2 w. ago China’s Wang Yi takes aim at Japan in call with South Korean foreign minister

With less than a week to go until a presidential summit, China’s top diplomat has used talks with his South Korean counterpart to reassert Beijing’s stand on Taiwan and take aim at Tokyo. In a phone call with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Wednesday, China’s Wang Yi raised the spectre of Japan’s colonial past to get support for his country’s position on Taiwan. Wang accused “certain political forces in Japan” of trying to “reverse the course of history and whitewash [the country’s]...

Politics

3 w. ago Britain’s King Charles calls for ‘reconciliation’ in Christmas speech

Britain’s King Charles called for “compassion and reconciliation” at a time of “division” across the world in his Christmas Day message on Thursday. The 77-year-old monarch said he found it “enormously encouraging” how people of different faiths had a “shared longing for peace”. Charles praised individuals who risked their lives to save others in situations of violence, including those caught up in the killings at a Jewish event at Bondi Beach in Australia this month. “Individuals and...

Politics

3 w. ago Jimmy Kimmel takes aim at Trump in ‘alternative Christmas message’ to UK

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel took aim at US President Donald Trump as he warned on Thursday about the rise of fascism in an address to UK viewers dubbed “The Alternative Christmas Message.” The message, aired on Channel 4 on Christmas Day, reflected on the impact from the second term in office for Trump, who Kimmel said acts like he is a king. “From a fascism perspective, this has been a really great year,” he said. “Tyranny is booming over here.” The channel began a tradition of airing an...

Politics

3 w. ago Pope Leo calls for end to all wars in first Christmas as pontiff

In an appeal on Thursday during a message and blessing given at Christmas and Easter, Pope Leo called for an end to all global wars. Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica to thousands of people in the square below, he lamented conflicts, political, social or military, in Ukraine, Sudan, Mali, Myanmar, and Thailand and Cambodia, among others. Leo said people in Ukraine, where Russian troops are threatening cities critical to the country’s eastern defences, have been...

Events

3 w. ago Hong Kong’s Cardinal Chow says celebrating Christmas will bring hope after Tai Po fire

Hong Kong’s top Catholic priest has said the city’s deadliest fire in decades underscored the fragility of life, but celebrating Christmas amid the grief would share the “sweetness, acidity, bitterness, and heat of our humanity”. Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, head of the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong, said in his Christmas message on Tuesday that the festival also pointed towards “a clear way out to a radically new and promising life”, following the blaze in Tai Po that broke out on November 26...

Events

3 w. ago Hong Kong’s Cardinal Chow says celebrating Christmas will bring hope after fire

Hong Kong’s top Catholic priest has said the city’s deadliest fire in decades underscored the fragility of life, but celebrating Christmas amid the grief would share the “sweetness, acidity, bitterness and heat of our humanity”. Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, head of the Catholic diocese of Hong Kong, said in his Christmas message on Tuesday that the festival also pointed towards “a clear way out to a radically new and promising life”, following the blaze in Tai Po that broke out on November 26...

Events