Senior officials from the United States, Australia, India and Japan have reaffirmed the need to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific region and agreed to coordinate the next “Quad” foreign ministers’ meeting next year, the U.S. and Japanese governments said.

On December 20, Turkish-backed militants opened fire at a patrol of the Russian Military Police, which was moving to reopen the M4 highway in northeastern Syria. The patrol, which set off from the town of Ain Issa in northern Raqqa, was tasked with escorting a convoy of civilian vehicles along …

By December 19 morning, all clashes around Ain Issa, in the northern countryside of Raqqa, ended. Turkish forces have not shelled the town and its outskirts for the last few hours.