International

China spent $240 billion bailing out 22 developing countries between 2008 and 2021, with the amount soaring in recent years as more have struggled to repay loans spent building “Belt & Road” infrastructure, according to a study published Tuesday. Almost 80 per cent of the rescue lending was made between 2016 and 2021, mainly to middle-income countries including Argentina, Mongolia …

A heavily armed former student killed three young children and three staff in what appeared to be a carefully planned attack at a private elementary school in Nashville on Monday, before being shot dead by police. Chief of Police John Drake named the suspect as Audrey Hale, 28, who the officer later said identified as transgender. Hale left behind a …

The founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the United Nations said Tuesday. The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education. “Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath and advocate for …

Pakistan on Tuesday chose not to participate in the democracy summit taking place in Washington this week, opting instead to engage with the US on a bilateral basis to encourage democratic values. The virtual summit, led by the United States, begins today. China and Turkiye have not been invited to the summit. The issue of Pakistan’s participation in the Second …

Nato on Sunday criticised Vladimir Putin for what it called his “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric, a day after the Russian president said he would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Putin announced the move on Saturday and likened it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe, while insisting that Russia would not violate its nuclear non-proliferation promises. Although the …

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday fired Defence Minister Yoav Galant, a day after he broke ranks to call for a pause in the government’s controversial judicial reforms. On a day when 200,000 people took to the streets of Tel Aviv to protest the reforms, Galant — who had been a staunch Netanyahu ally — on Saturday said …

WACO: Donald Trump used his first election rally in Waco, Texas, to cast the 2024 presidential vote in apocalyptic terms, slam his leading Republican rival Ron DeSantis and rail against prosecutors pursuing him with criminal investigations he likened to a “Stalinist Russia horror show.” Speaking to several thousand of his diehard supporters, some flashing signs saying “Witch hunt”, Trump spent …

DUBAI: Eight years after launching its military campaign in Yemen, Saudi Arabia wants to extricate itself from the conflict, despite slim hopes of lasting peace, to focus on ambitious projects at home. The oil-rich monarchy gave a signal this month by announcing plans to resume ties with Iran, which backs Yemen’s Houthi rebels against the Saudi-supported government in a proxy …

RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council said on Sunday it had written to Washington’s top diplomat condemning controversial comments from Israel’s finance minister in which he denied the existence of a Palestinian people. The GCC, in a letter to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, called on Washington “to assume its responsibilities in responding to all measures and statements that target …

TUNIS: Tunisia’s coastguard said on Sunday the bodies of 29 migrants from sub-Saharan Afri­can countries had been recovered after three vessels capsized, the latest in a string of such tragedies. A series of shipwrecks has left dozens of migrants dead and others missing in the country that serves as a key conduit for migrants seeking to reach nearby European shores. …