2 h. ago Ukraine could buy up to 150 Gripen fighter planes from Sweden

Ukraine could buy up to 150 Gripen fighter jets, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Wednesday after the signing of a letter of intent on stepping up aviation cooperation between the two countries. Speaking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a press conference, Kristersson said the letter of intent would create the conditions for a “very large defence industry deal”. “Probably somewhere between 100 and 150 fighter jets of the model Gripen E that are now beginning to be...

Politics

5 h. ago Israel advances West Bank annexation bill during J.D. Vance visit

A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, a move tantamount to annexation of land which Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday. The vote was the first of four needed to pass the law, and it coincided with the visit of US Vice-President J.D. Vance to Israel, a month after President Donald Trump said that he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party did not support the...

Politics

5 h. ago In Beijing and Delhi, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Aimed to Balance Consequential Relationships

In Beijing and Delhi, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Aimed to Balance Consequential Relationships  The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine

Politics

17 h. ago Doing ‘fantastic job’: Australian PM defends envoy Rudd amid Trump’s dislike

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese endorsed Australia’s ambassador in Washington as doing a “fantastic job”, describing comments by US President Donald Trump that he does not like Kevin Rudd as “lighthearted”. Australia’s main conservative opposition party has called for Rudd, a former Labor prime minister, to be sacked after Trump made the comments at a press briefing in Washington on Monday. Asked by an Australian reporter about Rudd’s past criticism of the president on social media, and told...

Politics

26 h. ago Why China Is Worried About Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s New Prime Minister

Why China Is Worried About Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s New Prime Minister  Forbes

Politics

31 h. ago ‘Stealth husband’: Japan PM Takaichi’s spouse shuns the spotlight

Taku Yamamoto, husband of Japan’s first female Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, said he hopes to support his wife as a “stealth husband”, adding, “Unlike in the West, it is better for the partner to stay out of the spotlight here.” A former fellow Liberal Democratic Party member in the House of Representatives, Yamamoto said he was initially “drawn to the contrast” between Takaichi’s tough exterior and her femininity. The couple, who married in 2004, divorced in 2017 over political differences but...

Events

38 h. ago Takaichi becomes Japan’s first female PM, ending political crisis

Japan’s parliament elected ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi as the country’s first female prime minister on Tuesday after her governing party secured a crucial coalition partner. Takaichi, 64, replaced Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote, ending Japan’s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition’s loss in the July parliamentary election. The moderate centrist Komeito party had split from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after a 26-year-long...

Politics

49 h. ago Trump downplays Beijing threat to Taiwan as Australia touts rare earths deal

After nearly a year waiting to meet US President Donald Trump, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to argue his country’s strategic value Monday – only for the “America first” leader to dominate the encounter by opining that Beijing had no plans to invade Taiwan and posed no real threat in the Indo-Pacific. “China doesn’t want to do that,” he insisted on Taiwan, during a press gaggle alongside Albanese, but later stated that the island will be one of the topics of discussion when...

Politics

54 h. ago ‘Stolen too soon’: Nepal mourns hero hostage returned from Gaza after ceasefire

Nepal’s interim prime minister on Monday draped a national flag over the coffin of returned Gaza hostage Bipin Joshi, released under the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. “Bipin is a son of all Nepali mothers,” Sushila Karki said at a ceremony held at the airport in Kathmandu, after his body was flown back to the capital from Tel Aviv. “The name Bipin will be immortal, no one can forget him for his bravery and the hardships he had to face.” Joshi, an agriculture student who was 22 when...

Events

55 h. ago Mongolia’s president blocks PM’s dismissal amid mineral tax row

Mongolia’s president vetoed the dismissal of the country’s prime minister on Monday, days after parliament had voted to remove him. A majority of lawmakers voted to dismiss Gombojav Zandanshatar on Friday after weeks of political infighting and a dispute over a policy that changed how mineral exporters are taxed. The prime minister is a member of the ruling Mongolian People’s Party, along with President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, who blocked the sacking. Parliament did not have a quorum when it began...

