International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s interim president Friday until Parliament elects a successor to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who resigned after mass protests over the country’s economic collapse forced him from office. Wickremesinghe was acting president since Rajapaksa fled the country on Wednesday after angry protesters had
Sri Lanka‘s main city, Colombo, was calm on Thursday as people waited for the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled to the Maldives to escape a popular uprising that erupted as the country struggled with an economic crisis. Rajapaksa was on his way to Singapore from the Maldives on Thursday, a Sri Lankan government source said. His decision on Wednesday
ISTANBUL/UNITED NATIONS, New York, July 14 (Reuters) – Ukraine, the United Nations and Turkey hailed progress at talks aiming to resume Black Sea grain exports blocked by Russia and ease the risk of starvation faced by millions, but an end to the war remained far off as heavy shelling continued on Thursday. Turkey’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar
Twitter sued Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday, trying to force him to complete his $44 billion takeover of the social media company by accusing him of “outlandish” and “bad faith” actions that have caused the platform irreparable harm and “wreaked havoc” on its stock price. Back in April, Musk pledged to pay $54.20 a
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency Wednesday as thousands of people mobbed the prime minister’s office after the country’s president flew to the Maldives, following months of widespread protests against an economic crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had promised at the weekend to resign on Wednesday and clear the way for a “peaceful transition of
AFP – US President Joe Biden lands in the Middle East on Wednesday for a trip that will see Israeli leaders urge tougher action against Iran, before a delicate stop in Saudi Arabia. The 79-year-old president’s visit to Jeddah on Friday will be the focus of the tour, after Biden branded Saudi Arabia a “pariah”
WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden, pausing from political pressures to bask in the glow of the cosmos, on Monday released the debut photo from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – an image of a galaxy cluster revealing the most detailed glimpse of the early universe ever seen. The White House sneak peek of Webb‘s first high-resolution, full–color image came on the eve of a larger unveiling of photos and spectrographic data that NASA
COLOMBO, July 11 (Reuters) – Sri Lanka‘s parliament will elect a new president on July 20, its speaker said on Monday, after protesters stormed the residences of the current president and prime minister, who have both offered to quit amid an economic meltdown. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had overseen a ruthless crushing of the Tamil Tigers insurgents as defence secretary, is set to resign on Wednesday. His brothers and nephew earlier
NEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) – The euro slid to a 20–year low and came closer to parity against the dollar on Monday on concerns that an energy crisis will tip the region into a recession, while the U.S. currency was boosted by expectations that the Federal Reserve will hike rates faster and further than
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday expanding a fast track to Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians. Until recently, only residents of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, large parts of which are under Russian control, were
NEW DELHI, July 11 (Reuters) – India is set to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, with each counting more than 1.4 billion residents this year, a United Nations report said on Monday, warning that high fertility would challenge economic growth. The world’s population, estimated to reach 8 billion by Nov.
(Reuters) – Elon Musk on Monday mocked Twitter Inc’s threat to sue him following his move to abandon the $44 billion takeover deal, tweeting the social media firm would need to disclose more information on bots and spam accounts. The series of tweets on Monday was Tesla Inc chief’s first public response since he made
