Author: ANC News Desk

A Sharia caning sentence being carried out in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Sep. 19, 2014. Credit: Voice of America Indonesia’s conservative Aceh Province has once again carried out a mass public caning. On May 12, the Southeast Aceh Prosecutor’s Office punished some 15 convicts by flogging the group with over 200 strokes of the rattan cane […]

A view of Ascension Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox cathedral located in Panfilov Park in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Credit: Catherine Putz Hieromonk Iakov Vorontsov, a former Russian Orthodox priest who was defrocked in 2023 after publicly criticizing Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, had already spent more than three months in detention when he was transferred by Kazakhstan’s […]

Credit: Depositphotos On May 24, Pakistani and Chinese officials, business leaders and investors gathered in Hangzhou, in China’s Zhejiang province, for the Pakistan-China B2B (Business-to-Business) Investment Conference. More than 500 leading enterprises from both countries attended the event, where Islamabad and Beijing signed several new Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs). The Pakistan-China B2B investment conferences are […]

U.S. President Donald J. Trump and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China pose for a photo at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, China, May 15, 2026. Credit: Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok On May 16, 2026, Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping formally acknowledged what has long been in motion: a paradigm […]

Credit: Shutterstock The Strait of Hormuz became a focal point of recurring regional tensions and broader power struggles following United States and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and beyond. Heightened Iranian restrictions on shipping and Tehran’s blockade of the waterway have renewed global concern over strategic maritime chokepoints, shifting analytical and policy attention […]

A morning drill at the military headquarters of Chin National Front (Camp Victoria) in Myanmar’s Chin State. Credit: Rajeev Bhattacharyya On May 19, 2026, the Myanmar Armed Forces (Tatmadaw) and the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) recaptured Tonzang, a strategically vital town located on the Tedim-Kale trade route, from Chin ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). This is […]

Credit: insung yoon on Unsplash In South Korea, even romance has become a policy target. Across the country, local governments are organizing dating events, offering marriage incentives, and designing matchmaking programs that resemble reality television shows. In Hampyeong County, a couple that meets through a government-sponsored event and eventually marries can receive up to 10 […]

U.S. President Ronald Reagan reviewing troops with Prime Minister Nakasone at an arrival Ceremony at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, May 4, 1980. Credit: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library [U]nhappily, we must take responsibility for our own failures. The Chinese have developed a nation of producers; we are a nation of consumers. China is a nation […]

Penpa Tsering (right) is sworn in for a second term as Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration as the Dalai Lama looks on, May 27, 2026. Credit: Tenzin Jigme Taydeh / CTA On May 27, Penpa Tsering, who was re-elected in the election held by the Tibetan exile community, was sworn in for a new […]

Credit: Facebook / Aqorda When Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev issued a strict, two-year deadline for the comprehensive modernization of his country’s armed forces, it raised eyebrows across Eurasia. To some Russian defense analysts, an accelerated military overhaul seems unnecessary for a country with no active border disputes or immediate, external kinetic threats. Conversely, Western observers […]