International from Wednesday, January 28th, 2026

Keir Starmer began the first visit to China by a British prime minister since 2018 on Wednesday, seeking to strengthen political and business ties with Beijing as relations between Western countries and the US become more volatile.

A South Korean court sentenced former first lady Kim Keon Hee to 20 months in jail on Wednesday for accepting Chanel bags and a diamond pendant from Unification Church officials in return for providing political favours.

India is monitoring Nipah virus infections, with two reported from its eastern state of West Bengal since December, the health ministry said, as some Southeast Asia nations step up scrutiny of air travellers.

Deputy Chief Minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra, Ajit Pawar, has died in a plane crash on Wednesday while heading to the city of Baramati to attend public meetings ahead of local body elections next month. He was 66.

Search operations for the 32 people still missing after a landslide in Indonesia's West Java were hampered by rain on Wednesday morning, the country's disaster mitigation agency said, as it raised the death toll to 34.

At least 38 people across 14 states had died as of Tuesday from a powerful winter storm that left much of the central and eastern US gripped by snow, ice, and below-freezing temperatures, according to local officials and news reports.