Foreign News

China Seeks Dialogue With US To Resolve Trade Tensions

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  China on Thursday called for “dialogue” with Washington to resolve spiralling trade tensions that have seen the world’s two largest economies impose a slew of tariffs on each other’s imports. “China has always advocated that China and the United States should adopt a positive and cooperative attitude towards differences and controversies in economic and trade fields,” commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian told a weekly news conference. “But it must be stressed that any form of communication and consultation must be based on mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit,” she said. “Threats and intimidation can only be counterproductive. It is hoped that the United States and China will work together… to return to the correct track of resolving issues through dialogue and consultation.” Since retaking office in January, US President Donald Trump has unleashed tariffs on major trading partners, including China, Canada, and Mexico, citing their failure to stem the flow of deadly fentanyl and related precursor chemicals. This month saw Trump raise a 10-per cent blanket tariff he previously imposed on Chinese products to 20 per cent. Beijing responded with levies of up to 15 per cent on a range of US agricultural goods including soybeans, pork and chicken. China — the world’s top steel producer — also vowed Wednesday to take “all necessary measures” to protect its interests in response to separate new US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. Punch

China seeks just, lasting solution to Ukraine war

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  China said Tuesday it hoped a “just and lasting solution” can be found to the three-year war between Ukraine and Russia, ahead of talks due involving Ukrainian and US officials in Saudi Arabia. “China supports all efforts that contribute to a peaceful resolution of the crisis,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning when asked about the talks at a daily news conference in Beijing. “We expect and hope that parties can reach a just and lasting solution that is acceptable to all sides,” said Mao. “China is also willing to continue to work with the international community to play a constructive role for a political resolution of the crisis,” she added. China presents itself as a neutral party in the war and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States and other Western nations. But China is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned. The talks in Saudi Arabia will be the most senior since a disastrous White House visit last month when US President Donald Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for purported ingratitude. AFP

US Set To Remove Transgender Soldiers From Military

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  The United States will begin removing transgender troops from the military within 30 days unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, the Pentagon said in a Wednesday memo. The memo became public as part of a court filing in a case challenging President Donald Trump’s late January executive order that was aimed at barring military service by transgender personnel. “Service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service,” the memo read. These troops may be “considered for a waiver on a case-by-case basis, provided there is a compelling government interest in retaining the service member that directly supports warfighting capabilities,” it said. To obtain such a waiver, troops must show that they have never attempted to transition, as well as demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability in the service member’s sex without clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks. The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president. Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017. But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely. Trump’s controversial restrictions — which underwent changes in response to various court challenges — eventually came into force in April 2019 following a protracted legal battle that went all the way to the nation’s top court. Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so. After returning to office in January, Trump issued an executive order executive order that again took aim at transgender military service, saying: “Expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.” Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries. AFP

US Woman Sues IVF Clinic After Giving Birth To Another Couple’s Baby

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  A 38-year-old American woman has filed a lawsuit against a fertility clinic after the wrong embryo was implanted in her, causing her to give birth to a child that was not biologically hers. She later had to surrender the baby to its rightful parents. Krystena Murray, from Savannah, Georgia, turned to in vitro fertilisation to fulfil her dream of becoming a mother, using a sperm donor to conceive. In December 2023, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy—but immediately knew something was wrong. The child was Black, while both she and the donor were white. Ms Murray said she contacted the clinic, Coastal Fertility Specialists, and discovered that doctors had implanted another patient’s embryo in her instead of her own. She said the baby’s biological parents were notified, and they demanded custody. According to the New York Times on Wednesday, Murray contacted Coastal Fertility Specialists, the clinic where she had undergone IVF treatment, and soon learned that doctors had mistakenly implanted another patient’s embryo into her. The clinic then notified the baby’s biological parents, who demanded custody. Ms Murray voluntarily gave up custody of the five-month-old boy to avoid a legal battle, describing the situation as having left her “emotionally and physically broken.” She said: “My child was ultimately taken from me as the clinic had implanted an embryo from a stranger into my womb. I’ve never felt so violated.” After handing the child over in court, she told Sky’s US partner network NBC News: “I walked in as a mum with a child — a baby who loved me, was mine, and was attached to me — and I walked out of the building with an empty stroller, while they left with my son.” Ms Murray’s lawsuit, filed in a Georgia court, states that the clinic’s “extreme and outrageous” mistake forced her into becoming “an unwitting surrogate, against her will, for another couple.” She said: “The situation has left me emotionally and physically broken. I grew him, I raised him, I loved him. I saw no difference — it felt the same as if he were my own genetic embryo.” Coastal Fertility Specialists, which runs an IVF clinic in Savannah and four others in neighbouring South Carolina, described the incident in a statement to NBC News as an “isolated event.” The clinic apologised for “an unprecedented error that resulted in an embryo transfer mix-up.” The clinic added: “We are doing everything we can to make things right for those affected by this incident.” Murray said she had no reason to suspect anything was wrong when she began treatment in early 2023. She underwent injections to stimulate egg production, which were later retrieved and fertilised in a lab using donor sperm. The wedding photographer said she became pregnant on her second embryo implantation attempt, unaware it was not her own embryo. She added: “I considered the risks of IVF going in. Never once did I consider that I might birth someone else’s child and have them taken from me.” Punch

UK To Deny Undocumented Migrants Citizenship

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  The British government on Wednesday said it was toughening immigration rules to make it almost impossible for undocumented migrants who arrive on small boats to later receive citizenship. Under new guidance migrants arriving by sea, or hidden in the back of vehicles will normally be refused citizenship. “This guidance further strengthens measures to make it clear that anyone who enters the UK illegally, including small boat arrivals, faces having a British citizenship application refused,” a Home Office spokesperson said. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is under pressure to reduce migration after Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party won roughly four million votes during the last general election — an unprecedented haul for a far-right party. But the change to the rules has been criticised by some Labour MPs. “If we give someone refugee status, it can’t be right to then refuse them a route to become a British citizen,” wrote lawmaker Stella Creasy on X, adding that the policy would leave them “forever second class”. Free Movement, an immigration law blog, said the changes had the potential to “block a large number of refugees from naturalising as British citizens, effective immediately”. It called the updated guidance “incredibly spiteful and damaging to integration”. The announcement comes after MPs this week debated the government’s new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, designed to give law enforcement officials “counter-terror style powers” to break up gangs bringing irregular migrants across the Channel. Legal and undocumented immigration — both currently running at historically high levels — was a major political issue at the July 2024 poll that brought Starmer to power. On taking office, he immediately scrapped his Conservative predecessor Rishi Sunak’s plan to deter undocumented migration to the UK by deporting new arrivals to Rwanda. Instead he pledged to “smash the gangs” to bring the numbers down. Some 36,816 people were detected in the Channel between England and France in 2024, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, provisional figures from the interior ministry showed. AFP

Protesters Raze Buildings Linked To Ousted Bangladesh Leader

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  Hundreds of Bangladeshi protesters smashed down buildings connected to ousted former leader, Sheikh Hasina, on Thursday, hours after students with excavators began demolishing a museum to her father. The museum and former home of Hasina’s late father, Bangladesh’s first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had been set on fire last year during the student-led revolution that ended her 15 years of autocratic rule. Late Wednesday, six months to the day since Hasina fled by helicopter to old ally India on August 5, crowds carrying hammers and metal rods began beating down the walls of the building in the capital Dhaka. Protests were triggered in response to reports that 77-year-old Hasina — who has defied an arrest warrant to face trial in Dhaka for massacres — would appear in a Facebook broadcast from exile. On Thursday morning, diggers were being used to knock down the remaining fire-blackened walls. Protesters also vandalised and torched other houses across the country linked to Hasina, including an arson attack on the Dhaka house of Hasina’s late husband. Prothom Alo, the largest Bengali daily, reported crowds used government-owned excavators to smash down a building owned by Hasina’s family in the city of Khulna. – Vandalised homes – In the western city of Kushtia, protesters vandalised the house of a leader of Hasina’s Awami League party, Mahbubul Alam Hanif. In Chittagong, protesters held a torch procession and smashed a mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. There has been no formal comment on the wave of attacks from the interim government, and security forces stood by allowing protesters to storm the buildings. A private security guard in the neighbourhood said he had called the fire service more than a dozen times fearing that the flames would spread to nearby buildings crowded with families. “We cut off the electricity line ourselves,” Jamal Uddin said. “I don’t know when the situation will return to normal.” A shopkeeper living near Rahman’s former home said he was worried about the chaos. “This vandalism is not a good sign,” he said, asking not to be named as he was fearful of reprisal for speaking out. AFP

Tunisia President Sacks Finance Minister

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  Tunisia’s President, Kais Saied, has sacked his finance minister and appointed a magistrate to the role. Michket Slama Khaldi will take on the country’s finance portfolio, the presidency announced on Facebook overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, alongside images of her taking the oath of office. The presidency gave no further details, nor did it mention outgoing minister Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia. The new finance minister had headed a national commission tasked with recovering embezzled public funds. Tunisia has over the past two years suffered sporadic shortages of basic items such as milk, sugar and flour. Recently, there has also been a scarcity of domestic gas cylinders, which are widely used for cooking and heating. AFP

Pictures – Turkish Model Arrested Over Plan To Sleep With 100 Men In 24 Hours

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Pictures – Turkish Model Arrested Over Plan To Sleep With 100 Men In 24 Hours

