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CNN  —  India’s coast guard is fighting a massive blaze aboard a container ship that’s threatening to sink about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala as the search continues for four missing crew members. Images showed flames and towering plumes of diesel smoke rising from the Singaporean-flagged MV Wan Hai 503 that was tilting “10 to 15 degrees” in the water, according to Indian Coast Guard Commandant Amit Uniyal. Explosions were still being heard on Tuesday, more than 24 hours after the Indian Coast Guard responded to a distress call. Around 9:30am local time Monday, the ship’s crew…

The Israeli navy attacked docks in Yemen’s rebel-held port city of Hodeida on Tuesday, likely damaging facilities that are key to aid shipments to the hungry, war-wracked nation. The Israeli military said navy missile ships conducted the strikes, the first time its forces have been involved in attacks against the Houthi rebels. Tuesday’s attack comes as the Houthis have repeatedly launched missiles and drones targeting Israel during its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The Houthis announced the attack via their al-Masirah satellite news channel. They said the attack targeted docks there, without elaborating.___Here’s the latest:Israeli military says it…

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — Samoa will head to the polls on Aug. 29, a half-year earlier than expected, after Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa’s government collapsed following a budget defeat in parliament late last month.Fiamē, who became the South Pacific island nation’s first female prime minister in 2021 and ended four decades of Human Rights Protection Party rule, now faces a three-way political battle that has ramifications far beyond Samoa.The snap election comes at a time of heightened geopolitical interest in the South Pacific, with Samoa viewed as a strategic player in the growing contest for regional influence between China…

CNN  —  Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France on Tuesday after being detained by Israeli forces alongside other activists aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. “Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X alongside two photos of the young activist aboard a plane. Thunberg, 22, is a well-known climate activist who has long eschewed air travel, famously sailing to a climate conference in New York in 2019. At least five of her fellow crew members who were…

A high-stakes showdown is unfolding this week in London—far from the manufacturing plants of Shenzhen or the trading floors of Wall Street, yet central to the global economic order.  Senior US and Chinese officials will hold a second day of talks today (Tuesday) aimed at de-escalating the most consequential economic rivalry of our time.  After Monday’s first day of talks, US President Donald Trump said, “We are doing well with China. China’s not easy…I’m only getting good reports.” China is negotiating for looser US tech controls while the US wants China to ease limits on rare earth mineral exports. But…

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel deported activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday, the country’s Foreign Ministry said, a day after the Gaza-bound ship she was on was seized by the Israeli military.Thunberg left on a flight to France and was then headed to her home country of Sweden, the Foreign Ministry said in a post on X. It posted a photo of Thunberg, a climate activist who shuns air travel, seated on a plane.Thunberg was one of 12 passengers on the Madleen, a ship carrying aid to Gaza that was meant to protest Israel’s ongoing war there and shed light on the…

AP  —  Frederick Forsyth, the British author of “The Day of the Jackal” and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family. “We mourn the passing of one of the world’s greatest thriller writers,” Lloyd said. Born in Kent, in southern England, in 1938, Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent. He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for “The Day…

NEWCASTLE, Australia (AP) — A state-of-the-art Japanese warship has arrived in Australia as part of a high-stakes campaign to secure a $6.5 billion contract to build the country’s next fleet of general-purpose frigates.The JS Yahagi, a Mogami-class stealth frigate from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, is docked in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory in what appears a symbolic and strategic move aimed at strengthening defense ties with Australia and showcasing Japanese naval technology.Japan’s bid, led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was short-listed in November for the Royal Australian Navy’s SEA 3000 frigate project and is competing against Germany’s MEKO A-200 offered by…

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked two Ukrainian cities with waves of drones and missiles early Tuesday, killing three people and wounding at least 13 in what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “one of the biggest” strikes in the 3-year-old war. The attack struck Kyiv and the southern port city of Odesa. In an online statement, Zelenskyy said that Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones, most of them Shaheds, and seven missiles overnight. “Russian missile and Shahed strikes are louder than the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Zelenskyy wrote, urging “concrete…

Hong Kong Reuters  —  China said that by the end of this year all tertiary level hospitals must offer epidural anesthesia during childbirth, a move it said would help promote a “friendly childbearing environment” for women. Tertiary hospitals – those with more than 500 beds – must provide epidural anesthesia services by 2025 while secondary hospitals – those containing more than 100 beds – must provide the services by 2027, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement last week. Authorities are struggling to boost birth rates in the world’s second largest economy after China’s population fell for a…