High-altitude balloons from the U.S. have overflown China’s airspace “more than 10 times” in the past year, a Chinese official said on Monday. Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the U.S. balloons “illegally overflew Chinese airspace” without the approval of relevant government departments, without elaborating. U.S. dirigibles operating in the airspace […]
Category: Foreign
Over 11,000 dead in Turkey/Syria earthquake
Thinly-stretched rescue teams worked through the night into Wednesday, pulling the living and dead from the rubble of thousands of buildings destroyed in Turkey and Syria by catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks that have killed over 11,000. Amid calls for the Turkish government to send more help to the disaster zone, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
Putin plans new Ukraine offensive as US approves more weapons
“We are again being threatened by German Leopard tanks,” Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Thursday on a visit to Volgograd, where he commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Red Army’s World War II victory over Nazi forces in Stalingrad. As he so often has in the past year, Putin made a direct comparison between his […]
Portuguese pooch is the world’s oldest dog
Two weeks after Guinness World Records announced a 23-year-old Chihuahua as the world’s oldest living dog, a much more senior canine came out of the woodwork to claim the title. Bobi is 30 years and 266 days old as of Feb. 1, according to Guinness. He is a purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo, a livestock guardian […]
N. Korea says US drills are turning region into a ‘War Zone’
North Korea said on Thursday that drills by the United States and its allies have reached an “extreme red-line” and threaten to turn the peninsula into a “huge war arsenal and a more critical war zone.” The Foreign Ministry statement, carried by state news agency KCNA, said Pyongyang was not interested in dialogue as long […]
Canada experiments with decriminalising hard drugs
Canada’s province of British Columbia is starting a first-in-the-nation trial decriminalising small amounts of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. From Tuesday, adults can possess up to 2.5g of such drugs, as well as methamphetamine, fentanyl and morphine. Canada’s federal government granted the request by the west coast province to try out the three-year […]
Is Putin bluffing over West’s escalation?
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials have warned multiple times over the 11 months since the invasion of Ukraine started that Western inference could result in an escalation. However, the United States and other Western allies of Ukraine have repeatedly crossed Putin’s supposed red lines. “If the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, […]
Corruption rampant in Zelensky cabinet
A string of resignations, dismissals and reassignments shook Ukraine’s government Monday and Tuesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other leaders of the government confirmed the shakeup of high-level positions. A liaison for Ukraine’s Cabinet informed the country’s parliament that it had dismissed six deputy ministers and five regional administrators for undisclosed reasons. During his […]
Russian official warns West of global destruction
The speaker of Russia’s parliament warned Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their own destruction, a message that followed new pledges of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment but not the battle tanks Kyiv requested. “Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” […]
Zelensky says West’s indecision is killing Ukrainians
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that the West’s “indecision” over sending extra weapons to Ukraine is “killing more of our people”. “Every day of delay is the death of Ukrainians,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter. His remarks come after Ukraine’s defence minister said he had a “frank discussion” with his German counterpart […]
Canada’s new alcohol guidance; 2 drinks a week
In Canada, it should be Dry January all year round, according to new national recommendations that say zero alcohol is the only risk-free approach. If you must drink at all, two drinks maximum each week is deemed low-risk by the government-backed guidance. The advice is a steep drop from the previous recommendation, published in 2011. […]
Russia claims it has captured Ukraine’s Soledar
After months of fighting, Russia’s ministry of defense claims it has captured the eastern Ukrainian town of Soledar — a claim that Ukrainian military officials deny. If taken, the salt-mining town would be a rare military victory for Russia in its Ukraine war. A spokesperson for the Ukrainian military, Serhiy Cherevaty, says that Russia’s statements […]