International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
Five bodies of people who were trapped under a tunnel submerged by heavy rains in central South Korea were pulled out on Sunday, firefighting authorities said, taking the death toll from the days of torrential rains that pounded the country to 31. The five people were found from a bus that has been submerged at
The Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis and the war in Ukraine have pushed 165 million people into poverty since 2020, the United Nations said Thursday, calling for a pause in debt repayments for developing countries. Because of these shocks, 75 million people will have fallen into extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2.15
France’s president has awarded the country’s top honour to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the presidency said on Friday ahead of Bastille Day celebrations where he is the featured guest. Emmanuel Macron awarded Modi the grand cross of the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour), the highest grade of France’s order of merit that “salutes the role
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have gotten support and vague assurances from NATO leaders in Vilnius this week, but he ultimately returns home without a clear commitment that his country will be joining the club any time soon. Instead, the alliance leaders said they were removing obstacles on Ukraine’s membership path so that it can
Philippine censors said Wednesday they have allowed the Barbie film to be shown in cinemas, after asking its Hollywood distributor to blur lines on a brightly-coloured world map drawing allegedly showing China’s claims to the disputed South China Sea. The fantasy comedy film about the famous doll, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is set to open in the
UN chief Antonio Guterres denounced Wednesday a global financial system where nearly half the world’s people live in countries whose governments spend more on debt than education or health. “Half our world is sinking into a development disaster, fuelled by a crushing debt crisis,” said the secretary-general, presenting a United Nations report on the state
A sickly ginger kitten named Bebe is pulled out of a cat carrier at a veterinary clinic in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia. The six-month-old is suffering from a strain of feline coronavirus that is wreaking havoc on the prolific cat population of Cyprus. Cats are everywhere on the eastern Mediterranean island, home to the earliest
Rikkie Valerie Kollé has been named Miss Netherlands 2023, becoming the first transgender woman to take the title, according to multiple outlets. After winning the pageant on Saturday, Kollé will advance to represent her Dutch homeland at the Miss Universe pageant, set to take place in El Salvador later this year. The 22-year-old was crowned
Torrential rain has been pounding southwestern Japan, triggering floods and mudslides and leaving two people dead and at least six others missing Monday. Rains falling on the regions of Kyushu and Chugoku since the weekend caused flooding along a number of rivers as well as mudslides, closing roads, disrupting trains and cutting the water supply
A 25-year-old man was suspected of attacking a kindergarten in China’s Guangdong province on Monday, killing six people and injuring one, police said. Media reported the attack in Lianjiang county was a stabbing. The suspect, with the surname Wu and from Lianjiang, had been detained, police said, adding they were investigating. No other details were
Nearly 50,000 Russian men have died in the war in Ukraine, according to the first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead. Two independent Russian media outlets, Mediazona and Meduza, working with a data scientist from Germany’s Tübingen University, used Russian government data to shed light on one of Moscow’s closest-held secrets — the true
The BBC said Sunday it had contacted the authorities and suspended a presenter following allegations that he had paid a teenager tens of thousands of pounds for sexually explicit photos. UK culture minister Lucy Frazer said earlier she had spoken about the “deeply concerning” allegations with BBC Director General Tim Davie, who assured her the
