Cocaine and Bananas: How Balkan Traffickers Used Fruit Shipments From the Ecuadorian President’s Family Firm to Smuggle Drugs
Shipping containers sent by Noboa Trading Co. have been caught up in huge drug shipments sent from Ecuador to the Balkans. Among those handling this cocaine when it reached Europe was a drug trafficking group allegedly led by convicted drug lord Darko Šarić.
Egypt rejects Israeli decision to open Rafah for exit only, insists it would only accept ‘two-way’ opening
Cairo reaffirmed its adherence to the plan and UN Security Council Resolution 2803, including the right of return for Palestinians.
According to the Egyptian State Information Service, Egyptian authorities refuted on Wednesday afternoon reports that Israel claims it will open the Rafah crossing, the only lifeline for Gaza to the outside world, but only for those wishing to leave the besieged coastal enclave.
Iran Update, November 21, 2025
Toplines
Some Syrian General Security Service (GSS) units are improving their counter-insurgency approach in rural minority areas by relying on relationships with locals. The GSS arrested a large Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-affiliated Assadist cell in Sheikh Bader, Tartous Province, on November 12.[1] Independent Syria researcher Gregory Waters reported on November 21 that locals originally tipped off the GSS to the cell’s presence at their compound in Sheikh Bader.[2] The two GSS officers who led the investigation said that the local tip-off and local community support were critical to the GSS’s dismantlement of the Assadist cell and to stability in the surrounding area.[3]
Salvaging the Lebanon Ceasefire Amid Looming Deadlines and Threats of War
Washington and its allies are waiting for Beirut to acknowledge the difficult but unavoidable truth: that war will resume unless serious action is taken to target all the pillars of Hezbollah’s power, bolster Shia political alternatives, and otherwise satisfy the ceasefire’s most important requirement: disarming the group.
Red Cross says Hamas handed over ‘small remains, pieces’ of a body; Israeli forensic experts checking
Hamas official said terror group was transferring hostage’s body, but no official statement made; Qatar says it hopes to push Israel and Hamas to next phase of truce ‘very soon’
Israel received unspecified “findings” potentially belonging to a hostage, handed over by Hamas through the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Tuesday, as Israel awaits the return of the bodies of the final two captives.
Can Trump Dismantle the UN Refugee Convention?
In 2017, United States President Trump said of refugees: “I hate taking these people. I guarantee you they are bad,” leaving no doubt about his disdain for the 40 million people around the world who have been forced to leave their own country and seek asylum elsewhere because of persecution, human rights violations and armed conflict.
Chaos as Iraq announces then retracts terror listing for Hezbollah and Houthis
Chaos erupted among government agencies in Iraq on Thursday after Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis appeared briefly on a list of terrorist groups facing sanctions, before it was quickly retracted.
A terrorist listing would be a surprise move against Iranian allies with connections in Iraq. The Official Gazette published on the Justice Ministry website, dated November 17, listed the two groups among organisations accused of terrorism and financing extremism.