Author: News Desk

Taiwan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a game-plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island. Joseph Wu, who offered no time-table for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which is claimed by China as its own, said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued with China often breaching the unofficial median line down the Taiwan Strait. “China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu said at a press…

Former President Donald Trump said FBI agents raided his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday and broke into his safe in what his son acknowledged was part of an investigation into Trump’s removal of official presidential records from the White House to his Florida resort. The unprecedented search of a former president’s home would mark a significant escalation into the records investigation, which is one of several probes Trump is facing from his time in office and in private business. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment on the search, which Trump in a statement called a raid and said involved a…

The first night is always the hardest in Mykolaiv. Sleep is near impossible in a Ukrainian city that has been under almost constant Russian bombardment since the start of the war in February. Your mind is either racing – frantically trying to work out how close the latest explosion was, whether it was a missile or a rocket, a one-off or part of a salvo – or wondering how long it might be before the windows shudder again and the screaming blare of the air raid siren sounds. But if visitors like me, on my third trip to the city…

The UAE was represented at the signing ceremony by Dr. Abdulnasser Alshaali, Assistant Minister for Economic and Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC). Alshaali highlighted the shared values and deep-rooted relations between the UAE and ASEAN member states. “The signing of the TAC reflects the UAE’s keenness to strengthen and advance economic relations with ASEAN countries,” he said. He highlighted global challenges that demonstrate the increased importance of multilateral cooperation, especially within regional and international organizations such as ASEAN, Emirates News Agency (wam) reported. He also noted that the signing of the TAC represents…

King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) distributed 95 tons and 551 kilograms of food baskets to needy families in Marib Governorate, Yemen, benefiting 5,358 people. The move, within the project to support food security for 2022 implemented by the KSrelief in Yemen, aims to distribute more than 192,000 food baskets weighing more than 20,000 tons to the needy and affected families in 15 Yemeni governorates. KSrelief also continued distributing food baskets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. As many as 1,137 food baskets weighing 108 tons were distributed to the needy people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan, benefiting 7,959…

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, on Thursday reported flat quarterly revenue growth for the first time in its history, showing how China’s COVID lockdowns have hit its business. The slowdown adds to challenges facing China’s e-commerce giant, which has enjoyed double-digit revenue growth almost every quarter since it went public in 2014, as it navigates Beijing’s crackdown on tech companies as well as its scrutiny of founder Jack Ma. Still, Alibaba’s performance was better than expected and its shares jumped 5% in pre-market trading. China locked down dozens of cities between April and May as the Omicron COVID variant swept through…

China fired multiple missiles around Taiwan on Thursday, launching unprecedented military drills a day after a visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory. The exercises, China’s largest ever in the Taiwan Strait, began as scheduled at midday and included live-firing in the waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, bringing tensions in the area to their highest in a quarter century. China’s Eastern Theatre Command said at around 3:30 p.m. (0730 GMT) it had completed multiple firings of conventional missiles in waters off the eastern…

Russia backed China on Tuesday over an expected visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, warning Washington that such a provocative trip would put the United States on a collision course with Beijing. Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned U.S. President Joe Biden against playing with fire over Taiwan in a call last week but three sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Pelosi was still set to visit the island. “We cannot say for sure right now whether she will or will not get there, but everything about this tour and the possible visit to Taiwan is…

Chinese warplanes buzzed the line dividing the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday shortly before the expected arrival in Taipei of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi for a visit that has pushed friction between Washington and Beijing to a new level. The Chinese leadership has repeatedly warned against Pelosi, a long-time critic of Beijing, making a trip to self-ruled Taiwan, which China claims as its own. In the latest rhetorical salvo, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that U.S. politicians who “play with fire” on the Taiwan issue will “come to no good end”. The United States said…

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in a U.S. strike in Afghanistan over the weekend, the biggest blow to the militant group since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011. Zawahiri had been in hiding for years and the operation to locate and kill him was the result of “careful patient and persistent” work by the counter-terrorism and intelligence community, a senior administration official told reporters. Until the U.S. announcement, Zawahiri had been rumored variously to be in Pakistan’s tribal area or inside Afghanistan. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official provided the following details on…