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.”
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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