World News at a Glance

U.S. Ties With Kurds in Syria Create Rift With Turkey

The Kurdish fighters who are battling the Islamic State in Syria are considered the United States’ most reliable partners there. But to Turkey, these Kurds are terrorists. The Kurdish group, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, is facing an escalating battle with Turkish forces in northwestern Syria, complicating U.S. policy. The group has deep ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, considered a terrorist organization for its violent separatist movement inside Turkey. One thing is clear: The United States has consistently understated the complexities of its alliance with the Kurds.

U.S. Plans to Send First Aircraft Carrier to Vietnam Since War’s End

The United States plans to send an aircraft carrier to dock in Vietnam, officials from both nations said Thursday, a telling sign of Washington’s warming relations with a country that was once battered by U.S. bombs. The proposed visit to the port of Danang comes amid heightened tensions over China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, including to islands claimed by Vietnam. The arrival of the aircraft carrier, planned for March, would represent the largest presence of U.S. forces in Vietnam since the war ended in 1975.

Ontario’s Opposition Leader Quits Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations

In less than two days, the Canadian political scene has been swept by three resignations linked to accusations of sexual misconduct. The one with the greatest political implications came early Thursday when the opposition leader of Canada’s most populous province resigned as the head of his party shortly before a television network aired a report in which two women accused him of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. The resignation of Patrick Brown threw the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario into disarray about five months before provincial elections that many believed he was poised to win.

Doomsday Clock Advances to 11:58 p.m., Closest Since 1950s

The Doomsday Clock, a symbol of scientific concerns about humanity’s possible annihilation, was advanced by 30 seconds Thursday, to 2 minutes to midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced. The last time the clock was moved so close to midnight was in 1953, during the Cold War. "In 2017, world leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change, making the world security situation more dangerous than it was a year ago — and as dangerous as it has been since World War II,” the bulletin’s science and security board said in a statement.

U.S. and Pakistan Give Conflicting Accounts of Drone Strike

One day after a U.S. drone strike killed a leader of the militant Haqqani Network in northwestern Pakistan, U.S. officials Thursday rejected a claim by Pakistan that the strike had targeted an Afghan refugee camp. A statement by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the strike and maintained that it had “targeted an Afghan refugee camp in Kurram Agency.” U.S. officials said that there were no Afghan refugee camps in Kurram, a remote tribal region straddling the border with Afghanistan. The strike, which killed Nasir Mehmood, was at least the third U.S. drone strike in the past two months in Pakistani territory.

Fire Kills at Least 33 People in South Korean Hospital

A fire at a hospital that doubled as a sanitarium for elderly patients killed at least 33 people Friday in Miryang, South Korea, local news media and fire officials said. Officials said they were still investigating the cause of the fire, which engulfed Sejong Hospital with flames and thick smoke. They suspected that many of those who died were elderly patients who could not move without assistance. The fire in Miryang was the second major deadly fire South Korea has suffered in recent weeks. Twenty-nine people were killed and 40 injured in a fire that gutted a sports center in December.