14 h. ago Trump hits Denmark and 7 other Nato allies with tariffs for opposing US on Greenland

Opening a new front in his worldwide tariff onslaught, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would impose a 10 per cent import tax on the United Kingdom and six European countries for opposing his plan to purchase Greenland and that the rate would more than double if they did not let him acquire the Danish territory. His announcement on social media two weeks to the day after he abducted Venezuela’s president from Caracas marks the latest chapter in a tumultuous start to 2026, even by...

Politics

45 h. ago Trump’s Hard Line in Latin America Leaves China Room to Maneuver

Trump’s Hard Line in Latin America Leaves China Room to Maneuver  Bloomberg.com

Politics

45 h. ago Trump pick for South America command sidesteps China questions at Senate hearing

Days after the operation that abducted then Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump’s nominee to command US forces in Latin America dodged pressure from senators to endorse a military-first plan to counter China’s growing influence in the region. Lieutenant General Francis Donovan, who is nominated to lead US Southern Command (Southcom), repeatedly declined to say whether Washington should rely mainly on force projection to push back against Beijing’s expanding footprint. The...

Politics

67 h. ago Trump draws red line on Iran as China buys billions in sanctioned oil

Trump draws red line on Iran as China buys billions in sanctioned oil  Fox Business

Politics

3 d. ago Why the US may find Iran’s air defence system harder to break than Venezuela’s

A bit more than a week after the United States abducted former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a raid on Caracas, US President Donald Trump is threatening military action against Iran, which is seeing a massive wave of anti-government protests. Yet a strike aimed at taking out the Iranian leadership could prove harder, given that Iran’s more sophisticated air defence system is also reported to be integrating China’s most advanced exported technology. On Tuesday, Trump wrote on his social...

Politics

4 d. ago US 'kill line' in stark contrast to China's supportive policies

US 'kill line' in stark contrast to China's supportive policies  China Daily

Events

5 d. ago Japan’s Takaichi seeks unity with South Korea’s Lee as China tensions persist

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will push for closer ties with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung at a summit on Tuesday, as Tokyo struggles to draw a line under its widening diplomatic dispute with China. Both sides will focus on security challenges and Takaichi is expected to avoid “divisive” issues, while Lee, who last week met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, will try to achieve a “neutral” stance, analysts say. Lee’s two-day visit to Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, comes at a...

Events

5 d. ago Trump sets meeting with Machado as Venezuela frees more prisoners

Washington announced Monday that Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado will meet US President Donald Trump this week as pressure grew on the interim leadership in Caracas to speed up the release of political prisoners. Machado has been sidelined by Washington since US forces seized long-term authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3 and the Trump administration announced it would be “running” Venezuela. Disregarding Machado and her understudy Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Trump...

Events

5 d. ago Cuba’s president denies being in talks with US after Trump threats

Cuba’s leader on Monday reacted defiantly to US President Donald Trump’s threats to “make a deal” or pay the price in the aftermath of key ally Nicolas Maduro’s ouster in a US military raid. Trump has been ramping up pressure on Cuba, one of the few Latin American countries still run by an authoritarian leftist administration after Venezuelan leader Maduro’s capture on January 3. “We’re talking with Cuba,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Sunday, hours after urging Havana to do a deal to head...

Politics

5 d. ago China: Rights of all countries to conduct activities in Arctic in line with law should be respected

China: Rights of all countries to conduct activities in Arctic in line with law should be respected  chinadailyasia.com

Politics

6 d. ago ‘Strictly forbidden’: China warns hikers off Aotai Line after 3 die on infamous trail

Chinese authorities have again stressed that hiking on the deadly Aotai Line in northwestern China is illegal after three more people died on what Chinese media has described as the country’s “most dangerous hiking route”. “It is strictly forbidden to conduct unauthorised hiking traverses and similar activities [on the Aotai trail],” the General Administration of Sport’s mountaineering management centre said in a notice on Friday. “Recently, five individuals undertook an unauthorised crossing of...

Events

6 d. ago ‘Strictly forbidden’: China warns hikers off Aotai Line after 3 die on trail

‘Strictly forbidden’: China warns hikers off Aotai Line after 3 die on trail  South China Morning Post

Events

7 d. ago How the US raid in Venezuela has triggered Brazilian fury and a Chinese opening

Last weekend, following the US military operation in Venezuela abducting its leader, Nicolas Maduro, Brazil’s president denounced the attack as a “flagrant violation of international law” and having “crossed an unacceptable line”. “These acts represent a grave affront to Venezuela’s sovereignty and yet another extremely dangerous precedent for the entire international community,” Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wrote on social media. Lula, who said attacking countries was “the first step towards a...

Politics

7 d. ago Trump declares US national emergency to protect Venezuela oil money

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting US-held money derived from sales of Venezuelan oil, after the ousting of Nicolas Maduro, the White House said. In an order signed on Friday, Trump – who has made clear that tapping Venezuela’s vast oil reserves was a key goal in the US ousting of Maduro – is acting “to advance US foreign policy objectives”, the White House said in a fact sheet accompanying the order. The action follows a meeting Friday in Washington where Trump...

Politics

8 d. ago Greenland. Greenland. Greenland. Why is Trump so fixed on the US having it?

US President Donald Trump has revived his ambition to take control of Greenland, whether by buying it or through military action, arguing that it would be in the interests of his nation’s security. Greenland is a semi-autonomous territory of US Nato ally Denmark and the idea of buying it was widely dismissed as absurd when Trump first suggested it in 2019. This time, in the aftermath of the weekend abduction of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, the proposition sent shock waves across Europe and...

Politics

9 d. ago China FM Wang Yi opens Africa tour with united call for rules

China and the African Union issued a joint call to uphold an international law-based order, with particular respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, in a display of unity against Washington’s raid on Venezuela. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and African Union chief Mahmoud Ali Youssouf expressed concerns over the events in Venezuela in a statement released after their meeting in Ethiopia on Thursday. The United States raided Venezuela on Saturday and abducted its leader Nicolas...

Politics

9 d. ago Venezuela frees opposition figures and activists, which Trump says US requested

Venezuela released a number of imprisoned high-profile opposition figures, activists and journalists - both citizens and foreigners - on Thursday in what the government described as a gesture to “seek peace” less than a week after former president Nicolas Maduro was captured by US forces to face drug-trafficking charges. US President Donald Trump, who has been pressuring Maduro allies now leading the country to fold to his vision for the future of the oil-rich nation, said the releases came at...

Politics

9 d. ago Macron slams US for ‘breaking free’ from global rules after Maduro raid, Greenland threat

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that the United States was “breaking free from international rules”, and “gradually turning away” from some of its allies. Macron delivered his annual speech to French ambassadors at the Elysee Palace as European powers are scrambling to come up with a coordinated response to US assertive foreign policy in the western hemisphere following Washington’s capture of Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro and Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland. “The...

Politics

1 week ago North Korea’s Kim expected to cling to nuclear security blanket after Venezuela operation

The United States’ decapitation operation against Venezuela will reinforce North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, an aspiration that will continue to draw China’s “tacit tolerance”, according to analysts. After the US military abducted Nicolas Maduro during an attack on Venezuela on Saturday, Pyongyang criticised Washington’s actions as “wildly” violating the sovereignty of Caracas. It was one of a slew of countries that issued swift criticism of the US move. In a statement on Sunday, the North Korean...

Events

1 week ago Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: China town reports – Part 4

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: China town reports – Part 4  The Town Line Newspaper

Politics