CHINA
BBC editor quits over pay
The BBC’s China editor has resigned her position in Beijing in protest over what she called a failure to sufficiently address a gap in compensation between men and women. Carrie Gracie’s departure is the latest aftershock from the public firm’s forced publication last year of pay levels for its top earners that showed two-thirds of those in the top bracket were men. A 30-year veteran of the BBC, Gracie said in a statement on her Web site that she could no longer perform her job at a high level while battling with bosses over pay equality. Gracie said she learned that the two male international editors made at least 50 percent more than their two female counterparts.
AUSTRALIA
Near-record heat in Sydney
Dangerous heat is roasting parts of the nation with temperatures that have not been seen in decades. The temperature in Sydney on Sunday hit a nearly 80-year high of 47.3°C. The temperature was just shy of the city’s all-time high of 47.8°C, set in 1939. New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn said the state’s heatwave plan had been activated. Thousands were left without power and total fire bans were put in place. Residents were urged to drink extra water and limit their time outdoors because of air pollution resulting from the hot weather.
ISRAEL
Firm grows smallest tomato
In the succulent world of cherry tomatoes, one company is going smaller than ever before. The Kedma company in the nation’s southern Arava Desert has developed the “drop tomato,” about the size of a blueberry — the smallest ever cultivated in Israel, perhaps even in the world. It is a point of pride in a country known for its agricultural innovation, where fruits and vegetables are taken seriously and where several strands of the cherry tomato were first invented. The seed, originally developed in the Netherlands, was modified to match the arid growing conditions in southern Israel.
SRI LANKA
Slain editor’s family protests
The family of a newspaper editor murdered in Sri Lanka criticized the government for failing to bring his killers to justice as they marked the ninth anniversary of his death yesterday. Lasantha Wickrematunga, a prominent critic of the former administration, was stabbed days before he was due to testify in a corruption case involving then-minister of defense Gotabhaya Rajapakse. The killing sparked an international outcry and shone a light on human rights violations under former president Mahinda Rajapakse, Gotabhaya’s brother. President Maithripala Sirisena promised to bring the perpetrators to justice when he came to power in 2015, but no one has yet been prosecuted.
UNITED KINGDOM
Porn popular at parliament
About 160 requests a day were made late last year to access pornography Web sites from computers within the Houses of Parliament, the Press Association reported yesterday. A total of 24,473 attempts were made since the general election in June last year from devices connected to the parliamentary network, data obtained by a freedom of information request showed. Authorities say most attempts are not deliberate and point to a decrease in recent years. “All pornographic Web sites are blocked by parliament’s computer network,” a parliamentary spokesman said. “This data also covers personal devices used when logged on to parliament’s guest Wi-Fi.”
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