Seoul restores preferential trade status three years after neighbours restricted trade over historical grievances.South Korea has formally restored Japan to its list of countries it gives preferential treatment in trade, three years after the neighbours downgraded each other’s trade status amid a diplomatic row driven by historical grievances. In announcing the move through a government gazette on Monday, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy also said Seoul will further restrict technology and industrial exports to Russia and its ally Belarus to support the US-led pressure campaign against Moscow over the war in Ukraine. After years of friction, Seoul…
Author: National Tone
Surge in spending reflects Russia-Ukraine war and ‘increasingly insecure world’, according to leading think tank.World military spending reached an all-time high of $2.24 trillion in 2022, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuelled a sharp jump in military spending across Europe, according to a leading defence think tank. Global spending rose for the eighth consecutive year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said on Monday in its annual report on global military expenditure. There was a 13 percent rise in Europe, the steepest in at least 30 years. SIPRI said most of that was linked to Russia and Ukraine, but…
US and UK among countries that have evacuated diplomats, citizens from the Sudanese capital on Sunday.The armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have evacuated embassy staff from Sudan, while other nations are rushing to get their citizens to safety as rival military factions battle in the capital Khartoum. The eruption of fighting eight days ago between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has triggered a humanitarian crisis, killed 420 people and trapped millions of Sudanese without access to basic services. As people attempted to flee the chaos, countries began landing planes and organising…
Azerbaijan says it has set up a checkpoint on the only land route to the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh.Azerbaijan has said it has established a checkpoint on the only land route to the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a step that was followed by claims of border shootings by both Azeri and Armenian forces. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but its 120,000 inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Armenians and the region broke away from Baku in a war in the early 1990s. Azerbaijan said on Sunday that it had established a checkpoint on the road leading to Karabakh, saying…
Alphonso Davies has been diagnosed with a thigh injury that could keep him out as long as six weeks according to reports from German outlet Bild. That time frame would put Davies’ return roughly around the CONCACAF Nations League semifinal and final in Las Vegas, in the middle of June. In a game on Saturday, the 22-year-old from Edmonton pulled up after accelerating past Mainz fullback Silvan Widmer, wasting no time signalling to the Bayern bench that he had a problem. The German club said Sunday that Davies “sustained a muscle bundle injury” in the back of his left thigh…
Days after armed fighting erupted in Sudan, Dalia Mohamed and her mother were faced with an impossible choice: flee the capital of Khartoum or stay. With their house located in the heart of a civil war, the constant sounds of bullets, rockets and shelling soon became too much to bear. On Thursday, they packed a few basic items and fled after their home was damaged during a rocket attack. “I was trying to delay the idea of leaving Khartoum,” Mohamed, 37, told Al Jazeera. “You always hear these stories about people needing to leave their homes, but it doesn’t hit…
Dillon Brooks will reportedly not be suspended for the flagrant foul he committed on LeBron James on Saturday night. .acf-block-preview .instagram-twitter-container width: 340px; margin: 0 auto; According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the league reviewed the play, where the Memphis Grizzlies‘ Brooks was assessed a flagrant 2 foul for contact on the Los Angeles Lakers‘ James, and determined no further discipline was merited. Brooks, from Mississauga, Ont., was ejected 17 seconds into the second half after the Memphis agitator struck James in the groin while guarding him near midcourt. The Lakers won the game 111-101 and lead the series 2-1, with…
World No 1 Iga Swiatek beat Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart for the second year running to claim her second title of 2023.Swiatek, back from a rib injury that forced her to miss the Miami Open and Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers, defeated the world No 2 6-3 6-4 to add to her tournament victory in Qatar in February. Swiatek broke Sabalenka at 4-3 up in the opening set on Sunday and then broke her opponent again in the first game of the second set before going on to clinch the 13th…
Once upon a time, George W Bush – former governor of Texas, 43rd United States president and accused war criminal – made a worrying observation: “Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?” Bush did have a point; after all, that question is indeed rarely asked, at least not by people with a command of English grammar. And yet it is a question that increasingly comes to mind these days, and particularly today on World Book Day, as the US state of Texas leads the country in a book-banning frenzy. According to the literary and free expression advocacy organisation…
As Muslim communities around the world celebrate Eid and the end of Ramadan, Palestinian Muslims in occupied East Jerusalem are reeling from yet another holy month in which Israel decided to unleash brutal violence on them. Yet again, Israeli security forces raided Al-Aqsa Mosque – Islam’s third holiest site – to brutalise praying Palestinians. Israel does not have jurisdiction over al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), where Al-Aqsa is located. Under the internationally recognised status quo, Jordan and the Jordanian-appointed Jerusalem Waqf Council have the right to decide what happens on its premises. Nevertheless, Israeli authorities imposed a ban on overnight…