Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

News

Hard Numbers: Taiwanese pushback, Kosovo license plates, Indian aircraft carrier, Japan’s war on floppy disks

Hard Numbers: Taiwanese pushback, Kosovo license plates, Indian aircraft carrier, Japan’s war on floppy disks
Make us preferred on Google

1: Taiwan shot down Thursday for the first time a suspected Chinese drone flying over one of its outlying islets near the mainland. It's the latest sign that Taipei is now pushing back more forcefully against China's military muscle-flexing around the self-governing island.


50,000: Not now, Kosovo! A week after patching things up with Serbia, the Kosovo government announced Thursday that it'll require some 50,000 ethnic Serbs living there to get Kosovo-issued license plates for their cars. NATO peacekeepers are on alert in case things get ugly.

13: India will unveil Friday its first locally-made aircraft carrier, which took 13 years to build. Delhi wants to become a naval power capable of challenging regional rival China, which boasts the world's largest navy.

1,900: Japan’s government has declared “war” on floppy disks, scrapping a decades-old requirement that they be used as storage devices for more than 1,900 official transactions. Shed a tear for the old floppy if you like, but take heart: it will still live forever as the universal symbol for “save.”

More For You

Right-wing populism goes Down Under

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
For nearly thirty years, Pauline Hanson has occupied the fringes of Australian politics. The outspoken founder and leader of the far-right, populist One Nation party has built a career railing against immigration and multiculturalism. Despite years of headlines for her political stunts and controversial quotes, her movement never broke into the [...]
​U.S. and Saudi flags flutter along a highway of Riyadh

U.S. and Saudi flags flutter along a highway of Riyadh, as pictured through the glass of a car, ahead of the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 12, 2025.

REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo
Trump adds Israel caveat to Saudi nuclear dealThe US president on Thursday said that the US-Saudi nuclear deal struck this week would be contingent on the Kingdom joining the Abraham Accords, a Trump-brokered 2020 pact that normalized ties between Israel and several powerful Arab countries. Saudi Arabia has in the past said it would only do that [...]
Explosions take place on the deck of the Greek-flagged oil tanker

Explosions take place on the deck of the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion on the Red Sea, in this handout picture released August 29, 2024.

Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
The Iran war expanded to a new front this week. The Houthis, an Iran-backed militia which controls most of Yemen, said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea today as part of a blockade on shipping to and from Saudi Arabia through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. [...]
Ebola death toll continues to rise
Will Fitzpatrick
The Ebola outbreak, caused by a rare strain of the Bundibugyo virus, has ballooned into the fastest outbreak of the virus in history. The World Health Organization said this week that 80% of the confirmed cases are coming from unknown chains of transmission, meaning that the cases are likely emerging in communities where people aren’t receiving [...]