World News
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Sponsored Travel vs international health insurance: Which coverage do you need overseas?
The Thaiger key takeaways Travel insurance is ideal for short-term trips, covering emergencies, cancellations, and lost luggage, but not routine care. International health insurance suits expats and long-term residents, offering full medical coverage, including checkups, maternity, and chronic care. Choosing...
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Criminal gangs smuggle sodas into Portugal to avoid sugar tax
Customs officer Helder Mendes has lost count how of many trucks he has already stopped on this October day. “Good afternoon, your papers, please. What is your load?” he asks a truck driver. Since seven in the morning, he and five colleagues have been checking trucks en route from Spain at Vilar Formoso, one of Portugal’s busiest border crossings. The…
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Joe Biden’s Taiwan gaffes create concern in China and Asia
In August, ABC television asked US President Joe Biden what he thought of Chinese media’s claims that the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan without a fight had shown Taiwan that Washington could not be relied on to come to its defense. Biden replied that the US’s commitments to Taiwan, South Korea and NATO were fundamentally different situations than what had happened…
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Vietnam to test reopening starting with Phu Quoc Island
Vietnam was one of the earliest countries to lockdown due to Covid-19, a strategy that had done it well until a massive outbreak in April, just like Thailand. And now, also like Thailand, they are looking to relaunch their tourism industry after close to two years of closures. Vietnam is now looking to reopen in late November, starting with the…
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Chinese law to limit homework and tutoring pressure on kids
It’s been a common trope that Asian students keep their nose to the grindstone with long school hours, after school study, and mountains of homework. But China is taking action to address the stress of both homework and off-site tutoring in core subjects by passing a law requiring local governments to regulate these “twin pressures”. According to official Chinese news…
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Ecuador grapples with spiraling violence
It was meant to be a fun family trip to an ice cream parlor. But it ended in tragedy. Eleven-year-old Sebastian was standing at the counter; his parents were sitting at a table with his little sister. Suddenly, shots rang out. Two gunemen exchanged fire with the police on the street corner in front of the ice cream parlor. The…
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Turkey’s Osman Kavala case: A break with Europe?
Turkish philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala has never been convicted of a crime — yet he has been in prison for almost four years in Turkey, despite the ruling of a top European court. On September 17, the Council of Europe issued Turkey its final warning to release the 64-year-old entrepreneur, warning that infringement proceedings against Ankara would start at…
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Philippines: What happened to the victims of Marawi’s deadly siege?
The siege had been raging for two days before Gilda could contact her son Jessie. He worked in a bakery in Marawi, a city on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Aged 17, he wanted to help his mother provide for his three sisters. “He said there was no electricity and they had nothing to eat. He said it was…
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Is India’s justice system failing low-caste Dalit women?
India’s 80 million Dalit women and girls at the bottom of the South Asian country’s caste hierarchy experience many forms of violence. But getting justice for such crimes could take years. SOURCE: DW News
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EU leaders call for tougher migration controls amid border surge
The divisive issue of refugees and migrants was top of the agenda as European Union leaders met in Brussels for the second day of their summit. Their meeting came amid a surge of migrants and refugees trying to cross the Belarusian border into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia from countries including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Many EU leaders have accused…
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1 dead, 1 injured in prop gun shooting on Alec Baldwin movie set
A prop gun malfunction on the set of a movie in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the US led to 1 death and 1 person in emergency care after being shot on set. The film “Rust”, a Western movie produced and starring Alec Baldwin and directed by Joel Souza was the site of the tragedy where what should have been…
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Biden reaffirms US would defend Taiwan against Chinese attack
US President Joe Biden said that the US would defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese attack. He was asked about this hypothetical situation yesterday during a CNN town hall segment. His response is a departure from the typical US stance on the Taiwan issue, but follows the trend of increasingly firm policy approaches towards China. China, historically, considers…
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Vienna Tourist Board censored by Facebook, shares art on OnlyFans
OnlyFans has been in the news a lot, growing fame or infamy as a place for creators to share content, girls to sell explicit pictures and videos, and now, a place to see ancient works of art? After falling victim to Facebook and Instagram’s censorship algorithms, the Vienna Tourist Board has moved to OnlyFans to display great works of art.…
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China to prioritize foreign students returning
The Chinese ambassador said on Wednesday that students from Thailand would be one of the first groups allowed to return to China when the country reopens. This was announced during an online interview with the media, which was also attended by a top Chinese education official. Thailand has more than 30,000 students enrolled in educational programmes in China, the nation…
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Indonesia to introduce strict air travel measures for end-of-year holiday period
Anticipating a jump in visitor numbers over the end-of-year holiday period, Indonesia is strengthening its air travel rules. According to a Bloomberg report, the country is anxious to avoid a spike in infections as a result of the increase in tourist numbers. A spokesman for the country’s Covid-19 task force says all airlines serving Indonesia must isolate passengers who develop…
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Indonesia cuts Covid-19 quarantine period to 5 days
The Indonesian government has cut the mandatory, Covid-19 quarantine from 8 to 5 days for those entering the country. The 5-day quarantine applies to international travellers, including Indonesian citizens and foreign nationals arriving in the country. The Indonesian National Armed Forces, Indonesian Police, relevant Ministries and Institutions, and volunteers under the Commander of the Regional Defense Command will supervise the…
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Texas’ controversial abortion law: what’s at stake?
