JAPAN
Tokyo scrambles fighter jets
Tokyo scrambled fighter jets after Russian bombers flew over international waters around the nation, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said yesterday. “We confirmed that Russian military bombers and fighter jets flew over the high seas of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan yesterday, and we scrambled Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets” in response, he told reporters. “It is difficult to say clearly what the purpose of the flight was ... but the Russian military has been active on an ongoing basis in areas surrounding Japan,” he said. The Russian defense ministry reportedly announced that its long-range strategic bombers flew over international waters in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk.
MYANMAR
State of emergency extended
The military junta has extended a state of emergency for another six months, state media reported yesterday, a day ahead of the four-year anniversary of a coup that plunged the country into chaos after a decade of tentative democracy. The nation has been locked in a civil war triggered by the military’s overthrow of the elected civilian government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta plans to hold an election this year, which critics have derided as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies. “There are still more tasks to be done to hold the general election successfully. Especially for a free and fair election, stability and peace is still needed,” state-run MRTV said on its Telegram channel in announcing the extension of emergency rule.
GUINEA
Sleeping sickness beaten
Sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease which is generally fatal without treatment, has been eliminated as a public health problem in the nation, the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) said on Thursday. The disease, also known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is spread by infected tsetse flies and is endemic in sub-Saharan Africa. The Trypanosoma parasite enters the central nervous system, causing symptoms including behavior changes, confusion, poor coordination and sleep cycle disturbance. The nation has fallen “below the threshold for the elimination of the disease as a public health problem (less than one case per 10,000 inhabitants in the three endemic areas),” the IRD said in a statement cosigned by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative and the Institut Pasteur in Guinea.
UNITED STATES
Priest fired over ‘salute’
A Michigan priest had his license revoked by the Anglican Catholic Church after he mimicked a straight-arm gesture performed by Elon Musk during a speech earlier this month that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute. Calvin Robinson, who is listed as the priest-in-charge of St Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, performed the gesture at the end of a speech at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington on Saturday last week. On Wednesday, the Anglican Catholic Church posted a statement that said Robinson’s “license in this Church has been revoked” after he made a “gesture that many have interpreted as a pro-Nazi salute.” “While we cannot say what was in Mr Robinson’s heart when he did this, his action appears to have been an attempt to curry favor with certain elements of the American political right by provoking its opposition,” it said. “We believe that those who mimic the Nazi salute, even as a joke or an attempt to troll their opponents, trivialize the horror of the Holocaust.”
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
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