SOUTH KOREA
Yoon casts early vote
President Yoon Suk-yeol cast his ballot yesterday as early voting got under way ahead of next week’s general election, where his party is seeking to win back its parliamentary majority. Yoon’s approval ratings have fallen below 40 percent in recent weeks, according to some pollsters, driven by a litany of scandals and voter dissatisfaction with rising inflation. However, experts say the poll is crucial for Yoon’s People Power Party, because his authority could be significantly weakened for the final three years of his term if the opposition wins a supermajority. Yoon cast his vote in Busan and afterwards thanked the staff at the polling station, his office said.
DENMARK
Faulty missile shuts strait
An important shipping strait between two Danish islands was closed for several hours on Thursday after a missile malfunction on a navy frigate, the military said. The malfunction happened during a missile test on the Niels Juel frigate in the port of Korsor, west of Copenhagen, which created the risk of a missile launch. “The problem happened during a compulsory test where the launcher had been activated” and could not be deactivated for several hours, Danish Defence Command said in a statement. As long as the launcher was not deactivated, there was “a risk that the missile would be fired and would travel several kilometers,” the military said, adding however that there was no risk of the missile exploding. The Great Belt shipping lane, which separates the islands of Zealand and Funen, and air traffic over it were closed between mid-afternoon and 8pm. However, road traffic on the bridge between the two islands was not suspended.
RUSSIA
Governor stabbed
The governor of the northwestern Murmansk region was stabbed in the stomach after a meeting with local residents, the most dangerous assault on a high-ranking government official in more than a decade. Governor Andrei Chibis, 45, had just finished a meeting at the cultural center in the town of Apatity on Thursday, when a man walked up and stabbed him with a knife, local media reports said. The suspect, who was not named, told interrogators that he committed the attack because he “disliked” the governor, although he did not know him personally, the Investigation Committee said on its Telegram channel. The investigation is ongoing. Chibis underwent surgery for his injuries, and posted a video in his Telegram channel yesterday, saying he is conscious and will recover.
CHINA
Space pact with India inked
China and Thailand yesterday signed initial pacts to cooperate on peaceful use of outer space and international lunar research stations, the China National Space Administration said in a statement. The countries aim to form a joint working group on space exploration and applications, encompassing data exchanges and personnel training, the memorandums of understanding said. They also agreed to cooperate on plans for appraising, engineering and managing lunar research stations, it said. Last year, China selected a space weather monitor developed by Thailand for its Chang’e-7 lunar probe mission, the agency added. To be launched around 2026, the Chang’e-7 mission will explore resources on the moon’s south pole, looking to sustain long-term human habitation. China aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.
When a hiker fell from a 55m waterfall in wild New Zealand bush, rescuers were forced to evacuate the badly hurt woman without her dog, which could not be found. After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, border collie Molly was flown to safety by a helicopter pilot who was determined to reunite the pet and the owner. A week earlier, an emergency rescue helicopter found the woman with bruises and lacerations after a fall at a rocky spot at the waterfall on the South Island’s West Coast. She was airlifted on March 24, but they were forced to
CONFIDENCE BOOSTER: ’After parkour ... you dare to do a lot of things that you think only young people can do,’ a 67-year-old parkour enthusiast said In a corner of suburban Singapore, Betty Boon vaults a guardrail, crawls underneath a slide, executes forward shoulder rolls and scales a steep slope, finishing the course to applause. “Good job,” the 69-year-old’s coach cheers. This is “geriatric parkour,” where about 20 retirees learned to tackle a series of relatively demanding exercises, building their agility and enjoying a sense of camaraderie. Boon, an upbeat grandmother, said learning parkour has aided her confidence and independence as she ages. “When you’re weak, you will be dependent on someone,” she said after sweating it out with her parkour classmates in suburban Toa Payoh,
Chinese dissident artist Gao Zhen (高兟), famous for making provocative satirical sculptures of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), was tried on Monday over accusations of “defaming national heroes and martyrs,” his wife and a rights group said. Gao, 69, who was detained in 2024 during a visit from the US, faces a maximum three-year prison sentence, said his wife, Zhao Yaliang (趙雅良), and Shane Yi, a researcher at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders group which operates outside the nation. The closed-door, one-day trial took place at Sanhe City People’s Court in Hebei Province neighboring the capital, Beijing, and ended without a
‘TOXIC CLIMATE’: ‘I don’t really recognize Labour anymore... The idea that you can implement far-right ideas in order to stop the far right is nonsense,’ a protester said Tens of thousands of people on Saturday marched through central London to protest against the far right, weeks ahead of local elections and six months after Britain saw one of its largest far-right demonstrations. Organized by hundreds of civic groups, including trade unions, anti-racism campaigners and Muslim representative bodies, Saturday’s Together Alliance event was billed as the biggest in UK history to counter right-wing extremism. A separate pro-Palestinian march had also converged with the main rally. While organizers claimed 500,000 had turned out in total, the police gave a figure of about 50,000. Protesters carrying placards with slogans such as
RSS