International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Presidential electors are meeting across the United States on Monday to formally choose Joe Biden as the nation’s next president. Monday is the day set by law for the meeting of the Electoral College. In reality, electors meet in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to cast their ballots. The results will be
OTTAWA (Reuters) – The first COVID-19 vaccines landed on Canadian soil on Sunday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, and some Canadians are expected to roll up their sleeves for a shot as soon as Monday. Canada and the United States are set this week to become the first Western nations after the UK to begin
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga could further restrict a much-criticised travel subsidy programme in an effort to contain coronavirus infections, local media said on Sunday, as his approval rating plummets over the handling of the pandemic. While Japan has not seen the kind of massive outbreaks that have hit the United States
(Reuters) – Tractor trailers loaded with suitcase-sized containers of COVID-19 vaccine will leave Pfizer Inc’s manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Sunday morning – launching the largest and most complex vaccine distribution project in the United States, where the virus is raging. U.S. regulators late on Friday authorized the vaccine from Pfizer and partner BioNTech
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong democracy activist and media tycoon Jimmy Lai has been charged under the city’s national security law on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security, local media reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. Lai, an ardent critic of Beijing, would be the highest profile person charged under
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were jointly named Time magazine’s 2020 “Person of the Year” on Thursday, chosen from a list of finalists that included the man Biden vanquished at the polls – President Donald Trump. The Democratic former vice president and his running mate, a California
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A passenger aboard a Royal Caribbean ‘cruise-to-nowhere’ from Singapore has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing around 2,000 guests to be quarantined in their cabins and the Quantum of the Seas ship to return to dock on Wednesday. Singapore has been piloting the trips, which are open only to residents, make no stops
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) – President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday laid out his plan to fight the coronavirus pandemic during his first 100 days in office, saying his administration would vaccinate 100 million Americans, push to reopen schools and strengthen mask mandates. Biden, who formally introduced his public health team on Tuesday, also announced he would
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong police arrested eight more activists on Tuesday over anti-government protests last year, the latest move in a relentless crackdown on opposition forces in the Chinese-ruled city. The police did not identify the people, saying only that they were aged between 24 and 64. Local media said former pro-democracy lawmaker
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will compile a fresh economic stimulus package worth 73.6 trillion yen ($708 billion), Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday, signalling his resolve to pull the country out of its coronavirus crisis-induced slump. The new stimulus package will include fiscal spending worth around 40 trillion yen, Suga said in a meeting
A Chinese space probe has lifted off from the surface of the Moon to return to Earth, an ambitious effort to bring back the first lunar samples in four decades. Beijing is looking to catch up with the US and Russia after taking decades to match its rivals’ achievements and has poured billions into its
Joshua Wong, 24, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent democracy activists, was jailed on Wednesday for 13-1/2 months for his role in an unlawful anti-government rally in 2019, the toughest and most high-profile sentencing of an opposition figure this year. Wong’s sentence comes as critics say the Beijing-backed government is intensifying a crackdown on Hong
