NewsFeed A China Coast Guard vessel has fired its water cannon at Philippine government boats near Scarborough Shoal, the latest in a series of confrontations in the disputed South China Sea. Published On 24 Jul 202624 Jul 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Source link
July 24 (Reuters) – A Saudi vessel, NCC MASA, sustained minor hull damage after it was attacked while sailing in the Red Sea on Friday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported, citing an official source at the General Transport Authority. The vessel continued to its destination after checks confirmed it and its crew were safe, SPA said. (Reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Nia Williams) Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters. Source link
(Changes story date to July 24) By Asif Shahzad and Mubasher Bukhari ISLAMABAD, July 24 (Reuters) – Pakistan is exploring a path towards a resumption of stalled U.S.-Iran talks over ending their nearly five-month-old war, three Pakistani sources said, following a push initiated by China. Exploratory discussions took place during a visit by Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to Islamabad this week — his second within the last 10 days, the sources said. Momeni, who is considered close to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, met with Pakistani government leaders and army chief Asim Munir this week, according to Pakistani government statements. All three sources cautioned that the obstacles to any talks with the U.S. remain high. STRAIT OF HORMUZ CLOSURE HITTING CHINA Pakistan has found itself in an increasingly complicated situation as a potential future mediator. Earlier this week, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, a close ally of Islamabad that signed a mutual defence treaty with Pakistan last year. Pakistan relies on Saudi financial support, and Islamabad has firmly condemned …
GAROWE, Somalia, July 23 (Reuters) – A merchant ship hijacked in Yemeni waters in the Gulf of Aden last week is now being held by Somali pirates, two residents of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region told Reuters on Thursday. • The ship, the MT Asana, is a Tanzanian-flagged fuel and chemical tanker. • One of the residents who spoke to Reuters described himself as a former pirate. He said there were 20 crew members on board the MT Asana, including eight from Germany and 10 from the Philippines. • The other resident of Caluula in Puntland saw pirates transporting food to the hijacked ship. • The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said last week that a vessel boarded by unauthorised personnel in the Gulf of Aden had been manoeuvred into Somali waters, classifying it as a hijack. • Somali pirates caused havoc in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation’s long coastline between 2008 and 2018. After a lull, pirate activity started to pick up again in late 2023. (Reporting by Abdiqani Hassan; Additional reporting …
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi at a gathering of southeast Asian foreign ministers, to discuss how to manage bilateral tensions ahead of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping. The meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) gathering of foreign ministers in Manila on Wednesday came amid tensions over China’s conduct in the disputed South China Sea and the US war against Iran. ASEAN countries have expressed concerns about both issues at the meeting. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Relations between Washington and Beijing have also been complicated by Trump’s accusations that China meddled in US elections, allegations Beijing has dismissed as “pure fabrication”. Rubio said the US and China have “great differences” that are likely to persist “for the foreseeable future”, but that he and Wang discussed the need to manage those disagreements to ensure Xi has a “very positive visit” to the US. Xi is expected to visit in September. Wang …
Southeast Asian countries are highly affected by oil supply shortages caused by the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz closure. Published On 21 Jul 202621 Jul 2026 Southeast Asian nations are “deeply concerned” about the impact of blockades of key maritime trade routes in the Middle East, their top diplomats have said. Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their key partners met in the Philippines on Tuesday against a backdrop of instability due to the global impact on trade and energy supplies caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as territorial disputes with Beijing in the South China Sea. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Southeast Asian countries have a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $3.8 trillion but are highly exposed to supply limitations caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, as they are heavily dependent on Gulf countries for their oil imports. At the ongoing ASEAN summit in Manila, heads of state and …
IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Now Playing China and the Philippines clash near disputed South China Sea shoal 00:50 UP NEXT India’s Cockroach Janta Party movement grows as thousands of protesters gather 00:41 Massive landslide buries residential buildings in China 00:32 Dozens killed following Bangkok bar fire 01:30 New details on missing cargo plane 00:58 Search for missing cargo plane 01:12 North Korea’s Kim Jong Un commissions new navy ship 00:59 High gas and car prices drive banned Chinese electric vehicles into U.S. consumer focus 02:50 Chinese President Xi visits North Korea 01:44 ‘Raw beef with spicy dip’: Laos cave survivor on the dream that kept him going underground 01:39 Japan’s fertility rate falls to record low in 2025 as part of unsettling global trend 03:37 Video shows first of five men trapped in Laos cave rescued 00:51 Sacrificial albino buffalo spared after Trump resemblance 00:45 5 people stuck in Laos cave found alive, 2 still missing 02:52 Rubio tours India’s famed Taj Mahal amid …
SYDNEY, July 21 (Reuters) – New Zealand and the Philippines have formed a comprehensive partnership, New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters said on Tuesday. “New Zealand and the Philippines are close friends and trusted partners on the world stage – and today we turn this friendship into concrete action,” Peters said. The partnership will deepen collaboration across four areas: political engagement; defence, security, and maritime cooperation; trade and economic ties; and people-to-people links, he said. (Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Christopher Cushing) Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters. Source link
The diplomatic spat is rooted in the ongoing dispute between China and the Philippines over sovereignty in the South China Sea. Published On 18 Jul 202618 Jul 2026 The Philippines has lodged a diplomatic protest with China over what it called the “racist depiction” of Filipinos in a series of videos published by state-backed newspaper China Daily. The videos, which depicted Filipinos as monkeys, went “beyond political debate” and resorted to “demeaning, dehumanizing, and racist depictions of Filipinos,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Maria Theresa Lazaro raised the issue directly with China’s ambassador to the country, while the department also lodged a formal diplomatic protest condemning the videos. Its embassy in Beijing separately published an open letter addressed to the editor of China Daily, flagging the outlet for “breach of editorial norms and principles”, and urging the publication to “uphold dignity, respect, and truth” in public discourse. China Daily describes itself as China’s most-read English-language newspaper. It claims …
By Michael Martina and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON, July 17 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads this weekend to meetings of Asia-Pacific countries in Manila, where he is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart to prepare a possible September summit between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also expected to be in Manila next week for meetings involving the 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) along with the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and ministers from Japan, Australia, Canada and Britain. The gatherings come at a time of global instability, with the Iran war disrupting global trade and creating economic stress across Asia. The U.S. State Department said Rubio would leave for Manila on Sunday to attend the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. It said Rubio will also meet with senior government officials from Indo-Pacific countries in a trip lasting until next Thursday. “The Secretary’s visit advances a clear …
