CHINA
Stars’ kids banned on TV
The nation is banning the children of famous entertainers from appearing on popular reality shows, as it continues efforts to try to prevent the manufacture of child stars. The ban by the government’s media regulator also covers appearances by the stars’ children on chat shows and reports about them on entertainment programs, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. Reality shows featuring attractive stars and their well-dressed, fashionably coiffed and often somewhat precocious children traveling or performing tasks together have grown extremely popular with Chinese viewers in recent years. However, apparently concerned with the growth of celebrity culture, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television in July last year ordered that producers of the dozens of reality shows on satellite channels cut back on appearances by minors and tamp down parts of the shows seen as attempting to make them stars on their own. Xinhua yesterday cited the administration’s latest order as saying: “Reality shows should pay attention to strengthening protection over minors and endeavor to reduce the participation of minors.”
IRAQ
US official arrives for talks
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has arrived in Baghdad to talk to leaders about the next steps to beef up the forces working to retake the northern city of Mosul. A senior US official said that as the US moves to help the nation, at least a “small number” of additional US forces would likely go to the warzone. Carter has said the US is considering several options, including more airstrikes, cyberattacks and US troops on the ground. Late last month, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said he and Carter believe the number of US forces in the nation would increase in the coming weeks. Any final decision would be worked out with the government and require US President Barack Obama’s approval.
SYRIA
Rebel groups declare battle
Several key opposition factions yesterday said they were launching an armed response to what they alleged were regime “violations” of a ceasefire agreement in the war-torn nation. “After the increase of violations by regime forces that included targeting displaced people and continuous bombing of residential neighborhoods, we declare the start of the battle in response,” said a statement signed by 10 armed rebel groups. The truce, brokered by Russia and the US, has seen violence dip significantly, but fighting has recently flared in several regions, particularly near second city Aleppo.
TURKEY
Two held over sack attack
Two members of a nationalist youth group were detained after trying to put a sack over the head of a US soldier at an air base, according to media reports. The state-run Anadolu Agency on Sunday reported that two members of the right-wing group, Yalcin Semir Akarsu and Cenk Kizilirmak, were placed under house arrest after the incident that occurred on Saturday at the Incirlik air base in Adana Province. The Dogan news agency said Kizilirmak filmed his friend as he chased the soldier. The nationalist Turkish Youth Union posted footage on Twitter in which the man identified by Dogan as Akarsu is heard saying: “You put a sack over our soldiers’ heads in 2003. You are responsible for that and for the terrorism in our country,” he said.
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