World
US sees Turkey agreeing to Sweden NATO accession shortly, Blinken says
Turkey looks set to ratify Sweden’s membership in NATO in the coming weeks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday, signalling an end to a saga that has frustrated Washington and its allies, Reuters reported.
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs commission approved the bid last week in a key step towards enlarging the Western bloc after 19 months of delays. The next step is a vote in the parliament’s general assembly.
Blinken raised the Swedish bid on the first day of a week-long regional tour to address the Gaza conflict, read the report.
“In Turkey, we also talked about the final steps in the process to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO in the coming weeks,” he told reporters in Greece, but gave no details.
Sweden made the bid in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan raised objections over what he said was Stockholm’s protection of people who Ankara deems to be terrorists.
U.S. lawmakers have held up the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until it signs off on Swedish membership.
A major fire at a sofa manufacturing factory in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, killed 16 Bangladeshi migrant workers, officials in Dhaka said on Monday.
The fire broke out on Sunday in the Musa Sanaiya industrial area, Reuters reported.
Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is monitoring the situation, while officials from the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh are working with Saudi authorities to complete the repatriation formalities.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Ariful Haque Choudhury has instructed officials to bring back the bodies as soon as possible and ensure necessary government assistance and compensation for the bereaved families.
With around 3.5 million Bangladeshis living in Saudi Arabia, the country remains the largest destination for Bangladeshi migrant workers, who sent home more than $2.7 billion in remittances last year.
Israel has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace 15-point plan for Gaza, and will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, Reuters reported.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him severe pain, his son Hunter Biden has said in an interview with the BBC.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden told BBC’s Newsnight, according to video of the interview posted online on Friday. He described the illness as “very painful” and “very debilitating in many respects.”
A spokesperson for the 83-year-old Biden declined to comment on Hunter Biden’s remarks on Saturday.
Biden announced in May 2025, less than four months after leaving the White House, that he had been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. At the time, he said the cancer had already spread to his bones.
In October, a spokesperson said Biden was receiving radiation treatment and hormone therapy.
Biden was the oldest person to be elected U.S. president when he won the 2020 election. His physical health and mental fitness also came under increased scrutiny during his presidency from 2021 to 2025.
Biden attended the dedication of former President Barack Obama’s presidential library in Chicago in June. He served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017.
Biden’s presidential memoir is scheduled to be released on November 17.
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