Xiamen: Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China the US president-elect sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of America’s divisive leader-in-waiting is the work of designer
THE HAGUE: Dutch police detained hundreds of climate activists and used two water cannons to break up a protest that blocked off a main highway into the city for several hours. The protest by Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists followed several similar protests last year to demonstrate against Dutch fossil fuel
STRASBOURG: Two trams collided in a tunnel in a rare accident in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, injuring dozens of people, authorities said. The collision occurred near Strasbourg’s main train station, one of the busiest in France outside Paris. Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot said “probably around
PARIS: Internet giant Meta’s fact-checking programme aims to counter false information on its social platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Threads — with the help of media organisations, including AFP. Here is a guide to how it works, following Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on January 6 that he was halting
SEOUL: The black boxes holding the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for the crashed Jeju Air flight that left 179 people dead stopped recording four minutes before the disaster, South Korea’s transport ministry said yesterday. The Boeing 737-800 was flying from Thailand to Muan, South Korea, on December 29
GENEVA: The last two years saw average global temperatures exceed a critical warming limit for the first time, Europe’s climate monitor said Friday, as the UN demanded “trail-blazing” climate action. While this does not mean the internationally-agreed 1.5C warming threshold has been permanently breached, the United Nations warned it was
N’DJAMENA (Chad): Gunmen attempted to storm the presidential complex in Chad’s capital N’Djamena on Wednesday, sparking a battle that left 18 attackers and one security personnel member dead, the government said. AFP reporters heard gunfire erupt near the site and saw tanks on the street, while security sources reported that
ZAPORIZHZHIA (Ukraine): A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 people, Ukrainian officials said, one of the deadliest single air attacks for weeks in the three-year war. Moscow has ramped up its strikes on Ukraine since the onset of winter, casting some of the attacks
HOLLYWOOD: Wildfires threatened to engulf parts of Hollywood yesterday as a growing number of blazes raged across Los Angeles, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and claiming at least five lives. Over 100,000 people have been told to flee at least five separate blazes, including in
MANILA: Hundreds of thousands of Catholic pilgrims swarmed the streets of Manila in search of a miracle yesterday, straining to reach a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in an annual display of religious fervour. The procession to the Philippine capital’s Quiapo Church, which started before dawn after an openair mass,