China

FILE - Visitors look at manatees at the Tampa Electric Company Manatee Viewing Center near the coal-fired Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach, Fla., on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024.

World coal use is set to reach an all-time high in 2024, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday, in a year all but certain to be the hottest in recorded history.

Cyprus has taken a big step toward its energy future with the launch of the floating natural gas plant Prometheua from Shanghai. Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis announced the news, confirming that Prometheus departed at 1.30 a.m. Greece and Cyprus time on Saturday and has already sailed beyond China's territorial waters.

The EU has adopted the 15th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes measures against the so-called third-country shadow fleet that allows Russia to export oil and gas by circumventing Western sanctions.

Taiwan has received 38 advanced Abrams battle tanks from the United States, the Defense Ministry said on Dec. 16, reportedly the island's first new tanks in 30 years.

Washington has long been Taipei's most important ally and biggest arms supplier, angering Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory.

Unidentified drones were stoking security and safety fears over the U.S. Northeast at the weekend, prompting New York's governor to seek federal help, as President-elect Donald Trump weighed in to suggest the devices be shot down.

South Korea's swift rebuke of martial law and removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol from office have been hailed in the country as evidence of the strength of its young democratic institutions.

Türkiye is among the 10 largest consumers of geothermal energy in the world, according to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The other top consumers are China, the U.S., Sweden, Indonesia, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand, Germany and the Philippines.

Türkiye aims to boost its exports to the economies under the Distant Countries Strategy to $50 billion by 2028, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has said.

Among the 18 targeted countries under the strategy are the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, South Korea, Japan, Australia, India and Brazil.

Having served at the Pentagon as undersecretary of defense under Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith had played an active role in the "war on terror" after 9/11 and in particular in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

A new scandal involving funding from Chinese donors through links to a Chinese Communist Party spy has put Prince Andrew, who has been targeted by MI5,
at the centre of a new scandal.