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.”
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