US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing.The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also exp
‘HISTORICAL DEMONSTRATIONS’: Students, unions and professors pushed back against budget cuts that prompted a university to declare a financial emergency
Raising their textbooks, diplomas and posters aloft, thousands of people on Tuesday filled the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina to demand increased funding for the country’s public universities, in an outpouring of anger at Argentine President Javier Milei’s austerity measures.T
An Australian court yesterday extended an order that X take down videos of a Sydney bishop being stabbed after X chief executive officer Elon Musk vowed to fight the ban.In a brief hearing, Justice Geoffrey Kennett extended the injunction until May 10.Australian authorities have argued that video of
Australia’s top spy yesterday urged greater cooperation from big tech companies, asking them to provide access to encrypted messages.Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Michael Burgess said encrypted messaging had compromised the ability to root out threats and that tech c
Italy today celebrates its liberation from fascism, an anniversary overshadowed by a censorship row at the public broadcaster centered on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.RAI, which has several TV and radio stations and is funded in part by a license fee, canceled a monologue on fascism by a re
NORTH KOREADelegation departs for IranA high-level economic delegation was on its way to Iran, state media reported yesterday, for what would be the two countries’ first known talks since August 2019. The delegation, led by Minster of External Economic Relations Yun Jung-ho, flew out on Tuesday for
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week.The State Department’s annual
‘CRIMINAL SCHEME’: The former US president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records over a US$130,000 ‘hush money’ payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels
Former US president Donald Trump engaged in “election fraud” by paying hush money to a porn star just days before the 2016 presidential election, prosecutors said on Monday at the first ever criminal trial of a former president.“This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up,” Assistant Dis
CULTURAL DEBATE: Some Jewish students at Columbia University have reported intimidation and anti-Semitism amid the days-long demonstration
Tensions flared on Monday between pro-Palestinian student protesters and school administrators at several US universities, as in-person classes were canceled and demonstrators arrested.The protests, which began last week at Columbia University with a large group of demonstrators establishing a so-ca
During World War II, dozens of female students from the University of Cambridge worked around the clock in complete secrecy to crack Nazi codes, but only now are the unsung heroes getting recognition.At least 77 women from the female-only Newnham College were drafted to Bletchley Park, the code-brea
Haiti’s capital is almost completely cut off by air, sea and land blockades as gang violence intensifies, stopping aid from getting to 58,000 children with the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, the head of the UN children’s agency said on Monday.UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell
A Belgian man with a very rare metabolic condition that causes his body to produce alcohol had a drink-driving charge against him dismissed in court on Monday.The 40-year-old proved that he has auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol
Elon Musk yesterday lashed out at Australia’s prime minister after a court ordered his social media company X to take down footage of an alleged terrorist attack in Sydney, and said the ruling meant any nation could control “the entire Internet.”At a hearing overnight, Australia’s Federal Court orde
People walk past destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas.
REGIONAL TENSIONS: China boosted spending on its military for the 29th straight year, raising it by 6% to US$296bn, while Taiwan spent US$16.6bn, an 11% increase
Global military expenditure recorded its steepest increase in over a decade last year, reaching an all-time high of US$2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fueled spending across the world, researchers said yesterday.Military spending rose across the globe with particularly large increases in Eu
Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported yesterday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity.The UN’s World Meteorological Organization and th
The US appears close to sanctioning an Israeli military unit over alleged human rights violations in the West Bank, a move the Israeli prime minister angrily denounced as “the height of absurdity.”US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hinted at such steps when asked by a reporter in Italy about repor
North Korea yesterday fired multiple suspected short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters, South Korea’s military said, the latest in a series of weapons launches.South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in a statement said that it detected the launches from North Korea’s capital region, bu
Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s political party has swept parliamentary elections in a strong endorsement of his pro-China foreign policy, preliminary results reported yesterday by local media showed.The People’s National Congress won 70 out of 93 seats in Sunday’s vote, and along with three se
‘BIOINDICATORS’: Butterflies are living organisms whose well-being provides a measure of the health of their surrounding ecosystem, and their numbers are decreasing
Biologists on a trail in the Ecuadoran Amazon hold their breath as they distribute a foul-smelling delicacy to lure butterflies, critical pollinators increasingly threatened by climate change.A team has hung 32 traps made of green nets, each baited with rotting fish and fermented bananas. They are m