Politics

64 h. ago End Russian oil imports or ‘massive’ tariffs will remain, Trump warns India

US President Donald Trump reiterated on Sunday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him India would stop buying Russian oil, while warning that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not do so. “I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they...

Events

3 d. ago Is it time for property investors to end their love affair with Japan?

As Japan enters a new era with the likely election of Sanae Takaichi as the first female prime minister of Asia’s second-largest economy, is it time for property investors to end their enduring love affair with Japanese real estate? The 64-year-old Takaichi emerged last week as the leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, paving the way for her to seek the premiership, although uncertainties remain following the collapse of a coalition with the party’s allies. Under an anticipated...

Society

3 d. ago Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed, Israeli PM says

The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, adding its reopening will depend on Hamas handing over bodies of deceased hostages. Netanyahu’s statement came shortly after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt announced that the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for Gazans to leave and enter the enclave, would reopen on Monday for entry into Gaza. Hamas, in a statement late on Saturday, said...

Politics

4 d. ago Hamas sends Israel another hostage’s body, vows to return the rest

Hamas handed over to Israel the remains of one more hostage on Friday night, after insisting it was committed to returning all the dead captives still unaccounted for under Gaza’s ruins after two years of war. “Israel received, via the Red Cross, the coffin of a deceased hostage who was returned” to its security forces in Gaza and would be identified at a medical analysis centre in Israel, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas...

Politics

5 d. ago Polish court blocks extradition, frees Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream blasts

A Polish court on Friday blocked the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and ordered his release, a ruling that was welcomed by Poland’s prime minister. Volodymyr Zhuravlov, 46, was arrested near Warsaw on September 30 on a German warrant. German prosecutors have described him as a trained diver and allege that he was part of a group that placed explosives on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm three...

Events

5 d. ago Mongolia’s prime minister ousted in ruling party power struggle

Mongolia’s parliament has voted to oust the prime minister in an unusually public power struggle within the ruling Mongolian People’s Party. Opponents of Prime Minister Zandanshatar Gombojav managed to pass a controversially worded resolution on Friday that effectively dismissed him from office. The parliament was also debating a request to resign from its chair, Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve, the prime minister’s chief rival in the internal party struggle. It was not immediately clear who might...

Politics

5 d. ago Turbulent Japanese politics could slow progress with China, South Korea: analysts

Japan’s unstable political landscape is expected to cast doubt over its diplomatic commitments and could hinder progress in its trilateral summit with China and South Korea, analysts have observed. Uncertainties are mounting as the path to the Japanese premiership for recently elected Liberal Democratic Party leader Sanae Takaichi has been complicated by the abrupt exit of the LDP’s junior coalition partner, Komeito. Takaichi, aiming to be Japan’s first female prime minister, remains short of...

Politics

5 d. ago Carney walks fine line between Washington, Beijing as Ottawa weighs EV tariffs

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday said he expects to meet senior Chinese leaders in the “coming month or so” as part of a broad re-engagement with Beijing, but declined to say whether Ottawa will lift tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. “We are in the process of having those discussions on a much broader range of issues than single sectors and single trades,” Carney said at a press conference. “And when we look at the auto sector, we take into account the dynamics with the United...

Politics

6 d. ago France’s PM survives confidence votes amid pension reform row

French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu weathered two confidence motions on Thursday, just days after appointing his new government and making a key political concession to stay in power. The votes followed Lecornu’s decision on Tuesday to back suspending a divisive 2023 pension reform, in a bid to keep his cabinet afloat long enough to pass a much-needed austerity budget by year’s end. The leftist Socialist Party (PS) had threatened to vote to oust the premier if he didn’t move to freeze the...

Politics

6 d. ago For the first time in years, Japan’s opposition sees a route to power

With Japan’s parliament poised to vote on who it wants to next lead the country, a resurgent opposition and the collapse of the ruling coalition have put the prospect of the nation’s first female prime minister in real doubt. On Tuesday, the leaders of Japan’s principal opposition factions agreed to convene in hopes of fielding a unified candidate for the top job, as they aim to break the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) 13-year grip on power. “It will be essential for us to achieve consensus on...

Politics