Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia’s second poorest nation, is sitting on a pile of gold, quite literally. For years, the bulk of profits from the colossal Kumtor Mine have been sent abroad. Now, a new government is trying to change that. In May, the former Soviet republic sparked an international legal battle when it rolled in and took control of the Kumtor Mine, operated by Toronto-based Centerra Gold.... 

China’s President Xi Jinping issued a blistering “warning” to the West in a Thursday speech marking the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. The most provocative part of the roughly hour-long address given from Tiananmen Square focused on Taiwan and thwarting foreign forces’ efforts at “meddling” in China’s affairs and in the region (read: American and its... 

The Chinese government has opposed the US’ latest naval presence in the Taiwan Strait – its sixth in the area since Biden took office – accusing Washington of being the greatest “risk creator” in the region. On Wednesday, Beijing condemned the US Navy’s presence in the Taiwan Strait, following the passing of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur through the... 

There is no doubt about it: Taiwan Semiconductor has emerged as the world’s most important chipmaker. And now, in the midst of a global semiconductor shortage, it is becoming clear exactly how important the company’s dominance has been. Not only has TSMC made headlines for proposing to expand production into the United States, as we have documented numerous times, but now it is making headlines... 

Angered by the country’s low vaccination rate, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said he may jail people who refuse to get the shot against coronavirus. Duterte vented his frustration over vaccine hesitancy during a cabinet meeting late on Monday night. “If you don’t want to get vaccinated, leave the Philippines,” he said, as quoted by the PNA news agency. “Go to India if you want,... 

North Korea has been a food insecure nation for much of the past 30 years, with the end of Soviet fuel subsidies in 1991 wreaking havoc on its mechanised agriculture. This, compounded with a period of droughts and floods, caused major food shortages in the 1990s, which turned into famines that killed between 240,000 and 600,000 people. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has expressed concern about the... 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has hit out at South Korean pop culture, calling it a ‘vicious cancer’ and introducing harsher punishments for those caught listening to K-pop or watching dramas from the South. South Korean music, television shows and movies are enjoying unprecedented popularity around the world – including in totalitarian North Korea where cultural life is strictly... 

There are some truly fascinating things on Mars. A baffling structure located on the surface of Mars eerily resembles a massive temple on Earth, and UFO hunters claim there is a mindboggling connection between the two. In the last couple of years, intriguing theories have been proposed suggesting that in the distant past a catastrophic event or nuclear war destroyed a sophisticated Martian civilization,... 

Israel’s Embassy in China is protesting what it describes as “blatant antisemitism” on a program run by the overseas channel of state broadcaster CCTV discussing the ongoing violence in Gaza and elsewhere. In a tweet, the embassy said “we have hoped that the times of the ‘Jew’s controlling the world’ conspiracy theories were over, unfortunately antisemitism has shown its ugly face again.” “We... 

The variety of divorces in China dropped greater than 70% within the first quarter of this 12 months, after a controversial regulation forcing a “cooling-off interval” for couples got here into impact. Based on knowledge revealed by the ministry of civil affairs, 296,000 divorces had been registered throughout the first three months of 2021, down from 1.05m within the earlier quarter, and 1.06m... 

Two symbiotic marine lifeforms who somehow evaded the prying eyes of human scientists and ‘disappeared’ from the fossil record over a quarter of a billion years ago have been found thriving offshore of Japan. The creatures in question are non-skeletal corals and crinoids, or sea lilies, who were found proliferating on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, 100 meters (330 feet) below the surface, off... 

A man visiting a resort in northeast China survived a nightmare scenario after a glass-bottomed bridge shattered under his feet. The tourist was eventually rescued after clinging to a railing. The walkway, located in the Piyan Mountain resort in the city of Longjing, was partially destroyed by violent winds on Friday – leaving the terrified tourist stranded 100 meters (328 feet) from the ground. A... 

China is the funniest country in the world. They’ve got balls, balls of steel to be exact. They openly oppose everything Western while not giving a single F. They oppose gays, feminists, immigration from Africa and Arab world, furthermore they put their own Muslims in reeducation camps…. this country is amazing! In a good way. They are based! Communists are based! The West must be so... 

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged Western nations to prosecute hatred against Muslims with the “same standards” it applies to Holocaust denial, amid a wave of anti-French riots in his own country. Writing on Twitter, Khan urged Western governments “who have outlawed any negative comment on the Holocaust to use the same standards to penalize those deliberately spreading their message... 

Beijing has blamed Washington and Tokyo for undermining stability in the Asia Pacific region after they released a joint statement saying “regional challenges” would be addressed by all means, “including nuclear.” The statement by US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, the first foreign leader to officially visit Biden at the White House, was released on Friday....