Highlights

The United States on Monday effectively backed Israel’s right to build Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank by abandoning its four-decade-old position that they were “inconsistent with international law,” a stance that may make Israeli-Palestinian peace even more elusive. The Palestinians want the area, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, for a future state.

Democrats responded skeptically on Monday to President Donald Trump’s declaration that he might be willing to testify in his impeachment inquiry and also said they were examining the truthfulness of his testimony in the Russia 2016 election interference probe.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he told U.S. President Donald Trump during talks in Washington last week that Turkey would not give up on the Russian S-400 missile defence systems it procured this year despite protests from its NATO ally. Washington has said the S-400s pose a threat to its F-35 stealth fighter jets and has suspended Turkey from the jet programme.

The United States on Tuesday broke off talks on increasing South Korea's share of the cost of hosting a U.S. military contingent after the two sides failed to narrow differences in a row that has raised questions about the U.S. deployment.

World

Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday she hoped a standoff between police and a hold-out group of anti-government protesters at a university could be resolved and she had told police to handle it humanely. About 100 defiant protesters remained in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University after more than two days of clashes in which more than 200 people have been injured.

Britain’s opposition Labour Party will on Tuesday take aim at “obscene” billionaires, pledging a radical redistribution of wealth to cut the power of the super rich who it says bankroll Prime Minister Boris Johnson in return for tax breaks. The two main political parties are showcasing starkly different visions for the world’s fifth largest economy ahead of the Dec. 12 election.

China is interfering in Taiwan's elections "every day" as it seeks to damage the island's democracy Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday, after China sailed an aircraft carrier group near the self-ruled island on the weekend.

The Maltese government will recommend a pardon for the suspected middleman in the 2017 murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia once he tells authorities what he knows and agrees to testify in court, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Tuesday.