UNITED STATES
Roof friend to plead guilty
A friend of the man accused of gunning down nine black parishioners during a Bible study in a South Carolina church is appearing before a judge to plead guilty to federal charges. Under a plea agreement signed by 21-year-old Joey Meek and federal prosecutors, Meek is to plead guilty to lying to authorities and failing to report a crime. He appears before US District Judge Richard Gergel on Friday in Charleston. Authorities allege Meek failed to tell investigators all he knew about Dylann Roof’s plans to shoot parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in June last year. The 22-year-old Roof is charged with hate crimes and other charges in federal court.
UNITED STATES
Rock formation defaced
Rangers at Utah’s Arches National Park were investigating large graffiti on Thursday that was carved so deeply into a famous red rock arch that it might be impossible to erase, officials said. The carvings discovered earlier this month measure about 1.2m across and 90cm high, park superintendent Kate Cannon said. The Arches rock formation, commonly known as Frame Arch, is off a popular hiking trail where visitors can look through it and view the park’s iconic, stand-alone Delicate Arch. Cannon said the graffiti was etched so deeply that it might have taken at least one hour for someone to carve. She said park workers can try to reduce the carving’s visibility by grinding down the rock around it, but that causes further damage to the surface. She said they could also try to fill in the etchings with some kind of material that blends in, but it is unclear if that would be a permanent or unnoticeable treatment.
UNITED STATES
Wandering sea lion dies
Washington state biologists are trying to determine what killed a sea lion that was captured and released after it was strangely found in the driveway of a cattle ranch about 80km from the ocean. The male California sea lion was released into Puget Sound on April 15 after it apparently swam and waddled its way to the ranch, the News Tribune reported. On Friday last week, the sea lion was found dead under a bridge in Olympia, ending its unusual journey from the ocean to a small creek and then to Puget Sound. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Dyanna Lambourn examined the sea lion on Sunday and found no immediate cause of death. Samples from the necropsy were sent out on Tuesday to test for possible causes. Rancher Ken Shively found his gate open and the 159kg animal in his driveway. He initially thought it was a deer or elk.
CANADA
Beehive heist probed
Thieves in Quebec have staged an unusual heist of something that is becoming increasingly rare in North America these days: bees. Beekeeper Jean-Marc Labonte lost more than 180 beehives worth US$160,000 earlier this week in what he says is a first for his family business. “It’s very, very uncommon in Quebec,” he said. Labonte said he suspects the theft to be the work of another beekeeper who “lost many bees” last winter and is trying to get more free. The heist, which is being investigated by police, allegedly took place on Monday in a locked apiary in the city of Victoriaville, 160km northeast of Montreal. “It sickens me because bees are very rare and increasingly expensive as their numbers decline across North America,” 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