China

Reports of labor protests from across Iran continue this week, with new sit-ins Tuesday by Iranian retirees, employees of Tehran Metro Operating Company, the medical staff from four hospitals in Ahvaz, and 3,000 contract workers from 12 refineries in South Pars. Workers in a variety of jobs across Iran are protesting government economic and social policies, at a time of high inflation and stagnant salaries. …

Border crossings between Lebanon and Syria were targeted with strikes late Tuesday, Lebanon transportation minister Ali Hamieh said.   Sana, Syria’s state media, confirmed the strikes, which Hamieh said came just after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was announced. Israel had increased raids on these crossings and had sealed off those roads to Syria, according to Reuters.  Syrian state TV said 10 people were …

JERUSALEM — Israel and Lebanon have signed a ceasefire agreement after more than 13 months of conflict. According to the deal, Hezbollah troops will move north of the Litani River and Israeli troops will withdraw from south Lebanon. The Israeli Cabinet voted Tuesday to approve the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah, which will take effect on Wednesday at 10 a.m. Speaking on Israeli TV, Prime …

WASHINGTON — Exiled members of China’s Uyghur minority group accuse Beijing of human rights violations and say the Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region where most of them are from has been more heavy-handed in his approach toward them than his predecessor. Members of the largely Turkic Muslim minority group said they had hoped Ma Xingrui, with his technocratic background, might moderate the region’s hardline …

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is warning of a new military operation into Syria to create a 30-kilometer-deep security zone. The operation is aimed at Kurdish militants, which Ankara accuses of being linked to PKK rebels fighting Turkey. Last month, the PKK carried out a deadly attack in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

KARO, Indonesia — Indonesian rescuers have recovered 20 bodies and are looking for two villagers who remain missing after flash floods on Sumatra island caused mud and rocks to tumble down mountainsides, officials said Tuesday.  Torrential rains over the weekend caused rivers to burst their banks in four hilly districts in North Sumatra province, washing away houses and destroying farms.  Four more bodies were recovered Monday …

BANGKOK — A powerful rebel group has seized a key trading town in northeastern Myanmar on the Chinese border, taking control of a lucrative rare earth mining hub in another setback for the military-led government, according to witnesses. The apparent loss of Kanpaiti to the Kachin Independence Army leaves Myanmar’s military in control of only one town with a border crossing, Muse, and deprives it of …

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine authorities handed a subpoena to Vice President Sara Duterte’s office Tuesday, inviting her to answer investigators’ questions after she publicly threatened to have the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker assassinated if she were killed in an unspecified plot herself. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described her threat as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it and …

WASHINGTON — European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Israel to agree Tuesday to a cease-fire with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, saying there are “no more excuses.” Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of G-7 foreign ministers in Italy, Borrell said a cease-fire is “absolutely necessary” for civilians displaced by several months of intensified fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border.  He expressed hope …

JAKARTA, INDONESIA — Indonesian rescuers are searching for seven people still missing four days after torrential rain hit North Sumatra province, causing flash flooding and landslides that killed 15 people, an official said on Tuesday. Eleven people were killed in landslides in Karo district, Padang Lawas district and Tapanuli Selatan district, and another four died in flash floods in Deli Serdang district after the bad weather …

SYDNEY — Google and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms urged the Australian government on Tuesday to delay a bill that will ban most forms of social media for children under 16, saying more time was needed to assess its potential impact. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left government wants to pass the bill, which represents some of the toughest controls on children’s social media use imposed by any country, …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates said Monday police arrested three Uzbek nationals for the killing of an Israeli-Moldovan rabbi, an attack that’s raised concerns for the burgeoning Israeli community in the country. The statement from the country’s Interior Ministry offered no motive for the slaying of Zvi Kogan, though an Israeli Foreign Ministry official later told The Associated Press that he simply …

TRIPOLI, LIBYA — Libyan military officials said Monday that they apprehended hundreds of migrants traversing the country’s vast desert hoping to ultimately cross the Mediterranean Sea in pursuit of a better life in Europe. The 444th Brigade, a powerful militia group that operates under the auspices of the Libyan army, said in a statement that its patrolling commanders detained more than 300 migrants and referred them …

sydney — Australia’s Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island will be connected by subsea cable to the northern garrison city of Darwin, a project backed by Alphabet’s Google that Australia says will boost its digital resilience. Christmas Island is 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) west of the Australian mainland, with a small population of 1,250, but strategically located in the Indian Ocean, 350 kilometers (215 miles) from …

Chinese female comedians are starting to talk about menstruation, sanitary pads and other topics at stand-up comedy shows, breaking ground on what were considered taboo topics in Chinese society. However, that does not mean that sensitive political topics are expected to be open for discussion anytime soon. See the full story here.    …

Hossein Ronaghi, a civil rights activist in Iran, has been holding sit-ins across Tehran with his lips sewn shut in solidarity with the demands of Kianoush Sanjari, another outspoken government critic and former journalist who jumped to his death from a building earlier this month in protest against Iran’s authoritarian rulers. Ronaghi was once again arrested by agents of the Islamic Republic’s intelligence forces on …

Several Chinese filmmakers won top prizes in Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards on Saturday.  Some winning films that focus on sensitive topics like COVID-19 and LGBTQ issues are actually banned in China. See the full story here.       …

Strikes carried out by Israel in recent weeks in Syria have significantly weakened Iranian-backed militant groups, though they continue to pose a threat, experts say. Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, and the ongoing hostilities between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli strikes in Syria have become more frequent, according to monitoring groups. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory …

Qatar said earlier this month that Hamas political leaders have left its territory and several of them have gone to Turkey. That prompted protests last week from Washington, which warned the Turkish government not to give them sanctuary. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …

Israel’s Cabinet unanimously voted Sunday to boycott the country’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, citing its critical coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict and comments by the outlet’s publisher calling for sanctions on top government officials. In a statement on Sunday, the office of Shlomo Karhi, the communications minister, said that his proposal against Haaretz had been unanimously approved by the other ministers. “We will not allow a …

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — The U.N. head, Pope Francis and others called Monday for nations to end the production and use of land mines, even as their deployment globally grows. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message to delegates at the fifth review of the International Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention, that 25 years after it went into force some parties …

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday described a public threat by the vice president to have him killed by an assassin as a criminal plot and vowed to fight it, in a looming showdown between the country’s two top leaders. Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday in an online news conference that she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his …

As delegates from 175 countries gathered in Busan, South Korea, on Monday for the fifth round of talks aimed at securing an international treaty to curb plastic pollution, lingering divisions cast doubts on whether a final agreement is in sight. South Korea is hosting the fifth and ostensibly final U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting this week, after the previous round of talks in Ottawa …

CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s government has withdrawn a bill that would give a media watchdog power to monitor digital platforms and require them to keep records about misinformation and disinformation on their networks.  Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Sunday that the government was unable to drum up the support needed to pass the legislation. The opposition spokesman, David Coleman, said the bill “betrayed our democracy” and …