International news with relevance to Thai and regional readers
The race to be the next NATO boss is heating up. But it is a race run largely in the dark, with no sign of a winner yet. Jens Stoltenberg, the transatlantic military alliance’s Norwegian secretary-general, is due to step down at the end of September after nine years in post. Many alliance members would like his
A pair of premium melons from Japan’s northern city of Yubari has sold for 3.5 million yen, or about 25,000 dollars, at a festive market auction. The luxury fruit is a popular gift in Japan. Bidders’ calls rang out as about 260 first-harvest Yubari melons went under the hammer on Thursday at a wholesale market
Moscow said Thursday it was expelling five Swedish diplomats and closing Russia’s general consulate in Gothenburg and Sweden’s diplomatic mission in Saint Petersburg. “A decision was made to declare five Swedish diplomats persona non grata,” the Russian foreign ministry said, adding that the Swedish ambassador Malena Mard had been summoned and informed.
A car collided on Thursday (May 25) with the front gates of Downing Street, where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office and residence is based, London police said, adding one person had been arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving. “At around 16:20hrs a car collided with the gates of Downing Street on Whitehall. Armed officers arrested
The top US health official on Tuesday issued a stark warning to parents, tech companies and regulators, saying the evidence is growing that social media use may seriously harm children. In a lengthy advisory, US surgeon general Vivek Murthy said that while not without benefits, “there are ample indicators that social media can also have
Pressure from the West is strengthening Russia’s ties with China, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing Wednesday. Mishustin’s visit comes as Russia is increasingly turning to China for diplomatic and economic support amid growing isolation over its invasion of Ukraine. In opening remarks at his meeting
TikTok on Monday filed suit in US federal court to stop the state of Montana from implementing an overall ban on the video-sharing app. The unprecedented ban, set to start in 2024, violates the constitutionally protected right to free speech, TikTok argued in the suit. “We believe our legal challenge will prevail based on an
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow’s foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of deals on infrastructure and trade. Mishustin arrived late Monday in Shanghai, the ministry said, where he was greeted at the airport by Moscow’s ambassador to
China Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong has summoned the Japanese ambassador to register protests over “hype around China-related issues” at the Group of Seven (G7) summit over the weekend, a ministry statement late on Sunday said. Sun said Japan collaborated with the other countries at the G7 summit “in activities and joint declarations … to smear and attack China, grossly interfering
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will plead for diplomatic and military support in Hiroshima Sunday as he addresses G7 allies and a few nations who have pointedly declined to condemn Russia’s invasion. In a surprise trip to a city synonymous with the horror of nuclear war, Zelensky began his day huddling with G7 leaders. Later he
G7 leaders on Saturday warned China over its “militarisation activities” in the Asia-Pacific region but said the bloc also wanted “constructive and stable relations” with Beijing. In a final communique issued at a summit in Hiroshima, the nations laid out a raft of concerns about China’s economic and military activities. But they also sought to
US President Joe Biden on Sunday invited the leaders of Japan and South Korea to formal three-way talks in Washington, a senior US administration official said. The leaders met briefly on the sidelines of the G7 summit, to which host Japan invited South Korea as long-frosty ties between the neighbours thaw. Tokyo and Seoul, both
