Biden tells Xi US and China must not ‘veer into conflict’ in first call for months
US president Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping have spoken in their first phone call for seven months, amid continuing frustrations over attempts to find common ground. During the 90-minute call, which was initiated by Biden, the two leaders discussed their shared responsibility to ensure competition does not “veer into conflict”, according to a…
Read More..Contagion fear as China property giant Evergrande struggles to repay $300bn debt
Shares in the embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande have slumped again after two credit downgrades in two days amid concerns that it will default on parts of its massive $300bn debt pile. Evergrande, which is one of the world’s most indebted companies, has seen its shares tumble 75% this year. They fell by almost 10%…
Read More..US-led meeting to set out framework for Taliban cooperation
The US is convening an expanded group of western nations to set a framework for cooperation with the new Taliban government, amid fears that isolating the militant group could backfire. The meeting on Wednesday, chaired by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, faces an all-male, Pashtun-dominated caretaker…
Read More..UN experts condemn Texas abortion law as sex discrimination ‘at its worst’
United Nations human rights monitors have strongly condemned the state of Texas for its new anti-abortion law, which they say violates international law by denying women control over their own bodies and endangering their lives.
Read More..New Zealand stabbings: officials tried for years to deport terrorist prior to Auckland attack, Jacinda Ardern says
New Zealand had tried for years to deport the terrorist who stabbed shoppers in an Auckland supermarket on Friday before being shot dead by the police officers tasked with watching him, the country’s prime minister has said.
Read More..New Zealand stabbings: police made repeated attempts to curb ‘highly paranoid’ man
Seven people were injured in the Islamic State-inspired terror attack in New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern has said, updating initial reports that only six people had been hurt. Speaking at a media conference in Wellington on Saturday, New Zealand’s prime minister said that of the seven injured, five were in hospital, and three of them were…
Read More..US supreme court refuses to block radical Texas abortion law
A deeply divided supreme court has allowed a Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in force, stripping most women of the right to an abortion in the nation’s second-largest state. The court voted 5-4 early on Thursday to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers and others that sought to block enforcement of…
Read More..Biden calls for new era in US foreign policy in defensive Afghanistan speech
Joe Biden has said he takes responsibility for the bloody, often chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and said it should mark a new era in US foreign policy, relying less on military muscle. Addressing the nation from the White House 24 hours after the last US soldier left Kabul, Biden sought to confront his critics about…
Read More..Hurricane Ida live updates: first death in Louisiana as New Orleans loses power
It’s 4am CDT and the National Hurricane Center has issued its latest advisory. Ida is now a tropical storm over Southwestern Mississippi. Dangerous storm surge, damaging winds, and flash flooding continue over portions of Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi.
Read More..Afghanistan live news: US embassy warns of ‘specific, credible threat’ at Kabul airport as Biden says terror attack ‘highly likely in next 24-36 hours’
Former officials and lecturers at Afghanistan universities have called on the Taliban to maintain and upgrade the country’s education system instead of creating a new one, AP reports. Former minister of higher education Abas Basir said at a conference on higher education held by the Taliban that starting over is a mistake made by previous…
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