International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Thailand and Russia will hold a Joint Thai-Russian Commission on Bilateral Cooperation in Bangkok on April 26th and 27th to strengthen cooperation of mutual interest, according to an informed source. It will be the last major bilateral meeting of the caretaker Thai government before the general election on May 14th. The commission was established in
Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions which are partly held by Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Putin attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region to hear reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group and other senior officers on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of
A US warship sailed through the waters separating Taiwan and mainland China, the US Navy said, days after Beijing staged war games around the self-ruled island. Led by the United States, multiple Western navies regularly conduct “freedom of navigation operations” to assert the international status of regional waterways such as the Taiwan Strait and the
South Korea fired warning shots toward a North Korean vessel that crossed the maritime border, South Korea’s military said on Sunday, a day after the incident that further raised tension over the North’s missile tests. The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it fired warning shots and broadcast warnings to expel a North Korean
After a sleepless night as fighting raged, Khartoum residents are cautiously venturing out to buy supplies fearing a prolonged fight between Sudan’s regular army and paramilitaries. “We have been living in terror since yesterday,” said 43-year-old Sanaa Mohamed, outside a bakery in a northern Khartoum suburb. “The explosions terrified my children,” added Mohamed, who hurried
Saudi Arabia has put a second four-percent chunk of shares of the Aramco oil giant, worth tens of billions of dollars, under the control of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, state media said Sunday. The move, part of a campaign to open up the oil-rich kingdom’s economy, follows a transfer last year of four percent of Aramco shares, estimated at the
Germany will switch off its last three nuclear reactors on Saturday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Germany is bringing an early
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was evacuated unhurt after a suspect threw what appeared to be a smoke bomb at an outdoor speech in western Japan on Saturday, domestic media reported. A loud explosion was heard, but the premier took cover and was unharmed while police subdued a man at the scene, public broadcaster NHK
China won’t sell weapons to either side in the war in Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister said Friday, responding to Western concerns that Beijing could provide military assistance to Russia. China has maintained that it is neutral in the conflict, while backing Russia politically, rhetorically and economically at a time when Western nations have imposed
Japan’s government said Friday it has approved a controversial plan to build the country’s first legal casino in Osaka, hoping to draw tourists after years of wrangling. The local governments of Osaka and Nagasaki in western Japan have long sought approval to build “integrated resort” (IR) facilities combining casinos, convention centres, hotels, restaurants and entertainment
Chinese warships and aircraft were still operating around Taiwan on Tuesday, the island’s defence ministry said, a day after Beijing declared an end to its massive war games. China launched three days of military exercises around self-ruled Taiwan on Saturday that saw it simulate targeted strikes and practise a blockade of the island. The show
It’s been less than a week since news of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine war surfaced, sending the Pentagon into full-speed damage control to assure allies and assess the scope of the leak. The information on scores of slides has publicized potential vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and exposed private assessments by
