John Hayward

A Canadian family fled home in a melting car as wildfires ravaged the Northwest Territories and closed in on the capital of Yellowknife.

Chinese state media responded to the latest gloomy economic news by spotlighting dictator Xi Jinping’s demand for “patience” in a previously unpublished February address to top Chinese Communist Party officials.

Chinese state media this week gleefully mocked President Joe Biden for bungling the response to Hawaii’s wildfires. Editorials pushed the Communist Party narrative that only authoritarian governments can handle disasters of such magnitude, and taunted the U.S. for prioritizing military spending over disaster response.

Euthanasia has become so common in Quebec that its end-of-life commissioner fears suicide is no longer seen as a “last resort.”

American alt-rock band The Killers apologized on Wednesday for bringing a Russian fan on stage at a concert in Georgia.

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul, certainly the worst of President Joe Biden’s unforced errors in foreign policy and arguably among the worst in the history of the American presidency.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims peace is returning to the turbulent province of Manipur after months of tribal warfare.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Tuesday that Afghan journalism is “still resisting after two years of Taliban persecution,” but that resistance is sadly muted.

Two years after the fall of Kabul, the Biden administration has failed to shake the Taliban’s iron grip on Afghanistan.

Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu arrived in Russia on Monday to attend the Moscow Conference on International Security, and has plans to visit the allied tyranny of Belarus during his week-long trip.

The Miss Universe Organization (MUO) announced Saturday it has cut all ties with PT Capella Swastika Karya, the beauty products company that runs the Indonesian Miss Universe Pageant, due to allegations of sexual harassment against contestants.

Girls in Afghanistan are bypassing the fanatical Taliban’s cruel ban on education for young women by attending secret schools, some of them run by female teachers — an occupation the Taliban also banned after President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal two years ago.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni defiantly stood by his country’s harsh new law against homosexuality on Wednesday after the World Bank suspended new loans to Uganda. Museveni accused the World Bank of using financial pressure to force Ugandans to abandon their values.

Russian tankers that would normally carry oil to European customers are instead being rerouted through the Arctic to China, according to an OilPrice report Friday.

A 37-year-old Vancouver woman says a hospital clinician proposed medically assisted suicide when she sought help for depression.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said Friday it had “no information” about President Joe Biden’s plan to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian assets from South Korean banks to pay ransom for five American hostages.

The Intercept on Wednesday published a report on a long-rumored Pakistani government document that supports former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s claim that the U.S. government wanted to force him out of office.

The Biden administration on Thursday struck a deal with Iran to unfreeze $6 billion in Iranian financial assets, and release a “handful” of Iranian nationals jailed for violating U.S. sanctions, in exchange for five Americans who were taken prisoner by Iran on highly dubious charges of espionage.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Wednesday that appears to restrict American investment in Chinese companies in the semiconductor, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) industries.

Angry Chinese citizens this week defied massive government propaganda, and challenged China’s vast army of censors, to blame state policies and mismanagement for deaths from typhoon flooding.

The U.S. Embassy in Haiti was closed on Tuesday due to nearby gunfire in the capital city of Port-au-Prince. Haiti has been torn by gang violence and near-anarchy ever since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021.

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former leader in Niger’s Tuareg uprisings three decades ago, announced on Wednesday he is forming a Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) to oppose the ruling junta and restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China on Tuesday confirmed it has been conducting joint patrols with Russia near the Alaskan coast.

The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC) on Tuesday banned the term “homosexuality,” instead requiring all media organizations and social media platforms to use “sexual deviance.”

China’s faltering economy took another beating in July, as both import and export numbers came far below expectations. Imports fell 12.4 percent instead of the five-percent slide that was expected, while exports dropped 14.5 percent against an expected 12.5 percent.

South African media reported on Sunday that brutal attacks on white farmers have intensified since the left-wing radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party and its leader, Julius Malema, sang a song about killing Boers (whites) and farmers in a packed stadium on July 29.

India has quietly banned its growing domestic drone industry from using Chinese parts due to fears of security vulnerabilities.

The Philippine military accused China of taking “excessive and offensive actions” against a supply ship on its way to the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea Sunday.

Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday within minutes of a court sentencing him in absentia to three years in prison on corruption charges.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Japan on Monday with a somewhat enigmatic agenda that reportedly includes a meeting with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.

The New York Times published an exposé on Neville Roy Singham, an American activist millionaire who works closely with Chinese media.

South Korean police announced increased patrols, stop-and-search operations on the streets, and other precautions after the relatively placid country’s second knife rampage in two days and a string of attacks and threats over the past three weeks.

The Chinese Communist Party’s ruling elite, including dictator Xi Jinping, have utterly vanished while typhoon floods ravage provinces like Hebei this week.

A Russian government document shows military spending doubling to over $100 billion for 2023 as the invasion of Ukraine grinds on.

The South Korean Society of Superconductivity and Cryogenics (KSSC) announced on Thursday it will establish a committee to investigate a claim by the Quantum Energy Research Center, a private research institute in Seoul, that it has achieved room-temperature superconductivity.

The Chinese government announced on Monday that it will tighten export restrictions on high-performance drones with potential military applications, in order to “safeguard national security and interests.”