POLAND
Arms deal signed with US
The government on Friday signed a US$4.6 billion deal with the US for the purchase of 32 of advanced F-35 jets to enhance air defense on NATO’s eastern flank at a time of increased Russian military activity. President Andrzej Duda said it was an “exceptionally important day for Poland’s air force, and for the security of Poland and of our part of Europe.” Minister of Defense Mariusz Blaszczak signed the deal and handed the document to US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher during a ceremony at an air force academy in the central town of Deblin. Duda said it was among the biggest deals in the history of the country’s armed forces and a sign of the strength of relations with the US.
UNITED STATES
Billionaire dead at 100
Anne Cox Chambers, a newspaper heiress, diplomat and philanthropist who was one of the country’s richest women, died on Friday at the age of 100. Chambers’ nephew James Cox Kennedy announced her death to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, her company’s flagship newspaper. “Aunt Anne was a wonderful, kind and elegant lady who cared deeply about her family, her company and her country,” Kennedy said. Chambers, a director of Cox Enterprises, promoted former US president Jimmy Carter’s political career and served as ambassador to Belgium during his presidency. Forbes several years ago estimated her net worth at nearly US$17 billion.
ITALY
Advocates slam policy
Human rights advocates and aid groups on Friday slammed the government for deciding to extend a deal that facilitates the return of Europe-bound migrants to detention centers in Libya, where they are at risk of getting raped and tortured. Amnesty International said the government’s plan to renew the deal for another three years today makes it “complicit in this abuse.” A 2017 accord between Italy and Libya included equipment and training for the Libyan coast guard to intercept migrants who set off in smugglers’ boats from the shores of the North African country.
UNITED STATES
‘Queen of Suspense’ dies
Best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark, known to her fans as the “Queen of Suspense,” has died aged 92, her publisher said on Friday. Clark was still producing a book a year at the age of 90, with her page-turners earning her a legion of fans across the world and even making her one of the top-selling fiction authors in France. “She passed away peacefully this evening at the age of 92 surrounded by family and friends,” publisher Simon & Schuster said on Twitter. With sales of more than 100 million thrillers in the US alone, she achieved success in her 40s after a series of personal tragedies.
UNITED STATES
SUV drives into Mar-a-Lago
Law enforcement agents on Friday opened fire on a sports utility vehicle (SUV) driver who smashed through two security checkpoints at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in what authorities described as the actions of “an obviously impaired” driver and not an intentional attack on the resort. The driver, Hannah Roemhild, 30, of Connecticut, who identifies herself on her Facebook page as an opera singer, was later arrested at a nearby motel. No one was injured, authorities said, and Trump was not at the club at the time, although he was scheduled to arrive there later in the day.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not