SOUTH KOREA
Ties established with Cuba
South Korea has established formal diplomatic relations with Cuba, a country whose steadfast loyalty to North Korea had for decades apparently kept it from forging ties with Seoul. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the two countries’ representatives to the UN exchanged diplomatic notes in New York on Wednesday to establish ambassador-level relations. Cuba became the 193rd country to establish official ties with South Korea, it said. Havana had been one of the few global outliers when it came to forging ties with South Korea, setting itself apart from North Korea’s two biggest backers — the Soviet Union and China, which established formal relations more than 30 years ago as the Cold War ended and they looked to South Korea as a powerful partner for trade. The announcement had been kept secret to prevent any interruption by North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported, citing sources it did not name.
EGYPT
Al-Sisi meets Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made his first visit to Egypt in more than a decade, as the two Middle Eastern powers looked past years of acrimony and pledged to work together on economic and security issues. Erdogan met his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday for talks they said focused on the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of more humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinian territory. They also discussed greater cooperation in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean and war-torn Libya. The visit means “together we can open a new page between our countries” and set relations “on their right track,” al-Sisi said in televised comments, flanked by Erdogan. The two signed a joint declaration to formally resume cooperation in fields ranging from diplomacy to banking, energy, tourism and defense. Egypt and Turkey had been at odds for much of the past decade, following the 2013 military-backed overthrow of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist favored by Ankara.
AUSTRALIA
PM announces engagement
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday revealed his Valentine’s Day engagement to girlfriend Jodie Haydon, after “she said yes” to a carefully planned marriage proposal. The words “Canberra” and “romance” are rarely twinned, but yesterday the centre-left leader one-upped Valentines across Australia, with a morning message that the pair had agreed to wed. “It is such a joy to be able to share this news with people,” a beaming and slightly bashful Albanese said, after walking hand-in-hand with Haydon from the prime minister’s official residence. “It’s wonderful that I’ve found a partner who I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
RUSSIA
Gummies prompt arrest
A Moscow court on Wednesday remanded a German citizen into custody after his arrest over possession of cannabis gummies and accusations of smuggling drugs, Russian state news agency TASS said. Patrick Schobel, 38, was detained at Pulkovo Airport in St Petersburg late last month and is to remain in custody until at least March 15, Tass said. The Federal Customs Service said the German national arrived in the country to visit a friend, and when searched, a packet of “Fink Green Goldbears” with six cannabis gummies inside was found on him. Both Tass and the customs service said Schobel faces up to seven years in prison for smuggling drugs.
‘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
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,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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