🇮🇶 - Iraqi Parliament passes a bill recognizing Halabja as Iraq's 19th province.

🇱🇧🇸🇾 - Some 30,000 Alawite Syrians have fled to Lebanon over the past month due to targeted killings.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - Israeli press says the US Army is set to withdraw from Syria within two months.

🇮🇱🇵🇸 - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits northern Gaza.

🇫🇷🇩🇿 - French President Emmanuel Macron recalls French ambassador to Algiers.

🇫🇷🇩🇿 - Paris expels 12 Algerian embassy staff in a retaliatory move after Algiers ousted 12 French diplomats.

🇸🇩🇬🇧 - London conference on Sudan raises €800 million for humanitarian aid.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - Withdrawal is underway, long military convoys seen departing from major bases across the country.

🇺🇦🇩🇰 - Denmark confirms troop deployment to Ukraine for drone warfare training.

🇷🇸🇷🇺 - Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić confirms he will attend the Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9 despite EU pressure.

🇱🇧🇸🇦🇫🇷 Diplomatic sources told Al Jadeed: Paris, in coordination with Saudi Arabia, postponed the conference that was supposed to be held soon to rebuild Lebanon until next fall without setting a firm date, to allow the government to implement reforms according to its priorities.

🇺🇸🇷🇺 - Russia asks to buy Boeing jets with frozen assets in US talks.

🇷🇸🇽🇰 - New Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut says "Kosovo remains central to Serbia's national interest".

🇺🇸🇮🇶 - US Vice President JD Vance calls the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq a "strategic disaster", adding that skeptical Europeans could have spoken up more forcefully against it.

🇷🇺🇩🇪🇺🇦 - Russian Foreign Ministry:

The use of Taurus missiles to strike Russia's critical infrastructure can be regarded as Germany's direct participation in the war on the side of Ukraine.

🇨🇳🇺🇸🇾🇪 - US claims a Chinese company is helping the Houthis target ships in the Red Sea with satellite images it provides.

🇷🇺🇦🇫 - Russia removes the Taliban from its list of terrorist organizations.

🇺🇸🇸🇾 - NYT confirms and says the "US is withdrawing hundreds of troops from Syria", reducing troop levels to about 1,400 from 2,000.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announces the US will cease efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine within days unless there are clear indications that a resolution is achievable.

🇺🇸🇮🇩 - Indonesia weighs costly US arms purchases to curb tariff threat.

🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇦 - US Vice President JD Vance says the past 24 hours have brought "positive developments" and "optimistic hopes" regarding the end of the war in Ukraine.