INDIA
Key space tests launched
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) yesterday carried out the first of a series of key test flights after overcoming a technical glitch ahead of its planned mission to take astronauts into space by 2025, the space agency said. The test involved launching a module to outer space and bringing it back to Earth to test the spacecraft’s crew escape system, ISRO chairman Sreedhara Somanath said. The launch was delayed by 45 minutes in the morning because of weather conditions. The attempt was again deferred by more than an hour because of an issue with the engine, and the ground computer put the module’s liftoff on hold, said Somanath.
CHINA
Ad executive arrested
An executive and two former employees of WPP, one of the world’s biggest advertising companies, have been arrested, two people familiar with the situation said. The arrests involved WPP’s GroupM media trading division and included a raid on offices in Shanghai, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly. WPP declined to comment, and the Chinese embassy in London did not respond to a request for comment.
RUSSIA
Court detains US journalist
A court on Friday ordered Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to be detained for three more days, after prosecutors said she had failed to register as a “foreign agent.” Kurmasheva was working for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty when she was detained by law enforcement officers in Kazan on Wednesday. She faces up to five years in jail if found guilty of the charges. She is the second US journalist to be detained by Russia, after Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March for “spying.”
CHINA
Tsingtao probes pee video
Tsingtao Brewery, one of the country’s biggest beer makers, said it has opened an investigation after a video appearing to show a factory employee urinating on raw ingredients went viral this week. The clip, published online on Thursday, purportedly shows a male worker at a Tsingtao warehouse clambering into a high-walled container and relieving himself onto its contents. The footage circulated widely on Chinese social media, racking up tens of millions of views on the popular Sina Weibo platform. Tsingtao on Friday said that it had contacted the police over the incident and an investigation was ongoing. Some Web users were not about to pass up the chance to make a wry quip about the country’s famously light and fizzy mass-market brews. “I’ve always said the beer here is like horse pee. Turns out I was wrong,” one of them commented. “Thanks, I think I’ll have wine instead,” quipped another.
UNITED STATES
Republicans drop Jordan
Republicans on Friday abruptly dropped Representative Jim Jordan as their nominee for House speaker, after the ally of former US president Donald Trump failed badly on a third ballot for the gavel. The outcome meant another week without a House speaker, bordering on a full-blown crisis. House Republicans have no realistic or working plan to unite the fractured party, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since Representative Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker at the start of the month. “We’re in a very bad place right now,” McCarthy said.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
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