- Japan joins patrols through Taiwan Strait - reports BBC.com
- Japan flexes in Taiwan Strait, sending warship through disputed waters ABC News
- Japan defense force ship sails through Taiwan Strait for 1st time Kyodo News Plus
- PLA tracks, monitors foreign warships’ Taiwan Straits transit Global Times
- Japan sends warship through Taiwan Strait for first time Al Jazeera English
Will Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon force Iran to shift its approach? – Al Jazeera English
- Will Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon force Iran to shift its approach? Al Jazeera English
- Iran’s damage-limitation efforts may not go to plan The Economist
- Iran’s president tells UN Israel’s ‘terrorism in Lebanon cannot go unanswered’ The Times of Israel
- Hezbollah asked Iran to attack Israel, Israeli and Western officials say Axios
- The world must not fall for Iran's diplomatic overtures again - editorial The Jerusalem Post
Will Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon force Iran to shift its approach?
An Iranian response is certain, but leaders in Tehran wish to carefully calibrate their retaliation, analysts said.
Hezbollah rockets land in sea near Israeli city
Explosions were seen near the city of Haifa in northern Israel as a barrage of Hezbollah rockets landed in the sea.
World’s oldest cheese found on ancient Chinese mummies – NBC News
- World's oldest cheese found on ancient Chinese mummies NBC News
- This Cheese Stood Alone for 3,600 Years The New York Times
- Cheese discovered inside coffin with ancient mummies dates back thousands of years Fox News
- DNA from 3,600-year-old cheese sequenced by scientists CNN
- Cheese dating back 3,600 years found in Chinese tomb, researchers say Sky News
Hong Kong: Stand News journalists given jail terms for ‘sedition’
Chung Pui-kuen sentenced to 21 months while Patrick Lam gets 11-month term but is released on medical grounds
The former editor-in-chief of Hong Kong’s Stand News has been sentenced to jail on sedition charges for the publication of news reports and other articles that prosecutors said tried to promote “illegal ideologies”.
Chung Pui-kuen, 55, the former editor-in-chief and the former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam, 36, were found guilty of conspiring to publish seditious materials in late August after almost a year of delays. The parent company of the now-defunct Stand News, Best Pencil Ltd, was also convicted.
Continue reading...Taiwan prosecutors say 4 questioned so far over exploding pagers linked to Hezbollah – New York Post
- Taiwan prosecutors say 4 questioned so far over exploding pagers linked to Hezbollah New York Post
- Taiwan prosecutors say four questioned so far over exploding pagers Reuters
- ‘Irresponsible’: EU Council president condemns escalation in Lebanon Al Jazeera English
- Lebanon is rocked again by exploding devices as Israel declares a new phase of war The Associated Press
- Opinion | Urgent Message for the Iranian Ambassador The Wall Street Journal
Cameroonian separatist leader arrested in Norway
The 52-year-old is said to be playing a key role in Cameroon's Anglophone crisis, where over 6000 people have been killed.
‘The bombs were everywhere’ – the people fleeing Lebanon air strikes
Thousands forced to flee from Lebanon left behind their homes and are now leaning on strangers for survival.
Mirror-like offering by supermarket giants may be stifling vigorous competition, ACCC report says
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission uses special information gathering powers to examine ‘concerning’ reports from grocery suppliers
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Australia’s major supermarkets provide broadly similar products, prices and loyalty programs in an oligopolistic market that may limit incentives to compete vigorously, the competition regulator has found in its interim report on the sector.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also said grocery suppliers had raised “concerning” issues – such as being required to pay rebates for promotions to supermarkets – prompting the regulator to use its compulsory information gathering powers to examine the reported behaviour.
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Continue reading...China announces new measures to arrest housing slump and boost growth
Benefits to rise for poorest and local authorities to be given powers to intervene in real estate markets
Chinese leaders have vowed to arrest a slump in the housing market and boost growth after conceding that measures by the central bank to stimulate investment this week were likely to prove inadequate.
