United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday and became the highest-ranking American official to visit the island in 25 years – despite threats from China and fears of a potential skirmish between Washington and Beijing in the Asia-Pacific region, the Associated...
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The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is considering ejecting a UN peacekeeping force after weeks of violence between demonstrators and soldiers has left 33 people dead, Reuters reported. Twenty-nine civilians and four peacekeepers were killed during demonstrations across east Congo last week, officials said....
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Senegalese voters cast their ballots this week in parliamentary elections, a highly-anticipated vote that opposition parties are hoping to win to prevent President Macky Sall from running again in the 2024 presidential elections, the Associated Press reported Monday. Voters are choosing 165 lawmakers. Results are expected...
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Kosovo’s government delayed the implementation of new border rules for ethnic Serbs living in the country’s north, following a series of protests that risked flaring up ethnic tensions in the small Balkan nation, Euronews reported Monday. Ethnic Serbs blocked traffic at two border crossings between Serbia...
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Algeria will begin teaching English in primary school, a major change in the Francophone country that underscores its efforts to move away from its colonial past, the National reported Monday. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced the change following growing demands and campaigns from academics and students to...
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The UK’s High Court ruled against the Venezuelan government over the weekend in a long-running case pitting President Nicolás Maduro’s regime against his rival, Juan Guaidó, for control of Venezuela’s gold reserves, Agence France-Presse reported. The case centers on demands from President Maduro’s government to...
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Tunisian judges said they would continue their hunger strike against President Kais Saied’s controversial decision to dismiss them in what many observers call a rare act of protest for any judge anywhere in the world, the Washington Post reported Saturday. In June, Saied issued a decree...
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Russia is threatening to shutter a prominent Jewish organization, raising concerns among Jews in the country who wish to emigrate and prompting a diplomatic row between Moscow and Israel, Haaretz reported. A Moscow court began a preliminary hearing last week after Russia’s Justice Ministry filed a...
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Thousands of protesters occupied Iraq’s parliament this week in protest against corruption and the nomination of a prime minister candidate supported by the country’s Iranian-backed parties, the Wall Street Journal reported. Supporters of the fiery cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the capital’s “Green Zone” – the fortified...
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is facing a backlash following a controversial speech this week where he said that Europeans should not “become peoples of mixed race,” prompting accusations of racism and antisemitism, the Washington Post reported. Orban’s remarks came during an annual address to members...
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Turkmenistan passed a new law this week that would restrict the export of its prized native dog breed, an animal highly venerated by the leadership of the Central Asian nation, the Associated Press reported. The new regulations will require all puppies of the Alabay breed to...
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Iranian authorities began covering graves showing images of women without the mandatory headscarf (hijab), as the government intensifies its crackdown on how Iranian women can dress, Radio Free Europe reported. Cemetery officials in the capital said that nearly 100 tombstones with photos of women without a...
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Lesotho prosecutors dropped all charges against former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and his wife for their involvement in the 2017 murder of his estranged ex-wife in a case that shook the tiny, politically-unstable African nation, Agence France-Presse reported. Officials said they dropped the case after they...
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The Spanish government passed a bill this week that will relax requirements for undocumented migrant laborers in an effort to bring thousands of workers into the labor force and shore up understaffed sectors such as hospitality and farming, the Associated Press reported. The new measure aims...
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Zimbabwe launched gold coins to be sold to the public this week, a move economists say is aimed at curbing soaring inflation that has eroded the value of the African country’s unstable currency, Al Jazeera reported Tuesday. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said the newly-minted Mosi-oa-Tunya...
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Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024, a move that comes amid tensions between Moscow and Western nations over the war in Ukraine, Sky News reported. Yuri Borisov, head of the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, confirmed Russia’s departure Tuesday, adding that Moscow is...
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A Chinese court ruled against an unmarried woman who sought to freeze her eggs, a verdict that underscores the challenges women in China face in light of the country’s strict regulation of families, Reuters reported Monday. The case began in 2019 when plaintiff Teresa Xu sued...
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Myanmar’s military junta executed four pro-democracy activists this week in an attempt to deter protestors in the wake of last year’s coup, the New York Times reported. Junta officials said Monday the four individuals were hanged over the weekend in what were the first executions in...
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Tunisians went to the polls Monday to vote on a new constitution that would grant the country’s president significantly more power, and likely eliminate Tunisia’s democratic gains more than a decade after ousting autocratic leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last...
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Pope Francis asked for forgiveness from Canada’s Indigenous community Monday for the Catholic Church’s role in the country’s “catastrophic” residential school system, which sought to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into Canadian society, the BBC reported. The pontiff made his remark during a visit to Canada this...
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