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The Chinese military practiced live-fire strikes in the East China Sea in an escalation of ongoing surprise drills near Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said in a statement Wednesday.

China’s armed forces launched exercises, dubbed “Strait Thunder-2025A,” in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, focusing on testing the troops’ capabilities of “joint blockade and control” and “precision strikes on key targets,” the Eastern Theater Command’s spokesperson Senior Colonel Shi Yi said.

As part of the drills, which were not announced ahead of time, the ground army of the Eastern Theater Command conducted “live-fire long-range strike drills in designated areas of the East China Sea,” according to the statement.

“The drills involved precision strikes on simulated targets such as key ports and energy facilities and achieved the intended results,” Shi added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denounced an investigation into possible links between his aides and Qatar as a "witch hunt", after he gave testimony to police.

An adviser and a former spokesman were arrested on Monday over alleged payments from the Gulf Arab state as part of the probe, which has been dubbed "Qatar-gate". They have denied any wrongdoing.

Netanyahu, accused the police of holding the two men as "hostages", adding: "There is no case."

A Qatari official also dismissed the probe as a "smear campaign" against Qatar, which has played a key role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas during the war in Gaza.
It comes as Netanyahu faces escalating protests in Israel over his policies, including the resumption of Israel's offensive against Hamas before securing the release of all the remaining hostages, the dismissal of the director of the Shin Bet internal security agency, and the advancement of a controversial plan to overhaul the judiciary.

America currently remains ahead of China when it comes to airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound, according to Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl.

"I think aviation has always been seen as a symbol of technological superiority," Scholl said Tuesday during a "Mornings with Maria" appearance. "Just like the chip, the airplane was invented in America, and China wants to surpass America as a leader in technology, so of course, they’re pursuing supersonic. It is the next step in aviation."
The South China Morning Post reported over the weekend that the Chinese state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) is working on a supersonic jet called the C949.
The aircraft, detailed in blueprints in a recent academic paper, is meant to reach Mach 1.6 and have a barely audible sonic boom when the project comes to fruition, according to the outlet. The jet design is reportedly supposed to have a range 50% longer than the Concorde.

Anti-Israel protester Momodou Taal, a Cornell University international graduate student who sued the Trump administration after he was threatened with deportation, is dismissing his case and has decided to leave the U.S. voluntarily.

The Ivy League student, who holds dual citizenship in the United Kingdom and Gambia, said that although he intended to progress the lawsuit, he decided to leave the country instead, fearing for his safety.

"Today I took the decision to leave the United States, free and with my head held high," Taal wrote in a post on X
"Given what we have seen across the United States, I have lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs," he continued.

Despite leaving the country, Taal still said, "Long live the student intifada!"
Taal has challenged two executive orders that the Trump administration used in its crackdown on foreign students who engaged in anti-Israel protests across th

Why won't India buy even a single bushel of American corn?
That's the question US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised recently while criticising India's trade policies, taking a swipe at its market restrictions.

In another interview, Lutnick accused India of blocking US farmers and urged it to open its agricultural market - suggesting quotas or limits as a possible approach.
Agriculture is a key battleground in US President Donald Trump's escalating trade war.
Tariffs are taxes charged on goods imported from other countries.Trump has repeatedly branded India a "tariff king" and a "big abuser" of trade ties.
Washington has pushed for greater access to India's farm sector, seeing it as a major untapped market. But India has fiercely protected it, citing food security, livelihoods and interests of millions of small farmers.

To be sure, India's transformation from a food-deficient nation to a food-surplus powerhouse is one of its biggest success stories.

The United States has revoked several transnational oil and gas companies' licenses to operate in Venezuela, Caracas said on Sunday, which had been granted despite Washington's sanctions against the South American country.

US President Donald Trump is seeking to strangle Venezuela economically in order to cripple its leader Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela did not specify which companies were affected but French oil firm Maurel & Prom (M&P) said on Monday that the special license it had been granted last May had been revoked.
M&P said the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had given it until May 27 to wind down its activities in Venezuela.
"It is M&P's understanding that this action is part of a broader initiative by OFAC affecting both US and international oil companies operating in Venezuela under similar authorisations, pending a possible agreement between the US and Venezuela as the situation continues to evolve," it said

North Korea criticised a recent agreement by Japan and the United States on co-producing air-to-air missiles as aggravating regional security risks and another example of Washington's push to militarize Japan.

At a time the United States is upgrading its military command in Japan, the two countries' cooperation in munitions production clearly has military and aggressive intentions aimed at countries in the region.

