SOUTH KOREA
S Korea, US to launch drill
South Korea, the US and Japan were set to conduct a joint air military exercise near the Korean Peninsula yesterday, weeks after the three countries carried out their first three-nation naval interdiction drills in seven years. Yesterday’s drill was to include a formation flight in which the nations’ fighter planes escort a US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing unidentified US and South Korean military sources. While there have been cases of US-Korea and Japan-Korea joint drills, this would be the first time the three countries came together to conduct an aerial exercise, the report said.
UKRAINE
Russian strikes kills six
Russian missile strikes on Saturday killed at least six postal workers and wounded 16, when they hit a mail depot in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast, officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy shared a video on social media of what appeared to be a heavily damaged warehouse surrounded by rubble and a container with the logo of Ukrainian postal operator, Nova Poshta. “All six dead and 14 injured as a result of the occupiers’ attack were employees of the company who were inside the Nova Poshta terminal,” Kharkiv Governor Oleg Sinegubov said. “The victims, aged between 19 and 42, received shrapnel wounds and blast injuries.” The Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed the death toll, but updated the number of injured to 16. Sergiy Nozhka, who works for Nova Poshta, said that a rocket “flew into the neighboring depot, but at ours too — the windows and shutters flew out. This is not the first time.”
UNITED STATES
Venezuelans top crossings
Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the border, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record, according to figures released on Saturday, which also showed that last month was the second-highest month for arrests of all nationalities. Venezuelans were arrested 54,833 times by the Border Patrol after entering from Mexico last month, more than double from 22,090 arrests in August and well above the previous monthly high of 33,749 arrests in September last year. Arrests of all nationalities entering from Mexico totaled 218,763 last month, up 21 percent from 181,084 in August and approaching an all-time high of 222,018 in December last year, US Customs and Border Protection data showed. Arrests for the government’s budget year that ended Sept. 30 topped 2 million for the second year in a row, down 7 percent from an all-time high of more than 2.2 million arrests in the same period a year earlier.
UNITED STATES
Apple drops show over China
US comedian Jon Stewart’s talk show on Apple TV+ has reportedly been canceled after just two series due to clashes between its host and the company over topics such as China and artificial intelligence (AI). Stewart told staff that executives from Apple — which has vast commercial interests in China and AI — had expressed concern over proposed new content for The Problem with Jon Stewart, the New York Times said. Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise visit to China this month, and he has previously spoken of his company’s “symbiotic” relationship with the nation. In an earnings call in August, Cook said that Apple views AI and machine learning as “core fundamental technologies that are integral to virtually every product that we build.”
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
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
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
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
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