CHINA
Scientist protests eviction
The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in the nation was staging a sit-in protest after authorities locked him out of his lab. Virologist Zhang Yongzhen (張永振) wrote in a post on Weibo on Monday that he and his team were suddenly notified they were being evicted from their lab, the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since he first published the sequence in early January 2020. The post was later deleted. Zhang wrote that he had been sitting outside his lab since Sunday despite pouring rain. When reached by phone yesterday, Zhang said it was “inconvenient” for him to speak, but a collaborator confirmed to the Associated Press on Monday the protest was taking place.
YEMEN
Houthi attack damages ship
A missile attack by Houthi rebels on Monday damaged a ship in the Red Sea, authorities said, the latest assault in their campaign against shipping in the crucial maritime route. The attack happened off the coast of Mokha, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said. The ship was damaged in the attack, but its crew was safe and heading to its next port of call, it said, urging vessels to exercise caution in the area. The US military’s Central Command identified the ship damaged as the Cyclades, a Malta-flagged, Greece-owned bulk carrier. It added that it had shot down a drone on a flight path toward the USS Philippine Sea and USS Laboon. Houthi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree in a statement early yesterday claimed the attack on the Cyclades and targeting the US warships. Meanwhile, the Italian Ministry of Defense said its frigate Virgino Fasan shot down a Houthi drone on Monday morning near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
ESTONIA
Russia violating airspace
Accusing Russia of violating international airspace regulations by interfering with GPS signals, Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna said it would take up the matter with its NATO and EU partners. Finnair on Monday announced a temporary suspension of its flights to Tartu for a month due to ongoing GPS disturbances that prevented two aircraft from landing. The Finnish airline said it did not know where the interference originated, but in the past had reported similar problems near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and Finland’s eastern border with Russia. “GPS interference in Estonian airspace by RF [Russian Federation]) has affected civil aviation in our region. In doing so Russia violates international regulations,” Tsahkna wrote on X, without providing evidence to support the claim. Neither the Kremlin nor the Russian defense ministry immediately replied to requests for comment.
INDONESIA
Ruang volcano alert raised
Ruang volcano early yesterday spewed explosive incandescent lava into the night sky as lightning flashes lit up its crater, prompting authorities to raise the alert status and warn of a possible tsunami. The Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation warned residents living on Tagulandang Island, the island closest to the volcano, that a tsunami could be triggered by volcanic material collapsing into the ocean. The warning was issued yesterday morning, with center official Hetty Triastuty saying it remained in placed as of the afternoon. The agency raised the alert status of Ruang to the highest level, urging residents not to go near the volcano.
The Venezuelan government on Monday said that it would close its embassies in Norway and Australia, and open new ones in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe in a restructuring of its foreign service, after weeks of growing tensions with the US. The closures are part of the “strategic reassignation of resources,” Venezueland President Nicolas Maduro’s government said in a statement, adding that consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia would be provided by diplomatic missions, with details to be shared in the coming days. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it had received notice of the embassy closure, but no
A missing fingertip offers a clue to Mako Nishimura’s criminal past as one of Japan’s few female yakuza, but after clawing her way out of the underworld, she now spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society. The multibillion-dollar yakuza organized crime network has long ruled over Japan’s drug rings, illicit gambling dens and sex trade. In the past few years, the empire has started to crumble as members have dwindled and laws targeting mafia are tightened. An intensifying police crackdown has shrunk yakuza forces nationwide, with their numbers dipping below 20,000 last year for the first time since records
EXTRADITION FEARS: The legislative changes come five years after a treaty was suspended in response to the territory’s crackdown on democracy advocates Exiled Hong Kong dissidents said they fear UK government plans to restart some extraditions with the territory could put them in greater danger, adding that Hong Kong authorities would use any pretext to pursue them. An amendment to UK extradition laws was passed on Tuesday. It came more than five years after the UK and several other countries suspended extradition treaties with Hong Kong in response to a government crackdown on the democracy movement and its imposition of a National Security Law. The British Home Office said that the suspension of the treaty made all extraditions with Hong Kong impossible “even if
Former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, best known for making a statement apologizing over World War II, died yesterday aged 101, officials said. Murayama in 1995 expressed “deep remorse” over the country’s atrocities in Asia. The statement became a benchmark for Tokyo’s subsequent apologies over World War II. “Tomiichi Murayama, the father of Japanese politics, passed away today at 11:28am at a hospital in Oita City at the age of 101,” Social Democratic Party Chairwoman Mizuho Fukushima said. Party Secretary-General Hiroyuki Takano said he had been informed that the former prime minister died of old age. In the landmark statement in August 1995, Murayama said
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