China said that by the end of this year all tertiary level hospitals must offer epidural anesthesia during childbirth, a move it said would help promote a “friendly childbearing environment” for women. Tertiary hospitals – those with more than 500 beds – must provide epidural anesthesia services by 2025 while secondary hospitals – those containing more than 100 beds – ...

Canada will meet NATO’s military spending guideline by early next year and diversify defense spending away from the United States, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday, asserting that Washington no longer plays a predominant role on the world stage. The announcement means Canada will achieve NATO’s spending target of 2% of gross domestic product five years earlier than previously planned. ...

Russia launched a drone attack on Kyiv overnight into Tuesday, with air raid sirens blaring for hours and residents hearing regular explosions, and local officials reporting damage to residential buildings and at least two people wounded. A large number of unmanned aerial vehicles are still reaching the capital, said Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko in a post on Telegram. At least ...

When Sana Yousaf turned 17, she posted a video of her birthday celebrations to more than a million followers on TikTok. They saw her cutting a pink and cream cake beneath a matching balloon arch, the June breeze ruffling her long hair as she beamed against the backdrop of the cloud-covered Margalla Hills in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Less than 24 ...

French 7’3” NBA star Victor Wembanyama may have just unlocked a new position: Shaolin monk. Wembanyama, who ended last season early due to a rare blood clot in his right shoulder appeared to be looking for some off-season spiritual peace and strength at a Shaolin Temple in central China. A widely circulated image showed the San Antonio Spurs center with ...

India’s coast guard is fighting a massive blaze aboard a container ship that’s threatening to sink about 15 nautical miles off the coast of Kerala as the search continues for four missing crew members. Images showed flames and towering plumes of diesel smoke rising from the Singaporean-flagged MV Wan Hai 503 that was tilting “10 to 15 degrees” in the ...

Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg departed Israel on a flight to France on Tuesday after being detained by Israeli forces alongside other activists aboard an aid ship bound for Gaza. “Greta Thunberg just departed Israel on a flight to Sweden (via France),” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote in a post on X alongside two photos of the young ...

Frederick Forsyth, the British author of “The Day of the Jackal” and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family. “We mourn the passing of one of the world’s greatest thriller writers,” Lloyd said. Born in ...

Ukraine sent dozens of its own citizens to Russia last month, releasing them from prisons in an attempt to secure the release of dozens of Ukrainian civilians held illegally in Russian jails – a move described by human rights activists as desperate and worrying. According to the Ukrainian government, 70 Ukrainian civilians convicted of collaborating with Russia were released as ...

Russia claimed Sunday that its forces are for the first time pushing into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, an area it has been trying to reach for months, in a move that could create new problems for Kyiv’s much-stretched forces. Subunits from the Russian military’s 90th tank division reached the border of Dnipropetrovsk with the Donetsk region, large parts ...