UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called the expiration of the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) a grave moment for international peace and security and urged Russia and the United States to negotiate a new nuclear arms control framework without delay.

New START, which was due to run out at midnight on Wednesday, capped the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

“For the first time in more than half a century, we face a world without any binding limits on the strategic nuclear arsenals of the Russian Federation and the United States of America – the two States that possess the overwhelming majority of the global stockpile of nuclear weapons,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement.

He said the dissolution of decades of achievement in arms control “could not come at a worse time – the risk of a nuclear weapon being used is the highest in decades.”

At the same time, Mr. Guterres said there was now an opportunity “to reset and create an arms control regime fit for a rapidly evolving context” and welcomed the appreciation by the leaders of both Russia and the United States of the need to prevent a return to a world of unchecked nuclear proliferation.

“The world now looks to the Russian Federation and the United States to translate words into action,” Mr. Guterres said.

“I urge both states to return to the negotiating table without delay and to agree upon a successor framework that restores verifiable limits, reduces risks, and strengthens our common security.” — Reuters

SYDNEY — Australian authorities said on Thursday they were treating as a terrorism incident an attempt to bomb a rally protesting against the country’s national day on January 26, the first such charge in the state of Western Australia.

They arrested a 31-year-old man on accusations of hurling a homemade bomb into a crowd of several thousand people in the city of Perth. No one was injured because the bomb did not explode.

Police and state leader Roger Cook said the man held white supremacist views and the attack was an attempt to target Aboriginal people, one of Australia’s two main Indigenous groups.

“This charge … alleges the attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology,” Mr. Cook told a news conference. If proved, it carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Australia Day, which commemorates Britain’s colonization of the country in 1788, is a public holiday marked by picnics, barbecues and ceremonies for new citizens but it has also attracted criticism from some including in the Indigenous community, with “Invasion Day” protest rallies nationwide.

Polling shows a majority of Australians oppose moving the date of the holiday. — Reuters

TAIPEI — Naval missions by foreign countries in the Taiwan Strait are about asserting international law, rather than offering provocation, France’s de facto ambassador in Taipei said on Thursday, speaking of voyages that routinely infuriate China.

In addition to claiming sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan, Beijing views the narrow, highly strategic strait as Chinese territorial waters and has responded aggressively on occasion to foreign navies sailing there.

“We are careful to send these naval assets into international waters without any provocation,” Franck Paris, director of the French Office in Taipei, told reporters.

They aimed to send a clear message that international law prevails in the waters and should remain so, added Paris, whose country is chairing the Group of Seven nations for the coming year.

US warships traverse the strait every few months, enraging Beijing, and some US allies, such as France, Australia, Britain and Canada, have also made occasional transits.

Paris said it had now become routine for G7 statements to include language on maintaining the status quo across the strait and opposing use of force or coercion.

“This is a clear message that we repeat all the time, and I think there is a good choreography between a number of G7 partners to send this message,” he added, pointing to past naval trips by Canada and the Netherlands, among others.

The last publicly confirmed sailing by a French navy ship in the strait, a conduit for trade running into billions of dollars a year, was in 2024.

The government of Taiwan, which rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, welcomes such transits as support for freedom of navigation. China’s military routinely operates in the waterway in what Taipei views as a pressure campaign.

France, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but is viewed by Taipei as an important partner and fellow democracy.

Three decades ago it sold Mirage fighter jets and frigates to Taiwan, although the United States is the island’s most important international source of arms.

“These assets are still used by the Taiwanese defense,” Paris said, adding that French companies helped maintain them by providing necessary equipment.

“This is the framework that we are committed to and this framework has not been questioned for years.” — Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia has imposed a ban on imports of electronic waste, as it looks to tighten controls on the entry of hazardous materials and safeguard the environment, the head of the country’s anti-graft body said.

The Southeast Asian nation is among the world’s top destinations for plastic waste and other scrap, but has struggled to fend off a deluge of generally illegal unrecyclable garbage.

Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Azam Baki, who chairs a government taskforce on the issue, said e-waste would be reclassified under the “Absolute Prohibition” category in customs regulations effective immediately.

“E-waste is no longer allowed to enter the country and strict enforcement will be needed involving all agencies,” Mr. Azam said in a statement on Wednesday.

The taskforce is also discussing a proposal for a three-month moratorium on the importation of plastic waste, he said.

The announcement comes amid a probe into corruption linked to e-waste management.

Last week, MACC detained the director-general and two other top officials of the environment department as part of an investigation into graft linked to illegal e-waste disposal activities, state news agency Bernama reported.

It is unclear how much e-waste is imported illegally into Malaysia. Environmental group Basel Action Network in a report last year estimated that the United States alone exported about 32,947 metric tons of e-waste per month with Malaysia being the primary recipient.

Many of the exports were likely illegal, it said. — Reuters

BEIJING — Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned on Tuesday the detention of two independent Chinese journalists, one a prominent investigative reporter, after they published a report accusing an official in southwestern China of corruption.

The Paris-headquartered advocacy group said journalists Wu Yingjiao and Liu Hu, who gained national recognition more than a decade ago for uncovering graft among high-profile figures, were detained on Sunday in the province of Sichuan.

“We call on the international community to intensify pressure on the Chinese regime, rather than pursue a normalization of relations that only enables further repression,” said RSF’s advocacy manager for the Asia-Pacific region, Aleksandra Bielakowska.

Such repression allowed authorities to continue targeting reliable reporters, Ms. Bielakowska said.

The detention of the two journalists highlighted a “restrictive and hostile” environment for independent reporting in China, she said in a statement.

At a regular news briefing, the Chinese foreign ministry stressed that the country was governed by the rule of law, and its judicial organs handled cases in accordance with the law.

“All are equal before the law,” spokesperson Lin Jian said to reporters when asked to comment on the case.

REPORT PUBLISHED, THEN DELETED FROM WECHAT
In a statement on Monday, police in the provincial capital of Chengdu said they were investigating a 50-year-old man surnamed Liu and a 34-year-old surnamed Wu as well as others, on suspicion of “making false accusations” and “illegal business operations”.

The men were placed under “criminal coercive measures”, the statement added, using a legal term that typically refers to detention.

Several Chinese media and RSF identified the two detained reporters as Liu Hu and Wu Yingjiao.

Police in Chengdu did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The arrests followed the January 29 publication of a joint investigative report on social media platform WeChat that examined alleged corruption involving Pu Fayou, the Communist Party secretary of the Sichuan county of Pujiang.

Mr. Pu could not be immediately reached for comment.

The report has since been deleted from WeChat, a common step by censors in cases involving sensitive government exposes.

Mr. Liu is a former investigative reporter of the New Express newspaper, based in the southern city of Guangzhou.

He was detained by Beijing police in 2013 on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” for allegedly “fabricating and spreading rumors”, but released on bail after 364 days in detention, RSF said.

REACH OF CHINESE CENSORSHIP
Leaders of democratic nations such as Canada, South Korea, and Britain have visited Beijing this year, seeking better ties amid trade and security tensions with the United States.

While human rights issues figured in some of the talks, they were not a prominent feature.

China ranked 178 of 180 countries in the 2025 press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders, which identifies the country as the world’s largest jailer of journalists.

In its 2026 world report released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch flagged the global impact of China’s censorship, going beyond curbs on domestic media to apply pressure in foreign countries.

It said leaked documents showed a major Chinese company had exported some domestic internet censorship and surveillance technologies to countries such as Pakistan and Myanmar.

“The Chinese government controls all major channels of information and implements one of the world’s most stringent surveillance and censorship regimes,” HRW said.

The legal system, controlled by the ruling Communist Party, encompassed punishment for critics and measures such as forcible disappearance or jail, it added.

In response, China’s foreign ministry said the New York-based organization has no credibility as it has always been prejudiced against China. — Reuters

WASHINGTON/DUBAI — The US and Iran have agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remained at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss only its nuclear program.

