Death becomes a growing business in ageing, lonely South Korea
Busan, South Korea -- Rows of coffins line a university classroom in the South Korean port city of Busan, ready...
Geostrategy
Unexploded bombs haunt Gazans, posing deadly risk as fragile truce halts demining efforts in ruins
After two years of war, the ruined cities of Gaza, a densely packed territory home to more than two million...
Geostrategy
Geostrategy
13 killed in Gaza as Hamas says Israel devising pretexts to resume attacks
Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas's political bureau, reaffirmed the group's commitment to the ceasefire and said Israel "continues to...
- Palestinian witnesses told AFP clashes erupted in the southern city of Rafah in an area still held by Israel.
- Hamas had been fighting a local Palestinian gang known as Abu Shabab but the militants were "surprised by the presence of army tanks".
Geostrategy
Protesters out in force for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ rallies across US
Organizers said seven million people attended protests spanning New York to Los Angeles, with demonstrations popping up in small cities...
- Trump's response to Saturday's events was typically aggressive, with the US president posting a series of AI-generated videos to his Truth Social platform depicting him as a king.
- In one, he is shown wearing a crown and piloting a fighter jet that drops what appears to be feces on anti-Trump protesters.
Geostrategy
China’s power paradox: record renewables, continued coal
Bangkok, Thailand -- Call it the China power paradox: while Beijing leads the world in renewable energy expansion, its coal...
- China accounted for 93 percent of new global coal construction in 2024, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clear Air (CREA) found.
- China wants 3,600 gigawatts of wind and solar by 2035, but that may not meet future demand, risking further coal increases.
Geostrategy
Iran says no longer bound by ‘restrictions’ on its nuclear programme
Iran said on Saturday that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year...
- The 2015 deal -- signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- saw the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic
- But the pact had already been in tatters after Washington unilaterally withdrew during President Donald Trump's first term, with Iran later pulling back from its commitments
Geostrategy
US envoy Witkoff felt ‘betrayed’ by Israeli attack on Hamas in Qatar
Washington, United States - US envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's chief negotiator on the Middle East, has said that...
- "I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed," Witkoff told the CBS news program "60 Minutes" in excerpts released Friday
- At the time, the strike halted the indirect negotiating process to end the fighting in the devastated Gaza Strip, triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel
Geostrategy
Pakistan, Afghanistan officials to meet in Qatar after latest strikes
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistani and Afghan officials were due to meet in Qatar Saturday to seek a path back to...
- Kabul accused Islamabad of violating the 48-hour ceasefire, which had paused nearly a week of cross-border clashes that killed dozens of troops and civilians on both sides
- The latest strikes targeted what Pakistan security sources said was a militant group linked to the Pakistani Taliban in the Afghan border areas
Geostrategy
Trump tells Zelensky to ‘make a deal’ as Tomahawk plea misfires
Trump said as recently as last month that he believed Ukraine could take back all its territory -- but a...
- Trump said as recently as last month that he believed Ukraine could take back all its territory -- but a day after agreeing to meet Russian President Putin for a new summit
- "It's good that President Trump didn't say 'no,' but for today, (he) didn't say 'yes'" to providing Kyiv with Tomahawks, Zelensky told US broadcaster NBC on Friday
Geostrategy
Hamas says committed to Gaza truce and returning hostage remains
Responding to a call from Hamas for help locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside...
- A Turkish official told AFP on Friday that dozens of disaster response specialists were at the Egyptian side of the border awaiting a green light from the Israeli government.
- The 81-member team from Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialized search-and-rescue tools.
Geostrategy
OpenAI halts MLK videos as deepfakes spark outrage
Washington, United States -- OpenAI has suspended its Sora 2 artificial intelligence tool from creating videos of civil rights icon...
- The slain civil rights leader's estate and OpenAI said the company would pause generations depicting King while it "strengthens guardrails for historical figures."
- Videos reanimating other dead figures including Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse have flooded social media since Sora 2's launch on September 30.
Geostrategy
Trump says to meet Putin in Budapest after ‘great’ call, questions Ukraine’s push for Tomahawk missiles
In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia's 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the...
- In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia's 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for what would be their second summit
- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had pushed Moscow to negotiate, even as he deals with yet another Trump shift on the war
Death becomes a growing business in ageing, lonely South Korea
Busan, South Korea -- Rows of coffins line a university classroom in the South Korean port city of Busan, ready...
Geostrategy
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Israel insists it calls shots in Gaza despite signing up to a US-brokered ceasefire
Under the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire, as Israeli forces withdraw after the end of two years of brutal fighting...
Geostrategy
Long-shot socialist Mamdani in touching distance of becoming NY mayor
New York, United States - An unknown local lawmaker just a few months ago, leftist Zohran Mamdani has burst onto...
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China hails coming of ‘multipolar world’ ahead of key Trump-Xi talks to avert trade war
Global markets are watching closely to see if Thursday's planned meeting between the two presidents can halt a trade war...
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Geostrategy
Nigeria refinery aims to be world’s biggest with expansion
Lagos, Nigeria -- Nigeria's Dangote oil refinery, already the largest in Africa, aims to become the biggest in the world...
- "We are more than doubling the barrels... to 1.4 million from 650,000," said Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian businessman who is Africa's richest person.
- The Dangote refinery has sparked monopoly fears as it becomes a powerful player itself.
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US treasury secretary signals deal to ease trade war with China
Washington, United States -- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday signaled a tentative deal with China to de-escalate their...
- Scott Bessent said the US threat of a 100% tariff hike on Chinese goods had effectively been taken off the table in exchange for Beijing deferring curbs on its rare earth exports.
- The secretary's remarks came as Trump kicked off an Asia tour in Kuala Lumpur that will culminate in a sitdown with Xi in South Korea.
Geostrategy
TotalEnergies approves restart of $20-bn Mozambique gas project
Paris, France -- France's TotalEnergies said Saturday the consortium it leads to build a $20-billion liquified natural gas project in...
- The Mozambique LNG project, the largest private investment in Africa's energy infrastructure, is expected to generate thousands of jobs.
- Work was frozen after militants launched a deadly attack on the site of the project near the Tanzanian border in March 2021, resulting in around 800 deaths.