NORTH KOREA
Spy satellite ‘alive’: expert
Pyongyang’s first spy satellite is “alive,” a Netherlands-based space expert said on Tuesday, after detecting changes in its orbit that suggest it is successfully controlling the spacecraft — although its capabilities are still unknown. Pyongyang’s state media claimed the satellite, launched in November last year, has photographed sensitive military and political sites in South Korea, the US and elsewhere, but has not released any imagery. Independent radio trackers have not detected signals from the satellite, but from Monday to Saturday last week, the satellite conducted maneuvers to raise its perigee, or the lowest point in its orbit, Marco Langbroek, a satellite expert at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, wrote in a blog post, citing data from the US–led Combined Space Operations Center. “The maneuver proves that Malligyong-1 is not dead,” he said.
AUSTRALIA
Coral bleaching confirmed
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is preparing to carry out aerial surveys across the entire length of the park after helicopter flights confirmed extensive coral bleaching across the southern section of the world’s biggest coral reef. Bleaching had been reported in all regions of the reef from Lizard Island in the north to the Keppel islands in the south — a distance of more than 1,100km. Conservationists fear a seventh mass bleaching event could be unfolding on the reef. The authority yesterday said that helicopter flights had covered 27 inshore reefs and 21 offshore reefs in the southern region off the Queensland coast and found bleaching was “extensive and fairly uniform” at all surveyed spots.
CHINA
Ex-foreign minister resigns
Former minister of foreign affairs Qin Gang (秦剛), who was abruptly removed from office last year and has not been seen in public since, has resigned as a lawmaker, state media reported. Qin’s resignation as a representative for the port city of Tianjin to the 14th National People’s Congress was accepted on Tuesday, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The former foreign minister was removed after just 207 days in the job in July last year without explanation. He was then removed from the State Council in October. Seven months on, Beijing has still not offered any explanation for Qin’s dismissal, nor why he has not been seen in public since then.
UNITED STATES
Two guilty in Run-DMC killing
The godson and a childhood friend of Jam Master Jay were on Tuesday found guilty by a jury for the 2002 murder of the Run-DMC rap pioneer, who was fatally shot at his New York recording studio in one of the most infamous killings in rap history. Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr, 40, were convicted of federal charges of murder while engaged in drug trafficking in the shooting of Run-DMC founding member Jason Mizell, the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn wrote on X. The verdict came after a month-long trial at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where prosecutors called witnesses who were in the studio the night Mizell, 37, was shot dead. “It is no mystery why it took years to indict and arrest the defendants,” US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace told reporters outside the courthouse after the verdict. “The witnesses in the recording studio knew the killers, and they were terrified that they would be retaliated against if they cooperated with law enforcement and identified the ruthless executioners of Mr Mizell,” he said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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