16 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

18 h. ago Belarusian model reportedly killed in Myanmar went there on her own: Thai police

Thai immigration officials have denied claims that a Belarusian model was abducted while in Bangkok and forcibly taken to Myanmar, where tabloids claim she was reportedly killed by a criminal gang. The unconfirmed death of 26-year-old Vera Kravtsova has gained international attention in recent days after Russian and British tabloids reported that, following her arrival in Thailand, she was kidnapped and brought to northern Myanmar, where she was tortured and had her organs harvested while being...

Events

49 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

66 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

3 d. ago Myanmar junta raids scam hub powered by Elon Musk’s Starlink

Myanmar’s junta raided one of the country’s most notorious internet scam centres and seized Starlink devices, it said on Monday, after an investigation had revealed an explosion in their use in the billion-dollar black market. Internet sweat shops where workers scam unsuspecting foreigners with business or romance schemes have thrived in war-ravaged Myanmar’s lawless border regions since the coronavirus pandemic. A transnational push by Thai, Chinese and Myanmar authorities starting in February...

Politics

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

6 d. ago US Chamber of Commerce sues Trump administration over US$100,000 H

The largest American business lobbying group filed a lawsuit on Thursday challenging US President Donald Trump’s US$100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The lawsuit by the US Chamber of Commerce, which says it represents 300,000 businesses, is the group’s first against the Trump administration since the Republican president took office for a second term in January. The chamber says in the lawsuit that Trump’s September proclamation imposing the fee on new H-1B visa...

Politics

6 d. ago EU and China lawmakers spar over Moscow, Taipei in first talks since 2018

Lawmakers from Brussels and Beijing clashed on Russia and Taiwan, during their first official talks for seven years in the Belgian capital on Thursday. EU lawmakers and other people present said delegates from the National People’s Congress (NPC) echoed Russian narratives on the cause of the three-year war in Ukraine, as they visited the European Parliament for the first dialogue since 2018, following a normalisation of ties earlier this year. “The Chinese side questioned Nato’s right to exist....

Politics

6 d. ago Brussels and Beijing lawmakers spar over Russia, Taiwan in first talks since 2018

Lawmakers from Brussels and Beijing clashed on Russia and Taiwan, during their first official talks for seven years in the Belgian capital on Thursday. EU lawmakers and other people present said delegates from the National People’s Congress (NPC) echoed Russian narratives on the cause of the three-year war in Ukraine, as they visited the European Parliament for the first dialogue since 2018, following a normalisation of ties earlier this year. “The Chinese side questioned Nato’s right to exist....

Politics

7 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

7 d. ago China airs confession from northern Myanmar crime boss Wei Hauiren

Criminal gangs in northern Myanmar targeted Chinese citizens with the support of local political and military leaders, state media has reported. On Wednesday, the national broadcaster CCTV aired a confession from the head of an alleged crime family Wei Huairen, who is also known as Wai San. Wei was handed over to Chinese law enforcement in January. A police officer told the broadcaster that the criminal activities of the Wei family – one of the main ethnically Chinese crime gangs in Kokang – had...

Events

7 d. ago China airs confession from northern Myanmar crime boss Wei Huairen

Criminal gangs in northern Myanmar targeted Chinese citizens with the support of local political and military leaders, state media has reported. On Wednesday, the national broadcaster CCTV aired a confession from the head of an alleged crime family Wei Huairen, who is also known as Wai San. Wei was handed over to Chinese law enforcement in January. A police officer told the broadcaster that the criminal activities of the Wei family – one of the main ethnically Chinese crime gangs in Kokang – had...

Events

8 d. ago China court grants woman divorce 6 years after husband pushed her off Thai cliff

A court in China has granted the divorce application of a woman who survived after being pushed off a cliff in Thailand by her husband six years ago, sparking massive cheers on social media. Wang Nan, 38, better known online as Wang Nuannuan, suffered severe injuries after Yu Xiaodong pushed her off a 34-metre-high cliff while they were on holiday in a national park in Thailand in June 2019. She was pregnant for three months at the time and thus lost her unborn child in the autumn. Yu, who...

Events

8 d. ago From ‘love hotel’ meetings to abuse, Japanese politicians get mired in scandals

As Japan grapples with an uncertain leadership transition, a rash of domestic scandals risks further contributing to its political circus. In recent months, a female mayor has been accused of repeatedly taking a male subordinate to a nearby “love hotel”, another dissolved a city council after it was discovered that she had falsified her academic records, and a male mayor from Okinawa is accused of sexually harassing female staff. Elsewhere, a female mayor stepped down after being accused of...

Politics

8 d. ago Hong Kong MTR Corp CEO Jacob Kam named as next chairman of rail giant

The CEO of Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, Jacob Kam Chak-pui, will take the reins as chairman from January next year, tasked with leading the rail giant with added momentum to boost the city’s development and integration with mainland China. The government, the company’s majority shareholder with a stake of about 75 per cent, announced his promotion on Tuesday, saying Kam, 63, would succeed Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen, 73, for a three-year term until the end of 2028. Secretary for Transport and Logistics...

Politics

8 d. ago Singapore doubles down on zero tolerance for identity politics

Singapore’s government has reinforced its bottomline of zero tolerance for the politics of race and religion as well as foreign interference, arguing that such elements should be rejected swiftly. In parliament on Tuesday, Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh and Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam disagreed on the “timing” and “substance” of the WP in rejecting election endorsements by a self-styled Islamic preacher Noor Deros and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS)...

Politics

8 d. ago Madagascar’s exiled president dissolves parliament amid coup fears

Madagascar’s political turmoil escalated dramatically on Tuesday as President Andry Rajoelina, currently in an undisclosed location outside the capital, issued a decree dissolving the National Assembly. The move, which the opposition has immediately branded as illegal, is seen as a pre-emptive strike to block an opposition-led impeachment vote intended to force the beleaguered leader from office. Rajoelina has faced over two weeks of deadly street clashes, led largely by young demonstrators...

Politics

8 d. ago Madagascar’s exiled leader impeached amid Gen Z protests and military revolt

Madagascar’s lower house of parliament voted on Tuesday to impeach President Andry Rajoelina, who has fled abroad after a stand-off with youth-led protesters and the military. The National Assembly decision, by 130 yes votes to one blank ballot, came hours after the 51-year-old leader sought to dissolve the National Assembly by decree, deepening the Indian Ocean island’s political crisis. Despite flying out on a French military jet, Rajoelina is refusing to step down in defiance of weeks of Gen...

Events

8 d. ago Elite Madagascar military unit says taking power after president impeached

Madagascar’s military has taken charge of the Indian Ocean island, an army colonel said on Tuesday, after President Andry Rajoelina fled abroad during a stand-off with youth-led protesters and security forces. “We have taken the power,” Colonel Michael Randrianirina, who led a mutiny of soldiers joining anti-government Gen Z demonstrators, said on national radio. Randrianirina added that the military was dissolving all institutions – the country’s Senate, high constitutional court, electoral...

Events

8 d. ago Madagascar’s military takes power, as fleeing president is impeached

An army commander who led a mutiny in Madagascar said on Tuesday that the military had taken power after President Andry Rajoelina was impeached by lawmakers and forced to flee the country following weeks of youth-led protests. Rajoelina had refused to step down despite escalating Gen Z demonstrations demanding his resignation and widespread defections in the army. “We have taken the power,” Colonel Michael Randrianirina declared on national radio and said that the military was dissolving all...

Events