MEXICO
Storm gains strength
Hurricane Norma on Thursday strengthened to a Category 4 storm as it headed toward Mexico’s Pacific coast with maximum sustained winds exceeding 209kph, the US National Hurricane Center said. “Norma is a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale,” said the center, which grades such storms up to a maximum Category 5. “Small intensity fluctuations are possible today [Thursday], followed by gradual weakening beginning Friday [yesterday] and continuing into the weekend,” the center said in a statement. Norma was moving northward at about 11kph, and was expected to approach the Baja California peninsula last night and today, with tropical storm conditions possible by early today.
AUSTRALIA
Opera House marks birthday
Sydney Opera House yesterday celebrated its 50th birthday, with a laser show planned to illuminate the iconic building. Officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on Oct. 20, 1973, the Opera House is widely regarded as one of the greatest architectural designs of the 20th century, with 10.9 million people visiting every year. The building was to be illuminated last night by a light show created by Australian audio-visual artist Robin Fox, before welcoming an expected 37,000 people today for free tours, its first open day in eight years. “A symbol around the world and a national treasure turns 50,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a post on X. “Happy Birthday to an Australian icon.” As part of the 1956 Opera House international design competition, 233 designs were submitted by architects from around the world, with Jorn Utzon from Denmark chosen as the winner. Construction began in 1959, with the project meant to take four years to complete, but after Utzon resigned due to a change in government, design differences and a blow-out in costs, the structure took 14 years to complete. The Sydney Opera House was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2007.
UNITED STATES
X to launch subscriptions
X would soon launch two new tiers of premium subscriptions, CEO Elon Musk wrote early yesterday on the social media platform. “One is lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive, but has no ads,” Musk wrote. Musk did not provide more detail on the subscription plans. Earlier this week, the company started charging new users US$1 in New Zealand and the Philippines as a test case for accessing the platform. New users who opted out of subscribing would only be able to take “read only” actions, such as: read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts, the company said on its Web site.
EUROPEAN UNION
EU demands report
The EU on Thursday demanded that Meta and TikTok detail their efforts to curb illegal content and disinformation during the Israel-Hamas war, flexing the power of a new law that threatens billions in fines, if tech giants fail to do enough to protect users. The European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch, formally requested that the social media companies provide information on how they’re complying with pioneering digital rules aimed at cleaning up online platforms. The commission asked Meta and TikTok to explain the measures they have taken to reduce the risk of spreading and amplifying terrorist and violent content, hate speech and disinformation.
‘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
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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
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