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San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie captured the majority of final-round ranked-choice votes in most of The City’s densest Asian American precincts in November without receiving the top endorsement ...

As Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares for possible negotiations, friends and neighbours should be gearing up for industrial warfare
Whenever I come to Ukraine, I find words that have lost their essence elsewhere swell again with meaning. The fight for “freedom” is not a pretentious slogan here, but just what you do every day. “Sovereignty” is not a slippery abstraction, but the difference between deciding your own fate or having it decreed in Moscow.
It’s also in Ukraine that one realises that “freedom” and “sovereignty” exist in a collaborative relationship with others. Ukraine is now defending its neighbours’ freedom from an advancing Russia. Kyiv’s resistance is benefiting Taiwan’s freedom, too. Meanwhile, without help – especially from America – Ukraine would still fight on but, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admits, would find it hard. As speculations about negotiations and potential peace deals loom over 2025, the precise meaning of Ukraine’s relationships will need to be defined. What does being an “ally” really mean today? What is a true “security order”? Will peace just mean, in the words of Olga Myrovych, CEO of the that Ukraine should “rest in peace”?
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The Davenport House Museum in Savannah, Georgia, is expanding its historical narrative with the debut of “Old Chan Magic: Chinese Roots, Southern Branches,” an exhibit exploring the early 20th-century ...

A top White House official says a ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private ...

Fan Weiqiu, angry at his divorce settlement, caused ‘great social harm’ when he drove into people as they exercised in the city of Zhuhai, court says
A court in China has sentenced a man to death for killing 35 people last month by driving into a crowd, in an attack that raised national concern about mass killings.
Fan Weiqiu was venting his anger because he was unhappy with his divorce settlement, the court in the southern city of Zhuhai said in handing down the sentence on Friday. at the time of the attack. Fan pleaded guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means, a court statement said.

Court will hear arguments in case that could see app banned in US if not sold to American firm by 19 January
President-elect Donald Trump has urged the US supreme court to pause implementation of a law that would ban popular social media app TikTok or force its sale, arguing he should have time after taking office to pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.
The court is set to hear arguments in the case on 10 January.

The killings have led to questions about what is driving people to murder strangers en masse.

Dictators in Russia and China should be denied further control of raw materials used in electronics, writes John E Havard. Plus a letter from Fawzi Ibrahim
A footnote to the excellent article by Timothy Garton Ash (). The so-called rare earths are essential raw materials for advanced electronics industries. China – with the world’s largest economically exploitable reserves – has a major strategic advantage in access to rare earths, underlined by the that it has recently imposed. In Europe, it is eastern Ukraine that has the best reserves. To gain and maintain control of Ukraine’s reserves would be a major boost for Russia.
A defeat here for Ukraine, enabled by the failure of the west to provide the long-term support that it has promised, would signal to China that it should not be too concerned about western resolve in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. Taiwan is a dominant supplier of the advanced electronics, incorporating rare earths, that will continue to be a major determinant of economic success.

Treaties ratified by the Senate in 1978 established permanent neutrality, but some Republicans regret that decision.

A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an ...

Fan Weiqiu was angry about his divorce settlement, and took it out on strangers, the court said.

The project has stoked concerns about displacement and environmental impact downstream in India and Bangladesh.