JAPAN
Abe avoids Yasukuni Shrine
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday offered a ritual cash donation to a controversial Tokyo shrine, but did not visit in person, as the country marked the 73rd anniversary of the end of World War II. Abe sent an aide to Yasukuni Shrine, once again staying away from a site that honors the nation’s war dead, including convicted war criminals. Visits by Abe and other senior politicians have angered China and other neighbors, and the prime minister’s decision to stay away comes as he works to improve ties with Beijing. “Please pray for the souls of the dead. I am sorry that I am not able to pay a visit myself,” aide Masahiko Shibayama quoted Abe as telling him.
ITALY
Firefighters seek survivors
At least 37 people were killed when a bridge collapsed in the port city of Genoa, police said yesterday after firefighters worked through the night looking for any survivors buried under the rubble. “The latest official number is 37, but we can’t rule out it could rise further,” a police spokeswoman said. A 50m-high section of the Morandi Bridge, including a tower that anchored several stays, crashed down on Tuesday. Three people were listed as missing and about a dozen are hospitalized in serious condition.
UNITED KINGDOM
Police search suspect’s home
Police searched three addresses in central England as part of an investigation into what they said appeared to be a terrorist attack outside the House of Parliament in London on Tuesday when a man drove a car into pedestrians and cyclists. A 29-year-old driver, a British citizen who had originally come from another country, was arrested after ramming his car into barriers outside parliament, injuring three people. Police said they were searching three addresses, two in Birmingham and one in Nottingham, in a bid to understand “the full circumstances and motivation behind this incident.”
CUBA
Free Internet for a day
The government said it provided free Internet to the nation’s more than 5 million cellphone users on Tuesday, in an eight-hour test before it launches sales of the service. State-run telecommunications monopoly ETECSA announced the trial, with Tuesday marking the first time that Internet services were available nationwide. There are hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots, but virtually no home penetration. Mobile users said they were happy about the day of free Internet. “This is marvelous news because we can talk with family abroad without going to specific Wi-Fi spots, there is more intimacy,” taxi driver Andres Peraza said.
MEXICO
Diner busted for tarantulas
A Mexico City market restaurant put the arachnids on its menu and posted a video on Facebook showing a chef torching one until blackened. The only problem is that the Mexican red rump tarantula is a protected species. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday said it was alerted to the situation via social media, and seized four tarantula corpses that were ready to be served up on tortillas. The tarantula tacos were apparently on offer for 50 times the price of a basic street taco. The restaurant’s menu also features other creepy-crawlies such as grasshoppers, worms and ant eggs, which have a long tradition in national cuisine.
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