TAIWAN – Reactions to former President Trump’s blunt statements regarding what he sees as an imbalance in bearing the cost of defending the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) were mixed, with some expressing varying degrees of agreement and others pointing out that Taiwan is still waiting for some $19 billion worth of already-purchased American...
Streets appeared calm in Bangladesh’s capital on Monday, a day after the Supreme Court agreed to scrap most government job quotas that had angered student-led activists and led to deadly protests. Late on Sunday, protesters gave Bangladesh’s government 48 hours to meet a string of new demands, including a public apology from Prime Minister Sheikh...
Taiwan sent navy vessels out to sea and conducted take-off and landing exercises on Monday, July 22, at the start of the annual Han Kuang war games, which this year aim to be as close as possible to actual combat with no script and simulating how to repel a Chinese attack. China, which views democratically...
China and the Philippines reached a deal they hope will end confrontations at the most fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea, the Philippine government said Sunday. The Philippines occupies Second Thomas Shoal but China also claims it, and increasingly hostile clashes at sea have sparked fears of larger conflicts that could involve the...
The family of Majd Kamalmaz, an American psychotherapist who was detained at a government checkpoint in Damascus, Syria, in 2017, have filed a civil lawsuit against the Syrian government, accusing it of abducting, torturing and killing him. The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Kamalmaz’s four children, his widow...
LONDON – Voters abandoned mainstream center-right parties for the populist right in the U.K. and French elections this month but failed to convert support to electoral gains amid a right-wing vote split and tactical voting by the left. Britain’s Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a landslide election victory, scoring 412 seats in the...
World leaders have quickly responded to the long-awaited news that President Biden has decided not to run for a second term, which took many by surprise despite the reports over the past two weeks. “I respect President Biden’s decision and I look forward to us working together during the remainder of his presidency,” British Prime...
A candidate for the populist Reform UK Party in Britain had to defend himself after allegations that he was not an actual person but in reality an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated candidate put up for election last month. “I am a real person and that is me in the photo,” Mark Matlock confirmed to British news...
A second Trump presidency is giving supporters hope of a continuation of his first-term policies, while critics worry that he’ll isolate the U.S. on the global stage at a delicate time for the international security landscape. Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a former Trump administration NSC official,...
Authorities in the Philippines have uncovered secret hospitals that offer plastic surgery for fugitives and scammers seeking to evade arrest, according to reports. “You can create an entirely new person out of those,” said Winston John Casio, a spokesman for the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission. Police raided one such hospital in the southern suburbs of...
