UNITED STATES
Monopoly junks glass ceiling
In the latest update of the classic board game Monopoly unveiled on Tuesday, the trademark real-estate tycoon has been replaced by his socially minded niece: an advocate who invests in female entrepreneurs. In Ms Monopoly, players collect inventions made by women, such as Wi-Fi and solar heating. Female players start out with more money than male players and receive US$240 each time they pass “go,” more than the US$200 that goes to males. That is an inversion of real life, where women make only 81 percent of what men do, according to the Department of Labor.
PHILIPPINES
Felons let loose early
The early release of hundreds of convicted rapists, murderers and drug criminals has acutely embarrassed President Rodrigo Duterte, with Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra saying they were ineligible to be freed because of the severity of their crimes. About 1,700 felons serving life sentences have quietly walked free under a good behavior program in the three years since Duterte swept to power, promising to wage a national war on corruption, drugs and crime. Among those freed are 745 convicted rapists, 748 murderers and 156 drug criminals, according to an internal prisons document that names all of the prisoners guilty of crimes categorized as “heinous.”
FRANCE
New giant pterosaur found
Scientists on Tuesday unveiled a new species of pterosaur, the plane-sized reptiles that lorded over primeval skies above Tyrannosaurus rex, Triceratops and other dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous Period. With a wingspan of 10m and weighing 250kg, Cryodrakon boreas rivals another pterosaur as the largest flying animal of all time, researchers reported in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The remains of C. boreas were first discovered more than 30 years ago in Alberta, Canada, yet elicited scant excitement because of a misclassification.
UNITED STATES
Derailment causes fire
A freight train believed to be bearing a flammable liquid used in solvents on Tuesday derailed near St Louis, Illinois, causing a fire that sent thick, black smoke into the air and prompted the evacuation of nearby schools and residences. Union Pacific said in a news release that the train derailed at its yard at about 12:45pm in the town of Dupo. The tank car that first caught fire contained a flammable liquid used as a solvent, it said. Railroad spokeswoman Kristen South said the smoke from the fire does not pose a significant health hazard. Video showed more than 10 train cars derailed and flames shooting from the wreckage.
UNITED STATES
LGBT+ credit union to open
A unique US credit union opening next year is to give priority to the needs of LGBT+ customers amid controversy over a national effort to ensure that financial institutions do not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Superbia Credit Union of Michigan would provide loans and other financial services that LGBT+ clients might not otherwise obtain, its founder said. Research published by Iowa State University earlier this year found that same-sex couples were 73 percent more likely to be turned down for a mortgage than were same-sex couples. “Our families, lives and financial journeys are vast and unique,” the Superbia Web site said.
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant