User Articles

Britain, Vietnam pen migration deal

Britain says it has agreed to a deal with Vietnam to curb illegal migration in what it described as the strongest Hanoi had ever agreed with another country. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, under pressure to reduce the number of undocumented migrants reaching Britain to help arrest his government’s plunge in opinion polls, struck the deal with Vietnamese Communist Party chief To Lam in London.

Reuters

China

Trump eases tariffs after Xi meeting

President Donald Trump says he has struck a deal to reduce tariffs on China in exchange for Beijing resuming US soybean purchases and keeping rare earths exports flowing, bringing reneweed hope for global trade stability. Trump’s face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of the US president’s whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.

Reuters

Netherlands

4 hours ago

Centrist party leads in Dutch vote

The centrist D66 party was on course to win the most votes in the Dutch national election and defeat the far right, exit polls showed, opening a path for its leader Rob Jetten to form a government as the youngest ever prime minister of the Netherlands. Two exit polls projected D66 to win 27 seats in the 150-seat lower house of parliament, beating far-right leader Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party on 25. The polls have a margin of error of up to three seats. Cheers and chants of “Yes, we can” broke out at the D66 election night celebration as the crowd waved Dutch flags.

Reuters

4 hours ago

Russia

6 hours ago

NZ to sanction Russian oil trade

New Zealand has announced expanded sanctions on Russia’s oil industry and shadow fleet while meeting with the Nordic 5 foreign ministers in Stockholm. New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand was sanctioning a further 65 shadow fleet vessels and actors from Belarus, Iran and North Korea involved in refining and transporting Russian oil, and in facilitating oil-related payments.

Reuters

6 hours ago

Ukraine

Ukraine struggling to hold city

Ukrainian forces are struggling to fend off intensifying Russian advances on the eastern city of Pokrovsk, the military and open-source analysts said. Moscow’s troops have in recent weeks closed in on the key logistics hub after more than a year of grinding advances, which Kyiv says have come at a staggering human cost to Russia. In a statement, Ukraine’s 7th Corps said Russian forces had deployed some 11,000 troops in an attempt to encircle the greater Pokrovsk area.

Reuters

Economy

Starmer won’t rule out tax rises

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declined to commit to a previous pledge not to raise taxes on working people ahead of a budget next month, saying upcoming forecasts would show the economy was in a worse state than thought. Economists have said Chancellor Rachel Reeves may have to break the government’s promise and raise income tax, a move that would break the commitment Labour made to voters ahead of the election in 2024. Conservative Party opposition leader Kemi Badenoch asked Starmer if he stood by his promise not to increase income tax, social security contributions or value added sales tax.

Reuters

United Nations

14 hours ago

UN calls for end to US economic embargo on Cuba

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly called for an end to a US economic embargo on Cuba despite lobbying by Washington that included sharing an accusation that up to 5000 Cubans are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. It...

Reuters

14 hours ago

South Korea

Trump, Lee make trade breakthrough

Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung have finalised details of their fraught trade deal at a summit in South Korea, and the US president also sounded an optimistic note about a looming summit with China’s Xi Jinping. “We made our deal, pretty much finalised it,“ Trump said at a dinner with Lee and other regional leaders on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific forum. The allies unveiled a deal in late July under which Seoul would avoid the worst of US tariffs on its imports by agreeing to pump $350 billion of new investments into the United States in return for lower tariff rates.

Reuters

Gaza

Ceasefire resumes after strikes

The Israeli military says it will abide by a ceasefire accord in Gaza, as health officials in the enclave said airstrikes had killed 104 people, with both sides trading blame for violations of the deal. Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza late on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, after it said an attack by Palestinian militants had killed one soldier, in the latest challenge to an already fragile ceasefire. The Israeli military said it would continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and would respond firmly to “any violation”.

Reuters

Defence

21 hours ago

US to withdraw some troops from NATO’s eastern flank

Romania and NATO allies have been notified of US plans to cut the number of troops stationed on Europe’s eastern flank including soldiers who were to be stationed at Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, Romania’s defence ministry says. Washington’s European allies have been told previously by the administration of President Donald Trump that they will need to take more responsibility for their own security as the United States focuses more on its own borders and the Indo-Pacific region.

Reuters

21 hours ago

Conflict

23 hours ago

Pakistan threatens to ‘obliterate’ Taliban

Pakistan’s defence minister has threatened to “obliterate” the ruling Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, a dramatic escalation of rhetoric after the collapse of talks towards a lasting peace between the South Asian nations. Truce negotiations concluded in Istanbul without a “workable solution”, Pakistan’s information minister said early on Wednesday, in a blow for peace in the region after this month’s deadly clashes. Pakistan reacted with fury to the failure of the talks, which sources said ended with a disagreement over militant groups allegedly using Afghanistan as a base to attack its security forces along their border.

Reuters

23 hours ago

Russia

Drone attacks target Russian energy infrastructure

Ukraine has targeted Russian energy infrastructure with drones, disrupting air traffic across the country and sending several drones towards Moscow for the third straight night, Russian authorities say. Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 100 Ukrainian drones overnight, including six over the Moscow region, and the rest over 11 regions and Crimea, the Russian defence ministry said. Kyiv has kept up long-range drone strikes on Moscow and other Russian regions in recent months, saying the aim is to hit military and industrial assets, sap Russia’s war economy and show Russians the conflict is no longer distant.

Reuters

Asia

Unseasonably heavy snowfall halts Everest tourism

The Nepali and Chinese sides of the Everest region have been closed to tourism due to unseasonally heavy snow, and a helicopter crashed in deep snowdrifts as it tried to rescue stranded trekkers. Visited by thousands of trekkers and climbers, the region around Mount Everest has been blanketed by snow since Monday as a cyclone from the Bay of Bengal churned across India, ushering in a second bout of severe snowfall in the Himalayas this month.

Reuters

Aviation

US revokes approval for 13 routes by Mexican airlines

The US says it has revoked approval for 13 routes by Mexican carriers into the United States and cancelled all combined passenger and cargo flights by Mexican airlines to the United States from Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles International Airport. In issuing the order, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Mexico “illegally canceled and froze US carrier flights for three years without consequences.“

Reuters

Aviation

Quiet supersonic jet soars in test

NASA’s X-59 supersonic-but-quiet jet airplane has soared over the Southern California desert in the first test flight of an experimental aircraft designed to break the sound barrier without all the noise. The sleek aircraft, measuring just under 100 feet (30 meters) from nose to tail, took off about an hour after sunrise from a runway at Plant 42 of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, about 60 miles (100 km) north of Los Angeles.

Reuters

Government

Pressure builds to end shutdown

The pressure to end the second-longest US federal government shutdown is gaining new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans. The building strain on lawmakers to end the impasse was magnified by the nation’s largest federal employee union, which called Monday on Congress to immediately pass a funding bill and ensure workers receive full pay. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the two political parties have made their point.

Reuters

Koreas

North tests missile on eve of Trump’s crucial talks in South

North Korea has test-fired sea-to-surface cruise missiles to the west of the Korean peninsula, state media KCNA says, just as US President Donald Trump and other leaders are set to gather in South Korea for regional meetings. Trump is set to arrive in the South Korean city to join other heads of state and business leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for various summits and meetings. He is also expected to hold talks with the Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week.

Reuters

Venezuela

Machado bets on Trump as pressure builds on Maduro

On January 6, 2025, four members of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s team piled onto a couch in a Capitol Hill office, across from Mike Waltz, who was soon to become Donald Trump’s national security adviser. Machado made...

Reuters