Germany's outgoing lower house of parliament will hold a special session on Thursday to debate a 500 billion euro fund for infrastructure and sweeping changes to borrowing rules in Europe's largest economy to bolster defence. The winner of Germany's election last month Friedrich Merz wants to secure the funds before a new parliament convenes on March 25, where they risk being blocked by an expanded contingent of far-right and far-left lawmakers. The financial package is not a done deal though, with Merz's conservatives and likely future coalition partners the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) needing to win over the Greens to secure the two thirds majority required to change the constitution.
India's telecom regulator plans to recommend that satellite broadband spectrum be allotted for around five years to assess initial market adoption, defying Elon Musk's Starlink, which is seeking a 20-year permit, said a senior government source. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is currently working on key recommendations to the federal government, including a time frame and pricing of satellite spectrum, which will be administratively allotted. Musk and Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani forged a partnership this week that will allow Starlink devices to be sold in Ambani's Reliance stores, giving it large distribution access.
Asian markets fell Thursday as ongoing concerns about the global impact of President Donald Trump's trade war overshadowed positive US inflation data.And Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management warned that while markets reacted positively to the data, there was still a lot of uncertainty in markets.
The directors of Canadian convenience store giant Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) said on Thursday they were seeking a "friendly" buyout of 7-Eleven but lamented a lack of progress towards a deal.It would be the biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm, merging the 7-Eleven, Circle K and other franchises to create what CEO Alex Miller described on Thursday as a "global champion of convenience stores".
Nearly 350 hostages were rescued at the end of a deadly standoff between Pakistan’s military and armed militants who hijacked a train in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan, a security source told CNN Wednesday. The incident, which began Tuesday, left dozens dead.
Chinese hotpot giant Haidilao said it would compensate over 4,000 diners who had visited one of its outlets in Shanghai.
At a funeral in rural Taiwan, musicians wearing pleated mini-skirts and go-go boots march around a coffin to the beat of the 1980s hit "I Hate Myself for Loving You". Da Zhong women's group is part of a long tradition of funeral marching bands performing in mostly rural areas of Taiwan for families wanting to give their loved ones an upbeat send-off.
The bodies of at least 25 people, including 21 hostages, killed in a train siege by separatist gunmen in Pakistan were retrieved from the site on Thursday ahead of the first funerals, officials said.A railway official in Balochistan said the bodies of 25 people were transported by train away from the hostage site to the nearby town of Mach on Thursday morning.
Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te said Thursday tougher measures are needed to counter stepped-up Chinese infiltration, spying and other efforts to weaken the island's defenses. Lai cited a range of recent incidents involving China that fall into a “gray area” of psychological warfare short of open armed conflict. China has refused almost all official contact with the DPP since Lai's predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, was elected eight years ago.
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said on Thursday China has deepened its influence campaigns and infiltration against the democratic island, pledging measures to tackle Beijing's efforts to "absorb" Taiwan. Taiwan has accused China of stepping up military drills, trade sanctions and influence campaigns against the island in recent years to force the island to accept Chinese sovereignty claims. Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting with senior security officials, Lai said Beijing had used Taiwan's democracy to "absorb" various members of society including organised crime groups, media personalities, and current and former military and police officers.
President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Russia’s occupied Kursk region on Wednesday, as the Kremlin considers a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire with his troops closing in on Ukraine’s only territorial bargaining chip.
Nevada prosecutors have filed multiple charges against 20 defendants over the incident, including first-degree murder and attempted murder.
President Donald Trump expressed optimism that US negotiators could secure a ceasefire in the Ukraine war, even as Kyiv and Moscow launched fresh aerial attacks early Thursday.Russia downed 77 Ukrainian drones overnight, its defence ministry said Thursday, two days after Kyiv carried out its largest direct strike on Moscow during the three-year war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet his Canadian counterpart at a G7 gathering Thursday, but discussion of American annexation threats has been ruled off-limits at talks expected to be dominated by efforts to agree a ceasefire in Ukraine. Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she expected her talks with Rubio will be centered on "Ukraine and the ceasefire that's on the table."
As a displaced person in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, 76-year-old Haile Tsege is no stranger to hunger. During its war with Tigray fighters that devastated the region in 2020-2022, Ethiopian government restrictions on the rebellious region reduced aid flows to a trickle. Now the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, has again halted food deliveries to a sprawling camp of over 20,000 people outside Tigray’s regional capital, Mekele.
LeVel33 was recently named the World’s Highest Microbrewery in a Building by Guinness World Records. The Singapore craft beer maker had to bring its equipment in via crane.
Turkey has emerged as a key potential partner in restructuring European security, diplomats and analysts say, as Europe scrambles to bolster its defence and find guarantees for Ukraine under any forthcoming ceasefire deal urged by the United States. European countries have been unsettled by U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to end the Ukraine war, which has upended Washington's policy, halted Russia's isolation with possibility of rapprochement, piled pressure on Kyiv after disastrous talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and endangered transatlantic ties.
Australia's top diplomat urged a visiting American influencer on Thursday to "leave the baby wombat alone", after a video appeared to show the woman pestering a young marsupial."I think everyone who would have seen that would have thought, look, leave the baby wombat alone."
After Syria’s longtime autocratic ruler was toppled late last year, the man who led rebel groups to victory immediately faced a new challenge: unifying the country after more than a decade of civil war. The peril and promise of Syria under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa — the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group — were on dramatic display over the past week. After days of deadly sectarian violence, a diplomatic triumph united a powerful force in the country’s northeast with the new national army.
Prominent Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil will remain in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana for now following a procedural hearing in New York, days after he was arrested by federal officials at his Columbia University residence in an attempt by the Trump administration to deport him.
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