BEIJING (AP) — Taiwan’s opposition leader met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the first such encounter in over a decade, with both sides affirming the need for maintaining peace around the self-ruled island island China claims as its territory. Both Xi and Cheng Li-wun, the head of
Got story updates? Submit your updates here. › As the UK government’s last-minute reversal on local elections sparks a fiery debate, the political turmoil is captured in a fractured, high-energy visual metaphor.Exeter Today The UK government’s sudden decision to reverse plans to postpone local elections in May has sparked a fiery debate, with Labour’s health
April 10 (Reuters) – Russia will never abandon or betray Cuba and plans to help the Communist island tackle energy issues linked to a U.S. embargo, a Russian deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying early on Friday after talks in Havana. Sergei Ryabkov, quoted by Russian news agencies at a news conference in the
Crawley, Wednesday’s ceasefire announcement by President Donald Trump, linked to Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, prompted immediate optimism shipping would quickly resume. It didn’t. What will it take to get ships going through the Strait of Hormuz again? The following morning, traffic remained minimal. A handful of vessels, largely linked to Iran, made the
As a fragile cease-fire takes hold, Iran is sorting through the wreckage from U.S.-Israeli strikes, which have exacted a heavy toll on its civilian infrastructure. The New York Times has verified damage to 22 schools and 17 health care facilities, a fraction of the devastation in the war so far. Hedayat Boys’ High School Shajarah
April 9 (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday about the need for a plan to restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz “as quickly as possible,” following a U.S. ceasefire with Iran, Downing Street said. Starmer discussed with Trump the UK’s efforts to convene partners to
April 9 (Reuters) – Three Russian ministers arrived in the Caucasus region of Dagestan on Thursday to oversee the emergency response to floods that have killed six people, left communities under water, and prompted the evacuation of thousands, Interfax news agency said. The Russian government said Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov toured stricken areas and was
Iran’s imposition of a toll for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz looks set to be a key point of contention at talks opening in Pakistan Friday. Shipping toll for Hormuz passage sharply divides nations When the United States and Israel launched their attack on Iran on February 28, Iran responded by blocking
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode. But this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. Chimpanzees and their close cousins bonobos are our closest
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Iran war is darkening the outlook for the world economy — whether or not a fragile ceasefire holds, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned Thursday. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said the fund will downgrade its forecast for the world economy next week. “Had it not been for this
NEW YORK, – Foreign investors bought fewer two-, five-, and seven-year U.S. Treasury notes at last month’s auction than in February, as conflict raged in the Middle East, data from the U.S. Treasury Department released on Wednesday showed. Foreign buyers purchased $6.024 billion of the latest two-year notes in March, about half the $13.190 billion
BEIRUT, April 9 (Reuters) – Lebanon has spent the last 24 hours advocating for a temporary ceasefire to allow for broader talks with Israel, a senior Lebanese official told Reuters, saying it would be a “separate track but the same model” as a fragile truce brokered by Pakistan between the U.S. and Iran. The official
Sir Ed Davey claimed Luke Campbell has been ‘consistently missing in action’ after Nigel Farage suggested ‘all the local councils’ had been against the Mayor A political row between Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats has heated up ahead of Hull’s local elections(Image: Donna Clifford/Hull Live) The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Sir Ed Davey,
© AIBooth / Shutterstock.com. Justin Kuruvilla, Chief Cyber Security Strategist at Risk Ledger, explores how councils are collaborating to map hidden supply-chain cyber risks and strengthen resilience. When cyber-attacks affecting public services make headlines, the focus is usually on the organisation directly impacted: a council’s systems go down and services are disrupted. In many cases,
new video loaded: Lebanon Searches for Survivors After Israeli Barrage transcript Back transcript Lebanon Searches for Survivors After Israeli Barrage Search-and-rescue operations continued in Lebanon a day after Israel unleashed a deadly wave of strikes across the country that has called into question a fragile cease-fire with Iran. “Look, if Iran wants to let this
BEIJING, April 9 (Reuters) – Beijing stands ready to work with North Korea to further improve ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with his North Korean counterpart on a visit to Pyongyang, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Beijing has been trying to draw Pyongyang back into its orbit after ties
The 800 MW PV project with battery storage has been granted planning approval by the Energy Secretary, despite local councils and campaigners raising objections. Springwell Solar Farm expected to connect to new National Grid substation being built to accommodate flurry of local grid-scale solar projects. April 9, 2026 Matthew Lynas Springwell Solar Farm has been
This year’s elections in the UK are much more important than you might think – and the results could have a huge impact in both the immediate aftermath and in years to come. On May 7, millions of people in England, Scotland, and Wales will elect over 5,000 politicians in elections that could produce a
LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) – Russian human rights group Memorial was designated as an “extremist” movement on Thursday at a closed-door hearing of the Supreme Court, state news agency TASS said. The ruling – the latest in a sweeping, years-long crackdown on free speech in Russia – provides a legal mechanism for authorities to prosecute
Lebanon has emerged as a critical fault line in US-Iran peace talks after Israel targeted capital Beirut and other locations in the country Wednesday evening, killing over 250 people in attacks Lebanese President Joseph Aoun slammmed as ‘barbaric”. The attack came hours after the US and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire to a war that
