Today In International News: November 17, 2017

Courtesy of Haaretz

• Russia is opposed to a Japanese-drafted United Nations Security council resolution to renew for one month an international inquiry into chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

• North Korea ruled out negotiations with Washington as long as joint U.S-South Korea military exercises continue, and said that Pyongyang’s atomic weapons program would remain as a deterrent against a U.S. nuclear threat.

• Ex-Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad al-Hariri is leaving Riyadh for France, but will not return directly to Beirut after the visit.

• Israel 'willing to share' Iran intelligence with Saudis. Israel has increasingly been making a public alliance with Saudi Arabia following the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president earlier this year.

• Syria's SANA state news agency says an ISIL car bombing has killed at least 20 people and wounded 30 others at a site where displaced families are camped near the city of Deir Az Zor in eastern Syria.

• Iraqi forces say they have recaptured Rawa, the last town in the country controlled by so-called Islamic State.

• An Argentine military submarine with 44 crew members on board was missing at sea, prompting a massive search to locate the vessel which may have suffered a communication error.

• The Trump administration formalized a new policy allowing hunters to bring back parts of African elephants that they killed in Zimbabwe.

• Saudi authorities are striking agreements with some of those detained in an anti-corruption crackdown, asking them to hand over assets and cash in return for their freedom.

• A young Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney, Brett Talley, is sailing through the confirmation process in the Senate for a lifetime seat as a federal district court judge in Alabama, despite the fact that he has no trial experience and has never filed a motion in court.  The American Bar Association gave him the rare “not qualified" rating two days before the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-9 along party lines to send his nomination to the floor for a vote.

• Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe appeared in public for the first time since the army took charge, as the ruling party made plans to force him to step down after more than 3 decades in power.

• Qatar’s foreign minister criticized “reckless leadership” in the Gulf for a number of crises including the Gulf rift and Lebanon, taking apparent aim at Saudi Arabia.