Indonesia will expand its existing defence partnerships and step up its handling of strategic issues impacting its sovereignty, including maritime security and the safety of sea passage and fisheries, its foreign minister said on Friday. Sugiono, who uses only one name, said Indonesia would continue to advocate for the completion of a code of conduct between the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN and China on the South China Sea and prioritise ASEAN's centrality. Indonesia considers itself not a party in disputes over the sea, a waterway crucial to global trade, but has recently been tested by forays by China's coast guard into its exclusive economic zone.
Shares fell Friday in Asia after U.S. markets were closed to observe a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. Regional markets saw a broad decline that analysts said reflects weakening confidence about the chances of further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve given recent data showing unexpected strength in the U.S. economy. Minutes from a Dec. 17-18 meeting released this week showed Fed officials expected to dial back the pace of interest rate cuts this year in the face of persistently elevated inflation and the threat of widespread tariffs increases under President-elect Donald Trump and other potential policy changes.
The aircraft landed safely and the incident is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), officials said.
Donald Trump will be sentenced Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US President-elect's last-ditch efforts to frustrate a process that would make him the first felon in the White House.The trial saw Trump forced to look on as a string of witnesses testified that he had fraudulently covered up illicit payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to stop her disclosing their tryst ahead of the 2016 presidential election, which he ultimately won.
Artificial intelligence is moving from data centers to "the edge" as computer makers build the technology into laptops, robots, cars and more devices closer to home.The AI edge could be anywhere processors can be embedded, including robots, cameras and cars.
A powerful winter storm that dumped heavy snow and glazed roads with ice across much of Texas and Oklahoma lumbered eastward into southern U.S. states overnight, prompting governors to declare states of emergency and shuttering schools across the region. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders mobilized the National Guard to help stranded motorists. School was canceled Friday for millions of children across a wide tract of southern states from Texas to Georgia and as far east as South Carolina.
That first wave of bitcoin ETFs attracted a whopping $65 billion in 2024, helping to propel the price of bitcoin from $43,000 to more than $100,000. The largest of those new products, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, has become the most successful debut in the ETF industry's 35-year history. Shortly after those products celebrate their first anniversary on Jan. 10, President-elect Donald Trump - who has pledged to be a crypto president - will be sworn in for the second time, igniting what cryptocurrency fans believe will be a new golden era for the digital asset class.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday for his criminal conviction stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, a case that for a time overshadowed his bid to retake the White House. The U.S. Supreme Court paved the way on Thursday for the 9:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT) sentencing in New York state court in Manhattan, rejecting a last-minute request by Trump to halt it 10 days before his Jan. 20 inauguration. Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw the six-week trial last year, has signaled he does not plan to send Trump to jail or to fine him.
President Nicolás Maduro will extend his increasingly repressive rule over Venezuela until 2031 when he is sworn in on Friday, despite credible evidence that his opponent won the latest election and following protests against his plan to serve a third six-year term. On Thursday, as hundreds of anti-Maduro protesters took to the streets of the capital, Caracas, aides to opposition leader María Corina Machado said she was briefly detained by security forces and coerced into recording videos. The popular former lawmaker, whom the government has barred from running for office, had emerged from months of hiding to join the rally to demand that opposition candidate Edmundo González be sworn in as president instead of Maduro.
Every time planned electrical outages are imposed on his village in southern Moldova, 73-year-old retiree Vasili Donici passes the time solving crosswords and puzzles in a room he illuminates using a small gas lamp. The village of Copanca is situated just several kilometers across the de facto border from Moldova’s separatist pro-Russian Transnistria region, where hundreds of thousands of people have been left without heating and hot water after Russia halted gas supplies to the region on Jan. 1, over an alleged $709 million debt for past supplies to Moldova.
In a singular moment in U.S. history, President-elect Donald Trump faces sentencing Friday for his New York hush money conviction after the nation's highest court refused to intervene. Like so much else in the criminal case and the current American political landscape, the scenario set to unfold in an austere Manhattan courtroom was unimaginable only a few years ago. With Trump 10 days from inauguration, Judge Juan M. Merchan has indicated he plans a no-penalty sentence called an unconditional discharge and prosecutors aren't opposing it.
The Supreme Court didn’t help Donald Trump … this time.
As they plied the gray, icy waters of the Baltic Sea west of Russia on Thursday, the crew of the Estonian minehunter EML Sakala kept a careful eye on any vessels slowing down suspiciously or suddenly changing course. It is one of three Estonian navy ships that are part of stepped-up maritime patrols by NATO countries after the Estlink-2 power cable and communication links between Finland and Estonia were damaged Dec. 25. Suspicion immediately fell on Russia, although nothing has been proven and the Kremlin denied involvement in damaging the infrastructure, which provides power and communication for thousands of Europeans.
In a remote village in Tajikistan's soaring mountains, Muslikhiddin Makhmudzoda relies on a mobile phone to light his modest home as his family spends another winter without electricity. Makhmudzoda's family spend much of their day without power.
In the skies above Los Angeles, air tankers and helicopters silhouetted by the setting California sun dart in and out of giant wildfire plumes, dropping much-needed flame retardant and precious water onto the angry fires below.Higher up, small aircraft periodically guided giant tankers that dumped bright-red retardant onto the flames.
A federal appeals court ruled that the Justice Department can release a report on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, but kept in place a judge's order requiring a three-day delay to allow for further appeals.
China has almost doubled its tally of injured in Tibet's deadly earthquake as rescuers widened a search on Friday for survivors in a remote county near the foothills of the Himalayas, despite dwindling hopes for survival. The state-backed Global Times newspaper said the magnitude 6.8 quake had injured 337, for the first increase since Tuesday's initial estimate of 188, although the number of dead stayed at 126. "Make sure no one is left behind!" was the headline of a report in the state-run Tibet Daily that said the top regional official of China's ruling Communist Party took action in less than half an hour after the quake.
Canada's governing Liberal Party will announce the country's next prime minister on March 9 after a leadership vote that follows the resignation of Justin Trudeau this week, party leaders said late Thursday. Trudeau remains prime minister until a new leader is chosen. The front runners for the Liberal leadership are former central banker Mark Carney and ex-Finance Minster Chrystia Freeland, whose abrupt resignation last month forced Trudeau's exit.
Evacuation orders and an alarm sound were mistakenly sent to residents all over Los Angeles County. The alert was meant only for those affected by the Kenneth Fire.
New Orleans is facing lawsuits and investigations surrounding its safety barriers as the Super Bowl and dozens of Mardi Gras parades loom.