SOUTH KOREA
Police raid aerospace office
Police yesterday raided the head office of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in connection with two Indonesian nationals accused of leaking technology related to a fighter jet project, a police official said. The two engineers are accused of breaching the Defense Acquisition Program Act and leaking technology related to the KF-21, a homegrown fighter jet that is partially backed by Indonesia. The raid started on Thursday and was continuing for a second day, an official at the security investigation bureau of Gyeongnam Provincial Police said. A KAI spokesperson said the company was “actively cooperating” to ensure it could provide anything necessary for the police investigation to establish the truth. The KF-21, developed by KAI, is designed to be a cheaper, less stealthy alternative to the US-built F-35, on which Seoul relies. An Indonesian foreign ministry spokesperson last month told reporters that Jakarta was gathering evidence about the allegations.
EL SALVADOR
Bitcoin savings hit US$406m
President Nayib Bukele on Thursday said that his country has stored more than US$400 million in bitcoin in an offline “cold wallet” as the cryptocurrency forges new record highs. “We’ve decided to transfer a big chunk of our bitcoin to a cold wallet, and store that cold wallet in a physical vault within our national territory,” Bukele wrote on X. “You can call it our first bitcoin piggy bank,” he added. The cold wallet protects cryptocurrency investments by keeping them offline to prevent hacking attacks. Bukele shared a screenshot of the investment showing a total of 5,689.7 bitcoin, with a valuation of US$406.6 million. The nation was the first in the world to legally circulate bitcoin as legal tender on par with the US dollar in September 2021. “It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” Bukele said about the cold wallet initiative.
CHINA
US envoy mocks criticism
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns yesterday said that Beijing’s position on a potential TikTok ban in the US was “supremely ironic” given the Chinese Communist Party’s censorship of online platforms within its borders. The US House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force the short-video app to break with its Chinese parent company or face a nationwide ban. Beijing called the move Washington’s “bandit” mentality and accused US lawmakers of “unjustly suppressing foreign companies.” During an online seminar by the US-based East-West Center, Burns said Chinese officials “won’t even let TikTok be available to 1.4 billion Chinese.” Many Western platforms, including Google, Facebook and Instagram, are blocked from operating in the country.
SOUTH KOREA
Actor guilty of sex crime
South Korean actor O Yeong-su, who starred in the first season of the hit Netflix series Squid Game, was yesterday convicted on charges of sexual harassment and handed a suspended prison sentence, a court official said. The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court sentenced O to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, as well as 40 hours of attendance at a sexual violence treatment program, the court official said by telephone. The 79-year-old actor, who was charged with two counts of sexual harassment in 2017, had denied the accusations. O told reporters he planned to appeal against the decision. He has seven days to appeal or the ruling will be upheld.
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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