Shandong, J-16s and more: China’s military might on display during drills around Taiwan
A Chinese warship sails during a military drill near Fuzhou, Fujian Province, near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands that are close to the Chinese coast, China. Reuters Beijing: China is brandishing a wide array of military equipment and weapons as it conducts drills around Taiwan intended to intimidate the self-ruled island. The three-day show of force, which […]
Russia-Ukraine war live: Pentagon assesses impact of apparent intelligence leak; Zelenskiy condemns Palm Sunday shelling
From 35m ago Russia plans to increase air defences over its north-western border to counter Finland’s accession to Nato, a commander in its aerospace forces has said, Reuters reports. Lt Gen Andrei Demin, the deputy commander-in-chief of aerospace forces, also said further reforms of Russian air defences were “undoubtedly planned and will be implemented”. In […]
The strongest peeing boy statue in Japan is a hidden gem of sightseeing in Saitama
Nature is calling… Most people are probably familiar with the fountains made with statues of peeing boys which can be found all over the world. They were really big during the Renaissance but Manneken Pis in Brussels remains the most iconic by far and replicas of it are quite popular in Japan today. Our reporter […]
‘Stern warning against separatist forces’: China reaches third day of military drills in Taiwan
In this image taken from video footage run Saturday, April 8, 2023 by China’s CCTV, a Chinese fighter jet performs an mid-air refueling maneuver at an unspecified location. AP Beijing: China has reached the third and last day of its military drills in Taiwan that were launched in retaliation to President Tsai-Ing-wen’s meeting with the US […]
BBC objects as Twitter labels it, ‘government funded media
India oi-Vicky Nanjappa | Published: Monday, April 10, 2023, 8:55 [IST] The British Broadcasting Corporation has objected to be labelled as a ‘government funded media’ on one of its Twitter accounts. The account which has 2.2 million followers shares on its accounts, BBC’s television programmes, radio shows and podcasts among others. The label links a […]
Explained: Key questions around China’s military drills around Taiwan answered
A crew member gives a final check on a mirage fighter jet before taking off at an air base in Hsinchu, Taiwan. AP Beijing: China has launched three days of military drills intended to intimidate self-ruled Taiwan after a US visit by Taipei’s president Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing. Here are some key questions and answers […]
Japan following China’s Taiwan drills with ‘great interest’
Summary Chinese jets, warships practice blockading Taiwan China holding last of three scheduled days of drills Chinese aircraft carrier also involved in drills Taiwan reports multiple Chinese aircraft nearby TAIPEI, April 10 (Reuters) – China’s military carried out aerial and naval blockade drills around Taiwan on Monday, its last scheduled day of exercises, with a […]
US officials scramble to unearth source of intel leak
FILE PHOTO: The Pentagon building is seen in Arlington, Virginia. Reuters/Representational image Washington: US officials have launched an investigation to pinpoint the source of a leak after highly classified documents containing intel raging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency surfaced online. A few experts in US suspect that someone within the country […]
Ukraine’s air defences could soon run out of missiles, apparent Pentagon leak suggests
Ukraine’s air defences risk running out of missiles and ammunition within weeks, an apparent leak of Pentagon documents dating from February suggests, as US defence officials raced to trace how the files became public. One of the documents, dated 23 February and marked “Secret”, outlines in detail how Ukraine’s Soviet-era S-300 air defence systems would […]
Why Joe Biden is the weakest US President and America a fading superpower
(File) US President Joe Biden arrives to deliver remarks during a virtual Summit for Democracy, which he is hosting from an auditorium on the White House campus in Washington on 29 March 2023. Reuters The men who preceded and succeeded Abraham Lincoln are widely held as the two worst presidents in America’s history. James Buchanan […]
7 times Elon Musk definitely cared about ‘free speech absolutism’ as Twitter CEO
Twitter CEO and Tesla founder Elon Musk is one of those people who claim to really care about free speech. Back in November, just days after successfully buying out the social media network, Musk stressed his “commitment to free speech” as the platform’s new owner. So committed is the tech entrepreneur to free speech, of […]
The Irish chocolate boom: a sweet success story
The chocolate business is booming in Ireland, and it’s not the generic sweet shop bars and sugar-filled nostalgic childhood treats that are fuelling it. Chocolatiers producing hand-made, often hand-painted, edible works of art with creative fillings made from top quality ingredients are springing up across the country to feed demand for a better quality chocolate […]
Why Indian diplomats are now raising Hindutva issues across the world
Indian High Commission official Amish Tripathi on a video call with London School of Economics student Karan Kataria. | @HCI_London via Twitter Over the past week, social media has been buzzing with claims by an Indian student at the London School of Economics that he had been disbarred from elections for the post of general […]
Intelligence leak exposes US spying on foes, allies
Shane Harris and Dan Lamothe Apr 9, 2023 – 11.12am On Saturday, as US officials and their foreign allies scrambled to understand how dozens of classified intelligence documents had ended up on the internet, they were stunned – and occasionally infuriated – at the extraordinary range of detail the files exposed about how the United […]
