WASHINGTON, 22 December 2022, (TON): Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet US leader Joe Biden and address Congress in Washington, during a visit the White House said will send Russia a strong message of Western unity.

The secretly arranged trip comes on the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to meet his top military officials to assess the dire results so far of the war on Ukraine and set goals for next year.

It will be Zelensky’s first trip outside Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in February, when they planned for a rapid takeover of Kyiv and much of the country.

Instead, the visit to Washington comes on the 300th day of a war that has seen Russian forces halted by a stubborn Ukrainian army backed by Western arms, forced to retreat from captured territory and struggling to avoid further setbacks.

WASHINGTON, 22 December 2022, (TON): A US official said “the United States plans a meeting early in 2023 between Israel and Arab nations that recognise it as it pushes the incoming right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint.”

Netanyahu is set to take office with the most right-wing government in Israel’s history including figures from the extreme fringes who staunchly back expanding settlements in Palestinian areas.

A senior US official said the United States plans a meeting “probably in the first quarter” of 2023 of foreign ministers from the so-called Negev summit in March.

BAGHDAD, 21 December 2022, (TON): Officials said “suspected extremists on motorbikes stormed a village north of Baghdad late Monday and killed eight Iraqi civilians.”

There was no immediate claim for the attack but the village was a focus of resistance to the Daesh group during its lightning advance through swathes of Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.

It came a day after Daesh extremists killed nine federal police in an ambush in Kirkuk province further north.

DAMASCUS, 21 December 2022, (TON): Syria’s military said two soldiers were wounded in Israeli airstrikes that hit near Damascus, the country’s capital early, the first such attack in more than a month.

A military statement said there were also some “material losses” in the strikes and that Syrian air defenses intercepted and shot down a number of the missiles.

There was no comment from Israel.

A Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the Israeli airstrikes targeted a warehouse in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, killing three non-Syrian nationals who were affiliated with the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

BRUSSELS, 21 December 2022, (TON): Your Majesty, King Abdullah II of Jordan, monsieur le Président de la République française, Mr President of the Republic of Egypt, Mr Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Ambassadors, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you very much, your Majesty, King Abdullah, for your invitation. I am glad to attend this Conference [for Cooperation and Partnership], representing the European Union.

With last year’s Baghdad Conference, Iraq went back to where it should always be: an important, active and credible country, a driver for peace and stability in the region.

LONDON, 21 December 2022, (TON): The UK TRA has proposed that countervailing measures on Stainless Steel bars and rods from India be revoked.

In its initial findings, the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has today (20 December 2022) proposed that a countervailing measure on imports of Stainless Steel bars and rods from India be revoked.

Countervailing measures are put in place to offset imports being sold at unfair prices due to government subsidies in their country of origin.

The TRA, as set out in the Statements of Essential Facts, found that revoking the measure would be unlikely to cause injury to the UK industry.

WASHINGTON, 21 December 2022, (TON): The Taliban have freed two Americans in detention in Afghanistan, the State Department said, on the same day that the militant regime faced condemnation for banning women at universities.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters “this, we understand, to have been a goodwill gesture on the part of the Taliban. This was not part of any swap of prisoners or detainees. There was no money that exchanged hands.”

Price said that confidentiality rules forbade him from offering more details on the two Americans.

The release came on the same day that the Taliban banned women from universities, drawing strong condemnation from the United States, which warned it would impose costs on the Islamist militants.

KYIV, 21 December 2022, (TON): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could travel to Washington, meet U.S. President Joe Biden and visit Congress, sources familiar with the situation said, in what would be Zelenskiy's first known trip outside his country since Russia invaded in late February.

Biden was expected to meet Zelenskiy at the White House, a source said. The visit by the Ukrainian leader would coincide with Biden's intent to send the Kyiv government Patriot missiles, CNN reported, to protect it from heavy Russian bombardment.

Zelenskiy's spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Zelenskiy last left Ukraine for the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19, according to his official schedule.

The trip abroad 10 months into the war was expected to include a visit to lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol, a source familiar with the planning said.

TOKYO, 21 December 2022, (TON): Japan Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa talked with his Swedish counterpart Tobias Billström by phone and emphasized the importance of like-minded countries strengthening cooperation on security issues under the current international situation.

The ministers discussed regional situations that included Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the East and South China Seas and North Korea, and confirmed that they would continue to work together to strengthen cooperation in the international arena.

The two ministers also welcomed the signing and entry into force of the “Agreement on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology between Japan and Sweden”.

Minister Hayashi congratulated Billström on his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the latter stating that he would like to further strengthen bilateral cooperation with Japan.

SYDNEY, 20 December 2022, (TON): Australia’s top diplomat will visit China, the first such trip by an Australian foreign minister in four years and a sign of further thawing ties.

Canberra said Penny Wong will visit Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and meet Chinese state councilor and minister of foreign affairs, Wang Yi.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said “Australia seeks a stable relationship with China; we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in the national interest.”

The last official visit to Beijing by an Australian foreign minister was in 2018. Since then, once-excellent relations have nosedived.