NORTH KOREA
China stresses friendliness
China’s special envoy Song Tao (宋濤) stressed his nation’s stance to steadily develop “traditional friendly relations” during talks with one of the most senior officials in the Workers’ Party of Korea, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Song on Friday briefed Vice Marshall Choe Ryong-hae on developments and details from China’s 19th National Party Congress last month in their talks in Pyongyang, the agency said. South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported there was a good chance that Song would meet leader Kim Jong-un today, citing unidentified diplomats in Beijing. China has not officially provided any details of Song’s visit or his meetings with North Korean officials.
ARGENTINA
Submarine loses contact
The navy on Friday said it has lost contact with a submarine carrying 44 crew members off the southern coast and has mounted an extensive search. The navy said that ships and aircraft were searching near the last known location of the ARA San Juan, a German-built diesel-electric vessel, which had not been heard from since Wednesday. It said it was scanning all possible radio transmission frequencies for a sign of the sub. Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters that it is possible that the submarine had an electrical issue and said it could not yet be termed lost.
UNITED STATES
Chinese veteran died in fire
A 101-year-old man who last month told his wife to flee deadly wildfires in northern California without him is the latest victim to be identified by coroner’s officials. The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa on Friday reported that authorities identified the man as longtime Santa Rosa resident Hung Tak-fu. He was one of at least 43 people killed by the fires that raged across a huge swath of wine country. Born in China’s Anhui Province in 1915, Hung was a general in the Chinese army before he fled to Hong Kong and later Taiwan after the Chinese Communist Party came to power following the 1949 revolution. He worked as a civil engineer in Taiwan, where he and his first wife raised six children before her death. After he retired, he moved to California.
UNITED STATES
Navy jet draws penis in air
A navy air crew on Friday was grounded after using their advanced fighter jet to draw a giant image of a penis in the sky with the exhaust, officials said. The incident took place on Thursday in the skies over Okanogan County in Washington state, when a E/A-18 Growler warplane flew the unusual pattern. Images of a condensed air trail in the shape of a penis immediately went viral on social media. The navy, which is trying to crack down on sexual assault in its ranks, issued a formal apology for what it called an “irresponsible and immature act.”
UNITED STATES
Military reports assault stats
Troops have reported more than 20,000 allegations of sexual assault at military installations over the past four years, the Pentagon said in a report on Friday. The Department of Defense’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office report details allegations by service branch for the fiscal years 2013 to last year, with the army — the largest branch — reporting 8,294 cases total. The navy reported 4,788 cases, the marine corps 3,400 and the air force 8,876. Since 2012, the Pentagon’s annual reports have reported drops in the numbers of sexual assault among the force, officials said
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in