PHILIPPINES
Soldier, rebels die in clash
Six guerrillas and a soldier were killed in a clash yesterday, officials said, as the government prepared to restart peace talks to end one of the world’s longest-running Maoist insurgencies. Government troops exchanged fire with New People’s Army guerrillas near the town of Balayan, about 68km south of the capital, Manila, an army statement said. The clash came three weeks after the government and the rebels agreed to resume negotiations aimed at ending the near 55-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
UKRAINE
Drone attack repelled
The government yesterday said that it had repelled two Russian missile and 20 drone attacks overnight, as Moscow reported downing 33 drones fired from Ukraine. “The Russian occupying forces attacked with the Iskander-K cruise missile, the Kh-59 guided air missile ... as well as 20 Shahed-type strike drones,” the air force said in a statement. The military shot down the drones and the Kh-59 missile, while the “Iskander-K cruise missile did not reach its goal,” the air force said, adding that the missiles were launched from Crimea and the occupied Kherson region.
UNITED KINGDOM
Grid removes China tech
The National Grid has started removing components supplied by a unit of China-backed Nari Technology from the electricity transmission network over cybersecurity fears, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The decision came in April after the utility sought advice from the National Cyber Security Centre, the newspaper quoted a Whitehall official as saying. An employee at the Nari subsidiary, NR Electric UK, said the company no longer had access to sites where the components were installed and that National Grid did not disclose a reason for terminating the contracts, the Financial Times said. It quoted another person it did not name as saying the decision was based on NR Electric UK components that help control and balance the grid and minimize the risk of blackouts.
UNITED STATES
Wine fraudster faces charges
A British man accused of allegedly defrauding investors of nearly US$100 million through a Ponzi-like scheme involving nonexistent luxury wines pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Saturday. Stephen Burton, 58, was extradited to New York from Morocco on Friday to face the charges, following his arrest last year, after entering that country using a fake Zimbabwean passport, authorities said. Federal prosecutors said that Burton, along with a codefendant, ran Bordeaux Cellars, a company they said brokered loans between investors and high-net-worth wine collectors.
AUSTRALIA
Original AC/DC drummer dies
Australian drummer Colin Burgess, an original member of the hard rock band AC/DC in the early 1970s, has died, the band confirmed on its social media accounts. He was 77. “Very sad to hear of the passing of Colin Burgess,” said an unsigned post on the band’s official Facebook page late Friday. “He was our first drummer and a very respected musician. Happy memories, rock in peace Colin.” No cause of death was given. Burgess was recruited in November 1973 to help form AC/DC with Malcolm Young on rhythm guitar and his brother Angus on lead guitar, lead vocalist Dave Evans and bassist Larry Van Kriedt. The band fired Burgess in February 1974, accusing him of being drunk on stage. He later said someone had spiked his drink.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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