CHINA
Bomber in development
The air force said that it is developing a new type of strategic bomber. People’s Liberation Army Air Force chief Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian (馬曉天) told state media at an open-day event on Thursday that the bomber would significantly increase the nation’s long-range strike ability. He gave no other details about the aircraft or when it would be introduced, saying only that “you will see it in the future.”
CHINA
Online maps scrutinized
Beijing is tightening its regulation of online maps to clarify its territorial claims. The Xinhua news agency said yesterday that the government has noticed some maps were inaccurate and it would increase checks and order corrections to protect “national sovereignty and interests.” It cited incorrect drawing of national boundary lines, saying some “territorial islands were mistakenly left out” — an apparent reference to waters and islands China claims in the South and East China seas. Xinhua said such practices have harmed China’s territorial sovereignty, national security and interests and may impair the international community’s understanding of the position and claims of the Chinese government. Taiwan also has claims in the area.
UNITED NATIONS
Cards aim to combat abuse
An official said that the world body will begin providing peacekeeping troops with “no excuses” cards — part of a plan to combat sexual abuse in the organization’s international stabilization operations. Jane Holl Lute, special coordinator on improving the agency’s response to sexual exploitation and abuse, said the cards would make clear the organization’s standards of behavior during deployment.
UNITED STATES
Student, 12, starts at Cornell
While most kids his age are attending middle school, 12-year-old Jeremy Shuler has just started his first semester at Cornell University. He is the youngest student on record to attend the Ivy League institution. Jeremy’s parents, who are both aerospace engineers, moved from Texas, to Ithaca, New York, so he could live with them while pursuing his engineering degree. Cornell Engineering Dean Lance Collins said Jeremy is definitely ready for college intellectually, but still needs the support of his family. Jeremy, who was home-schooled, was reading books in English and Korean by age two and studying calculus at six. He aced SATs and Advanced Placement tests at 10, earning college credit in seven subjects. He plans a career in academia. Collins envisions a bright future for the young prodigy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema