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France’s President Emmanuel Macron said the forthcoming G20 summit must send a clear message to Afghanistan’s Taliban on the conditions for international recognition. In an interview with France Inter radio station broadcast on Tuesday, Macron said those conditions must include equality for women, access to foreign humanitarian operations, and non-cooperation …

Taiwan needs to be on alert for China’s “over the top” military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Tuesday, after 56 Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone on Monday, the highest ever. Taiwan has reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern …

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will “prepare for my defense” against an International Criminal Court probe into his deadly drug war after he retires from politics. “I will prepare for my defense in the ICC,” Duterte said in a pre-recorded speech released late Monday, in his first public …

New Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday that he received a “strong” message from President Joe Biden about the US commitment to defending the disputed East China Sea islets known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan. In phone talks on Tuesday morning that lasted roughly 20 minutes, the …

Malaysia late Monday summoned Beijing’s envoy to the Southeast Asian country in protest after Chinese vessels entered its maritime economic zone in the disputed South China Sea. Kuala Lumpur summoned Chinese ambassador Ouyang Yujing “to convey Malaysia’s position and protest against the presence and activities of Chinese vessels, including a …

Refugee admissions to the US fell to a record low during the 2021 budget year, despite President Joe Biden’s pledge to reverse the sharp cuts made by the Trump administration, according to figures obtained by The Associated Press. A total of 11,445 refugees were allowed into the US during the …

France has said it could cut power to the British Crown dependencies in the English Channel to “pressure” London in a dispute over fishing licenses for French boats. Under the 2020 UK-EU trade deal, French boats are allowed to continue catching fish in British waters if they obtain a license. …

At least three international advocacy organizations have called on the African Union (AU) to withdraw the Israeli regime’s observer status over its human rights violations and crimes against humanity. The US-based Democracy for Arab World Now (DAWN) together with the Legal Resource Center (LRC) in South Africa on Monday signed …

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says the Israeli regime’s presence in the region is a cause for serious concern, stressing the importance of resolving regional problems without foreign interference. Speaking at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in Tehran on Monday, Amir-Abdollahian added that the South …

Taliban government forces destroyed an Islamic State cell in the north of Kabul late on Sunday in a prolonged assault that broke the calm of a normally quiet area of the capital with hours of explosions and gunfire, officials and local residents said. With Afghanistan’s economy close to collapse and …

The UK government on Monday said it stood ready to abandon a post-Brexit trading accord for Northern Ireland “soon” unless the EU agreed to wholesale changes. Addressing the annual conference of the ruling Conservative party, Brexit minister David Frost said: “The long bad dream of our EU membership is over. …

Ethiopia’s parliament confirmed incumbent Abiy Ahmed as prime minister for a five-year term on Monday, cementing his power domestically amid mounting international concern about his government’s handling of the conflict in northern Ethiopia. Abiy’s party won a landslide victory in June’s election. He was sworn in on Monday, and a …

Russia said on Monday it had successfully test-launched a Tsirkon (Zircon) hypersonic cruise missile from a submarine for the first time, a weapon President Vladimir Putin has lauded as part of a new generation of unrivaled arms systems. The defense ministry, which tested firing the Tsirkon missile from a warship …

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s health has suffered from her frequent appearances before a court run by the military junta that deposed her government, her lawyer said Monday. Suu Kyi went on trial in June, four months after she was taken into custody in a coup that plunged …

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who stirred worldwide controversy in 2007 with offensive drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammed, was killed in a car crash near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday, police said. Vilks, 75, who had been living under police protection since the drawings were published, was traveling in …

Australia’s delta outbreak appears to have levelled off, with more than half the country in extended lockdowns and vaccination rates starting to approach national targets, Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Monday. Hunt said 80 percent of Australians will have had their first COVID-19 jabs this week, while the overall …

An independent commission examining sex abuse within the Roman Catholic Church in France believes 3,000 child abusers — two-thirds of them priests — have worked in the church over the past 70 years. The estimate was given by the commission president, Jean-Marc Sauvé, in an interview published Sunday in the …

New Zealand on Monday abandoned its strategy of eliminating coronavirus, easing some COVID-19 lockdown restrictions in its biggest city Auckland, and will instead look to live with the virus while controlling its spread. The Pacific nation was among just a handful of countries to bring COVID-19 cases down to zero …

North and South Korea restored a stalled communication hotline after weeks of a hiatus in a small, fragile reconciliation step Monday, as the North pushes hard to win outside concessions with a mix of conciliatory gestures and missile tests. Liaison officials from the two Koreas exchanged messages over a cross-border …

The Chinese military flew 16 warplanes over waters south of Taiwan on Sunday as the US expressed concern about what it called China’s “provocative military action” near the self-governing island that China claims. China sent 38 warplanes into the area on Friday and 39 aircraft on Saturday, the most in …