SOUTH KOREA
Fighter jets scrambled
Seoul yesterday scrambled fighter jets when two Chinese and four Russian military planes entered its air defense identification zone, the military said. The aircraft entered the Korea Air Defense Identification Zone off its east coast between 11:53am and 12:10pm and then left the area, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The planes did not violate South Korea’s territorial airspace, the military said.
JAPAN
New jet pact announced
The defense ministers of Japan, Britain and Italy yesterday signed an agreement to establish a joint organization to develop a new advanced jet fighter. The three countries last year agreed to merge earlier individual plans — for Japan’s Mitsubishi F-X to succeed the retiring F-2s developed with the US and Britain’s Tempest — to produce the new combat aircraft for deployment in 2035. Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara at a joint news conference with his British and Italian counterparts, Grant Shapps and Guido Crosett, said that codeveloping a high-performance fighter aircraft is “indispensable to securing air superiority and enabling effective deterrence.”
CHINA
Auto-driving tests approved
BMW Group has received a test license for level 3 (L3) autonomous driving on high-speed roads in Shanghai, the German automaker said yesterday, a move closer to allowing driverless vehiclesin the world’s largest auto market. BMW will launch products equipped with L3 self-driving functionality when they can do so in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, it said in a statement. The new license would expand areas for BMW to carry out tests of advanced autonomous driving technologies in Shanghai.
VENEZUELA
Crash kills at least 16
At least 16 people died and six more were seriously injured after a fiery 17-vehicle pile-up on a highway, the country’s fire chief, Juan Gonzalez, told reporters on Wednesday. “So far there are 16,” Gonzalez said when asked about the death toll in the crash earlier in the day on the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho highway, which connects the capital, Caracas, with the east of the country. Carlos Perez Ampueda, deputy minister for risk management and civil protection, had earlier reported eight fatalities in the incident, but warned that the number would “increase significantly.” Perez Ampueda said that 17 vehicles were in the pile-up, which occurred when a speeding truck crashed into several cars. Images of huge flames at the scene of the crash were shared widely on social media on Wednesday morning. “We have control of all the vehicles that were on fire,” including a bus that was completely burnt, Perez Ampueda said.
AUSTRALIA
Doughnut truck stolen
A woman yesterday was charged with stealing a parked truck stuffed with 10,000 Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Police said the unmarked delivery truck had stopped for fuel on the outskirts of Sydney when a 28-year-old woman allegedly hopped inside and made off with the freshly baked booty. Detectives followed a trail of crumbs to a suburban carpark, where they found the abandoned vehicle more than a week later. The woman was arrested yesterday and police said that her just desserts was to be charged with taking a truck without its owner’s consent. Police said the doughnuts were “destroyed.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
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