CHINA
Heavy rain kills at least 50
Authorities said that three days of heavy rain in the sourth of the nation have left 50 people dead and 12 missing. The Hubei Province Department of Civil Affairs yesterday said that torrential rains caused the deaths of 27 people and left 12 missing since Thursday. Nearly 400,000 people have been evacuated or are in need of aid in the province. In mountainous Guizhou Province, 23 people were confirmed dead after a landslide on Friday. Rainstorms soak the south of the nation every year, but this rainy season has been particularly wet. The Yangtze River flood control headquarters has ordered local authorities to brace for severe floods.
IRAN
Supreme leader slams US
Tehran would never coordinate with Washington in Syria or in other regional conflicts, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks published on his Web site yesterday. “We don’t want such a coordination as their main objective is to stop Iran’s presence in the region,” Khamenei said in a transcript from a speech to university students. Iran and Russia support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against armed rebels and Muslim extremists, including the Islamic State group. Khamenei repeated demands for the US to stop interfering in the region and said Washington was still acting aggressively despite last year’s nuclear accord with world powers to end Iran’s isolation. “Americans are still engaged in hostility against the nation of Iran, be it the Congress or the US administration,” he said. “Those who believe in looking to the West for the progress of the country have lost their minds because wisdom tells us to learn from experience.”
CAMBODIA
Four face fraud charges
A New York state assemblyman and a former US ambassador to the UN are among four people facing fraud charges in Cambodia. Republican Assemblyman William Nojay, former ambassador Sichan Siv and two others are accused of obtaining a US$1 million investment for their rice-exporting company, then shutting the company down. The Khmer Times reported that court proceedings are scheduled to begin today. The other two defendants are Richer San, a Cambodian-American community leader, and Thomas Willens, former head of a non-profit in Cambodia. Lawyers for the defendants have denied the allegations. Nojay told the Democrat and the Chronicle of Rochester that he expects to be exonerated.
SIERRA LEONE
Stinking weed clogs beaches
The nation has launched a clean-up operation after the beaches around the capital Freetown became clogged with foul-smelling seaweed, hitting tourism and fishing. At Lumley Beach in the west the city, the white sands have become covered with a brownish-yellow carpet, forcing motorists and fishermen to use masks to ward off the stench since the invasion began a week ago. A local environmentalist estimated that there are now more than four tonnes of seaweed deposited over the sparkling sands, with the capital’s 14 other beaches also badly affected. Veteran beachcomber Salifu Deen told reporters on Saturday that, “the seaweed is back in volumes and the stench is unbearable,” adding that, “most locals and particularly tourists will be put off by the smell.” Minister of Tourism Sidi Yahya Tunis told reporters on Saturday work was beginning to clean the beaches. “We have undertaken a massive mechanism for a daily clearing exercise using dredgers. The weeds are taking over the beaches and this is unfortunate,” 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