WORLD

  TOKYO | Xinhua |  A powerful earthquake Monday rocked central Japan with tsunami warnings still in effect, causing at least one dead and multiple injuries, house collapse, power outages and transport chaos during the New Year holiday. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), among a series of quakes, …

MOSCOW | TASS | Over the past 24 hours, Russian air defense systems have intercepted 14 HIMARS and Olkha shells, and also destroyed 31 Ukrainian drones, the Russian Defense Ministry reported. “During the day, air defense systems intercepted 14 rockets fired from the HIMARS and Vilkha multiple launch rocket systems. …

BEIJING | Xinhua | Tesla has announced that its new mega factory project in Shanghai was officially launched and scheduled to begin production within the next year, following the establishment of its Shanghai Gigafactory in 2019, which is the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project in China and Tesla’s first …

BEIJING | Xinhua |  As the New Year’s ball is about to drop, let’s review the passing year. This was a year of upheavals: Global economic growth hit the brakes, the geopolitical landscape shook with increasing intensity, regional conflicts erupted like wildfire, humanitarian crises worsened, and a web of traditional …

MOSCOW | TASS | Several OPEC+ countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, have begun voluntarily reducing their oil production by an aggregate additional volume of 2.2 mln barrels per day (bpd) in January. The policy will be in force throughout the first quarter and, depending on market conditions, the petroleum …

MOSCOW | TASS | Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent holiday telegrams to Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) national leaders, with the exception of Moldova, as well as the heads of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Kremlin press service reported. Among European leaders, he sent greetings only to Hungarian Prime …

BEIJING, CHINA | Xinhua | As the world counts down to a new year, the China-U.S. diplomatic relationship is set to welcome its 45th anniversary. Back in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, held a historic meeting in San Francisco. Many, not just Chinese and …

UNITED NATIONS | Xinhua | UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday expressed his deep appreciation for the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as it completed its withdrawal from the country. The UN chief underscored the pivotal role the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) played in bolstering the …

BEIJING | Xinhua |  The following are the top 10 world news events in the year 2023 selected by Xinhua in a chronological order: 1. Generative AI accelerates industrial transformation The number of monthly active users of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, reached 100 million in January. Generative AI …

  MOSCOW/KIEV, UKRAINE | Xinhua | The Ukrainian shelling of the Russian border city of Belgorod has caused 21 deaths, including three children, and damage in 30 apartment buildings, Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region, said Sunday. “The number of dead has increased to 21 people, of whom three …