INDIA
Military tests new missile
The military has tested its first hypersonic missile, Minister of Defence Rajnath Singh said yesterday. The test flight comes days after rival and neighbor China showcased its expanding aviation capabilities at an airshow, with the J-35A stealth fighter jet and attack drones displayed. China’s state media said the event included the debut of the HQ-19 surface-to-air missile system, designed to intercept ballistic missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles. India’s missile blasted off from Abdul Kalam Island off the east coast on Saturday.
BANGLADESH
Dengue deaths rise to 407
Rising temperatures and a longer monsoon season are driving a surge in dengue infections, with more than 400 deaths this year, leaving hospitals struggling to cope, particularly in urban areas. At least 407 people have died from related complications this year, with 78,595 people admitted to hospitals nationwide, the latest official figures showed. By the middle of this month, 4,173 patients were being treated, with 1,835 of them in Dhaka, the capital, and 2,338 elsewhere.
BRAZIL
First lady insults Musk
First lady Rosangela “Janja” da Silva on Saturday insulted Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, at an event ahead of the G20 summit in which she advocated tougher regulations of social media. Speaking on a panel about disinformation, she appeared to be startled by a loud noise. “I think it’s Elon Musk,” she said, adding: “I’m not afraid of you, fuck you, Elon Musk.” A video of the episode quickly spread on X, drawing a response from its outspoken owner. “They are going to lose the next election,” Musk wrote, adding a pair of laughing emojis. The Supreme Federal Court suspended X for 40 days this year as part of a legal tussle over disinformation.
FRANCE
Dinosaur bones fetch US$6m
The skeleton of a 22m-long dinosaur fetched 6 million euros (US$6.33 million) on Saturday, auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa said. An anonymous collector snapped up the vegetarian Apatosaurus, which was dug up in the US, for 4.7 million euros rising to 6 million including costs. The buyer pledged to allow it to be displayed in a museum. “We are happy that the buyer intends to lend it to an institution,” Olivier Collin du Bocage said. The skeleton of the giant herbivore is made up of 75 to 80 percent of the original bones and is about 150 million years old.
UNITED STATES
Betty White unites nation
The US Postal Service might have found a way to unite a nation bitterly divided after this month’s election: It is releasing a Betty White stamp. The beloved actor known for roles in The Golden Girls, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Boston Legal would be on a 2025 Forever stamp, the postal service announced on Friday. White died in late December 2021, less than three weeks before her 100th birthday. Boston-based artist Dale Stephanos created a digital illustration of White for the stamp. “I’d love to send a letter back to my 18-year-old self with this stamp on it and tell him that everything is going to be OK,” Stephanos wrote on Facebook. “Betty White was my hero, all of my life! I actually had a doll when I was a little girl I named Betty White,” a self-proclaimed supporter of president-elect Donald Trump wrote on X. “Something to make this awful week a little better: We’re getting a Betty White stamp,” a pro-Vice President Kamala Harris account posted on X.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) launched a week-long diplomatic blitz of South America on Thursday by inaugurating a massive deep-water port in Peru, a US$1.3 billion investment by Beijing as it seeks to expand trade and influence on the continent. With China’s demand for agricultural goods and metals from Latin America growing, Xi will participate in the APEC summit in Lima then head to the Group of 20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week, where he will also make a state visit to Brazil. Xi and Peruvian President Dina Boluarte participated on Thursday by video link in the opening
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
IT’S A DEAL? Including the phrase ‘overlapping claims’ in a Chinese-Indonesian joint statement over the weekend puts Jakarta’s national interests at risk, critics say Indonesia yesterday said it does not recognize China’s claims over the South China Sea, despite signing a maritime development deal with Beijing, as some analysts warned the pact risked compromising its sovereign rights. Beijing has long clashed with Southeast Asian neighbors over the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety, based on a “nine-dash line” on its maps that cuts into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of several countries. Joint agreements with China in the strategic waterway have been sensitive for years, with some nations wary of deals they fear could be interpreted as legitimizing Beijing’s vast claims. In 2016,
RSS