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  Taipei / AFP Taiwanese lawmakers and fishermen headed to an island in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday to protest at an international tribunal ruling which undermined Taipei’s claims there. Eight lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) boarded a military plane to the Taiwan-controlled Taiping island in the Spratlys archipelago. Five fishing ...

Washington / AFP With extremist attacks proliferating around the world, the United States has reassembled its coalition partners for meetings on Wednesday and Thursday to review a two-year-old war that has so far failed to eliminate the IS extremist group. The militant group may have lost ground in Iraq and Syria, but in recent weeks it has claimed horrific attacks in ...

  Paris, France / AFP French lawmakers voted massively on Wednesday to extend a state of emergency as President Francois Hollande said that a call to boost reserve forces had paved the way towards a “National Guard.” The government is scrambling to find new ways to assure a jittery population after its third major attack in 18 months saw a ...

  Cleveland / AFP Having prevailed in his remarkable run to the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump turns to his next task of healing crippling party divisions and solidifying support for his White House campaign. Trump wasted little time basking in the glow of Tuesday’s historic achievement, flipping the script once again on the Republican National Convention and telling delegates ...

  Kiev / AFP A car bomb in central Kiev on Wednesday morning killed well-known pro-Western journalist Pavel Sheremet, with the crisis-hit nation’s president demanding the perpetrators are brought to justice. The 44-year-old, originally from Belarus but a Russian citizen who worked for Ukrainska Pravda, an independent news site, died when an explosion tore through the car he was in. ...

  United Nations / AFP After months of public campaigning, debates and open hearings, Security Council ambassadors huddle behind closed doors on Thursday to begin secret voting for a new secretary-general to lead the world body. The 15 council members including the powerful permanent five — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — will each rate the 12 ...

  WASHINGTON Political conventions are echo chambers designed to generate feelings of invincibility, sending forth the party faithful with a spring in their steps and hope in their hearts. Who would want to be a wet blanket at such moveable feasts? Steve Munisteri would. Although he calls himself “the eternal optimist,” he respects reality, which nowadays is not conducive to ...

  British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to Berlin would largely focus on establishing working relationship with strong woman of Europe, German Chancellor Angel Merkel. This would be necessary when May triggers the Article 50 to kickstart the UK’s exit process from the European Union (EU). Ahead of her meeting with Merkel, she already took the first step towards Brexit ...

  Megan McArdle At first after the convention broke for the night on Monday, everyone on the cable news networks agreed that Melania Trump’s speech was good. An hour later everyone was talking about how much her apparent plagiarism from Michelle Obama’s 2008 speech would hurt the Trump campaign. This morning Trump supporters are offering the only defense they can: ...

  Tajikistan appears to be inching toward joining the Eurasian Economic Union. With Dushanbe long suggested to be considering membership, this news ought to be taken with a grain of salt. According to Asia-Plus, the head of the Customs Service, Abdufattoh Ghoib (who had previously headed the anti-corruption service before President Emomali Ramon’s son took it over), told reporters on ...