WORLD

  Stockholm, Sweden | AFP | US military spending has risen for the first time in seven years, reflecting Trump administration policy, according to a new report released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Worldwide military spending also rose by 2.6 percent to $1.8 trillion overall last year, …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Britain’s splintered government was rocked Friday by a burgeoning scandal over who leaked news that Prime Minister Theresa May has conditionally allowed China’s Huawei to develop the UK 5G network. The bitterly disputed decision was reportedly made at a Tuesday meeting of Britain’s National Security …

New York, United States | AFP | American Airlines slashed its profit forecast Friday largely due to the crisis around the Boeing 737 MAX, a somewhat more profound hit to operations and customer bookings than at other carriers affected by the jet’s grounding. The US carrier estimated an overall hit of …

Paris, France | AFP | President Emmanuel Macron Thursday promised significant tax cuts but also a return to public order in France as he revealed his long-awaited response to nearly half a year of street protests. In the first formal domestic news conference of his entire presidency, Macron steered clear of …

Vladivostok, Russia | AFP | North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin vowed to seek closer ties as they met for the first time on Thursday, in talks aimed at countering US influence. Putin emerged from the meeting in Russia’s Vladivostok saying that like Washington, Moscow supports efforts to …

Washington, United States | AFP | Donald Trump’s approval rating has slid since release of the Russia investigation report, but instead of emerging bolstered in the 2020 presidential race, Democrats are torn over triggering impeachment proceedings that risk muddling their electoral message. While special counsel Robert Mueller’s report released last week …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump said Monday that Congress “can’t impeach” him over the findings of the Mueller report into Russian election meddling and his alleged attempts to hamper the investigation. Defiantly insisting that he did nothing wrong, Trump also denied a portrait of dysfunction in the …

Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP | As Shantha Prasad carried children wounded in Sri Lanka’s deadly attacks into a Colombo hospital, memories of the country’s deadly civil war flooded back. “I carried about eight wounded children yesterday,” he told AFP on Monday, a day after a string of blasts hit hotels …

Colombo, Sri Lanka | AFP | As Shantha Prasad carried children wounded in Sri Lanka’s deadly attacks into a Colombo hospital, memories of the country’s deadly civil war flooded back. “I carried about eight wounded children yesterday,” he told AFP on Monday, a day after a string of blasts hit …

Kiev, Ukraine | AFP |  Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has been elected president of Ukraine twice — first as a character in the popular TV show “Servant of the People”, now for real. The 41-year-old performer’s bid started out as a long shot but, on the back of popular discontent with …