BELARUS
Bolton, Lukashenko to meet
US National Security Adviser John Bolton was yesterday scheduled to meet President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk for rare US talks with the head of state. Bolton was to meet with Lukashenko and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei “to discuss regional security and emphasize US support for Belarus’ sovereignty and independence,” the US embassy in Minsk said. The visit is sure to ruffle feathers in Moscow, which sees the former Soviet nation as a crucial partner. It comes after Bolton yesterday met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev and stressed Ukraine’s “territorial integrity” in the face of its conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in that country’s east.
PAKISTAN
Army conducts missile drill
The military yesterday launched a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, a spokesman said. “Pakistan successfully carried out night training launch of ... missile Ghaznavi capable of delivering multiple types of warheads,” armed forces spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter. The missile can deliver a warhead to targets up to 290km away. The training exercise came as hostility with India has increased following New Delhi’s revocation of the autonomy of the disputed region of Kashmir.
THAILAND
Burmese convictions upheld
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the conviction of two Burmese migrants sentenced to death for the murder of two British backpackers on an island in 2014. Wai Phyo and Zaw Lin have denied killing David Miller and raping and killing Hannah Witheridge. The backpackers’ battered bodies were found on the morning of Sept. 15, 2014, on a beach on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. Lawyers for the two men claimed that the evidence in the case was mishandled and that they made confessions under duress that they later retracted, raising questions about police competence and the country’s judicial system. However, the court yesterday said that their confessions held up. Their last hope now is for a royal pardon or commutation. The original verdicts divided relatives of the victims. Miller’s parents backed the court’s conviction, but Witheridge’s family were more cautious, with a sister calling the investigation “bungled.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Activists target Heathrow
Climate change activists yesterday said that they would fly toy drones at London’s Heathrow Airport from Sept. 13, a step that is likely to ground all flights, to put pressure on the government to take tougher steps to reduce greenhouse gases. The “Heathrow Pause” group said that it would fly toy drones within the restricted zone, but outside the flight paths of the airport, a step the group added would force the airport to ground flights. “This is a symbolic action, using a legal loophole and participants’ self-sacrifice to draw attention to the most serious and urgent crisis humanity has ever faced,” the group said. “The government’s inaction on climate change, and the looming catastrophe of airport expansion, gives us no choice, and compels us to act.” Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport. A spokeswoman for the airport declined immediate comment. Heathrow Pause said that it would fly drones at no higher than head level and give the airport one hour of advance notice.
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