World News Roundup: China raps Czech president-elect over Taiwan call; Blinken takes support for two-state solution to disillusioned Palestinians and more

Monday's call was a diplomatic breakthrough for the China-claimed island, which has no formal relations with Prague. France hit by new wave of strikes against Macron's pension reform Striking workers disrupted French refinery deliveries, public transport and schools on Tuesday in a second day of nationwide protests over President Emmanuel Macron's plan to make people work longer before retirement.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 31-01-2023 18:58 IST | Created: 31-01-2023 18:26 IST
World News Roundup: China raps Czech president-elect over Taiwan call; Blinken takes support for two-state solution to disillusioned Palestinians and more
US State Secretary Antony Blinken (File Image) Image Credit: ANI

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

China raps Czech president-elect over Taiwan call

China condemned on Tuesday a phone call between Czech President-elect Petr Pavel and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-Wen, saying he ignored Beijing's repeated attempts at dissuasion. Monday's call was a diplomatic breakthrough for the China-claimed island, which has no formal relations with Prague.

Blinken takes support for two-state solution to disillusioned Palestinians

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the West Bank on Tuesday on a tour where he is appealing for a halt to violence and reaffirming Washington's backing for a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Blinken is urging calm on both sides after last week's killing by a Palestinian gunman of seven people outside a synagogue in the worst such attack in the Jerusalem area for years.

France hit by new wave of strikes against Macron's pension reform

Striking workers disrupted French refinery deliveries, public transport and schools on Tuesday in a second day of nationwide protests over President Emmanuel Macron's plan to make people work longer before retirement. Crowds marched through cities across France to denounce a reform that raises the retirement age by two years to 64 and which is a test of Macron's ability to push through change now that he has lost his working majority in parliament.

Families search for loved ones after Pakistan mosque blast kills 100

Distraught relatives thronged hospitals in Pakistan's Peshawar on Tuesday to look for their kin a day after a suicide bombing ripped through a crowded mosque in a heavily fortified area of the city, killing 100 people, mostly policemen. The attack, in the Police Lines district, was the deadliest in a decade to hit this restive, northwestern city near the Afghan border and comes amid a surge in violence against the police. No group has claimed responsibility.

Teachers join mass walkout in Britain after decade-long pay squeeze

London school teacher Lucy Preston will miss her son's fourth birthday on Thursday because she has to work a second job in the evening as a private tutor to make sure she can pay for her childcare and mortgage. A day earlier, in the hope of earning a pay rise that will give her stretched household budget some relief, the single mother of two will join more than 120,000 other teachers on the picket line.

Australia deploys more experts, equipment to search for lost radioactive capsule

Australian authorities on Tuesday sent out more personnel and specialised detection equipment to search for a tiny radioactive capsule missing somewhere in the outback, including a team from the country's nuclear safety agency. The capsule is believed to have fallen from a road train - a truck with multiple trailers - that made a 1,400 km (870 mile) journey in Western Australia and its loss has triggered a radiation alert for large parts of the vast state.

Major new Russian assault in Ukraine unlikely to achieve breakthough, UK says

A large Russian force has advanced hundreds of metres in a major new assault on a Ukrainian-held bastion in southeastern Ukraine this week, though it is unlikely to force a significant breakthrough there, Britain said on Tuesday. Russian officials claimed the advance had secured a foothold in the coal-mining town of Vuhledar. Kyiv has acknowledged heavy fighting there but says it has repelled the push so far while inflicting heavy losses on the attackers.

Turkey's push into Iraq risks deeper conflict

Looming over the deserted village of Sararo in northern Iraq, three Turkish military outposts break the skyline, part of an incursion that forced the residents to flee last year after days of shelling. The outposts are just some of the dozens of new military bases Turkey has established on Iraqi soil in the past two years as it steps up its decades-long offensive against Kurdish militants sheltered in the remote and rugged region.

Two years on, Myanmar coup takes a 'catastrophic toll'

Two years after Myanmar's military coup, a young factory worker turned resistance fighter mourns the loss of his leg in battle. A former diplomat has not seen his family in four years. A beauty queen adjusts to a new life in wintry Canada. And an exiled teacher dreams of returning to school. The Feb. 1, 2021 coup, which unseated Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, has left a trail of upended lives in its wake.

Alec Baldwin, armorer to be charged over 'Rust' shooting

Actor Alec Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will be charged on Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter for the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Western "Rust" in 2021, a New Mexico prosecutor said. The charges follow 15 months of speculation whether District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies would find evidence Baldwin showed criminal disregard for safety when a revolver he was rehearsing with fired a live round that killed Hutchins.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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