WORLD

China began commercial operations of the world’s first next-generation, gas-cooled nuclear reactor power plant, state media reported Wednesday. The Shidao Bay plant in eastern Shandong province is powered by two high-temperature reactors cooled by gas rather than pressurised water, according to state news agency Xinhua, making it more efficient and cost-effective. Stay tuned with breaking news on HT Channel on...

A video of Russian President Vladimir Putin sharing his most cherished childhood memory has gone viral on social media. In the clip, Mr Putin talks about his mother and how she used to punish him. The remarks were made at a public meeting with youth group ‘Movement of the First’ in Pyatigorsk on Tuesday, reported Newsweek. However, users on social media...

In a rare apology, Israeli Defence Forces on Wednesday expressed regret at an inadvertent attack in which a Lebanese soldier was killed while it targeted a Hezbollah-linked post and said the incident is under review. Clashes at Israel’s northern border with Lebanon have intensified with regular exchanges of fire since the war broke out in Gaza between Hamas militants and...

Israeli forces stormed southern Gaza’s main city on Tuesday in what they called the most intense day of combat in five weeks of ground operations against Hamas militants, and hospitals struggled to cope with scores of Palestinian dead and wounded. In what appeared to be the biggest ground assault in Gaza since a truce with Hamas unravelled last week, Israel...

The UK government on Monday tabled a tough new set of measures to bring down the country’s immigration numbers, including a much higher salary threshold for foreign workers to access skilled visas and a clampdown on bringing family members as their dependants. UK Home Secretary James Cleverly delivered a statement in the House of Commons to reveal that under the...

The Israeli army said Monday three more soldiers had been killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, raising the number of troop deaths there to 75 since the war began. All three died in northern Gaza on Sunday, the military said. The deaths brought thetotal number of Israeli defence personnel killed since October 7 — among them those who died...

India on Sunday refrained from signing the COP28 Declaration on Climate and Health, with sources pointing out that curbing greenhouse gas use for cooling in the health sector, which is one of the points in the document, may not be practical or achievable within the country’s healthcare infrastructure in the short term. The Health Day also did not see any...

The EU’s top diplomat said Wednesday that Russia needs to hear from ministers at an upcoming meeting of the world’s largest regional security body about why it is being “condemned and isolated”.Ministers from the member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will convene on Thursday and Friday in Skopje to discuss the future of the...

Billionaire Elon Musk told advertisers that have fled his social media platform X over antisemitic content to “go f*** yourself” in a fiery Wednesday interview. His profanity-laced remarks followed a moment of contrition in a New York Times DealBook Summit interview, as he first said “I’m sorry” for a tweet that agreed with an anti-Jewish post on X on Nov....

Flaring – the burning of waste gas during oil drilling – is taking place across the Gulf, including by COP28 hosts the United Arab Emirates. New research suggests pollution is spreading hundreds of miles, worsening air quality across the entire region. It comes as the UAE hosts the UN’s COP28 climate summit on Thursday. The UAE banned flaring 20 years...