Author: News Desk

United Kingdom: South Korean President Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol will visit the United Kingdom in November after receiving an invitation from King Charles III. The King and Queen Camilla will welcome the South Korean President and his wife Ms. Kim Keon Hee at Buckingham Palace. It will be the second incoming state visit during the King’s reign, following South Africa’s President Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa in November 2022. The King and Queen have just returned from a three-day state visit to France. The details of Mr. Yoon’s UK state visit have not been released. However, the trip will most probably follow…

Thailand: A Thai court has jailed one of the top figures in the kingdom’s youth-led pro-democracy protest movement for four years on royal insult charges. Thailand has extremely strict laws against defaming the royal family, particularly King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his close relatives. Critics argue that these laws have been used to silence opposition and suppress criticism. Mr. Anon Numpa, a 39-year-old activist and human rights lawyer, was found guilty in Bangkok Criminal Court for a speech he delivered during the 2020 protests. The protests attracted tens of thousands of people, some demanding significant changes to the monarchy and the…

United States: A new survey from the US National Center for Health Statistics has found that ‘long COVID’ may have affected almost 962,000 children and 17.9 million adults. According to the analysis, 1.3 percent of children and 6.9 percent of adults had ever had long COVID in 2022. Only 0.5 percent of children and 3.4 percent of adults said they had long COVID at the time of the survey. The data for the latest study comes from the National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative household survey of the US civilian noninstitutionalized population that has been done continuously throughout 2022.…

Antarctica: The US data center has reportedly suggested that the sea ice around Antarctica has likely reached the lowest annual maximum amount of sea ice around the continent. The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) stated that Antarctic sea ice reached its maximum size in September this year, measuring 16.96 million square kilometers, as the southern hemisphere transitioned into spring. The ice pack usually reaches its biggest size in the colder winter months, so it’s likely that the measurement will be this year’s maximum. “This is the lowest sea ice maximum in the 1979–2023 sea ice record by…

South Korea: South Korea has welcomed senior diplomats from China and Japan for a trilateral meeting. The move is widely considered an attempt to ease China’s concerns about Seoul and Tokyo’s security ties with the United States as well as restart a long-suspended trilateral leaders’ summit. South Korea has been trying to deepen ties with the US and Japan amid North Korea’s regular tests of banned weapons and closer relationships with countries such as Russia. In August 2023, South Korea, Japan, and the US hailed a “new milestone” in cooperation at a historic summit in Washington, DC. The close allies…

China: The European Union’s (EU) trade chief Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, has said that tough security laws and a more politically influenced business environment have made it difficult for European companies to understand their obligations and question the future in China. The trade commissioner, Mr. Dombrovskis, stated this in a speech at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. The Chief stated that China’s denial to blame ally Russia for its war in Ukraine also poses a “reputational risk” for the country. Mr. Dombrovskis mentioned that being transparent and open is a successful strategy in the long term, especially as trade tensions rise between the…

Ethiopia: Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have concluded their trilateral negotiations surrounding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) with an inconclusive note promising to continue talk “in good faith”. The two-day talks, which included representatives from the three countries to address contentious issues surrounding the GERD project on the Blue Nile, ended in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. The negotiations centred on finding common ground on key issues, including the filling and operation of the dam as well as mechanisms for resolving disputes that may arise in the future. Ambassador Mr. Seleshi Bekele, head of the Ethiopian negotiating team, commented that…

Canada: The speaker of Canada’s parliament has apologised for giving a standing ovation to a Ukrainian veteran during a visit by President Mr. Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The veteran was accused of fighting for the Nazis in World War II. Speaker of the House Mr. Anthony Rota paid tribute to Mr. Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian immigrant. Mr. Rota praised Mr. Hunka as “a Ukrainian Canadian war veteran who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians during the Second World War,” calling him “both a Ukrainian and Canadian hero.” The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) stated that the comments overlook the…

United States: The screenwriters union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have stated that Hollywood writers have reached a tentative deal with studios, which could lead to the end of their nearly five-month strike. The deal came after five days of renewed talks by negotiators for the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and an alliance of studios, streaming services, and production companies and must be approved by the guild’s board and members before the strike officially ends. The terms of the deal were not immediately announced, but the WGA called the deal “exceptional, with meaningful gains and…

United States: A NASA spacecraft with the largest soil sample ever collected from an asteroid’s surface has touched down in the Utah desert, seven years after it was launched. The capsule was released by the robotic spacecraft OSIRIS-REx when it came within 108,000 km (67,000 miles) of Earth. It landed in a specific area west of Salt Lake City, part of the expansive Utah Test and Training Range used by the United States military. The soil samples will be transported to NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston. This facility already holds almost 400 kg (842 lb) of moon rocks collected…