US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025.

'Disgraceful' Trump-Zelensky row sparks US political firestorm

Democrats accused Trump and Vance of doing Russian leader Vladimir Putin's "dirty work" after they berated Zelensky in front of the world's media.

8 months ago

Asia & Pacific

Top Russian security official holds Beijing talks with Chinese foreign minister

It cited Shoigu, Russia's former defence minister, as saying he was in China on behalf of President Vladimir Putin and noting how aligned Moscow and Beijing were when it came to various international issues. ...

8 months ago

Asia & Pacific

Russian security chief meets Anwar in Malaysia

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hosted Shoigu at his office, and the Russian former defence chief who is now secretary of Moscow's Security Council was also due to meet with Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin. ...

8 months ago

The Latest

Alleged victims of scam centers board a boat to cross the river on the Myanmar-Thai border to be met by Thai Army soldiers as they are repatriated from Kyauk Khet in Myanmar's Myawaddy township on Feb. 12, 2025. More than 260 people, many visibly injured or bruised, were rescued from an illicit scam center along the Myanmar border and handed over to Thailand, following a series of crackdowns on the illegal operations.

Asia & Pacific

Myanmar hands over 84 Indonesian alleged scammers to Thailand

Myanmar handed over 84 Indonesians to Thailand on Thursday, local officials said, the latest group of alleged scam center workers set to be repatriated from the region.

8 months ago

Recently laid off federal workers walk through the Dirksen Senate Office Building after meeting with staff members for Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on February 25, 2025 in Washington, DC. Federal workers who have been laid off from several government agencies are visiting Senators offices this week to meet with members of their staff and express their disdain for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Americas

Protests, resignations, spoons: US federal workers push back on Musk cuts

Trailed by security personnel warning them not to block the busy halls, the federal workers filed into the offices of multiple Republican senators, including majority leader John Thune, to voice their distress.

8 months ago

Journalists put flowers and press cards on mock headstones as they demonstrate on May 17, 2024, outside the Blitar mayoral Legislative Council
headquarters in Blitar, East Java. The members of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) rejected a broadcasting bill that they believe will curtail press freedom.

Asia & Pacific

Vietnam jails leading journalist over Facebook posts

Huy Duc worked for influential state-run newspapers before authoring one of Vietnam's most popular blogs and Facebook accounts, where he criticized the country's communist leaders on issues such as corruption, media control and relations with China.

8 months ago

Then US President Joe Biden corrects himself after accidentally introducing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (right) as Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the Ukraine Compact initiative on the sidelines of the NATO Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on July 11, 2024.

Europe

Zelensky set to meet Trump Friday with Ukraine minerals on table

Holding his first cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump said the Ukrainian president's visit to Washington was "now confirmed", after days of tension between the two leaders over the minerals deal.

8 months ago

Coordinating Law, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Services Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra (left) speaks after a meeting with Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution in Jakarta on Feb. 25, 2025. Both countries have agreed to form a working group to discuss prisoner exchange.

Asia & Pacific premium

Indonesia, Malaysia to form special team for prisoner exchange

Senior law minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra and Malaysia Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution have agreed to form a joint team for prisoner exchange between both countries.

8 months ago

A Qatar Airways Airbus A350 takes
off on June 29, 2023, from Franz Josef Strauss airport in
Munich, southern Germany. Qatar Airways said on
Monday that it would suspend its Doha-Medan flight
route starting June 1, stating that the decision was based
on “a thorough evaluation” of market demand and
operational efficiency.

Asia & Pacific

Australian says 'wasn't nice' sitting with corpse on long-haul flight

Mitchell Ring said a passenger died part-way through the 14-hour flight from Melbourne to Doha last week.

8 months ago

US President Donald Trump signs the No Men in Women's Sports Executive Order into law in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 5, 2025. President Trump on Wednesday is signing an executive order to ban transgender girls and women from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity, marking his latest move targeting transgender rights.

Americas

Trump to sell 'gold card' US visas for $5 million

Trump said sales of the new visa, a high-price version of the traditional green card, would bring in job creators and could be used to reduce the US national deficit.

8 months ago

President Prabowo Subianto (right) talks with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergei K. Shoigu on Tuesday during a bilateral meeting at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta. The meeting will discuss cooperation in various fields including defense and security.

Asia & Pacific premium

Prabowo welcomes Putin aide despite concerns from rights groups

President Prabowo Subianto welcomed Russia’s top security official Sergei Shoigu at the Merdeka Palace on Tuesday afternoon as Jakarta and Moscow seek to strengthen defense cooperation, despite concerns from rights groups over the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.

8 months ago

Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu (right), who served as Russia's Defence Minister between 2012 and 2024, and Indonesia's Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin shake hands as they exchange gifts after their bilateral meeting at the Defence Ministry in Jakarta on February 25, 2025.

Asia & Pacific

President Prabowo discusses regional security with Russia security chief

Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in the great power competition between the United States and China.

8 months ago

People gather at St Peter's basilica to attend a Rosary prayer for the health of Pope Francis who is hospitalized with pneumonia, at The Vatican on February 24, 2025.

Europe

Pope Francis rested well all night, Vatican says

The 88-year-old pope was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14.

8 months ago

Palestinian children walk on a street by Israeli forces in the Jenin camp for refugees, in the occupied West Bank on February 24, 2025. Israel said on February 23 its troops would remain for many months in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, after tens of thousands of Palestinians living there were displaced by an intensifying, weeks-long military operation.

Middle East and Africa

Islamic Jihad says Israeli tanks part of 'plans to annex West Bank by force'

The torn-up streets surrounding the Jenin refugee camp in the territory's north were empty on Monday, an AFP journalist reported, as three Israeli Merkava tanks stationed at higher vantage points overlooked the area.

