TAIPEI: Taiwan’s presidential frontrunner Vice President Lai Ching-te said Monday he had picked the island’s former envoy to the United States as his running mate for January’s election. The lead-up to the Jan 13 vote comes as Taiwan faces increased diplomatic and military pressures from China, which regards the island
RAFAH (Palestinian Territories): Palestinian medics evacuated 31 premature babies from Gaza City’s war-torn Al-Shifa hospital Sunday in a high-risk operation, the UN said, pledging to also move patients and staff who remain there. The hospital, Gaza’s largest, has been described by the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “death
AMERICAN superstar Taylor Swift on Saturday postponed a show in Rio de Janeiro due to extreme heat, after a fan died at the singer’s concert the previous night. Saturday’s postponement came after the heat index in the city had risen to as high as 59 degrees Celsius Friday, when a
SHANGHAI:US restrictions on advanced computer chips are forcing China’s tech giants to rethink their ambitious AI-powered projects, analysts say. E-commerce titan Alibaba on Thursday became the latest Chinese firm to admit to feeling the bite of US sanctions, as it abandoned a plan to spin off its multi-billion-dollar cloud computing
GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories): Israeli troops carried out building-bybuilding searches at Gaza’s main hospital, as a new communications blackout in the territory on Friday compounded fears for Palestinian civilians trapped inside the facility. Al-Shifa hospital has become a focal point for Israeli operations in northern Gaza since soldiers raided the
AUS entertainment news site has sparked anger and drawn ridicule after an apparent K-pop blunder, posting a photo of BTS megastar Jimin instead of a Korean actress with the same name. In a post on social media platform X viewed more than 100,000 times, Deadline Hollywood links to its coverage
SNOOP Dogg, the acclaimed rapper whose image has long been tied to his professed love of marijuana, on Thursday said he’s giving up smoking. “After much consideration & conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time,” he posted across his social
YANGON (Myanmar): Myanmar’s junta said it has arrested two cyber scam ringleaders operating from a lawless northern town and wanted by China, and a third took his own life during the arrest. Online scam compounds have mushroomed in Myanmar’s borderlands and are staffed by citizens from China and other countries
ROME: Italy on Thursday banned the production and sale of cultivated meat, citing health concerns and a need to safeguard its livestock industry, even if its sale is not yet allowed in the European Union. Cultivated meat, grown from animal tissue cells in a laboratory setting, is currently allowed for
BANGKOK: Allowing global temperatures to increase by two degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels would have catastrophic consequences for the world’s cryosphere, including ice sheets, glaciers, polar seas, and permafrost, warns a report from the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative. The assessment urges upcoming climate talks to commit to keeping warming below
