THAILAND
Musk apologizes to caver
Tesla Inc founder Elon Musk apologized to British caver Vern Unsworth for comments that he made about him following the rescue of a dozen Thai schoolboys and their soccer coach from a cave in northern Thailand. “His actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader,” Musk said in a tweet. “The fault is mine and mine alone.” Unsworth, who played a leading role in the rescue, on Tuesday said he has been approached by British and American lawyers and would seek legal advice after Musk directed abuse at him on Twitter.
CHINA
Air China grounded by vaping
Authorities have cut flag carrier Air China’s 737 flights and revoked the flying licenses of the cockpit crew involved in a mid-air emergency sparked by a copilot’s vape smoke, state media said yesterday. An Air China 737 last week made a rapid emergency descent after the copilot mistakenly turned off air-conditioning systems in a bid to conceal his e-cigarette smoke. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has cut the carrier’s 737 flights by 10 percent and ordered it to undertake a three-month safety overhaul, China Central Television said. Air China shares slipped more than 2 percent in Shanghai on yesterday morning following the punishment.
HONG KONG
UK ‘concerned’ by party ban
Britain yesterday expressed concern after police sought to ban a political party that promotes independence for the territory as Beijing increases pressure on challenges to its territorial sovereignty. “We note with concern the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government plans to prohibit the continued operation of the Hong Kong National Party,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. “The UK does not support Hong Kong independence, but Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy, and its rights and freedoms, are central to its way of life, and it is important they are fully respected,” the statement added.
UNITED STATES
Clemency calls fail killer
The US state of Texas on Tuesday executed a death row inmate despite a call for clemency from a son of the man he killed. Mitesh Patel, the victim’s son, had campaigned in recent weeks to ask the Texas governor to spare Christopher Young, a father of three. Mitesh Patel visited Christopher Young on Monday and described the meeting as emotionally moving for both of them. The last words of the condemned man were addressed to the family of the victim: “I want to make sure the Patel family knows I love them like they love me.” Texas is the state that executes the most inmates in the nation: Christopher Young is the eighth sentenced to die since the beginning of the year.
UNITED STATES
Jaguar bites cable to escape
A jaguar that killed nine other animals during a weekend escape from its habitat at Audubon Zoo is believed to have bitten through a steel-cable barrier that forms the roof of its habitat, the zoo’s managing director said on Tuesday. The interlocking steel cables that form what looks like a hard net over the habitat meet Association of Zoos and Aquariums guidelines, but zoo officials are now looking for stronger materials, Burks said. “We haven’t determined the final material we’re going to use yet,” he said. Meanwhile, the jaguar exhibit is to remain closed.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
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