NORTH KOREA
Missile test confirmed
The government yesterday confirmed that it test fired a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, a possible breakthrough in its efforts to acquire a more powerful, harder-to-detect weapon targeting the continental US. The official Korean Central News Agency issued the report a day after the country’s neighbors detected a launch of a long-range missile near Pyongyang. The country has test fired more than 100 missiles into the sea since the beginning of last year. Thursday’s test did not appear to demonstrate the weapon’s full capacity, and it remains unclear how far the country has come in mastering technologies to ensure the warhead would withstand atmospheric re-entry and accurately strike targets.
UNITED KINGDOM
Fighter jet budget allocated
The government yesterday said it had allocated more than US$800 million for the next phase of its fighter jet program with Japan and Italy. The three states in December last year agreed to join forces on the program to develop a next-generation fighter jet, Japan’s first major industrial defense collaboration beyond the US since World War II. “The next tranche of funding for future combat air will help fuse the combined technologies and expertise we have with our international partners — both in Europe and the Pacific — to deliver this world-leading fighter jet by 2035,” Minister of Defence Ben Wallace said.
HUNGARY
Migrants saved from truck
Police on Thursday found 17 migrants crammed into a closed space with no proper ventilation when they stopped a truck with Turkish license plates near the southern border. The migrants — 16 from Egypt and one from Libya — needed immediate medical care, police said, adding that only quick action following a tip-off from Romanian authorities had saved their lives. Police said they stopped the truck near the village of Kistelek and detained one human trafficking suspect, a Turkish national.
UNITED STATES
Abortion curb appeal planned
The Department of Justice on Thursday said it would go to the Supreme Court to appeal restrictions imposed on a widely used abortion pill in the latest round of a fierce battle over reproductive rights. The decision by President Joe Biden’s administration came hours after an appeals court rejected moves to ban mifepristone outright, but imposed a series of measures restricting access to the pill. As the justice department prepared an emergency filing with the Supreme Court, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a bill banning most abortions in the state after six weeks. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the bill passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature was “extreme and dangerous,” and “flies in the face of fundamental freedoms.”
UNITED STATES
Large haul of dimes stolen
Thieves in Philadelphia might not have been counting on finding a mountain of change when they broke into a truck filled with US$750,000 in US$0.10 coins, but they still made off with a chunk of the cargo and left coins scattered around a parking lot, authorities said. They apparently fled with at least US$100,000, authorities said, adding that it is not known how they carted off the mounds of dimes. The theft was reported at about 6am on Thursday. The tractor-trailer driver had picked up the dimes from the Philadelphia Mint on Wednesday, authorities said, adding that he was planning to transport them to Florida on Thursday.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
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