World

Polish and other Allied warplanes took to the skies around Ukraine’s border – owing to the ferocity of the Russian onslaught. The aerial bombardment included Putin’s nuclear-capable strategic Tu-95MS and Tu-160 bombers. Russia unleashed dozens of Iskander-M, Iskander-K, Kalibr, Kh-59 and Kh-101 missiles – as well as hundreds of killer Shahed drones. In total, there were 537…

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years is a sign of a thaw in the relations between the neighbors. The two-day summit will bring together leaders from more than 20 nations. China welcomed world leaders as they arrived for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit Sunday in Tianjin. The two-day gathering will…

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has been blocked from attending the UN General Assembly session in New York next month after he and 80 other Palestinian officials had their visas revoked, the US State Department has said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio blamed them for undermining peace efforts and for seeking “the unilateral recognition of a conjectural…

US President Donald Trump has moved to cut nearly US$5 billion of congressionally-approved foreign aid, the White House said Friday (Aug 29), raising the likelihood of a federal shutdown as Democrats oppose the policy. The US$4.9 billion in cuts target programmes of the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Trump wrote…

Large-scale music festivals are facing headwinds elsewhere but finding a new base in Thailand, as the country tries to boost its tourism sector in a region ready to party and spend. It was a Monday night, but the British deejay Fred Again sure made Bangkok feel like it was still the weekend. Last month (Jul 21), thousands…

German authorities have said they investigated more human trafficking and exploitation cases in 2024 than in any year since 2000. Weak online safeguards are a major driver with many minors among the victims. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) on Thursday announced that it had completed 576 investigations into incidents of human trafficking in 2024 — a…

The White House says it has fired the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, after she refused to resign on Wednesday. In a statement, it said she was “not aligned with the president’s agenda” and she had been removed from her position at the health agency. The US health department…

Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook will file a lawsuit challenging her removal by President Donald Trump, setting up a potential standoff between the president and the US central bank. “President Trump has no authority to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook,” her lawyer Abbe David Lowell said in a statement. The president has said there was “sufficient…

The genetically modified pig lung remained functional for nine days inside a brain-dead human patient. Scientists believe xenotransplantation – cross-species transplants – could alleviate the organ shortage crisis. Surgeons in China have conducted a successful pig-to-human lung transplant which they say demonstrated the feasibility of the procedure – even if substantial further tests are still required. According…

In August this year, Trump slapped an additional 25 per cent tariff, raising the overall levy to 50 per cent on goods coming from India, as a penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil. The United States has officially issued a public notice imposing additional 25 per cent tariffs on imports from India, with the…

JD Vance said President Donald Trump used “aggressive economic leverage,” including secondary tariffs on India, to pressure Russia to end the Ukraine war. India defends its Russian oil imports as national interest as tensions rise in US-India trade ties. US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that President Donald Trump had applied “aggressive economic leverage,” including…

The Pentagon is working on plans to deploy the U.S. military to Chicago as President Donald Trump says he is cracking down on crime, homelessness and undocumented immigration, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The Defense Department planning, in the works for weeks, involves several options, including mobilizing at least a few thousand members of the National…