CHINA
New missile type tested
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had carried out a ground-based mid-course missile interception test in an apparent sign of progress in its ability to bring down weapons incoming from space. The test was carried out late Friday night within Chinese territory and achieved “the desired test objective,” it said, adding that the test was “defensive in nature and not targeted against any country.” Such systems, which consist of ground-based interceptor missiles and a huge array of radars and control systems, aim to bring down missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads, while they are flying far from their target.
NEPAL
Everest deaths confirmed
Rescuers have called off the search for three local climbers missing on Mount Everest, officials said yesterday, acknowledging the first fatalities on the world’s highest mountain this climbing season. The trio were crossing the Khumbu Icefall on Wednesday as part of a supply mission when a block of ice fell and swept them into a crevasse. “After several search-and-rescue attempts, the operation has been called off. They are buried too deep and it does not seem possible to retrieve the bodies,” Department of Tourism spokesman Bigyan Koirala said. The Khumbu Icefall is an ever-shifting expanse of glacial ice that requires climbers to navigate crevasses over rickety ladders on the route to Everest’s 8,849m peak.
GERMANY
Last nuclear plants go offline
Authorities were yesterday to switch off the last three nuclear reactors, as the country is exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels. While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Europe’s largest economy has been looking to leave behind nuclear power since 2002, but the phase-out was accelerated by former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.
FRANCE
Pension bill becomes law
President Emmanuel Macron yesterday signed a controversial pension reform into law, defying three months of protests and pleas from unions not to implement it. The bill became law after the text was published overnight in the government’s official journal. This followed Friday’s approval by the Constitutional Council of the essence of the legislation, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64. Unions said they were calling for mass Labor Day protests on May 1, and sometimes violent demonstrations erupted in several cities overnight. Macron has faced widespread popular opposition to the changes, as well as sliding personal popularity.
NICARAGUA
Chinese official arrives
Chinese International Development Cooperation Agency Director Luo Zhaohui (羅照輝) arrived in Managua on Friday to launch a subsidized housing project, Vice President Rosario Murillo said. Murillo did not give details of what would be built, but China in April last year committed US$60 million to finance subsidized housing. “Comrade Luo Zhaohui ... is visiting us and will be here to inaugurate on Sunday ... the National Program of New Victories Housing, which we are implementing with the support of the [Chinese] government and people,” said Murillo, wife of President Daniel Ortega. Managua and Beijing established diplomatic ties in 2021 after the Ortega administration severed ties with Taiwan.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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