International News

Kenya plans to ask China for a longer repayment period on $5 billion of loans it used to build a new railway line, Transport Secretary-designate Kipchumba Murkomen said. Servicing the Export-Import Bank of China loans, which mature in 15 to 20 years, is choking the economy, Murkomen told lawmakers Wednesday at a confirmation hearing...

Taliban has announced it will no longer allow further evacuations of Afghans from the country. The Taliban government Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the move was taken to ensure situation of those already abroad improves. Mujahid told a news conference that the government had noted that the situation of some of the Afghans evacuated were living in...

Russia is guilty of creating a food security crisis and higher energy prices through its war with Ukraine, but China has — under the radar — also taken actions in three areas that are exacerbating inflation worldwide, said the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Russia’s war in Ukraine has taken a shocking toll on the region,” wrote PIIE...

The White House announced plans on Sunday to raise $200 billion for solar projects in Angola, an undersea telecommunications cable linking the Far East with France via Egypt, and nuclear power production in Romania as part of a huge G7 infrastructure plan designed to compete with China's massive Belt and Road initiative. The proposals were unveiled on the first day...

NAIROBI — In one of his first acts in office, Kenya’s new president, William Ruto, ordered cargo containers from incoming ships to be emptied at the port of Mombasa instead of in the capital, Nairobi. Ruto said he is carrying out a campaign promise, though there are concerns the move could overwhelm facilities at the Mombasa port.In 2019,...

The Taliban says it has killed 40 members of a rebel force, including four commanders, in the northern Afghanistan province of Panjshir. The Taliban proclaimed victory over the province in September 2021, weeks after it took over the capital, Kabul, as foreign forces withdrew. Resistance groups have since said they have been carrying...

Dozens of scholars have accused the UN human rights chief of having ignored or contradicted academic findings on abuses in Xinjiang with her statements on the region. In an open letter published this week, 39 academics from across Europe, the US and Australia called on Michelle Bachelet to release a long-awaited UN report on human rights abuses in...

A Taiwanese activist jailed in China returned to Taiwan on Friday after completing a five-year sentence. Li Ming-che, a community college lecturer and activist at a human rights non-governmental organisation in Taiwan, disappeared while visiting China in 2017. Later that year, a Chinese court found him guilty of subversion in a...

China’s economy is coming under strain because of an escalating Covid outbreak, with economists warning of a deeper slowdown if lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere continue to expand. Natixis SA estimates the Covid controls will cut the economic growth rate in the first quarter by 1.8 percentage points. Long-lasting restrictions across the country could...

China has signalled that it may miss its annual economic growth target, as Covid restrictions weigh on the world's second largest economy. On Thursday, the Politburo - the ruling Communist Party's top policy-making body - said it aims to keep growth within "a reasonable range". It did not mention the...