fans will have noted that the influence of this particular musical theatre icon […]

This powerful follow-up to Gang Signs & Prayer is a grandstanding, soul-searching bid to crack the US – without losing that pugnacious south London voice“How’s the best spitter in grime so commercial?” wonders Stormzy on Wiley Flow, a standout track off his second studio album, Heavy Is the Head. It is a pointed rhetorical flourish […]

The space scientist, 51, on appearing in The Clangers, being the class clown, how science can save us and extraterrestial life formsI can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by space. I was born in 1968, a year before the moon landings. It’s hard now to comprehend just how exciting that was for my […]

The Australian DJ and producer’s debut EP is full of personality and dark, trippy dancefloor soundsConsider trippy music and, as you light that joss stick, it might bring to mind long-haired, bearded men in tunics bent over guitars. Or trance, with its fluffy boots and angel wings, in a desert. But Teneil Throssell, AKA Haai, […]

The England captain needs runs and victories against a South Africa side who have turned to their former captain Graeme Smith for guidance at a time of disarrayThe last time England set off on a winter tour at election time they were also heading for South Africa – in October 1964. On that occasion the […]

The Observer’s political editor found that, no matter how able the candidates, they couldn’t sell the party leadership on the doorstepLatest politics news – live updatesA few days before voters went to the polls on Thursday, the Labour MP Neil Coyle was out campaigning in his Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency. A man answered the […]