Taiwan has seen a “significant rise” in the number of individuals charged with spying for China in recent years, according to new data released by the island’s security bureau, amid escalating intimidation by Beijing. In a report released Sunday, Taiwan’s National Security Bureau (NSB) said the number of individuals prosecuted for Chinese espionage had increased threefold in recent years, rising ...

Four years after exiting bankruptcy, Chuck E. Cheese is making a comeback, thanks to a dramatic makeover to introduce its games and pizza to a new generation. In June 2020, just as some states began lifting their pandemic lockdowns, Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company CEC Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It emerged from bankruptcy months later with new leadership and ...

McDonald’s will shutter three locations of its drinks-focused spinoff brand, CosMc’s. To test the concept, the fast-food giant opened its first CosMc’s location more than a year ago in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, followed by six more in Texas. McDonald’s has converted larger namesake restaurants into CosMc’s, in addition to building smaller prototype locations. The smaller stores work better for the test, the ...

Caroline Darian, the daughter of Gisèle Pelicot who sustained years of horrific sexual abuse by her then-husband and other men, has described how she’s certain her father drugged her and strongly suspects she was raped too. In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC, Darian, aged 46, described the mental “burden” of being the daughter of both victim and perpetrator, as ...

Germany is working to secure a drifting Russian oil tanker, believed to be part of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” used to fund its war in Ukraine, after it lost control in the Baltic Sea. The Eventin tanker, carrying nearly 100,000 tons of oil thought to be from Russia, lost power near the German island of Rügen on Friday, Germany’s Central Command ...

Venezuelans once again watched as Nicolás Maduro was sworn into office on Friday, donning the executive sash and declaring himself president despite irregularities and questions around his election. He repeated his attacks against the United States and any foreign leaders who did not recognize his return to power and vowed to squash all of those who oppose him. “I come ...

Two trams collided in Strasbourg in eastern France on Saturday, causing dozens of injuries, though none critical, authorities said. The accident took place during the afternoon in a tunnel leading to the station near the city’s central train station. An additional 100 people, though uninjured, were assessed for shock or stress, said René Cellier, director of the Bas-Rhin Fire and ...

Israel will send the chief of its Mossad intelligence agency to Qatar to continue talks over a potential ceasefire-for-hostages deal in Gaza, in a possible sign the negotiations may be advancing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Saturday it had directed the chief of the Mossad, David Barnea, to head a delegation “to depart for Doha to continue advancing ...

A former child star from Australia died when the Los Angeles wildfires ripped through his family’s Malibu estate in California earlier this week, according to his mother. Rory Callum Sykes was at the family’s 17-acre Mount Malibu TV Studios estate, where he had his own cottage, when it burned down on January 8, his mother Shelley Sykes wrote on X ...

Ukraine claimed Saturday to have struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries in a drone attack, starting a fire at the facility more than 700 miles into Russian territory. The attack on the Taneco refinery in the city of Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan – one of the largest and most modern refineries in Russia – was the second time the facility had ...