HONG KONG
US upgrades travel warning
Washington yesterday warned US citizens to “exercise increased caution” when traveling to the territory, as protesters announced three days of new demonstrations at Hong Kong International Airport starting this afternoon. The advisory was an upgrade from the US Department of State’s previous advice to “exercise normal precautions” and notes that demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, “but some have turned confrontational or resulted in violent clashes.” A statement on the Hong Kong International Airport Web site said the protests were not expected to disrupt operations. “Airport Authority Hong Kong is aware that there have been calls posted online for a public assembly at the airport on 9-11 August. The airport will operate normally,” it said. It urged passengers to “allow sufficient time for travelling to the airport” and to check flight status information before arriving.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Marape denies debt report
Prime Minister James Marape on Wednesday backtracked on an announcement saying he had asked China to refinance the nation’s US$8 billion debt, saying that the statement was released without his knowledge. Marape’s office in a statement said it was “false” that he was “going one way to China” to tackle public debt. The government was primarily discussing trade with China while examining debt options with undisclosed “non-traditional partners,” it said. “We are in discussion with many of our bilateral partners to access very low-cost concession finance to give us some breathing space,” Marape said in the statement. “This includes our discussions with [the] World Bank, ADB [Asian Development Bank] and some other possible non-traditional partners.”
NEW ZEALAND
Cocaine washes ashore
Cocaine worth millions of dollars on Wednesday washed up on a beach, with police urging the public to hand in any more packages that might turn up. Police were called to Bethells Beach in West Auckland after packages of the drug were found along the shoreline. “Police attended and located approximately 19 packages, which testing has confirmed contained cocaine,” detective inspector Colin Parmenter said. He estimated the street value at NZ$3 million (US$1.84 million). Local media reported said that the packages were contained in netting and the presence of shells indicated they had been at sea for some time.
MEXICO
Call for probe cooperation
The government on Wednesday pressed the US to cooperate in helping to identify white supremacists that pose a threat to its citizens after a shooting on Saturday last week in El Paso, Texas, killed eight Mexican nationals. A total of 22 people lost their lives in the shooting at a Walmart store, an event the government has vowed to investigate as an act of terrorism. It said it might also request that the suspected perpetrator be extradited for trial. The government said it wants US authorities to share all information on the case to “determine if there are other individuals and potential organizations of ‘white supremacy’ seeking to put our community in danger in the United States.” The diplomatic note, which was addressed to the US embassy, urged the US to “make happen” the words US President Donald Trump used on Monday, when he called on Americans to “condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited