JAPAN
Drills simulate island attack
An Apache helicopter yesterday flew low over an uninhabited island in Okinawa in a simulated attack on invading forces, part of exercises under way to prepare the nation’s air, sea and land forces for a potential conflict in East Asia. The flight over Irisuna, about 70km from the main Okinawa island, was part of the country’s 11-day nationwide 05JX. The drills, which end on Monday, also include an air-defense exercise in the north and simulated attacks on five nuclear reactors. “The national security environment around Japan has become harsher, particularly with the growing military activities by China and Russia in the East China Sea, South China Sea and western Pacific,” Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade Commander Shingo Nashinoki said on Irisuna.
INDONESIA
ASEAN ministers meet
ASEAN defense ministers yesterday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during the opening of a two-day regional meeting in Jakarta. Opening the annual get-together, Indonesian Minister of Defense Prabowo Subianto said the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation was deeply saddened by the deteriorating conditions in Gaza. “Indonesia’s stance is clear and firm. We push and call for immediate cessation of hostilities and the immediate setting up of corridors for humanitarian assistance,” he said. In a joint declaration, the ministers also urged “all parties concerned” to cease all violence in Myanmar and underscored the need to maintain peace in the South China Sea.
NORTH KOREA
New missile engine tested
The nation has developed and successfully conducted ground tests of a “new type” of solid-fuel engine for its banned intermediate-range ballistic missiles, state media said yesterday. The announcement came as Pyongyang also said that a Russian delegation led by Russian Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov was visiting the capital to hold talks on cooperation in trade, economy, science and technology.
INDIA
Meds reach trapped men
Rescuers yesterday said they had sent medicine to 40 men trapped after the road tunnel they were building collapsed, as frantic efforts to free them entered a fourth day. Excavators have been removing debris since Sunday morning from the site in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand to create an escape tunnel for the workers, all of whom are still alive. “After consultation with doctors, medicine has been sent to the workers through pipes,” police officer Prashant Kumar said. “Contact is being maintained with the workers.” No details were given about the condition of the men or how many of them were sick. Food and oxygen had also been sent to the trapped workers, he said.
UNITED STATES
Funding bill passes
The House of Representatives on Tuesday overcame partisan animosity to pass a temporary government funding bill that greatly lowers the risk of a shutdown, even as it delays fights over Ukraine aid, border policies and deep cuts to federal programs. Democrats bailed out newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican whose plan drew opposition from hardliners in his party, because it does not cut government spending or change border policies. A total of 209 Democrats voted with 127 Republicans in support of the measure. The outcome is a reprieve for Johnson, who would have until next year to negotiate annual spending.
‘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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