International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes in northern California on Friday as a wildfire spread rapidly across more than 1,000 acres in extremely hot conditions. Footage from a local ABC affiliate news channel showed several buildings ablaze in the so-called Mill Fire, which the Siskiyou county fire department warned was growing at
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday denounced a new three-year sentence imposed on Myanmar’s ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged further pressure on the country’s junta. “We strongly condemn the Burma military regime’s unjust sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi to three more years of prison, including hard labor,” Blinken
The United States on Friday announced a new $1.1 billion package of arms to Taiwan, vowing to keep boosting the island’s defenses as tensions soar with Beijing. The sale comes a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defiantly visited the self-governing democracy, prompting mainland China to launch a show of force that could be a
China on Thursday accused the United Nations of becoming a “thug and accomplice of the US and the West” after the global body released a highly anticipated report warning crimes against humanity may have taken place in the Xinjiang region. The landmark report detailed a string of rights violations including torture and forced labour against
Pyongyang on Friday accused the newly appointed UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights of being a “puppet of the US” and making “unpardonable reckless remarks” against the regime. The accusations came as the new rapporteur, Elizabeth Salmon, visited Seoul on her first trip since being appointed to the role last month. Salmon, a Peruvian
AFP – Bankrupt Sri Lanka will receive a conditional $2.9 billion bailout to repair its battered finances, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday, following a bruising economic crisis that saw the island nation’s president chased from the country. Months of acute food, fuel and medicine shortages, extended blackouts and runaway inflation have plagued the country after
The U.N. weather agency is predicting that the phenomenon known as La Nina is poised to last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” — the first this century — caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide. The World Meteorological Organization on Wednesday
AFP – Around 16 million people in the Chinese city of Chengdu will be effectively under lockdown from Thursday as authorities race to snuff out a new Covid-19 outbreak. China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid policy, stamping out virus flare-ups with snap shutdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines. Chengdu, in the
The Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday and lit up the capital with coloured lights to celebrate the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan after a brutal 20-year war. The country’s new rulers — not formally recognised by any other nation — have reimposed their harsh version of Islamic law on
Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War without bloodshed but failed to prevent the collapse of the Soviet Union, died on Tuesday at the age of 91, hospital officials in Moscow said. Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, forged arms reduction deals with the United States and partnerships with Western powers to remove the Iron Curtain that had divided Europe since World
A huge relief operation was under way Monday and international aid began trickling in as Pakistan struggled to deal with monsoon flooding that has affected more than 33 million people. Officials said 1,061 people have died since June when the seasonal rains began, but the final toll could be higher as hundreds of villages in the mountainous north have been cut off by flood-swollen rivers washing away
SINGAPORE, Aug 29 (Reuters) – The U.S dollar surged to a 20–year high against a basket of currencies on Monday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signalled interest rates would be kept higher for longer to bring down soaring inflation. The dollar index scaled to a fresh two-decade peak of 109.44 in the Asia trade, with greenback strength pushing other major currencies to new lows and putting pressure on its emerging
