AUSTRALIA
Oxygen pumped to dying fish
The state of New South Wales yesterday announced plans to mechanically pump oxygen into lakes and rivers after hundreds of thousands of fish have died in heatwave conditions. Up to a million dead fish were found floating last week in the Darling River. Minister for Regional Water Niall Blair said that 16 battery-powered aerators have been bought and would be placed in the waterways.
SOUTH KOREA
North not called ‘enemy’
South Korea has stopped calling North Korea an “enemy” in its biennial defense document in an apparent effort to continue reconciliation with Pyongyang. The development comes as US and North Korean leaders are looking to set up their second summit to defuse an international standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program. South Korea first called North Korea a “main enemy” in its 1995 document, a year after North Korea threatened to turn Seoul into “a sea of fire.”
RUSSIA
Telescope ‘incommunicado’
Roscosmos, the national space agency, on Monday said it had lost control of its only space radio telescope, but that officials were working to re-establish communication. A US observatory detected signals from the space agency’s gigantic Spektr-R, or RadioAstron, telescope, which stopped responding to commands from Earth on Thursday last week, it said. “I cannot bury a satellite that is alive for sure,” RadioAstron project head Yuri Kovalev said. “It’s like asking for a comment about a sick person when doctors are fighting for his life.”
UNITED STATES
Dismemberment gets 30
A man who admitted to killing and dismembering his mother during an argument in their Honolulu, Hawaii, apartment has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Gong Yuwei (龔宇威) was charged with murder after he called police in 2017 to turn himself in after a suicide attempt. He admitted killing his mother, Gong Liuyun (龔柳雲), about six months earlier, according to court documents. When officers asked where his mother was, he said: “In the fridge.” Gong, 28, spent most of Monday’s sentencing looking down. He spoke quietly as he apologized to his family in China and Hawaii. “I am ashamed for what I did,” he said. “I’m sorry, Mom.”
UNITED STATES
Trump, Clemson ‘Lovin’ it’
The scent of burgers, fries and victory on Monday wafted through the White House as President Donald Trump saluted college football’s Clemson Tigers for winning the national championship. Trump said he even paid for the meal himself, because of the partial government shutdown. “We ordered American fast food, paid for by me,” Trump said. Silver trays held stacks of burgers from Wendy’s and McDonald’s, including Big Macs. Cups bearing the presidential seal held fries.
HONDURAS
New caravan heads to US
Hundreds of migrants on Monday began the long trek north, part of a new US-bound caravan that hopes to succeed even as a previous wave of Central Americans were unable to quickly enter the US. Television footage showed people in the city of San Pedro Sula waving Honduran flags as they began the journey. There are 600 to 800 people, according to an estimate provided by Miroslava Serpas, head of migrant affairs with the CIPRODEH human rights research center, which is accompanying the group.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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