8 months ago

US President Donald Trump meets with French President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 24, 2025.

Europe

Macron and Trump rekindle Le Bromance with a touch of tension

French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump rekindled the most touchy-feely bromance in world politics as they met on Monday for talks on Ukraine.

8 months ago

Ambassador Dorothy Camille Shea, chargé d'affaires ad interim of the United States, speaks during a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on Ukraine at the United Nations headquarters on February 24, 2025 in New York City.

Europe

United States sides with Russia at UN

The two votes highlighted a seismic shift in the balance of power at the UN, where Washington had steadfastly voted for resolutions that favored Ukraine and condemned Russia, until the abrupt rupture with Kyiv.

8 months ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds his annual end-of-year press conference in Moscow on Dec. 19, 2024.

Europe

Putin backs Trump's proposal to halve defense spending

"I think it's a good idea. The US would cut by 50 percent and we would cut by 50 percent and then China would join if it wanted," Putin said in a televised interview.

8 months ago

This handout photograph taken on November 25, 2024 and released by the Taliban deputy prime minister for economic affairs office shows the secretary of Russia's Security Council Sergei Shoigu (center) looking on during a bilateral meeting with Afghanistan's deputy prime minister for Economic Affairs Abdul Ghani Baradar at the Chahar Chinar Palace in Kabul.

Asia & Pacific

Russia security chief in Jakarta to meet President Prabowo

Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, refusing to take sides in the Ukraine conflict or in great power competition between the United States and China.

8 months ago

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and his party's candidate for Chancellor addresses supporters after the first exit polls in the German general elections were announced on TV during the electoral evening in Berlin on February 23, 2025.

Europe

Friedrich Merz: conservative set to be Germany's next chancellor

A long-time rival of centrist ex-chancellor Angela Merkel within the CDU party, Merz has attacked her open-door migrant policy and drawn her ire for accepting support from the far-right AfD on the flashpoint issue in parliament.

8 months ago

People wait for Pope Francis to leave in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Sept. 7, 2024.

Europe

Pope Francis had a 'good' night in hospital, slept and is resting, says Vatican

The pope was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital on February 14 after having trouble breathing for several days and subsequently had pneumonia diagnosed in both lungs.

8 months ago

Philippines' Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro speaks during the opening session of the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Jakarta on November 15, 2023.

Asia & Pacific

Philippine, Japan ministers agree to further enhance defense partnership

Nakatani met his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro in Manila for a meeting in which the two ministers tackled regional security issues, including the maritime situation in the East and South China Seas.

8 months ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C), Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (L) and Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov oversee the Vostok-2022 (East-2022) military drills at Sergeyevsky training ground in the far eastern Primorsky Region, Russia September 6, 2022.

Asia & Pacific

Russian official visits Indonesia and Malaysia to talk defense

RIA state news agency cited the press office of the Security Council as saying the trip will last until February 28.

8 months ago

Deputy Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir attends the G20 Foreign Minister Meeting on Feb. 20, 2025, at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Middle East and Africa premium

Indonesia calls for multilateral reform at G20 foreign ministers’ meeting

Indonesia’s senior diplomat has emphasized the need for multilateral reform on the global stage, highlighting the multilateral system’s erosion because of a growing lack of interest among countries in cooperating to maintain peace and stability.

8 months ago

A woman gets on a bus in the city center in Hiroshima, Japan on May 19, 2023, as world leaders meet on the first day of the G7 Summit Leaders' Meeting nearby.

Asia & Pacific

Indonesian bus driver to be first to work under new Japan visa status

Securing bus drivers is becoming a major challenge for Japan, with the government projecting a shortage of around 22,000 workers in 2029.

8 months ago

An aerial view shows the USAID-funded Pakistani non-profit HANDS water supply plant in Jacobabad in southern Sindh province, Pakistan on Feb. 18, 2025. In Pakistan's hottest city, fresh and filtered water can quench the searing onslaught of climate change, but United States President Donald Trump's foreign aid freeze threatens its vital supply, an NGO says.

Asia & Pacific

Trump aid cut imperils water scheme in scorching Pakistan city

Pakistani non-profit HANDS says Trump's aid embargo has blocked $1.5 million earmarked to make the scheme viable in the long-term, putting the water pump and purification project at risk "within a few months".

8 months ago

One on one: Wearing personal protective equipment, a physician (right) checks the health of a self-isolating man in Bandung on Aug. 14, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Europe

'History will not forgive' failure to seal pandemic deal: WHO chief

Tedros urged countries not to sink the agreement on a word, a comma or a percentage in the text, imploring them not to make perfect the enemy of the good.

8 months ago

A Palestinian youth waves the flag of Palestine at the site of the handing over of the bodies of four Israeli hostages in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza on Feb. 20, 2025. Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages on Feb. 20, including those of the Bibas family, who have become symbols of the hostage crisis that has gripped Israel since the Gaza war broke out. The transfer of the bodies is the first such handover of remains by Hamas since its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)

Middle East and Africa

Arab leaders meet in Saudi Arabia to hash out Gaza plan

The official Saudi Press Agency said the "fraternal consultative" meeting saw an "exchange of views on various regional and international issues, especially joint efforts in support of the Palestinian cause, and developments in the situation in the Gaza Strip".

8 months ago

A stock illustration of financial crime.

Asia & Pacific

Global watchdog removes Philippines from money laundering 'grey list'

While removing the Philippines from the grey list, the FATF added Laos and Nepal, bringing the total number of countries on the list to 25 that includes Bulgaria, Croatia, Monaco, Nigeria and Yemen.

8 months ago