SOUTH KOREA
Five ex-commanders jailed
Five former senior military officers were yesterday jailed for up to 18 years for their roles in the country’s short-lived martial law declaration of 2024. Then-president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law that December, ordering special forces and helicopters to parliament in an unsuccessful bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down the move. Former Defense Counterintelligence Command chief Yeo In-hyung was sentenced to 18 years in prison, while Lee Jin-woo, former head of Capital Defense Command, was given 15 years, a court statement said. Park An-su, former army chief of staff who was designated as the martial law commander, was sentenced to 10 years. Moon Sang-ho, former head of the Defence Intelligence Command who attempted to seize control of the National Election Commission, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Kwak Jong-keun, former chief of the Army Special Warfare Command, was given nine years.
SOUTH KOREA
Blast injures three soldiers
An explosion yesterday injured three South Korean military officers inside the heavily fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the Koreas, officials said. The blast occurred during an unspecified operation near the demarcation line within the border buffer zone between the two nations, the Ministry of National Defense said, adding that the cause of the blast was not immediately clear. South Korean officials did not say whether it was possible the explosion was caused by a land mine planted by North Korea, which has added mines, anti-tank barriers and other front line fortifications in recent months as relations between the nations have sharply deteriorated. The officers are being treated at a military hospital near Seoul.
PAKISTAN
Imran Khan’s sisters jailed
Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party yesterday said that his three sisters had been arrested. Law enforcement agencies arrested Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan from Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province. “All three sisters have been sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore,” Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party information secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said. The deputy commissioner of Lahore on Sunday passed two separate orders for the three sisters’ 30-day detention under the Maintenance of Public Order law of Punjab Province. Punjab police did not respond to reporters’ requests for comment. PTI has announced a protest call on Sunday, which the government said is illegal. Khan has been in jail since 2023 and was sentenced late last year, along with his wife, to 17 years in jail on corruption charges they both deny.
PHILIPPINES
AI dissent spooks investors
Some US investors have raised questions about the prospects of a planned artificial intelligence (AI) hub amid brewing opposition to the US-backed project, Undersecretary of Trade and Industry Ceferino Rodolfo said. US officials and businesses have asked if the 1,600-hectare manufacturing site would push through, after seeing street protests and negative sentiment online about the Pax Silica Initiative, Rodolfo said at a forum organized by the foreign correspondents’ association. The government is working to allay fears among investors and local communities, he said, adding that the AI hub would not host data centers and would not grant diplomatic immunity to US companies. As for investors, “we tell them that it’s part of the process here in the Philippines that every one can speak their minds, and they understand that,” he said.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to take action against the EU if it moves forward with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the bloc’s first associate member. “If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act; I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,” Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina, calling the proposal “laughable.” “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he said. Von der Leyen made the proposal
ON THE MOVE: Trump unexpectedly cut short a trip to return to the White House, while the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East The US on Saturday warned that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed. US President Donald Trump on Saturday cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House. The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led
The US military came close to boarding a Chinese vessel in the Middle East earlier this year based on a flawed intelligence report prepared with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), CNN said on Friday. US intelligence indicated the ship was carrying nuclear weapons-related components, leading US forces to prepare to intercept it, the broadcaster reported, citing four anonymous sources familiar with the incident. However, the operation was called off after officials determined that an AI chatbot used by an analyst had misidentified the material the ship was carrying. The report was “entirely false,” but “almost started a war,” CNN quoted one source
World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly 130 heads of state meet with the post-World War II order under strain and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed the US’ contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who last addressed the diplomatic jamboree via video
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