JAPAN
Eight claim to be N Koreans
Eight men found on the nation’s northwestern coast on Thursday night claim to be North Koreans whose boat ran adrift during a fishing trip, the government’s top spokesman told reporters yesterday. The men were found in Akita Prefecture late on Thursday near a 20m-long wooden boat and have been taken into custody. The government will deal “appropriately” with the men, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, adding that the men, whose nationalities could not be confirmed, were healthy. The government earlier this month rescued and returned to North Korea a group of three fishermen whose boat had capsized in the Sea of Japan. Wooden boats containing what appear to be the corpses of North Koreans sometimes drift ashore on the coast, but it is unusual for them to make it to the nation alive.
UNITED STATES
Navy ends search for sailors
The navy said it has called off a search for three sailors missing since Wednesday, when a transport plane crashed in the Philippine Sea south of Japan en route to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. “During the course of two days, eight US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles [3,430km2],” the Seventh Fleet said in a media release. Eight other people on the C-2 Greyhound were rescued shortly after the aircraft crashed and were transferred to the Reagan. The propeller-powered C-2 was conducting a routine flight carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan to the carrier. The mainstay transport aircraft for the navy’s carrier fleet has been in operation for more than five decades and is due to be replaced by a long-range version of the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey. The navy said it is investigating the cause of the crash.
UNITED STATES
Woman helps homeless man
A fund set up to raise money for a homeless man who helped a woman when her car ran out of gas in Philadelphia has collected more than US$280,000. The GoFundMe campaign was started by Bordentown, New Jersey, resident Kate McClure earlier this month after she was stuck along Interstate 95 and Johnny Bobbitt Jr bought her some gas with his last US$20. McClure said she did not have money to pay him back, but she returned to his spot several times in the following days to give him cash, clothes and food. She said she then started the fundraiser hoping to collect US$10,000 to cover housing and other expenses for him. McClure said she wishes she “could do more for this selfless man.” Donations had poured in from about 10,000 people by Thursday.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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