Reuters: The Chinese government’s top diplomat was in Pakistan on Saturday for the first high-level meetings between the neighbors since new Prime Minister Imran Khan took office, the south Asian nation’s foreign office said. Beijing has pledged $57 billion in loans for Pakistan as part of its vast Belt and Road initiative, deepening ties at…
Reuters: Tall ships carrying climate change banners sailed into Australia’s Sydney Harbour on Saturday launching a wave of protest across 95 countries organized by New York-based lobby group 350.org. Climate change is of great concern in the Pacific region with Pacific Island nations declaring on Friday that it is their “single greatest threat” and urging…
Abrar Hussain: In an interview with The New York Times, Alibaba’s co-founder and chairman Jack Ma has expressed his intention to retire from the Chinese e-commerce giant on his 54th birthday to devote his time to philanthropy focused on education. Ma was an English teacher before starting Alibaba in 1999 and built it into a…
The Guardian, UK: A mother and child who fell onto a tube track at Baker Street station survived by ducking into a pit between the rails as the train passed over their heads. The woman’s husband also escaped unharmed after jumping down from the platform to try to help his family before the train passed….
Abrar Hussain: In a speech broadcast on state television yesterday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has claimed that the United States ‘constantly’ sends messages to Iran in order to start negotiations.Tensions escalated between Iran and the US after President Donald Trump withdrew from a landmark nuclear deal with Iran in May and reimposed sanctions last month….
CBS: Avril Lavigne has revealed she’d “accepted death” when writing her newest single from her sickbed “during one of the scariest moments” of her life. The 33-year-old singer contracted Lyme disease, which is spread by infected ticks, in 2014. “I have decided to be truthful about my struggle, open and more vulnerable than ever before,”…
Straits Times: Voice-enabled devices were everywhere at the recently concluded IFA 2018 tech trade show – the latest evidence of the push by tech manufacturers to have consumers control their devices, from smartphones to speakers to home lighting, through voice commands. Voice assistant software has grown in popularity over the past two years, with four…
John Lloyd, Co-founded the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford/BDnews24 The good news was well disguised in the anonymous cry of warning against the “amorality” of Donald Trump. A senior administration official, writing as an unnamed columnist in the New York Times, described how he and like-minded colleagues “are…
UNB: Visiting international economist Prof Jomo Kwame Sundaram on Saturday suggested that Bangladesh needs to address its malnutrition problem and ensure access to electricity through producing renewable energy. “I strongly recommend the countries like Bangladesh to pay attention to two issues. One is the question of food. Don’t leave the problem of malnutrition entirely to…
AFP: Aid group Doctors Without Borders has urged the evacuation of thousands of migrants trapped in detention centers in Libya’s capital Tripoli, which is under a fragile cease-fire after deadly clashes. The cease-fire brokered by the UN was agreed between armed groups on Tuesday after at least 63 people were killed in days of fighting…