France and its allies on Monday drummed up aid pledges of over two billion euros ($2.1 billion) for Sudan a year after civil war erupted sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 8.5 million more forced to flee their homes since fighting broke out on … Read more
Donald Trump goes to court Monday as the first US ex-president ever to be criminally prosecuted, a seismic moment for the United States as the presumptive Republican nominee campaigns to re-take the White House. The scandal-plagued 77-year-old is accused of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with adult … Read more
Under Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore has held its own in an era of globalised finance and cutting-edge tech, while continuing his venerated father’s policy of muzzling free media and snuffing out dissent. But the premier announced Monday he will step down next month, passing the baton to his deputy Lawrence Wong, the second … Read more
Israel launched dozens of air strikes on Gaza overnight, Hamas said Monday, as the army said it will not be distracted from the war after Iran’s unprecedented attack heightened fears of wider conflict. World powers have urged restraint after Iran late Saturday launched more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel, though the Israeli military … Read more
The ferry sank live on television as the children on board sent desperate text messages to their parents — 10 years after South Korea’s worst-ever maritime disaster, families are still reckoning with the horror. Jung Sung-wook’s teenage son was one of 304 people who died when the overloaded Sewol ferry capsized off South Korea’s southern … Read more
Australian police said Monday they are investigating why a 40-year-old man with mental illness appeared to target women as he roamed a Sydney shopping mall with a large knife, killing six people and injuring a dozen more. Videos shared on social media showed unshaven itinerant Joel Cauchi pursuing mostly female victims as he rampaged through … Read more
In front of the Eiffel Tower, stands are emerging from a tangle of scaffolding, while at the historic Place de la Concorde, forklift trucks buzz around carrying building materials. Across and around Paris, plans that have been on the drawing board for seven years since the city won the right to host the 2024 Olympics … Read more
Iran’s attack on Israel gives Joe Biden a familiar dilemma, but on steroids — how to balance support for a difficult ally while preventing the nightmare scenario of a wider war? Tensions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s war on Gaza were papered over as the US president offered “ironclad” support, including shooting down … Read more
Solomon Islanders will head to the polls this week, voting in an election that promises to bolster or blunt China’s regional ambitions, with security consequences that will ripple far beyond the Pacific nation’s palm-fringed shores. The archipelago, one of the world’s least-developed countries, is the unlikely focal point of a diplomatic scramble pitting a rising … Read more
On a stretch of grass doubling as a parking lot in an impoverished Johannesburg township, a group of party activists chanted “we need new leaders!” timidly followed by a couple of dozen onlookers. “Rise Songezo, Rise!” they continued before introducing Songezo Zibi, the head of Rise Mzansi — a small party among a cohort of … Read more
