South Korea scrambles jets after North Korean drone fly-by December 26, 2022 South Korea scrambled warplanes and attack helicopters and fired warning shots on Monday after North Korean drones violated its airspace, the South Korean military said. South Korea tracked the drones crossing from North Korea over what is known as the Military Demarcation Line between the two countries after detecting them in the skies of the [...]
Show of strength? China sends dozens of aircraft into Taiwanese airspace December 26, 2022 Seventy-one Chinese air force aircraft including fighter jets and drones entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in the past 24 hours, the island’s government said on Monday, the largest reported incursion to date. Of the aircraft, 43 also crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial buffer between the two sides that lies within the [...]
One Chinese province faces a MILLION new Covid-19 cases every day December 25, 2022 China’s Zhejiang, a big industrial province near Shanghai, is battling around a million new daily COVID-19 infections, a number expected to double in the days ahead, the provincial government said on Sunday. Despite a record surge of cases nationwide, China reported no COVID deaths on the mainland for the five days through Saturday, the Chinese [...]
Red-faced Putin: Russia now ready to ‘negotiate’ over Ukraine war December 25, 2022 President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but that Kyiv and its Western backers had refused to engage in talks. Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most deadly conflict in Europe since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since [...]
December 24, 2022 Hong Kong’s leader says China has agreed to a reopening of the city’s border with the mainland, which has been largely closed by pandemic restrictions, and that he is aiming for a mid-January start. Chief executive John Lee, returning from a trip to Beijing where he met President Xi Jinping and other officials, told reporters
Rishi Sunak hires Spectator journo James Forsyth as key political aide December 24, 2022 Rishi Sunak has hired James Forsyth, the Spectator’s political editor and a Times columnist, as his new political secretary. The news was broken by The Times and the Spectator. Forsyth will bolster Sunak’s key Downing Street team as the Prime Minister seeks to overcome a double-digit deficit in most election polls. He is a long-standing [...]
London braced for transport chaos as Christmas Eve train strike begins December 24, 2022 Strike action could bring chaos to millions of people on Christmas Eve, as walkouts hit rail services and Border Force action enters a second day. With one day to go until Christmas, travellers were being issued with warnings of delays, congestion and disruption. Fears of disorder at UK airports and long queues at passport control [...]
Rishi Sunak to Keir Starmer: Five bold predictions for British politics in 2023 December 24, 2022 If a week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson once said, then what on earth was 2022? Rishi Sunak started the year as Chancellor, spent a strange summer on the backbenches, and returned to Downing Street with the top job by Christmas. In an exhausting and traumatic 12 months the UK witnessed [...]
US-China tension: Taiwan spending angers Beijing power brokers December 24, 2022 Beijing has condemned an annual US defence spending bill for hyping up the “China threat”, but Taiwan welcomed the legislation, saying it demonstrated US support for the self-governing island that China says must come under its rule. “China deplores and firmly opposes this US move,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted online on [...]
Two people killed in central Paris shooting December 23, 2022 Two people have been killed and four hurt in a Paris shooting, authorities in France said. Two of the four people who were injured are in a critical condition, officials said. A 69-year-old has been arrested, with officials working to confirm their identity. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. Anti-terrorism prosecutors are [...]
