Germany to seize more than $790 mln from Russian financial group (www.reuters.com)
Blocked by Polish Truckers, Ukraine Turns to the Black Sea to Boost Trade (www.nytimes.com)
The blockade at the border with Poland has crippled Ukraine’s land trade. But a new Black Sea route is providing an economic lifeline....
Cocoa grown illegally in a Nigerian rainforest heads to companies that supply major chocolate makers (apnews.com)
Men in dusty workwear trudge through a thicket, making their way up a hill where sprawling plantations lay tucked in a Nigerian rainforest whose trees have been hacked away to make room for cocoa bound for places like Europe and the U.S....
Modi's opposition furious as India suspends 141 parliamentary members (www.nbcnews.com)
The suspended lawmakers were protesting a security breach in the parliament earlier this month which saw a man storm the lower house and released a gas canister....
Running short on Ukraine air defenses, U.S. looks to Japan (www.washingtonpost.com)
Australia court finds Melbourne man guilty of foreign interference (www.reuters.com)
An Australia court on Tuesday found a Melbourne man who held prominent positions in Chinese community associations guilty of planning an act of foreign interference, the first verdict of its kind under a law introduced in 2018.
Statement from Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III on Ensuring Freedom of Navigation in the Red Sea (www.defense.gov)
Hong Kong’s activist publisher to stand trial this week under Beijing’s crackdown on dissidents (www.nbcnews.com)
Jimmy Lai, who founded the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily, faces a possible life sentence after being charged under the controversial national security law imposed after Hong Kong’s 2019 protests....
More than 60 people drowned when a migrant vessel capsized off Libya, U.N. says (text.npr.org)
More than 60 migrants feared drowned off Libya, IOM says (www.bbc.com)
More than 60 migrants are believed to have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said....
US and Britain say their navies shot down 15 attack drones over the Red Sea (apnews.com)
A U.S. warship shot down 14 suspected attack drones over the Red Sea on Saturday, and a Royal Navy destroyer downed another drone that was targeting commercial ships, the British and American militaries said....
Killing of USAID contractor in Gaza fuels internal protest (www.washingtonpost.com)
Before he was killed alongside his wife and two children in Gaza last month, Hani Jnena, 33, sent a final message to his colleagues in the West Bank....
Kuwait's ruling emir, Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, dies at age 86 (apnews.com)
Kuwait’s ruling emir, the 86-year-old Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, died Saturday after a three-year, low-key reign focused on trying to resolve the tiny, oil-rich nation’s internal political disputes....
Foreign-owned US farmland acres rose more than 8% in 2022 (www.reuters.com)
Is China understating its own export success? (www.economist.com)
Ukraine Is so Desperate for Troops It's Taking Passports, Tried to Recruit Mentally Disabled Man (www.businessinsider.com)
China ‘mediated Myanmar peace talks’ (www.bangkokpost.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/11318784...
Squirrels just wanna have fun: Thieving rodents steal outdoor lights in East Vancouver (www.cbc.ca)
China’s ‘involuted’ new-energy industry is awash with overcapacity that could stall new economic driver (www.scmp.com)
EU unblocks €10bn for Hungary ahead of Ukraine summit (www.ft.com)
Festive cheer for Filipino fishers after supply boat evades Chinese vessels (www.theguardian.com)
US Supreme Court to rule on abortion pill access, in first case since it overturned Roe v. Wade (www.scmp.com)
China rides high on domestic tourism wave as 2023 revenues reach pre-coronavirus pandemic levels (www.scmp.com)
Security breach in Indian parliament, man jumps into lawmakers's area (www.reuters.com)
