Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Wednesday confirmed that his country would pull out of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), amid a widening rift with Moscow. The CSTO is a Russia-dominated alliance of former Soviet states that have pledged to protect one another in the event of an attack. Click to expand... DW No reason to stay in CSTO after Russia failed to defend them from the attack on Nagorno-Karabakh. The RoW and Russia pretty much either backed or allowed... Read more ..read more

A cartoon cat has been vexing China’s censors – now he says they are on his tail​ Here's the cat Xi can't catch ..read more

Python swallows woman whole in Indonesia Farida, a mother of four, had gone missing and was later found fully clothed inside the reticulated python after its stomach was cut open. www.scmp.com A woman has been found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia, a local official said on Saturday. The husband of 45-year-old Farida and residents of Kalempang village in South Sulawesi province discovered her on Friday inside the reticulated python, which measured around five metres (16 feet). The mother of four had gone missing on Thursday... Read mor ..read more

Looks like the "BJP" (Hindu-nationalist) party, led by current 2-time PM Narendra Modi, is going to retain power but isn't doing nearly as well as they had hoped. It had been projected they might actually get a super-majority, which would enable them to rewrite their constitution - something that had worried a lot of people concerned with the direction of India's democracy under Modi and the nationalists. Live Updates: India’s Election Results Suggest a Setback for Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing alliance may be headed toward a narrower majority in Parliament, based on early r ..read more

balloons go to the north with propaganda and to thevsouth with rubbish ..read more

Here we go ........ May 25, 2024, 8:35 AM EDT US officials are preparing for potential North Korean military action — possibly encouraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin — in the run-up to the US election in November, NBC News reported, citing six senior US officials. Such a move could be designed to create chaos in another part of the world as the election process ramps up, they said. "We have no doubt that North Korea will be provocative this year. It's just a matter of how... Read more ..read more

China has started a military exercise around Taiwan to "punish separatist actions". The exercise, which will "surround the island" came as a response to the installation of the country's new president on Monday. The Chinese military announces that the two-day military exercise will take place in the Taiwan Strait and that the military will surround the island. Both ships and aircraft are to be included in the exercise, according to the Reuters news agency. Already on Thursday morning... Read more ..read more

One of the most harrowing documentaries you will ever see: Beyond Utopia | North Korea Escape Documentary | Independent Lens They grew up believing their North Korea was paradise. Now, they risk everything in escaping it. www.pbs.org North Korea is a murderous authoritarian regime, and anyone playing footsie with it or its cult leader is either willfully ignorant of the horrors that people there endure, or utterly indifferent to their suffering ..read more

Chabahar Port: US says sanctions possible after India-Iran port deal​ India has never taken the US sanctions on Iran very seriously. From an Indian perspective Iran is a strategic partner against Pakistan, and one of India's three important partnerships (US, Russia and Iran). India needs a trade route to Central Asia that does not go through Pakistan, so again from an Indian perspective a port deal in Iran sounds lucrative. For the US this brings another challenge. India is a... Read more ..read more

Late last month was the ten year anniversary of EDCA and I suppose that a whole bunch of U.S. citizens weren't too well briefed when this all started ten years ago, nor have received much news about how it has been developing, but I can tell y'all, we're back. And this is no small deal. In fact, this thread's idea came to me because of a report I received a few hours ago about what seems to be more land reclamation work (if that's the right vocabulary) --- it seems some of the U.S. & PI... Read more ..read more