CENTRAL AMERICA
Quake hits Gulf of Darien
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck in the Gulf of Darien near the border of Panama and Colombia late on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, with tremors felt in both countries. Nine minutes later, the USGS reported a magnitude 4.9 aftershock at the same location. In Panama, civil protection agency Sinaproc said there had been no immediate reports of damage and it was monitoring the situation. In the Colombian city of Medellin, local officials said no damage had been reported. The quakes struck at a depth of 10km, the USGS said.
UNITED STATES
Memorial marks shooting
An emotional President Joe Biden marked the first anniversary of the Uvalde, Texas, school massacre on Wednesday, saying that mass shootings have spread “killing fields” across the US. Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visibly struggled to hold back tears at the ceremony in the White House in front of 21 white candles representing the 19 children and two school staff killed at Robb Elementary School.
HONG KONG
Four arrested in bomb plot
Four Hong Kong students, including two minors, were yesterday sentenced over their roles in an anti-government plot to set off bombs in public spaces. A court sentenced the oldest of the four to more than five years in prison, and sent the other three to juvenile rehabilitation centers in a case handled under the National Security Law, which China imposed on the territory in 2020 to quell dissent. The four defendants, aged 17 to 21, were members of a group called “Returning Valiant,” which promoted independence from China and had called for resistance after the security law was imposed.
DENMARK
Abortion rules unveiled
The government plans to allow women aged 15 to 17 to get an abortion without consent from their parents, as the Nordic country marked the 50th anniversary of the right to choose. “Abortion can be associated with many emotions, guilt and shame,” Minister for Equality Marie Bjerre wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “It can be humiliating and have major consequences to have to ask for parental consent when you are under 18. We want to put an end to that.” Women living in Denmark have the right to an abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy and do not have to provide a justification.
VIETNAM
Noodle vendor jailed
A noodle vendor famous for imitating a celebrity chef to allegedly mock a top government official was yesterday sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, police said, after a court found him guilty of anti-state propaganda. The conviction is the latest in what rights groups say is the government’s wide-ranging attempt to silence voices critical of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party. A video of Bui Tuan Lam, 39, went viral in November 2021 when it was posted days after a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the London restaurant of Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, known as “Salt Bae.” Lam, who described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as “Green Onion Bae,” was convicted of “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the state,” the Da Nang Police Department said after a one-day trial.
‘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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