China

An intercepted missile fired from Yemen sparked blazes near Jerusalem Monday, and later the Houthi rebels said they carried out a successful attack on central Israel. The Iran-backed militant group said it executed a “military operation targeting the Nahal Sorek military base” southeast of Jaffa, and that the “hit was accurate and led to a fire.” Meanwhile, the main television news outlet operated by the …

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan on Monday said it had closed a probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September and caused a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved. Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers that senior defense officials and political figures were opposed to …

HONG KONG — Merchants and consumers alike found the Singles’ Day shopping festival Monday less shiny than in years past as e-commerce firms look abroad for growth. The annual event named by the numeric form of its Nov. 11 date was started by e-commerce platform Alibaba, which offered attractive discounts to entice shoppers to spend big. The extravaganza has since expanded to other platforms like JD.com …

HANOI, VIETNAM — Vietnam said Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu need to register with the government before the end of November or it will block their internet domains and apps from being used in the country. Vietnam’s government and local businesses have expressed concern about the impact of Chinese online platforms on local markets due to deep discounting. The trade ministry has also said it …

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwanese businessman Robert Tsao said on Monday he would sue in a Taiwan court senior Chinese officials over sanctions they had placed on him, saying he was seeking to counter China’s intimidation of lawful activity. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, last month said it would punish and sanction Tsao, the retired founder of chipmaker UMC, for alleged criminal and pro-Taiwan …

Dakar, Senagal — The CEO and two executives of Australian gold mine Resolute in Mali have been arrested while in Bamako to discuss ongoing disputes with authorities, the company confirmed Sunday. CEO Terence Holohan and his two colleagues “were in Bamako to discuss with mining and tax authorities the company’s business practices in Mali generally and to make progress on ongoing claims against Resolute, which continues …

Beijing — China has published baselines for a contested shoal in the South China Sea it seized from the Philippines, a move that’s likely to increase tensions over overlapping territorial claims. The Foreign Ministry on Sunday posted online geographic coordinates for the baselines around Scarborough Shoal. A nation’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone are typically defined as the distance from the baselines. Both China and …

Lost Hills, California — In a sprawling plant in the heart of California’s farmland, millions of shells rush down a metallic chute and onto a conveyor belt where they are inspected, roasted, packaged and shipped off to groceries around the world. Pistachios are growing fast in California, where farmers have been devoting more land to a crop seen as hardier and more drought-tolerant in a state …

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The chief of staff of Saudi Arabia’s armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, visited Tehran on Sunday to meet with his Iranian counterpart and discuss defense ties, state media reported the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff as saying.  The visit follows the election of Donald Trump, who will take office for a second term as U.S. president in January, and who has promised …

Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of people in Lebanon and northern Gaza on Sunday, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have been discussing the way forward for when Trump takes office in January. The Israeli leader said he has spoken with Trump three times since the U.S. presidential election last week and that they “see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat …

Paris — Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam.  France and Israel are playing in a UEFA Nations League match Thursday.  “There’s a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for …

THE HAGUE, Netherlands —  Police detained several people Sunday for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following violence targeting fans of an Israeli soccer club, a local broadcaster reported.  Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema banned all demonstrations over the weekend in the aftermath of the grim scenes of youths on scooters and on foot attacking Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters on …

Manila — The residents of 2,500 villages were ordered to evacuate their homes as severe tropical storm Toraji approached the northern Philippines, the government said Sunday, after three massive cyclones battered the country in less than a month. Nearly 700,000 people are still sheltering at evacuation centers or with relatives after their homes were destroyed by tropical cyclones Trami, Kong-rey and Yinxing, according to government figures …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi will visit Iran next Wednesday and start consultations with Iranian officials the following day, state media reported on Sunday. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday he might head to Iran in the coming days to discuss its disputed nuclear program and that he expected to work cooperatively with U.S. President-elect …

Hanoi, Vietnam — Vietnamese authorities arrested a pro-democracy activist, state media said, the latest in a crackdown on political dissidents in the southeast Asian country. Tran Khac Duc, 29, was held on charges of “creating, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to the publication Safeguarding the Law. He was arrested in September, but authorities only …

BEIJING — Indonesia’s new leader called for collaboration rather than confrontation with China after the signing of $10 billion in new deals at a business forum on Sunday in the Chinese capital before heading to the U.S.  President Prabowo Subianto told the forum that his country wants to be part of China’s emergence as not only an economic but also a “civilizational power.”  “We must give …

JERUSALEM — With virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month, tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive. As bombardment pounds around them, some say they risk their lives to search for cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes. Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and …

Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli protesters expressed concern for the hostages in Gaza on Saturday, after Qatar said it was pausing as a key mediator for a cease-fire that would help bring the captives home. Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv holding signs reading “400,” the number of days since the hostages were taken when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Efforts …

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Two Saudi military personnel have been killed in an attack in Yemen, Saudi state media said Saturday, reporting that the assailant was affiliated with Yemen’s defense ministry.  “An officer and a non-commissioned officer were martyred, and an officer was injured as a result of a treacherous and cowardly attack” Friday inside a military camp in the city of Seiyun, the official Saudi …

Beirut — Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last day have killed more than 20 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight.  At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city …

CAIRO/GAZA — A Gaza family sat weeping Saturday over children killed by an Israeli strike as they were getting ready to play soccer. The strike came amid an intensified bombardment that Palestinian health authorities said killed 44 people over the past 24 hours. The strike was in Mawasi, a southern coastal area where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter after Israel’s military told them …

BERLIN — In the middle of a Berlin hotel cafe, Masih Alinejad raises her voice and starts singing at the top of her lungs in Farsi, as waiters and her three German government bodyguards turn to watch. “I blossom through my wounds and my scars,” she translates the lyrics as. “Because I am a woman. I am a woman. I am a woman.” Alinejad was expressing …

TEHRAN, IRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Germany of defending a “terrorist” after the death in Iran of Jamshid Sharmahd, a dual national sentenced to execution, which triggered condemnation from Berlin. Iran on October 28 announced the execution of Sharmahd, 69, but eight days later the judiciary spokesperson said Sharmahd had died before the “imminent” execution could be carried out, implying natural causes. After …

NEW YORK — Beleaguered aviation giant Boeing is set to confront another hurdle next week when it faces a civil trial over the March 2019 Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people. The trial, scheduled for federal court in Chicago, originally included six plaintiffs, but “all but one” have settled, a person close to the litigation told AFP this week. Barring an accord, the case will …