Philippines
Eyes on threat from China
The threat of China invading Taiwan is something Manila is monitoring on a daily basis as part of its contingency plans for possible conflict in the region, Secretary of Defense Gilbert Teodoro told reporters yesterday. “We really have to make an assessment whether such is likely or not,” he said. “Nonetheless, we continue to plan on all contingencies not merely any flashpoint between China and Taiwan, but any contingency within the theatre.” Without providing specifics, Teodoro said the contingency measures being discussed were “a multiagency effort and not only a defense effort.”
RUSSIA
Wagner, Belarus hold drills
Wagner mercenaries are to help train Belarusian special forces during exercises at a military range near the border with NATO member Poland, the Belarusian Ministry of Defense said yesterday. Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video on Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now, but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa. “The armed forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of the Wagner,” the Belarusian ministry said.
UNITED STATES
US seeks soldier’s return
The government is actively engaged in ensuring the return of Private Travis King, who had crossed into North Korea, US Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said at the opening of a trilateral meeting with Japan and South Korea on countering North Korean threats.
The government is working hard to ascertain information on the soldier’s wellbeing and engaged in “ensuring his safety and return,” Kim said. On Tuesday, King made an unauthorized crossing into North Korea, the same day a US nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine visited South Korea for the first time since the 1980s. North Korea test launched two ballistic missiles into the sea early on Wednesday.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Bomb in Nauru defused
An “armed and dangerous” World War II bomb was yesterday dug up and defused on the small Pacific island of Nauru, the nation’s police force said. Schools were closed and Nauru’s 12,000 residents were urged to stay at home as Australian military specialists worked on the 227kg explosive, which was first discovered almost two weeks ago. Nauru yesterday morning declared a state of emergency across the island, evacuating all houses within 2km of the bomb. Police later said the device had been “disarmed and moved to a safe location for disposal.”
GERMANY
Lioness on the loose: police
Police yestereday urged residents of Berlin’s southern suburbs to stay indoors, as they scoured the area for a wild animal on the loose, apparently a lioness. Police first issued the alarm in the early morning hours, after two people saw what appeared to be a lioness chasing a wild boar down a street. “Around midnight, we received a message hard to imagine. Two passersby who saw one animal chasing another,” Brandenburg police spokesman Daniel Keip told RBB radio. “One was a wild boar and the other apparently a wild animal, a lioness. The two men recorded a video on their phones and even experienced policemen had to concede that it was probably a lioness,” he said. No details were immediately available on where the feline could have come from.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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