  A 23-year-old Turkish OnlyFans model, Ezra Vandan, popularly known as Azranur AV, has been arrested for publicly vowing to have sex with 100 men in one day. Vandan was reportedly detained by cops in Istanbul after declaring her mission to sleep with 100 men in 24 hours, which was deemed as ‘obscene’ and ‘damaging’ to the country’s morals. The model, on January 14, 2025, took to social media to announce that she planned to film the day-long sex session and broadcast it live in an attempt to break a record in Turkey, reports said. According to Daily Mail, it comes just days after Brit Bonnie Blue claimed to smash the previous world record of the most men bedded in 24 hours, taking the total to over 1,000 men in 12 hours. Vandan had posted a photo of herself with her eyes shut on a bed wearing red lingerie, alongside the caption: ‘My goal is to break a Turkish record first, then a world record! I’m starting with 100 men in 24 hours’. But her statement quickly caught the attention of the Istanbul Security Branch Directorate’s Morality Bureau. They launched an investigation into the controversial post before catching her at a hospital as she awaited a cosmetic surgery operation in Atasehir. Footage captured the moment she was dragged down the stairs of the building by two female officers, with her wrists bound behind her. Wearing a crop top and jeans, she was led into the side entrance of a police van taken to a local station. The OnlyFans star uploaded an image at the time of her arrest which showed her half-naked, and according to reports, the racy image had been taken by a police officer. Vandan allegedly shared it alongside the caption: ‘I had the photo taken by one of the officers, he didn’t object much.’ Her husband, Pedram Behdar Vandan, 25, was also reportedly arrested at the time but was later released from custody. The model is believed to have been charged with obscenity, resisting an officer on duty and slander. In her hearing, the Istanbul 6th Criminal Judgeship of Peace said prison time was appropriate because her posts were ‘damaging to moral values’ and were ‘provocative to society’. Vandan claims she should be allowed to post and do what she wants as she is ‘not harming anyone’. ‘I do not deserve to be judged,’ she added. Punch

Trump Signs Executive Order To Terminate Birthright Citizenship.

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  United States President, Donald Trump, has signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship — a right guaranteed by the US Constitution and affirmed by the Supreme Court more than 125 years ago. On Monday, Trump issued a blitz of executive actions to start reshaping federal immigration and border policy, many of which are expected to face significant legal challenges. “As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is what I’m going to do,” Trump said in his inaugural address. CBS News reports that the US government has long interpreted the US Constitution to mean that those born on American soil are citizens at birth, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says, “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” But Trump directed federal agencies to stop issuing passports, citizenship certificates, and other documents to children born in the US to mothers who are in the country illegally and fathers who are not citizens or legal permanent residents, or to mothers who are temporary visa holders (and fathers who are not citizens or legal permanent residents). Trump said his edict, which would not apply retroactively, should be enforced in 30 days. But just hours after it was issued, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit challenging the action in federal court. He also cited extraordinary presidential powers to effectively suspend US asylum law, accusing migrants of staging an “invasion” at the southern border and endangering public health. He authorised officials to “repel, repatriate, or remove” migrants, suspending their “physical entry” into the US through his constitutional powers. The far-reaching order essentially allows the U.S. government to stop adhering to American asylum law until Mr. Trump issues a “finding that the invasion at the southern border has ceased.”

Trump Returns As 47th U.S. President, Rejects Transgender Rights, Illegal Immigration.

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  Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on Monday, during a historic ceremony held inside the Capitol Rotunda due to adverse weather conditions. In his inaugural address, Trump outlined a bold agenda for his administration, touching on issues of gender, race, border control, economic reforms, and energy policies. Trump asserted that his administration would recognise only two genders—male and female—effectively dismissing identities such as transgender, non-binary, and genderqueer. “This week, I will end the government policy of engineering race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. Henceforth, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump declared. Trump unveiled plans to overhaul the trade system, introducing an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs from foreign countries, promising to shift the economic burden away from U.S. taxpayers. “I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump stated. The president vowed to make America a “manufacturing nation” again by leveraging the country’s vast oil and gas reserves. “America will be a manufacturing nation once again. We will use our liquid gold—oil and gas—to bring prices down, fill our reserves, and export energy worldwide. We will end the Green New Deal and revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry,” he said. On border control, Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and announced measures to combat illegal immigration. “All illegal entry will be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions of criminal aliens. The Remain in Mexico policy will be reinstated, and catch-and-release practices will end. Troops will secure our borders to repel this invasion,” he announced. Trump also pledged to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to combat criminal networks. The president announced the formation of a Department of Government Efficiency and outlined measures to tackle inflation and high costs. He also promised an aggressive crackdown on crime, leveraging federal and state resources to eliminate gang activity. “As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions,” Trump said. Trump referred to an assassination attempt during his campaign, framing his survival as a divine sign of his purpose to “make America great again.” He also criticized the nation’s healthcare and education systems, promising significant reforms to address inadequacies exposed by recent natural disasters. The event, attended by lawmakers, distinguished guests, and family members, marked the beginning of Trump’s second term. Vice President JD Vance was also sworn in, taking the oath of office in a ceremony presided over by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Earlier in the day, Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump met with outgoing President Joe Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, continuing the tradition of a handover meeting between administrations. At a pre-inauguration rally, Trump addressed supporters, promising to pardon January 6 defendants and issuing executive orders on his first day in office. Despite freezing temperatures, the ceremony proceeded with Trump expressing confidence in his administration’s vision and America’s future.

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