CHINA
Space lab to return
China’s crewed space lab Tiangong-2 has finished experiments and is to re-enter the atmosphere on Friday, authorities said yesterday. A small amount of debris is likely to fall into designated safe waters of the South Pacific Ocean, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a statement. The nation launched Tiangong-2 on Sept. 15, 2016, after Tiangong-1, its first crewed space lab.
UNITED NATIONS
States support China
Saudi Arabia, Russia and 35 other states have written to the UN supporting China’s policies in its western region of Xinjiang, according to a copy of the letter seen by reporters on Friday. China has been accused of detaining 1 million Muslims and persecuting ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, and 22 ambassadors signed a letter to the UN Human Rights Council this week criticizing its policies. However, the letter supporting China commended what it called the nation’s remarkable achievements in the field of human rights. “Faced with the grave challenge of terrorism and extremism, China has undertaken a series of counter-terrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang, including setting up vocational education and training centers,” the letter said. Security had returned to Xinjiang and the fundamental human rights of people of all ethnic groups there had been safeguarded, it said. There had been no terrorist attack there for three years and people enjoyed a stronger sense of happiness, fulfillment and security, it said. As well as Saudi Arabia and Russia, the letter was signed by ambassadors from many African countries, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar, the Philippines, Syria, Pakistan, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
INDONESIA
Widodo meets Subianto
President Joko Widodo, who secured a second term in office, met his rival Prabowo Subianto for the first time since a divisive election in April as the two attempt to put a feud behind them. The politicians boarded a train from southern Jakarta to the central business district yesterday. In televised speeches after the ride on the new rail network, Jokowi, as the president is known, reiterated a call for unity among Indonesians, while Prabowo congratulated him for his election victory. Prabowo had rejected the election outcome after Jokowi was declared the winner in May and claimed victory himself. In an interview on Friday, Widodo vowed to implement a wave of reforms to attract foreign investment as he looks to unleash the potential of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy during his second term in office.
MALAYSIA
Tourist killed in cave
Flash floods killed a Dutch tourist in a cave in Mulu National Park on Borneo Island, an official said yesterday, as a search continued for a missing guide. Local fire and rescue chief Law Poh Kiong identified the dead man as 66-year-old Peter Hans Hovenkamp from Utrecht in the central Netherlands. “He died due to drowning following flash floods in the caves. His body was found in a river inside the cave and was taken to the Miri public hospital for a post-mortem on Saturday,” he told reporters. Law said a search-and-rescue operation involving 16 officers had been launched to locate tour guide Roviezal Robin. Eight other tourists in the same group “almost became victims,” but fled to higher ground and escaped from being washed into the river, Law said.
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