Other News

US, S.Korea to hold ‘tabletop’ exercises on nuclear threats

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — The United States and South Korea will hold discussion-based exercises on addressing nuclear threats, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday. Washington and Seoul will conduct “increasingly complex scenario-based tabletop exercises focused on nuclear threats on the peninsula,” Austin wrote in an op-ed published by the Yonhap news agency, without specifying when this would occur. Austin is visiting Seoul for the third time as defense secretary, during which he is […]

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White House says US Covid emergency status to end May 11

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House said Monday that the national and public health emergencies declared just as the Covid-19 pandemic took grip three years ago will officially end May 11. The end to both federal emergency declarations, which took effect in January 2020 under then-president Donald Trump, will see funds used to subsidize Covid medicines, medical insurance and other types of government aid related to the pandemic come to an end. In […]

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Shear line affecting Visayas, eastern section of Mindanao: PAGASA

Luzon affected by northeast monsoon (Eagle News) — The shear line is affecting Visayas and the eastern section of Mindanao. According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, the northeast monsoon is also affecting Luzon. The southern portion of Palawan, meanwhile,  will have cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms due to the trough of a low pressure area. Flash floods or landslides due to moderate to at times heavy rains are […]

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Peru mulls bringing elections forward as protests boil

by Carlos MANDUJANO Agence France-Presse LIMA, Peru (AFP) — Peru’s Congress on Monday debated a bill to bring forward elections in a bid to end weeks of protests and roadblocks that have left dozens dead. The South American country has been embroiled in a political crisis with near-daily street protests since December 7, when then-president Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree. In seven weeks of demonstrations, 48 people […]

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Biden rejects F-16s for Ukraine as Russia claims advances

by Sebastian Smith  Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Monday the United States would not provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, as Kyiv expands the list of weaponry it needs to be better able to drive Russia forces from occupied territories. Fighting continued at key points along the long front as Russian forces sought to expand their hold on territory in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin-appointed Donetsk […]

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Blinken urges calm in flaring Israeli-Palestinian conflict

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday for “urgent steps” to calm spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after high-level talks in Jerusalem. Washington’s top diplomat travelled to Jerusalem on the second leg of his Middle East tour, after meeting Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and foreign minister in Cairo. Israel is reeling from an attack Friday that killed seven civilians outside a synagogue in annexed east Jerusalem, a day after the deadliest army raid […]

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Kremlin says Johnson’s claim about Putin missile threat a ‘lie’

The Kremlin on Monday dismissed as a “lie” accusations from former British prime minister Boris Johnson that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally threatened him with a missile attack. “What Mr Johnson said is not true. More precisely it’s a lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Moreover, this is either a conscious lie — then you need to ask Mr Johnson for what purpose he chose this version of events — Or it was unintentional […]

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Boris Johnson: Putin threatened to lob missile at me

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson has claimed President Vladimir Putin threatened to target him with a missile attack before ordering Russian forces into Ukraine. The apparent threat — denied by the Kremlin — came in a telephone call just ahead of the February 24 invasion, according to a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Monday. Johnson and other Western leaders had been hurrying to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine and try to deter […]

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France braces for new strikes against Macron’s pension reform

France braced Monday for another day of mass protests and strikes over proposed pension overhauls being pushed by President Emmanuel Macron, with the government and its left-wing opponents trading blame for the expected disruptions. Around 1.1 million people took to the streets for the first strike day on January 19, according to official statistics, the biggest demonstrations since the last major round of pension reform under right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. A police source […]

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TikTok CEO to testify before US Congress in March

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify in March to US lawmakers in Washington where the Chinese social media app faces accusations that it is beholden to the Communist Party in Beijing. TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is Chinese, is fighting for its survival in the United States with rising calls from mainly Republican lawmakers that the company should be outright banned for its links to Beijing. Chew will give testimony before the House Energy […]

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Ukraine officials, lawmakers banned from travelling abroad

Kyiv, Ukraine | AFP | The Ukrainian government has banned senior public servants and lawmakers including women from travelling abroad during the war with Russia. Andriy Demchenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s border guard service, told AFP on Monday that the measure — adopted last week — had entered force. “They can now only leave as part of a work mission,” he said. After Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24 last year, Ukrainian […]

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Hong Kong’s sovereign wealth fund suffers record loss

Hong Kong, China | AFP Hong Kong’s half-trillion-dollar investment fund set up to defend the financial hub’s currency has suffered its largest loss on record of more than HK$200 billion ($25 billion), authorities said Monday. The Exchange Fund, the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s de facto sovereign wealth fund, is one of the largest public investment vehicles in the world. Its slump last year was only the third loss since Hong Kong’s Monetary Authority (HKMA) began disclosing […]

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