THE NETHERLANDS
One killed in ship blaze
A fire on a freight ship carrying nearly 3,000 vehicles was burning out of control yesterday in the North Sea, and the coast guard said that one crew member had died, others were hurt and it was working to save the vessel from sinking. Boats and helicopters were used to get the 23 crew members off the ship after they tried unsuccessfully to put out the blaze, the coast guard said in a statement. Coast guard spokeswoman Lea Versteeg said in a telephone interview that “we’re currently working out to see how we can make sure that ... the least bad situation is going to happen.”
CHINA
Ex-party boss sentenced
The government has jailed the former Chinese Communist Party secretary of Hangzhou, home to Ant Group and Alibaba, for life after finding that he took about US$25 million in bribes over his career. Zhou Jiangyong(周江勇), 55, was given a suspended death sentence on Tuesday on corruption charges, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. A court in Chuzhou said that Zhou helped people and firms secure rights to use land and contracts for projects. He was earlier linked to Ant, although prosecutors did not name the fintech company or Alibaba. Last year, he became the first cadre to be ousted from the party over corruption charges relating to the “disorderly expansion of capital.”
UKRAINE
Ex-US marine injured in war
A former US marine who spent more than two years in a Russian prison for assault on law enforcement in 2019 was injured fighting for Ukraine, the US Department of State confirmed on Tuesday. Trevor Reed, who was released by Moscow in a prisoner swap in April last year, has been sent to Germany for the treatment of unspecified injuries, state department spokesman Vedant Patel said. He added that Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the US government,” but had traveled to Ukraine to join the fight on his own.
ECUADOR
Death toll from riots rises
The attorney general on Tuesday raised the death toll from a wave of violence over the weekend in one of the country’s most dangerous jails to 31, after the government earlier declared a 60-day state of emergency for the country’s prisons. The emergency declaration seemed to set off violence in the city of Esmeraldas, where 15 prison guards and two other staffers were being held hostage at a local jail, the government said in a statement. In Esmeraldas itself, a police unit was attacked, explosives were placed at gas stations and several vehicles were burned.
UNITED STATES
Florida water hits 37.8°C
The water temperature on the tip of Florida hit hot tub levels, exceeding 37.8°C two days in a row, and meteorologists say that could potentially be the hottest seawater ever measured. Although weather records for seawater temperature are unofficial, the initial reading on a buoy at Manatee Bay was 38.4°C on Monday evening, National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto said. On Sunday night the buoy showed a reading of 37.9°C. “This is a hot tub. I like my hot tub around 100[°F], 101[°F; 37.8°C, 38.3°C]. That’s what was recorded yesterday,” Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters said. Hot tub maker Jacuzzi recommends water between 37.8°C and 38.9°C.
‘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
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
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,
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
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