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.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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