China

washington — Three investigative journalists are being recognized with international awards for their courage and reporting. Reporters John-Allan Namu from Kenya, Valeriya Yegoshyna from Ukraine and Rana Sabbagh from Jordan were in Washington this week for a ceremony highlighting their work. Namu and Yegoshyna were honored with the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award by the global media network, the International Center for Journalists, or ICFJ. Sabbagh …

STATE DEPARTMENT — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Taiwan’s envoy to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Lin Hsin-I, on Thursday ahead of the bloc’s Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima, Peru. The discussion centered on economic cooperation, as Blinken highlighted in a social media post. “Met with Lin Hsin-i in Lima. We spoke about our growing economic relationship and our enduring shared commitment …

MELBOURNE, Australia — How do you remove children from the harms of social media? Politically the answer appears simple in Australia, but practically the solution could be far more difficult. The Australian government’s plan to ban children from social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthdays is politically popular. The opposition party says it would have done the same after winning …

Beirut — An airstrike hit the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs on Friday, sending plumes of gray smoke into the sky after the Israeli military called for people to evacuate, AFPTV images showed. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said an Israeli drone fired two missiles at the Beirut suburb of Ghobeiry before the air force carried out a “very heavy” strike that leveled a building near municipal …

U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with leaders of South Korea and Japan Friday to come up with a “coordinated” response to the deployment of thousands of North Korean troops to help Moscow’s war against Ukraine and on Pyongyang’s nuclear threat more broadly, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum in Lima, Peru. Pyongyang’s troop deployment is a “significant development,” White House national …

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea tested exploding drones designed to crash into targets and leader Kim Jong Un called for accelerating mass production of the weapons, state media said Friday. The country’s latest military demonstration came as the United States, South Korea and Japan engaged in combined military exercises involving advanced fighter jets and a U.S. aircraft carrier in nearby international waters, in a display …

While fighting continued in Gaza and Lebanon on Thursday, a United Nations special committee said that Israeli policies and practices in Gaza are “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.” In a report published Thursday, the U.N. Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices also accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon of war” and running an “apartheid system” in the occupied West Bank. There was …

BANGKOK — China is likely to continue its aggressive naval approach toward the Philippines amid their disputes in the South China Sea, experts say. Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed two new maritime laws to protect Manila’s disputed territory: the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act. According to the Philippines Presidential Office, the Philippine Maritime Zones Act “seeks to designate the …

WASHINGTON — VOA’s Persian Service has expressed shock and grief at the suicide of a former colleague, Kianoosh Sanjari, who jumped to his death from a building in Tehran on Wednesday in protest against Iran’s authoritarian rulers. Sanjari, a 42-year-old Iranian, was a former journalist and rights activist who worked at VOA Persian’s Washington bureau from 2009 to 2013 before returning to Iran in 2016 to …

wellington, new zealand — A vote in New Zealand’s parliament was suspended and two lawmakers ejected on Thursday when dramatic political theater erupted over a controversial proposed law redefining the country’s founding agreement between Indigenous Maori and the British Crown. Under the principles laid out in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which guide the relationship between the government and Maori, tribes were promised broad rights to …

DAMASCUS, SYRIA — Israel carried out at least two airstrikes on a western neighborhood of Damascus and one of the capital’s suburbs on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 16, Syria’s state news agency said. The airstrikes on the Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus and the suburb of Qudsaya, northwest of the capital, struck two buildings, the SANA news agency said. An Associated Press journalist …

A study by the World Bank on Thursday said urgent action is needed to address rising sea levels in the Pacific atoll islands of Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, which under current projections could be 50% to 80% submerged in the next 50 years. The World Bank’s “Pacific Atoll Countries Country Climate and Development Report” says the low-lying nations and the roughly 200,000 people …

hong kong — Hong Kong’s high court on Thursday sentenced a man to 23 years and 10 months in prison for being the leader of an alleged plot to attack police with explosives during the city’s pro-democracy and anti-China protests in 2019. The man, Ng Chi-hung, had been charged under the United Nations Anti-Terrorism Ordinance, for offences linked to a conspiracy to use explosives and firearms …

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia will send a protest note to the Philippines over its new maritime laws due to their overlapping claims in the South China Sea, its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday. The protest will follow a complaint also from China over the Philippines’ Maritime Zones Act and the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, which Manila said was intended to strengthen its maritime claims …

While fighting continued in Gaza and Lebanon on Thursday, Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report said Israeli officials who have repeatedly displaced and relocated civilians are “committing the war crime of forcible transfer,” and the actions “appear to also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing” in the areas where Palestinians will not be able …

Tehran, Iran — International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi was to hold talks with top Iranian officials Thursday on Tehran’s nuclear program, a week after Donald Trump’s re-election as US president. During his first term in the White House from 2017 to 2021, Trump was the architect of a policy called “maximum pressure,” which levied against Tehran biting sanctions that had been lifted through a …

White House — In what will likely be his farewell appearance on the world stage, President Joe Biden faces a daunting question: what to tell world leaders wondering about potential changes in U.S. policies when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House with his America First agenda. Biden is set to depart for Peru and Brazil Thursday for two major economic summits. Biden is scheduled …

Jerusalem — Israel suffered one of the deadliest days of its ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon on Wednesday when six of its soldiers were killed in combat near the border.  The soldiers “fell during combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said in a statement. Their deaths brought to 47 the number of Israeli troops who have been killed in combat with Hezbollah since September 30, …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet November 16 on the sidelines of the 2024 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC summit in Lima, Peru, the White House announced Wednesday. The meeting follows the leaders’ last in-person engagement a year ago on the sidelines of the APEC summit in California, and their 2022 meeting in Bali on the sidelines of the …

While some parts of Gaza are on the verge of famine, Palestinians in the West Bank are also suffering. They are unable to work in jobs in Israel, and the entire economy of the West Bank is contracting. Linda Gradstein reports from the West Bank town of Ramallah. Camera: Ricki Rosen …

Taipei, Taiwan — Chinese President Xi Jinping departs on a nine-day diplomatic tour to Latin America on Wednesday, during which he will inaugurate a Chinese-financed megaport in Peru and attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Lima and the G20 Summit in Brazil. Analysts say the trip is part of China’s attempt to expand its global influence and present itself as “a responsible global power” at …

Iran hanged a 26-year-old man for a second time Wednesday months after a previous execution was halted half a minute in, an NGO said. Ahmad Alizadeh was arrested in October 2018 on a murder charge, which he denied, and was sentenced to death, Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR), which tracks executions in Iran, said in a statement. His death sentence was carried out on April …

American forces on Tuesday carried out strikes against targets linked to an Iran-backed group in Syria, the U.S. military said, with a war monitor saying the attacks killed five fighters. The raids were in response to a rocket attack on U.S. troops in the country, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. The strikes targeted the group’s “weapons storage and logistics headquarters facility… in response to …

ZHUHAI, China — Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai removed wreaths, candles and even bottles of Chinese alcohol laid at the scene of the deadliest mass killing in the country in a decade, as the government scrambled to respond and censor the outrage online. On Monday, a male driver angry at his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd at a sports center …