NORTH KOREA
Pyongyang denounces UN
Pyongyang yesterday denounced the UN Security Council for discussing its recent satellite launch in response to a “gangster-like US request,” and it vowed to reject sanctions and take action to defend itself. The US called for a security meeting last week to discuss North Korea’s attempt to put its first spy satellite in orbit, which ended in failure with the booster and payload plunging into the sea. Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a powerful ruling party official, said that in accepting Washington’s “gangster-like request” and ignoring North Korea’s right to space development, the security council was showing it was a US “political appendage.”
GERMANY
Pilots in China a risk: Berlin
The government on Saturday asked China to stop recruiting former Luftwaffe pilots to train its air force, fearing they could reveal NATO secrets. “I raised the question of Germany air force pilots who have apparently been recruited to train [Chinese] pilots,” German Ministry of Defense Boris Pistorius told reporters. He was speaking after meeting Chinese Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu (李尚福) on the margins of a defense and security conference in Singapore. “I indicated clearly that I expected this practice to cease immediately and told him he probably wouldn’t be very pleased either if I tried to do the same thing,” Pistorius added. Li “didn’t deny it, but downplayed its importance,” he was quoted as saying in a ministry readout of his comments to the press. German weekly Der Spiegel and public TV channel ZDF on Friday reported that several former air force pilots had been employed by China in the past few years to train its own pilots.
CHINA
Astronauts return to Earth
Three astronauts working in the country’s space station have returned safely to Earth, state media reported yesterday, hailing the mission as a “complete success.” The return capsule of the Shenzhou-15 spaceship touched down at a landing site in Inner Mongolia, Xinhua news agency said. Fei Junlong (費俊龍), Deng Qingming (鄧清明) and Zhang Lu (張陸) emerged from the capsule in “good physical condition,” Xinhua reported. The trio had spent six months at the Tiangong space station, conducting spacewalks and a variety of scientific experiments.
UNITED STATES
Judge rejects anti-drag law
Tennessee’s first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional, a federal judge said. The law is “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad” and encouraged “discriminatory enforcement,” said the ruling issued late on Friday by US District Judge Thomas Parker, who was appointed by former president Donald Trump. “There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law,” Parker said. “Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic or scientific speech,” he said. The law would have banned adult cabaret performances from public property or anywhere minors might be present. Performers who broke the law risked being charged with a misdemeanor or a felony for a repeat offense.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
CHEER ON: Students were greeted by citizens who honked their car horns or offered them food and drinks, while taxi drivers said they would give marchers a lift home Hundreds of students protesting graft they blame for 15 deaths in a building collapse on Friday marched through Serbia to the northern city of Novi Sad, where they plan to block three Danube River bridges this weekend. They received a hero’s welcome from fellow students and thousands of local residents in Novi Said after arriving on foot in their two-day, 80km journey from Belgrade. A small red carpet was placed on one of the bridges across the Danube that the students crossed as they entered the city. The bridge blockade planned for yesterday is to mark three months since a huge concrete construction
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