International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
At a red-brick factory in the German port city of Hamburg, cocoa bean shells go in one end, and out the other comes an amazing black powder with the potential to counter climate change. The substance, dubbed biochar, is produced by heating the cocoa husks in an oxygen-free room to 600 degrees Celsius (1,112 Fahrenheit).
At least 233 people were killed and 900 were injured when two passenger trains collided in India’s Odisha state, a government official said on Saturday, making the rail accident the country’s deadliest in more than a decade. The death toll from Friday’s crash is expected to rise, the state’s Chief Secretary Pradeep Jena said on
Chinese dissidents who took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests unveiled a museum in New York on Friday dedicated to remembering the “democratic dreams of the Chinese people,” two days ahead of the 34th anniversary of the uprising’s “brutal suppression.” “The events of 1989 had an impact on China but also on the entire
Shelling rocked greater Khartoum on Friday, as fighting between Sudan’s warring generals intensified despite US sanctions imposed after the collapse of a US- and Saudi-brokered truce. Witnesses reported artillery fire around the state television building in the capital’s sister city of Omdurman, just across the Nile. For nearly seven weeks, deadly fighting between the regular
Moscow cannot stop Ukraine from becoming a NATO member, the alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, as divisions among allies about the speed of Kyiv’s accession became apparent only weeks before a decisive mid-July summit in Vilnius. “All allies agree that Moscow does not have a veto against NATO enlargement,” Stoltenberg told reporters as
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said during a trip to Moldova on Thursday that Ukraine was ready to be in the NATO military alliance, and that Kyiv was waiting for the bloc to be ready to admit his country. He also reiterated Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union after arriving in Moldova, which borders Ukraine, for
South Korean experts on Wednesday (May 31) said more analysis was needed for an accurate conclusion after inspecting facilities related to water release from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant. The inspection team of 21 experts visited Japan for six days from May 21 and conducted an on-site inspection of the plant, Seoul’s Yonhap
China’s burgeoning space program plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country’s orbiting space station, officials said Monday. Monday’s announcement comes amid against the background of a rivalry with the U.S. for reaching new milestones in outer space, reflecting their competition for influence on global events. That has conjured up
The United States and Saudi Arabia called on warring sides in Sudan to extend a fragile cease-fire due to expire Monday, as weeks of fighting reached a stalemate in the capital and elsewhere in the African country. The Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary force, battling for control of Sudan since mid-April, had agreed last
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed for national unity Monday after winning a historic runoff election that extended two decades of his transformative but divisive rule until 2028. The 69-year-old overcame Turkey’s worst economic crisis in a generation and the most powerful opposition alliance to ever face his Islamic-rooted party on his way to his
Ukraine’s capital was subjected to the largest drone attack since the start of Russia’s war, local officials said, as Kyiv prepared to mark the anniversary of its founding on Sunday. At least one person was killed. Russia launched the “most massive attack” on the city overnight Saturday with Iranian-made Shahed drones, said Serhii Popko, a
The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong sailed through the Taiwan Strait on Saturday accompanied by two other ships, Taiwan’s defence ministry said, in the latest uptick in military tensions over the island Beijing claims as its own territory. The ministry said the Shandong, commissioned in 2019, had sailed in a northerly direction around midday through the strait sticking
