NEW ZEALAND
Swim with dolphins banned
The government has banned tourists from swimming with bottlenose dolphins in an attempt to save the struggling species. According to the Department of Conservation, research has shown that humans were “loving the dolphins too much” and human interaction was “having a significant impact on the populations resting and feeding behavior.” The ban applies to tour operators in the North Island’s Bay of Islands region.
CHINA
US port visits denied again
Beijing has denied a request for a US Navy warship to visit Qingdao, a US Department of Defense official said on Tuesday. This marks at least the second time this month that the governement has denied a request by the US, having earlier rejected a request for two US Navy ships to visit Hong Kong. The defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the destroyer was supposed to visit on Sunday, but Beijing denied the request prior to that.
IRAN
Cleric killer hanged
The government yesterday hanged in public a man convicted of murdering the leader of main weekly prayers in Kazeroun, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said. Hamid Reza Derakhshandeh was executed at the scene where he killed the cleric on May 29, IRNA quoted Fars Province Chief Justice Kazem Mousavi as saying. Mohammad Khorsand suffered fatal injuries when attacked while returning from a Ramadan ceremony, IRNA said. The death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out after the cleric’s family decided not to spare the life of the killer, who refused to express regret, Fars news agency reported. Under the country’s laws, a murder victim’s family can spare a convict’s life by accepting blood money.
MALI
Protests strand 1,000 trucks
More than 1,000 trucks loaded with merchandise were blocked on Tuesday at the entrance to the capital on the fourth day of protests against the poor state of the country’s roads. Witnesses reported a line of trucks snaking about a dozen kilometers along the road that leads from the Kati toll station, about 15km outside Bamako. “Improving the state of transport infrastructure is among the government’s priorities,” Prime Minister Boubou Cisse’s office said in a statement, but protester Ben Sangare said on Tuesday: “The government gives the money, and the people in charge of constructing the roads botch the work and divert the money.”
UNITED STATES
Site draws Palestinian ire
The Department of State’s removal of the “Palestinian Territories” from the list of countries and areas on its Web site has triggered protests from Palestinian leaders. A State Department official played down the shift when asked on Tuesday. “The Web site is being updated. There has been no change to our policy,” she said. She did not say if the Web site would again include a separate entry for the territories. The Palestinian Authority’s Cabinet, after a meeting on Monday, said the move “confirms the American bias toward Israel.” The Palestinian Authority has said that it no longer considers the US an honest broker and has refused US President Donald Trump’s peace initiatives.
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