The delicate diplomatic effort comes amid heightened tensions as the US builds up forces in the Middle East and regional players seek to avoid a military confrontation that many fear could escalate into a wider war.

Differences in recent days over the scope and venue for the talks have raised doubts whether the meeting would take place, leaving open the possibility that US President Donald Trump could carry out his threat to strike Iran.

Asked on Wednesday whether Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should be worried, Mr. Trump told NBC News: “I would say he should be very worried. Yeah, he should be.” He added that “they’re negotiating with us” but did not elaborate.

After Mr. Trump spoke, US and Iranian officials said the two sides had agreed to shift the talks’ location to Muscat after initially accepting Istanbul.

But there was no indication they had found common ground on the agenda.

Iran has pushed to restrict the negotiations to discussing its long-running nuclear dispute with Western countries.

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented a different view on Wednesday. “If the Iranians want to meet, we’re ready,” Mr. Rubio told reporters. But he added that talks would have to include the range of Iran’s ballistic missiles, its support for armed proxy groups around the Middle East and its treatment of its own people, besides nuclear issues.

A senior Iranian official said, however, that Iran’s missile program was “off the table.” A second senior Iranian official said Tehran would welcome negotiations over the nuclear dispute but that US insistence on dealing with non-nuclear issues could jeopardize the talks.

Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was due to take part in the talks, along with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, officials said.

CHANGE OF VENUE
While the talks were originally slated for Turkey, Iran wanted the meeting to take place in Oman as a continuation of previous talks held in the Gulf Arab country that had focused strictly on Tehran’s nuclear program, a regional official said.

Iran says its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, not military purposes, while the US and Israel have accused it of past efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

A Gulf official said the talks could be mediated by several countries, though Iran has indicated that it wants a two-way format limited to Washington and Tehran.

The diplomatic efforts follow Mr. Trump’s threats of military action against Iran during its bloody crackdown on protesters last month and the deployment of more naval power to the Gulf.

The US has sent thousands of troops to the Middle East since Mr. Trump threatened Iran last month – including an aircraft carrier, other warships, fighter jets, spy planes, and air refueling tankers.

After Israel and the United States bombed the Islamic Republic last summer, renewed friction has kindled fears among regional states of a major conflagration that could rebound on them or cause long-term chaos in Iran.

Mr. Trump has continued to weigh the option of strikes on Iran, sources say. Oil prices have risen on the tension.

NUCLEAR DISPUTE
Mr. Trump has warned that “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached, ratcheting up pressure on the Islamic Republic in a standoff that has led to mutual threats of airstrikes.

Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried a US strike could break its grip on power by driving an already enraged public back onto the streets, according to six current and former Iranian officials.

Mr. Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during last month’s crackdown, has since demanded nuclear concessions from Iran, sending a flotilla to its coast.

Iran also hopes for an agreement that could help lift Western sanctions over its nuclear program that have ravaged its economy – a major driver of last month’s unrest.

BALLISTIC MISSILE STOCKPILE
Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Mr. Trump had demanded three conditions for the resumption of talks: zero enrichment of uranium in Iran, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program, and an end to its support for regional proxies.

Iran has long said all three demands are unacceptable infringements of its sovereignty, but two Iranian officials told Reuters its clerical rulers saw the ballistic missile program, rather than uranium enrichment, as the bigger obstacle.

An Iranian official said there should not be preconditions for talks and that Iran was ready to show flexibility on uranium enrichment, which it says is for peaceful, not military purposes.

Since the US strikes in June, Tehran has said its uranium enrichment work has stopped.

In June, the United States struck Iranian nuclear targets, joining in at the close of a 12-day Israeli bombing campaign and Iran struck back at Israel with missiles and drones.

Iran said it replenished its missile stockpile after the war with Israel last year, warning it would unleash its missiles if its security is under threat.

Adding to tensions, on Tuesday the US military shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, the US military said, in an incident first reported by Reuters.

In another incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the US Central Command said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had approached a US-flagged tanker at speed and threatened to board and seize it. — Reuters