US President Donald Trump floated a plan on Saturday to “just clean out” Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace.Describing Gaza as a “demolition site” after the Israel-Hamas war, Trump said he had spoken to Jordan’s King
‘LOW CONFIDENCE’: The report, which is not the result of any new intelligence, was declassified on the orders of new CIA Director John Ratcliffe
The CIA now believes the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic most likely originated from a laboratory, an assessment released on Saturday said, while acknowledging that it has “low confidence” in its own conclusion.The finding is not the result of any new intelligence, and the report was com
Exhausted after 12 hours of cooking, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hong gently unpeels the last of five leaves encasing a squishy, sticky rice cake known as banh chung — a Lunar New Year delicacy in Vietnam.The wrapped cakes of glutinous rice, green beans and pork belly have for centuries been one of several dish
Tens of thousands of Australians protested over the treatment of indigenous people yesterday as the country celebrated a national holiday marking the arrival of British colonizers in 1788. Crowds rallied in Sydney, Melbourne and other cities on Australia Day, decrying the high incarceration rates, p
After 13 years in Hong Kong as a refugee, John received plane tickets that would grant his family new lives in the US — only for them to be snatched away with a stroke of the pen by US President Donald Trump.Trump’s executive order to suspend all refugee admissions and halt the US asylum program, si
TOXIC MIX: Officials warned that ash in recent burn zones contained pesticides, asbestos, plastics and lead from incinerated vehicles, electronics and building materials
After weeks of windy and dry weather, rain has fallen in parched Southern California and is expected to aid firefighters who are mopping up multiple wildfires, but potentially heavy downpours on charred hillsides could bring new troubles such as toxic ash runoff.Los Angeles (LA) County crews spent m
‘NIGHTMARE’: Two people on the plane to Brazil said US authorities did not give them water or allow them to use the bathroom, and that their hands and feet were tied
Brazil’s government on Saturday expressed outrage after dozens of immigrants deported from the US arrived by plane in handcuffs, calling it a “flagrant disregard” for their rights.The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would demand an explanation from Washington over the “degrading treatm
A Ukrainian band is treating international audiences to their country’s traditional folk music, spiced up with world music and some rap, with the aim of aiding the struggle against cultural “assimilation” of their country by its neighbor Russia.Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha ensemble started their performanc
Paul McCartney urged the British government not to make a change to copyright laws that he said could let artificial intelligence (AI) companies rip off artists.The government is consulting on whether to let technology firms use copyrighted material to help train AI models unless the creators explic
France is holding six men and a woman following the kidnapping and torture of the cofounder of a global cryptocurrency company and his partner, prosecutors said on Saturday.The seven, who could face long prison terms up to life, are among 10 people taken into custody late on Thursday as anti-gang in
The British Museum said it had closed a number of exhibits after a fired information technology (IT) contractor “shut down” some of its systems, in one of several unrelated incidents targeting European museums on Saturday.The London venue, one of the UK capital’s biggest tourist draws and best known
The US and Canadian coast guards on Saturday continued efforts to break up ice and free a freighter that has been trapped in a frozen Lake Erie for days, officials said.The Manitoulin, a 202m Canadian vessel with 17 people on board, got stuck in the ice on Lake Erie on Wednesday after it dropped off
CONFLICT: The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow as the secretary-general is ‘alarmed by the resumption of hostilities,’ a spokesperson said
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) army and M23 fighters clashed outside Goma on Friday as the UK, US and France urged citizens to leave the main city in the country’s volatile east, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly. Since peace talks failed, the militia group backed by R
Fighting around Sudan‘s largest oil refinery set the sprawling complex ablaze, satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press (AP) yesterday showed, sending thick and black polluted smoke over the country’s capital. The attacks around the refinery, owned by the Sudanese government and the Chinese s
Train stations and airports across China saw the biggest peak in travelers yesterday ahead of the Lunar New Year, as millions of people returned home to spend the holidays with their families in an annual migration that is expected to be a record. The Lunar New Year, the Year of the Snake, begins on
A community in southern Madagascar has pulled together to save thousands of critically endangered tortoises swept away from their sanctuary and left swimming for their lives in floods this month caused by a tropical cyclone. The 12,000 radiated and spider tortoises that were housed at the Lavavolo T
‘GENOCIDE’: A damning report by the UN rights office in 2022 detailed violations including torture and forced labor targeting Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang
The UN indicated on Friday it was urging Thailand not to send dozens of detained Uighurs to any country where they risk “significant” harm, after reported plans to deport them to China. Rights groups have warned that Bangkok is preparing to deport imminently a group of 48 members of China’s mostly M
South Koreans are repurposing flower wreaths and K-pop light sticks as political protest tools amid the nation’s deepest political crisis in decades, sparked by South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived martial law declaration last month. Hundreds of wreaths, predominantly directed at Yoon
FREEZE: The US State Department ordered a sweeping halt on new funding for almost all foreign assistance, with some exceptions for emergency food programs and military aid
Mexico has refused a request from US President Donald Trump’s administration to allow a US military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, a US official and a Mexican official said.US military aircraft on Friday carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala
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