POLAND
Director Wajda dies at 90
One of the nation’s most famous film directors, Andrzej Wajda, has died at the age of 90. Fans, filmmakers and political leaders went online to pay tribute to the man whose work focused on the nation’s culture and history. One of his best-known releases, 1957’s Canal, showed the struggle of the underground army in the Warsaw uprising. Wajda, who died on Sunday night, received an Academy Honorary Award in 2000 in recognition of five decades of work. His films won a Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival, a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and four nominations for Academy Awards.
FRANCE
UK urged to accept kids
The government yesterday said Britain had a “moral duty” to take in hundreds of migrant children from the Jungle camp in Calais desperately seeking to cross the English Channel. “I am solemnly asking Britain to assume its moral duty,” French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve told RTL radio ahead of a trip to London to meet his British counterpart, Home Secretary Amber Rudd. “There are several hundred unaccompanied minors in Calais who have family in Britain. We are in the process of drawing up a precise list and the British need to live up to their responsibilities. We have lived up to ours,” Cazeneuve said.
GEORGIA
Ruling party wins election
The ruling party decisively won parliamentary elections, firming its grip on power in the former Soviet nation, near-complete results showed on Sunday. With 99.41 percent of the votes counted, data from the Central Election Commission gave the ruling Georgian Dream party 48.61 percent of the vote and the opposition United National Movement 27.04 percent. Georgian Dream, which is pro-Western, but also favors closer ties with Russia, declared victory shortly after polls closed on Saturday.
UNITED STATES
Five killed in car crash
Five Vermont high-school students were killed when the car they were riding in was hit by a truck driving in the opposite direction on an interstate. Authorities said the driver then stole a police cruiser and crashed into seven more cars before the cruiser burst into flames. State police said they believe Steven Bourgoin, 36, was behind the wheel of a pickup truck traveling the wrong way on an interstate in Williston on Saturday night when he crashed into a car, which then caught fire. A Williston police officer was the first to arrive on the scene. As he tried to extinguish the fire, a man, later identified as Bourgoin, jumped into the officer’s cruiser and took off.
MEXICO
Bone fragments discovered
More than 4,000 bone fragments have been found in a field in a violence-plagued northern region since last year, but most of the remains are linked to just three bodies. An association of families of missing people, Grupo Vida, has been combing the area of Patrocinio, on the slope of a mountain in Coahuila state, for remains of their loved ones. Group spokeswoman Silvia Ortiz said about 700 bone fragments were found in the past week alone in what she calls an area of “extermination due to the condition of the bones.” The local government acknowledged late on Saturday that 3,488 bone fragments, including a jawbone, teeth and finger bones, had been found. “It’s not 3,488 people,” the government said. “Through these fragments, we were able to determine they belong to three different people” via forensic tests.
AFGHANISTAN
Taliban attack Lashkar Gah
Officials say Taliban insurgents have launched a large-scale attack on Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand Province. Ministry of the Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi yesterday said that the militants have attacked security checkpoints inside the city, but that security forces “will soon push them back.” A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, says the insurgents are advancing through the city. Helmand is strategically important for the Taliban as it is the source of opium worth an estimated US$4 billion a year, much of which funds the war.
CAMBODIA
Guards, protesters clash
Land rights protesters yesterday clashed with city security guards as demonstrators in Phnom Penh called on the government to end forced evictions. A video circulated on Facebook showed security guards punching and slapping protesters. The protesters, many holding models of homes over their heads, were marking World Habitat Day, which took place last week as a reminder of people’s right to shelter. Phnom Penh City Hall spokesman Mean Chanyada said that a journalist and a human rights worker were injured in the clash and that the use of violence was necessary to stop hundreds of demonstrators from marching forward. “There was a small clash because the protesters didn’t follow instructions of the authorities to gather only at one place,” Chanyada said.
CHINA
Beijing blames Bangkok
It was the Thai government that made a decision to block the entry of Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) last week, Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong (李保東) said yesterday. Wong, 19, was detained at Bangkok’s international airport, after he had been invited to speak at universities about Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Movement” protests and on setting up his political party. “As for Joshua Wong, him not being allowed into Thailand, this was the Thai government’s decision made in accordance with its relevant immigration rules and laws,” Li said. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has said Wong’s expulsion was a matter for Beijing, not Thailand.
MYANMAR
Trio on trial over cows
Three Muslim men yesterday went on trial for illegally importing nearly 100 cows that have spent the past month under police protection, in a case Muslim leaders say targets their religion. The cows were intended to be ritually slaughtered for the Eid al-Adha last month. Police took possession of cattle last month after a monk complained they had been brought into the country illegally. One of the men, Myo Myint, in his 60s, has heart disease and had to be supported by police as he entered the courtroom. His son, Ye Zarni Tun We, said he was “sure” the animals were bought in the country, adding: “We have documents for purchasing the cows.” The men were remanded in custody until their next hearing.
ETHOPIA
State of emergency declared
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Sunday declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency, saying months of unrest threatened the nation’s stability. “A state of emergency has been declared because the situation posed a threat against the people of the country,” Hailemariam said on state-run television. “Vital infrastructure, businesses, health and education centers, as well as government offices, and courts have been destroyed.”
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