Promising to deploy “necessary spending” by the state to meet this year’s economic growth target of 5%, China’s politburo said it would increase benefits for the poorest and give local authorities the cash and power to intervene to prevent further falls in house price values.
Continue reading...Watch: Deserted streets in Israel’s border towns
Paul Adams visits the border town of Kiryat Shmona as rockets continue to be fired from Lebanon.
Stand News: Hong Kong jails journalists for sedition – BBC.com
- Stand News: Hong Kong jails journalists for sedition BBC.com
- Hong Kong: Stand News journalists given jail terms for ‘sedition’ The Guardian
- For the first time, Hong Kong imprisons a journalist for sedition The Washington Post
- Hong Kong court sentences editor to 21 months in jail in a case seen as a barometer of press freedom The Associated Press
- Hong Kong: Stand News editor sentenced to 21 months in jail DW (English)
Russian missiles and drones target Kyiv for 5 hours and hit Ukraine’s power grid – The Associated Press
- Russian missiles and drones target Kyiv for 5 hours and hit Ukraine’s power grid The Associated Press
- Russia fires barrage at Ukraine as Zelenskyy pitches war-winning plan at UN ABC News
- Key facts about Russia's highly destructive 'glide bombs' Reuters
- Russian Missiles Strike Kyiv for 5 Hours Hitting Ukraine's Power Grid Newsweek
- Ukraine's defence forces destroy 28 Shahed drones and 4 missiles at night Ukrainska Pravda
Hong Kong jails two journalists for sedition
Editors at a now-defunct news site published articles about the city's national security crackdown.
Iran faces dilemma of restraint or revenge for attacks on ally Hezbollah
Iran has sought to strike an unusually conciliatory tone in the face of attacks on its ally Hezbollah.
Elon Musk hits out at Britain after reported summit snub – Reuters UK
- Elon Musk hits out at Britain after reported summit snub Reuters UK
- Elon Musk hits back at UK government after he is not invited to tech summit The Guardian
- 'I don't think...': Elon Musk responds to exclusion from UK international investment summit The Times of India
- Starmer’s top minister for social media has not spoken to snubbed Elon Musk The Independent
- Why has Elon Musk been snubbed by the U.K.’s major investment summit? Fortune
Middle East crisis threatens Lebanon’s ‘very existence’, foreign minister tells UN – as it happened
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Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that trade unions in the country have called on people to show solidarity, and for “the owners of food establishments, bakeries, gas stations and pharmacies to keep their establishments open, and facilitate everything necessary for our people.”
In a statement the trade unions also called on “merchants not to raise prices and not to exploit people.”
They want to do exactly what Hamas did in the south. Remember, we have been in this situation for a whole year. In the past week, the army has fought as it should, as we expect, to bring us back home. It seems we are again taking two steps back.
Continue reading...Badenoch says she’s a ‘huge fan’ of Elon Musk, as other Tory leader candidates decline to praise him – UK politics live
The billionaire owner of X has reportedly not been invited to Labour’s international investment summit next month
Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a thinktank specialising in race and identity issues, says that it is “courageous” for Kemi Badenoch to endorse Elon Musk as enthusiastically as she has done. (See 9.55am.) As he explains, he is using “courageous” in the Yes Minister sense, as a synonym for rash or unwise.
But Katwala is citing polling about the views of Conservative party voters. It is hard to know what Conservative party members think, because they are harder to poll, and so less polling is available, and they are the group that will ultimately elect the next Tory leader. If their views align with the views of Reform UK voters, then her stance on Musk might help her.
Continue reading...White House pledges further $8bn in aid as Zelenskyy visits – as it happened
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Ukraine’s foreign minister has discussed ways to achieve a lasting peace in Ukraine with his Chinese counterpart at the UN general assembly, Kyiv said on Thursday.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, who had earlier met Russia’s top diplomat, told a security council session this week that diplomacy was the only solution to the war in Ukraine.
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