World

Japan has often prided itself on its orderly, low-crime society, but cracks in that image are widening amid rising car thefts and home intrusions fuelled by export markets and public complacency. At a seminar in May on car theft held by the Aichi prefectural police in central Japan, a man in his fifties listened intently – he was twice targeted …

Donald Trump has reportedly threatened Nicolas Maduro with regime change in a phone call The US has been rehearsing airstrikes in Venezuela in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Saturday, citing a defense official and flight-tracking data. President Donald Trump has accused the Venezuelan government of operating “narcoterrorist” cartels and on Saturday announced that the country’s airspace …

Egypt is training hundreds of Palestinian police officers with an eye towards integrating them into a post-war security force in Gaza, according to a Palestinian official. Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty announced the plan to train 5,000 officers for Gaza during talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in August. A first group of more than 500 officers was trained …

Ankara has warned against spreading the war to the Black Sea. Türkiye has condemned the drone attacks on two sanctioned oil tankers off its Black Sea coast, which Ukraine reportedly claimed responsibility for. According to Turkish officials, the Gambian-flagged vessels Kairos and Virat were struck on Friday while en route to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The ships caught fire, …

The eight milk tea-coloured towers of Wang Fuk Court were special sentinels to many locals in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district. Residents say that whenever they saw the blocks emerging into view on the northern-bound left side of Tolo Highway on their daily commute after work, they knew they were back home. Home was their idyllic estate with its winding …

Budapest has defended Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin Hungary has defended Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s trip to Moscow despite the EU’s diplomatic boycott of Russia. Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, discussing Ukraine, trade, and energy supplies. In a Facebook post on Saturday, Szijjarto dismissed criticism from what he called “European pro-war …

Despite years of policy interventions, air pollution in India is rapidly getting worse. By the middle of this month, cities including the capital New Delhi were seeing air quality readings at hazardous levels. A 2024 IQ Air report found India’s particulate matter (PM2.5) levels to be more than 10 times the World Health Organization’s safe limit. In the north, pollution …

The US leader has said rolling back his import taxes would make America a “pathetic laughingstock” as the Supreme Court mulls their legality President Donald Trump has claimed that the US holds “all the cards” thanks to his tariffs, without which the country “would be a poor and pathetic laughingstock again.” In April, Trump introduced sweeping import duties affecting dozens …

More than 600 officers from the Hong Kong Police Force’s Disaster Victim Identification Unit (DVIU) searched two fire-ravaged blocks of the Wang Fuk Court residential complex in Tai Po without finding any more bodies on Saturday. The death toll from the blaze remains at 128, but 150 people are still unaccounted for. Dressed in white full-body protective gear, the DVIU …

Donald Trump has ordered the closure of Venezuela’s airspace in his latest crackdown on “drug dealers and human traffickers”. The US President took to his social media platform Truth Social to issue a fiery message. He wrote: “To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.” …