MALAYSIA
Rail project postponed
The government has agreed with Singapore to postpone the development of a high-speed rail service by two years, as the nation looks to review mega projects to cut its massive debt. Business weekly the Edge on Saturday cited sources confirming both nations agreed to postpone the project to May 31, 2020, at no penalty to either, to allow the government time to review its finances. Minister of Economic Affairs Mohamed Azmin Ali yesterday confirmed that both sides had agreed to postpone the project at no penalty, and that details would be made clear when a new agreement is signed soon.
FRANCE
Phones banned in schools
Children who were going back to school yesterday after summer vacation would have to do so without their mobile phones. The government passed a law banning phone use in all primary and middle schools for the entire day, including during breaks — with exceptions in cases of emergency and for disabled children. Pupils are requested to shut down their mobiles or put them in a locker. High schools can also voluntarily implement the measure. Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer said it aims to help children focus on lessons, socialize better and reduce social media use.
ISRAEL
Man gets general’s number
A businessman said he received calls and messages from senior Israeli and foreign military officials after he was assigned the former phone number of the nation’s military chief of staff. A report yesterday by Israeli Army Radio identified the man only as Yossi. He said that when he began receiving messages, “a red light went on... if it got in the hands of another citizen I don’t know what would happen.” It was not entirely clear how Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot’s number was passed on to a private citizen. The report said military phone numbers are often reassigned for security reasons. It said the military returned the number to the mobile provider about a year ago. The provider said the number was not classified and was reassigned to another customer.
UAE
Da Vinci exhibit delayed
The unveiling of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi at the Louvre Abu Dhabi has been indefinitely postponed. The Department of Culture and Tourism yesterday tweeted about the delay, saying: “More details will be announced soon.” It did not respond to a request for comment. The Renaissance oil painting of Christ sold for a record-breaking US$450 million at an auction in New York at Christie’s in November. It was to be displayed from Sept. 18.
UNITED STATES
Yakult soars on teen comedy
Dairy producer Yakult Honsha Co is finding that the power of product placement is so potent it works even when it is mistaken. Viewers of Netflix’s romantic comedy To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before have noticed the main character’s sister drinking a yogurt out of a distinctive little bottle and are talking about it on Twitter, said Mark Bachman, head of research firm M Science’s TickerTags. In the movie, the drink is called a “Korean yogurt smoothie,” but audiences have clearly spotted Yakult’s “distinct red foil top,” Bachman said in a note to clients on Friday. Shares of the stock, which have dropped about 6 percent this year amid slower sales growth, climbed more than 2.6 percent since the movie was released on Aug. 17.
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