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.
BLOODSHED: North Koreans take extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and sometimes execute their own forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday said that Russian and North Korean forces sustained heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August last year. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy quoted a report from Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border. “In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka,
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on Monday met virtually with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) and raised concerns about “malicious cyber activity” carried out by Chinese state-sponsored actors, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement. The department last month reported that an unspecified number of its computers had been compromised by Chinese hackers in what it called a “major incident” following a breach at contractor BeyondTrust, which provides cybersecurity services. US Congressional aides said no date had been set yet for a requested briefing on the breach, the latest in a serious of cyberattacks
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