Tilfi founders Udit Khanna, Ujjwal Khanna, and Aditi Chand: ‘Vagaries of fashion don’t apply to us’
A YOUNG and contemporary Benaresi label is slowly and steadily capturing the attention of connoisseurs. Tilfi, which opened as an ecommerce-only site in 2016, launched its first store in 2021. In less than two years of retail, the label has become one of the more trusted names in Benaresi handloom saris. So much so that […]
Tilfi founders Udit Khanna and Aditi Chand: ‘Vagaries of fashion don’t apply to us’
A YOUNG and contemporary Benaresi label is slowly and steadily capturing the attention of connoisseurs. Tilfi, which opened as an ecommerce-only site in 2016, launched its first store in 2021. In less than two years of retail, the label has become one of the more trusted names in Benaresi handloom saris. So much so that […]
US military secrets found on chat forum are ‘worst leak since Edward Snowden’
The United States is facing possibly its worst intelligence leak since Edward Snowden’s 2013 flight to Moscow as a new batch of classified documents appeared on social media. ore than 100 classified documents on Ukraine, China, the Middle East, and terrorism are now believed to be in the public domain after they were posted in an […]
Antiques Roadshow guest blown away by the valuation of watch he traded at local pub
An Antiques Roadshow guest was left gobsmacked when expert Ben Wright told him much his watch was worth after he traded it in his local pub. The man explained how he had originally owned a cheap Rolex from Singapore, but decided to swap it with a pub landlord. BBC star Ben said: “This is a […]
Baidu sues app developers and Apple over fake Ernie bot app on App Store
Baidu, the Chinese search engine, has taken legal action against both Apple and “relevant” app developers for distributing fake copies of its recently launched Ernie bot app on the App Store. Ernie, which utilizes artificial intelligence technology, has been dubbed as the most comparable alternative to the US-developed chatbot ChatGPT in China. Late on Friday, […]
‘Keeping a constant watch’: India confronts Myanmar about Chinese military base in Coco Islands
This satellite image shows that building work for two aircraft hangars next to the runway is being carried out. Image courtesy: Maxar Technologies New Delhi: The Indian Government has confronted Myanmar about the construction of a Chinese military base in the Great Coco Islands, an archipelago barely 55 km away from India’s Andaman and Nicobar […]
Japan’s other beautiful fuji, wisteria, are about to turn Ashikaga Flower Park into a wonderland
Flowers have begun blooming at gorgeous park in Tochigi. If you asked people what some of the most beautiful things in Japan are, and someone answered “Fuji,” you’d probably nod your head in agreement. But while there’s no arguing that Japan’s tallest mountain is a sight to see, they might not be talking about Fuji […]
U.S. reviewing whether Ukraine war documents were leaked
A member of the Ukrainian special force engages in zeroing his weapon prior to a mission, amid Russia?s attack on Ukraine, in the region of Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 6, 2023. Kai Pfaffenbach | Reuters The Defense Department and the Justice Department are reviewing a handful of documents that were released on several social media sites […]
Xi Jinping wanted China to be a global soccer power. What went wrong?
Hong Kong CNN — It was a Chinese dream driven by the same sort of ambition that has seen this country rise from poverty to the world’s second-largest economy in the space of just a few decades. In 2011, around a year before becoming the country’s leader, Xi Jinping outlined a vision to turn China […]
Lobbying, democracy plus other letters, April 7: ‘I say ban lobbying. Then we will see if MPs want to work and represent their ridings’
A Canada flag flies beside the West Block tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 6.Sean Kilpatrick Earn it Re “When MPs put lobbyists ahead of a healthy democracy” (Editorial, April 3): The underlying problem is the MP ecosystem that has existed for a couple of decades. It seems to me that many MPs […]
Russia-Ukraine war live: Pentagon investigating leak of US and Nato files – report; Macron and Von der Leyen’s last day in China
From 3h ago Russia appears to have made important gains in Bakhmut, the British defence ministry says. The UK Ministry of Defence says in its daily update that Russian forces have “highly likely advanced into the [Bakhmut] town centre, and has seized the West Bank of the Bakhmutka River. Ukraine’s key supply route to the […]
China imposes new sanctions on Taiwan’s US ambassador
FILE PHOTO: Hsiao Bi-khim, a lawmaker from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, speaks during an interview in Taipei, Taiwan. Reuters Taipei: Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US, Hsiao Bi-khim, has been hit with further sanctions by China which will prohibit her and family members from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau. The sanctions have […]
Reuters US Domestic News Summary
Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs. US GAO denies Lockheed protest of Textron $7 billion Army helicopter deal The U.S. Government Accountability Office on Thursday denied Lockheed Martin Corp’s protest of the Army contract for the Future Long Range-Assault Aircraft worth as much as a $7.1 billion, awarded to Textron Inc’s […]
Ukrainian forces cling on to Bakhmut, China pressed to help end war
Near Bakhmut, Ukraine: Ukrainian and Russian soldiers clashed in Bakhmut, the destroyed eastern city that has become a symbol of Kyiv’s resistance, while seven people were reported dead in Russian-controlled regions by Ukrainian artillery strikes. Ukrainian soldiers stationed in trenches near Bakhmut claimed they were prepared for a long-awaited counter-offensive whenever the weather improved. Other […]