The Republican lawmaker who sponsored Texas’s controversial legislation to ban most abortions in the state has told DW it is “not a partisan issue.” “Texas has been passing pro-life bills for the last 20 years under Republican and Democratic administrations,” Bryan Hughes said. “This is about human life.” Hughes, a senator in Texas’s state legislature, had been asked on DW’s…
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Ghana’s thriving smock industry
Ghana’s famous smocks are defninitely in fashion. But imported cotton has boosted production, and the smocks ubiquity has left weavers and producers struggling to keep up with demand, and make a living. SOURCE: DW News
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South Korea space rocket test prompts fear of arms race with North
Shortly after 5 p.m. local time (0800 UTC) on Thursday, South Korea launched its first domestically produced rocket from the Naro Space Center in the northeastern county of Goheung. All three stages of the liquid-fueled Nuri rocket, which cost around 2 trillion won ($1.7 billion, €1.46 billion), worked but the rocket reportedly failed to complete the mission of delivering a…
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Vatican launches Click to Pray 2.0 app to encourage prayer
The Vatican is updating it tech in an attempt to modernise religion. But don’t expect Pope Francis to be dancing on TikTok anytime soon. The Click to Pray mobile app has a new update that just rolled out, hoping to help keep prayer in modern busy lifestyles. Click to Pray 2.0 is the first update to the Vatican’s prayer app…
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When Nazis killed 100 Serbs per dead German in Yugoslavia
Serbia does not play much of a role in Germany’s historical recollection of World War II. That is despite the fact that from April 6, 1941, when the Nazis invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, until their full retreat in 1945, hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were stationed in the Balkan country. The remains of more than 15,400 slain Germans…
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UK government calls on Thailand to accelerate its net-zero target
As the UK prepares to host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, the British government is urging Thailand to sign a key pact. The UK is hosting the climate talks, known as COP26, in partnership with Italy. The event takes place in Glasgow, Scotland, between October 31 and November 12. The Bangkok Post reports that a press briefing was held…
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Queries over Google’s planned billion-dollar investment in Africa
Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced a $1billion (€858 million) investment in Africa. The massive investment will run for over five years and cover a range of initiatives. Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana, will be the primary beneficiaries of the tech giant. It will prioritize improvement in connectivity and supporting innovative start-ups. The announcement comes when foreign direct investment (FDI)…
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IT dreams for Ugandan children
These children have not gone to school for almost two years due to Uganda’s COVID-19 measures. But neighbor Shamim Mwanaisha has introduced them to coding, vital tool in innovation and communication fields. She teaches from a porch with laptops and a bunch of fascinated kids. SOURCE: DW News
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World in Progress: Inside the US Opioid Crisis
More than half a million people have died from opioids in the past two decades in the USA. What started with doctors prescribing legal painkillers – such as Oxycontin – has now spiraled into much more dangerous substances. Hardly anyone knows what’s in them anymore. It’s had an impact on almost everyone from doctors to policemen and women to factory…
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Singapore Airlines launches 60 minute A380 flights
It’s designed to ferry lots of people long distances, in an ultra-quiet flying experience. So flyers would be used to flying the huge Airbus A380 from LA to London, Bahrain to Frankfurt, Melbourne to Hong Kong. The massive super jumbo airliner wasn’t designed for a short 1 hour hop. But that’s exactly what Singapore Airlines have planned now they’re getting…
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With dueling downgrades, NATO-Russia diplomacy is at a new low
Though high-level discussions between NATO and Russia have been few and far between in recent years, the Kremlin’s announcement that it would shutter its mission to the alliance, force NATO military officials to leave Moscow and close the NATO Information Office (NIO) there still sent a chill through the already-frosty channels. Robert Pszczel was the last diplomat NATO posted to…
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North Korean defectors struggle adapting to life in the South
For the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have escaped their repressive homeland and completed the often-perilous journey to South Korea, their problems are often far from over. Some defectors face prejudice in South Korean society, according to a recent report looking at the experiences of new arrivals in the South last year — before the North Korean regime…
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Exposed: How big farm lobbies undermine EU’s green agriculture plan
It is a long way from the farms and fields of Sezze in central Italy to the halls of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. But the decisions made at the European assembly this week can directly impact the lives of farmers like Valentina Pallavicino. Her farm in the plains between Rome and the Mediterranean is the kind that is often…
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Pakistan: Women YouTubers counter sexist slur
On their YouTube channel, four Pakistani women take on sensitive and taboo topics like rape and sexual consent that mainstream media outlets are hesitant to cover. SOURCE: DW News
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