Officials referred to the AIM-120 air-to-air missile system that the United States and Japan have agreed to accelerate co-producing during U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's visit to Tokyo.
Deployment of such a weapon used by aircraft involved in frequent military drills in the region that already pose a grave security threat adds a "new element of strategic instability to the Asia-Pacific region,"
U.S. hegemony-oriented military security strategy is changing and it is a new warning signal for the Asia-Pacific regional society including the countries in Northeast

United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar urged the global community on Tuesday to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions, with the death toll at 2,719 and expected to surpass 3,000.

Drinking water, hygiene, food, shelter and medicine are the most critical needs following extensive damage to buildings, roads and bridges, said Marcoluigi Corsi, acting humanitarian and resident coordinator following a two-day visit.

"We remain, of course, deeply committed to reaching people in Myanmar who need aid," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. "And we must act swiftly to provide relief before the upcoming monsoon season, which, of course, will even worsen this horrendous crisis."

A civil war in Myanmar had displaced more than 3 million people long before the quake struck. U.N. Special Envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop urged all sides to immediately cease fire, permit humanitarian access and ensure aid workers are

Two Kenyan police officers in Haiti have been seriously injured in clashes with gangs over the past week, three officers told Reuters, mission's growing list of casualties as it comes under increasingly frequent attack.

Kenya first deployed officers last June to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which currently has around 1,000 security personnel, about three-quarters of them from Kenya.

The mission, aimed at restoring enough security for Haiti to hold elections by February 2026, has faced morale issues almost from the start and uncertainty about its possible expansion amid escalating gang violence.
They said the two injuries came during routine patrols in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, which is mostly controlled by heavily armed gangs blamed for thousands of deaths since 2021.

MSS spokesperson Jack Ombaka confirmed two officers had been evacuated to the Dominican Republic for medical care.
"As in any mission, casualties are sometimes unavoidable," he

Iran will develop nuclear weapons if Donald Trump launches military strikes against the country, a senior official has said.

Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker and senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, warned the United States to “change its behaviour” after a military build-up on the UK-US base on Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands.

Tehran insists it is not developing nuclear weapons, but Mr Larijani said: “If they [Americans] move toward bombing Iran themselves or through Israel, they will force Iran to make a different decision, which is also not in America’s interest.

“If the US makes a mistake regarding Iran’s nuclear issue, it will force Iran to move toward nuclear weapons because Iran must defend itself.”
The United States has deployed stealth bombers to the Diego Garcia military base, in a warning to Iran and its rebel proxies. Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen have been attacking Israel and terrorising dozens of merchant vessel

New research shows that Hamas has quietly dropped thousands of deaths from its Gaza war casualty figures.
Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting, said that Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update had removed thousands of people it previously listed as having been killed last year.

“Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully “identified” deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports – including 1,080 children. These “deaths” never happened. The numbers were falsified – again,” Mr Aizenberg wrote.

The casualty lists are released as PDFs by the Hamas-run Gaza ministry of health, which has been cited by international media as a source for fatality figures in the enclave since the start of the war.
“We knew there were rafts of errors in their reporting,” Mr Fox said. “There’s a reasonable explanation in that their computer systems went down in November 2023, so it’s been challenging for them to report accurately"

Six years ago Mexico’s president disbanded the country’s Federal Police and handed security responsibilities fully to the military. Now, his successor has quietly begun to build an elite civilian investigative and special operations force to fight the drug cartels.

President Claudia Sheinbaum had already shown a willingness early in her presidency to move away from former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s oft-criticized “hugs, not bullets” strategy. It focused on addressing the social roots of crime rather than directly confronting Mexico’s powerful cartels.

Sheinbaum's security chief, Omar García Harfuch, is drawing on his law enforcement contacts — mostly from the former ranks of the Federal Police — to claw back security capabilities from the armed forces with a civilian force under his direct command.
The government has yet to formally announce the new National Operations Unit, known by its Spanish initials UNO, but its existence is an open secret among former members.

China is ready to import more Indian products and strengthen trade cooperation, Beijing's ambassador to New Delhi said ahead of U.S. tariffs expected to take effect on Wednesday.

The two Asian neighbours are taking steps to rebuild their ties after a 2020 border clash on their Himalayan frontier soured relations.

China and India should work more closely together, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Indian President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday, while exchanging congratulatory messages to mark the 75th anniversary of the start of their diplomatic ties.

"We are willing to work with the Indian side to strengthen practical cooperation in trade and other areas, and to import more Indian products that are well-suited to the Chinese market," Chinese Ambassador Xu Feihong told Chinese state-backed newspaper

Reporter and author Jonathan Allen said Tuesday that former President Barack Obama was working against former Vice President Kamala Harris after former President Joe Biden dropped out, advocating for an open primary because he didn't think Harris could win.

"President Obama absolutely did not think that Joe Biden should continue, according to our sources close to President Obama," Allen told MSNBC. "And he also didn’t want Kamala Harris to be the replacement for Biden. He didn’t think that she was the best choice for Democrats, and he worked really behind the scenes for a long time to try to have a mini-primary, or an open convention, or a mini-primary leading to an open convention, did not have faith in her ability to win the election."
The book "FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House."

"As it turned out, she didn’t win, but he was really working against her," Allen continued.

China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media, an assertion Seoul called "somewhat exaggerated", while Tokyo said there was no such discussion.

The state media said the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs.

Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, linked to China Central Television.

All three sides agreed to strengthen supply chain cooperation and engage in more dialogue on export controls, the post said.
When asked about the report, a spokesperson for South Korea's trade ministry said "the suggestion that there was a joint response to U.S. tariffs appears to have been somewhat exaggera

The co-head of Germany’s Social Democrats party and frontrunner to become the next finance minister Lars Klingbeil dismissed swirling speculation over reviving pipeline gas deliveries from Russia after a potential peace deal for Ukraine.
Germany largely weaned itself off Russian energy supplies after the invasion of Ukraine three years ago and “this path must be followed consistently,” Klingbeil told public broadcaster ARD in an interview. He sees no way back “at all” and added that Germany is far from potentially normalizing relations with Russia due to the ongoing war against Ukraine.
High energy costs have been a key concern across German industry as Europe’s largest economy is trying to revive growth after two years of stagnation. Speculation over a return of Russian gas imports has been swirling ever since discussions over a potential ceasefire emerged, with some local industry representatives in the country’s east saying the cheaper supplies could help reignite momentum.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reinforced U.S. military capability in the Middle East with more warplanes, the Pentagon said on Tuesday, amid a more than two-week-old U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen and mounting tensions with Iran.

The Pentagon's brief statement did not specify which aircraft were being deployed or where precisely they were sent.

However, as many as six B-2 bombers have relocated in the past week or so to a U.S.-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, according to U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Experts say that puts the B-2s, which have stealth technology and are equipped to carry the heaviest U.S. bombs and nuclear weapons, in an ideal position to operate in the Middle East.

"Should Iran or its proxies threaten American personnel and interests in the region, the United States will take decisive action to defend our people," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he would be "very kind" to trading partners when he unveils further tariffs this week, risking global turmoil to address what he says are unfair trade imbalances.

Trump -- who has been making unprecedented use of presidential powers since taking office in January -- said he could announce as early as Tuesday night exactly what "reciprocal tariffs" will be imposed.

The Republican billionaire insists that reciprocal action is needed because the world's biggest economy has been "ripped off by every country in the world," promising "Liberation Day" for the United States.

He could also unveil more sector-specific levies.
"You're going to see in two days, which is maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday."
But he added: "We're going to be very nice, relatively speaking, we're going to be very kind."
Already, China, South Korea and Japan agreed Sunday to strengthen free trade between themselves.

An Israeli airstrike killed four people including a Hezbollah official in Beirut's southern suburbs on Tuesday, a Lebanese security source said, further testing a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said the official - Hassan Bdeir - was a member of a Hezbollah unit and Iran's Quds Force, and he had assisted the Palestinian group Hamas in planning a "significant and imminent terror attack against Israeli civilians".

Hezbollah confirmed that Bdeir had been killed along with his son, who was also a member of the group. The Lebanese security source said Bdeir was a mid-ranking commander whose responsibilities included the Palestinian file.
The Lebanese health ministry said the strike killed four people - and wounded seven others.

It marked Israel's second airstrike in the Hezbollah-controlled suburb of Beirut in five days, adding to strains on the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended last year's devastating conflict.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey broke the record Tuesday for the longest speech on the Senate floor in U.S. history.
His remarks, on governmental “crisis” caused by President Trump’s second-term agenda.
“This is not right or left, it is right or wrong,” Booker said more than 20 hours into his speech regarding Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce. “This is not a partisan moment, it is a moral moment. Where do you stand?”

“I’m about to go to the Senate floor, where I intend to be recognized, and when I am, I am not gonna stop speaking. I’m going to not stop standing. I’m going to go for as long as I am physically able to go,” Booker said. “I’ve been hearing from people all over my state and indeed all over the nation calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different, to cause, as John Lewis said, ‘good trouble,’ and that includes

📌 PURPOSE & CALLING (Living for Something Greater)
Romans 12:2
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
🔹 Simple Life Explanation:
Don’t just follow the crowd—live with purpose and let God shape your thinking.

📌 PURPOSE & CALLING (Living for Something Greater)
Matthew 5:16
"Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
🔹 Simple Life Explanation:
Be a light—your kindness, honesty, and love can inspire others to know God.

📌 PURPOSE & CALLING (Living for Something Greater)
Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart."
🔹 Simple Life Explanation:
You’re not an accident—God created you with a special purpose!