International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday asked Western leaders meeting in Latvia, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, to supply a wide range of weapons systems. “I ask you to increase the possibility of supplying air defence systems to our country, and to help speed up the relevant decisions to be taken by our partners,”
Elon Musk is asking Twitter’s users to decide if he should stay in charge of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake Sunday in launching new speech restrictions that sought to ban mentions of rival social media platforms. In yet another drastic policy change, Twitter had announced that users will no longer
Australia’s top diplomat will visit China on Tuesday, the first such trip by an Australian foreign minister in four years and a sign of further thawing ties. Canberra said Penny Wong will visit Beijing to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations and meet Chinese state councilor and minister of foreign affairs, Wang Yi. “Australia
Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire’s plane. The reinstatements came after the unprecedented suspensions evoked stinging criticism from government officials, advocacy groups and journalism organizations from several parts of the globe on Friday, with some saying
When French artist Albertine Meunier discovered in 2006 that Google was storing her entire search history, she decided to retaliate in a unique and “very boring” way: publishing it all in a book. “At that time, it was difficult to access your own data, so I had to copy and paste incessantly,” Meunier told AFP in her small gallery in central Paris. Sixteen years
One of the biggest foreign policy successes of the year for Thailand was the normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia, ending three decades of coldness. The new bonhomie was marked by the visit to Thailand of Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS) during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit
An aquarium in Berlin that was home to around 1,500 exotic fish burst early on Friday, spilling 1 million litres (264,172 gallons) of water and debris onto a major road in the busy Mitte district, emergency services said. Around 100 emergency responders rushed to the site, a leisure complex that also houses a Radisson hotel and a museum as well as the aquarium. Sea
(AFP) – Twitter suspended Thursday the accounts of more than a half-dozen journalists who had been writing about the company and its new owner Elon Musk. Some of the journalists had been tweeting about Twitter shutting down an @ElonJet account that tracked flights of the billionaire’s private jet and about versions of that account hosted
(AFP) – North Korea has successfully tested a “high-thrust solid-fuel motor” with the aim of developing a new weapon, state media said Friday. Despite heavy international sanctions over its weapons programmes, Pyongyang has built up an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). All its known ICBMs are liquid-fuelled, however, and North Korean leader Kim Jong
(AFP) – Google rivals on Thursday unveiled a project to make freely available data sets for map features to be built into online offerings. Alphabet-owned Google dominates online mapping, selling its services to other companies or platforms and using location and navigation capabilities to enhance its other offerings, including online advertising. Meta, Microsoft, TomTom and
(AFP) – Is a US state considering a tax on breathing? Is celebrating goals forbidden during the Qatar World Cup because that is “too gay?” Did insect repellent manufacturers recruit a Ugandan man for his mosquito-killing farts? Satire, parody and jokes packed with absurdity typically draw laughter, but around the world they are too often mistaken as
(AFP) – A Twitter account that tracked flights of Elon Musk’s private jet was grounded on Wednesday despite the billionaire’s talk of free speech. “Well it appears @ElonJet is suspended,” creator Jack Sweeney tweeted from his personal @JxckSweeney account. The account was in action briefly later in the day, after Twitter sent out word that
