JAPAN
Spy satellite launched
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd yesterday launched a rocket carrying a government intelligence-gathering satellite on a mission to watch movements at military sites in North Korea and improve responses to natural disasters. The H2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center carrying the optical satellite as part of Tokyo’s reconnaissance effort to rapidly buildup its military capability. The satellite can capture images even in severe weather. Japan began the intelligence-gathering satellite program after a North Korean missile flew over Japan in 1988 and it aims to set up a network of 10 satellites to spot and provide early warning for possible missile launches. Yesterday’s liftoff was closely watched ahead of a planned launch of a new flagship H3 rocket developed by Mitsubishi Heavy and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency as the successor to the H2A. The first test flight of the new rocket failed last year. The Mitsubishi Heavy-operated, liquid-fuel H2A rocket with two solid-fuel sub-rockets has 41 consecutive successes since a failure in 2003, or a 98 percent success rate.
Photo: Kyodo / Reuters
CHINA
New climate envoy named
Beijing has named former minister of foreign affairs Liu Zhenmin (劉振民) as its new special envoy for climate change, after his predecessor, Xie Zhenhua (解振華) stepped down due to health reasons, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement yesterday. Xie, 74, served as China’s top climate representative at 16 rounds of climate talks. His resignation was announced following a video meeting with US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and comes only weeks after he helped secure an agreement to tackle emissions from fossil fuels at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Liu, 68, acted as Xie’s special adviser in Dubai and has experience in climate diplomacy, participating in negotiations to draw up the 1997 Kyoto Protocol as well as the 2015 Paris Agreement. Unlike Xie, Liu is a fluent English speaker. He served as under-secretary-general at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs from 2017 to 2022, with a broad brief that included climate issues.
UNITED STATES
Mississippi water tainted
Mississippi health officials on Thursday told residents in Jackson to boil their tap water after traces of Escherichia coli were found in the state’s capital’s supply — a result the manager of Jackson’s long-troubled water system disputed while calling it a devastating setback for rebuilding public trust. The boil-water notice, which officials also imposed in the Jackson suburb of Flowood, was issued just days before the expected arrival of a blast of cold weather that could further disrupt the local water infrastructure. The bacteria’s presence indicates that the water might be contaminated with human or animal waste, the Mississippi Department of Health said. Residents of the two Mississippi cities were advised to boil their water for one minute before using it. The precaution was to last for at least two days as officials collected new samples for testing. Ted Henifin, Jackson’s interim water manager, told a news conference that state officials refused to validate the lab results before issuing the boil-water notice and suggested there might have been false positive tests. He also said it was unlikely that samples from Jackson and Flowood would be contaminated at the same time, as the cities’ water systems are not connected.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
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