UNITED KINGDOM
Wild-card heads Labour poll
A left-wing lawmaker who entered the leadership race of Britain’s opposition Labour Party as a wild-card might be on course to win with a commanding lead, a poll showed late on Monday. Support for Jeremy Corbyn, 66, a veteran socialist and anti-nuclear campaigner, has increased to give him the backing of more than half of those eligible to vote in the contest, according to a poll by YouGov. “I would personally be astonished if Corbyn does not end up as Labour’s leader,” YouGov president Peter Kellner wrote, adding that the race could change before voting ends in a month’s time. The poll of 1,411 eligible voters showed Corbyn with 53 percent support, far ahead of his nearest rival, Andy Burnham on 21 percent — a drop of five points. Seen as the most left-wing of the four candidates, Corbyn’s increasing popularity comes despite a series of stark warnings from senior Labour figures that he could damage the party’s chances of beating the ruling center-right Conservative Party in future elections.
CONGO
Ministers axed in reshuffle
President Denis Sassou Nguesso on Monday announced a major Cabinet reshuffle that excludes two minsters who opposed a change to the constitution that would allow the long-serving head of state to run for a third term. Minister of Commerce Claudine Munari and Minister of the Civil Service Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas were removed from the government, according to a government statement. Last month, the pair joined the main opposition coalition to stand against a constitutional change that would allow Nguesso, 72, to seek a new mandate in next year’s elections. Nguesso had convened a “national dialogue,” which came out “by a large majority” in favor of amending the constitution to remove an upper limit on the age of presidential candidates as well as the number of terms the head of state can serve, effectively paving the way for him to stand for a third term.
UNITED STATES
Philosophers win Kluge Prize
Two philosophers have been honored with a prize handed out by the Library of Congress for fields not covered by the Nobel prizes. The Library of Congress yesterday announced that Jurgen Habermas and Charles Taylor would share a US$1.5 million John Kluge Prize for humanities. They are the ninth and 10th winners of the prize, which was first awarded in 2000 and was handed out most recently in 2012. It was endowed by philanthropist John Kluge and honors achievement in fields including history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology and religion. Habermas and Taylor are to split the US$1.5 million award. Habermas is an 86-year-old German, whose books include The Theory of Communicative Action. Taylor is an 83-year-old Canadian, whose best-known work is Sources of the Self.
UNITED STATES
Tower jumpers sentenced
Two men convicted of parachute-jumping from the top of One World Trade Center were on Monday sentenced to community service and each ordered to pay US$2,000 in fines. A judge sentenced James Brady to 250 hours of community service and Andrew Rossig to 200 hours. The men were in June convicted of reckless endangerment and other misdemeanors. Another man, Marko Markovich, also was convicted and is scheduled to be sentenced on Monday.
MYANMAR
Bangladeshis repatriated
The government has returned 159 Bangladeshi migrants rescued from boats stranded off its coast in May, officials said yesterday. More than 800 men, women and children were picked up from ships abandoned by smugglers in the Bay of Bengal in recent months, after a Thai crackdown on people-smuggling led gang bosses to abandon their human cargo on land and at sea. It sparked a long verification process between Myanmar and Bangladesh to determine the nationality of the migrants, with neither side showing a willingness to accept them at first. On Monday, Burmese authorities handed over 159 people to their Bangladeshi counterparts, state media said. However, a number of migrants were still undergoing verification. “The remaining 230 Bangladeshi will be transferred as soon as possible. The Bangladesh side are conducting a rigorous verification process,” a government official in Rakhine state said, asking to remain unnamed.
CHINA
‘Harmful’ songs banned
Authorities have ordered 120 songs to be pulled from the Internet, including tracks titled Don’t Want to Go to School and All Must Die because they promoted sex, violence or “incited law-breaking.” No individual or organization is allowed to provide the songs, which “trumpeted obscenity, violence, crime or harmed social morality,” the Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Monday. Most of the blacklisted tunes were by unknown singers or bands, but had striking titles, including No Money No Friend and Suicide Diary, a list attached to the statement showed. The list provided “specific targets for Internet organizations’ self-censorship,” the ministry said, adding companies should “remove the products accurately, be aware of the bottom line and improve their service.” Anyone who does not comply “will be punished severely according to the law,” it said.
AUSTRALIA
Man faces cocaine charges
A 91-year-old retired surgeon has been charged with importing cocaine hidden in 27 packages of soap, prompting police to warn travelers to beware they are not tricked into becoming drug mules. Victor Twartz, of Sydney, was released on bail when he appeared in Sydney’s Downing Center Local Court charged with importing a commercial quantity of cocaine last month. He did not enter a plea and is to appear in court next on Oct. 6. The retired oral surgeon faces a potential life prison sentence if he is convicted of importing 4.5kg of the drug into Sydney Airport on a July 8 flight from New Delhi. Police say it appears that Twartz was scammed by a group of people he had befriended online before his trip. Federal Police organized crime commander David Stewart declined to say whether Twartz had been promised anything by the group, but said he had been in contact with them over several months.
THAILAND
King had hydrocephalus
King Bhumibol Adulyadej has been treated for hydrocephalus, or “water on the brain,” and a chest infection, the palace revealed in a rare statement, amid public concern over the health of the world’s longest serving monarch. The 87-year-old king has been in Bangkok’s Siriraj Hospital since being readmitted in May, but information on his condition has been scarce. Doctors at the hospital have “reduced the level of water in his brain,” the Royal Household Bureau said in a statement on Monday. “His heart rate had returned to normal after treatment, it added.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion