- Wednesday, 20 August 2025
Reuters
Chinese investors eyeing Indonesia to avoid US tariffs, tap local market
Gao Xiaoyu, the founder of an industrial land consulting firm in Jakarta, has been inundated with calls from Chinese companies eager to expand or set up operations in Indonesia as they try to shield themselves from the United States' hefty import tariffs.
Israel's security cabinet approves plan to take control of Gaza City
Israel's political-security cabinet approved a plan early on Friday to take control of Gaza City, a move expanding military operations despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating, almost two-year-old war.
Trump says US to levy 100% tariff on imported chips but some firms exempt
President Donald Trump said the United States will impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but offered up a big exemption - it will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.
Musk vs. Modi: Inside the battle over India's internet censorship
In January, an old post on Elon Musk's social media platform, X, became a concern for police in the Indian city of Satara. Written in 2023, the short message from an account with a few hundred followers described a senior ruling-party politician as "useless".
Powerful quake in Russia's Far East causes tsunami, Japan and Hawaii order evacuations
A magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck off Russia's Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula on Wednesday, damaging buildings and generating a tsunami of up to 4 metres (13 feet) that prompted warnings and evacuations stretching across the Pacific Ocean.
Thai and Cambodian leaders head to Malaysia for peace talks
The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia were set to hold talks in Malaysia on Monday to reach a ceasefire in their deadly border dispute, with the United States saying its officials would be assisting in the peace process.
Thai-Cambodian fighting extends into third day, Malaysia urges ceasefire
Fighting on the Thai-Cambodian border extended into a third day and new flashpoints emerged on Saturday as both sides said they had acted in self-defence in the border dispute and called on the other to cease fighting and start negotiations. More than 30 people have been killed and more than 130,000 people displaced in the worst fighting between the Southeast Asian neighbours in 13 years. There were clashes early on Saturday, both sides said, in the neighboring Thai coastal province of Trat and Cambodia's Pursat Province early, a new front more than 100 km (60 miles) from other conflict points along the long-contested border.
Japan's Prime Minister Ishiba to quit after election drubbing, local media report
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will announce his resignation by the end of next month, Japanese media reported on Wednesday, following a bruising election defeat that cost his administration its upper house majority.
'Air India crash probe focuses on actions of plane's captain'
A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines, the Wall Street Journal has reported. The newspaper cited people familiar with U.S. officials' early assessment of evidence uncovered in the investigation into the June 12 crash of a Boeing (BA.N) 787 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people.
World risks up to $39 trillion in economic losses from vanishing wetlands, report says
The global destruction of wetlands, which support fisheries, agriculture and flood control, may mean the loss of $39 trillion in economic benefits by 2050, according to a report by the Convention on Wetlands. Some 22 per cent of wetlands, both freshwater systems such as peat lands, rivers and lakes, and coastal marine systems including mangroves and coral reefs, have disappeared since 1970, according to the intergovernmental report, the fastest pace of loss of any ecosystem.
Air India crash rekindles debate over cockpit video recorders
The deadly Air India crash last month has renewed a decades-old debate in the aviation industry over installing video cameras monitoring airline pilot actions to complement the cockpit voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators. One of the industry's most influential voices, International Air Transport Association head Willie Walsh, a former airline pilot, said on Wednesday in Singapore, there was a strong argument for video cameras to be installed in airliner cockpits to monitor pilot actions to complement voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators.
Trump intensifies trade war with threat of 30% tariffs on EU, Mexico
President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union starting on August 1, after weeks of negotiations with the major U.S. trading partners failed to reach a comprehensive trade deal. In an escalation of a trade war that has angered U.S. allies and rattled investors, Trump announced the latest tariffs in separate letters to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum that were posted on his Truth Social media site on Saturday.
U.S. starts firing more than 1,350 workers in Trump's diplomatic shake-up
The State Department began firing more than 1,350 U.S.-based employees on Friday as the administration of President Donald Trump presses ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps, a move critics say will undermine the U.S. ability to defend and promote U.S. interests abroad. The layoffs, which affect 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service officers based in the United States, come at a time when Washington is grappling with multiple crises on the world stage: Russia's war in Ukraine, the almost two-year-long Gaza conflict, and the Middle East on edge due to high tension between Israel and Iran.
More than 18,000 people in lockdown as wildfire rages in Catalonia
Spanish authorities ordered more than 18,000 residents of the northeastern Tarragona province to remain indoors on Tuesday and several dozen were evacuated as a wildfire raged out of control, consuming almost 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of vegetation.
Air India jet's fuel switches in focus, as crash preliminary report nears
A preliminary report into the deadly crash of an Air India jetliner in June is expected to be released by Friday, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, with one adding the probe had narrowed its focus to the movement of the plane's fuel control switches.
