World

In the midst of Vietnam’s recent heat wave, users using the Grab app to get food or a ride found they’d have to pay an additional fee. Several months after the Southeast Asian platform firm announced a rainy-weather tax in Vietnam, an additional fee was imposed when the local temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius. “Working under such bad weather conditions …

An American woman has been detained by the authorities in Delhi, the national capital of India, on suspicion that she staged her own kidnapping. According to the police, the woman, who is 27 years old, pretended to be kidnapped in order to “blackmail” her parents into sending her money when she was short on funds. A woman from the United …

Significant international media coverage was given to President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s trip to France, stressing the strong bilateral ties between the two nations. The agreements and Memorandums of Understanding inked during the visit, which would strengthen the strategic alliance between the UAE and France, were praised by international media sources. According to the French newspaper …

CHINA: Saturday (16th of July) saw a US Navy destroyer sail near the disputed Spratly Islands, the second such “freedom of navigation” exercise in the South China Sea in a week, according to the US Navy. Chinese officials claimed to have “forced away” the USS Benfold, which was sailing near the disputed Paracel Islands, on Wednesday. In the South China …

US: A profession that lacks “basic human respect,” says Halima Aden—the first supermodel to model in a headscarf and appear for photos wearing a burkini—has forced her to abandon her lucrative contracts. It was a matter of protecting her self-worth and well-being in a fast and loose sector that gradually clashed with her Muslim principles for the Somali-American born in …

SRI LANKA: As he departed the country to avoid a popular uprising against his government, Sri Lanka’s ousted president declared he took “all conceivable means” to avert the island nation’s economic disaster. A vote in Parliament on Friday approved the resignation of Gotabhaye Rajapakse from office (Jul 15). After hundreds of thousands of anti-government protestors descended on Colombo a week …

US: All four of the United States’ men’s 100m sprinters advanced to the finals on Saturday, giving the Americans renewed hope of a clean sweep in the event for the first time since 1991. Toe-to-toe at 7:50 p.m. will be Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy, Trayvon Bromell, and Christian Coleman (0250 GMT). There have been no clean sweeps since Carl Lewis …

US: President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave each other a fist bump to try to heal their strained relationship, the US leader left the country on Saturday (July 16) with little tangible evidence that the trip had been worthwhile. His first journey to the Middle East as president, President Biden’s four-day visit to Israel and …

UKRAINE: Agreements were signed on Thursday (Jul 14) by the United States and more than 40 other countries, following what Kiev claimed was a Russian missile strike that killed civilians well from the front line. “Russian missiles targeted two communities in western Ukraine, killing 20 people, including three young children,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at an international summit. Since …

IRAN: In less than a week, acclaimed director Jafar Panahi has become Iran’s third filmmaker detained. Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who won a Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival for his film “Taxi,” was arrested in Tehran on Monday when Panahi went to the prosecutor’s office to check on him. According to the semi-official Fars News Agency, Rasoulof …