Move comes days after rebel groups toppled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, weeks before Donald Trump becomes US president again. Israel’s government has approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the illegally occupied Golan Heights, days after seizing more Syrian territory following the toppling of Syria’s longtime leader Bashar al-Assad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “unanimously approved” the “demographic development” of...

The Economic Community of West African States hopes to use this time to convince the three nations to stay in the bloc. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will have a six-month grace period following their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), scheduled for January 29, a year after the countries announced their intentions to leave. The decision, reached at a summit of West Africa’s...