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Taiwan announces special budget of $40 billion for arms purchases to bolster defense

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te on Wednesday announced a special $40 billion budget for arms purchases, including to build a Taiwan Dome, an air defense system with high-level detection and interception capabilities, as the U.S. pressures the island to increase its defense spending.

The budget will be allocated over eight years, from 2026 to 2033, and comes after Lai already pledged to raise defense spending to 5% of the island's GDP, as part of an ongoing strategy amid China's threats of invasion.

“China’s threats to Taiwan and the... Read More

Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears the pinnacle of Japan's national sport

TOKYO (AP) — Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki is only 21 but has moved just one step from the top rank of Japan's national sport.

In an elaborate ceremony on Wednesday, he was promoted by the Japan Sumo Association to the rank of ozeki, the rung just below the top.

Only two now hold the top rank of yokozuna — grand champion in English: Japanese Onosato and Mongolia-born Hoshoryu.

"I’m happy but I feel more strongly about working harder from now on,” Aonishiki said Wednesday after the ceremony. “There is a higher rank, and that’s my next... Read More

Kilauea displays lava fountains for the 37th time since its eruption began last year

HONOLULU (AP) — The on-and-off eruption that's been dazzling residents and visitors on Hawaii's Big Island for nearly a year resumed Tuesday as Kilauea volcano sent fountains of lava soaring 400 feet (122 meters) into the air.

The molten rock was confined within Kilauea’s summit caldera inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No homes were threatened.

It's the 37th time Kilauea has shot lava since last December, when the current eruption began.

The latest lava display was preceded by sporadic spattering and overflows that... Read More

UK's Treasury chief set to raise taxes once again in her second budget

LONDON (AP) — Following weeks of speculation, Britain's unpopular Labour government will deliver its second budget later Wednesday since it returned to power in a landslide election victory in July 2024 after 14 years in opposition.

Treasury chief Rachel Reeves, the first woman to hold the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to tell lawmakers that more tax-raising measures are necessary to plug a hole in the public finances.

Reeves said much the same at her first budget a little more than a year ago. That budget, she had insisted, would be the one and only big... Read More

Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey and Lebanon on first foreign trip

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history’s first American pope on the road.

Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he’ll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast. Read More

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Taiwan announces special budget of $40 billion for arms purchases to bolster defense

Ukrainian sumo wrestler Aonishiki nears the pinnacle of Japan's national sport

Kilauea displays lava fountains for the 37th time since its eruption began last year

UK's Treasury chief set to raise taxes once again in her second budget

Pope Leo XIV visits Turkey and Lebanon on first foreign trip

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